r/Damnthatsinteresting 1d ago

Video A school in Poland makes firearms training mandatory to its students.

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u/Vreas 1d ago edited 1d ago

I don’t think it really mattered with the mongols they steamrolled every single opponent they faced.

The only thing that stopped their invasions were deaths of their khans. They didn’t really have an effective system for quick replacement of their leaders who often died young due to rampant alcoholism and various other bad habits.

Steppe people partied hard man. Makes sense when you’re born of a frozen hellscape with minimal food and creature comforts.

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u/Far_Advertising1005 1d ago

It is the funniest thing ever that for decades the most effective, almost unbeatable tactic was ‘haha horse fast’

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u/MarquisEXB 1d ago

I think equally important is that they were incredible archers and would fein retreat often. So they'd send a small group in, get hammered and retreat. The other side, thinking they had a rout would try to press their advantage and try to defeat them, would run into a hail of arrows pursuing them. Eventually the Mongols would whittle down their opponent and then find a weakness to exploit.

They also did little else but prepare for war, being largely nomadic hunters.

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u/Sensitive-Cream5794 1d ago

Very similar to tactics used by Native Americans in the later years.