Osprey Books!

Hmm, how do you guys feel about the New Kingdom Egypt Osprey book?  Is it worth the money?

*bump for L_D*

I hope you have soem osprey books about Medieval Europe, especially England and the Crusades, because as of now I'm not sure which ones are better, becasue there are so much and many include armies already covered in other books.

All of the ones written by David Nicolle are excellent, IMO.  In addition to his Osprey titles, his Medieval Warfare Sourcebook Vols. 1 and 2 are definite must-haves.

An example of a problematic Osprey title would be the Conquistador 1492-1550 by John Pohl (in the "Warrior" series).  Pohl is a research archeologist from UCLA, and yet he cannot even get basic details correct.  For example, when discussing the development of the Spanish Army, he briefly covers other European forces, and he defines the term landsknecht as "Swiss pikeman".  Anyone who is even vaguely familiar with the history of the Swiss and Germans knows how incorrect this definition is. 

I'll go ahead and recommend the Spartan Army Osprey book(Elite series).  If you have put some study into the Spartan army before reading this, I think you'll be pretty pleased with the cavalry section in the book, but the ret should just be a quick review(save for maybe some of the author's views on cuirass usage).  If you are completely new to the Spartan army, then you should get a good deal of info from this.

Well, Temujin pointed out to me that Sekunda can be a bit...controversial.  I didn't notice anything too bad in the Spartan book, though his thoughts on mass decline in cuirass usage I found to be a bit iffy.

I'm curious, TJK, you read any of Richard Brzezinski's Osprey publishings(I figured you might've since he seems to primarily write on Polish armies)?  If so, would you receommend his books?

yes, Osprey books are a bit expensive compared to the text, it's due to the colour plates. Nick sekudna is indeed controversial, i actually found his Elite-series book on the Persians horrible, it's not worth it (not even the plates which are also the ugliest ever, sometimes i think they messed the book intentionally)

lannes, I ahve all his osprey books and they're definately worth it.

Genghis, which oen is it? i recently bought two MaA on them and they're both definately worth it (haven't read them yet though...)

I have El Cid and the Reconquista, The Age of Charlemagne, The Armies of Alexander the Great, The Moors and the Islamic West, and The Portuguese Army of the Napoleonic Wars (3). So far, I've only been slightly dissapointed by the Portuguese Army one. The other ones were illustrated by Angus McBride, so I have no problems with them.

BTW, I just ordered The Thracians; did I make a faux pas? In other words, is it any good? 

I'll do my best. The first one you can see on the cover of Osprey's new book, The Carolingian Cavalryman (check out the website). A Frank in mail, is threatening a Lombard (wearing lamellar armour) at spearpoint, while an unarmored Frank is on a horse. Second plate shows a scene from 800-850. You see a 'scola' in scale armor (the type you see in Carolingian illustrations), a man in pathetic gear with a dog, and an armorican wearing mail (not too different from a norman knight). The next plate shows a scene from the same period, and has an Avar (this one looks good), a Saxon, and a Slav. Next comes Charlemagne himself, then a papal guard (neither of these two are wearing armor), and a mounted infantryman (wearing armor) from the Spanish march (again, not too different from a norman knight; 'cept he's barefoot). Next comes a plate that shows a scene from 850-950. It's on the cover of the Osprey Book itself. Then you see an Italian cavalryman (called gastald wearing a mail hauberk and a conic helmet without nasal bar), an Italian peasant armed with knife and cudgel, duking it out with a North African archer/fiend; scene depicts action from 875-975 (you can see part of this scene in the back cover of the book). The next scene (900-975) has a Magyar in it, carefully hiding from a German knight and an armed peasant. Last but not least, you have a merry scene, dating from 950-1000, located near a castle, of a knight (not much different from a norman, except his helmet has no nasal bar, and his hauberk is splitted at the side of the hip) dragging behind him a rebelious slav (in a nice suit of mail, puttees, and wearing a nice 'eastern' helmet). In the foreground, you see another knight playing the violin, while his strumpet and bastard are playing other instruments (you can see part of this in the back cover of the book).

Well, that's the best I could do without spoiling the fun of discovery. Hope I didn't spoil it for anyone.

Or did you want me to reveal something else?