For war game players and writers, the MWSB provides basic historical information, including much hard to find detail that exists in no other source. By providing well researched facts on army organizations, tactics, weaponry, soldier and warrior dress and costume, it is possible to refight actual and what if? battles as miniature war games, learning how they were lost or won in ways not possible by reading about them alone.Volume 1 covers basic information on the Egyptian Army, the Bashi-Bazouks, and the many British and Empire units which participated from 1882 to the end of 1885. Besides organizational and uniform data, this volume principally covers the Hicks Pasha Expedition, the Siege of Khartoum, the death of Gordon, aspects of the Gordon Relief Expedition, the campaigns in the Eastern Sudan, and the Battle of Ginnis that marked the end of the first half of the war.Special effort has been made to provide regional maps to illustrate strategic issues, and detailed tactical maps of the battles covered to aid readers to understand the movements and maneuvers of the combatants.A wide selection of contemporary newspaper and magazine illustrations from such sources as the Illustrated London News, and The Graphic have been culled for use based on their relevance to the text, as well as their visual details, and reproduced large enough for study.Effort has also been made to provide photos/drawings of as many of the principal participants, most notably British Officers, but also Egyptian, and even more rarely, Mahdist leaders of the opposition.Three pages of images of the British Warships, along with their basic stats, which participated in the defense and operations around the Red Sea port of Suakin have been for the first time with this edition.Several new maps of the harbor of Suakin (including one with depth soundings), and details of its defenses, along with contemporary photographs of these to aid the modeler, are another special feature of this edition.Both Volumes of the MWSB contain well researched articles on a wide range of aspects of the Mahdist Wars originally appearing over twenty years in the former Savage And Soldier magazine.Editor Emeritus, Dr. Douglas Johnson, wrote the bulk of the articles in both volumes, and has contributed much new information for this compilation.Bargain priced at $35.00, this 8.5 x 11 soft bound book, has 182 pages containing 21 color maps (many full and half page size), 9 color plans/schematics, 35 color illustrations/photos, 112 B&W illustrations/photos, 3 full pages of color uniform illustrations, and 21 pages of detailed Orders of Battle. Bibliography and notes follow at the end of each chapter.Many topics not covered in Volume One are covered in Volume Two, which is now available.
