"Bad Roads and Poor Rations: A Review" Topic

Here is a recent review I have done on this must have book for War of 1812 gamers (and other who are open minded!). Please visit my blog for full text. Thank you.

What an outstanding book! I have been on the lookout for this for a while and picked it up at Historicon. "Bad Roads and Poor Rations" provides the War of 1812 gamer with 59 scenarios for battles ranging from minor skirmishes with 50 or so men per side to multi Brigade battles with thousands on each side. In addition there are also a number of naval actions included. Its a buffet for the gamer to pick and choose from in preparation for their next game. You will not only find information on battles and how to fight them but available figures for the period as well as ship models. Lastly, there is plenty of eye candy of outstanding Wargames figures in a variety of scales to inspire you. The book is 220 pages long and is paperback. Price is $39 USD but varied around the internet. What do you get for all this? Lets take a look!

bravefusiliers.blogspot.com/2024/09/bad-roads-and-poor-rations-review.html?sc=1726752613840#c3146755142607750623

Looks very promising. I will have to look out for it at Fall In. Thanks for the review.

I have it. Agree with your assessment. Terrifically useful reference!

An interesting review on Amazon:
"On first appearance the book appears good value given the sheer volume of content (59 scenarios/200+ pages). Its also illustrated copiously with colour photographs throughout. The main gripe I have with it is the battle maps which are quite basic, often small/difficult to read and which frequently do not represent unit disposition or terrain at all clearly. Most of the maps lack a key or labels indicating which units are represented and/or they do not correspond to the accompanying orders of battle. In my view this makes them a lot less useful than they could have been. Regrettably this is even the case for well known battles such as Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, Plattsburgh and North Point. The primary purpose of this type of publication should be to make it easier for the average wargamer to recreate these scenarios in an ‘out of the box' manner with minimal effort. While there are ample background notes and victory conditions suggested for each battle, there remain areas of vagueness which frustrate e.g. scant direction re: recommended table size, impact of terrain, unit type/rating/capability. All of this means its necessary to undertake further research before gaming can ensue. Overall I think this would probably have benefited from tighter editing with less content (omitting some of the lesser know /smaller actions & skirmishes) and focussing on the incorporation of detail which allow wargamers to easily recreate the battles with much better maps."

@pro from dover
Great blog post, great website, I have it linked to my blog!

RE the two main scenario books…

Asquith's "Scenarios for the War of 1812" is $30 USD for 83 pages, 13 battles.
This book is 220 pages and 59 battles.

Neither have full accounts and every detail – perhaps some aspects are unknown and authors didn't want to speculate. In any event, I never force players to duplicate an exact deployment / battle line; I usually give them some leeway.

I am always much happier with detailed maps. it appears neither work has them.