Deadliest Warrior

[Mark]

Tonight on the Deadliest Warrior, Atilla the Hun vs Alexander the Great. Muhahahahaha

[Sionnach Glic]

What, just the two people? Or their armies and conquests?

While I certainly won't argue with you there ( ), I doubt armies of that era were really organised or trained with dealing with an insurgency in mind.

There was one army that had ample experience of dealing with insurgencies - us, on the north-west frontier. Unfortunately the experience wasn't very useful in Ireland, because it was aimed at containing the insurgency rather than eliminating it. SOP was to respond to serious drama by marching in, slapping the offenders about a bit, and then getting out. Trying to actually hold territory against an insurgency is quite another matter.

Aye, that tactic didn't seem to work particularly well in Ireland. It worked perfectly well back in 1916, where the insurgents stayed in one place long enough to be taken out. It was when the Flying Columns started up that things really started to go a bit wonky for the troops trying to keep the country in order. And things like trying to burn Cork to the ground, Bloody Sunday and the Black and Tans' behaviour in general only served to give more and more support over the the IRA. Though on the occasions where the IRA actually tried or were forced to engange in more conventional action against the British troops, they were pretty soundly defeated.

Honestly, ti seems like Afghanistan takes the place of the Forgotten War in our media. I don't know about others on the board spread throughout the U.S. but I hear much more about Iraq than I do about Afghanistan. I'm not saying that's the way it should be but that seems to be where our focus is, despite the fact that right now the harder fight is in Afghanistan.

Over here, I tend to hear more on Afghanistan than on Iraq. Though that's not to say that either country is really forgotten. It's just that, bar any British deaths that get mentioned on their news channels, there's damn all to really talk about. As callous as it may sound, it all stopped being interesting once people stopped getting blown up. Thus the news stopped covering it.

[Deepcrush]

Tonight on the Deadliest Warrior, Atilla the Hun vs Alexander the Great. Muhahahahaha

Alexander by 60/40.

[Lighthawk]

Deadliest Warrior is losing what little sensabilty they had. Atilla vs Alexander was absurd. They brought in a ballista on Alexander's side, a freaking seige weapon for a one on one fight. (Yeah, they gave each guy a few troops, who seemed to just be a bunch of redshirts for the other leader to butcher. Still, you don't use a seige weapon on a small group of men.) And what did they pit the ballista against...a war axe. Yeah, that seems right, long range seige engine vs close range personal weapon. And of course, they gave the edge to the ballista purely because it had the greater power. In the simulation however, the ballista only got 7 kills compared to the axe's 95.

The lasso vs the spear test...I don't even want to get into how silly that was.

The sword vs sword and bow vs crossbow tests were at least comparible to each other.

Atilla won the fight, and for good reason. This was a small group battle, and Atilla came armed with the better weapons for a small group. Alexander's ballista and crossbow are weapons much better suited to large military battles were their long reload times are less of a factor due to having guys between the weapons and the targets to keep the enemy forces from mowing them down during reload. It really says something I think that the deadliest weapons were the hun bow followed by Alexander's spear. Weapons that are quick to use and have range.

[Mark]

Per Wiki posting
Episode 11: Attila the Hun vs. Alexander the Great
Attila the Hun team: Sean Pennington (Ancient Combat Specialist), Robert Borsos (expert horseback archer)
Attila the Hun weapons: Sword of Mars, Lasso, Hunnic Composite Bow, Scythian Axe

Alexander the Great team: Kendall Wells (Bladed Weapon specialist), Peter van Rossum (Sword and Shield champion), Rashad Evans (Former UFC Champion)
Alexander the Great weapons: Kopis, Xyston, Gastraphetes, Ballista

Results -------------------Attila the Hun Kills------------------ Alexander the Great Kills
Close Range --------------Sword of Mars 117 ------------------Kopis 120
Mid Range -------------------Lasso 30 --------------------------Xyston 225
Long Range -----------Hunnic Composite Bow 354 -----------Gastraphetes 52
Special Weapons -------------Scythian Axe 95 -----------------Ballista 7
Totals ------------------------------596 --------------------------404

In a test between the Sword of Mars and the Kopis, the Sword of Mars scored 4 death dealing blows-while the Kopis only scored 2 death dealing blows and two non-fatal blows. Nevertheless the Kopis was scored "higher"-yet in the final hand to hand combat between Attila vs Alexander it was the Sword of Mars that won the duel.

[Sionnach Glic]

Okay, now they're just doing whatever the hell they like.

[Deepcrush]

Sorry but that last ep was just insulting to anyone with an IQ over one.

[Mark]

You didn't like the "belly bow"?

[Aaron]

Wait, wasn't Alexander rather fat? VS a guy who rode a horse all his life and could likely skewer you with an arrow from a hundred yards?

[Mikey]

"Kopis?" Is that supposed to be a derivative of khopesh? If so, that was an Egyptian weapon, and one not commonly used as it required a great deal of practice and dedicated training.

[Deepcrush]

Wait, wasn't Alexander rather fat? VS a guy who rode a horse all his life and could likely skewer you with an arrow from a hundred yards?

Not that I've ever heard of. Alexander wasn't a slacker with the horsemanship either.

You didn't like the "belly bow"?

No, should have maybe picked something that wasn't meant for firing into mass crowds.

"Kopis?" Is that supposed to be a derivative of khopesh? If so, that was an Egyptian weapon, and one not commonly used as it required a great deal of practice and dedicated training.

Alexander's love of everything Egyptian would explain him having such a weapon. Though the sword wasn't my problem with the ep. The biggest problem for me is that they never tested the arrows of either side against ARMOR AND SHIELD.

[Sionnach Glic]

Wait, wasn't Alexander rather fat? VS a guy who rode a horse all his life and could likely skewer you with an arrow from a hundred yards?

I think you've got that a bit backwards. IIRC, it was Attila who was overweight and had quite a few health problems. Alexander regularly led cavalry charges into battle.

"Kopis?" Is that supposed to be a derivative of khopesh? If so, that was an Egyptian weapon, and one not commonly used as it required a great deal of practice and dedicated training.

That's a bit dodgy, alright. As Deep points out, Alexander later started aquiring a taste for foreign customs and styles, but I've never heard of that interest extending as far as weaponry.

Though the sword wasn't my problem with the ep. The biggest problem for me is that they never tested the arrows of either side against ARMOR AND SHIELD.

Wait, they never bothered testing out how effecive either person's armour was? Jesus Christ.

[Lighthawk]

Wait, they never bothered testing out how effecive either person's armour was? Jesus Christ.

Well that's only mostly true. When they tested the Xyston, they did put a set of Hun armor on the target, and the Xyston did pierce it front and back. Though really, leather armor vs a big spear driven home from charging horseback, not a big surprise that it went through.

edit: Oh, and they did test the Hun war axe vs Alexander's helmet.

[Sionnach Glic]

What about Alexander's armour?

[Lighthawk]

What about Alexander's armour?

Nope. Nor did they test the shields against anything.