Sources of Information

[Ozymandias the Great]

I'm working on a computer model that takes the initial conditions of an ancient battle and comes up with a prediction for how the battle would have ended. To develop and test this model, I need detailed information about historical battles. Where did the information come from that was used for the historical battles in EB?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Each individual battle was researched independently. There wasn't a big book of battles that we used.

[Xurr]

Each individual battle was researched independently. There wasn't a big book of battles that we used.

Sounds to me like the you guys could actually write the "big book of battles".

[Iskander 3.1]

Try Phillip Sabin's "Lost Battles"

[Andy1984]

I don't want to disappoint you, but to make such a model you would need hundreds of battles to analyse in order to re-create a historic AI. Fighting a battle has partly to do with making choices. These choices were different depending on many factors (weather, fear, hunger, confidence, a general's abilities, experiences of the armies, size of the armies, equipment, military and operational techniques, the strategic alternatives for not fighting the battle, ...). Making a realistic model would imply integrating all these variables in a realistic way. Doing this would imply having access to detailed accounts of many, many battles. In theory, it could be possible to do this. In reality: you probably won't have sufficiently accurate information to suficiently validate the model you made.

Kind regards,

Andy

[A Very Super Market]

My word, that parni seems to be seasick.

[a completely inoffensive name]

I'm working on a computer model that takes the initial conditions of an ancient battle and comes up with a prediction for how the battle would have ended. To develop and test this model, I need detailed information about historical battles. Where did the information come from that was used for the historical battles in EB?

Just copy pasta the program Max Geiger uses from "Deadliest Warrior"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadliest_Warrior
"Weapons test data is input to a Monte Carlo simulation to determine a most probable winner, and a statistical margin of victory.These results are then used to create a battle scenario.[...]The winner is chosen as the average victor of one thousand simulated battles."

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Ozymandias the Great]

Andy1984: I have taken into account the complexity of making an accurate model, and as a result, the model I'm making will be far more simplistic than what actually transpired. The results will also be more rough, i.e., more like the evaluation at the top of a Battle Result dialog box in EB than like the casualty counts.

acin: I'm not looking for information about individual soldiers, but information about entire battles. Also, the timeframe I'm looking at corresponds more closely with that of EB, so a Spetznaz would be a little out of place.

Teleklos: Do you know of any good resources to get me started?

[a completely inoffensive name]

acin: I'm not looking for information about individual soldiers, but information about entire battles. Also, the timeframe I'm looking at corresponds more closely with that of EB, so a Spetznaz would be a little out of place.

Umm, did you even read the Spartan vs. Ninja one?

[Ozymandias the Great]

Umm, did you even read the Spartan vs. Ninja one?

I have. Did I miss something? I did look over it a bit quickly.