A good game can fill hours of game-play time. But, a great game will leave you curious to know more about the back-story and historical situation of the setting and people who lived and died through 'the game.' Since I know I have been, and still am to a large extent, mesmerized by this game; I thought I'd share a little of my own research into the back-story of 'this war of mine.


The people of Sarajevo were caught in the middle of the fighting. Some had sons fighting for the army that now had them besieged. As bullets flew, they were caught in this ‘no man’s land’ with only concern for survival. Sarajevo is the capital city, and sits on the Miljacka River, surrounded by the Dinaric Alps where the snipers were stationed. In the decades since the siege, several leaders have been sentenced (and some later released) for crimes against humanity because of their actions in this war of ours. Since you already have the game, and are busy playing it addictively most likely, I will jump right in and make it short & sweet. (The attached images are from current Google Earth software.)

13,000: the size of the Bosnian Serb military Siege force/ the men in the hills
70,000: the troops of the ARBiH defense force trapped inside the city without defense supplies
525,980: the population of the city & nearby areas before the siege
435,000: the population of the city of Sarajevo alone before the siege
300,000-380,000: current population estimates after the siege
50,000 – 100,000: civilians of all ethnic groups marched for peace in the streets after the first blood was shed at a wedding
2: the number of young women who were shot and killed in the peace march
15+100: human casualties of the shelling in the marketplace at the edge of town (killed+ injured)
68+200: killed + wounded at the first Markale Marketplace massacre
7: shots fired at Hakija Turajlić, the Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina at point blank range during the assassination
15: minutes that a Bosniak girl, Admira, screamed and cried after her Serb boyfriend Boško was shot as they attempted to cross the siege line, before she died in his arms
329: average number of shells fired daily
3,777: maximum number of shells fired in one day
35,000: buildings completely destroyed in Sarajevo
11 to 133: the ‘score’ of killed to wounded civilians in a shelling at a football game in Sarajevo
12: number civilians killed while waiting in line for water
1425: days the citizens of Sarajevo fought to survive this war of mine during the Siege

Urbicide… The large scale destruction of a city or urban area. That’s the term used for the destruction and damage wreaked on all the buildings of Sarajevo during the siege.
Besides the Hospitals, newspaper and television stations, and major industrial buildings targeted, the following buildings are a few of the important buildings that were destroyed during the siege.

The presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Gazi Husrev-beg's Mosque,
The Cathedral of Jesus' Heart,
A Jewish cemetery,
The Olympic Museum
UN facilities
Sarajevo’s Vijecnica (the Bosnia National and University Library, the central repository of Bosnian written culture, and a major cultural center of all the Balkans)

In the words of witnesses to the destruction of this war of mine:

• “I had the feeling that Sarajevo was the perfect place to shoot the film I wanted to shoot. It is the perfect illustration of purgatory.” -Jean-Luc Godard
  
• “Sarajevo was this beautiful city, very cosmopolitan, multiethnic, full of wonderful people, artists and writers and poets and Serbs and Muslims and Croats, and living side by side. And then this medieval siege, and it was a medieval siege, came, and the Bosnian Serbs were on the hills lobbing in rockets and grenades and mortars.” -Janine di Giovanni
  
• “It screamed downward, splitting air and sky without effort. A target expanded in size, brought into focus by time and velocity. There was a moment before impact that was the last instant of things as they were. Then the visible world exploded.” ― Steven Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo

• #3. Goodbye Sarajevo: A True Story of Courage, Love, & Survival, by Hana Schofield and Atka Reid
  This is the true story of two sisters who survived the war apart. The younger was put on a refugee bus, and the other survived within the city as our game characters do. The book switches back and forth with both girls sharing their experiences, as it makes way to the dramatic conclusion. It is well worth the read for the details of day to day life, and the bravery of survivors.
  
  
• #2.Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo, by Zlata Filipović
  Zlata’s diary starts like the diary of most young 10 year olds, on her birthday, and progresses from the silly-excitement of young girls to the devastation of survival and thoughts of suicide.
  Zlata's words tell the story as no others can. So, here's a sampling of a few quotes from this ten year old's diary.
  
  • "The people must be the ones to win, not the war. Because war has nothing to do with humanity. War is something inhuman."
    
  • "We went down into the cellar. The cold, dark, revolting cellar. And ours isn't even all that safe. Mommy, Daddy, and I just stood there; holding onto one another in a corner that looked safe."
    
  • "There's no more school. The war has interrupted our lessons,closed down the school, sent children to cellars instead of classrooms."
    
  • "SLAUGHTER! MASSACRE! HORROR! CRIME! BLOOD! SCREAMS! TEARS! DESPAIR! That’s what Vaso Miskin Street looks like today. Two shells exploded in the street and one in the market. Mommy was nearby at the time. She ran to Grandma and Granddad’s. Daddy and I were beside ourselves because she hadn’t come home. I saw some of it on TV but I still can’t believe what I actually saw. It’s unbelievable. I’ve got a lump in my throat and a knot in my tummy. HORRIBLE. They’re taking the wounded to the hospital. It’s a madhouse. We kept going to the window hoping to see Mommy, but she wasn’t’ back. They released a list of dead and wounded. Daddy and I were tearing our hair out. We didn’t know what had happened to her. Was she alive? At 4:00, Daddy decided to go and check the hospital. He got dressed, and I got ready to go to the Bobars’, so as not to stay at home alone. I looked out the window one more time and…I SAW MOMMY RUNNING ACROSS THE BRIDGE. As she came into the house she started shaking and crying."
    
  • "The City maternity hospital was burned down. I was born there...It was new. The fire devoured everything. The Mothers and babies were saved. When the fire broke out, two women were giving birth. The babies are alive. God! People get killed here. They die here. Things go up in flames here. New lives are born."
    
  • "We've had too much horror. The days here are full of horror. Maybe, we in Sarajevo could rename the day and call it horror, because that's really what it's like."
    
  • "This isn't life. This is an imitation of life."
    
  • “It looks to me as though these politics mean Serbs, Croats and Muslims. But they are all people. They are all the same. They all look like people, there's no difference. They all have arms, legs and heads, they walk and talk, but now there's "something" that wants to make them different.”
    
  • "You never know where or when this war is going to flare up."
    
  • "...young people without arms and legs...that have the fortune or perhaps misfortune to survive. There are no trees to blossom, and no birds because the war has destroyed them as well."
  
  
• #1: The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway
  Though this is a work of historical fiction, I thought it was by far the best reading of the three because it touches the heart of what it means to resist persecution and devastation. The book reveals the lengths survivors went to not only survive but prevail, as in the words of Hemingway in the Old Man and the Sea. I prefer the Audible edition because you can hear the music. And, of course the music and art are a big part of the game we play in this war of mine.
  If I got something wrong here, just leave me a note in the comments, and I hope you find something here that stretches out your gaming time. Thanks for reading my first guide!