Valley Forge patch released

[Morgan Shackelford]

[Ezreq Blodvaerd]

Wow, that is one of the nicest patches to date!!!

[VADM pRett]

It's not easy to do, but you have surpassed yourself, sir.

[Captain Talbot]

Sir This is by far your best work yet!!!!

[FLTCAPT Savar]

Aye... very nice. One of the best patches yet

[William Anders]

This is rape.

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[Captain Talbot]

Bill Batman Anders wrote:

This is rape.

Huh?

[William Anders]

Meaning it kicks complete ass.

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[Captain Talbot]

OH....DOH....

[AUGERSON U.S.M.C. (Ret)]

Outstanding!!!!!!!!!!

[Solrac Yatug]

I will have to agree with the others responding, excellent work! Your best yet.

[Christian M. Hanson]

Very nice! What inspired the "win first fight later" ?

[Morgan Shackelford]

Christian M. Hanson wrote:

Very nice! What inspired the "win first fight later" ?

It's something of a personal motto that I've used for a few years now. It's essentially a very short version of Sun Tzu - that the outcome of a battle is determined not during the actual fighting, but beforehand, during the planning stages. Wars are won in the maproom more so than they are on the battlefield itself.

"Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory."

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."

"The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand."

It seemed very fitting for the name of the ship.

Valley Forge was not an actual battle. It was, however, an essential experience for Washington's army. A hard winter that surely tested the resolve of the army; but the time spent at Valley Forge by Washington and his men was much more than that - it was during this time that Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben arrived at camp, bearing a letter of introduction from Benjamin Franklin. The Prussian was given the duty of training the men to become a professional fighting army, and by all accounts, he did just that:

Von Steuben shocked many American officers by breaking tradition to work directly with the men. One officer wrote of von Steuben's "peculiar grace" as he took "under his direction a squad of men in the capacity of drill sergeant." From dawn to dusk his familiar voice was heard in camp above the sounds of marching men and shouted commands. Soon companies, regiments, and then brigades moved smartly from line to column, column to line; loaded muskets with precision; and drove imaginary redcoats from the field by skillful charges with the bayonet.

Without the experience and lessons learned during the army's encampment at Valley Forge, the war may never have been won. Without the harsh winter of Valley Forge, there could be no America; without Valley Forge, there would be no Constitution, no Bill of Rights - no freedom. I tend to believe that this experience, more than any other, was the turning point of the war for Washington and his men.