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I've recently caught up on the first three episodes of a series being shown in Great Britain on BBC 2.
It takes significant battles from history and in an Ops Room gives four people the chance to rewrite or repeat history.
The first episode involved a team of vicars (!) who proved to be remarkably adept at not repeating the mistakes of Varus and his legions in the Teutoburger Wald. Instead fo letting their forces be depleted piecemeal and eventually separated, they forcemarched their way through into a large clearing where they could best deploy their legionnaries and didn't repeat Varus's mistakes.
In the second episode, a family led by a modern day Boudicca (actually she should be an Anglo-Saxon queen, but I can't offhand think of an equivalent to the Celtic Boudicca) led her family victorious in the complete defeat of Harald Hardrada's Norsemen at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
The massed house carls made short shrift of berserkrs with axe blows, and by skillful use of archers they depleted the ordinary spearmen forces of the Norse invaders.
What proved most amusing though was this Sunday's episode, where a hybrid R.A.F./Army team (including Sandhurst graduates) failed miserably to repeat Alexander's victory at the Hydaspes.
An early skirmish with a small force led by Porus's son failed to teach the team the correct use of the phalanx and to guard the phlanxes' flanks.
Despite discovering that the Greek horses were unsettled by the smell of elephants, they sent in light horsemen and archers against the elephant archers, only to see them have to flee.
Believing that the threat of the elephants had passed simply because they were out of sight to the rear (!) they carried on with a flanking assault on Porus's infantry with some of the Companion heavy cavalry, a dreadfully slow deployment of the phalanx (which had hardly been properly used at all) and were completely surprised by the reformed Indian elephant attack from the rear and flank.
They were utterly routed, needless to say.
It's a series I think any fan of Civilization would love, and it's on BBC 2 at 19:15 on Sundays.
It takes significant battles from history and in an Ops Room gives four people the chance to rewrite or repeat history.
The first episode involved a team of vicars (!) who proved to be remarkably adept at not repeating the mistakes of Varus and his legions in the Teutoburger Wald. Instead fo letting their forces be depleted piecemeal and eventually separated, they forcemarched their way through into a large clearing where they could best deploy their legionnaries and didn't repeat Varus's mistakes.
In the second episode, a family led by a modern day Boudicca (actually she should be an Anglo-Saxon queen, but I can't offhand think of an equivalent to the Celtic Boudicca) led her family victorious in the complete defeat of Harald Hardrada's Norsemen at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
The massed house carls made short shrift of berserkrs with axe blows, and by skillful use of archers they depleted the ordinary spearmen forces of the Norse invaders.
What proved most amusing though was this Sunday's episode, where a hybrid R.A.F./Army team (including Sandhurst graduates) failed miserably to repeat Alexander's victory at the Hydaspes.
An early skirmish with a small force led by Porus's son failed to teach the team the correct use of the phalanx and to guard the phlanxes' flanks.
Despite discovering that the Greek horses were unsettled by the smell of elephants, they sent in light horsemen and archers against the elephant archers, only to see them have to flee.
Believing that the threat of the elephants had passed simply because they were out of sight to the rear (!) they carried on with a flanking assault on Porus's infantry with some of the Companion heavy cavalry, a dreadfully slow deployment of the phalanx (which had hardly been properly used at all) and were completely surprised by the reformed Indian elephant attack from the rear and flank.
They were utterly routed, needless to say.
It's a series I think any fan of Civilization would love, and it's on BBC 2 at 19:15 on Sundays.
I'll probably still watch it though, it's not like there's much else on TV these days...
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