this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2025
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Likewise, how "few" casualties there were in actual battle. Fiction shows both sides duking it out until they're both effectively wiped out. In real life, if 10% of an army was dead or incapacitated, the battle was over. There would be a rout, a retreat, and depending on the details, another battle a few days or weeks later.
And if you were a knight of nobility you would surrender with the expectation to be ransomed.
Remember limited warfare? That was awesome.
Yeah turns out seeing your buddies get stabbed isn't great for morale.
Very true!
A fighting retreat is an incredibly difficult maneuver to pull off, but if managed, it means that what could have been an utter massacre is reduced to simply damaging. A commander - and a military force - that knows when to fold 'em in that context of high-casualty retreats is worth their weight in gold.