User blog comment:Cfp3157/Ride Immortal, Beasts of War: Immortan Joe vs. Commandant/@comment-5232784-20160608152323/@comment-4661256-20160610024828

Okay, GSFB. What I meant by bringing up the fact that most firefights take place within 100 meters was that even most trained, professional warriors typically don't engage their opponents at the outer limits of their weapons' respective ranges. One thing that's really easy to forget is that 100 meters is still a pretty far distance, so saying that just because a weapon can fire at 440 yards instead of 300 yards doesn't mean much when neither warrior will be able to hit a target at that distance. Regardless of a scope, you pretty much have to be a marksman to hit a target at that far of a distance (because at such a range things like bullet drop, wind resistance, temperature, humidity, and air pressure all affect a bullet's performance). The scope will help by magnifying a target, but if you are not capable of making the battlefield calculations to adjust for all of these factors, it doesn't matter because you won't hit the target. And, of course, as the distances become closer and closer, a scope will actually be less practical as the magnification will lower the user's field of view. So yes, while I am aware that the SKS can fire at a further target than the M1 carbine, you don't seem to be aware that neither of these warriors will be making accurate shots with a single-fire weapon at such a distance. What is important, though, is the M1 carbine's larger magazine size, which will enable the Commandant's troops to continue firing for a much longer period of time than the War Boys will be able.

I'm just going to disregard the melee thing because you claim that Immortan Joe's superiority in that category "combined with the rifle" outweighs a machine gun. I've just disproven your notion that Immortan Joe has the superior rifle, but even if that weren't the case, you'd still be wrong. Machine guns are fully automatic, which means that while they are by no means precision weapons, the sheer volume of fire they pour out actually means it's practical to fire at targets who are at distances farther away than 100 meters. This is because firstly, machine guns have tracer rounds, which allow you to visually confirm that your shots are going where they're supposed to, but also because of a little thing called suppressive fire. Suppressive fire means that even if a target is farther away than 100 meters, they'll still be forced to keep their heads down behind cover because of the machine gun shooting at them. This allows the non-suppressed team to advance relatively easier. So I fail to see how a single-shot rifle that neither team is trained to use properly will be more effective than a bullet-belching behemoth that can punch through most light cover and suppress an entire squad at once.

I never said that Immortan Joe's troops were slow, sluggish, or emaciated (although they most certainly would be weak if they are malnourished and afllicted by cancer). The point is that they are actually in poorer health than an African rebel soldier, who would already be in really bad shape. If you're weaker and sicker than an opponent who is known for being weak and sick, then I'm sorry, but you can't spin that in a positive light and you're B.S.'ing yourself if you try. Experience is also by far more important than logistics or leadership especially in such a low-scale fight, because Commandant's men are not going to walk away from him. It just wouldn't make sense for such a scenario. Yes, if this were a weeks-long campaign of forced marches, sustained bombing runs, and random artillery shelling combined with prolonged exposure to the elements and disease, I can see where Commandant's men might desert him. But in the middle of a ten-minute firefight they're not going to suddenly up and run away, especially not when doing so would get them shot by the enemy. However, relevant combat experience (emphasis on "relevant") means that Commandant and his men are used to fighting in squad skirmishes. Immortan Joe and his troops are not. Therefore, Commandant wins X-Factors because logistics and leadership are clearly long-term X-Factors and this is a short-term fight.

As for the environment, this might be the only somewhat coherent and correct point you bring up, and while I am inclined to concede, it will not be the be-all end-all of this fight. When you have such overwhelming disadvantages as inferior physicality, weaponry, and experience, it doesn't matter if you're fighting in your own living room, because your opponent is just superior in every other conceivable way. So yes, Immortan Joe and his Warboys do get a leg up from fighting in their desert environment, but it isn't even close to enough to get them the win here.