[quote=@MelonHead]
<Snipped quote by GreivousKhan>

Which is why medieval battles were incredibly rare and avoided at all costs, but they still happened. 
[/quote]

 If by that you mean large scale field battles, then more or less that is true. Sieges tend to be much more common. Battles have the potential to be decisive--including to be decisive in the wrong way. It is essentially the act of compressing the glory or misery of a whole campaign into the space of a few hours or a couple of days at most, and if the plans fail, woe to the vanquished melon. :K

  Competent commanders have always been aware of the nature of battle as a two-edged knife, so they would only engage in it when there was a compelling a reason to do so. Even after the Napoleonic shift in the focus of warfare towards battle-oriented strategies, modern commanders do not fight battles "just because." They still need to arrange their battles to fit their larger strategic goals and objectives.

 Also due to the terrible risks of unrestrained warfare, battles were often ritualized events that ended long before the total annihilation of the losing side. Many historical cultures had the custom of not beginning the battle until the opposing sides had sent envoys or heralds to each other and attempted to negotiate a peaceful solution. Others demand a ceremonial declaration of the beginning of hostilities, such as by the device of a whistling arrow or a brief ritual cannonade. Anglo-Saxon England had the practice of "hazeling" a field of battle and setting the opposing hosts to meet by prior arrangement at a specific date and place.

 Then of course there is the duel between champions to decide an outcome. Kind of like what Dynamo and I are doing. Makes for a good reason to have a fight between individuals at all. 

[quote=@MelonHead]
<Snipped quote by GreivousKhan>

Which is why medieval battles were incredibly rare and avoided at all costs, but they still happened. Sucks to be the guy at the front I guess. Clifford Rogers believed a great deal of the French who died at Agincourt were actually pushed over by their own men and drowned in the mud, or even suffocated in their own armour (which is known to have happened in other battles, apparently.)

Poor French bastards.
[/quote]

Well that battle did have the french running over their own crossbowmen due to said crossbowmen fleeing the battle and pissing off the French general. Thus that running over by knights was actually intentional.