Osprey-M-Arms-msg - 12/10/11


Reviews and comments about the Osprey Men at Arms series of books.


NOTE: See also the files: armor-books-msg, armorers-lst, b-battles-art, p-armor-msg, W-T-Shields-art, Sword-Fighting-art, Wel-Rnded-Ftr-art, Women-Warriors-art.


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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                         Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: faelancaimbeul at gmail.com
Subject: Ansteorra] Osprey Men at Arms
Date: December 7, 2011 1:56:56 AM CST
To: ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org


Just a general question. How useful/reliable are the Osprey Men-at-arms books?


Anyone?
--
Faelan Caimbeul




From: scamiz at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] Osprey Men at Arms
Date: December 7, 2011 2:23:59 AM CST
To: ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org


They don't cite sources, so as a general rule, not very.
They are, however, a good starting point.


-- Andreas
--
Andrew R. Mizener/ Herr Andreas von Meißen
Cadet to Warder Brighid MacCumhal
Barony of Elfsea - Nautilus Pursuivant




From: captain_jasperc at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] Osprey Men at Arms
Date: December 8, 2011 4:49:56 PM CST
To: ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org


It depends on what you are using them for. They are a great guide for building a fighting kit as they all contain extensive illustrations from modern illustrators as well as pics of period sources such as paintings, illuminations, woodcuts and the like. Most are written by those who hold PHD's in their given fields of history so the information is accurate and reliable but only a few I own, such as the Campaign Series actually site sources and contain bibliographies. A great resource for someone looking to find out how a soldier might have lived during their favored time period.


Sometimes you can luck out and find them at Half Price books. Hobbytown USA sometimes have them on our time periods. I usually get mine from Amazon and can find them in good used condition.


Jasper C.




From: clermont1348 at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] Osprey Men at Arms
Date: December 8, 2011 6:53:50 PM CST
To: wolfgangvonsachsenhausen at yahoo.com, ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org


My 2 cents- They're by a bunch of different authors, so it depends on which book. Some are well researched and foot noted, and some are not.  In general, they're a good place to start, and if everyone on the field looked as good as the drawings in those books we'd have taken several large steps toward greater authenticity.  You will occasionally find issues in the pictures that just aren't quite right, a little made up, or anachronistic, but if you use their bibliography to hunt down pictures of the originals you can make your kit even better.


Gaston de Clermont


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