July 13, 2006

Courage of the Past

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King Arthur was playing on Star Movies, the one starring Clive Owen. I am fascinated by how passionate they fight, and it reminded me of one of my all-time favorite game, Civil War Generals 2.

Imagine this. Union and Confederate soldiers line up in front of each other while they load, aim, and fire their weapons. They don't dodge the bullets; they don't fire and retreat; they stay there, receive the attack, and those who don't get shot reload, aim, and fire. Why?

The game is played in turns. After the opponent finishes moving you decide what to do with the pieces you have, either move them or command them to attack. I say pieces because that's what they are, and in a tactical game you don't get emotional. It's more of an intellect-stimulating game so you attack, the opponent defends, a battle summary is displayed showing how many people died in the encounter, and you go off commanding the next piece. I don't mind not getting any emotional stimulation; that's not why I'm playing the game, so I love it.

However, I can imagine them to be people. Real people. It amazes me that they would actually stand in line facing the enemy to receive their bullets without flinching. What kind of conviction did they have to be able to do such a thing? How glib is the toungue of the commanders to be able to convince ordinary people (this is especially true for the South) to stand in the face of death? With all the leadership skills I have (or I guess, with anyone) I would not be able to convince people to go die like that. Why would you create a tactic that doesn't involve hiding from an enemy during confrontation?

I think that leadership then meant business. I think that people believed in what they fought for. I think the technology that we have in present-day warfare compensates for the lack of leadership and faith we have today. All this causes war to be uglier nowadays than it had been then.