The greatest generals are best understood on the day everything hung in the balance. Here are eleven of history's finest commanders, each seen through the one battle that defined them, from the ancient world to the fall of Berlin. Every card opens the full story.
Outnumbered and far from home, he shattered the Persian Empire in a single stroke and was never beaten in a pitched battle.
His double envelopment annihilated a larger Roman army and is still taught in military academies today.
The one commander who learned Hannibal's lessons and then used them to beat the master himself.
He trapped a Gallic army behind a double ring of siege walls, conquered Gaul and made himself master of Rome.
His disciplined infantry square held against the Umayyad cavalry and turned back the advance into Western Europe.
In a single day he won a kingdom and changed the course of English history.
Patience, thirst and the ground itself did his work, destroying the Crusader army and opening the road to Jerusalem.
He led the largest cavalry charge in history down the Kahlenberg and broke the Ottoman siege.
Outnumbered, he baited the Allies into a trap and destroyed two empires' armies in a day, his acknowledged masterpiece.
He broke the enemy line in two, won command of the seas for a century and fell in the hour of victory.
The Soviet marshal who turned back the Wehrmacht and drove the Red Army all the way to Hitler's capital.
Four more masters of war
Sun TzuThe Art of WarHe wrote the book on strategy itself, read for 2,500 years.
Genghis KhanMongol EmpireHe built the largest land empire in history from the saddle.
LeonidasThermopylae, 480 BCHis last stand at Thermopylae still defines courage against the odds.
Erwin RommelThe Desert FoxThe Desert Fox turned the North African sands into a masterclass in manoeuvre.
What makes a great commander
Greatness on the battlefield is not just about winning. The commanders here share a few traits: they won against the odds, they did something new that others then copied, and they fought battles that changed history. Alexander's undefeated record, Hannibal's encirclement at Cannae and Napoleon's trap at Austerlitz are studied precisely because they broke the expected pattern.
We judge each commander through a single defining battle rather than a career total, because that is where character, nerve and skill are laid bare. Read the full story behind any name above, then see who you fight like in our Which Commander Are You quiz.