User blog comment:MilenHD/Hessians vs Redcoats/@comment-4661256-20170218050555

El Alamein's "Dissenting Opinion" Edges:

 Close Range: Hessian Longsword vs. Officer's Sword:  Well, let's see. I really think that the longsword wins out in this category, because the fact of the matter is, as far as bladed weapons go it's meatier and that will work to its favor if the warriors end up crossing swords. Judging off of the image provided, the officer's sword looks like it's a saber, which is primarily a cavalry weapon. I'm assuming this battle is strictly between foot soldiers, so that in and of itself gives the longsword a practical, design-based advantage. But its extra weight will give it extra cutting power, as Wass mentioned below.

Edge: Hessians

 Mid Range: German Flintlock vs. British Flintlock;  It's the same thing.

Edge: Even

 Long Range: Jaeger vs. Brown Bess:  Easy win for the rifle. First of all, the late 18th century Jaeger rifles were shorter than a standard musket--so that made it way faster to load and fire, making it notably more practical in a skirmish setting (i.e. the type of battle we're looking at here) than in a rank-and-file line-formation pitched battle. The thing is that even though the Jaeger has a shorter barrel, it's still a rifled firearm, whereas the Brown Bess is smoothbore. This is bad news for the British, who are not only going to be firing less accurate weapons as a result but will be carrying the longer, more unwieldy weapons.

Edge: Hessians

 Special Weapons: Axe vs. Bayonet:  I'm not particularly sure if the Hessian axe is a real historical weapon; I Googled "Hessian axe" and it just turned up Assassin's Creed results. I could be wrong, because all I did was a cursory Google search, but still, I'm curious as to the source of this weapon. Either way, it gets the edge over the bayonet because it's a more fluid and practical weapon. The bayonet is nice on the end of the musket, but its problem is that it's a very telegraphed weapon stuck on the end of a long pole. It has extremely limited attack options and if you can get past the tip of the bayonet and close the distance, the Redcoat is basically defenseless. The axe does not present any of those problems--quite the contrary, as I'd argue its axehead could be used to redirect or hook away an opponent's bayonet-tipped musket if it's pointed at you. Even if I'm wrong about this last point (because, again, I don't know anything about this axe besides what's in the infobox), the rest of the points should still support this claim that the axe beats the bayonet.

Edge: Hessians

WINNER: HESSIANS

First of all, everyone saying "the warrior is better despite losing all the weapons edges" is not making a compelling argument to back up such a claim. It is, of course, possible for a better warrior with worse weapons to beat an opponent who has better arms. But they have to be substantially better than their opponents, and this simply and absolutely is not the case.

The Hessians are getting a lot of undeserved hate in this battle. People are claiming that the Redcoats are more professional and have more experience, when the Hessians have just as much professionalism and experience on their side. Hessians started military training at the age of 7, and had to present themselves yearly for the potential to be conscripted into military service. The Hessians, in Germany, were literally raised in a war-based society, the product of Frederick the Great's modernization of the Prussian state. They have high-tech weaponry and have been bred to sell their services to other countries.

That's the other thing. The Hessians literally answer to the Redcoats and had been working with the British for decades. This means a couple of important advantages go to the Germans here: firstly, they will have the benefit of British training as well as their Prussian training. More importantly, it means they will know what to expect from their British opponents, while the British were consistently frustrated by and uncooperative with the Hessians in the American Revolutionary War (in fact, many Hessians defected to the rebel side). So this idea that the Hessians are a bunch of shitty, drunk-ass morons who only fight for a paycheck is wrong--sure, the Battle of Trenton was an embarrassing defeat, but you have to cut the guys some slack because it was on Christmas. George Washington is seen as a clever strategist in part for things like that--doing stuff nobody did before, like ambushing people on Christmas. That doesn't automatically make the Hessians a bunch of assholes who can't load or shoot a rifle.

Musket volleys and crap won't mean jack in a 5-on-5. If anything, the more accurate Jaeger rifles will work better to pick off individual troops, something that the British in the Revolutionary War era weren't particularly trained to do. I've also seen some claims that the British guns have longer ranges even though these claims are unsubstantiated. If anything, the unrifled Brown Bess-type musket would have an effective range of around 100 yards (generous), whereas a rifled musket can double or triple that with ease (even taking into account the shorter barrel on the Jaeger, the simple fact that the barrel is rifled makes up for this). The Redcoats are professionals, yes, but the Hessians are a different breed of soldier. There's a reason that Frederick the Great built up Prussia and set the stage for German modernization, while the Redcoats struggled to adapt to changing tactics at the end of the century. This should absolutely be a victory for the Hessians.

Some sources:

http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/hessians/

https://www.google.com/search?q=effective+range+of+rifled+musket&oq=effective+range+of+rifled+musket&aqs=chrome..69i57.2753j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=effective+range+of+brown+bess

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifled_musket