Tornade
well lets just make a few points in response
first...dying for your country does not make you a loser...nor did i say such a thing...Patton's quote empahsized that war is NOT about honour...it is about destroying the enemy and his ability to make war...Patton was perhaps the last of the truly romantic soldiers...very wrapped up in honour and chivalry...but he was very committed to total war
second...i have been to the Normandy beach as well as a number of other Canadian battlefields in Europe...Vimy...the Scheldt...Ortona...i have seen plenty of graveyards...enough for a lifetime i think...i am very well aware of the sacrifices these men made...even so i doubt that many of them would share your ideas of valour and honour...to them valour and honour was doing what had to be done and surviving to the next day...not some romantic notions of single combat against a willing foe...that is the stuff of film and fiction...perhaps you might want to read the poem
"Dulce et decorum est..." by Wilfred Owen
third...i will stand by my assertion regarding honour and valour being outmoded concepts...human nature being what it is we will see individual acts of heroism and honour...but i would challenge you to provide an example of a war...or even a single battle that was fought on this principal...
did the US go into Iraq with the idea to challenge the Iraqi army to single combat...did it leave its overwhelming air power behind so that the Iraqis would have a fair chance ? of course not...it might have been the honourable thing to do but it would not have been the sensibile thing to do...
did the Allies land in the Pas de Calais...where the Nazis were expecting them and were most capable of defending the beach...of course not...they landed in Normandy where the Nazis were weakest...again...not quite the honourable thing to do...but certainly the smartest...i can go on and on...but i think the point is made
war is not fought for honour...it is fought for gain...the politicians are the ones who speak of honour and valour...something which is alien to most of them...they are the ones who speak the sweet lie... Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori
While I agree with much of what you said above, there is a distinction I will make. Fighting with some ancient or pretend mode of honor can be distinguished from fighting with dishonor. To overwhelm your opponent is expected, even in one on one combat. To torture your opponent after beating him is almost universally accepted as dishonorable. To sneak up on your opponent to kill him is different than hunting down your opponents children and capturing them, then using them as human shields.
War is ugly, games are less ugly. Fortunately, most of us are more likely to face some one bending the rules than some one shooting at us.
In my experience, there are two types of rules lawyers. There is the type concerned in this topic who has read the rules and uses them to win, as aggravating as that is to his opponents. The second type think that because the rules do not say they are forbidden to do something, that they can take that action. Most people who complain about rules lawyers have not adequately read, or do not understand, the rules, and are complaining about the first example. They dislike the player that says, see here on page 29, "may exit the field taking a loss of half your points". The person who hates rules lawyers says, "thats stupid and unrealistic, another rules lawyer finds a slimy way to win".
It is worth talking about the rule in question here, and whether or not it should be kept. I have seen many threads here in which Honor has come up, and it usually stirs up a lot of commentary. I continue to have mixed feelings about the exiting tactic. It is legal, it makes the game less fun for many, it greatly lowers the average score of the game played. Since I have been the high average points leader for a very long time, I am biased towards staying on the board(thats how you get points). However, those that leave and lose half their points cant catch me. Those that play for kills or wins will have different biases. I would assume that those who play the games to get lots of wins, want to win as fast as possible(including exiting the board), so they can play more games faster, and climb the chart. They probably play mostly 1v1 and 2v2 games, or imbalanced games. To them, this whole topic probably seems a bit silly. Of course you exit off the board if it will give you a win, they would think. |
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