Achtung Schweinehund!

[mcbishop]

Here's a recommendation (which was sent to me by the Good Dr Coulston) if you need a laugh, although it really only works if you are, or ever have been (or even been the partner of), a military modeller or wargamer. That part of my past is now safely behind me ('gracefully surrendering the things of your youth') but the resonances are still rich and it had me laughing to the point of tears in places (memories of going to Caxton Hall as a teenager and seeing the great Phil Barker surrounded by a sea of worshippers performing the proskynesis - so many that I couldn't get close enough to tell him that his use of sources sucked and he couldn't draw for toffee nuts... I was too shy and even more polite in those days, so it never would have happened...). It is not just about wargamers, though, and re-enactors get in there too (wonderful moment as two nerdy wargamers watch two re-enacters wander past at a convention and silently mouth 'w*nk*rs' at each other; also liked the vikings playing football with spears as goal posts). Here's a UK Amazon link with all the ISBNs and associated guff.

Mike Bishop
(who just rolled a double one: is that bad? 'Means your Tiger's just been taken out by a bloke with a revolver in a bren-gun carrier, mate...')

[Praefectusclassis]

:lol: That ought to be good!

[Paullus Scipio]

Mike Bishop said :-

(memories of going to Caxton Hall as a teenager and seeing the great Phil Barker surrounded by a sea of worshippers performing the proskynesis - so many that I couldn't get close enough to tell him that his use of sources sucked and he couldn't draw for toffee nuts... I was too shy and even more polite in those days, so it never would have happened...).

....and his rules sucked too !! :evil: More like chess than any ancient battle I know...but everybody used 'em in those days.I remember one edition where Ancient Britons and their chariots and warbands were pretty powerful and all-conquering. Mere co-incidence that his wife Sue happened to wargame with an Ancient British army! :roll:

I too have many memories of Caxton Hall, but in the era when Phil had been seen for an Emperor without clothes.
But I owe him a debt of gratitude though. His inaccuracies of fact and method annoyed me so much that I sent him lots of research stuff, to show him how wrong he was about various things.....he kindly published much of it, though the cynic in me sees that I may have been exploited a little....
It was that which got me into having stuff published....

[Robert Vermaat]

His inaccuracies of fact and method annoyed me so much that I sent him lots of research stuff, to show him how wrong he was about various things.....he kindly published much of it, though the cynic in me sees that I may have been exploited a little....

Maybe he exploited you, but through his popularity you used hom too - in getting the correct stuff out to a great multitude that apparently listened to him..
Well done. Others would have stayed silent, sniggering behind his back and not helping the rest either.

[Paullus Scipio]

Maybe he exploited you, but through his popularity you used hom too - in getting the correct stuff out to a great multitude that apparently listened to him..

Indeed. As I said, when all was said and done, I owe him a debt of gratitude, even though when the 'new' "Armies and enemies of Imperial Rome" came out, much to my disappointment, it contained little'new' that I had not supplied/referred him to......

[M. Demetrius]

"Armies and enemies of Imperial Rome"

I have that book. The illustrations don't give any help to those who want to reconstruct the garments and equipment, sadly enough.

[Caballo]

Made me laugh too- worryingly, when he talks about DBM EIR I actually understood..... :roll:

[Nicholas Gaukroger]

Indeed. As I said, when all was said and done, I owe him a debt of gratitude,

Agreed.

Anyone who wargames the ancient & medieval period owes Phil Barker - there wouldn't be such a popular and diverse hobby for the period without him. Whether you agree with him or not, like his products or not, we owe him big time.

For me personally the DBM rules (but lets not forget Richard Bosley Scotts contribution there) have taken me to Durban and Port Elizabeth in South Africa, New Orleans, Rome, Athens and Ghent to play with toy soldiers, drink beer. sightsee and generally have a great time with like minded people. Without the spur of wargaming I'd probably only have visited 1 or 2 of those and probably not had as much fun.

[philsidnell]

Achtung Schweinhund is simply hilarious and wonderfully nostalgic. Many of the early bits of it were like reading my own childhood story, like being about eight before I realised we were no longer at war with Germany. And speaking as one who still hasn't gracefully surrendered the things of his youth (just the youth itself), as I read the bits about ageing wargamers I thought this so neatly captures all those sad nerds down at my local wargaming club....oh, hang on a minute.

[philsidnell]

P.S I am still on the longest wargaming losing streak ever recorded. I even introduced my son Alexander to it in a very simple way the other day and he beat me. The great general he was named after would have been proud, as my pirates were swept away by an all out cavalry charge by his medieval knights (I'll teach him about the actual history bits later) as soon as they got off their ship. Trouble is, my Alexander is only three and a half! I did have some really unlucky rolls though and I wasn't really trying.... :oops:

[Lochinvar]

This book is a 'must'. All too sadly I recognise myself - the Clarks' Commando shoes, the Action Man moments, the boxes of stuff secreted away which I had forgotten I had bought.

I loved the accounts of the Airfix figue charades and the other viking reenactment tale about the American tourists on the 'reservation'....

[philsidnell]

Whereabouts in Kent are you Ewan?

[Lochinvar]

Phil, I've PM'd you Mate.