Wednesday 25 May 2022

Alternative Civ Leaders


Been playing a spot of Civilization VI lately. Its final expansion came out a while ago and work seems to be underway on Civ VII, which made me think of some potential leader changes.

I disliked a few for historical inaccuracy in VI. Victoria was not Queen of the English, but the British (especially daft as if they wanted a female English leader then Elizabeth I is an obvious candidate). Saladin wasn’t Arabic, he was Kurdish (although he did reign over Arabs so this is more accurate, although ironic).

On the flipside, I was surprised and pleased they went with Basil II for the Byzantine Empire (which should be the Eastern Roman Empire) and Trajan over Caesar for Rome.

My experience with the main Civ games is VI and II (which came out around 1999 or thereabouts). So it’s entirely possible that I’ll be mentioning people who had leader roles before.

 

France – Philip Augustus

I’ve never actually read books specifically on French history (excepting the Albigensian Crusade) but reading English medieval history does necessarily involve a lot of French stuff, mostly in warfare. I’ve always quite liked Philip Augustus, whose shrewd approach brilliantly exploited the admittedly open goal of Henry II’s familial infighting to great effect (and he came very close to actually conquering England). Less flashy or well-known than Napoleon but he was critical to the long term success of France as a nation.

 

England - Aethelstan

The grandson of Alfred the Great, Aethelstan was the first man who could claim to be king of all England. Building on the foundations of his father and grandfather, he won crucial victories, particularly Brunanburh against a coalition of enemies. This cemented a unified England, bringing together the Anglo-Saxon people.

 

Macedonia - Philip II 

Alexander the Great still looms large in the public consciousness, and it’s easy to see why. But his father has been somewhat neglected by comparison. When Philip II became king his land was poor, wracked with war, and weak. Through astonishing military innovations (he was inspired by spending time at Thebes and witnessing Epaminondas’ success against the Spartans) he transformed the Macedonian armed forces from pretty feeble to the most powerful army in the world. He was also well along planning the invasion of Asia until he suffered an unfortunate bout of assassination. I think this is the least likely change to occur, but Macedonian history does have great men beyond Alexander and the foremost of these is Philip II.

 

Rome - Aurelian

Aurelian is one of those chaps almost nobody’s ever heard of but when they learn of what he did it’s impossible not to be impressed. When he took the purple the Empire had split into three, with the Gallic Empire of Gaul, Iberia, and Britannia in the west and the Palmyrene Empire breaking away in the east. He stitched the empire back together when it could have collapsed two centuries earlier than the western portion did, and along the way won victories over numerous barbarian tribes. (I’d change the name to the Western Roman Empire as well, and have the Byzantine Empire as the Eastern Roman Empire).

 

 

Carthage - Hannibal

Carthage is a free city in Civ VI (Dido is leader of Phoenicia). This is something of a travesty given how powerful Carthage was and how Hannibal is the greatest antagonist Rome ever faced. Who first crossed the Alps, in winter, in the face of hostile tribes? Who annihilated the Romans at Trasimene and Cannae? Who survived a decade in hostile territory, without defeat? Who would have won if it weren’t for that political lickspittle Hanno? Bring back Hannibal!

 

Thaddeus

Saturday 21 May 2022

Review: Half the World (Shattered Sea, book 2), by Joe Abercrombie

It’s been a little while since I read the first of these (Half a King), but I did remember enough to be able to follow along most of the characters that appear in this book, set a little way down the line.

The High King’s power waxes ever greater, and lesser kings and kingdoms are none too pleased at having to kneel before another. Yarvi, the protagonist of the first book, is ever-present and the driving force behind a bid to break the power of the High King and forge an alliance. The POV characters, however, are both new. Thorn Bathu is a wild, angry, and rather violent young lady who accidentally kills a man and is saved by Yarvi from execution, while Brand (whose whispered word secures her release) was set to be a warrior but gets ostracised for his deed.

The pair end up with Yarvi, and assorted rapscallions, on a ship destined to cross half the world to try and secure friends for Gettland and prise away allies from the High King. Along the way Thorn gets a serious training in weapons, and Brand discovers the warrior life he dreamt of was not necessarily it was cracked up to be.

As ever with an Abercrombie book it’s very easy to read, with engaging characters, a detailed, compelling world, and a plot that cracks along but also has slower moments to help the pacing and give the characters time to grow. I was reading another book at the same time, but still got through the almost 500 pages pretty rapidly. If you liked the first book you’ll like this, and I’m looking forward to the third.

Thaddeus