A look at history and popular culture
At long last, Relic Entertainment has announced that Age of Empires 4 is coming. Strategy gamers rejoice! I am excited - I played the first one back in '98 (I may be dating myself here). But the news brought me back to a common problem with many games of this type and with Age of … Continue reading Collections: Why Are There No Empires in Age of Empires?
The last part of our four-part look at ancient polytheism, looking at the smallest of gods, and the biggest of humans.
Last week as part II of our four part look at ancient polytheistic religious practice (I, II, IV), we looked at some of the basic functions of polytheistic practice, centered on the concept of do ut des, striking a bargain with the god. This week, we're going to turn to another key set of rituals: … Continue reading Collections: Practical Polytheism, Part III: Polling the Gods
Part II of a series at the underpinnings of ancient polytheistic (Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian, Norse, etc) religious practice.
Today we're going to start looking at one facet of how polytheistic religions function, their practicality. This is going to be a four-part series (II, III, IV) looking at some of the general facets of how ancient polytheistic religions work. And work is the operative word, more so than many religions and life philosophies you … Continue reading Collections: Practical Polytheism, Part I: Knowledge
Today we're going to talk about what a pre-modern battlefield might look like after the battle is over. Obvious content warning, since this post is going to talk about (and show pictures of) some very ugly things. Popular media has a particular image for the post-battle battlefield that shows up in film, TV and video-games … Continue reading Collections: The Battlefield After the Battle
A look at the tactics of the 'loot train' battle from Game of Thrones (S7E4), in which it turns out, everyone is the fool.
This post is now available in audio format here. Hey guys, this is just a really quick post to address a question I've seen lurking around thinking about my previous post on the logistics of the loot-train battle. No pictures today, just some quick text on the topic. A lot of readers were throwing up … Continue reading New Acquisitions: How Fast Do Armies Move?
We're going to talk about the comically nonsensical logistics of the "Battle of the Goldroad" from Game of Thrones (S7E4), commonly just called the 'Loot Train battle.'
This is the seven (and last!) part of our seven part series (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, Gloss., Retrospective) look at Sparta in popular memory and historical truth. Last time we talked about Sparta's battlefield record and came away noting that it was profoundly, disappointing average. Longer term readers will know, of course, … Continue reading Collections: This. Isn’t. Sparta. Part VII: Spartan Ends