Can Veeky Forums name me some other elite warriors like the knight, the samurai or the musketeer? You know, those that had the better gear and training, mostly came from noble birth or social ascended and had a specific title, not just "(name of tribe/civilization) warrior/soldier"
Also, could berserkers be the equivallent of this for the vikings? and were persian immortals just zerg rushers?
Life isn't a video game lad
Did I imply it was?
The Red coats and the Hakkapeliitta.
Weren't the red coats a generic term for a british soldier?
Maybe if we use some greater incentive for more answers. I have just the thing for that:
>The samurai can totally cut through any other non mentioned unit with just his noble katana
Prove me wrong
Yes you did
-Mamlukes: defeated the Mongols at Ain Jalut
-English Longbowmen as a group (supported by heavily armored infantry): defeated the French at Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt while being heavily outnumbered
Thegns/Thanes
Huscarls
Persian and Roman Cataphracts.
Spartan hoplites, persian immortals, aztec jaguars
actually i think Shorn Ones were more "elite" than jaguars
Just check AoE2 unique faction units list...
The redcoats weren't elite at all
They were shit tier by european standards
The only reason they're known as "elite" by undecuated people is because they were sligthly better than the American peasants they fought in the US revolution
And since the US are the current cultural superpower, they get to spread their biased view of history all over the place
Anglophobe detected
Druzhina.
The Empire spand a long period, somepoints the redcoats were not so good, others they were top.
Napoleon thought that Redcoats made the best line infantry in the war.
>Napoleon thought that Redcoats made the best line infantry in the war.
Pure made-up fact
The British army was shit-tier during the Napoleonic Wars (which is why the French afford to barely care about them and treat them as a secondary enemy).
That's also the reason why Napoleon was quite surprized by the fact they performed well at Waterloo
Gallowglass
Scottish heavily armoured mercenaries who favoured claymores and large axes. The were highly influential in Irish warefare for a long period of time.
Stop letting your personal feelings on Britain get in the way of fact. It makes you look autistic.
>inb4 anglo
Not British
Battles are not purely about the quality of infantry. He also thought they made bad skirmishers, were slow on the march and couldn't go far beyoned their supply lines. He found there cavalry indiscaplined and didn't think too much about most of there generals.
He was impressed with how solidly brit infantry would hold the line, how quick they were at shooting and how they wouldn't buckle when charged with bayonets. Which many of the conscript based millitaries of his enemies were liable to do.
You are also cherry picking battles here considering they are all part of a campaign the french lost.
Such a practical sword.
Redcoats is a nickname for british infantry as a whole. They were excellent in some periods and mediocre in others.
The origianl Rifles were an elite though
Irish infantry was pretty lightly equiped so they made a big differance.
>they were excellent when fighting non-whites or American peasants and mediocre when fighting other europeans
Fixed
Have fun swinging that and getting it stuck in 2 feet of mud when you miss.
I'm not making anything up here. They were a pretty major thing in Irish warefare. Have a look for yourself.
>You are also cherry picking battles
Meanwhile, you're cherrypicking the comments Napoleon made about ONE battle (Waterloo) and trying to apply it to the entire serie of wars
>considering they are all part of a campaign the french lost.
The French lost Spain in 6 fucking years while outnumbered, and they weren't even focused on that theater
As a comparison, the Russians took back the land between Moscow and Paris (5 times the size of Spain) in two years, and with the French focused on them as main enemy
That alone proves how shitty the British army was, if only compared to the Russian one (who weren't particularly elite themselves)
Y'all aren't trained soldiers from a warrior culture that eats 90lbs of potatoes everyday. You're Neet faggots with a fetish for samurai jack and dressing in trenchcoats. So stop acting like claymores are impractical
It looks about as effective as a Teutonic Zweihander.
They would be ineffective for smaller men but the Gallowglass people were highered specifically for waging war as mercenaries- obviously there was something effective about the claymore
...
The thing about mercenaries is that they were hired because they were available and cost-effective more than they were battle effective. This meant they were more cannon-fodder than elite, mostly notable for their exotic qualities as a vagrants turning up in unexpected war zones rather than a decisive fighting force that decided wars in the same way actual elites did.
Persian immortals were the king of king's personal guard. There were always exactly 10,000 of them and they were the best soldiers from all over. The elite unit still existed up until the Islamic overthrow of Iran.
They weren't used in Thermopolae despite Herodotus's embellished accounts. That battle was actually a quick win. They got rolled over in a matter of 24-48 hours, despite there actually being 8,000+ Greeks in the clearing. The reason it's romanticized is because it was a heroic act of defiance among circumstances of certain death, and they actually at some point made the Persian war machine retreat. From a tactics standpoint it probably had more to do with "hey, killing them wouldn't take so long if we just went up to the top of those cliffs and rained arrows down on them, let's pull back and set that up."
Actually come to think of it, it's kind of retarded to face an army known for its skill in archery with cliffs surrounding you... But I'm way off on a tangent. Still one of the most interesting battles imo.
Cataphracts are units shared by many militarys around the ancient world, I'm looking for titles forged by the culture
Shorn Ones and Otamies were both higher than Jaguars and Eagles, but they were all elites
Also, a make my question again. Was the whole immortal's catch just numbers? About one of them dying and being quickly switched by another soldier. I know that in the end if that works is all that matters, but could them be called elite warriors if their repuitation involved dying and being replaced?
The immortals were the most elite soldiers of the Persian empire, which was vast.
As I stated they existed up until the 70's when the Islamic regime took control. In a modern setting they were a special forces unit full of the biggest strongest dudes in Iran. Back then they were likely the best archers, swordsmen, spearmen, horsemen, etc. Yes they were a specialized unit, which means likely they didn't die often, but when they did they had another who was trained up and ready to go to replace him.
Oh, that does seem more high rank. But could you address the rumor about replacement I mentioned in this post:
Oh good, you answered first. Thank you, I guess I didn't consider the possibilitie of them rarely dying, but when they did always being replaced. Seem that they were always exaclty 10,000 they were definetly trying to achieve that reputation
>what is a controlled swing, also Dane axes are a much better weapon than you think.
Other than the fact you can use the whole weapon in a fight, You will for sure feel the blunt force of just the axe hitting you even it won't cut into you
Gallowglasses WERE the Irish elite though, they were exclusively from the nobility. Poorer soldiers would've been called Bonnachtaí or Kerns. In Dutch and Swedish army lists we find Gallowglasses mentioned as captains and there's a good reason for this, they were usually high ranking nobles.
Having held am actual 16th century Gallowglass sword and having fenced with reproductions of one and the Sparth axe that they also used, the sword only weighs about 8lbs. It's very manageable and maneuverable. The axe only weighed about 10lbs. It's not going to topple you over if you swing it. Have you ever done yard work? It's about the same weight as a shovel, and balanced much better.
Maybe there was some propaganda in the name as well. As in implying they actually couldn't die. They weren't mummies like in the movie 300 though... or were they?
The assassins are also a pretty cool aspect of Persian history. Now those guys were elite. Similar to ninjas, sort of a black ops group.
What is with Irish not wearing shoes or exposing their shins? Is it to run faster and have more mobility?
nah, they were just poor. The two guys without shoes are dressed in the lowest standard of armor, padded jacks and a helmet.
The irish weren't very wealthy throughout their entire society. The main guy in the picture would have been rich in his homeland, but his armor is worse than the common mercenary of his time. Pic related is something that a noble would outfit his men in, over what the main guy is wearing
Winged hussies
They fought in grasslands with plenty of space. They wouldn't perpetuate a sword like this if they weren't man enough
In Irish society shoes were seen as being an indoor thing, and that didn't really start to change until the 16th century. Plus there's an economic concern, Ireland before that period was very thickly forested as well as being very hilly and wet, so if you wore your shoes outside they'd probably get ruined. This applies mostly to Irish literature of the bardic period, so slightly before the Viking age, but characters are often mentioned as putting on shoes before going to visit a lord or going to a feast or party. Some shoes were actually specifically made for this purpose, there's a preserved pair of shoes from I think the 10th century or so that are permanently fixed with a leather strap, so you'd only be able to wear them sitting down or standing still.
The trend seems to start with higher-ranking soldiers like Gallowglasses other nobles wearing them outdoors and gradually the lower classes start to follow suit. By the mid 17th century most people seem to be wearing shoes outdoors.
You've got to be fucking kidding me.
>-English Longbowmen as a group (supported by heavily armored infantry): defeated the French at Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt while being heavily outnumbered
And then got slaughtered at patay and proved useless at vernuil. Longbows contributed jack shit to a fight unless you had an incredibly stupid opponent AND an excellent defensive position. They were not elite by any stretch.
The Persians in that movie looked like they came straight from Mordor
I wonder (((who))) in Hollywood would want to make Persians out to be evil monsters...
I mean come on Cyrus let the lost tribes return to Israel, is that not enough of a bro move?
The Persians were depicted as monsters in the comic waaaay before the movie came out. Frank Miller I guess just wanted to do a very black vs white movie
The film is based on the comic that was written by an Anglo fedora.