Beasts of War

[HVC]

Snakes on a mother fucking boat?

[Malthus]

Anybody mention the experimental bat bomb program?

IIRC, Hannibal tested catapulting pottery vases filled with venomous snakes on the deck of Roman galleys. Wasn't a success.

"Ewww, crushed snakes! They are trying to gross us out!" 

[Monoriu]

There is record about using "fire ox" in ancient China.  It formed the climax of a famous story about defeating a superior foe in the warring states period.  The idea was to put the ox tails on fire and make them charge at the enemy, causing widespread panic. 

It is a very popular story in Chinese history.  No idea if it had any truth in it. 

[The Brain]

Oh no, stampeding oxen! Walk for your lives!!!

[Monoriu]

Malthus, you took some Chinese, right?  This is the wiki description about that battle (only available in Chinese). 

火牛陣 此時田單趁機收集牛隻，聚得千餘隻，畫上五花彩紋、披上土黃色綢緞、牛角紮了刀和牛尾綁了用油浸過的葦草。田單鑿開城牆十餘口，於夜間布置好，準備了五千士兵，準備好了就放牛出城並且點火在牠們的尾，牛隻疼痛不已，猛力向前衝，突襲燕營，齊壯士五千隨後衝殺。燕軍將士見此，以為神兵天降，田單又聚集婦孺齊敲銅器戰鼓，聲音震天動地，嚇得燕軍將士潰不成軍，騎劫亦死於亂軍之中，田單率兵乘勝追擊，收復了齊國七十餘座城，打敗了燕軍，燕軍一直潰逃到河上。

[Malthus]

Heh, the Ox as guided missile. I like it. 

[Drakken]

"Ewww, crushed snakes! They are trying to gross us out!" 

They tested it in Ancients Behaving Badly. Those snakes on the bottom would die crushed but still cushion those above enough so they would survive and slide off the broken vase.

It didn't work on the long run, because after a while it became easy to parry the tactic.

[HVC]

plus i'd assume the snakes would just bite the shit out of eachother and die long before the vase even cracked.

[Zanza]

Not sure if you count them among horses, but mules are used for mountain warfare.

[grumbler]

Did any of the dolphin/seal military crap ever get used?

Can't answer that.

[Agelastus]

There is record about using "fire ox" in ancient China.  It formed the climax of a famous story about defeating a superior foe in the warring states period.  The idea was to put the ox tails on fire and make them charge at the enemy, causing widespread panic. 

It is a very popular story in Chinese history.  No idea if it had any truth in it.

On a related note, Hannibal tied flaming brands to cattle and stampeded them at night against a Roman force blocking the pass he wanted to use to exit from Campania. That is definitely historical - if you believe Polybius. Or rather, if you believe Polybius' likely sources.

[Tonitrus]

Malthus, you took some Chinese, right?  This is the wiki description about that battle (only available in Chinese). 

火牛陣 此時田單趁機收集牛隻，聚得千餘隻，畫上五花彩紋、披上土黃色綢緞、牛角紮了刀和牛尾綁了用油浸過的葦草。田單鑿開城牆十餘口，於夜間布置好，準備了五千士兵，準備好了就放牛出城並且點火在牠們的尾，牛隻疼痛不已，猛力向前衝，突襲燕營，齊壯士五千隨後衝殺。燕軍將士見此，以為神兵天降，田單又聚集婦孺齊敲銅器戰鼓，聲音震天動地，嚇得燕軍將士潰不成軍，騎劫亦死於亂軍之中，田單率兵乘勝追擊，收復了齊國七十餘座城，打敗了燕軍，燕軍一直潰逃到河上。

Tian Dan took the opportunity to collect array adapters cattle at this time, together have more than a thousand pieces streaky paint color pattern, put on khaki silk, horn bar with a knife and tied oxtail oil impregnated reed. Tiandan scuttling the wall more than the mouth at night, good layout, prepare a five thousand soldiers, ready to cattle out of the city and the fire in their tail, endless pain, cattle, Power forward, Yan raid camp, Qi Then rush thousand warriors. YAN Jun Seeing soldiers, that Airborne, women and children gathered together and knock Tiandan bronze drums, sound crews and earth, scared YAN Jun soldiers defeated, creating chaos among the hijacking has died, Tiandan shuaibing win the recovered Seven Shiyu Zuo Qi City, defeated YAN Jun, YAN Jun has fled to the River.

Hmm, I guess Google Translate needs some work.

[Slargos]

Did any of the dolphin/seal military crap ever get used?

Can't answer that.

Can't? Or Won't? 

[Slargos]

On militarized dolphins:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/31/earlyshow/living/petplanet/main808201.shtml

[Monoriu]

Hmm, I guess Google Translate needs some work.

Online translators do not work with Chinese or Japanese.  I thought these translators are totally worthless until I saw a translation from French to English.