Battle: Practical Wargaming

Battle: Practical Wargaming was written by Charles Grant. The Grant was a leading proponent of miniatures wargaming and helped popularize the hobby through his writing. Scottish by birth, he served in the Royal Air Force in the Second World War, and later in the Special Branch of Scotland Yard. He passed away in May 1979, survived by son Charles S. Grant who is also a leading figure in the wargaming field.

The elder Grant published a number of books on miniatures gaming, listed below, and contributed to Military Modelling and Battle magazines as well as part-time editor of Slingshot: the Journal of the Society of Ancients.

• Battle: Practical Wargaming (Model and Allied Publications, 1970)

• The War Game (A. & C. Black, 1971)

• The Ancient War Game (A. & C. Black, 1974), ISBN 0-7136-1448-X.

• Napoleonic Wargaming (Model and Allied Publications, 1974)

• Ancient Battles for Wargamers (Model and Allied Publications, 1977) ISBN 0-85242-553-8

• Wargame Tactics (Cassell, 1979) ISBN 0-304-30470-0

Battle provides a detailed introduction to the field of miniatures wargaming, and in particularly the depiction of modern tactical combat. The book refers to miniature gaming as "the Battlegame" and the author makes no reference to the hobby of board wargaming. However, in a step by step, chapter by chapter method, he lays out the process of defining a rules set for recreating Second World War land combat at the tactical level, with chapters on such things as infantry organization, morale, artillery, armour and anti-tank guns and how to depict them in a table top setting.