This thread has gotten me interested in these books. Oh boy, better be careful with my credit card now. The Admiral is gonna need another bookshelf
!!
Hopefully you can pick up a few of the older titles on the secondary market.
They do complement WAS well. N vanguards for the ship classes, campaigns for the battles etc. The new upcoming fleet series is an unknown at the moment. They had to do something with the naval titles. They couldn't introduce a naval campaign series as a lot of these had already been done in campaign (could and did do it with air campaign as next to no air titles had been done in campaign). I thought they might have zoomed the scope more onto ship classes and give a lot more coverage of a particular class in a new vanguard-ish type way. I've mentioned before about lack of foresight and covering too many ship classes at once in the current new vanguard format (although still good for what you get). If the new fleet series is not a success it will not last long. A few new series have not lasted in recent years and already the future of this years new series Dogfight is looking doubtful. It seems the question of rehashed content is being validated and is the reason why I've avoided it. The one series which came close but has thankfully been saved is Raid. There was plenty of noise for this to keep going and it should see an uptick in publications going forward (although seemingly too early for next year). I have a load of these and it is one of the few series I've gone away from WW2 often. They generally build to a crescendo by the nature of the format/action where as other series are generally a level read. The only one to avoid that I've read is the Los Banos raid. One of the first published but next to no action and did not warrant a full book. Otherwise plenty of naval, special forces titles etc.
"That's right son, join the navy. Get behind a bloody big gun and knock the hell out of somebody"
"We went out, got our arses kicked, then came back again"
This thread has gotten me interested in these books. Oh boy, better be careful with my credit card now. The Admiral is gonna need another bookshelf
!!
Hopefully you can pick up a few of the older titles on the secondary market.
They do complement WAS well. N vanguards for the ship classes, campaigns for the battles etc. The new upcoming fleet series is an unknown at the moment. They had to do something with the naval titles. They couldn't introduce a naval campaign series as a lot of these had already been done in campaign (could and did do it with air campaign as next to no air titles had been done in campaign). I thought they might have zoomed the scope more onto ship classes and give a lot more coverage of a particular class in a new vanguard-ish type way. I've mentioned before about lack of foresight and covering too many ship classes at once in the current new vanguard format (although still good for what you get). If the new fleet series is not a success it will not last long. A few new series have not lasted in recent years and already the future of this years new series Dogfight is looking doubtful. It seems the question of rehashed content is being validated and is the reason why I've avoided it. The one series which came close but has thankfully been saved is Raid. There was plenty of noise for this to keep going and it should see an uptick in publications going forward (although seemingly too early for next year). I have a load of these and it is one of the few series I've gone away from WW2 often. They generally build to a crescendo by the nature of the format/action where as other series are generally a level read. The only one to avoid that I've read is the Los Banos raid. One of the first published but next to no action and did not warrant a full book. Otherwise plenty of naval, special forces titles etc.
I got me 3 books. British Battlecruisers 1939-45 (88), German & Italian Aircraft Carriers (306), Barents Sea 1942 (376).
Read the first two in one day. Enjoyed reading and learning of all the various carriers proposed and naval aviation history in 306. 88 was meh, stuff I already knew a lot from watching tons of YouTube videos. Haven't read 376 yet.
Erwin Rommel - "Give me American supply lines, British planes, German officers and Canadian troops, and I can take over the world".
Yeah, that battle cruiser title is not helped by the fact it was one of the earlier titles. Easily identified by the models on the cover and all the illustrations being in the middle of the book. A lot of the WW2 German naval titles suffer from this as they were pretty much done first. The content/layout started improving in the late 00's really with better illustrations and clearer printed photos, plus the print size has gradually got smaller which allows more content. Some of the early titles are ridiculously big and pretty much large print. Incidentally this has been taken further recently with Air Campaign using smaller print again, which offers the best outlay-content value yet.
From what I can see online that aircraft carrier title has been a bestseller. The North Cape 43 title has also been a bestseller in the last twelve months and would complement the Barents sea title. As well as the written content these newer naval campaigns are offering some of the best pics and maps across all series. A lot more WW2 naval titles have been published recently and strong sales are producing further publications. The highlight for me next year will be the overdue Med campaigns of Crete, Matapan, Pedestal etc. Osprey tend to publish several of a particular theme/geographical area close together and they seem to have switched from the Arctic to the Med for the WW2 RN next year.
The title on the projected Super Battleships due at years end will likely be a good seller too. Be interesting to look at this from a WAS perspective.
The Crete title is very good, well illustrated and the artwork is better than the cover suggests, not too CGI-ish.
Not too happy having to wait until the end of the year for Matapan! although it will time for X-Mas. Slight pause in naval releases at the moment but last three months of year see several key releases inc. Pedestal, RO-Go & IJN Indian Ocean raid. The first two of the new fleet series too, which considering how many are being published next year, will be a key moment. Will probably get the BPF one and see how it is. Hopefully these won't just turn out to be a detailed chronology or a rehash of old material. Seems Osprey are pinning their 'Naval' hopes on this series to be as strong as Air campaign has been for aircraft. Certainly most of the big obvious naval battles have/are been done. The New Vanguard title Warships of the Komandorski islands doesn't bode well for that series, from a WW2 naval point of view. One of the smallest series for pages and the individual ship details will already have been covered previously, leaving not much room the actual battle. Should just have done a Komandorski CAM title. They went the same way for the land stuff tanks of Berlin, D Day etc. Wouldn't surprise me if they did a CAM Komandorski title at some point anyway as they have no issues with overlapping like this. Glad I held off getting the Mavis/Emily VS LIB Duel title as a lot of that will be covered in the combat aircraft title Mavis/Emily speculated and the latter series is far superior. Still no so sign of NV titles for most of the French/Italian units though. Speculated Flower class corvettes, Italian Frogmen Alexandria raid and Madagascar invasion have all seemingly just missed out and will probably be for 2025. Glad to see the series on the Battle of the Atlantic from the naval perspective at last! and wish this would have been done before the air version. Oran/Dakar is overdue but might have preferred these split into two. Still managing to grind out the Pacific carrier raids too.
"That's right son, join the navy. Get behind a bloody big gun and knock the hell out of somebody"
"We went out, got our arses kicked, then came back again"
I hit the big 3-0 on the 12th. Trying to figure out whether to buy minis or books with my red envelope money
Currently in my checkout is
The Blitz 1940-41 Allied warships vs Atlantic Wall (The description of the book wasn't good. I just hope I am going to enjoy reading it and learn a bit why the naval pre-bombardment was considered ineffective/failure) Sunderland vs U Boat Operation RO-Go 1943 USN Submarines vs IJN Anti-submarine British Frigates & Destroyers 1939-45 Super Battleships (This came out before my wedding so I missed my chance to pre-order as my bank account was drained) Cape Matapan 1941
Erwin Rommel - "Give me American supply lines, British planes, German officers and Canadian troops, and I can take over the world".
I also bought German Heavy Cruisers vs. Royal Heavy Cruisers. As much as I am a physical book kinda guy, I purchased Kindle versions so I can have the images from the books displyed up on my large monitor while I'm painting a 3D print.
I hit the big 3-0 on the 12th. Trying to figure out whether to buy minis or books with my red envelope money
Currently in my checkout is
The Blitz 1940-41 Allied warships vs Atlantic Wall (The description of the book wasn't good. I just hope I am going to enjoy reading it and learn a bit why the naval pre-bombardment was considered ineffective/failure) Sunderland vs U Boat Operation RO-Go 1943 USN Submarines vs IJN Anti-submarine British Frigates & Destroyers 1939-45 Super Battleships (This came out before my wedding so I missed my chance to pre-order as my bank account was drained) Cape Matapan 1941
I'm in two minds about the Atlantic wall title, mainly because duel is not among my favorites but also now knowing two more naval D Day titles are coming in fleet. The British frigates/DD title is almost a volume 1 for escort types in all but name, as it covers the hunts and the later war frigate types but not the corvettes/sloops - flowers, black swans etc. The super battleships title is probably the most direct here for a WAS content connection.
"That's right son, join the navy. Get behind a bloody big gun and knock the hell out of somebody"
"We went out, got our arses kicked, then came back again"
I hit the big 3-0 on the 12th. Trying to figure out whether to buy minis or books with my red envelope money
Currently in my checkout is
The Blitz 1940-41 Allied warships vs Atlantic Wall (The description of the book wasn't good. I just hope I am going to enjoy reading it and learn a bit why the naval pre-bombardment was considered ineffective/failure) Sunderland vs U Boat Operation RO-Go 1943 USN Submarines vs IJN Anti-submarine British Frigates & Destroyers 1939-45 Super Battleships (This came out before my wedding so I missed my chance to pre-order as my bank account was drained) Cape Matapan 1941
I'm in two minds about the Atlantic wall title, mainly because duel is not among my favorites but also now knowing two more naval D Day titles are coming in fleet. The British frigates/DD title is almost a volume 1 for escort types in all but name, as it covers the hunts and the later war frigate types but not the corvettes/sloops - flowers, black swans etc. The super battleships title is probably the most direct here for a WAS content connection.
Ah dang, was hoping it cover the Black Swans and Flowers.
Well...I bought all that I listed. Will get them by end of the year which is okay. A birthday and Xmas gift in one
Erwin Rommel - "Give me American supply lines, British planes, German officers and Canadian troops, and I can take over the world".
You will be like a kid in a sweet shop when you get all them!
That is actually what I have been doing for the last few years. Any titles I'm looking to get in the last 2-3 months, I wait and get the m for x mas. Who said Christmas is just for kids!
I've seen a couple of the artist plates for two of the upcoming titles though, which will test my patience. Ithuriel ramming an italian sub in Pedestal and a combined fleet bombardment focusing on HMCS Uganda & HMNZS Gambia in the BPF title.
Going back to the New vanguards, a Flower title is seemingly loosely in the pipeline leaving a volume on the Black Swan, Bittern class sloops etc. to be done.
"That's right son, join the navy. Get behind a bloody big gun and knock the hell out of somebody"
"We went out, got our arses kicked, then came back again"