Military History Mk. III: One that I know of is an archaic word for dick, another is

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Military History Mk. III: One that I know of is an archaic word for dick, another is

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

I moved your old nerd poo poo thread to the dumb goldmine for nerds to read, spergs. :wotwot:

# ¿ Aug 2, 2016 04:50

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 14:23

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

xthetenth posted:

Post something cool about Roman military stuff while you're here!

Here's a Roman handheld flamethrower.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2016 11:47

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Christ you guys post a lot.

Dick Trauma posted:

This might be too hard to answer but I'm curious about the weight of equipment infantry have had to carry throughout the ages. When I see modern soldiers they appear to be festooned with equipment, packs, bags, bandoliers, pouches... it looks overwhelming.

Post-Marian Roman soldiers are believed to have carried 75-100 pounds or so of equipment, which is in the ballpark of a modern soldier. A typical load from say around 100 AD would be:

Weapons: dagger, sword, at least two javelins.
Armor: Torso armor, typically lorica hamata which was a ring mail adopted from the Gauls or lorica segmentata, which is the lobstery looking thing you picture for a legionary. It is disputed how much both were used. Lorica segmentata was much better--lighter and stronger, but was probably more expensive since it stops being used once the empire no longer has the kind of military mass production resources it had during the classical height. Shield and helmet were the other standard armor pieces. Some soldiers would also have arm and leg armor but this was never standard.
Clothes: Tunic, belts, cloak, boots, underwear. In colder climates socks and pants were used.
Other stuff: A pack, waterskin, mess tin, cooking pot, field rations, shovel, an unknown number of wooden stakes for use in constructing the marching camp, and a wooden pole for carrying poo poo. One can expect soldiers would have some changes of clothes and personal items like games or writing tablets. Good bet everybody had dice.

Keep in mind a good portion of the weight is the body armor, which if you've ever worn, is not that bad at all as far as carrying goes. The weight is well distributed and it doesn't impede your movement much/at all unlike what you've learned from D&D. I suspect soldiers forgot they were even wearing the stuff a lot of the time, if the weather wasn't turning it into an oven. I would guess the shield is the most annoying thing to carry (a scutum is really big and heavy) and so they probably had some rig to carry it on their backs while marching.

Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 11:49 on Aug 6, 2016

# ¿ Aug 6, 2016 11:46

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Rodrigo Diaz posted:

According to Dan Howard segmentata was the inferior armor. First, segmentata was significantly cheaper to produce. Pulling wire of the size used in lorica hamata requires more highly refined iron than the lames of segmentata, and this not only adds to the labour cost but to the material cost, which was the more significant of the two to my understanding. Segmentata was also in some ways inferior to hamata in practical terms. It didn't protect the lower abdomen, and the brass hinges on the shoulders were liable to break and thus disassemble the armour.

I ask in a non dickish way, who is Dan Howard? I've not encountered an argument for hamata as a superior armor before and would like to read it.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2016 17:00

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

PittTheElder posted:

Do we know much about the logistic support effort that would accompany a unit in the field? Is it supposed to be integral to each legion?

I'm thinking that there must have been a large transport group pulling along replacement javelins, extra equipment, heavy artillery, maybe food and trade goods, etc.

The exact method of logistics is very speculative, what we know for sure is whatever the Romans did they were really good at it. I think the general consensus is the legion would have a large supply unit with them. Legions on the march would have wagons following along loaded with all those replacement things you're mentioning, and among the camp followers would be people with useful skills. The majority of equipment was made in mass production factories but you'd want smiths and whatnot with the army. Within the empire they maintained farms and supply dumps at forts and there were wagon groups to send supplies between them, we have evidence of that from Vindolanda tablets.

Rodrigo Diaz posted:

He's an armour scholar who wrote this article: http://myarmoury.com/feature_mail.html
He lays out his argument of the advantages of hamata vs. segmentata there.

I don't always agree with him, but at the very least his arguments as far as cost & ease of manufacture jibe with my own experience working iron.

Cool, I'll read this later. It is a mystery why they stopped manufacturing segmentata, if the Romans decided hamata was the better armor that would be a reasonable explanation.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2016 04:16

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

There was legal trade too I think. I'm always surprised how often I read countries are continuing trade even while at war with each other.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2016 17:41

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Which tank is lovely enough that a large man with a titanium spear with say a tungsten or depleted uranium point could defeat it

# ¿ Aug 9, 2016 17:45

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

wdarkk posted:

My candidate, assuming tankettes count.

I don't think I've ever seen an Imperial Japanese tank that didn't look super dumb and like it'd explode if you threw a rock at it.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2016 17:53

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Shut the gently caress up with the tankie poo poo and politics and post about drunk soldiers or sperging about tanks for 80 pages or whatever the gently caress happens in here.

Much like the NKVD, I will be watching the thread for people to disappear.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2017 17:47

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Nenonen posted:

Why is the mast bent like that, or is the rear tower actually a Dalek?

It folds down to get under a bridge that it has to cross under to get in and out of its home port.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2018 23:30

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

This thread is generating what is for A/T a shitload of reports so knock off the threadshitting or I'm gonna go on a probation binge then lock it for a bit while everybody chills out.

Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Sep 20, 2018

# ¿ Sep 20, 2018 04:00

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

Rockopolis posted:

Isn't Rome II the one with the catapult that shoots bees at people? And scorpions, and snakes, and spiders, depending on faction? Was that ever a thing?

There are historical accounts of bee and scorpion catapults, yes. Just because it was written down doesn't mean it happened but flinging pots full of angry bees/wasps into enemy formations probably would be disruptive.

For the bees, they knew smoke calms them down so they'd get hives smoked up then seal them into clay pots with mud, and bang on the pot to get 'em nice and pissed off then fling it at the enemy. I do not remember who was claimed to do this but I think it was in Anatolia.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2018 06:30

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 14:23

Grand Fromage: Jan 30, 2006; L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?

New thread, please post better tia: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3872282

# ¿ Oct 23, 2018 21:31

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Military History Mk. III: One that I know of is an archaic word for dick, another is