Regular readers of this blog will be aware that I am a big fan of the Dan Mersey suite of rules. Needless to say I have been waiting eagerly for my copy of his latest morsel to finally arrive yesterday.

I have just finished having a quick flick through and I have to say the word “morsel” does not quite apply – more like a banquet with its one hundred and fifty-odd pages.

Like any true wargamer the first thing I flicked to was the section on my favourite army list. I expected this to be somewhat generic but to have some added oriental flavour and spices, and was not disappointed.

I have always loved the history of the Christian Military Orders and went straight to page fifty two. Each army list is broken up into the following sections:

• Areas of Deployment;
• Period of Deployment;
• Historical Background (in this case three pages including some pretty pics);
• Special Characteristics and their “in-game effects”;
• Available troop types (the list), and a
• Suggested Warband.

For those of us who know our period history and preferred army in extreme detail the detail is at a superficial level, but for the novice gamer wanting some ideas on which army to start out with, the information is an excellent guide.

The gamer in me wanted to know what perks I would get. The religious zeal of the Orders is depicted by the ability to re-roll one failed courage test per game, but because of their military training and discipline they cannot purchase the Religious Fervour upgrade. Nice twist -zeal with discipline!

I digress, but this reminds me of my retiring Philosophy Professor who started his retirement speech with “Psychologists, Sociologists and Philosophers are all wankers, the only difference is that Philosophers do their wanking with discipline”. He went on to explain why. I remember the quote not the rationale! Must have been the “ration ale” afterwards.

The Order of Saint Lazarus is the one exception to this, who because they were just crazy buzzards, have reduced armour and can purchase the Religious Fervour upgrade (why fear death when you believe you are coming back) .

Enough nuance to portray the “feel” of the army without being OTT. Others can comment on their favourite list.

Next I went to the sections that are mostly overlooked by readers and that is the Forward by Dan Mersey and the Introduction by Gianluca Raccagni. Dan Mersey outlines the philosophy behind the Lion Rampart rules which was to be an introduction for gamers to get to use the rules and understand the troop types so that they can conduct their own research and tweak the rules and their retinue based on their own research. This book is an example of this.

Gianluca, being a medieval historian by profession, indicated that he wanted to “gamify” his historical research and explore the relationship between gaming and history. Being involved in both professional and hobby wargaming this really interested me. Lion Rampart (The Crusader States) is the final outcome of this approach.

Quite unusual is the appendix which is the First Annual Walter Scott Roundtable presentation by Daniesl Mersey, where he outlines his thoughts and ideas on games design which he sums up “gaming is a hobby where history matters”.

When you read the book with these thoughts and approaches in mind you get a far better idea about what the authors were trying to achieve.

There are some new upgrades to the rules that are specific to the Crusade period.

These include religous fervour, assassination, fear, holy and unholy characters, Greek fire and talismanic objects. All of these are upgrades that have some game impact but are not game breakers by themselves. I like the approach where they have brought in thematic elements without overcoming the existing game mechanisms. They seem to add without dominating.

Finally the scenarios are absolutely superb. Historically, based they cover a huge variety of game types; attacks on keeps, trying to feed the multitudes (sound familiar), attacks on pilgrims by wild beasts, straight battles etc. They have rules designed to link them together in mini campaigns and the normal pre-game boasts.

I can definitely recommend the purchase but you do need Lion Rampart to be able to use the book.