'Accurate' portrayals of battles in fiction

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roronoa79
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09 Dec 2021, 12:12 am

I couldn't think of a way to phrase the subject that seemed fitting, but what I'm wondering is:
Do we know of many films/books/shows/whatever accurately portray the logical course of a battle between armies/fleets? This would exclude historical fiction, as they can have accurate battles by just replicating what we know already happened.
I feel like almost none of the fiction I've seen accurately portrays how a battle would have gone between, for example, two medieval armies. Usually it is just both sides running mindlessly at each other with no formation or unit cohesion. Nobody tries to flank anybody. Cavalry charges are never ordered when they would be, or are ordered when they would not be. Tactics such as Defeat in Detail, Hammer & Anvil, or Oblique order are non-existent. Samurai are using katana as their primary weapon and not naginata.

There are some works of fiction which portray battles/campaigns realistically, but they are hit or miss.
Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings come to mind. Parts of the Battle of the Bastards are good. Parts of it are stupid. Parts of the Battle of Helms Deep are good. Parts of it are stupid.

And that's just medieval-era battles. I can think of even fewer instances of 'accurate' combat in a gunpowder-era stories.


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babybird
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09 Dec 2021, 2:37 pm

I enjoyed reading Bernard Cornwell books The Last Kingdom series about the Viking and the Christians and the battles they had. I thought they were pretty detailed. I do like the Game Of Thrones books as well.


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Eddie Brock
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09 Dec 2021, 2:53 pm

The 'Vikings' television series based on Ragnar Lothbrok used various 'battle techniques' but mostly focused on 1v1 melee. If they are accurate depictions I couldn't say.

Oh I just read this article so may not be what you are looking for The Vikings: Winning is Easy When the Show Cheats
https://aelarsen.wordpress.com/2014/12/ ... ow-cheats/


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Last edited by Eddie Brock on 09 Dec 2021, 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

uncommondenominator
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09 Dec 2021, 2:55 pm

Edward E Smith wrote about fleet battles with such detail regarding strategy, the US Navy adopted it and still uses it to this day, for strategic fleet operations. Smith worked for the US government in addition to writing science fiction in his spare time. The Lensman books are the ones which contain the space battle tactics.

Terry Brooks and Roger Zelazny both incorporate a lot of strategy and tactics when describing battles as well.



roronoa79
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10 Dec 2021, 1:48 am

Thank you all for the recommendations :nerdy:


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Δυνατὰ δὲ οἱ προύχοντες πράσσουσι καὶ οἱ ἀσθενεῖς ξυγχωροῦσιν.
Those with power do what their power permits, and the weak can only acquiesce.

- Thucydides