Kirjahaku

Since the 1950s the hobby has grown exponentially and now enjoys a widespread following across the world. Although the rise in computerised wargaming has transformed some aspects of it, the traditional table-based wargame continues to go from strength to strength. Neil Thomas, a seasoned wargamer himself, offers practical advice on how to collect and paint wargames armies, together with all the information and rules needed to fight wargames over a huge historical timespan. He offers simple, playable and realistic rules for a variety of historical periods, from the ancient to the Second World War. A selection of colour photographs serves to illustrate the historical periods covered and convey something of the colourful spectacle of wargaming.

Re-fight some of the bloodiest battles of the ancient and medieval worlds! Seasoned wargamer and author Neil Thomas brings historical perspective to the hobby with a description and interpretation of significant military developments from 3,000BC to AD1500. Wargaming is the simulation of accurate historical battles using miniature figures to fight over three dimensional terrain, their movement and combat being regulated by clearly defined rules. Neil Thomas' new book provides specific coverage of ancient and medieval wargaming, thanks to its division into biblical, classical, Dark Age and medieval sections. Each section has its own set of rules and much expanded army lists. The wargamer gains additional perspective from data panels containing facts about weaponry, personalities and chroniclers, and quotations from original document sources. Useful suggestions for further reading are also included, while battle reports in each section provide tactical insights for both novice and veteran wargamers.

Following the success of his previous publications Wargaming: an Introduction and Ancient and Medieval Wargaming, Neil Thomas presents a new volume devoted to the intricacies of Napoleonic wargaming. Thomas sets out his wargame rules, the principles behind them, extensive army lists, how to set up a game and a battle report describing a war game in progress. The appendices provide a full range of support material such as figure sizes. Napoleonic Wargaming also includes historical background and the art of Napoleonic warfare to provide essential contextual information for players. This book is an invaluable tool for wargamers and coincides with the bicentenary of the wars themselves.

Study of neglected 13c German romance by Heinrich von dem Turlin: Gawain achieves the Grail, Arthur struggles through reverses to assert his authority. Heinrich's reinvention of the Arthurian ideal asserts its vigour in the latermiddle ages. Interesting and persuasive... will surely influence the future critical discussion of Heinrich's poem and the medieval Arthurian cycle. ARTHURIANA Diu Crône (The Crown) is one of the most neglected of Arthurianromances, perhaps because it does not fit into the canon of orthodox Arthurian stories: it is Gawain, not Perceval or Galahad, who achieves the Grail, and Heinrich's Arthur is not a predestined, assured imperial figure but a rulerwho struggles through reverses and challenges as he attempts to establish his authority, making the eventual triumph of the court and the accolade of the Grail all the more dramatic. Diu Crône is a bravura performance which creates a compelling new foundation myth. Camelot is transformed from its initial state of factionalism, sexual betrayal and lack of morale under an inexperienced king to one of law, order and security symbolised by the supreme resourcefulness shown by Gawain in the unflinching service of Arthur, his liege lord. It reinvents the imaginative foundation of the Arthurian ideal, and demonstrates that the ideal maintained its appeal in Germany into thelater middle ages. NEIL THOMAS is Reader in German in the School of Modern European Languages in the University of Durham

A set of simple, fast-playing rules for wargaming the conflicts that re-shaped Europe in the period 1815-78\. This important, yet often-neglected period includes the Crimean War, the Italian Risorgimento, the wars of Bismarck's Prussia against Denmark, Austro-Hungary and France and the Russo-Turkish war. Tactically it saw armies struggle to adapt Napoleonic doctrines to incorporate important technological advances such as breech-loading rifles, steel breech-loading cannon and the first machine guns. The book includes brief analysis of the essential strategic and tactical military developments of the period, a set of elegantly simple rules which are fast-playing and easy to learn, yet deliver realistic outcomes. A selection of generic scenarios, covering diverse situations such as flank attacks, pitched battles and meeting engagements, is supported by army lists for 28 different armies. There are also 12 historical scenarios, ranging from the Battle of the Alma in the Crimean War to Sedan in 1870, the decisive battle of the Franco-Prussian War, each with historical background, deployment map, orders of battle and any special rules for that engagement. Useful appendices include a guide to further reading, an overview and price guide to the many scales and ranges of figures available, and a selection of useful addresses for the gamer.

One of the biggest problems facing wargamers is finding the time to actually play. Most commercially available sets of rules require several hours to set up and play to a conclusion; some can easily swallow up a whole day or weekend. For many gamers this means that their lavishly prepared miniature armies rarely get used at all. Apart from time, the other consideration is space, which further constrains the opportunities for a game. In One-hour Wargames, veteran gamer and rule-writer Neil Thomas has addressed both these problems. Now it is practical to play a game in around an hour on a normal dining table or living room floor. The book contains 8 (all-new) sets of very simple rules for various periods, from Ancient to WW2 and 30 scenarios which can be played using any of them, so you don't even have to take too much time thinking up a stimulating tactical situation and objectives. All the rules and scenarios are intended to be played on a 3ft x 3ft battlefield. The rules only require a small number of miniatures, so this really is an ideal way for new gamers, or veterans trying a new period, to get started with minimal investment of time and money. Also ideal for a quick game in the evening when a friend pops round. There are also sections on campaigns and solo games.

University professor Neil Thomas was a committed Darwinist and agnostic-until an investigation of evolutionary theory led him to a startling conclusion: "I had been conned " As he studied the work of Darwin's defenders, he found himself encountering tactics eerily similar to the methods of political brainwashing he had studied as a scholar. Thomas felt impelled to write a book as a sort of warning call to humanity: "Beware You have been fooled " The result is Taking Leave of Darwin, a wide-ranging history of the evolution debate. Thomas uncovers many formidable Darwin opponents that most people know nothing about, ably distills crucial objections raised early and late against Darwinism, and shows that those objections have been explained away but never effectively answered. Thomas's deeply personal conclusion? Intelligent design is not only possible but, indeed, is presently the most reasonable explanation for the origin of life's great diversity of forms.

All Through the Night stakes a claim to be the first ‘Welsh Western’ and suggests that cowboys were as much invented in Wales as in Wyoming. This tale of Welsh drovers taking a large herd of cattle from the ‘wild west’ of North Wales to London in the 1790s and stakes a claim for these interesting characters to be the first cowboys. What happens in Westerns happened here to Welsh drovers on their cattle drives. Running through this Welsh Western, with its personalities, adventures and incidents, the story incorporates cultural, emotional and human elements that make Westerns so appealing. Written very much in the style of an old-fashioned Western, All Through the Night explores how people act in the drama of their own lives.

Now that we know how widespread the failure to protect the vulnerable has been in schools and institutions, 'how could it have happened?' is the constant question. This novel explores that. Set in a private school a little in the past - at a time of turbulence following the death of the old headmaster - a sinister thread runs through the attempts to take the school forward, where issues of child protection risk being buried in the protection of profits. In this school examination, with few sources of light amidst the dark shadows, there is a slow reveal of events as the story unfolds. The outcome is uncertain – will things be swept under the carpet or will the rottenness at the heart of this particular academic establishment be exposed? Very close to crime fiction but not quite, this novel is written almost like a reconstruction of events. Characters’ names are in effect redacted, with the resulting use of job titles serving in some cases to emphasise how individuals can hide behind their positions of authority and in other cases how victims can lose their precious personalities.

A fast-paced story of an ordinary man who becomes accidentally involved with villains in business and government in Hong Kong, Manila and Singapore. With a background of intrigue, corruption and tax avoidance, this intricate novel is set against events in the early 1980s in Britain's Hong Kong, the Manila of Marcos and Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore. A young publisher travelling through the East on business is confronted with personal greed, kleptocracy, espionage and murder as matters move, Eric Ambler style, out of his control. In Hong Kong, still British at that time, he first meets Jimmy Chan - a ruthless operator he is supposed to do business with - whose tentacles reach far and wide and prove tricky to escape. A side trip to the Philippines affords him no respite and his contact with the corruption of the Marcos regime only serves to make life more unpleasant as developments take a sinister turn. His brief time in Singapore does not offer the expected relief of a safe haven and the return to Hong Kong sees fresh trouble for him and his associates as the various strands of the plot come together in twists and turns. In this fast-paced story, an ordinary man, confronted with shady and unsavoury characters, becomes accidentally involved with villains in business and government in three different locations who operate according to a different moral code from his own.

An intriguing crime mystery, this is a book about the disappearance of an Englishman in France. Perfect for fans of Maigret. The focus is on the people and the setting of St Rémy de Provence, Southern France in 2006, when an expat Englishman has gone missing. After a false start by the local police, Avignon’s answer to Maigret, Commandant Ruppert, is brought in to pick up the investigation. The family back in England are pushing for answers – is this a missing person or a murder case? With no hard evidence or clues, Ruppert uses some unconventional police methods to uncover the truth. He encounters shady business dealings and interviews suspect local characters. Can Ruppert solve the mystery? What dark secrets are the local characters hiding?

Set on the beguiling Atlantic Ocean island of Bermuda, this thriller reveals financial scams, deceit and crimes that lie beneath the surface of respectability. Owen Ash – Ash to his friends – runs a conference company, and is putting on a big event in partnership with a Bermudian firm. Not everyone is who they seem, and Ash can’t avoid being drawn into a world of crooked professionals and their web of corruption. A local investigative journalist, corporate intelligence agents from London, the FBI and the local police are all drawn in to uncover and unravel the web of deceit and lies. But will everyone survive and emerge unscathed?

Ever since The Origin of Species appeared in 1859, Charles Darwin's followers have co-opted him as the patron saint of materialism. In False Messiah, longtime Darwinist and agnostic Neil Thomas looks at how Darwinism triumphed, and he challenges the official story with an exploration richly informed by his expertise in rhetoric and cultural history. What of Darwinism's present status? Like Marxism-that other great materialist theory of the Victorian age-Darwinism has become "the God that failed." As Thomas shows, although Darwinism has done incalculable damage to our culture, there is hope for renewal in contemporary scientific findings that are reinvigorating the argument to design as well as in what amounted to an ingenious flanking movement against modern materialism-the spiritually charged philosophy of nature developed in the poetry of William Wordsworth.