[adwight]

Thermopylae was a great battle.  That thing that's sad, is the only reason they lost was because traitors showed them the way around behind the Spartans.  If they hadn't of happened, who knows how long those Spartans would have held up.

[Nico]

Originally posted by an0n
Methinks someone missed the point of arming yourself with Harbingers in the final mission.

Methinks someone missed the fun of just shooting down fighters instead of waiting stupidly for a bomb to lock. I did shoot a single time at the Luci, and it went down nice and easy w/o me having to do something has boring as bombing. I hate bombing, so I loved that last mission

[Gank]

Originally posted by Stunaep
Also, for interesting insights, on Russian tactics (or the lack thereof), Suvorov's The Shadow of Victory

Viktor Suvorov aka Vladimir Rezun who also claims that Russia was about to invade Europe when German invaded

[Setekh]

Oooh yes, Kursk would have to be one of my favourite land battles. Roll on the tanks.

[Mr Carrot]

The Germans+Ities lost 160600 in the retreat from Africa (as a result of El Alamein) + more equipment (especially planes) was lost/captured.

they lost 147.000 at stalingrad and (more importantly) the battles around and directly after it.

the difference is that the german loss was not instantly recognisable for several months due to the long retreat through Tunisia. The encirclement circumstances at Stalingrad allowed the defeat to be instantly apparent.

[Gank]

EH wrong. The Germans did lose that many but thats over the course of a whole theatre, including the Torch landings in Morroco. El Alamain was the turning point in North Africa but it was just one battle. The total Axis strength at El Alamain was just over 100k, this was less the amount the Russians took prisioner at Stalingrad.

Sixt army ration figures give a total of 275,000 men trapped in the encirclement at Stalingrad. None of these escaped. If you were to include the losses inflicted on the Romanians and Italians, as well as those suffered during 4th panzers attempt to relieve the kessel, you're looking at a total of near half a million.

El Alamain was a great victory for the allies, and it was Britains turning point in the war, but it wasnt Germanys.

[Drew]

some of the greatest battles ever fought were the ones between carthage and rome.
after hannibal crossed into Italy, he only had about 26000 troops with him. While he was there, he engaged massive roman armies numerous times.

In his first major battle in italy, hannibal defeated the *entire* roman army (sympronius lost 26000 men)
at that time, he could have marched southeast and taken rome without a fight, but her turned south.
anythor major battle, romans had another 30000 odd army (im doing this by memory please check these numbers out)
hannibal killed 16000 of them and took 15000 prsioner.


in another battle, the romans had a 80000 man army, and massed it all near the town of Cani. Hanibals 26000 men army  killed 50000 romans.
Hannibal was undefeated in Italy. He had 3 chances to march into rome when rome had no defence. If he had, and carthage had won, western civilization as we know it wouldn not exist.

[Mr. Vega]

Battle of Manzikert, August 19 1071

One of the greatest disasters to befall the Byzantine army. The Seljuk turks had been threatening the eastern borders of the Byzantine empire for some years, without posing any significant threat, but in 1071 their leader, Alp Arslan, gathered a huge force, perhaps even as large as 100,000 men, and invaded the eastern empire.

The Byzantine Emperor, Romanus Diogenes, had gained the throne through marriage, and ruled as joint emperor with his step-son. He had only been on the throne since 1068, and was not yet firmly established. The Turks had crossed the border, and taken the fortresses of Akhlat and Manzikert (now in modern Turkey). Romanus Diogenes gathered a huge army, although he was still outnumbered by the Turks, and advanced to the border, where he recaptured Akhlat and was besieging Manzikert when the Turks arrived. The Byzantine army formed up, and advanced towards the Turks, who refused to stand and fight, instead using the mobility of their horse-archers to harry the advancing Byzantines. Eventually, after several hours, Romanus Diogenes ordered the withdrawal, intending to return to his camp for the night. The withdrawal was not as smooth as the advance, and some gaps opened in the line. The Turks harried the retreating columns, until the Emperor gave the order to turn and fight.

At this point treachery played a part in the disaster. The rearguard, commanded by Andronicus Ducas, an enemy of Romanus Diogenes, simply continued back to the camp, ignoring the order to turn, and leaving the main army to its fate. Once the rearguard was gone, the Turks were able to outflank the Byzantines, and eventually surround them. To make things worse, one flank of the Byzantine army was sufficiently detached from the main force for it to be forced to fight separately. The Byzantines held out until dark, but eventually they were overwhelmed. The Emperor himself was captured, and the bulk of the army destroyed.