User blog comment:Deathblade 100/Over the Top: German Stormtroopers vs Villistas/@comment-379205-20180331073746

119's "All Quiet on the Mexican Front" Edges:


 * Rifles: The two weapons are very different- the Kar. 98AZ is a more modern rifle firing necked-down smokeless powder cartridges at a much higher velocity- greater than the speed of sound, meaning far greater ranges and power. The Winchester on the other hand fires a black powder round that more resembles and oversized pistol bullet, at a lower subsonic velocity, but the larger round can still be quite deadly, if shorter ranged. The Winchester's lever action can be fired a bit faster than the Mauser's bolt action, and holds more rounds, but it pays for that with a much slower reload- the Winchester requires the user to reload all nine rounds individually, while the Mauser can be loaded with a stripper clip. Given the various strengths and weaknesses of the weapons, I'll give the Even as it really situational dependent.


 * Handguns: The Luger is equipped with a massive 32-round magazine, which allows to user to rapidly squeezed off shots, and can be reloaded much more quickly. The Colt fires a more powerful round, sure, but it has only six shots and is very slow to reload, using an old loading gate system- if you've ever used the M1870 Gasser in Battlefield 1, you'll know how painfully slow this system is (I know video games don't always get realism down, but in this case, they nailed it), as the user has to put the hammer at half cock, place a chamber in line with the ejector push the spent cartridge out of a chamber, reposition to the next chamber and repeat for all six chambers, before using a similar process to position each chamber in front of the loading gate and reload each on individually. And if that wasn't bad enough, because of the tendency to accidentally discharge from a sharp blow, most user of the Single Action Army left a chamber empty, so you actually only have five shots before your reload. So yeah, point of this long rambling comment is an easy victory for the Luger P08.


 * Melee: The machete is a larger, more powerful weapon, but the Trench knife is handier at close range, and is capable of delivering faster attacks. For this reason, I give the edge to the Stormtrooper's Trench Knife.


 * Special: The Mondragon was an effective semi-automatic rifle, assuming you could keep it clean- experiences with the (relatively few- only 400) weapons used in Mexico were that they were reasonably reliable in dry dust, but when the Germans bought up a bunch of unused stock made by the Swiss, they found them useless in the trenches, easily jamming with mud, and only issued them to the air services and Navy. Regardless of what the terrain this fight takes place on, I give the edge to the MP18, as, while the Mondragon was a situationally effective semi-auto rifle intended for long-range combat, the MP18 was more reliable, fully automatic close range weapons, perfect for clearing out trenches, buildings etc, and specifically designed for used with the Stormtrooper's tactics. For this reason, I give the edge to the Stormtooper's MP18.


 * Explosives: The utility of Dynamite as a weapon depends on the type of fusing and detonating mechanism. With an early electric detonator, which, at the time of the Mexican Revolution, required a wired connection to one of those plunger boxes, it was only really useful as an ambush weapon. If it had a hand-ignited fuse, you could light and throw a stick of dynamite, but the only method of a ignition at the time was match, which would not be particularly reliable- you could drop the match or fail to get it to the fuse in time. Not to mention, cut the fuse to short, and it could explode early and potentially injure you or your allies. Too long, and it the enemy could throw it back. Indeed, some of the first grenades of WWI were sticks of dynamite, sometimes attached to wooden sticks to aid in throwing. Purpose-built hand grenades such as the Stielgranate were specifically design to solve the problems of improvised grenades, with a stick to allow for further throwing, a simple pull-string ignitor and a (at least more or less) uniform fuse length designed so that the grenade will (at least in theory) explode soon after landing. As it is literally designed to solve the problems to of using improvised grenades such as dynamite, the Stormtrooper's Stielgranate gets the edge.


 * X-Factors: The Villistas were an irregular rebel force with minimal, if any combat training. On the other hand, the Stormtroopers were the elite of the German Army, veteran soldiers trained in innovative trench assault tactics designed to punch through enemy lines and break the stalemate of trench warfare, and armed with weapons designed for that purpose, including submachine guns, trench knives, and hand grenades.


 * Winner: The German Stormtroopers win this battle thanks to their superior combat training and experience in close assault tactics, as well as the superior firepower of their weapons such as the MP18, which are designed with such tactics in mind.