Historical recaps?

[nimblebooks]

Where can I find some concise and entertaining histories of the battles in the scenarios? I know nothing about them and some context would be helpful.

[rbodleyscott]

Where can I find some concise and entertaining histories of the battles in the scenarios? I know nothing about them and some context would be helpful.

Hmm, not sure about concise and entertaining!

If you want comprehensive:

For the TYW you could try:

Battles of the Thirty Years' War: From White Mountain to Nordlingen, 1618-1635 (Contributions in Sociology,) William P. Guthrie. (But don't believe him about Kurassiers and the Caracole).

The Later Thirty Years War: From the Battle of Wittstock to the Treaty of Westphalia (Contributions in Military Studies), William P. Guthrie

For the ECW you could try:

1) All the Kings Armies: A Military History of the English Civil War. Stuart Reid.
2) English Heritage Battlefield Reports on the various battles - these are on the net as .pdfs, are very good indeed and quote large sections of contemporary accounts.


For the Italian Wars you could try:

1) The Italian Wars 1494-1559. Michael Mallett and Christine Shaw.
2) A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century. Sir Charles Oman.

Oman is the most accessible and entertaining of these for individual battle descriptions, though he is a bit outdated.

There are of course, lots of other books on these subjects (well perhaps not that many about the Italian Wars).

At a pinch, the wikipedia accounts of some of the battles aren't bad.

[gavril]

Charles Oman's book is the one that got me interested in Renaissance warfare some 20 years ago, so I'd heartily second Richard's recommendation. It's a very absorbing and immersive read, although I believe some of Oman's conclusions have been superseded by more recent work.

[Hilarion]

We killed God at Magdeburg.

[fogman]

Each battle has been the subject of very detailed studies. The question is whether you can get it and whether you can read foreign languages. I used French Swiss sources for Novara, Spanish source for Seminara and an Italian one an upcoming Ravenna for FoG.

[Hoplite1963]

For a good worldwide and quite up to date overview of the period covered by the game "Firearms: A Global History to 1700" by Kenneth Chase would be a good place to start. Although it was first published over 30 years ago "Renaissance Armies, 1480-1650" by George Gush is also still worth getting hold of 2nd hand. This was first published as a series of articles in "Airfix Magazine" (yes I know this really shows my age) in the 1970's and was what first got me interested in the period.

For warfare in Eastern & Northern Europe in the 16th & 16th Centaury The "Northern Wars: War, State and Society in North-eastern Europe, 1558 - 1721" by Robert I. Frost gives good details although its not cheep.

A good comparative study of the Ottoman, Safavid & Mughal empires in the period is "Islamic Gunpowder Empires (Essays in world history)" by Douglas E. Streusand. This covers much more than just the military history but there is enough of this to make it well worth the quite reasonable price. One of the strengths of the book is that it talks about some of the more recent historical scholarship on the period and some of the ways this has changed understanding of what was going on.

Finally for a really detailed military history of India during the 16th & 17th Centuries. "A Military History of Medieval India", by Major General Gurcharn Singh Sandhu,(the former commander of the Indian Armies' Armoured Corps) is very comprehensive with deployment maps and orders of battle for many of the major clashes. (although its difficult to get hold of) Richard you might need this one for a South Asian module ?

Enjoy
Ian

[Neoberger]

Richard. Why you wrote:
William P. Guthrie. (But don't believe him about Kurassiers and the Caracole).
He gaves the only explanation of how it worked caracole in the late period of its existence.
His explanation only explains possibility 7 charges of Papenheim cavalry at the Battle of Breitenfeld.

By the way. Oman is quite unreliable military historian.

[rbodleyscott]

Richard. Why you wrote:
William P. Guthrie. (But don't believe him about Kurassiers and the Caracole).
He gaves the only explanation of how it worked caracole in the late period of its existence.
His explanation only explains possibility 7 charges of Papenheim cavalry at the Battle of Breitenfeld.

We are perhaps talking at crossed purposes. I am talking about the ponderous 16th century rolling caracole manoeuvre which was primarily an anti-infantry tactic, not about a tentative "charge" in close deep (10 ranks) formation at the trot with discharge of pistols at point blank range - which would not necessarily actually go into melee contact with the enemy if the enemy did not flinch. However, the intention was to go into contact (even if this did not always actually happen), rather than to shoot it out at a distance like Harquebusiers.

And even medieval knights with lances are recorded as charging 7 times in some battles.

(In fact, perhaps it's a trope)

By the way. Oman is quite unreliable military historian.

Yes, that is why I said he is out-dated.

[nimblebooks]

I put this together using PageKicker, a "robot authoring" service.

http://www.pagekicker.com/index.php/thi ... s-war.html

Would appreciate if it someone could try to download it and report on success. You need to add to cart, checkout, then download in ~20 min when it's ready.

It's in epub format -- you can read using ebook software or a Chrome extension like Readium. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... l?hl=en-US