User blog:SPARTAN 119/Scanian War Dutch Soldier vs Afghan Warrior (1830s)

Scanian War Dutch
The Scanian War was a war fought from 1675-1679 between the Dutch, Danish and Norwegians on one side and the French and Swedes on the the other. The war was fought over the Scanian lands, also known as Skaneland, a portion of southern Sweden, as well as an island presently belonging to Denmark. The war was triggered by Swedish involvement in the concurrent [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Dutch_War Franco-Dutch War], which prompted a Danish invasion of Scania. In the end, the war was inconclusive, with the Danish defeating the Swedes at sea, and the Swedes defeating the Danish invasion force on land. In the end, the war resulted in a treaty that returned Danish and Swedish territory to their pre-war boundaries. One interesting piece of trivia about the Scanian War was that it is likely that it is one of the few conflicts where a type of early repeating firearm called the Kalthoff Repeater was used- 200 years before the invention of the Winchester Repeating Rifle.

Afghan Warrior
The Emirate of Afghanistan was invaded by the British three times, first from 1839-1842, again from 1878-1880, and again in 1919. In all three cases, the British invasions were thwarted by guerilla tactics used by the Afghan tribesmen, who, while they were armed with inferior weaponry, defeated the British using the terrain to their advantage. One tactic used the Afghans involved luring the British into narrow canyons and firing one them from above with jezails, homemade but nonetheless deadly rifles.

=Weapons=

Main Gauche (Dutch)
The main gauche is a small, straight dagger of about twelve to fifteen inches. The weapon was mainly used from parrying incoming sword strikes, but could be used to attack as well, typically with a thrusting attack.

Jambiya (Afghan)
The Jambiya is a short, curved Middle Eastern Dagger. The Janbiya is carried by most Arabian men above the age of 14, especially in Oman, and can be used as both a weapon and a tool, as well as a status symbol, as Jambiya carried by wealthy men are often decorated with gemstones or made from rare materials.

Rapier (Dutch)
The rapier is a 16th and 17th-century sword with a thin blade of about a meter in length. The weapon is designed primarily to be used as a thrusting weapon, with little ability to cut. The weapon was often used with a main gauche dagger or a buckler.

119's Edge
The Dutch Main Gauche for its use in concert with the sword.

Pulwar (Afghan)
The Pulwar is an Afghan sword similar to an Indian talwar. The weapon has a curved, roughly 2.5-3 foot blade. The weapon often had a rounded pommel like the Indian talwar, but the pulwar often had a "cupped", rather than a disc-shaped pommel.

119's Edge
The Afghan's Pulwar for its greater weight, allowing for greater force, and its versatility, it can be used to slash and thrust.

Wheelock Pistol (Dutch)
The wheelock system of the firearm operation uses a spring-loaded metal wheel striking against a piece of pyrite to create a spark to ignite the gunpowder in the chamber. The weapon requires a spanner to spin up the wheel after reloading, making the reloading process lengthy. Apart from that, the weapon is a smoothbore muzzle-loading pistol with a similar range to the flintlock, at least for the purposes of this match.

Flintlock Pistol (Afghan)
The Flintlock pistol is a short smoothbore handgun used in the 17th and 18th centuries, using a flintlock mechanism. The weapon fired a single round lead ball.

119's Edge
The Afghan's Flintlock Pistol for its shorter reload.

Dutch Flintlock
The Flintlock Musket is an 17th-18th century smoothbore firearm operated by a mechanical striker that strikes a flint, creating a spark that triggers the powder in the weapon, firing the ball. Because of the smoothbore design, the flintlock, like most early firearms, was inaccurate at distance, and was often fired in volleys to increase the probability of a hit. For the purposes of this match, the older Dutch flintlock will have slightly shorter range than the Brown Bess.

Brown Bess (Afghan)
The Brown Bess was the standard British musket for the late 18th and early 19th century. The weapon was a muzzle loading, smoothbore firearm firing a round lead ball. The weapon was typically fired in volleys at ranges of 50 meters or less, and was highly inaccurate at greater ranges.

119's Edge
The Afghan's Brown Bess for its superior quality.

Kalthoff Repeater (Dutch)
The Kalthoff Repeater was a wheellock or flintlock rifle with one of the first repeating mechanisms in the world made by the Dutch in the 1600s, 200 years before the invention of the Winchester repeating rifle. The weapon typically held six shots, and worked by pulling either a lever on the front of the trigger guard or a second trigger to dispense a ball from one magazine and a pre-measured amount of powder from a second. This gave the weapon a much greater rate of fire than a muzzle-loading musket, however, it was only used by wealthy consumers and elite soldiers as it was difficult and expensive to manufacture- in an era before mass produced interchangable parts, each part had to be hand-crafted by a specialized gunsmith.

Jezail (Afghan)
The Jezail is a crude, handmade matchlock or flintlock rifle (flintlock for the purposes of this match) made in Afghanistan and other surrounding South Asian countries during the 18th and 19th centuries. Like the Kentucky rifle, the Jezail had a rifled barrel for long range accuracy at 200-300 meters. The Jezail, however, was often a large caliber, from .50 to .75 caliber. The weapon sometimes had a crude bipod for sniping purposes, and could fire nails and even stones as well as lead balls.

119's Edge
The Dutch Kalthoff Repeater for its superior rate of fire. =X-Factors=