Game: Guess the (historical) character!

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by Frosty

Tech Level?

Mostly 6, I'd say.

[John Smith]

Originally Posted by Landwalker

Ah, interesting. I wonder what the motivation was for their depiction in the Bayeux Tapestry, then (though I do see one fellow who might be couching that spear).

Well, to start with, they didn't use proper lances but eight-foot spears (Reach 2,3*). They couched them to charge head-on (They had high-backed saddles and stirrups) but they could use them to thrust overarm for hit-and-run tactics (to poke at shield walls, for instance)as well, like older cavalrymen, and that seems to be their main use according to the Bayeux tapestry, though it could be as with Greek hoplites, who are always depicted on vases using their spears overarm even if they almost certainly didn't, because an overarm spear has half as much reach and is much harder to control; the same thing applies when mounted, where overarm spears are great to stab enemies on foot but are grossly inefficient as charging weapons, as the chance to actually hit someone is very slim when riding at full gallop.

[trans]

Kinda sounds like a combination of Adlai Stevenson I and Adlai Stevenson II.

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by trans

Kinda sounds like a combination of Adlai Stevenson I and Adlai Stevenson II.

Nope, wrong hemisphere.

[trans]

I´m stumped. Is the "#5" meant literally, or is it some kind of a pun or reference to a language other than English (or both)?

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by trans

I´m stumped. Is the "#5" meant literally, or is it some kind of a pun or reference to a language other than English (or both)?

It was a monicker he went by in certain circles, and definitely in a language other than English.

I'll offer a further hint: His name is less than 5 syllables long.

[Landwalker]

Originally Posted by trans

I´m stumped. Is the "#5" meant literally, or is it some kind of a pun or reference to a language other than English (or both)?

I don't know enough about it off-hand and don't care enough to google it at work, but it may have something to do with early communist China (Edit: early in the sense of Maoist) and the "Gang of Four." Perhaps there was another leader in the mix who was a fifth wheel, so to speak.

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by Landwalker

I don't know enough about it off-hand and don't care enough to google it at work, but it may have something to do with early communist China (Edit: early in the sense of Maoist) and the "Gang of Four." Perhaps there was another leader in the mix who was a fifth wheel, so to speak.

You're getting warm.

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Figleaf23

You're getting warm.

Then that would be Zhou Enlai.

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by DAlillama

Then that would be Zhou Enlai.

You are correct.