What do you think?
Rate this book
War game campaigns
214 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1970
About the author
Donald F. Featherstone
95 books12 followersFeatherstone (who sometimes used his middle initial and sometimes didn't) served in the Royal Armoured Corps in World War II before becoming a physiotherapist. He worked for Southampton Football Club and Hampshire County Cricket Club, writing books on sporting, dancing, and industrial injuries.
Later, he turned his attention to his childhood hobby of toy soldiers, writing dozens of books on the subject and becoming instrumental in the development of wargaming as a pasttime. He also wrote books on military history.
Later, he turned his attention to his childhood hobby of toy soldiers, writing dozens of books on the subject and becoming instrumental in the development of wargaming as a pasttime. He also wrote books on military history.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 23, 2013
John Curry has updated Donald Featherstone’s classic Wargaming Campaigns and it is a fascinating experience to read, even if one is (as I am) more of a board wargamer than miniatures wargamer. Featherstone, of course, was the latter. Of course, some of the ideas in this book are useful for board wargamers and role-playing gamers, as well. After all, wasn’t it running a campaign on the table-top (with lots of play-by-mail moves in-between) that gave Dave Arneson some of the early ideas for what became Dungeons & Dragons? I read the eBook edition available on Nook.
The first discussion is on movement into contact. He starts with simple maneuvers brought about by rolling a die for initiative. Of course, that won’t help for very long. So, Featherstone suggests using identical planning maps. I like dividing an area map scaled 1” = 12” on the wargames table with the entire map being divided into a grid of 3-x-3 or 4-x-3 to represent the available wargaming tabletops. Then, the commanders of both forces can make their movements on their respective maps until the referee determines that contact has been made.
Another way is simply to have at least four roads on each map and ask the attacker to secretly select which of the four routes represents his/her attack route. The defender obviously has to defend all four routes and, once contact is made, can reinforce with one of the units. That has possibilities. Of course, another approach is to divide the map up into grids and have the commanders place counters representing each force in a set of matchboxes representing the grids as each commanding officer sends units into that area of the grid. When another force is inside the box, contact is made. This is very similar to the “look-up” matrix system I sometimes use for concealed movement in role-playing games so it further demonstrates wargaming’s roots in miniatures gaming.
Featherstone also suggested creating a wargaming league (essentially a campaign with points) where points were scored (as in each parenthesis) for: a) achieving objective (10), b) reaching a draw (5), c) capturing a standard (3), d) killing/capturing a commanding officer (5), e) capturing/killing a junior commander (3), f) capturing a gun (2), or g) causing 25% (2), 50% (5), or 75% (7) casualties, respectively.
Another useful idea for me (instead of merely rolling on a weather chart) was the approach to weather that the late Mr. Featherstone reiterated from his Advanced War Games book. He divided possible weather changes into a card deck consisting of sixteen weather cards: a) light rain (2), b) mist (2), c) fog (2), d) dull (2), e) torrential rain (1), f) snow (1), g) blizzard (1), h) bright (1), or i) high wind (1). Twice per campaign day (representing four hour blocks of daylight), one would draw from this deck and apply the appropriate modifiers to movement/combat/visibility.
Yet another idea I liked was the use of a “guide” in the French and Indian war campaign. Both sides were to get a guide that would be aware of all the ground that was ahead of the forces, but there was only one guide per party and the other forces would be moving blind. As a result, there was a lot of tactical maneuvering that went on before any contact was actually made.
Each account of a campaign in this book is replete with ideas which could be used in cardboard counter games, role-playing games, and other games, as well as miniatures. I am thankful to John Curry for resurrecting many of these out-of-print books from the late master of the hobby.
The first discussion is on movement into contact. He starts with simple maneuvers brought about by rolling a die for initiative. Of course, that won’t help for very long. So, Featherstone suggests using identical planning maps. I like dividing an area map scaled 1” = 12” on the wargames table with the entire map being divided into a grid of 3-x-3 or 4-x-3 to represent the available wargaming tabletops. Then, the commanders of both forces can make their movements on their respective maps until the referee determines that contact has been made.
Another way is simply to have at least four roads on each map and ask the attacker to secretly select which of the four routes represents his/her attack route. The defender obviously has to defend all four routes and, once contact is made, can reinforce with one of the units. That has possibilities. Of course, another approach is to divide the map up into grids and have the commanders place counters representing each force in a set of matchboxes representing the grids as each commanding officer sends units into that area of the grid. When another force is inside the box, contact is made. This is very similar to the “look-up” matrix system I sometimes use for concealed movement in role-playing games so it further demonstrates wargaming’s roots in miniatures gaming.
Featherstone also suggested creating a wargaming league (essentially a campaign with points) where points were scored (as in each parenthesis) for: a) achieving objective (10), b) reaching a draw (5), c) capturing a standard (3), d) killing/capturing a commanding officer (5), e) capturing/killing a junior commander (3), f) capturing a gun (2), or g) causing 25% (2), 50% (5), or 75% (7) casualties, respectively.
Another useful idea for me (instead of merely rolling on a weather chart) was the approach to weather that the late Mr. Featherstone reiterated from his Advanced War Games book. He divided possible weather changes into a card deck consisting of sixteen weather cards: a) light rain (2), b) mist (2), c) fog (2), d) dull (2), e) torrential rain (1), f) snow (1), g) blizzard (1), h) bright (1), or i) high wind (1). Twice per campaign day (representing four hour blocks of daylight), one would draw from this deck and apply the appropriate modifiers to movement/combat/visibility.
Yet another idea I liked was the use of a “guide” in the French and Indian war campaign. Both sides were to get a guide that would be aware of all the ground that was ahead of the forces, but there was only one guide per party and the other forces would be moving blind. As a result, there was a lot of tactical maneuvering that went on before any contact was actually made.
Each account of a campaign in this book is replete with ideas which could be used in cardboard counter games, role-playing games, and other games, as well as miniatures. I am thankful to John Curry for resurrecting many of these out-of-print books from the late master of the hobby.
Displaying 1 of 1 review