# The History Channel's Decisive Battles

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-channels-decisive-battles/257774>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 31, 2004, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-channels-decisive-battles/257774 "2004-07-31T21:09:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2004, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-channels-decisive-battles/257774/1 "2004-07-31T21:09:54Z")

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Anyone watching this?

What this show does is, they take an ancient, important battle and have experts talk about it. But what separates it from all the other shows on The History Channel is they recreate the battle using, I think the engine for Rome: Total War.

It’s interesting to see the battle unfold.

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**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-channels-decisive-battles/257774/2 "2004-08-01T20:31:27Z")

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> [@RandMcnally](#):
>
> Anyone watching this?
> 
> What this show does is, they take an ancient, important battle and have experts talk about it. But what separates it from all the other shows on The History Channel is they recreate the battle using, I think the engine for Rome: Total War.
> 
> It’s interesting to see the battle unfold.

I’ve seen the first two episodes and so far, I like it. In fact, I was wondering what game they used.

Granted, it doesn’t always work as well as it should due to the limitatations of the game engine and limited skins, but it’s a pretty good visual aid. Much better then lines and arrows on a map.

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**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-channels-decisive-battles/257774/3 "2004-08-02T14:25:03Z")

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Interesting show. I just bought Medieval: Total War, and now I can’t wait to crank it up and start some virtual bloodshed!

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**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-channels-decisive-battles/257774/4 "2004-08-02T18:08:23Z")

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I was wondering what game engine they were using. I initally thought it was something line Age of Empires or Age of Mythology, I guess I was sort if right if it’s Rome: Total War.

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**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-channels-decisive-battles/257774/5 "2004-08-02T18:15:33Z")

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I have seen two episodes so far and I like it. I thought the Cannae episode was better than the Gaugamela episode in using the game engine to show what happened.

BTW, here is an interview with the show’s executive Producer:

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