Battles are the principal milestones in secular history.
Modern opinion resents this uninspiring truth, and historians often treat the decisions of the field as incidents in the drama of politics and diplomacy. But great battles, won or lost, change the entire course of events, create new standards of values, new moods, new atmospheres, in armies and in nations, to which all must conform.
Marlborough, His Life and Times p 381 Vol 2 (1936)
Winston S Churchill
A website devoted to recreating the great battles of European history by description and re-enactment using wargames between 1615 to 1815, linked to a history site, covering the same period.
http://realmofchance.wordpress.com/
The title comes from two sources. The first is attributed to Julius Caesar, the second to von Clausewitz.
Julius Caesar, quoted by Suetonius, said ‘iacta alea est‘ (the die is cast) as he crossed the Rubicon on January 10, 49 BC, leading his army across the River Rubicon in northern Italy to start the Civil war against Pompey, which eventually gave him absolute control of Rome.
War is the province of danger, and therefore courage above all things is the first quality of a warrior… War is the province of physical exertion and suffering… War is the realm of chance. No other human activity gives it greater scope: no other has such incessant uncertainty of every circumstance, and derails the course of events…
Von Clausewitz, On War
