Agree re "choke points". Most of the truly memorable battles, throughout history, have occurred at, or near, those choke points.
Re the use of "Helen" as a unit of measure - I vaguely recall a SF spoof, about 65 years ago, that did exactly that. The antagonists were in some kind of naval arms race, with space ships. Each vessel mounted various numbers of Helens, but they were never described.
The whole short story was a lead-in to a line about someone being so ugly she could sink a thousand ships. Harlan Ellison maybe?
Agree re "choke points". Most of the truly memorable battles, throughout history, have occurred at, or near, those choke points.
Re the use of "Helen" as a unit of measure - I vaguely recall a SF spoof, about 65 years ago, that did exactly that. The antagonists were in some kind of naval arms race, with space ships. Each vessel mounted various numbers of Helens, but they were never described.
The whole short story was a lead-in to a line about someone being so ugly she could sink a thousand ships. Harlan Ellison maybe?
Could be. I remember the joke going around in the late sixties.