Decisive Battles of the Ancient World (History Channel)

List Price: $34.95 Discount Price: $15.00

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Series [Posted on 2007-12-13]
I really enjoyed this series. The overall production was superb. the battle scenes were not as clear as they could have been, but the background narrative and the expert commentary was informative and entertaining. Having played the Rome: Total War game that they used to create the battle simulations I felt that they shortchanged themselves in several areas. They used the same scenes over and over again and generated very little variety in the troop skins. They could have added a lot more variety to the battle scenes, but overall it was worth what I paid for it.

Very good series [Posted on 2007-12-23]
When I saw this set advertised, I was very excited to get it. But when I read that the battles were presented using computer simulations, I was very skeptical. It just sounded so cheesy. Well, I bought the series and viewed with an open mind. I was pleasantly surprised. The simulations will fool no one, but they're good enough for their purpose--to show the ENTIRE battlefield, which in some cases will cover several miles, and not just a couple guys in hand-to-hand combat. You just can't get several thousand Greek and Roman, etc. reenactors together for this type of documentary. This format is a very good way of doing it.
What about the material itself? All is very good. The information is presented in a lively manner and is satisfying for the viewer. I learned a lot and have watched several episodes more than once. All in all, this is a good set and has set a trend for documentaries of the future. Get this if you are interested in the ancient world, warfare, or history in general. You won't be disappointed.

Very Good Series on Ancient Military History [Posted on 2008-04-08]
"Decisive Battles" is a series that details some of the most famous military engagements of the ancient world. The battles include the Third Servile War (Spartacus's Rebellion), the massacre of Roman legions by Germanic tribes at the Teutonberg Forest, Attila's defeat at Chalons, Alexander the Great's triumph over Persia at Gaugamalea, and others. The individual programs are fairly short and the epic computerized battle scenes certainly enhance the viewing and give the viewer a better sense of the scale of a battle than a small group of reenactors would. Overall, an interesting series that I would recommend to those interested in ancient military history.

Disappointing computer graphics [Posted on 2008-05-07]
I was really looking forward to getting this series, but it was a let down. The information on the ancient battles is great and the narrator Matthew Settle (Band of Brothers) is fine but the computer graphics to detail the battles is dull and repetitive. The CGI effects make all the soldiers look the same and their movments look like swarms of bee's rather than anything specific to the battle. If you don't like the graphics (which I didn't), then you're pretty much 'done' with the series because they are the major tool used to bring the stories alive.

Fun to watch [Posted on 2008-06-26]
So the historical ramp up to each battle is good, but this should be a giant advertisement for Rome Total War and RTW Barbarians. They use this game to show the battles. My kids loved it because as my youngest put it "Seeing a real battle would scare him." Good for the classroom or while you are playing RTW.

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