I have heard that the latest wargaming in history book, on the SYW, has transferred from Ken Trotman to Caliver for publication. Is the forthcoming book on Koniggratz still a goer, either with Ken Trotman or Caliver, or is it simply that C S Grant has had a falling out with Ken Trotman?
The forthcoming Koniggratz book will be WiH 12, published by Ken Trotman, and will be the last of the series. As far as I understand it, Charles and Richard Brown of Ken Trotman have parted entirely amicably, and Charles is continuing to do works for Dave Ryan at Caliver, as he did before. His latest work on the Seven Years War is not part of the WIH series.
Mollinary
thanks for the info. Glad to hear Koniggratz is still on track.
mollinary,
Thanks for the clarification. Is the Koniggratz book still on track to appear later in 2016?
That is what we are hoping for, but cannot be more precise, at present, I am afraid.
Mollinary
Although I intend to fight the battle as a whole using BBB, I'd also like to fight sections of it at a lower level using FOB2.
Well the book will contain four scenarios covering sections of the battle, and a double scale BBB refight of the whole engagement. So there should be something in it for you! :D
Mollinary
Oh yes - rubs hands in glee. =D>
To do any of the scenarios you need to stop rubbing your hands in glee and get painting, for the segments of the battle generally need two Austrian Corps and 2 or three Prussian divisions,, let's say 8 Austrian Brigades and six Prussian Brigades, 100 battalions in round terms. We should be buying shares in Pendraken!
What if you've got regiment bases like mine?
Use the maps and information and fight with rules other than regimental F&F.
Leman is right. Scenarios set up for any specific set of rules, should be transferable to any other, as long as you have the basic information. That is, ground scale, timings, troops numbers, and organisation down to the smallest tactical unit. Here, we give strengths for battalions, which allows those who play at a regimental level to amalgamate three battalions together to get a unit.
Mollinary
I think we must confess that we are still writing it so the book won't be out at Salute, but that said, the writing is now progressing and there is a fair chance that it will be out in time for the 150th Anniversary in July. The delay will also allow Pendraken to produce the long anticipated Band which will make several cameo appearances in the photos.
A band holdfast? Mmm interesting.
Like this one - Trautenau.
Excellent, I am modelling my Austrian corps on the Xth so have to factoring in a band or two!
Any updates in relation to the availability?? 8)
Rejoice. It is written. The maps are in, as are the situation sketches, the action photos and the Orders of Battle. The cover is done. I am putting it all into InDesign so that, after my InDesign mentor gives it the last going over, it can go to the printers in the next 3 weeks.
Meanwhile Mollinary, who is my co-author, is about to give it a last scrub for typos. Richard Browne the publisher (Ken Trotman) will get as many printed as are ordered so you may wish to think about ordering. When we did Vol 8 I recall a 6 month gap between the first print run and the second.
Good news John, I'll order my copy today.
.... or not, he's closed for the new year and isn't sure what day he is reopening but probably the first week in January !
Drat... I was hoping for one for Xmas, and if not would get after but mebbe not!
Lets hope "sometime in January" is quick enough to re-open to get on the list for printing...
I was talking to him and he was intending to do a print run to cover all orders plus a few more, but not a huge number more.
Righto, fingers and toes crossed then!
Edit:
Well, it accepted my order for a copy, so fingers crossed no one placed an order me for Xmas :D
What accepted your order ? Is it possible to do this online ?
Quote from: cameronian on 22 December 2016, 04:08:01 PM
What accepted your order ? Is it possible to do this online ?
Go to http://kentrotman.co.uk/new/wargaming-in-history-volume-12-koniggratz/ (http://kentrotman.co.uk/new/wargaming-in-history-volume-12-koniggratz/) & buy now.
I went for PayPal, but you can pay by card as well!
Thanks for the info.
Do I suspect a sudden flurry of orders is about to hit him!
Hope he can get them printed...
Well, here's hoping he's anticipated demand correctly. PS are those turkeys getting in line to vote for Christmas? :o
My user icon?
That's two of our chooks, both now sadly not with us!
Ordered online, waiting expectantly.
Update from Trotman, end January now, sure it will be worth waiting for.
Oh yes, meant to post that! Got the email to say delayed in print setting, but at least it looks like we've got a copy on the way, eh :D
I also received the message about the delay and an indication it would be available early February.
Print setting completed at 2pm today. Over to the printer. I think an emoticon and soda is called for. :)
:D
Well I'm really looking forward to it, especially as Koniggratz was one of the first war games books that was ever given to me, by my dad about 1970.
Brilliant :)
Quote from: Leman on 15 January 2017, 07:29:42 PM
Well I'm really looking forward to it, especially as Koniggratz was one of the first war games books that was ever given to me, by my dad about 1970.
Interesting, do you happen to remember which book it was? Do you perhaps still have it? I cannot recall ever having seen another war gaming book covering this battle, and would be fascinated to track down a copy, if only to mark how the war gaming world has changed in the intervening decades!
Mollinary
Was it one of Knight's Battles for Wargames series? I think that was what they were called.
Hi Chad,
That was my immediate thought as well. I Googled it, and came up with the series, but it only listed nine titles, and Koniggratz was not among them. The mystery remains!
Mollinary
Quote from: mollinary on 16 January 2017, 09:19:39 AM
Hi Chad,
That was my immediate thought as well. I Googled it, and came up with the series, but it only listed nine titles, and Koniggratz was not among them. The mystery remains!
Mollinary
Sorry to have confused everyone. It wasn't specifically for wargamers but it went into my war games library. It was Gordon Craig's book, later to be joined by Michael Howard's Franco-Prussian War. I still have both books.
No apology necessary, I was just intrigued. Craig is certainly an inspiring work (still) and I too read Howard's FPW at a tender age, but only from the library. I do now have an original hard copy, picked up at a show a few years back.
Mollinary
Quote from: mollinary on 16 January 2017, 04:34:48 PM
No apology necessary, I was just intrigued. Craig is certainly an inspiring work (still) and I too read Howard's FPW at a tender age, but only from the library. I do now have an original hard copy, picked up at a show a few years back.
Mollinary
So did I ... then I dropped it in the bath :'(
Aaaarrgh!!!! :'(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5xH1YELizY
Many thanks to Mollinary for this excellent link.
Excellent video. Well presented and extremely instructive. 10/10 👍
Thanks for putting that up, Cam. I thought it was a pretty good summary, and it was interesting to see someone, albeit not in battle conditions, actually trying to fire the Dreyse and Lorenz at speed.
Mollinary
Very useful video. Many thanks.
Nice 'touristy' video of my favourite small city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID_euOwJ6JE
Interesting short series of videos by Fred Christensen on various 1866 topics. The narrative is unlikely to shed any additional light but the filming is quite good and gives a good idea of the terrain fought over for those not fortunate to have visited yet. Koniggratz is dealt with in 2 sections, click on 'Fred Christensen' to see all his stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hC9-WpjBJk
Ooo, I must remember that for painting to later, assuming the other half has gone to bed and the TV is mine by then :D
Also 5 Battles in Bohemia, a resume of the frontier battles, again not anything new but lots of good film of terrain.
Richard Brown at Ken Trotman has told be today that he is collecting Wargaming in History Vol 12 Koniggratz 1866. So it will be at Salute as we had all hoped.
Superb - I must ready the PayPal account :)
Hurrah
The book was on sale at Salute yesterday and the first 50 copies flew off the shelves. Several people were lucky enough to meet the authors, who graciously autographed copies.
Having pre-ordered I presume a payment will be taken from my account and the book posted without any prompting of the publishers on my part ... or would a prompt be wise ?
I emailed them on the weekend, got back a "we're sorting the pre-orders out first thing this week". The books arrived last thing on the Thursday so they didn't have time to do anything more than "load onto van" for Salute, apparently. You (we) should get a PayPal invoice in the next day or two :)
Well that is one invoice I am looking forward to.
Not something you often hear said, is it :D
Me too!
Got a very nice email from Richard at KT books, will be going out this week. Also, a new book on Koniggratz has appeared, no idea of quality as yet but ordered it anyway, here -
https://wordery.com/the-battle-of-koniggratz-in-1866-patrick-joseph-shrier-9781519790866?currency=GBP>rck=TEJZNm03VGY0ckNXM0ZZcFhkOXc3V1E5YTJRK2Z2c1ZVVGZKeFdtblg3OFo0dG5vc3U0eFdJcGRVOUo5TStBbTRTdG1KRWlCSlQ5b3pWZzJxQ3BzeHc9PQ&gclid=CPvB7bDuvNMCFRIz0wod3akE2A
I'll put a review up here in a week or so.
Less than a tenner incl. postage? Looks good... now, do I wait for your review or just take the plunge :D
I did.
I'd wait. The Trotman book will be as good as the first therefore a guaranteed good buy, this might be a sub Wawro turkey, I'll let you know - BTW, Wawro's latest book is on the demise of the AH Empire and he narrates it himself, absolutely awful !
That good!
Worse.
Can you listen to it in the style of "Plan 9 from Outerspace"? Worth a good laugh that way, treat it as a comedy so awful it's funny?!
No. For one I generally can't stand Americans narrating anything with the exception of Kerry Shale doing Bill Bryson or anybody doing the Ken Burns ACW documentary. Wawro isn't either, also, even in the short sample on the website, his rancour and disdain for all things KuK is apparent, no this is one turkey I won't be stuffing this year !
Two one star reviews ! Not looking good -
By Michelle on March 13, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition
Unreadable
By Amazon Customer on November 15, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
I don't expect a history offering to be a masters thesis, cost about $6 and given no warning its description about its origin. this is simply duplicity.
I think I've just wasted £5
Flicking through reviews of a few of his books at Amazon. They're a little... mixed... at best!
The Trotman book arrived yesterday, very nice indeed, reading for the weekend methinks. The Joseph Shrier 'Koniggratz' arrived also, as expected, very lightweight, nothing new and what is is highly contentious (wrong).
Yes, I must say the Wargaming in History is good - very nicely put together and great looking games, very handy from a wargaming PoV.
The Shrier book is an expansion of a MA dissertation/thesis (not sure which at that level). The first half of its 140 pages is about the development, weapons and tactics of the Prussian army in the C19th, including the military doctrine of auftragtaktik. The second half is brief descriptions of the various actions in Bohemia during the Seven Weeks War. The basic contention is that the needle gun contributed to the Prussian victory, but was no war winner on its own. Rather of more importance was the Prussian General Staff, military doctrine, and the resulting ease of manouevre of the Prussian army, vis-a-vis the Austrians. All very interesting, but not a single map and so far no mention whatsoever of Austrian Stosstaktik!
Shrier book very poor - sorry. Just reading 'Moltke and the German wars, 1864 - 1871' by Arden Bucholz, he's talking about the battlefield of Trautenau, quote: 'Nowhere was it favourable for the actions of cavalry or artillery'. FFS, first Wawro tells us that the Jicin field was a 'plain' now Bucholz tells us that Trutnov was unsuitable for cavalry or artillery, what is wrong with these people !
I wasn't there at the time, nor have I physically walked either now, bit a cursory glance at the map let alone reason any description of the actions suggests they're doing some radical descriptions there that overturn what we know of physical geography. Perhaps they should go into experimental physics and find dark matter or cold fusion :D
I have been to Trautenau several times and have seen where the cavalry and artillery fought. Both sorts of locations are not ideal. Which is why commanders look at the ground and decide how to get the maximum advantage from it. Which they did at the time, being trained professionals. It is certainly true that there were not very good positions for the Prussian artillery as the Prussian Infantry columns filed through Trautenau, which might have got the Prussians thinking about putting flank protection out.
From the comments there I'm assuming said authors use "unsuitable" as a synonym for "impossible", not "mildly awkward" :D
Like Holdfast, I have visited and walked the Trautenau field many times. The Bucholz account is obviously written from the Prussian viewpoint. As far as cavalry action is concerned, there is ground to the south west of town (curiously where the cavalry action took place!) that gives some scope, but neither side could deploy much more than a regiment. As far as artillery was concerned, the Austrians, coming up from the south, found a number of useful positions for their guns on the heights south of town, easily reached from the road up which they advanced. The Prussians had to contend with the bottleneck of the bridges, the crowded town streets, and the steep slopes up from the town to the positions that they tried to defend. These are a hard walk today on tarmaced tracks, they would have been impossible for gunteams in 1866. So Bucholz is probably correct from the Prussian point of view, but rather underestimates the suitability of the ground from the Austrian point of view.
Mollinary
Ditto the above though I think the Prussians managed to wrangle two batteries onto the Galgenberg by 15.30 albeit briefly. From an Austrian perspective I think Trutnov provides excellent ground for artillery, Col Eisler certainly thought so. Anyway I'm learning lots, Skalitz pitched 14,000 Austrians against 70,000 Prussians apparently ... Austrian casualties amounted to 33% ... 1866 is known as 'the captain's war' (really?) etc etc oh flip why do I buy this crap, suckered every time >:(
Oh, not sounding good.
It's an academic treatise on Moltke and his methods of war, not a history of 1866 so I can forgive him a bit but I do wish they's do their research a little bit more thoroughly that's all. For all that its quite well written.
Problem is, if too much of the detail is a bit skewiff then you start to wonder at the overall picture...
Indeed.
Finished 'Moltke and the German wars, 1864 - 1871' by Arden Bucholz - through gritted teeth. I see a pattern emerging, rotten American authors citing each others work to produce more and more rubbish. BTW the retreat from Koniggratz was chaotic because Benedek didn't throw any pontoons across the Elbe, oh my sainted aunt :o
Huzzah! my copy has arrived.
Superb - what do you think, first impressions?
I think it is going to be pretty inspirational reading, with all the photos and maps. Got stuck into it straightaway. Won't be able to use the rules as written, as some of the units are enormous, e.g. 12 base Saxon infantry units. I am likely to follow this up with Trapped Like a Fox and also use BBB. However I am currently back on FPW having discovered that the old 10mm Wargames South figures have been re-released by Red Eagle.
I have a grand ambition to run Trapped Like a Fox, fighting any large scale battles with BBB as well :)
The Wargaming in History's keep that floating up the queue as they're lovely books!
You never know we might make it to the FPW some time...
Thank goodness someone has got round to reading it. Cameronian has had it for ages but all he seems to do is fondle it.
It's been bed time reading/eye candy since I got it :)
It's bedtime reading for me too. I only got it yesterday, on return from holiday, but am about to find out all about the much maligned Benedek.
Give him a Corps (or reduce the army to a corps!) and he seems quite happy and not paralysed?
With a bit more time and an effective staff and less Hobbing with the Nobs (and a whole slew of other changes :D) and it could all be different :D
The Prussians get beaten, the militarists ousted, north Germany goes social democrat in small states much like the Scandawegians; the Hapsburgs reclaim some territory and look a bit less shaken. The Franco-Austrian War sees the Empire fracture instead, then clatter back together, sort of, and a First World War eventually breaks out between France and Britain over French interference in the north German statelets when Hanoverian "Black Hand" nationalists bomb the Bavarian crown prince and the French cross the border to retaliate, and stop the Austrians from annexing them.
Or something :D
Quote from: holdfast on 08 June 2017, 08:14:57 PM
Thank goodness someone has got round to reading it. Cameronian has had it for ages but all he seems to do is fondle it.
Its in the pile, first impressions are very good - but I wouldn't expect anything less.
Not sure if I've posted this already, its from TMP, 1860, just before unveiling of statue to AD Charles. Lots to see but can anyone spot any Jaeger officers ?
http://library.brown.edu/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://library.brown.edu/adore-djatoka/jp2/1277906258187500.jp2&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=6&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=
http://www.soalitomerice.cz/slovnik/slovnik.php?search=&within%5B2%5D=obec_de&obec=0&obec_de=2035&ou92=0&o92=0&o30=0&so30=0&fu=0&p=0&po=0
For anyone trying to marry German with Czech village names, brilliant resource, all but the really tiny hamlets.
Quote from: cameronian on 25 July 2017, 04:06:17 PM
Not sure if I've posted this already, its from TMP, 1860, just before unveiling of statue to AD Charles. Lots to see but can anyone spot any Jaeger officers ?
http://library.brown.edu/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://library.brown.edu/adore-djatoka/jp2/1277906258187500.jp2&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=6&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=
Yes, I enlarged the picture and spotted a couple of them over to the right. The plumes and darker jackets were the giveaway.
Bit like 'Where's Wally' really.
"Vere ist Valter?"
Over in Alsace-Lorraine making sure France is forever part of Germany!
Man walks down street in Glasgow, sees man coming towards him carrying long stick ...
'Are you a pole vaulter?'
'No I'm German and how did you know my name iz Valter'.
*boom~tisch*
Thank you, thank you, he's here all week!
Tip the veal, try your waitress!
NOBBY !
Coat time.
Cheers - Phil
Mr Cameronian. Please would you let these burly gentlemen escort you into that dark alley where you will find your coat?
http://mapire.eu/en/map/firstsurvey/?layers=osm%2C1%2C73&bbox=1612247.799351683%2C6537191.022945242%2C1734547.0446079648%2C6590161.883546868
Not sure if this has been put up before, huge and incredibly detailed 18th century map of 'Habsburgia' its possible to zoom right down to villages, very useful for finding out German names of hamlets now named in Czech
19th century
http://mapire.eu/en/map/hkf_75e/?layers=osm%2C8&bbox=1677764.106974012%2C6552431.679275802%2C1685407.8098025296%2C6555742.358063404
Yes, that's an excellent site!
I've always had half a mind to see I could scrape the images at a usable scale and get them printed onto a PVC banner for an authentic "map game" experience with BBB :D
Wow, what an amazing amount of detail. Things I noted are:
- In the first map, the hills shown seem to have little semblance to the actual topography of the area. This is based upon looking at Linz and its environs. Mind you given the wooded nature of a lot of the hills, they still give a good guide to the area.
- How the Danube meandered all over the place, with many, many islands in mid-stream. How it has changed with modern drainage etc.