Literature tips

[Friedrich]

I found that it is quite interesting to watch yourself playing medieval, for myself Medieval inspires me to read some books about the faction or the time I played with/in or vice versa, some books just inspire me to play some rounds in Medieval or VI.

So it would be nice to find some new books or hear some comments bout it.

First one, very thick one and a standard-setting hictorical work about the crusades:

Steven Runciman, History of the Crusades

Decent book, although strict historical very nice to read and a lot of background information to give you a more satisfactional play with Medieval.

[Gregoshi]

There are a couple of threads in the past month or so that disucss books. I think if you scan the Monestary forum, you will find some more good suggestions.

[Longasc]

For English and German readers, I recommend:

A Booke of Days: A Journal of the Crusade
http://www.amazon.com/exec....=507846

or (German)
Der Kreuzritter. Das Tagebuch des Roger von Lunel.
http://www.amazon.de/exec....3838125

I think it is often not historically correct... because it is written from someone who claims to be the descendant of the Hero, Roger de Lunel. And believe me, sometimes he did not tell the truth... but it is really good

I liked this review at Amazon, so I will post it here:

The Booke of Days is the story of a minor lord from Southern France who joins the first Crusade. His name is Roger of Lunel. Roger joins the Crusade because the Pope has promised absolution for any who fight, and kill, for Christianity. The irony of this is not lost on Roger who keeps a diary of his journey. At first Roger examines the ideas of the crusade even as he compares them to the reality. Knights who ravish women in southern France, wear body parts cut off from their enemies, and murder other Christians who don't follow the proper pope. These are the people who will save Christianity?

With this start, I was concerned that his book might become an anti-Christian or anti-West book. It is not. It is a realistic look at the Crusades which describes the good and ill, of all sides. A Booke of Days also describes the people, the customs, and the times, better then any book about this period I have encountered. Some of the twists of the personal story seem stretched, but I liked the story so much I will was willing to believe. In the end, rather then being a book about the Crusades, it is a book about Roger of Lunel, set in the Crusades.
I liked Roger, so I loved this book. I also loved the hundreds of small touches which show the effort and the artistry of the author. If this book really isn't true, it could be. And anyone who has even a passing interest in History or Romance should read it.

[Kekvit Irae]

For those really interested in medieval units, Ospery has some of the best books on individual units in the Man-At-Arms section. I love these books, and use them as a painting guide for my 25mm miniatures, and for insperation for new unit mods

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

Trial by Battle and Trial by Fire by Jonathan Sumption. It gives a fantastic insight into the 1st and 2nd phase of the 100 years war and Kekvititrae is right,the Osprey books are very cool indeed with Angus Mcbride making the books even cooler with some of the best battle pictures i've ever seen.

[The_Emperor]

The Fall of Constantinople is good to read about... There are a few books on the subject, a great last stand.

[Friedrich]

Well thanks for the link to osprey publishing, they have some decent books, its quite hard to get good books about military history here in Germany, only chance is amazon can get it.

About that Roger de Lunel, I didn't find it quite good, too flat and simply put wrong. My mistake was to read that historical book from Runciman at the same time, so each and every error came up...

[Brother Derfel]

Quote[/b] (kekvitirae @ May 23 2003,18:57)]For those really interested in medieval units, Ospery has some of the best books on individual units in the Man-At-Arms section. I love these books, and use them as a painting guide for my 25mm miniatures, and for insperation for new unit mods

What rules do you game to? I have 15mm and 25mm DBA medieval/dark age armies. As well as many 15mm armies in other periods.

I to use Osprey for my many miniature wargaming armies, they give a good overview of the military in question, and have some fantastic colour plates in the centre.

[Kekvit Irae]

For 15mm gaming, I use DBA, although it gets a little boring after awhile since there is virtually no difference between the different country units. For example, France's unit Knights during the 100 Years War is exactly the same as the First Crusade's unit of Knights, with no variation except for paint jobs.
Therefor, I incorporated my own unique-unit unit ruleset that hails directly from Age of Empires II: Age of Kings. English Longbowmen can fire farther than normal bows, every Hun has the ability to get increased bonuses versus built-up fortifications, Mongol Manglodia are Light Horses that can fire bows from horseback (since the Mongol Army miniatures have bows for virtually every horseman, but that cant attack unless in melee), Chinese has the Cho-Ku-No which can allow their archers to fire up to three times (each time after the first gaining a progressively higher to-hit penalty), Viking Berserkers which may reroll any one dice if the original result breaks them or kills them (but only once), and so on.
Mind you, this was way before I first played MTW

For 25mm gaming, I play a vartiety of games, from Warhammer, to Warhammer 40k, to Squad-based rules on WWII you can find on the internet, to Mordheim, to WWII ruleset using Warhammer40k or Mordheim rules. Oh, and the occasional Warhammer Ancients, since I like to play my Mongol army or Celtic Warriors.

For a smaller scale, I also played Micro Armo(u)r (by GHQ) and loved it. It's a WWII tank-warfare game played with tanks that are even smaller than your usual 15mm minis, hense the Micro part. The rules to shoot someone may be daunting, but the game is very solid and fun to play, especially when you get some terrain out on the playing field and make it look like your tanks are rolling down the streets of Berlin or the deserts of North Africa.
My father likes playing Micronauts and other navel warfare games.

For those who are interested:
GHQ Micro Armour and Micronauts
Warhammer and the many incarnations
DBA Online

[Brother Derfel]

Hey, i used to use DBAOL. What was your screen name?
I may have been before your time, my user name was Marlborough, i used to be a Mentor as well.

[Kekvit Irae]

I havent used DBAOL in a *long* time. My father may, but that was like the first time I visited the site this year, and only to grab the URL.
If you want, I can see if my father still has that unit list for AoEII DBA units if you are interested. Unfortunately, he lives up in Huntsville, I live down here in Montgomery. Quite a long distance :P