I’m conscious that there are few, if any, threads on the forum which are not directly KOW / Mantic related, but I’ll risk creating a semi off-topic thread, because I genuinely think it might be interesting, and if it’s been done in the past, I couldn’t locate the thread.
So, there’s always been a relationship between books and gaming… Famously, Gary Gygax published what is now known as ‘Appendix N’ at the back of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Masters Guide in 1979, and more expanded lists have occurred later. The original Appendix N was a list of authors that Gygax said shaped D&D. The list is pretty much a treasure-trove of classic and golden age fantasy and science fiction authors. Tolkien is there, but also Robert E. Howard, Jack Vance, Andre Norton and H.P Lovecraft and so on.
Later, there have been non-Gygax additions to the list, from other D&D games designers. This has added people like Terry Brooks, Stephen King, Guy Gavriel Kay etc. Really a ‘who’s who’ of authors… Some of them probably more debateable inclusions than the original list, in terms of merit, but I guess that’s where things start to become subjective.
Whatever my personal reservations about Game Workshop, in other respects, I’ve always admired novels they’ve published… Even if, at times, they seemed ambivalent about them themselves! …Read Ian Watson’s reminisces about how his early 90s Warhammer novels received a mixed response from GW… Watson believes they were spooked by anything that would potentially compete with their model sales ( BACK TO THE FUTURE: SPACE MARINE! – Ian Watson.
I still have a soft spot for SPACE MARINE (1993). I don’t care whether it’s canon or not, I think there was some great psychological horror in there. A scene that stayed with me was marine neophytes being handed weapons and “blooded”, by being ordered to kill a group of chaos worshippers. I think it was alluded to that they weren’t actually real cultists, just slaves brainwashed to believe they were chaos cultists, all for training purposes. The book has a psychological indoctrination theme running through it that is a lot darker and more compelling than some of the current Black Library efforts at ‘grimdark’.
I do also rate, however, Dan Abnett’s GAUNT’S GHOSTS series. I feel like it’s legitimately good military science fiction, even if many characters acquired significant ‘plot armour’ as the books progressed.
As a newcomer to Mantic, and Kings of War, I haven’t had the pleasure of reading any Winged Hussar / Pannithor novels, but I look forward to that.
Before this thread balloons out of all control, I’d like to hear what you’ve read, or are reading, if you think it has any bearing on your table top gaming enjoyment.
I’ll start, and I’ll try to avoid mentioning some of the authors we all take “a given”, like Tolkien.
Fiction
For me, it’s hard to look past the prolific 80s and 90s author of British heroic fantasy, David Gemmell. I had the pleasure of meeting him, and corresponding with him, and while I would recommend literally any of his books, my favourite is probably still LEGEND (1984).
Gemmell’s prose is sparse and fast-moving, his plots and characters are archetypical and satisfying, and he somehow managed to write about violence and conflict without sliding into the moral relativism and nihilism of much contemporary grimdark fiction. He wrote a lot of anti-heroes, but there were still very clear moral lines being drawn, for the most part.
I will also briefly mention two authors whose depictions of mass battle, particularly phalanx combat, may be of interest to fans of “ranks and flanks” games:-
Stephen Pressfield, for his well-known and excellent fictionalised account of the Battle of Thermopylae, GATES OF FIRE (1998).
David Drake, recently deceased, wrote some absolutely cracking fantasy and science fiction, but here I will recommend RANKS OF BRONZE (1986), an account of a Roman Legion removed from earth by alien slavers, and forced to fight in galactic low-tech conflicts, until their rebellion. Drake also did a multi-book alternate history military fantasy series, BELISARIUS, that ran from 1998 to 2006, in conjunction with Eric Flint. Some of the battle scenes are tremendous.
Non Fiction
Although I’ve enjoyed reading a lot of classics in translation - Homer, Xenophon and others - who write about battle in the ancient world, or at least, give us hints about what it might have been like, there are a few history or classics books that I’ve found accessible and interesting, in this general area.
Victor Davis Hanson, in his THE WESTERN WAY OF WAR : INFANTRY BATTLE IN CLASSICAL GREECE (1989), acknowledged that there was still academic debate about the “true nature” of phalanx vs phalanx combat in the ancient world. Hanson championed the othismos theory, which saw the clash as being a low-skill, physically intense murderous shoving match, where shield-on-shield pressure was the order of the day. Whoever broke first was the losing side. Hanson’s account is of a form of conflict that was hugely psychologically and physically demanding, and closely tied to family and community structures, and systems of honour. I’m sure the field has moved on, concerning this area of study, but I still really like this book. His analysis fits very well with the rules of both KOW and WHFB, I feel, in terms of the implication for failed nerve tests, routs etc.
Similar, but from a different perspective, John Keegan’s THE FACE OF BATTLE (1976) is another oldie that analysed Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme, with an emphasis on the psychology and experience of those involved, in a practical way.
Anyway, I’d love to hear people’s all-time favourites, and maybe also what you’re currently reading.
Me currently: The not very wargaming related REPLAY by Ken Grimwood (1986). It’s the story of a man who keeps dying in 1988, and repeatedly reliving his life between the age of 18 and his death.
Books kept me turning pages into the late night though!
