Reviews - September 2010

Reviews - September 2010 This months reviews include the book titles The Battle For Stow by Rob Walters, Wargaming in History: Volume One by Charles S. Grant and Phil Olley and Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean 1620-1914 by J. R. McNeill.

The Battle For Stow Rob Walters Amberley Publishing Paperback, 126 pages. Reviewed by Stephen Maggs ‘Nearly 400 years ago Sir Jacob Astley set out for Oxford from the town of Bridgnorth with a small army raised from Wales and the West.  He was the king’s last hope in a disastrous civil war.  But Astley did not reach the Royalist capital. His force was attacked by Parliamentarian forces near to Stow on the Wold where the survivors were locked in the local church and where blood flowed through the streets’. When I first began reading Rob Walters book I was not too sure of it as the book was only partly devoted to the telling of the civil wars last battle, the remainder about the communities’ activities today.  But rather interestingly the book does relate the author’s journey as he sets out on his 90 mile trek, following in the footsteps of Astley’s army, where possible down the very roads, lanes and tracks to where the Royalist army finally met is destruction.   I have to say I found it a very interesting read, for the battle is used as the backcloth to the battles that are occurring there today, where residents nowadays are more likely to be seen battling it out with pen or placard, between ordinary people and big business, rather than pike and musket.

This book is very well written and entertaining and is complimented by contemporary black and white photographs of the communities, including several interesting ones relating to the battle itself.   I enjoyed the comparisons the author gave with the countries problems during the 17thy century with what we see today, ‘a country racked with problems: food prices soaring as were taxes, the leader of the country was at odds with his own parliament, the Scots were revolting and so were the Irish, religious fundamentalists were vocal, foreign competition was undermining the key industries, and the government was perpetually short of money.   All in all an entertaining read.   www.amberley-books.com

Wargaming in History Volume 1 The Seven Years War Charles S Grant & Phil Olley Ken Trotman Publishing, 2009 Reviewed by Neil Smith As a wargamer, what would you do with £30? If you said you would spend it on some interconnected articles on the Seven Years War, then this is the book for you. Wargaming in History begins with an introduction to wargaming, followed by an equally brief overview of the two players’ armies. We are then into the meat of the matter with a summary and chronology of the Seven Years War. The three featured battles in the book come from the Western Campaign of 1758 fought between the Allied armies and the French. Grant and Olley take us up to their first action at Krefeld on 23 June 1758 with another overview. After a short description of the battle, the authors provide the reader with everything needed to refight what was a very large engagement. Thus, the forces involved are neatly tabulated; the terrain described; initial deployment; and, special rules mechanisms added to create the right effect. The main section on Krefeld is Olley and Grant’s narrative of their refight and that concludes with a debriefing of sorts on how the game went.

The authors repeat the format for Krefeld on their other two engagements, at Sandershausen and Lutterburg, although they are both very different battles. Along the way, the reader is entertained with a “what-if” for Krefeld using smaller forces and a consideration of the use of Freicorps and other distinctive units of the Seven Years War – the latter are very nicely illustrated by Bob Marrion. The whole is wrapped up with a postscript written by Grant that promises more in this series (and according to Phil Olley’s blog is almost ready). The obvious comparison to Wargaming in History is Grant and Olley’s The Wargamers Annual (reviewed in WI…?). I thought at the time the Annual was a potentially good idea and I’m looking forward to the next installment, but I’m not so sure about this latest venture. For a book that claims it wants to inspire new wargamers, I thought Wargaming in History fell short. For that purpose, I would have expected a book on a more commonly known war rather than three peripheral battles in an almost forgotten era, and using soldiers that are very difficult for novices to paint. As for content, the articles were not any better than most articles in current wargames magazines and the photographs for the most part were cluttered and ineffective. My overall impression was the same as watching two experienced wargamers playing with their backs turned but being able to overhear them talking to each other without being invited to play. That said, if you are curious on playing 18th century warfare, and you feel you need a book on the subject, then Wargaming in History might be exactly what you need.

Mosquito Empires Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620-1914 J.R. McNeill Cambridge University Press, 2010   Reviewed by Neil Smith As a wargamer interested in colonial warfare, I have often fallen into the trap of only considering the interaction of cultures when pondering how wars and battles were won and lost. I tend to ignore the intangibles of warfare, as I note do most wargames rules. Yet, whenever a European army fought in a non-European environment its greatest enemy was rarely the people throwing things at them but disease. That would be the case wherever European powers tried to put down imperialist roots, from China to the Congo. So, the recent interest in how environments and ecology have affected war and imperialism has come as a welcome reminder that there was more to victory than who shot who with what and when. In his engagingly written book, Mosquito Empires, J.R. McNeill highlights the often devastating effects of disease on military campaigns in the greater Caribbean from the first European colonization efforts to the 20th century. His thesis is that while disease did not determine success, it did impact the likelihood of successful military operations.

In particular, McNeill highlights malaria and yellow fever as being the two main culprits. He concludes that a “differential immunity” to disease existed between native communities and Europeans who were new to that region. Previous exposure to the environment was of crucial importance, therefore, in how badly disease would affect combatants. McNeill examines the imperial efforts of the five major competing European powers in the Caribbean, the Spanish, Dutch, French, Portuguese, and English. The casualties quickly piled up, particularly those caused by yellow fever epidemics. The English paid a high price in Jamaica between 1655 and 1670, for example, losing almost 80% of its men involved in the conquest. The Spanish lost Jamaica but barely needed to fire a shot to get rid of the audacious attempt by Scots émigrés to establish a Panamanian colony 1698. When the British besieged Cartagena in 1741, two thirds of them were lost within 54 days while the Spanish looked on. One commentator of the time pointed out that a rain shower could wipe out an entire European division. The British also suffered badly in the American Revolution, and the disastrous loss at Yorktown could be counted as much a victory of the mosquito as the Americans or French. Yellow Fever and malaria conspired with other revolutionaries in the Caribbean to defeat Europeans, most notably in Haiti where the French were decimated by disease. The problem of disease lasted to the turn of the 20th century and beyond, affecting the Spanish in Cuba then the Americans who attempted to overthrow them. But Europeans by then were working out the causes of disease and making strenuous efforts to overcome them. A vaccine against yellow fever in the 1930s finally put paid to that problem. Mosquito Empires is a well-argued book that colonial wargamers would no doubt enjoy, and it provides a welcome reminder that we need to consider all the factors when launching our glorious tabletop campaigns.