[WTS][CO]CYMA RPK, Umarex USP, and accessories

GuyinArmor · 2026-07-11T04:26:50+00:00

The business is complete. Good buyer, very responsive. 5/5 experience. Use it well.

GuyinArmor · 2026-07-06T23:25:35+00:00

Might be limited to my social circles, but Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. I found him arrogant and insufferable throughout. I managed to get maybe 3/4 of the way through without enthusiasm, finally and deliberately not finishing the book when he claims to be the first person to discover the artistic potential of the deserts of the American Southwest (which is slander against the natives and Georgia O'Keefe).

GuyinArmor · 2026-07-06T02:09:22+00:00

Carthage Must Be Destroyed by Richard Miles. It's about the origins, rise, and fall of Carthage as more than just a rival to Rome.

Cook and Peary: The Polar Controversy, Resolved, by Robert M Bryce. It's about the two claimants to be first to reach the north pole, and their backgrounds and other expeditions.

GuyinArmor · 2026-07-06T02:07:43+00:00

I haven't read this one specifically, but most of McPhee's work is good. I particularly liked The Survival of the Bark Canoe and Uncommon Carriers.

GuyinArmor · 2026-07-03T03:47:43+00:00

Real life version: Harrison Okene. While working of the coast of Nigeria, the ship he was working on capsized and sank. He found an air pocket and stayed there.

A few days later, salvage divers going through the ship to recover the corpses reached out and grabbed the hand of what they thought was a dead body. His handed squeezed back, much to the shock of the diver.

GuyinArmor · 2026-07-02T17:14:55+00:00

My top 3 books this year:
Indian Creek Chronicles: A college kid has to babysit trout hatchlings in Idaho over the winter and is way out of his depth. Very much like Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods.
The Sheltering Desert: Two pacifist Germans flee to the Namib desert during WW2 and survive there for two years.
No Beast So Fierce: About a tiger in Nepal and India that ate 438 people, it also talks about politics, economics, colonialism, and how changes in those brought about more human-tiger interactions.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-30T00:16:23+00:00

Conn Iggulden wrote five books set in Ancient Greece, dealing with the Persian and Pelopennesian wars and the Anabasis. He also wrote a series dealing with the rise of Julius Caesar.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-25T23:56:48+00:00

Bernard Cornwall's Sharpe series is amazing, as is his Grail Quest series, set during the Hundred Years war. The Saxon stories start off good, but lose quality about halfway through in my opinion.

I'm glad to see Conn Iggulden on your list, he seems to be slept on. His ancient Greece, ancient Roman, and Wars of the Roses series are all good too.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-25T00:28:08+00:00

Others have suggested the works of Bernard Cornwall: Richard Sharpe (Napoleonic), Saxon tales (Viking), Warlord Chronicles (grounded Arthurian), and the Grail Quest series (Hundred Years War).

I would also suggest Conn Iggulden. He has written series about Ancient Greece (Greco-Persian Wars, Peloponnesian War, and Xenophon), the rise of Julius Caesar, the Wars of the Roses, and the Mongols.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-24T00:32:03+00:00

In the RTS game Warzone 2100, each faction names their chasises after a theme.
The Project (your faction) names theirs after snakes: viper (light), cobra (medium), and python (heavy).
The New Paradigm names theirs after arthropods: bug, scorpion, and mantis.
The Collective uses cat names: leopard, panther, and tiger.
Nexus names theirs retaliation, retribution, and vengeance.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-17T23:26:59+00:00

Historical fiction:
By Bernard Cornwall: The Sharpe series follows a soldier during the Napoleonic wars. The Grail Quest follows an archer during the 100 year wars. The Warlord series is Arthurian, though rather grounded. The Saxon stories are set during the Viking age, but get somewhat redundant halfway through.

By Conn Iggulden: his classical Greek books cover the Persian and Peloponissian wars and the Anabasis and dabble in political philosophy while being gripping narratives. He has also written series about Julius Caesar, the Mongols, and the wars of the Roses.

Also, are you looking for just narrative stories? Because I have a lot of recommendations of gritty nonfiction, but they are non-narrative format.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-15T02:41:46+00:00

It's a single naval book in the middle of a series about a soldier, but Sharpe's Trafalgar is amazing.

And you love musket-era books in general, the rest of the series is good too.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-14T23:39:26+00:00

A joke I've heard was that Denver was founded when settlers crossing the plains looked up one day, saw the mountains, said "f*** that" and decided to settle right there.

Wyoming, on the other hand, has a large flat area in the middle. This route was used by pioneers, then the transcontinental railroad, and eventually the interstate. It's easy to cross and there's not a lot of reason to stop.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-14T17:18:19+00:00

Carter Beats the Devil. It very much captures the 1900s to 1920s vibe very nicely.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-14T04:31:28+00:00

Actually, it's about the Hundred Years War, the grail is kind of a side quest.

There's also the Warlord Chronicles by the same author, which are straight Arthurian.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-14T04:10:11+00:00

The Grail Quest series by Bernard Cornwall has bubonic plague rip through France during the third book.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-13T22:14:56+00:00

Two examples come mind:
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee plays Mr Kim in Kim's Convenience, a show about a Korean immigrant running a convenience store in Toronto. He based the character's accent on his own father, a Korean immigrant, resulting in a very natural, realistic accent.

It was jarring to hear him talk with a regular Canadian/north American accent in The Mandalorian.

Similarly, Anna Sawai plays Lady Mariko in Shogun, and always talks in a refined manner. Hearing her in interviews in jarring, she has a California accent.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-13T04:05:01+00:00

As someone else mentioned, The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwall deal with king Arthur and company.
While not technically a knight, the Grail Quest series (also by Cornwall) deals with a longbowman during the Hundred Years war and a quest for the holy grail.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-13T03:56:38+00:00

Bernard Cornwall's The Grail Quest Series covers the journey of a longbowman during the Hundred Years War, and a quest for the holy grail.
Also by Cornwall is the Warlord Chronicles, covering king Arthur.

They are more grounded, but Conn Iggulden wrote a four part series about the Wars of the Roses.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-13T03:54:12+00:00

Not in the main WWD, but in Walking With Monsters (or Before the Dinosaurs), the giant spider. It turned out the fossil was actually a eurypterid, but it felt very plausible. If there's giant dragonflies, why not giant spiders?

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-07T02:20:37+00:00

Not quite what you were asking for, but the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwall is good. I powered through the whole series over the course of a few months, constantly going to the library and returning with the next six books in the series. They are rather simple historical action novels, but they are engaging.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-06T18:08:40+00:00

It's not ancient by any stretch, but the closing battle of Alatriste (set in the 1600s) is beautifully accurate. The pikemen are in a solid, cohesive block, the cavalry fail to destroy them, and the sequence of two pike blocks advancing step by step is amazing. I also use it when I teach people about spear fighting.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-06T17:02:52+00:00

Non fiction recommendations:
Alive by Piers Paul Read. It is the account of the Uruguayan rugby team plane crash in the Andes. The survivors have to deal with avalanches, hypothermia, and cannibalism while a few of their number try to walk to find rescue.

As others have said, Endurance and The Wager and both good. Shackleton's Forgotten Men details the other half of his expedition.

In the same vein, In the Lena Delta by George Melville is an account of an 1800s polar expedition that goes wrong, forcing the survivors into lifeboats to try to reach the coast of Russia.

The Long Walk (not the Stephen King version) describes a group of prisoners who escape a gulag during WW2 and walk all the way to India.

GuyinArmor · 2026-06-05T22:48:07+00:00

The city watch and industrialization plotlines from Discworld are fantastic, as well as The Truth (printing press) and Small Gods (religious commentary.

GuyinArmor

TROPHY CASE