User blog:SPARTAN 119/Pirate vs Ninja Rematch

The Pirate, the 18th century raiders who wreaked havoc on the high seas

VS

The Ninja, the deadly Japanese assassins who were masters of stealth

WHO IS DEADLIEST!? =Combatants=

Pirate
The term "Pirate" refers to one who attacks ships on the high seas with the intent of hijacking the vessel and/or stealing its cargo. The "golden age" of piracy was from the late 1600s to the early 1700s, in part due to a large number of unemployed ex-navy sailors from wars that had taken place in Europe previously. Many of their weapons were the early black powder muskets, pistols, or grenades, but they did make excellent use of bladed weapons (like a cutlass sword or a boarding pike). Pirates did present a serious threat to English ships, especially when lead by capable leaders like the infamous Blackbeard. In general, pirates of the era were either Europeans, particularly English or French, or in the case of the Barbary Coast pirates, Arabs. Today piracy still exists, especially in Somalia where Somali Pirates present a serious threat to merchant ships in the area.

Ninja
The Ninja were the primary, covert operatives of feudal Japan. Unlike their honor-abiding counterparts, the samurai, ninjas use stealth as their main tactic. The ninjas have their origins dating back to the 14th Century. They were deployed on espionage missions, assassinations, and infiltration. Ninjas were hired by rival, feudal lords to help establish power for their respective masters. Unlike the stereotypical ninja displayed in western culture, ninjas, in reality, were up close and personal with their targets. They would wear disguises, like as a geisha or maidservant. Ninjas specialized in both close-quarters combat and long-range assault. After the importation of gunpowder, these warriors were quick to adopt the powder and develop primitive muskets, hand-cannons, back-cannons, and arquebuses. The age of the ninja collapsed during the Tokugawa shogunate.

=Weapons=

Naval Dirk (Pirate)
A dirk is a type of dagger used primarily as a thrusting weapon. The weapon is best known as being used by the Scottish Highlanders, being worn as part of traditional Highlander clothing. The highlanders would often wield the dirk with a small shield with a spike in the center known as a targe. The weapon was also used during the age of sail as a close-range weapon for fighting on board ships.

Tanto (Ninja)
A Tanto is a Japanese dagger with a blade of about 15-30 centimeters in length. The weapon has a straight, typically single-edged blade with he cutting edge curving up to the point. The weapon was used extensively by the Samurai during the Heian (794-1185 AD) and Kamakura (1185-1333) periods, as well as being carried as a personal defense weapon by civilians. The tanto began to fall out of favor among samurai after the 1300s, being superceded by the longer wakizashi short sword, though tanto would be forged for other purposes.

Cutlass (Pirate)
A cutlass is a short sabre-type sword with curved, broad blade. The weapon was a popular weapon for sailors and pirates, being easily usable in the close quarters of the interior of a ship, and proving useful both for slashing through flesh and bone, and for more mundane tasks such as cutting thick ropes.

Wakizashi (Ninja)
The wakizashi is a short Japanese sword, similar in appearance to a shorter katana, with a curved, single-edged blade. The weapon was often carried as a pair with katana, the set of two swords being known as a daisho (literally "big-little"). The wakizashi was typically used as a secondary weapon, for close-range and indoor fighting, the blade was also used for finishing off and/or decapitating downed enemies, and sometimes committing seppeku, or ritual suicide. The wakizashi was also sometimes carried by civilians as a defensive weapon.

Boarding Axe (Pirate)
A boarding axe is a short axe with a two-sided blade, with a small axe head on one side and a hook on the other. The weapon could be used for extreme close range combat, typically when boarding an enemy ship or repelling enemy boarders. The weapon was also often used as a tool for cutting ropes and the spike could be used as a hook to pull a smaller boat alongside a ship and keep it in position.

Kusarigama (Ninja)
The Kusarigama is a type of Japanese flail with a kama hand scythe one end and a chain with an iron weight on the other. While the weapon could be used like a European flail- swinging around the weight to cause blunt trauma, the kusarigama was often used to entangle and trip up and enemy, before finishing them off the with scythe blade. The flail could also be used to disarm an enemy.

119's Edge
The ninja's kusarigama for its greater versatility.

Boarding Pike (Pirate)
The boarding pike is a shortened pike used on ships in boarding actions in the 16th- early 19th centuries. The weapon was typically used for defensive actions.

Fukiya and Shuriken (Ninja)
The fukiya is a Japanese blowgun, firing a poisoned dart about two inches in length. The fukiya used by ninja were about 50 centimeters long, shorter than the 1.2 meter-long sport fukiya used for target shooting. The fukiya could be accurate up to ten meters in the hands of a skilled user, but was useless if it hit armor or possibly even thick clothing. A shuriken, literally "sword hidden in the hand" is a Japanese concealable throwing weapon. Shuriken took on two basic forms, the spike-like bo-shuriken- a simple metal spike, or the more elaborate hira-shuriken, which were flat, often with a star shape, earning them the nickname "throwing stars" or "ninja stars" in western culture. Shuriken were mainly intended as a distraction, not being particularly lethal unless they struck a major artery, such as in the neck, for instance. However, shuriken were some times made more lethal by coating them in poison, or, according to some accounts, burying them in dirt or feces, allowing germs to build up on the shuriken. In this match, the Ninja will have both bo and hira shuriken.

119's Edge
The pirate's boarding pike for its greater probability of an instant kill.

Flintlock Pistol (Pirate)
A flintlock pistol is a handgun that uses the flintlock system of firing. The flintlock mechanism works by using a spring-loaded striker to strike a piece of flint, creating a spark. This spark ignites a small amount of gunpowder in a priming pan, which in turn fires off the main charge. Flintlock pistols were generally carried by officers, cavalry, sailors, and pirates, and others who needed a weapon lighter than a Flintlock Musket. Like all pistols, the flintlock's light weight was the expense of range, though this was especially pronounced with early pistols such as the flintlock, being most effective extreme close or even point blank range.

Bajozutsu (Ninja)
The Bajozutsu is a Japanese matchlock pistol typically used by mounted samurai. The weapon was essentially a shortened version of the tanegashima musket, with a pistol-style grip.

119's Edge
The Pirate's Flintlock Pistol takes this for its more reliable action.

Blunderbuss (Pirate)
The blunderbuss was a short-barreled flintlock firearm with a flared-out barrel. The name "blunderbuss" is derived from the Dutch donderbus or "thunder pipe". The weapon was typically used typically used as a form or early shotgun, loaded with metal shot, or in cases of emergency, metal scraps such as nails. The weapons was used widely as a civilian hunting weapon, but also saw military use, as a close combat weapon in both pistol and musket forms. The blunderbuss pistol, or "dragon" was popular with cavalry, the root of the term "dragoon". Blunderbusses were also popular with militia and pirates.

Osutsu (Ninja)
The Osutsu was a Japanese matchlock firearm with a short, wide barrel, used in Sengoku or Warring States period Japanese history in mid to late 1500s. The weapon was intended for used in a manner similar to the later European blunderbuss, as an early form of shotgun. The Osutsu could be loaded with a variety of types of ammunition, most typically metal shot or arrows.

Brown Bess Musket (Pirate)
The "Brown Bess" was the nickname of the Land Pattern Musket, the standard British Military musket from 1722 until 1838- Over 100 years. The weapon was one of the earliest examples of a standardized design for a military firearm in history, and was used by the British Military, as well as numerous forces who opposed them, including American Minutemen, Afghan Warriors, Zulus, Maoris, Indians, and Native Americans. The weapon had a range of 50-100 yards.

Tanegashima Musket (Ninja)
The tanegashima is a Japanese matchlock musket based on matchlocks introduced by the Portuguese in the mid-1500s. The weapon improved on the the standard matchlock in a number of ways, most notably the addition of a front sight for easier aiming and an optional lacquered wooden box to cover the burning match in the rain, to allow firing in inclement weather. Like the earlier hand cannon, matchlocks such as the tanegashima could be deadly when used in formation with pikemen, as Oda Nobunaga proved when he defeated the elite Takeda Cavalry in Nagashino. The weapon had a similar range to most matchlocks and later smoothbore weapons, about 50-100 yards.

119's Edge
The Brown Bess has a more reliable ignition system, but the tanegashima has a front sight for greater accuracy. Even. =X-Factors=

The two both saw regular combat, the pirate making a living by attacking ships, and the ninja being an expert assassin in the violent period of feudal Japan. The ninja, however, take training, as, while many pirates were trained ex-navy men, their level of training was not as great as that of the ninja, who were skilled in unarmed and armed combat, and regularly practiced ninjitsu and other martial arts. The ninja also obviously take stealth, that being the primary focus of their mission, whereas the pirates were very overt with their attacks. The pirates however, have at least a 150-year advantage on the ninja in terms of weaponry.