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Oh man. I make myself wait, the videos are so much better.

Video games are a majorly underrated way of teaching people about history and related fields. One of the single most important things that got me to major in history was Age of Empires III, because every civ and every unit had little essays that contextualized them. No, those essays weren't always accurate, but it offered quite the window into further research. There were many things I had no point of reference for prior to playing the game, which I subsequently researched on my own time and learned a whole lot about.

Environmental history is a very well developed subfield of history. Environmental historians have fought for many years for the greater consideration of non-human factors in historical debate.

Actually - here's a scan of the Kings Regulations from 1914 with a listing of the ranks in use at the time.

History, anthropology and related fields should probably have some integration with biology. Many of its core concepts are applicable. Homeostasis is critical to most if not all living organisms. Maintain the biological status quo as much as you can, and whenever there's a shake-up, there's contingencies to address that. And sometimes there's positive feedback loops, where variable A precipitates variable B, and variable B precipitates variable A.

Same basic concepts show up so often in history. Climate change, in this case, forces extreme measures i.e. aggressive competition for resources, extreme measures cause more instability i.e. aggressive response from previous target(s) of aggression, which leads to yet more extreme measures. In this case, Huns go raiding to make ends meet. They get resources, but Romans and others contest their raids. Huns are now in hostile territory but have an abundance of resources and more experience in warfare. Climate conditions still stink, so returning to the steppe and herding livestock doesn't work. Yet more raids ensue; further into the enemy hinterland and toward major population centers as borderlands are despoiled. Yet more conflict occurs between battle-hardened Huns and their enemies.

Gunner was a rank - basically the Royal Artillery equivalent of a private.

AFAIK Lance Bombardier & Bombardier was the RA equivalents to Lance Corporals and Corporals. I'm not sure why Fray Bentos is listed as having an LC serving in it - it might simply have been due the way ranks were structured at that exact time, and the fact the RA was three separate branches.

PBS’ Secrets of the Dead series did a decent analysis of climate pressures surrounding the fall of the Roman Empire in their episode, “The End of the Romans”.

This is helpful, but I'd like more information. It just says "gunner" between sargent and lance corporal. Does this mean they were corporals?

Todd Howard, is that you?

https://youtube.com/@FallofCivilizations

This is the link to their channel. A month or two after they do a podcast/release the audio on youtube, they make a video production of it. They're beautiful, too. Makes them worth a 2nd watch when the video comes out.

Click on the Fall of Civilizations playlist, those are all the videos. The chronological one is nice, they place the civilizations in chronological order

Wait, is the fall of civilizations on YouTube or another channel to watch? I’ve only seen it as a podcast.

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the Rapunui did that for me ages ago, was a good listen

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Natural disasters cause the balance in nature to go awry. This could mean that feeding grounds for normal pests are disturbed so they seek new areas through migration. Locusts coming to areas they've never been historically reported. Small mammals who carry fleas and ticks with disease will look for the easiest food available. If hundreds of thousands of people die, and so quickly that they can't be buried properly, this now will spread disease from the decaying bodies, plus the wildlife that feeds on them. an increase in flies and other insects comes to mind which we know spread bacteria and disease. You also have no humans to clean up and keep rats and mice from getting into the grain supply. In medieval Europe and up to the plague of London in the 17th century, cats and dogs were killed as people thought they were dirty and spread disease. This makes the rat population boom. In that specific case, the plaque was spread from fleas on the rats. More rats, more plaque. Natural disasters have been spreading disease since we have existed.

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Yeah I have watched most of them. Can't praise them enough.

>Combined arms was a concept understood at the time (Ming Dynasty in this 17th century battle) and had been used since the 400s BC (when crossbowmen were combined with archers, pikemen, halberdiers, etc in Warring States armies). The Ming Dynasty had pike formations that combined musketeers with pikemen and archers.

Military tactics and theory were not directly passed down throughout Chinese history. Many things related to mathematics, science, engineering, military strategy etc. were either rediscovered or reinvented hundreds of years later or not even known that the Chinese possessed such knowledge till the 20th century until studies by Sino Scholars. So just because there is an example from BC's, doesn't mean it was still actively analyzed in AD.

And the reason I said the Ming had no concept of combined arms was I meant they had no idea how to use musketeers and artillery with their infantry and cavalry. So firearms weren't very effective, which is why the Chinese never fully invested them in as opposed to the Japanese and Europeans who saw the huge advantage that firearms had and basically equipped their entire armies with. The Japanese actually used massed rotating volley fire combined with infantry and cavalry support to resist charges and push back against the enemy. The musketeers were used like how Napoleon used artillery and cavalry together. Break up the formation of the enemy with withering firepower and charge in with cavalry backed up by infantry. The Ming were defeated in almost every pitched battle against the Japanese in Korea and only pushed through due to the Japanese running out of supplies or retreating when in danger of being isolated by the Ming and Joseon forces. So yea, maybe some Chinese strategists were aware and implemented such tactics but clearly those ideas were not spread to the entire Ming military nor became uniform tactical theory across the country.

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>The 16th century Ming general Qi Jiguang even developed a quasi-pike formation called the Mandarin duck that combined shielded swordsmen + pikemen + ranged troops (muskets, archers, etc) + a guy with a weird polearm called the wolf's brush.

You're talking about the polearm that was like a bamboo branch that basically shoved in the enemy's face right? I've heard of this too but I'm assuming it was that one general's tactic and no one else used it. And it seems he mostly used it against Japanese pirates and rebels in the South. No idea how it would have fared against the Manchus or actual Japanese military units.

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The German Wikipedia lists the crew for the A7V as 1 officer, 5 ncos and 10 enlisted men. Another 7 to 10 enlisted men in battle configuration (adding messengers, carrier pigeon handler, 2nd rifleman for each MG, etc.).
The article cites a book called "Sturmpanzerwagen A7V : vom Urpanzer zum Leopard 2", which, if you can find a copy, might be able to get you more detailed information on what positions were supposed to be NCOs and which ones enlisted men. Given how haphazard everything was at the front by that time though, what was supposed to be and what was reality might be somewhat different.