Book Reviews - David O. Morgan

This is something of a first.  Instead of reviewing the books I want to focus on the author.  David Morgan died in 2019 but left behind a significant body of work.

I first came across his book on Medieval Persia by chance last year when I was looking for books on the Arab Conquests.  Purchased second hand, the first edition was both a bargain and a delight.  With a clear, concise and approachable style the book dealt with all the rulers of post Arab Conquest Persia with aplomb.

Muskets & Springfields (ACW)

In 2020 I collaborated with Nigel Emsen on his ACW rules Rebels & Yankees.  Mainly, I was indulging my penchant for rules editing and table tweaking.

In the intervening years, Nigel has proved to be a constant source of innovation.  His output is prodigious and he now has quite a portfolio on Wargame Vault.  It's a mixture of free and "pay what you want" downloads covering many periods.  It is well worth a look.

New rules
His latest project is a commercial set of scale agnostic, grid based ACW rules: "Muskets & Springfields". It was published earlier this month and was launched last weekend at Salute 50.  

I'm pleased to say that I made a small contribution to the finished book: a few of my painted 15 mm ACW figures feature amongst the text.  You can see the originals here.  I'm looking forward to receiving my copy later this week.

The rules are currently available with £5.00 off the £25.00 RRP, and free delivery, from the Helion website.

Read Nigel's introductory & design notes.

The Arab Conquests

As regular readers will have noticed, I am busy building an Arab Conquest army for Art de la Guerre (ADLG).  However, not all of this project involves a paintbrush.  I've also taken the opportunity to read a few books about the period.  I knew next to nothing when I started.

So here are the four main history books that got me started; complete with brief, one paragraph type, reviews.  Since this post was written, I've found a fifth book, and it is very different to the other four.

They are listed in my recommended reading order.

15 mm Naffatun

Here’s some of my recent work.  They are CRU51 from Essex Miniatures who list them as Naffatun Hand Gunners as part of their Crusades range:



Typical figures from Essex: a joy to paint but a little static.   I bought these on a whim as I’m working my way through the infantry options for the various Mongol medieval armies.

Ancient History, Poor Information, And The Internet

Jona Lendering runs a truly special web site called Livius full of great articles about ancient history.  In 2010 he was awarded a prize for popularising ancient history by the Dutch National Research School of Classicists (Oikos). 

He recently published his acceptance speech consisting of 14 and a half points focusing on the above.  Yes I know, fourteen and a half points!  Despite this whimsy it is a serious and well thought out piece that every ancient wargamer should read. It will change the way you read history books.

If you like the piece, and his approach, may I suggest you also read his list of common errors in Ancient History.

DBMM Version 2.0 :: Almost There

The impending release of DBMM version 2.0 draws ever nearer.  I’ve heard it has actually been sent to the printers.

Lords of the Bow :: Conn Iggulden

I've just finished this and it’s a cracking read.  I read the first book, Wolf of the Plains, sometime ago and received the second book for my birthday earlier this year.   It reads really well and sets a terrific pace.



The book covers Genghis Khan’s conquest of China and the abortive siege of the Chinese capital.  As you’d expect the battle scenes are superb but the book has a number of interesting sub plots built around characters close to the Khan. These add variety to the narrative and make the book more episodic.

Towton :: A Cock Up!

A. A. Gill’s excellent article on Towton was the cover story of yesterday’s Sunday Times Magazine.   If you haven’t seen the magazine I recommend you read it online although the pictures & illustrations are missing.

Solution for DBMM Rule Book Problem

The first edition of the DBMM rule book was so poorly produced that the centre pages start to fall out even after careful use. I understand some people have even had problems with the latest version which was meant to correct the problem.