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Those who forget the past will never be able to play it
Humanity's time on Earth has been riddled with death--much of it at the organized, mechanised hands of war. Why, then, do almost all historical games focus on only the biggest conflicts? The Punic Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Pacific and European theaters of World War II have been the focus of hundreds of games, while other massive struggles have been ignored. Developers are going to keep turning wars into interactive games so long as they keep making money, so they might as well branch out and start exploring new areas of history, right?
The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
The war: In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan "temporarily" to help put down a rebellion staged by the Islamic tribesmen against the Russia-friendly socialist government. Ten years later, the massive Red Army retreated in disgrace from the mountainous "graveyard of empires".
Japanese Occupation of China
The war: Perhaps the greatest conquest the Imperial Japanese military made in the years before World War II was the takeover of large parts of China during and after 1937. Unfortunately for them, the Chinese people quickly proved to be hard to rule, and Japanese soldiers dealt with a series of rebellions throughout its occupation.
German Religious Wars
The war: After Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation in 1517, the collection of small kingdoms loosely ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor now known as Germany tore itself apart as Lutherans and Catholics fought over whose interpretation of Christianity was correct.
The Winter War
The war: November 30, 1939, saw the beginning of one of the most one sided campaigns of World War II: the invasion of Finland by the Soviet Union. During the three-month campaign, the Soviet Red Army lost over three hundred thousand troops to the brutal winter cold (Finland was too cold for even Russians to handle) and brilliant Finnish guerilla tactics before retreating in abject failure in March, 1940.
The Mexican Revolution
The war: After Mexico gained independence from Spain in the early 1800s, the young nation tried so hard to put together a functioning government that united a disparate group of peoples and cultures. Eventually, a military dictatorship took hold and stabilized the country under a man named Porfirio Diaz. Many Mexicans didn't care for this, however, and in 1910 they launched a revolution that quickly descended into a massive multi-faction civil war.
The Allied Invasion of Italy
The war: Because of the minimal role it played throughout World War II, we often forget that Italy was a combatant in WWII. However, during the war, Italy became a battleground. After the invasion and takeover of Sicily (the island just off the boot-tip of Italy), the Allied forces launched an invasion of the Italian Peninsula in 1943.
The Thirty Years War
The war: Beginning in 1618 as a resumption of the German Religious Wars, the Thirty Years' War quickly drew in the rest of the nations of Europe, eventually turning into the longest and bloodiest conflict in Europe until of World War I began nearly three centuries later, with 8 million people dead and entire swaths of the continent in ruins.
The Warsaw Uprising
The battle: In 1944, after five years of brutal occupation, the Polish Home Army launched an uprising in the capital city of Warsaw against the occupying German forces. The Uprising failed as the massive Soviet Red Army looked on from across the river, refusing to aid the British-allied Poles.
Boer Wars
The war: The Boer Wars were a pair of conflicts between the British Empire and the Dutch settlers of South Africa over who would control the resource-rich southern tip of the African continent. The First Boer War (1880-1881) saw the Dutch Afrikaners toss the British Empire out of South Africa. This defeat didn't deter the British for long, though, and in 1900 they launched another invasion of South Africa.
