User blog comment:Cfp3157/Ride Immortal, Beasts of War: Immortan Joe vs. Commandant/@comment-5232784-20160608152323/@comment-5232784-20160609060248

El Al:

Interesting take on rifle comparisons. Yes, it sounds logical that most firefights take place within 100 meters. However, unlike in Leolab's tourney, the distance between the combatants isn't given, and its not impossible that, despite not being known to be marksmen, some of Immortan Joe's men would take out several of the Commadant's men before the two forces closed within 100 meters. A scope will be quite useful in the terrain described (desert valley, plenty of areas to use for cover, caves, etc). The better you can see, the better you can hit your targets, and an M1 without a scope wont allow you to spot a hiding enemy and shoot them like a SKS with a scope. However, you are correct that, without the scope, the M1 will be more maneuverable, especially in tight spaces. Still, the accuracy and range here wins out.

As for the melee: I'm only using Melee as a part of Immortan Joe's weapons superiority, not as a major deciding factor. By itself, its not, but when combined with a superior rifle, you have a 2 to 1 weapons advantage (the pistols and assault rifles tie). You have to admit, a thunderstick is a savage close range weapon. But if this was the only thing Immortan Joe had going for him, it wouldn't mean squat. Its just one weapons category that Immortan Joe has superiority in, and combined with the rifle, I feel that both outweigh the superior machine gun of the Commadant.

As for X-factors: Yes, Immortan Joe's troops are not as healthy as those of the Commadant (this is obvious at first glance), but in the film, they show as much vigour, strength, speed an agility as a normal, healthy person. They're not sluggish, they're not emaciated, and they're not weak.

Now, to be fair, one thing that could be considered in terms of physicality is the fact that, in such a harsh environment, without the nutrition available in the modern world, the soldiers of Immortan Joe might be shorter than those of the commadant. The less nutrition you have as a child, the shorter you'll be as an adult, and since these people are also no doubt sickly as a child and live under a stressful dictatorship, its not impossible that they might be as short as people were in the ancient world (perhaps five and a half feet tall or less). Still, I'm sketchy as to the time frame (is it near future? If so, then if one compared characters that were normal before the decline (Immortan Joe, other older individuals, possibly Mad Max, etc), then the soldiers of Immortan Joe look normal sized in comparison.

Brutality is, I admit, not that impressive an X factor to me: brutality can be useful as a psych weapon, and its also useful in making soldiers obey your orders (so that your not impaled, eaten or what not like that poor dude hanging over there), but what good is brutality if you cant kill as effectively as the other person trying to kill you? Did Nazi Germany's brutality save it from foes who had far more troops and far stronger industrial might, who had superior logistics? Did the Soviet Union's brutality save it from an American victory in the cold war? Brutality can get you only so far, and its nowhere near as important as either leadership or logistics.

Experience is a very, very good X factor, and so is health. Yet the use of drugs (and possibly adrenaline shots) by the Commadant are not healthy, either (better than Immortan Joe's, but not 100%), and The Commadant's experience didn't save him from his own troops turning on him (hence leadership again). Combined with better logistics, Immortan Joe has the advantage.

Plus, one thing everyone is forgetting is that this battle will take place in a desert. This desert may be unknown to both forces, but Immortan Joe and his forces know deserts, they live in a massive one (Almost the whole world is a desert in that film, if memory serves correctly). From the trailers I've seen showing the Commadant, he fights primarily, if not entirely, in jungle settings, in sub-saharan Africa. He is more used to jungle guerilla warfare, not desert combat. This will give Immortan Joe a major edge which, combined with his other edges, will give him the victory.