Ancient-Warfare Expert Rates 10 More Battle Tactics In Movies And TV | How Real Is It? | Insider
Ancient-warfare expert Roel Konijnendijk rates 10 battle tactics in movies and television for realism, with scenes from "Game of Thrones" and "The Witcher." Konijnendijk has a doctorate in ancient history and is a teaching fellow at the University of Edinburgh.
Konijnendijk discusses the accuracy of battle tactics in "Game of Thrones" (2016), starring Kit Harington; "Hercules" (2014), featuring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson; and "The Witcher" (2019), with Henry Cavill. Konijnendijk also comments on the infantry and cavalry formations in "Outlaw King" (2018), starring Chris Pine; "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" (2014), with Evangeline Lilly; and "Alexander" (2004), featuring Colin Farrell. He dissects the use of ancient-warfare weaponry in "King Arthur" (2004), "Spartacus" (1960), "Mulan" (2020), and "Spartacus: War of the Damned" (2013).
Watch part one of the video here:
• Ancient Warfare Expert...
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/ roelkonijn
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Ancient-Warfare Expert Rates 10 More Battle Tactics In Movies And TV | How Real Is It?
The hero everyone called for has returned
wow, you here? a nice surprise...
YEAAAHHH
@@hamzaalirehan822 Nah, too inefficient. Haven't even managed to start the ethnic cleansing yet... Tsk
rosobmsamt m
oreosoznant. moub te z and blacgse
Dad: You have to go to college, otherwise you'll be digging ditches for the rest of your life. Me without a degree: Safe from any attacking army.
Underrated comment 😂
I see no error in your logic 🙌
Secretly, your dad wanted you to spend your days moving spears from one end of the camp to the other rather than digging ditches.
Also safe from debt lol, my father didn't even go to college and he is a R&D machinist for Proctor and Gamble. I went to college and am in debt making a third of what he does.
Nice lolololol :-)
7:03 Best reaction of the whole review - "Oh no, it landed on him!...Oh I hope he got his paycheck. Killed by massive flaming corn dog! Excellent work." The barely restrained glee, amusement, and sarcasm deserves a 10/10. I almost died laughing
"I hope this guy is okay, I hope he is still around" He must be 90 for now...
I love that even in the middle of pointing out all the way in which this is silly, he has some concern for the actors. ❣
My favorite part too. I replayed it over and over again.
I really enjoyed his university course “Digging Ditches 101”
Ancient Warfare for Dummies
The end semester exam is a scene to behold.
He probably got kicked out because his “hands-on workshop” was ruining the grass. I don’t understand why, he was just fortifying the campus against cavalry assault…
@@nuh_uh210 I AM A HISTORIAN AND I'M DIGGING A DITCH DIGGY DIGGY DITCH DIGGY DIGGY DITCH
Or, in his case, "Digging 101 Ditches" ;)
He was so down with Spartacus until the bridges, after you disrespect the sacred ditch you are an immediate 1/10
"sacred ditch" 🤣
@@egorkotkin in medieval combat the ditch is sacred, otherwise why would God himself always reference the ditch
Repent to Jesus Christ!! “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33 NIV
@@repentoryouwilllikewiseper8741 Is Repent the litlle brother of Serpent?
If you Think about ditch tactic..... is actually a good idea
Imagine this guy grading your papers: "This is correct. I like it. 6/10"
That’s already how it is though
"Good ideas, but no ditch. F."
And your work is the best in the class
@acooknamed_Rishi Not even close. It college it is "This is total crap. Did you even read the chapter? B+"
While laughing
Whoever found this guy and decided that he would be a good idea to have on this channel, deserves a raise. I want a show where this guy gets drunk and just explains battles for like 100 episodes
you sir, are a genius
It would be awesome because we would basically get free lectures
@sunilpermaul7876 Imagine if we could get credit too!
Best idea ever! I would watch this show😂🎉
Somebody get him on Drunk History
0:01 you don't need to be an expert to know that jumping in front of your own shield wall is basically getting impalled by both sides, right?
You sir win the internet
The elves just want to show off their parkour skills
"I don't know what they were doing" - that's the entire Hobbit movie series
Sad but true. Although Thranduil and the way he moved and spoke? That was brilliant, he really had something otherworldy to him. Pity the eye brows had me crack up like every five seconds.
@@Julia-lk8jn Lee Pace is always fantastic. Too bad he wasn't given better writing
@@BetterLifeAhead35 yet another sentence which applies to an awful Lot of the Hobbit trilogy. (I feel a bit bad for having such a poor opinion, of course after the Lotr trilogy imy expectations were sky high.)
I love the hobbit trilogy so idc about the tactics but yeah I did wonder how that is possible
The Elves jumping in front of the Dwarves made me loose my mind.
"Killed by a massive flaming corndog. Excellent work!" Is right up there with "You can just throw rocks. They cost you nothing, they take no preparation and you throw them at people and they get hurt. It's great."
I hope they bring him back for another episode hahaha. He's great
Hah. Never heard the word "corndog" before (not a native). All the time I thought he kept saying "flaming condom".
@@janbo8331 it's a hotdog on a stick with a corn crust which is deep fried. Apparently you can add a cheese filling or even chocolate. It's one of the things that prove that nutrition in America should be categorized as a weapon of mass destruction, even without setting it on fire and rolling it over people.
@@antonnurwald5700 That gave me a good chuckle. I like your style. By that description I would not want one to enter nor exit my body.
@@antonnurwald5700 As an American, I have no issue admitting that I absolutely adore the way you described not only a corndog, but the American nutritional system. Thank you for the laugh my friend 😂
I love this reactor. He sits and giggles because he is so knowledgeable, he can see what we cannot and then explains it. I thought I knew some things but he starts giggling because it is so utterly ridiculous (no ditches or jumping in front of defenses). Love it.
Mark of a great teacher, he’s very knowledgable and very able to teach
Someone should hire this guy to coordinate Hollywood movie battle scenes already
Speak for yourself
Yeah but I think the fusion type would be better, but that’s just me.
I NEVER got the thing where they always slather grease on stones for trebuchets, light them, and then fire them. It's a big rock. It does damage because you flung it a few hundred meters, not because it might be on fire. Plus that whole arrangement you'd just burn up the sling of the trebuchet really fast.
Hollywood loves using fire and explosions in battles even though before the invention of the cannon it would only be useful in trying to burn wooden defenses or siege equipment.
Agreed. But like he said, "HollyWood likes fire".
the fireball version is for castle sieges, hoping to create chaos by setting fire to whatever is in the castle. I think he mentioned this idea in another video on fire arrows.
His response "if you get hit by these balls, you have no one to blame but yourself." Seems appropriate. It's also what I tell the missus in bed.
For the same reason terrorists put nails or ball bearings in their bombs. The explosion will do some damage; the projectile shrapnel will do even more.
Battles on ice did happen. Famously, there was The Battle On The Ice. Profound stuff.
I guess Ancient people didn't have a marketing team to come up with cool names for their battles...
@@vinaly *Medieval people
Truly a professional
@@vinaly Well, usually you name your battles after the nearest village (or the next one, if the nearest got to many Umlauts...) I know this battle as the Battle on the Peipus lake, if this is indeed the same one
@@vinaly You have the "War of 1812" which is a lot less creative, so it's not that they're medieval.
Please don't ditch this expert, Insider. We want more dr. Roel.
Heh, ditch
I got a feeling that he might be entrenched in this channel 😏
Do not remove the moat from thine castle.
Ahh i see what you did there
i see what you did there
I'm so glad this man finally got his ditch - he looked so happy.
Ditches be crazy
Aye lad, that truly is the ditch that you have been waiting for. (in the voice of James Doohan aka Scotty from Star Trek)
I like how there are experts solely for formations, for archery, or for clothings and armor, and this guy just knows all of it
you like how that's the case, huh? I like that it's reasonable for him to be an expert in this field, and I also like how different fields of expertise can be wider or more narrow. I also like that he doesn't necessarily know exactly all of it 🤫
@@gordonlekfors2708I like that you know less than 10% of what he knows
@@Wall_E. Man, I feel like dude knows less than 1% of what Konijnendijk does. Being able to examine these details with casual confidence and then explain them like a matter of course is not something that can be learned in 1 or 2 days. I have however seen many like Mr. Gordon here who oddly enough would rather get high huffing their own farts than admit that there are those who have dedicated more time than he ever bothered to to learn about this kind of stuff.
Ditch doctor’s finally back. Update: Much respect for his concern on the flaming corn dog victim
You're right, that was really sweet of him. And the movie scene was perfect because it kind of showed how uneffective the burning street food was: even if you don't manage to jump it, the one man it rolled over got up immediately, and probably in just the right mood to make somebody pay.
Stop making me laugh, damn it!
Give this man his intoxicant of choice and let him rant about ancient warfare for hours. Straight dope, no edits.
Can we PLEASE get this guy on Drunk History?? Ohhh that would so epic!! All the ditches!
I want Robert Pattinson to play this man on a movie where all he does is dig ditches. Innumerable ditches.
Straight ditches!
Agreed. I wish he had a KZhead channel. Someone please link it if he does.
@@guthax30 dr roel konijnendijk, he has a channel with 1 video, but search his lectures on Oxford's channel
Listening to Roel re-emphasize ditches, I feel much better about the plan my D&D group came up with to contain three werewolf revenants... we were defending a house and surrounded it with pit traps containing silver-tipped spikes, while my character perched up on the roof with magic that could shove the wolves back into the pits if they tried climbing out.
No no puppies go in the bad hole - your character
Okay
Didn’t dig the ditch deep enough 1/10.
My group recently defended a fort from a hobgoblin army and they won by digging a big ditch to slow them down and firing missiles from the walls.
Just one ditch?
A pleasure to listen. He doesn't just make statements, he backs them up with tons of logical details
How to torture this man: show him the Battle of Winterfell.
There was indeed a ditch used so not complete torture
@@StevenGarcia-im8rr ahhh but the ditch was at the back of the formation to prevent retreat. Truly genius
@@DarkSideBrownie Captain Jack Sparrow voice: *But there WAS a ditch*
@@StevenGarcia-im8rr *But where’s the rum gone?!*
The whole Episode and tactics was cringe AF
I love how the one time there's actually a ditch, it's completely unrealistic and used in the most ridiculous way.
It was actually used in a realistic way. What he doesn’t mention is that the romans had catapults which had reach to fire over the ditch. Neutralising the enemy wasn’t the goal
Earlier in that season, Spartacus actually does use a ditch properly and outwits the Romans. They used the worst example haha.
There is a depiction of a ditch with spikes in outlaw king and he praises it - watch the video again sir :)
18:35 "If you get hit by these balls you've no one to blame but yourself" That delivery was superb. So harsh lol.
I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that the key is to build ditches
and use it
@@artski09 and stay behind your ditch...
And build more ditches.
And when you're done, Use more ditches
And after you're done building ditches after building ditches, you build ditches in your ditches.
YES HE IS BACK the man, the myth, the ditch digger!
His official Title is Digger of Ditches and Thrower of Rocks.
@@drweb0 0
A hole's evolution is ditch and it's evolution is a trench what will be its mega evolution?
@@akshit_sharma1 Moat
@Repent 😂
I love how he offhandedly throws in that strategy of "grab the spear tips and snap them off" - I've never seen it in a movie, and it would so cool, and it would even be realistic! And that whole "nock / draw /release" - it gets sillier the more you think about it. That drill existed for flint-lock guns, because loading and firing those was a very, _very_ complex process and if you got it wrong, shooting the ramrod together with the bullet might be the least of your problems.
Surely there would have to be some equivalent order at the beginning of the battle so your first volley doesn't go before the enemy is in your effective range. Does anyone know?
@@Crunchy_Punch The unit commander would just tell the archers where to fire and they would just do it until told otherwise or you just fire at the nearest enemy formation that did not risk hitting your own men.
@@chuckhoyle1211Yeah and holding an arrow especially heavy bows at full draw for a long time is ridiculous, it's draw release soon as you got the aim you looking for
If this guy changes the way these kinds of movies are made, I am ALLLLL for it. Like, HALF of what he says isn't even necessarily historical or anything. It's just common sense. Seriously. When I'm watching these scenes live, I'm taken completely out of it because I just have to ask why TF would anyone do that? more of this, please.
"It makes no sense, it serves no purpose." Perfect encapsulation of 80% of the scenes in The Hobbit movies.
sums up the whole bs LOTR D&D type fantasies
@@atomiccritter6492 LOTR is the greatest trilogy ever created, by far. Not a big fantasy fan either but LOTR is a masterpiece on every level.
The last battle in Return of the King - I wish he would give it the lampooning it deserves. Absolutely moronic battle tactics by Aragorn. A rabble gathered in a circular mob, waiting for an army 10x bigger to overrun them. No formations, NO DITCHES, no battle tactics. Just show up and get attacked. Brilliant.
@@fireworks_music That was done to lure orks out of the wall and distract the eye of sauron to let frodo pass through to destroy the ring. By that time they didn't have enough men to withstand a siege of that 10x bigger army, anyway.
@@fireworks_music That was the whole point. They knew they would die if Frodo and Sam didn't succeed.
"this one sucks. 6 out of 10" "I really like this one. 6 out of 10"
*Tells you his rating is objective and academic.* But seriously, it really happens that you like or hate an answer to a question but when you rate by standard they scale to equal grades!
I assume it's an editing thing. Theyre just showing us the interesting points he make but he could also be judging things like costume design or the battlefield which may make up the points on the ones he hates or maybe just some other scene within the battle that was better but not interesting for the video
You know, liking something or not AND giving it a score on a precisely configurable scale (which is historical accuracy in this case) are different categories.
The geek within him-6 The nerd within him-6
@@khaoscualdawath exactly. It is the same thing as liking a movie but also thinking its bad. There are a ton of movies i love but will tell people "yeah i love that movie, it's not a great movie but i just love it". Something being objectively bad but you still subjectively liking it arent mutually exclusive, the reverse also holds true.
What I really hated about the Battle of Basrards is that the giant was unarmed. Like that whole impossible pike-and-shield formation - you could nothing against that, unless the giant had any kind of big weapon in him, even just a tree trunk could blow a hole through that. That, and the stupid idea that people would keep climbing the pile of the dead to die on top of it in several layers
I didn't even watch the show that far, but just looking at the scene I was like, that big troll can't smash through the shield formation? Has he tried?
@@vanyadolly The lack of weapon and armor fails him. he does try and gets stabbed a lot by the pikes Like if there were a bunch of 5 year old with knives surrounding me, and I had no weapon or armor, I would still be reluctant to go swinging into them surely
The silly goofy dead horse wall was trash too
My least favorite thing in the military was digging. Always wanted to fight in the medieval age.. until i met the ditch proffesor
My professor in college was the historical consultant for Spartacus and he used to complain all the time that the writers would never listen to him when it came to all their silly battle tactics, equipment, armor, etc.
Name? Curious about him and his expertise.
@@f-xr9511 Dr. Jeffrey Stevens. He currently works at the University of Missouri. Easily the most intelligent professor I had through Uni.
@@Onomeus. Thanks: will look him up!
@@Onomeus. Any anecdotes you remember? Outside of his « official » site can’t find a lot of content. And I guess if I am interested, a lot of other people might be. Thanks!
@@f-xr9511 What exactly are you looking for?
This guy is a true hero. He knows his stuff and yet is able to appreciate the filmmaking decisions. A nerd within a geek. Love him.
A nerd within a geek? I don't think so.
@@michagorecki8893 yeah more of a geek within a nerd
What is the difference between nerd and geek??
@@26febry nerds are smart. Geeks like dnd
@@adhchopper accurate definition
Roel is quite possibly the greatest guest speaker, he pulls no punches, if its rubbish, Roel is calling it out!! Love it.
yeaa but can he clear his throat, maybe?
I love this guy- he seems to just get a good laugh out of everything - though he is absolutely brutal with his ratings
I love how this guy doesn’t just tell you “oh this is historically inaccurate, it never happened” but really makes you realise that the tactics make no sense
ya dude really breaks it down makes a lot of scenes i love feel really silly in hindsight
I disagree in many instances though including videos this guy has done. With this one for example tactics do make sense in my head, the hobbit for example, they were jumping goat things not horses, so they might have jumped over anyway, so better to toss the dwarf and disorientate them giving the units behind a chance to surround and kill, rather than them being able to maintain a full controlled charge. In another video he spoke about castle defenders not actually dropping burning tar stuff on attacking forces, hinting if anything boiling water would do the job, but boiling water won't stick to wooden siege weapons to burn them, so if they didn't use whatever they had similar at the time then they were the dumb ones. So just because something isn't historically accurate in terms of battle style or tactics, it doesn't take sense away from some of them.
@@Jamie_D the Hobbit-goats jumping the shield formation: the point he raises is that a cavalry's advantage is the massive force it can create due to the animals they are riding, which only is an advantage as long as the cavalry has the mobility & speed to make use of the force. once you stop a cavalry, make it unable to build speed for a charge and get them stuck in position, the cavalry is at a huge disadvantage - they can get surrounded easily, riders can be pulled off and stabbed to death, or even simpler: just stab them with spear from every direction. the elves formed a shield wall, which is used to try and stop a cavalry charge - letting the goats use your shields as a ramp to jump over and have them charge unopposed into the back rows is a terrible idea. you did nothing to break their speed and force and essentially just let them plow through all your troops. plus the idea that the fully stacked front rows of a formation are just nimbling dodging/moving backwards to "create room" for the cavalry that just jumped over your supposed formation makes no sense either: a formation is extremely dense and tight, because it's designed to stop cavalry. those soldiers don't just move back swiftly without tumbling over each other. and even if they could do that (let's assume cause they are elves or whatever), it still defeats the purpose of the formation: tight, shoulder to shoulder soldiers that use their shields and combined effort to stop a cavalry charge. so the elves give up their shield formation, to let the dwarves jump over to then try and form a secondary shield formation within seconds which is supposed to stop the cavalry charge? yeah, that is nonsensical. they should have just done that to begin with. the only reason it "works" in the movie, is because the choreographers of the fight wrote it that way. it would not work in reality (even if we assume dwarves, elves, their animals etc. exist). I understand your point of some scenes making sense because they are "fantasy" and at times things are possible in those stories/worlds that wouldn't be possible in a historical context, and that is true to an extent, but you cannot explain away logical inconsistencies and errors with "it's fantasy".
@@_claymore one more thing about the goats using the shields as ramps you and almost no one else brings up is how insanely dangerous it is to the guy with the shield. Dwarves might be short but they are very stocky and wear armour that would be heavy even for someone twice their size and the goats are quite large for being goats as well. Even without caring about the momentum and how much force would be located under a single hove when they stomp down we are talking about somewhere around half a ton of weight with rider, goat and armour combined. The elves aren't physically stronger than humans of the same size so the front lines angling their shields are adopting a suicide tactic to let the enemy disrupt the formations over their crushed and dead bodies. Much higher chance of surviving if just lining up and hoping to stop their charge with spears and counting on the charging goats and dwarves having some kind of survival instinct over just giving up and getting crushed. Also the time spent setting up that stupid formation could have been used to fire a couple of more arrows to thin the ranks (they can't use their stupid ballistas that shred arrows that close to their own troops)
That's why we love him
This guy seriously needs his own TV show. He could do a 100-episode series just breaking down and analyzing ancient warfare.
TV show - Yes. Pay for it - No.
I'd pay too.
@Marcus Middleton Well, I said analyzing ancient warfare. Since it would be real history, he probably wouldn't have to ask the question. He'd be explaining why they were there.
not interesting, he would do 99 episodes of "build a ditch here, now another one here, now put pikes (wooden or real pikes) here, now another ditch" and 1 ep for the battle with the opposite general saying "we can't fight, too many ditches, retreat (or are they too tired from digging ?) ! let's fight them elsewhere ! and first, build 200 ditches !!! we will see if they can fight us across those :D" with him directing the show, there would never be a battle without 200 ditches everywhere ! (plus having to watch 99ep of actors acting like they really dig ditches everywhere for weeks, when machines did it in fact -and they forgot to clean their tracks in the mud)
@@st.jimmy0244 but still, "where are your ditches?!" would be a great title for the show xD
What a lovely, engaging manner this expert has. I thoroughly enjoying listening to people talking about subjects they know & love because they make it interesting. This professor goes even further: it's a joy to listen to him. I think he's one of the best I've seen. Edit: typo correction
Apart from being very knowledgable, this Oxford doctor is also very charming in the way he delivers his points. He may laugh at your mistakes, explaining how silly they are, but you just can't help but laugh along, with no hard feeling.
I can't believe they didn't ask him to rate The Great Wall. I would have loved to see him laugh uncontrollably at the infamous Blue Crane Tactic
Next time :)
Ha ha ha! Yeah, dangle on the end of a rope like bait on a fishing line, over an inpenetrable, unscalable wall. Genuis.
Well, as expendable force... It distracts and harms the enemies front line and if they had an orc with a torch 🔦, it'd get stabbed before igniting the powder kegs(maybe). Didn't they penetrate the wall¿?
Actually I would like the castle warfare guy rate the movie
I also want to see him review bahubali
“Killed by a massive flaming corn dog. Excellent work.” Definitely an all time favorite quote there.
That’s how I want to die...
I scrolled specifically for this comment
Flaming corn dog or Flaming ditches.
I know how I want to die now.
@@mcshach9982 same heh
anyone else find the snapping motion he did at 1:41 to be unexpectedly violent and incredibly satisfying at the same time?
Gotta love this guy. One of the best movie scene reviews ever :D
THEY BROUGHT HIM BACK! This dude was my favorite expert pf the whole series.
A hole's evolution is ditch and it's evolution is a trench what will be its mega evolution?
@@akshit_sharma1 see the void between the planets? yeah, that's the ditch you're gonna face in interstellar warfare.
Same!
@@akshit_sharma1 What about its Z-move, or Dynamax? The thought just invigorates Dr. Konijnendijk!
@@akshit_sharma1 ditch and trench has different purpose. Ditch are used as hindrance not fighting inside like trench. Armies used to erect earthen wall before trench. Trench only used by besieger against defenders. Trench instead of earthen wall started to be used in Pitched Battle in Crimean War. I don't know why trenches is preferred over earthen wall with Crimean War. My estimation is that new technology cannons could destroy earthen wall, thus armies had to use trench over earthen wall.
Out of all the “Expert Rates” videos I’ve seen, I think this guy pulls his punches the least. I like it.
IMO the historical accuracy of battles in film is usually the most inaccurate part so I see how the historical accuracy of battles guy would go hardest
People often say Dutch people are very direct to the point of being offensively blunt, and I do see that in him. If you don't like something you adress it as clearly as you can.
He is Dutch and real Nederlanders don't keep it in them like Americans, for example. If it is bad - they tell it. No time for sugar coating, get the *ditches*
I keep coming back to his videos. Amazing.
"When you turn your attention away from the battle, somebody s gonna shank you...!" I love this guy!
The fact that Dr. Konijnendijk hasn’t started a KZhead channel showing how lost moments in infamous battle scenes couldn’t be solved with a ditch is beyond me. Roel, I volunteer as free editor if you send me the essay 🤌🏽
You are so right! I suppose that Dr. Konijnendijk probably has a day time job, but still, videos about specific battles and how what they mostly lacked was ditches? KZhead version of sea-salt chocolate. (I love the element about burried pots. What a smart idea!)
@@Julia-lk8jn I wonder how's his work like
If Shad has his MACHICOLATIONS!, Dr. Konijnendijk would have ditches
@@Julia-lk8jn He has a KZhead channel actually. He doesn't do movie critiques on it, there's a few presentations on ancient warfare on it though.
@@PeterJavi alter ego super cynic version haha dr ditch persona may need a new channel given he’s an actual respectable academic haha
There needs to be a t-shirt that says 'Ditch, please.' with this man's disappointed face on it.
If there was anything I would spend money for... it's this.
I need this NOW
Underrated comment
Top comment!!!
Your comment needs to be boosted. Hey algo, boost this please!
I absolutely love this guy. Hes not even trying to be funny but just has a certain comedic timing about him.
Flaming corn dog. " I hope he got his check"
He's Irish,its there thing
@@RAB-om9jy dutch , and thanks it is our thing ;)
@@dashaiku3421 Ah!! I offer my humble apologies,wow his accent honestly had me convinced. He's lost that thing where alot of Dutch sort of talk through their teeth. I've been checking out anything to do with him,he's fascinating 👍
@@RAB-om9jy no need to apologise man , i get it. We both use hard r's and the like
i wish roel a happy and healthy life , thank you sir for your insight. found it really enjoyable and learnt alot
Yay!!!! There's a part two!!! I love this man!!!!
I like to imagine that the elves jumped over the shields and immediately fell into a ditch. Then the Dwarves where like "GODDAMN IT!"
Underrated comment!
I like this. Elves suck.
@@JohnnyWad309 Yes, In LOTR I root for Gondor and in The Hobbit I root for the dwarfs. Elves always act like they are overpowered except they aren´t. Also they leave Middle Earth right in the middle of a crazy crisis.
Then the dwarves started throwing rocks at them!
"That was a tactical ditch that Roel advised us to build!"
In the future, we will have a time machine to send Roel to witness an historical battle and he will come back and finally give an 8 out of 10 for realism
or "ditches everywhere"
Mad lad will be running amok with a shovel, happily digging ditches and cavalry traps alongside the unwashed masses like some kind of weird 3rd world tourism experience.
@@NicholasVernem-GroovyNickyLee He's going to be nicknamed, the Mole
He gave one 9 out of 10
at that point the battle would turn though? he would walk up to the loosers and they would then win because they do as he says?
I love the expertise and the explanations ! thx for the upload !
This is fun! Amazing knowledge and interesting telling. Please more!
I imagine the writers at the Insider HQ were like: "Hey we finally found some battle scenes with actual ditches in them! Quick, bring him back!" :D
They don't search hard enough...
18 mins isn't enough, I can watch hours of his real insights, please we beg you, more content of Dr. Roel ! King of the ditch !
Me too
It would be a tad cruel to force the poor man to watch masses of men in silly armour slam into each other and proceed to whack each other in countless individual melees.
I'm glad you (Roel) keep mentioning ditches. Always needs to be said and hopefully it'll finally be heeded and depicted properly one day. I didn't know about how inaccurate it was to order archers to shoot all together in volleys. That's interesting! Talking of shooting, one of my peeves with these films and TV shows is how they nearly always say "fire" as the order to shoot arrows or bolts or trebuchet projectiles or whatever. Like.. Why would they say "fire" when the use of fire in projectile weapons hasn't been invented? As far as I know, this is why we say it now. If I'm wrong I'm happy to be corrected.
The whole archer volley thing started from depictions of musket formations during the Napoleonic wars, American civil war and other wars of that era, then someone deciding that archers must have operated in the same way since if it worked for muskets it must also work for other missile weapons too. Just like how we still have our soldiers in modern warfare line up in neat lines in an open battlefield without cover and wait until everyone is ready to shoot at the same time in a big volley. Because nothing changes in battlefield tactics over the centuries. (And yes, that was sarcasm)
@@jarrodbright5231 haha I get ya. It irritates me how so many film makers and other people can't understand how things are different in different eras and we're not all the same throughout history.
@@RedFenianPunk1916 Often it's just so the battle action reads as clear and understandable for a modern audience. It's why they changed the thumbs up to a thumbs down in Gladiator.
Professor K here has totally upped my Total War game with some of his explanations. Awesome work!
Ah, so this is what skinny Steve Rogers would do if he wasn’t Captain America, he’d move to Scotland and study medieval military campaigns.
I will never think about the virtue and wonder of ditches without pre-vita-steroid Captain America's voice narrating it. You have done this to ME! 🤪👈
Please let there be a fanfic of this.......
This guy: FINALLY A WORTHY DITCH!, This battle will be LEGENDARY!
Top comment right here
Lmao
It will achieve legendary ratings too..no higher than 7/10
1/10
You'd absolutely love to go for a pint with big Roel, I absolutely love ancient history and he seems like a class guy to just have a chat with about it.
Wedge formations are used today in Modern Cavalary and Armour units/divisions. It allows you to protect the rear of most of your tanks, and gives you better distribution of area of responsibilities. Normally the rear of the wedge will be backed up with Infantry, or mechanised infantry.
I've waited so long for this comeback. I was not disappointed.
Repent to Jesus Christ! “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33 NIV
He was busy digging a ditch around his house.
When the world needed him most... he came back!
When the world needed him most.....he dig a ditch
@@david4rancibia34 dug
@@roballister5269 He dig a dug?
I could listen to this guy's commentary for days 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
LMBO The video gets good after 11:00 when he starts talking ditches again i was kinda getting worried he had forgotten his old strategy
He's calm, confident, and humorous. Damn. A perfect person to talk with.
Love how he makes a point out of of that there was diversity in the roman ranks. 🤗
Gladitorial ranks but yes, roman legions would exist of citizens of all the mediterrean
Yes and no, those who weren't true ethnic Romans, the conquered peoples, were just "auxiliaries". Also, these auxiliary troops were used in their own regions, where they were most useful to the Roman legions.
Yaaassss, more from Dr, ROEL please, he is more entertaining than the movies!!!!!
This guy is a joy to listen to talk about ancient warfare. Can't wait for episode 3.
yes
This guy should have a whole 30 minute show dissecting one movie or TV show at the time.
The first time it was so great and on point that I wasn't surprised that he was the one to repeat episodes.
Ditches are an important part of warfare effective even now. Honestly almost all war movies somehow ignore this part. Maybe because ditch fight doesn't looks flashy or heroic, but war is not flashy or heroic, it's a matter of life and future of two faction. Thanks Mr. Roel to point this out.
I'm waiting for a WW1 film where they forget the trenches
@@warphole0369 that would be a clusterfuck
@@warphole0369 like the eastern front?
@@bindingcurve The eastern front had plenty of trenches (and ditches). How do you think people fought against tanks? Conversely they also dug ditches for tanks themselves to turn them into a hidden strongpoint (with only the gun sticking out).
@@atarkus8 WW1?
definitely more of this guy. Amazing.
This man: dig a ditch! World war 1 soldiers: and I took that personal
"If you get hit by these balls, you have no one to blame but yourself" --Dr. KonijnenDick
I would have blame the commander for make me raise the shield high and tight that i can't see a damb thing 🤣
Also, the aiming of that throwing machine was not easily predicted by the enemy. So they wouldn't know where to be to not get hit, and would just hope to be lucky enough that some forward troops would conquer the artillery position first.
Konijnendijk, which means rabbits' dike
My new pickup line
I like how the first 2 replies just missed the point completely.
I’d like to thank the people of Insider for bringing back Mr. Konijnendijk, who excellently provided fun history stuff!
Put some respect on Dr Konijnendijk!
I waited too long for him to mention ditches. I love these videos.
Yes exactly.. We want more. This is man definitely has a gift beyond academia. very entertaining.
Trebuchets are designed for sieges not for open battle. This guy is awesome. A true expert without any arrogance.
Except for Cannons, since so many in 16-19th century were located close to the action. As Napoleon said. Cannons are the King of the Battlefield
You are correct. That being said, Subutai and Batu Khan used catapults in open battle in the the Battle of Mohi where the Mongols wiped out 90% of the Hungarian army (including the Knights Templar). They used the catapults to clear the bridge, then later to break up the fortified Hungarian camp.
@@S0ulinth3machin3 A catapult isn't a trebuchet...
That ammunition was total movie garbage as well. Firstly, no-one would bother chipping a rock into perfect sphere shape, unless they had to fit it into a barrel of a cannon. Secondly, rocks don't explode into fiery shockwaves and shrapnel like the one in the movie. In fact they're quite well known for not being bombs, but a really stable building material.
@@raifthemad "Firstly, no-one would bother chipping a rock into perfect sphere shape, unless they had to fit it into a barrel of a cannon. " Except uh, the Romans. We have archaeological evidence that the Romans had nice round balls for their onagers. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn round for an Ancient civilization.
"Dig many ditches". I had to chuckle the other day when I was reading a translation of a Knight's biography written in the 13th century and every description of castle warfare started off with them digging a ditch, and then digging another ditch, and then another, but with pointy wooden stakes in it, and then pointing out the terrain near the castle had natural ditches on top of the ditches they'd already dug.
The ditch ditched and ditchest
What’s the name of the book?
@@guciowitomski3825 The History of William Marshall translated and edited by Nigel Bryant.
@Fullashit Ministries you better not have ditched that book yet
Without opening the replies, I had a feeling with was Marshall. I haven't had the chance to read the original biography but some of the modern biographies based on that one are really really something cool! I want to get the original to read even more now.
“It makes no sense!! It serves no purpose!!” …..I just love this guy…….great persona…….great smile!! 😃
I want more videos with this guy!
Thanks, Insider, for having this guy back. Now while he's there might as well book him for the third time.
This!
I wanna see this guy play some total war and reenact historical battles and try and change the outcomes through sheer strategy.
total war is a game and most of its units are downgraded to meet game balance, in a real warfare that kind of mechanics doesnt exist, also theres a huge difference between medieval warfare expert to a general who commands an actual army
You can't dig ditches in Total War. He'd hate it.
@@garrett2439 actually he is very active on the total war subreddit
@@aaaknowkneemoos4811 A lot of the TTP's in Total War you use a player are actual TTP's and they do work for the same reasons they work in real life. Obviously, this is ignoring the fact a lot of the Total War games have magic and wizards and bullshit like that. But as far as using your cavalry and artillery properly, positioning your formations and maneuvering, and getting the right troops into the right positions (spearmen/pikemen blocking cavalry shield walls protecting archers and artillery) it can definitely be used as a solid sandbox. But dude above said it best, you can't dig ditches, but you can garrison in settlements and at least have walls.
It would probably change the outcome because of how the units are balanced
This guy is a professor at a university You can literally imagine how engaging his classes would be.
Seriously, Roel is a real gem.
"It does an interesting job at giving you the visceral horrors of the battle. The tactics are non-sense" Yep, that is why we wanted Roel back, holds no punches back 🤣😂
"Where is your ditch?! You got to have a ditch!" This is an iconic line, must be printed on T-shirts if you ask me. And I agree with him, I too love history very much.
Don't forget the most important ditch: the Last Ditch.
@@oron61 😆😆😆😆 Awesome man! Thank you for a great comment
this guy need his own series or tv program. Too good for just some minutes show.
Watched this probably a dozen times by now! Still enjoy and love it!
"Why would you do that?" Son of a Ditch this man is Just Brutal.
😂😂😂
As a Spanish who lived in the province where Spartacus (the movie) was shot, I can give an answer to the historian: all Roman legionaries seen in the battle scene were Spanish soldiers provided by the Spanish government to the movie director by an agreement with the movie producer. That's why they have the discipline to learn the formations, they were using real military. As you can read on Wikipedia: "The battle scenes were filmed on a vast plain outside Madrid. About 8,000 trained soldiers from the Spanish infantry were used to double as the Roman army. Kubrick directed the armies from the top of specially constructed towers. "
@Matías Martínez Ofc I think they didn't know that ancient battle formations, but they actually had the military discipline that helps them to learn it. Kubrick was really smart asking for actual infrantrymen to shoot the scene.
@Matías Martínez at least they do make formations in ceremony
@Matías Martínez sorry dude. Moving in a disciplined manner is paramount to ANY military movement. Coordinated and disciplined movement is key to battle tactics. Large or small. This hasn’t changed for millennium. Twenty year vet.
@Matías Martínez that is the discipline. Knowing where to be under any condition, under any threat. You don’t understand as you’ve never served. To be disciplined is to move as one, in the instant of a command. Knowing how to move is like having a talent for dancing. Once you have a partner you have to be in sync with him/her. That is the discipline of the movements. That is battle. To be disciplined is to know where your fireteam partner is and that he will react the same as you and vice versa. That how you survive combat. Trust.
@Matías Martínez -- When they were filming LOTR, any of the army formations, Gondor, Elves, Easterlings, Uruk-hai, etc. Those extras were our NZDF, the reason was because soldiers know how to stand, and march in a cohesive manner. It's easier to bring in the military, who already have experience in standing and marching together, than it is to train a bunch of extras.
Who else wants this guy to have his own channel on telling history facts
The elves jumping over the dwarf shield wall always struck me as incredibly stupid as well. You have what appears to be a very effective shield wall made by heavily armed and armored soldiers that is totally wasted. So you jump directly in front of all those pikes, ruining the whole defense, right in the path of a large group of heavy infantry running toward you. The elves were lucky they weren't shoved right back onto the pikes by the momentum of the orcs. It would have made much more sense (but I guess wouldn't have looked cool enough) if the orcs, etc., had impaled themselves on the dwarves' pikes and came to a standstill while the elves then rained arrows down on them.
Do those elves really distrust the dwarves that much
Grated at me so much when I watched that, also the double shield thing annoyed me with the elves, however I can understand it with the dwarves If you consider that they are very short and their shields are likely much smaller so for them a double stack would be the equivalent of a single shield wall by elves or humans and since they are defending against human sized or bigger opponents they would have to double stack the shields to get the same level of efficacy since a single dwarf stack would be to small to offer any kind of useful defense
I mean, the whole Battle of Five armies scene is terrible. There is the slimmest possible reason they could do that jumping formation if they could do it after the orcs are engaged with the dwarves, letting them break the orc lines more quickly. But that sounds like a ton of risk and guaranteed higher casualties for not much gain.
@@donaldpratt2296 It would have been a cool scene if the orcs were starting to pull back if they elves then jumped the line to cut off say, an orc commander if he was on the front lines. Pincer him between the elves and the dwarves and kill him before diving back behind the line.
Yep agreed. I think the movie makers went waaaayyyyy too far for “This would look soooo kkkeeeewwwllll” and made a mockery of that scene. Unfortunately it does look kewl… But it has such bad tactics that it breaks the suspension of reality too much for anyone with a drop of military logic (most fans of pregunpowder fantasy). There were too many nopes in that movie. It was like the Rohirrim charging down a black diamond slope. Just…nope
If armies actually fought the way depicted in most hollywood movies, the casualty rates would have been just absurd. Most commanders have a vested interest in not just throwing men into a meat grinder, so most battles were actually not as gruesome as they could be.
Another dead soldier = another non-tax paying corpse
@@ar0568 Unless they were mercenaries. Depending on the deal, it could be money saved.
@@janbo8331 mercenaries tended to not take orders they wouldnt survice most of the time , famously for example , condotieri or allied cav.
@@cseijifja Cav allied to who? It also depended on the army and the era. There was also a time when mercenaries would have their heads chopped off for disobedience if that were the case - Roman auxiliaries, for example.
@@janbo8331 the auxiliaries were not mercenaries
Thanks, Total War. You taught me about the absurdity of wedge formations way before, so I can understand this guy's argument about it here.
You need to get him to rate HBO's Rome scene where they're fighting gauls!
this man has literally the exact same vibe as Robert Pattinson if he had taken life choices he liked more
Yesss
I was solely scrolling through comments until I got to a Robert Pattinson one. Congratulations, I agree.
Yes!!! Literally just typed his likeness to Robert Pattinson on his pt 1 video!
True
YESSSS
I would love to see more of him. Ditch historian man evolving into flaming corndog historian man is always a delight to watch.