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zoux posted:Well at least people aren't directly purchasing commissions or raising regiments and proclaiming themselves colonels anymore. so the system has become less honest, is what you're saying
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Feb 8, 2021 22:07
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Libluini posted:That would either be an amazing coincidence or an amazing act of research for an author who freely admitted he wrote that series because of a bet he couldn't combine Roman legions and Pokemón. Yoinking stuff big and small from history is just good practice. The Death Star trench run coming from that dambusters mission, Game of Thrones coming from the War of the Roses etc
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Feb 8, 2021 22:12
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zoux posted:Well at least people aren't directly purchasing commissions Yeah, there's no politics or money involved in getting your kid into a service academy.
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Feb 8, 2021 22:35
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Xiahou Dun posted:The documentary Princess Mononoke would seem like a good start. I really wanted to find and post that map of the wild boar populations that looks like the wild boars occupied all of Canada and were invading from the Southern US. 
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Feb 8, 2021 22:42
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The easiest way to deal with wild boars is just to sleep in. They're most active in the morning, and if you stay in bed until lunch time, the threat of charging boars solves itself
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Feb 8, 2021 22:52
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Alchenar posted:It is fascinating that the romans managed to create this weird hybrid army thats run at the top by aristocrats looking for political fame whom every so often gently caress everything up disastrously, but then at a certain point not very much lower than the top it suddenly gets extremely professional and standardised. Military organization tends to reflect the civilian society that creates the military - societies with low specialization tend to have "everybody participates in war," stealing horses is really important to economies that rely on horses, etc. For Rome this bifurcation reflects that plebeians and patricians effectively lived on entirely different social rules, nearly planets apart. In other words: Cessna posted:This accurately describes the US military today.
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Feb 8, 2021 22:55
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Cessna posted:Yeah, there's no politics or money involved in getting your kid into a service academy. I thought there was a bunch right? It's not just apply and that's it, there's a whole nomination process isn't there?
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Feb 9, 2021 00:52
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It's kinda surprising (ok, I would the answer for why is because it costs money) that the various armies of the first world war didn't adapt their helmets to be like those roman helmets considering shrapnel is a big loving deal when you're fighting a trench war 
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Feb 9, 2021 01:04
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Carillon posted:I thought there was a bunch right? It's not just apply and that's it, there's a whole nomination process isn't there? The sarcasm is palpable in the quoted post
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Feb 9, 2021 01:12
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Greggster posted:It's kinda surprising (ok, I would the answer for why is because it costs money) that the various armies of the first world war didn't adapt their helmets to be like those roman helmets considering shrapnel is a big loving deal when you're fighting a trench war You have to be a bit careful about how much weight you strap to your guys' heads and shrapnel is a bit harder to armor against than a sword poke, so you can't give them shrapnelproof greathelms.
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Feb 9, 2021 01:21
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aphid_licker posted:You have to be a bit careful about how much weight you strap to your guys' heads and shrapnel is a bit harder to armor against than a sword poke, so you can't give them shrapnelproof greathelms. Oh absolutely, I just figured that having a thin 1mm slice of steel might be enough to help protect Doughboy Donnie against a stray shrapnel that might not tear through someone (but leave a nasty scar) which would keep him in the fight longer than someone who got unlucky.
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Feb 9, 2021 01:46
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Cessna posted:Why not just: This formation is particularly weak to Obelisks.
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Feb 9, 2021 02:55
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WW2 Data The blog continues with more cold war Czechoslovakian ammo covering the 9mm and 15mm options. Only one of the 9mm cartridges is the Parabellum, while the 15mm cartridge comes in AP, HET, and Blank examples. What is the other 9mm cartridge? Which non-Czech machinegun is compatible with the 15mm rounds? What kind of grease is used on several cartridges? How much armor could the 15mm AP bullet pierce? All that and more at the blog!
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Feb 9, 2021 03:04
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Carillon posted:I thought there was a bunch right? It's not just apply and that's it, there's a whole nomination process isn't there? Using West Point as an example: quote:Nomination Sources So...much easier if you know your Congressional Representative personally.
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Feb 9, 2021 03:12
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Jobbo_Fett posted:This formation is particularly weak to Obelisks. But all they do is boost line of sight.
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Feb 9, 2021 05:23
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White Coke posted:But all they do is boost line of sight. And eat three wild boar in a sitting.
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Feb 9, 2021 05:28
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And burn things with lasers.
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Feb 9, 2021 05:42
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ulmont posted:Using West Point as an example: My rep does meet and greets once or twice a year for people who want to apply to one of the service academies so they can get a nomination. I just assumed they all do that but maybe not. The Westpoint website makes it sound like you can just write them a letter and ask for a nomination. I bet most aren't too picky about it since it's free good will.
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Feb 9, 2021 05:55
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Every history podcast and audiobook that I've listened to on the Romans has led me to believe that the Romans weren't so much this unstoppable military juggernaut, but more like boxing with a wacky-inflatable man. Every major war starts with the Romans getting the poo poo kicked out of them and ends with the Romans winning after dying en masse. I think what set the Romans apart from the rest of the ancient world, aside from well...a lot of things, was that the Roman Republic and then the Empire (until about midway through the fourth century) were able to martial lots of men and materiale relatively quickly versus their enemies. Once disease, famine, and the slow cultural ossification had crippled the Empire's ability to do this, you start to see things like the Battle of Adrianople absolutely cripple the Empire militarily. And everything I just said does not apply to fighting the Parthians (and then the Sasanians). It's kind of mind-boggling how often Roman Emperors marched off to Iraq to die in the desert/die in battle in the desert/die in Antioch.
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Feb 9, 2021 08:58
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Tulip posted:2. Similar to a real world threat but with a significant twist. Mostly I'm thinking about things like Ogres that are both large and intelligent - I'd call this a fairly significant twist because a lot of the anti-elephant tactics rest on the fact that elephants are much worse behaved in combat than even horses, and my fantasy intuition is that it's not really reasonable that an ogre can be defeated by basically scaring it into either running off the field or back through its own forces. Not super interesting? Depends on the ogre, doesn't it? 40K Ogryns are hilarious for the fact that they are both super religious, afraid of the dark and also realle dense. Your classic dim but courageous giant would be a terrifying opponent for sure. zoux posted:Well at least people aren't directly purchasing commissions or raising regiments and proclaiming themselves colonels anymore. I don't know about the service academies, but in Europe it's a problem. Higher leadership in the Brit army is still very much a class thing today, as you're expected to buy very expensive dress poo poo like the correct sword or membership of a given mess to be in the in group.
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Feb 9, 2021 09:08
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Jobbo_Fett posted:This formation is particularly weak to Obelisks.
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Feb 9, 2021 11:37
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Greggster posted:It's kinda surprising (ok, I would the answer for why is because it costs money) that the various armies of the first world war didn't adapt their helmets to be like those roman helmets considering shrapnel is a big loving deal when you're fighting a trench war Yeah, they copied medieaval helmets.
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Feb 9, 2021 11:38
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Jobbo_Fett posted:This formation is particularly weak to Obelisks. 
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Feb 9, 2021 13:14
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Greggster posted:It's kinda surprising (ok, I would the answer for why is because it costs money) that the various armies of the first world war didn't adapt their helmets to be like those roman helmets considering shrapnel is a big loving deal when you're fighting a trench war I'm not convinced that there would be much of an increase in protection, and it's not that it costs money specifically, it's that money represents time and resources that you could be using to make say, two helmets that are almost as effective. Two guys wearing helmets decrease headwounds by 50% is a lot more useful than one guy wearing a helmet that decreases headwounds by 55% and one guy who's wearing a hat. And if you already have enough helmets, that's steel and tooling that can be used to stamp parts for trucks, tanks, ships, ammunition boxes, etc. see Cessna's effortposts on stahlhelms vs like literally anyone else's helmets.
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Feb 9, 2021 14:25
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Cessna posted:Yeah, there's NO WAY that someone could lift their shield to block something coming at their head and still fight. Better redesign their helmets. What happened was the falx were actually just really good at injuring the sword arm and very difficult to block against, so what the Legions did is they took the Manica as worn by the Murmillo gladiators and started using them to protect their sword arms. I was told that you can see the Manica on Trajan's column, but I can't find any evidence of that on a quick visual skim. I can find it on the bas-reliefs taken from the Tropaeum Traiani though, for what that's worth.
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Feb 9, 2021 15:13
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OctaviusBeaver posted:My rep does meet and greets once or twice a year for people who want to apply to one of the service academies so they can get a nomination. I just assumed they all do that but maybe not. The Westpoint website makes it sound like you can just write them a letter and ask for a nomination. I bet most aren't too picky about it since it's free good will. You think "I can get your kid into West Point" isn't used in political deals? Arquinsiel posted:Take this with several heaps of salt, because I am quickly checking names of stuff to try remember what I was told in Latin class at least 20 years back now, but: it wasn't the helmets that they redesigned. There's no doubt that the Roman army altered their armor in response to the weapons used in the Dacian War. The Romans were quick to copy other people's designs - the Spanish short sword/gladius, Celtic chain mail, etc. I'm poking fun at the sci-fi book that had the Romans alter their helmets in response to a threat from above when, in fact, they already used their shields to deal with threats from above and their helmets were already designed to deal with threats from above.
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Feb 9, 2021 16:43
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Adrian helmet is a third lighter than the Brit flying saucer and apparently, depending on size, up to almost half as light as ze German headfortress
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Feb 9, 2021 16:46
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aphid_licker posted:Adrian helmet is a third lighter than the Brit flying saucer and apparently, depending on size, up to almost half as light as ze German headfortress The niece of a guy who was the mayor of a town in Poland sued two historians for defamation on behalf of her dead dad. They had the temerity to write that a Holocaust survivor testified that her dad had sold the towns Jews out to the Germans, directly leading to their murder. A post war trial cleared him of being a collaborator but those trials were problematic as gently caress and often were more concerned with “was a nazi” as in helping the Germans administer and spy on poles rather than getting their Jewish neighbors killed. In his case a Jewish woman who he saved - allegedly in exchange for payment of some kind (apparently “possessions” of hers which could be anything from jewelry to furniture) - testified on his behalf which lead to the acquittal. That poo poo gets complex and frequently the lines between perpetrator, collaborator, victim, and resistor are blurred as all hell. Oh and in 1996 the same lady testified that yeah he informed the Nazis about where the Jews were hiding. Anyways the court ruled in her favor and ordered them to apologize. You know for writing about how her uncle, Edward Malinowski*, who was the mayor of Malinowo, told the Nazis where to find a bunch of Jews who they then murdered. They’re appealing but the court wants them to publish an official apology and retraction on the website of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research. * to clarify there were actually two mayors of the same town with this same name. The younger guy, who helped set up a memorial to the towns murdered Jews, did not betray anyone. That was the elder Edward Malinowski, mayor of Malinowo, Poland, who told the Nazis where to find his towns Jews. Except for the one who paid him. He saved her.
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Feb 9, 2021 17:38
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This is your periodic reminder that regardless of what laws the government of Poland may pass claiming otherwise, many Poles collaborated with the Nazis in the Holocaust. The Holocaust was driven my the Nazis, but everywhere they went they had local collaborators and auxiliaries who helped them find and murder their Jewish neighbors. While Germany ultimately bears the lions share of the guilt due to starting the war and having genocide as national policy, trying to claim that it was only a crime committed by Germans is obscene. It not only gives fodder for the sort of people who like to deny the crimes in general, but it also lessens the heroism of the people who did resist. They were not only working against a foreign invader, they had to contend with the much greater threat of collaborating neighbors, friends, and family who could turn them over and get them killed.
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Feb 9, 2021 17:43
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FYI I spent quite some time trying to figure out how that related to helmets
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Feb 9, 2021 18:16
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aphid_licker posted:FYI I spent quite some time trying to figure out how that related to helmets  It’s always been my impression that the poles generally were less likely to collaborate than say the Lithuanian/Latvian/Ukrainians but I have no idea to what extent that is factual.
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Feb 9, 2021 18:19
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Cessna posted:There's no doubt that the Roman army altered their armor in response to the weapons used in the Dacian War. The Romans were quick to copy other people's designs - the Spanish short sword/gladius, Celtic chain mail, etc. 
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Feb 9, 2021 18:29
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:
I can’t do any kind of comparative thing where I say that Lithuanians were more collaborative than Ukrainians who were worse than Estonians etc. What I can say is that Poland, like all of Eastern Europe (and indeed Europe as a whole) had a long and ugly history of antisemitism. There are plenty of recorded instances where the Germans were very enthusiastically helped by locals who were all to happy to see their Jewish neighbors gone. This is also complicated by greed and opportunism. Maybe you aren’t a raging anti semite by 1940s Poland (or Ukraine etc) standards but hey if your Jewish neighbors disappear you can take over his field and your farm just doubled in size. Or hey now that the round up for the ghetto happened there’s all these empty houses and unused furniture. This gets really tragic post war when you have instances like the Kielce and Jedwabne pogroms where returning Jews - many of them camp survivors just looking for surviving family - were murdered. Why? Well, tons of reasons but the two that stand out are “we wanted you gone and you came back” and “we don’t want to give back all that poo poo we took from your homes after the Germans rounded you up”
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Feb 9, 2021 18:54
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A Festivus Miracle posted:Every history podcast and audiobook that I've listened to on the Romans has led me to believe that the Romans weren't so much this unstoppable military juggernaut, but more like boxing with a wacky-inflatable man. I think the wars of the Republic are definitely characterized like that, but after they became an empire they really were a massive juggernaut, and they also knew well enough to stay down, like when they got their poo poo kicked in at Germany, they basically left them alone after that and gave up on conquering the area, and even occasionally gave up on territory in the name of defensibility. Even Caesar's conquest of Gaul fit a similar model where he was one man conquering in the name of his own ambition instead of being driven by the cultural will of the Republic, and if he got himself totally destroyed while out on campaign, I don't think the Republic would've taken it personally and mustered itself to retry his conquest. But could Rome have won a war against emus?
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Feb 9, 2021 19:16
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I would not put it past them to just build a giant fort around the outback and slooooooowly shrink the internal space so they could murder emus.
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Feb 9, 2021 21:13
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Romulus and
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Feb 9, 2021 21:19
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It'd have been very different if they had been raised by emus.
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Feb 9, 2021 21:39
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Arquinsiel posted:It'd have been very different if they had been raised by emus. It's the male emu that cares for the nest and raises the chicks. So that's an interesting angle.
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Feb 9, 2021 22:00
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Arquinsiel posted:It'd have been very different if they had been raised by emus. ...and thousands of years after, European Union would name its Economic and Monetary Union after this mythical event.
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Feb 9, 2021 23:02
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Arquinsiel posted:I would not put it past them to just build a giant fort around the outback and slooooooowly shrink the internal space so they could murder emus. Emuperator
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Feb 9, 2021 23:20
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