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Just in case, I have ordered both of them on amazon.fr ~D
Can't wait to receive The Vikings, The Normans and Norman Knights. All of them the same day. Yay ! ~:cheers:
Too bad Warrior women has been cancelled.
I had a look at Concord website, and the plate look weird. Quite different from usual McBride's work.
Which plates? Rest assured, his Concord work is 10X better than his Osprey work.
Not one in particular, but it just that they seem cartoonish (is that a word) to me. A bit like the plate you can find in warhammer books.
Not that I agree with you, but they do look better in print form.
Here's a question: what 10 Osprey books would you like to see in the future? Put the series and the artist. Mine would all be illustrated by McBride of course. ~D
1. Irish Warrior 900-1598 (Warrior)
2. Teutonic Knights (Elite)
3. Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic 1000-1300 and 1300-1500 (MAA - 2 volume set)
4. Medieval Balkans Armies 1000-1300 and 1300-1500 (MAA - 2 volume set)
5. Medieval Iberian Armies 1000-1300 and 1300-1500 (MAA - 2 volume set)
6. The Armies of Medieval Britain 1000-1300 and 1300-1500 (MAA - 2 volume set)
7. Armenia, Georgia and the Christian Armies of Asia Minor 1000-1450 (MAA)
8. Armies of Medieval Africa 800-1200 and 1200-1600 (MAA - 2 voume set)
9. Armies of the New World (Elite)
10. Armies of Medieval India 800-1200 and 1200-1500(MAA - 2 volume set)
Alright I cheated a bit with the 2 volume thing, but this was tough enough as it is. So what do you want to see?
Heh, there are some nice pics in warhammer books. Although I don't like the company, I admit that I enjoy to read their book.
Here are the Ospreys I'd like to see someday. All by McBride, since I haven't had any look at anyone else's art except Garry Embleton (X_X) :
1 - Armies of the Diadochi - MAA - Would probably need two or three books.
2 - Greco Bactria and the Mauryan Empire - MAA
3 - The Teutonic knights - Elite/Warrior
4 - Christian states in Asia Minor (1) - The Latin Empire and the Crusader States and (2) - Armenia and Georgia (MAA)
5 - Armies of the Khazar Kagnate (MAA)
6 - Hellenic warships (New vanguard)
7 - Armies of the Bosphorean Kingdom (MAA)
8 - The Maccabean army (Elite)
9 - Armies of the Albigean (sp?) Crusade (MAA)
10 - The Battle of Bouvine - 1214 (Campaign)
Ohh, the Indian and the Georgian one looks good. Let me try and start... will update.
1. Armies of the Selejuk Turks - Elite
2. Armies of Pontus - Men at Arms
3. Heratoi (right? these are Companions, right, or did I misspell it?)- Warrior
4. Armies of the Diodachi - Elite
5. Armies of Persia (redone correctly by McBride... not those crap pajama peoples) Elite
Will continue...
Good choices. There's many more I can think of, but I'm trying to restrict myself.
You have seen Angus McBride's French Medieval Armies 1000-1300 and French Armies of the Hundred Years War haven't you? They're both great.Quote:
9 - Armies of Medieval France (MAA)
French Medieval Armies
FA 100YW
I've been following this thread for some while now, thought I would smack up my own collection as well.
In no particular order:
MEN-AT-ARMS SERIES
French Medieval Armies 1000-1300
French Armies of the Hundred Years War
German Medieval Armies 1000-1300
German Medieval Armies 1300-1500
Medieval Scandinavian Armies 1100-1300
Medieval Scandinavian Armies 1300-1500
The Age of Charlemagne
Byzantine Armies 886-1118
Armies of the Crusades
Saxon, Viking and Norman
Medieval Heraldry
The Mongols
Saladin and the Saracens
The Moors
Armies of Islam 7th - 11th century
ELITE SERIES
The Normans
The Vikings
The Samurai
The Knights at Tournament
Medieval Heraldry
WARRIOR SERIES
Germanic Warrior 236-568
Knight Templar 1120-1312
Celtic Warrior
FORTRESS SERIES
Norman Stone Castles (2)
GENERAL MILITARY SERIES
Alexander the Great (consists of Men-at-Arms 148: 'The Army of Alexander the Great' and Campaign 7: 'Alexander 334-323 BC')
Rome at War - Caesar and his legacy (consists of Essential Histories 21: ?Rome at War?, Essential Histories 43: ?Caesar's Gallic Wars? and Essential Histories 42: ?Caesar's Civil War?).
As some of you might see, there's a lot of McBride works here. I think he's one of Osprey's best artists. I also liked Christa Hook's work in Knight Templar, yet what I've seen of Gerry Embleton so far hasn't been my cup of tea.
I have one complaint, though, the writing sometimes tend to be a little drab. Too much "well, he wears this mail and this weapon and this bow", just lining up the facts without giving much thought to readability, "stuff happened this way and that way." There are notable exceptions, especially David Nicolle, and I also appreciated Simon MacDowall's writing in Germanic Warrior 236-568.
Damn, that's a good choice! I actually posted my list the same time as yours, so it's just coincidence that we both have Diadochi...Quote:
5 - Armies of the Khazar Kagnate (MAA)
Oh, right there are already some Ospreys about French medieval army. I thought it was french medieval knight. I'm going to replace it by the Albigean Crusade. I don't know if there are many military information about it, but it sounds good.
Steppe, I'm really looking for infos about the Diadochi armies for my Diadochi TW mod. Too bad there are nothing on that topic from Osprey (and the Montvert aren't published anymore :-/ )
I'd like to learn more about African medieval armies and Western europe armies, though it's not in my wish list ~:)
The Mycenaeans has been added to Amazon UK, and is scheduled for August. That means it will probably be up on Osprey in August. Two McBride books in 2 months!
Obviously that's not a real plate on the cover.
Anyone read this book? It seems similar to the Osprey titles, and Sumner did the two Roman uniform books, which I found quite interesting.
To very quickly catch up on several months of reading with no comment from me: I still don't like MacBride much for exactly the same reasons as before. Those crusade plates were terrible - very cartoon like and as usual the people looked very squat and out of proper proportion. I don’t like the artist but he can do much better than that.
Oh, and did I see someone say they didn't like the plates in the English medieval knight series? Gah! They show off the equipment very nicely; plenty of detail and I liked them. Exactly what I want in the books; scenic is all very well but it seldom shows me the details I need/want.
:dons flame proof armour:
Froggy, that does look like a bit Osprey.
And yeah, I don't really like those Angus plates. I do prefer some other ones... I loved the Mounted Archer of the Steppe. Angus is odd.. he goes from mediocorely bland to excellent to cartoony... thankfully not all in the same book.
I think it could have been me who said something about the plates in the english medieval knight but the more precise words would be complete shite.
The mounted archer of the steppes plates were simply alright not Mcbrides best and the ones in the age of the crusades pisses all over them and any other osprey artist work ~:cool:
I am really stunned that you can like mcbride and not like those plates. They are exceptional and i feel that due to his work not being static and with most of his plates being dedicated to battles is the reasons why people might not like them.
Is this where I get to suggest you need eyes, BKB? :winkg: Nah, art is so subjective.
Plates A, E and F in English knight 1300-1400 are the best examples of what I really want from these Osprey books; a nice exploded diagram type thing detailing everything about the armour and weaponry, a sort of one stop shop for detail, appearance, function and um .... wearability. Plate E in particular has that very useful interior view of a coat of plates; wonderful. One of those diagrams provides everything I need to write about armour decently, since I already know the background stuff like how it goes on, how it is cleaned, that it is heavy, etc. Graham Turner is great at this particular kind of work; his scenic plates are not so good. But scenic is mostly useless to me.
I still maintain Peter Connolly is the best; shame he only does ancient and classical. Pity also that he has not put out a new book in ... hum, decades? He did one of the Colusseum but it had barely any of his illustrations.
So no one has read this particular book? I'll see if I can find out more; if it looks promising I might pick it up in the future.
Speaking of Osprey alike books, has anyone mentioned the Europa Militaria specials here? Only a few are likely to be of interest to people here (Medieval military costume, the Samurai recreated in colour photographs, the Vikings recreated in colour photographs, the Romans recreated in colour photographs) and the quality really does vary. I find the Samurai and the Medievla books the best. Vikings is not bad, but some of the photos are a bit bad. The Romans is a blend between great and … costumey. There is supposed to be an English Civil War book but I have not had any success getting it.
I really, sincerely, think I should be the one suggesting that to you! ~DQuote:
Is this where I get to suggest you need eyes, BKB?
Ordered Montvert's Armies of Bactria off an Amazon seller, so I should get it in a couple of days. I'll let you know what I think of it.
Yay! I was angry that I couldn't find any Montvert books on ebay... I though they had everything...
Did you not have any luck ordering it off amazon uk then? Have you tried www.abebooks.com?
IMO, it is in non-static and battle plates that McBride fails. I was in NYC this week, and at Borders on Broadway/Wall Street I bought Celtic Warrior 300 BC - AD 100. Since the Warrior series is my favorite (I'm probably going to end up buying either Late Roman Infantryman, Late Roman Cavalryman or Hospitaller Knight (1) before Armies of the Muslim Conquest), because it has a lot of battle plates and plates of action rather than the static ones in the Men-at-Arms series, I compared Wayne Reynolds' plates in Celtic Warrior to McBride's in Germanic Warrior AD 236 - 568, Rome's Enemies: Gallic and British Celts, and The Vikings. Now, as you may know, the plate of Valaris issuing a challenge to personal combat in Germanic Warrior was one of my favorites. However, it pales in comparison to Reynolds's plate on Celtic single combat in Italy 3rd century BC (Ironic, eh? Same place, only a difference in time of almost 700 years). Reynolds's work is more vibrant and alive. Reynolds's scene of the battle of the Sambre also hugely overclasses McBride's plate of the Battle of Campus Mauriacus (Chalons) in Germanic Warrior, as well as the one of the Viking sea battle in The Vikings.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Blind King of Bohemia
But, then again, art is such a subjective thing. I prefer vibrant, lively artworks depicting action when it concerns military history, but McBride just doesn't seem to excel at such things in my opinion. Comparing the static plates of Reynolds (excluding the one of the Celtic warrior which also graces the front of the book) to those of McBride, I conclude that McBride's are better. They have better finish and touch than Reynolds' plates. Still, my favorite plates, those depicting action scenes, are best left alone by McBride and left over to such artists as Reynolds, Embleton and Christa Hook. One last note though: McBride seems to regard historical accuracy higher than Reynolds... Reynolds takes some artistic licenses in his plates, especially regarding swords.
~Wiz
BKB, has mcbride got anything else in the pipeline like the age of the crusades?
IMO what you are saying is wrong, really wrong! How can you say the battle picture in viking is not as good as reynolds plate in celtic warrior! Okay reynolds is ok but he has done like four or five osprey books and to even compare him to mcbride is insane(not calling you insane, just the suggestion!)
Is this serious?! Reynolds i like and hook is ok but embleton is shite. There is no discussion, he is crap, period! Please someone stick up for me here! He is completely awful and to say he draws better battle plates than mcbride is insane ! None of them stand up to Angus in anyway whatsoever!Quote:
those depicting action scenes, are best left alone by McBride and left over to such artists as Reynolds, Embleton and Christa Hook
Oh come now, Embleton isn't that bad... he has his good books and his bad ones. A bad one (really, really bad) is Rome's Enemies: Germanics and Dacians. His there plates have bad finish, little touch and they look like sketches colored in (on a side note, the book itself, written by Peter Wilcox, is outdated regarding theory about the peoples described, and therefore bad). However, as compared to that disaster, the plates in The Sarmatians, especially the plate of the sacrifice to the sword by the noble Sarmatian and the battle scene from Trajan's first Dacian war (and recognizing the fact that the plate on the Bosphorans sucks... once again it seems to be a colored-in sketch), are very good... for some reason that I can't exactly pinpoint except to say they are vibrant, I like them a lot better than McBride plates. The scene of the battle of Strasbourg in Late Roman Infantryman is also an excellent plate... it seems Embleton's "sketchy" style lends itself well to action scenes.
At least, to me. Art is subjective... it's supposed to be, almost... makes it interesting ~;)
~Wiz
The only embleton plate i like is british archers fight at castllion in 1453, that picture is great but man i hate his whole style and use of colours. I guess i just adore mcbride! But you should try picking up ancient celts by mcbride and compare it to reynolds celtic warrior and i promise you wizard you will see how better he is ~D
From which Osprey is this plate ? I'm sure BKB will be able to answer this ~D
http://img146.exs.cx/img146/5958/galatian123bx.th.jpg
Who are the characters on it ?
Concord's Ancient Celts, by Tim Newark and Angus McBride. The plate depicts Brennos and his Celts sacking Delphi in 279 BC, only to feel (apparently) the wrath of the Greek Gods, hence the worried looks on their faces.
Nice, we're going to use this for the Galatians in Diadochi Total War :)
You may also find this picture from the same book useful:
http://members.aol.com/skyewrites/private/cegypt.jpg
From the same book, Celts serving as mercenaries under Ptolemy II.
I don't really like the Sarmatian book... The info's good, but the drawings are awfully static and bland...
Thanks BKB. If you have any other plate related to the Successors era, I'll happilly have a look at it ~;)
This is the last one I think, of Brennos Celts invading Greece prior to the sack of Delphi. The picture is a lot bigger in the actual book - there's a really old mad looking topless Celt down at the front who really makes the picture.
http://members.aol.com/skyewrites/private/celtgrek.jpg
I just got a reply from KenM, they guy who devises the plates for Angus' Concord books and while he didn't bring the best of news there is hope at least. He tell me that while he isn't well, Angus is getting on, and Newark has other projects on the go, there may, just may, be one book left in them, a book encompassing the whole Roman empire and their enemies. He mentioned 12 plates (not the usual 20 but better than nothing), featuring early battles with the Samnites and Etruscans all the way up to the Huns and Belisarius fighting the Goths. Sounds good to me, and it certainly has a lot of potential (Imperial Rome at War seemed a little constrictive), but anything they manage to get out now (he said if it did come to fruition it wouldn't be for another 3 years) would be fantastic.
In other news, I'm hoping to finish off the Ancient/Medieval/16th C Warrior and Elite Series soon. Not long to go now! (But then I may move onto 17th C stuff).
Bah, Romans? How about just their enemies? The Romans are so boring and their are already so much stuff about them out...
Couple of decent books in the Osprey polls this month: Roman Infantry Tactics, or something like that, an Elite title, and my preference, Spanish Colonial Troops in the New World.
I checked the archive of the polls and found that a Campaign book of Flodden is coming out in May 2006! I've wanted this one for a while, and if Angus McBride does it it will be great. However, I've got a bad feeling its gonna be Graham Turner.
Just got Elite : The Viking and Warriors : Norman Knights.
Anyone knows an Osprey showing some Nabataeans ? Maybe Rome Ennemies 5 : Desert Frontier ?
Yes, I believe there is one plate in there depicting the Nabateans.
I got the Hungary and the Fall of Eastern Europe... quite good. I wish it didn't focus quite so much on the later years, but I still really liked it. The next one I'm looking at is the Islamic Armies 7-10th Century... I wonder if that includes the Turks?
Been looking around Amazon and have found a few more forthcoming Osprey books I'll be adding to my collection and thought you lot might be interested in them too:
After the first one comes the inevitable Elite title Samurai Commanders 2: 1577-1877 (Stephen Turnbull and Richard Hook)
And I thought the first two were bad enough - a new MAA title, Roman Military Clothing 3: 395-641AD (Raffaele Amato and Graham Sumner). Guarenteed to be awful!
A new addition to the Fortress series, Japanese Fortified Monasteries: 949-1603 (Stephen Turnbull and Peter Dennis)
Another Fortress title, British Fortifications in Zululand 1879 (Ian Knight and Adam Hook)
And finally another MAA title, Warrior Peoples of East Africa: 1840-1900 (CJ Peers and Raffaele Ruggeri)
So not a great year for fans of pre-1600 history (I like some of the later stuff though, like Zulus, as you can see), but hopefully there will be a few more surprises when the full catalogue for the second half of the year is revealed. At least there's a couple of Angus titles to look forward to!
I received the Elite "The Normans". I will read it in the next days, but the Hasting battle plate is awesome. Some others are great, but this one kills everything :)
I concur - that book in general is definitely one of his best for Osprey.
I ordered Samurai Heraldry, Conquistador (Warrior), Aztec Warrior, Anglo-Saxon Thegn, Viking Hersir and Landsknecht Soldier today. I'll order Carolingian Cavalryman when it becomes available on Thursday.
Oddly, though it would seem to be available, you can't actually order Carolingian Cavalryman yet. ~:confused: I think Osprey should update their site properly.
Also, Sassanian Elite Cavalryman is confirmed for a July release. The pic on the cover is of course an old one from the Parthian and Sassanid Persians book, and will not feature in the final product:
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/titl...e=S7131~per=40
Wait, it's an Elite title!?! Sweet! I though it was a warrior, which while good, isn't nearly as good as an Elite... I'm really looking foward for the Sassanian Persians...
It would be, only Elite's only seem to have 8 plates now rather than the old 12 - they should really lower the price taking that into account. Still, you get full scenic plates rather than some devoted at arms and armour.
Just a heads-up: Carolingian Cavalryman is now available to order. Got mine in.
Going a bit OT here, but since we're usually talking about the artwork rather than the text of military works, I'd like to show a beautiful example of the talent showcased by Russian military artists. Besides this, I've also seen a great book (sadly in Russian) about the army of Alexander Nevsky with amazing plates.
http://www.xenophongi.org/rushistory/battles/mick3s.jpg
This is only a part of the full scene depicting the Battle of Bortenovo in 1317 between the Grand Princes of Tver and Moscow. The entire painting covers an entire wall in the city museum of Tver.
Although the battle, fought for supremacy amongst the vassals of the Khan of the Golden Horde, was won by Mikhail II, Prince of Tver, he made a political mistake by capturing the wife of his adversary, Yuri III. She was also the sister of the Khan, so the Khan supported the prince of Moscow and with the support of the Tartars Yuri III gained the title Grand Prince of Vladimir, which was important since Vladimir-Suzdal had been the major principality before Subedei and Batu Khan invaded Russia.
~Wiz
ok:
Campaign series:
46 - lake peipus 1242
19 - hattin 1187
fortress series:
afghanistan cave complexes '79-04
warrior series:
18 - knight of outremer 1187-1344
33 - knight hospitaller (1)
68 - continental infantrymen of the american revolution
Men-at-arms series:
34 - waffen-ss
166 - german medieval armies
155 - knights of christ
200 - el cid and the reconquista
220 - the SA 1921-45
231 - french medieval armies 1000-1300
266 - Allgemeine-SS ***my favorite one***
BKB's list gave me a raging boner
ROFLMAO!!! :laugh4: :laugh4:Quote:
BKB's list gave me a raging boner
BTW, does that mean it'll get bigger as my collection does? ~;)
Still waiting for Carolingian Cavalryman :furious3:
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Blind King of Bohemia
seriously - ospreys books are so expensive to me
i wish i could afford more - but they end up being like 18-20 bucks a piece
Same here. They are pretty expensive. It's a bit cheaper on Amazon (11-14 bucks), but unfortuanetly because we're in America, it's a lot more expensive, and for me harder to find. It's a shame too...
Heh, I can order Osprey for basically the same price as the british one. Probably one of the good point of the euro ;)
BKB, if you have the Bactrian Montvert book, could you please post the plates here or send them by PM ? We might use those for the Diadochoi mod.
The Bactrian book plates are VERY cartoony, and quite awful. They're an interesting culture though, so I'll see what I can do.
Carolingian Cavalryman came a couple of days ago, but it's very disappointing IMO. 8 plates again, and though there are 3 action-esque plates they're not up to Reynolds' usual standard. Still, better then most of Gerry Embleton's offerings though!
Even if they are cartoony and awful, they might be of some kind of help ;)
I got a book store gift card for Easter, thinking about getting an Osprey book or two.
Any suggestions? I'm looking for more Middle Eastern horse archer types of things...
Is the Armies of Islam 7-11th Century good?
What about Armies of Ottoman Turks?
The one about Tamerlane?
Saladin and the Saracens?
Any othe suggestions would be helpful.
I don't have any of them, but I don't think the Ottoman were known for their Horse Archers.
I'm pretty sure there would be some horse archer in the Tamerlane one.
Just found at about 2 new Concord Publications books, Age of Conquerors and Medieval Knights. Both sound good, but I don't know if Angus McBride will illustrate them or not. Ditto to Gunpowder Armies and Eastern Romans also. I really hope he does though.
I just got Montvert's Warriors of Eurasia and I have to say its very good indeed. I like books that cover relatively unknown stuff, and in this there's 22 plates which cover the likes of the Siberians, Baltic peoples and numerous horse-archer cultures which I've never even heard of before! It goes from about 9th C BC to 1700AD. It's quite thin though as the only text is the commentary on the plates.
The artist is pretty good, not Angus quality, but certainly a step up from the Bactrian book. He always make the warriors look really cool though, which I must say I did appreciate.
I think you'd like it in particular Steppe.
Feels like I'm the only one keeping this thread alive at the minute. Got Concord Publications' Mongols book - its not Angus, so IMO the plates are naturally a little bland but certainly not the worse I've seen.
Also, there's a new Osprey book slated for November that may be of some interest to people - The Third Crusade Campaign book.
Amazon link
Oh, third Crusade... when is that Sassananian one coming out?
And that book does sound sweet! How much money? And where did you get it from?
And any chance I can see any of those plates? Any Scythian, Sarmatian, Parthian era ones would be good, as well as Avars and Bulgars and later ones, if at all possible...
Armies of Islam 7-11th Century is fairly good, but I wish they had dealt with the Arab and Persian armies a little more as they concentrate on a lot of auxiliaries. Of course the Arab armies were in large part not Arab so...Quote:
Originally Posted by Steppe Merc
Still not bad and some good pictures by Angus Mcbride!
Couldn't help myself, broke down and ordered some of the ones I wanted.
Mounted Archers of the Steppe
The Ancient Assyrians
Ancient Chinese Armies 1500BC to 200BC
Saracen Faris AD 1050-1250
English Medieval Knight 1200-1300
Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon Wars
Byzantium at War
Saladin and the Saracens
Polish Armies 1569-1696
Rome's Enemies; The Desert Frontier
Mughul India 1504-1761
Just a question; Does anyone know where this picture is from?
I thought it was an Osprey publication (The Achaemenid Army) but cannot find any such title listed.
http://img53.echo.cx/img53/4819/ospr...085tt3s.th.jpg
The Achaemenid Persian Army by Montvert Publications, which I don't have and seems to be very rare.
Sharrukin, let me know how the Saladin and the Saracen one is... next time I order on Amazon, I'd like to get one, preferably on Turkish horse archers...
Osprey have put up the proper cover for the Sassanian Elite Cavalry and it looks superb! Angus on top form as usual:
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/osp_...rs/S7131AL.JPG
Who are the Sassanians fighting here? They look quite Oriental.
I cannot imagine that the four barrelled crossbow was used all that extensively then or indeed ever, but it does look rather interesting. The quilted linen overcoat, ribbons and other details look good. This one was listed as a future product so I didn't order it.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Blind King of Bohemia
Yeah its not out until July. You can't pre-order books from Osprey, which is odd. July should be a decent month actually, with Graham Turner's Acre and Battle of the Boyne campaign books due out also.
Nice to see a bit of activity in this thread - I thought it was dead!
I will, the one on 'Faris' looked interesting and if they have anything on Turkish archers I will give you a heads up as well. I have heard that the Turkish bows were weaker than the bows of earlier peoples and the later Ottomans. Any info on this?Quote:
Originally Posted by Steppe Merc
Saracen Faris AD 1050-1250
Well I have been putting off buying Osprey books but I needed my fix.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Blind King of Bohemia
I looked for a site on the Montvert Publications and could not find one. The only thing I saw was Amazon selling a few of them. They are expensive! What do you get for them compared to Osprey and keep in mind I really do read them for the articles. ~D The illustration are nice but they need to be accurate and Osprey does a good job of that mostly.
I heard that the Turkish bows were the best, even better than the Mongol ones, which were too big to fully take advantage of the composite design... I have the Archers of the Steppe, very excellent, talks about the different people's designs...Quote:
I have heard that the Turkish bows were weaker than the bows of earlier peoples and the later Ottomans. Any info on this?
Well I have heard that they were the best as well, and I have heard that they were weaker. The crusaders mentioned how the Turkish bows would not penetrate the chainmail they wore but that other bows would. I find this somewhat confusing as later Turkish bows used by the Ottomans were very powerful and the bows used by most steppe peoples at this time were also deadly to chainmail.Quote:
Originally Posted by Steppe Merc
Well in archers of the steppe they said Turkish were the best. As for the Crusaders, not sure about that one. Mabye they got the Turks confused with another group of horse bowmen? Or said chain when it should have been plate? But yeah, I've heard the Ottomans had the best bows ever... and I can't imagine the other Turks having bad ones...
Yes! Just won I hard fought bidding war over The Achaemenid Army on Ebay. Quite expensive but I had to have it. :knight: :evilgrin:
Hey guys,
I haven't gotten any Osprey books for a while because of my financial position, but I hope to again, soon! As for the Turkish/Steppe bow thing, I think that one of the Turkish bows that is generally considered "best" would be the later flight bows, which were more or less for competitive archery, rather than warfare. They were shorter and more compact, made to perform high-range shooting. Some arrows were known to have flown over 750 meters!
As for the earlier bows, I really wouldn't know about the potential power difference between Turkish and non-Turkish bows. I'd expect that the bows that were of higher draw weights, with longer siyahs and the most effective arrows would be the "best."
-Gregory-
Awesome!
And I also have heard of the sporting bows, and one book I read was quite quick to point out the differences.
I also won a collection of Military History magazines, which Angus has done artwork for. There's about 40 issues in the lot, so I'm hoping for a few at least. Here's some examples of his stuff, which looks very good. It all started when I heard that the Battle of Yellow Ford picture he did was done for an issue. But which one?!?
Norman Invasion and British-Zulu Battle
http://www.teamresell.com/images/milhist-4.jpg
His fourth Liegnitz piece
http://www.teamresell.com/images/milhist-5.jpg
Belisarius defending Rome (looks awesome)
http://www.teamresell.com/images/milhist-3.jpg
I've also seen ones for the Battle of Pharsalus and the Siege of Vienna (1529)
Oh and also here's a pic of the Achaemenid Army cover for those interested:
http://www.alphalink.com.au/~nwa/dbx...rsian_army.jpg
I also found this interesting piece - a watercolour of Agincourt by McBride. The archers look great, though I'm not sure about the colourful approaching army, trees and background.
http://www.booksillustrated.com/images/I82e.jpg
Finally, here's a pic of Eastern Romans from the excellent Imperial Rome at War book by Concord. I don't recall it being posted here before.
http://par.toutatis.free.fr/comitatus/img42.jpg
That might have been me as I am trying to get a hold of a copy myself. ~:mecry:Quote:
Originally Posted by The Blind King of Bohemia
Sorry about that if that is the case. Did it go for $31? If so that wasn't me.
Oh well, I will live through the trauma. I posted a bid on the Amazon UK site as well so I might get it through there as well. What does 12 Pounds mean in US currency? I know how to convert US to Canadian currency but not the Pound. Is it 1.8$ per pound?Quote:
Originally Posted by The Blind King of Bohemia
How is it? The Osprey book on the Persian army was not too great IMO. Does this one differ from that?
About $21 I think.
I don't have it yet (probably by end of next week), but it's bound to be better, at least plate wise than Osprey's effort. Richard Scollins was a very good artist.
What I'm really looking for now is my grail piece(s), Montvert's Seleucid and Ptolemaic Reformed Armies, both volumes of it. They're gonna be a bitch to find.
I haven't heard of those before. What do you know about them? Does Montvert still publish, do they have a website? I tried finding one but couldn't.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Blind King of Bohemia
No I don't think they do still publish, and they don't have a site. I'll post some of the plates from it on this thread soon that I and other people have come across on the Net. Here's a list of Montvert books I know about:
Ancient Warrior (A small quarterly journal they started with 8 plates which only ran for one issue I believe. Not very good. I have it)
Justinian's War (Don't know if its illustrated)
The Achaemenid Army (I have it)
Reivers (Keith Durham and Angus McBride - I have it)
Warriors of Eurasia (22 plates, pretty good - I have it)
Armies of Bactria (2 volumes, 1 text, 1 with 8 colour and many other black and white drawings. Awful illustrations. I have it)
Armies of Tang China (David Nicolle I think and Angus McBride - I have it)
Sassanian Armies (David Nicolle and Angus McBride - I have it)
Seleucid and Ptolemaic Reformed Armies: Seleucid Army (Nick Sekunda and Angus McBride)
Seleucid and Ptolemaic Reformed Armies: Ptolemaic Army (Nick Sekunda and Angus McBride)
Well, I've looked for the Seleucid and Ptolemaic for months, yet I haven't had any luck.
BKB, would you mind posting some plates (or sending them by PM) to help the Diadochi mod ?