CrashbotUS

Looks like a winner. 

I'm on my phone but I can suggest some tales to read.  These are pretty old, some going back to Kievan times.  There is a compendium of a bunch of Slavic folk tales, including these, but I forgot that is is called. 
 

Yes, you'll need the other six pin connector. 

This is actually relevant to this thread towards the end.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVcKsecg2Uk

This gave me a double Goody's Powder headache. 

Belgrade 

That's why the steppe tribes and folks from the "wild fields" typically made life miserable for the more settled people in eastern Europe. 

HIMARS

Colorized version of a previous image. 

Abrams drivers cannot exit their station when the gun tube is facing front. 

LetoJoker reminds me of a Mexican Juggalo. 

That's beautiful *tear 

Catastrophic failure. 

Some M551s

 I'm not very familiar with the smelting process, I know many smiths but never really paid much attention to how they got their materials.  I know most of them use bog iron, since that was what most of northern and northeastern Europe used. Last time I was in at a Vikings and Slavs market in Europe, we spent a day gathering the nodules but I didn't stick around to see what they did with it.  

I wonder why they didn't use a crucible. 

This game just came out for PC, and it is glorious:

 

 

Do you like fighting giant insects and giant robots?  At the same time?  With lasers?  Lasers that shoot in eight directions and friendly fire your entire squad?  And bikini animea chicks flying on jetpacks and shooting psychic plasma beams?  This game even has a fucking waifu launcher for god's sake.

 

If not, I don't know what wrong with you.  This is the video game equivalent of a B-movie, and it is perfect in every way.

Remove animea

He does a really good job with his research. Pretty knowledgeable guy. 

I can't imagine using that thing. I mean, I'm 6'1 190lb and in pretty decent shape and it looks like it would kick my ass royally. 

Ax info. 

http://sagy.vikingove.cz/two-handed-axes/

Ah, the M577. Like to see what it looked like on the inside. 

The early "gambeson" are pretty simple. Anything from a simple linen or wool tunic with straw stuffed into it all the way up to quilted leather or linen jackets. They really didn't show up in Europe as widespread until the 13th century. There is some great level of debate on their use during the migration period and Viking age Scandinavia due to lack of archaeological evidence. We do know the Byzantines and steppe tribes wore them and the Kievan Rus had contact with both, so it is likely the eastern armies used them. This is also where the parts of the lamellar armor found at Birka Sweden are theorized as originating from. 

Matt sort of dealt with this a bit, but in your opinion why was the axe relatively rare as a weapon? I mean, we know that swords were more like sidearms a lot of the time and the spear was the primary weapon for most of your troops (see also: pikes, halberds etc.) - so does this mean that the one-handed axe simply didn't have a niche to fill?

 

Or is there a good mechanistic reason why an axe isn't all that effective despite having so many nifty qualities?

It became less effective later on and so it would be more rare on the field. Maybe as a secondary weapon at that point.  Looking at 6-11th century finds, the ax is all over the place. Less so for swords and even less for armor.  A one handed ax is good when fighting in units or when fighting people with swords common from that period. The average bland length 70-90cm of a "Viking" age sword doesn't give as much advantage over the ax . 

I'm not sure I agree with that two handed parry using the ax, especially against a spear, but the rest seems pretty accurate. With proper ax training, you can hook shields, swords, body parts, and pretty easily disarm someone completely.