In “Deadliest Warrior”: Ming Warrior vs, Musketeer, the conceit was that two early gunpowder soldiers, the late 14th Century Ming vs. the early 17th Century Musketeers, were being matched against one another in a fight to the death.
But, come on. These are the Musketeers: Porthos, Athos, Aramis, and D’artagnan. I don’t care how much martial arts training the Ming Warriors had, or the sophistication of their weapons; they’re up against the Musketeers. At the very least, no one can match the style of those lace-covered 17th Century Frenchies. The French experts themselves suggested that they got all the girls after a hard day of dueling with the Cardinal’s Guards.
In any case, the Musketeers came to the party with the flintlock musket, the wheel-lock pistol, the gunpowder grenade, and, of course, the rapier and main gauche. They also had breast plate armor underneath their distinctive uniforms; more of that anon.
The Ming Warriors had a set of weapons that seemed like something out of a movie, including a multiple rocket-propelled arrow launcher, a three-barrel hand cannon, a mechanical land mine, and a wicked sword that could cleave as well as poke.
A couple of observations are in order about the weapons testing. I think that tossing the grenade into a hay cart was not quite a fair test. The hay cart obviously managed to mask some of the blast, sparing two of the Ming mannequins.
The mechanical land mine depended on someone being dumb enough to yank on the shining thing poking out of the ground as a trigger, and being lucky enough to do it while the others had moved on. (I could hear Oliver Reed’s voice growling, “D’artagnan, don’t touch that, boy!”)
The multiple rocket-propelled arrow launcher was certainly impressive-looking, but not likely to damage any group of people with good armor or ready shields. If the projectiles had explosive tips (saw a test of one of those, a Korean weapon, on “Mythbusters”) it might have been a different story.
Though the weapons test seemed to suggest that the Ming sword was a superior man-killer to the rapier, the combat scenario proved otherwise. For one thing, even though the Ming sword could inflict five kills in half the time that a rapier and main gauche could, the real test was how quickly the first blow could be gotten in. My suspicion was that would be the rapier; one thrust to the throat or the chest, and that would be it.
In any event, the metal breast plate was the thing that gave the musketeers the edge. And so, as is usual with these group combats on “Deadliest Warrior,” there is one man left standing; “Via Le Roi!” and then a quick trip to the tavern for a drink and a tumble with a wench in memory of lost comrades.
Source:
Deadliest Warrior, Ming Warrior vs. Musketeer, TV.Rage
