"Slitherine sell-off - all FoG books to be discontinued." Topic

From Slitherines website, all FoG books and lists now at sell-off prices, with no plans to keep them in print, and no suggestion of new versions in the pipeline either.

link

"This is a clearance sale. Once these are gone, they'll be out of print and there will be no way to get hold of them. 4 books have already sold out and this is your last chance to get them so don't miss out!
IainMcNeil
Site Admin"

thanks for that. Been away from things for a few years and trying to catch up. Just ordered the last couple I've not got.

They had a good run. At one point they were selling something like 30,000 books a year. For a company that was always mainly about software, that was an accomplishment.

So, good for them, for knowing when to cash-in and get out.

I'm sure people will be along shortly to snort and mock them and complain that games nowadays come and go like pop songs, not like the Old Classics of Yore.
But that's actually something I really like about the hobby nowadays. Life's too short to play the same games over and over again and never try anything new.

Life's too short to play the same games over and over again

OTOH if you have a really good set of rules, why change?

I liked the Renaissance rules and the 1st edition of the Ancients. The last editions of both WAB and FogAM seemed to negatively effect their popularity. It's a fact of life that once the publisher and author stop supporting the rules they inevitably die out, except for a few die hards.

At the moment I like ADLG and DBA3, although I think ancients could use a more tactical set of rules, with a similar simplicity to Lion Rampant (using less than 100 figures).

You know – I don't think there ever was a time when a set of popular rules lasted for years and years without a revised version. Obviously there are always a few die-hards happy to stick with Charge! Little Wars, or some such – but even they, under interrogation, usually reveal that they only play once in a blue moon and spend more time with more modern offerings, or the rules they actually play have been so house-modded over the years they have been effectively rewritten and are only nominally the same game.

I think what it is – is that most of us started wargaming when we were pretty young – and when you're young a year feels like forever. A year doesn't feel so long anymore though – and in fact they seem to be getting shorter and shorter all the time.

FOG has certainly had a good run – especially if you roll the two editions together – and letting everyone know what is happening in an honest and above board fashion shows all credit to the Slitherine team.

I sold off all my copies too.

I have a bunch of the books at half off too:

link

Even if you don't play FOG, the army list books are a great resource, so are well worth picking up at sale prices.

Thanks! I went ahead and got the rest of the renaissance titles.

Shame about the Napoleonic rules. I really enjoyed them. They seemed quite different from the other two FOG series.

Hopefully they will stay around as PDFs from Osprey?

I don't think Osprey still have the rights to publish them – Slitherine took that back a few years ago.

Some of the rules were made available via their proprietory e-reader, and I guess that might continue once the books run out as Slitherine do seem to keep all of their old PCs games available to download -but this is just a guess.

Extra Crispy:

I have a bunch of the books at half off too

Order sent…

Cheers

I played little wars at least once a year, with original Britain's and shooting cannons. I also play the 1964 version of column Line and Square couple times a year. Oldies but goodies and never revised.

I do agree about the army lists- they are a useful resource and well researched. Sometimes a tad complicated, though…

Ah sad to hear. They certain brought a new energy to Ancient gaming when they came out.

I play Crossbows and Catapults at least once a year with original sets and the additional longboats. I also play the 1978 version of put all your Airfix 1/32 figures in the garden and throw balls of mud at them twice a year. Always the same rules.

I LOVED Crossbows and Catapults!

Bought the 2nd edition rulebook. Good deal.

Got into the Renaissance stuff about three years ago – by no means perfect, but gives a good game (and better than anything else currently out there, IMO). As with any rules set, if one army is "out of period" then you may get some anomalies, but if both armies are from the same time-scale there is a lot to be said for them. And as Marshal Mark says, the army lists are pretty good and well worth having on their own.

I just ordered the FOG card game, by Martin Wallace. Looks a pretty good 2 player quick game, and only £4.00 GBP

67% Shipping Cost on top…. do they fly those books around the globe? Might have to miss that one out

Yes I have heard good things about the Martin wallace card game …

Phil

what's Field of Glory?
:)
Totally missed this one, but hope they did well on it. May encourage others to give it a go.

It's a set of rules for the ancient period published in conjunction with Osprey Books and there are others sets for later periods. Not perfect by any means for competition play but fine for casual play and wargames night at the local club.

The Ancient period has 13 books of army list.

The forums on the Slitherine site are still going so you can get help and support there plus the Ancient set and lists will still be available as a digital download . I agree with SM that the Renaissance set is the best out there and does Italian Wars to ECW/TYW and beyond very well.
Lots of newer Ancients rules recently and I have tried some, like ADLG and Sword and Spear, but none have supplanted FOGAM for me.

I would be careful about using the FOG Hundered Years War lists they had some issues.

And Little Wars needs a revision….

TomT

For element based wargaming there is some difficulty modelling the behaviour of English mixed bow and men-at-arms units of that period on the table.

I just bought a copy of everything available.
Since sustaining a hand injury (and being unable to paint) I have been using paper armies, so getting the armies for the game should be easy enough

Thanks
Austin

Thanks all. I just completed my Ancient and Renaissance sets. Postage is steep but the books are a 'steal'. Double the price on the Osprey site of they still have them. Double the price on Amazon second hand!

I agree – very inexpensive. I bought a second copy of the rules. I understand a lot of people have moved onto other rules, but my gaming group still prefers and plays FoG:AW 2. I plan to host a recreation of Plataea using these rules this summer.

I also got a copy of the Version 2 rule book. I had the reader version, but the reader is just horrible and not very user friendly. I think the game will stand the test of time and should not need more updates. Even if I only play it once in a while for the cheap price it is worth it.

anyone tried to order FOG books from Slitherine lately? trying to get som FOGr books

The Oxford club is playtesting FoGAMv3. Not sure who will be publishing it.

anyone tried to order FOG books from Slitherine lately? trying to get som FOGr books

I bought some the other day after seeing this thread. The rulebook seems to be POD so is still in stock. I didn't have a problem getting hold of any of the others either, at least as far as the order confirmation goes.

I put mine in the bin -best place really lol