Search results for ""Author Mr Mark Stacey""

WINNER OF THE 2023 ORIGINS AWARDS FOR BEST MINIATURES GAME. An expanded edition of the Origins Award-nominated Lion Rampant, featuring new rules, scenarios, and sample armies. Take to the battlefield as Richard the Lionheart, Joan of Arc or William Wallace – or forge your own legend – with Lion Rampant: Second Edition. From the Dark Ages to the Hundred Years’ War, raids, skirmishes, and clashes between small retinues were a crucial part of warfare, and these dramatic small-scale battles are at the heart of this easy-to-learn but tactically rewarding wargame. Lion Rampant: Second Edition is a new, updated version of the hit Osprey Wargames series title, and retains the core gameplay while also incorporating a wealth of new rules and updates from several years’ worth of player feedback and development. Whether they are looking to recreate historical encounters or tell their own stories, the varied scenarios, unit types, and sample retinue lists found in this volume provide everything players need to face each other in quick, exciting, and, above all, fun tabletop battles.

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Describes and illustrates the full range of Dutch resistance groups and German and collaborationist counter-resistance groups during the Nazi occupation in 1940-45. The Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II followed a complex course, whose scope is not widely understood. It was a great deal broader and more varied than the much-reported German counter-espionage success against Dutch agents parachuted in by the Special Operations Executive. From spring 1943 onwards, three Dutch Resistance organizations gained momentum: the Order Service (OD), the Resistance Council (RVV), and the National Assault Teams (LKP). In response, the Germans raised collaborationist forces to counter the Resistance, including the much-feared Landwacht. In September 1944 the OD, RVV and LKP amalgamated into the Netherlands Interior Forces (NBS), while Allied troops began to liberate the southern provinces. This allowed NBS forces in the south to form Stoottroepen, uniformed and armed by both the British and US armies. These assisted the Allied advance, while a bloody underground struggle continued in the occupied north until final liberation in April–May 1945. Illustrated with rare photos and new colour plates, this book gives a comprehensive account of one of the lesser-known struggles of World War II.

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On August 17–18, 1942, 211 men of the US Marine Corps’ 2nd Raider Battalion conducted a daring amphibious raid on the Japanese-occupied Makin Island in the South Pacific. This ambitious but flawed operation was intended to divert Japanese reinforcements bound for Guadalcanal, over 1,000 miles to the southwest, in the wake of the US landings there ten days earlier; the Raiders were to destroy the seaplane base and radio station, take prisoners, and collect intelligence. Although yielding limited results, it was to be an invaluable test of the innovative training and tactics employed by the Raiders, and a crucial boost to national morale at this difficult stage in the war. Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork and expert analysis, this gripping account of the fateful Makin Raid tells the whole story, from the plan’s conception to its troubled execution and aftermath.

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A supplement for Oathmark: Battles of the Lost Age, giving players rules for creating elite units of warriors known as battlesworn and charting their progress from battle-to-battle. In the horror and chaos of battle, the outcome can often hang on the briefest of moments. It is at these times that the actions of one unit can make the difference between victory and defeat. Wise kings know this, and realize that it is often prudent to hold back their best units until they can make the greatest difference. These elite units, called the ‘battlesworn’, are more than just powerful combatants, they are symbols of the glory and honour of a kingdom. All young warriors hope to one day join their ranks and add their oathmarks beside those legendary fighters. This supplement for Oathmark: Battles of the Lost Age contains rules for adding elite units to your armies and charting their progress from battle to battle. Will they grow even more powerful as they gain renown, or be broken in the face of tremendous odds, perhaps someday to be reformed when their kingdom needs them most? Also included are rules for rivers and boats as well as campaigns, featuring all-new scenarios that will give your battlesworn the chance to lead their kingdom to new heights of power and prestige.

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Winchester lever-action repeating rifles are an integral part of the folklore of the American West. Introduced after the American Civil War, the first Winchester, the M1866, would go on to see military service as far afield as Bulgaria, but it was in the hands of civilians that it would become known as ‘The gun that won the west’. Offering a lethal combination of portability, ruggedness and ammunition interchangeability with pistol sidearms, the Winchesters and their innovative and elegant breech-loading system represented a revolutionary design. They were used by a staggering variety of military and civilian groups - gold-miners, trappers, hunters, farmers, lawmen, professional gunmen and Native Americans. It equipped a whole generation of settlers and as such left an imprint on American culture that continues to resonate today. This book explores the Winchesters’ unique place in history, revealing the technical secrets of their success with a full array of colour artwork, period illustrations and close-up photographs.

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Storm-333, the operation to seize Kabul and assassinate Afghan leader Hafizullah Amin, was at once a textbook success and the start of a terrible blunder. It heralded the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, an operation intended to be a short, largely symbolic show of force, yet which quickly devolved into a gritty ten-year counter-insurgency that Moscow was never able to win. Nonetheless, Storm-333 was a striking success, and despite initial concerns that it would be an impossible achievement, it saw a relative handful of Soviet special forces drawn from the KGB and the military seize the heavily defended presidential palace, neutralise the city’s communications and defences, and open Kabul to occupation. The lessons learned then are still valid today, and have been incorporated into modern Russian military practice, visible most recently in the seizure of Crimea in 2014. Written by a recognised expert on the Soviet security forces, drawing extensively on Russian sources, and fully illustrated with commissioned artwork, this is the most detailed and compelling study of this fascinating operation available in English.

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