Battle of Ankara simulation

[Erpingham]

This thesis is probably most of interest to those producing computer simulations of battles but may entertain Ottoman students.

[Duncan Head]

Interesting. Ankara is a battle I've long wanted to know more about. Not sure about his assumption of 20,000 janissaries; I have a vague memory of an old Slingshot article, possibly by Bill Hamblin, citing a report of a mere 2,000 janissaries at Ankara.

[RichT]

It's a bold attempt but probably better on programming and statistics than history; there seem to be so many assumptions (many of them questionable, if understandable in terms of making the simulation manageable) that the results are of dubious value to say the least. It would have been interesting to see how his agents moved on the battlefield (though I'm not sure he allowed for collision detection etc except between opponents). Still, good effort, hope he got a decent grade...

His numbers are based on David Nicolle's Ospreys by the looks of it (Appendix C.1)

This reminded me of our recent longbow discussions: "the shoot degree in ancient time is usually 45 degrees to maximize effective shooting range". (So far as I can see he doesn't allow for drag.)

[Nick Harbud]

This reminded me of our recent longbow discussions: "the shoot degree in ancient time is usually 45 degrees to maximize effective shooting range". (So far as I can see he doesn't allow for drag.)

FWIW, accounting for drag reduces maximum range by about 100m to roughly 270m.