Casemate Publishers

Just when you thought all of my posts on Fall-In! were over, I sneak one more upon you! This is one makes me pretty happy to share too, and as the title suggests it involves a company called Casemate Publishers.

Casemate ran a booth in that massive dealer's room, and it was a good sized one to boot. Their specialty lies in military books, history books, and the like, covering all time periods where man fought man. They were having a prize drawing and not a lot of people were signing up from what I saw. Actually I should say from what Andy saw, since for years to come it will invariably be him that (rightfully so) takes credit for most of this. Andy won one of the daily prizes which was a sweet $50 dollar certificate to be used at their website. With so many options, I just know he's going to get a headache trying to decide. Well I signed up for the drawing as well, but unlike Andy I did not win any of the daily drawings. No, I instead won the $350 dollar grand prize!

It was no secret I went to Fall-In! on a budget, and had to restrain myself from going loco in the dealer's room, not to mention I ate sandwiches out of a cooler the whole weekend, so this little bit of gamer-karma-come-back-atcha was certainly a welcome surprise. I placed my order this week, so when that big box of shiny new books gets here, expect a follow up post!


Well I'm a gamer first and foremost, so I went there right off the bat, opting for Foundry's "Rules With No Name", and Warlord's new Black Powder rules. The former is free on the web, but the published copy has been held in fairly high regard. Cowboys are something we've certainly had fun with many time sin the past too, plus it fills quite the gaming void on my bookshelf. Black Powder was really a grab for the spectacle of it and who knows, maybe one day it will give up its intoxicating call to a humble weekend painter like myself. In all seriousness I've heard nothing but good things about it and it really does sound like they were written the way rules should've been written; clear, solid, and open to allow the spirit of the game supersede the letter of the rule. While I was at it I picked Andy up a copy as well, you know, since he took me to my first dance and all.


You may be thinking that I just started clicking away like mad adding books I've never heard of to my online Casemate shopping cart. Well, that's only partially true! After my cart was overstuffed around five hundred bucks I went in and began weeding through it. I used several internet sources to check the books not voted off the island for reviews and what-not. The two here are similar in nature in that they deal with specific commanders during specific time periods. By going into biographical detail of the person, you get greater insight to the wars fought under their watchful eye, and to the specific state of the world as well.


When I talk of my Anthropology degree it's usually in reference to what I focused on as my specialty, which is prehistoric man and human origins. That wasn't all I took however, and the archaeology portion of my degree was centered around the time of the American War of Independence, so I gravitated to both of these books. Despite their very similar titles, from what I could pick up, the two books complement one another rather well with little to no overlap. I'm not known for my historical gaming sense, but these may be the push I need as well.


Britain, both old and new round out my shopping spree. My Irish Guards army is ambitious in scope, just slow to get going (all my fault of course). One thing I do know is that you can get lost with all of the tales that unfolded during WWII. For me I've set my eye on Operation Market Garden. For that, the Arnhem 1944 book looks to fit the bill.