About the
Webmaster
Michael A. Dorosh, CD, is a university
graduate, published author, and long-serving member of the Canadian
Armed Forces.
Michael Dorosh completed two Bachelor of
Arts degrees at the University of Calgary, in History and in
Communications Studies, with an emphasis on military history. His
first book, Canuck: Clothing and Equipping the Canadian Soldier
1939-1945 was researched while in school and published in 1995.
A second book on Canadian military uniforms, Dressed to Kill,
was published by Service Publications in 2001.
While in University, Michael Dorosh
enlisted in the Canadian Forces Reserve, specifically The Calgary
Highlanders, serving as a pipe band musician for approximately nine
years. A mandatory remuster to the trade of finance clerk followed,
and another trade reclassification to resource management support
clerk followed after that. Service in various subunits of the
Regiment, all in a part-time capacity, has been ongoing since 1996,
including Administration Company, “A” Company, “B” Company and
Headquarters Company, fulfilling a variety of duties such as company
clerk, regimental clothing storesman, regimental webmaster, driver-signaller,
and on rare occasions as a rifleman. Corporal Dorosh has been
decorated twice; with the Canadian Forces Decoration (CD)
recognizing long service and good conduct, and the Alberta
Centennial Medal, a commemorative awarded for service to the
province of Alberta. He has also been recognized twice by the Clan
of the Gallant Canadians, a private regimental order, to which he
has been admitted in the rank of Henchman. In 2010, Dorosh
received the clasp to the CD, recognizing 22 years of service in the
CF.
In 1998, Michael Dorosh founded what
later became canadiansoldiers.com, an online repository of
information regarding the Canadian Army in the 20th Century.
Following the publication of Canuck, he has published a
variety of articles in various venues, including uniform-themed
writing in Military Trader and Military Modelling, and
wargaming articles in ASL Annual and View from the
Trenches.
After the release of Combat Mission,
Michael Dorosh founded two websites devoted to the latter two
games in the original trilogy (Combat Mission: Barbarossa to
Berlin and Combat Mission: Afrika Korps), and had
scenarios published on their Special Edition release discs. He
served on the beta test team for Panther Games’ Airborne Assault,
and was a beta tester/scenario designer for Combat Mission: Shock
Force, contributing a healthy proportion of the Task Force
Thunder campaign on the release disc. He also served for over two
years on the beta test and scenario design team of Combat
Mission: Campaigns.
In 2007, Michael Dorosh began his own
publishing concern under the canadiansoldiers.com imprint, writing
and publishing three books, including Scenario Designer’s
Handbook, a 216 page treatise on researching, designing, and
publishing scenarios for Advanced Squad Leader.
The Tactical Wargamer was begun in 2008
as a means of sharing and collecting research on the history of
tactical wargaming. In September 2010 he joined the beta test team
for Matrix Games' Panzer Command: Ostfront. He was also
consulted in September 2010 by Omni Television for their research
into the Medal of Honor video game controversy and appeared
in an on-air interview.
In the autumn of 2014 he was listed in
the masthead of War Diary magazine as an associate editor,
and his first article appeared in Vol. 1 No. 4.
As a full time vocation, Michael Dorosh
has been employed with Alberta Health Services since 2000 and
currently works for Emergency Medical Services (AHS EMS).
Select Published Articles:
-
"Warriors of the North: The
Canadians in ASL" (ASL Annual ‘93b)
-
"Sustained Fire: A New Support
Weapon for ASL" (View from the Trenches #31)
-
"The Single Black Chevron" (Military
Artifact)
-
"Neckwear in the Canadian Army"
(Military Artifact)
-
"Canadian Army Uniforms in the Korean
War" (Military Modelling)
-
"Canadian Army Uniforms in Korea" (Military
Trader)
-
"Scenario Designer's Handbook" (Le
Franc Tireur)
-
"6-6-6: The American Soldier" (View
from the Trenches #85)
-
"New Perspective on D-Day
Variants" (War Diary
Vol. 1 No. 4)
-
"Modelling Terrain in Modern
Tactical Wargames" (War Diary Vol. 2 No. 2)
-
"Monty's Single Thrust: Scheldt
Variants" (War Diary Vol. 2 No. 4)
Published Scenarios:
Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin
(Special Edition)
-
GD410705 Assault on Kamienka
-
GD440502 Romanian Defence
-
GD440117 Detraining at Lodz
Combat Mission: Afrika Korps (Special
Edition)
Combat Mission: Shock Force
-
Meeting at High Altitude
-
Fleeing The Scene (TF Thunder
Campaign)
-
Heads Up Seven Up (TF Thunder
Campaign)
-
Lock and Chase (TF Thunder Campaign)
-
Objective Normandy (TF Thunder
Campaign)
-
Slumming It (TF Thunder Campaign)
Advanced Squad Leader
Beta/Playtesting
Credits:
-
Airborne Assault: Red Devils Over
Arnhem (Panther Garmes, 2002)
-
Combat Mission: Shock Force (battlefront.com,
2007)
-
Panzer Command: Ostfront
(Matrix Games, 2011)
-
Blitzkrieg in the West: Northern
Campaign (Lone Canuck Publishing, 2016)
-
Ostfront 3: Operation Barbarossa
(Lone Canuck Publishing, 2016)
-
Yanks (Proofreading only,
Multi Man Publishing, 2016)
-
Großdeutschland 3: High Tide in
the East (Lone Canuck Publishing, TBD)
-
Forgotten War: Korea (Multi
Man Publishing, 2018)
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Published Works:
Books:
-
Canuck:
Clothing and Equipping the Canadian Soldier 1939-1945
(Pictorial Histories
Publishing Company, 1995)
-
Dressed
to Kill (Service
Publications, 2001)
-
Gallant
Calgarians: The Story of the 10th Battalion Calgary Highlanders
Heritage Section 1995-2007
(canadiansoldiers.com,
2007)
-
Yorkton’s
Gunners: The Story of the 64th (Yorkton) Field Battery, Royal
Canadian Artillery
(canadiansoldiers.com,
2007)
-
Scenario
Designer’s Handbook
(canadiansoldiers.com,
2007)
-
Signs of War
(canadiansoldiers.com,
2008)
Yorkton's Gunners
provides interesting and informative insight into the
development of field artillery in Canada and the challenges
faced by the Militia since the end of the First World War.
For those readers who enjoyed George Blackburn's classic
accounts of his experience as an artillery officer in
Normandy and beyond, I would recommend this book as a worthy
adjunct." (Les Peate,
Esprit de Corps Magazine) |
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"...though (Scenario Designer's
Handbook) purports
to be a handbook for scenario designers, in actual fact it
is much, much more. Perhaps the author was afraid of
promising too much. Personally, I should instead describe
this book as a ‘handbook for all ASL players’. Going
further, I recommend to anyone already possessing much or
all of the ASL stuff available and wondering what next to
invest in: look no further... |
 |
What do
you get? A lot of history of the game itself: from its
predecessors to its development. This reviewer has been
playing throughout the three decades since Squad Leader came
on the scene, yet I learned some interesting things from
this book about the game itself. Plus there is a lot...
about force composition: TOEs of all the nationalities,
etc.; and of course, analysis of every aspect of the
scenario card. The book offers all sorts of valuable
material..."(Ian Daglish,
View from the Trenches
)
Ian Daglish
authored several books on the fighting in Normandy,
including Operation Bluecoat, Operation Goodwood: Attack
by Three British Armoured Divisions, and Operation
Epsom: Over the Battlefield and was well known and
respected in the ASL community as a scenario designer.
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"Tactical
Wargamer's Journal is
the most recent wargaming magazine...What draws you to it is
the eye-catching, bound journal with a slick cover, that
reminds you of certain academic journals...My
best guess is if you give this seemingly expensive journal a
pass solely due to price, that decision will nag and later
come back to haunt you. In general it is an outstanding read
for any aficionado of wargaming, and will provide a number
of hours of reading pleasure." (LTC Robert G. Smith,
Panzer Digest) |
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