Talk

[Bourne]

Do you realise your debating about whats the funnest tool of kill people? I mean seriously, both kill people, there really shouldn't be a "preference" to that sort of thing.

Ironic eh. It's not a preference, I myself just like weapons, lol

I think guns were invented to take the "grusomeness" out of killing. It is easier to kill with a gun, because you dont really have to look your victim in the eye, but with a sword, you do.

Im a fan of the spear, but I would prefer to have an SA80 (British Army Rifle). I fired it when I was in cadets, both live and blank, and it is a beast

Excatly, not only is lookin at the person ya just killed hard but we all know how grusomen it is ta use a sword.

[Lurking Tyranny]

Well guns were also a lot easier to train troops how to use. It took powerful and skilled men to ride around in plate armor and swing massive swords, guide lances or pummel with maces. However the invention and refinement of the musket and other guns began to allow much more men and larger armies to exist.

[Bourne]

Funny bout that. The number of troops now a days is far lower then it use ta be. Then again Chinese's pop was unbelievable, still is. Still...look at the numbers 200,000 and even higher.

[Lu Kuang]

Well, that's probably becuase back then they recruited every male old enough to fight.

[Galagros]

And I'm willing to be only 1/10 of those armies had much in the way of training and good supplies.

[Tom]

There was also forced conscription and sometimes shortage of supplies. I could well imagine they were terribly trained aswell.

[ann]

For perspective:

In 1945 the population of the United States was a little over 130million - that's 1940 actually but the latest census. There were more than 12 million people serving in the US Armed Forces. 6,000,000 in the Army; 3,400,000 in the Navy; 2,400,000 in the Army air forces; 484,000 in the Marine Corps; and 170,000 in the Coast Guard. Note that this doesn't include the war effort at home - (In 1939, the United States had about 2,500 airplanes and 760 warships. By 1945, it had about 80,000 airplanes and 2,500 warships) - or the merchant marine forces. And, keeping those numbers in mind, the United States had a much smaller percentage of total population involved in the war than other combatants.

The estimates of the Chinese population of the period that I've seen are 20-30 million. As you can see, nations in the modern period have fielded *much* larger forces as a percentage of total population.

[KDS]

:: nods ::

Just more men and women to die for reasons unknown and possibly unjustified.

[Hua Jin]

Yay! July 1! Happy Canada day to all Canadians on the board!

[Bourne]

For perspective:

In 1945 the population of the United States was a little over 130million - that's 1940 actually but the latest census. There were more than 12 million people serving in the US Armed Forces. 6,000,000 in the Army; 3,400,000 in the Navy; 2,400,000 in the Army air forces; 484,000 in the Marine Corps; and 170,000 in the Coast Guard. Note that this doesn't include the war effort at home - (In 1939, the United States had about 2,500 airplanes and 760 warships. By 1945, it had about 80,000 airplanes and 2,500 warships) - or the merchant marine forces. And, keeping those numbers in mind, the United States had a much smaller percentage of total population involved in the war than other combatants.

The estimates of the Chinese population of the period that I've seen are 20-30 million. As you can see, nations in the modern period have fielded *much* larger forces as a percentage of total population.

That's something. Sad real. Anyway the population of China before the Three Kingdoms was quite high. I found a site that has the pop. Tho they ain't a 100% sure on it. Here

http://www.3kingdoms.net/provinces.htm