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Entries Tagged as 'History'

Personal Gripe Time

August 22nd, 2007 · Comments Off on Personal Gripe Time · History, Me

How in the name of all that is holy does Alexander Hamilton not make the cut as an advisor for the United States in the Napoleon’s Ambition expansion to Europa Universalis 3? He’s the indispensable founding father – he did and thought things that precious few of his compatriots did. Add him. Level 6 Treasurer.

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Well what do you know…

July 10th, 2007 · 11 Comments · Creative Assembly, History

Remember when I made that snarky comment about the Mayans throwing beehives? Turns out it’s true. Sort of. The Popol Vuh states that in one battle, Mayan leaders trapped wasps and hornets in gourds and released the insects at an auspicious moment to panic the enemy. And the Medieval II expansion isn’t the first game […]

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I think I saw this on The Flintstones

June 25th, 2007 · 9 Comments · Creative Assembly, History

A unit description for the upcoming Medieval 2: Total War Kingdoms. Mayan Hornet Throwers gather nests of stinging insects and hurl them into combat! Once thrown, the nest erupts on impact, sending forth a swarm of angry stinging insects which can even get inside European armour and cause serious pain to the recipient. The Hornet […]

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The Zeal of the Convert

May 24th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Design, History

Best-selling historian Niall Ferguson has written an essay about his experiences with Muzzy Lane’s Making History: The Calm and the Storm. Ferguson is thrilled to find out that he can test counterfactuals with PC strategy games. I’ve always loved counterfactuals and alternate histories. (What if Alexander had lived to consolidate his empire? What if Pompey […]

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An Early Effort At Edu-gaming

May 18th, 2007 · 8 Comments · Education, History, Retro

SSI’s Medieval Lords: Soldier Kings of Europe (not to be confused with the recent game from O3 Entertaiment) can be seen as a direct ancestor of the Paradox grand strategy games, though I can find no evidence of lineage. You serve as the advisor to a monarch, expanding power and wealth in the name of […]

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World War I and Game Design

April 16th, 2007 · 12 Comments · Design, History, WW1

My homeland is going through another spasm of celebration of its grand nation building moment. For Canada, this isn’t the 1867 Confederation or even the completion of the transcontinental railway that linked East and West. Instead, the First World War is oft cited as the point when a Dominion with no independent foreign policy took […]

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