Each of the 100 battles featured in the book – from the Fall of Troy to Operation Desert Storm – shows how the nature of armed combat has changed as technology, strategy and tactics have evolved over time.

Yet, equally strikingly, the outcome of almost all the battles across the ages have been decided by the same mix of leadership, courage, deception, innovation and, time and again, a moment of good fortune. Rather than arranged chronologically, the battles are organized under these different themes to reveal surprising connections across centuries and cultures.

In Richard Overy’s own words, ‘Battle is not a game to plug into a computer but a piece of living history: messy, bloody and real.’ Whatever else has changed over the last few millennia, that much remains the same.