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Historische Uniformen Band 1: 18. Jahrhundert
This and the three following books are the famouse Funcken books.
Liliane and Fred Funcken were a Belgian couple which created these wondeful books.
This volume has 156 pages with about 1800 uniforms and flags of the time of Fredrick the Great.
It covers French guard and line, British and Prussian infantry.
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Historische Uniformen Band 2: 18. Jahrhundert
This is the second volume about the 18th century.
It covers uniforms from the French, British and Prussian cavalry as well as the uniforms from the
minor german states, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Russia and Sweden.
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Historische Uniformen Band 3: Napoleonische Zeit
This is the first of two volumes which are the german edition of the famouse book from the Belgians Liliane and Fred Funcken.
This book has about 150 pages and depicts about 1700 uniforms (every second page is a colour table).
The first volume covers the French line regiments, British, Prussian and Spanish troops.
It has very limited text but often also tells something about the differences between the regiments.
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Historische Uniformen Band 4: Napoleonische Zeit
This is the second volume about the napoleonic time from the Funckens.
Like the first one it has about 150 pages and 1700 uniforms. It covers the French guards,
the allied nations of the french (mmainly the minor german states), the Swedish, Austrian and Russian uniforms.
I have to recomend these two books, because you get an incredible amount for a reasonable price
(If you can get it at all). I was lucky to get the four Funcken books for 40 DM on a garage sell!!)
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Die Infanterie-Regimenter Friedrich des Großen
This A4 book (and his brother about cavalry) is from Guenter Dorn (pics) and Joachim Engelmann (Text).
Each of the regiments has two pages: one for its history (commanders, battles, events, ...).
The time frame of the histories is from about 1740 to 1806/1815 as most of the regiments capitulated after Jena/Auerstatt (1806).
The pictures show normally two soldiers and the color (regimental standard) of the regiment and an additional detail (caps, flint locks, ...).
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Die Kavallerie-Regimenter Friedrich des Großen
It is from the same author/painter as the first volume and done in the same style
with the exception that each regiment gets two pages for the history and two pages of color plates.
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Die Kurfuerstlich-Saechsische Armee um 1791
This 240 page volume is a collection of over 200 hand-coloured copperprints from F. J. C. Reinhold (1742-1809).
On each page is one of his pictures and some text which gives additional comments to the scene (uniforms, locations, ...).
I would wish I would have a book like this for each of my armies.
I have never seen such a complete collection of pictures from that time focused on a single army.
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Osprey 152: Prussian Line Infantry 1792-1815
I think ever one knows the osprey books so I can scip any comments on it: 40 pages / 8 color plates.
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Osprey 192: Prussian Reserve, Militia and Irregular Troops 1806-15
48 pages / 8 color plates.
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Osprey 149: Prussian Light Infantry 1792-1815
40 pages / 8 color plates.
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Osprey 172: Prussian Cavalry of the Napoleonic Wars 2 1807-15
48 pages / 8 color plates.
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Uniformen europaeischer Armeen
The fact that it has been tried to cover all european countries and that from 1650 to Worls War I on 300 pages tells everything!
It only picks some uniforms from each state and time and is nether complete or accurate.
But sometimes you get a lucky hit and at one time it was the only book which depicted a uniform a friend of mine looked for!
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Farbiges Handbuch der Uniformkunde (Band 1)
This two volume work from Knötel/Sieg also covers a wide time range (17th century to 1937) and nations.
This first volume covers the German states, Austria/Hungary and Swiss.
The pictures are quite small, lack details and are not very true to color.
But the main advantage is the text (which takes up the majority of the 158 pages).
It describes quite good the development of the uniforms and their main parts.
Especially usefull is, that for each state also the generals and their uniforms are described.
If you have the miniature figure in front of you and you read the corresponding text you are able to
paint it quite accuratly.
It is most useful to check other sources or to give additional input.
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Farbiges Handbuch der Uniformkunde (Band 2)
Like the first volume. This one covers all other nations not described in the first volume.
It has 210 pages with color plates on each.
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The Campaigns of Napoleon
This book from David Chandler is the must have for every one who wants to have a (deep) overview over
the military career of Napoleon. On mor than 1100 pages he describes not only the flow of history
but gives also a look at the way battles were fought. He covers all important battles of Napoleon
in detail and also the time between the various campaigns is not forgotten.
I have only two criticisms: The battles in the second half of the book are not as good described as the
ones at the beginning (yes I know they got a little bit bigger later on, but I'm still missing something).
The second point is that it covers only battles where Napoleon was present (That's OK because of the books title)
but sometimes a little more about the other events would help the to understanding Napoleons actions.
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With Musket, Cannon and Sword
On over 500 pages Brent Nosworthy explains how battles were fought in the Napoleonic era.
He does that very well for each of the three weapon types (Infantry, Artillery and Cavalry).
He is very neutral (not the typical "British are the best") and very scientific.
Because he not only looks at the formal instructions of the different nations but also
takes their behavior on the battlefield and the historical development of the various tactics into account,
his description seems very profound and reasonable.
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Osprey Campaign: Salamanca 1812
Like the man-in-arms series book in the uniforms section it is of good quality.
The progress of the battle, the why and where is explained and a lot of color plates of scenes and battle scemes.
But I think most wargamers know what they can expect from an osprey book.
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The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book
OK, now it is getting complicate. The best about this 580 page volume would be to simply tell about the pros and cons:
+ the amount of data: nearly 2000 battles, skirmishes, clashes between 1792-1815 are listed
+ the clear presentation: every entry is presented in the same schema (Name of the location and date,
type of engagement (battle, skirmish, ...), who won, preciding and following engagement in the same campaign
where is the location (using modern highways for help), first side forces
(down to number of battalions if this information was available) and losses,
second sides forces and losses, a short comment, sources
+ list sources (but it is mostly difficult to get these books)
+ easy to track a whole campaign with the reverences
- no description of the terrain or even a map
- no information about the position of the troops
- some people say that the information about participating forces is inaccurate (cann't proove that claim)
OK, so the book is great for the purpose to find a battle in the right size (numer of troops)
and with the right participants for your next gaming session. But you cann't create a tabletop scenarion
alone from this book. No maps, no initial settup. But it is a good starting point for further investigation.
It is also very interesting to track a campaign with also its smaller engagements listed.
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