Ri Fhionngaill

Are there any battles that stand out, because of a spectacular military achievement, or a ridiculous blunder? Or just because of its impact on the world, or the people involved in it?

Sargon of Akkad

Careful, you'll get a bunch of self-righteous 'the best battle is the one that never happened!' posts...

http://historum.com/showthread.php?t=11640

Lawnmowerman

has to be the Battle of Karánsebes. The Austrian army gets drunk and fights itself, when the turks show up 2 days later they find 10,000 dead Austrians and an army in full retreat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kar%C3%A1nsebeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kar%C3%A1nsebes

sylla1

Really? I thought I was the only one .

In any case, it's equally true when it's written by you.

tjadams

The Battle:
San Jacinto
First Manassas
Austerlitz

Cedar Brown

The Battle of Clontarf
The Battle of Ourique
The Battle of Malplaquet
The Battle of Fontenoy

leakbrewergator

I always liked reading about the Battle of Nagashino (1575)

It involved several major figures in Sengoku Japan: Baba Nobufusa, Yamagata Masakage, Takeda Katsuyori, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Oda Nobunaga, Sassa Narimasa, Anayama Nobukini, etc.

Several of the above figures met their death at the battle (Mostly from the Takeda forces.) Ironically, most of the senior Takeda retainers were adamantly against the battle, but they fought anyway...

You have what is essentially the destruction of one of the more powerful families (Takeda) in Japan's history in one battle.

Not to mention, it cleared the way for the beginning of Japan's unification.

Naomasa298

Mine would be the Battle of Sekigahara. Apart from all of the fascinating people involved, there were so many clashes of personalities on and off the battlefield that politics and interpersonal relationships played as much a part in it as actual military tactics. Both the prologue and aftermath to the battle are fascinating in their own right.

Ri Fhionngaill

Battle of Inverlochy (1431):

A Scottish army of five thousand soldiers, most of them heavily-armoured knights, is camped at the head of Loch Linnhe. The Earl of Huntly warns them of the approach of three hundred lightly-armoured soldiers of the Lordship of the Isles under the command of Domhnall Balloch, President of the Council.

The chief of Clan Mackintosh insists that they finish their game of cards, as the numbers of Domhnall's army are not large enough to overwhelm them. Huntly withdraws in disgust, and the Scots finally scramble for their weapons as Domhnall breaches the walls; only to have three hundred elite Hebridean arches fire upon them from a hill to the rear. They flee in panic, and more than a thousand of them are killed. Domhnall loses twenty-seven men, most of them to friendly fire.

PADDYBOY

I quite like the battle of Otterburn 1388.
Following the end of the truce between England and Scotland, a small army of Border Reivers decide to invade England. By the time the English realise it isn't a full blown Scottish invasion ? they set of in pursuit of the cheeky reivers. They turn the tables on the reivers and launch a surprise attack on them just as night fell. The reivers (literally caught with their pants down) won the battle.