How much better could you make a medieval knight's equipment using modern materials and methods?
Say if you had modern engineers who had to stick to the basic design concepts (i.e. the equipment being swords, maces, lances plate armor/chainmail) but were otherwise free to apply modern techniques.
I know modern bows and crossbows and such can be made far superior to what they've had back then.
Titanium armor would be borderline invincible to pre-gunpowder weapons, even assuming the weapons were also made out of titanium.
> team of scientists and historians have to alter history in order to prevent a future disaster
> have to turn the tables of a war
> can't use guns because it would be eventually recorded/discovered, blowing their cover
> have to save the day in the best medieval gear the 21st century can manufacture
> get stuck in the past
> run around helping people people with their neo-medieval gizmos like the A-team
I would watch this show.
Good luck producing titanium in large quantities. Not to mention making weapons out of Ti is pretty stupid idea.
Titanium is too ductile to make for good armor.
Late gothic armor was high end, distal tapering in plates, fluted plates, differential hardening with surface hardening etc. All made to measure and every detail and part was carefully engineered based on lots and lots of experience and superb craftsmanship.
Gonna have a hard time to top that.
For weapons it is even worse, save for a carbon shaft for pole arms there is not much you can improve.
If you want to change the course of ancient warfare, a simple set of walkytalkies likely will have mos impact.
Isn't there a movie like that?
TV show idea is ok, but do we talk about no tits american style or tits&asses yuro style series?
Dude, put that on /tv/, that sounds awesome!
We're already hypothesizing weird stuff, I was just playing along. Why would Ti weapons be bad?
Why is ductility a problem for armor?
This just reminds me of Tramadol Nights with the time travelling professor
There is a movie, but they return to the present and only use normal gear.
I suppose tits would be a bonus.
Instead of steel, the entire thing is a dense Kevlar weave
They tried titanium in the SCA, it isn't good for plates. It flex on impact, transferring the force into you, then rebounds to its original shape
Kevlar, weirdly enough, isn't actually that good at stopping blades.
You dont want plate armor to deform for obvious reasons.
What's the SCA?
Read "1632", it's a lot like your idea
A historical reenactment society that does full contact sparring with (mostly) historical armor
composites.
Aka "dressing up and hitting each other artlessly with sword shaped clubs"
Eh, it's close enough to prove that titanium wont work for plate armor. I could see it being useful for chainmail, but I don't know enough about metallurgy to say that with any certainty.
That said, there's really not much we can do to improve plate armor. At its peak, smiths would spend their entire lives perfecting their craft. Their steel was probably close to our own, but we could give them slightly better steel. Other than that, we can't make any improvements
In a fantasy world where guns aren't a problem, munitions plate would become increasingly widespread and cover more
Isn't that the plot of Timeline?
>Why would Ti weapons be bad?
Same reason you wouldn't use Al. Stuff's light. Only thing Ti has going for itself is the superiour toughness/lightness ratio.
There are suitable alloys of titanium, but the only advantage over steel is weight, which isn't actually the biggest drawback of plate armor. Much bigger issues are expense and ergonomics. You can't live in armor and it takes time to put on and take off, and takes room to store. It's also fairly restrictive, so cloth armor was quite common in warfare even among nobles who could afford better. It's much safer to avoid a bad situation than to try to weather it, no armor is impenetrable. Something with as much leverage as a halberd can split any helmet with a solid blow.
Not really a valid comparison, aluminum is very different from steel and titanium.
>Say if you had modern engineers who had to stick to the basic design concepts (i.e. the equipment being swords, maces, lances plate armor/chainmail) but were otherwise free to apply modern techniques.
At statistically relevant quantities you might find that weapons made of modern materials perform more consistently and are less prone to failure, but at a scale of individual combat it would hardly matter.
Monomolecular-edged carbonfiber swords by 2030 that can cut clean through anything?
yeah I've played that game too
>aluminum is very different from steel and titanium
How come? It's like titanium, but worse. It's only used in combat applications for it's lightness, as is titan. Good steel beat's both titan and aluminium, but it's quite heavy.
>Their steel was probably close to our own
'no'
Even the best pre-industrial steel has fucking nothing on the stuff we make these days.
>How much better could you make a medieval knight's equipment using modern materials and methods?
not a great deal, the major difference would be in mass production and more rapid production of fitted pieces.
it would be possible today to make full body scans of a person being armed and armored and use those scans to custom fit a suit more precisely to their measurements more rapidly than in medieval times, it would also be possible to analyse the armor for how it distributes and deflects impact, probably improving a little on what the medieval smiths worked out by trial and error, although probably not by much, the underlayers - gambeson etc- might be improvable by modern materials
it also might be possible to use a hollow titanium shaft and a modern tool steel head on a lance to give a stronger lighter lance.
also mass production of high quality swords and pole arm blades would be easier.
mostly you wouldnt be able to significantly improve on the quality of the late medieval smiths work, but you could produce significantly more of it in a shorter space of time than possible using medieval methods
We have superior metallurgy now, we can make steel alloys that withstand more blows and force by orders of magnitude.
We also have Kevlar and dyneema for light armor.
Most importantly, we have better men now due to advances in nutrition and biological knowledge. Even the strongest man back then would be no match for a modern day heavyweight fighter in terms of raw power. If modern day athletes could be trained in medieval combat, they would win even with the inferior gear from that age.
one word
gunblades
Yes, this is exactly Timeline.
Ignoring the titanium troll, what about some carbide tipped arrows?
Would be better than the cloth armor they used though. Wonder how well some woven steel braids would work against glancing blows.
Wouldn't make as much of a difference how would modernized bows/crossbows do.
Can you define what you mean by
>basic design concepts
Because there's a lot you can improve on, adding textured grips to gloves, ergonomic shoes, sweat wicking undergarments etc.
Or are you just talking about
>do we have better steel than they did?
Because then the answer is yes, yes we have better steel
>wearing vibrams to a melee
stages weapons like the kind used at Ren Fairs and Medieval Times are made of Titanium alloy. They're safer than steel, as they are less likely to shatter or spark.
modern steels and production methods would blow away any pre industrial metal item.
>which isn't actually the biggest drawback of plate armor
But it's a constraint. I reckon the way to go wouldn't be to make a lighter armor the same thickness as historical plate (because as you say, the weight isn't that much of a factor), but to make thicker armor the same weight as historical plate.
Could reduce a hell of a lot of weight by replacing certain parts of armour with hard plastic, also make it a lot more easy to move around the same way.
Actually modern footwear would probably provide a huge advantage to any medieval force issued them.
If I were going for speed/flanking/stealth, why not a suit of grounding straps?
they have done tests on steel produced in a historical manner, it was on par with some modern steel alloys. I'll try to find sauce when I get off mobile
>Actually modern footwear would probably provide a huge advantage to any medieval force issued them.
Not necessarily, medieval armies have shown excellent marching pace on several examples.
I don't see how better footwear wouldn't be an added bonus even so.
Aaand they did that with shit shoes whose soles wore out bretty quick.
Now give them modern combat boots and lets see what happens
Those guys spent their hole lives walking and most of the time barefoot, likely they would just make a codpiece out of your sneakers and laugh at you for the pussy you are.
I've done a lot of reenactment in period shoes, modern shoes are amazing after you spend a week without them
I'd prefer modern boots over period footwear any day. If there was somehow a magic EMP that killed off electricity and guns, raiding a shoe store or REI would be a priority
You're just more used to modern shoes, western feet are fucking deformed to fit them.
Protection of the feet is only one concern, reliable traction across all manner of conditions is a huge and underappreciated game changer I think. Rubber soles were basically invented because an Italian man got fed up with having friends slip off of mountains and die.
>game changer
1476 a Zürich army covered 150 kilometers in two and a half days, full kit with all weapons, no train, infantry only, in heavy rains over difficult terrain.They arrived in time to destroy a Burgundian army and carry away whatever they could plunder.
You got nothing on this guys.
If we have unlimited time, money, and brilliant engineers, i think we could come up with something a little more creative than better fitting armor. At the very least we've made a lot of progress in the clothing underneath, a modern knight would probably be better insulated and protected from the elements or something.
Surely we could improve the weapons? Incorporate lasers or magnets. I feel like you guys arent using your imaginations.
What about having electro-charged mace that you could hit other knights with and fry them? The wielder would obviously have rubber insulation or something. Also vibration should be incorporated. And like night-vision (or "knight"vision) optics and shit. Plus srategically placed LEDs to look super cool. Under neath the armor so it glows through the plates.
Another interesting question, would a modern physical training regiment be an improvement over the knights of their time? Like we know a lot about health and fitness now. Plus we could inject our knight woth steroids or meth or something before battle. But i wouldnt be surprised if one of you makes an argument that the nobility of their time were actually in better shape for some reason.
Rather than the physical or health aspect I would say the advantages of a medieval knight engaged in deadly melee combat (if any) would lie in morale and mentality. Modern soldiers don't really beat or cut up people up close and personal.
The biggest problem isn't marching long distances, it's about having solid footing during a fight. The mud churned up by thousands of men fighting and bleeding out is gonna be terrible footing.
That's what hobnails were for and they've beem around since Roman times at least.
And there are recorded instances of them getting romans fucking killed in city fighting.
Hobnails are shit when you're not on dirt.
youtube.com
meth and steroids would definitely make modern knights stronger and more resistant to pain.
Modern shoes are way better than hobnails, as shown by the lack of hobnails anywhere. Not the best source, but all reenactors will say that modern shoes are better
youtube.com
youtube.com
Now imagine what they could have done with modern army boots.
The Romans also had boots without hobnails, as well as slippers to pull over their hobnail boots if they were only going inside briefly.
Cleats are pretty magical in the grass. I've never worn hobnail boots, but I imagine they're very similar.
that's great for the first ten minutes of a fight, but after that, you won't be fighting on grass. You'll be in mud, where modern boots would shine.
You don't really have time to slip on a new pair of shoes or slippers during a fight, so modern boots that have good traction in all conditions would be a step up from period footwear
You are a fucking retard.
>meth and steroids
I agree with you on the steroids, but medieval knights represent too large of an investment to throw away by giving them meth and having their combat effectiveness be completely destroyed after a couple uses.
Titanium and steel are very similar in strength and toughness, but titanium is lighter. You can safely substitute titanium for practically anything where you would use steel.
Aluminum is much weaker for a part the same size, but also much lighter. To make a part of the same strength, the aluminum piece will be significantly larger but weigh slightly less. Most aluminum alloys are also far softer than steels, and aluminum doesn't have a fatigue limit like steel or titanium below which no amount of stress cycles will cause the part to fail.