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Spike TV is having comparisons of historical fighters:

Looks like Apaches beat gladiators
Samurai beat Vikings (did you see what the long sword did-wo)
Spartans exterminate ninjas.
I didn’t see the pirates vs. knights one.

I really would have liked to see
-Roman veteran vs. samurai
-I would have liked knight vs. samurai but we don’t have enough info on knight’s battle training.
-How many samurai could a Mongol horseman pwon before having to drink some mare’s milk.
-And of course-ninja vs. pirate!

Liked the show-the scientific tests of the weapons and armor are interesting:
*Katana brutal
*Surprisingly Viking longsword also brutal
*early Viking mail laughing at a katana strike
*Simple Apache war club being pretty effective
*Spartan shield uber alles.

I really would have liked to see a 1st Century Roman though.

http://www.spike.com/show/31082

Yes, on the ground it would be samurai time.

To be clear I was thinking in their natural environment. You'd never fight a Mongol horseman on the ground.

They need to add a Zulu into the mix, and Bruce Lee with Nonchuks. A conquistador would be cool as well.

How about WWI Doughboy against Samura?
Bang!
next test.

Blasphemer! Sinner! Burn the Heretic!

AlexCage wrote:Pirate Vs. Knight kinda pissed me off.

Spoiler:

The Knight gives the pirate a sound trouncing, but then just gets shot in the face. Win: Pirate. Bull.

The whole damn episode shows how massively ineffective pirate weaponry would be against a knight. Grenados don't do crap but stun and shake the Knight (Maybe unhorse him), flintlock pistols can't even penetrate platemail at point blank, and I need not go into how much of an advantage the Knight has in Hand to Hand (NO Pirate melee weapon can actually go through Knight armor, apparently). The only thing that actually did any damage to the Knight is the Blunderbuss. And even then, the damn thing misfired half the shots it took. All the Knight needs to do is land one good hit. BAM. Back to Davey Jones'.

Yea this matchup doesn't work.
1. Knights on a ship, just push them over.
2. I don't believe plate is going to stop a .75 caliber flintlock.
3. A pirate would rake the deck with grapeshot (if they had it of course).
But yea a knight would terminate a pirate with extreme predjudice in HTH.

I'd proffer a 13th/14th century knight would do well against a similar age samurai on foot, if said knights actually trained. We don't have a lot on their actual training, so its the big if. If a knight is trained they could be quite tough. If they are fat pigs lording it over the peasants, not so much.

I think a Roman veteran would be a tough customer against anyone within 30 feet. Guys on horseback with bows were always their achilles heel not some dude waving a sword about.