Germanic Warrior AD 236–568 (Warrior, 17)

These are some of my favorite McBride plates, depicting not only Germanic warriors in battle, but also treatment of the wounded, a soldier paying homage, a feast, the making of weapons, and the 376 crossing of the Danube by the future Visigoths. The text is also very good, not only for the information itself but how it is presented. McDowall gives a realistic portrait of the typical 'barbarian' warrior of this period, putting the reader in his shoes during his recruitment, training, combat experience, and personal life. Overall, this book breathes life into a turbulent and beautiful people who have tragically been remembered only as hairy savages and destroyers of civilization.

AWFUL printing quality for the colored graphics. not even CLOSE to the quality of the old osprey printing books.

Fanatstic illustrations, fantastics pictures of little known dark age artifacts, this book sheds light on a seldom covered topic, the migration period. The information, illustrations and pictures are an invaluable resource for anyone curious about dark age germanic peoples. buy this book.

Nice collection of war knowledge from past, organized in a simple manner, easy to read and follow. Very short quick reads.

Awesome book. Great color illustrations. A+ seller

This covered a lot of items that were not covered in other books. Though a little short, it gave me insight into the germanic people better than other books that covered more nobles and higher royalty.

Although this book does not cover the earliest Germanic tribes, it covers the ones who delivered the coup de grace to the Roman Empire. This book covers the Germanic tribes starting at the point of Alexander Severus's ill-fated campaign against the Allemani, but really centers on the Goths, Burgundians and Franks of the fourth through sixth centuries. This book covers the Gothic invasions of the third century, the Gothic incursion of 375, the epochal Gothic victory over the Romans at Adrianople, and the confusing battle of Chalons where the Romans stopped Attila the Hun, but in reality the battle played out as a conflict between various Germanic tribes allied to the Romans and Huns and then the subsequent takeover of the western Roman Empire by Germanic tribes. Aside form giving a good overview for the newcomer to the Germanic tribes, this book's greatest offering is its illustrations by the titan illustrator, Angus McBride who may have reached his apogee with the pictures he made for this book. Honestly, just carefully studying the illustrations and reading their detailed descriptions will give a reader a very good indication of how the Germanics lived and made war. The only thing lacking in this book is similar treatment of Germanic tribes from 100BC such as the Teutons, the Cheruscii, Chatii, Marcomanii, Quadii and others covering Arausio, Teutobergerwald and the wars of Marcus Aurelius, sadly Angus will not be around to illustrate such a book should Osprey see fit to publish it.

It's always difficult to cover a large subject in the brief but effective Osprey format, but MacDowell has made a useful addition to his volumes on the Late Roman cavalry and infantry to give an overview of the later Germanic warriors. The author is faced by twin difficulties: (i) the evidence is often sparse and fragmentary and (ii) the Germanic tribes differed markedly from each other in many ways and changed and adapted over the centuries. Generalisations are thus difficult, and what may be true in relation to a noble Ostrogothic cavalryman are unlikely to be true for their Frankish infantry contemporaries. Despite this, MacDowell compresses a large amount of information into a useful book.THe volume covers obvious territory in relation to the early Germanic warrior social structure, which forms a good context for the beginner or general reader. The sections on training and tactics go some way toward modifying the Hollywood image of "screaming savage barbarians", with MacDowell emphasising the influence of centuries of contact with Rome on the organisation of these warbands. Similarly, the convergence between the equipment used by the Germanics and those used by their Roman foes and allies also creates a very different image of these "invaders".The section on the "experience of battle" gives an immediacy and vitality to what could be a dry catalogue of ancient fragments and archaeological evidence. As ever, Angus McBride's evocative watercolours bring the evidence to life, with several pictures, such as that of the blond Germanic lord in late Roman costume, flanked by his comitatus guards and receiving homage from a new retainer in his (rather run-down) Roman villa telling a story while illustrating some artefacts.Overall, this isn't a perfect book and the text can be thin in places (since this isn't really MacDowell's area of specialisation), but in terms of context and as a starting point for newcomers to this area, this book is a good contribution.

A very good and informative book.It is one of the volumes in the "Warriors" series and covers the military aspect of a specific culture.It gives a good insigth on the subject with good illustrations, black and white photographs and drawings.A good introduction to the subject matter made all the more exciting by Angus McBride illustrations.

Great item thanks, very quick dispatch! Exactly what I was looking for and thoroughly enjoying reading about historic Germans soldiers

Verteidiger und Zerstörer Roms. Der germanische Krieger der Völkerwanderungszeit war beides. Ganze römische Armeen bestanden aus diesen "Barbaren", die, teilweise als disziplinierte Soldaten, teilweise als schwer kontrollierbare Horden, das Schicksal des späten römischen Reiches bestimmten.Dabei räumt dieses Buch mit einigen Klischees älterer Geschichtsforschung auf. So waren es nicht Stammes-oder Blutsbande, die die herumziehenden Sammlungen von Kriegern und deren Familien zusammenhielten. Es waren mächtige Kriegsherren, die Krieger aus vielen germanischen und auch nichtgermanischen Völkern um sich scharten.Dabei entstand ein Teufelskreis: Je erfolgreicher ein Kriegsherr, desto mehr Anhänger liefen ihm zu. Das erforderte jedoch größere Siege und entsprechende Logistik in vielen Bereichen (Nahrung, Waffen, Belohnungen für verdiente Krieger usw.).Dieses System ist selbst heute noch in vielen Ländern, in denen eine Zentralgewalt fehlt, zu beobachten (gutes Beispiel: Piraten vor Somalia. Werden Lösegelder bezahlt, können mehr Waffen gekauft werden, mehr Boote und es schließen sich mehr willige Kämpfer an. So steigen die Anforderungen an den nächsten erfolgreiche Beutezug).Dieses Bild gibt einen guten Einblick in das Leben und die Kämpfe der späteren Väter des mittelalterlichen Europas, hier zu erwähnen die (wie immer) hervorragenden Zeichnungen von Angus McBride. Wer sich für die Völkerwanderung und für das Werden des frühen Europas interessiert, dem sei dieses Buch wärmstens empfohlen.

Très bonne référence sur le sujet dans une non moins célèbre et bonne collection! Ce livre reste incontournable à celui qui désire reconstituer un guerrier germanique.