Doctrine change

Crossbow: in mass use by the 10th century in Europe.
Full plate armor: appears early in the 15th century.

Non-credible confirmed.

97

Breastplates were a common armor feature since the Bronze Age, chill out

Or don't

I'm not your dad

31

ruins warfare

ruins wood armor

ruins half the fucking military meta

73

Sir I’m gonna have to ask you to display your ding dongs elsewhere

79
- 86
- This is just like 1984
  
  16
Are they dildos.

17
- [ Nanni to Ea-nasir]
  
  If only I could tell you how much distress your shipment of "goods" has caused me! I dispatched messengers to you repeatedly about the state of my delivery, but you have not responded. My household is in disarray, and our workers are idle due to the absence of these phallic dingdongs shaped like ... unusual objects.
  
  Your representative, whom you sent to me, had the nerve to claim that they were "fine"! But I can assure you, Ea-nasir, that not one of them has been fit for use. The artisans in my workshop are all laughing at these absurd objects and have not been able to work on any serious projects due to the interruption. Even the guards who were supposed to keep an eye on them found the sight too amusing!
  
  I implore you, Ea-nasir, to send a new shipment of proper ingots immediately! I want no more of these ... er... "unique" items that have caused such embarrassment and ridicule for my household. My reputation depends on it.
  
  If you are unable to remedy this situation, I will be forced to take my business elsewhere. You would not want that, now would you? The people of Ur would surely hear about your inability to deliver quality goods.
  
  In the meantime, please instruct your representative to cease and desist from any further attempts at delivering these ... unusual objects.
  
  Yours sincerely,
  
  Nanni
  
  20
- Well if one goes inside you you're fucked so technically yes!
  
  2
What's them, precious?

6

> ruins combat
> ruins warfare
> ruins swordfights
> ruins hand-to-hand combats
> ruins an entire fucking combat doctrine

Gunpowder, and its consequences...

38

Now if we develop an even more powerful explosive that will make wars so horrible, then people will undoubtedly stop making war, right?

* Anakin unfazed *

17
Bruh the sword was hugely in use for hundreds of years that that.. thing.. came along.

1796 light cavalry saber? Hello?The 1892 pattern? Swords were so important and well evolved to their function the barely had to adapt to fire arms till functional automatic fire became a thing.

8
- Swords really ruined stone spear heads, sharpened sticks, and clubbing people to death.
  
  5
the bayonet was a bigger game changer at the time

didn't need to bother with pikemen any longer as riflemen could be both

7
WHY ARE YOU GREEN??

2
- When putting text into ``` [...] ```, do ```md [...] ``` instead, then some formatter will display your meme-arrow texts in green.
  
  2

Perhaps the Pope should decree that drones can't be used to fight Christians.

I mean, it didn't really work for crossbows but you never know.

30

FPV drones have never been $35.

29

You can get some incredible chinesium drones for even less, and it's still technically FPV.

The range is like 2 metres though.

6
Yeah the cheapest I'd ever recommend anyone go is probably about $100 for one with an analog video signal.

HDZero video with ExpressLRS control link is the new meta though. Off the shelf drones with this setup start around $180 or so now, not including the controller or goggles.

If anyone is looking at getting into the hobby, I'd recommend getting the EMAX tinyhawk 3 kit to start. It comes with everything for about $270.

3
- I really wish I would have shelled out a little extra for the Fatshark goggles with the removable receiver back when I bought mine. I'm pretty sure you can swap it out with a digital receiver, but I didn't do that, so I'll have to buy a whole new headset to go digital.
  
  1

I really hope the western allies have a plan for countering drones in the pipeline, otherwise the next time we fight an insurgency will be a bloodbath.

25

As someone who’s been following this fairly closely since the Syrians started toying with it, and the Ukrainians threw it into hyperdrive… There’s no good counter when drones are cheap to make and can be programmed to run on a flight course:

Jamming has to fight inverse square so the radius is trash (and kills a lot of useful civil RF ranges like WiFi). Something like 200 meters is a strong system currently, and power needs ramp up fast.

‘Kinetic hard kill’ like traditional air defense is way too expensive per shot, plus there’s issues with UXO, debris, and limited launching platforms. Legacy air defenses like Tunguska or FlakPanzer with programmable airburst rounds work best, but at very short range and make a lot of secondary fragments by design. Taking the guns out, interceptor missiles start at five figures.

Laser systems have a lot of promise with none of the explosive downsides whilst being cheaper per shot, but range isn’t great - you’re focusing energy to physically melt the target, and all light suffers from diffraction. It is better than jamming, but far too close for comfort.

That assumes you know the drone is coming, mind you. Piston-engine flying wings aren’t silent, but they are generally made of polymers/laminates that are hard to detect via radar. Thermal cameras and acoustic sensors so far are the best early warning systems, but radar is still a huge help.

And then there’s FPV and quadcopters. While a larger munition like Shaheed can be under $10k, even the more advanced FPV/quads with night vision (or even thermal) cameras frequently run under $1,000, up to a few thousand. Air dropped explosives have been fundamental in changing the course of the civil war in Myanmar for the rebels, it’s like having a budget Air Force and spy satellites on call.
40
- The air burst rounds sound like the best option, pretty much guaranteed kill against a slow moving drone, cost less than what you're shooting at, and useful against a wide range of targets.
  
  12
- Hmm, what about Phalanx/CIWS for hard kill? Assuming you can track the target.
  
  Of course the real solution is trained birds.
  
  7
- Have they looked at masers? Basically rf lasers.i think they're much cheaper than lasers and could be steered at drones but would only need enough power to interfere with guidance/ controls
  
  5
- Why not just use a big shotgun for the smaller stuff, skeet shooting style? I dunno how to really deal with much larger drones, but a shotgun should be able to deal with most human sized drone targets pretty easily
  
  2
- Gin and hubris tell me the leading defense will be other drones. Defense still has the range advantage: assholes come to you. You can easily make faster and lighter drones than whatever's targeting you, and if nothing else, punish attacks with loss of materiel. Which doesn't even require blowing up your zippy little drone, if the enemy's rotors can be fucked by anything more substantial than Silly String.
  
  2

Now it's one of asymmetrical multi-player games where one guy plays a monster and everyone else just needs to survive

16

Devs plz nerf

13

Yeah the Pope baned crossbows for a while, but as you might have heard already, it didn't stick.

10

"$35 hobby toy"

Well yeah, cheap drones can be used for war, but that's not all drones really are:

9

Metas been stale since 1945 I'm okay with change

9

The crossbow suddenly doesn’t look as good when your pavise shields are still stuck in the wagon train and you’re in range of the English longbowmen.

8

Are you suggesting that rapid offensives - lunging out beyond your logistical network without taking the time to have your auxiliary force fully equipped for the task you expect of them - are a bad idea and will lead to said auxiliary forces putting in but a token effort instead of dying for an ally that clearly doesn't give enough of a shit about their lives?

9
But have you tried mounting it on a drone?

5

Massive skill issue

3

It's called emergency gameplay! The old meta is contrived!

1

Crossbows are based, drones are cringe. Reject modernity

1