CJ Peers

Chris Peers provides an excellent assortment of facts to reveal how Genghis Khan constructed his elaborate but effective Mongol war machine which allowed him to savage both the Occident and the Orient within the space of a few decades. The only myopic aspect of this book was that Peers glosses over Khan's early childhood and the sterling roles of the likes of his Captains such as Subotai who did the grassroots work of organizing his militaries into the fearsome war machines which they eventually became. Otherwise, for students of military history this book is a must read and of biblical proportions.… (mer)

The title is a bit misleading, it should have been "Chinese Armies from the Mongol Conquest to the Ming Dynasty. " The subject is well chosen for that title. The effect of trying to rule China if one was a Mongol led quickly to the sinification of the Mongols, and local conditions led to the armies being largely infantry, and eventually under the Ming, the serious adoption of primitive gunpowder weapons. There is little discussion of the hand weapons of the Yuan and Ming armies, and a fair amount on the steps leading to the later matchlock weapons. The Armour is also scantily described, but there are a number of fortification plans. A pretty normal Osprey treatment of a complex subject.… (mer)