New Books on the American Revolutionary War, and beyond

 

This is from our long time book loving freind - a slew of great uniforms in this one, and more!

I got this one with our 1776Campaign in a Day event planned for 2027 in mind. 

Got this used copy for my Brandywine game planning ,and an excellent one it is!

The big sweep of events in a critical year; very engaging!

How the American victories at Trenton and Princeton came about. 

Well, those Brunswickers  aren't going to paint themselves, are they?

More details on the British army

A good overview of the most important campaigns of the American Revolutionary War

Another title from our freind

and another

and yet another!

Birthday Book Bash!

 

My fellow bibliophile friends presented me with several new books on the occasion of my birthday a while back. This is one II certainly didn't habe. It appears that opur halting Napoleonic Imaginations campaign is going to see a lot more seaside action, so it was good timing. 

Peaking of that, Joe has decried the Black Seas will be the rules of choice for such ships and engagements, so I picked up a pdf copy myself! I have at least 2 other sets of Napoleonic Age of Sail rules sets to try out, and even a few more ships that I can build. I need to retire so that I can play more!  :-)

A bit outside of my core interests, but you have to love the name, right?  :-)

Actually, I read quite a bit about Peter back in Middle school, when I was researching the history of the Russian Navy. 

This was unexpected. On first read thorough, it reminded me of a development of Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames... which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Another set to put on the table... some day! 

This is a bit of an odd one, although Napoleon was well known to be superstitious. And, of course, there was his usual question about an officer... "Is he Lucky?".

Down Styphon! - The saga of Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen concludes.

As regular readers will know, I am a huge fan of H bean Piper's 1966 novel, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. If you've never read it, find a copy somewhere, and read it, NOW!  It is irresistible stuff for a wargamer; I've put several Lord Kalvan battles on the table over the years.  Piper's other books, especially those related to "Little Fuzzy", are darned good too, but not likely to inspire wargamers to tabletop actions.  The copyright having expired, Lord Kalvan isnow  available as a free download (since 2016) from a number of sites. 

Sadly, Piper died by suicide not long after completing it, and before its publication, despondent about the abysmal situation of his finances; truly a great loss, as his works were just becoming popular and appreciated. His freind and fellow writer, John Carr, has undertaken to continue the Kalvan saga over the course of  7 novels, Down Styphon being the conclusion of the series. 

Map of the relevant portions of "Otherwhen". 

Without giving too much of the plot away, this book sees Kalvan, Rylla and company finally end the awful Gunpowder Theocracy of  Styphon's House, and the isolation of the time line from the Paratimers, thus ending our window on the saga of Kalvan and his world. I enjoyed it a lot, although pace of events seemed a bit rushed to me. Still we get sieges, naval battles, land actions and, as always, lots of intrigue; what's not to like? The hardcover book, like it's predecessors, is gorgeous but pricey; all of the books in the series are now available for digital download at a much more reasonable cost from John Carr's publishing company. Recommended! 

Birthday Loot!

I had another Birthday Monday, and made out well with hobby related loot!

This one has been on the watch list since the first volume covering the Danish Infantry came out a couple of years ago. Suffice it to say that Mr. Wilson has maintained the exceedingly high standard set with the first volume.  It is packed with details about the organization, uniforms, equipment, and standards of the Danish Cavalry, Artillery and support services. The detail is comprehensive, and illustrated by more than 60 original color plates by the author. Truly an amazing work, and sure to be the definitive source on the subject in any language. A third volume is planned, but what's left to cover?!  Well, the author states it will cover the Norwegian Army and the Danish militias and volunteers!  

The staff at the office went a bit over the top for Birthday recognition; this was the door to my workroom on Monday morning (I used have a spacious office, but I really didn't use it much at all, and with the growth of the office to 5 providers, it now houses 3 support staff instead!)

This one was highly recommended by freind and fellow blogger/Piquet enthusiast, Eric Burgess. Looks great!

The inside of my workroom, usually shared with the Medical student working with me; there's yet another banner attached to the desktop obscured by the chair. No student for another 2 weeks, as yesterday kicks off the start of the 3rd year for the University of Vermont medical school, but we did have a 1 hour Zoom reception for them at 5 PM, which was fun but got me home after 9 PM!

Another fellow blogger recommendation, this time by James Roach. Considering the paucity of information on this fascinating era, this was a must have! Hopefully further books covering the later years of the Great Italian Wars might follow? 

Old Glory and Newline figures for a major expansion of my small Ancient Indian army; had to match the Macedonian expansion, after all!  Enough for another 200 + figures, spread between foot, cavalry, chariots, and, of course, Elephants! 

This one was on sale at Old Glory, plus the Army Card Discount. With all the Chariot era armies I now have, I figures it was worth a look at more era specific rules, especially for under $10!

Kristie's dog, Annie, about age 7, in the "winner's circle" after earing several titles in Agility. There are a couple of great videos of her trials, but so far I haven't been able to figure out how to get them from the iphone format into one that can be used and posted here. 

Christmas 2020

Just as 2020 has been a year like no other, this was a Christmas like no other... held outside in Connecticut on December 24th (our family's traditional day for the celebration... presumably related to our German and Scandinavian origins). 

Seven days before we got 16" of snow dumped upon us... one of the largest snowstorms in December in state history! The 24th turned out to be exceptionally warm - high in the mid 50's, but cloudy and with a major rain and windstorm forecast for later in the afternoon. 

Although most of the family is continually inter-exposed due to caring for my 94 year old Mother in Law and our 2 grandsons, we still wanted to do it outside and as socially distanced as possible.  2 propane heaters and a fire table helped keep even the nonagenarian reasonably warm. The strong breeze certainly made for rapid dispersal of aerosols!  It didn't start to rain until about 3PM, and it was only drizzle for the first few hours. By evening it was heavy rain (3 inches total) and winds up to 60 mph, causing multiple power outages across the state and the region... but fortunately, not ours. Everyone was back home long before any of that became an issue. By Christmas morning, all the snow was gone!

Missing from the picture, the photographer, Dr. Kristie Anderson, seen here at work with one her youngest patients!

Youngest grandson, Oliver, age 3, with the new "chainsaw" he was given.... he didn't quite understand why the bush wasn't coming down, though! The older grandson, Owen (seated across from me in the prior picture), age 5, may just be ready for a simple wargame in a year or so. We'll see! 

The canine family members, out in the cold, and loving it!  Left to right Annie (7), Rory (12), Zoe (7), Maddie (2), and Brooke (2) (aka 'crazy girl").

 

There was some lead for me under the tree, courtesy of the Foundry sale. Above Peleset (Philistine) archers and command - Old Glory doesn't make either. This is enough to make 2 units of MI archers and one of LI archers. I plan to take advantage of the Newline Design sale next week to add oxcarts and maybe a few more foot, some light chariots,  and/or command.

Egyptian "Marine" Archers - enough for 1 unit each MI and LI. 

Libyan Command; I planning on adding a couple of packs of Old Glory Libyans, but they lack command figures.

Sardana (Sherdan) command figures, ditto. These will help with a rebasing of my original Sherdans from 16 figures to 12 figure each, re4sulting in an additional unit net. 

French Legere, campaign Dress - 1 unit of 18.

Sure the most annoying thing about Foundry Napoleonics is the bizarre pack sizes... 8 figures each for most infantry. Why 8?  Why not 6, which would be much more logical and flexible. And then... 7 figures for command packs - that are less than 1/2 command figures! The bulk is filled out by a hodge podge of posses from the privates. If you had to have SEVEN figures, wouldn't, say, 2 officers, 2 musicians, and an NCO or sapper make far more sense! I have no idea if I will ever use these "leftovers".  Part of why I never, ever buy Foundry figures except at the time of their annual Christmas sale! 

A little more unusual gift..

I've been looking at getting some Theory 11 playing cards for a while. They had a 25% off deal for 12 decks, plus 10% off for a first order, plus 2 free decks if your pre discount order was sufficient. 

So, I got 16 decks(!)  for about the price of 10.  :-)

Above are 2 decks each of "Union" and "Tycoon" patterns.

Mostly pairs of decks for use with To the Strongest! and/or similar rules. 

"Voyager" and "Purple Monarchs" decks. 

"James Bond", Mandarin Monarch, and Rarebit decks (Elmer Fudd would like the last one - Scwewy Wabbits"!)

My favorites - Star Wars decks - one pair each of Light Side and Dark side decks. 

The star wars decks are very customized - the court cards and Jokers especially, but even the pip designs. Very cool! 

The Union deck - think Roaring 20's! 

The Bond deck... James Bond.  One thing to be aware of with these cards - the tuckbox designs are incredible, with metallic foil etc., BUT the card backs themselves are much simpler, and usually in one color, as you can see here.

Purple Monarchs - here the court cards are pretty standard. 

Our friends the Hopkins usually give me the most interesting gifts, and this year was no exception. They share my love of history and books, and process a lot of used books donated to the local public library for book sales. Anything they think might be of interest to me gets sent my way at Christmas.

 

This one is a historical fiction novel...

published in 1899!  According to the overleaf, he authored nearly 50 such novels, ranging from Ancient Egypt to the Khartoum /Sudan campaign, most but not all centered on famous campaigns. 

The Wikipedia page for George Alfred Henty states it was over 120 such books, of the youth adventure genre. Given the date of publication, I would expect a considerable amount of glorification of British Imperialism, racial; stereotypes etc.; the Wikipedia page confirms those expectations. Recognizing the biases, never the less these kind of books often make stirring reading, and he was eveidently the most successful children's author of his time. Indeed, all of his books are available in current editions! 

I must confess to looking forward to reading this one! 

Another unusual title, but actually a rather appealing concept for a book! 

A brief search on this author reveals that he also wrote biographies of Ney and Murat... 

and all three books are in print today! I believe Sam Mustafa wrote a biography of Jerome; we were discussing it when I met him at Historicon in 2011.

Yes, he did. The price is painful, though!