I didn't read the article, but measuring military skill by how many battles you win is very tricky business. To have a battle, you need two armies. If army A i

I didn't read the article, but measuring military skill by how many battles you win is very tricky business. To have a battle, you need two armies. If army A is clearly stronger than army B, B will typically admit defeat without going through the unpleasant process of being slaughtered to the last man. At least if they have reasonable expectations of a life after surrender. So battles that are actually fought are normally pretty even. That doesn't mean every fighting force is equal to every other. The militarily stronger side gets their way by having a credible threat of settling things by force if needed.