Rome: Total War and the History Channel

An Interview With IGN

July 21, 2004 - This Friday night at 9 The History Channel kicks off an entirely new series titled Decisive Battles. The first season of the show will document 13 battles of the ancient world, from Rameses II's victory at Kadesh through to the Roman clashes with Attila the Hun nearly 2000 years later.

To strengthen the presentation of each half-hour episode, the producers will be making extensive use of Creative Assembly's Rome: Total War engine. The game engine will be used to present viewers with a gods-eye view of each battle, showing how force size, positions, movement and terrain affected the outcome.

The show will also feature Matthew Settle as host. Some will recognize Matthew from his role as Captain Speirs in HBO's Band of Brothers. (I, myself, will always remember him as Ashley Judd's true love in The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.)

We recently spoke with Peggy Kim who, in addition to being program director, is also executive producer of Decisive Battles.

IGNPC: Thanks for agreeing to talk with us. To begin with, can you just give us an overview of the series?

Peggy Kim: One of the things I think is very innovative about the series is that, in lieu of acted recreations, we're using the engine from Rome: Total War to make the battles come alive. Instead of seeing recreations, you're seeing the game figures on the battlefield. What's great about the engine is that you're getting a gods-eye view of the battlefield that you can't get wth traditional recreations. You get to see the troops in their formations and massive numbers. If we say there were 50,000 troops, you're going to be able to visualize that on a much greater scale.

IGNPC: What made you guys go with Rome: Total War?

Peggy Kim: One of the the great thigns they've done with that game and with the concepts behind it is made it a historical game which is completely in line with what we're doing. Everything from the look to the way the battlefield is laid out to what the soldiers would have been wearing, all of that armament, they're tried very hard to make everything historically accurate. That's very attractive to us.

I already like when the History Channel can break their WWII/Hitler fetish to show some other parts of history. Toss in a chance to get another look at Rome: Total War and i'm definetly interested.

EDIT: The Battle list...

# Cannae
# Gaugamela
# Thermopylae
# Marathon
# Spartacus
# Chalons
# Carrhae
# Adrianople
# Pharsalus
# Cynoscephalae
# Watling Street
# Tuetoberg Forest
# Kadesh

Thermopylae! W00t!

Hehe, I like the cut and paste because I''m lazy, but check this out.

I''m getting beaten to the punch recently like a bad boxer.

That''s how I feel in JO most of the time.