Search Results for: osprey

Dark Osprey: The Shadowy Worlds of Cthulhu, Alien Bug Hunts, and a Nazi Moonbase

Over the last forty years Osprey Publishing has built up a sterling reputation for its long running series of illustrated military history books. Role-players, wargamers, and even casual readers like me have enjoyed them, and used them as reference guides. Black Gate author Joseph McCullough joined Osprey a decade ago, and since then Osprey has produced a growing volume of books of interest to gamers and genre fans alike, including Steampunk miniatures rules (In Her Majesty’s Name), the Frostgrave tabletop skirmish…

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OMG They Found It! Osprey’s The Catalaunian Fields AD451

It’s the one thousand, five hundred and fifty sixth anniversary of the Battle of the  Catalaunian Fields, otherwise known as the Battle of Chalons! Not heard of it? AD451. Just as the Roman Empire fades into the Dark Ages. At the Catalaunian Fields near Chalons, a grudging alliance of Romans and Germannic tribes confronts Attila the Hun’s confederation of Huns and yet more Germannic tribes. Hundreds of thousands of warriors grind through a Ragnarok-grade battle on the scale of Waterloo but fought with cold steel……

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Review: Steampunk History – Osprey’s Confederate Cavalryman versus Union Cavalryman

Leather duster, shotgun… sword and lance. That’s pretty much an iconic Steampunk image, but it’s also a Confederate Cavalryman, which is why I asked Osprey to send me a review copy of their Confederate Cavalryman vs Union Cavalryman – Eastern Theater 1861-65 (Combat) – I am these days at least a 50% Steampunk author, after all. I was expecting insights into what happens when “modern” Victorian cavalry armies clash. I got that, but also a sense of what cavalry warfare feels…

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Like Osprey But Corsets and Khaki with a Whiff of Steampunk: Great War Fashion by Lucy Adlington

First, take a look at the young woman on the cover, “A despatch rider in the Women’s Royal Airforce enjoying a tea break while seated on her motorcycle, 1918.” She’s most likely in a warzone. She’s probably not had a bath for a while. Might have lice. Any men in her life have a good chance of not making it to Christmas with all their body parts, or at all. She’s living under military discipline. And, as she rides around,…

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Review: Three Fictional Non-Fiction Books from Osprey

Kurtzhau – aged 11 – squees. “It’s got all the tropes. They’ve obviously read Scott Westerfield…!” I’ve just unpacked Osprey’s Steampunk Soldiers: Uniforms and Weapons from the Age of Steam, one of three review copies acquired as a result of me ruthlessly parlaying a short story gig – Frostgrave tabletop game, coming soon, it rocks – into a pipeline of free books to review. OK — Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! — moral hazard! Integrity in heroic book reviewing! Disclaimer! I wrote a short story for Osprey. I’d…

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A Review of Osprey’s Dragonslayers

Dragonslayers: From Beowulf to St. George By Joseph McCullough Osprey (80 pages, May 2013, $17.95) Osprey is justly famous for its Men-at-Arms series. Probably almost everyone who’s a military history buff, historical gamer, or historical fiction writer has at least heard of the series, which illustrates the arms, armor, capabilities and customs of different forces from different eras in extremely well-researched detail. Need to know just how fast the Mongolian cavalry from the era of Genghis Khan moved, or what…

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Coming Soon from Osprey Publishing: Blackbeard, Tombstone, The Nazi Occult, Steampunk and Horus and Set

Osprey Publishing is best known for its long running series of illustrated military history books. Over the last forty years, Osprey has covered every era of warfare from the earliest recorded battles in Ancient Egypt right up to today’s Special Forces. Modellers, role-players, wargamers, authors, and even professors have all used our books as reference tools. For the last seven years, I have been lucky enough to work for Osprey Publishing, and although my job has changed greatly over the years,…

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Osprey Adventures

What if one day you woke up and found yourself in charge of a publishing imprint? You had financial backing, the support of an experienced production and marketing team, and a wide-open remit. You also had the weight of a lot of expectation. Well, about a month ago, this happened to me. My name is Joseph McCullough, which some of you may recognize from Black Gate. At various times I have worked as an author and an assistant editor for…

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Worldbuilding Once and Future Fake News: Not Really A Review of Singer & Brooking’s LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media

What if I told you that the Sack of Limoges in Froissart… never happened? Well, OK, you’d look at me blankly. After a moment you might ask, “I’ve never heard of Froissart. Where is that? French Canada?” I’ve been reading LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media by Singer and Brooking. It describes the emerging world of Internet “news” where news passes from person-to-person on social media, no source is uncontroversially trustworthy, and where both information warriors and click-bait farmers are uninterested in…

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The Real Tartan Tat Army! A review of Better is the Proud Plaid by Jenn Scott

What if I told you that the Highland army at Culloden in 1746 wasn’t really a “Highland” Army? What if I also told you that apart from a few front-ranking testosterone-poisoned sword and targe men, it fought like any other 18th century European army and that at least half the men looked like regular soldiers draped in tartan tat — sashes, tartan trews, a better quality version of the kind of stuff tourists still pick up in Edinburgh’s gift shops…

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