You arrive to the training camp, full of enlistees like yourself. You've shot a rifle before - no big deal, how else are you supposed to eat meat in the 18th century?!?! You begin your first lesson in battlefield tactics.
Instructor: You will be in infantry, where you will learn to march in formation, and engage the redcoats.
You: YEAHHHH KILL 'EM REDCOATS. What are we going to do, hide and try to camouflage ourselves in the trees and fields to catch them by surprise? Or maybe ambush their supply lines and pick them off! Or maybe we can get a couple sharpshooters and take positions in key areas where the Redcoats are coming and harass them until they lose morale?
Instructor: Actually no. We march up to the enemy until we're about 100 feet away from each other, then we trade volleys.
You: What?
Instructor: Yeah, we go on a battlefield with like thousands of soldiers, then we march up until we're like pretty close to each other, then we shoot each other. Then we reload, and shoot again. We make sure we're in a perfect line though while we're shooting, though.
You: Um, LOL? What about cover?
Instructor: What's cover?
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I love war movies. If you're a dude, you like war movies. Especially if they involve
- killing imperial Brits
- killing racist rednecks
However, I just get really confused when i see scenes like this (taken from what I understand to be historical war footage)
Are you fucking kidding me? Apparently people fought with "honor" back then, and everyone followed these specific rules where you're supposed to just stand there and trade fire. What's better? there are cannons. That's right. So not only are you standing STILL out in the OPEN trading fire with someone else, you're being shot at with fucking cannonballs.
You want to know what's even funnier? So a little tangential, but if you remember from Forrest Gump, when Tom Hanks meets Lt. Dan for for the first time in Vietnam, Gump salutes him. Lt. Dan immediately replies:
"Oh, get your hands down. Do not salute me. There are goddamn snipers all around this area who'd love to grease an officer."
Guess what happened when you were promoted in the 18th century? Not only did you get to have more fucking FEATHERS to put in your cap, but - get this - the red on your coat was even BRIGHTER! It was like a fucking pageant!

Why fight smart when you can fight fabulously?