My 'By Fire & Sword' rulebook has arrived

So my copy of 'By Fire & Sword' arrived this morning from NorthStar and first impressions are good. I'll be doing a more in depth review next week but here's my thoughts so far. 

The book is indeed a weighty tome weighing in at nearly 2 Kg or 4.5 pounds. The hardback binding looks sturdy and the pages are fairly heavy duty so should stand up to wear and tear. The text is a decent size and it's lavishly sprinkled with photos and illustrations. There is an index at the back but strangely many pages don't have page numbers on them. The rules are all on numbered pages but things like the army lists have no page numbers. It probably won't be a problem but it is a little unusual.

There's a nice section at the start that explains some of the basics and gives a guide on the different approaches to painting miniatures which seems useful to both beginners and more experienced painters. The rules comprise about 100 pages of the total 408 pages and are well set out with lots of examples and diagrams. The rest of the book comprises the scenarios and detailed army lists and history of the various combatants. There is also a quick reference section at the back of the book although I'm sure someone will produce a pdf version soon if they haven't already done so.

The rules aren't cheap at £38.50 plus p&p but you get a lot for your money. They could have produced a softback version containing just the rules and scenarios but, if you're anything like me you won't know much about this period and it's armies. So you would have probably bought various reference books/painting guides to help you out which would probably take you well past £38.50. 

Hopefully I'll have a more detailled review early next week although 408 pages may take me a while to get through.