Singularly Datarific said:
MP5.
My personal favorite, preferably the SD version with the integrated silencer.
It personifies counter-terrorism, the kinda thing that will cause bowels to loosen when you know it is approaching, cuz hearing the clackity-clack of the only audible part means that somebody sent a specialized mission composed of trained professionals to kill or incapacitate you.
I'm not about to bash the MP5 too strenuously, but coming from people who do use it, I'm told it has a few design oddities that make it less than ideal.
Knifewounds said:
Note 1: The weapons will be judged by their own merits, and by how well they do at the job they're made for.
They you may have a problem up on the list.
Knifewounds said:
Note 2: that I'm not going to include any weapon that cannot be manned by more than a single person.
You could use this to exclude the ICBM below.
Knifewounds said:
Note 3: My grammar sucks sometimes, so you'll have to forgive me for that.
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Honorable mentions:
Any kind of flintlock, wheel lock & Matchlock gun: These where truly very innovative weapons that changed the course of warfare, and projectile weaponry forever, but I cannot call them great weapons. They could only fire one shot at a time, and took forever to reload, and could frequently misfire due to jamming, and weather conditions. While they're completely devastating when someone gets shot by them, and replaced the bow & arrow their many issues keep them from making it on this list.
Claymore Sword: This is a great weapon. When your swinging it around you feel like you can chop cows in half with it. unfortunately it had to compete with an even greater sword for the list, and it lost. Apologies to Scottish people everywhere.
LeMat Revolver: Its was a revolver that held 9 shots, and a central shotgun chamber. That's awesome. To bad its been buried into obscurity(the LeMat in RDR doesn't do it justice)
Without personal experience, my understanding is that the 10 gauge shell was basically unmanageable, and as revolvers go there were far better examples.
Knifewounds said:
Intercontinental ballistic Missiles: This is the most powerful weapon made in existence however I cannot add a weapon that's never, and never should be, used.
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#10. The crossbow: If I were to best describe the usefulness of the crossbow in a single sentence I'd say" The crossbow is the weapon that made it possible to turn any civilian into a deadly warrior" With a crossbow you don't need to spend years of training to learn how to use a bow, and arrow, but instead you only needed to have the strength to pull back a string, load a bolt, point, and shoot. The simple mechanical design made it easy for anyone to pick up, and use. That and the bolts are deadly in their own right. However it was never able to kill off the bow & arrow because a trained archer could fire off several more arrows than a crossbow.
I'd say this, and your bow and arrow definition below are two broad. A crossbow is a class of weapon, though, some version from the European battlefields should certainly be included for all the reasons you list.
Knifewounds said:
#9. Bowie Knife: This is the knife that practically coined the term "Now that's a knife!" for it large size. The Bowie Knife is one of the few knives I know of that could actually decapitate someone in on swing. Not only that. It can be used for just about everything that involves survival, and in my book a great weapon can be your greatest tool.
#8. M1911A1: This gun give birth to the modern pistol design, and could arguably be considered the greatest innovation in pistol history. With almost 100 years of military service there no doubt that the M1911A1 has some amazing lasting power behind it. So what makes this gun so great? Well, because it was the first magazine-fed handgun, and it was fired powerful 45. caliber rounds. So why is it so low on the list you may ask? Well, it does have an issue with jamming, and its recoil hinders its accuracy which bumps it down several notches.
I'm actually not completely certain the "first magazine-fed handgun" description is accurate. Well, actually I know it's not, the C96 had a non-detachable box magazine, which would be reloaded by stripper clip, and it went into service nearly 20 years before the M1911 did. On top of that the Luger P08 went into production at the turn of the century, and it did use a detachable box mag, just like the 1911. Now, what you're right about is that there probably isn't another handgun in existence that is as distinctive or recognizable as the M1911, but it wasn't the first.
Knifewounds said:
#7.Thompson Submachine Gun: The Chicago typewriter was loved by soldiers, and criminals for its its ergonomic design, compactness, large 45.ACP cartridge. Its effectiveness in WWII, and the prohibition era is attributed to its high rate of fire making it perfect for spray & prey drive by's, and trench sweeping. The down side of its design is that it's not an accurate gun, but it compensates by unleashing a wall of lead towards whatever poor unfortunate Nazi or North side gangster that happens to be on the wrong end of its barrel.
#6. The Halberd: Don't we all love having choices? Being able to choose skewering your enemy like bloody shish kabobs. Choosing to take a mighty swing across your enemies gut thus spilling his gastric intestinal tract all over the war torn landscape, or simply choosing to flip your weapon around to swing a sharp pointy blade capable of getting into those hard-to-reach vitals of those hard-to-kill armored bastards. Ah, yes, freedom to kill exactly what you get from a Halberd. The innovation in its design helped it to be one of the most valued weapons on the battlefield until the advent of gunpowder.
#5. M1 Garand: "The Greatest Battle Implement Ever Devised" by General George S. Patton. Do I need to go on? Fine, well the Garand was a product of almost twenty years of research and development which part of the reason this became such a great weapon. It was accurate, it was semi-automatic, and fired powerful 30-06 rounds. The Garand could essentially do everything an infantryman needed during the time of WWII.
#4. RPG7: I really couldn't make this list without add one weapon that made things explode could I? It's a modern day bazooka. Its cheap, easy to use, and a reliable antitank weapon. Ya, that's not a scary weapon at all is it. Anyways, when I was looking for devastating weapons this was the epitome of destructive power. Its design has kept it as the go to antitank weapon for 3rd world countries terrorist, and revolutionaries.
3#. Bow & Arrow: A weapon that's lasted the course of civilization its self deserves nothing less than a high spot on this list. The power, and ingenious simplicity of its design was able so effective that it was still able to hold its own against the firearms all the way up to the mid 19th century until cartridge based multi-shot guns came to be.
Like the Crossbow above, the Bow is an awfully broad term. I'd cut this one down to two contenders, both of which should probably be on the list. The English longbow, and the Mongolian bow. The English longbow because it facilitated greater range on the battlefield than was previously thought possible, and hit with more force. These are, quite frankly, scary weapons today. The Mongolian bow for it's use by and facilitation of the fastest military force in history up to the advances of mechanized infantry in the last decade.
Knifewounds said:
#2. AK47: I mentioned earlier that the crossbow was effective because anyone could use one. Well that goes double for the AK. There are thousands of kids who are armed with an AK in Africa, and the middle east who can handle this thing like a pro. Not to mention that it packs one hell of a punch with its 7.62 rounds, and its indestructible design, though it is still not extremely accurate. This rifle will endure any punishment you give it. Its become more than a weapon of armed conflicts. Its become an icon, that's left its mark on human history, and the modern world.
I like this, and would have probably put it at #1, though not for the reasons you did.
The AK wasn't the first assault rifle, that would probably be the MP-43/MP-44/StG 44. It certainly isn't the best. But, what the early AKs lacked, the successors mastered. They're cheap. Scattered across a dozen different distinct battle rifles and assault rifles, the AK47's progeny are the single most common family of assault weapons on the planet. They aren't as indestructible as it's made out to be, but the weapons are freakishly resilient, in part due to very loose tolerances.
Unfortunately, here is where you sacrificed your credibility in a staggering act of intellectual sepuku.
Knifewounds said:
No.
Knifewounds said:
There is no such greater weapon than that which can feel as an extension of the person who's using it.
This is seriously debatable. But as anyone who's ever handled a heavy blade sword can tell you, this simply is not the case.
Knifewounds said:
In that light the katana as a sword, and a weapon is perfection.
Again, no.
Knifewounds said:
It has perfect balance, precise control, its has great strength while still being flexible, and its shape, and sharpness combine create a powerful edge.
Yeah, let's dwell on the forging for a moment.
A Katana uses a folded cold steel process to produce (traditionally). What this means is you have to beat the iron into a flat heavy foil and then you fold the blade out of this back and forth, working the edge out in this way. What this results in is a relatively solid cold steel blade, but one that is, ultimately inferior to a sword forged from a steal billet. The reason is the layers, which undermine the structural integrity of the blade. This was a weakness the Japanese swordsmen and smiths were fully aware of, and you can see the result in formal kendo training. The entire point is blade avoidance. The reason is, if you parry with a katana the blade will chip (as opposed to a forged blade, where the blade will deform).
Now, while the Japanese were doing this, the Chinese and Europeans were using billeted blades. The reason for this comes down to simple geography. China and Europe have ready access to relatively high quality iron deposits. Japan did not. The result was that Japan was forced to make due with substandard iron for the bulk of their history, and as a result they developed a very elaborate, and artistic way of maximizing the effectiveness of their own resources. But, what they were not able to do was to fully overcome their resource deficiency.
Now, within your initial criteria (specifically #1), the katana certainly deserves a special mention, because of how much the Japanese were able to accomplish with their poor resources, but it is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the best weapon in history.
Knifewounds said:
It is every bit a slashing sword as it is a stabbing, and thrusting one.
So long as you don't come into contact with anything metal while using it.
Knifewounds said:
Honestly I believe it is impossible to create a sword as perfect as the katana.
It's pretty easy, just pick another weapon, any other weapon, any weapon forged from (the modern approximation of) Damascus Steel for instance. Remember, part of the reason that pre-WWII katanas are so valuable today has nothing to do with their value as weapons, and everything to do with how rare it was for one of them to survive. The Katana is a very fragile piece of art, and like many elements of Japanese society it looks very impressive, but is actually quite ill suited to warfare.
EDIT: Another one that probably should have made the list would have been the Colt Peacemaker.