WWI Strategic Games

[Sir Slash]

I've just finished an excellent book," Home Before The Leaves Fall", a new history of the 1914 French campaign centering around the German right wing armies. The could've, would've and should've's of who did what and why. Lots of good stuff in there. I can't recommend it enough if your at all interested in that time period.

[W8taminute]

^Thanks for the recommendation Sir Slash.  Sounds similar to Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August.

[Bismarck]

Unlike Tuchman, Ian Senior only does the Western Front and gets tactical.  HBtLF would be a good source to make a Tiller WW I scenario.

[Sir Slash]

Agreed. I thought WWI was a boring war but this book has given me a different opinion. I really felt bad for the poor grunts on both sides that were sent straight into battle after an all day forced march, and then the generals often gave-away their gains by ordering a retreat after nightfall. A great study in differing command styles too, Joffre vs Molkte.

[Boggit]

I can recommend Hew Strachan's "The First World War" for a good strategic level understanding. Quite readable too, it was the basis for the TV Documentary Series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jabberjawjapan/The_First_World_War_(TV_series)

Here is a link to the first in the series on youtube - you can get the other links there. If you like it I recommend you get the DVD for your collection.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfehNhgytHg

[panzerde]

I've just finished an excellent book," Home Before The Leaves Fall", a new history of the 1914 French campaign centering around the German right wing armies. The could've, would've and should've's of who did what and why. Lots of good stuff in there. I can't recommend it enough if your at all interested in that time period.

Thanks much for the recommendation.  Added to my wish list, I'll pick it up after I finish Castles of Steel.

[Bill Runacre]

I've just finished an excellent book," Home Before The Leaves Fall", a new history of the 1914 French campaign centering around the German right wing armies. The could've, would've and should've's of who did what and why. Lots of good stuff in there. I can't recommend it enough if your at all interested in that time period.

You've raised my interest in this too, as it sounds better than just another account of the 1914 campaign.

[Gusington]

WWI boring? I can't even look at you.

And now I have to send you the receipt for Home Before the Leaves Fall too.

Damn your eyes Slash. Damn them!

[Sir Slash]

You won't be damning either of my eyes when you get the book. Or if you'd rather drive down here to Fla. you can have my copy. You don't have to look at me if you don't want to.

[Gusington]

WWI boring. Dude...DUDE!

[Bismarck]

I mark up the "boring" tag to the Anglo-American fixation on the Western Front trenches. Movies, plays etc find that narrow topic easy because of low-budget sets.  People wring their hands over the Somme but few mention the division that used novel tactics and made their objective with acceptable casualties.

[Gusington]

HA cheap sets...I never thought of it that way.

[Sir Slash]

It was all the silly-looking helmets I couldn't get past--and the trenches. I'd read about the French '14 campaign and the Battle of the Marne before but never really the how's and why's of how it all came about. This early period of manuver warfare is now a must read for me.

[JasonPratt]

Boggit,

That doc is one of my favorites. Shared it with my parents, too; Mom was especially impressed with it. I knew a little more about WW1 than Mom or Dad, but we all learned a ton from that documentary.

It has its shortfalls--almost nothing about tanks, airpower or subs--but its concentration is on the strategic and political aspects. I have another doc called World War I that I haven't watched yet, which (from the episode description) goes into a lot more detail about the nuts and bolts of the war. But I'm pretty sure it doesn't have rich color film footage from French army correspondents! (That and the color photos kind of blew our minds, too. My eventual collection of several dozen silent films can be traced at least in part to my appreciation for this doc.)

[Martok]

I mark up the "boring" tag to the Anglo-American fixation on the Western Front trenches. Movies, plays etc find that narrow topic easy because of low-budget sets.  People wring their hands over the Somme but few mention the division that used novel tactics and made their objective with acceptable casualties.

For me, at least, I confess this was indeed the case. 

It wasn't til I started hanging around you yahoos that I began to have a greater and deeper understanding/appreciation of what went on outside of battles like Verdun and the Somme.  (In fact, it's only because of you guys that I started to get interested in WW1 games like CTGW.)