Sources for historicals: where, who, what?

[zoidpinhead 12496xp 1]

As an absolute beginner who wanted to look through a cross section of different fighting forces across all of history I used Blandford’s “Warriors and Weapons of Early Times” and Lilane and Fred Funken’s Arms and Uniforms (2 volumes) published by Ward Lock.  Both date to the early 70s so are not at the cutting edge of research or understanding but they do give a good chronological review of the appearance of fighting men from earliest times to the present day.  As a lad I spent hours looking through the copies I got from the local library and I now have copies here at home which I still turn to, not for historical accuracy but for the lovely artwork and the period snapshots that these summary works give.  Inevitably there is an Osprey that does something similar “Warriors: Fighting men and their uniforms” which will be a bit more accurate to modern understanding, although I’ve not read that one.

After that I always found the wargames magazines were a good source of inspiration, as were display games at conventions.

As a wargamer I’ve always gone with the rule of cool when picking out armies to build.  I enjoy research and have a history degree but for me wargaming is a visual thing, after all I spend hours peering intently at them whilst I paint so I need to stay engaged enough to finish them.  My toys have to look lovely or they just won’t play games in the right style. Once you’ve picked out something that you think looks cool you can turn to specific Osprey Men at Arms but as there are hundreds of those to choose from some easier method of picking a starting point might be preferable.

After that you can start on the deeper research and commenters have given some excellent suggestions for selecting suitable sources.

[khusrauParticipant 1169xp 1]

Have to agree about the Funcken books, the Napoleonic ones were beautiful inspiration. Not always correct, but it would be a wargamer with no soul who told you it was wrong.

And still waiting to hear what ‘historicals’ we are talking about – it’s not MERP or Age of Sigmar, or even the Imperium, there is no one canonical source. Just a variety of competing sources. In which we have to swim.

[admiralandy 1649xp 2]

A while back I recall Richard Clarke of TooFatLardies when talking about starting a new period certainly endorsed picking up some ospreys as a starting point and then checking more into whichever period it is if of interest after the intital review.

 

I have a few tricks for my google shui:

1/ Check Osprey for a title in the period, which normally shows other linked titles.

1a/ Go to Amazon enter that title and look up the entry, you can often get them still brand new but cheaper than direct from Osprey and it will show a here’s what other people bought who got this title, most of the time its linked and could be of help. Amazon entires also get reviewed to help other buyers decide if this or sometimes a better title is referenced.

2/ If got a Wargame Mag covering the period with an article, check the suggested reading/reference which normally gets listed at the end.

3/ Is there a sourcebook covering the period/particular camapign such as done by Warlord, this will often point you into other books, Warlord is normally Osprey but other company sourcebooks can cover various publications.

4/ There’s a how to Wargame this period XX guide, various ones are around these days and normally under a £10.

5/ For historics definately check this site:

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Periods.aspx

Its a 1/72 review site, but under whichever box its evaluated there will be a list of were they got there information which can often point to a wider list and often references a Millitary Modeleing or collector magazine that had run a feature and might be worth picking up if can locate a cheap enough version in the second hand market.

6/ Lastly other good sources aside from Osprey although not always with the purdy pictures in there works:

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/

https://www.helion.co.uk/

 

These are UK, but if across the pond, the plastic soldier and Amazon site for the states can help in research.

[evilstu 15298xp 3]

Further to the above, depending on the period you are interested in it’s also well worth checking out (in reverse chronological order…) Video footage, photographs, contemporary canvases, sketches, woodblock carvings, tapestries and illuminated manuscripts for guidance/inspiration.

Additionally, during Covid many museums and galleries started digitizing collections or increasing their online footprint, so these can also provide good reference material.

There was a pretty good summary article on heraldry in a recent issue of Wargames Illustrated (Issue 399/March 2021) but if you can’t chase down a copy then there are probably similar resources online or books available if you are looking at that period.

Also, terrain. Worth having a look at architecture in your preferred period/locale, and considering that many buildings can be ‘carried forward’ to later periods. ie German gothic half-timbered style buildings can be used for medieval, Peasants, War Thirty Years War, Napoleonics  or 20th century at a push. Similarly, Tudor style half timber will do for War of the Roses through to ECW’s or later ‘alternative’ WW2 scenarios, or anything in Brittany/Normandy on the continent. You don’t have to do a ‘deep dive’ for this, just hit up wikipedia and pintrest for references if you are scratch building, if purchasing then the building probably does what it says on the tin 9 times out of 10 🙂

Finally, movies and TV series, as well as fictional novels or even historical records, can provide inspiration for scenarios. Just be aware that using movies and TV as reference for clothing worn in your particular period may or may not be historically accurate. Of course if you don’t mind and want your ‘heroic’ characters or units to stand out on the tabletop then go nuts 🙂

[wurzzelParticipant 2734xp 1]

If I’m just looking for information on what colours to paint my minis as well as the obiquitous Osprey books I find pintrest to be a brilliant resource. Not only can you get an abundance of images you instantly get images from multiple sources allowing you to check and compare details.

[warhammergrimace 13766xp 1]

Pen & Sword have a £0.99p sale on at the moment for a selection of e-books.

 

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/ebookpromotion

I can recommend SAS Zero Hour

They have regular e-books sales and promotions so it’s worth adding your email on to the mailing list.

 

[warhammergrimace 13766xp 0]

Some of the books I have for review over the next few months

[ninjillyParticipant 11673xp 2]

Most of my weekend was stolen by being an adult so haven’t been on the site to catch up with this thread but I’d like to thank all of you for the fantastic advice.

I spent what little free time I had today on the websites mentioned, looking through the different periods covered and it’s been inspiring. I’ll need to keep my hobby butterfly in check but definitely picked up a few different periods/wars I’d like to look into more before picking one to start for army building.

Thanks for the heads up on that sale @warhammergrimace – turns out they also applied a five for the price of four discount at checkout.

[piersParticipant 25489xp 3]

It all depends how far down the rabbit you want to go… and how much you wish to spend.

 

Ospreys are a great start, yes they can have issues and mistakes, but really they re an excellent starting point.

So too can the Internet, especially some forums and Facebook groups. You would be surprised at the wealth of information available.

It also depends if you have an interest in military history too. For me, military history, wargaming and collecting pretty books are pretty much all the same hobby. But not all gamers need, or want, to tread that path.

So have a think if you are drawn to it from a love of history as well as a desire to game it. It can be very rewarding compiling your own research for a period, battle or unit and adds something extra that lacks in fantasy or sci-fi games.

But its up to you how far you want to go with though. Be warned… its a slippery slope.

 

[orlandothetechnicolouredParticipant 4380xp 0]

Drool

[sundancer 43074xp 0]

Spam bot alert!

please review that users thomasflores  posting history!

@tgu3 @nakchak

[osbad 4279xp 0]

Osprey as others have said is a great place to start.  Be aware that they are not necessarily perfect, but also be aware that those picking holes are often ill-informed themselves, and pretentious know-it-alls, so best ignored!  If you may have miscoloured the facings of your Prussian Jaegers, then it’s up to you how much that bothers you.

A great thing to remember when looking at periods that have “uniforms” is that even if a book says that the colour should be whatever, a) they may be out of date and subsequent research has changed the accepted view, b) they may have made a mistake, due to translation, typo, etc, c) the original source they are relying on may not be accurate (even back in the day reporters made things up to suit their purposes, or simply because they didn’t view accuracy as important), d) just because the official colour was whatever it was, doesn’t mean that in the field after a short time on campaign, that those colours/styles remained in use – battlefield exigency, weather, etc., all took their toll on uniforms, so by the end of the campaign a unit may have looked anything other than “uniform”. e) it’s meant to be “fun” – if research is ceasing to be fun then quit and go with what looks good to you and a quick google can inform!

With that in mind, a good store (beyond Jeff Bezos’ retail empire) to look for books covering all sorts of periods and topics of interest to the military historian and wargamer is Caliver Books: https://caliverbooks.com/ He also tours shows (or did before Covid…) so there is always a chance of a good browse at his stand.  A special shout out to Partizan Press publications (Caliver’s in-house imprint) https://www.caliverbooks.com/Partizan%20Press/partizan_historical.shtml which has some good, accessible guides for uniforms and military dress.  Caliver also do a second hand section, which is always worth a browse.

 

[khusrauParticipant 1169xp 0]

Generally, most of the more recent Ospreys are pretty good. But some must be 30+ years old and scholarship and research moves on.

[admiralandy 1649xp 0]

Infact some Ospreys are getting on for 50+

As regards the pros and cons, if you can paint up something that looks like unit x out of army y in conflict z and be recognisible as such then whatever source faciliated that aim seems jobs a goodun.

@osbad 100% agree with that I’ve picked up a few sourcebooks from Calivers especially niche areas like the Crimean War 1854 – 1856, Texian War Independance and Mexican Revolustion and they’ve a fair few others that don’t get the wargaming coverage tha some Historicals do.

[wolfie65Participant 1240xp 0]

Are you SURE your WWII reference books are non-fiction ?

To pick out just 1 of the most obvious examples, many such books will show German infantry uniforms as grey, when in fact Feldgrau is more like a paler version of olive drab.

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