I have also finally completed the commentary for the Gallipoli animation.
January 8th: Posted new animation today, contributed by Mark Cannon; Battle of Gazala is now available for viewing.
I have also added a new poll regarding best animation of 2012.
September 1st: Animations are back! Battle of Cape Ecnomus is now available for viewing.
I would also like to announce the tentative list of battles for Season IX:
Battle of Cape Ecnomus, 256 BC
Battle of Ruspina, 46 BC
Battle of Al Mansurah, 1250
Battle of Grunwald, 1410
Battle of Torvioll, 1444
Battle of Austerlitz, 1805
Battle of Queenston Heights 1812
Battle of Moscow, 1941
Also, there is a new poll, requesting your feedback for best animation of 2011.
December 27th: Posted new animation today: Battle of Pydna is now available for viewing.
I have also reformatted the site lay-out somewhat. I have added a resource page for suggested readings and links, which will be an ongoing project, and have made the user content page more prominent.
August 13th: Posted new animation today: Battle of Panipat is now available for viewing.
The schedule of upcoming animations has been shuffled somewhat as well. The Moscow, 1941 and Yom Kippur, 1973 animations will be postponed until Season 9 but the Battles of Bannockburn, 1314 and Mogadishu 1993 will be added to Seasons 7 and 8. My decision to animate the Battle of Mogadishu, the basis of Black Hawk Down, is a response to calls for animations depicting modern warfare. I look forward to the challenge of animating this complex battle.
July 8th: Posted new animation today: Battle of Poltava is now available for viewing. I have also re-formatted the lay-out of all battle pages to make my works consulted and legend more accessible.
The Battle of Warsaw is also now available in video format. If you wish to be notified when new battles in video format are available, subscribe to my YouTube channel.
There will be numerous upgrades to the site this summer, including a better recommended works and links page, more articles and a unique experimental animation. For now, look forward to upcoming battles in Season VIII:
Battle of Maling, 342 BC
Battle of Pydna, 168 BC
Siege of Antioch, 1097-8 (requested in 2011)
Battle of Fornovo, 1495 (requested in 2011)
Battle of Panipat, 1526 (requested in 2008; sorry for the wait!)
Battle of Breitenfeld, 1631
Battle of the Scheldt, 1944
Yom Kippur War, 1973
Despite its popularity, I have replaced the Siege of Belgrade, 1456 with the Battle of Varna, 1444, due to a lack of sources. Varna is around the same time period and involves many of the same factions so it should be a worthwhile replacement for Belgrade.
February 2nd: Finally completed Waterloo commentary.
I have also added an article of my own entitled Germany’s Short War Preference and Subsequent Defeat; it was written as part of a university history course regarding the reasons for the Allied victory in World War I.
Neal West’s animation, Peninsula Campaign and Second Battle of Manassas, 1862 is now available for viewing. All feedback regarding this animation should be directed to its author at ngwest36@gmail.com.
Chase Englund’s article, A Brief History of Offensive Land Tactics in the West is now available for viewing. All feedback regarding this article should be directed to its author at cce5049@psu.edu.
Now that Waterloo is done, I can move on to new animations such as the other five people really want to see according to my old poll. For Mac users in particular: I will also be re-doing the first season of video animations to improve their video quality and making an effort to convert all of Season 3 to video format by the end of the year.This animation has demanded the most research, effort, detail and skill to date, hope everyone enjoys it.
October 23rd, 2010: Added new animation today; Battle of Thymbra is now available for viewing. Also added two new video animations; the Battles of Kerch Peninsula and the Trebia are now available in video format.
The Art of Battle is now on Facebook! Support the site there as well.
July 28th, 2010: Added new animation today; Battle of Catalaunian Plains is now available for viewing.
Also added the first user content; Chase Englund’s article, A Brief History of Offensive Land Tactics in the West is now available for viewing. All feedback regarding this article should be directed to its author at cce5049@psu.edu.
Not surprisingly, many viewers are really looking forward to the upcoming animation of the entire Waterloo Campaign. I have already begun researching for this massive animation - by my earliest estimates it will feature roughly 35 narrations and 4 battles - but due to its size will not be released for some time; smaller, more manageable animations will be released as Waterloo is completed in phases.
May 31st, 2010: Added new animation today; Battle of Kosovo is now available for viewing.
I have also added a new poll to try and determine which battles users want to see. Ipsus is omitted simply because it is almost finished and will be released in the next week or so.
With the Marne being the last animation in Season V, I would like to announce the battles that will be featured in Season VII:
Battle of Ipsus, 301 BC
Battle of Kutna Hora, 1421
Siege of Belgrade, 1456
Battle of Poltava, 1709
Battle of Saratoga, 1777
Battle of Tuyuti, 1866
Battle of Lodz, 1914
Battle of the Bulge, 1944
For Season VI, the Battle of Ulais, 633 has been dropped in favour of the Siege of Damascus, 634 which is a more interesting Khalid battle in my opinion and the Siege of Rome 537-8 has been postponed in favour of the Battle of Kulikovo, 1380 which is a classic Russian battle.
A number of improvements to the site are still in progress although shorter, continious video animations should begin to become available in the next little while. I received overwhelming feedback to make the video animations quicker and have responded appropriately. Good call everyone!
I will be making efforts to make this site better as far as citing its content:
A research report will be submitted to a research assistant for review; it will account for all information included in the animation with citations. The report will be available for all future battles.
I have also made some changes to upcoming animations. For Season V, Herdonia, 212 BC has been replaced by Zama, 202 BC; in Season VI, Monmouth 1778 has been replaced by Gallipoli, 1915-1916; in Season VI, Ulais 633 has become a tentative because it may be replaced by one of many of Khalid’s victories.
There is also a new poll up which I urge you to participate in. I also urge you to participate on the forums, not just this one but all of HistoryNet’s forums.
I have also added the Battle of Adrianople video animation. The rest of Season I video animations will hopefully be released by the end of the week.
Lately I have received a bunch of e-mails regarding viewers making their own animations of great battles. I am very pleased that any viewers wish to do this and I am aiming to encourage more viewers to do just that. I am entertaining the idea of setting up a page where users can contribute their own animations. What sort of criteria/standard I would use, I am not quite sure of yet but the idea is intriguing.
I have also added the first free-flowing battle animation, narrated and available as a video file. Only the Battle of Marathon is available in this format at this time. I am understandably using this as an experiment before I make thirty-two more of them.
I have also added an option where viewers can reward my efforts with a donation to help keep my focus on The Art of Battle: Animated Battle Maps and not menial things like school and a real job.
I have changed the look of the front page a little so each era is represented and it takes less effort to update with new animations.
I have also re-released a few animations after editing mostly minor things that were bothering me such as missing commas, lack of bold text etc.
I do not feel like waiting and so I am tentatively announcing the battles for Season V so that you, the viewer, can tell me what you think and allow me plenty of time to alter them. Here they are:
Battle of Chalons, 451
Siege of Rome 537-538
Battle of Ullais, 633
Battle of Lepanto, 1571
Battle of Monmouth, 1778
Waterloo Campaign, 1815
Battle of Sadowa, 1866
Battle of Moscow, 1941
I also want to encourage viewers to participate on the new subforum dedicated to this site.
Thank you to everyone who voted in the hard-fought poll. Your interest in Christian-Muslim clashes throughout history is duly noted.
I am nearly done choosing battles for Season VI. At this time there are two spaces that I have not completely decided upon but I will release this information to you when I get Season V rolling.
I have also cancelled Sakarya, 1921 for Season IV due to an utter lack of sources detailing the battle. It has been replaced by another Turkish battle: Ankara, 1402, fought by Tamerlane.
You will also notice that my own History Net subforum is up and running and can be visited here or by clicking on the Forums tab and scrolling to the bottom.
I have also - wow I did a lot this week - placed the symbol guide in a more accessible place: the bottom of the home page.
Do not fret. The battles you have been waiting for are coming soon while I enjoy the summer and pump out animations. However, at some point I may divert some of my time to converting the animations to simpler, free-flowing video files.
I did say I would be updating much more often now that the school year is over.
Sorry for the slow updates as of late, this last animation just took a lot longer to complete than I expected. I am excited for the upcoming animations and will ensure they are posted expediently. Also, there will be a surprise animation to be released in the next few months; it will not feature any particular battle, campaign or war . . . well it kind of will but I will not ruin it any further. This bonus animation will be the first of a series of Special animations and will not belong to any particular season.
I just want to encourage viewers to give me feedback and tell me what battles, campaigns, wars and new features you would like to see. E-mail me at jonwebb4290@hotmail.com; as long as your e-mail is not jibberish, I will respond.
The Lower Dnieper Campaign, 1943 has been swapped out for the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula, 1942. In the planning stages of the Lower Dnieper animation, I came to the realization that while it was an interesting campaign worthy of a closer look, the means of presenting it were unsuitable. To animate the entire campaign itself would have meant glossing over too many vital, tactical level engagements to present the "bigger picture." The resulting product would have been a simplistic appearance of larger Soviet forces just overrunning German forces. So, I took the initiative to swap it out for Kerch Peninsula, a smaller, less time-consuming masterpiece by the same commander and the same front.
I realize announcing battles for the next season is a touch premature considering there are seven uncomplete animations from Seasons III and IV but I could not wait. Season V features eight new animations, three of which complete my first, second and third commander spotlights and two of which continue my fourth and fifth commander spotlights. I am sure you will enjoy all of them so here they are:
Siege of Tyre, 332 BC
Battle of Herdonia, 212 BC
Battle of Daras, 530
Battle of Walaja, 633
Battle of Worcester, 1651
Battle of Cowpens, 1781
Six Days’ Campaign, 1814
Battle of the Marne, 1914
As a university student, I have been juggling school-associated work and website-associated work which sometimes blend together. However! All of my assignments are due before April even begins so you, the viewer, can expect and hold me to more frequent updates and more animations. I enjoy my courses but I can not wait to put my full energy into the site.
As an avid military history student, I am sometimes labelled as loving war because I enjoy studying it. To me, this is like labelling criminologists as loving crime because they enjoy studying it. Military history is consistently omitted, even in history courses, so institutions can remain politically correct. Check out the thread on HistoryNet’s very own forum: Why Don’t More Colleges Teach Military History? For me, military history is not the study of how soldiers killed and were killed. Instead, it is the study of strategy and tactics, concepts which must be applied to all of life’s battles and campaigns.
The site has eclipsed the 1,000 hit mark! I’m currently exploring ways to increase traffic to the site. I’m looking for similiar military history sites to link to my site, considering blatant advertising and increasing content. As traffic increases, I can justify pouring more time into more animations. If you would like to help, place the link to www.theartofbattle.com in the signature of any forum accounts. If not, just continue to enjoy the site’s content.
Marathon, 490 BC: 11%
Leuthen, 1757, Dresden, 1813 and Kohima-Imphal, 1944: 6%
All others: <4%
If you strongy agree/disagree with the results, drop me an e-mail at jonwebb4290@hotmail.com
I have clearly had some issues transferring the site’s content to pure html coding but it is all done now. For those who are new to the site, welcome and for those who have followed this site from its embyro state on a free website maker, thank you for your support which allowed all of this to happen. I know what everyone is thinking though and I can assure you that animations will once again be released on a regular basis. In the future, this space will be used to announce updates, discuss topics of interest and otherwise reach out to you, the viewer.
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