What are you currently reading ?

[kustenjaeger]

Greetings

Just starting 'Sitio y Defensa de Oviedo' about the siege of Oviedo in northern Spain Juky-October 1936. Published in February 1938 and written by a captain in the Assault Guards. Only just started it - and it will be slow as my Spanish is patchy at best - and obviously a product of its time and of the Nationalist cause.   

I bought it from abebooks primarily because my son is now living in Oviedo (for the second time) so we are likely to visit it again next year and it is not easy to find material in English in any detail on operations in Asturias. 

Regards

Edward

[Leman]

Child of Vengeance by ? Kirk (book upstairs). Bit of Samurai action, but also a lot of introspection and a bit of Buddhism thrown in for good measure. The Author lives and works in Japan.

[FierceKitty]

Child of Vengeance by Kirk.... a bit of Buddhism thrown in for good measure.

Gekkukujo is a dish best served cold.

[Leman]

Is that a type of lizard stew?

[FierceKitty]

A real Klingon warrior doesn't stew his lizards. He trains them to defend themselves with beam weapons so that he has a 40% chance of being eaten by his own dinner!

[Leman]

Thought I'd throw in another three'appence about Tin Soldiers in Action. Caliver have gone to a great deal of trouble to produce a high quality hard back book which, like Black Powder et al, acts as a rules tool box, but for use with squares (6"/15cm seems to be the norm). Now I think it will give a pretty good game and should work well for solo play, but there is one big issue which needs to be tackled. The rulebook is produced in England by an English company (Caliver), but the authors are two German brothers and presumably there was originally a German version produced. This English version appears to be a literal translation from the German and consequently lacks English idiom, making it a tricky read in a number of places because the translation renders the meaning a little obscure. Some examples:

'The number of tin soldiers per square and the historical frontage of historical units have to correspond, if they are to reflect the historical realities and therefore is this not an advice but a strict rule.'  There is no question mark so I assume 'this is not advice but a strict rule.' There are a number of ambiguities like this.

'The Austrians continued to issue the rifle during the Wars of Unification, but it was quickly declassed by the breech-loading needle-gun, the standard weapon of the Prussian army, which prevailed on the battlefield. Repeating weapons, as the Winchester, conquered the Wild West, while in Europe the procurement of repeating rifles remained contested.' I know what is being said, but no British book would have it written that way.

[Terry37]

Started "Line of Departure", by G. Michael Hopf. Fourth book in his series The New World. He's an excellent author and really knows how to tell a story.

Terry

[kipt]

Finished "The Dragoon's Teeth" by Major General JFC Fuller, 1932.  This is another "Philosophical" book by Fuller, rather than strictly military.  He expounds on many items on the time after WWI (The Great War at that time), the League of Nations (he has no use for), the future of war (civilian guerrillas in their motor cars), an admiration of Russia for their energy in changing things.

Hard for me to finish but I did.  Not recommended.

[T13A]

Hi

Just finished Andrew Uffindell's 'Napoleon 1814 The Defence of France'.

Very disappointed by this book, only about half of it is a narrative of the campaign itself and the major battles only take up a page or two at the most. A couple of short chapters analyze the campaign and the rest of the book is taken up with chapters such as 'Occupation', The Propaganda War', 'Population displacements and prisoners of war' and 'Reconstruction'. All of which I think could have been covered by a couple of paragraphs each.

As in the last review by kipt, hard to finish and not recommended.

Cheers Paul

[cameronian]

Thought I'd throw in another three'appence about Tin Soldiers in Action. Caliver have gone to a great deal of trouble to produce a high quality hard back book which, like Black Powder et al, acts as a rules tool box, but for use with squares (6"/15cm seems to be the norm). Now I think it will give a pretty good game and should work well for solo play, but there is one big issue which needs to be tackled. The rulebook is produced in England by an English company (Caliver), but the authors are two German brothers and presumably there was originally a German version produced. This English version appears to be a literal translation from the German and consequently lacks English idiom, making it a tricky read in a number of places because the translation renders the meaning a little obscure. Some examples:

'The number of tin soldiers per square and the historical frontage of historical units have to correspond, if they are to reflect the historical realities and therefore is this not an advice but a strict rule.'  There is no question mark so I assume 'this is not advice but a strict rule.' There are a number of ambiguities like this.

'The Austrians continued to issue the rifle during the Wars of Unification, but it was quickly declassed by the breech-loading needle-gun, the standard weapon of the Prussian army, which prevailed on the battlefield. Repeating weapons, as the Winchester, conquered the Wild West, while in Europe the procurement of repeating rifles remained contested.' I know what is being said, but no British book would have it written that way.

Unfairly you are criticising book the, meaning is the apparent surely.

[paulr]

Well played sir

[skywalker]

A bit off the wargaming thread but a jolly good read.

"What Does This Button Do?"  by Bruce Dickinson (The voice of Iron Maiden) and a retired wargamer   

[Leman]

I thought he did antiques.

[Steve J]

Bolt Action's Campaign Sealion book. Bought as a bit of retail therapy after 'one of those days' during the week. As you'd expect from Osprey, it's beautifully produced and with lots of nice pics. So the main aim of it is to use it for ideas for small scale skirmish games, either set during 'Sealion' or the AVBCW.

[kipt]

Finished "Generalship: Its Diseases and Their Cure; A Study of the Personal Factor In Command" by JFC Fuller, 1932.

This book was delightful after slogging through Fuller's "psyc" type books. A short book with 6 chapters:
Generalship in the World War,
The Essentials of Generalship,
Examples of the Personal Factor,
The Diseases Diagnosed,
The Remedies Suggested,
Conclusion,

and an Appendix, The ages of 100 Generals.

Main theme is personal, up front leadership (not management) by commanders.