The scent of parquet wax and trapped sunbeams greets you as you prise open the heavy glass door and step inside. This has to be the place, and yet, if it is, where are all the books? Noticing your baffled expression, a librarian, all tweed and twinkling eyes, approaches. “You were expecting more books? Everyone expects more books. At present we’ve only got the two – down there in the WW2 section (he gestures towards a shelf-lined alcove watched over by a large ceiling-mounted model of a Short Sunderland). Additional volumes should be arriving soon. Assuming, of course, visitors like yourself are willing to do their bit.”
A bit of an experiment this week. A few days ago, almost by accident, I found myself reading a 200-page Crusader Kings 2 After Action Report. The AAR was called Stephen and Matilda and purported to be an authoritative history of The Anarchy. Any imbecile (-2 Martial, -2 Intrigue, -2 Diplomacy etc.) could see it was actually a love letter to, and a rallying cry for a certain seriously splendid medieval social-climbing sim.
As well as deepening my admiration for Henrik Fåhraeus & co (I’m struggling to think of a Paradox production more in tune with its period) and helping to determine 90% of my play diet this week, Jim Bradbury’s tome also left me musing on the power of well-chosen companion texts.
Companion texts are the books that should be included in Collectors Editions but never are. They’re the memoirs and histories that plug the holes that riddle even the best reality-rooted games. They drag us deeper into our fact-based fictions than any briefing screen, cut-scene, or unit encyclopedia could ever hope to. Sometimes their words and images alter the way we play, turning participation into something far more intense… far more complicated. I’m convinced the right book can do as much to enhance a good wargame or sim as any pricey peripheral or cutting-edge graphics card.
But how do you go about finding The Right Book? That’s where the Reading Room comes in. With your help, I’d like to turn this issue of FP into a list of the very finest and most fitting sim and wargame-related reads.
There’s no hurry (I’ll be referring to this post and tending it regularly over the coming months) but if there’s a book on your shelf that compliments a favourite sim or historical strategy game especially well, then it would be dashed public-spirited of you to mention it here. Supply the title, the name of the author, the name of the related game or games, together with a brief description, and – within a day or three – I’ll cut-and-paste your tip into the main body of the article. Give it a few months, and hopefully, almost every decent wargame and vehicle sim will have its own edifying entry.
To ensure a good spread of opinions, I think it would be sensible if no individual provided more than two recommendations. Also, to prevent the page from sprawling like an off-duty B-17 ball-turret gunner, I suggest every one attempts to limit synopses to 100 or less words. In a way, the act of recommendation itself should be almost enough. If a book – be it a memoir, a reference work, a novel, collection of poetry, or whatever – is on the list then, hopefully, it can be taken for granted that that book will appeal to the aficionado of the specified game. Quality and aptness are the watchwords here. No blind Amazon picks, please! If you don’t know the book in question as intimately as you know the linked game, and don’t value it just as highly, then hold fire.
I’ll get the ball rolling with my own pair of recommendations. The book descriptions below are not intended as templates. If you’d rather keep things terse and factual, that’s fine. As I said, the recommendation itself is the important thing.
Suggestions will be arranged alphabetically according to their linked games (Achtung Panzer → X-Plane). Eventually each will be illustrated with an appropriate screenshot (If you’d like to see your contribution beneath a particular pic then send the image to me via the email link at the top of the post). Multiple suggestions for the same game are welcome.
The Book List
- AGEOD’S AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
book: The Civil War: A Narrative
author: Shelby Foote
also relevant to: Scourge of War: Gettysburg, the Take Command titles
recommender: Hartford688
“Truly wonderful trilogy. A history that is full of characters, humour, sadness, detail and anecdote. I’m not even an American but have been thoroughly hooked – enough to read over 2,000 pages several times. It really brings the war, the people, the battles to life. Thoroughly recommended.”
- BATTLE OF BRITAIN 2: WINGS OF VICTORY
book: First Light
author: Geoffrey Wellum
also relevant to: IL-2 Cliffs of Dover
recommender: Tim Stone
“With unflinching honesty and unerring skill, Geoffrey Wellum describes his whistle-stop journey from plane-obsessed schoolboy to Battle of Britain fighter pilot. For every technical or tactical insight, there’s a fascinating glimpse into the mental and physical impact of daily aerial combat. The fear, the exultation, the weariness, the grief… it’s all there and it’s all heart-wrenchingly vivid. Essential reading for anyone with even a passing interest in the Battle of Britain, Spitfires, and the reality/unreality of war.”
book: Piece of Cake
author: Derek Robinson
recommender: Retro
“Gives quite a bit of context, shows how much detail Rowan packed into their sim, genuinely funny.”
book: The Big Show
author: Pierre Clostermann
also relevant to: IL-2, IL-2 Cliffs of Dover, CFS3, Wings of Prey
recommender: darkmouse20001
“Best pilot’s autobiography, and best WW2 air combat book by a long way. Makes Geoff Wellum look like a complete noob (no discourtesy intended!). The descriptions of combat are superb.”
- COMBAT MISSION: BARBAROSSA TO BERLIN
book: The Forgotten Soldier
author: Guy Sajer
also relevant to: Close Combat: Cross of Iron
recommender: Swifty
“Slightly overwrought and possibly entirely made up, but entertaining enough to someone brought up reading similarly-begotten Sven Hassel.”
book: The Legion of the Damned
author: Sven Hassel
recommender: MadMatty
“WW2 fans should read anything by Sven Hassel. He’s sold over 50 million books and is generally a great read.”
- COMBAT MISSION: BATTLE FOR NORMANDY – COMMONWEALTH FORCES
book: Tank!
author: Ken Tout
also relevant to: Combat Mission Beyond Overlord, Panzer Elite Special Edition
recommender: Tim Stone
“40 hours of fierce Normandy warfare seen through the eyes of a poetical British Sherman commander. An unforgettable mix of beautifully observed crew banter (Will the lack of Stans, Harveys, and Bookies in WW2 tank sims ever be addressed?) minute details, and shimmering descriptive passages. Finding a standalone copy of Tank! may prove tricky, but an abridged(?) version of the book makes up the first part of By Tank: D to VE Days.”
book: Infantry Attacks
author: Erwin Rommel
also relevant to: The other Combat Missions, Achtung Panzer
recommender: RobearGWJ
“Written from his diary of events during his WWI service, it details his thinking on what junior officers need to understand about leading troops in combat. Each chapter delivers various tactical lessons, and they build into a cohesive whole by the end of the book (and the war). This book was available to both Axis and Allied officers, and was common reading in preparation for combat, so it’s very useful to the player of games that allow the use of accurate tactics. Not a long book, but a very interesting one that will hold the reader’s attention throughout.”
- COMMAND OPS: BATTLES FROM THE BULGE
book: The Bitter Woods
author: John Eisenhower
also relevant to: Close Combat 4
recommender: vyshka
book: A Time For Trumpets
author: Charles MacDonald
recommender: vyshka
- COMMAND OPS: HIGHWAY TO THE REICH
book: A Bridge Too Far
author: Cornelius Ryan
also relevant to: Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far, Close Combat: Last Stand Arnhem, Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich
recommender: Wodin
book: It Never Snows in September
author: Robert Kershaw
recommender: vyshka
book: Peaceful Kings
author: Paul Kershaw
also relevant to: Medieval 2: Total War
recommender: Adam Smith
“It’s early medieval so predates Crusader Kings’ timeframe, but Peaceful Kings is a grand read and provides a splendid overview of the important and oft-ignored link between peace and power.Fitting reading for anything European, post-Roman through to late medieval, as much of it is about a transition of thought regarding political philosophy and the role of the ruler.”
book: Vanished Kingdoms
author: Norman Davies
also relevant to: Europa Universalis series
recommender: fauxC
“Investigations of odd, fleeting and half-forgotten realms which fits perfectly with CKII’s mood of transitory comfort and stability.”
book: England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings
author: Robert Bartlett
also relevant to: Medieval 2: Total War
recommender: Wilt
“Okay, so it’s a textbook. The textbook I’m currently studying, in fact. But after the list of dates at the front, it becomes a fascinating look at the entire medieval worldview, including medicine, metaphysics, conception of time, and the whole complicated arrangement where the King of England was also a vassal of the King of France (and, at one point, of the Pope).”
book: Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World
author: Colin Wells
also relevant to: The Europa Universalis series
recommender: MrStones
“Maybe a little too info crammed but it’s less about war (though it still goes right into it) and more about what clever basterds they all were. 4/5 – Would not crusade against.”
book: The ‘Byzantium’ trilogy
author: John Julius Norwich
also relevant to: The Europe Universalis series
recommender: FunkyBadger3
“Utterly superb (and really much better than the abridged concise version). Would enliven any game that has mention of that most under-appreciated of Empires”
book: The ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ novels
author: George R. R. Martin
recommender: Carra
“It has all the political backstabbing and scheming, and of course, a war form time to time.”
book: Master and Commander
author: Patrick O’Brian
also relevant to: Napoleon: Total War
recommender: Crazy Gweilo
“Any of these series of books are a great introduction to what life was like on a Royal Navy ship during the Napoleonic wars. The movie is great as well. If it doesn’t get you wanting to fire a broadside at pistol distance into the stern of a French ship, well then I can’t help you.“
book: The Fort
author: Bernard Cornwell
also relevant to: Birth of America 2
recommender: Jonith
“A book detailing the Penobscot Expedition during the American Revolution which was the United States’ worst military defeat until Pearl Harbour. Certain read for anyone interested in that part of History (and made me quite proud to be British.) Quite a bit about Paul Revere, how his ride was not strictly accurate and how he got court-martialed for his role in the disaster. Also pretty historically accurate, and anything which is not, Bernard Cornwell has compiled into the back of the book to show what actually happened. ”
book: The Pursuit of Glory
author: Tim Blanning
also relevant to: Empire: Total War
recommender: Faldrath
“The best one-volume history of Europe of the early modern period (1600-1800) I know. It fits perfectly with Europa Universalis.”
book: The Grand Strategy of Philip II
author: Geoffrey Parker
recommender: Joe Duck
“A serious essay that analyses the strategic decisions taken by Philip II during his reign years in 16th century Spain. The general strategy tried to prevail in five different scenarios, the expansion into America, the north of Italy, the south coast of the Mediterranean, Flanders and central Europe and finally the claim to the British crown. Parker describes how each Philip treated each theatre of conflict and why he succeed in some of them but not in others.”
book: Vipers in the Storm: Diary of a Gulf War Fighter Pilot
author: Keith Rosencranz
also relevant to: Flaming Cliffs 2
recommender: gabe
“The book tells the story of Captain Keith Rosenkranz’s actions in the First Gulf War. The link to the games is the attention to detail from the procedures and mostly the way a modern war is fought from the air perspective.”
book: Gates Of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
author: Steven Pressfield
also relevant to: Greek Wars (HPS Simulations)
recommender: spelk
book: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying
author: Wolfgang Langewiesche
also relevant to: All winged sims
recommender: Snuffy the Evil
“As it turns out, the basics of powered flight haven’t changed much in in the past sixty-eight years”
book: Crusade in Europe
author: Dwight Eisenhower
also relevant to: Commander: Europe at War, Time of Fury
recommender: Rusty
“It’s a surprisingly interesting account of Ike’s personal experience with WWII, and one of the few readable stories from someone who has actually held theater command in wartime. Written before celebrity biographies were really a thing, and thus less filtered than something you’d get today (although he was already being talked about as a potential president, so it’s not completely unvarnished).”
book: General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman
author: Ed Cray
recommender: Havok9120
“Story about the man who designed, built, and organized the U.S. Army of the Second World War. As you’d expect for a companion to a game that’s more about organization and planning than war-fighting, the book is the story of building and maintaining a coalition war machine, not a story of intricate tactical battles.”
book: Swords Around a Throne
author: John R. Elting
also relevant to: Napoleon’s Campaigns (AGEOD), Napoleonic Battles (HPS series),
recommender: thebigJ_A
“A comprehensive study of Napoleon’s Grande Armée, from the Marshals to the soldiers who hadn’t yet found the batons in their backpacks. It’s got the formation of the units, the gear and logistics, the campaigns and uniforms. It’s no dry analysis, either, but an enjoyable read full of first hand accounts. One of my favorites.”
book: The Campaigns of Napoleon
author: David Chandler
also relevant to: (see above)
recommender: thebigJ_A
“The Campaigns of Napoleon is a giant dusty old tome (on my shelf, anyway). If you can find it, it’s expensive. Even the Kindle version is like $70. But it covers every campaign Napoleon fought in exhaustive detail, liberally illustrated with maps. This is the bread and butter of grognards. (Goes great with the even rarer “A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars” by Esposito & Elting.)”
book: In Pursuit
author: Johan Kylander
also relevant to: IL-2: Cliffs of Dover, WarBirds, Rise of Flight
recommender: gabe
“Johan Kylander was an obsessive player of WW2 MMO flight sims who decided to write down everything he knew about multiplayer air combat. The basics of energy and angles, maneuvers, and pilot psychology are all covered. And theres a free online version!”
book: Samurai!
author: Samuro Sakai
also relevant to: CFS2. Other PTO combat flight sims
recommender: F33bs
“Playing IL-2 Sturmovik (the version with the Pacific theatre), I thought “Samurai!” was a great addition to the gameplay. It’s also a wonderful and tragic memoir in itself, and the ending is well worth it.”
book: Going Solo
author: Roald Dahl
also relevant to: CFS3 (Mediterranean Air War mod)
recommender: Plopsworth
“Yes, that Roald Dahl. Really brings out the human element of serving in a fighter squadron with a dozen Hurricanes against some five hundred Luftwaffe planes in Greece. Moments of sheer terror blended with travel literature. Men fighting war in paradise, sleeping in tents, landing on dusty fields and noticing how every patrol it seems likely at least someone won’t beat the odds and won’t make it back. Goes well with any sim featuring that wooden solid and sturdy workhorse, the Hawker Hurricane, that gets no love next to its muscled sexier curvier Spitfire stallion.”
book: The Ace Factor
author: Mike Spick
also relevant to: Most other air combat sims
recommender: Torgen
“Mike Spick was a US Air Force fighter pilot instructor in F-16s, but in “The Ace Factor” he presents his insight and explanation of aerial combat theory in a way that applies to all eras. Many actual pilots as well as serious sim pilots have praised this book. I know it made a world of difference to me, as I learned not only what to do, but WHY, enabling me to be a much better sim pilot.”
- JOHN TILLER’S BATTLEGROUND NAPOLEONIC WARS
book: Tales of the Rifle Brigade
author: Captain Sir John Kincaid
also relevant to: HistWar: Les Grognards
recommender: Swifty
“Great great book, set me on track to be a rifleman in real life.”
book: European History for Dummies
author: Sean Lang
also relevant to: The Europa Universalis series
recommender: AmateurScience
“Reading ‘European History for Dummies’ in parallel to a grand campaign in Medieval II has enriched the experience no end (it’s not exactly authoritative. but then, neither is Medieval II).”
book: The Hunters
author: James Salter
also relevant to:
recommender: Retro
“Just beautifully written, makes me want to install that game and take to the skies again.”
book: The F-86 vs. the MiG-15
author: Squadron Leader W. Harbison
recommender: Jason Moyer
book: The Faded Map: Lost Kingdoms Of Scotland
author: Alistair Moffat
also relevant to: Crusader Kings 2
recommender: Moth Bones
“This title deals with north British history from the Roman era through to the coming of the Danes, and its descriptions of how local warlords became big shots by forming warbands and raiding cattle strike me as excellent background for Mount & Blade games, especially mods such as Brytenwalda or the Viking one. Also could be relevant for CK games, though covering an earlier time period. Basically, M&B needs more religion!”
- THE OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR
book: How Great Generals Win
author: Bevin Alexander
also relevant to: The Panzer General series
recommender: Joe Duck
“Bevin Alexander explores the tricks of the trade that make a general become legendary. The reader is taken through history in order to analyse the importance of fog of war and limited information in the battlefield. The different chapters in the book analyse several campaigns from ancient times to the 20th century where the generals were able to use the limited perception the enemy had to maximise their advantage.”
book: The Other Side of the Hill
author: B. H. Liddell Hart
recommender: Swifty
“Those dastardly Jerries and what they were thinking.”
book: Sagittarius Rising
author: Cecil Lewis
also relevant to: Rise of Flight
recommender: Wodin
book: Winged Victory
author: Victor Maslin Yeates
recommender: Wodin
book: The Scramble for Africa
author: Thomas Packenham
also relevant to: Victoria 2
recommender: Megadyptes
“A brilliantly detailed account of the late 19th century colonisation of Africa (obviously).”
book: The Wars of German Unification
author: Dennis Showalter
also relevant to: Victoria 2
recommender: Tac Error
“This is an excellent one-volume survey of Prussia’s wars of unification from the military perspective, but it also incorporates recent (2004) scholarship on the subject. It also puts the wars into a wider political and military context, something I found lacking in books like Michael Howard’s “The Franco-Prussian War”
book: Island of Fire: The Battle for the Barrikady Gun Factory in Stalingrad
author: Jason D. Mark
also relevant to: Close Combat 3, Close Combat: Cross of Iron
recommender: Wodin
Flight of Fury: Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps
author: Major James McCudden
also relevant to: Over Flanders Fields
recommender: Hartford688
“Extraordinary story of a young man who rises from fitter in 1914 to one of the greatest aces of WWI. Strange feeling to be reading his own account of air battles over the Western Front. And chilling to read the last paragraph knowing he was killed a few days later. There is a very nice little hardcover edition available also. Well worth the pennies.”
book: Three Cheers for Me
author: Donald Jack
recommender: Agrippa911
“The first of a trilogy (The Bandy Papers) about a fictional Canadian pilot during WW1 (and eventually into WW2). It’s probably hard to find and not well known (which is criminal) but is damn hilarious.”
book: Rubicon
author: Tom Holland
also relevant to: Europa Universalis: Rome
recommender: Gwyddelig
“Holland writes with an easy, almost colloquial style but he describes the machinations of late republican Rome vividly. You see the gigantic figures of that age as living, breathing, fallible humans (his decription of Sulla is both terrifying and engaging at the same time), with the events they unleashed similarly enhanced in your mind. Playing the already-fantastic RTW with that narrative tale of the Roman journey from SPQR to Empire fresh in your mind means even those little details like event reminders, pockets of rebellion, diplomatic wrangling and personal colour (Catamite: Who would have thought it of the man!) take on new meaning as things you can relate to from actual history. It also displays the love of subject matter and attention to detail that Creative Assembly lavished on the game.”
book: The Boat
author: Lothar-Günther Buchheim
also relevant to: Silent Hunters 2 & 5, Aces of the Deep
recommender: cathode
“Based on his wartime experiences, The Boat follows a patrol of a German submarine during WWII. He captures the boredom and terror of an extended patrol incredibly well and the book is full of relevant technical and tactical information. The film based in the book is also outstanding, grab the extended director’s cut if you can.”
book: Hitler’s U-Boat War (volumes 1 & 2)
author: Clay Blair
recommender: Rusty
“They are extremely dense and not easy reads, but you will find something on literally every combat patrol by every boat in the Kriegsmarine. There’s nothing like them for sheer scale.”
book: Iron Coffins
author: Herbert A. Werner
recommender: I Must stop buying games
“Stunning book by one of the few U-boat commanders to survive the war. You can sense the disbelief in the guys writing as he goes from being the king of the sea to not even being able to cross the harbour without getting attacked. ”
book: Run Silent, Run Deep
author: Edward Beach
also relevant to: Silent Hunter
recommender: Plopsworth
“Pretty similar to Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s The Boat, except from a US perspective. Add in some Ahab and Moby Dick-esque rivalry between the US sub captain and a mysterious Japanese destroyer captain.”
book: Wahoo: The Patrols of America’s Most Famous WWII Submarine
author: Richard H. O’Kane
recommender: F33bs
“I found this in my local library here in Las Vegas and read it extensively while playing Silent Hunter 4. A lot of what I appreciated about that game was the quiet tension that permeated literally every action you made. Probably the only game where the soundtrack was memorable to me for consisting solely of ambient sound effects: bells, wave breaks, sonar pings, underwater white noise. Only a few voice-actors in the whole game and all of it is down to business: from the whispered “Warship spotted” under the red lights to the jovial “Ahead full!” The book really underlines the cold science behind submarine warfare but never neglects the human courage involved in making it all work.”
book: Wake of the Wahoo
author: Forest Sterling
recommender: Marcin
“I see the Patrols of the Wahoo are already there – that book is also fantastic as a top-down, command-level view of the operations of the sub. However, this one is written from the viewpoint of someone considerably lower on the totem pole and as such a much more candid look into life during those patrols. While the author himself admits that some of the conversations and byplays may be exaggerated a bit, I suspect the overall ambiance is pretty much spot on.”
book: Silent Victory
author: Clay Blair
recommender: Rusty
book: Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1943
author: Ian W. Toll
recommender: Fishbreath
book: Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal
author: James D. Hornfischer
recommender: Fishbreath
“As with all good submarine games, SH4 cuts you off from everything outside your boat, excepting the occasional dispatch that hints at the wider war outside your little world. Toll and Hornfischer provide a look at the politics leading up to the war in the Pacific and its first year, as told through the stories of the men who served in the opposing surface fleets”
book: Spearhead Assault
author: John Geddes
also relevant to: The Falkland’s War 1982 (Shrapnel Games)
recommender: spelk
- SQUAD BATTLES: TOUR OF DUTY
book: Fields of Fire
author: James Webb
also relevant to: Squad Battles: Vietnam
recommender: Swifty
“Great account of war-fighting in ‘Nam, tops “Dispatches” in my opinion. Read it as a 15 year old and immediately wanted to enlist as a US Marine.”
book: Castles of Steel
author: Robert K. Massie
also relevant to: The Distant Guns games. Naval Campaigns 1: Jutland (HPS Simulations)
recommender: I Must stop buying games
“Along with the Dreadnought, a fantastic naval/political history of the First World War. Perfect to get you in the mood for the best game on the war at sea since Action Stations!”
- STEEL BEASTS PRO PERSONAL EDITION
book: Team Yankee
author: Harold Coyle
also relevant to: Steel Beasts Gold
recommender: Retro
“Engaging, easy to read, can be replicated quite faithfully within the simulation”
book: The Defense of Hill 781
author: James McDonough
also relevant to: Steel Armor: Blaze of War or any other Cold War tactical wargame
recommender: Tac Error
“It’s an easy to read book inspired by Ernest Swinton’s “Defense of Duffer’s Drift” detailing the experiences of being a battalion task force commander at the U.S. Army’s National Training Center.”
book: Red Army
author: Ralph Peters
recommender: Tac Error
“World War III in Germany, but from the Soviet perspective. The author goes the extra length by having the book focus on “men in battle” rather than on shiny weapons and technology, and avoiding a stereotyped portrayal of the Soviet Army.”
book: The World at Arms: The Reader’s Digest Illustrated History of World War 2
author: various
also relevant to: every other WW2 game
recommender: BooleanBob
“I read (well, re-read) The World At Arms (edited by Michael Wright, Bob Hook and John L Pimlott) as a companion to long Wehrmacht, Commonwealth and Soviet campaigns in the original Steel Panthers. Its history offers an admirable array of global perspectives and narratives, which is appropriate given that its topic is the Second World War; sadly, these efforts at inclusivity are ultimately undermined by the book’s gentle-yet-irrepressible Anglocentrism. Nonetheless, it is a big, bold, beautifully-illustrated book that offers up a fascinating compendium of easily-subsumed core war history and considerately-curated anecdotal asides, and in a pinch could also be used to dispatch any spider up to the size of a tarantula.”
book: Flight of the Intruder
author: Stephen Coonts
also relevant to: Strike Fighters: Vietnam, Flight of the Intruder
recommender: gabe
“Tells the story of Jake Grafton, a Navy A-6 pilot fighting in the Vietnam War. This book (and the movie for that matter) really helped me to see the sheer terror SAMs gave aviators from those days. Since Mr. Coonts was an A-6 pilot, the cockpit procedures, the tactics from the 60′s and 70′s and the life inside an aircraft carrier are well documented.”
book: The Warbirds
author: Richard Herman
recommender: VFRHawk
“Story of a fictional wing of F4 Phantoms that gets deployed to the Gulf. Well predates the actual first gulf war, but again, I believe the author was an F4 pilot in real life, so lots of accuracy.”
book: Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan
author: Eiji Yoshikawa
also relevant to: Sengoku, Shogun: Total War
recommender: alh_p
“I’ve not found a book and game that link so well before. The story narrates the Sengoku Jidai period of crumbling Shogunal power, the rise of Oda Nobunaga and his legacy. It’s essentially the actual story CA and Paradox’s games seek to emulate, in more detail and colour than the games can provide. The first time I played Sengoku it left me pretty cold. After reading Taiko, I get it in ways only my well-fed imagination can be responsible – and that is entirely due to this book.”
book: Shogun
author: James Clavell
recommender: Crazy Gweilo
“This is set in the same time period as the Shogun games, and features a dutch sailor whose ship runs aground in Japan just as the old shoguns rule is failing. He gets involved with a daimyo called Toranaga, a historical analogue of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who in real life founded the Tokugawa shogunate. The book involves Samurai, Ninjas, political scheming, and the Japanese trade with the Jesuits, all themes of the game.”
book: Stalingrad
author: Antony Beevor
also relevant to: Red Orchestra 2, Close Combat 3, Close Combat: Cross of Iron
recommender: Tim James
“I’m trying to find a book-game pairing where the units in the scenario line up with the divisions on a map. I want to follow along with the historical plans and then try my own. Stalingrad didn’t fit perfectly: a lot of it was low level personal accounts. But the units lined up almost 1:1 in the Operation Uranus scenario in UoC. I thought that was neat. So not only is it a great entry-level wargame, it’s a good way to start into military history companion texts.”
book: The ‘Age’ trilogy (The Age of Revolution, The Age of Capital, The Age of Empire)
author: Eric Hobsbawm
also relevant to: Pride of Nations, Napoleon : Total War
recommender: Zephro
“These give fantastic context for the changing political, social and economic situations across this period.”
book: Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World
author: Barrington Moore
recommender: alh_p
“The book which I physically cannot pick up for more than 20 mins without feeling compelled to fire up Vicky 2. It’s a comparative study of modernization in Britain, France, the United States, China, Japan and India. It’s not easy reading but I’m convinced that if the book was put in a press it would ooze knowledge like a viscous fluid. Nothing can compare as a companion to the megalomaniac meddling with your POP’s live’s in Vicky2. I think it’s even better than Hobsbawm’s trilogy for Vicky. It’s especially good at getting under the skin of the social changes involved in modernisation and industrialisation -particularly when trying to understand the social/economic links to politics in the game and out.”
book: Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War
author: Robert K. Massie
also relevant to: Pride of Nations, the Distant Guns games, Steam And Iron
recommender: Megadyptes
“A an excellent book which not only covers the revolutionary design of HMS Dreadnought, but it also goes into a lot of detail to examine the rulers, politicians, diplomatic shenanigans, political and social movements that shaped the paths of both the United Kingdom and the German Empire in the late 19th and early pre WW1 20th centuries. This book really brought the late Victorian and early Georgian era to life, and thus compliments Victoria 1 & 2 brilliantly.”
book: Kon-Tiki
author: Thor Heyerdahl
also relevant to:
recommender: Bhazor
“A book about a hand-made raft that successfully sailed from Peru to Polynesia. It does a great job of describing old navigation techniques and helps drive home how rough the sea can be. The documentary is well worth a look too.”
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