So he opens with a long geographic discussion which doesn't go anywhere but I think he's mispronouncing Shephelah pretty badly? Not my area of expertise, though. He then breaks down early iron age armies into 'cavalry, heavy infantry and 'artillery'' - by which he means archers and slingers. 2/ - ThreadSky

bretdevereaux.bsky.social • 54 days ago

So he opens with a long geographic discussion which doesn't go anywhere but I think he's mispronouncing Shephelah pretty badly? Not my area of expertise, though.

He then breaks down early iron age armies into 'cavalry, heavy infantry and 'artillery'' - by which he means archers and slingers. 2/

Comments

caravellin.bsky.social•54 days ago

Is it me or is this extremely Age of Empires/Civilisation-coded

caravellin.bsky.social•54 days ago

"You must also understand Sumerians had War Carts instead of Heavy Chariots, which really impacted their early-game meta"

francessmith.bsky.social•54 days ago

Weren't they mostly chariots rather than cavalry at this point?

turnerjoy.bsky.social•54 days ago

You can probably put them both broadly into the same category

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•54 days ago

And that's just...very wrong. Archers, slingers and other 'missile' troops are not analogous to artillery in any period (actually artillery won't be invented until the 4th century BC), but we're also missing some pretty key categories, particularly the near omni-present light infantry. 3/

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•54 days ago

But also lumping early iron age archers and slingers together like this is itself a bad mistake, given that - and we'll come back to this - the way that the best armies fight in this period in the Levant and broader Middle East is shield-bearers paired with archers or javelin troops. 4/

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•54 days ago

So archers and contact infantry aren't necessarily distinct 'arms' in the early iron age levant, but would be deployed together in matching, mutually supported pairs as part of larger units. You see this a ton in (neo-)Assyrian artwork. 5/

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•54 days ago

Then he goes on to talk about slings and every part of this is painful. He pantomimes the swinging of a sling to his side in a way that tells me he doesn't really understand how a war-sling is used.

You don't just 'spin it really fast and then release.' 6/

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•54 days ago

Instead, what you'll see is the sling is first spun in a 'vertical' spin behind the slinger (who is standing left-side forward), before being released in a horizontal motion (e.g. https://youtu.be/ZU7R_pw-4tY?si=OuaWLgD_QWx0EdpC), usually released on either the first half-circle of 1.5 circle of that horizontal motion.
7/

bobdavisart.bsky.social•49 days ago

Wow!

warrenjwells.bsky.social•54 days ago

It's remarkable how similar the motion is to a sidearm baseball pitch, or a disc golf forehand.

Human society has changed a lot, but the mechanics of human bodies have not.

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•54 days ago

He then describes the sling 'doing the math' as delivering the 'stopping power' of a "45mm handgun," which even before we do some math is already a pretty foolish thing to say, because 'stopping power' is a concept, not a number you can derive.

There is no stopping power formula. 8/

510pat.bsky.social•54 days ago

Almost like a submariner pitcher delivery in baseball

spiritusnox.bsky.social•54 days ago

I'm struck by how incredibly easy it looks to absolutely brain yourself with this thing

paulcareyjones.bsky.social•54 days ago

From what you're saying, I strongly suspect he's based most of this on playing Civilization.

antelopecat.bsky.social•54 days ago

So what is the difference between light infantry and other kinds of infantry? This is SO not my area of specialization.

tcbullfrog.bsky.social•54 days ago

"Heavy infantry". Why call them heavy? Why not just "infantry", Malcolm?

lilachshtein.bsky.social•54 days ago

Well, I'm a native, and let's just say that my ears are bleeding every time he refers to the Hebrew name of the place or describes the landscape in the area.

spiritusnox.bsky.social•54 days ago

I feel like opening on a mistake that would raise an eyebrow on even a halfway serious RTS player can only posssibly be a good sign lol

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