Any Book suggestions for FIW ?

[jetengine]

I like the idea of the FIW for gaming. Skirmish (less figures) and pre-napoleonic (uniforms arent a nightmare) are what I want from the musket era. However I dont know a great deal about it beyond the basics. Can anyone suggest some NON CRUNCHY books on the history etc?

[Eric the Shed]

muskets and tomahawks after you have watched the movie last of the mohicans......nothing else needed

[zippyfusenet]

Not sure what you mean by NON-CRUNCHY.

Francis Parkman's England and France in North America is classic 19th century history, very dramatically told. Parkman's volume on the F&IW is Montcalm and Wolfe, it's often published as a single volume.

Fred Anderson's The Crucible of War is a recent history of the F&IW, very well written and insightful.

Allan W Eckert's historical novel Wilderness Empire draws heavily on Parkman. The history has since been somewhat revised...but Eckert acknowledged that he wrote novels, so what the hey.

[Antonio J Carrasco]

David Preston's Braddock's Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution Oxford UP, 2015. It is very interesting and more focused on military ops than Anderson's. Crucible of War is more complete, but it is a mighty tome of 912 pages, and while it is my favourite analysis on the topic -Anderson's research on Native American politics is brilliant- I don't think it fits your request for a "non crunchy" book 

[SteveBurt]

Empires Collide
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 1754–63
https://ospreypublishing.com/empires-collide-hb
A very good overview of the whole war, including battle plans and lots of uniform details.

[jetengine]

Maybe Dry is the better term ? I rather enjoyed Frank McLynns Napoleon Biography and its of comparable length to Crucible

[FifteensAway]

Well, then you might want to avoid Parkman and stick with Anderson. 

I started my FIW collection as a skirmish period.  And now, 1800 or so figures later, it is a battle collection - but then again, not.  I have 42 figure units that count as companies only but, because of numbers, are based 3 to a base.  So, I have formed units in company strength having what appear to be linear battles but are really just grand skirmishes. 

It is a fascinating and colorful period.  Do lots of native Americans.  You will need them. 

And might I recommend, if you have yet to commit, that you check out Old Glory 25s Blue Moon 18mm range.  You can get everything you need figure and building wise from one source - and the buildings are designed for skirmish level gaming.  The figures are large enough to paint well (bigger than traditional 15 mm) but still leave a much 'larger' table to game on than the larger scale figures. 

Now expect lots of counter arguments in favor of the larger scale.

[jetengine]

Well I've already got some 28mm NA from Warlord but I intend to go with Warbanners range/game when they release it (still in very early stages) called Savage Frontier.

[Antonio J Carrasco]

Maybe Dry is the better term ? I rather enjoyed Frank McLynns Napoleon Biography and its of comparable length to Crucible

Then Anderson's and Preston's. You will enjoy them. Both are great books.