Donald F. Featherstone (1918–2013)

Most of Featherstone's books tend to overlaps with a lot of general information about basic wargaming, but this book focuses on specific descriptions of relatively small but significant battles, chosen because they can be refought with relatively realistic numbers of model figures.Each battle is illustrated with a few clear maps and has a summary of the actual events of the battle, followed by a discussion of how the battle could be adapted for wargaming. Some of the battles are well known (Pharsalus, Poitiers, Barnet, Guilford Court House, Little Big Horn, Gallipoli, Pork Chop Hill), others are more obscure (at least to me), Cheriton (English Civil War), Wynendael (Marlburian Wars), Prestonpans (Jacobite Rebellion --that at least I knew a little about), Maida (Penninsular War), Aliwal (First Sikh War), Wilson's Creek (US Civil War), Modder RIver (Second Boer War), St. Nazaire (World War 2). Wynendael and Maida in particular I had no memory of at all.… (meer)

This is a book on solo war-gaming by Donald Featherstone, one of the major British writers on war-gaming in the 1960s -70s. It includes material originally published by the US war-gamer (and military figure maker) Jack Scruby and by John Schuster, another American who developed a method of solo war-gaming for the US Civil War. Although a lot of the specific rules mentioned are not currently used (at least by gamers I know), some of the benefits of solo gaming --being able to conduct length campaigns, being able to run off small skirmishes, etc. are still true. There are also amusing accounts of the author's efforts to "press-gang" his wife and children into helping to play solo games --such as having them draw their own attempts of maps of the terrain and figures (from the opposing army's limited view) and then trying play out the battle using the inaccurate maps randomly assigned to different parts of the rival armies.… (meer)

One of Featherstone's pioneering works that contributed to the hobby of wargaming and ultimately to modern computer games and role-playing games. This begins with a brief overview of the history of the hobby and then covers a wider range of periods than his War Games and War Games through the Ages part 1 (reviewed elsewhere), in particular breaking down the period between medieval and modern ( broadly called "horse and musket") into sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Marlburian and Seven Years War, the Crimean, American Civil and Franco-Prussian Wars, and Colonial Wars, before passing on to World Wars 1 and 2 and "Wars of Today" (up to 1970). It has more detailed discussion of the use of the cheap plastic Airfix 20 mm. soldiers (of which I bought quantities at this time), with conversions (which I was rarely ambitious enough to attempt), scenery, , artillery and (for modern wars), tanks. The Airfix figures are less dominant now,but still available., so this discussion is till somewhat relevant today.… (meer)

This is another of the several wargaming books by Donald Featherstone, the leading British tabletop wargaming writer of his time (1960s-70s). This book describes the armies of a series of national or ethnic groups from 3000 BC to 1500 AD, beginning with the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians ad ending with the Swiss, the Hundred Years War, and the mercenaries of the late middle ages. Each army is described in terms of its weapons, formations and tactics, thumbnail account of major battles, and a statistical chart rating its strengths in numerical scores which may be somewhat arbitrary but allow comparisons between armies across time. There is also an appendix listing the miniature figures for less armies available as of that time --now mostly obsolete-- and a brief bibliography of books which have pictures of the armies --now largely superseded by the Osprey series.… (meer)