Books to read before Empires is released

[batemonkey]

I love a good history book (I'm sure I'm in good company round here!)

So i thought we could compile a list of good books about the general history and tactics deployed in the time period to be covered by Empire.

I'll start off:

Command of the Ocean - N.A.M. Rodgers

As you would expect by the title this is a book (part of a trilogy) about the Royal Navy, this particular volume is esp concerned with the time period covered and is bloody ace.

I read it when it came out a couple of years ago, but will defo read again before Empires is released.


Cheers


Alex

[ThePianist]

Empires of the Sea: the Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto and the contest for the center of the world


I read the whole book. About as exciting as action movie script, with plenty of historical details, written like some intense AAR.
This is a little before ETW's time era, from the early 1500s to the late 1500s. The book is made in three parts, a bit like a trilogy.
1 - Siege of Rhodes
2 - Siege of Malta + pirate wars
3 - Siege of Cyprus + Battle of Lepanto

Those who played RTW would know exactly where Rhodes is (with one of the Seven Wonders of the world). Malta is a little island south of Syracuse; the distance between Malta and Syracuse is about the same as from Lilybaeum to Carthage, and closer than from Crete to Sparta. In other words, very close. Cyprus, well, every RTW fan knows where that is. And Lepanto is a bay on the Greek coast, roughly around Thermon.

Siege of Rhodes, Siege of Malta and Siege of Cyprus are all land battles, and each one is like Alamo, multiplied a thousands times. It's siege warfare with arquebus and cannons, trench battles and a lot of sword and hand-to-hand battles. Different ways of resisting a massive Ottoman amphibious invasion. Some won and some lost. For spoilers I won't say which one (though you can simply find out by Wikipedia, but it's better to not know and read the book).

Battle with the pirates and battle of Lepanto were naval wars, and very exciting to read. Also, the book talks about the origin and rise of the Barbary Pirates, also the origin of the vestigial fear&awe associated with pirates. They were, in the mediterranean at least, Islamic jihadis and raided coast destroying towns and carrying captives to be sold as slaves in North Africa. Barbarossa (red-beard) was a actual person, a Turk by the name of Orcun with red hair. Orcun however was enslaved by the Knights of St-John, so the sides are not all black and white, unfortunately. The states of Europe were very weak at that time, and the Ottoman Empire (named after Osman, or Uthman, the 3rd original Caliph of the Muslims) was expanding till the gate of Vienna. It had roughly the land area of East Roman Empire at the start of BI, plus North Africa because of Barbary pirates. In the Mediterranean, the Ottomans were expanding till the coast of Italy.

It's a very well written and researched book of epic battles, both land and sea.


Excerpt that I don't remember word for word, so I paraphrase:

during the battle of Cyprus:
Venetian (from city-state of Venice) commander decides to lay an ambush for the Ottoman Turks after several days of siege. In the meantime, a Venetian fleet came rampaging through the Ottoman fleet off shore, but the Venetians didn't have enough ships to end the blockade of Cyprus. After some combat, the Venetian fleet left during the night.
Before daybreak the Venetian commander (in a besieged city on Cyprus) ordered that all the flags be taken down and no one is to stir and no smoke or any sign of life be revealed. After sunrise, the Turks saw that no one was on the city ramparts, no flags were flying and there was no sound whatsoever. They then assumed that all the Venetians were evacuated by sea during the night with the departing Venetian fleet. There was a massive rush towards the city walls.
When the Turks were in firing distance, the entire Venetian garrison stood from behind the ramparts where they were hiding, and sent volleys into the massed ranks of totally surprised Turks....And that way they beat back another attack on the besieged city.

during the battle of Malta (or, should I say, Thermopylae):
It was terrible trench warfare and tunneling (RTW vocabulary: sap point) by the Ottomans to take over the fort of St. Elmo (lol, several hundred years ago, they probably didn't expect a stuffed animal to be named after the same name). The Turks had many hundreds of sharpshooters aiming their arquebus all day ready to shoot anything poking over the ramparts. Anyone firing muskets or throwing hand-grenades (they actually made those) or trying to halt the construction of siege equipment had high probability of getting shot. The casualties were mounting and each dead Turk had another ten stepping up to take the place, but each dead defender of St. Elmo fort had no replacement. They used fire rings (I forgot the name in the book), rings that were used around wine barrels, were dipped in tar, dried, painted over with flammable substance, dipped in tar again, dried, painted over again, dipped in tar again, and so on. The result were rings thick as tires. [some pages in between I don't remember] The Ottomans mounted another assault with the elite janissaries troops leading, the defense was breached and innumerable Turks poured over the outer wall, the combat went by the sword and hand to hand. Fire rings were lit, and thrown among the assault waves. It lit the Turkish soldiers on fire, then screaming and running they lit others on fire. The fiery rings went rolling and bouncing among the Ottomans....and they somehow drove back the Ottomans. Some hundreds of janissary troops lay dead in the ditch, along with a substantial portion of the defenders.

during the battle of Lepanto (of 1571), the largest naval battle in the world at that time, and the largest casualty rate until WWI:
The Italians, Spanish and Venetians had musket soldiers on their ships. The Ottomans had soldiers with musket as well as many archers. The archer can fire 30 arrows during the reload time of a firearm. In battle [some ship from Europe] was struck by some many arrows that they seemed to grow out of the mast. [pages in between] Then moorings were thrown and soldiers from both sides swung aboard the other ships with swords and scimitars. The admiral (or some general, I think Don Juan)'s pet monkey was seen, during the rain of arrows, pulling them out one by one from the mast with its teeth.

[HopAlongBunny]

Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914

[Mount Suribachi]

Rifles by Mark Urban. Written mainly using the letters and diarys of 6 members of the regiment of Rifles, in a style very similar to Band Of Brothers, it follows them from formation in England, to fighting in the Peninsular War, to Waterloo. Because so much of the book quotes directly the words of the men themselves, it has a realism that is unforced. And if you ever read Sharpe and thought it was far-fetched, think again. Those boys were proper soldiers.

Also 1812, about Nappys invasion of Russia (and the retreat). Again, quotes a lot of primary sources, and the story of the retreat is very harrowing - human tragedy on an epic scale which only reinforces by lack of admiration for Napoleon.

[Laudon]

The military experience in the Age of Reason by Christopher Duffy. Excellent small book. Also, for readers more interested in Seven Years War all other Duffy´s works, especially his new By force of arms.

[batemonkey]

Some great suggestions so far, i've got my holiday leave coming up so i think a trip to the bookshop is in order.

Rifles sounds good, esp if i team it up with the Sharpe boxed set i've just bought ;)

[batemonkey]

Rifles by Mark Urban. Written mainly using the letters and diarys of 6 members of the regiment of Rifles, in a style very similar to Band Of Brothers, it follows them from formation in England, to fighting in the Peninsular War, to Waterloo. Because so much of the book quotes directly the words of the men themselves, it has a realism that is unforced. And if you ever read Sharpe and thought it was far-fetched, think again. Those boys were proper soldiers.

Also 1812, about Nappys invasion of Russia (and the retreat). Again, quotes a lot of primary sources, and the story of the retreat is very harrowing - human tragedy on an epic scale which only reinforces by lack of admiration for Napoleon.

Finaly got round to getting Rifles, just over halfway through.

Bloomin' Brilliant!

It's like sharpe but better because it's all true.


Thanks for the heads up


Alex

[gardibolt]

Not a book, but I watched Sergei Bondarchuk's movie Waterloo (1970) last night, and I couldn't help but wonder how you would recreate that battle with ETW. Pretty spectacular for the pre-CGI era.

[USS Providence 1972]

Rifles by Mark Urban. Written mainly using the letters and diarys of 6 members of the regiment of Rifles, in a style very similar to Band Of Brothers, it follows them from formation in England, to fighting in the Peninsular War, to Waterloo. Because so much of the book quotes directly the words of the men themselves, it has a realism that is unforced. And if you ever read Sharpe and thought it was far-fetched, think again. Those boys were proper soldiers.

Also 1812, about Nappys invasion of Russia (and the retreat). Again, quotes a lot of primary sources, and the story of the retreat is very harrowing - human tragedy on an epic scale which only reinforces by lack of admiration for Napoleon.

I haven't read it but I understand one of the soldiers gets executed by his own comrades. What did he do?

[DisruptorX]

Empires of the Sea: the Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto and the contest for the center of the world
[IMG]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51vuXEhyr%2BL._SS500_.jpg[IMG]

I read the whole book. About as exciting as action movie script, with plenty of historical details, written like some intense AAR.
This is a little before ETW's time era, from the early 1500s to the late 1500s. The book is made in three parts, a bit like a trilogy.
1 - Siege of Rhodes
2 - Siege of Malta + pirate wars
3 - Siege of Cyprus + Battle of Lepanto

snip.

All fascinating stuff, that I'd recommend anyone read up on. But thats actually stuff that can be recreated in Medieval 2, which lasts well into the late 1500s.

Another good book I read on the seige of Malta was "The Great Seige: Malta 1565".

[RodeoX]

I would add "Master and Commander" although it takes place after the time of the game, it is informative about naval warfare.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_and_Commander

[The_Doctor]

Sharpe.

[Sol Invictus]

I agree, Wellington's Rifles by Urban is a really good book. The Military Experience in the Age of Reason by Duffy is also excellent. From Flintlock to Rifle by Steven Ross is a small book that I never tire of re-reading. I also really like The Age of Battles by Russel Weighley and With Musket, Cannon, and Sword by Brent Nosworthy.

[ljperreira]

Sharpe.

I agree, Cornwall's "Sharpe" series is great. Im actually reading them through again (Im on "Sharpe's Battle"). Ive read them all once before, but since theres 20 books Ive forgotten enough details to make the second time through just as interesting as the first (its been a while since reading them the first time).

[Ishmael]

"Turn around and run like hell"

its a book of unortodox miltary tactics, and two or three apply to or are set in the time period of empire.

[Hosakawa Tito]

Here's an interesting history on the privateer war on British shipping during the American Revolution. I enjoyed it and would recommend this book by Robert Patton.

[Martok]

Thanks for the reference, Hosa. I take it I'd be able to find this under non-fiction/historical, then?

[Hosakawa Tito]

Thanks for the reference, Hosa. I take it I'd be able to find this under non-fiction/historical, then?

Yes you should Martok. Here's a link to Barnes & Noble: Patriot Pirates

[Martok]

Will see if I can find myself a copy, methinks....

[seskins]

The Thirty Years War by C.V. Wedgewood. Great background on the social, political, and strategic concerns at the beginning of the period of the game.

[batemonkey]

The Thirty Years War by C.V. Wedgewood. Great background on the social, political, and strategic concerns at the beginning of the period of the game.

Thanks Seskins! [pops it on crimbo list]


Don't really know much about that period so good to mug up


Alex

[LadyAnn]

The Charge of the Light Brigade was during the Crimean War (March 1854–February 1856). This is an important major conflict contemporary to the American Civil War (1861-1865). This could be an interesting Era for a E:TW expansion pack (E:TW ends with the Napoleonic War, or around 1812).

The Charge was part of the Battle of Balaclava (1854), a battle fought between British and Russian forces. The British Light Brigade has about 650 men. Only 195 survived (with their horses).

There is no need to reinact such a blunder: it was a mistake of command Charge of the Light Brigade Wiki and nothing was gained from that charge.

Anniep

[Fisherking]

The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) is a bit on the early side for this game.

This might be of some interest to you. Maps of Europe and North America in the general starting period. :http://www.euratlas.com/history_euro..._map_1700.html,
http://etc.usf.edu/Maps/pages/7400/7482/7482.htm
http://www.ambrosevideo.com/resources/documents/113.jpg
Native American Tribes
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/unite...ndian_east.jpg
http://www.evolpub.com/ALR/GallatinmapE.jpg


If you have an interest in North American History and don’t know who William Johnson was, you may want to read up on him.

[Oleander Ardens]

I have reread parts of On War and I'm more deeply impressed after the first read. No wonder it is the most influential book in current military thought. New thoughts spring into your eyes everywhere. John Keegan sadly truly exposes his utter ignorance when criticizing it and seems to have never read it. Even for some "scholars" the philosophy of science is a hard beast to tackle, especially for Angloamericans with their sombre reliance on positivism.

[USS Providence 1972]

Castles of Steel by Massie is an excellent book about naval warfare in WWI. Many of the tactics of naval warfare which will appear in this game are discussed in this book.