Age of Empires II: The manual describes skirmishers as throw-away troops and the game has them as a hard-counter to archers. In fact, in ancient and medieval warfare, the opposite is true: skirmishers harassed infantry, and massed archers were meant to stop this. The Battle of Carrhae saw javelin-armed Roman Legionnaires and skirmishers go up against Parthian horsemen and resulted in perhaps the single most lopsided defeat in Roman history. However, when facing heavy infantry that didn't have their own support range fighters, Athenian skirmishers caused Spartan armies to retreat more thanonce with their javelins.
Used in-game in BioShock Infinite. The citizens of Columbia venerate the Founding Fathers (Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin) as prophets and messiahs, while in reality, they would have been appalled at the fanaticism, oppression, racism, elitism, and abuse of power the Columbians preach and practice. Jefferson established the "separation of church and state", Franklin protested against the caste system and was a deist to boot, and Washington was racially and religiously tolerant, also being against a permanent office position.
All the Civilization games seem to think that Persia historically ended with Alexander's conquest. In reality, there was a country called Persia right up until 1935; Selim I tried to stomp it into submission during his reign in the 1500s. After 1935, Persia has been called by its native name, Iran.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 has the Soviet Union lead by someone who is all but outright stated to be a descendant of the House of Romanov, which for historical reasons would be extremely unlikely (even the Romanov defeated by Gorbachev in 1985 was not related to the royal family). The background given in the installer explains that the Allies imposed him on the Soviet Union as a puppet leader, hoping (to no avail, as it turns out) that he'd appreciate their "help" in getting him there and not give the world war business another shot.
Paradox Interactive by and large did its research, so the starting scenarios are reasonably historically accurate (see below), but AI rulers tend to have little if any interest in directly mimicking the behavior of their historical counterparts, never mind player-created insanity such as a Slavic Empire ruling the Holy Land.
Particularly in earlier start-dates, the lack of accurate records for many regions means that even the most dubious dynastic lineages, from 90% of Swedish rulers claiming descent from the legendary Viking Ragnar Lodbrok to Irish counts insisting they were spawned by Conn of the Hundred Battles, are given the benefit of the doubt by the developers. Ragnar even becomes a playable character with the CharlemagneDLC's 769 AD start. Paradox didn't have much choice here: the alternative in many cases was to make people up entirely (and in the time periods in question, people really did take these kinds of claims seriously). Still, several playable early Yemeni rulers are known to be completely fictional. Another license with the earlier start-dates is back-projection from the original start-date (1066), mostly of things where simulating the historic development would be complicated and require significant investment of development time and effort. The most prominent example is probably that the Catholic and Orthodox churches are portrayed as already existing in 769 AD, when the Great Schism didn't properly take effect until the mid-11th century.note Officially they were the same church from the Council of Chalcedon in 451 until the Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch excommunicated each other in 1054, though unofficially, differences in practice between the Western and Eastern, such on the importance of Latin versus the vernacular, had developed well before the schism became official.
Historically, when a Mongol Great Khan died, all other Mongol military activity was to cease and the leaders were obliged to return with their armies to Mongolia to see the "election" of the successor. This was one of the only things that saved Western Europe from annihilation when Ogedei Khan died in 1241. This rule does not apply to the Mongols in either Crusader Kings game, even when other such unusual succession behaviors such as Muslim open succession are kept.
Muslim states, nomads and player-created merchant republics excepted, are locked to "open" succession, where either the ruler's highest-ranking or greatest-Prestige child inherits without exception. This is meant to simulate the Ottoman style of succession, which basically ran on "last man standing wins", but the Ottoman Empire didn't even come into existence until near the end of the playable timeline. Most other Islamic realms had as many styles of succession as those of any other religion, from seniority to Elective Monarchy.
Every noble family and every individual holding has its own coats-of-arms (including separate COAs for rulers of Islamic and Eastern religions), but coats-of-arms didn't properly develop until about halfway through the game timeline.
Islam's logo is the crescent moon and star. While this is recognizable to modern players, the symbol took hold as a result of being the insignia of the Ottoman Empire, which wasn't founded until near the end of the playable game time.
The Kingdom of England uses three stacked lions rampant as its insignia. This was properly the coat of arms of The House of Plantagenet, which didn't take over England until the mid-1100s. A more conventional choice would have been St. George's Cross (which is still anachronistic but is at least a national symbol rather than a familial one).
The Kingdom of Sweden uses the modern Three Crowns insignia, which didn't properly become associated with Sweden until the mid-14th century King Magnus Eriksson (at the time symbolizing the kingdoms of Sweden, Norway, and Scania; its usage has varied since).
Eiyuu Senki: The World Conquest not only has numerous historical figures interacting with each other beyond the limits of both time and fiction, such as King Arthur meeting Billy the Kid, for example, but every single one of them in that universe is a woman.
Evony. Apparently, Napoleon's diary was written in the medieval era.
In the 2006 E3 press conference, Genji was advertised as being "historically accurate". A minute or so after the spokesperson said this, his player character was attacked by a Giant Enemy Crab, right as the spokesman claimed that the game features "famous battles which actually took place in Ancient Japan". It was poked fun at in Sony's E3 2013 press conference - an indie developer stopped while describing his game and said, "and while historically accurate, it doesn't feature any Giant Enemy Crabs".
The invasion of Japan by the Mongols is often treated like a massive threat which nearly destroyed the Land of the Rising Sun and forced the "inadequate" Japan to modernize its tactics, while in fact, little of this is true, as the invading force was much less formidable, both the numbers and quality of the Mongol army were severely overestimated, as the Mongol army didn't have a real advantage over the local forces either. The Mongols were barely able to keep Tsushima and Iki, failed to gain a foothold in Kyushu and the Hojo regency didn't even need to mobilize their entire force. During their second invasion, most of the Mongol army was unable to even land due to Japanese fortifications. While the massive "Kamikaze" storm that washed away the Mongol fleet did likely happen, it was less of a Deus ex Machina turning the tides of a desperate battle and more like a coup de grace to an already dispirited army.
The enemy forces seems to be composed mostly by Mongols, while in truth Mongols usually forced conqueres states to lend soldiers for their cause: the so-called Mongol army was mostly made of Jurchen, Yuan and Korean soldiers, hardly the typical Mongol army.
The event of Samurai challenging Mongol soldiers to one-on-one duel and being mercilessly butchered is based on embellished chronicles written by monks who did not partecipate to the battles, in truth Samurai fought the invading troops using hit-and-run horse archer tactics with great skill on isolated groups of enemies note (shown in several scrolls of the period) , ironically the same ones the Mongols were said to have used against the Samurai. Duels were rare even among Samurai themselves in battle, they surely wouldn't have wasted their breath challenging foreign invaders who didn't even speak their language.
As per admission of the producers, weapons and armors are from much later in history, in the name of Rule of Cool.
The whole "strict and stupidly-honor-bound Samurai" vs "pragmatic, modernizing Ninja" is a modern fabrication, as "ninjutsu" mostly consisted in methods and tactics to move across mountains and areas undetected and most Samurai were familiar with them, if anything to contrast them. Ninja Clans as often portrayed in fiction probably did not exist, nor had anti-Samurai agendas.
The whole focus on "honor" shown by the Samurai is, again, an anachronism brought forth by the Bushido, a "code of honor" which was written during the Edo period, when the civil wars of the Sengoku Period were over and Japan was in peace, leaving the Samurai unemployed as warriors after almost a century of warfare. Samurai of earlier and more violent times were far more pragmatic. This makes the deconstruction of the "romantic view of the Samurai" look more like a War On Straw.
God of War didn't even try to portray Kratos realistically, it seems. To give one example, he was bald. Real soldiers from ancient Greece wore their hair long, and were very proud of it, doing their best to keep it groomed. This was done deliberately for Rule of Cool— the original, historically-accurate design didn't look interesting enough, so they started making changes, ending up with the iconic character we know today.
Senua is said to be a Pict from Orkney, though she looks nothing like one. Her rawhide leather outfit gives off more of a fantastical Native American vibe, quite far removed from the colourful tunics, mantles and cloaks that the Picts wore.
Senua herself has a southern British name, her partner has a Welsh name, and her parents have fictional non-Celtic names.
Senua's sword's design and her society's reverence of severed heads are inspired by the continental Gauls, rather than the Picts.
Part of the backstory for Killer7 involves an elementary school that has decided who the president of the United States would be since George Washington, located in Seattle, Washington. At the time of Washington's presidency, Seattle didn't exist, only populated by the tribes already living in the area. Seattle wouldn't be founded until 1851, sixty-two years after Washington's election. Even with the extremely bizarre nature of the game, there is no reason to make such a mistake.
Nioh features early modern plate armor existing alongside high medieval greathelms and arming swords in the level which takes place in England.
Onmyoji is supposedly set in the Heian period, but aspects of Japanese culture from other periods, sometimes as late as Edo, pop up, such as the entire character of Aoandon, paper screen doors, kiseru pipes, the shogunate and Ninja.
The creators of Ryse: Son of Rome, Crytek, have admitted to not be aiming for historical accuracy with their game. It certainly shows when Boudica sacks Rome with war elephantsnote Boudica's insurrection was limited to what is now known as England, and while she did sack a city, it was Camulodunum (now Colchester), not Rome. And oh boy, did she ever not have elephants. And the historical silliness doesn't stop there.
Spartan: Total Warrior is explicitly stated to take place in 300 BC - and apparently Marcus Licinius Crassus, Lucius Aelius Sejanus, Emperor Tiberius, Archimedes, King Leonidas I and Beowulf are all contemporaries. Not only were none of them alive in 300 BC, one of them is mythological, and only two of them (Sejanus and Tiberius) even lived at the same time as each other. The blow is somewhat softened by the fact that the game is in no way portraying itself as a historical work; it's an action-packed hack-and-slash in the God of War vein, complete with magic, monsters, zombies and gods.
Soldier: Then he used his fight money to buy two of every animal on earth, and then he herded them onto a boat, and then he beat the crap out of every single one! ... And from that day forward, any time a bunch of animals are together in one place, it's called a zoo! Unless it's a farm!
In Rome: Total War, Egypt fields a number of units that look straight from the New Kingdom, that is, several centuries before the game is set. The developers acknowledged that the faction's appearance and unit selection were anachronistic but said it was a deliberate choice to avoid them being too similar to other factions. One popular conversion mod, Europa Barbarorum, converts the Egyptian faction to be more authentic, as a Macedonian/Greek inspired faction. Also, we're pretty sure the ancient Britons didn't throw severed heads at their enemies.
While Scotland historically was relatively poor and isolated, it was a feudal nation which fielded men-at-arms and knights just like any other European nation at the time - most of the fighting men were recruited from the lowlands and borders. Of course, this is not the case in Medieval 2, where Scotland is Braveheart Land and can recruit hoards of highlanders wrapped in kilts (which didn't exist back then) with blue woad all over their faces.
England's generals, princesses and ruling family members all have Anglo-Saxon names and speak English with a familiar English accent. The real-life Plantagenet dynasty would never have used Anglo-Saxon names, and every single monarch in England from 1066 to 1399 spoke French as their first language.
Being able to conquer all of Ireland simply by taking Dublin is a gross oversimplification. The Irish resisted the English with the utmost ferocity and it took four centuries of near-constant war for the latter to establish political control over the entire island. The Britannia expansion remedies this by splitting Ireland into eight provinces (and Wales, four).
In Empire: Total War, Moscow is the capital of Russia. Historically, St. Petersburg was the capital from 1713 to 1918. The Winter Palace and the Kunstkamera museum, both in St. Petersburg in real life, can only be built in Moscow in the game.
In Total War: Shogun 2, the Boshin War of 1868 can be a titanic conflict which can last years, rack up a death toll similar to that of the American Civil War (600,000 lives lost through various causes) and involve troops from the United States and the British Empire. In reality, it was just a small-scale conflict which ended with 3,500 deaths.
In Total War: Attila, it's possible to meet a Germanic tribe which worships Tengriism decades before the Huns ever really arrived in Europe in real life. And the Visigoths were Christians, not pagan.
saw javelin-armed Roman Legionnaires and skirmishers go up against Parthian horsemen and resulted in perhaps the single most lopsided defeat in Roman history. However, when facing heavy infantry that didn't have their own support range fighters, Athenian skirmishers caused Spartan armies to retreat more than