Hi Folks,

Finally the Second World War war game rules we have been working on are coming along nicely. There is still a lot to do and many areas of the rules are not yet covered though the main points have been addressed. These rules are innovative and therefore require some rearrangement of viewpoint as they do not follow a classical rules format.

I hope to publish shortly some pictures of two games that I have under way with an ARR (After Action Report) though time is short at the moment.

Our rules, it is a collaboration between Chris Halewood and I are designed to accommodate large armies down to platoon level on reasonably small tables with a high degree of playability and give a good feel.

On a 6 foot by 4 table we can easily play with a Regiment against a Regiment and on two such tables we can fit a Division on the board!

The games play quickly and produce results which have the right feel and flow. I will post further info about them as time goes on, though I will probably start another blog to more easily handle this diverse subject.

Best regards

Col

Fiore dei Liberi Video

We have nearly finished our first commercial DVD for public sale! This video is called "Medieval Combat Italian Longsword" From the Treatises of Fiore dei Liberi Student Guide level - 1. This has been a long project and has been very time consuming though enjoyable. We learnt a lot about making a video and that can only mean we will do better videos in the future and in a quicker time.

When you have a newborn time also so seems to slip away further delaying what you are doing, but in the end the baby must sleep and then work can go forward.

See our website

www.artsofmarsbooks.com

This video is basically a learn as you go, step by step video with a modular design so that students can learn singularly or in groups.

I must say it is quite exciting to design, shoot and edit your own video and I would recommend anyone to have a go, there are a lot of very good programs out there and they are not that expensive nowadays.

Best Regards

Col

Me Myself - A Fleeting Introduction

I was given the name Colin Richards, partly through accident and partly because that was our family name. I am 51 years old and live in a small village about 25 miles west of Hannover, Germany. I live with my darling wonderful wife, Sandra, and our new born son Jason Alexander (15/0 3/ 2009 if you want to send presents or congratulations Jason is always open for them!).

I am a professional martial arts instructor and teach various Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA). My main interest being Italian School martial arts from the treatises of Fiore die Liberi, though also including German school from the Glossaries on the master Liechtenaur, The Tower Fechtbuch 1.33 (about sword and buckler fighting and the earliest known european fighting treatise), Viking Era weapons with shield, smatterings of Quarter staff from various authors and Back sword of George Silver among other things. I will be adding to these subjects shortly.

These treatises include the use of the following weapons or fighting styles:

• Wrestling
• Dagger
• Longsword used in two hands
• Longsword used in one hand
• Single handed sword
• Sword and buckler (small shield)
• weapons and Shield (large shield)
• Spear
• Quarterstaff
• Sax (large knife), Langesmesser
  
• Pole axe
• Fighting on horse back (though I must admit not my cup of tea)
• And a host of others which would get boring to list!

I am an author of the book: Fiore dei Liberi 1409: Wrestling and Dagger (in English and German), which was designed by my wife and she did the 920 photographs, oh and translated and arranged and she runs the selling of the book and did the website! Yes, she is a remarkable woman, without whom I would still be in the stone age cooking food with hot stones. Sandra also runs our 5 businesses which includes her own which deals with creating projects for children involving medieval handwork and lifestyle creation.

I find War facinating and always have, and I am sort of an amature military historian, and through my researches I have come to the conclusion that I never want to be in a war or support one because far from being glorious, they create only pain, suffering and devastation and keep a lot of people in the background very very rich. My interest in war though mainly lies in the facinating hobby of wargaming, which is about as removed from actual war as you can get while still having the word War in the title.

I am writing several sets of rules with a friend called Chris Halewood and we hope to publish them some time. The rules set we have at the moment is very inovative and seems to be very flexible and we might even be able use the same mechanics in many different periods and for many different troops scales. We are currently involved in a project to recreate the battles of the Eastern Front between 1941 - 1943 inclusive.

Well that is all for now and I hope someone other than American security agencies find it interesting.

Best Regards

Colin Richards