A few avid fans may remember the short-lived series’ Time Commanders and Decisive Battles over a decade ago that used the video game Rome: Total War to recreate famous battles with various mixed results. Today the same publisher has only gotten better with two similar titles, Rome: Total War II and Attila: Total War. These games feature a large map view for a strategic campaign and city management as the player assumes control of one of many historical factions, but the hallmark of the games is the zoomed in experience for battles, letting the player become a general.
The newer total war games have much improved, though far from perfect, historical accuracy and stunningly beautiful graphics. The addition of user created game modification (mods) allows players to tweak the game and create much more historical units and share them with all of the players. Custom battles can be set up in a variety of ways and the game developers have included prearranged recreations of historical battles as well as many detailed recreations of ancient cities.
One youtube channel, THFE Productions, features a documentary series that puts a serious historical tone to recordings of the game. The main narrator and video creator, Oakley, puts together a script using excellent sources such as the works of Adrian Goldsworthy and encyclopedias of Roman uniforms and presents the documentary using the game.
His first completed series covers the first Punic War, covering the largely naval combat. It wasn’t perfectly presented, and the voiceover perhaps could have been edited better, but the documentary series drastically improved in quality with the next postings. Using a simple battle-map of Constantinople, Oakley gave a fantastic overview of the all-important triple Theodosian walls, which were very well recreated in the game. Multi-part series on the battles of Cannae and Adrianople were also very well done, providing as much info as a well-funded TV documentary.
His latest documentary series is still coming out, but looks to be excellent. Titled “the evolution of the Roman legions” only part one is out, covering the Roman foundation and Kingdom period. Everything about the first video is impressively done. Organized in a format covering: Background / The Army / The Leadership/ The Soldier / Logistics / Warfare / Conclusion, each section features solid information presented with both the game assets as well as custom graphics to display additional information. The quality of this series so far is good enough to use in classrooms and is great for those looking to get to know more about the Roman army, even those who know quite a bit might learn a new tidbit.
Aside from the documentaries, THFE Productions features a long list of recorded online battles featuring large armies that are almost as big as historical armies (processing and graphical power are only capable of at most 10-20,000 total troops, far from the size of history’s greatest battles.). Oakley is usually joined by another commentator who controlled another army in a joint action against unnamed players online. You can find many instances of these battles with historical emphasis, but they are largely just competitive online matches. Even so, watching how these battles unfold can be quite interesting to the military historian. The devastation of Constantinople video is quite good and a great view of a wrecked city.
By William McLaughlin for War History Online