Dislikes

[FierceKitty]

Gamers who assume troops in colourful uniforms or ordered lines were therefore somehow mentally defective.

[Leman]

Why is WWI more harrowing than any other war? At Towton more  Britons were killed on British soil than on the first day of the Somme. At Flodden almost the whole of the Scottish ruling elite was wiped out leaving Scotland in a far greater mess than after WWI. I dislike the way the anti-war sentiments of the 60s have coloured the view of WWI as opposed to any other war. It was a war fuelled by national jingoistic pride and very much of its time. It was also the first war in which the British used conscription and most soldiers were not professionals. They were also able to express their thoughts in writing to a greater degree than previously. Somehow I doubt those thoughts were any different from soldiers' thoughts throughout history. All wars are harrowing resulting in massacres, destruction of families, unfulfilled human promise etc. Unfortunately they are also part of the human condition - greed, protecting the area around you, competition for resources, the quest for adventure, cultural psyche and so on.  

[Leman]

I'm with FK on this one. Colourful uniforms were a way of avoiding friendly fire situations at a time when ranges were relatively short. Close ranks was a way of ensuring the maximum delivery of firepower at a time when firearms were relatively inaccurate.

[FierceKitty]

Oh, and gamers who treat all Japanese combat as basically skirmishes between supermen, always with a cherry-tree blossoming in the background, and fewer than twenty figures on the table, always with a bald, unarmoured archer using a bow at two foot range, six naginatas but no pikes, and a geisha right next to the action.

[FierceKitty]

Americans who don't realise that there was a civil war in Britain, with rather important results.

[FierceKitty]

Rules that leave one side in a cavalry melee wiped out, and the other reduced to 10% of its starting numbers.

[FierceKitty]

Reports that always treat Muslim armies as the bad guys.

[FierceKitty]

Gratuitous family values scenes in movies, when we're waiting for the nudity and violence to get going.

[Ithoriel]

1. People who keep banging on about their own pet projects

2. The fact Pendraken STILL don't make a Soviet 203mm tracked howitzer or a Soviet 3-men-in-a-trench model  

[fsn]

Americans who don't realise that there was a civil war in Britain, with rather important results.

Several!

[fsn]

Why is WWI more harrowing than any other war?

I say to those who criticise WWI generals "you have no flanks, no tanks, no airpower. You don't have enough artillery and your troops were all civvies 6 months ago. Now, how do you take that trench line ahead?"

[FierceKitty]

I say to those who criticise WWI generals "you have no flanks, no tanks, no airpower. You don't have enough artillery and your troops were all civvies 6 months ago. Now, how do you take that trench line ahead?"

Could try opening diplomatic channels?

[toxicpixie]

Jibber a FK, whose side are you on? Are trying to be shot as a defeatist turncoat?!

[Leman]

There's your problem. It's not just the fighting that's going on, but also the culture and milieu of the time. No point looking at WWI through the cultural eyes of a C21st  western liberal European.

[FierceKitty]

There were pacifist voices in Europe by 1916 too. If rather indistinctly heard from the prison cells.

[Rob]

Fools with little knowledge putting other fools with little knowledge in charge of the official oppositions defence policy for this country, when it is my family they are supposed to protect with that policy. 

[Rob]

Historians who are very knowledgeable about the first day of the Somme but have never considered the situation on the last day 

[Rob]

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[Tawa]

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Primes grenade and lobs it!

[paulr]

Why is WWI more harrowing than any other war? At Towton more  Britons were killed on British soil than on the first day of the Somme. At Flodden almost the whole of the Scottish ruling elite was wiped out leaving Scotland in a far greater mess than after WWI. I dislike the way the anti-war sentiments of the 60s have coloured the view of WWI as opposed to any other war. It was a war fuelled by national jingoistic pride and very much of its time. It was also the first war in which the British used conscription and most soldiers were not professionals. They were also able to express their thoughts in writing to a greater degree than previously. Somehow I doubt those thoughts were any different from soldiers' thoughts throughout history. All wars are harrowing resulting in massacres, destruction of families, unfulfilled human promise etc. Unfortunately they are also part of the human condition - greed, protecting the area around you, competition for resources, the quest for adventure, cultural psyche and so on.  

Seconded