As a rule, large battles became the brightest pages of world history. They were glorified by writers, poets, artists and historians, glorifying the courage of warriors and cunning of war-lords, delighting in the grandiose scope of battles. However there is other side. The families left by bread-winners died from illnesses and hunger, peaceful habitants worked in sweat of person, to provide an army a meal, clothing and live ammunition, rulers gave up the capitals. History knows quite a bit battles that decided the further fate of enormous territories and whole people on long time forward. But it was and quite a bit such the only result of that was a great number of lost, раненых and пленных and the scorched earth. 100 battles that are considered some tipping points in history are described in this book, or interesting that showed to the world a new military technique or tactics, or those, that indissolubly related to the names of prominent war-lords..And it is generally necessary to confess that histories are painted in a red color, and "romanticism" seems a quite inappropriate word, when the question is about mass murders in the compressed terms - about "great battles".