How would a medieval battlefield look like with mecha?

[False Prophet]

I have been playing SRW X, and there is this question that bothers me when it comes to Dubine: How would a medieval battlefield look like with the proliferation of mechas? (I haven't watched the show yet.) The only thing I can think of is that if the mechas possess flight capability and/or great firepower, fortifications and castle towns would be less common (unless uses against other enemies, like bandits, or for other purposes.)

[Seto Kaiba]

I have been playing SRW X, and there is this question that bothers me when it comes to Dubine: How would a medieval battlefield look like with the proliferation of mechas?

Probably not much like it does in Aura Battler Dunbine.

The state of technology in Byston Well is an aggressive case of schizo-tech, perhaps justified by the fact that all of their advanced technology was acquired by basically kidnapping people from Upper Earth (our world) to create the stuff for them and it doesn't seem to be widespread. They have the technology to produce machine guns, cannons, and so on but everyone's still twatting each other with swords and shooting crossbows. Their giant robots aren't all that robotic in fact. Aura Battlers are principally organic, a colossal computerized meat puppet made from tissues harvested from Byston Well's native giant insectoids and powered by draining the pilot's life force ("aura"). Battles still involve mounted infantry on horseback trying to knock down the walls of castles made from quarried stone.

I'd expect a medieval battlefield where mecha were suddenly commonplace to look more like Escaflowne... where foot soldiers are basically obsolete and giant mecha are the new default currency of the battlefield. Maybe something more like Five Star Stories if the tech from those mecha could be applied elsewhere, at which point it stops being "medieval" and becomes futuristic feudalism.

[Kuruni]

I suggest that you should get a copy of Dragonmech: Mech Manual by Goodman Games.

[tHeWasTeDYouTh]

Escaflowne, just take out all the Zaibach flying mechs along with transforming into a dragon and all fantasy elements. Just have the mechs (guymelef and melef) and you have a perfect medieval world

[False Prophet]

I suggest that you should get a copy of Dragonmech: Mech Manual by Goodman Games.

Thanks for reminding me that it existed. I got it in my PDF trove but never got around to read it.

I'd expect a medieval battlefield where mecha were suddenly commonplace to look more like Escaflowne... where foot soldiers are basically obsolete and giant mecha are the new default currency of the battlefield. Maybe something more like Five Star Stories if the tech from those mecha could be applied elsewhere, at which point it stops being "medieval" and becomes futuristic feudalism.

My FSS lore has been getting rusty lately, but if I remember correctly, the manga doesn't show full-scale combat that often, right? I can recall the time the Knights tried to rescue Amaterasu (when the hovering tanks showed up), the Colus war (when the Junchoon was created). I wonder how big is the Majestic Stand currently running?

[Seto Kaiba]

My FSS lore has been getting rusty lately, but if I remember correctly, the manga doesn't show full-scale combat that often, right? I can recall the time the Knights tried to rescue Amaterasu (when the hovering tanks showed up), the Colus war (when the Junchoon was created). I wonder how big is the Majestic Stand currently running?

Five Star Stories makes no effort at all to disguise the fact that Mortar Headds and Headdliners are a nation's real military power and that the regular army is more or less for show. The only thing that can really threaten your typical Mortar Headd is another Mortar headd. Air balleles (tanks) can only really manage to dent their armor, and infantry will get blown around by the winds raised when the Mortar Headds start moving (if they're not killed by its guns and mines or simply stepped on).

When the Amaterasu Kingdom Demesnes sent its army out to provide cover for the intelligence operation to rescue Amaterasu, pretty much all of the rank and file soldiers spent the entire time freaking out because they had never seen actual combat before. They had to issue combat drugs to get them to stop panicking... which caused issues, because they were so wired they couldn't recognize their objective anymore and had to be killed by their own side to prevent them from gunning Amaterasu down.

[MythSearcher]

Five Star Stories makes no effort at all to disguise the fact that Mortar Headds and Headdliners are a nation's real military power and that the regular army is more or less for show. The only thing that can really threaten your typical Mortar Headd is another Mortar headd. Air balleles (tanks) can only really manage to dent their armor, and infantry will get blown around by the winds raised when the Mortar Headds start moving (if they're not killed by its guns and mines or simply stepped on).

When the Amaterasu Kingdom Demesnes sent its army out to provide cover for the intelligence operation to rescue Amaterasu, pretty much all of the rank and file soldiers spent the entire time freaking out because they had never seen actual combat before. They had to issue combat drugs to get them to stop panicking... which caused issues, because they were so wired they couldn't recognize their objective anymore and had to be killed by their own side to prevent them from gunning Amaterasu down.

And yes, the MH on ground are supreme power and nothing can even barely compare to them, but they aren't the main force behind a country's power.
What I've seen is that the MH are basically more like Jousting (just not in a tournament) and to protect your pride and honour, while the fleet in orbit can take out your whole planet if you do not have one countering it.
Most of the MH are for show and the display of power but not real combat. They do combat with them but usually it is just a small conflict and never used in a real full on war, because the real power is in the space fleet not on the planet.
So soldiers are reasonably not used to combat. Orbital bombardment until your opponent(s) submission or fleet war is the common way of combat in a real war.(And most of Amaterasu's force likely are on the side of curb-storming the much less powerful opponent to begin with)

I have been playing SRW X, and there is this question that bothers me when it comes to Dubine: How would a medieval battlefield look like with the proliferation of mechas? (I haven't watched the show yet.) The only thing I can think of is that if the mechas possess flight capability and/or great firepower, fortifications and castle towns would be less common (unless uses against other enemies, like bandits, or for other purposes.)

Nope, if you want a more medieval mecha, I've seen a manga with mecha in the Sengoku period where each faction had at least a mecha as their god of worship and troops have a SF3D toilet seat type power armour mecha.
At least a rational take on why those guys can beat hundreds of regular troops other when they are still regular human.
I know the Sengoku period isn't medieval anymore, but close enough.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%88%A6 ... 5%E3%80%9C
Manga is drawn by the mangaka of Knights & Magic. (Yes, he is not the author)

Other than that, as many have suggested, Escaflowne, definitely Escaflowne.

[Seto Kaiba]

And yes, the MH on ground are supreme power and nothing can even barely compare to them, but they aren't the main force behind a country's power.
What I've seen is that the MH are basically more like Jousting (just not in a tournament) and to protect your pride and honour, while the fleet in orbit can take out your whole planet if you do not have one countering it.

Funnily enough, that's actually the exact reason given for why Mortar Headds ARE a nation's military power.

Even though what we're seeing in the Joker cluster c.JC2988 is an "after the end" scenario where humanity's most advanced and powerful technologies have been lost to history in cataclysmic wars and with the fall of the various previous human civilizations like the Super Empire, weapons technology is still easily capable of destruction on a truly apocalyptic scale. With adequate energy generation behind it, buster weaponry can be used to straight-up crack planets Death Star-style.

Knowing what those weapons were truly capable of, the governments of the Joker cluster rewrote the laws of war to make warfare as impractical as humanly possible. Buster weaponry was heavily restricted, to the point that its use is all but totally prohibited. Orbital bombardments using less powerful weapons were subjected to very harsh regulations requiring fleets to warn the enemy well in advance of firing, to such an extent that the bombardment was essentially just an intimidation tactic. Mass slaughter and wholesale destruction were banned. Unnecessary destruction of civilian property and causing loss of life among civilians was strongly frowned upon.

So the Headdliners and their Mortar Headds became the new default currency of warfare. They were big, showy, and powerful enough to be unstoppable by anything short of another Mortar Headd... but they were also a highly impractical and expensive sort of weapon that was also not inclined to cause large amounts of collateral damage when used thanks to knightly etiquette and a reliance on swords rather than long-ranged weaponry. Wars were fought by Mortar Headds, while the infantry, armored cavalry, and space fleet were largely just paid spectators.

Most of the MH are for show and the display of power but not real combat. They do combat with them but usually it is just a small conflict and never used in a real full on war, because the real power is in the space fleet not on the planet. So soldiers are reasonably not used to combat.

FSS is pretty clear that MH's are for real combat... but because being Awesome But Impractical is the whole point of them, they're deliberately made to be as ornate, glitzy, and impressive-looking as possible because each MH is both the most potent legal weapon of war in a nation's arsenal AND a powerful symbol of the nation's wealth, the pride of the nation's people, and the prestige of the headdliner and the knightly order to which he/she belongs.

Space fleets are indeed more powerful, but so much so that the laws of war and simple common sense do not permit their use in war anymore.

We see a grand total of one orbital bombardment in the entire manga, which was explicitly said to be purely for show/intimidation and in accordance with the laws of war was carried out well away from inhabited areas, with advance warning to the enemy to prevent loss of life. We see an awful lot of massed warfare with MH's, such as the Colus-Hagooda war instigated by the Fillmore Empire in which Amaterasu's friend Colus XXIII died, the AKD's conflict with the Sorcerer Kingdom Buchtgma, the AKD's conquest of the entire Joker cluster using the new LED Mirage MHs, the Majestic Stand, the return of the Super Empire, and so on.

(And most of Amaterasu's force likely are on the side of curb-storming the much less powerful opponent to begin with)

Well, at least that much is accurate.

The Amaterasu Kingdom Demesnes is the dominant power in the Joker cluster militarily, and eventually conquers the entire cluster for a considerable period of time. That said, their dominance in war is attributed to the AKD's paramount order of knights - the Far Eastern Mirage Corps - having massive advantages over other other knightly orders in terms of the quality of their manpower, the quality of their equipment, and the sheer quantity of their available resources. Once the LED Mirages were complete, they basically steamrollered the entire Joker cluster into submission because they simply outclassed every other nation's knightly orders.

Nope, if you want a more medieval mecha, I've seen a manga with mecha in the Sengoku period where each faction had at least a mecha as their god of worship and troops have a SF3D toilet seat type power armour mecha.
At least a rational take on why those guys can beat hundreds of regular troops other when they are still regular human.
I know the Sengoku period isn't medieval anymore, but close enough.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%88%A6 ... 5%E3%80%9C
Manga is drawn by the mangaka of Knights & Magic. (Yes, he is not the author)

Other than that, as many have suggested, Escaflowne, definitely Escaflowne.

Nobunaga the Fool might be another, though it's technically a future-history space fantasy sort of affair with the characters being reincarnations of famous historical personages.

[MythSearcher]

Well, at least that much is accurate.

The Amaterasu Kingdom Demesnes is the dominant power in the Joker cluster militarily, and eventually conquers the entire cluster for a considerable period of time. That said, their dominance in war is attributed to the AKD's paramount order of knights - the Far Eastern Mirage Corps - having massive advantages over other other knightly orders in terms of the quality of their manpower, the quality of their equipment, and the sheer quantity of their available resources. Once the LED Mirages were complete, they basically steamrollered the entire Joker cluster into submission because they simply outclassed every other nation's knightly orders.

Basically you are saying the fleet is more or less like the nuclear arsenal, just a bit less.
(At least no international law dictates that if you follow a certain set of rules, you can just nuke your opponent.)

I still find the fleet to be the main force, because they can still fight a battle in space without damaging any planet.

The laws limiting the fleet isn't really stopping much of that, but more like the rules of jousting, so people are more civilized and sporty.
I mean, if they get into a real conflict, there is nothing preventing a superior fleet w/o MH to just wipe out the other fleet carrying a troop of MH before they can even drop them off.
Yes, it might be against the law to do so, but international laws are for peaceful times. People agreed to it only because they do not have the power to oppose to all the others combined, but if a real conflict starts(like WWI and II), there is really nothing to enforce the laws when both sides are similar in numbers.
And since the fleet isn't like nukes where it gets really polluting, and more precise, it would be much less condemning than nukes. (And WWII had bombing with conventional bombs on civilians from both sides as a comparison)

At least that is how I perceive MH, it just lacks a military feel to it when you had only a dozen MH charging in a very limited area when the whole world is not limited to that planet but many of them in a cluster.

Nobunaga the Fool might be another, though it's technically a future-history space fantasy sort of affair with the characters being reincarnations of famous historical personages.

Haven't watched that.

[False Prophet]

Even though what we're seeing in the Joker cluster c.JC2988 is an "after the end" scenario where humanity's most advanced and powerful technologies have been lost to history in cataclysmic wars and with the fall of the various previous human civilizations like the Super Empire, weapons technology is still easily capable of destruction on a truly apocalyptic scale. With adequate energy generation behind it, buster weaponry can be used to straight-up crack planets Death Star-style.

Wasn't there was a guy (Rognar?) among the Mirage Knights who could return from death thanks to Super Empire technology? If that was normal in the Super Empire, then orbital bombardment seem less apocalyptic than before.

Also, if combat between Mortal Headds is somewhat individualistic, then what about Machine Messiahs (Auge, Yen-Xing,etc.) How would machines several times more powerful than Mortal Headds fight each other, presume that they were produced in number comparable to Mortal Headds back in the past?

[Seto Kaiba]

Basically you are saying the fleet is more or less like the nuclear arsenal, just a bit less.
(At least no international law dictates that if you follow a certain set of rules, you can just nuke your opponent.)

Kinda... except in this case, international law and the Joker cluster's collective cultural obsession with decorum is at least as effective a deterrent to their use in battle as other nations having similar fleets.

I still find the fleet to be the main force, because they can still fight a battle in space without damaging any planet.

The space fleets have more firepower than any land force by a significant margin, but they pretty consistently sit idle thanks to the focus of warfare in the Joker cluster is on capturing territory, resources, and subjects. Having space warships duke it out in orbit does nothing to achieve any of those aims, so about the only use we ever see them put to besides the heavily restricted for-show-purposes-only orbital bombardment is ferrying Mortar Headd units to and fro.

I mean, if they get into a real conflict, there is nothing preventing a superior fleet w/o MH to just wipe out the other fleet carrying a troop of MH before they can even drop them off.
Yes, it might be against the law to do so, but international laws are for peaceful times.

The international laws governing the rules of war have a lot more teeth in the Joker calendar era than they do in today's world. There's one memorable occasion in a flashback story arc that is itself titled Five Star Stories (title dropped by Sword Sage Deimos Hierarchy breaking the fourth wall while taking a piss no less) where we see that obsession with decorum and the rules of war manifest itself in headdliners outright refusing orders that might've unduly inconvenienced civilians in a time of war. Yes, you read that right... the possibility of inconveniencing a civilian populace in a city that was currently being invaded was seen as reason enough to refuse orders. THAT'S how seriously they take The Rules in the Joker cluster.

Quite a few of the rules of war established by international law in the Joker cluster seem to carry the penalty of death (or worse) for violators. One that comes up surprisingly often is that headdliners are strictly forbidden to harm civilians except under very specific circumstances in wartime on penalty of death, which even royalty and heads of state were explicitly not exempt from. These laws are so strictly enforced that, at one point, a young headdliner girl who'd just turned nine years old is sentenced to die for accidentally killing a classmate who had been bullying her relentlessly for over a year. Reducing her sentence to a nonlethal one required expending so much political capital that her nation's King (Lader VIII) had to abdicate the throne. Initially, that more lenient sentence was a lifetime of house arrest under potent chemical therapy to destroy her muscles to the point that she'd have been permanently bedridden. She was ultimately sentenced to serve out her days as a Chevalier, a dishonorable title that conferred all of the responsibilities and none of the privileges of the knighthood while also leaving her with an immediate summary execution hanging over her head at the (dis)pleasure of her king for even the most trivial of offenses. John Weinzel also narrowly dodges execution for attacking (nonlethally) civilians as a child, apparently in denial that he was in fact a headdliner.

Fatimas are subject to an incredibly draconian list of interstellar laws in their capacity as living weapons, many carrying the death penalty for them and potentially their creator as well. Chrome Ballanche would have gone to the gallows a dozen times over if his crimes on that front had ever come to light... like creating fatimas that had not been subjected to mind control, fatimas whose mind control failed but were not recalled and dismantled, fatimas whose physical abilities rivaled or exceeded those of typical headdliners, and fatimas capable of biological reproduction. Ballanche masterpiece fatimas Queen, Parthenon, Upandora, Atropos, Lachesis, and Clotho were all illegal enough to earn themselves and him a death sentence, sometimes multiple times over. If he hadn't had the help of the AKD via his friendship with Emperor Amaterasu he'd have been a goner for sure... it took a lot of effort to make Queen "disappear", Parthenon had to be falsely listed as destroyed when she was an AKD asset assigned to the Green Left leader, Upandora was a secret gift to Amaterasu, and he was nearly outed when Duke Juba took the last three prior to their debut despite Amaterasu's patronage, only being saved when Atropos disappeared of her own accord, Clotho was taken by Colus XXIII who covered it up, and Lachesis went with Amaterasu himself (which had to be covered up by the Trun Union anyway after Amaterasu killed Juba with buster weaponry) and was made a member of the Amaterasu royal family.

Nobunaga the Fool might be another, though it's technically a future-history space fantasy sort of affair with the characters being reincarnations of famous historical personages.

Haven't watched that.

It's hit and miss for me... one of Shoji Kawamori's non-Macross projects.

It's kind of a Once Upon a Time-style anachronism stew set in an apparently binary planetary system with two Earth-type planets that are called stars for some reason ("East" and "West"). Loads and loads of "reincarnated" historical domain characters rubbing shoulders there. It's kind of a schizo-tech setting too, since giant robots are a thing (magically powered) but generally the tech level is straight medieval.

The Western Star is medieval Europe-themed and ruled by King Arthur, who unified it with the Knights of the Round Table... who include Julius Caesar, Hannibal Barca, Alexander the Great, Cesare Borgia, Charlemagne, Niccolo Machiavelli, Chandragupta, Leonardo da Vinci, and Ferdinand Magellan. The Eastern star is not unified yet, and is stuck in Japan's Sengoku period. Most of the story on that side focuses on the conflict between the Oda clan and the Takeda and Uesugi clans.

The series foregoes Nobunaga Oda's traditional historical villain upgrade in favor of making him the main character alongside Jeanne d'Arc, Akechi Mitsuhide, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Like everything Kawamori does, it promptly gets WEIRD.

[Seto Kaiba]

Wasn't there was a guy (Rognar?) among the Mirage Knights who could return from death thanks to Super Empire technology? If that was normal in the Super Empire, then orbital bombardment seem less apocalyptic than before.

Yeah, King Falk U. Rogner, who was the de facto head of the Mirage Corps under Emperor Amaterasu. It isn't indicated how widely used the "daughter" chip technology he uses to recreate himself every time he dies was in the Super Empire's days. The chip he has was a personal gift from the Super Empire's Flame Empress to the last of the Super Empire's Chevaliers (Nakkandrah "Ned" Swans) whose bloodline gave rise to the modern headdliners. It's the only one that exists in the Joker cluster.

Also, if combat between Mortal Headds is somewhat individualistic, then what about Machine Messiahs (Auge, Yen-Xing,etc.) How would machines several times more powerful than Mortal Headds fight each other, presume that they were produced in number comparable to Mortal Headds back in the past?

The Super Empire seems to have mass produced the Yen Xing, at the very least. They were powerful enough to be capable of challenging the Dragons themselves, the most powerful living beings in Joker, and are shown to be able to chop starships into bits fairly casually. We never see two Machine Messiahs square off against each other, but they likely fought the same way mortar headds do... though probably even faster than the already near-supersonic speed mortar headds can supposedly achieve over land.

[MythSearcher]

Okay, it was almost 20 years since I read the manga, so I guess I don't remember it that well.
But wouldn't it makes a bit more sense when Amaterasu basically conquered the whole cluster, the law would have no one powerful enough to enforce other than himself?

It's hit and miss for me... one of Shoji Kawamori's non-Macross projects.

It's kind of a Once Upon a Time-style anachronism stew set in an apparently binary planetary system with two Earth-type planets that are called stars for some reason ("East" and "West").

I can at least answer this one, translation error.
In Japanese and Chinese, basically all celestial bodies had the "星" kanji/character as the suffix. Which by itself translates to star.
Planet, being 惑星 in Japanese, roughly means "confusing star", possibly stems from the fact that the observable planets on the night sky moves differently than other stars and is confusing, to the 1792 government, at least. They used both names of 惑星and 遊星, wondering star, starting from the Edo period and the latter terms still stuck till today even though they settled to using 惑星 in the Meiji era.(Especially in fiction, prominently in Space Battleship Yamato)

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are 水星(water star), 金星(gold/metal star), 火星(fire star), 木星(wood star), 土星(soil/earth star), 天王星(king of the sky star), 海王星(king of the sea star), 冥王星(king of the underworld star) respectively.
The first five being the five elements and if you notice, are the name of the days of the week as well.(along with the Sun and Moon)
Some of the bigger asteroids/dwarf planets named after Greek deities are called [X]神星, "[whatever] god star".

Thus East and West star must have been translated from 東星 and 西星.

As a side note, Chinese call planets 行星, which means walking/moving stars, and also sometimes used in Japanese text.
Asteroids and dwarf planets are rendered as 小惑星 and 準惑星 respectively, so those also have a chance of being translated erroneously as XX-star.

Similar translation error can be found in Miniskirt Space Pirate , where they translated planet names as XX-star.
(I highly recommend at least the first 10 eps of the anime, I hate the remaining because it diverged too much from the novel too much and ceased being a hard sci-fi space opera. BTW, the planet the main heroin is from is Tau Ceti III, if you know the reference, and yes, they have a character with the family name Kobayashimaru on their ship. And they call the Tau Ceti star "タウ星 (Tau Star)"...)

Loads and loads of "reincarnated" historical domain characters rubbing shoulders there. It's kind of a schizo-tech setting too, since giant robots are a thing (magically powered) but generally the tech level is straight medieval.

The Western Star is medieval Europe-themed and ruled by King Arthur, who unified it with the Knights of the Round Table... who include Julius Caesar, Hannibal Barca, Alexander the Great, Cesare Borgia, Charlemagne, Niccolo Machiavelli, Chandragupta, Leonardo da Vinci, and Ferdinand Magellan. The Eastern star is not unified yet, and is stuck in Japan's Sengoku period. Most of the story on that side focuses on the conflict between the Oda clan and the Takeda and Uesugi clans.

The series foregoes Nobunaga Oda's traditional historical villain upgrade in favor of making him the main character alongside Jeanne d'Arc, Akechi Mitsuhide, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Like everything Kawamori does, it promptly gets WEIRD.

Typical.
I find it that anime by Kawamori are pretty much a miss for me, especially if it is not a Marcoss series. Even the Macross series isn't that much of a hit, I liked do you remember love, FB 2012, Zero, Frontier, but don't like Plus, 7 and didn't have the will power to start Delta. non-macross series I can only think of Escaflowne...

[Seto Kaiba]

I can at least answer this one, translation error.

It seems to be more a deliberate stylistic choice on Kawamori's part... just one I find rather weird and archaic.

Typical.
I find it that anime by Kawamori are pretty much a miss for me, especially if it is not a Marcoss series. Even the Macross series isn't that much of a hit, I liked do you remember love, FB 2012, Zero, Frontier, but don't like Plus, 7 and didn't have the will power to start Delta. non-macross series I can only think of Escaflowne...

Personally, I enjoyed Nobunaga the Fool enough to buy the series on Blu-ray and import one of the artbooks.

That said, Nobunaga the Fool is one of those shows that assumes its audience is more than passingly familiar with the history of the Sengoku period and various key figures of it... which can make it kind of difficult for those who don't know much about the period to get into the series. The writers try to mitigate it a bit with some hefty doses of "as you know" dialog early on, but it's not really enough in some cases. It can start to spiral into full-on "genius bonus" territory with some of the characters making reference to famous feats from their past lives. The mechanical design is interesting, reminiscent of Kawamori's work on Aquarion EVOL.

Its setting is fairly interesting as well, with the whole East-vs-West dynamic between the pseudo-medieval Western Star trying to invade the Sengoku period Eastern Star, and with a mixture of small, rotund giant robot infantry and more humanoid ~20m traditionally-scaled robots used by warlords. There are shades of Kawamori's interest in fortune telling that had previously reared its head in Escaflowne as well.

[MythSearcher]

It seems to be more a deliberate stylistic choice on Kawamori's part... just one I find rather weird and archaic.

Probably not. It seems to me that the Japanese, and also many Chinese who don't have the required knowledge to do the translation always make this mistake. Typical of a word to word translation, most likely plugged into a translation machine or just going through the dictionary word by word.

Considering I still hear people getting confused Stars and Planets on a day to day basis in Hong Kong, this is much more common than you think because of the language structure.

Personally, I enjoyed Nobunaga the Fool enough to buy the series on Blu-ray and import one of the artbooks.

That said, Nobunaga the Fool is one of those shows that assumes its audience is more than passingly familiar with the history of the Sengoku period and various key figures of it... which can make it kind of difficult for those who don't know much about the period to get into the series. The writers try to mitigate it a bit with some hefty doses of "as you know" dialog early on, but it's not really enough in some cases. It can start to spiral into full-on "genius bonus" territory with some of the characters making reference to famous feats from their past lives. The mechanical design is interesting, reminiscent of Kawamori's work on Aquarion EVOL.

Its setting is fairly interesting as well, with the whole East-vs-West dynamic between the pseudo-medieval Western Star trying to invade the Sengoku period Eastern Star, and with a mixture of small, rotund giant robot infantry and more humanoid ~20m traditionally-scaled robots used by warlords. There are shades of Kawamori's interest in fortune telling that had previously reared its head in Escaflowne as well.

Possibly because they have enough sengoku themed anime/manga/games that pretty much like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, people aren't seriously unfamiliar with the topic in Japan. I wish I can find a western counter part as an example but nothing pops up immediately, probably due to the fact that the west is actually comprise of multiple countries and only the more modern wars involved most of them. For the American, I guess its the Civil War? I know nothing about the war but in books like Gone with the Wind and film like the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and the one depicting Lincoln to be a vampire hunter? Also Mythbusters episodes, talks about the historic figures but I have no idea who they are. I didn't even know which side supports even during my studies in the US.(Granted, I only took a course in US history which is required for my Engineering degree and it is modern period only.)

[Seto Kaiba]

Probably not. It seems to me that the Japanese, and also many Chinese who don't have the required knowledge to do the translation always make this mistake. Typical of a word to word translation, most likely plugged into a translation machine or just going through the dictionary word by word.

Having seen the series, I gotta stick to my guns and say it feels like a deliberate stylistic choice... particularly given the slightly archaic and grandiose large ham Leonardo da Vinci is the one usually saying it.

It also fits well with the general setting of the story, where general society in the East and West are still in medieval stasis despite having stuff like interplanetary spacecraft (which look like galleons) and giant robots powered by magic. It's odd to see Nobunaga Oda as a hero, and odder still to see a Sengoku-esque story where Shingen Takeda isn't chewing the scenery with the kind of enthusiasm that's make even William Shatner tell him to take it down a notch. (Weirder still that Takeda is actually a villain for once.)

Possibly because they have enough sengoku themed anime/manga/games that pretty much like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, people aren't seriously unfamiliar with the topic in Japan. I wish I can find a western counter part as an example but nothing pops up immediately, probably due to the fact that the west is actually comprise of multiple countries and only the more modern wars involved most of them. For the American, I guess its the Civil War?

World War II, man. Americans churn out World War II fiction and games the way Japan does with the Sengoku period, though it lacks the "larger than life" historical domain character aspect of it. You'd almost suspect it was the last time America had a clear win over an unambiguously evil foe. The American Civil War has some larger than life figures but generally gets ignored because Napoleonic tactics aren't particularly exciting to look at with combat mainly being two formations of musket-equipped infantry standing line abreast shooting at each other and missing 90% of the time. It's more or less the genesis of the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy trope, but justified since most soldiers were using smoothbore muskets with an effective range of only a few hundred yards.

[MythSearcher]

World War II, man. Americans churn out World War II fiction and games the way Japan does with the Sengoku period, though it lacks the "larger than life" historical domain character aspect of it. You'd almost suspect it was the last time America had a clear win over an unambiguously evil foe. The American Civil War has some larger than life figures but generally gets ignored because Napoleonic tactics aren't particularly exciting to look at with combat mainly being two formations of musket-equipped infantry standing line abreast shooting at each other and missing 90% of the time. It's more or less the genesis of the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy trope, but justified since most soldiers were using smoothbore muskets with an effective range of only a few hundred yards.

Well, yes, I thought of WWII, but that is way more modern and not really that much of a comparison to the more medieval esque Sengoku or Sangoku period with general figures that are Arthurian-like and fitting the Musou style. Yes, I know there is Mad Jack for the UK, but still, you don't get a few of these in each battle and people taking things in duel like settings.

I also thought of the Bible, Greek and Norse mythologies, similar in common knowledge to a point where people kinda expect you to know what happened without explaining them, but the Era style is still incorrect.

Come to think of it, didn't I just mentioned the term myself? Arthurian legend, at least Arthur and Lancelot are prominent enough, no?

[Tezcatli]

I've always wanted to see something like Escaflowne again. Though without all the flying mechs and crazy tech. A grounded approach with no guns or fantasy magic.

I guess it would be like Five Star Stories. The armies would take to the field and as soon as one side started winning. The other side's mechs would take the field and the battle would largely be decided by whose mech knights were better. Without the aid of gunpowder, infantry and cavalry wouldn't be of much use, provided a mech was armored enough to withstand a lance. Maybe a ballista might do some damage to a mech so you wouldn't want to attack an entrenched enemy unsupported.

[Seto Kaiba]

Well, yes, I thought of WWII, but that is way more modern and not really that much of a comparison to the more medieval esque Sengoku or Sangoku period with general figures that are Arthurian-like and fitting the Musou style.

There were a few, like Eisenhower, Rommel, etc., but yeah they weren't exactly thick on the ground. It's just that if there's one conflict that Americans over-romanticize the way Japan over-romanticizes the Sengoku period, it'd be World War II.

I also thought of the Bible, Greek and Norse mythologies, similar in common knowledge to a point where people kinda expect you to know what happened without explaining them, but the Era style is still incorrect.

Come to think of it, didn't I just mentioned the term myself? Arthurian legend, at least Arthur and Lancelot are prominent enough, no?

Prominent, yeah... but they're also fictional/mythological figures rather than historical ones like the various daimyo of the Sengoku period. The popular perception of characters from the Arthurian mythos is so historically inaccurate we could arguably say that they're picturing the wrong millennium. (The best guess for when Arthur would have lived if the surviving folk tales was the 5th century... the kind of plate armor they're usually depicted wearing didn't come into wide use until the 15th century.)

[MythSearcher]

There were a few, like Eisenhower, Rommel, etc., but yeah they weren't exactly thick on the ground. It's just that if there's one conflict that Americans over-romanticize the way Japan over-romanticizes the Sengoku period, it'd be World War II.

Prominent, yeah... but they're also fictional/mythological figures rather than historical ones like the various daimyo of the Sengoku period. The popular perception of characters from the Arthurian mythos is so historically inaccurate we could arguably say that they're picturing the wrong millennium. (The best guess for when Arthur would have lived if the surviving folk tales was the 5th century... the kind of plate armor they're usually depicted wearing didn't come into wide use until the 15th century.)

Well, just trying to find an example that when mentioned, people usually don't explain much about it because they expect everyone know who is who.
Even the earliest depiction of Author the warchief/squad leader(?) is so impossible. I mean, seriously? falling 960 men in a single battle in a day? One can do that in a Musou game (boringly), but anything with an even slightly higher difficulty setting(i.e. enemy isn't just standing there as targets) is not plausible. If you see someone killing your team like cutting grass, you'd probably flight instead of fight. This number is implausible even with modern infantry weapons.

BTW, can't believe I forgot to mention Magic Knight Rayearth. Okay, maybe this is a less medieval and more fantasy example.