What are you currently reading ?

[Chad]

Re-reading 'Eagles over the Alps' Suvorov's campaign in Italy and Switzerland with a view to it being my next project.

[kipt]

Finished another Osprey, "British Destroyers 1939-1945" by Angus Konstam.  Typical with good pictures, illustrations, narrative on each type produced with stats.

Also a good description (if short) of the battle of Malacca Strait, May 1945.  It was the last significant surface action of WWII fought by the RN.

[KTravlos]

Finished "Oi tris tafes to Hasan Tahsin Pasha" (The Three Burials of Hasan Tahsin Pasha) by Chris Christodoulos. A bit of an apologia of Hasan Tahsin Pasha , the Ottoman commander defeated by the Greeks in 1912, and who had to surrender Thessaloniki/Selanik/Salonika to the Greeks. Still some interesting information. Especially pertinent how many of the protagonists of Greek and Turkish history of the era knew each other personally. My goal is to use it to write a article for the Foreign Correspondent on those operations.

[Steve J]

From Pike to Shot 1685 to 1720 by CS Grant.

I've been after this for a while and luckily a reasonably priced one appeared on Ebay recently. It arrived a few days ago and is another great WRG book which I'm happily skimming through, but paying particular attention to Monmouth's Rebellion and The Glorious Revolution period. Inspired by D-Guy's posts on his Monmouth's campaign, I aim to use my LoA forces to re-create this campaign or something loosely based upon it.

[kipt]

Finished "An Army of Brigadiers: British Brigade Commanders at the Battle of Arras 1917" by Trevor Harvey.  Good but dense book.

This is a book about 5 brigade commanders, their staffs and their battalions at Arras.  There is quite a bit of back history leading up to the events at Arras.

One brigadier has been selected from each of the 5 Corps involved in the battle; their backgrounds are one from civilian life and the remainder Regular army, one Canadian, two Scots, one Irish and one English, and the divisions their brigades were in were Regular, Territorial, New army and Dominion.

The emphasis is how they influenced their command.  They were more than a pass through of orders from above; they were busy training (lots of replacements after each combat), coordinating their battalions, and influencing the battle at their level, and sometimes more.

This has me thinking of how wargamers use commanders.  Most seem to have a circle of command, where units can act as required, and possibly a plus (or minus) to an individual unit action.  There are more and I want to start a list to see how others use a commander.

[KTravlos]

Finished P.J. Vatitikotis "Popular Autocracy in Greece 1926-1941: A Political Biography of General Ioannis Metaxas". It was an ok read, mostly a summary, translation from the geek sources. Indispensable because of the paucity of other english sources, but with some issues when it comes to structure. Recommended if you cannot read Greek.

[FierceKitty]

.... translation from the geek sources.

timeo geekaos et dona ferentes,

[Terry37]

I'm about a third of the way through Nicholas Smith's first book in the "Orb" series. A post-apocalyptic sci-fi work. I already enjoy his writing style and this series seems just as enjoyable as other of his books I've read.

Terry

[kipt]

Finished "Hans Delbruck & The German Military Establishment" by Arden Bucholz.

Delbruck, who wanted to teach, research and advance military history as a professor was essentially shunned by the tenured professors.  Equally he was not welcomed by the officer class.  The faculty said military history was not a subject to teach and the officers said that if wasn't a career officer he couldn't understand the profession.

He was, however, a reserve officer in the FPW.  He really was only accepted in his teachings after WWI, but that was also very controversial.  He blamed Ludendorf for the terms of surrender and totally was against the notion of the stab in the back (which was supported by the majority, but not all, of the military and interestingly by the academics).

A quote from the book: "All his life, Delbruck stood on the middle ground, with the military criticizing him as an outsider who presumed to read the law to the officer in their own domain, and university colleagues rejecting h the study of war as intellectually illegitimate.  Delbruck antagonized both officers and professors by departing from the dominant idealist tradition which his opponents, though differing in many other ways, were surprisingly united in upholding.  The Schlieffen School of strategy, created within the General Staff and the Prussian School of history, originated within the university, shared much common ground.  Both were rooted in German idealism and inspired by the forces of German nationalism.  In substantial measure, then, Delbruck belongs to the next generation of German and European scholarship."

[cameronian]

Finished "An Army of Brigadiers: British Brigade Commanders at the Battle of Arras 1917" by Trevor Harvey.  Good but dense book.

This is a book about 5 brigade commanders, their staffs and their battalions at Arras.  There is quite a bit of back history leading up to the events at Arras.

One brigadier has been selected from each of the 5 Corps involved in the battle; their backgrounds are one from civilian life and the remainder Regular army, one Canadian, two Scots, one Irish and one English, and the divisions their brigades were in were Regular, Territorial, New army and Dominion.

The emphasis is how they influenced their command.  They were more than a pass through of orders from above; they were busy training (lots of replacements after each combat), coordinating their battalions, and influencing the battle at their level, and sometimes more.

This has me thinking of how wargamers use commanders.  Most seem to have a circle of command, where units can act as required, and possibly a plus (or minus) to an individual unit action.  There are more and I want to start a list to see how others use a commander.

Field of Battle represents formation commander ability/lack of by rating them at the start of the battle. This rating has a significant effect on the formation.

[Chris Pringle]

This has me thinking of how wargamers use commanders.  Most seem to have a circle of command, where units can act as required, and possibly a plus (or minus) to an individual unit action.  There are more and I want to start a list to see how others use a commander.

Field of Battle represents formation commander ability/lack of by rating them at the start of the battle. This rating has a significant effect on the formation.

Take a look at the Altar of Freedom ruleset for ACW - it's all about the commanders' many and various strengths, weaknesses and idiosyncrasies.

Chris

Bloody Big BATTLES!
https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BBB_wargames/info
http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk

[Womble67]

I've just started reading Turning Point: Recollections of Russian Participants and Witnesses of the Stalingrad Battle

Take care

Andy

[Westmarcher]

Field of Battle represents formation commander ability/lack of by rating them at the start of the battle. This rating has a significant effect on the formation.

With FoB, and other rules, you may also choose to rate the commanders at the point they make their first move in the game using a random die throw to establish the rating - meaning the guy in charge of your elite flanking force and on which the successful outcome of the battle, could turn out to be a dud. 

I also recall that Shako (1st Ed.) also allowed order changes for French Commanders to be received immediately but not for Allied Commanders which take a full move before being received.

In The Pikeman's Lament (which I've only started reading/playing recently), each officer has certain traits. There are more than 2 dozen traits listed. These attributes can influence morale or movement or fighting. One of the traits (Brutal) automatically guarantees a Rally test success by shooting one of your own men!       

[Leman]

Fed up with reading wargames rules and military history, so now into my third consecutive Jack Reacher. The crawl through the mine in book two scared the bejesus out of me.

[paulr]

Fed up with reading wargames rules and military history, ...

What are the other symptoms of this affliction