The Compendium of Weapons Armour and Castles [Paperback]

Matthew Balent (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Palladium Books; First edition. edition (August 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 091621138X
• ISBN-13: 978-0916211387
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #604,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best You'll Find, September 16, 2004

By 

Aaron Benson (Ithaca, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Compendium of Weapons Armour and Castles (Paperback)

If you want to know about ancient and medieval weapons, armor, and castles, you need this book. The information and illustrations cover all geographic areas and time periods. The statistics can be converted to any game system, if you so desire. The only reason I gon't give it five stars is that the structure of the book should have been further revised, and some of the illustrations are less than top-notch. I challenge you to find a single better source, however.

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent resource, April 10, 2011

By 

Paul Lawrence "'EJL'" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Compendium of Weapons Armour and Castles (Paperback)

It's a pity this book seems out of print because it is/was an excellent resource.

While softcover the book is well bound and absolutely full to the brim of weapon descriptions, comparisons and line drawings. All sorts of weird and wonderful (real life) stuff is dealt with in this easily used work and the section on armour is great for anyone wanting an idea of what the various armours looked like when worn. I hasten to add there are no colour plates in this work, the only splash of colour is reserved for the cover but as something to be pored over by DM's, gamers and weapons nerds this is a very handy work to have lying around. The final section on castles is full of nicely rendered drawings - not technical in nature I should point out - but illustrations that aim to give the flavour of the fortification. Obviously whole books have been devoted to many of the subjects dealt with herein, this work isn't trying to be the last work in the history of swordsmithing for instance, but it is very good at what it sets out to do which is to thrown a heck of a lot of information at the reader in a presentable and logical manner.

A few years ago I sold off almost all my RPG books from my youth, but this one wasn't one I got rid of.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for fantasy writers!!!, August 9, 2009

By 

Kimdkus "kim" (Ill United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Compendium of Weapons Armour and Castles (Paperback)

If you're a fantasy writer, then this book is a must!! It goes into great details about the weapons used in the middle ages, which we can transfer over to our fantasy writings. It also goes into great details about armor, and not just about Knights, and castles. Don't type another word until you study this book!!!