Siege of Zara

The Siege of Zara or Siege of Zadar (Croatian: Opsada Zadra; 10–24 November 1202) was the first major action of the Fourth Crusade and the first attack against a Catholic city by Catholic crusaders. The crusaders had an agreement with Venice for transport across the sea, but the price far exceeded what they were able to pay. Venice set the condition that the crusaders help them capture Zadar, a constant battleground between Venice on one side and Croatia and Hungary on the other, whose king, Emeric, pledged himself to join the Crusade. Although a part of the crusaders refused to take part in the siege, the attack on Zadar began in November 1202 despite letters from Pope Innocent III forbidding such an action and threatening excommunication. Zadar fell on 24 November and the Venetians and the crusaders sacked the city. After spending the winter in Zadar the Fourth Crusade continued its campaign, which led to the Siege of Constantinople.

Background

Shortly after his election as pope in 1198, Pope Innocent III (1161–1216) published several papal encyclicals calling for the invasion and recapture of the Holy Land from the Muslims. His plan to accomplish this differed from the earlier ultimately unsuccessful Second and Third crusades in several ways. Instead of the secular nobles who led the earlier crusades, this one would be, in theory, completely under papal control. Innocent's plan also called for the invading armies to travel to Egypt by sea and seize the Nile Delta, which would then be used as a base from which to invade Palestine. His call was at first poorly received among the ruling families of Europe, but by 1200, an army of approximately 35,000 was formed.

Fourth Crusade

The Fourth Crusade (1202–04) was a Western European armed expedition originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, a sequence of events culminated in the Crusaders sacking the city of Constantinople, the capital of the Christian-controlled Byzantine Empire.

In January 1203, en route to Jerusalem, the majority of the crusader leadership entered into an agreement with the Byzantine prince Alexios Angelos to divert to Constantinople and restore his deposed father as emperor. The intention of the crusaders was then to continue to the Holy Land with promised Byzantine financial and military assistance. On 23 June 1203 the main crusader fleet reached Constantinople. Smaller contingents continued to Acre.

In August 1203, following clashes outside Constantinople, Alexios Angelos was crowned as co-Emperor (Alexios IV Angelos) with crusader support. However, in January 1204, he was deposed by a popular uprising in Constantinople. The Western crusaders were no longer able to receive their promised payments, and when Alexios IV was murdered on 8 February 1204, the crusaders and Venetians decided on the outright conquest of Constantinople. In April 1204, they captured and brutally sacked the city, and set up a new Latin Empire as well as partitioning other Byzantine territories among themselves.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six is a media franchise created by American author Tom Clancy about a fictional international counter-terrorist unit called "Rainbow." The franchise began with Clancy's novel Rainbow Six, which was adapted into a successful series of tactical first-person shooter video games.

Team Rainbow

Rainbow Six describes Rainbow as an international counter-terrorism operation hosted by NATO and funded by money funneled through the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The base of operations for Rainbow is located in Hereford, England (at the time, home to the SAS), due to the United Kingdom being one of the most accessible countries in the world and having one of the world's foremost special forces units. Most of the characters in Rainbow are American or British, though the NATO countries of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, and the NATO ally of Israel have at least one representative each.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is a first-person shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. Considered as a successor to the now cancelled Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Patriots, Siege puts heavy emphasis on environmental destruction and co-operation between players. Unlike previous entries in the series, the title has missions known as "situations" as well as an online mode.

Gameplay

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is a first-person tactical shooter, in which players take control of an operator from the Rainbow team, a counter-terrorist unit. Different operators have different races, perks, bombs and gadgets. The game features an asymmetrical structure whereby the teams are not always balanced in their ability choices. The operators belong to the counter-terrorism units SWAT, SAS, GSG-9, Spetsnaz and GIGN, each of which has four operators. Canadian operators from Joint Task Force 2 have been added in a recent update. Players also have access to a "Recruit" operator whose gear and gadgets can be customized. Players pick an operator from any unit before a round starts, and are not allowed to change operators during a round. An in-game shop allows players to purchase operators using the in-game currency "Renown", which is earned from actions performed in-game. Each successive operator that is purchased from a single counter-terrorist unit costs an additional 500 Renown.