The Download Munkey : Download This, Download That :)

© Fantasy Flight Games

Stylized illustration of a German Pzkpfw VI ‘Tiger I’ along with three other American war machines from the board game Tide of Iron published by Fantasy Flight Games.

During the course of identifying that unassuming looking truck in the wallpaper, I learnt something interesting which the other three vehicles - Medium Tank M4 Sherman, GMC CCKW-353 (Truck, Cargo, 2 1/2 Ton, 6×6) and the Light Tank M5 Stuart - have in common (other that they’re American, of course ).

Thanks to the might of American industry, all three vehicles were produced in mind-boggling quantities. The M4 Sherman was the most widely produced American tank with 48,966 manufactured in WWII. The Russian T-34, however has the distinction of being the most widely produced Allied tank with over 57,000 units (!) produced during the war.

General Motors built 562,750 CCKW trucks out of over 800,000 2 1/2 ton cargo trucks (other trucks in this category include the Studebaker US6 and International Harvester M-5H-6) fielded by American forces during WWII. More information on these 2 1/2 ton trucks can be found at olive-drab.com.

The M3/M5 Stuart was the most numerous Allied light tank with 22,710 M3 and M5s produced - see American armoured vehicle production data @ Wikipedia)

German tanks were produced in significantly lower quantities - only 1350 Tiger Is and a combined total of 50,439 tanks, assault guns and tank destroyers were manufactured during the war (Wikipedia)

Download the Tide of Iron wallpapers.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
War and Game - Military History Blog
How To Operate a Tiger Tank
Armour Artwork from Motofumi Kobayashi
Hypothetical Illustration of P.1000 Ratte Super-Heavy Tank

Just a quick update to announce that FN Herstal USA has recently released a new wallpaper featuring an illustration by military/police artist Dick Kramer to promote their latest FN SCAR rifles in various configurations.

© FNH USA / Dick Kramer

Download the wallpaper (800×600 to 1900×1200) from FNH USA or visit Dick Kramer’s official website where you can view and buy prints of his work.

FN Herstal USA previously commissioned Dick Kramer for several promotional illustrations which are no longer available at the current FN Herstal USA site. You can view or download them from this previous post - P90s and lots of precision rifles.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
High Resolution Photos of FN Herstal’s Firearms
Modern US Infantry Equipment and Weapons - Official US Army Photos & Factsheets
Oleg Volk’s High Resolution Firearms Photos
DIA Military Art Collections
Osprey Publishing’s Military Art “Advent Calendar”

A couple of educational flash games from BBC History Channel presenting two important battles from English history - the Battle of Hastings between the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons under King Harold II and the Battle of Waterloo pitting the forces the Duke of Wellington against Napoleon Bonaparte. Both games allow you to exprience the battles from either side and the possible outcomes if either side had fought differently at critical points during each battle.

The Battle of Hastings : The Normans have infantry, archers and cavalry whereas the Anglo-Saxons is primarily a infantry based army.

© BBC

© BBC

A Norman victory (top) and an Anglo-Saxon victory (bottom)

The Battle of Waterloo : The heavily outnumbered French army has powerful artillery and better cavalry than the more numerous Seventh Coalition army comprising Belgian, Dutch, Hanoverian, Brunswick and British troops under the Duke of Wellington.

© BBC

© BBC

A Seventh Coalition victory (top) and a French victory (bottom)

Below, I present some of my findings after playing both games several times to discover all possible choices and outcomes.

While both battles took place in different eras, the same basic principle of preserving a mobile reserve to reinforce a successful breakthrough of enemy lines or to bolster a faltering defence or seal critical gaps in defensive lines is readily apparent.

Tactics of course vary according to the prevalent weapons of day. In the Battle of Hastings, the bristling spearpoints of the English shield wall provide an effective counter to Norman cavalry charges whereas infantry of the Napoleonic era form into equally immobile squares with their musket bayonets to deter enemy cavalry.

© Osprey Publishing

Above is Wayne Reynold’s illustration of the effectiveness of a solid shieldwall from the 11th December edition of Osprey Publishing’s “Advent Calendar”. Another shield wall is depicted by late Angus McBride on the 1st December edition.

These two battles still involve armies arrayed in formation against each other before the actual commencement of battle since massed infantry did not possess accurate ranged weapons to inflict substantial damage to their opponents during those times. This probably explains why the artillery were emplaced in front of the French infantry in the battle of Waterloo and the resulting disaster during the early days of WWI when armies attempted to use similar Napoleonic tactics in the face of vastly improved ranged weapons like rifles and machineguns.

The same lack of accurate long-ranged weapons could also make a heroic charge by leaders and their heavily-armored and armed bodyguards exemplified in the Battle of Hastings as a viable way of transforming a crisis into sure victory. A similiar valiant attempt would be pure suicide in today’s wars.

It’s apparent that tactical units have become smaller through the ages probably due to advancements in communication and signalling methods as well as the increased tempo of battle. The increased accuracy and destructiveness of artillery as it evolved over time was possibly a important factor too.

Play The Battle of Hastings and The Battle of Waterloo at BBC History Channel.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Osprey Publishing’s Military Art “Advent Calendar”
War and Game - Military History Blog
Wayne Reynolds’ Paizo Pathfinder Wallpapers
Legion Arena Review
Legion of Man Demo Impressions

Wallpapers from the PS3 game Valkyria Chronicles aka Valkyrie of the Battlefield : Gallian Chronicles, which looks more like an interactive anime film than a game thanks to the unique rendering techniques used by its CANVAS graphics engine.

While most of the content for the Japanese site for this SEGA game is already accessible (not that it would make any difference to visitors who can’t read Japanese since Google Translate can do nothing for Flash-based sites), the wallpapers section is still under construction with only 3 out of the total 20 wallpapers being downloadable at this time.

© Sega

What really interests me about Valkyria Chronicles aren’t the beautifully designed characters nor the refeshingly different anime graphics but the world in which Valkyria Chronicles is based.

Valkyria Chronicles takes place in a fictional pre-WWII Europe where the tiny nation of Gallia (somwhere in The Netherlands) is wedged between the forces of the Atlantic Federation and the East European Imperial Alliance (a pre-war NATO and Warsaw Pact if you will). Most of this information is stuff that I gleaned from watching the various Japanese trailers posted at Gametrailers so there may be some inaccuracies here and there.

© Sega

The game retains that WWII feel familiar to most gamers except for the seemingly outdated East European infantry who still wear 15th century sallets rather than WWII helmets and are armed with cumbersome giant pikes. The infantry later actually reveal the true function of these pikes as early model RPGs by employing them in an offensive anti-tank role - you weren’t half expecting the infantry to form up into square formations to await a charge by tanks, do you?

© Sega

Since the main characters fight with or alongside the blue tanks, I assume they belong to the Atlantic Federation. Curiously, these tanks look very much like a turreted version of the late production model of the German Sturmgeschutz III Ausf G with its distinctively contoured Saukopf gun mantlet/shield (check out thisTamiya model of this exact StuG III version which I used as a reference.)

© Sega

The brown tank of the East European Imperial Alliance (above) appears to be a more sensible version of the monster Soviet T-35 multi-turreted tank with a boxy turret reminiscent of the KV-2.

Download the wallpapers from the official Valkyria Chronicles site or check out the trailers @ Gametrailers.com.

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Tompei’s Museum of Machines
Wallpapers from Paolo Parente’s Dust
Renault Char B1 bis ‘Eure’
Wallpapers from WWII/Occult Game Operation Darkness
Motofumi Kobayashi - Japanese Military Artist : Panzers, War Machines & More

A stunning vexel illustration of a Heckler & Koch MP5 and definitely one of the best firearm illustrations that I’ve ever seen out there on the Net. According to Scottsdale Gun Club, it should be a MP5A3 with the “Navy” trigger group with full-auto and semi-auto firing modes only (the MP5A5 has an additional 3 round burst mode).

© John Norris

This beautiful illustration is also conveniently sized for use as a wallpaper on a 1280×960 screen

Illustrated by John Norris aka donbenni who also does a mean vexel Mitsubishi Eclipse (below) among the various car illustrations in his deviantART gallery.

© John Norris

Check out John Norris’ MP5, Mitsubishi Eclipse and his other artworks at deviantART.

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Tracking Your Favourite Deviants via RSS
Masada ACWS Technical Drawing
Heckler & Koch Catalogue 2007
Russ Schwenkler (dangeruss) - Vexel & 3D Cars and Motorcycle Art
Wallpapers from JDM Option : Japanese Car Tuning and Modification Magazine