What are you currently reading ?

Started by goat major, 03 November 2012, 06:40:05 PM

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kipt

Finished volume 84, No. 2 of "The Journal of Military History".  Published 4 times per year.

Articles include:
There Will Still Remain Heroes and Patriots: The Politics of Resignation in the Early American Navy, 1794-1815,
Ingenuity, Excess, Incompetence, and Luck: Air-Resupply Anecdotes in Military History
(side note - the Spanish dropped basket laden turkeys over cut off troops in the SCW; picture the turkeys madly flapping their wings...)
Rescuing a General: General Haywood "Possum" Hansell and the Burden of Command

Others plus many book reviews also.

kipt

Finished "Gettysburg: An Alternate History" by Peter Tsouras.  This book is great for the combat and what ifs.  Seems more in depth than other alternate history I have read and captures ACW combat as I think it happened.

Alternate history, but the South does not win.  Stuart arrives a day early which enables Lee to listen to Longstreet about maneuvering around the Union left flank.  Lots of interesting tie-ins to actual historical statements.

Extremely well done and recommended for ACW aficionados.  I am madly painting ACW troops for Regimental Fire and Fury so this whets the appetite.

steve_holmes_11

Finished with all the computer textbooks, now reading:

The Infantry Attacks - Erwin Rommel.


So far, an excellent read, well presented, and very accessible.
Quite a contrast to other stuff I've read by German authors that tends to be quite heavy going.
I don't know whether that's a problem for the authors or translators.

Chad

Just started 'Neither Up Nor Down. The British Army and the Flanders Campaign 1793-95'
Long ignored period of history noe receiving increasing coverage.

Steve J

Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End wargames rules. They look to be good and simple but effective game mechanics. The only downside is there are som many very tempting army lists at the back of the book. Which ones to go for is the question!

kipt

Finished "Trafalgar: Napoleon's Naval Waterloo" by Rene Maine, translated by Rita Eldon and BW Robinson.  Printed 1957 but a good read.

Details the travels of Nelson and his Naples/Sicily sojourn. All in all well done from the French viewpoint.

(And I still haven't received my Bazaine.) :'(

steve_holmes_11

Quote from: Steve J on 19 September 2020, 08:31:22 PM
Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End wargames rules. They look to be good and simple but effective game mechanics. The only downside is there are som many very tempting army lists at the back of the book. Which ones to go for is the question!

There's another thread "Requests" I think  where I mentioned the rules.
The thread continues with interesting suggestions for 10mm figures for various armies.

After a lot of list Mangling, I found the world split into 3 main areas.
Europe (A bit dotted about with elements of the British Isles and Lands to the East of Germany.
Americas (A very comprehensive set of lists).
The Rest (Known as the Portuguese Hemisphere during the age of exploration).

You can spend many long hours enjoying the lists.
A handy tip is to either select an area that interests you, then investigate the native forces and the likely colonists).
Otherwise pick a colonial power, and sift through their likely colonial targets.

My own area of interest is the Indian Ocean in the 16th century.
It includes South and East Africans, Egyption Ottomans, Arabs, Persians, Al the Indians and East Indies).
The colonists are the Portuguese and Dutch.

PLenty to keep you busy.


Steve J

Thanks for the info Steve. Currently looking at Elizabethan English, which gives me options for Plantation conflicts or fighting against Reivers etc. They can then also explore West Africa which gives me a chance to have a game or two in Nigeria, where I used to live.

Ithoriel

Now finished "Hellenistic And Roman Naval Warfare 336 BC - 31 BC."

If you are interested in naval warfare and naval strategy in the period, I recommend it as an excellent, readable, comprehensive account.

If you want details of boat-building and tactics (beyond ram vs board) this is not the book you are looking for, move along. :)

Just started "EARLY SHIPS AND SEAFARING: Water Transport Beyond Europe" which feels more detailed and more scholarly. I now know when to sail to and return from the Land of Punt if I'm an Egyptian trader in the last two or three millennia BCE and why that matters.  :)
There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

DaveH

Sun Tzu The Art of War - Samuel Griffith translation. Very interesting to finally read this even though it has been sat on my shelf for ages.

steve_holmes_11

Quote from: Steve J on 20 September 2020, 01:20:33 PM
Thanks for the info Steve. Currently looking at Elizabethan English, which gives me options for Plantation conflicts or fighting against Reivers etc. They can then also explore West Africa which gives me a chance to have a game or two in Nigeria, where I used to live.

The English Adventurers are rather different to the British Isles armies, but an interesting option.

Maybe you can advise me on matters West African.
The Songhai list seems to be the closest match for the West African Savannah kingdoms.
Is there any equivalent for coastal West Africa, or would they fall under Tribal African?

Thanks

Steve J

I would have thought Tribal african would cover large parts of the coastal regions. Certainly the terrain is not cavalry friendly away from the savannah regions. From memory the Islamic 'crusade' was stopped at Offa in Nigeria, but need to do more research on this. Also not sure when and how long the Kingdom of Benin lasted.

DaveH

Quote from: Steve J on 19 September 2020, 08:31:22 PM
Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End wargames rules. They look to be good and simple but effective game mechanics. The only downside is there are som many very tempting army lists at the back of the book. Which ones to go for is the question!

I am tempted by them as I have a load of Sengoku period Japanese in 15mm that I was going to put on 30mm square bases so I would have two armies that fitted it for period and basing.

fred.

Quote from: DaveH on 21 September 2020, 02:38:48 PM
I am tempted by them as I have a load of Sengoku period Japanese in 15mm that I was going to put on 30mm square bases so I would have two armies that fitted it for period and basing.

Well worth getting - we've played a few games with my Pendraken Sengoku Japanese
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steve_holmes_11

Quote from: Steve J on 21 September 2020, 11:15:13 AM
I would have thought Tribal african would cover large parts of the coastal regions. Certainly the terrain is not cavalry friendly away from the savannah regions. From memory the Islamic 'crusade' was stopped at Offa in Nigeria, but need to do more research on this. Also not sure when and how long the Kingdom of Benin lasted.

That seems pretty sensible.
Tribal Africa is fairly flexible, with room for plenty of scount, warrior heavy, a few shooters and some european allies.
The savannah south of the Sahara isn't my field at all, but I have the impression that there were a series of large "Horse Kingdoms", one following the other.

Irregular wars talks of the Berbers eventually overcoming the Songhai (Who themselves were a bit west of Nigeria).

Thankfully the lists and rules are fairly flexible.

steve_holmes_11

Quote from: DaveH on 21 September 2020, 02:38:48 PM
I am tempted by them as I have a load of Sengoku period Japanese in 15mm that I was going to put on 30mm square bases so I would have two armies that fitted it for period and basing.

I've "measured up" and figured that my table is good for up to 40mm bases.
I then started thinking about "mass effect" bases.

30mm square would pack in up to double the recommended figure numbers.

With 40mm square the ranges and movement felt rather easier to manage, and triple the recommended figure count, with a little space to spare.

Bear in mind the need to maintain a casualty count.
Either a token behind the base, or a mini die on the base.

fred.

For figures with 10mm on 40mm square bases, I go with numbers based around the resolve value of the unit. This is to give a good visual look, rather than any specific figure to man ratio
So resolve 3 - around 8 figures (skirmishing and shooters)
Resolve 4 - 12 figures
Resolve 5 - 16 figures (tends to be pike blocks)

These are guide numbers, not hard and fast, dependant on poses and what I have to hand!

For cavalry its pretty much the resolve as number of figures.

Leaving a little space on the back of the base for a casualty dice is a good idea - I sometimes use the dice frames available from Pendraken, but less so on normal infantry units where they take up quite a lot of a 40mm base.
2011 Painting Competition - 1 x Winner!
2012 Painting Competition - 2 x Runner-Up
2016 Painting Competition - 1 x Runner-Up!
2017 Paint-Off - 3 x Winner!

My wife's creations: Jewellery and decorations with sparkle and shine at http://www.Etsy.com/uk/shop/ISCHIOCrafts

T13A

Hi

Just finished James Holland's 'Sicily 43'. Excellent read but slightly spoiled for me by some basic mistakes such as referring to '1st Airborne Brigade ' (no such unit existed) and (British) 2nd Parachute Brigade (which did exist) when he really means 1st Parachute Brigade (the later case several times in the book). I know I'm being 'picky' but I really like James Holland and I'm surprised by these errors as he certainly knows his stuff (I love the WWII podcast he does with Al Murray). Maybe he was in a rush to get the book out or a sign of shoddy editing?

Oh, and there is also a picture of a glider labeled a 'Horsa' when it is clearly an (American) Waco.

Still, recommended.

Cheers Paul

 
T13A Out!

Raider4

Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

Re-reading this after ~45 years - due to seeing a trailer for a TV show on one of the subscription channels (so I'm unlikely to ever see it).

Stands up quite well to me, for something written in the forties. There's an obvious fascination with atomic power (the new upcoming thing back then). The really odd thing - which is mentioned in the foreword - is that there's next to no actual action. It's nearly all meetings, with the characters talking about what has happened in the past, or what they plan to do in the future. Practically everything happens off-screen. There is only one female character in the whole thing, and she's a very, very minor character indeed. Completely male dominated.

It's also mercifully short at about 230 pages, compared to the multi-hundred page books more common nowadays.

Foundation and Empire up next.

hammurabi70

Quote from: Raider4 on 22 September 2020, 05:33:45 PM
Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

Re-reading this after ~45 years - due to seeing a trailer for a TV show on one of the subscription channels (so I'm unlikely to ever see it).

Stands up quite well to me, for something written in the forties. There's an obvious fascination with atomic power (the new upcoming thing back then). The really odd thing - which is mentioned in the foreword - is that there's next to no actual action. It's nearly all meetings, with the characters talking about what has happened in the past, or what they plan to do in the future. Practically everything happens off-screen. There is only one female character in the whole thing, and she's a very, very minor character indeed. Completely male dominated.

It's also mercifully short at about 230 pages, compared to the multi-hundred page books more common nowadays.

Foundation and Empire up next.

Interesting to learn that a TV series is in the offing.  It must be about 45 years since I read it and I wonder how will it will stand up to modern media handling; at least it will have a plot unlike so much these days.