@Thorvald
El Thorvaldo Moderator

Flag of the United Arab Armed Forces
Flag of the United Arab Armed Forces by @Thorvald (El Thorvaldo)

Flag of the UAR military in Imperium Offtopicum XIV; this was the only one not directly derived from the Egyptian set prepared for ATEN. Whereas the flags for the individual branches drew from existing Egyptian schema, this was based on the Syrian flag. The text reads: "Homeland Honour Devotion / United Arab Army".

Thanks in large part to the game's narrow timescale and roleplay focus, IOT XIV was the first game where I really got a feel for the army itself, going so far as to draft up a full order of battle that broke each unit down into its constituent regiments. By game's end I'd charted 11 field armies and ~32 corps in land forces alone, leading me to brag tongue-in-cheek on private channels that my forces were flexible enough to deploy to every hotspot in the game simultaneously; although this was based on real-life divisions and had anyone actually done proper math most of the regiments would be understrength and/or placeholder cadres.

In keeping track of which corps was deployed where, I came to understand how units develop a service history: the initial Vietnam expedition, after a brief sojourn into Japan, became the battle-hardened vanguard that stood off against the Pan-American Union in British Columbia, and so had witnessed every kind of warfare from jungle to mountain to utter human atrocity. One of the choices I made that, had the game lasted long enough, likely would have paid important dividends down the line, was to deploy expeditions composed of select corps from different armies, rather than the armies wholesale (à la Imperial Japan); thus the globetrotters would diffuse their experience to the home guard and so every army would retain some veterancy, sometimes in multiple theatres.

UPDATE 3-9-22: Downloadable vector available in the SVG Legacy Flag Pack!

[Originally submitted to DeviantArt September 2014.]


Comments & Critiques (2)

Preferred comment/critique type for this content: Any Kind

Average Rating:
(5)

Posted: Wednesday, 26 July, 2023 @ 07:12 PM
Rating: 5

The flag looks pretty genuine, but why are the Arabic letters overlapping and deleting one another?

Posted: Wednesday, 26 July, 2023 @ 09:33 PM

@fragmented_imagination: This draft was originally done as a GIMP raster, and skewing the text layer rotated each character separately. Among other improvements, the SVG remaster correctly links the letters. I'd debated whether to replace the original files with the revamped copies when I rehosted these, but I'm a stickler for posterity so I decided to preserve the originals, for better or worse. (This emblem is significantly improved in the re-release.)

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in and have an Active account to leave a comment.
Please, login or sign up for an account.

What kind of comments is Thorvald seeking for this piece?

  • Any Kind - Self-explanatory.
  • Casual Comments - Comments of a more social nature.
  • Light Critique - Comments containing constructive suggestions about this work.
  • Heavy Critique - A serious analysis of this work, with emphasis on identifying potential problem areas, good use of technique and skill, and suggestions for potentially improving the work.
Please keep in mind, critiques may highlight both positive and negative aspects of this work, but the main goal is to constructively help the artist to improve in their skills and execution. Be kind, considerate, and polite.