Why is Warhammer 40k so popular?
I can mainly speak for the novels and the games:For one, consider this: If Warhammer 40k didn’t exist, then Starcraft wouldn’t exist (and you can look up information on this to know why).Think of another thing (for the novels and setting), it is one of the most grim dark settings out there. There is no happy ending, there is no sugar coating and almost no comedic relief. The setting itself and the uniqueness, including the depth of the characters, and everything else that has lore miles long make it an amazing universe. It has one of the most well known / best RTS game series of all time (Dawn of War). You thought Game of Thrones was grim and killed off important characters? Game of Thrones looks like sunshine and rainbows in comparison, and WH40k is far more serious.The setting, in a crude timeline, goes from Utopia -> Destroyed Utopia -> Chaotic Divided Warring Hellhole -> Reunited Forming Utopia -> Grand Betrayal -> Extremely grim (and dark) DystopiaAll you need to do to discover why it is so popular is to pick up the books. I started with post-horus heresy books when I started reading after the games (Like the Blood Angels Omnibus book which I highly recommend), but the main Horus Heresy series is what you should start reading, and you won’t be able to stop. Some books might not be as appealing in the series, but most will appeal. So many characters and and complex plots, on such a grand scale. You will be savoring over every chance you get to read material with The Emperor in it, and the Primarchs are awesome. Magnus is probably my personal favorite, and such a tragic fall.Want to realise more about just how depressing and dystopian warhammer 40k is (10,000 years after the Horus Heresy)? Many quotes from the game Dawn of War and books can help with that, and I will post a few here for you to admire:“Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.”“There is no such thing as innocence, only varying degrees of guilt.”“Happiness is a delusion of the weak.”and here is an old cool comic page that has floated around (Ignore the shell casings………)of the games, the intro animation in Dawn of War 1 is probably my favorite of all the intro animations:
The protagonists of the last five movies that you've watched will protect you from Darth Vader. Can they save you?
#1. Sam BrennerUseless.This isn’t an Ernest Cline novel. Sam has a very limited skill set, and those skills won’t serve him here. He’s not even a computer hacker. His ability is limited to video games. And not even modern video games, but specifically arcade cabinets from the 1980s. If there’s a Star Wars arcade game from that era, Sam could defeat Vader in it every time. But engaging in a real X-wing fighter battle or lightsaber fight would be completely different. And he’d have no defense against Vader’s Force powers. He’s toast.#2. Jim PrestonMarginally better. At least he has some real-life experience with spaceships, although it’s limited to one intergalactic cruise ship, and his “experience” mostly consists of watching movies, playing exercise games, and chatting with the android bartender to relieve his boredom. He did manage to save the Avalon, so all that time alone on the ship must have taught him something useful.#3. SeleneNow we’re talking.Selene is a badass. She can handle guns, blades, and other weapons with superhuman accuracy and reflexes, so she should be more than capable of holding her own against Vader in a lightsaber duel. As a vampire, she doesn’t have human weaknesses and can’t be killed in typical ways. And she would likely be immune to Vader’s Force powers. Selene versus Vader would be a great match.#4. BenjiUh … no.Maybe he could get in a loud bark or two before Vader hurls him against a wall.#5. Professor Charles XavierOkay. Now things are getting interesting.Obviously Charles can’t do much physically, but his mind powers are very strong — perhaps the equal of Vader’s. He can get inside Vader’s head and fill it with images of Padme and their children, reminding him of the Anakin Skywalker that he used to be. Vader would be hard pressed to defend himself against that.The analysis:It comes down to Vader against Selene and Charles. Vader puts up a fight against Selene, but he is distracted by having Charles in his head and Selene gains the upper hand.But as Selene is about to deal the death blow, Charles tries to stop her. They get into a brief conflict as Selene (who is, after all, a Death Dealer) wants to do her job while Charles believes Vader can be turned back to the light side.In the end, Selene reluctantly lets him go. We all get into Jim Preston’s space cruiser and fly off.Brenner stupidly tries to intervene at some point and is killed.Benji, being a smart dog, just stays the hell away.
What is the difference between an AK-47 and an AKM?
This is your standard Kalashnikov assault rifle.The metal assembly between the forearm grips (the wood on the right side of the rifle) and the buttstock (the wood on the left side) is the receiver.The AK-47’s receiver is made from a solid steel block which is shaped into a rifle component on a milling machine. A skilled machinist had to do the operation on a very expensive tool, and each machinist could probably make four receivers per day.The AKM’s receiver is stamped from a 1 millimeter-thick piece of sheet metal, and several pieces of metal were either riveted or spot welded into the receiver stamping to enable the rest of the rifle to be attached to it.The change has a lot of advantages, factory productivity being the least of them. (I feel confident, though, that the Politburo was very happy about their rifle factory being able to make more stamped rifles in a week than it could make milled rifles in a year.) The stamped-steel rifles are two pounds lighter than the milled ones, a change any grunt will appreciate. They’re also more accurate and more reliable.There are other modifications. One interesting one is that they hollowed out the buttstock to reduce the rifle’s weight even further. They found out the hollow was big enough to hold a cleaning kit, so a door was added to the shoulder pad.Most of the rifles people call AK-47s are really AKMs. They look almost identical from the outside.
How did the Mongols surmount the Great Wall to eventually conqueror all China?
Contrary to expectations, the Great wall was never intended to keep a true invasion out, just small raids. It was not garrisoned like a castle curtain wall in a siege, most of the army was based in camps miles to the rear in centralised army corps, not piecemeal along the walls.What it WAS for was an anvil to hold the invaders as they filtered through the breaks or gates or slowly climbed over with their plunder, keeping them in position long enough for the hammer of the army to march up and grind them to paste between their spears and the wall at their backs.Remember it was erected against a nation of horse nomads, Ancestors of the Mongol Khanate. You can’t climb a wall with a horse on your back, so gates were a significant choke point. Small raiding parties could be fended off by the small garrisons, while major incursions slowed long enough for messengers to reach and rouse the armies in the rear so they could mobilise and move to meet the invaders.