Sunday, December 10, 2006
The Greatest Army (and Navy) Stories Ever Told
The Greatest U.S. Army Stories Ever Told: Unforgettable Stories of Courage, Honor, and Sacrifice (Greatest)
The Greatest U.S. Navy Stories Ever Told: Unforgettable Stories of Courage, Honor, and Sacrifice (Greatest)
By titling his books “The Greatest US Army Stories Ever Told,” and “The Greatest US Navy Stories Ever Told,” Iain C. Martin makes a bold claim, given the services’ long and intersting history. Still, I have to believe that Martin meant it as more than hyperbole, and that he as spent a great deal of time saparating the wheat from the chaff.
So are these the Greatest Army and Navy Stories ever told? I don’t know, but they are certainly very good and have provided me with many good evenings of reading.
Each of the stories is an excerpt from a different period, and are arranged chronologically. Martin has done a good job not only of representing the various wars, but also of offering multiple points of view. In each volume are the writings of commanders, foot soldiers (or sailors), reporters, and historians.
Of the two, I think that I enjoyed the Army stories more (although that could be the result of a relative lack of knowledge of Naval history). Beginning with a recount of Washington’s Crossing by historian David Hackett Fisher, the Army stories include selections from Revoutionary War soldier Joseph Plumb Martin; Mexican American War correspondent George Wilkins Kendall; Civil War nurse and author Louisa May Alcott; Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Ulysses Grant; Chief Red Horse; Spanish American War Correspondent Richard Harding Davis; World War II correspondents Andy Rooney and Ernie Pyle; General Ridgeway’s account of Inchon, Reporter Joe Gallawy on Vietnam; plus pieces on the first and second Gulf Wars, and the infamous “Black Hawk Down” incident in Somalia.
On the Naval Side were John Paul Jones; historian Nathan Miller on the Constellation - L’ Insurgente engagement; Historian James de Kay on Stephen Decatur’s attack on Tripoli; C.s Forester on the Battle of Lake Erie; James Fenimore Cooper on the USS Constitution; Herman Melville on his days as a seaman; reports from the Monitor and Merrimack; Captain H.D. Smith at Mobile Bay; George Dewey; a harrowing account of sub disaster; an excerpt from “At Dawn We Slept”; Commander Walter Winslow’s account of the Java Sea; George Feifer’s history of the Kamikaze; Commander Frances Omori’s account of navy nurses in the Korean War, an account by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew of a Cold War submarine game of cat-and-mouse; and an excerpt from Chuck Pfarrer’s “Warrior Soul” about Navy Seals.
Each selection is put into its proper perspective with a short introduction and postscript by Martin. These are well done, and helped to fill me in on some things I didn’t know or had forgotten.
I have absolutely no quibble with the pieces selected except to say that we perhaps did not need eight pieces on the Second World War in the Army volume (and a similar number in the Navy volume). We may have been better served, perhaps to have selections from some more less-well covered periods. I am sure that there are some great storeis from the Boxer Rebellion, the Moro Wars, (or somesmaller,less known naval escapades) etc. But then, maybe Martin did consider tem and they were judged not to be among the “greatest.”
In the end, I think that these are two teriffic books, and worth adding to your shelves.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
History Channel International
I’m fortunate enough to get both the Hisory Channel and History International and over the last several months, I’ve largely abandoned the former for the latter.
Tonight, for example, while The History Channel offered yet another pedestrian episode of Modern Marvels (which I’m sure is on at least half the time), History International offered a fascinating archaeological show called “The Naked Archaeologist.” On that episode, the host offered a fascinating theory about the possibility that early Christians were at Masada, and examined the archaeological evidence.
I must, however, be the only one that’s down on the History Channel’s current programming schedule, since they continue to offer more of the same. Someone - I guess a lot of someones out there—must like it.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Old Negro Space Program
If you’ve had it up to here with Ken Burns’ pretentious, self indulgent “history” films (and even more so of his less-talented imiatators), then you probably will enjoy The Old Negro Space Program. It’s got all of the trademark Burns trouches, including the overstuffed, unintentionally funny “experts.”
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Warhammer Historicals Legends of the Old West: Showdown
I just got my copy of Warhammer Historicals’ Legends of the Old West: Showdown and after flipping through it, wanted to offer a few impressions.
The primary thing you’ll notice is that it’s thin—both physically, and in content. There just isn’t much there.
The first two pages introduce a couple of new weapons: the lever action shotgun, whip, sword and several Chinese martial arts weapons. The next four are dedicated to a new posse—the Tong, plus stats for “The Man With No Name”, and the “Masked Avenger” (the Lone Ranger and Zorro, for example).
After that, there are three brief scenarios, a Dodge City campaign, a page of new special equipment rules, and a page with four prestige skills.
There is also some modeling advice and gorgeous pictures.
But what I bought the book for—and what I had big hopes for—were the new period settings. The book promises settings for the Wild Bunch, Prohibition, Gangs of New York, The American War of Independence, The French and Indian War, The Civil War, Naponeonic Wars, War of 1812, and Maximilian Adventure.
Unfortunately, those are pretty disappointing, too. The period information mostly consists of a large paragraph of elementary school history explaining the setting, and a couple of paragraphs of vague information on how to adapt the rules to the period. The adaptations consist mostly of telling you which of the other three rules books you should look to for rules ideas, and suggesting a couple of posse or individual profiles to look to for a starting point.
There’s nothing here that I hadn’t already figured out myself.
I’ll take a closer look at it when I use the rules to run French and Indian War and Boxer Rebellion games in a couple of weeks, but for now I rate this as a waste of money.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Praise For Gamers History
I just wanted to pass on a bit of praise for the Gamers History Bookstore in Fort Morgan, Colorado. I ordered a copy of Terry Gore’s Medieval Battles from them late last week, and it arrived today (Tuesday) —far faster than I expected. I was worried that it would come in an envelope that my mailman, in a fit of enthusiasm would try to stuff it in our box, but my fears were not realized. The voume arrived in perfect condition in a stiff, thin cardboard box.
Gamers History offers good, speedy service. I would use them again.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Beowulf and Grendel
I just got done watching Beowulf and Grendel (2005) and thought that it was an excellent retelling of the poem. Notice that I said retelling. It is, of course, not a literal translation and has many modern sensibilities. But all, in all, I really liked it. The costumes were excellent, the acting first rate, and the scenery interesting.
Of course, while watching it, I began to think about doing a wargame based on the story. My idea is to do a variant of Steve Jackson’s Ogre game. In it, you’d have a single monstrous figure (Grendel, the Ogre, would thus be the Ogre) versus a horde of lesser, one-hit point warriors (the GEVs). The gamemaster would play Grendel—who could soak up lots of hits in various locations—and the players would command the human warriors.
I have the Saxons/Vikings ready to play ... but I’m going to need an appropriate figure for Grendel.
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About the Miniature Wargaming Hobby
Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.
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