This is a question far too general for anyone to give a satisfactory answer. The real answer: it depends a lot on the time, place, and particular circumstance of the war.

I don't think you can really get a better answer regarding war in general.

This is impossible to answer in any general sense. Even if we restrict ourselves completely to Europe it depends largely on what part of Europe, when, and specifically who is being talked about and even more importantly what is being fought over.

Do you potentially have any conflicts or time periods in mind with this question?

Sorry, we don't allow throughout history questions. These tend to produce threads which are collections of trivia, not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about a particular region/culture and preferably date range, please feel free to re-compose your question and submit it again. Alternatively, questions of this type can be directed to more appropriate subreddits, such as /r/history or /r/askhistory.