THE LAST STAND - DAWN OF WAR

Battle of Gangwana (1741)

Battle of Gangwana (1741) fought between 1000 strong Rathore cavalry of Jodhpur and combined armies of Mughal empire, and Jaipur Numbering 100,000 with hundreds of cannons and artillery at Gangwana the Jaipur emerged victorious but with heavy losses of 12,000 and thousands other wounded.The French army withdrew in good order and relatively intact, and it remained a potent threat to further Allied operations.

Battle of Malplaquet (1709)

War of the Spanish Succession: the battle was an Allied victory because Marlborough's army kept possession of the battlefield, but it had suffered double the French casualties and could not pursue.The resultant Twelve Years' Truce effectively made the Dutch Republic an independent state. The vast cost and casualties of the siege were compounded by Spain's subsequent campaign to recapture the Dutch gains, which achieved little, and by 1607 Spain was bankrupt.

Siege of Ostend (1601–04)

Eighty Years' War: for three years the Spanish attempted to capture this port from Dutch and English defenders, even as the Dutch expanded their territory further east – including capturing the port of Sluis to replace Ostend before surrendering.

Siege of SzigetvГЎr (1566)

Ottoman–Habsburg wars: although the Ottomans won the siege, it can be seen as a Pyrrhic victory because of the heavy Ottoman casualties, the death of Sultan Suleiman, and the resulting delay to the Ottoman push for Vienna that year which suspended Ottoman expansion in Europe.

Battle of Avarayr (451)

Vardan Mamikonian and Christian Armenian rebels against the Sassanid Empire: the Persians were victorious but the battle proved to be a strategic victory for Armenians, as Avarayr paved the way to the Nvarsak Treaty (484 AD), which assured Armenian autonomy and religious freedom.

Pyrrhus lost most of his commanders and a great part of the forces he had brought to Italy, and he withdrew to Sicily.

Battle of Asculum (279 BC)

Pyrrhus of Epirus and Italian allies against the Romans: the Romans, though suffering twice as many casualties, could easily replenish their ranks.

The ruined streets of Vukovar ten days after its surrender On the other hand, as from a fountain continually flowing out of the city, the Roman camp was quickly and plentifully filled up with fresh men, not at all abating in courage for the loss they sustained, but even from their very anger gaining new force and resolution to go on with the war. For he had lost a great part of the forces he brought with him, and almost all his particular friends and principal commanders there were no others there to make recruits, and he found the confederates in Italy backward. The armies separated and, it is said, Pyrrhus replied to one that gave him joy of his victory that one other such victory would utterly undo him. After the latter battle, Plutarch relates in a report by Dionysius: Pyrrhic victory is named after King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans at the Battle of Heraclea in 280 BC and the Battle of Asculum in 279 BC, during the Pyrrhic War.