User blog comment:Pygmy Hippo 2/Genghis Khan vs. Hernán Cortés/@comment-32516697-20180817051121

'''Laqy's "Can The Mongols Survive Mexican Summer?" Edges'''

Swords: "Hernán's double-edged Spanish steel blade isn't good on horseback." Yeah, that's just not true. The espada is a perfectly valid horseback weapon, and I'll argue that it's better than the sabre by virtue of the crossguard and a couple hundred years of metallurgy improvements. Edge: Hernán Cortés

Polearms: The lance is good for charging, and the halberd is good for cutting, thrusting, bashing, dismounting, and armour-piercing. The much more versatile weapon easily wins here. I should also mention that the lance is solely a cavalry weapon, while the halberd is meant to be used against cavalry. Khan lacks any kind of specifically anti-cavalry weapon in his arsenal. Edge: Hernán Cortés

Long Range: I'm going to bring in armour comparisons here as well, since those will be important. The Mongols' reputation as expert horse archers is well deserved, but Khan's men have never fought anyone with Cortés's kind of armour. This will force Khan's men to spend their time aiming for the gaps, which won't be easy in a close range skirmish. The arquebus, on the other hand, if it lands a hit, will punch through Khan's armour with no issues whatsoever.Edge: Hernán Cortés

Special: I take a bit of an issue with this category. The main-gauche was only just beginning to show up during Cortés's time, and even with that, it was a fencing weapon - definitely not something a soldier like Cortés would be carrying into battle. Because of that, I'm going to forgo making any statements on this category at this time.

X-Factors and Conclusion: Pretty obvious, isn't it? For all his feats of conquest, Khan comes up far too short in the tech department to win this battle. Cortés came incredibly far with limited resources, and his experience with that will greatly benefit him here. His men are more experienced in this small scale battles like this one. The arquebus and the plate armour are the most significant tech advantages, providing a psychological weapon against the Mongols, who may have seen gunpowder, but nothing like the Spanish firearms, and some excellent defense against the Mongols' deadliest weapon, the bow. Winner: Hernán Cortés!

P.S.: I sort-of-sort-of-not planned on doing this battle myself sometime in the future, and I made a title card for it. Here, you can have it:

