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Rating: 
Summary: Ancient Soldiers and Armies Come to Life
Review: This is an extremely well written and illustrated book on Ancient Warfare. Since it covers such a broad period of time it is not as detailed as some might prefer but, in my opinion, that is what makes it such a good book. Not only can you easily visualize the soldiers, generals, and their equipment, you will easily understand the use of the different types of equipment, tactics, and the dynamics of battle without already having an in depth knowledge of the subject. I guess I am just a sucker for any well written and illustrated book on the Greeks and Romans but I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves and is knowledgeable of this period of history or knows very little and wants to learn for the first time.
Rating:
Summary: History Through Warfare 101
Review: I must admit this book was a slight disappointment. After reading previous reviews and poring over the book's sample pages I had counted on this being an exhaustive work on Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World. Instead, it's more of a history lesson chronicling ancient cultures and their socio-economic along with politico-militaristic reasons for adopting certain types of equipment. Very little attention is actually given to "fighting techniques".
There is quite a bit of information on weapons and armor and a moderate amount of information about how these were used in battles, but for the most part you read about the "hows" and "whys" of nations adopting certain weapons, armor, auxillary elements and not a concentrated explanation of their various roles and advantages in battles. This information IS in there, it's just a bit less substantial than I had anticipated and hoped for. But the book does offer an overwhelming myriad of pictures, sculptures, drawings, paintings, etchings, carvings, and diagrams to help illustrate their various topical points. This is supplimented by the best feature of the book: The battle layouts.
There are roughly 18-20 full color, bird's eye view templates regarding major battles from Marathon to Mylae. These are wonderfully done and show each major step in the individual battle's progression. These are the real gems of the book.
As a whole this book is worth checking out, the extensive in-depth analysis of naval, siege, mounted, and infantry warfare equipment and tactics are astounding. Every page has at least one picture or diagram, and quite a few have scetches and layouts of various army formations, strategies, and planned progressive maneuvers. The only thing that is irksome is that you have to trudge through the history lessons and the campaign chronologies to get to the good stuff.
In the end it's worth the money, but for God's sake go Used! And expect to spend as much time reading about the history and events leading UP TO a military tactic or piece of equipment as you would on the tactic or equipment itself.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth the purchase.
Review: I returned to Ancient History reading last year after many years studying other periods. This book may not be as comprehensive as some would like, but it is a fair appraisal of what is a very broad subject covering many centuries. As such I found it informative and even if not completely thorough, it certainly set me on track for where I should look for greater detail and helped me set the parameters for that. Roman & Greek warfare is covered more fully than most but I believe this is only fitting as their impact on the Ancient world was so profound.
I would highly recommend this book for wargamers and those interested in a basic understanding of what made the Military mind tick over in Ancient times.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent introductory book for ancient warfare
Review: It was quite pleasant while reading this book. A lot of vivid artworks, illustrations and it's also easy to read. As a lover of ancient history and warfares, this was a good choice to start with, at least I think so. Not too much details but stories about how arms were evolved and used, also how they affected key historical events.
I'm now considering of more serious books, anyway this one was a good starting point.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Survey Work
Review: Pro: Good survey of ancient warfare from Ancient Egypt and Sumeria through the Roman Empire. Physical quality is excellent. The authors are knowledgeable and competent. Extensive use of drawings, maps and art work is useful and effective.
Con: Nothing really new here - much of the excellent art work is borrowed from older works. The authors cover the topics well but do not offer more insight into ancient warfare then previously offerred by earlier out-of-print works by authors such as John Wharry, Sir John Hackett, and Peter Connolly.
Bottom Line: If you need just one general purpose book on the subject, this does the job well. If you need more than a survey of ancient warfare, take a pass on this book and go after the works listed in the bibliography.
Rating:
Summary: Good Survey Work
Review: Pro: Good survey of ancient warfare from Ancient Egypt and Sumeria through the Roman Empire. Physical quality is excellent. The authors are knowledgeable and competent. Extensive use of drawings, maps and art work is useful and effective.
Con: Nothing really new here - much of the excellent art work is borrowed from older works. The authors cover the topics well but do not offer more insight into ancient warfare then previously offerred by earlier out-of-print works by authors such as John Wharry, Sir John Hackett, and Peter Connolly.
Bottom Line: If you need just one general purpose book on the subject, this does the job well. If you need more than a survey of ancient warfare, take a pass on this book and go after the works listed in the bibliography.
Rating:
Summary: Misleading title but basically good
Review: The first thing I have to say is that evidently the authors and I understand the term "fighting techniques" differently. Doing a quick search for books with "fighting techniques" in the title will show that the term is generally held to refer to specific techniques and skills used in hand-to-hand combat. I was hoping to find some exploration of this, but it rated hardly a mention.Having said that, the book was a good solid overview of Ancient warfare, equipment, tactics, command and control, siegecraft. Nothing dramatically new (including many of the pictures) but if you want a sound book on ancient equipment and tactics, then I can recommend this one. There were a few strange assertions, like the claim that a particular bow had an effective range of 600m, over twice the length of the longest recorded bowshot! While I'm on bows, when will people realise that 'firing' a bow is an act of arson, not one of war! Firearms are fired, bows are shot. And the multitude of authors resulted in some strange inconsistency in terminology, like mail being referred to by about three different names, none historically correct. The text also contained more than a reasonable number of typos and grammatical errors. The whole work felt rushed. Despite my misgivings, if you're after a good general work on ancient warfare, this is a fine book. Just don't expect to see any specific fighting techniques described. Stephen Hand
Author of Medieval Sword and Shield:
The Combat System of Royal Armouries MS I.33
Rating:
Summary: Misleading title but basically good
Review: The first thing I have to say is that evidently the authors and I understand the term "fighting techniques" differently. Doing a quick search for books with "fighting techniques" in the title will show that the term is generally held to refer to specific techniques and skills used in hand-to-hand combat. I was hoping to find some exploration of this, but it rated hardly a mention. Having said that, the book was a good solid overview of Ancient warfare, equipment, tactics, command and control, siegecraft. Nothing dramatically new (including many of the pictures) but if you want a sound book on ancient equipment and tactics, then I can recommend this one. There were a few strange assertions, like the claim that a particular bow had an effective range of 600m, over twice the length of the longest recorded bowshot! While I'm on bows, when will people realise that 'firing' a bow is an act of arson, not one of war! Firearms are fired, bows are shot. And the multitude of authors resulted in some strange inconsistency in terminology, like mail being referred to by about three different names, none historically correct. The text also contained more than a reasonable number of typos and grammatical errors. The whole work felt rushed. Despite my misgivings, if you're after a good general work on ancient warfare, this is a fine book. Just don't expect to see any specific fighting techniques described. Stephen Hand
Author of Medieval Sword and Shield:
The Combat System of Royal Armouries MS I.33
Rating:
Summary: Let There Be War!
Review: This is a very good book for a military historian to have. I liked the illustrations and tactical maps of significant battles. This book covers warfare in the classical world. The authors discuss the rise of various techniques, equipment and the sundry. For whatever reason, the Romans did not seem to develop anything new. They copied the old and improved on it.
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