I pre-ordered this book from Amazon when its forthcoming publication was first announced, but when the planned date was passed, and the book did not appear, Amazon cancelled my order. Time passed ... and recently a new publication date was announced, and my order was reinstated.
RIVER GUNBOATS: AN ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA is exactly what I hoped it would be.
It covers every river gunboat that has been built or operated by the navies (and some armies) across the world. The book is divided up into national chapters that contains entries for each gunboat or class of river gunboats operated by them, and each vessel is described in detail, including its characteristics and service history. Almost all of the entries is accompanied by relevant photographs and/or line drawings, and this should be of great assistance to wargamers and modellers.
RIVER GUNBOATS: AN ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA was written by Roger Branfill-Cook and published by Seaforth Publishing (ISBN 978 1 84832 365 0).
RIVER GUNBOATS: AN ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA is exactly what I hoped it would be.
It covers every river gunboat that has been built or operated by the navies (and some armies) across the world. The book is divided up into national chapters that contains entries for each gunboat or class of river gunboats operated by them, and each vessel is described in detail, including its characteristics and service history. Almost all of the entries is accompanied by relevant photographs and/or line drawings, and this should be of great assistance to wargamers and modellers.
RIVER GUNBOATS: AN ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA was written by Roger Branfill-Cook and published by Seaforth Publishing (ISBN 978 1 84832 365 0).
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteThat looks a very useful title indeed and I can see you churning out one or two models on the back of it!
All the best,
DC
David Crook,
DeleteYou know me too well! Some of the the Danube gunboats are very similar to the model Monitor that I built for GRIDDED NAVAL WARGAMES, and it would only take a couple of hours to build a two or three models of them.
All the best,
Bob
This sounded so good that I immediately high-lit the title and whizzed off to Amazon via the first link in a Google search. The result was a bit odd: same title, same author, same cover illustration but different publisher and ISBN and it turned out a distinctly higher price.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, Amazon stuck an "also viewed" of the right version slap bang at the top of the page so I wasn't confused for long and and the hardback should be delivered tomorrow. This definitely looks to be the kind of title for which you don't buy the Kindle version (especially at the asking price - if it was, say, £5 I might think twice).
Mike Hall,
DeleteWhen I did a search, I found a copy on sale for over £100.00!
I think that the book was going to be published by one publisher, but at some point - after its first publication date was announced - the original publisher withdrew. The new publisher has brought it out with a new ISBN, hence the confusion,
I understand that a PDF version it is being advertised online, but without doing some further investigation I'd strongly suspect that this might be an illegal copy.
All the best,
Bob
I understand that many such sites do not actually have a pirated copy of the book and that their aim is to get you to click on a link that you'd be much safer avoiding. If people must do it - and if it sounds like a pirated version it probably is so respect for authors should make you avoid it - at least be sure that your anti-viral software is of good quality and up to date (though this wont necessarily protect you from files you deliberately choose to download).
DeleteMike Hall,
DeleteAs you might have gathered from some of my recent blog entries, I'm mounting a bit of a personal campaign against book piracy, having had my own books 'ripped off' by over 150 'free PDF' download websites.
Interestingly, since I began my campaign the number of 'free downloads' available online has dropped by about 20%.
All the best,
Bob
Bob,
ReplyDeleteFrom your description this looks to be an excellent and thorough study of all types of Gunboats. There is an Osprey Publication which deals with 'China Gunboats' - this too is an excellent reference. Regards. KEV.
Kev Robertson,
DeleteIt is an excellent book, and I suspect that it will become the 'go to' book about river gunboats.
I have a copy of the Osprey book you mention, and I agree that it is a very good reference book.
All the best,
Bob
Nice looking resource.
ReplyDeleteLee Hadley,
DeleteIt is, and it has generated all sorts of ideas for games.
All the best,
Bob
Methinks that this would be a great "item" for a follow-on "Can we really Save Gordon now we are here at the Gates of Khartoum"? Matrix game or otherwise. I am getting interested in Colonials now :) Another side effect of CoW "idea dispersion"
ReplyDeleteGeordie an a Exile FoG,
DeleteIs this a potential session for COW2019? If so, then it might give us the opportunity to try out Chris Engle's tactical Matrix Game rules, POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS.
Colonials are great. The armies are rarely huge, there are lots of opportunities for narrative wargames, and there are plenty of good sets of rules out there. As to figures ...well the range is huge, from 6mm to 54mm, depending upon what takes your fancy. As you might gather, I'm a bit of an enthusiast.
All the best,
Bob