Army Resources?

[cracker nate]

I know this isn't having to do anything with castles per say, but it seems to fit in the real world a little better than in the LEGO world. Does anyone have a good link for an article or site regarding the structure of middle age armies? I tried to go the classic route and look at my local library, but nothing there was really what I was looking for. Thanks in advance.

[catena]

I just bought Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Art of War" (Da Capo Press) from Borders for just this reason. He talks about the composition and fielding of armies: standing armies vs. mercenaries, how many men in a legion and of which type, where to place cavalry, and some battlefield tactics.

Since this book has long-since passed into the public domain, you can see it at
http://www.constitution.org/mac/artofwar_.htm among other sites.

It's a little difficult to find things since there isn't a table of contents. But fortunately, Amazon.com provides one:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... i=contents

Now, this was mostly Machiavelli adapting ancient Roman techniques to the middle ages. The real reforms of the medieval army were performed by Maurice of Nassau and Gustav Adolphus, but I couldn't find books on them specifically at Borders.

All this said, a Google search on "medieval army" turned up some interesting results.

De Bellis Antiquitatis (medieval armiy orders of battle): http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/armies/medievals.html
This one is awesome for the large variety of ancient and medieval armies, all presented for wargaming.

Internet Medieval Sourcebook:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html
At first glance I didn't see an order of battle, but it might be in there somewhere!

OSPREY! I love this company. They are a great source of information on armies of all kinds, with many illustrations. You can find these at Borders, gaming stores, and your local library.
For example, Medieval European Armies at
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_d ... 457~per=41

Et cetera, et cetera. Google is your friend.

[TwoTonic Knight]

I just bought Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Art of War" (Da Capo Press) from Borders for just this reason. He talks about the composition and fielding of armies: standing armies vs. mercenaries, how many men in a legion and of which type, where to place cavalry, and some battlefield tactics.

This is more about what Machiavelli would like to see rather than what was, and he usually swiped the information or ideas from somewhere else.

All this said, a Google search on "medieval army" turned up some interesting results.

De Bellis Antiquitatis (medieval armiy orders of battle): http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/armies/medievals.html
This one is awesome for the large variety of ancient and medieval armies, all presented for wargaming.

This is the simplistic version, De Bellis Multidudinis is the more ambitious set of rules, but it unfortunately written in a goobledegook known as "Barkerese" after its author, Phil Barker, who has never met a sentence he couldn't convolute into incomprehensiblty.

OSPREY! I love this company. They are a great source of information on armies of all kinds, with many illustrations. You can find these at Borders, gaming stores, and your local library.
For example, Medieval European Armies at
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_d ... 457~per=41

The Osprey books can be quite good depending on the author. I see that Ian Heath has written several, and his WRG published books (I imagine out of print, but the above mentioned Phil Barker is Mr. WRG - Wargames Research Group) are a particularly good concentrated dose of organization, tactics, weapons, battles, and dress for a staggering number of societies, cultures, and nations (Armies of the Dark Ages 600-1066, Armies of Feudal Europe 1066-1300, Armies of the Middle Ages 1300-1500 volumes 1 and 2).

A good specific book currently available is The Viking Art of War by Paddy Griffith.

[g2]

Wow, these were awesome links. I checked them all out, and wasted some more time on the web instead of doing my work. I will try to focus….struggling to focus….need to build a Lego army.

[Legendary_Corsair]

Nice links,as for me I don't know myself but I know some places where I could maybe find out.