this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2024
124 points (96.3% liked)

NonCredibleDefense

6416 readers
572 users here now

A community for your defence shitposting needs

Rules

1. Be niceDo not make personal attacks against each other, call for violence against anyone, or intentionally antagonize people in the comment sections.

2. Explain incorrect defense articles and takes

If you want to post a non-credible take, it must be from a "credible" source (news article, politician, or military leader) and must have a comment laying out exactly why it's non-credible. Random twitter and YouTube comments belong in the Low Hanging Fruit thread.

3. Content must be relevant

Posts must be about military hardware or international security/defense. This is not the page to fawn over Youtube personalities, simp over political leaders, or discuss other areas of international policy.

4. No racism / hatespeech

No slurs. No advocating for the killing of people or insulting them based on physical, religious, or ideological traits.

5. No politics

We don't care if you're Republican, Democrat, Socialist, Stalinist, Baathist, or some other hot mess. Leave it at the door. This applies to comments as well.

6. No seriousposting

We don't want your uncut war footage, fundraisers, credible news articles, or other such things. The world is already serious enough as it is.

7. No classified material

Classified information is off limits regardless of how "open source" and "easy to find" it is.

8. Source artwork

If you use somebody's art in your post or as your post, the OP must provide a direct link to the art's source in the comment section, or a good reason why this was not possible (such as the artist deleting their account). The source should be a place that the artist themselves uploaded the art. A booru is not a source. A watermark is not a source.

9. No low-effort posts

No egregiously low effort posts. These include Social media screenshots with a title punchline / no punchline, recent (after the start of the Ukraine War) reposts, simple reaction & template memes, and images with the punchline in the title. Put these in weekly Low effort thread instead.

10. Don't get us banned

No brigading or harassing other communities. Do not post memes with a "haha people that I hate died… haha" punchline or violating the sh.itjust.works rules (below). This includes content illegal in Canada.


Join our Matrix chatroom


Other communities you may be interested in


Banner made by u/Fertility18

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 8 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

IFF strobe patterns sounds plausibly better than there's movement in that sector over there that's not on the master battle plan. Hit it with an air strike.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Lining up and shooting was the best way to use inaccurate muskets. One guy can't shoot accurately at all, plus it takes lots of time to reload after each shot.

So you line up 20 dudes and have them shoot 5 or 10 at a time. That makes it more likely to hit something with each volley, and protects the guys who are reloading. The main skill for soldiers wasn't aiming, it was reloading quickly.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago

It had fuck-all to do with their muskets and everything to do with command and control. In this era, instantaneous communication is limited to visual or aural signals, and your weaponry temporarily deafens soldiers and fills the field with sight-obstructing smoke. Effective battlefield communication extends only a few dozen yards.

In this environment, the commander who groups and tightly controls his forces has a significant advantage over one who does not.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It wasn't actually more efficient. Having all of you're guys in a huge box makes it easier to hit than having you're infantry spread out. It was mostly a morale thing, having other soldiers within arms range made you reconsider running away. While being engaged with huge volleys by these squares made you very much consider if you should run anyway.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

I believe the french very much did this. In the Napoleonic wars they mostly used conscripts I believe, so big blocks helped while the British had a more professionally setup army (not that all of its participants were willing either though!) tend to use thinner lines to maximise the shots they could get out.

That's vulnerable to cavalry charges though, so they had square formations they could get into in order to protect against that.

Both sides then had skirmishers that had more modern tactics to harras and kill officers etc. Some even had rifles. They had to retreat back to the main body if there were cavalry anywhere near though.

One big, deadly game of rock paper scissors

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Having many guys with pointy sticks (muskets with bayonets in this case) was still the best way to defend against cavalry.
Having one big blob of people with pointy sticks also enabled charges to rout the enemy and stoped them from doing it to you.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

You have to line up musket troops to give them orders too. There's no radio and you have to shout over the noise and smoke.

Remember, these are black powder guns. They're loud. If your troops are right next to each other you can more easily direct them to fire, advance, or retreat. Advancing or retreating quickly can take advantage of enemy weaknesses and break up the opposing army. If your guys are spread out, you can't tell them anything.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Being alongside people who are conducting an IR strobe disco party because they still mistakenly believe they have a monopoly on night optics is a terrifying experience. I'm told.