Friday, May 16, 2014

Herero War Scenario Book Available

Every time I cover the events in the PEL, I always mention the Herero War scenarios.  I do this for multiple reasons (1) it's a labor of love for the authors, and after just my little foray into Samoa, I empathize with them (2) the Herero War is a German colonial conflict, and that hits my sweet spot and (3) the games at the cons are very basic, yet look great, and everyone has a great time. 

After more years than I wish to recall, Roy Jones, Jr and Eric Alvarado finally have their definitive scenario book in print through Recreational Conflict.


The book is 184 pages and covers the history of the conflict, a set of rules for the era, largely based off of The Sword and the Flame, and thirteen scenarios.  It's a decent size small press book for $36, when much thinner books fetch $20-25.

Fun gnome-related fact:  Eric Alvarado is the inspiration behind the Captain Alvarado character who leads the Gnome Pirates.

(Edited: 5/19/2014, to reflect the corrected information provided by Dr. Roy Jones in the comments)

2 comments:

  1. This is Roy. Thanks for the positive comments.

    I just want to mention that the book is actually184 pages long, including 135 pages of rules and scenarios. There are 8 rules chapters and 13 scenarios. For details about the rules and scenarios, people can go to:

    http://www.hererowars.com/new-update-on-the-herero/

    The rules section and scenario section each have a 3-page summary that tells you, respectively, where each rule in the book can be found (so you're not blindly hunting and pecking through multiple pages just to find one rule) and how a scenario is organized (so each side – German and Herero – knows exactly where to find the information they need).

    In addition to the 135 pages of rules and scenarios (141 pages if you include the summaries), there's historical information in the first section of the book. There's a chapter on armies and uniforms that has a painting guide, and a detailed description of unique forces fighting in the Herero War (e.g., Germany's African allies, and German artillery of the era).

    There's also a historical overview section that gives a "big picture" view of the Herero War – describing its origins and the main strategic and political events.

    The book has 3 regional maps (a map of German South-West Africa, and maps of the two theaters of war within the colony) and an annotated bibliography.

    Roy

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  2. RE: A typo in my previous post - Make that "actually 184", not "actually184".

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