Over the past three or four centuries, technology has advanced to make most of the means of war used in the 15th century obsolete. Just because something is no longer used in the fields of battle, that doesn't stop people from being interested in the craft that was war of years long gone. In fact, one could say that there has been quite the opposite effect in the most recent decades. Today, ever increasing numbers of people all over the free world are "taking up arms" against each other in various forms of competition. These war games range from the military exercises preformed with modern weapons by the various governments to live action swordplay to computer games to fantasy role playing games and war games. Back in 1981, Matthew Balent published a comic book sized book by the name of Weapons where he explained how the various melee weapons like swords, halberds, maces, daggers and bows were used in combat. This small attempt caught the attention of the owner of the newly formed company Palladium Books. Balent accepted a position the company and a few years later the first release of The Compendium of Weapons, Armour & Castles hit the open market.
In the past twenty years, this product has evolved to a massive publication of 224 pages. Together, Kevin and Matthew have taken the all the information of real life weapons and translated the facts into a comprehensive guide that can be used for role playing games of all types. Most companies in the RPG market would never even dream of making such a book. The reason for this being that they would "lose sales" of their own products by drawing attention to the competition. Palladium Books has a completely different mind set to the way it operates. They feel that if something needs to be done, then the entire market can benefit from the effort. Also, Kevin is a pretty sharp fellow. He figures that even if a gamer buys no other product from his company than this single volume, then he has made a sale. By leaving this volume open to use for all games in a fantasy setting, he has removed the marketing limitations completely.
Let's talk about what you will find in the volume.
The first thing you will run into is an explanation of the various classifications of the weapon types. These are real facts, not some made up garbage to allow the items to be used in a fantasy game. In this section you will find illustrations of the various types of weapons and even detailed descriptions of how they were used in combat. It goes into some detail about the origins of each weapon.
Following that is a large section that has a picture of nearly every known weapon ever used in the past. Each picture has dashed lines that show where the cutting edge (if any) is on the item. Each weapon it's vital statistics listed under it. This would be the name, length, mass (weight), attack type and how many hands are required to use the weapon effectively.
Then there are the RPG application numbers. This is where things get a little tricky. In the beginning of the book, there is a chart that explains these numbers and what they represent. Each number means a different type of die (or dice) to roll in order to generate a random amount of damage. Since each type of weapon has a different chart to find the damage amount (swords cause a different type of damage than axes, for example). There is also a couple of other numbers here that are not used in all games. The Dex rating relates to how quickly the weapon is able to be used in a combat (low number being the best). The parry rating tells the player how effective an attempt to deflect the attacker's blow is with the weapon and then there is a rating for how accurate the weapon is when thrown (if applicable). In a game setting, these numbers will translate into bonuses or penalties on the to strike roll.
After that is a small section that explains the effectiveness of the many types of armor that were used back then. This area of the book tells you not only how the armor was used and created, but when a suit of plain leather armor could be more effective than full plate mail. Yes, sometimes that IS possible and this book will tell you the why behind it. There is a chart that explains what types of attacks a certain suit of armor is most effective against. There are several pages of detailed illustrations of the military armies in full armor and weapons. Often these come with a cut away view of how the armor is layered onto the soldier to give the full protection that he needs in a melee. Each picture gives you a break down of the total resistance rating to the various attack forms as well as the total weight of the suit of armor. Please keep in mind that once again, these are all factual drawings of the types of armor used at different times in the many different countries throughout history.
Last, but not least, is the detailed information of the castles, forts and keeps that were raised during the centuries of warfare that took place as mankind explored the planet. This ranges from mere encampments to tower strong holds to forts to fortified cities and even the great pyramids of Egypt. Almost 100 pages of detailed drawings and text show us how these structures were used for defense during the past. There are more than 40 floor plans of castles that were built from all over the world, along with the basic concepts behind why this certain type of castle was built at that place. These reasons range from the type of the land it was build on (hill top, open plains, cliff face) to the type of enemy it was designed to withstand to what it was defending to a combination of all of the above. In most cases, a basic floor plan is provided from which a gamer can then design his own castle of keep for use in the RPGs. There are also details about the various terms that are used when talking about parts of a castle, how they were decorated, the lighting and heating of the structure and even what type of garrison would be best for the structure, according to how large it is. Of course, there are game values listed for the purpose of laying siege to the castle.
The bottom line about this book is quite simple. It has everything that any gamer will ever need to use a castle or army in a fantasy setting, be that during a war game (where entire armies are pitted against each other) or a role playing game (where only a few select members of a battle are focused on). Of course, the historical value of this volume makes it an asset to any library whose owner has an interest in the Middle Ages period of history.
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