A flight of Ospreys
May. 21st, 2005 03:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
So lately I've been reading a bunch of Osprey books about various topics on WWII. I mean a lot of them. Like:
They're not terribly long so it's been a quick read through most of them. And, as you'd expect, they're mostly technical overviews of the subject in question. There's not much in the way of plot or character development and surprisingly few annecdotes.
I got them in part because of my ASL games and in part because I had the idea to run a Godlike game where players where Marine Talents island-hopping through the Pacific. Sadly, the reading has kinda dampened my enthusiasm for this for a couple of reasons:
* The books on Tactics were largely focused on British, German and US troops and pretty much ignored Russian or Japanese efforts in this regard.
* The books about the island hopping campaign and Japanese island defence brought home how generally outclassed the Japanese were. True, they were the most technically advanced force in the area which made most of their Asian conquests possible and they did drive out the Americans in the Philipines, but that appears to have been due more to surprise and American unpreparedness more than anything else. Once the sleeping giant woke, it just put brought the full force of wartime production to bear and the Japanese couldn't keep up. In most of their island campaigns, they drove off any hope of resupply or reinforcement and just sqeezed out the defenders and in some cases, they just established a strong beachhead, built the strategic airbase or naval facility they needed at the island and ignored the defenders unitl the end of the war.
Also, I was having some difficulty envisioning a Godlike campaign in the Pacific that wouldn't just turn into Charlie Company with superpowers. Charlie Company is fun and all, but the role-playing elements are kinda minimal (powerful becuase it's you, but not nearly as deep as most RPGs). Godlike just seems like a poor choice for what should really be a miniatures game.
Still, it was a good and interesting read and people who are intersted in the period should give it a look.
later
Tom
So lately I've been reading a bunch of Osprey books about various topics on WWII. I mean a lot of them. Like:
- World War II Infantry Tactics: Squad and Platoon by Stephen Bull
- World War II Infantry Tactics: Company And Battalion by Stephen, Dr. Bull, Peter Dennis (Illustrator)
- World War II Infantry Anti-Tank Tactics by Gordon L. Rottman, Steve Noon (Illustrator)
- US World War II Amphibious Tactics, Army and Marine Corps, Pacific Theater by Gordon L. Rottman, Martin Windrow (Editor), Peter Dennis (Illustrator)
- Japanese Pacific Island Defenses 1941-45 by Gordon Rottman, Ian Palmer (Illustrator)
They're not terribly long so it's been a quick read through most of them. And, as you'd expect, they're mostly technical overviews of the subject in question. There's not much in the way of plot or character development and surprisingly few annecdotes.
I got them in part because of my ASL games and in part because I had the idea to run a Godlike game where players where Marine Talents island-hopping through the Pacific. Sadly, the reading has kinda dampened my enthusiasm for this for a couple of reasons:
* The books on Tactics were largely focused on British, German and US troops and pretty much ignored Russian or Japanese efforts in this regard.
* The books about the island hopping campaign and Japanese island defence brought home how generally outclassed the Japanese were. True, they were the most technically advanced force in the area which made most of their Asian conquests possible and they did drive out the Americans in the Philipines, but that appears to have been due more to surprise and American unpreparedness more than anything else. Once the sleeping giant woke, it just put brought the full force of wartime production to bear and the Japanese couldn't keep up. In most of their island campaigns, they drove off any hope of resupply or reinforcement and just sqeezed out the defenders and in some cases, they just established a strong beachhead, built the strategic airbase or naval facility they needed at the island and ignored the defenders unitl the end of the war.
Also, I was having some difficulty envisioning a Godlike campaign in the Pacific that wouldn't just turn into Charlie Company with superpowers. Charlie Company is fun and all, but the role-playing elements are kinda minimal (powerful becuase it's you, but not nearly as deep as most RPGs). Godlike just seems like a poor choice for what should really be a miniatures game.
Still, it was a good and interesting read and people who are intersted in the period should give it a look.
later
Tom
