Best Space Marines in Science Fiction | Mega Video

hi friends welcome back to another episode of generation films my name is alan more than a year ago we started an epic best space marines video series we looked at six different factions and talked about their 10 flaws and 10 advantages more importantly at the end of each video you guys rated which faction you thought was the best now a year later we have tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of votes which is madness and at the end of this very very long video we're going to tally up all those votes and let you know once and for all which space marine faction is the best enjoy the video [Music] every glen trooper was cloned from the genetic material of the famous bounty hunter django fett who was considered one of the most elite warriors in the galaxy now in theory every clone has inherited all the positive fetch rates and none of his weaknesses the kamino and cloners were supposedly amongst the best in the star wars galaxy but it's completely possible that they have missed some genetic markers for certain weaknesses or shared diseases in the fat dna having a single genetic template makes it very easy for an enemy faction to manufacture a specific virus or bacteria that targets just the fat dna which is one of the major reasons why emperor palpatine would go on to phasing out the clones for the star troopers instead in warfare the less your enemy knows about your troops the better in the case of the clone troopers if you know one of them you kind of know them all already which really does put the clones at a severe disadvantage now scientifically speaking genetic diversity is an important part of creating a strong and resilient society that's why incest is frowned upon by most cultures that's also why when a writer accidentally includes incest as a major plot point in their storyline they'll try to retcon it somehow there's even studies that show a positive correlation between interracial couples and their offspring being taller and healthier as a matter of fact mixed-race children usually have less birth defects and genetic disorders so instead of depending on one template for cleanse the republic really should have used a variety of different dna samples that were as diverse as possible it was also relatively hard for a clone trooper to go undercover because they were immediately recognizable for anyone familiar with what a clone trooper is supposed to look like now most of the space marines on this list are recruited from civilian or citizen populations and not made in a test tube like the clone troopers are the benefit of drawing from your population for soldiers is you don't have to start from scratch there's no waiting period where you have to literally sit there and watch them grow so when you start your space marine academy and you're using regular civilians or citizens you already have a full stock of able-bodied men and women that you can recruit all you really have to handle is training and equipping them because clown troopers have no parents the state instead takes over that responsibility of being their guardian during childhood which significantly increases the cost of training and housing a clone trooper normal civilian or citizen soldiers have their childhoods subsidized by individual families and rely much less on the state for help now the clones were also created for one specific reason which is warfare but what if they get injured what if they retire there really needs to be a support structure for these clones should something bad happen to them this would also add additional costs to the clone trooper program so the cost of this program is easily amongst the most expensive of all of these factions the republic needed to take care of clones and train them for roughly nine years before they were combat ready civilian and citizen forces have a much shorter training period usually ranging from a few months to a few years [Music] now you guys might be wondering why i said it only takes clone troopers nine years before their combat ready because that would mean they were basically sending children out to battle well unfortunately that's not really that far off from the truth you see in order to lower cost and speed of production the clones were genetically altered to age at twice the rate well at least in a physical way a shorter development cycle would create some major instability in a clone's mental stability so while the clones have the physical body of 18 year olds they had the flexible and innocent minds of a nine-year-old and while this did indeed speed up the process of creating a clone he had the ethical issue of sending nine-year-olds into battle and it also meant that by the time a clone was 20 years old they already had the body of a 40 year old man and were already slowing down and ready to retire now there were clowns like captain rex who would continue fighting well into his older age but he was an exceptional individual we're soldiers ezra this is what we were born to do so not only did it take a lot of time and a lot of resources and money to create these clones they also had a relatively short shelf [Music] life clone trooper armor was the precursor to stormtrooper armor which is universally laughed at as a terrible piece of kit some clones like captain rex who have used both clone and stormtrooper armor have noted that the clone armor is superior for protection even so stower's armor is generally built for protection against thermal energy by using a reflective coating along with conductive and insulated materials to absorb and redirect harmful energy from the wearer while the armor does have limited protection against blast shrapnel and kinetic rounds it's definitely on the flimsier side of space marine armor after all the outer shell of this armor is made out of deroplast which is just a fancy way of saying plastic [Music] although clones were well-versed in hand-to-hand combat they weren't especially proficient in this area of combat despite being created from a terrific genetic stock clones are by no means superhumans like their jedi counterparts they were about above average strength and agility for a human being and had great martial skills but were often bested by aliens and machines in melee combat this is more about the genetic weaknesses that we have as human beings this is also because the clone troopers depended heavily on long-range weapons the grand army of the republic was not geared or suited towards melee combat and their arsenal lacked any good melee combat protection or weapons [Music] clone ncos and commanders were terrific in the field they understood their men in a way only clones could understand their other clones but at a battalion level clones were oftentimes led by jedi commanders while jedi made excellent individual fighters they weren't necessarily great military commanders first the jedi code oftentimes limited their ability to be effective combatants but again that's not a huge issue anyone can alter a code by doing a bit of moral gymnastics to justify any type of action you want to take really more importantly the jedi order had not been involved in the military command structure for almost a thousand years the jedi were officially part of the judicial force and served as peacekeepers negotiators diplomats and lawmen of sorts very few of these jedi had battlefield command experience and this really shows during the opening battles of the clone war the battle of geonosis was a pyrrhic victory for the republic the clone troopers suffered tremendous losses primarily because of the inexperienced jedi generals that led their troops into suicidal frontal assaults over open ground against a technologically advanced army of droids with huge lasers and missiles and unfortunately the clones were pretty docile and trained to follow order so no one really protested these relatively stupid orders then you had generals like anakin skywalker who was quite talented and loved by his men but occasionally forgot that his troopers weren't jedi like him and oftentimes led his clone troopers into situations where only someone of his skills could possibly survive the jedi were unorthodox generals and while some of them were quite effective leaders the majority of them had no idea what the hell they were doing [Music] another reason emperor palpatine decided to phase out the clones was because of order 66. now you might be thinking well didn't palpatine create order 6 c6 in order to destroy the jedi you would be correct that was probably one of the major reasons why palpatine chose the clones he was able to plant biochips into their brains that had a series of orders that could be triggered by the republic government this was known as the contingency orders of the grand army of the republic and there were 150 orders in all palpatine created the other 149 order so he could hide order 66 within the rest of them without raising any suspicion there are actually several rules that were aimed at dissolving the senate and also even the chancellor office now this universal code had fallen into the wrong ends could easily control the entire ground arming the republic and even destroy palpatine's rule something that palpatine saw is far too risky especially after the galaxy found out about order 66. [Music] despite all the genetic tampering done by the cameron owens to make the clones more docile and dedicated soldiers these men were still very much human beings now these clones might not have had a traditional family or a life outside of the gar so they just saw their brothers in arms as their family and they saw the gar as life but as the clones grew older and were exposed to the rest of the galaxy unpopulated worlds like coruscant they began to understand what they were missing there are basic human urges to for instance start a family so some clones actually deserted in order to do that other clones became disillusioned by the grand army of the republic's mission and even betrayed their clone brothers others saw order 66 and the control chips in their brain as a huge breach and trust by the republic others began to worry about their future as their bodies began to rapidly age the clones were created as an ends to a meeting by palpatine to destroy the jedi but no one really thought about what would happen to them after the fighting was done what do you do to a clone when there's no war to fight do they just retire or do you exterminate them or do you try to reintroduce them into society somehow overlooking these questions and not answering them will have severe consequences for the morale of this fighting force and possibly even lead to rebellion or mass desertion django fan in many ways was a bastard he was a deadly man who was capable of taking advantage of the situation and coming out on top he was a competitive individual and very driven to improve his own circumstances in life these are great personality traits for about the owner i have but not so great if you're trying to create a soldier who basically is a slave therefore the kamen owens engineered the clones to be less individualistic and less aggressive and less selfish while some of these personality traits can be pretty negative these are also some traits that are the best motivators for a human being consequently because most clones had similar base personalities they were easier to predict than other factions [Music] the clown troopers despite all their flaws were some of the most elite soldiers in the galaxy and a lot of that was thanks to the meticulous work of the kamino and cloners the fact that the production of clones was concentrated on one world was a huge liability for the gar and made camino a very obvious strategic target for enemy factions some of the warriors on this list might be professional soldiers some might even have been trained from birth to fight but the clones they were literally born and created to be the best soldiers possible from their dna and up although the clones were slaves fighting for the groin army of the republic they had the luxury of purpose a purpose that was conditioned into them in their upbringing and training they knew they were clones and they knew it was their purpose in life to protect the republic it was a simple concept that kept them very focused and motivated and dare i say happy because the truth is not every human being wants freedom or more importantly freedom of choice many clones fit this personality type the world we live in is a complicated place and it can be a scary place that's difficult to fully comprehend how does our political system work how does the economy work how do i make a living there's a reason why so many people believe in ridiculous conspiracies and extremist views because it's much easier to mobilize your own people against other people rather than mobilizing them against ideas or concepts like corporate consolidation advancements in technology machine learning decreasing demand the failure of our education system and of course dolphins these all play an equal part in jobs disappearing in certain sectors as much as foreign cheap labor does but that's far too complicated of an issue to grasp and therefore it becomes a issue that's way too hard to rally people around so instead let's blame something very physical and very real in front of us mexicans so there's something appealing about having your soul purpose and life centered around just one simple thing being a good soldier you don't need to worry about the world around you in all of its complexities simplicity is really what a lot of us desire and that is the luxury the clones enjoy all they have to do is focus on staying alive and being the best soldier humanly possible and they excel at doing that now this purpose was further reinforced by a lack of distractions you've heard this phrase in one way or another beware the man who has nothing left to lose because he will fight with little restraint and regard for her safety also beware of the man who is naked running at you and probably on bath salts crack pcp or all three at the same time the clones were isolated from the rest of the galaxy during their training they had no family other than each other their education was focused on making them better tacticians and soldiers not on preparing them for a future job market they hardly even had time in between training and class sessions to develop hobbies it wasn't really until deployment when standards and their daily routines were relaxed that they began showing more individuality the clones were raised in an isolated warrior culture where death in combat was probably the best feature that any of them could wish to have combine that with the modified fat dna some groupthink and you have individuals who are already resigned to the fact that they will die one day on the battlefield this freedom from the burden of having a future meant that even the shiniest clones fresh from kamino won't break or panic in their first taste of real combat it's not that the clones didn't get scared it's just that they were conditioned mentally and physically not to let their fear freeze them and their culture also reinforced this idea that being a good soldier was the most important thing in life and that being a coward was worse than being dead we mentioned in our last video that clones aged twice as fast as the normal human being this cut down their training time to just nine years to adulthood that doesn't mean however their experiences and minds were also as well developed that's why many jedi upon feeling their presence in the force were confused they saw a man standing before them but felt the force presence of a child specifically a nine-year-old so while they were extremely professional as soldiers they were still a bit naive and inexperienced with certain more advanced concepts like life death and love for instance by 10 years old most children have a pretty good understanding of the permanence of death although this could be altered depending on what their religious beliefs are but most children during this time period don't think about death from an abstract point of view and more importantly children don't necessarily dread their own mortality or have learned lessons on how vulnerable they actually are until they're much older and when they reach adolescence that sense of invulnerability only increases children are also much easier to indoctrinate especially in the clones case where they are raised in an isolated controlled environment where the republic can carefully shaped their values and world views children also lack what is called formal operations or the capacity for abstract thought now they can be taught what is right and wrong and learn about morality through stories and can even make connections to real life things happening to them if steered in the right direction but they lack the ability to make their own judgments in a lot of situations and are heavily dependent on information being fed to them by people they trust it's as messed up as that sounds it makes children ideal soldiers which is why they're used in battlefields ranging from syria to central africa to southeast asia canadian general romeo delaire head of the un peacekeeping mission in rwanda once said that children were quote the ultimate cheap expendable yet sophisticated human weapon noting that they quote have no real sense of fear and when indoctrinated young enough their capacity for loyalty and for barbarism exceeds that of adults the root word of barbarism is not being a barber or being good at cutting hair but being barbaric as in they're really good at carrying out massacres [Music] so while the clones were indoctrinated by the republic there were also individualistic enough that palpatine had to place control chips into their brains although they were exceptionally loyal and disciplined they weren't completely mindless drones and were very much capable of individual thought and even disobeying the command combine that with a great sense of selflessness and duty and the clones were very much the best that humanity had to offer it's kind of ironic that the best of humanity was created by a bunch of cruel godless fish head aliens but that is really what the clones are both physically and mentally thieves were exceptional young men forced in a terrible situation that no nine-year-old should ever have to encounter yet most of them didn't break and were able to withstand the horrors of combat despite being led by incompetent jedi leaders against a numerically superior force the clones were disciplined and fearless enough to never break but flexible enough to be unpredictable in combat and adapt to the rapidly changing battlefield they are also able to feel and have compassion for one another and even the people they saw on the battlefield the clones were really the best of all of us [Music] as important as nature is nurture also has a profound effect on what kind of individual you will become when you grow up the clones were trained far longer than your average soldier most clones received nine years of constant training in the different aspects of warfare this meant that clones were not only well trained as infantry soldiers they also had the time to learn a great deal of other things including how to operate a wide variety of vehicles and weapons even alien and foreign technology if necessary it was prohibitively expensive for the gar to do this but in return they created the most well-trained soldiers in the galaxy the training facilities on camino were also quite robust there are well equipped with giant simulation rooms and flash learning facilities [Music] the greatest evil of the galactic republic was that the clones were seen as no different from droids they had no families they had no property and they had no lives outside the gar and more importantly they weren't technically citizens of the republic meaning that they couldn't vote without a vote they had no representation in the senate without a voice they had no lobbies or groups that fight for their rights i love democracy and this is a very important thing as most americans probably know the biggest weakness a republic has during wartime is war fatigue and waning public support due to attrition and that was the beauty of the clones it didn't matter that the jedi led tens of thousands of clones to a needless death in a suicidal frontal charge during the battle of geonosis because they had no grieving mothers or fathers or wives to really complain about the needless loss of life these clones were just numbers stock that needed to be replaced it allowed the jedi and other republican leaders to be more careless with the lives of their men and at the same time they could better focus on mission objectives rather than protecting their men it's a ruthless way to conduct war but within reasonable limits it also gave the republic a huge advantage [Music] although i personally don't have one i've heard that the bond between twins is special and goes beyond what even regular siblings that aren't evil might experience now imagine a whole army of identical individuals who share that connection although the clones eventually all started developing different personalities and physical appearances they all understood each other in a way that only twins or clones could this meant that they were more cohesive on the battlefield and their movements and coordination it wouldn't be ridiculous to suggest that they could even predict each other's movements this definitely made the clones a more effective fighting force it also made it incredibly hard for none clones to infiltrate their ranks even with a helmet and full armor on a clone can just recognize another clone by how they walk and move the fact that every clone was the same height and more or less same weight meant that procuring equipment and supplies was just easier for the clones in theory everything from the armor to the rifles the med kits could be custom tailored to their exact body types and needs this helps save a lot of costs and space and eliminates waste which i guess does offset the ridiculously expensive creation costs for the clones while some of the space marines we talk about are more like security forces or defense contractors the clones were professional soldiers in a very grand army of the republic with a wide range of different weapons and vehicles with their nine years of training this also meant that the clones had the time to practice a variety of combined arms tactics including some basic cross training that meant that every clone had a basic understanding of most of the weapons in the republic's arsenal the clones being widely outnumbered and lacking the proper reinforcements also were constantly being rotated around from one front line to another there is really no time for rnr so the clones had a ton of real world experience and the battles of the clone wars were massive it wasn't uncommon for a clone to be involved in a battle that was fought planet-wide using armor air support and space support all at the same time the clone superior discipline and bond with their fellow soldiers made them extremely apt at communicating and coordinating a wide range of vehicles and weapons effectively at the same time the basic clone unit was normally mechanized and either attached to it laat or att for additional heavy weapon support the clones despite their inconsistent leadership was very much a modern fighting force with modern tactics and vehicles and weapons [Music] most of the space marines in this list will be using traditional firearms or laser weapons the clones however had access to blasters these weapons had several advantages they fired superheated plasma bolts which had far more energy behind them than the average kinetic weapon and laser lasers yes sir lasers can't even penetrate our navigation shields don't they know that these weapons could also be extremely compact and also had smaller ammunition packs than kinetic weapons with far more shots they worked well against most types of armor and unarmored units as well which is quite important some of the space marines are on a list only we're focused on battling a certain type of alien or just other humans now when it comes to the clone's advantages i thought it was important to look more closely at who they were as individuals rather than what kind of equipment they had the clones were the result of a messed up experiment that controlled every aspect of their development and lives the first flaw we are going to cover starts in boot camp training we do see in the films that the mobile infantry recruits do face harsh training practices the federation forces even make pushes to lure the more talented students in the federation to fight for them but overall mi training is not overly specialized and more importantly it often doesn't start at a young age like the great soldiers of history and lore we see many recruits joining the mobile infantry as young adults as is common in modern western armies to create true sociopathic killing machines space marine recruits need to be trained young and not be raised in a bubble where they experience suburban education because many of the soldiers in the mobile infantry start their careers so late they aren't desensitized to violence or the darkness of war instead we see emotional mentally weak soldiers the mobile infantry experiences fear in the face of the enemy and weak stomachs at the gore of battle we certainly cannot compare their training and preparedness to special forces like the halo odst and that is exactly why this happens harsh life lesson yeah she's gonna be just fine listen i'm going to say this early on here in many ways the average mobile infantry soldier from the starship trooper films is simply unfit to deal with the harshness of war because technology and society has advanced to the point where life is pretty good aside from giant alien bugs threatening to wipe out the entire human race [Music] the next flaw is a lack of discipline in the ranks the mobile infantry is just not a very impressively organized fighting force soldiers openly cavort with infantry of the opposite sex and engage in hooligans with little repercussion this might seem humane but it's weakness in the face of bug scum juan rico pretty much does whatever he wants in the films he doesn't act like a leader committed absolutely to the defeat of aliens when his lieutenant catches him engaged in human intercourse on the job he gives him more time to screw around before moving out to respond to a distress call that's not a fighting force that believes in a humanity-first doctrine and is seriously committed to defeating a superior bug force sure there's some disciplining captain dip gets flogged for getting a fellow soldier killed but the rules of the mobile infantry seem inconsistent and sloppy at best i mean guys and girls shower together in the mobile infantry what kind of ridiculous oversight is that this is a core of soldiers that is just as much threatened by disarray in its ranks as it is by killer arachnids if the bugs don't get them me too will [Music] up next we have battle gear now a lot of you in the know are going to say actually the mobile infantry gear is exactly what sets them apart from other space forces after all their powered suits as devised by author robert heinlein was foundational in the field of futuristic military fiction and we are going to discuss that as an advantage in our next video but for this video as the powered suits are mostly absent from much of the starship troopers film franchise we are going to look at the standard mobile infantry gear in this video and such gear doesn't differ much from what we see available to modern day swat teams or armies mobile infantry soldiers in the films are equipped with a helmet thin body armor gloves and combat boots this would be fine if the mobile infantry was deployed against human enemies but they're not they have to fight aliens and their armor clearly does little to stop soldiers from being impaled by the bugs or having limbs bitten off one would think a futuristic army that lives in a world of ubiquitous advanced tech would have designed armor that was capable of protecting its soldiers against the enemy of course it's possible that the united citizen federation's leaders are just giant a-holes who don't think the cost to protecting each and every soldier is worth it okay i stand corrected that's a giant a-hole [Music] naturally next we have to cover weaponry the standard weapons used by the mobile infantry are the morita assault rifle the morita 2 assault rifle the pulse 44 rifle the morita 3 assault rifle combat knives the e-pulse 88 rifle rocket launchers and tactical oxygen nukes the nukes we will list as an advantage and talk about in the next video as for the rest of these weapons well they are fairly advanced in practical terms and can be effective in combating the arachnids if a mobile infantry soldier has good enough aim to hit the nerve stem however none of these weapons are that impressive or provide the mobile infantry with significant advantage over the bugs and while most of their guns are akin to modern day firearms they're actually bigger and clunkier than modern day weapons and provide a huge disadvantage in close quarters combat with giant alien bugs the ammunition in these firearms isn't even that much different than the ammunition used in standard firearms today the bullets they use are simply not made for defeating bugs [Music] our next flaw is tactics the mobile infantry along with their lack of discipline has poor battlefield strategy in other words the inferiority of their weapons is only compounded by their crappy tactics once again the mobile infantry's tactics are more suited for human on human warfare something that is largely a thing of the past and starship troopers following the meteor attack on buenos aires the united citizen federation launched an attack on clandathu the bug's home planet the results were devastating for the mobile infantry the plan was to have federation forces swarm and assault the planet and mass after securing the initial beachhead the forces would spread out and eliminate any bugs in their path the plan ultimately backfired due to the federation's arrogance and abysmal strategy in antiquated fashion they lacked artillery or air support and relied on numbers they tried to engage in a war of attrition the poor planning resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties among the mobile infantry including a hundred thousand killed in one hour alone don't get me wrong i'm proud that humanity stood together as one hashtag for argentina but the answer to an attack on earth is not to send half a million mobile infantry on a suicide mission [Music] this leads us into our next flaw poor governmental structure human society and starship troopers is governed by a military elite following the collapse of 20th century western democracies the world is still rife with affluence as far as we can see and technological advancement has led to a higher quality of life however while ordinary civilians are generally free they don't enjoy the same rights or status as military members governmental leadership positions are reserved for the veterans and thus military-minded people set the path of society as we see in any society governed by a military elite genders never end well because they fail to understand the need for restraint on militaristic behavior or a balance of ideas in government this manifests in a united citizen federation with a mobile infantry run amok with war hungry soldiers at the helm lieutenants don't hesitate to commit violence against infantry and training or place much value on the lives of their soldiers hardening soldiers for war is one thing throwing a knife through a recruit's hand and disabling him is moronic the mobile infantry badly needs the oversight of more politically inclined individuals [Music] the next flaw is that the mobile infantry is a volunteer force now this is both a weakness and a strength for today's video we will consider the aspects that make it a flaw in the federation one chooses to join the military but doing so is the only way to become a citizen so there are incentives to do so still the lack of compulsion means that the mobile infantry cannot force the most talented humans among the populists to fight for them on the flip side this means that the mobile infantry is going to have to settle for the best soldiers they can get like juan rico a complete putts i mean he gets a fellow soldier killed by taking off his helmet during a live fire simulation [Music] yes captain dip just called for a medic despite the fact that the soldier doesn't have a head this highlights maybe the most major flaw of the mobile infantry [Music] its main hero is inept he has no specialty no elite skills and isn't that intelligent whereas many elite soldier forces are defined by a heroic figurehead like master chief the mobile infantry is stuck with johnny it's that time of the month rico he almost quits the mobile infantry a force he only joined because of a girl due to the helmet incident this is an intensely weak-minded person who will go on to become a general such as reflective of a very flawed professional ladder [Music] next we have the mobile infantry transport vehicles in the film starship troopers the main vehicle used for space travel by the ucf is the corvette transport the corvettes were often used to deploy drop ships which carried mobile infantry platoons the corvettes are fast but along with the drop ships they transport seem to have weak defenses and lack much in the way of offensive combat capabilities the corvette drop ships suffered heavy casualties during the first bug wars and were easily brought down by the bugs during the first battle of clandathu again the transport vehicles available to the mobile infantry don't seem suited for battle against the alien enemy they're fighting [Music] and finally our last flaw should be rather obvious despite the mobile infantry existing in a world of advanced technology as we've previously discussed they largely fight the gigantic bugs on foot they don't use much in the way of an air force or ground vehicles and in the films don't have exoskeleton suits that give them enhanced abilities in warfare this seems almost ludicrous yet the lack of an alternate means of engaging the enemy is a catastrophic flaw in other words there is a degree to which the mobile infantry is at a technological disadvantage [Music] the first advantage to cover is unity the mobile infantry is a unified cohesive fighting force that encourages unity and avoids disorder the mobile infantry the military component of the federal armed services of the terran federation is comprised of units called platoons and these platoons are made up of soldiers from no specific region or loyalty there are no nationalistic tendencies among the platoons there is only dedication to one cause the perpetuation of humanity larger society might be best served with a free market where individualism thrives but the deadliest of armed forces in history including the u.s military eliminate the individual and encourage and reinforce a single mind among its ranks in the mobile infantry there is no deviation from the mission no soldier larger than the fight itself the platoons are homogeneous not only in cause and loyalty but also in worth the mobile infantry prides itself in its esprit de corps they never leave a man behind if they can help it and each soldier is a combat soldier in other words every soldier in a unit goes into the fight every single member of the mobile infantry is committed to the same cause and must put him or herself on the line for the mission even as a general johnny rico may not shy away from the battlefield it's no surprise of course that robert heinlein made the mobile infantry so organized so cohesive the man more than all other things despised the communists in china and russia and felt the western world had done too much to capitulate to them he saw the evils of war and militaristic pursuit necessary to combat the spread of communism and soviet dominance the bugs are organized class-based cooperative beyond the capability of individualistic humans like communist societies and heinlein believed that without dedication to militaristic expansion humanity could be destroyed the next advantage is related to the last one and it's simple bravery you might not think that this one counts but i say what could count more over and over again despite likely death the mobile infantry put themselves in the middle of the fray in order to win or at least kill a whole lot of damn bugs no matter how many weaknesses they might have their bravery a bravery that is cultivated by the unified human society they are raised in allows them to never give up and it means that they can never be counted out until they are wiped out i don't know about you but when i see a small mobile infantry unit of martian human soldiers fresh out of training standing down a horde of thousands of bugs knowing that they'll die if they do so but standing their ground and unleashing every bit of their ammo on the alien enemy for the sake of humanity a tear comes to my eye it's a beautiful thing the next advantage we have is training and this is really an area where we see a separation between book and film the movie portrays some harsh training practices among the mobile infantry recruits but overall the entire process seems rather manageable the drill instructors break some arms but that's more sadism than rigorous training the mobile infantry training in the book is much more draconian with some recruits even dying in the course of its completion juan rico states that out of an original 2000 man trading unit only a few hundred make it through to the end now this might seem inhumane and it is but these soldiers are not training for modern warfare which involves human against human combat and often low death rates they are preparing for war against alien bugs that are superior in physical force and at times numbers and the bug wars involve humans getting crushed by the thousands like ants training therefore must be exacting emotionless unforgiven we need more rabid dogs unleashed on misbehaving child soldiers [Music] the next advantage is large platoons mobile infantry platoons consist of 36 personnel each platoon is then divided into four squads of eight troopers each and a command element of a platoon commander platoon sergeant sniper and communications operator round out the unit now 36 personnel might fall short of the 41 member clone platoon but they're clones when compared with the 25 member colonial marines rifle platoon the human advantage is obvious of course the bugs can make that 36 number dwindle quickly so the large platoon is necessary but no doubt that head to head with other space units the mobile infantry has requisite support then when we consider that all 36 of them will be outfitted in powered armor the platoon becomes a small army but more on that later next up is service for citizenship now one doesn't necessarily need to serve in the mobile infantry to gain citizenship but everyone who does will and the mobile infantry does seem to be the pathway to citizenship for the masses this might not appeal to one's inner democratic ideals but nonetheless it has its advantages in a simple sense the terran federation is able to recruit the masses thanks to this quid pro quo but beyond that there are positive externalities that are produced by service for citizenship every single member of the mobile infantry did not grow up assuming his or her rights in society they have a sense of what they are fighting for this must be part of why we witness such commitment from mobile infantry soldiers to the cause even if it requires the ultimate sacrifice robert heinlein's book was a critique of what he saw as a devolving u.s culture where young people were becoming spoiled and undisciplined and thus threatening the future of the nation this is why he has rico's high school history and moral philosophy teacher scoff at the notion of unalienable rights and espouse that the only rights people have are the ones they are willing to fight and die for the mobile infantry are ingrained with this philosophy and thus are fueled by more than just fear or compulsion they have a sense of duty [Music] the next advantage is armor obviously in the last video i criticized the weak body gear of the mobile infantry in the live-action films after all it offers little protection against the enemy they're fighting but outside of those films the mobile infantry mostly fight in advanced suits called powered armor the powered armor suit is strong enough to resist most conventional weapons the bugs can definitely still penetrate it but at least it offers some protection from them in close quarters combat moreover the suits have an arsenal of weapons built into them from conventional weapons to micronuclear warheads and raid soldiers can move like superhumans in the armor as well as the suits come equipped with jump jets and rockets this allows them to cover large distances in short time and traverse heights with ease the suits give the wearer the strength to crush a tank but are also dexterous enough to allow them to handle objects with care the next advantage is the tactical oxygen nuke in the last video we listed the mobile infantry weaponry in the live action films as a disadvantage and it is their weapons are basic but this doesn't include the handheld nukes they use the tactical oxygen nuke they keep in their employ is a grenade sized tactical nuclear munition the nuke is an ultra low yield pure fusion weapon that in the case of starship troopers produce no nuclear fallout due to the lack of fissile materials involved this allows the mobile infantry to launch the nukes from rocket launchers in proximity of the target and yet still remain on the battlefield to fight practical nuclear weapons like this one in the live-action film or those contained in the powered armor hold great importance at the heart of starship troopers robert heinlein was motivated to write the book in part because of his anger at president dwight eisenhower's decision to suspend nuclear testing in 1958. heinlein was completely pro-nuke he saw a nuclear weapon proliferation as necessary to defend the united states against the nuclear weapons program of the soviet union and thought it was soft-headed and dumb to suspend the u.s program in the face of such a great threat to sum up basically russians are giant arachnids [Music] the next advantage we have to talk about is transport yes last time we criticized the corvette transports and drop ships the mobile infantry uses to traverse space they like much other tech and starship troopers can hold up against the bugs but the live-action films do little to portray the capabilities of the terenkov drive the terenkov drive introduced in the novel is a faster than light system that allows terran federation ships to travel across the universe through a combination of ion thrust and terrenchov radiation physics though not specific to the mobile infantry as they are ground troops the fact that this technology is available to them gives them an enormous advantage they can transport troops to any spot in the galactic bug war in moments just don't allow a giant queen bug to hijack control of your ship and you're all good this is general rico to earth defense command the johnny warden is under bug control and entering earth's atmosphere god damn it the next advantage is tactics the tactics of the infantry and the film are brutal they basically have one tactic sacrifice as many humans as possible to kill as many bugs as possible a war of attrition but the live-action films mobile infantry is not robert heinlein's mobile infantry heinlein's mobile infantry dominates the battlefield and they use their numbers much more effectively the novel mobile infantry uses shock effect to an extremely effective degree they put the bugs under constant pressure with rapid and fully committed advances moreover we see the mobile infantry use much more intelligent tactics in the animated films devising ways to have few soldiers stand up against thousands of bugs the last advantage is one we see throughout the franchise advanced healing technology mobile infantry soldiers are able to heal from pretty serious wounds thanks to this tech okay getting your head exploded can't be remedied but fairly deep wounds can be mended in short amounts of time and more importantly advanced mechanical prosthetics are a fact of the present a soldier who loses a limb might even find himself more capable than before with his robotic limb this kind of tech mitigates the mobile infantry's greatest weakness human fragility the bug's main advantage is that they can kill a human with a single blow but the effect of this is lessened with the technology available to humans technology that the bugs don't have [Music] and so we begin the first flaw we have to cover today is the uscm's private interests the national security act of 2101 formally established the colonial marines in its structure thus in theory they're an army of the public under the united america's allied command their duty is to maintain security for all united america signatories and extraterrestrial colonies that fall under the united states of america's control however the uscm has a very questionable relationship with the weyland-yutani corporation a large british and japanese multinational conglomerate founded in 2099 by the merger of weyland corporation and the yutani corporation weyland yutani is primarily a technology supplier manufacturing synthetic humans spaceships and computers and of course one of their clients is the united states colonial marines whom they also supply weapons to on paper the uscm is not directly controlled by weyland yutani and yet the company often employs them as a security force to protect their interests in truth it's not entirely clear how independent the uscm is in regard to weyland-yutani and for the most part it seems like the latter exercises significant control over the colonial marines a control that only becomes more absolute over time the problem here is that private control means that the uscm doesn't necessarily work for the common good and weyland yutani is consistently portrayed as an immoral predatory company they are even willing to sacrifice human lives colonial marine lives to get their hands on living xenomorph tissue and so the uscm doesn't really have a clear mission or credo that can unify and motivate its soldiers and while i can appreciate weyland yutani's goal of capturing the xenomorphs to create weapons of mass destruction out of their biology in order to ensure that humanity remains the dominant species in the universe killing humans to keep aliens alive goes against the humanity first code specifically article 2x which states quote no human shall in any way aid in the perpetuation of or take action that might be of benefit to alien species even if such actions are intended primarily to benefit humanity but i digress the colonial marines cannot really be trusted because of the influence that weyland yutani wields over them the next flaw is platoon size the colonial marines platoon is lacking in terms of numbers the uscm platoon is made up as follows first a rifle squad consists of four marines including a corporal a lance corporal and two privates two squads together are led by a sergeant and along with a driver of an m577 armored personal carrier make up a section in operations where required a ud4 drop ship is attached to the section which requires additional crew as well two sections together make up a full rifle platoon which usually comes to about 25 marines though as we see this number is often less there are benefits that come from the smaller sized platoon such as mobile efficiency but given that the marines get chopped down by aliens with little effort numbers would help a bit the starship troopers mobile infantry platoon bests the uscm by 10 soldiers and the clone troopers have 41 to a platoon more numbers also means the group has more weapons and ammo with them and more marines to carry out strategies against the aliens the next flaw we have is with the uscm's armor the core of the colonial marines armor system in the 22nd century is the m3 pattern personal armor an armored vest manufactured by armed battlefield systems one of the companies that recently got your facebook data it is designed to balance lightness and comfort with optimum protection optimum protection against ammunition additionally a marine's head protection is provided by the m10 pattern ballistic helmet the m3 armor won't do too well when dealing with high velocity ball ammunition or high explosive armor piercing rounds however it provides adequate protection against low-powered ball ammunition explosive bullets and grenade or artillery fragments of course the problem here should be clear guns don't kill people xenomorphs do and clearly the marine's armor in the 22nd century is not built for the fight in front of them to be fair when the marines first encountered the xenomorphs on lv426 in the 2170s there was no way they could have known what to expect that said in the video game aliens colonial marines the uscm has available to them acid resistant armor designed specifically to provide resistance to xenomorph acid blood nonetheless xenomorphs are able to slice through colonial marines with a similar ease as arachnids do mobile infantry thanks to obsolete armor the next flaw we have to talk about are exoskeletons the colonial marines have a bunch of exoskeletons available to them overall that's a good thing but the famous p5000 powered workloader that ellen ripley uses to dispose of the xenomorph queen aboard the uss sulaco really isn't great the power loader is a mechanized exoskeleton used for lifting heavy materials and objects the p5000 is heavily employed by the united states colonial marine corps to load supplies on board their spaceships power loaders are equipped with hydraulic claws that can be used to hold and move objects the exoskeleton might be powerful but it's heavy clunky and slow and it provides very little shielding from attacking enemies ripley somehow manages to best the alien queen but inside the loader actually seems like the worst place to be if a xenomorph is chasing after you yes the p5000 isn't designed to fight aliens but i'm not even sure it could get a ship loaded faster than a standard forklift could additionally given that the mobile infantry has powered suits available to them that give them god-like powers we have to count the slow unwieldy p5000 power loader as a knock against the colonial marines the next flaw we have to talk about is the uscm's under use of synthetic humans aka not humans robots each platoon usually features only one synthetic bishop the android aboard the sulaco is much smarter and seemingly more physically capable than the marines themselves he's an expert across multiple fields of science and technology it's also a lot harder to kill an android don't get me wrong i know that there is a risk of rebellion if too many synthetics are employed by one platoon but a few more really wouldn't hurt and sending synthetics to confront the aliens so humans don't have to die would seem like a tempting proposition xenomorphs don't as readily attack synthetics as they do humans anyway [Applause] okay that was an exception but for the most part xenomorphs only target living organisms in general it seems like when the terraforming colony on lv426 went silent it might have been smarter to send in androids to investigate especially given ellen ripley's warnings about murderous super aliens the next flaw to consider is the colonial marines weaponry now the colonial marines are very technologically advanced and generally their weaponry is very good the m41a pulse rifle seems to be an exceptionally effective weapon but still for an intergalactic space force the colonial marines guns aren't ideal they wield some weapons that heavily limit their mobility the m56 smart gun for instance is a stupid weapon it like the loader exosuit is heavy and clunky perhaps from distance on open terrain the gun would make more sense but it was completely debilitating for private vasquez to have to haul the weapon around inside buildings and around tight corridors moving xenomorphs what the colonial marines really need are small powerful weapons the noisy cricket from men in black would be a good fit for them this leads us into the next flaw which is mismanagement the colonial marines are not a well-managed force on the ground somehow a completely inexperienced officer and lieutenant gorman is given the command over the mission to investigate lv-426 now perhaps the mismanagement here was purposeful on weyland-yutani's part but sending a brand new commander to confront what might be according to ripley's warnings an alien invasion is tremendously stupid and then the marines are constantly poorly equipped when investigating the atmosphere processing station on lv426 they carry rifles that fire explosive rounds into what is essentially a giant fusion reactor and the team on lv426 has absolutely no contact with anyone on the base back on earth no one seems to be overseeing the mission from afar the team on the ground seems to pretty much be able to do whatever they please overall the worst mismanagement comes in sending in only one platoon to investigate an entire missing terraforming colony it would seem that if the entire population on lv426 went silent perhaps more than one team should go in to check it out all feeds into the next flaw the marines poor training as much as the colonial marines are hyped up as an elite fighting force they do little to live up to that name they act like overconfident idiots pre-mission and on the ground freak out in combat situations and are unsure what to do lieutenant gorman knows how to play it by the book but has no ability to improvise or think on his feet when things go wrong he completely loses his cool as does private hudson the marines also don't seem overly skilled in weapons usage either aside from corporal hicks to be fair they weren't expecting to fight against giant xenomorphs but that they just fire away without thinking is not indicative of well-trained soldiers they even almost shoot a little girl because they were so quick on the trigger rather than calm cool and collected as a matter of fact the person most proficient with the marines weapons seems to be ripley [Music] then of course the next flaw has to be tactics the colonial marines almost have no battle strategy at all save for go in and kill they don't carefully lay out their plans before entering buildings and don't do much in the way of assigning different roles to different marines on the way into the atmosphere processing station on lv 426 sergeant opponent barks out some direction but in general they all seem to go in the same way stick together as a large group along the entire route through the tunnels and cluster together in linear fashion there was little patience in planning despite the marines having an entire map of the building they had almost no plan in place in the case of an ambush aside from runaway poor tactics cost them six marines in this instance finally the last flaw is that the colonial marines are spread too thin according to the colonial marines technical manual in the fiscal year 2179 the year that the colonial marines landed on lv-426 the strength of the uscm core stood at 165 000 marines with an additional 50 000 more in reserve the uscm is expected to protect territories across huge distances in space perhaps this is why they were only able to send one platoon to lv-426 in the first place the starship troopers mobile infantry was able to lose over 300 000 soldiers at the battle of clendathu and still carry on pretty easily the colonial marines can't sacrifice near those numbers against the xenomorphs [Music] the first advantage to mention is that as an institution the uscm is a very experienced fighting force yes the platoon that arrives on lv 426 in aliens is quite green but through the course of aliens history the uscm could not be more battle tested they fight on worlds across space in a variety of different environments and against an assortment of different enemies we know that they have fought on at least two dozen worlds from the baron bg-386 to the environmentally diverse lv-1201 the extensive experience endows them centrally with a vast knowledge of space and how to approach and adapt to certain worlds and enemies this makes them incredibly adept at forced projection and being able to maintain territories far from earth they would also have a significant advantage over many other space forces if thrown into an unknown environment the next advantage we have to cover is technological prowess now we will get into some specifics later but we need to dedicate an entire advantage here to their general tech because for whatever they lack in terms of the abilities of their soldiers they definitely make up for in technology they outdo most other space marine forces in terms of variety and access to tech we are talking they have all sorts of aircrafts dropships escape vehicles speeders exoskeletons tanks armored vehicles turrets radiological weapons directed energy weapons flamethrowers sentry guns anti-tank weapons mortars grenade launchers rail guns machine guns gun guns infrared tech jet packs parafoils environmental suits and more in every way the colonial marines are a bro force with a military industrial complex only compounded by a mega corporation in weyland yutani that feeds the uscm's thirst for weapons and technology speaking of technology the next advantage we have to discuss is air support in starship troopers the united citizen federation fleet is separate from the mobile infantry and it's easy to see how this creates tensions and differences between the two arms of the terran federation armed forces the colonial marines on the other hand have their own aerospace wing they have ships and pilots who make up part of their platoons and thus are able to work in much closer coordination with the soldiers on the ground the mainstays of the uscm aerospace wing are the conestoga class transport ship allah the uss sulaco and the ud4l cheyenne dropships which the conestogas transport this giant floating gun is nothing more really than humanity's metallic phallus penetrating the space-time fabric to dominate lesser species across the universe conestoga class ships can carry 90 crew and up to 2 000 troops in hyper-sleep capsules allowing for massive troop deployments to the far reaches of space and while the corvette transport ship and starship troopers is weakly defended and offensively inept the conestoga is armed with eight anti-satellite missiles twin 800 megavolt particle beams twin rail guns in its dorsal and ventral turrets 60 orbital mines and twin 80 megawatt infrared lasers the conestoga class also employs a romberg rockwell cygnus 5 tachyon shunt hyperdrive and for you physics people out there the word tachyon should let you know that this ship can travel faster than the speed of light if needed [Music] the ud4l drop ship on the other hand transports our next advantage armored personal carriers specifically the m577 a troop transport vehicle the m577 consists of a titanium hull lined inside with boron carbide ceramic tiles each of which has been coated with a polymer resin to prevent cracks or shattering the m577 isn't necessarily suitable fordication against anti-tank weapons but it works as solid though not impenetrable reinforcement against xenomorphs on the inside the m577 is a tactical operation center allowing colonial marines to plan and monitor the battlefield on the move they have all sorts of imaging and radar technology at their disposal allowing them to track targets up to 3000 meters away in open terrain more importantly the m577 is offensively dynamic boasting two gatling guns two phased plasma cannons and an automatic light mortar the next advantage is powered exoskeletons yes last time around i criticized the p5000 powered workloader for being no better than a standard forklift but weyland yutani and the uscm learned their lessons from the p5000s lackings the exosuit for instance is a militarized version of the p5000 powered workloader designed for heavy combat use then of course there's the berserker a combat cyborg developed specifically for xenomorph clearing operations a berserker unit is heavily armed and armored and is operated by a human who is sealed inside and neurologically connected to the suit's control systems when not in operation the human operators are kept in medically induced comas and then during missions they are fed with a potent cocktail of stimulant drugs that turns them hyper aggressive against aliens for that last part imagine something along the lines of stan lee before he died except replace aliens with nurses the berserker was born in response to thousands of uscm casualties at the hands of aliens in single battles berserkers are armed with pulse rifles grenade launchers and flamethrowers and have acid resistant armor to protect against xenomorph blood [Music] the next advantage we have to mention is the m314 motion tracker we see the uscm using so often the motion tracker is a high powered ultrasound scanner that uses doppler shift discrimination to filter out moving objects from stationary background and then displays them on the tracker's monitor as a series of shapes of probable locations of objects motion trackers allow the colonial marines to monitor perimeters and stay alert of any impending attacks the trackers are able to scan through objects as well meaning one can track targets from inside of buildings or vehicles though its range is limited by obstructions [Music] the next advantage is synthetic humans last video we criticized the uscm for underusing droids but that's only because they have a huge potential as an advantage as long as they're not allowed to gather in mass and rebel as we see synthetics are much smarter and stronger than humans and are thus highly valuable commodities to marine platoons one major advantage of synthetics is that they are far more adaptable than humans to different environments and can function at a high level even given a lack of a breathable atmosphere and they are also immune to xenomorph aggression most of the time meaning they can move around an area swarming with aliens while the marines are stuck in hiding synthetics make the colonial marine platoon smarter and more capable next up we have the m41a pulse rifle the standard guns and starship troopers do little to grant the mobile infantry a significant advantage over the arachnids the soldiers waste ammo on the bugs but unless they hit them in the nerve stem the bugs don't go down easily the same cannot be said for the colonial marines guns especially the m41a the weapons steel-jacketed explosive tipped rounds take down the aliens pretty quickly that might have more to do with the xenomorph's defenses but having the appropriate weapons for the enemy one is facing is a plus additionally while the uscm does wield some unnecessary bulky and heavy guns like the m56 smartgun the m41a is officially sized and is constructed from an ultra light alloy the weapon weighs in at 10.8 pounds or pizza kilograms when fully loaded and with a sling this is in line with modern day us marine rifles despite the m41a mounting an under-barrel grenade launcher [Music] the next advantage we have to talk about is armor yes the m3 pattern personal armor is crap but the marines wearing it against xenomorphs didn't know what they were getting into on lv-426 the m4x armor appearing in the video game aliens vs predator extinction is an advanced body armor system upgrade from the m3 vest m4x armor provides better protection against high velocity impact than the m3 armor but sacrifices almost nothing in terms of mobility obviously a plus when holding up against xenomorph strikes the m4x provides full body protection including armored sleeves thick gloves and a full face helmet that contains a light ballistics resistant visor the lightweight armor helps the marine maintain his balance when absorbing alien body blows and even has light resistance to xenomorph acid blood of course in terms of anti-acid armor there's also the ape suit used mostly by weyland yutani personnel and colonial marine flamethrower units the ape suit fully protects its wearer from the burn of xenomorph blood [Music] our last advantage to talk about is the combat fitness of colonial marines yes even if the uscm is experienced as an institution sometimes individual marines have lacked experience when going into the field of battle especially when first facing off against the xenomorphs but what definitely cannot be said about any of them is that they are not fit for combat the starship troopers mobile infantry has a volunteer army that compels people who want to be citizens to join and thus we end up with a lot of unfit soldiers the uscm's marines on the other hand are all pretty much killers at heart and are ready for the horrors of war they are born to be on the battlefield and that is very important in terms of dealing with the enemy they don't hesitate to kill and aside from private hudson are able to cope with the possibility of death and even hudson goes down in valiant form in general such combat fitness means that unlike the starship troopers mobile infantry colonial marines aren't just alien bait they can hold their own and while you might see high casualties especially when undermanned the uscm is unlikely to face the kind of devastation the mobile infantry did when they lost over 300 000 soldiers in the battle of clendathu okay maggots it's time cast your final vote for the colonial marines by clicking in the top corner upcoming allen still has another video on the unsc from halo and my next video will cover the most noble fighting force of all a force that faces off against the most evil aliens to ever [Music] exist [Music] the unsc or united nations space command was a powerful all-encompassing agency that focused on exploration science and defense on behalf of all of humanity with humanity unified in an effort to conquer the stars the unsc provided international support to allow earth's colonists to safely expand into the unknown at its core was the usnc navy and the expeditionary marine corps a few hundred years later by the end of the 25th century humanity had colonized over 800 worlds and like the star wars galaxy the outer edges of humanity's territories were sparsely populated and mainly used for harvesting resources which were then refined and shipped inwards towards the sole system where the majority of manufacturing and wealth was centered around the inner colonies the source of many of the investments for these outer rim projects grew richer and more powerful the massive gap in political power and wealth between the intercolonies and the outer colonies naturally created a lot of tension an insurrectionist movement started in the outer colonies and these freedom fighters or terrorists depending on who you asked started facing off and actively fighting with the unsc security forces for 30 years these innies as they were called fought the rest of humanity greatly expanding the unsc's power and budget it didn't mean though that the unsc security forces focused mainly on training tactics and weapons for fighting other humans and and more or less this regarded the possibility of a hostile first contact scenario which unfortunately meant that humanity was woefully unprepared when they encountered the covenant had it not been for dr hasley's spartan 2 program we would have surely been doomed [Music] the halo story takes place 500 years into the future but for some reason humanity is still depending on relatively primitive kinetic energy weapons and no i don't mean handheld railguns but good old-fashioned gunpowder weapons with more or less the same stopping power and penetration as weapons we have today i find it really alarming that there's so little development in small arms technology especially when you compare it to other technology that humanity has managed to create including ftl travel by using the slipstream generator and they were even able to create a fully sentient ai with all these amazing technological advancements having firearms in the 26th century seems very antiquated [Music] what's even more troubling is that a lot of the firearms designs that we see in halo seem to have taken a step backwards from our own time let's take a look at the ma5b the main assault rifle for the unsc marines this was an unnecessarily large and bulky weapon compared to an m4 carbine commonly used by our current us marines it looks like this the ma5b is actually closer in size to a squad automatic weapon part of the reason why the ma5b was so unwieldy was because the mi5b chambered the larger 7.62 millimeter round in a support weapon size 60 round magazine it's very possible that the unsc uses this larger round because of advancements and body armor and just increased usage of body armor our own military is facing this problem right now as more and more insurgents and enemy combatants are able to purchase cheap body armor online and on the black markets now there are a variety of political economic and tactical reasons why nato chose the 556 over the 762 but one of the major reasons was weight depending on the type of material it's made from an ar magazine chambering a 556 round is usually 20 to 50 percent lighter than ak magazine chambering the 762 and of a similar size so the ma5b despite having more stopping power is incredibly heavy and not practical for cqb environments the ammo is also way too heavy to carry more than three or at most four additional clips because of the 60 round capacity and on top of that the ma5b is notorious for having terrible aim and accuracy and at ranges of just over 40 yards it was relatively hard to hit individual targets to make matters worse there was no selectable fire modes the thing only fired in full auto so essentially what you have is an entire infantry force equipped with light machine guns the weapon only makes sense ergonomically if you're a seven foot tall genetically modified superhuman [Music] while the ma5b 7.62 millimeter round was considered quite powerful by our own modern standards they really weren't as effective against the covenant who wielded a variety of different types of shields and armor while grunts were easy to put down with a short burst of automatic fire everything from the jackal on up could prove problematic for a marine fire team without heavy weapons or the ability to flank the enemy as a matter of fact combat records show that on average a marine had a hit and elite at close range with at least 45 rounds from ma5b before they were able to register her kill which i find both hilarious and extremely sad it's the equivalent of tom hanks with the colt 45 versus tiger tank maybe tom hanks will get lucky and get a shot through the driver hatch maybe a p-47 will dive out of the sky and blow up the tank but most of the time resistance is futile the only handheld firearm the marines had that was capable of consistently taking the enemy down in a single shot was the srs 99 anti-material sniper rifle which fired the ridiculously large 14.5 millimeter round which was originally first designed by humanity as an anti-tank round side by side it makes the 50 bmg look like a supermodel on top of that the srs 99 only had a four round magazine and is just about two inches shorter than tom cruise without the benefits of scientology it's just not practical as an all-around infantry rifle the problem wasn't that humanity couldn't design a firearm it was the fact that they were using firearms in the first place there's just a limitation with gunpowder weapons the more you increase the power the larger the weapon and ammunition becomes as awesome as the srs 99 anti-material rifle was you could only realistically carry maybe five mags at most because they were so freaking heavy not to mention the massive recoil you get with the anti-material rifle that was the beauty with the covenant plasma weapons while these were also quite large by human standards they also possessed increased firepower capable of taking down larger covenant foes even the less powerful plasma pistol when overcharged could take out a spartan 2 and mule neural armor in about one shot which is why pretty early on the unsc started training their own marines to use covenant weapons in case their own ammunition ran out but my question is why didn't the unsc engineering corps or oni start doing their own reverse engineering of covenant plasma weapons they are obviously superior to our own firearms and would have drastically increased the effectiveness of non-spartan regular infantry in one of our previous videos we broke down the various components of the halo murano armor and determined that o and i scientific capabilities were extremely advanced having been able to reverse engineer covenant shield technology by far one of their most impressive pieces of technology the covenant shield technology was definitely more advanced than their plasma weapons and i think o and i could have easily reverse engineered these weapons as important as the spartan 2 immunity projects were they are really just for special forces and designed to be used on a very small scale imagine equipping your entire infantry force with weapons that actually can kill the enemy that would be a game changer do you want to see marines typically wore the m52b body armor or similar ballistic armor along with the ch-252 helmet made from metal alloys these pieces of kit were great at stopping human-sized ballistic rounds human size being the key word you had coveted ballistic weapons as well if you look at behemoths like the brutes they could dual wield 15-pound spiker carbines which essentially fired out gigantic metal vampire killing stakes i mean look at the size of that thing it's more than a foot long anyway the point is human armor was useless against covenant ballistic weapons like needlers and spikers and not even properly designed to stop a plasma round we're not really sure how much this piece of kit weighs but you're probably better off going into combat wearing shorts and a t-shirt that way you can at least move around and if you are going to get your face melted off anyway might as well be comfortable [Music] the warthog has always been one of my favorite vehicles in science fiction it's something that i would really love to own one day but unfortunately it's poorly designed for the type of battles that the marines were involved in as a ground vehicle it's not really fast enough to run away from banshees or ghosts and at the same time it's too poorly armored for a real heavy assault the thing also has no doors and no roof which is good and bad good because the warhog had a tendency to flip over very easily so it's kind of easy to get out upside down bad because if the warhawk flips over and you fall out of the vehicle you might get crushed by something another really troubling fact about the warthog was if you look closely at unsc history the warhawk has been in service for 200 years in comparison here's what humanity was using 200 years ago as a reconnaissance vehicle so yeah 200 years is really stressing that platform's used beyond its reasonable limits like the humvee the warthog was a weapon designed for a past war and was ill-equipped for the current one who was fighting [Music] now the warthog didn't just flip all the time because of its high center of gravity and extremely soft suspension it was also because for some reason the unsc had some of the worst drivers i've ever seen i do have a theory about this in the future it's very likely that all the cars will be self-driving this will probably happen once the technology is mature enough and the insurance companies realize the cost benefits of removing human error from the equation so at this point driving yourself will most likely be luxury or maybe even illegal which is why most humans probably don't really understand how a car works in the 26th century which is why the warthog is continuously getting flipped over [Music] another big disadvantage the unsc marines had was the lack of air support besides the pelican drop ship and a few other gunships and vetoes the unsc marines seemed to lack true air superiority craft and depended heavily on the unsc navy to provide cover for their ground forces and oftentimes they couldn't even do that which meant the vulnerable pelican had to oftentimes drop into heavily contested areas without any air cover which is stupid because not everyone is a spartan and capable of surviving falls from extremely ridiculous heights [Music] and as we've seen time and time again even if the unsc marines are able to squeeze out a victory on the ground the covenant can just bring their fleet over a planet and glass it i mean this really limited the marine strategic options and it was severely demoralizing to see a planet that you just risked their lives fighting for get turned into a lifeless molten mess in the matter of hours ultimately the marines were tough enough and flexible enough to adapt to the covenant threat and protect humanity their flaws mainly lay in their equipment and vehicles and not necessarily their training or mindset despite being pushed to the brink the marines were able to win enough battles to help humanity survive the alien [Music] onslaught the united nations in the future halo timeline is a lot more focused and powerful compared to the bureaucratic mess we have today in 2075 the u.n has established the united earth government and its indoctrination it had limited control over the domestic affairs of national governments but as humanity began spreading out across the solar system it was the corporate-sponsored colonies that were more ambitious and therefore usually more successful as individual nations began seeing their power when the united earth government stepped in and became more influential as the main regulatory body for this corporate expansion across the solar system in the 22nd century earth and its colonies find themselves engaged as what was known as the interplanetary war overpopulation and resource shortages led to the rise in power of two extreme populist factions the communist kosovics and the fascist joking freedoms the ueg responded by deploying the united nations marines against rebel forces on mars the mission was extremely successful and the ueg would begin to grab more and more power as the war went on until it finally unified earth under its banner the unsc or united nations space command was established and the u.n marines were reorganized into the unsc marine corps now this might drop troops from many different regions on earth and even its colonies the u.n marine corps was closely based on the united states marine corps everything from how its unit was structured to its comet philosophy and identity had been carefully shaped in the various conflicts the united states have been involved in in the 20th and 21st century the u.s marine corps was perhaps one of the most prolific fighting forces prior to the establishment of the un marines which is probably one of the reasons why their successors the unsc was able to successfully defend humanity from the covenant and other xenon threats [Music] part of the united states marine corps tradition that would be continued on by the unsc marine corps was a strong and very capable veteran nco corps these were veteran fighters that obtained their rank usually through real-life combat experience they led smaller units into combat and served as an intermediary between officers and enlisted men although they were outranked by even the most junior officers it wasn't uncommon for the nco to be the most experienced man in a unit which often meant that the ncos would serve as mentors for rookie officers a strong nco corps was especially important when the unsc was fighting technologically superior fires like the covenant as entire hq units and officers suffered heavy casualties and the traditional structure of a fighting unit broke down the ncos were usually able to still effectively coordinate small unit actions against the enemies in asymmetric warfare when facing the horror of alien weapons giant monsters and just things that training can never prepare the average grunt for it was up to the veteran ncos to hold the line and inspire the men around them not to break think commissars but instead of using fear of death against their men the ncos would jump into the trenches alongside with their fellow marines so it comes to no surprise that the greatest infantry heroes in the unsc were usually ncos you have individuals like master sergeant avery johnson or sergeant john forge or even master chief himself a capable nco was the key component of a modern flexible and smart military organization another similarity between the u.s marine corps and the unsc marine corps was that it was specifically designed as an expeditionary force this meant that the marine corps was supposed to be able to function without support from other branches of the military for a period of time expeditionary forces were usually able to deploy very rapidly to foreign or extraplanetary locations this meant their equipment and vehicles should all be relatively light and mobile compared to the unsc army which main role was planetary defense and larger operations the unsc marine corps was relatively lightly armed but they still had their own air support artillery and heavy armor humanity in the 26th century is spread then across the galaxy on over 800 colonies so a mobile reaction force was incredibly important only more heavily fortified worlds would have a significant unsc presence most of the outer colonies were defended by the colonial military administration which was basically just a lightly on militia you hit maureen no sir then listen up when i joined the car we didn't have any fancy schmancy tanks we had sticks two sticks and a rock for a whole platoon and we had to share the rock [ __ ] up boy you're one very lucky marine the master sergeant is what we like to call a warrior poet deadly with an assault rifle as he is with his words what he's saying might be a little over the top and dramatic but it's not necessarily untrue whether a hareen is using a mark 1 rock or stick or a spartan laser they will find a way to kill the enemy no matter what this is another tradition the unsc marine corps received from the u.s marine corps although fully capable of fighting a high-tech war using combined arms every marine person foremost is a rifleman still trained to excel at their job using only the most basic tools at hand this is why the us marine corps is still one of the last remaining services to still have bayonet training and it seems like the unsc marine corps has not forgotten this lost arts this type of mindset proved to be very useful especially against advanced alien races whose technology oftentimes outclassed and even negated our own the unsc moraine understood that a well-trained soldier is much more important than a fancy piece of kids [Music] compared to other service branches the unsc marine corps had a very clear warrior culture generally the enlisted men were not only willing to fight but looked forward to combat this meant most marines even during their off time study military history or different martial arts forms and picked up other skills that would just make them better fighters so the marines weren't just enlisted men or officers or even professional soldiers they live and breathe combat which is why the covenant would come to respect these humans not as only soldiers but as warriors [Music] last episode we heavily criticized the ma5b assault rifle and was bulky heavy and had terrible aim but in all fairness the unsc was pretty quick to remove kit from the field that didn't work and replace it with something much better for one the recovery of covenant and forerunner technology greatly accelerated the development of new weapons tech also feedbacks from soldiers who have survived combat also helped develop these new weapons the ma5b was upgraded to the ma5c the bulky 60 round mag was reduced to 32 the barrel was switched out for a longer and heavier version which greatly improved accuracy and range and the fire rate was also lowered although the weapon could still only fire in fully automatic mode overall the ma5c was also lighter than the previous weapons then he had interesting firearms like the m7smg this was a pretty standard cqb weapon but did have two special features including a horizontal magazine and caseless ammunition this meant that the weapon didn't have to open its fridge in order to expend empty bullet cases which led to a more reliable weapon with less moving parts which was less likely to jam the horizontal mag could hold 60 rounds and because of its orientation was much lower profile this meant the m7 was ideal for dual wielding which was very useful when facing a horde of flood although by the early 26th century humanity had spread across the galaxy we had not yet encountered other sentient beings aside from the meddling dolphins that lived beneath tara's oceans so we still had a very important sense of duty to the human race even the toughest most ancient leathernecks like minister sergeant avery johnson had reservations about killing his fellow man including the insurrectionists but when it came to killing aliens the more the master sergeant slaughtered in combat the easier he slept at night and because the covenant and the various other alien species in the galaxy represented an existential threat to humanity the marines had a significant morale boost knowing that every step backwards they took was another step closer the enemy got to glassing our cities and eating our babies this meant that the marines oftentimes refused to break and fought for the last man whether it was during one of the re-takings of the human colony harvest or the hectic skirmishes on the 4runner installation 4. despite being made out of intelligent and individualistic fighters the marine corps was oftentimes very stubborn and was okay with the pure victory as long as it was a victory although the marines were first and foremost infantry men they were very well versed in combined arms tactics when available now last episode i mentioned that the marines depended heavily on the unsc navy for fixed wing air support but one store seems to mention that the unsc marines had their own air core which not only flew pelicans and other gunships but also advanced fixed-wing aircraft like the long sword whether the pilots were marines or navy the important thing is the marines were able to coordinate close range air support which sometimes was the only thing with enough power to take out one of the terrifying weapons they had to face the m808b main battle tank was light enough to be deployed by a pelican and been powerful enough to take out an enemy rape tank in two or three shots it was quite maneuverable and quick for heavy armor this made it the perfect addition for an expeditionary force that needed to move quickly and be ready to fight in a split second the m808b was a terrific platform and even respected by the covenant it could also be modified for a variety of other purposes including anti-aircraft operations [Music] the first flaw to mention is that the secops are involved in a long-term engagement on a foreign planet the secops are playing an away game pandora is lush with exotic forests and terrain more than a bit unknown to human beings they don't have knowledge of the land or its ins and outs in the battle for home tree [Music] the next flaw is that the secops main ships have no ejector seats the at-99 scorpion gunship is a great aircraft in many ways all of which we will discuss in the next video but it has some flaws and one of the major ones is that it has no ejector seat instead inertial auto rotation or unpowered landing is the preferred method of surviving a power out scenario but you'd think for an aircraft that was built for combat its engineers would have foreseen that there would be instances where the ship cannot land without power because it has been hit with a missile and either is spiraling towards the ground or just explodes in the air watching trudy sit helpless in her aircraft after it was disabled made her demise seem pointless this is a force that has figured out how to colonize a planet over four light years from earth and yet can't get pilots in damaged aircraft to the ground safely [Music] our next flaw is the wildlife on pandora while the sec ops have great tech it doesn't seem great enough to overpower the wildlife on the planet they are active and occupying one would think with their already long tenure on the planet they would have developed tech that's prepared to deal with the animals on the planet like the hammer head titanotheres we see that while the na'vi are easily felled by sec up's firepower the other wild creatures on pandora are not they compete with the best of secops tech and are ubiquitous on the planet the next flaw is that the secops is a private military force in many ways this is an advantage in others not so much the rda is more powerful than any earth government and thus in a way is a government over humanity that doesn't bend to the will of humans while this can be favorable at the same time they don't necessarily work for humans either and thus if they were to find non-human customers that can pay they could easily turn on humanity and carry out missions that are not in the best interest of earth next video the next flaw is a lack of breathing technology now here you might say but american bend sec ops has the exo pack the lightweight atmosphere filtration system that allows humans to breathe on pandora by filtering out the toxic elements in the atmosphere but i see this as a serious disadvantage the exo pact becomes a target for enemies as they can simply target the mask and if successful in destroying or removing it the human wearer will die that's a pretty big weakness when up against creatures that can breathe on the planet naturally the colonial marines on the other hand have atmosphere processing plants or apps thanks to weyland yutani that can equalize the atmosphere for humans or even potentially make it unsuitable for a planet's native inhabitants yes the apps take a long time to build and a constant crew to maintain but for groups like the colonial marines or secops that are in the business of long-term colonization they make a lot of sense the exopak also only works on planets with the requisite oxygen in the atmosphere to support human life it only filters out toxic elements so it isn't a panacea for aiding in human colonization efforts universe-wide [Music] finally our last flaw is oversight as one commenter recently pointed out on a previous video in this series one of the colonial marines best advantages is that quote they know when to bug out and nuke the entire site from or a does not roam free in space period they are still overseen by international treaties the united nations and by the interstellar commerce administration and intergalactic regulatory body their power to use nuclear weapons or to proliferate other weapons arsenals is heavily restricted by these entities it's hard to say whether the weyland-yutani corporation from aliens or the resources development administration has more power but certainly weyland yutani operates with less accountability throughout space [Music] we have to start with the rda's most obvious advantage the avatars themselves avatars are genetically engineered human navi hybrid bodies that humans connect to psionically the avatar brain and nervous system are modeled after that of its human operator but the cellular biology of the avatar is matched to that of the navi thus through avatars humans can survive on pandora at the same level the navi can and mitigate any physical advantage that the navi might have the technology that humans have created here has broader implications for the potential of the sec ops as well if they can create a navi avatar with the right funding they might be able to create avatars of alien enemies on any planet that they operate on it's unclear just how humanoid the alien needs to be for the science to be feasible but the possibilities here are many just imagine if the colonial marines could build a xenomorph avatar the next advantage is healing tech the world in the mid 22nd century has clearly seen medical technology come a long way after all as long as one has money or the right connections even a paraplegic can gain the ability to walk again grace augustine dies of a gunshot wound but that's only because she was left to the whims of the savage society to save her who rather than stop the bleeding tried to pray her consciousness into an avatar body her wounds were probably easily treatable at the rda's base on pandora so given the tech available there is a lot of potential for healing wounded soldiers on the battlefield and sending them back in very well have figured out how to repair other serious injuries seen on the battlefield as well many of the soldiers we see get hit with arrows in the film might not be finished after all the next advantage we have to talk about is mech suits the mitsubishi mk6 amplified mobility platform that sec ops soldiers use is one of the best mech suits around as far as exosuits go it doesn't have quite the capabilities of the powered armor from starship troopers but seems to at least surpass the powered loader that the colonial marines use the amp is able to duplicate all functions of the human soldier raider is able to punch through dense objects lift thousands of pounds in the air and greatly decreases the need for manufacturing and combat manpower on the battlefield itself the suit shields itself from all sorts of harsh conditions the next advantage we have to discuss is weapons between the film avatar the game and the rda published activist survival guide the sec ops is shown to employ a healthy variety of weapons from rifles to missile launchers to grenades but even more importantly almost all of their weapons are shown to be effective and appropriate for engaging their alien enemy on pandora amp suit operators employ some of the best weapons the humans have at their disposal the gau-90 is an enormous 30 millimeter hip fired auto cannon that can fire up to 250 high explosive armor piercing or incendiary rounds per minute does it really need the underbarrel bayonet questionable questionable but america this leads us into our next advantage which is a weak enemy the navi might be more humanoid than other science fiction alien enemies but they also die a lot easier unlike xenomorphs arachnids and almost any alien in warhammer the navi can't withstand being hit with almost any firepower at all a few shots in the torso and a navi will go down the navi are also way less ferocious than their alien counterparts in other science fiction worlds and present way less of a direct threat to humanity that fight isn't over yet the next advantage is that the secops are a private military force it's true that the oversight of international and intergalactic bodies limits their ability to wipe the navi off the face of pandora in one fell swoop of a nuke but the rda retains enough sovereignty from public and external control that its status as a private entity affords the secops some benefits i know private control was listed as a flaw in our last video but there are aspects of it that make it both a pro and a con the advantage side is that they don't have to worry about public funding as long as the rda is prospering and wants it so the sec ops will always have the requisite gear and other technology for the environments they operate in the secops also seems to be given a fair amount of freedom to make their own decisions about the operations they're engaged in they need to act as other military forces experience frequently the next advantage is the rda's small aircraft it's worth making this advantage more specific than just saying aircraft in general because the sa-2 samson and the 1899 scorpion gunship are both very effective additions to the secops arsenal whereas a huge mistake with other space marine units is that the majority of their firepower comes from weapons carried by foot soldiers the bulk of secop's firepower is unleashed from the air both the samson and the scorpion are well armed the samson with a pair of door mounted mbs 9m hydra or m60 machine guns and missile pods on pylon's rear of the cockpit whereas the 1899 which is more of a combat aircraft lacks the side door guns of the samson but makes up for it with superior frontal firepower the scorpion has two forward mounted stub pylons armed with four gimbal mounted 50 caliber guns with 700 rounds per minute cyclic rate of fire it also carries two triple barrel 20 millimeter gatling guns the scorpion then has two pairs of stub wing pylons to carry its 190 tk-411 wrap around thin aerial rockets in 10 19 2 rocket launchers eight hawkeye hellfire missiles can also be used to engage air-to-air targets additionally both aircraft are highly maneuverable and fast and operate well in the pandora and atmosphere and can be flown in pandora's flux cons which are concentrations of intense magnetic fields the 1899 because of its flux shielding and the samson because of the lack of metal in the aircraft though the instruments in both aircraft would still be affected and in some cases rendered useless by the flux cons of course the next advantage is the large aircraft or the c21 dragon assault ship whereas the rda's small aircraft are built for speed and maneuverability this aircraft doesn't have the same type of movement capabilities but serves as an apt transport and cargo ship and boasts devastating firepower the ship has an impressive array of automatic guns air-to-ground air-to-air missiles incendiary rockets gas canister launchers grenade launchers and automatic gatling gun systems it thus can serve as a lead assault ship but even more importantly its size and space afford the sec ops the ability to transport amp suits and soldiers all over pandora there is literally no place on pandora that the sec ops can't get their mech suits too to confront the alien enemy the next advantage the secops have is specialized units sure their grunts are ubiquitous on pandora and serve to simply add power by numbers however secops employs other more advanced soldiers as well they have recon units that do reconnaissance missions and unexplored territories and feed intelligence back to the base they have elite grenadier units that are usually deployed at the rear of secops forces and lob high caliber grenades that enemy strongholds from distance they have heavy gunners that provide ground units with long-range rapid fire support and then there are commando units which are elite soldiers that are trained for assault missions all of these units are not only better trained and more expert in their weapons than grunts but are also often geared up with more advanced armor than the regular infantry as well finally our last advantage is none other than colonel miles quarich yes his hot-headedness is a flaw [Music] the first flaw is inconsistency the astra militarum is by far one of the largest military organizations we've looked at so far the 40k version of our milky way galaxy is completely full of hostile xenos and constant warfare travel and communication throughout the vast imperium of man is difficult and fraught with dangers in order to achieve faster than light speeds in this galaxy one must go through the warp an extra dimensional sea of chaos made up of the twisted reflections of sentient beings in normal space kind of like the comment section of a youtube video should these extremely malevolent energies pierce the protective bubbles around vessels traveling through the warp disaster will fall upon the crew as they descend into madness and start murdering and probably eating each other which is why faster than light travel is not taken lightly in 40k this also means that it's relatively hard from a logistical standpoint to centralize and standardize military operations there is no standard uniform or armor that is being produced in some central forge world because the members of a regiment of astra militarm are usually recruited from one world it heavily depends on that world or the surrounding planets what kind of equipment and weapons they're given the departmental munitorum the logistical body of the imperium of man is comically overworked and needs to prioritize certain things over others this means making sure a planet meets their tithe usually paid in resources or regiments of guardsmen is far more important to what color those guardsmen's tunics are in general the only thing that is consistent among all imperial guard regiments is that they are equipped with some form of laz gun the next flaw is feudal regiments since this video is covering flaws and not advantages we'll be looking at some of the weaker regiments some worlds in the imperium are deemed unfit for the introduction of modern technology these feudalistic worlds are usually stuck with pre-industrial tech and social structures and are geared towards agricultural production while these worlds are generally pleasant compared to say massive hive cities they have very little to offer besides manpower and for many of these feudal guardsmen seeing the rest of the galaxy might be a shock it'll be hard enough for them to grasp how electricity works let alone operate a tank although in their defense depending on their background they can make great mounted warriors and luckily tactics in warhammer 40k haven't changed much since feudal times sometimes imperial guardsman units will be deployed to feudal colonies for extended periods of time and because of the lack of reinforcements and resupply they will have to locally source materials which leads to some comically low-tech guardsman units armed with primitive gunpowder weapons or single fire last guns called lazlox although some of these mounted warriors can actually be quite fearsome riding almost any animal imaginable depending on the local world i begrudgingly concede it might even be possible that some imperial guardsmen ride dolphins into aquatic battles possible yes but it doesn't mean i have to like it or support it the next flaw is feral worlds feral worlds are usually the result of a failed colony or some terrible tragedy and the inhabitants of these worlds are even more low-tech and generally live in nomadic tribes while most of the imperium of man worships the emperor as god king these nomadic tribes upon seeing a space marine or imperium warship might think the gods themselves were descending on their planets gods or whatever kind of primitive beliefs they have good luck teaching them to use alaska they'll probably just use it as a club but in their defense humans on feral worlds are generally in constant survival mode without the comforts of technology civilization farming permanent walls or showers this made them tougher than your average guardsman the next flaw is penal legions if you haven't figured it out already the world of warhammer 40k is a dark and terrible place without hope and perhaps one of the darkest places an imperial guardsman can find himself is in a penal legion capital punishment in the imperium of man is quick swift and common a penal colony is a good alternative to death and also a good way for rapists murderers thieves and deserters to pay for their sins because these legions have a higher percentage of sociopaths and dirt bags than normal legions a lot of things need to be done to ensure their discipline and loyalty this includes drugs explosive collars and even some good old-fashioned whips or light machine gun fire to arouse the penal mass to rise as hard soldiers although tactics aren't really much of a thing in this galaxy the penal legions generally were just cannon fodder and were set loose on the battlefield to wear down enemy weapons with their bodies at best you could strap some explosives onto them making them like guided missiles except slower and incapable of flight penal squads are usually lead or let's say accompanied by arbitrators who in this scenario are like prison guards except the prisoners also have weapons you'll notice that these weaker well i wouldn't say weaker but perhaps more troubled units have one thing going for them and that's sheer numbers on an individual level or on smaller more sensitive missions they're basically useless but that's because there is no such thing as small in this universe the next flaw is communication so the specific worlds and the imperial guardsmen we've spoken of so far represent the objectively weaker regiments compared to some of the more elite ones but one thing that remains a problem throughout the entire imperium of man is communication as we stated before the warp swallows up legions of men fleets of warships and the messages they carry with them where an imperial guardsman is deployed is technically determined by the lord commander of their segmentum of which there are five in total who together lead the entire astra military but with the lack of instantaneous communication or even reliable communication it's often left up to sector officers and individual regiment leaders to decide usually generals or similarly ranked officers this makes everything from basic logistics to even finding out if a battle is won or lost quite difficult so once again the best way for the imperium of man to ensure victory is through massive numbers against the enemy and in extreme situations to deploy the adeptus astartes the next flaw is lack of technological advancement the imperium of man is all about brawn and power not smarts or efficiency while the might of the imperium of man is awe-inspiring it's stuck in a constant dark age where information thought and communication are not free-flowing this is why the same empire can have feral worlds feudal worlds and forged worlds where entire fleets of interstellar battleships are created the restrictive culture and cult of worship surrounding the emperor keeps humanity relatively safe as a whole but severely restricts any kind of technological development or advancement i mean why the hell send your messages and ships into what is essentially a gateway to hell continuously for thousands of years to be fair there are mind-boggling war machines in the warhammer universe and the bio-augmentation of the astartes involves some of the most advanced and gruesome medical procedures i've ever seen in science fiction the next flaw is no hope this one has to do with the mindset of the empire this will be heresy mind you but the god king as heroic as he is keeps the collective head of humanity barely above the water line in the warhammer 40k universe there is no such thing as hope in this life the individual has no worth and there lies no greater future for a man than service to the empire this terrible reality restricts not only technology but innovation of another kind the day-to-day problem-solving that allows the unsc marines for instance to occasionally win a fight against the covenant the individual thought that allows a genetically programmed clone to turn against his traitorous general is just missing in the imperium of man you have units like the death corps of krieg charge into battle disregarding their own safety so much that their commissars find their roles reversed and must temper their own men's wish to die there is nothing glorious about this hellish battlefield where humanity loses the very thing that makes them human the next flaw is strategy history has shown us that armies of free men can and will usually win against the conscripts of despots and dictators from the greek city-states and their heroic stand against the persian empire to the swift and shocking defeat of saddam hussein's army in the first gulf war it takes a veteran to understand that no grand battle plan ever survives the chaos of warfare in the last episode we praised the terrific nco corps of the unsc marines when the traditional command structure was destroyed and even the most junior officers wiped out it was up to these ncos to pick up the pieces and lead companies that had suffered massive casualties now that isn't to say that there aren't heroic ncos and officers in the astra militarum but there is so little that one officer can do when the entire strategy of your army involves either holding fortifications or charging in mass at the enemy the next flaw is combined arms an event known as the horus heresy caused a devastating civil war far more dangerous to humanity than any zeno threat it also led to the dissolution of the organization known as the imperial army into two separate branches the imperial navy and imperial guard this meant that the imperial guard lost control of warships and were focused on ground forces the commissars were introduced as political and religious officers who ensured loyalty and watched out for signs of chaos's corruption regiments were further limited by the types of weapons and vehicles at their disposal individual regiments rarely had all the pieces of modern fighting forces and depended on each other to wage full spectrum warfare with a lot of artillery shock troops cavalry and air support these measures were enacted to ensure that no single unit of the guard would become an effective fighting force by itself self-sabotage some might call it but given the terrible strife and destruction created by the horus heresy it's understandable the last flaw is infighting although all imperial worlds worship the god king in their own way the cultures of each world differ greatly in larger campaigns when many different guardsmen regiments are gathered together there can be a clash of cultures a human from a feral world has very little in common with acadian shock trooper their belief systems might also be widely different some more backwards worlds might view the emperor as some celestial body in the sky and have problems with another world that worships the physical man the unity of man and the forces of the imperium only happened to the sheer will of the emperor and the terrifying monsters that humanity must face [Music] here's the thing no matter how well trained your human space marines are whether they're unsc marines or trey federation or gar they are not going to hold a candle against what an imperial guardsman has to deal with on the battlefield on a daily basis now i'm not saying that the imperial guard will always defeat these other factions i'm simply saying that the enemies they're used to facing are far more terrifying both psychologically and physically if you look at the major xeno threats in the warhammer galaxy any one of these enemy factions by themselves could be the major baddie in another sci-fi universe take for instance the orcs or greenskins they aren't just any old run-of-the-mill orcs like the ones in lord of the rings or warcraft no these orcs have a symbiotic relationship with fungi which allows them to be quite resilient to damage and more importantly allows them to reproduce through spores these spores are released into the atmosphere and each individual spore turns into a plant sac which is how baby orcs are born this process once started creates a permanent orc infestation on a planet that is extremely hard to get rid of the orcs were a savage and primitive race but still capable of creating great war machines orc technology was usually just a bunch of scrap bolted onto each other and held together by belief not figurative belief but literal belief the orcs projected a psychic field which held together everything from their tanks to their starships the more orcs there were in the area the larger the machines they could believe in this might sound extremely stupid but the orcs were even able to manage interstellar travel with this belief system cap that off with the fact that the orcs needed warfare like humans needed water and food and you have a perfectly bioengineered weapon and probably the only faction that actually enjoys being in this universe full of death and destruction ridiculous and over the top the orcs were a formidable foe and probably more deadly than the covenant or the aliens or or any of the other foes that the other space marines faced on our list but in warhammer 40k the orcs are just one of many threats and arguably one of the more containable ones in this universe you also have the necrons of species who had a terrible spawn planet and basically ended up becoming undead robot killing machines then there were the pointy eared eldars who were basically space elves who everyone hates then there was the forces of chaos and the demons that came along with them and of course the world eaters known as the tyranids who in my opinion were the worst they were basically one gigantic organism controlled by a hive mind that constantly consumed biomass and turned it into a wide array of horrific creatures that were designed to kill and harvest more biomass for the hive this was survival at its finest or worse now it doesn't mean that the imperial guardsmen were only successful fighting off these xeno threats as a matter of fact they oftentimes got massacred but the point is they've seen it all so they won't break easily even if they're out number 10 to won by other human soldiers and if anything that would still be considered an easy day at the office [Music] now part of the reason why the imperial guardsmen were able to face certain death with such courage was because of their belief system the entirety of man worshipped the emperor as a god as we mentioned in our last episode there are many different types of planets and cultures in the imperium of man but they all worship the emperor in one way or another the imperial cult rose in power after the horus heresy when man's greatest defenders the space marines were corrupted by chaos since then believing the god emperor fulfilled the spiritual need of all humanity from the high cities to the battlefields and if you look at the list of enemies we just talked about it makes sense why the imperial guards would have such spiritual needs believe in the emperor and his protection gave the regular guardsmen the courage to undergo extremely terrifying situations without breaking it also imbued a healthy hatred for xenos in the average guardsmen which made killing the enemy that much more enjoyable and sag humanity first [Music] if you bring 10 000 starstrip troopers they will bring 20 000 guardsmen if you bring a million unsc marines they will bring 2 million guardsmen if you bring 10 million clones the imperium of man will just go meh and destroy the planets while the milky way galaxy of warhammer 40k is similar in size to the stars galaxy the level of militarization in warhammer 40k is ridiculous almost everything in the imperium a man is dedicated to warfare due to the many dangers in the galaxy you have high planets covered in hype cities think coruscants under levels but shaped like mountains and a lot more toxic depressing and dangerous these planets could have hundreds of billions if not trillions of humans ready to die for the imperium then you also have forged worlds which were entire planets turned into industrial wastelands with the sole purpose of manufacturing war machines for the war efforts the scale of warhammer 40k is just comical and perhaps its greatest strength [Music] and the imperial guard was only a portion of the imperium of man's entire force above them we had the space marines of course and other special units below them every planet also had a pdf or planetary defense force the pdf was seen as less prestigious than the imperial guard simply because it was designed to protect only one planet and not humanity as a whole a much more noble endeavor the pdf were completely locally sourced funded and armed soldiers that were the first line of defense against invasion and held the line until the imperial guard and other imperium forces were able to come sometimes this was a few months sometimes this could take several decades the quality of a planet's pdf widely varied from world to world he had planets like acadia which before it was destroyed was a heavily militarized and industrial world that had some of the finest soldiers in the imperium of man their pdf was on par with some of the best imperial guard units but then on less industrialized hive worlds your pdf might just be a loose coalition of gangs armed by local governors despite their less glamorous role in the imperium of man the pdf served as an important pipeline for new imperial guard recruits the best and most talented pdf soldiers were usually selected for the guard this meant that even the greenest guardsmen already had some basic combat training and maybe even experience in battle this significantly boosted the readiness of your average imperial guard regiment [Music] last episode we talked about the logistical nightmare that is the imperium of man which led to a lack of standardization amongst the imperial guard regiments but if there was one common piece of kit that every imperial guardsman is issued it's the last gun these direct energy weapons came in many different makes and models but were all quite similar in form and function it is however quite difficult to determine just how useful this weapon is especially in relation to other weapons used by the various forces we have discussed in prior videos the last gun actually could have easily made the 10 flaws video but it also has its advantages on the one hand it's mostly laughed at in universe it's off against called the flashlight because all it does is reveal the various terrifying monsters that the guardsmen have to face the lord describes it as a low-powered direct energy weapon but as we know everything in warhammer is an exaggeration what might just be a minor wound for a guardsman might be a life-changing below-the-waist amputation for the rest of us this same type of misjudgment could also be applied to the last gun on average the weapon's energy is rated at 20 megajoules which is around the same muzzle energy as a modern battle tank's main cannon that makes it by far the most powerful small arms on our list so far [Music] against most of the threats that we've mentioned in this video the imperial guard can expect to have massive casualties and it wasn't that uncommon to have an entire regiment be wiped out an imperial guardsman unit is still relatively weak despite the last gun's ridiculous amount of power but imperial guardsman regimen that is properly mechanized or supported by artillery can be a fearsome vote in our 10th laws video we looked at some of the weakest units in the imperial guard in our 10 advantages video it should only be fair that we look at some of the strongest the steel legion is an imperial guardsman regiment and is stationed on the world of armageddon which is permanently infested with one of the largest orc wags the galaxy has ever seen this perpetual war is constantly being fought with tanks rolling out of the factory straight onto the battlefield the world of armageddon is a heavily industrialized hive world this means that the armageddon steel legion is armed to the teeth with some of the best weapons and vehicles in the galaxy they are also a fully mechanized unit primarily fielding the chimera apc armor personnel carriers in warhammer 40k don't just transport soldiers around safely but are also used as heavy assault vehicles a task they are well suited for they're more like mobile weapons platforms that just happen to also be armored and carrying guardsmen this gave the steel legion incredible amount of firepower and maneuverability [Music] there are a few permanent hot spots on the borders of the imperium of man these threats were usually contained by what was known as a fortress world fortress worlds were entire planets or systems whose sole duty was to protect the rest of the imperium these planets usually had their entire surface fortified and covered in defensive emplacements and they also produced some of the best soldiers in the galaxy one of the most famous fortress worlds was cadia home to the canadian shock troops widely regarded as one of the finest units in the imperial guard this was due to their training pipeline and close proximity to the eye of terror spawn point for chaos and warp demons civilians on most fortress worlds were trained from birth to fight acadian child was expected to be able to strip and clean the last gun by the age of five by age six they were at marksman and by seven they were fully aware of the horrors of the warp by the age of 14 they were enlisted in the white shield canadian youth army and when they became adults they joined the planetary defense force which we mentioned was on par with most other imperial guard units the most elite individuals ended up in the imperial guard unit known as the canadian shock troops the canadian shark troops were so loyal that they continued to fight for the imperium of man even after their planet was cracked in half [Music] as we mentioned in our last video not all imperial guard units were made the same some just didn't have the fanatical devotion of say the death corps creek for these units the political officers known as the commissars were quite important the commissar's official mission was to maintain high unit morale and purity amongst the rank they did this by instilling a sense of discipline amongst their men usually by using the business end of their weapon for some mine cleansing they functioned outside the traditional command chain and were basically allowed to do whatever they wanted to fulfill their mission this could mean commandeering a section of artillery to bombard friendly units and fall into chaos it could also mean leading a frontal charge into the enemy lines the commissars were usually extremely charismatic and fearsome warriors units that had one attached to them rarely ever broke in the face of an enemy onslaught preferring to die instead of disappointing their equally beloved and feared commissar [Music] although the imperium of man has a tasteful distaste for mutants it remains flexible enough of an organization to understand the benefits that these ab humans can bring to the imperial guard after all doesn't matter what you are on the outside as long as you're human on the inside or at least 90 human 85. although some of the more dogmatic and zealous imperials might look at them in disapproval these mutants played a crucial part in the imperial war machine you had rattlings which were basically hobbits these smaller ab humans were extremely talented marksmen and quite stealthy as well making them genetically predisposed to be great snipers the ogren were the opposite of the rattlings powerful giants that stood over 10 feet tall and physically were much stronger than your average human these mutants formed the militarum auxilia small formations that were attached to larger imperial guard units their unique strengths gave imperial guard units more flexibility in combat for many of these ab humans serving the emperor was a way of atoning for their sin of being born as a mutant because it's their fault assad community first again the imperial guardsmen are not without flaws we did an entire video about it in our last video they aren't impervious to defeat as a matter of fact having entire regiments wiped out was very common in the 40k universe but actually winning a battle against the imperial guardsman was extremely hard because their commanders are willing to basically do anything in order to defeat their enemy you might be able to defeat them in a skirmish or a battle but they'll just keep coming and throwing themselves in front of your cannons and guns until they finally overwhelm your defenses that or some heavier unit reinforces them and should you somehow take a world from them or cause enough damage to really get their attention they can just declare exterminatus on the planet you're fighting on this was an extreme move that destroyed all life on the planet usually done from orbit if the imperial guardsmen can't win then no one gets to win [Music] you

Channel: Generation Films

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Rating: 4.7247334 out of 5

Keywords: Space Marine, Best Space marines, Star wars, clone troopers, clonetroopers, aliens, colonial marines, UNSC, UNSC marines, United Nations Space command, Avatar Marines, Resource Development Administration security operations, Terran Federation, starship trooper, Space Marines vs Alien, 40K Imperial Guard, Imperial guardsmen, Warhammer 40k, The planet broke before guard, roughnecks, Rough necks, best space marines series

Id: 6nFiYuYZuE8

Length: 124min 23sec (7463 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 02 2020