Deadliest Warrior

**Drewbacca** · 26 Apr 2009, 11:06 PM

I record this new show on Spike TV called Deadliest Warrior. It's basically a scientific simulation that takes 2 types of warriors from different time periods and pits them against each other based on scientific tests (weapons, training, strategy, etc). It's a completely automated program made in Britain to determine who would win based on statistics.

The two I've seen are Samurai vs. Viking with the Samurai winning (superior discipline and better steel-age weapons as the main reasons) and Spartan vs. Ninja with the Spartan winning (the shield itself provided the best defense against Ninja throwing stars/blow darts and black eggs). Also the Spartan has a much higher threshold for pain and his physical condition is much stronger.

The shows dumb fun, but it's interesting. Anybody else check the show out?

I thought the ninja was a bit ripped off against the Spartan. Ninjas would never take a Spartan on head-on. The producers of the show said that the show is about battle to determine the best warrior, not the best assassin. They also tried to find a medium between how a spartan would fight (face to face in a field) vs. how a Ninja would fight (stealth, at night). The compromise was a heavy forest region with lots of places for the ninja to hide and get away.

Next week is Pirate vs. Knight. I predict Knight will slaughter the Pirate.

**Nick** · 26 Apr 2009, 11:21 PM

I just watched some of the Spartan/Ninja show on YouTube earlier today and I saw the Apache/Gladiator episode on TV before. (Yeah, being unemployed is great, huh?) It's kind of goofy how personally some of the guys take it, but it is interesting to see how much damage some of the weapons can do. The Spartan short sword went so deep into the ballistics dummy that it hit the metal pole that was holding it up, and the shield hit with 45 Gs of force. Imagine how hard a trained Spartan warrior would hit.

I thought the show would be another stupid Spike TV waste of time, but the scientific testing, computer modeling, and gory end-fight make it worthwhile for me. The Apache guys were kind of obnoxious, but I guess they were actually Apache, so there was some ethnocentric pride going on there. (Hey, I was rooting for the Spartan, so I can understand.) But one of the ninja guys was named Lou Klein and the main Spartan guy was Barry Jacobsen, and they were both pretty partisan, so it's either the producers telling them to be like that or it's just a sign of the times.

You should spoiler protect your post. I haven't seen the Samurai episode yet.

**Daitokuji** · 27 Apr 2009, 01:31 AM

They should have fucking done Pirates vs Ninja. They would have finally answered the question and they fucked up.

**nixhex311** · 27 Apr 2009, 03:02 PM

Originally Posted by Drewbacca

I thought the ninja was a bit ripped off against the Spartan. Ninjas would never take a Spartan on head-on. The producers of the show said that the show is about battle to determine the best warrior, not the best assassin. They also tried to find a medium between how a spartan would fight (face to face in a field) vs. how a Ninja would fight (stealth, at night). The compromise was a heavy forest region with lots of places for the ninja to hide and get away.

I kind of figured the Spartan would best the ninja, mostly because of the shield, but one part of the simulated fight bugged me, where the ninja threw the black egg in the Spartan's eyes and then ran away. I could see if he was injured or knew he had no way of defeating his opponent and used that to make his escape, but he effectively blinded him 5-6 seconds, at that point I think he should have used that time to get behind him and cut his throat.

Originally Posted by Nick

I just watched some of the Spartan/Ninja show on YouTube earlier today and I saw the Apache/Gladiator episode on TV before. (Yeah, being unemployed is great, huh?) It's kind of goofy how personally some of the guys take it, but it is interesting to see how much damage some of the weapons can do. The Spartan short sword went so deep into the ballistics dummy that it hit the metal pole that was holding it up, and the shield hit with 45 Gs of force. Imagine how hard a trained Spartan warrior would hit.

I thought the show would be another stupid Spike TV waste of time, but the scientific testing, computer modeling, and gory end-fight make it worthwhile for me. The Apache guys were kind of obnoxious, but I guess they were actually Apache, so there was some ethnocentric pride going on there. (Hey, I was rooting for the Spartan, so I can understand.) But one of the ninja guys was named Lou Klein and the main Spartan guy was Barry Jacobsen, and they were both pretty partisan, so it's either the producers telling them to be like that or it's just a sign of the times.

I thought the same thing about how serious everyone is about the experience. I let the Apaches slide because this is a matter of pride to for race & culture, but everybody else is just an enthusiast. These guys are acting like their sister's honor rides on this or something.

Originally Posted by Daitokuji

They should have fucking done Pirates vs Ninja. They would have finally answered the question and they fucked up.

I was annoyed by that too, when my friend told me about this show that was the first thing out of my mouth. I would personally go with the ninja in that scenario

**Drewbacca** · 27 Apr 2009, 07:21 PM

Originally Posted by Daitokuji

They should have fucking done Pirates vs Ninja. They would have finally answered the question and they fucked up.

They said the ninja isn't done forever. It will be matched up again in the future. Same with the Spartan. Spartan vs. Samurai would be much more interesting.

**Drewbacca** · 27 Apr 2009, 07:25 PM

Originally Posted by nixhex311

I kind of figured the Spartan would best the ninja, mostly because of the shield, but one part of the simulated fight bugged me, where the ninja threw the black egg in the Spartan's eyes and then ran away. I could see if he was injured or knew he had no way of defeating his opponent and used that to make his escape, but he effectively blinded him 5-6 seconds, at that point I think he should have used that time to get behind him and cut his throat.

They mentioned it in the after show online that there was only a percentage of kills from blackegg impairment during the simulation. So the ninja in the simulation was able to do that about 30 times out of 1000, but it didn't make a significant enough dent in the statistics to be included in the "staged" battle. The ninja won 34% of the time with his trick. For instance the most deaths in the battle occurred when the ninja's agility was caught by the Spartan, who the ninjistu masters underestimated. If you listened to the show they kept saying how it was speed vs. strength. When it really wasn't. Spartan's have one of, if not THE, best conditioning of any military predominantly hand-to-hand. So getting away from their spear / shield was not as easy as the ninja's made it sound.

In the final battle short sword deaths against the ninja after being caught were the #1 way the ninja's were being killed. So they simulated that. They also included other ninja weapons that didn't make it on the show for time constraints such as caltrops, but none of it swayed the vote very far statistically.

The biggest detraction was the fact that Japanese steal did not easily penetrate the bronze armor (like butter, as one guy said). That really hurt The Ninja. Also the amount of protection the Spartan had against throwing weapons with his shield helped, too. Neither of them would really be fighting like this, anyway. Spartans' main strength in battle was the impenetrable phalanx and teamwork. As was the ninja's stealth and night kills. But it is Deadliest Warrior (1 on 1), not Deadliest Assassin or Soldier, so those things aren't taken in to effect as heavily for a truly level playing field. Stealth may actually hurt a combatant more, since that is about avoiding conflict and this is all about 1 on 1.

I thought the same thing about how serious everyone is about the experience. I let the Apaches slide because this is a matter of pride to for race & culture, but everybody else is just an enthusiast. These guys are acting like their sister's honor rides on this or something.

Well they're all historians of their respective warriors. I'm sure they ham it up for the show a lot, but it's entertaining to see them sell the romance of their warriors over the direct science.

**Shin Johnpv** · 27 Apr 2009, 10:41 PM

I have mixed feelings on the show. I just watched all 3 episodes, I think part of the problem is the historical inaccuracies and some of the weapon match ups. Like in the Samurai Vs Viking one, they do Battle Axe vs Katana, and Long Sword vs Naginata. I think Battle Axe vs Naginata, and Long Sword vs Katana makes much more sense.

I also had to roll my eyes so hard when they brought out the "Ninjato". There's no such fucking thing. For a lot of reasons, the way Japanese swords are hardened actually causes the curve of the blade. Plus "ninjas" wouldn't want to stand out, if you're walking around with a straight blade when everyone else had a curved one, it would scream out NINJA NINJA. In truth, "ninja" were just Samurai who were assassins.

Its a fun show, I just wish they did more fact checking, and such before the episodes. I also kind of hope Ninjas don't show up any more. There is just so much made up shit about them from hollywood and such that people just take as fact, including these bullshit "ninjutsu" masters.

Anyway I'd also love to see a Samurai vs Spartan show. They are by far histories greatest warriors, both are trained from an early age, and both are professional warriors. 24/7 warriors, it would make for one hell of a match up.

I'd also like to see them take hand to hand combat into account on some of these.

**Dolemite** · 28 Apr 2009, 12:19 PM

I've been watching this show since the first episode and actually enjoy it a great deal. It's about time someone made a thread for it (I didn't think to, dammit).

I enjoy the scientific aspects of the show, especially when they test the weapons on the ballistic gel dummies (which look pretty creepy, what with the visible skeleton/internal organs/blood inside). Keep in mind, however, that the tests simply measure the force the fighters can generate against a still target that's making no attempt to evade or roll with the blow. In real battlefield conditions things would change drastically.

That said, I feel the outcomes of the various match-ups so far have been fair.
I noticed that a lot of people were pissed that the Ninja lost, but based on the facts I think it was correct thast the Spartan won. But even the Ninja expert stated that IRL the Ninja wouldn't fight the Spartan head-on, he would run away and then kill him in his sleep.

The only thing that annoys me about the show is the trash-talking. I thought the one Spartan expert was especially obnoxious to the Ninja guys. It's amusing, but sometimes it gets grating because, as Nick said, it's obviously manufactured by the producers.

FYI, if you go to SpikeTV.com after each show, they have a video wrap-up on that week's episode and take email questions from viewers.

Originally Posted by nixhex311

I kind of figured the Spartan would best the ninja, mostly because of the shield, but one part of the simulated fight bugged me, where the ninja threw the black egg in the Spartan's eyes and then ran away. I could see if he was injured or knew he had no way of defeating his opponent and used that to make his escape, but he effectively blinded him 5-6 seconds, at that point I think he should have used that time to get behind him and cut his throat.

Agreed. The Ninja looked retarded for running away when he had the Spartan at his mercy.

LOL @ The Spartan yelling "SPARTA!!!!" after beating the Ninja.