French Napoleonic Line Infantry by Emir Bukhari 8.5x6", 104 pages, 25 large plates and other line drawings. Almark paper cover £ 1.75; hard cover £ 2.50 I imagine that this book will be eagerly sought by the Napoleonic wargamer for whom it will undoubtedly be a much handled work of reference on French Line Infantry. It is divided into six sections. 1. Tactics and Organisation which includes valuable diagrams of various French battle formations. 2. The Infantry at War tells of the daily routine of infantry of the Napoleonic period - remember, you cannot formulate realistic rules if you do not know what it was really like! 3. Line Infantry Regiments - in note form this lists every Line Infantry regiment of the French Army, discussing their evolution and history from the Revolution up to Waterloo - this must have taken quite a lot of research. 4. Dress and Equipment - speaks for itself in every sense of the word, discusses various companies such as Fusilier, Elite, Grenadiers, etc. 5. The Heads of Column, concerning the sappers, the standard-bearers and high-ranking officers and considerable detail of their dress. 6. Finally The Musicians. All well illustrated by plates such as that shown at the top of this page, with eight pages in colour. The American West by Robin May and G.A.Embleton. (8.5 x 6.5", 143 pages, 8 colour plates and innumerable 2 photographs and illustrations. Hard cover - £ 3.25, soft cover - £ 2.00. Almark.) If you are a devotee of the Old West (and if you have ever rubbed up against the Skirmish Wargame lads of Bristol then you must be!) then this is a very nicely put together little book from Almark Publications "Focus on History" series. The book is divided into The Mountain Men; Wagons Westwards; Gold Rush; Cowboys; Law and Disorder; Transportation West; Frontier Army; The Indians' Last Stands; The End of the Frontier with appendices on Books for Further Reading and Some Contemporary Events. The pictures are excellently chosen and are most interesting. In fact, even if you are not a cowboy lover then you will find this a good read and you may well finish up fighting Western Gunfight wargames! Battles for Wargamers Series From Model and Allied Publications Limited I have received the following BELLONA booklets in their "BATTLES FOR WARGAMERS" series by Terence Wise. The 2nd Punic War (75P) contains a painting guide of the Roman and Carthaginian armies. Then details of the Battles of Metaurus; Lake Trasimene; Cannae; Baecula; Ilipa and Zama, with a map for each and a photograph of a wargame proporting to represent the battle under description (but fought on a featureless terrain except for back scenery). There is a Roman Organisation Guide and details of their equipment and notes on converting Airfix figures. The Roman Civil War (90p). With a map and photograph of a wargame accompanying each battle, the the First Spanish Campaign; the First African Campaign; Dyrrachium; Pharsalus; 2nd African Campaign: Ruspina; the Second Spanish Campaign: Munda. Notes and Organisation on Dress and Equipment. The Peninsula (90p). Dealing with the later stages of the War, this book begins with Organis French and Allied forces and then, accompanied by a wargime photograph and a ma Battles of Costalla; Mays; Ronceavalles; Sauroren; the French and Allied Bidassoe plus a painting guide. World War II: Tunisia 90p). Tables on Allied and German vehicles; aircraft and artillery, this book, again with photograph and map for each battle given a summary of the campaign and then describes the Defence of Thala; Sidi Nair and Kzar Mozouar; Fondouk; El Kourzia; Longstop Hill; Cap Bon plus an organisation guide for British and German forces. I was delighted to see my Regiment, the 51st R.T.R. from 25th Tank Brigade shown at the Battle of Pondouk where, supporting battalions of the Hampshire Regizent,we lost 11 Churchills and had 20 men killed and wounded. Terry Wise points out in his Introduction for each of theme books that "The aim of this series is neither to compete with more academic studies of military history nor with books which deal with how to play wargames, but simply to supply wargamers with concise, basic facts about sets of battles within one theatre or campaign, thus providing him or her - with the raw material from which to reconstruct battles from history." The New Luftwaffe in Action Edited and illustrated by Lou Drendel, written by Peter Doll and Hermann Dorn This is a Squadron/Signal Publication, produced in America but believed to be available from Almark in this country. This issue is packed with photographs of the present-day German Air Force together with 1974 organisational details. If you are the real modernist wargamer then this book is for you. US Indian Wars Bill Thurbon, that incredible bibliophile, has read two good books on the U.S. Indian Wars. WAR CRIES ON HORSEBACK by S.Longstreet, which covers all the main campaigns; Fetterman and Custer; Apache Campaigns, Wounded Knee and the murder of Sitting Bull. THE FETTERMAN MASSACRE by Dee Brown. This is an account of the whole campaign against Red Cloud, from the foundings of Fort Phil Kearny to its final abandonment. The one campaign the Indians won. Incidentally Kenneth Ullyatt, who wrote a good novel on the Fort Phil Kearny affair and the Fetterman Massacre (NORTH WITH THE SIOUX), has written another about Custer's diaster CUSTER'S GOLD. In both he uses "Portugese Phillip" (the man who rode from Phil Kearny to Reno for help after the Fetterman massacre) as a character. Incidentally, anyone who thinks of wargaming U.S.-Indian Warfare will find very useful the Dover soft-cover edition containing 173 (black-and-white) drawings by Frederick Remington, the famous artist of the American West, If you want to make Indians or U.S. soldiers, here is the book for you. Medieval Castles Philip Warner's MEDIAEVAL CASTLES is a useful introduction for our medisevalists. The Johnnies Lastly, if you want an interesting account of a lesser known incident of the War I have just come across THE JOHNNIES. It is an account of the small force of English and Anglo-Burms Forestry Officers, who were engaged as intelligence officers behind the Japanese lines in Burma in 1942 to 1945. This is by Lt.-General Sir Geoffrey Evans and was published in 1964; I have just found it on our local library shelves. A real-life adventure story. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter #146 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1974 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com