WARS ON THE BOARDS

Press, 29 April 1978, Page 17

WARS ON THE BOARDS

With the bewildering proliferation of board wargames during the last few years there has developed a need for a guide to the hundreds available; a book which will not only list all the board games, but also evaluate them with some degree of objectivity. There exist magazines for the aficionado, of course, but they are for the most part tied to the major companies producing the games and hence subject to the suspicion that their evaluations and the poll ratings they quote when reviewing new games may not be entirely free of bias. In “The Comprehensive Guide to Wargaming” (Arthur Barker, 224 pp. $15.50), Nicholas Palmer, a leading British authority on the subject, provides just what the title proclaims. With chapters on the development of wargaming, on strategy, tactics and

winning techniques, he leads up to a wide survey of the board games at present on the market — overseas, it not here.

Finally he provides a chapter tin a sample game — the Battle of Nordlingen (1634) between the Swedes and the Imperial army — and appendices containing answers tq earlier problems 'and (most usefully) useful addresses. For those already infected with the board wargaming bug, this book will serve to intensify a commitment. Those who come to sq comprehensive and well-written a book — and one so infectiously enthusiastia — out of curiosity, are likely to find that thev get the bug too. and end ur writing off to those useful addresses, and subscribing to one or other of thq specialist magazines. — DAVID GUNBY.