Favourite Historical Weapon ?

[Josu]

Plague infected corpse catapult, obviously

 

[Polycrates]

Spitfire, so fricking elegant and not a bad fighter either

There's something tremendously awesome about katyushas as well.

 

[AnthonyBoscia]

.....

 

[GoodGame]

The Armored Fighting Vehicle

Take that...knights of the round table!

 

[Yeekim]

This:

 

[Leifmk]

The M29 Davy Crockett Weapon System. Probably the smallest nuclear device in history. That's W54 nuclear warhead attached to it.

And yes, I'm aware how stupid of an idea this was.

In the "nuclear stupidity" genre, I submit SLAM/Project Pluto, even though it was never actually finished: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto

A late 50s, early 60s project to develop a low-altitude strategic cruise missile/robotic bomber (designed to carry multiple large bombs to be dropped along its route), propelled by a nuclear ramjet. That is, instead of burning jet fuel, you build the engine around a freaking nuclear reactor and heat up air by passing it right through the reactor. In addition to dropping its megatons of payload, the damn thing could be airborne for months, spraying radiation everywhere (it was designed with minimal shielding) before finally melting down/crashing.

They did get as far as building and testing an engine prototype before the Pentagon realized this particular brand of insanity was not required.

 

[JohnRM]

I've given this some thought.

I would love to just take off in one and fly off into the distance until I ran out of gas.

 

[ParkCungHee]

I would love to just take off in one and fly off into the distance until I ran out of gas.

Uhhh...Please don't!

 

[Antilogic]

Spitfire, so fricking elegant and not a bad fighter either

There's something tremendously awesome about katyushas as well.

I've read that the Hurricane was a more durable and serviceable plane, but the Spitfire still has pretty nice lines. Not quite as sexy as the P-51's lines, but still good.

 

[Veles]

Sirs, please.

Of the Americans, this bulky fella looks particulary good.

 

[Cutlass]

This is the cooler looking plane of that era.

 

[GoodGame]

No this is kewler:

 

[Heretic_Cata]

For a while i thought this thread was going to be more intresting. It's not.

 

[Antilogic]

For a while i thought this thread was going to be more intresting. It's not.

Your expectations were wayyy higher than mine.

 

[GoodGame]

What do you expect?

This thread is basically "What units should be in Civilization 7"?

 

[Veles]

...As for armour, nothing will ever quite compare with full plate armour for 'awesome factor', especially not when attached to a lancer on horseback and viewed from the perspective of a lowly infanteer in a leather jacket if he's lucky.

Full plate has higher wow-factor, true. Not too practical though, imo.

Since I was talking about Russia, as far as we know, full plates weren't spread here, since it's not much use in steppe warfare.

Mostly it was just chainmail with lamilar cuirasses.

But the peasant majority would be happy to have anything at all.

 

[Phrossack]

Russian armor is glorious and effective indeed, but full plate is also highly practical. It's very flexible, the weight is well-distributed, it's immune to slashes, and stands up very well against thrusts, arrows, and even early firearms; during the English Civil War, Sir Arthur Haselrigge (granted, this armor was cuirassier-style like your first pic, but not nearly as ridiculously ornamented) was pursued by a cavalier, who stuck a pistol's muzzle to Haselrigge's helmet and fired. The helmet stopped the ball completely, and he kept riding until the cavalier struck down his horse with a sword. Others tried to kill him, but his armor protected him long enough for help to arrive.

During the Hundred Years' War at Verneuil, the English archers wielding the extremely overrated longbow were stunned to see their arrows harmlessly bounce off the full harnesses of the Italian mercs, who promptly rode them down and proceeded to loot the baggage train. Which, of course, led to their French employers dying, but the Italians were fine.

 

[Veles]

Russian armor is glorious and effective indeed, but full plate is also highly practical. It's very flexible, the weight is well-distributed, it's immune to slashes, and stands up very well against thrusts, arrows, and even early firearms; during the English Civil War, Sir Arthur Haselrigge (granted, this armor was cuirassier-style like your first pic, but not nearly as ridiculously ornamented) was pursued by a cavalier, who stuck a pistol's muzzle to Haselrigge's helmet and fired. The helmet stopped the ball completely, and he kept riding until the cavalier struck down his horse with a sword. Others tried to kill him, but his armor protected him long enough for help to arrive.

Must be some superb smithing technique and extremely good ore quality. I've seen videos where crossbow bolts and heavy Russian pike (rogatina) penetrate through plates (made in modern times) quite easily.

During the Hundred Years' War at Verneuil, the English archers wielding the extremely overrated longbow were stunned to see their arrows harmlessly bounce off the full harnesses of the Italian mercs, who promptly rode them down and proceeded to loot the baggage train. Which, of course, led to their French employers dying, but the Italians were fine.

Hehe, longbow isn't that bad. Perhaps it could have done the job, had they chosen the right angle.

Full plates are fine and impressive, but obviously allow for less flexibily, can't use bow, without which steppe battles don't normally take place.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

Its obvious

My other favourite weapon

 

[Flying Pig]

Its obvious

Rotten thing. Only effective out to about 400 yards (the comparable and contemporary British rifle could comfortably making killing shots at half a mile), atrociously constructed and the myth of its reliability is greatly exaggerated - yes, it's very good, but modern rifles such as the SA80A2 (not the A1, but let's not go into that, eh?) are far better without having to be so horrendously simplified. A great weapon for its circumstances, perhaps, but a pretty grotty one overall.