A Boost to the Reading Plan

One of the nice things about this hobby blogging mullarkey is that it puts us in touch with fellow hobbyists, first on-line, and in some cases 'In Real Life', if distance permits.  I was in London the other day, and it was a pleasure to spend a lunchtime with fellow blogger Chris aka Nundanket. We had a good chat about various hobby and non-hobby subjects, and he returned my lend of the Christopher Duffy 'Festschrift' essay collection The Changing Face of Old Regime Warfare ( the story of which was an interesting episode last summer, which I blogged about at the time ) .   That was good enough, but there was a great bonus - Chris is a big fan of Duffy and an afficianado of The Austrian Succession /  Seven Years War period, and he lent me a volume in return, which turns out to be rather good.. 

 

As you can see, it is By Force of Arms, Christopher Duffy's second volume of The Austrian Army in the Seven Years War. This is an absolutely splendid book, in the large format hardback published in the USA by The Emperor's Press in 2008. It's a year by year  account of the campaigns of the Austrian army from 1756 to 1762, plus Appendices on the Military Geography,   biographical sketches of commanders  and lists of regiments, and there are many maps ( I suspect by Duffy himself, something of a trademark ) and some illustrations. From the look of it, this has pretty much everything the interested reader  - and wargamer - could want!   So, it goes to the top of the reading list.. It has made me think about that list, and come up with some priorities for the near future.

 

First I need to finally finish Reed Browning's The War of the Austrian Succession, which I have been pecking at for several months.  As mentioned previously I wanted to 'study it properly' and try making proper notes - unfortunately the note-taking has been a little bit of a chore, and getting through the book became a bit too much like work, with the result that there always seems to be something more fun to do! I will persist with it, but I may reduce the note-taking. I can use By Force of Arms as an incentive, if I don't allow myself to start on the Seven Years War until I've dealt with the Austrian Succession! Plus of course it's a logical sequence to follow.

I have already in my possession Instrument of War, the first volume of Duffy's Austrian Army, which looks to give exhaustive detail on the raising, equipping, training, supply, etc etc of the army. I think I will try to read that after volume II - partly so Chris gets his book back this year (!), but also there seems a logic to it - learn what the army did, then get more detail on how their  efforts  were maintained.  

 

Finally there's the Festschrift that started this whole thing -it being a series of short essays, I think the trick will be to pick it up as and when, and pick out a piece that takes my fancy. Peter H. Wilson on the Wurtemburg Army of the Seven Years War might be interesting.

Of course that's quite a bit of reading, so I am not putting a deadline on any of it! Meanwhile I seem to have got interested in Alexander ( as opposed to Frederick ) the Great  too, so the reading list may alternate between the two areas - in particular  Phil Barker's  Alexander the Great's Campaigns and Peter Connolly's Greece and Rome at War need my attention.  

 

We'll see how it goes; now that summer is here, at least there is the chance for some pleasant reading interludes in the garden.   

As to actual wargaming, it's well past time I set up a game here, but in the meantime I am keenly anticipating  a 'virtual'  game next week, which I was lucky enough to be invited to join by Jon Freitag of Palouse Wargaming Journal fame. Many thanks Jon, it will be interesting to try the ACW! That will no doubt be excellently reported  by Jon next week, and possibly less well by me, 

So a big thank-you in advance to Jon, and thanks again to Chris/Nundanket for a pleasant lunch and the  fantastic generous  lending of  By Force of Arms !    In the meantime keep well, everyone.