Interesting mental image, Axel
But in terms of the formal discussion, one thing to remember is positioning. The people with the drums and flags are typically at the rear of the army, near the general(s), so if you can access them you might as well just go for the general rather than the guy with a pole and piece of cloth mounted on said pole
Two is honor. Ancient China had a system of ethics for war where armies ambushing each other was perfectly fine but attacking soldiers you shouldn't attack wasn't. It was important to upkeep the reputation of the army towards the people and to maintain credibility towards your own soldiers, so a victory brought about by such a tactic wouldn't be practical in that sense.
That said, obviously war is never as bound by any code as anyone would prefer (and it itself is really shady in nature), so like Time said there most likely were exceptions. I just think in the case of Ancient China, it wouldn't be an established tactic necessarily, and it wouldn't be practical for established armies either.
I will say that one of the best ways to disrupt soldier morale in Ancient China was to beat the enemy army up so badly that the flag guy has thrown away his flag (or is running away with the flag torn). That seems to be the aim instead for what I've seen, but Ancient Chinese history is so long that I can't generalize it across the eras lol.

On the flag-as-a-weapon conversation, I immediately thought of Jeanne d'Arc and her Alter version (Jalter) from F/GO. Iirc, both of them use flags as their weapons, but most of the time the cloth part of the flag is wrapped around the pole so it's more of a polearm, and they only unfurl it during specific moments (i.e. while Jeanne is using her Noble Phantasm, Jalter while she's standing in place and using stakes as her weapons instead)
So I think that could answer Time's inquiry.

-Galaxian-

the flag bearers could wield the flag like a staff, although they would have to tie the flag to the pole to do so effectively

GalaxianExplosion wrote:

Interesting mental image, Axel
But in terms of the formal discussion, one thing to remember is positioning. The people with the drums and flags are typically at the rear of the army, near the general(s), so if you can access them you might as well just go for the general rather than the guy with a pole and piece of cloth mounted on said pole
Two is honor. Ancient China had a system of ethics for war where armies ambushing each other was perfectly fine but attacking soldiers you shouldn't attack wasn't. It was important to upkeep the reputation of the army towards the people and to maintain credibility towards your own soldiers, so a victory brought about by such a tactic wouldn't be practical in that sense.
That said, obviously war is never as bound by any code as anyone would prefer (and it itself is really shady in nature), so like Time said there most likely were exceptions. I just think in the case of Ancient China, it wouldn't be an established tactic necessarily, and it wouldn't be practical for established armies either.
I will say that one of the best ways to disrupt soldier morale in Ancient China was to beat the enemy army up so badly that the flag guy has thrown away his flag (or is running away with the flag torn). That seems to be the aim instead for what I've seen, but Ancient Chinese history is so long that I can't generalize it across the eras lol.

On the flag-as-a-weapon conversation, I immediately thought of Jeanne d'Arc and her Alter version (Jalter) from F/GO. Iirc, both of them use flags as their weapons, but most of the time the cloth part of the flag is wrapped around the pole so it's more of a polearm, and they only unfurl it during specific moments (i.e. while Jeanne is using her Noble Phantasm, Jalter while she's standing in place and using stakes as her weapons instead)
So I think that could answer Time's inquiry.

-Galaxian-

As to positioning, I was thinking there's a flag bearer per division or unit or whatever, since they were used for generals to know who was were, which would also mean they were often in the thick of it. Of course everyone in the unit was told to rally around the guy and protect him, but that would mean he could be often fighting as well.

As to attacking a flagbearer, that's very true. It would tank the reputation of the army. I would assume in some regions/societies, especially ones based on honor or respect, attacking the flagbearer could be a dishonor. But I also assume it was the other way around. It was the unit's job to keep their bearer alive, and if they couldn't dishonor would fall upon them. I could see this viewpoint being more common, as what could you do against enemies who didn't care for respect?

And I think that way of disrupting soldier moral is just a common tactic overall. I'm no history buff, but I feel the mental strain of just crushing the other side with force and power is always devastating.

Yeah, the character that Axel referenced, which started this conversation, in older games had his flag rolled up and used as a staff/polearm as well. But now as of recently, he fights with the flag unfurled, I was kind of wondering how good of an idea is that anyways.

Well, I'm sure that also plays a role in things too. I'm sure the flag can be indicators on the enemy side on who to avoid due to intimidation by reputation of that specific unit.

I wouldn't know about specific ancient Chinese tactics, but I would think that while a flag bearer may have to fight, I'm sure it's not their primary job, since you know, they're carrying the flag. I'm thinking about it an it's likely they more had to rely on the surrounding soldiers to keep them safe more than anything.

I think that also is very true. If a flag bearer is dead, then that means there wasn't enough soldiers to keep them safe. While you say it's for practicality mostly, I'm sure it brought a lot of moral and intimidation benefits as we talked about.

My impressions are based on what I think makes most sense to me,  as well as my general history knowledge and some light research into the topic.  I ended up skimming mostly about US Civil War and Roman legion flag bearers. I feel while they are different from ancient China,  there are plenty of parallels to make between all sorts of regions

splatoon 3 big run review

wish it was more prevalent but otherwise fun

invading disneyworld/10

you too?

Pirate flag?

their ship is crewed by lost souls, and the flag is so the dead can see him/her/them/whatever i decide on, and not become lost

Wait is the last part thing out now??

i'm glad this community has good mods

there's no good instructions out there on how to make a good spiderman suit

 

ThreePunchAxel wrote:

i'm glad this community has good mods

Wait did something happen

my next character isnt going to die off as easily as my other ones

they're gonna survive

i hope we get the cd plot going soon

you mean the only remotely-overarching plot for this thing that's been practically nonexistent for like 2 years?