Soldiers of the English Civil War (2): Cavalry (Elite, 27)

An outstanding book. Provides a comprehensive overview of Royalist and Parliament's cavalry in the English Civil War. This includes recruiting, organization, and tactics; including eye witness accounts of battles, which may require you to read the King's English a few times to clearly understand what happened. There is also substantial detail on their weapons, which makes you wonder how these soldiers could conduct a war with unsophisticated firearms. I greatly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone looking to obtain an introduction to one aspect of the ECW military in the mid 1640's.

Very informative. Great artwork.

a ok

This is a great reference book on the English cavalry during the English Civil War. This is a book that I have in my library and I refer to the book often when I read other books on Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil War.

As a model builder and figure painter, I feel Osprey's Elite series (#27) on "Soldiers of the English Civil War, Cavalry, part 2 -- as part one is about the Infantry of that famous Cromwellian Civil War era -- to be very helpful. Of particular note are the graphics selected to explain formations for combat and "etching" styled reproductions from that period.Angus McBride as the illustrator has created eleven pages of full color illustrations to shows in beautiful detail the men, the uniforms/costumes, equipment and weapons of the period. As a retired artist, I consider Mr. McBride to be one ofthe best of the human figure illustrators used by Osprey Publishing. However, as an American, I continue to find the writing style, of this and the other of the series that I own, somewhat dry and dull; authoritative yes! But you won't race through the pages of the text. However, I recommend this soft cover to those interested in the specific details of this more cavalier branch of Cromwell's armies, the Cavalry.

Its good to see that John Tincey's English Civil War Cavalry volume - originally published in 1990 - has made it through to the latest Osprey Elite format, for despite the passage of the years it remains a very useful book. Succinct, accurate, fact packed, and handy - it is dubious whether it would be very much different if rewritten today. There are tables, quotations from primary documents, and reproductions of contemporary engravings and woodcuts. (Tincey also provided an introduction for a reprint of Vernon's 1644 'Young Horseman' - and it is a shame that this is now relatively difficult to find). Incidentally the Angus McBride illustrations are some of his best.

Fine example of osprey,Lots of information and excellent colour plates.5*

I do a lot of Scale modeling and I needed this book for a project I am working on. I was surprised at the things I had got wrong withoiut thgis book as refrence material. I Know that my models are now accurate.

I'm a huge fan of Osprey's series on the English Civil war. Solid text, beautiful illustrations--the perfect 'quick read' at under 90 pages. The strength of the series lies in a few qualities:1) the writers are experts in their fields (Peter Gaunt, for instance, wrote the overview volume for the series on the English Civil War--which, as you would expect, is superb; Gaunt says a great deal with few words--the result of years of studying the war);2) the illustrators do exactly that: illustrate the text by providing pictorially representations of the subject at hand (so, when the author describes a cannon, for example, the illustrator provides a detailed painting of a cannon--with all the salient features titled for easy reference);3) the subject of each book is tightly focused (so, in the series on the English Civil War, for instance, there's one book dedicated to fortification, another to artillery, one to the calvary, another to the New model Army, etc.);4) and there are many photographs of period items, too (so, a discussion of the new military tactics that emerged in the decades before the Civil War is accompanied by a sample illustration from a military manual of the day).You actually learn a lesson on the topic at hand as you read the book. It is a very, very effective series. Anyone who enjoys reading English history, military history, or religious history would find the series valuable. Also, homeschoolers would benefit from these books. Each book tells not only about the subject but gives the context as well--the overview volume by Peter Gaunt provided background information on the economy, social setting, and religious milieux of the period.