What are you currently reading ?

[kipt]

Finished "Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany, The Franco-Prussian War of 1813, Vol 2, The Defeat of Napoleon" by Michael Leggiere.

A well written, long book that is very operational.  Gets very tactical when discussing Leipzig.

Some bothersome errors, such as the "Young Guard bearskins" and the "Austrian Guards".  These both surprised me from this author.

[SV52]

Germania - a personal history - Simon Winder

[kipt]

Finished volume 80, No. 1, January 2016, "the Journal of Military History".  Published 4 times per year, it has excellent articles on a variety of military subjects and extensive book reviews, the subjects of these often end up on my wants list.

Some of the articles are "Introduction. Ending War: Revisiting the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars", "The Silence of the Woods: The 1815 murder of a Prussian Soldier", "The Painful Demobilization of the Napoleonic Grande Armee's Officers", and a feature essay on "Artillery, Light and Heavy: Sardinia-Piedmont and Sweden in the Nineteenth Century".

[kipt]

Finished "Wargames Illustrated Paints, Your Complete Guide to Painting Wargames Miniatures".

I guess true if you do 54's, 40's or 25's, but I don't.  Good illustrations, but I did not learn anything I could use for my 10's and 6's.

Unlike most (?) of the forum, I do not do a wash on my figures, which is one of the last steps in the magazine.

[Malbork]

Germania - a personal history - Simon Winder

Really enjoyed his musings.  Have just started the "sequel" Danubia

[kipt]

Finished "Gettysburg Magazine", Issue 54.

Articles include "More Loss than Success": Nicholl's Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign,

"Show them Your Colors!": The 1st Delaware Volunteers and the Gettysburg Campaign,

and "Force-Structure Comparisons of the Armies at Gettysburg".

Comes out twice a year and always has interesting articles.

[kipt]

Finished "Custer's Trials; A Life on the Frontier of New America" by T.J. Stiles.

This book was a gift and I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did.

The ACW part is extremely well done and I found the post Civil war, Indian frontier portion just as fascinating.

Custer was a very driven, but talented, man.  He should have been killed at Five Forks at the end of the was, and his reputation would have been much better.

A very well written book and I learned quite a bit about the different Indian tribes/nations that I did not know.

[kipt]

Also just finished  the Smoothbore Ordnance Journal number 9, "Franco-Prussian and Krupp Artillery".

While it has some interesting history of the FPW, most of the booklet has specs for the different artillery.

Maddening typos, terrible translations and overall poor editing.

[Leman]

Picked up a copy of Twelve from the club pile - set in 1812 Russia, it looks like it could be a precursor of Lincoln - Vampire Hunter, as the Russians have just taken on a group of mysterious Wallachian mercenaries who insist on only fighting at night.

[kipt]

Finished "Marlborough's Other Army: The British Army and the Campaigns of the First Peninsular War, 1702-1712" by Nicholas Dorrell.

First, Marlborough had nothing to do with this army, so a title misnomer.  But, good OB's, generally with numbers of troops, for the allied (called Confederate) side of the war.  Nothing about the French/Spanish Bourbon army regarding OB's, which I would have liked.

Good uniform data on the Confederates where it is known.  And a good overview of the campaigns.

Overall I liked it but would have liked similar data on the Bourbon side - perhaps another book in this series (Century of the Soldier by Helion)?

[Hwiccee]

I am afraid that any book on this era is likely going to include the word 'Marlborough' in the title somewhere

On the Bourbon forces the main problem is the complete lack of information on them except for specific parts of the campaigns. Essentially the main battles - i.e. Almansa 1707 and the various battles of the 1710 campaign. Maybe there is buried somewhere in the French or more likely the Spanish archives more information on the armies more generally but as yet it hasn't been found. So I am afraid that a book generally on the Bourbon forces in Spain/Portugal is probably not imminent.

If you want details on the Bourbons in 1707 there are a number of sites, etc, covering Almansa including this - http://www.wfgamers.org.uk/resources/C18/almanza.htm. While the Bourbon armies involved in the 1710 campaign are detailed in this book - http://www.wfgamers.org.uk/resources/C18/MarlSpain.htm.

[fsn]

I read that book. Interesting, but as you say, a bit light on the Bourbons.

Smallish battles and without the big names this Peninsula campaign is quite game-able. 

[cameronian]

The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene - again.

[Leman]

There's quite a lot of contorted argument going on on the BBB Yahoo group site at present, so I am re-reading the BBB rules again. I put my three 'apence in and I hope I'm right otherwise the rules might suddenly become complex.

[FierceKitty]

The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene - again.

Not entirely a hijack; have you seen The Third Man ?