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OwlFancier posted:A cultured barbarian is just a barbarian that recently sacked somewhere cultured and took their wine. That describes Krum in a nutshell, I think. Nothing but the best skulls for him, of course, he drank from the skull of a Roman emperor.
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Dec 19, 2016 00:35
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philosoraptor posted:Its also worth keeping in mind that a naval empire like the US gets to reap immense benefits from the global free trade underwritten by a strong navy (and satellite system). A land empire's immense standing army only produces "gains" when it is used as free labor (still less efficient than a market) or when it conquers highly productive regions (East Germany, Czecheslovakia, etc.) Well, it's not like US navy ships are escorting merchants or doubling as treasure fleets. Or even doing too much anti-piracy ops until recently. A carrier fleet is just as much of a sunk cost as a tank battalion.
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Dec 21, 2016 02:56
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Davin Valkri posted:So are twitter storms better or worse than dreadnought arms races? I mean, on a few levels a storm of tweets is obviously better than a storm of battleship fire, but... Why can't it be both?
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Dec 21, 2016 18:48
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Nebakenezzer posted:I thought they were concentration camp inmates Only villains have tailored uniforms.
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Dec 28, 2016 04:52
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Alris posted:I've just finished re-reading Flashman, and the role Elphinstone had in the fun and games of 1842 Afghanistan. Loads of Roman generals might fit the description. There was one that let his entire army get wiped out because he refused to talk to his co-commanders, another pair that bickered so much it led to the disaster at Cannae. Turns out putting two guys in charge of an army might reduce the chance of a coup, but also leads to breakdowns in strategy and the chain of command.
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Dec 28, 2016 05:52
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SeanBeansShako posted:Wasn't it McArthur who arrogantly quoted he knew THE ASIAN MINDSET or was this is a Vietnam Cold War era general? forgive me for bringing up populist quoting of supposed historical dickbags and all. It was him. Which is why he ignored all the warnings about the initial attack in the Korean War and all the warnings about the Chinese buildups and threats to intervene. Because something something Asian mindset. It's almost too stupid to believe, except for all the evidence supporting that was the case. I'd almost suspect he was gunning for a Presidential run, I believe that the John Birch people tried to recruit him in 1952, but Ike steamrollered him in the run-up to the convention.
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Dec 28, 2016 19:40
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Cyrano4747 posted:No, it was Westmoreland. T It is possible for more than one US General to have weird Orientalist views that contributed to his mishandling of US military actions in Asia.
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Dec 28, 2016 20:30
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Mycroft Holmes posted:Hey guys, going to be running a trpg game set after a collapse of civilization due to WWI lasting until 1919 and a more virulent Spanish Flu. What we're both sides plans for 1919 if the Germans hadn't collapsed and what sort of weapon systems would have seen service had the war continued? I think the general plan was to wait until the AEF was battle-ready and then attack all along the line with a lot more tanks to force a breakthrough somewhere. I don't think there were any new wunderwaffen in the cards. But if you're playing a game, feel free to load up all the crazy poo poo that never worked; ball tanks, guns the size of football fields, hypertech zeppelins, new and exciting poison gases.
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Dec 31, 2016 14:55
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Nenonen posted:Isn't there a risk of running out of compatible blood if you don't plan forward? Like if by chance a bunch of O- dudes were put in the same unit and all got badly wounded, they would quickly use up all of the universal blood reserves, and if you're in a Stalingrad-like situation where you can't just bring in unlimited supplies then you're dependent on organic donors. This would be easy to avoid if companies or battalions were formed around blood types: you'd have A, B, AB and O companies. They wouldn't be even nearly the same size, but that little inconvenience would surely be offset by the gains in efficiency of treating wounded warriors! You can always use noncombatants as blood donors, you know. Have all the o- widows and orphans back home donating blood every few weeks and you'll be good.
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Jan 1, 2017 20:20
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There was an amusing sideshow regarding mercenaries at the Battle of Manzikert; the Romans had hired two groups of mercenaries, one Muslim and one Catholic. The Muslim mercs decided they didn't want to fight other Muslims, and so they left. Then the Catholic mercs figured if those guys got to leave without fighting, why shouldn't they? And so they left, too. After the emperor was also abandoned by his reinforcements (led by his main rival), the battle was lost and the Emperor died from eye-gouging related complications courtesy of the rival, the Catholic mercs seem to have decided to set themselves up as rulers of a nice chunk of Anatolia. They even managed to kidnap the rival (now the Emperor's uncle and power behind the throne) and extort a hefty ransom for him. Then the Romans ended up hiring the Turks to kick out the mercs, which they did, but they also kept the land as well. So the moral of the story is... well, I don't know. They paid three times, and ended up hiring the guys they were fighting in the first place...
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Jan 3, 2017 22:09
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Fangz posted:Didn't the norse make it to the Americas using ships not all that unlike what the Romans had? Just because kon-tiki made it from Peru to Fiji doesn't mean the Incas ever did. The surety of knowing something is out there is hard to understate.
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Jan 4, 2017 21:26
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Grand Prize Winner posted:Oh, so the Dothraki are the Irish? What? They are as generically steppe nomad as you can get.
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Jan 5, 2017 21:47
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Jamwad Hilder posted:why was this, do you think? I know for much of it's history the US was heavily forested, and cavalry was more often used as scouting/raiding roles, or for fighting indians, so did we never really develop the same kind of heavy cavalry tradition as European armies? UK also had pretty lousy cavalry tradition. Also, keep in mind that horsies are very expensive and the US didn't have a standing army of note until 1946. Heavy cavalry isn't really something you can take off the shelf.
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Jan 14, 2017 05:25
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Argus Zant posted:I was under the impression that people liked and/or respected Bolivar, though. Bolivar is popular, especially in Venezuela, since Chavez used him as a unifying figure and he was used heavily in propoganda. He did have a pretty amazing career. Someone said that Gran Columbia didn't survive past his lifetime, this is somewhat inaccurate since it was falling apart well before he died.
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Jan 17, 2017 18:52
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spectralent posted:The frequent mentions of sickness are really fascinating for me, especially since we briefly covered tropical diseases and epidemiology via a comparative look at the desert rats and the afrikakorps. Who was healthier, and why?
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Jan 23, 2017 00:37
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Fangz posted:I do seriously recommend people read that transcript I linked though, Agreed. Worth the read. Lots of CYA.
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Jan 24, 2017 23:39
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CoolCab posted:It kind of amuses me how they're clearly sort of aware that they're being recorded, but still think of things in terms of race ideology (lots of talk of Anglo-Saxons ruling Europe). They also waaaaay underestimate the USSR and Stalin and behave like the next war is inevitable. Also Also, the "engine" came first, the US succeeded at that, too, unlike the Germans.
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Jan 25, 2017 15:51
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Jobbo_Fett posted:Technically his diary has one entry after his "last". He was with General Lucius Clay on an official plane to Berlin at the start of the Berlin Airlift. Not sure if he helped or whatever, but he studied economics at some point, and his obituary states: Think of it as filing a claim for SSDI. Except for a region. European Recovery Program is better known as "The Marshall Plan",
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Jan 28, 2017 20:36
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I dunno, I imagine 'very' but that's certainly not in my area of interests.
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OldTennisCourt posted:In terms of loss of life, loss of land and just overall loving up, what was the biggest military blunder of all time? Yang Guozhong, prime minister of Emperor Xuanzong, convinced the emperor to fire all non-Han generals, prompting the An-Lushan revolt. While the Tong Pass was strongly fortified, the rebels were unable to advance any further, but Yang ordered the execution of the generals in charge of the pass, and then ordered the replacement to leave the pass and attack An Lushan's army. The Imperials were badly defeated, and An-Lushan advanced into the imperial heartland, sacked the capital, and overran much of the empire. Estimates of the death toll range from 10 million to 36 million, although the latter is based on official censuses, which only recorded people removed from the tax rolls, which could represent a number of things, not just casualties. Eventually the rebels were pushed back and the Tang dynasty restored, although Yang wasn't around to see the victory. He was lynched by angry soldiers during the flight from Chang'An, who then forced the emperor to execute his favorite concubine (Yang's cousin) and then let the troops massacre most of Yang's family, so angry were they at him. sullat fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Feb 1, 2017 |
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Feb 1, 2017 04:14
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A single soldier probably costs more than $70k to equip and operate, and will probably never be as effective as a Hellfire missile, no matter how fast he is accelerated at the target.
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Feb 7, 2017 17:49
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Here's an amusing anecdote from Vietnam from my cousin's father. I never met him, so I cannot vouch for its authenticity. He was a captain in some sort of engineering company. One day, while they were camped out somewhere, a new recruit walked into his tent and said, "Captain, how do I get the pin back in the grenade?" And then the recruit handed him a grenade. He leapt out of the tent, tripped over the tent rope, rolled down a hill and broke his leg. The grenade, of course, was a dud, they were merely playing a prank on him.
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Feb 14, 2017 17:27
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So the rioters are using pikes while the police have legionnaire shields and short clubs? I wonder who won?
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Feb 17, 2017 01:42
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Delivery McGee posted:Before they started mounting machine guns on airplanes (originally they were just used for observation) pilots only had their service revolvers, and did have pistol duels while flying. I think that was from Leyte Gulf and it kind of makes sense. The enemy doesn't know you're out of ammo and has to take evasive action, giving the carriers a few more minutes to escape.
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Feb 22, 2017 16:37
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Nebakenezzer posted:I also have some black gay hitler (RIP) for you: If HOI has taught me anything, it can totally be done. Just ferry troops directly into Copenhagen to avoid triggering the event that gives Greenland and Iceland to the UK.
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Feb 24, 2017 00:00
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Plutonis posted:He managed to gently caress up rapprochement with Russia and England even though they had more reasons to ally with Germany than France. He just really liked boats.
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Feb 26, 2017 16:39
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Fusion Restaurant posted:Any suggestions for learning more about the vietnamese-cambodian war in 1979? Or facts about it? It seems interesting that a war which stopped a genocide seems to basically have happened out of paranoia? I know that's probably a uninformed take, but woul dlike to learn more. I think the Vietnamese were just sick of all the refugees, so they went in to put a stop to the killing fields. China wasn't happy because Cambodia was one of their client states, which is why they invaded Vietnam shortly afterwards. Very short take, but I don't think it was merely due to "paranoia".
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Feb 27, 2017 03:13
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Ithle01 posted:I'm reading Hanoi's War and although it doesn't cover the Cambodian war it does mention that Pol Pot really hated the Vietnamese and even when they were fighting on the same side he ordered "friendly fire" on PAVN while they were ostensibly fighting together. Also, further mention of the Chinese distrust of the Vietnamese and Cambodia's relation as a Chinese ally didn't help things. Yeah, that Pol Pot guy sounds like a jerk.
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Feb 27, 2017 03:42
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nrook posted:Speaking of narratives about war, I'm reading Grant's memoirs right now, and jeez. I did not realize how much of a general's time was spent prosecuting dumb pissing contests with other generals on the same side. Every time Grant meets another general he's very clear about who he thinks has the right to order whom around, and half the time the other guy disagrees! The other side's generals may be your enemies, but your fellow generals are your biggest competitors! IIRC, Grant wasn't one of the "in crowd" of Union generals, so he had quite a lot of maneuvering to do to come out ahead.
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Feb 28, 2017 19:52
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Tias posted:When Zhukov was summoned to lead the mongolian forces against the Kwantung army, he initially expected to be purged, and packed his things for the gulag, leaving his wife a letter saying to handle his disappearince with dignity. I think Meade may have just been paranoid; or perhaps he was committing some other crime? The Union army may have had leadership issues, but nobody was arrested, and only one or two generals were murdered. IIRC General Burnside did offer to refuse to accept McClellan's second firing, and claimed to have support of many of the other generals and the men. McClellan refused the offer, to his credit.
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Mar 1, 2017 15:29
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Stairmaster posted:The economic justification faded away. I don't think I agree with that, slave-grown cash crops were still very profitable. You couldn't work your slaves to death quite as casually as you could in the 1600s, but that was because the British shut off the Trans Atlantic slave trade.
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Mar 4, 2017 00:38
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Baron Porkface posted:This has more to do with a chaotic DIY Bronze Age financial system than actual spending. Also the British sabotaged the nascent Revolutionary financial system by flooding it with counterfeits.
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Mar 9, 2017 19:22
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the JJ posted:The revolution largely ran on printing promissory notes and IOU's. Rampant inflation ensued. One of the first big Hamiltonian moments was his promise to actually make good on those bits of paper, which helped establish America's good credit in the world. On the other hand, all his buddies rather suspiciously bought up 'worthless' bits of paper at well before face value right before he did this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_American_currency#Continental_currency If memory serves, the British captured the plates used to print continentals when they captured New York or Philly, so they were able to mass produce them, essentially making the Continental worthless.
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Mar 10, 2017 03:01
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FastestGunAlive posted:Military cooks still work at the mess hall. It's primarily civilian workers however, as a cost saving, manpower, and efficiency measure. I seem to recall this was a problem during the second Iraq war; US had contracted out a lot of its support, and, surprise, the contractors didn't want to show up in a war zone. So US soldiers were stuck eating MREs long after the other nation's soldiers were since they couldn't order the contractors to show up. Later, they got around this by relying on foreign workers and keeping their passports to provide a lot of the labor.
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Mar 26, 2017 05:39
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Grouchio posted:What was the reason for the Red purges within Indonesia during the 1960s? Suharto did a coup against Sukarno, wanted to purge Indonesia of communists, suspected communists, potential suspected communists.
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Mar 28, 2017 22:49
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Grouchio posted:Why would the US Navy be weaker now? Something something Obama.
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Mar 29, 2017 02:17
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Grouchio posted:How did Mao manage to win the civil war against Chiang? After the end of WW2, Chiang basically disbanded his army because he didn't, or couldn't pay them. Cut them loose with no pay and nothing but the clothes on their back and the weapons on their shoulders and all their other military gear. And what do you know, the commies were hiring. Chiang decided to rely on the warlords for his military, and they were fairly corrupt, the US provided military gear and weapons and the warlords turned around and sold them to the highest bidder... which in many cases were the Communists.
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Mar 29, 2017 04:35
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Fangz posted:Trump is rather neatly illustrating that the US and NATO are two different things. Well, once Germany pays its dues, we'll be able to afford all sorts of shiny toys.
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Apr 7, 2017 03:05
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bewbies posted:If you're watching Mel Gibson movies with the intent of getting accurate depictions of historical events you're doing it wrong. Still not as silly as Apocalypto; that mass sacrifice happened in 1480, well before the Spanish arrived.
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Apr 13, 2017 15:53
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FAUXTON posted:The best part of that movie was when they told the guy to rub some kind of spicy leaf on his junk to improve his chances of knocking his lady up and he comes screaming out of his hut And then she comes out screaming as well. Kind of a dick move, if you ask me.
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Apr 13, 2017 16:14
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Edgar Allen Ho posted:Apocalypto is good movie and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise. We Were Soldiers is middling and other Mel Gibson flicks suck, yes, but Apocalypto is good, and it's admirable imo to make a film about indians filmed entirely in the appropriate language. Sure, but then the ending spoiled it. The Spanish arrival saved the main character, seemed too much like the old argument that Christianity was such a great gift, it outweighed any harm done to the natives. Maybe that wasn't the intentional meaning, but that's how I read it, and given Gibson's personal beliefs...
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Apr 13, 2017 17:23
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