HISTORY - Great Battles Medieval tutorial footage

Great Battles Medieval is Slitherine's quasi turn based quasi RTS game about the Hundred Years War. If you look over on the Slitherine forums you won't see this game getting much attention compared to say Field of Glory or Commander WW2 but there is a good game there if you can get around the interface. Why Slitherine does not promote it more I am not sure and you won't find a demo for it anywhere and very little footage other than CGI clips and battle action. Much like their arcade style flight sim Slitherine doesn't really push the game too much since the multiplayer I imagine is quite dead.

Since so little was known about it I took the plunge and got it. I didn't do it to advertise it I had actually been looking into the game for a while and I figured why not. After all there were plenty other games I had actually wasted money on and didn't play and this one at least had a good company behind it.

The game plays out on a grid so the way the units move may look a bit awkward. This is because they need to move by grid squares and line up charges and follow a certain path. So while it may look like a free form RTS it actually is not and I think this throws a lot of people off that initially look at it.

Anyway the video below covers only the tutorial for combat and the opening few example missions. NOT shown is the army building, management, overland campaign map movement and several other features. Enjoy. To find out more about the game see this link:

http://www.slitherine.com/games/thcgbotma

Once I get a game or two under my belt I will come back with an AAR. The game is pausable and orders can be issued much like Empire Total War however there are very subtle flanking and attacking moves you can make due to the gameboard aspect. I should also point out this is made for the XBOX 360 so being a console title probably gives it the stigma of being a game for simpletons. I will have to check into this and see if that is indeed the case. So far I like what I see but then again I have a tendency to latch onto quick beer and pretzel type games as a guilty pleasure.

• Free form quest map that allows players to decide when and where to fight within a historical framework.


• More than 20 different units all accurately researched and carefully modeled in amazing detail.


• Almost infinite number of equipment combinations.


• Specializeyour squads with over 100 unique skills.


• Play as the English under the Black Prince or the French under Joan of Arc.


• Innovative Battle Card system that gives bonuses and penalties in battle.


• The most detailed and realistic medieval combat model ever created.


• Story movies created from hundreds of hours of the TV channel HISTORY™ library combined with in game engine footage.