Indian Guild Infantry

**ironanvil1** · 03-22-2009, 02:33

Originally Posted by antisocialmunky

I've aways heard that Japanese metal quality was kinda crap which is one of the reasons why they had to fold their katana material so many times.

The iron ore available to the Japanese was mediocre at best.
The famous folding process being more about evening out the inherent weakness of the material to prevent a particular failure point than creating a super strong sword

**bobbin** · 03-22-2009, 14:42

Wasn't Iberian steel supposed to be extremely good? maybe not as high quality as Indian but still very good.

**antisocialmunky** · 03-22-2009, 18:25

Yeah, Iberia is/was loaded with pretty much with tons of ore.

**Cimon** · 03-23-2009, 14:04

For anyone who is interested, here is a good book simply entitled India: A History, by John Keay. It is a basic survey book; after all, there is no way to cover the entirety of Indian history in one book, let alone one book of approximately 600 pages. However, it does cover all the major topics (albeit in not a lot of depth): ancient settlments in the Indus valley, the Vedas, Hinduism, Buddhism, the Mauryas, the Guptas, "Yavanas" (Macedonias and other Hellenes), the Pandyan Empire, the Persian invasions, the Mughals and other Islamic sultanates, Marathras, the Sikhs, the European fight over the area, the Raj/British India, Gandhi/Satyagraha/the independence movement, Nehru, etc. all the way up to the very recent past. It is a good, if brief, intro to the subcontinent.

**Tyrfingr** · 03-23-2009, 14:52

India says "OMFG, our steel was the greatest EVAR11!11!one!!"

Japan replies: "F YOU, everbody knows that our steel is 1337!!!"

Damaskus says: "F you all, our steel pwns all of yours"

....

I mean, doesn't this whole "XXX steel was bigger, harder and better than anything else"-debate starting to sound ridiculous? Small phallus complex?

On topic, I must say that the Indian Guild Infantry kicks ass, although I prefer the indian longbowmen as they both got killer bows and AP-swords...

**Ibrahim** · 03-23-2009, 15:20

Originally Posted by Jaertecken

India says "OMFG, our steel was the greatest EVAR11!11!one!!"

Japan replies: "F YOU, everbody knows that our steel is 1337!!!"

Damaskus says: "F you all, our steel pwns all of yours"

....

I mean, doesn't this whole "XXX steel was bigger, harder and better than anything else"-debate starting to sound ridiculous? Small phallus complex?

Damascus is indian steel. damascus is derived from an arabic word for "watery" (damas)*, referring to the wierd watery patterns on their high quality steel. it was in fact mentioned in the 6th century, as being made in yemen and india, and collectively reffered to as "indian whites" (i.e. indian iron). it wasn't mentioned as being made in damascus until later on..

and if it weren't for this "small p****" deal as you call it, you wouldn't be making a fool of yourself on the computer (as there wouldn't be any).

*one interpretation. the other is that it is indeed from damascus. both are/were online.

**antisocialmunky** · 03-23-2009, 18:06

Its really too bad the Indians couldn't get industrialization going before the British took over. Asia didn't really have its game together during that period sadly.

**soup_alex** · 03-23-2009, 18:32

Originally Posted by Ibrahim

Damascus is derived from an arabic word for "watery" (damas), referring to the wierd watery patterns on their high quality steel.

The Moar You Know!

Seriously, that's awesome.

**Ibrahim** · 03-23-2009, 21:25

Originally Posted by soup_alex

The Moar You Know!

Seriously, that's awesome.

not really-Its what you get for wasting 2 months of your life researching the lakhmid army

also, the damascus for the steel is not derived for the damascus the city(as in the steel did not give its name to said city), whish is damashq or dimashq in arabic, supposedly from "dammashqa" meaning: to "make haste" (again, supposedly. take the Arab etymologists with a grain of salt.). the two were different words in arabic, that ended up the same in english (lord knows why). now there is a school of thought that says that the steel is indeed named for damascus, and either one can be correct. i meant to give an alternate interpretation, as honestly, you will see both online..

they have the info on wikipedia, as well as the contemporary accounts, if you want to get it the easy way (I got the hard way). the ones that come to mind mentioning "Indian whites" are 3antarah, the roomiyyat of abu firas, and other poems that I forgot and don't really care for.

Surprising how much you can learn from Arab poetry-and they say we are poorly documented

(let me warn you though, you have to take them with a grain of salt)

and I read from the blue green book, furthur helping. *curse that it is now lost*

EDIT: here is an extreme case of the damas described:

EDIT: it was also produced in damascus as well, where its production did indeed become famous.