Let's get a rundown on the best standing armies by century.
Greentext the century in order and the faction that had the best Army of that time. Reg text your justification.
He's what I've come up so far. BC: 10th-1st Ad: 1st: Rome 2nd:Rome 3rd: Rome 4th: Rome 5th: Western Rome 6th: Eastern Rome 7th: Umayyad Caliphate 8th: Tang China 9th: Frank's 10th: Holy Roman Empire 11th: Normans 12th: HRE 13th: Mongols 14th: English 15th: Spanish 16th: French 17th: Spanish 18th: English 19th: English 20th: German 21st: American
Your criteria for being best (I assume it is not just being the biggest)?
Plus splitting this by centuries is borderline retarded, especially for XIXth and XXth centuries
Robert Williams
I kept it very general so that it could be open for discussion and argument.
Thanks for the retard comment btw. Glad you're making the best of your time on earth by telling people they are stupid over an anonymous website board
Joshua Bell
No insult was indended, it is just that splitting it by centuries actually prevents such list from being meaningful Too lazy to provide the list for whole of the history but here is some suggestions for those who should be on the list: BC: the Assyrians in 7 century BC, Persia in 5th BC, Macedonia at the times of Philipp and Alexander AD: the Ottomans at their peak, Timur, Napoleonic France, Prussia in the end of 19th century up to the end of WWI, Red Army post-1943
Brayden Anderson
How can armies that have literally only ever lost wars be the best?
Kevin Martinez
Usually, armies win battles, not wars.
Oliver Ramirez
>18th: English >19th: English
You just went full retard my man The British army was always pure grabage, it's their navy that was good The meme about redcoats being elite is very recent (post-WW2) and was invented by Americans (to make their revolution seem glorious)
In that period, the best armies were
1700-1740: France 1740-1792: Prussia 1792-1815: France 1815-1853: Russia 1853-1900: Prussia/Germany
Luke Stewart
Also, arguably there should be no English at all (if you do not account for navy), at any given moment there was a land force superior to the eternal Anglo Also Normans were not a single entity and in any case in 11th century there were far more powerful conquerors e.g. Seljuks
Bentley Taylor
>20th: German l m a o
most under performing*
Jack King
>16th: French >17th: Spanish
You reversed them Spaniards were the best in Europe from the Italian Wars (1500s) to Rocroi (1643) while the French were the best from 1643 to the mid 18th century
Parker Sanchez
I find this stupid. Stupid because "best" doesn't mean anything, and you seem to mistake nationalities for national regimes. What do you hear by "the best" ? The most numerous one ? The richest ? The one with the highest number of "victories" ? But theses victories, are they brought by luck, good commanders, by logistics ? For exemple, you claim that the best army of the XIVth Century is "England". I bet you do this because of meme battles like Crécy and Poitiers ; Do you know that these two battles led to no permanent gain during the HYW ? That France managed to earn back all of the lost territories in the two decades that followed Poitiers, and without any major-scale battle, simply a lot of sieges and a deep-line campaign ? If anything, compared with the english army, the french had the best army, because it was made of more soldiers, it was richer, it was more cohesive socially, it had great and better-trained commanders ; And yet, the army of the King of England (Which is not the same thing as "the english") managed to win two battles which had a large impact on the political course of the war, and mayhaps it is the english weakness that made them strong (Mostly the fact that the King of England had to embark his army on boat, so he had a limited number of men, so he could profesionnalise his levies and only rely on a small force which was used to terrorize the countryside ; Note that when this army was taken unaware, like at Pontvaillan, they were utterly crushed). Also, you use armies that are often so distant with each other that I don't see which criteria you can use to compare these militaries. Like why do you pick the HRE for the 12th century when there were no "Imperial army" and more like imperial knights and landlords, and the imperial knighthood was inferior to the frankish or norman or angevin knighthood.
tl;dr : Stop acting like History is a video game with different factions who can have better stats than another.
Daniel Bailey
>1740-1792: Prussia
What. Prussia was, until the mid 19th century and later Germany, a wannabe predator with big appetite and bad teeth. You are subscribing to Freddy memes there, the guy's biggest success was not power in arms, it was administrative and diplomatic coups and reforms.
Hunter Johnson
>5th: Western Rome
After the division the western empire was shit, from the start, to the end, it was pure shit.
Aaron Barnes
>20th >German Nigga what, they performed well in the world wars sure but the American and Soviet armies were much more dominant in the 20th century
Aiden Miller
1st: Rome 2nd:Rome 3rd: Rome 4th: Rome 5th: Western Rome 6th: Eastern Rome 7th: Arabs 8th: Arabs 9th: Franks 10th: Bulgars 11th: ERE 12th: Turks 13th: Mongols 14th: Ottomans 15th: Ottomans 16th: Spanish 17th: French 18th: French 19th: French 20th: American 21st: American
r8 my changes (no bully pls)
Bentley Hughes
>19th: French forgot to change to Prussia
Robert Wilson
5th: WRE collapsed, the Huns probbaly the strongest contender 20th: speaking of land power, the Soviets were way more powerful that the US during the most of the Cold War
Daniel Hernandez
37097 >1st: Rome >2nd: Rome >3rd: Rome >4th: Sassanids >5th: Eastern Rome >6th: Eastern Rome >7th: Umayyad >8th: China >9th: Franks >10th: Abbasid >11th: Normands >12th: French >13th: Mongols >14th: French >15th: French >16th: Spanish >17th: French >18th: Frech >19th: French >20th: Soviet Union >21st: China Peopel that write Germany for 20th are historically illiterates
>Takes out the most glorious century for the French army A fucking genius
Joseph Powell
Pleb zerg rush Levee en masse Vs. The glorius Seven Years' War
The XVIII century belongs to Prussia
William Richardson
People that believe China has a bigger military than the US are in sad denial of their ruling Empire.
Sebastian Morales
That's actually a fairly accurate list. I didn't expect that from Veeky Forums.
Colton Phillips
t. communist scum
Henry Moore
t. liberal cuckold that thinks every non-american is communist
Gabriel Cox
Kind reminder that Prussia would be completely fucked up after Seven Years' War if not for Prussia-boo retard Peter III, who when Prussia effectively lost the war, returned to Frederick all territories occupied by the Russian and even supplied him with additional troops
Jaxon Ward
>non-american is communist I am from fucking south america, but you must be in an absolute denial to actually believe that the URSS was the best army in the XX century and China is the best in the XXI
Nolan Miller
That doesn't mean that he did not single beat France, Austria, Russia and Spain being little piece of shit in the baltic coast
Henry Harris
Not him, but name anything that could realistically stood a chance in a land war against post-WW2 Soviet Army
Samuel Collins
Afghani guerillas.
Henry Bennett
Idk, the fucking american army nuking the shit out of Moscow? the Red Army was exhausted and Russia in ruins, while on the other side are the United States that was not even affected by the war and in 1945 was almost 50% of the World Economy.
The real world isnt a HOI IV game, you dont win spaming gorrilons of soldiers in the front
Gavin Wright
this, the only place where were USians supperior was fleet strenght, but USA had to split it much more than the Soviets, there wasnt a single thing that could stood against the Warsaw pact (or just USSR alone) on the battlefield.
Lincoln Butler
Are you autistic? You sound like a HoI IV player, there wasnt a single way how could USA nuke any Soviet city. And as you said, world isnt HoI IV, your people arent ok with attacking your ally you fought on one side for 4 years.
Chase Smith
No. But you make a good point, Prussia and Germany in the late 19th and early to mid 20th, had some of the best militaries but from the 1930s on, Russia certainly did have the upper hand amongst all others, I suppose it's hard to determine who dominates modern warfare, since the last major conflict between nations was WW2, you could argue that the US dominated the majority of th 20th from ww2 on but it's hard to say since we never saw the US directly fight a global power. Korea was a small conflict which was upset in the end, Vietnam was a bigger upset and a longer conflict
Carter Rogers
>had to split it much more than the Soviets The fuck i am reading, the soviets literally have 4 fleets who can support each others in any case.
You was the one talking about a hypothetical scenario where X country go to the war against the URSS and I give you an excellent example
Jack Jackson
cant*
Jason Richardson
Soviet navy´s job was to protect the coasts and to nuke US with submarines, US fleet is usseles. >You was the one talking about a hypothetical scenario where X country go to the war against the URSS and I give you an excellent example I literally wrote in that post that US cant nuke USSR without balistic missiles and that it cant backstabb its ally and that USSR being exhausted is a meme. I dont even take in count Soviet and French communist partisans/uprising and US logistic problems.
Jason Adams
*Italian and French And as always, USSR is too big, especialy when it takes entire central Europe
Jonathan Butler
> 19th Century: British
Even fully mobilized Civil War USA would have face raped the Brits on land, not to mention France.
Ayden Taylor
So many memes in one post Nukes? It is not like the US had massive nuclear arsenal and ballistic missiles at that stage and what they had the Soviets could stomach Ruins? Just check the statisctics of the military industrial output of USSR in 1945 - the whole country literally was a giant weapon factory War fatigue? Red Army was so exhausted that shortly after the end of the war in Europe it annihilated 1,5mln Kwantung Army with practically zero effort in less than a month Also human waves meme
Joshua Moore
Beating reservist nips hungry and bad equipped beat the American Army
>Just check the statisctics of the military industrial output of USSR in 1945 The USSR output was like a candle in the sun compared to the American industry
I hate them, but Ottomans for 15th or 16th centuries
Hunter Clark
>Russians got fucked in WW1 despite the Western front >Only won WW2 because of the British Empire, America and LL Not to downplay the Russian/Soviet sacrifices, but they weren't a particularly good army.
Parker Williams
forgot pic.
If you have some data to back your claims go ahead, i will wait
Alexander Perry
Nice meme, but I'm pretty sure that by the time the Allies joined the war in 1944 the Red Army was already in Poland. Lend lease my ass.
Gavin Scott
not him but user... the Russian army was shit, is like said that the KMT army was good because survive despite the casualties
Agree that Kwantung Army was weakened in order to reinforce other theatres (though it was originally one of the most prestigious units) but it was heavily entrenched and logistics for the Soviets fighting in the Far East was a nightmare so still the ease with which Red Army steamrolled the Japanese was pretty impressive
Owen Davis
? But this pic proves might point exactly: the ouput was pretty much comparable
Adam Jenkins
>heavily entrenched the wasn't even AA or AT guns in Manchuko, was like assault a WW1 army. >logistics for the Soviets fighting in the Far East was a nightmare That is why they go full Romel and run the tanks (nips did not have AT) until they let out of full and the war end. Logistic didn't affect the attack.
as I already post in the 2 pics (and ) there is no point of comparison.
you must be blind
David Allen
>17th century New Model Army (England)
Josiah Bennett
there*, ran*, fuel*, etc. sorry i am phone posting
Lucas Collins
Red Army of 1941 and Red Army of 1943 are quite different The late war Red Army was capable of practically executing deep operations doctrine which require immense complexity of coordination and discipline Seriosly suggesting that army capable of executing operations on the scale of Bagration is shit, is either bait or complete ignorance
Jose Stewart
>20th: German
This should obviously be American
Kevin Hernandez
>require immense complexity of coordination and discipline (Ratio 4:1 infantery 12:1 planes 58:1 tanks 100:1 artillery) + (Superior moral, terrain, supply chains and the enemy have the order of run away) = Still have huge losses
Wow such impressive
Cooper Brown
The same amount of tanks USSR produced two times more artillery pieces and mortars US produced two times more aircrafts Huge difference in trucks production because land lease was a primary source of those for USSR
All this while USSR key industrial regions are occupied by Germany
Do you have some special definition of comparable? Obviously the naval production is totally different story
Christian Flores
England was garbage in the 17th century senpai France and Spain were the big guys
Noah Young
real life isnt call of durty nigger, not to mention you posted meme statistics
David Moore
>21st century >CHINA *inhales* AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Dominic Hughes
>royalist England Not an argument
Bentley Thompson
That numbers come from When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler for the soviets and The Eastern Front 1943–1944 Wegner, Bernd (2007) for the germans. Give me you betters sources so.
>real life isnt call of durty nigger You are the one being a nigger full URSS STRONK COMARADE when it only won against 2 already beaten countries and with western help
Angel White
...
Nathan Thomas
Battle of Berlin isnt the entire Eastern Front. Also Soviet-German "K/d" is better for Soviet union if we exclude both Soviet and German casualities from 1941
Robert Wood
Oi faggots, where's the Swiss?
Brayden Sullivan
New model army of Cromwell was just a copy of Spanish one. It was new model in England, not in Europe.
Jacob Brooks
>Battle of Berlin isnt the entire Eastern Front Who is talking about the battle of berlin? we are about Bagration ()
Jose Cooper
I didnt knew that 24,363 and 10,090 is 100:1 advantage. Also that fact Germans thought Soviets are going to attack Ukraine insstead of Belorussia is nothing but proof of Kraut autism and Soviet maskirovka profesionality.
Dominic Taylor
>20th: German
20th is actually USSR and the USA
Lucas Peterson
>20th: German They're definitely not the most outstanding for the vast majority of the century. The "best standing" army in the 20th century is a hard question to answer, because I'd say that it kind of alternated between the British in the first third, then the Germans for about 10 years, then probably the Americans from ~1942 on. Perhaps the Soviets beat the Americans in terms of army superiority at some points during the Cold War for a brief time.
Jayden Young
the best standing army in the world is my dick
Christopher Thomas
>Germans thought Soviets are going to attack Ukraine insstead of Belorussia is nothing but proof of Kraut autism and Soviet maskirovka profesionality Implyng that care, germany could not defend Ucrania neither Belorussia, they were already defeated
24,363 and 10,090 is 100:1 advantage. even in fucking wikipedia said that were a overwhelming number of equip for the soviets at the beginning of the operation (when they make most of they gains) and when the soviets advance a few hundreds of kilometers in 2 fucking months they supply lines reached their limit and have to stop. Also when the germans reinforced arrived the numbers of soviets deaths skyrocket to the absurd so >The late war Red Army was capable of practically executing deep operations doctrine which require immense complexity of coordination and discipline is fucking bullshit
Oliver Powell
>Implyng that care, germany could not defend Ucrania neither Belorussia, they were already defeated Therefore, every successful allied operation in WW2 is irrelevant, because they won, right?
Blake Rogers
Without lend lease Russia would have lost, just like in WWI.
Nathan Myers
>the British in the first third
Are you unironically implying the British had a better army than Germany and France in WW1
Easton Bell
t. Pierre Lefrogue
France was shit and you needed to be saved by Britain in both world wars. Deal with it.
Eli Flores
The WRE defeated the Huns though. Twice, as a matter of fact.
Evan Mitchell
You're thinking of Britain who sponged off of leand lease just to scrape by. Russia would've survived without lend lease, they'd just have fuckloads more casualties.
Christopher Bennett
Yes, but strategicallly even the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains was not that important, with Atillla shortly thereafter invading Italy, it was mostly internal problems that ended Hun's threat In any case WRE is a poor choice for 5th century given that it ceased to exist in 476, was weak before that and relied heavily on military aid from allied barbarian rulers
Jordan Morgan
>every successful allied operation in WW2 is irrelevant Irrelevant? No. But no operation in 1944 and especially in the eastern front can be something to use as example of capable military staff or if your words "capable of practically executing deep operations doctrine which require immense complexity of coordination and discipline" hell NO
Carter Johnson
>He doesn't know
Julian Anderson
Reminder that Krauts did not won a single strategic offensive during the entire war.
David Lee
And your point is?
Ryan James
1st: Rome 2nd:Rome 3rd: Rome 4th: Rome 5th: Western Rome 6th: Eastern Rome 7th: Umayyad Caliphate 8th: Tang China 9th: Frank's 10th: Holy Roman Empire 11th: Normans 12th: HRE 13th: Mongols 14th: surely not English 15th: Spanish 16th: French 17th: Spanish 18th: surely not the English 19th: Surely not English 20th: German
Brody Bennett
>did not won
french?
Connor Morales
Not true
1853-1900
1853 - 1866 French
1866-1918 Germany
1918 - 1936 French
David Barnes
Probably Russian Frogs don't bother posting about WW2 anymore (unless someone provoke them into it through Lindyposting) cause they know their performance is undefendable
Ian Morales
Not the guy you are replying to, but the guy you are quoting - I'm genuinely interested what do you consider an “example of capable military staff” if you think the late-war Soviet operations below that mark
Dylan Evans
>1918-1936 France I agree that the army itself was great, but how can you excuse the officers and their doctrine?
Sebastian Richardson
I am not saying that the soviets were brainless, I am saying that fucking Bagratio being a “example of capable military staff” was a bad joke, they literally have by far all of win and they just advance a few kilometres for a hugh cost bot Human and Military.
The RAF in the battle of Britain, the Soviets in Uranus or the Germans in France are examples of capable military staff. If having hard and expensive victories over a completely inferior enemy count as a example of capable military staff for god sake, Italy in WW2 have by far the best stuff!
Asher Stewart
Fair.
Leo Taylor
This.
Adrian James
For most of history (until large-scale utilization of firearms) Steppe missile cavalry was the most effective type of military organization with the only caveat being that it couldn't project force into agrarian areas and hold onto power for more than a few generations.
In simple infantry terms and counting just Europeans, working backwards it's probably: 1989-Current: USA 1944-1989: Soviet Union 1939-1943: Germany 1919-1938: France 1866-1918: NGC/Germany 1854-1866: France 1816-1853: Russia 1648-1815: France
Aiden Lee
Planes are fucking expensive. Towed artillery is cheap.
The US paid $240,000 for a B-24 Liberator, about $50,000 for an M4 Sherman, and only 12,000 for a M101 105mm howitzer. Mortars are even cheaper.
Mason Roberts
See I was hoping this would be more of a thread about 14th century golden horde vs Mamulek caliphate vs France cav charges or Teutonic order.
Not US vs Russia vs Germany. But I guess I should blame myself for posting >20th: German
Owen Cruz
>1st: England >2nd: England >3rd: England >4th: England >5th: England >6th: England >7th: England >8th: England >9th: England >10th: England >11th: England >12th: England >13th: England >14th: England >15th: England >16th: England >17th: England >18th: England >19th: England >20th: England >21st: England
p.s. England won the hundred years war
Jason Cruz
>1944-1989: Soviet Union Hello Gorbachev, how is your day going?
