I'm a bit torn on this. I played a sport in university involving mock sword fights and a lot of running, and we did hurt the grass cover quite a bit - so much t

I'm a bit torn on this. I played a sport in university involving mock sword fights and a lot of running, and we did hurt the grass cover quite a bit - so much that this was one reason to stop playing when it rained, besides it being uncomfortable. We had no horses, no armor making us heavier and were a small group of maybe 20 people. When there was a tournament with some rain and more use of one field that field suffered a lot, in my recollection. Though maybe his judgement is still correct if fighting really mainly involves some people in formation repositioning and trading blows on one front line? On a bigger area mostly? On the other hand, what the author here criticizes is the depiction of battlefields as no man's land. Hard to assume he is not correct there. This total deconstruction of the landscape is not the same as some muddy patches.