It was a great read and I should say it does give you a greater understanding on what happened.

And considering how often we get these CW debates, I'd say it is a must read for those who often participate in them.

Granted, Stormcloak supporters may have a problem with the fact that it was written by a Legate, but I believe the only difference is that he approves of the course of action taken Titus Mede II, but the facts and history are there.

Dismissing it as a lie should only be done if the game provided evidence in any form.

I just addressed that in the op.

Well, I'm counting on the possibility that some are led by reason rather than blind anger.

If it had been written by Ulfric, the emperor would've been called a coward in the book. It was written by a Legate so he is called a genius.

The only difference is how the writer feels about those events, but the facts themselves are present.

Most people (I think everyone) in every CW thread have read that book. i think.

so people actually read the books in skyrim? well... bethesda does do a good job at catering to as much people as possible...

Yep. Read it. What I got out of it:

1) The Legions took heavy losses (50% or more)

2) The Empire's intelligence assets failed spectacularly

3) The CO who left behind troops in Hammerfell should have been drawn and quartered

Stormcloaks will tell you that it's complete bull. Most Imperials will agree with it.

Personally, I do think that the strategic and operational aspects of the book are true, but it falls to sugarcoating Titus Mede's capitulation to the Thalmor. It does not, if I recall, address the fact that the White-Gold Concordat was essentially identical to pre-war Thalmor demands and thus the whole war had more or less been in vain on the Empire's part.

The books are one of the best aspects of the game.

It's not as blatantly biased as some books. You always have to consider a source when interpreting a text, but that doesn't mean you disregard or dismiss it. Grains of salt can come in big or small.

Actually, The Great War is the source for the WGC being almost exactly the same as the pre-war ultimatum from the Dominion.

As for the book itself, I think it is a decent book that is mostly reliable. Not that this helps the Imperial side much, when it puts forward things like the 2nd Treaty of Stros M'kay being signed 5 years later with Hammerfell and it telling us how the Empire just threw Hammerfell under the buss for not accepting the WGC. And it mentions that many Redguards believe that the Great War could have been won if Mede hadn't accepted the WGC. Not a whole lot of pro-Empire things in that book, all things considered.

Right. Been a while since I read it.

You're probably thinking about "The Bear of Markarth"

Nope. Never read it. I know that it's full of crap so never bothered to waste my time on it.

Is there something wrong with reading books?

That action tricked the Thalmor in Hammerfell into believing they were still facing an Imperial army and allowed the legions to surprise the Dominion army in Cyrodiil. The man should get a medal for that.

Are you kidding? Why would we think that? The great war book is addressed heavily in a lot of our arguments.

If anything, it's a help to Stormcloak supporters.

Pretty much. Everything the Stormcloaks supporters disagree with is there, nothing is hidden for the sake of making the emperor look good.

It is a valid source of information

All that is left is to argue on whether surrendering was the better choice or not. As an Empire supporter, I believe it was the way to give the Empire enough time to recover its strength and prevail in the next and inevitable war. A Stormcloak supporter would say Titus Mede II really p**** out.

As for war strategy, the Thalmor were losing in most of the time, so I think it was well executed looking at the whole picture.

Far from a walk in the park for the Aldmeri Dominion.

I don't see anything in the great war book that would cause the stormcloak supporters to get mad over. Like at all. Every time I get into an argument over the great war, I point straight to this book. There's like no reason at all for anyone to call the book "biased" let alone the stormcloak supporters. Hell, we likely link it or refer to it more than imperial or neutral forum members...

Seriously, as a stormcloak fanatic I love that book, really.

Everyone has read that, it's a must for anyone into the civil war or the Great War, and in what way is it biased?

You must be new to writing if you think that there is no such thing is bias. Everything has some form of bias one way or another. Personally I've never seen any Stormcloak say that book is very biased, in fact we use the very information your legate wrote to argue against you guys given it's virtually the only detailed source about the Great War available in written format.

I don't see how either side could claim it's biased, but I've never even seen anyone try and claim that. This thread confuses me greatly.

That action did no such thing.

That's what the book says...

edit: Viking'd