Back in time/fly on the wall

[Revelation]

If you could go back in history to view one of these ancient battle's, which would you choose?

I just chose these few as they are battles of particular interest to me. I realise that there are 1000's more worthy of a mention, so feel free to post one of your own also.

Marathon

Gaugamela

Teutoburg


Agincourt

Cannae

Leuctra

[Ulrih fon Jungingen]

Waterloo - want to see final strike of "Old guard"

Capturing of Tenochtitlan and battle of Otumba

Battle of Kannas

Battle of Tannenberg

[King of Atlantis]

Dont know if i would want to see a real battle. People dying and stuff. Not exactly pretty...

[edyzmedieval]

Something is missing....

Battle of Tannenberg/Grunwald 1410....

But from those I want to see Agincourt...

[cegorach]

All the battle are ancient ones so no wonder that Tannenberg 1410 isn't there

I voted for Cannae, because I find the other ones more boring or tooo difficult to watch

[Revelation]

I've always thought about the stamina it takes for a front line soldier of antiquity to hold his position and fight for extended periods.
Let's just say a soldier survives the battle, fighting in the line for (for arguements sake) 5hrs, I wonder how many kills he makes, or the frequency of those kills. I'd assume he would be rotated from front line to rear so he can get his wind?
The fighting must have been ferocious , the noise incredible and the smell overpowering.
What must of the feeling been like (referring to a Roman soldier, again for arguements sake) waiting in line with his mates watching the advance of the barbarian horde screaming their war cries! Adrenalin plus!
A nasty business war, but interesting nonetheless.
Does anyone know of any sites that explain in detail the things i've mentioned above? Perhaps chain of command also. How the soldiers were rotated, messages relayed and so forth?

[edyzmedieval]

All the battle are ancient ones so no wonder that Tannenberg 1410 isn't there

Agincourt is ancient?!

[caesar44]

Ancient or not - Agincourt !!!
just look at the scene - 6,000 dirty peasants with bows only against 20,000 knights (the best army in the Western world) , and a "swamp" in the middle .
the French don't know until now what fell on them that day
I can't really see a more unbalanced major battle in history and with such results and more important , with such effect on modern warfare

[cegorach]

Agincourt is ancient?!

I didn't notice Anyway it wasn't really interesting in my opinion

[CBR]

Agincourt is definitely an interesting battle but in what way did it effect modern warfare?

For me it would be battles like Cannae and Zama but of course there are lots of other worthy battles to watch too.


CBR

[Monk]

Between Cannae and Gaugamela for me. Seeing either battle would be very interesting to say the least. But if i had to choce one, Cannae it is.

[Marcellus]

I'd go for Cannae - seeing Hannibal stop the mighty Roman war machine would be brilliant.

But I wouldn't object to seeing Alexander at Gaugamela or Agincourt, either!

[Colovion]

Out of those options... Cannae. It would be amazing to have been placed on a slope above the battle and directly behind Hannibal in the center. To see the long columns of green Roman troops marching in step to their death. Sweet sweet victory

[King Ragnar]

Agincourt to see all those knights getting killed by thousands of arrows coming down out of the sky.

[CBR]

Agincourt to see all those knights getting killed by thousands of arrows coming down out of the sky.

Hm then you would be disappointed as it wasn't the arrows


CBR

[TosaInu]

Hm then you would be disappointed as it wasn't the arrows


CBR

Archers indeed played a role in that battle, but the terrain, weather and being vastly outnumbered allowed them to do something entirely different indeed.

Agnincourt wasn't won by the English, it was lost by the French. Or?

[PanzerJaeger]

Out of those I would go with Teutoburg. As for my own interest.. I would definately like to see Kursk.

[Templar Knight]

Out of the ones shown probably Agincourt

My own personal interest - The Battle of Königgrätz, 3rd July 1866

[discovery1]

Teutonburg Wald

I would have loved to see the look on the faces of the Roman soldiers and their families when the ambush was launched.

[Dutch_guy]

Cannae , just like to have seen Hannibals famous move, seeing his center ''fall'' ,romans pushing on , and then getting surrounded by Hannibals veterand on the flanks.

Yeah I would defiantly want to see that..

[The Wizard]

Definitely Leuktra. First time a western general employed real tactics.



~Wiz

[Grey_Fox]

Out of these choices, Cannae. From my own preferences, Liegnitz or Salamanca.

[Marquis of Roland]

Hm then you would be disappointed as it wasn't the arrows


CBR

It would be even more fun to see heavily armored knights getting stuck in the mud and getting stabbed to death by grungy peasants with kitchen knives.

Anyways, Zama I think would be more interesting than Cannae. Its the difference between watching a superior commander wipe out an inferior commander and watching two superior commanders battling it out.

Kursk would be cool too, but only if I get some sort of crazy zoom camera.

Best would be the Battle of Chi'bi on the Yangtze river in 208A.D. Over a million troops battled it out on and by the river. Probably need a zoom camera for that one too.......

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Of those listed, Leuctra. The last throes ofd Sparta, what else could one wish for?

Well I would have loved to see Thermopylae, but that's on a whole different level.

Of other battles; Constantinople 1453 and Kursk (biggest tank battle ever, 'nuff said).

EDIT: Looked up a bit more on Leuctra and after that Mantineia and decided to add Mantineia to the list and learned more about the tactics involved. They are now also one of the main reasons I would want to watch those battles.

[JAG]

Out of those listen it has to be Cannae or Agincourt. Cannae because of the military genius and Agincourt because to witness the sheer destructive force of the longbowmen would be dumbfounding.

However the scenes would be disgusting so I probably wouldn't have the stomach for either anyway.

[PittBull260]

Agincourt, I have to see how the English outnumbered 5-1 won that battle...

[JAG]

Agincourt, I have to see how the English outnumbered 5-1 won that battle...

Mud > disorganised attack > longbowmen > ouch.

:p

[Proletariat]

No Bannockburn? Fine. Cannae then.

[caesar44]

Agincourt is definitely an interesting battle but in what way did it effect modern warfare?

For me it would be battles like Cannae and Zama but of course there are lots of other worthy battles to watch too.


CBR

It was the end of chivalry , for the first time ever , an army based on missiles soldiers defeated an army based on sheer man power (swords , knights , cavalry etc') , from that day on , the concept of warfare was changed for ever , from long bows to muskets to guns to bombs to missiles !

[caesar44]

Out of those options... Cannae. It would be amazing to have been placed on a slope above the battle and directly behind Hannibal in the center. To see the long columns of green Roman troops marching in step to their death. Sweet sweet victory

Hanibaal lost the war