Recent content by Saxon with a Seax

But I though walls were as much about keeping people out as keeping projectiles out. Anyway as far as I know while it helped the inaccuracy of projectiles/effectiveness of armour meant that cover wasn't necessary against pre-modern missiles. I suppose I could have phrased my question better, I meant when line battles were no longer viable and taking some degree of cover against enemy fire during was necessary during a battle between two mobile armies as opposed to a siege against a fixed position (although the two overlap and the line between the two can be blurry).

What would you say was the first war were modern concepts, like cover or suppression, featured heavily in. Maybe the Franco-Prussian? I don't think it would be the American Civil war because technology and lack of training meant that while some skirmishers used cover, the majority of the fighting was done in line battles.

Does anyone know what time and place (if any) this man would have been from

What would you call this overlapping robe thing these ancient Semitic men are wearing? How exactly would it work? I'm having trouble getting my mind around them

I've heard that according to Sydney Jary's 18 Platoon, a widely read account of a British Platoon commander in WW2, German riflemen rarely fired their weapons and served chiefly as ammunition carries for the company machine gun. I'd just like to know how true this is

Do we have any idea about the approximate proportion of European vs African vs Central Asian slaves in the Abbasid Caliphate?
And did the 19th century Arabs still use most of their slaves to work the Tigris-Euphrates delta and Mesopotamian Salt mines?

I know I've asked about stuff like this before but I'm still confused about how important slavery was to the various Medieval-Early Modern states of South West Asia/The Middle East. From what I understand the Arabs had a fairly substantial slave trade from at least the Abbasids right up to the late 19th century, but what exactly did they use all those slaves for?

How common and useful were ancient and medieval siege towers. Are they anything like how Total War depicts them

In terms of the minor factions acquiring territory, the mod you are thinking of is probably one called A New Dawn
https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,316023.0.html
Not sure how relevant this is, but I suppose its good to know

Jhess is back!

So in terms of the Middle East during the middle ages how important were local, non-purchased labourers in all this?  Because I vaguely recall something about some kind of core labour force that was supplemented with slaves but I'm really not sure. And were these non-slaves like serfs that were tied to the land or more like free peasants

Going back to an earlier point, how important was slavery to the various medieval Islamic civilizations, and how did that change over time? How big an impact did the later European colonialism have on those systems?

On the subject of peasants fighting in medieval times, how professional was your usual village or town militia. Outside of the larger cities were they paid for their guard work, legally obligated to join or did most of them volunteer for whatever prestige was associated with the profession?