Medieval Russian Armies 1250-1500: No.367 (Men-at-Arms)

This book was a good read and helpful in painting my Post Mongol Russian army,as normal with Ospreys it is very brief

very good book

A very interesting book: the text is well written and the colour plates are superb.I must confess that I'm a big fan of David Nicolle and Angus McBride: they combine in their work two of my greatest passions: military history and illustration.As such my opinion can be biased but I will try to be as impartial as possible.This book is one of my favourite and I will try to tell why.After a century by century general description of warfare in Russia (from the 13th to the 15th century) we are presented with chapters about arms and armour, and fortresses and siege warfare and, finally, a chapter about the introduction of firearms in Russian warfare.The text must be understood as an introduction to the subject and as such it fulfils all the expectations; it gives a general, although not simplistic, view about the subject: the text is full of details.The stile of writing of David Nicolle is, at the same time, academic and enjoyable to read.My favourite chapters were the ones dealing with arms and armour that were full of interesting facts; it accomplish in giving the reader a very interesting view about the unique shape and use of weapons in medieval Russia, combining the best there were in both west and east.The colour plates by Angus McBride are great, especially three of them: plates C, E and F.Plate C represents cavalry from 1300 to 1375 and the quality of details and atmosphere makes this illustration a superior work: you can almost feel the anxiety of the Novgorod cavalryman facing the other two warriors.Plate E (the one presented in the book cover) represents cavalry from 1375 to 1425. In particular I would like to discriminate the figure representing the mounted drummer: it's splendid.My favourite one, however, is plate F. it represents warriors defending themselves and the atmosphere created by Angus McBride is breath-taking : you can feel the fear, courage and all the adrenaline that those warriors experience; I recommend that you get the book and look at this plate: it deserves the effort.This book although with not many pages uses them all in providing us with many details about Russian medieval warfare. The colour plates represent the best corollary that the great text could have.A great book!