Very comprehensive, very colourful, clear informative text which tells the reader the difference between what is speculation and what has been found. Good period range.

This book far exceeds anything I have seen in describing and showing how to build authentic looking and authentic ACTING clothes, armour, and weapons of the Viking/Medieval era. If your in the Society for Creative Anachronism and your persona is viking/norse, YOU NEED THIS BOOK!!! Excellent pictures of authentic pieces and comparisons to modern replicas, along with sketches on how everything was made. If you want to look good on the warfield, this is the book to help you do it.

I found this book to be excellent. It included the late Roman Empire equipage that I had missed from the series' other book on the Romans, as well as the Scotti and Pict raiders, the Saxon invaders, the Vikings, and the Normans. The focus of the book is on how a re-enactor might recreate the arms, armors, and clothing of these groups and I, as one who likes to draw ancient soldiers, found it to be most useful.

This book lays out the basics on knightly weaponry, accompanied by very good sketches showing the differences between the various weapons. While the text is simple and obviously written with a young audience in mind, it's actually a lot more detailed than it seems. The processes involved in making scabbards, hilts and inlays are all explained in the "Swords and Knives" section, which is about half of the book. The evolution of various weapons is also covered, although not quite in as much detail as I would have liked. Overall this is a good starting point for research on the subject. Note, however, that armour is not described at all, except to note how armour interacts with the various weapons. I know the writer has other books in this series, on the subject of armour, horses, and knightly battle. Those are probably worth checking out as well.

This book defines its goals clearly and does a good job reaching them. Most of the nomenclature is defined in a glossary in the back which makes it a good book for beginners.

I would rate it as especially good for, say, a 10 to 14 year old, just starting the subject, as it is easy to read, brief and to-the-point.

The Knight and His Weapons is a solid, if brief look at a knight's armaments in the twelve to fifteen hundred (though, earlier weapons are paid less mind). The introductory fiction was nicely done, and tied in well with the rest of the book, which is broken into several sections, each dealing with a particular type of weapon:

The sword and knife section was initially somewhat mundane, but Oakeshott spends a good deal of time on the construction of the sword, which isn't something I've seen elsewhere in as much detail.

The last section deals with early firearms, and while interesting, much less detail was spent there than on other topics (as is appropriate). I would have preferred the space used for something else.

For me, the best part of the book, by far, was the first to sections which deal with polearms, maces, etc. Few books cover these weapons at all, and Oakeshott does an excellent job, detailing each weapon's evolution and tactical use. Even if you know all there is know on swords (unlikely), these tow sections are worth the cost alone.

Overall, an excellant book. It is written in a casual but precise way, and the accompanying scetches are very nice. Definitely worth it.

I was completely disappointed by this book. In the 512 pages only 114 were text or tactical diagrams, the rest were photos of equipment. If you like pictures of WWII Panzers, this book may be for you. If you want much info on tactics, this book isn't it.

As the title implies, the book covers the variety of tactics employed by German small armour units in the Second World War. However, this book is not a dry analysis of armour tactics, far from it. It is a lavishly illustrated photobook as well. The book contains over 600 photographs, a good majority of which have not been published before. Photo reproduction is very good and most of them are printed at a maximum of 2 per page with a good smattering of full page prints. On a 9" x 12" page, this means large clear images where lots of details can be seen.

Chapter summary:

Chapter 1: Offensive Operations

Chapter 2: Defensive Operations

Chapter 3: Unit Movements

Chapter 4: Reconnaissance

Chapter 5: Command and Control

Chapter 6: Logistics and Maintenance

Chapter 7: Combined Arms Operations

Chapter 8: Life in a Tank

Chapter 9: Training and Tank Gunnery

Chapter 10: Armour Tactics - Today and Tomorrow

Each chapter includes a large amount of images which illustrate the points being discussed in the text. For example, in the Logistics and Maintenance chapter, the various scenarios and situations are shown with vehicles in various states of recovery and repair. Those who are looking for interesting photos of the Famo with Sdh116 trailer have come to the right place.

The book is filled with images that I have never seen in print before, some of which have been added as thumbnails at the bottom of this page. The coverage is extensive ranging from recovery vehicles to every class of panzer produced during the war. The amount of unique Panther images is breathtaking as well as one particular image I found of a late Panzer IV Ausf J equipped with Thoma shields in action, not as usually seen sitting knocked out on the side of the road.

Throughout the book there are a large variety of diagrams showing actual combat actions with reference to what particular scenario is being discussed in the text. The author's own personal experience with tanks is evident as his writing style is much more "hands on" and easy to read as opposed to being too theoretical, academic and dry. A refreshing change and quite welcome to those of us who haven't had the chance to serve on a tank.

Some people seem put off from spending [this price] on a book, but yet are content with spending [more] to own 4 inferior quality soft cover reference books filled with small photos that have been published elsewhere numerous times. Page for page, photo for photo this book represents excellent value for anyone even remotely interested in armour tactics or would like to add 600 interesting German WWII AFV images to their collection.

As the title implies, the book covers the variety of tactics employed by German small armour units in the Second World War. However, this book is not a dry analysis of armour tactics, far from it. It is a lavishly illustrated photobook as well. The book contains over 600 photographs, a good majority of which have not been published before. Photo reproduction is very good and most of them are printed at a maximum of 2 per page with a good smattering of full page prints. On a 9" x 12" page, this means large clear images where lots of details can be seen.

Chapter summary:

Chapter 1: Offensive Operations

Chapter 2: Defensive Operations

Chapter 3: Unit Movements

Chapter 4: Reconnaissance

Chapter 5: Command and Control

Chapter 6: Logistics and Maintenance

Chapter 7: Combined Arms Operations

Chapter 8: Life in a Tank

Chapter 9: Training and Tank Gunnery

Chapter 10: Armour Tactics - Today and Tomorrow

Each chapter includes a large amount of images which illustrate the points being discussed in the text. For example, in the Logistics and Maintenance chapter, the various scenarios and situations are shown with vehicles in various states of recovery and repair. Those who are looking for interesting photos of the Famo with Sdh116 trailer have come to the right place.

The book is filled with images that I have never seen in print before, some of which have been added as thumbnails at the bottom of this page. The coverage is extensive ranging from recovery vehicles to every class of panzer produced during the war. The amount of unique Panther images is breathtaking as well as one particular image I found of a late Panzer IV Ausf J equipped with Thoma shields in action, not as usually seen sitting knocked out on the side of the road.

Throughout the book there are a large variety of diagrams showing actual combat actions with reference to what particular scenario is being discussed in the text. The author's own personal experience with tanks is evident as his writing style is much more "hands on" and easy to read as opposed to being too theoretical, academic and dry. A refreshing change and quite welcome to those of us who haven't had the chance to serve on a tank.

Most people seem put off from spending... on a book, but yet are content with spending... to own 4 inferior quality soft cover reference books filled with small photos that have been published elsewhere numerous times. Page for page, photo for photo this book represents excellent value for anyone even remotely interested in armour tactics or would like to add 600 interesting German WWII AFV images to their collection.

Highly recommended.

The pictures were good, maybe just ok, hence I'd give it two stars. I hate to say it but the writing seems childish and empty, lacking any good detail, it seems to merely outline several conflicts without ever really getting into the human aspects of the period. Buy it only to satisfy a morbid sense of curiosity, see the pictures, and make sure you can return it. Better yet, find the pictures elsewhere.

As a leader and commander of Heavy Panzer TIGER units, the author Willi Fey, (as did many of his comrades), faced tough battles against overwhelming odds day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year uninterupted. Like a bloody trail, the journey of the young Panzer crews leads through the hottest spots of the battlefields of Europe. This book contains some of the best accounts of Waffen-SS armor in action in print. From the stunning recapture of Kharkov in 1943 to the last King Tiger in action in Berlin in 1945, this book has it all. The photos graphically convey the action of the many battle fronts; as they were obtained to a large extent from the personal collections of the surviving veterans. Despite the defamation of the German soldier, that continues unabated some sixty years after events described, their daily examples of courage described in this book continue to shine through the lies and distortions of the victors.

This book, is very good, don't get me wrong. It is longer then the mage core book infact and most of this is in-character information. This is slightly annoying because of the amount of information one needs to wade through.

The book is organized into a few key sections. One details paradigms, new tradition factions and even pan-trandition groups. Another chapter has "crunchy" stuff, like wonders and new backgrounds. An interesting thing about the Wonders is their are things called Tradition swords. Each one has a magical ability that makes it a very powerful weapon.

The most noted chapter though is the history chapter. It is giant! It has information on different time periods and regions. Most notable is that if they were talking about Vikings they'd give examples of traditions who have people with Viking related paradigms. I'd call this info overload.

This book is very good.... but well... it's way to much useless information hiding important things. White-Wolf could have used it's writting space better.

Okay, so the Reckoning has come and gone. This book provides a lot of additional backgrounds and information of the Traditions, some on the Crafts, and A LOT on specific factions in the Council. It brings things up to speed and makes thing seem a little more modern. Also, it has some new backgrounds, traits, and cool stuff. If you play Mage, you need it.

The characters were not very deep. Her name was a bit tiresome. I liked the dog.

I enjoyed A KNIGHT IN RUSTY ARMOR, and found that I couldn't put it down. Travis and Ruanna are likeable, understandable characters thrown together in a winter storm. There is a lot of humor and warmth in this story, and I couldn't predict the surprise twist at the end. I would recommend this romance to men and women alike.

Though it contains very little text information or anything new on the subject, this thin book is full of many different pictures documenting the life of the SS Panzers Division. Good for those looking for pictures from the war and little else.

The writting style of this book is not in depth and dry. But that is not what is promised. The purpose of the book is to show previously unpublished SS photos. They are placed in chronological order showing SS motorized units. Though all the pictures are not clear; they are authentic and very interesting. And contains great illustrations of vehicles and uniforms. Purchase the book for the pictures.

Fortunately, this was not as disappointing as it could have been - I had a chance to peruse this before buying, and realised that this was simply not worth the money.

While it is a somewhat comprehensive list of what's out there, the most damning failing is the lack of any hard information. I do not want a tiny line drawing accompanied by a terse sentence or two vaguely descibing it; at the very minimum, I want useful information such as length and weight (in the case of a sword, for example) - and preferably a lot more.

In the end this book provides very little of value - other than shocked amazement that one can take up so many pages with trivia.

This book is fantastic. I use it all the time when i am doing research for my next historical miniature. This book is a comprehensive study of all artifacts and iconography that exist of the crusader era. If you want date a piece of armor, look it up. If you want to see if a certain piece of armor was used in germany, look it up. This breaks down all the known articfacts by county and then lists them in order by date. It helps greatly. The line drawings help give you a visual picture of what the articacts look like and where they can be found. If you have the means to travel as part of your research this book would help you greatly because it gives the exact locations of all the arifacts and you can go see them for youtself and if travel is not an option, this book is very valuable a means to know exactly what does exist out there and gives you a visual picture. Its best used as a means to back up other references. Great book. The only reason it didnt get 5 stars from me is the fact that it could give more detail about some of the objects like actual pieces of armor or swords, i.e, what they are made of, weight, height ect.

If you want to have your armor be as authentic as possible, backup your kit with archeological evidence! This book has meticulous records and line-art drawings of everything. If there was a church drawing of a knight, this book has it in there. Don't be Farby, this book makes kit research easy and documentable.

Personally, I think this was a big mistake on WW's part. While I like the Akashic Brotherhood and many other things, to make such a big difference between (for example) the Western Technocracy and the Asian Zaibatsu is unnecessary. A great story could have been told with the Asian Technocracy trying to gain a foothold in the established land of tradition that is China and Japan, but instead that was all thrown away in light of "Everything in Asia is cooler." For the other games, it made sense, but for this one, it was baffling.

I bought this book thinking that it would be great, I have the book "Kindred of the East" and I love it, my friends and I really love this game and when I saw the title of this book I thoght "Great, Mage in the East, not only the Akashic Brotherhood exists in this game, so I bought it. I have to say that it is really interesting, but some parts are really boring and it could be a bit more complete.

I was expecting to enjoy Dragons of the East as soon as I picked it up; in my opinion, the only thing the Mage line had done with the far east, to that point, was lousy (The Akashic Brotherhood Tradition book). Anyhow! I was thrilled with this book! I wanted in-depth material on cultures, magickal styles, and factions, and it DELIVERS. The far east now consists of more than a couple of Shaolin temples. THANK YOU!

The books main focus is the history of armor. If you are looking for a guide on how to make armor this is not the resource you want.

I don't mind the fact that this book is a little dated. I enjoyed the descriptions and illustrations and learned a few things that I hadn't known already. Although ffoulkes is a little biased about the types of armour he prefers, he none the less presents information and construction elements that apply to all harnesses. There are references in french that aren't translated, and several erroneous footnotes that are untraceable and confusing. Besides it's downfalls, there are excellent points to the book: easy to read, easy to follow, and full of tidbits you'll be pleased to rediscover when you pick it up for a second or third time. It is definately worth the inexpensive price, and should be on the reference shelf of armour enthusiasts.

It's clearly specified in the title. This book provides an interesting look into the art of armor construction and also into the lives of the armorers and the people who hired them. The book is written in a simple but informative style.

Although the book is old (original edition is from 1912), the text is concise and clear. The pictures and illustrations (which are most medieval drawings) are very nice.

A very intersting read.