Great Northern War Compendium

This new book has had a lot of Hyp and I have been considering buying it for a while. However at £110 it is about double the most I have ever paid for a book, even in two volumes.


However the finance department \(The missis) decided to put half to and I gave in to temptation. The book has arrived today and I thought I would share my first impressions.


First of all its pretty big, as you would expect at the eye watering cost, below are the two volumes next to an Ebor Saxon General who seems happy enough they have arrived.

In terms of content I have to say first impressions are that its fantastic. First of all each participant (even the Turks and Prussians) have a whole section or their army, below is the page for the Swedes. The artwork is really first rate.

There is a uniform section, this has a colour guide to all the main arms, foot horse, artillery and officer uniforms followed by pages of specifics for individual regiments as pictured below. There are even loads of colour pictures for the elusive Polish army. My one criticism so far would be that the Russian Army receives less coverage for some reason. Maybe I will find out more when I get stuck into reading them? 

Each campaign and major battle is covered as you would expect with maps, battle plans, major characters and orders of battle. There are other smaller actions and events covered too such as the Don Cossack revolt I was previously unaware of.

The book also has whole sections on foreign policy, interesting side lines like the role of Pastors in the Swedish army and Cossack raiders in the Russian army.

All in all I would have to say first impressions are that this is money well spent and a read I will enjoy for a long time to come.