In the library, col mustard with the……
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Books! An important part of the hobby and despite the marvellous literature provided by our hosts history is…..Well…big!
So open the doors to your libraries….what you got that we should all be reading?Today I expanded mine with some foreign literature…easy boys!
And as an aside this evenings entertainment comes courteous of bolt action top trumps!!! 😁Attachments:
Very good thread idea there.
As for your suggestions, I think it’s always well worth it going for literature which isn’t originally from the UK or the US.
Here’s some suggestions from me:
A while ago I got into Napoleonics. As we all know it’s a period which one can read about for decades and still only scratch the surface, simply because there’s so many sources, so much to know, so much detail. For getting into the going-ons of the French army I suggest “Swords around a Throne” by John Elting.
It’s a hefty tome, with each chapter covering another aspect of the French army of the time. From the marshalls over general officer stuff, the Guard, the cavalry, infantry, artillery, military police, supply, recruitment, training and so on up to Napoleon himself and how he travelled; it’s all there. Due to what the book covers of course it doesn’t go into detail about every little regiment and such, but for getting an overview and for deepening one’s understanding of the army of the time I think it’s hard to surpass this one. If you’re in any way interested in the Grande Armée I think it’s one of the first books to get.
Now for a longer-standing passion period of mine, the Thirty Years War.
I strongly suggest “Ars Bella Gerendi” by Eduard Wagner
a.k.a. “European Weapons and Warfare 1618 – 1648“. It’s not your jump-off point kind of literature on the period, but rather an illustrated guidebook about armies of the time. And this is where this volume shines – there’s a ton of illustrations in there, covering stuff like how cannons were made and transported, horse training, pike and musket drill, siege theory, all of that good stuff. It’s a great supplement to all the other books out there. We know a lot of how politics played out and where armies moved when, but, especially to wargamers, the way HOW armies were moved around is more interesting, along with all the ‘small stuff’ like how horses were fed and all of that helps getting a feel for warfare of the time.
Around last Christmas, I began to read second world war memoirs, so I read “The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby“, a firsthand account of fighting in Italy, by Alex Bowlby. The title is playing off of “The Recollections of Rifleman Harris“, a firsthand account of the Napoleonic Wars from the perspective of a british rifleman. I’d recommend that book too. I found “Rifleman Bowlby” interesting as the author focuses much more on how he felt or what he was thinking relative to events or actions, rather than simply describing the things around him as they happened.
Second is “Troop Leader,” by Bill Bellamy. It’s another second world war memoir, this time from a tanker’s perspective. After a dull yet somehow exciting journey trying to make it to his unit, the 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars (of the 7th Armoured Division), before the fighting there ended, Bellamy landed on D+3 commanding a Cromwell tank, ready to fight for his country. Spoiler alert! The allies (Bellamy included) broke out of Normandy, and Bellamy continued to fight in Operation Goodwin, the fighting for the low countries, and ultimately landing in Berlin for the victory parade, and staying post-war. This is one of my favorite books of all time, and it deals with a wide range of tragedy, heroism, bravery, and also it has some pretty funny moments (I’m not sadistic, I mean the pranks that men tend to play on each other, as well as things like brewing tea over the engines or various odd occurrences).
These books were both recommended by Nikolas Lloyd from the Lindybeige YouTube channel. Regrettably he does not apparently play Warlord games, or use Warlord’s models, but his channel is still excellent for conveying a wide variety of content. He also recommended “The Bloody Battle for Tilly“, “The Mailed Fist“, and “Tank!“
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