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spectralent posted:I ended up looking into the "some other region conquers the world" counterfactual again, and the most recent argument I've seen is that the western world was involved in more warfare than the rest of the world; is that true? I would've thought the middle east and india at least were on par. sounds like some Victor Davis Hanson poo poo
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Jun 30, 2017 13:37
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spectralent posted:Reading up it's almost certainly this guy's arguments I hit on and also jesus christ that loving guy. His early stuff about hoplite warfare was actually really good, in my opinion. I think 9/11 broke his brain because since then almost everything he puts out is about how The West is inherently superior and garbage like "mixed-race cultures are doomed to fail".
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Jun 30, 2017 13:48
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Just kind of skimmed through it so far. The section on Russian views of informational warfare was particularly interesting imo.
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Jun 30, 2017 16:13
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Phobophilia posted:Is it? Really? I find the idea of only a bunch of random amateur greek farmers being completely untouchable in a melee with effete east completely unconvincing. And the description that only the greeks had heavy infantry sounds like nonsense, considering phalanx warfare was pretty well developed in the post-Babylonian kingdoms, and the latter had a sophisticated economy and bureaucracy that could supply the equipment and professionalization. No, I'm not referring to any of the "why the Greeks were the best" stuff. I mean the things he's written about the actual mechanics of Greek vs Greek hoplite warfare, the types of people who may have fought as hoplites, his theories on why that style of warfare may have developed in the context of Greek agriculture, etc. That stuff is interesting even though I don't necessarily agree with all of his conclusions.
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Jun 30, 2017 18:03
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WoodrowSkillson posted:that thread calls out a lot of that stuff, which parts specifically are you curious about? Oh, sorry if I was unclear. I'm not curious about anything. I was giving those as examples of VDH's early stuff that I think is good/worth looking at in contrast to his more recent works which tends to be progressively more racist and lovely overall.
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Jun 30, 2017 18:11
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I believe the second invasion of Hungary is because the Mongols were demanding an alliance, and in return for that alliance Hungary's army would be used as the spearhead for an invasion into the rest of Europe, and Hungary said "nah"
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Jul 6, 2017 16:19
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Edgar Allen Ho posted:What was the last battlefield casualty due to an arrow shot from a bow? Some guy in the British army had confirmed kills with a longbow in WW2. He also carried a claymore around.
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Jul 7, 2017 02:25
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Black Leaf posted:He was also very hairy and carried ammo for Polish gunners. Wojtek is cool too. I found the wikipedia page of the guy I was talking about : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill quote:In May 1940, Churchill and his unit, the Manchester Regiment, ambushed a German patrol near L'Épinette (near Richebourg in the Pas-de-Calais), France. Churchill gave the signal to attack by cutting down the enemy Feldwebel (staff sergeant) with a barbed arrow, becoming the only British soldier known to have felled an enemy with a longbow in the war. According to his son, Malcolm, "he and his section were in a tower and, as the Germans approached, he said, 'I will shoot that first German with an arrow,' and that's exactly what he did."
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Jul 7, 2017 13:04
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OneTruePecos posted:How is this a word, German language? It's OK for "inflammation of the oral mucous membranes" to be a phrase, it doesn't need to be one loving word. Seems pretty simple to me. Mund - Mouth schleim - mucus haut -skin entzündungen - inflammation A lot of German words are just combining multiple words to describe something else. Baumwolle is cotton, for example, and the literally translation would be tree (baum) wool (wolle). Or the word Krankwagen (ambulance) which is Krank (sick) and Wagen (wagon/car/cart) combined.
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Jul 24, 2017 15:46
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ahhaha
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Jul 24, 2017 19:12
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Peasant levies and professional soldiers are two different things. If I remember correctly, crusader armies were typically knights and their professional retinues. Due to a lack of food, water, and other supplies, they tended to lose a lot of horses anyway, so their infantry was mostly dismounted knights/other soldiers.
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Aug 21, 2017 14:57
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JaucheCharly posted:Crossposting: Extremely bad rear end.
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Aug 21, 2017 17:47
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i don't like that dog
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Sep 7, 2017 18:53
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I think the 442nd Regimental Combat team is an example of true badasses and heroes, and they remain relatively unknown to your average American.
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Sep 27, 2017 16:15
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Tevery Best posted:I'd say at least a hundred years. The Romans were absolutely notorious for how much they disdained everything that was new, so unless you could somehow claim gunpowder was invented by Archimedes or someone equally ancient, they'd just scoff and tut-tut for about a century. this is pretty much the opposite of what the Romans are known for (when it comes to the military, at least)
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Oct 31, 2017 16:59
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glynnenstein posted:Does anyone know if there are accounts from the Union soldiers who garrisoned the DC area during the ACW? Diaries or collections of letters or even contemporaneous memoirs that address the narrow topic? Even a chapter in a larger book might be cool. Since you're looking for local stuff, you might have some luck reaching out to local historical societies/museums. Off the top of my head there's Blenheim in Fairfax county which is sort of interesting on it's own, but I'd imagine the people who run it might have some recommendations for what you're asking about. quote:Historic Blenheim is a central-hall plan brick farmhouse built by Albert Willcoxon (c. 1859) just prior to the Civil War (1861-65). It is nationally significant for the voluminous quantity and quality of examples of Civil War inscriptions. More than 122 signatures, pictographs, games, and thoughts were left on the house walls by Union soldiers during their occupation of the Fairfax Court House area in 1862-63. This "diary on walls" provides insight into typical soldier life and extends to the effect of this war on local residents--such as the Willcoxon family--and free and enslaved people of African descent.
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Nov 15, 2017 17:28
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My maternal grandfather was Nisei and served in the army (but never talked about it at all) while his family was interned by their own country. I can't say I'd have done the same. All he ever said about it is that he felt he had to prove he was American and loyal.
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Dec 7, 2017 17:55
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Ainsley McTree posted:Wait, are you allowed to shoot uniformed medics? No, you're not supposed to. If I remember correctly, medics in the Pacific theater often painted their crosses green because the Japanese would ignore the rule and specifically target medics.
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Dec 13, 2017 18:41
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VDH wrote a pretty interesting book that profiles Epaminondas, Sherman, and Patton and how their unique approach (for the time) helped decide the conflicts they were a part of. I think that was in the late 90s and I think 9/11 broke his brain because since then he pretty much only writes about how The West (AKA: straight white men) is so great and everyone else is bad compared to the straight whit - I mean, Western Civilization.
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Jan 16, 2018 17:42
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Ainsley McTree posted:Related to that, why did armies wear white uniforms during the musket days (or others; musket Times is all I’m familiar with)? Synthetic dye wasn't invented until the late 19th century so until then you're using natural dye and that's more expensive than just giving you troops some undyed stuff. World powers could obviously afford to grow the plants necessary to dye their stuff or buy what they wanted. Dye is a pretty interesting thing in general. Purple is the color of royalty because it used to be, to make purple dye, you needed to kill these specific snails so they'd secrete some juice, and each one was only good for a drop or two of dye. You'd need literally tens of thousands of them to dye a cape or whatever. Also they apparently smelled loving awful. Jamwad Hilder fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Jan 16, 2018 |
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Jan 16, 2018 18:58
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Tias posted:I am not even being snarky when I say USA does not qualify for 1st world status in any metric except military. lol
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Jan 18, 2018 14:31
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welcome to Mega World
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Jan 18, 2018 16:46
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Single combat between champions comes up in tons of stories in Europe from antiquity through the early Middle ages in works like The Illiad and The Song of Roland. The Romans in particular have tons of stories about generals who distinguished themselves by killing the enemy commander in single combat, and stripping the armor off a defeated enemy champion and was basically the most prestigious honor a commander could get aside from a Triumph. Even though many of these stories are semi-legendary/mythic, it pops up so much that I tend to believe it's based in some nugget of truth.
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Jan 23, 2018 15:29
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I'm sure being shot by a bullet is worse in most ways, but from a psychological standpoint I bet seeing an arrow sticking out your body is more shocking and terrifying in the moment
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Jan 30, 2018 19:31
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Geisladisk posted:How were levy soldiers in feudal conflicts motivated to fight? For the past couple of hundred years, at least, wars have been rationalized and "sold" to the people fighting those wars with nationalism, ethnicity, religion, or idealism. Most people aren't terribly interested in killing other people, so it is pretty important to motivate them to do it. You kind of touched on it, but without the concept of nationalism, the people from "only" the next province over (this is a huge distance to a peasant who may have spent their entire life in a ~10 mile radius of where they were born) might as well be aliens - even with the same culture and language. Totally imperfect example, but it's the first thing that comes to mind to describe the animosity - sports rivalries. Obviously the circumstances are much different but think of English soccer hooligans brawling with each other. London has 12 teams so in many cases these guys are from the same drat city and they have no problem beating the hell out of each other over a game. Much lower stakes than "these guys are coming to take our land". Again, not a perfect example, but it's not necessarily difficult to motivate people to fight each other even when you share the same culture. As others have referenced, the bigger motivator was probably the potential for plunder. In Sengoku era Japan if you managed to kill an enemy samurai and presented his head to Lord Whatever, you'd be rewarded monetarily, regardless of status. Typically it was the guys who are already samurai collecting the loot, but common foot soldiers occasionally accomplished the feat and were rewarded or even made samurai. It was a big motivator for a lot of ashigaru. Famously, Hideyoshi started out as a common soldier and he ended up briefly unifying Japan.
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Feb 2, 2018 03:21
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Trin Tragula posted:He was specifically referring to English hooligans and London in particular though Ya and I also said it wasn't a perfect example.The point was that people who share the same culture and language, from a geographically limited area, are still willing to fight over nonsense and that motivating a peasant from Province A to kill peasants from Province B may not have been as difficult as we imagine. I can change the post to say South American soccer hooligans if it offends your pride as an Englishman or whatever it is you're upset about.
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Feb 2, 2018 16:50
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British people are just NPCs for our brave American heros to kill in the beginner area
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Feb 13, 2018 03:03
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Grand Prize Winner posted:Why didn't the USA ever gently caress around with armored horse cavalry? Small standing army, no real tradition of heavily armored horsemen to cling to, and until relatively recently, North America was heavily forested which obviously isn't ideal for heavy cavalry. Once we expanded further west into the plains heavy cavalry was also not ideal or necessary for the kinds of things the US army used cavalry for, which was primarily fighting natives in small-scale skirmishes and patrolling vast amounts of territory. Light cavalry/mounted infantry was all that was really needed.
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Mar 3, 2018 04:05
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Ainsley McTree posted:Now I have an idea for a sci-fi book for an alternative future in which the USA and USSR have a short space battle and shoot loads and loads of projectile weapons at each other, and one of the bullets or slugs or cannonballs or whatever, traveling infinitely through the forever vacuum of space, kills an alien 200 years later and starts an interplanetary war. 200 years later an alien is smoking outside at the, uhh, space bar, and his head explodes and all his buddies are like "what the gently caress?" ~*fin*~
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Mar 24, 2018 01:52
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The bullet slingshots around the earth and hits a Russian in the face. Turns out those fuckin commie freaks were aliens all along. Lets wipe em out, boys
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Mar 24, 2018 02:39
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the "legs" on the spider helm are hinged so they can be folded up or down so that, uhhh...sometimes you don't have to have the bars in your face I guess. I think it was a cavalry helmet so it was probably so they could show off their pretty rich-boy faces to everyone without taking the helmet off entirely.
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Apr 4, 2018 17:56
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no
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Apr 5, 2018 01:31
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Have you considered that swords are cool
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May 1, 2018 03:54
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zoux posted:We take a state history class in 7th grade, do other states require a state-history course or is it just our insane ego We had state history as a focus too (don't remember if it was an entire class), but I grew up in Virginia so that doesn't seem unreasonable to me considering it's importance from colonial times through the Civil War.
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May 15, 2018 19:36
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bessantj posted:Hope this hasn't been asked. For your average soldier, camp followers take care of them or his buddies carted him over to a monastery. Monks/clergy generally had a bit more learning. If you're a knight, your squire (and you) would probably have had some basic medical knowledge. Enough to dress a wound anyway. People weren't totally ignorant about medical care and battlefield medicine, but there were very few professionals.
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May 16, 2018 23:17
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Yeah it doesn't hurt to have a bunch of dudes who can't actually fight very well stand around and maybe intimidate your enemy into going away due to numbers, and hey if that doesn't work maybe some of those guys will get lucky and kill a few opponents or distract them while your actual fighters do their job.
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May 18, 2018 17:42
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Tree Bucket posted:I'm trying to imagine being "grazed" by a cannonball. Surely that would mess a human being up in a variety of ways. at the very, absolute, least, its gotta be one hell of a bruise
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May 24, 2018 01:09
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I've been told if you speak "correct" Russian you'll actually sound like a Ukrainian but I have no idea if that's true.
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Jun 14, 2018 03:08
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Had a silly drunk argument with my friend the other night that perhaps you can settle for us. I live 5 miles from Capitol Hill and he lives 5 miles from Naval Station Norfolk: Who is more hosed/dies first if the US is ever in a nuclear war?
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Jul 13, 2018 18:03
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ilmucche posted:It was really loving boring and repetitive and I much preferred carnage and culture, though I think that has its own issues. That's putting it lightly
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Aug 25, 2018 02:33
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