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)

• Little Stalingrad

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

• Parthian Shots (Yaah! Issue 5, Feb 2016)

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)

• Großdeutschland 3: High Tide in the East (Lone Canuck Publishing, TBD)

• Forgotten War: Korea (Multi Man Publishing, TBD)

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)
"...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.
"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)