@warzan, your ability to butcher history is phenomenal. It makes these discussions so much fun as we explore the weirdness that is history.

A few things in no particular order. Kursk was fought in WW2 in the fall of 1943. It was a huge tank battle and is considered the death knell of the German efforts on Eastern Front. (Whereas Stalingrad halted German offensives, Kursk saw the Soviet’s go on the offensive from that point on).

Trafalgar is really interesting as Nelson won the battle by abandoning the traditional “fighting instructions” common in naval warfare. These instructions emphasized forming a line of battle and just whaling away on the opposing line. They worked to ensure admirals didn’t lose as opposed to trying to win. Ships of this age only had real firepower on their broadsides and very few weapons on the bow or stern. Keeping them in a straight bow to stern line ensured the maximum firepower and the minimum chance to have your line of battle being defeated.

Trafalgar was the British versus the French and Spanish in 1805. 37 British ships took on 33 French/Spanish ships, lost none, at the loss of 22 enemy ships. It was a hugely decisive victory. It worked out that way because Nelson knew the quality of his ships and crews were much higher than the French/Spanish ships and crews. So instead of forming a line of battle, he just ordered all his captains to charge the enemy, break their line and then just engage in one on one duels. This was a huge gamble for the era but it worked.

If you want to recreated that, Sails of Glory by Ares games is probably the way to go. You can chose the level of detail you use in that game and I’d go with the lower end just due to the number of ships involved.

Moving on to the Battle of Yorktown, actually moving backward as it was fought in 1781, in Yorktown, Virginia and was the final battle of the American Revolution. It came about because Lord Cornwallis had landed an army in the southern colonies and marched north. Initially successful, he eventually got a bad mauling at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. As a result, he decided to march his army to a port to be resupplied and chose Yorktown. He eventually arrived then constructed fortifications and waited for the British fleet.

Unfortunately, Washington got wind of this, and moved the American and French forces south and eventually began a siege. The British navy eventually showed up, but so did the French. They fought the Battle of Chesapeake Bay to a draw. This left Cornwallis completely on his own. The siege lasted about three weeks with individual battles throughout the siege. The final and decisive battles were the assaults on Redoubt 9 and Redoubt 10. These were night attacks on fortified positions and were a really risky proposition. Washington ordered the soldiers not to load their weapons until they actually reached the redoubts so as to prevent anyone from firing a musket and altering the enemy.

The siege lasted a few more days but Cornwallis eventually surrendered. It was the single largest British defeat of the Revolution and led to the de facto end of the war. It wasn’t until 1783, almost two years later, that the official end of the war was declared and American independence recognized.

The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought in 1862 during the American Civil War. The Confederates were entrenched on a hill behind the city and the Union had to cross a river, fight through a city and then up a hill to entrenched fortifications. It was a major disaster for the Union and a huge victory for the Confederacy. Take a look at the movie from 2003 Gods and Generals. It cover’s this battle.

After that, watch the 1993 film, Gettysburg. A lot of the same actors and both movies are based on books by Jeff Shaara. Gettysburg was based on the book, Killer Angels. In that film, Jeff Daniels, who appears in both movies, is Col Joshua Chamberlain, commander of the 20th Maine. Aside from a riveting battle scene on the defense of Little Round Top, which would make for a great game, Jeff Daniels gives two of the best speeches of his acting career when he addresses the prisoners of the 2nd Maine (men who thought they should be discharged from the army as their regiment’s enlistment was up, but their enlistment papers were for a longer period) and tries to persuade them to fight with him and then again when he and Sgt Kilrany, an Irish immigrant in the Union army, talk about why they’re fighting the war and that’s when the phrase Killer Angels appears.

Now lets talk about the Alamo. It’s not part of the American Civil War. It’s the iconic battle for Texas Independence. The US border in the west was basically the Mississippi River. Everything west of that was Mexico. In what is now Texas, Americans were allowed to settle to help subdue the native Indians. They did so under the understanding they’d be subject to the Mexican Constitution of 1824. This constitution was replaced in 1836. By this time, there were a huge number of American settlers in Texas and the change was pretty radical. This combined with a desire to either be independent, or possibly join the US, ultimately led to a revolt. The first major conflict being the siege of the Alamo.

The Alamo was an old mission church on the edge of San Antonio. It was held by about 200 to 250 Texians (English speaking settlers) and Tejanos (native Spanish speaking citizens). They held the mission for twelve days while fighting 1800 Mexicans. John Wayne dis the movie, The Alamo in 1960 and it’s a classic. It has flaws, but it’s still fun. A better movie is the remake in 2004 with Billy Bob Thornton as David Crocket. In it they explore the possibility that Crocket survived the battle to be executed by Santa Anna. Highly unlikely but fun to think about. Another movie, actually a mini-series, to look at is Texas Rising. It covers the whole revolution and explains the origins of The Yellow Rose of Texas.

Texas was an independent country from 1836 to 1845 when it became the 28th state. The annexation of Texas pretty much lead to the Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1848.