Friday, 14 December 2012

Towards a new model army?

Many of us feel that certain areas of wargaming can be pricey, some areas increasingly and unreasonably so. A handful of posts from the past few days suggest ways forward.


Interestingly, BoLS this week posted some homebrew, which I think is the first time in a good while. It's a full mission, like those Creative Twilight produce, possibly a step into a new golden age, and Loken reminded us of the first and its magical Lords of Battle pdf.

As for the title, if you thought New Model Army was only a group, have a read of this. If we are talking about the group, I know less than I do of the Levellers, whose name also references what we call the English Civil War, but here's a track and a video that fit well.

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3 comments:

Tallgeese said...

NMA brings me back! I believe they were the ones with the song "I believe in Vengeance, I believe in Justice, I believe in..."

I also loved that song by Easthouse that was banned by the BBC: "Inspiration".

Somehow I always think of the two together, even though they had quite different sounds.

About the real NMA, my reading group did the Putney Debates (Verso collection) a few years ago.

??? said...

Another fighting song by NMA. They are always good for political songs and I think they chose their name well.

Porky said...

They have a lot to say for sure, and it's a back catalogue that seems to deserve better recognition.

Re Easthouse, the connection might be in the reaction. It seems NMA may have had trouble travelling the 50 after they released "51st State", and the track was apparently banned by a major BBC station. Like "Vengeance" that was a track on the cluster of three early albums.

The Debates are definitely relevant today, for what they represent if not the precise detail. I read an article recently suggesting the period is oddly underrepresented in teaching of history, and if so it's not surprising perhaps, considering how little justice looks to have been done to some of the more reasonable approaches of the time.

NMA's choice of name and subject matter, and the music of the Levellers too, may have helped and be helping with that.

The relative freedom of the discussion the Debates represent and the scope there is for improvement still may also worry people.