the_dunk_tank

omg I was about to say this was a friendly fire dunk post because I read what they said and assumed they were posting with regular irony instead of sincerity lol. I've said essentially the exact same thing but sarcastically, "vastly superior training" -> assume constant air superiority and no mines against an enemy without productive capacity because you already leveled their country (see air superiority)

On the one hand, having these guys (le redditors and le lemmylords) in charge of the US military would be funny, because they would just order soldiers into the meat grinder ("don't worry, our superior Xbox controllers will be more than enough against those 'mines' and 'missiles'"), but on the other hand, they're stupid enough to do something really life-threatening to the planet (like casually using nukes).

The longevity of this propaganda is truly astonishing, and it's not surprising that a group of people as fucked as the Spartans are such a well-known reference point of supposed heroism in the West's increasingly fascistic culture.

There is no actual historical evidence that the Spartans were militarily superior to anyone else. They were militarily insignificant by the time the actual myth about them had emerged after the war against Persia through their propaganda. For instance their military capacities would later be laughable compared to the Macedonians, let alone the Romans. But the time of the Roman invasion of Greece they became little more than a tourist attraction. As someone else here has noted, they would soon be out-classed by Thebes and their notable general Epaminondas. The Thebans were also notable during this period for their elite warriors made up 150 pairs of lovers: The Sacred Band. The Thebans would later be outclassed by the Macedonians.

Beyond not being better fighters - which doesn't matter on the individual level really because what actually matters isn't how fancy you can swing a sword but things like discipline, organization, morale, stamina, courage, etc., training, etc (another reason why the idea that GoT is realistic is laughable to say the least) - Sparta didn't show any real tradition of tactical or strategic brilliance.

Actually, Thermopylae was a disproof of the Spartan strategy that they should try oppose the Persians on land and then hold the Isthmus. But the Spartans then tried to insist that they should try that AGAIN, opposing them similarly along the Pelopponese. The Athenians knew that this was wrong, and that they could far better face them at sea and by retreating from the mainland. The Athenians actually had to trick the Spartans into following their plan, hence the battle at Salamis.

Honestly the Spartans contributed little if anything to human culture.

Also reminder that the the Spartan elite would annually declare war on their own helots every autumn, giving them the right to ritually murder them at whim, and this was probably a right of passage for the young men.

The only things Spartans were trained better at was catching and killing slaves. Their prowess is ahistoric propaganda.
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Wait that actually makes them a very good comparison to NATO.

But when I play HOI IV I can just click the button and upgrade the equipment? I think it's you that doesn't get how works

Landmine. Explosive thingy you step on that then kills or cripples you. Something very common that has been around for ages. Several nations have issues with mines left behind after wars long gone by. As a result several armies have experience with handling warfare in heavily mined areas.