A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
A look at history and popular culture
Today we're starting the first part of our three part series on War Elephants (by reader request!). In this first part, we're going to talk about how elephants performed in battle: how did they fight and what was their battlefield purpose? The second two parts will focus on the (as we'll see) far more important … Continue reading Collections: War Elephants, Part I: Battle Pachyderms
Last week, we looked at a model for what the countryside around an 'ideal city' might look like. Today we're going to introduce some complications to that model (you will recall, our ideal city existed in a perfectly flat plain of uniform fertility) and see how they change the patterns of land use which in … Continue reading Collections: The Lonely City, Part II: Real Cities Have Curves
Today, I just want to talk a little about what I'm doing here on the blog and how you might want to read the posts I'm making. I'll finish up with a sense of what's in the pipeline. This is going to be less of a prepared mini-essay and a bit more of a fireside … Continue reading Miscellanea: A Brief Discussion of History and Scope, or What Am I Doing Here?
This week and next, we're going to look at an issue not of battles, but of settings: pre-modern cities - particularly the trope of the city, town or castle set out all alone in the middle of empty spaces. Why does the city or castle-town set amidst a sea of grass feel so off? And … Continue reading Collections: The Lonely City, Part I: The Ideal City
This week, we're going to look at how the effectiveness of arrow fire - especially against armored targets - varies over distance. This is, in a sense, a continuation of my previous post on armor penetration, "Punching Through Some Armor Myths," so you may want to refer back occasionally. This is going to be a … Continue reading Collections: Archery, Distance and ‘Kiting’