Armies and Uniforms of the WSS (Vol 2)

As with all my various wargame projects, which as you may have noticed always have incredibly long and overlapping timescales, I am laying the ground by buying books, reading widely, and speculating imaginatively what it would be like to paint and then wargame with such and such an army, before moving egregiously on to the next period. I’ll run out of periods soon.

However, it is fun to collect good books; and we should be thankful that there continues to be a growing interest in wargaming with many excellent wargaming books (and rule sets) constantly being produced. Below is my latest purchase, which was an obvious addition after recently buying Vol 1 from the excellent Caliver Books (see earlier post below).

Right lads!  Don't fire until you see the whites of their....er....cravats?

If you only have the first volume I would heartily recommend getting this book as well. Not only has it twice as many plates as the previous book, but it also describes the war in more detail and rounds out the narrative with more information on actions in Spain and Italy (including the involvement of the Papal states).

The main thing though is that it gives a lot of detail on Spanish armies (of both sides) as well as the armies of Portugal, Savoy/Piedmont plus additional plates covering British and French uniforms that apparently couldn’t be fitted into the first book. There are also some details of the main battles in Spain and Italy and of course the well known engagements in the Low Countries.

This book therefore is an essential purchase for me because although my intention is, for the first time, to build an army of redcoats (and supporting Dutch) to (one day) face Geoff’s (Roundway) French, I think it will be interesting to build up a Spanish army, as they were an effective fighting force, often deployed with French allies, sported some colourful uniforms and also had the opportunity to fight over some pleasant Iberian terrain. Which can’t be bad.