this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
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Illustrations of history

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This magazine is for sharing artwork of historical events, places, personages, etc. Scale models and the like also welcome!

Generally speaking, actual photos of a historical item should go to !historyartifacts@lemmy.world

Photos of ruins should go to !historyruins@lemmy.world

Photos of the past should go to !HistoryPorn@lemmy.world

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[–] QuincyPeck@lemmy.world 18 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Let’s talk about the panel of spikes being dropped on the guys climbing a ladder. Seems like a one time use thing, right?

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 25 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Nah, they got a rope to pull it back up again.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Yeah I think as long as they don't drop it too far (like to the ground), then people would have a very hard time getting on top of it. And even then, they would feel your weight as they were pulling back up, and just have someone merc you from the top.

I can't imagine the soldiers would be too motivated to be the first ones at the top, alone, either. Maybe a lot of posturing like they're trying to be extra, but no one wants to be the first to get a spear to the face.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

First over the wall was big for Romans, but not sure how it worked for others.

[–] Sergio@slrpnk.net 5 points 5 months ago

I can’t imagine the soldiers would be too motivated to be the first ones at the top

iirc they said of Frederick the Great's army that the soldiers were more afraid of the officers behind them than the enemy in front of them.

[–] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 17 points 5 months ago

imagine dying to a murder-comb because some rich dude in your area was jealous of another rich dudes house.

War, man. what is it good for?

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 14 points 5 months ago

I really got lost in this image... Like imagining myself in every role...

It's my conclusion that this would have sucked, and I would hate it.

[–] Thcdenton@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] Lawnman23@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Right you are Ken.

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago

Man, I'm bad at these. Where is Waldo?

[–] FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

I thought this was a colorized Far Side comic and was very confused for a second

Which isn't uncommon when actually looking at his comics

[–] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is the kind of illustration I could spend hours looking at imagining I was one of the soldiers when I was a kid.

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

I imagine what it would be like to be in a battle circa 5000bce-1400ce at least once a week, usually because of one of Pug's posts.

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

Are those actual flails, in an actual historical image?

That's a big surprise to me, I always thought those were mostly either improvised farm tools or extremely niche, and here they're being used by two people at the same time.

Edit: then again, maybe the Chinese were really fucking dumb, or this image is somewhat lax on historical accuracy. Crossbowmen in the open, basically unmanned walls...

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Two-handed flails are attested to much more widely than the more RPG-popular one-handed flails. I'm not very familiar with Chinese history, but I believe the same applies in East Asia

[–] DScratch@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The spikes on the ladder sweeper things also seems excessive, a fall from that height is going to do work by itself

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 4 points 5 months ago

I mean really they shouldn't have left those ladders sitting there, if they didn't want someone to use them. Always put your tools away when you're done with them. Saves a lot of trouble.

[–] EvilHankVenture@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

How are those even deployed? It looks like they would only work on ladders set right in front of them.

[–] EvilHankVenture@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

The crossbowmen are so close to the walls where they can only shoot at someone who sticks their head out to look down.

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 2 points 5 months ago

I played this level in Dynasty Warriors 6. Or was it 7?

[–] _lilith@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

couldn't you just push the small ladders away with a long stick or something? Save the siege flails for the moving staircase dudes