Quote Originally Posted by NeoSpartan
I don't know wtf is up is this ambushes not being brave stuff.... but I will say:

Ambushes, faint retreats, assasination, sabotage, diplomacy, etc, etc, etc are all tools of war. Ignoring them, saying that such strategies are less "brave", or less "honorable", or too "barbaric", whatever, only makes you weaker and your enemies stronger.

'NUFF SAID.

This is the whole difference between the french defeat at Azincourt and the french victory at Patay 20 years later. In the former case, the french wanted to fight in a chivalrous way, in the later one the french knights just bolted out of a forest to trample the unprepared english under hooves, lances and swords.

About Teutoburg wald : not only is it a wonderful feat of strategy, logistics and tactics ; it is also a demonstration of the marvels misinformation and betrayal can produce. A masterwork. Arminius (Herman or armand, means "great warrior") truly deserves his room in the halls of the greatest men of war.
Ironically, romans who were all to well documented about this disaster, put themselves in a situation where they re-enacted it at their own expense. It happened near the Neuss fortress, in 388 AD. A roman general named quentinius was utterly owned by the franks, a palatin legion (IOVIANI IVNIORES) and all its comitatenses legions were destroyed in a swampy fortress where wooden walls had been erected. Sounds like the germans too had learned their lesson well. The frank general is unknown, and given the political structure of frank tribes at that time, i'd say there was not an appointed general.