Rock Beats Laser: Difference between revisions
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* Bolt action rifles in general have fewer parts than modern semi-auto or select fire rifles, giving them greater potential accuracy and making them more durable and reliable.
** Canadian Rangers used No 4. Lee-Enfeld rifles made during World War II, where they were already on the lower end of tech with a base design made in 1907, for over half a century because of this and Canada having hundreds of thousands (if not millions) in inventory. It took till the late 2010s for the supply of guns and ammo to ''finally'' run dry and prompt Canada to select a replacement (The C-19, a new bolt action rifle) that would be rolled out over 2017 to 2019. Rangers will be allowed to keep their old rifle when given the new one (as Canadian Rangers kept their guns at home already and they would otherwise be destroyed) so it ''still'' isn't the end of the line for the venerable Lee-Enfelds.
*One weird zig-zag was the Battle of Guadalcanal. In the cruiser action, The Americans had fancy radar nerdery and the Japanese had the best torpedoes in the world and two battleships capable of firing ten miles or more. So what did they do? They all piled into each other and got into a big naval [[Bar Brawl]] as if they were two rival [[Horny Vikings|Norse sea-kings]] squaring off. While the American commander was criticized for unsubtle tactics there was a method to that as at that close range even battleship armor could not stop a cruiser's shells. The second phase, the battleship action was more sophisticated. "Ching" Lee (
**Guadalcanal was in some ways a rock beats laser campaign. Air power was supposedly the latest thing. But it needed lots of surface gun work to secure it. And in the end it was won not because of the fanciest stuff but because in a campaign in which both sides had lots of tough [[Badass|badasses]] the one who could survive the [[We Have Reserves|high casualty trading]] that all those [[Cool Versus Awesome|tough badasses slugging it out]] brought about won.
** Blucher, the very modern leader ship for the German invasion of Norway was sunk and the invasion was greatly delayed by a coastal battery staffed by a skeleton crew of soldiers [[Retirony|nearing retirement]] armed with artillery and torpedos obsolete by the ''last'' World War that managed to score a series of lucky hits. This delay was significant enough to allow the evacuation of the royal family and gold reserves, which allowed the Norwegian resistance to be ''extremely'' effective.
* A number of obscure examples in [[World War 2]] came about because an old technology had found a special niche.
**The German Army, however much it might disappoint movie makers who want a scary enemy tended to be muscle powered with infantry marching and artillery hauled by animals. They fudged by having the panzers and panzergrenadiers concentrate the new machines.
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