Somebody interested in 18th century warfare?

[HistoryPlayer]

Believe me or not, I started to gain interest in 18th century warfare when I purchased Empire Total War for the first time in 2010 in dvd. Back then, I was astonished about the videos of naval battles in youtube, this made me to purchase Empire Total War.

Since then, I have been purchasing and downloading (legally through archive.org , a website to download historical books written up to 1910) books covering 18th century warfare. At the moment I own the following books in paperback I would strongly recommend to anyone interested in 18th century warfare:

The Military Experience in the Age of Reason - Christopher Duffy
https://www.amazon.com/Military-Experience-Reason-Christopher-Duffy/dp/113899586X

The Anatomy of Victory Battle Tactics 1689-1763 - Brent Nosworthy
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870520148?SubscriptionId=0QCHRJVSKG6F3BRGBNG2&tag=pbs_00005-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0870520148

Fighting Techniques of the Early Modern World AD 1500-AD 1763 - Equipment Combat Skills & Tactics
https://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Techniques-Early-Modern-World/dp/B005X4ECVQ

(covers only a part of 18th century warfare but really interesting evolution of weapons and tactics in Early Modern Warfare)

Fontenoy, Britain & The War of Austrian Succession, 1740-1748, With a Short Account of the Battle of Fontenoy
https://www.amazon.com/Fontenoy-Austrian-Succession-1740-1748-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B076GMYGJL/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549821544&sr=1-2&keywords=fontenoy

Lobositz to Leuthen: Horace St Paul and the Seven Years War, 1756-1757
https://www.amazon.com/Lobositz-Leuthen-Horace-1756-1757-Revolution/dp/1911096672/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549821590&sr=1-4&keywords=leuthen

The Battle that Shook Europe: Poltava and the Birth of the Russian Empire - Peter Englund
https://www.amazon.com/Battle-that-Shook-Europe-Poltava/dp/1780764766/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549821630&sr=1-1&keywords=poltava

The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough - David Chandler
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Warfare-Age-Marlborough-Revised/dp/1885119143/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549821672&sr=1-1&keywords=marlborough+chandler

and I recently purchased this book:

The War of the Austrian Succession - Reed S. Browning
https://www.amazon.com/War-Austrian-Succession-Reed-Browning/dp/0312125615/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549821775&sr=1-1&keywords=war+austrian+succession

And even more books in pdf downloaded from archive.org

The uniforms, infantry formations, fire by rank, the strict organizational structure, changes in warfare in respect of previous centuries and especially big battles such as Dettingen and Poltava makes this century a great pleasure to read about this fantastic period.

Despite the great number of drawbacks I have regarding Empire Total War, is still the Total War title I play most and my favourite. Empire Total War has been in 4 computers and will stay in the future computer I am planning to purchase this year of the next year. In my current computer I can play it with everything maxed but some lags sometimes but eventually I will get a good gaming computer that can handle the game as it is.

[Hat8]

That is nice to hear. Hopefully your interest goes beyond just the fighting.

Its an interesting period for more than just that.

[Devil Doug]

@HistoryPlayer - Good topic for discussion, and I find your collection to have some interesting titles to it, but particularly the first three mentioned, so I had a few questions about them.

Do they include good maps for reference?
Do they contain explanatory diagrams of the various battle formations used?
Have you been able to mimic those tactics in Empire Total War?

I've been playing this game for ten years, using the battle formation tactics of Hannibal Barca, as outlined in a book entitled, "The Enemies of Rome," and I've never actually found a similar book that covers the time period of this game, which is why I ask.

[HistoryPlayer]

Originally posted by Devil Doug:

@HistoryPlayer - Good topic for discussion, and I find your collection to have some interesting titles to it, but particularly the first three mentioned, so I had a few questions about them.

Do they include good maps for reference?
Do they contain explanatory diagrams of the various battle formations used?
Have you been able to mimic those tactics in Empire Total War?

I've been playing this game for ten years, using the battle formation tactics of Hannibal Barca, as outlined in a book entitled, "The Enemies of Rome," and I've never actually found a similar book that covers the time period of this game, which is why I ask.

The third title "Fighting Techniques of the Early Modern World AD 1500-AD 1763 - Equipment Combat Skills & Tactics" includes explanatory diagrams of pike & shot era formations with good and easy to understand sketches. This book also includes battle maps, similar to those of "Line of Fire" TV Show by History Channel of famous battles of this period such as Lutzen, Rossbach, Blenheim.

The second title "The Anatomy of Victory Battle Tactics 1689-1763" by Brent Nosworthy includes an Appendix with Formation Diagrams at the end of the book covering pikemen, layouts of french battalions / companies and prussian cavalry.

The fifth title "Lobositz to Leuthen: Horace St Paul and the Seven Years War, 1756-1757" by Neil Cogswell includes several battle maps and orders of battle. This is a very detailed and complex book with about 700 pages covering just a part of the campaigns of the Austrian Army in the Seven Years War. There is even a second book: "Olmütz to Torgau: Horace St Paul and the Campaigns of the Austrian Army in the Seven Years War 1758-60" by Neil Cogswell that seems to be as complex as the first one with about 700 pages covering the remaining campaigns of the Austrian Army in the Seven Years War and I guess with the same detail level.

The seventh title "The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough" by David Chandler includes diagrams of English and French battalion organizations from 1700 to 1745, British platoon firing system in 1709, French battalion deployment in 5 ranks, infantry formations in the late 17th century and battle maps. This book is probably the most complex I could find with very detailed stats and technical data of infantry weapons and artillery.

Despite the first book "The Military Experience in the Age of Reason" by Christopher Duffy lacks of maps and diagrams, is still a reference to understand the warfare of this period, because includes accounts of the soldiers experience during this period and summarizes all european powers. Also has lots of references of military theorists such as de Saxe and Santa Cruz.

Another book I am interested to read is Gustavus Adolphus by Theodore Ayrault Dodge which seems to cover most of the swedish campaigns of the Thirty Years War and extents up to the first years of the Marlborough era

https://www.amazon.com/History-Art-War-Gustavus-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B00KI9HO4S/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1550044560&sr=1-3&keywords=gustavus+adolphus+dodge

I didn't try these military tactics in Empire Total War yet, because I am a fairly casual player. I try to balance gaming and history and sometimes I just prefer reading a good book. My favourite military periods are 17th century, 18th century and 19th century. I am almost sure that there should be really good books covering Napoleonic warfare as well and I do have two books that I didn't read yet focused on Austerlitz and Waterloo battles, both in spanish because is my mother tongue and I feel sometimes lazy to read in english.