Favorite Battle in either Fiction or History.

[Wyatt]

real world .........

(a whole war)
almost the entire pacific campaign in WWII. its was basicaly D-day over and over again for each and every island we took.

(specific battle)
D-day. cant get much more epic than that, or have more 'on the line' in a given battle.

(individual fight)

Hulk Hogan vrs Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III.

fiction .......

(a whole war)

wow almost too many to mention. some that stand out are the Star Wars books. pretty much anything by Tim Zahn. anything involving his grand admiral Thrawn is epic.

another favorite is the Honor Harrington series of books by David Weber.

(specific battles)

this too is a tough one, but im partial too the end of 'return of the Jedi', i still recall being totaly amazed by the special effects and FINALY seeing the rebellion being able to stand up and fight without getting their asses totaly kicked.

other epic battles include pretty much anything to do with the Borg, specificaly the Wolf 359 battle.

also special mention goes to the Temeraire series of books, Epic Napoleonic Wars battles fought with dragon as air support. the authors descriptions of combined dragon fleet formations and the sailing ships battles are truly great

(individual fights)

far far far too many for any to really stand out.

for shear epic badassery and having a gun to my head to pick one id say the end of The Belgariad by David Eddings.

its not often that the purpose of the universe inhabits a person and uses them too kill a dark god.

 

[soren7550]

My favoriet historical fight has to be the invasion of Normandy, mainly because of how it was sone and all the ways the Allied forces entered Normandy (throuhg the beach, over the cliffs, via paratroopers, etc.)

Favoriet fictional fight has to be in Mass effect when all the Cididel forces are fighting Sovergrin (sp?) and when Joker dive bombs it with the Normandy, that was just the wicked sweet icing on the cake.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Real: The battle for Normandy, post-beachhead. Bloody, murderous warfare conducted with artillery and pure, iron-jawed grit.


I would go also with....Warsaw '44, for the most uneven fight, Sevastapol '42, for the heaviest gun ever built (Schwere Gustav), and the Malayan crisis, for the formation of the SAS into a proper unit of hard-hitting sociopaths.


Fictional: The Siege of Vraks, for murderous attritional warfare on a massive scale, and proving the Imperial Guard as the best army in 40K.

 

[Saskwach]

Favoriet fictional fight has to be in Mass effect when all the Cididel forces are fighting Sovergrin (sp?) and when Joker dive bombs it with the Normandy, that was just the wicked sweet icing on the cake.

Personally I thought it was overkewl (puns make my sad existence happy for a moment). Seriously, an entire fleet of massive battleships is tearing into Sovereign and suddenly Joker pilots, or should I say showboats the Normandy around like he's trying to impress a date/his mates/both and, wow, does more damage in one shot than an entire fleet. You're my hero Joker. *sex scene*
Maybe that's just because I always thought Joker was an annoying show boater, though. To each his own.

My personal favourite battle (just to be unique) is Leuctra [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leuctra]. It was the critical point in a war between Thebes and Sparta. Epaminondas, the leader of Thebes, took what had been a backwater nation and spat in the face of the local bully-boy, Sparta (contrary to the movie 300, the Spartans were nasty pieces of work, whose military prowess and lifestyle could only be supported by enslaving all the peoples around them). No one thought he could beat them; but at Leuctra - and Mantinea - outnumbered, he employed some truly innovative tactics* (arguably, Leuctra is the first example of the idea of local superiority ever employed, as well as the echelon formation [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_formation]) to defeat a brutal oligarchy and, in the end, free all those states enslaved by Sparta. The battle came to a head with 300 of both army's elite warriors - the Theban Sacred Band [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Band_of_Thebes] and the Spartan hippeis - grinding it out, Greek phalanx style. Because the Sacred Band had an uncommonly great depth of formation, it eventually pushed through the Spartans with brute strength (there's that local superiority).
The war spelled the end of Spartan domination of the Peloponnese forever. And he did it all for freedom, liberty and democracy. Good show, Epaminondas.
Seriously, that's the blockbuster movie they should have made.

*Since Phillip of Macedon, Alexander the Great's father, was living in Thebes at the time, Epaminondas' battle tactics heavily influenced both of these men.

 

[Splyth]

Battle of Hastings. fought in 1022 by William the Conquer he was going up against the english army and the other people were better equipped and was the last sucessful invasion of England.

 

[xxDarlenexx]

Well, besides the obvious Star Wars battles


Battle of Hogwarts. "Not my daughter, you *****!"

 

[Saskwach]

Battle of Hastings. fought in 1022 by William the Conquer he was going up against the english army and the other people were better equipped and was the last sucessful invasion of England.

1066 in fact. I hate to be a nitpicker, but that's quite the year to Britons and anyone interested in their history. In fact, that year was pasted in my head - thanks to a saying I forget just now - before I ever learned its significance.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

What, nobody's mentioned Thermopylae, Rorkes Drift, or Cannae yet? For shame.

Thermopylae for obvious reasons.

Rorkes Drift because we beat like 10,000 Zulu warriors with about 100 men.

Cannae because Hannibal absolutely annihilated the largest Roman army ever assembled with possibly the greatest battle strategy ever devised.

For fictional;

pretty much anything by Tim Zahn. anything involving his grand admiral Thrawn is epic.

Seconding this,

Dark Tower Wizard and Glass - Roland, Cuthbert, and Alain battling Latigo's men before leading them to Eyebolt Canyon.

And this, for sheer awesomeness.

Also any space battle from Stargate, particularly the siege of Atlantis, the final battle of the Replicators, the Jaffa and the Goa'uld at Dakara and the first battle with the Ori fleet at the supergate. They were all pretty epic.

 

[spuddyt]

The battle of trafalgar. It had everything.

Lord Nelsons unorthadox tactics proved he was a military genius.

27 Britsh ships fought a fleet of 33 French and Spanish ships. The Franco Spanish fleet lost 22 ships and no British ships were lost.

Lord Nelson lead from the front and died a hero.

Apparently Napoleon was so disgusted at his sizable fleet being so soundly beaten that he stopped all French Navy officers from being called "Sir" and its stayed that way ever since.

That battle was amazing. Nelson cut the French in half, a tactic that had thus far never been done. Drove his ships right through them, and tore them to pieces.

I tried to imitate that on empire total war the other day, it, err... didn't go so well XD

 

[rossatdi]

Mechs versus dragons.

Alternatively, Agincourt!

 

[Jingermanoo]

The Siege of Dros Delnoch!

 

[Jingermanoo]

Battle of Hastings. fought in 1022 by William the Conquer he was going up against the english army and the other people were better equipped and was the last sucessful invasion of England.

1066, surely?

 

[Areani]

Battle of Farthenhdur & Battle of the Burning Plains from the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

Agreed. Also the Siege of Feinster.

 

[Whiskyjakk]

Although I haven't read the book in years I used to really like the battle of the five armies in the Hobbit, here's hoping the film is good.

In real life its a toss up between the Battle of Stalingrad for effect on the history of the world and the Battle of Bosworth for good old fashioned treachery and the underdog winning the day.

Edit: Ooh, I forgot. Any battle in Starship Troopers (film or book) for either cheesey over the topness in the film battles or innovate scifiness in the case of the book.

 

[Whobajube]

Battle of Thermopylae... easily, haha.

 

[yami0333]

The Battle of Agincourt, and The Battle of Midway

 

[cannot_aim]

Real world:
anything with Hannibal or Julius Ceasar because between the two of them they conquered basically everything.

real battle:
Battle of Lake Trasimene it forced the romans to avoid pitched battles with Hannibal because he lost only one of his troops for every 20 romans

Fantasy battle:
Battle of the Whispering Wood in A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. You dont learn much of the actuall battle but the parts that are told are incredible and I wish I could have lived in an era where armies still used infantry and cavalry.

 

[ICantBelieveItGoesBoom]

Hmm. Either Cannae just because of Hannibals badassery (That word should definately be added into the dictionary by the way) or The whole of the Winter War between Finland and Russia, I know it's been mentioned loads of times on this forum but still.

 

[Talon_Kale]

Battle of Farthenhdur & Battle of the Burning Plains from the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

Agreed. Also the Siege of Feinster.

Yeah forgot about that. Nothin like creating an ultimate evil when all seems lost

Down with the "King"