Part two of Osprey’s survey of European Medieval Tactics is much like the first volume. Unfortunately, while I felt the first volume started strong and finished somewhat weaker, all of this volume is at the level of the later portions of the first.
The main problem is that the first one started with a fairly solid thesis, and then lost its way in the later part of the period. This volume is still useful as a general introduction to a subject that gets too little attention, but it just wanders from place to place, and time to time, without any central ideas stated.
There are another thirteen small battle diagrams included (compared to seven in the first volume), which seem to be more crowded and harder to follow than before. This may indicate the battles are getting more complicated. I don’t know this period as well, so fewer of the battles discussed there or in the eight color plates are familiar to me, though there were still a few I knew.
I’ll also note that Osprey has a volume on Pike and Shot Tactics 1590—1660. I wonder if they have anything planned for 1500—1590?
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