The Men Who Would be Kings
Daniel Mersey returns with another book for the osprey Wargaming Series. He also has penned Dux Bellorum, Lion Rampant, and Dragon Rampant. I was hoping he was out designing a new Fantasy version of ux Bellorum, but instead he spent his time working on a set of rules for Colonial gaming. I was amused that the book starts with a list of resources to research, and they were all films! Cheeky git. That tells you a bit about the contents of the rules. As he writes rules, he is not completely grounded in the history and instead adds a good dose of “Hollywood” into his rulesets. I am not opposed to this.
This set focuses on “Colonial Wargaming” which covers a broad scope of time and conflicts across the globe. That can be a daunting exercise. However, his style may not be for everyone’s taste. Thankfully, his design style starts with his objectives. This allows the reader to judge for themselves how successful Mr. Mersey is at meeting them. In The Men Who Would Be Kings his objectives were:
· Quick play
· Leaders and personalities to the fore
· Small action focus
· Broad troop types
· Scenario driven
· Reasonably balanced- with leaders, personalities, and scenarios adding difficulty
With those criteria in mind, let's see if he managed to succeed shall we?
You can read the rest of the review at my blog:
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/ ... sprey.html
