Historical Reference

“The decline and fall of Rome was a slow and agonizing process, marked by internal strife, foreign invasions, and the erosion of moral values.” – Edward Gibbon

By Patrick S. Baker 

Rome: Total War – Barbarian Invasion (Barbarian) is the first expansion pack for the critically acclaimed strategy game, Rome: Total War. Released just a year and five days after the release of the Rome: Total War, critics and players have a split opinion about expansion pack.

Some critics felt there was barely enough new material to justify an expansion pack. Others felt that Barbarian could have been released as an entirely new game.

The Imperial Campaign in Rome: Total War starts in 270 BC, when the Roman Republic completed the conquest of Italy and ends in 14 AD, with the death of Augustus. The campaign in Barbarian starts in 363 AD, with the death of the Emperor Julian, concluding the efforts to restore paganism in the Empire and ends in 476 AD with the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

‘There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.” – Michel de Montaigne

By Patrick S. Baker

The second installment of the Total War series started out as Crusader: Total War but was quickly renamed to Medieval: Total War (Medieval) to better describe the actual scope of the game. Development of Medieval started shortly after the successful launch of Shogun: Total War (Shogun). The game was developed by The Creative Assembly (CA) and published by Activision. It was released in August 2002, just two years and one month after the release of Shogun.

Throughout the development of the game, the team at CA sought to build on the foundation laid by Shogun, while also aiming to create a more expansive and historically rich experience. The selection of a medieval setting allowed for a diverse range of factions, units, and technologies. The new setting also provided a vast arena for the developers and the players.

The CA team placed a strong emphasis on historical accuracy and authenticity in Medieval.  To achieve this, they recruited the help of several distinguished Medieval and Military historians. Most notably Dr. David Nicolle and Dr. Richard Holmes. Drs. Nicolle and Holmes expertise in medieval politics and warfare ensured that the game’s units, factions, and events were historically accurate.

— Create a civilization to stand the test of time!

By Patrick S. Baker

(Read Part one here)

Moves: Legal and Business

In 1996, MicroProse released Sid Meier’s Civilization II (Civ II) for the personal computer (PC) and Avalon Hill then sued MicroProse over the use of the name, Civilization, asserting they had reclaimed the previously licensed copyright. As this lawsuit worked through the legal system, Activision released Civilization: Call to Power, also for the PC, in 1998. This set off a three-sided legal battle over the use of the name.  At the same time “the video game industry … was like the Wild West, with companies starting up, closing, buying and selling other companies, and also trading, assigning and purchasing Intellectual Properties (IPs) at a furious rate.”

The art of coalition command … in Afghanistan … is to take the resources you are provided with, understand what the strengths and weaknesses are and to employ them to the best overall effect. – David Petraeus

By Patrick S. Baker

In 2015 Vietnam ’65, developed by Johan Nagel and his company, Every Single Soldier, was published by Matrix/Slitherine on the Steam platform and Apple’s App Store. Vietnam’ 65 was an operational-level game that focused on the American and South Vietnamese counter-insurgency (COIN) campaign in the jungles of Southeast Asia. The game received critical praise and sold well.

In March, 2017, Afghanistan ’11 (A’11), published by Matrix/Slitherine, was released on Steam and the App Store. A’11 was developed by Every Single Soldier and Retro Epic and is an operational level game focused on the counter-insurgency in the mountains and valleys of Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.

A’11 is not a simple re-skinning of Vietnam ‘65, replacing jungles with mountains, the Viet Cong with the Taliban, and Hueys with Blackhawks, instead the game had been markedly improved, and expanded, with much deeper game play. This new depth included multiple historical scenarios as well as the familiar skirmish mode.

By Robert Kelly

Visit IWM London – Plan Your Visit | Imperial War Museums

I’ve left the granddaddy of all London museums to the end, the Imperial War Museum (IWM)London. There are actually five Imperial War Museums. This one in London, HMS Belfast and the Churchill War Rooms also in London, Duxford for all things aircraft and IWM North in Manchester.

“We are fighting a war with no front lines, since the enemy hides among the people, in the jungles and mountains, and uses covertly border areas of neutral countries. One cannot measure [our] progress by lines on a map.”—General William C. Westmoreland

By Patrick S. Baker

1965 was the year that, as one source puts it, “Vietnam Becomes an American War”. The massive bombing campaign, Operation Rolling Thunder, started. The first American ground combat units arrived “in country”. The Battle of the Ia Drang, the first major set-piece battle of the war (so well detailed in We Were Soldiers Once… and Young by Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore and Joseph L. Galloway) was fought in November that year.

It was also in 1965 that the bifurcated nature of the Vietnam War became clear. Part of the war was a conventional ground war with regular American military and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) units fighting conventional battles against the communists’ guerrillas, called the Viet Cong, (VC or Charlie) Main Force units and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) units.

The other part was a counter-insurgency (COIN) campaign with America and her South Vietnamese allies trying to win the  “hearts and minds” of the largely rural population with generous foreign aid, civic construction projects, and Special Forces (SF) deployed to train the local defense forces to battle the VC guerrillas.

By Kreighton Long

As I work on improving my Bolt Action Italian army I found myself needing a little extra firepower and maneuverability by utilizing the Armored Car slot.  After looking through the options for the Italians I settled on an Autoblinda AB 41 and was lucky enough to stumble across one at a brick and mortar store I visit whenever possible.  While looking into different paint schemes for my new speedy-pew-pew I was inspired by photos of Italian armor painted in a three tone paint scheme with a base of tan with blotches of green and brown known as Continentale. 

The Continentale paint scheme was used on a few Italian vehicles predominantly in Italy as the Allies pushed the fighting from Africa to the Italian peninsula.   Gaps between the brown and green where the undercoat showed through created a unique looking vehicle camouflage pattern that I decided to reproduce.  After some trial and error I found a process that allowed me to reproduce the paint scheme I wanted in the least painful way possible.

By Morten

The Danish army got a new camo pattern for their uniforms, designated M/84 in 1984, to replace the older M/58 uniform. Although it was implemented into the Army in 84’ it didn’t reach the troops until years later. Even in the 90’s some troops had still not received the new uniform and especially reservists would still be issued the older M/58 uniform. 

The webbing used was of British making and had been donated to Denmark by the UK, after the Second World War. Denmark did not replace this webbing, until start to mid 90’s, although some bags and pouches on the webbing would be replaced with newer versions along the way (like new ammo pouches for the M/75(G3) rifle). Most of the webbing would be a tan/khaki color, although color variations did occur, and could range from a light green to dark khaki. 

Here is my take on how to paint a Danish Panserinfantri Deling (PNINF DEL), or Armored Infantry Platoon, for Team Yankee, in the M/84 uniform. 

“In May of 1941 the war had just begun, The Germans had the biggest ship that had the biggest guns

The Bismarck was the fastest ship that ever sailed the sea, On her decks were guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees”

Sink the Bismarck by Johnny Horton and Tillman Franks

By Patrick S. Baker

Computer Bismarck was developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) and is considered the first serious war game published for what was then called micro-computers and are now called personal computers, or PCs. Prior to Bismarck’s release computer video games had largely been arcade-style games; in home versions of Space Invaders or Pac-man, etc.

Released in February 1980 for the TRS-80 and the Apple II. The game was developed by Joel Billings and John Lyons and written in BASIC computer language.  Rather than come up with a design from scratch, the two developers liberally “borrowed” (some would say lifted directly) from Avalon Hill’s (AH) board game, Bismarck.  Noting the similarities of SSI’s Computer Bismarck, as well as other SSI titles, to their various board games, Avalon Hill took SSI to court in 1983. In 1984 the companies settled out of court, with SSI reportedly paying AH $30,000 dollars.

“Before Guadalcanal, the enemy advanced at his pleasure—after Guadalcanal, he retreated at ours.” – Adm. William F. (Bull) Halsey, USN

By Patrick S. Baker

In 1982, Strategic Simulations, Inc (SSI) released Guadalcanal Campaign (GC). The game is the first game developed by famed game designer, Gary Grigsby. GC is also considered the first commercially released “monster wargame” for personal computers.

In 1982, Grigsby was a civil servant working for the Department of Defense (DoD). He had long had an interest in strategy and wargame, buying and playing board games from companies like Avalon Hill, Victory Games, and Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI).

In 1979, Grisby bought a TRS-80 to “take the combat systems off of these really complicated … wargames and put them on the computer.” Eventually, Grigsby was trying to develop and program full games using BASIC.  But he had no idea how to contact the two main PC game developers of the time, SSI and Avalon Hill, to get his games produced and marketed.