World Wide War Games Trivia Quiz

Answer: Command and Conquer: the Tiberian Series

Westwood Studios developed both "Command and Conquer" series mentioned here, and implied that "Red Alert" would be a sort of prequel to the Tiberian series. When Westwood Studios went bankrupt, Electronic Arts inherited and continued the franchise (but strayed from the initial storyline).
In the very first "Command and Conquer" (also known as "Tiberian Dawn"), scientists have picked up a new sort of resource: tiberium ore, which replenishes itself and is easily converted into cash. The United Nations form the Global Defense Initiative, to figure out peaceful applications for this new ore. But a mysterious man named Kane forms the Brotherhood of Nod, a faction that tries to monopolize the tiberium ore and goes for world dominancy. Further instalments were "Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun"; "Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars"; and "Command and Conquer: Tiberian Twilight".

After an expansion pack to "Tiberian Dawn", Westwood released "Command and Conquer: Red Alert", in which the NATO fight the Soviets. Later instalments were "Red Alert 2" and "Red Alert 3".
The "Battle for Wesnoth" lets the player pick one of several factions in a medieval fantasy setting: Rebels (mostly elves), Knalgan Alliance (predominantly dwarves), Loyalists (humans, including mages), Northerners (orcs, goblins, and the like), the Undead (zombie-like creatures) and the Drakes (dragon-like creatures).
"Scorched 3D" is three-dimensional artillery game.

Answer: Age of Empires

"Age of Empires" was developed by Ensemble Studios, a small game development studio later purchased by Microsoft. In 1997 the first instalment of "Age of Empire" was released, with a dozen nations to pick (from Phoenician to Yamato). In skirmish mode one started out with a few villagers who had to build a town centre, gather food and resources, and train warriors and specialised people. Object was to lead one's faction from the stone age into the iron age, despite possible enemy invasions.
The series continued with an expansion pack ("Age of Empires: the Rise of Rome") and two later instalments ("Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings" in a medieval setting, and "Age of Empires III" in a Renaissance/ European exploration setting). Although based upon historical themes, the game could take different paths as real history did - for instance, Egyptians could fight Yamato (Japanese), while in real history these people probably never met.

"Computer Bismarck" was a simulation of the last battles of the Bismarck during the Second World War. No Egyptians or Babylonians in sight here.
"Stonkers" was a real-time strategy game for the ZX Spectrum only (and has never been released for Windows PC).
"Final Fantasy" is a successful series of role playing games.

Answer: Close Combat

"Close Combat" was developed by Atomic Games. It simulated battle conditions quite realistically, by taking into account the morale of the troops (mental condition), experience, weariness, etcetera. For instance if a soldier in the game were injured, he would move more slowly and fire less accurately. Almost all instalments were set during the Second World War.

"Nobunaga's Ambition" is a series of video games with a story set in medieval Japan (late 1500's).
"Herzog Zwei" was a game for Sega only, in which a number of land units (and sometimes boats) are sent out to destroy the other player's army and base.
"The Lords of Midnight" was a console game (later also available for PC) to be played either as a war game (building an army to defeat the opponent) or as an adventure game (directing your protagonist through hazardous environments in order to defeat the big boss), or as both simultaneously.

Answer: Invasion of Normandy

"Company of Heroes" centres upon the western front, from D-Day (June 6, 1944) until the clearing of the Falaise pocket (August 21, 1944). The expansion packs "Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts" and "Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor" include further scenarios until Operation Market Garden (September 17-25, 1944). The expansion packs and the original game are mutually interchangeable, so that two players owning two different packs can play against each other in the multi-game player mode.

El Alamein is the turning point on the southern front, leading to the retreat from Africa.
Kursk was the greatest tank battle during the Second World War.
Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest landings in the Pacific war theatre.

Answer: Dune

Frank Herbert's novel "Dune" spawned not only a number of movie adaptations, but also a series of video games. In "Dune" (1992) Paul Atreides will have to build an army and harvest the main resource of the planet Arrakis (a mixture of various herbs, known as "the spice"). "Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty" (also 1992) sketches the war for Arrakis between the house of Atreides, the house of Harkonnen and the house of Ordos - each being able to deploy their own typical war units and special weapons. "Dune" was programmed by Cryo Entertainment, while "Dune II" was released by Westwood Studios. Westwood also made two other instalments in the video game series: "Dune 2000" appeared in 1998, and "Emperor: Battle for Dune" in 2001.

Answer: Cao Cao

The Japanese company Koei developed a series of at least 12 video games based upon the historical novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Most of these video games were only released on the Japanese market, but some (for instance "Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI") were sold worldwide.
The games include various scenarios set in China between 206 AD (Han Dynasty) and 300 AD (Jin Dynasty), while the focus is on the period 220-280 when the kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu fought to unite China. Main characters are (among many others) Dong Zhuo (chancellor of Han), Liu Bei (head of the Shu) and Cao Cao (leader of the Wei).

The game series is named after the historic novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by Luo Ganzhong. As this author lived in the Fourteenth Century, he did not include a character of his name in the novel.
Sun Yat Sen (1866-1925) was the first leader of the Chinese nationalist party Kuomintang. Xi Jinping (born in 1953) has assumed the leadership of the Chinese Communist party in 2012 and assumed office as president of China (the People's Republic) in 2013.

Answer: Total War

The English development studio The Creative Assembly created "Total War: Shogun" in 2000, and Electronic Arts distributed the game. In this first instalment, the player assumes the role of a Japanese daimyo who'll use any means (including diplomacy, alliances, war, trade) to become Shogun of all Japan. An expansion pack was dedicated to the Mongol invasion in Japan.
In 2002 the second instalment was released: "Medieval: Total War", with a timeline stretching from 1087 until 1453. An expansion pack features the Vikings.
The third game in the series was "Rome: Total War", released in 2004. This time the campaign starts in 270 BC and ends with the death of Emperor Augustus in 14 AD. Two expansion packs appeared: one about the last century of the Roman Empire ("Rome: Barbarian Invasions") and one about Alexander the Great.
Further games are "Medieval II: Total War" (2006); "Empire: Total War" (2009, set in the Eighteenth Century); "Napoleon: Total War" (2010); "Total War: Shogun 2" (2011) and "Total War: Rome II" (2013).

"Tom Clancy's End War" is a preview of World War III, starting (according to this game) in 2016. "Nuke Zone" is a text-only video war game. "Age of Mythology" is the successor of "Age of Empires", but with deities from various mythologies (Greek, Egyptian and Norse) interfering.

Answer: Civilization

Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley developed this game for MicroProse in 1991. You start with one or two villagers in the Bronze Age (around 4000 BC), and you build up towns, research facilities, an army, trade posts, etcetera, until you reach the Age of Space Exploration. One way of winning the game (other than defeating all the other competitors in battle) is to be the first to send a space ship to Alpha Centauri.
Since then, "Civilization II" up till "Civilization V" have been released, each with some expansion packs. Although each new version improved game play, the overall story has remained the same: start in the Bronze Age and end up after a number of turns in the Space Exploration Age.

"Sid Meier's Gettysburg" is of course a computer simulation of the American Civil War battle.
"Diplomacy" is a board game set in Europe (and surrounding countries) in 1901. Several efforts have been made to turn it into a computer game.
"Faces of War" is a war simulation of World War II.

Answer: World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

"World of Warcraft" is in fact the fourth instalment of "Warcraft" series, which started out as a real-time strategy franchise. The development studio Blizzard Entertainment started the franchise in 1994 with "Warcraft: Orcs and Humans". Humans and some other races (dwarves, elves) form the Alliance, while Orcs and other nasty creatures (ogres, trolls...) form the Horde. The three first computer games and their expansion packs were real-time strategy games, in which the Alliance had to battle the Horde.
"World of Warcraft" is no longer a real-time strategy game, but a Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game. While the focus has thus shifted away from managing battling armies, there are enough quests that involve killing a number of foes. There are several expansion packs to "World of Warcraft", and the fourth expansion pack ("Mists of Pandaria") leads the player to the newly discovered continent of Pandaria. This new continent is inhabited by anthropomorphic giant red pandas (the Pandaren race), who at first are neutral. But as both the Alliance and the Horde land on Pandaria, the Pandaren join forces with one or the other faction.

"Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising" is a turn-based tactics game only available on Game Boy Advance and Wii U.
"Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth" is an action-adventure game in the horror genre, in which a player (in first person perspective) has to escape from a psychiatric facility populated with bizarre enemies.
"Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks" is an instalment of the well known fighting video game series. The effects of unarmed and armed combat techniques are displayed in a typical style, which has provoked much controversy.

Answer: Holy hand grenade

Team17 developed the "Worms" series, including this 3D edition with almost fifty weapons to choose from. In a completely destructible environment, you should kill the enemy worms (using any of these weapons) or complete other missions.
The holy hand grenade is a reference to "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", in which an instructor tells the king that the grenade will explode once one counted to three. Then the king starts counting to five...

The banana bomb is a cluster bomb in the shape of ... the aforesaid fruit, of course. Mail strike is also some kind of cluster bomb, with exploding letters. The old woman is a nice looking granny, who can be detonated from a distance.