What was the best European military in existence Veeky Forums

What was the best European military in existence Veeky Forums

Historially, France.
If you're talking about the best one at its peak, the URSS

France like Said
I'd also venture to say Spain since they dominated nautically and the tercio was considered unbeatable for a looong time

>implying europe has good armies
>disregarding the FACT that africans had the best militaries

Soviet Union
>inb4 Zhukov human wave memes

Objectively speaking, NATO

Soviets would've rekt NATO without US support

>NATO
>European

Consider me baited, well done.

BAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

oh, you're serious

Arkans Tigers

>Soviet war machine vs crippled West Germany, collapsing British empire, France, and a few bitch ass nationlets
They would've thrashed Nato, even without support from other Communists

>soviet war machine
>after WWII

Wehrmacht (very arguable)

...

Quality wise, Carolingan Sweden or War of Austrian Succession/7 years war Prussia

Balance (quantity + quality) wise, pre-war of Spanish Succession France, tercio Spain, or Ottoman Janisarries during Suleyman the great's reign.

nato without us support is not nato at all. its stupid saying this.

The Kosovo liberation army

jesus fucking slavs look like pale mongolians

also prussian army as answer

Tercios

Well then it's not the strongest military in Europe if it relies on outside help.

Is this even a question?

Not a history buff here... why isn't Rome an answer?

I can buy USSR though.

Third Reich

>get's wrecked by serbian police
>gets more ak 47s
>serbs start deploying the actual army
>cries đenocajd
>nato bombs the shit out of serbia
>nato does almost no damage to the actual deployed troops, but wrecks industry, infrastructure and government buildings, cluster bombs city centers and even bombs albanian refugee colons (killing up to 500 albanians in total)
>get's driven out of kosovo
>can't take kosare while outnumbering serbs 6:1 and with nato close air support
>get's it's line broken by 2 t-55s
>serbia surrenders to nato
>WE WUZ FREEDOM FIGHTERS N SHIET

Are you retarded?
America literally dragged those ungrateful Slavic fucks through ww2 with the UK by giving them everything their little hearts desired, otherwise Stalin would have an autistic bitch too about how unfair everything is against him, despite him being happy to fucking sign a truce with Hitler prior
Then after ww2 bounding on all the success that America has let them have by funding their pathetic shithole nation into a global power, turning on its allies like the shifty treacherous scumbags they are

>Killing up to 500 Albanians
Topkek, good riddance

Stalin did have an autistic bitch fit about how unfair everything was against him. It's the reason he gave for keeping everything East (and a little West) of Berlin.

To be fair, look at any similar groups of white women without makeup and you won't see huge differences

Exactly, and all the while his country was being kept afloat my the money and workers of the eebil greedy western powers that totally abandoned him

You misspelled Prussians.

Get genocided by the Teutonic order you fag

Russians are literally pale mongolians

...

Qualitywise, Prussia, or Sweden during its golden age.

There's no use arguing for which military was beter as a whole, considering the massive difference in pure population.

Except they factually aren't

Best for its time or best overall?

Ancient times: Rome
Dark ages - medieval: France
Renaissance - age of exploration: Spain
Age of Enlightenment - age of imperialism France/Britain
Post industrialization: Prussia/Germany

Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus or Prussia under Frederik the Great

Dan Carlin would say that the Swedes and Prussians had this martial "toughness" that their neighbors lacked.

Prussia's army and its successors, the Kaisers heer and the Wehrmacht were the most efficient armies in European history on the level of the romans.

France had wealth and population

>18 DAYS

soviets without russian soviet state would have been rekt (notice how i alsto took the main military soutce of said union)

>sweden
wtf did swedish army managed to do ever but get out of the kalmar union and genocide lapplanders?

Dunno about earlier times, but:

16th to mid 17th century (1643) = Spain
1643 to 1815 = France
1815 to 1856 = Russia
1856 to 1945 = Prussia/Germany
1945-Now = America (their occupation force)

>WWI
>germany best military force
kek

19 actually

>In total, Napoleon and the Grande Armée had taken only 19 days from the commencement of the invasion of Prussia until essentially knocking it out of the war with the capture of Berlin

>also WWII

But then against, Dan Carlin is well known for hating France
It transpires from his Great War podcasts
Dude's just a more moderate Lindybeige

France had the population, but in countless wars they fought and won against coalitions that fielded more men

But then again, Dan Carlin is well known for hating France
It transpires from his Great War podcasts
Dude's just a more moderate Lindybeige

France had the population, but in countless wars they fought and won against coalitions that fielded more men

Either the roman legions or the spanish tercios.

>or the spanish tercios.

Or, you know, the other two armies aside from the Romans, that actually conquered the continent
What did Tercios ever accomplish?

Plenty, especially considering how small it was.

>The entire Swedish army was misstaken for the Kings personal guard once

>Comparing the roman empire to napoleon and nazis' meme empires, which lasted only 12 and 5 years

>What did Tercios ever accomplish?
You definitely need more non biased books and less hollywood movies.

>swedes fighting in pargue
>outnumber the enemy 1:6
>disputed
dafuq happened there?

Quality > quantity
Even when it comes to time

Swedes attempted taking Prague, managed to take and loot the castle (but not the old town on the other side of the river), and the forces recieved word of the peace treaty before any further developments.

Empires arn't a question of military might, but rather of statecraft. Napoleons France and Nazi Germany had a lots of military might. One might even call them golden ages of warfare

Macedon 3rd century bc. Name one other European power that has such juggled the middle east and more importantly, Afghanistan

Napoleonic Grand Armee

this

>France
holy kek

Germany, 1941

:-)

People who know shit all about history always out themselves with the 'surrender monkeys' meme.

~

Germany + more gas, 1941

For its time?
Rome, without a doubt.

>most powerful military historically
Rome, An empire that had no equal on the European continent, who's only real military rivals were the Persians out in the middle east. Hell even the Byzantines had one of the only real professional armies/navies on the continent well into the middle ages.

>most powerful today, in 2017.
Russia.

The red army is the strongest!

Those masks on these cavalry helmets make me rock hard

Yes, they had the best military force, the Allies had the advantage of resources and manpower, not strategy. Had Germany come into Russia's granaries sooner than 1917 the war would have gone much differently.

Add Lorica Hamata, and I'm in love

Easy

>wehrmacht

>efficient

well then the romans still win

Alexander's army. He had Macedonian Phalanxes that were utterly dominant head-on, more flexible troops protecting the wings, and most of all the Companion Cavalry who were by far the best cavalry of the ancient world and the first known Shock-Cavalry.

If you mean long-lasting military spanning generations, I'd say the Roman Legion.

>wtf did swedish army managed to do
killed 1/3 of all Germans
killed 1/3 of all poles
spread protestantism

works both ways

>works both ways
how?
when did the polish army invade Sweden and kill 1/3 of the population?

False. Shit Navy, shit budget, can barely hold itself together.

England 21st century

Except Russia is in Europe, the USA isn't

>France had wealth and population
We literally won against the whole Europe a few times

I'll aways be partial to the Swedish Empire. They did so much with so little.

>best military
>loses all wars

USSR

It depends in how you define "best military"
>best capabilities of whole nation to send so many equipment and soldiers, so they will overwhelm any opponents in the long run?
>on average, best trained and equiped individual soldiers?
>best doctrine/generals itd?
>which century
First criteria? Roman Empire/France for most of the time. Best soldiers on average? Poland in 16 and 17thC, they went full retard quality. Some mixed criteria, like quantity, but with good discipline? Sweden and Prussia for some time. Etc.

>Lost the only war they fought

>11-13th Century
Francie, England, Bohemia (not kidding)
>14-15th Century
England, Francie, Hussites later
>16-18th Century
England, Francie, Spain
>19th Century
Prussians, French under Napoleon, England
>20th Century-1918
German Empire
>World war 2
Germany, America after getting Nukes
>Modern times
Hard to say, we'd need some another greately war to be able to tell

Germans are the best at war. Just because they lost the two big ones doesn't change their record.

>England

is there really any doubt about that?

>germans are the best at war

they've fought two and lost them both

if you have a military leadership that thinks it's a good idea to fight the entire world you're not very good at war and you don't get credit for it, you're just a retard

>What was the best European military in existence Veeky Forums
The Prussian army during the Franco-Prussian war

The French army during the Napoleonic wars particularly when it was in Germany

...

16th to mid 17th century (1643) = Spain
1643 to 1815 = France
1815 to 1856 = Russia
1856 to 1864 = France
1864-1918 = Germany
1918-1940 = France
1945-Now = America (their occupation force)

>1918-1940 = France

Yeah, but no war happened in Europe during that period, so we may as well just combine WW1 and WW2 together

USSR is the only sensible answer.
They are the most recent great european army, thus the best, because technology.

Except what counts is strength compared to other countries in the era, not to make intertemporal comparisons and go "hurr Stalin would nuke the Romans"

Can't believe some retards dont understand that

Stalin would nuke the Romans

ah yes the aryan germans