Books on timeframe of game?

[michaelspotts]

Eagerly awaiting release - especially as I served 2 of my 4 years in US Army in a maintenance rebuild company (1976-1978) in Boeblingen, Germany.
But, I have to admit most of my wargaming and military reading has not been on this time period. Any advice on good books to add to the manual for background and immersion would as always with these things, be greatly appreciated.

[Badger73]

Start with Harold Coyle's "Team Yankee". Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising" is also of this era.

[TarkError]

The Defense of Hill 781 James R. McDonough, to start.

[TomBombadil711]

Ralph Peters - Red Army
Harold W. Coyle - Team Yankee
John F. Antal - Armor Attacks
General Sir John Hackett - Welt in Flammen - Der 3. Weltkrieg. Schauplatz Europa (German)

[DerGrenadier]

Bob Forrest-Webb - Chieftains

[comsubpac]

Or this documentation on WW3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUg_X5pBKNc

[RFalvo69]

CounterAttack issue 1. The game is grand-tactical/Operational in nature, but the magazine covers everything relevant to a WWIII in Europe circa 1987.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/593 ... -frankfurt

[pz501]

With the exception of Red Storm Rising I second the motion for all of the above.

US Army FM 71-1 "Tank and Mechanized Infantry Company Team", and FM 3-90.2 "The Tank and Mechanized Infantry Battalion Task Force" are great references. Both are available online, and can be downloaded as PDF's.

Another good book is Kenneth Macksey's "First Clash: Combat Close-Up in World War Three".

The reason I don't recommend RSR is because even though Clancy and Bond tell a great story, and their depictions of air, naval, and submarine actions are excellent, they fall short when depicting ground combat and tactics. They don't describe anything that I ever saw or practiced during three tours in Germany from 1971-85. It's not really their fault though. Bond was a Naval Surface Warfare Officer, and Clancy was a great story teller. Neither one of them at the time the book was written had much experience with the ground combat end. They both got much better in later books.

[michaelspotts]

Thanks to everyone taking time on release day to provide great suggestions. Over to Amazon and back to game.

[demyansk]

I miss Ralph Peters on the news

[exsonic01]

On top of pz501's post, let me add some more FMs and some other documents. FMs are usually very huge, so you may need to read selectively what you want.

FM 71-123 TACTICS AND TECHNIQUES FOR COMBINED ARMS HEAVY FORCES: ARMORED BRIGADE, BATTALION/TASK FORCE, AND COMPANY/TEAM.
FM 100-2-1 The Soviet Army operations and tactics. With Ralph Peter's Red Army, this will let you know more about Soviet army.
FM 17-15 Tank Platoon: I really enjoyed this when I play tank games like SB Pro and Flashpoint Campaign series. I bet this FM would be helpful for this game too.
Global War Game Second Series, 1984-1988 (published by Naval War College): This work covers not only army, but also navy and air force, and economical political aspect of possible scenarios from 1984 to 1988. Very interesting read.
Airland Battle Doctrine (written by Douglas W Skinner): 1980s were the era of ALB. There are other good documents and FM regarding ALB concept.
NATO's Follow-On Forces Attack (FOFA) Concept: NATO developed FOFA concept while US developed ALB. FOFA is a bit different from ALB.
Operational Art and Tactics (written by David M. Glantz): Nicely summarized about Red Army strategy and tactics.

Google them, and you would be able to find PDFs of those documents.

I guess documents like Operational Art and Tactics, FM 100-2-1, and Airland Battle Doctrine would be greatly helpful for any scenario modders (also campaign modders in the future), if anyone want to make realistic scenario for this game.

Plus, you could find official US Army magazines, like ARMOR, INFANTRY, FIELD ARTILLERY and etc... if you look for issues from 1960~80s, they are great material to read for cold war.

[sfbaytf]

I collect the old Strategy and Tactics magazines and this period is covered quite heavily.

[kch]

What do you guys think of Team Yankee?

I only did my obligatory military service so not an expert by any standard, but the book seems super unrealistic. It just seems like platoon after platoon of M1s just charging over everything. Not even the heaviest tanks in WW2 could operate like that. Tigers, IS2s etc were slaughtered when just charging ahead unsupported.

[gerardo]

ORIGINAL: exsonic01

On top of pz501's post, let me add some more FMs and some other documents. FMs are usually very huge, so you may need to read selectively what you want.

FM 71-123 TACTICS AND TECHNIQUES FOR COMBINED ARMS HEAVY FORCES: ARMORED BRIGADE, BATTALION/TASK FORCE, AND COMPANY/TEAM.
FM 100-2-1 The Soviet Army operations and tactics. With Ralph Peter's Red Army, this will let you know more about Soviet army.
FM 17-15 Tank Platoon: I really enjoyed this when I play tank games like SB Pro and Flashpoint Campaign series. I bet this FM would be helpful for this game too.
Global War Game Second Series, 1984-1988 (published by Naval War College): This work covers not only army, but also navy and air force, and economical political aspect of possible scenarios from 1984 to 1988. Very interesting read.
Airland Battle Doctrine (written by Douglas W Skinner): 1980s were the era of ALB. There are other good documents and FM regarding ALB concept.
NATO's Follow-On Forces Attack (FOFA) Concept: NATO developed FOFA concept while US developed ALB. FOFA is a bit different from ALB.
Operational Art and Tactics (written by David M. Glantz): Nicely summarized about Red Army strategy and tactics.

Google them, and you would be able to find PDFs of those documents.

I guess documents like Operational Art and Tactics, FM 100-2-1, and Airland Battle Doctrine would be greatly helpful for any scenario modders (also campaign modders in the future), if anyone want to make realistic scenario for this game.

Plus, you could find official US Army magazines, like ARMOR, INFANTRY, FIELD ARTILLERY and etc... if you look for issues from 1960~80s, they are great material to read for cold war.

I have always wondered why it is possible to find these books so easily, they should be classified

[exsonic01]

ORIGINAL: gerardo

ORIGINAL: exsonic01

On top of pz501's post, let me add some more FMs and some other documents. FMs are usually very huge, so you may need to read selectively what you want.

FM 71-123 TACTICS AND TECHNIQUES FOR COMBINED ARMS HEAVY FORCES: ARMORED BRIGADE, BATTALION/TASK FORCE, AND COMPANY/TEAM.
FM 100-2-1 The Soviet Army operations and tactics. With Ralph Peter's Red Army, this will let you know more about Soviet army.
FM 17-15 Tank Platoon: I really enjoyed this when I play tank games like SB Pro and Flashpoint Campaign series. I bet this FM would be helpful for this game too.
Global War Game Second Series, 1984-1988 (published by Naval War College): This work covers not only army, but also navy and air force, and economical political aspect of possible scenarios from 1984 to 1988. Very interesting read.
Airland Battle Doctrine (written by Douglas W Skinner): 1980s were the era of ALB. There are other good documents and FM regarding ALB concept.
NATO's Follow-On Forces Attack (FOFA) Concept: NATO developed FOFA concept while US developed ALB. FOFA is a bit different from ALB.
Operational Art and Tactics (written by David M. Glantz): Nicely summarized about Red Army strategy and tactics.

Google them, and you would be able to find PDFs of those documents.

I guess documents like Operational Art and Tactics, FM 100-2-1, and Airland Battle Doctrine would be greatly helpful for any scenario modders (also campaign modders in the future), if anyone want to make realistic scenario for this game.

Plus, you could find official US Army magazines, like ARMOR, INFANTRY, FIELD ARTILLERY and etc... if you look for issues from 1960~80s, they are great material to read for cold war.

I have always wondered why it is possible to find these books so easily, they should be classified

I think they are declassified because they are outdated. For example, if you look for the materials I suggest above, they are published back in 1970 ~ early 1990. Strategies, tactics, and concepts of now days are different from those era.

[PzBrig18]

There is
First Clash: World War Three, Kenneth Macksey (good military stuff for the game)
We Were Soldiers Too Series, Bob Kern

[jiggathebaws]

Is the magazine Downloadable from there? Don't see a pdf

[Hub6Actual]

.

[PzBrig18]

Which Magazine?

[jiggathebaws]

ORIGINAL: PzBrig18

Which Magazine?

Counter attack issue 1