Crossed Lances- A review....

Now as you may have gathered I don't do reviews- never quite seen the point of them to be honest. I've read enough of the overly gushing  hyperbole over the years  to make me spew . Also enough of the tight- arsed mean minded twaddlle at the other end of the spectrum to add to aforesaid pile of  unwholsome semi-solids so when Peter Bradford asked me to  mention his Jousting Game - Crossed lances on this blog I was a bit taken aback. After all many reviewers have an axe to grind one way or another and Pete is a mate so I have what might be termed a conflict of interest here- well a bit anyhow.
 I played Crossed lances at the  Donnington show last year- where it won Best Participation game and I was aware that Pete and fellow author Martin Knight were even then working on an extension to include other tournament evets such as Archery Contests and Foot combats as well as non Tournamant  Judicial Combats .
 Basically these 2 books  will give you enough Info to run a Medieval Tournament from the12th Century  through to the beginning of the 16th century. Individual games are short- pandering to the fashion for "Wargaming Lite"  but there is much  more within the  2 volumes and indeed there are  several different  possible games with the tournament set up . The needed components- Cards and counters as well as a simple playing area are all included so whilst its entirely poosible to spend a fair few quid on  Tiltyards and Archery Butss and wooden counters  it is by no means  an absolute that one should so so  Indeed  I found the fact that all the bits except actual soldiers and dice were included to be a big plus- especially since I have a fair number of Medievals already. I can forsee more fun to be had running the tourney as Games Master  than actually playing  but then  I'm not by any means simply  a "games player"  and here lies the rub  I suspect the basic game will pall after a couple of dozen goes, However the Authors do seem to have thought of this and have stuffed in loads of advanced  rules for Intrigue and other skulduggery which in effect turns this into a Medieval Role Playing game- which is of rather more than ordinary Interest.
 I 'd reccommend buying both books- the second Volume has all the  Intrigue and such like in it  while the first has the basic rules and Jousting Rules. Both books have several pages devoted to copiable Game components such as the Cards and counters.
 I'd say that this is a bit of a must for Clubs with a limited gaming time and likewise as an entry level primer to proper Historical gaming- there is a good bit of Medieval flavour here and you don't need to spend a  couple of Tons to get a decent set up
 more info at  www.crossedlances.co.uk 
 But then you can see for yourself- Peter and Martin will be running a Tourney over the 2 days of War Tron In Scarborough 28th -29th June- I might even Tilt a lance or Two myself ...