Perhaps because he was one of the first and that not all of them were getting shot down?Darth Spock wrote: Got a chance to review SG-1 premiere, "Children of the Gods." Yup, that some pretty impressive "scary bullet-proof bad guy" stuff going on... until the final battle, wherein we only see one Jaffa struggle his way through getting shot and keep fighting.
The chainmail that protects happens also when Apophis goes to Abydos, but as we know, it's not 100% fireproof.
Notice btw that on Chulak (the planet of the last battle), the SG teams had brought heavier guns. They also had two weapon staves on their side.
They face heavier weapons and their own. Plus for the amount of fire thrown at them, there actually were not that many kills for the Terrans.If it had taken time for an adaptation to be made, I could buy that all Jaffa are sporting super armor, but as soon as we see the local defenses, not the personal escort accompanying a Goa'uld himself on incursions through the gate, they fall in the usual manner.
There's also the fact that none of these Jaffa wore helmets.
And considering that the trip to Chulak came after two engagements against hostiles who proved to have protections that could withstand regular weapon fire, there is, in fact, time for adaptation.
The first Jaffa to fall on Chulak get kicked back and hit in the chest (the shot go through the chainmail and the extra armour) and generate large sparkles.
And it was supposed to make the Jaffa weapons look crap when "normal" gunfire bisects a large and try wooden log.Also, SG-1 used the H&K MP5A3 for almost half the series before switching to the P90, and even it realistically would not out perform the M 16s seen in the opening scene of "Children of the Gods".
Here though, I find my self in a quandary, in Stargate SG-1 S: 5 E: 18, "The Warrior", the P90 is described in real world terms, 900 rounds per minute, 50 round mag, and normal Teflon coated bullets, no super SGC exclusive Naquedah slugs here. Yet the demonstration lasts roughly 6 seconds, and hacks a big log in half. So, in the show, the weapon has a mag at least twice the size as in real life (and as their own description), and can inflict damage Myth Busters says takes a mini-gun a full minute to accomplish, and in 1/10 the time... If thats my benchmark, then I'll quietly leave and let the Wormhole X-Treme edition Jaffa enjoy their insanely easy victory...
For the rest of the series, all Jaffa close to Goa'uld and System Lords were mowed down like flies.For now though, I'm going with the idea that Apophis' personal guard are sporting elite grade armor.
There doesn't seem to be any elite Jaffa armour.
Plus the helmet is, after all, just a rank thing.
Both were using a Jaffa cutlass which, by the shape alone, is poorly suited to get through a chainmail since its dual blades multiply twice the work to be done to puncture said chainmail.Also, the Viking axe isn't the only Jaffa armor failure to blades. In "The Lost City" part 2, Bra'tac and Ronan swapped stabbings IIRC.
Not to say that there would not be enough thrust at such a close range and with such a lightweight and short weapon to massively puncture a Jaffa, let alone to pierce even a craptastic chainmail.
The only explanation left is the use of some mono-atomic blade or some crazy stuff like that.
Actually, Bra'tac wore two layers of chainmail and some leathery fatigue ontop of it. Ronin's got stabbed with a motion that was so short ranged he should have laughed at the attempt.
So either we go with Lords of the Rings physics were chainmail counts for zip, or go for super knives.
:(
On the other hand, Lord Marshall's axeman got stabbed thrice in the lower chest and that killed him. Is it me of higher tier Necromongers tend do show a slightly superior strength?
I agree.At any rate, the Necros aren't exactly dependent on blades. I had trouble finding battle scenes from the movie, not owning a copy, but from what I could tell, most used guns, though probably carried a knife or other short range weapon, and a much smaller number of them relied on heavier melee weapons, though I'd expect they would carry a pistol as well.
We don't see any sign of any particular tactical acumen or specific strategical coordination from Necromongers on the ground. The only strategy we know of came from Lord Marshall, inside the Basilica, plotting course to attack worlds in a singular fashion.My thoughts on this are that the Jaffa may be a little too disciplined. They have a philosophy and regime that works for most of their engagements, and they follow it, even if it results feeding themselves to their enemy like lambs to the slaughter. The final battle in "Children of the Gods" is a great example, with a line of claymores to thin the first wave, less than a dozen troops held off a Jaffa rush while a mass of refugees were herded through the gate, before a handful of Jaffa rushed after them meeting their demise, all for upholding the glory of their gods.
Both sides employ a kamikaze mentality, but the Necros seem to revel in the "berserker" tactics. Also, both forces deploy their troops without a care as to casualties, but the Necros do show that their campaigns are coordinated, not just throwing troops at random and letting them pick their own path. My point is that once "organized" advances and defensive lines of the Jaffa fail to wipe out their opponents and retain their cohesion, the ensuing chaos would play right into the hands of the Necro "crazies," while the Jaffa will either end up helplessly swinging their staves like at the end of the Stargate movie, or futilely trying to regain their organized edge.
And then, eventually, the landing near the sort of "senate" of New Mecca, and that's about it. Nothing to brag about, really.
It's not like there will be much to prioritize or coordinate on the ground. It's basically a big swarm vs swarm thing in woods and a city.
Yes, that's massively important to their zerg rush strategy thing. That was truly awesome, but from a destruction point of view, they don't have that many ships landed on a planet, as we can count with the early attack on another world, by counting the number of explosions on its surface.While I assume that the battle will be taking place in a relatively localized environment, I imagine that as far as civilians go, the planet is big enough that the Necros should be able to cut bloody swaths without worrying overly about not leaving enough survivors to convert. Their willingness to plunge conquest icons into a planet to soften the target is a testament to that, and indeed, that is one "shock and awe" element of their attack that they will be sorely missing.
They don't even have cannons. Now imagine the advantage of being able to both disgorge flying crafts with homing energy-missiles at longer range coupled to cannon batteries laying down fire on the surrounding urban area at the feet of the carrier "stakeships".
Too bad this didn't happen.
They'd hardly lose that many humans to convert. For instance, a similar attack on contemporary Earth would kill something around a dozen millions (see the radius of damage caused by the landing in New Mecca), out of a population of several billions.
Honestly the most puzzling part of it was how badly equipped the Helion forces were. There weren't any kind of defense in space despite the rumours of desolation and destruction related to this comet, and the fact that several objects which would clearly "slow down" and turn towards the planet and then spread as to land in several places triggered no kind of military-grade defensive space force.
At some point they started shooting WWII-style DCA and missiles, that makes more sense, but only against a slow ass enemy moving at a low altitude.
Huh, one shot will take down several men and cause mass disorganization in the enemy's ranks. These weapons in a large scale combat situation clearly add a clear advantage. Basically, every once in a given number of Jaffa, one or two of them has access to some heavy cannon.The Jaffa having greater experience is a plus, but I already agree that individually, Jaffa are superior to Necros, its the overall combination of each forces respective tactics in a large scale (tens of thousands or more) confrontation that gives me doubts about a Jaffa victory. Weapons like the Staff Cannon are powerful, but don't offer sufficient rate of fire to deal with masses of infantry, nor do they offer significant "splash damage."
You cannons you think off had a horrible rate of fire, counted a lot on ricocheting (so uneven ground or muddy ones messed such weapons) and often had to be operated by several men. Not to say that they were particularly massive and their ammo was both voluminous and insanely heavy as a whole, and ultimately very limited. Not to say anything of wet powder. Oh and the horrible ballistics.They may take down an armored vehicle, but against troops it looks about as effective as 19th century cannon, less so, as these are limited to line of sight and lack the antique's anti-infantry adaptations such as grapeshot.
Comparing those old time cannons to plasma-based staff cannons simply does not work at all.
Not a single energy based Goa'uld weapon was commented on or seen going black ever, for the notice.
Jaffa rarely have enemy crafts to shoot down other than Death Gliders and varying Goa'uld crafts. But on the ground, they're very useful to lay down a fire which will clearly kill you in a radius of several meters. Also, they'll mow down forests and blow walls off: so much for cover. One was used to shoot down a small corridor's reinforced door in the SGC.Really, they appear to be there mostly for intimidation, and perhaps as anti-vehicle or siege weapons.
There is, first of all, the fact that dead bodies are all the more obstacles to move over. But this plays against both sides.As underwhelming as the Necro's suicide bomb was, I believe it, and the mentality it represents, pose a threat to Jaffa who won't simply be able to form a firing line and comfortably wipe out their enemy without taking comparable losses, before finally having their ranks broken and thrown into disarray. In short, I believe the Necros can handle the chaos and fog of war settling over over a large engagement better than the Jaffa could.
However, as you were strongly implying a somewhat tactical superiority of Necromongers, the whole suicide bomb actually talks pooly of all that.
You have not explained why the Jaffa's winning chances take a plunge the greater the armies on both sides. All I see, on the contrary, is that the larger the army, the less space and more cramped the battle zones will be. Which works in favour of those who have weapons with splash damaged effects.