Battle Games Books

Never received the Book. No longer Available

You will need this book in order to accomplish all of your missions and save all of the hostages! Also includes real SWAT team photos and back stories of how SWAT was conceived! So load up soldier and take down the terrorists and save the hostages and be home in time for supper! Remember, your an ex-Semper Fi! and now your an elite SWAT leader part of the LAPD SWAT team! Go out there and do your stuff! Ten-Hut!

This game needs to be labeled for 15 years and younger. not a game that will interest adults.
the price tag is way overpriced.

This is one of the best strategy guides I have ever owned. It goes into terrific detail about each of the maps, all of the armies and gives great strategy tips. It even suggests which units to use in each map and what to spend your precious gold at each of the towns along the way. The tactics given work well, and the level of detail while being concise is great. I haven't looked too closely at the multiplayer section, so I can't comment on that. Over all, this is one of the best and I would recommend it to anyone, even if they don't have trouble with the game.

this book is for the younge ones but some of the pictures are farly good and some eveny go past what you saw on in the movie i gave it a 3 because it is a good coloring book but some of the images are not vary accuret such as darth maul but still a good book besides that!

Megalomania isn't one of the required attributes to "Be your own Napoleon" -- at least, not in this book. William Seymour takes us through several of "history's greatest battles," including Hastings, Agincourt, Saratoga, Waterloo, Chancellorsville, and Anzio, and invites the reader at key points to select among several possible tactical options.

That description might make this title sound like one of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books from childhood, but it really isn't. Instead of spinning out a "counterfactual" for each of the various options, Seymour explains why the commanders involved chose the option they did. He then analyzes the arguments for and against the other options and tries to determine what the likely outcome of each might have been. But then it's back into the stream of What Really Happened until the next key decision point.

This book won't displace Clausewitz or other staples of tactical training. But for the armchair general, it's probably worth a few hours to match wits with some of history's great commanders.

This book might be helpful if you either: 1) Bought the Digi-battle card game and didn't quite understand all the rules. 2) Are thinking about getting into the game and are wondering what it involves. 3) Want a lot of cool pictures of Digimon cards.

There are some useful tables in this book, like which cards you need to play to get to the next level in different situations, but they completely ignore all the cards in the booster decks.

The sad thing is that after a few chapters, the book jumps off talking about the TV series, the animated series cards, and completely ignores the game.

A nice introduction to the game, and the checklist is extremely cool, but if you're already a player and looking to enhance your skills, this is not the book for you.

Dupuy presents his Quantified Judgment Model (QJM) and employs if for the analysis of historical combat data. After describing the model, he provides detailed analysis of data from World War II and the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli conflicts. A few other battles are surveyed as well, from Austerlitz to The Somme. He also provide trend analysis in a number of military dimensions. The book has three target audiences: military OR analysts, military historians, and conflict simulation hobbyists. (This review is based on the original edition.)

PBMs are different from most games by the fact that you should expect the unexpected. You receive a set of rules in the mail, rules that you've probably never heard of, you try your hand with the first couple of turns, you interact with the numerous in-game personalities, you have fun. This sort of game does not need a guide. Half the fun of such game lies in figuring out the details of the rules, the EXPLORATION of your freedoms. If you buy a guide to a PMB, first of all you will have an unfair advantage over other players, second of all you will ruin the game for yourself. Buy at your leizure only if you want to acquaint yourself with the genre, not with the game. As for the GUIDE TO PBMs, I'm waiting for it with all my heart so I won't have to play a macabre version of a "search and destroy" game as I'm trying to find another game to join.

This book is useless, don't waste your money on it. Read the instruction manuel that comes with starter kit and ask other player online for help.

For a total newbie to this game with no real game manual included with swg.
I found this book to be very helpfull in teaching me the basics of the game.
All the previous reviewers where obviously Upset from the NGE I fell your pain as I was X world of warcraft, Blizzard totally wreked that 1.
The book is great and very helpfull to any beginner or any new person to this game.
Yes the forums are helpfull to a degree but if you dont know what your doing at all the forums can be very vague.
As for the book being out of date I spent $300 on brady game books for WOW all of which where outdated with the release of BC.
So if your new to the game buy the book 5 stars for me.

If you are just diving into SWG or a returning veteran like myself you will probably find this book helpful. It is fairly basic so if you are looking for something in depth this is not it however it does have stats on all the beasties, NPC's, and most professions. Because it is older it has nothing about the BEAST MASTER profession, that one you get to figure out on your own. If you can find a used copy of this book in good shape (thats what I did) it is worth the small investment. I keep it handy as a reference guide to what beasts are where in the galaxie since I am in the process of leveling a Beast Master on one of my toons.

I've seen people complaining about this guide including "just the basics" or that it's "completely useless". True, some of the statistics are outdated, and this was published just after the "NGE" overhaul of the profession structure, so it doesn't have everything QUITE right about the new professions.
It's not completely useless, though, as it DOES contain a lot of information all in one place. The city maps are decently detailed, and can certainly help you find your way around, and it DOES have a decent primer to get those new to Star Wars Galaxies started off on the right foot, at least as far as finding their first few quest paths.
That said, I certainly wouldn't pay much over half price for it now, even brand new. If you see someone offering it for $8 or less, and you're new to SWG, it would be a decent buy. On the other hand, it seems like I recall having seen a newer guide set to be released sometime in either January or February 2007, so ultimately, the question is whether you just need to get started, or some maps to find certain locations, or if you can wait for a newer, hopefully thoroughly updated guide.

This book might not be up to date in every aspect of the game, but being a new player it has been invaluable. Online guides seem to be more outdated than the book. If you are new to this game, this book is a great help and a great reference.

Even for gaming fiction this is poor. The book has way too many characters, all of whom are poorly detailed - enough so I had a hard time keeping them all straight.
The basic plot is straight forward enough - it centers around defending a town from invading beastman. Unfortunately, the author left in too much extraneous material which add nothing to the plot which further undermines the already weak focus. To make matters worse, plot elements are introduced and them simply abandoned. I have to agree with the other reviewer - needs better editing.
The book's only redeeming feature is the combat scenes (what saved it from 1 star). Unfortunately, you have to plow through pages of meaningless activity to get there.
Only for die-hard Warhammer fans.

The Good:
It's only 243 pages long.

The Bad:
It feels like 1000 pages long.

Forged in battle is in dire need for editor and Justin Hunter is in dire need for a basic writing course. Did no one ever tell him of the Show & Tell principle?

Dialogs - I don't think you can get more uninspiring and inane.

Characters - Tons of stereotyped totally flat characters. I had to flip again and again to the back up the book, just to remind myself of the main protagonist's name. Imagine that he was so well developed, rounded and inspiring, that I can't even remember his name. I swear that it never happened to me before.

Inflated Text, no proportion -
One sample out of thousands:
p.53 "Sigmund shook his head, stood up and moved to the doorway."
No kidding why didn't you write: "Sigmund shook his head to the left, then to the right, then he put his left leg forward, then his right leg followed, then his left again...
This is the 21st century, not the Victorian age.
Instead of writing:
The phone rang, Sigmud ran over to the phone, sat on a stool beside it, picked up the phone and said "Hello?".
It's enough to say:
The phone rang.
"Hello?" Sigmund said.

Maybe the author had a quota of words to fill?


I can keep up, telling howe Justine cuts his story into extremly short scenes resulting in something that resembles a long tiring stutter, or I can point out how chewed his plot is.
But why bother?
This book has already taken too much of my time. Don't bother picking it up even if you're a Warhammer fan.

This, like all Black Library warhammer books is hack writing. Some do it better than others, but to argue for literary merit is like saying that a smash-up derby lacks elegence. File the last interview under 'NSS', for "No s**t Sherlock".

Anyway, Justin's strengths are a solid focus on small events in a small town, some good characterization of the important people to the story, nice little period details, and exciting battle scenes. This is an enjoyable little tale and good 'beach reading'.

If you want great literature, look elsewhere. If you're into Warhammer, you'll enjoy this book about a unit of Empire halberdiers fighting to protect the small town in which they live.

I tried to order this book from the publisher. O'Reilly actually took my credit card order, gave me an order number and said I was getting a free copy for ordering two. The email they sent me said the book was back ordered. However, when I called their headquarters they informed me that this book has never been published and may not ever be published. I cancelled my order with them.

So many people who have enjoyed wargames would like to know how to create one of their own, and this book promises to help.

I too am eager to get my hands on this book. I don't know why it is taking so long to publish, but it's not helpful to rate it 1-star for that. I would rate it 5-stars in anticipation.

While waiting for this book, you should Google "HexKit". It's a FREE developer kit for making wargames. It's designed for use with Microsoft's Visual Studio.NET, and Microsoft just announced the intro version of Visual Studio will always be FREE.

This is not actually a review of the book, because despite being for sale on Amazon, the book does not in fact seem to be available. I am giving the book one star because of repeated and apparently intentional misrepresentations about the delivery time for the book: I have tried to order this book twice (supposedly to be shipped within ten days), and each time the delivery time has been extended, and extended, and extended again. I can only conclude that this book does not exist and that this book should not be advertised as being for sale. I have also complained to Amazon and asked them to remove the book from their "sales"
listing.

UPDATE: Order originally placed December 27, 2004 with estimated 10 day delivery time. As of February 13, 2005 delivery has been delayed yet again, to March 17, 2005 - April 4, 2005. Pretty funny at this point. I will keep you posted...

SECOND UPDATE: Now December 20, 2005. This book has been listed as "unavailable" for several months, now is listed as being available in 4-6 weeks (mine has not yet shipped despite being ordered almost a year ago)...will update if this volume ever ships and I can give a review of the actual book.

THIRD UPDATE: Now April 9, 2006. No sign of the book yet, which is again listed as unavailable--doesn't look good...

FOURTH UPDATE: May 25, 2006. I have just read the review by the person who gives this as-yet-unpublished book five stars and criticizes me for giving it one star for "taking so long to publish." Just to be clear, I am not giving it one star because it is taking so long to publish--I am giving it one star because this apparently unpublished book has been FOR SALE (sometimes with promised ten day delivery times) for years. Thankfully this book is currently (and truthfully) listed as unavailable, although it is periodically listed as being available with varying degrees of delay. My order has been in place and outstanding for eighteen months and remains unfilled.

TMR