Too many years of passed since the heyday of De Bellis Multitudinis. It was a great time for a cracking set of rules that everyone could play for casual pick up games and competition match-ups. I was left a little underwhelmed by Field of Glory, it all looked a little too ordered and mathematical. And then the great divide! L’art de la Guerre took hold of the West and South East, whilst  a number of other sets gained followings elsewhere. The quest for “one ruleset to bind them all” is perhaps unobtainable in this disperate Internet age but Simon Hall has made a gallant stab at it with his highly detailed and highly playable Mortem et Gloriam.

M.e.g. is supported by an excellent miniature range, now in hard plastic, a very well organised website and a large, truly international, Facebook following. Simon Hall, the god-like genius of this empire, has now moved on to campaign books. The first of which is centred on my favourite period of the Fall of Rome. Although primarily designed for use with M.E.G., it contains more than enough period information to make a purchase worthwhile.

The book is soft- bound and is just under ninety pages long. The author Richard Jeffrey- Cook has an obvious intimate knowledge of the period and the maps especially of great interest. A strength of the book are the ideas for a number of campaigns ranging from a chronological series of historical battles to a race to storm Constantinople before the walls are rebuilt after an earthquake. The campaigns are there in outline, rather than a huge amount of detail, but enough information is there for a campaign set up.

The book contains some terrific photography of the miniatures in action. In addition, G. Rava has included some of his best work. Most of the miniatures are from the Lurkio range but they do paint up well. Even the  old Flames of War sensei, Robin Spence gets his work on show! Nash painting services is obviously a name to watch out for. The book is well presented and well structured. With postage, the book comes in at just under thirty pounds so it is on the expensive for a soft bound tome but does not seem unreasonable. I personally like the games run thoughs in the book but they do run to quite a number of the ninety pages. The background information and campaign ideas more than make up for that though and the illustrations are as previously mentioned a real strength.

Battles of the Great Commanders #1 Age of Attila is available from Simon Hall’s site or the Plastic Soldier Company.

Happy birthday me!

Thanks for reading 

Michael