FEATURED CONTENT: BATTLE OF CUNAXA, 401 BC
Cyrus the Younger versus Artaxerxes II: A Rebel army under Cyrus attempts to use Greek mercenaries to smash through a Royalist army under Artaxerxes. Will the Greek hoplite phalanx live up to its reputation and win Cyrus the Persian throne or does Artaxerxes have a way of neutralizing it?
September 18th, 2018: New animation today (finally): Battle of Cunaxa, 401 BC. It has been over a year since my last update as a result of starting a new job that required 3-4 hours of driving every day from Hamilton to Toronto along the infamous Highway 401. Check out the television series about this dreadful highway if you are interested, Heavy Rescue: 401. Now that I have moved closer to work, I will have more time to complete new animations. The massive Moscow 1941 animation is about 60% complete while I have begun research on Bach Dang River, 1288 so be on the look out for those. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the new animation and am glad to be back.
FEATURED CONTENT: BATTLE OF THE NILE, 1798
Horatio Nelson versus Paul-François Brueys: A British fleet under Nelson surprises a French fleet under Brueys at anchor. Even with the advantage of surprise, can Nelson and his captains find a way to overcome Brueys’ powerful flagship, L’Orient?
August 14th, 2017: New animation today: Battle of the Nile, 1798. I have also announced another wave of battles to be animated in the foreseeable future. Some of them may appear odd choices but start reading in to them and it is probably the most intriguing group I have announced:
Battle of Cunaxa, 401 BC
Battle of Lechaeum, 391 BC
Khwarezmia Campaign, 1218-1221
Siege of Cuzco, 1536-1537
Battle of Shanhai Pass, 1644
Battle of Zorndorf, 1759
Battle of Paschendaele, 1917
Operation Anaconda, 2002
FEATURED CONTENT: BATTLE OF KADESH, 1285 BC
Ramses II versus Muwatallis II: A Hittite army under Muwatallis ambushes part of an Egyptian army under Ramses as it is strung out in march formation. The various Egyptian divisions are divided and unaware of the unfolding disaster. How will Ramses rally his army and meet the Hittite attack?
March 17, 2017: New animation today: Battle of Kadesh, 1285 BC. After a bit of gap in updates due to some travelling on my part and working on the massive Moscow 1941 animation, there are new animations coming.
FEATURED CONTENT: BATTLE OF ROSSBACH, 1757
Frederick the Great versus Joseph von Saxe-Hilburghausen and Charles de Rohan, Prince de Soubise: A Franco Austrian army under Saxe-Hilburghausen and Soubise execute a bold maneuver to outflank a Prussian army under Frederick. How will the Prussian genius counter this aggressive maneuver?
September 12, 2016: New animation today: Battle of Rossbach, 1757. I have also completed 100% upgrades of previous animation so it is all new content from here.
FEATURED CONTENT: BATTLE OF HASTINGS, 1066
Harold Godwinson versus William of Normandy: Fresh off a recent battlefield victory, an English army under Harold occupies favourable defensive terrain to block the advance of an invading Norman army under William. William must defeat Harold and break out of the peninsula he has established a base on before the weather worsens and morale deteriorates. Will the Norman army’s combined arms approach be able to overcome the English army’s shield wall in a literal uphill battle?
July 17, 2016: New animation today: Battle of Hastings, 1066. I am almost finished upgrading all previous animations, which means I can move on to other projects like new battle animations.
FEATURED CONTENT: BATTLE OF MOSUL, 2014
Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi versus Mahdi Gharawi: An Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) force under al-Bilawi looks to seize Iraq’s second largest city with a sudden combined arms attack from Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) under Gharawi, comprising the Army’s 2nd Division and National Police’s 3rd Division. Will the fragile ISF stand up to their greatest test since the United States’ withdrawal? Also known as the Fall of Mosul. ISIS is also known as the Islamic State (IS), Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and Daesh.
May 12, 2016: New animation today: Battle of Mosul, 2014. New season of upcoming animations to be announced soon as well.
April 5, 2016: I am still working away on new animations but wanted to update everyone as to which animations will be coming up as there have been some changes. The following animations are planned for the foreseeable future:
Battle of Kadesh, 1274 BC
Battle of Bach Dang River, 985
Battle of Hastings, 1066
Battle of Tondibi, 1591
Battle of Rossbach, 1757
Battle of the Nile, 1798
Battle of Moscow, 1941
Yom Kippur War, 1973
Battle of Mosul, 2014
FEATURED CONTENT: BATTLE OF PARAITAKANE, 317 BC
Eumenes versus Antigonus I: Antigonus’ plan to advance in oblique order is upset when Peithon, commanding the light cavalry on his refused left flank, suddenly charges ahead to engage Eumenes’ powerful cavalry right wing. How will Antigonus adapt to these unexpected circumstances? Also known as the Battle of Paraetacene.
March 4, 2016: New battle animation today: Battle of Paraitakene, 317 BC. You may also notice that nearly 70% of animations have been upgraded. I am going focus on new animations while gradually upgrading the remaining 30%.
FEATURED CONTENT: BATTLE OF SEKIGAHARA, 1600
Tokugawa Ieyasu versus Ishida Mitsunari: A Western army under Ishida awaits an Eastern army under Tokugawa on the high ground of a valley. With the favourable terrain, Ishida is confident he can attack Tokugawa on all sides and destroy him, but Ishida does not know that Tokugawa has received promises from some Western generals to defect. Will these promises to Tokugawa prove their value on the battlefield?
December 26, 2015: Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everyone. My gift to you is a new battle animation: Battle of Sekigahara, 1600.
Just to give you an idea of how the next few months are shaping up: I have upgraded about 40% of old animations to the standard of more recent ones. This will continue to be my main effort until I have upgraded at least 65%, which I intend to complete by end of January 2016. At that point, I will once again shift my efforts toward entirely new animations that have been planned, while upgrading old animations slowly but steadily with all upgrades complete by end of August 2016.
FEATURED CONTENT: BATTLE OF TORVIOLL, 1444
Skanderbeg versus Ali Pasha: An Albanian army under Skanderbeg awaits a confident Ottoman army under Ali Pasha in a narrow valley. Will Skanderbeg’s ambush overcome Ali Pasha’s Ottomans?
November 11, 2015: The new site is finally up and running! Please be patient as I carefully go through the site and correct everything that did not transfer over perfectly. In the meantime enjoy the brand new animation: Battle of Torvioll, 1444. Once I know all the content is visible and accessible, I will then restart the process of upgrading each and every animation so they are all consistently great.
Thank you to Brian King of HistoryNet for all your help during the transfer and over the last six years. All the best.
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Your site is looking very, very good. I come here about once every three months to look at the animations in conjunction with books I read. Your work makes visualising the battles a breeze. Well done. I am currently deployed to the Golan and am looking forward to the Yom Kippur war installment. Great work all around.
Richard Little, what books do you read? Good luck in the Golan!
Yes great site, it has helped me understand several military strategies and battles. Thanks!
Just discovered your site. Amazing work, congratulations. I will definitely become a regular here.
Please, please more battles!!! At least the most famous and tactically brilliant ones (Ancient battles especially, from Alexander, Caesar, Genghis Khan etc). I’m absolutely in love with your work and keep checking the site for updates.
Thanks Jonathan, great name you have there. If you wish to be alerted to new animations and updates, be sure to follow The Art of Battle on Facebook and Twitter.
Why don’t you post on Youtube anymore
Im absolutely amazed about your site and your fantastic work on documenting about so many historical battles. I used your material in lessons to my students , I teach history.
This is something I was looked for 🙂 Wasnt easy to find. What if in a year or so you could create these fights on interactive way? I am finishing a tool for creating realistic army fights, where everyone could create any army fight. Check it out – armyfight.com . It will be finished in a year or so, because I am working on it alone. But I update it every week. If you want to relate your history knowledge and my hobby of seeing unlimited army fights, then we could do something together.
Thanks for the encouragement and spread the word so it is easier to find. Your project looks like it has a lot of potential. I will be checking back on it every now and then and see how it is progressing.
Came here from your YouTube.. Wish you post some more (not the woman, who had the music in the background).
Absolutely amazing. Possibly the greatest resource online showing clearly the tactics employed in historical battles.
May I propose a presentation of three very decisive battles that have one tactical fact in common: That the most dangerous operation of all is to retreat from an enemy drawn up for battle.
1. Manzikert – start of byzantinian decline and turkization of Asia Minor.
2. Talas – end of Chinese control of the Silk Road, start of Moslem Central Aia.
3. Adwa – saving Ethiopia from colonization like most of Africa otherwise.
Those look like some excellent choices to add to my list. Good to hear from you.
your work is setting standards in this niche..Respect
Such a fantastic website. I love the animations and the care taken with the descriptive text. Now when I read battle descriptions in books or online, I find the course of events/tactics easier to imagine with the little red & blue blocks in my head!
This is a really awesome websites for battle tactics. I love the detail incorporated into the animations. I was wondering if you could maybe animate some of Gaius Octavius’ battles before becoming emperor of Rome, including the battles with Marc Antony
The Greatest website for students of the history of war, tactics and strategy. I would love to see animated battles of alexander the great like grannicus river and issus, from hannibal battles like geronium and tagus river. From caesar the battle of the sabis river and bibracte. From medieval times it would be great to see the battle of towton and dorylaeum. From gunpowder era it would be great to animate the battle of borodino and from modern times i would like to see el guettar and kharkov
it is bad. it doenst give any info
Plz do some of these:
Plataea 479 BC
Issus 333 BC
Gargovia 52 BC
Actium 31 BC
Qadisiya 636 AD
Manzikert 1071 AD
Legnica 1241 AD
Cerignola 1503
Gariglano 1503
Pavia 1525
Lutzen 1632
Rocroi 1643
Turenne’s Winter Campaign 1675
Ramillies 1706
Kunersdorf 1759
Italian Campaign 1796
Jena-Auerstadt 1806
Six Day Campaign 1814
Chancellorsville 1863
Brusilov Offensive 1916
Spring Offensive 1918
Stalingrad 1942
Kharkov 1943
Especially endorse Rocroi and Pavia
Jonathan
I am currently building a 28mm Raphia OOB and board. Current progress is here – https://dukewacoan.wordpress.com/the-land-of-counterpane/successors/
I saw a post on Boardgamegeek where you were looking for the new GMT Raphia scenario. I wanted to see if you had any interest in a Vassal game on it. I am going to attempt using a modified GBoH ruleset for miniatures, and hope to play their Raphia game several times in order to playtest my scenario.
If you have interest drop me an email.
Jim
please include :-Third battle of panipat,Battle of buxar and plassey and india’s first war of independence 1857
i cannot say anymore – i do appreciate your work, your hard work.
thanks.
Wow, I’ve never found presentation about old battle with quality like this before!
Why don’t you upload to YouTube anymore? Do you not have enough time? I was looking at starting a YouTube series like the one you had, but then discovered yours. Just wondering if you plan on ever continuing it or not.
I have not uploaded to YouTube in a very long time. You are not the first to express a desire to see more animations converted to video format. The main issue is time. Basically, the videos were created by doing a video screen capture of the PowerPoint animations and then adding in sound. This was an extremely lengthy, unenjoyable process, and to be honest, I have never been satisfied by the end product due to my lack of skill and expertise in video and sound. Since I finished university a few years ago I have barely found the time to create the PowerPoint animations, and so have no plans to start doing video animations again. I have greatly improved the quality and compatibility of the PowerPoint animations, which I hope you will still enjoy.
Jonathan, outstanding efforts in all categories! As a serving soldier, I unashamedly utilise your animations to pull together the summary of military presentations. Could I champion the cause for one campaign which is screaming for attention? XXX Corps Operation Market-Garden with ‘the Devil’s highway through to Arnhem? Once again, outstanding work, love it!
Mark: Thank you for the kind words. You are in luck my friend! BBC animated this one awhile ago and it is pretty well-done: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/launch_ani_arnhem.shtml.
On a side note: which unit do you serve with? Feel free to send me an email at jonwebb4290@hotmail.com.