User blog comment:Goddess of Despair/Season 6 Battle 2 Nazi Werwolfs vs Alamo Scouts/@comment-4661256-20130830012643

El Alamein's "WWII" Edges:

 Close Range: M1911 vs. Luger:  Easy win for the M1911. It's the iconic sidarm of the United States military, and for good reason. Its .45 round is much more damning than the Luger's 9mm, allowing it to penetrate weak cover and knock a man down with fewer hits. Sure, the Luger has one more round per magazine, but one 9mm round is often not enough to stop a man hopped up on the adrenaline rush of heated battle. A .45 just might do the job.

Edge: Alamo Scouts

 Mid Range: Thompson vs. MP40:  Truncheon does bring up some good points. The MP40 has issues with its feed system if you load all 32 rounds into the magazine - but that problem was easily remedied with loading 30 rounds, still substantially more than the Thompson's 20. The Thompson's .45 ACP is more powerful than the MP40's 9mm though (same as with M1911 vs. Luger). The military version of the Tommy gun (Thompson M1928) has a controllable rate of fire of around 600 rds/min - a bit higher than the MP40's 500 rds/min. The MP40 is a little lighter, 8 pounds to the Thompson's 10, but the Thompson is also really bulky and hard to maneuver with. Ultimately, I'm siding with the Thompson for its higher caliber round, faster rate of fire, and more reliable feed system.

Edge: Alamo Scouts

 Long Range: M1 Garand vs. Gewehr 41:  Although it was more common for US troops to carry the M1 Carbine, the Garand has become more famous thanks to its popularity in film, TV, and video games. Still, the Gewehr's 7.92 round is slightly bigger than the Garand's .30-06 (which is the equivalent of the 7.62 rifle round) thanks to its origins as a hunting cartridge meant to take down big game. The M1 Garand's 50 m extra range over the Gewehr is really negiligble (457 m - 400 m), as that distance doesn't account for much when it comes to rifles. Finally, the Gewehr has a 3-round advantage over the Garand, which is really significant when it comes to semi-automatic rifles. True, the Garand does auto-eject when the rounds are spent, but it makes a tell-tale ping sound, alerting the enemy of the fact that the soldier is out of ammo. (It should be noted, however, that that disadvantage can be nullified by the soldier carrying empty magazines and throwing them down to make the ping, tricking the enemy into thinking they have spent their magazine when in reality they have a fully-loaded rifle. Kind of a dirty trick, but it works!) I'm siding with the Gewehr for its larger round and greater magazine capacity - but it's very, very close.

Edge: Nazi Werewolfs (Werewolves?)

WINNER: ALAMO SCOUTS

Ultimately, it comes down to two factors: historical success and weapon use. In a Deadliest Fiction fight, WWII themed, and Axis vs. Allies, I can guarantee that the Allies will win 9.9 times out of 10, because ... well, they won WWII in real life. The Alamo Scouts were better trained, better led, better armed, and better supplied, and it certainly showed in their battlefield performance. The same cannot be said of the Nazi Werewolfs (Werewolves?). Also, while the Germans certainly possessed fearsome weapons in the intial stages of the war with their ferocious blitzkrieg, later-war units like the Werewolfs (Werewolves?) were poorly equipped and supplied, and by that time most of the Allied forces had caught up technologically to the Nazis.