13 BEST INFANTRY OF ALL TIME[NO ORDER]

[AUSTERLITZ]

Now its the time of the infantry,the queen of the battlefield .Europe traditionally produced some of the most powerful infantry forces of all time and after the increase in gunpowder fielding mass cheap gunpwder infantry,superbly drilled was one of the causes of their military supremacy.

So here it is right from the spartan hoplite to the wehrmacht/waffen ss infantryman.[in no order]

1]Spartan hoplite
2]Macedonian phalanx
3]Roman legionary
4]Viking berserker
5]English longbow
6]Swiss pikemen
7]Ottoman jannissary
8]Spanish Tercio
9]Swedish Carolingean infantry
10]Japanese samurai
11]French imperial guard
12]British redcoat
13]Wehrmacht/waffen ss infantryman.


Honourable mention-Us marine corps,frederick the great's prussian infantry,han crossbowmen,gurkha,pashtun tribal,sikh,persian immortals,assyrian archer,vietnamese guerilla,french voltigeur,Red army guards,french foreign legion.

 

[Water Car Engineer]

Roman infantry crushed the Greek phalanx, hoplite, etc.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

I know that,your point?The carolingian infantry also crushed the spanish tercio.Its called the evolution of militay tactics and arms.The new replace the old,doesn't mean the old were not kings in their day.So what's ur point?

 

[KingMamba]

I know that,your point?The carolingian infantry also crushed the spanish tercio.Its called the evolution of militay tactics and arms.The new replace the old,doesn't mean the old were not kings in their day.So what's ur point?

Don't mind him, go for it. Looking forward to this discussion as well.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

1.SPARTAN HOPLITE

Spartans have achieved a almost mythical status as warriors supreme,ad in their heyday the reputation was justified.Trained from birth in totally militarized society that existed solely for war and war alone,the spartan warrior was feared to the point where other greek armies simply refused to meet them in open battle,prefering to withstand siege warfare[weakness of the spartan army]All the greek states of classical greece and imperial persia were savaged by these born and bred for war red cloaked menaces.



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Spartan hoplites fought in a phalanx,with xyston spear,a hoplon/aspis round shield,a corinthian helmet and linothorax bronze cuirass.Close range weapon was the xiphos short sword, later replaced by the kopis.



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Spartans trained from birth for their whole life for only war,weak or physically deformed babies were discarded at birth.Death for sparta[the beautiful death] was considered the greatest objective of life.



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Equipment of a spartan hoplite.They were the best soldiers in the world and they knew it!



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A spartan shieldwall,impenetrable usually in a frontal battle.The spartans greatest hour was at thermopylae when 300 spartans stood their ground in a epic last stand against a invading huge persian army under xerxes,a feat that inspired the greeks.
Later the spartan hoplites would lead the greeks to victory in the battle of platea that destroyed the persian land invasion[the athenians led the greeks to victory at sea at salamis]



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The original close range weapon was the xyphos.Later the kopis was adopted.



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The later kopis.

How they fought-
Many here may have seen the movie 300,its fun popcorn movie,but also a major propaganda piece.The persians are depicted as wild half naked barbarians with piercings, lashing soldiers into battle,the immortals as goofy ninjas with scarred ghastly faces and fangs.They are also depicted using elephants and rhinos of all things.These are hilarious.But this battle scene despite the propaganda depicts accurately how the spartans fought in the shieldwall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdNn5TZu6R8
Its small video[5 mins].

Next:The macedonian Phalanx.

 

[Water Car Engineer]

I know that,your point?The carolingian infantry also crushed the spanish tercio.Its called the evolution of militay tactics and arms.The new replace the old,doesn't mean the old were not kings in their day.So what's ur point?

Romans took a huge poop on them. The poop was all over their face. Drenched in it.

 

[livingdead]

Romans took a huge poop on them. The poop was all over their face. Drenched in it.

He has already replied the reason why it was included in the list, if you have any other reason please post. There is no point saying same thing in different words. (like in next post romans nuked them or something like that)

 

[Water Car Engineer]

He has already replied the reason why it was included in the list, if you have any other reason please post. There is no point saying same thing in different words. (like in next post romans nuked them or something like that)

The Romans nuked them also.

There were many infantry groups that were "king" of their times. And very much sophisticated, well equipped, and were much older than the Greeks. But they dont get the same hype.

Like the Sumerian phalanx.

What I notice about these lists it's always the same over hyped groups. Maybe the Chinese, Koreans, Mongols, Turkics etc were MUCH superior to the Japanese samurai.

I bet the Song-Chinese infantry were superior to the Japanese samurai.

 

[livingdead]

Thanks for a positive contribution to the thread. I will be interested in knowing your list and the reason behind it, can you post it here? I am sure op wont mind.

 

[Water Car Engineer]

Thanks for a positive contribution to the thread. I will be interested in knowing your list and the reason behind it, can you post it here? I am sure op wont mind.

I dont have a list honestly, because I don't know about all the infantry fielded by the many empires. Songs, Tangs, Manchus, and many others I'm sure fielded highly trained , well equipped, etc infantry but they don't get any hype from games, movies, books, etc.

But two infantry I'm a fan of are

Assyrian infantry

Sumerian Phalanx


These guys seem to be ahead of their times.

 

[livingdead]

Good find.
BTW, dont take these list seriously, its just a way of saying these were quite good during their period.
OP seems to have a good knowledge of military history which he is kindly sharing. My only knowledge of military history comes from Age of Empires.

 

[Water Car Engineer]

Good find.
BTW, dont take these list seriously, its just a way of saying these were quite good during their period. Its perfectly okey to have different view.
OP seems to have a good knowledge of military history which he is kindly sharing. My only knowledge of military history comes from Age of Empires.

Lol, I didnt take it seriously. I'm just trolling.

 

[Water Car Engineer]

Various Assyrian soldiers. Assyria was a war machine.

In the last relief you can see a primitive siege weapon/ram. Amazing considering the time.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Thanks for ur useful contributions.I agree certain chinese dynasty troops can be said to be equally as good as the japanese samurai,though don't forget the samurai repulsed a amphibious invasion by the yuan dynasty of china.Also they didn't possess the fanaticism or warrior zeal of the samurai.
As for the assyrians the main killing wepaon was the archer ,not melee infantry.An assyrian army without its archers lost its offensive capability.As u see i have included assyrian archer and han crossbowmen in my honorable mentions list.Even gurkhas and french foreign legion are in that list.I can't include everybody .Feel free to add urs.
The main problem with sumerian phalanx is that there is no info at all except that one stele found.Thats why its impossible to include them.
Anyway here are some chinese infantry from the song dynasty and other periods.Quite good.


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But if i had to pick one chinese infantry it would be the chu ko nu crossbowman.


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Song dynasty imperial crossbowman.Devastating firepower.

 

[Water Car Engineer]

Thanks for ur useful contributions.I agree certain chinese dynasty troops can be said to be equally as good as the japanese samurai,though don't forget the samurai repulsed a amphibious invasion by the yuan dynasty of china.Also they didn't possess the fanaticism or warrior zeal of the samurai.

Well, they kinda got lucky because of the kamikaze.

The Japanese also invaded Korea that ended in a complete failure.

The main problem with sumerian phalanx is that there is no info at all except that one stele found

Not much info, but considering the time. The organization, equipment, training, etc seems way a head of its time. It's from 2600–2350 BC.

Stunning.