2 Abrams tanks vs. 10,000 Chinese cavalrymen: Who would win?

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Fun thread. I love all those who use specs to bolster their argument for the tanks or give rpg's to the calvary. Methinks that there are not enough who read history or who have seen real combat here. Tell you what, those 10,000 Chinese could give away their horses and weapons and STILL win. The idea of pure armor units was shot down in WW II and every conflict since for simple reasons. Armor can't see in all directions at once, two tanks don't have the flexibility of operations that 10,000 do and, I'd take the strategic abilities of the Chinese general commanding over the command abilities of the two tank commanders any day of the week.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: zach0624
tanks, an abrams can sprint at like 60mph which I am pretty sure is faster than a horse. Also bodies are in the tanks favor, it can easily plow right over them while the horse would lose some to broken legs. Also with unlimited ammo the tanks can engage from over a mile away and inflict heavy damage.

Discovery and future weapons ftw

at like 60mph is more like 40mph on road.. ROAD. If you're off road, you're talking about less speed. Horses can easily match the speed of an Abrams. If you're giving the Abrams 60mph you might as well give the cavalry jetpack.

 

[Vonkhan]

Long have I thought about this ...

the horsemen would win

they could pee down the vents!

 

[Turin39789]

Thread title states the tanks are facing cavalrymen and not actual cavalry. No horses FTL

 

[SpunkyJones]

As long as Spiderman is driving one of the tanks, they will kick ass.

 

[oddyager]

Yeah pretty sure 10000 cavalrymen can dig and disguise a deep enough hole for the tanks to fall in, har har.

 

[Fox5]

Well, the plane takes off and then as it's flying overhead, the Chinese shoot at it and enough bullets hit it to cause it to crash right into the tanks.

Oh, and I doubt the tank takes absolutely no damage from each rifle bullet that hits it, a few hundred thousand shots might be enough to turn a tank into swiss cheese.

 

[NoShangriLa]

10,000 men with unlimited ammo definitely win because no way in hell would the tanks can withstand 10,000 of thousands shot pounding on it per second with out breaking down in a short time.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Cake > Pie

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: Scouzer

Originally posted by: IAteYourMother
cavalry. Eventually, they surround the tanks and kill the guys inside. aren't abrams tanks' rounds anti tank piercing rounds as opposed to explosive?

How do you propose they open the tank even if they got close?

Arm them with THESE?

 

[meltdown75]

i think the cavalry would eventually remember the sticky bomb part from Saving Private Ryan and pwn the tanks with teh sticky bombs.

 

[SSSnail]

The Cavalries would win easily. All they really need to do is gather on top of the tank, fart, and walk away. Talking about gas chamber huh?

Or, they could just urinate on the tank and watch it rust.

 

[meltdown75]

Would enough of them be able to topple a tank? I guess not... especially it was moving... *squish*

 

[SpiderWiz]

Don't you guys remember Saving Private Ryan......sticky bombs FTW

 

[Hyperlite]

Originally posted by: Scouzer

Originally posted by: yllus

Originally posted by: Hacp
Calvarymen of course. Just make a circle around the tanks, and charge in. If your horse is stuck, go on foot and run to the tanks.

No way man. The tanks could so easily cut a hole in that circle - main gun for effect, and machine guns to keep 'em coming down.

Plus I'd like to see a horse catch a 40mph tank that's shooting at them...

that would almost be funny to watch. almost.

 

[Vonkhan]

The horsemen would simply have to wait - the tank crew would have to shit & piss sometime ...

 

[sdifox]

tanks have to have infantry support to be effective against infantry. Otherwise they get outflanked easily.

 

[coldmeat]

I don't know what the tank uses to see, but could one of the chinese get on top of the tank and block their sight?

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: Safeway
Tanks. Constant machine gun action will mow down the first few waves and make it impossible for the rest to continue to charge forward. As the horses stumble over mutilated other horses, they trip and fall.

yep

even if all 10000 were in a complete circle around the tanks, the tanks will have the ability to fire with lethal intensity immediately upon acquiring the target. Rifle rounds from the cavalry will be NOTHING to a tank from the distance the two will be able to see each other. Plus, from a distance, you may not recognize its a tank, but a swarm of 10000 strong completely surrounding you.. yea that stands out.
the stragglers of the 10000 will be lucky if they close the gap to less than 100yds. Constant machine gun fire (alternating between the two tanks, to allow for barrel cooling and reloading), with alternating 120mm canister (caseshot) shells... oooo imagine the carnage.
now of course, the tanks will have to give the 10000 a little hope, let them close in on them.. say, 3000 yds or so (I think the canister rounds in the 120mm smooth bore gun have a max effective range... well wiki tells me 6000yds, good enough for me), and set the delay of the rounds to open up just before reaching the approaching mass of people. And assuming you still have a good amount of fuel left in the Abrams', then you can hightail faster than horses.. if they WERE to ever get close enough. But you take out the first couple rows, and those horses are gonna just completely go crazy and will probably be abandoned.
caseshot is used for dug-in infantry, but since these guys aren't dug in, and charging.. that means even more carnage, benefiting the Abrams'.

yep. people vs tanks on flat ground. hehhehheh
now.. remove the LoS from the tanks, and the tanks will definitely be in a much harder fight. But flat ground, those tanks might as well be playing a game.
1 tank on flat ground should actually be sufficient to take care of the same 10000 cavalrymen.

 

[Superself]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
Even if they couldn't open the hatch, what's to stop 10,000 calvary swarming the tank and just hitting the treads or wheels with the buts of their gun. Or constantly shooting it. With unlimited ammo, I am sure you can break the tank.

WTF?? Small arms fire and the buts of guns CANNOT harm tank treads!
Civilians are so funny!

 

[SunnyD]

Ask the Polish calvary that question.

 

[imported_Lipton]

Tanks, and if yu say otherwise.... c`mon.
The .50cal + the coaxial and teh MainGUN with HE rounds....done

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: Lipton
Tanks, and if yu say otherwise.... c`mon.
The .50cal + the coaxial and teh MainGUN with HE rounds....done

HE rounds aren't really effective against infantry. Sure, it'll kill, but not nearly as effective as caseshot. A lot of people seem to forget about the canister rounds. The US Army still uses them, just not often because we don't like throwing tanks against infantry as it's generally not a good idea. That and there often isn't a lot of fighting on wide open flat ground. In a city, a tank would be taken out by far less than 10000 people if they had any explosives. But in the wide open, the tank's got the distance advance due to being able to effectively fire out to longer distances, giving them an advance that only mechanical failure could strip away. Or anti-armor weaponry, but it's not mentioned if the cavalrymen have that kind of weaponry.

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Ask the Polish calvary that question.

to be fair, they weren't properly armed. but still...

 

[Captante]

It depends entirely on the weapons the Chinese are equipped with ... give them RPG's for example & it wouldn't take very many to win.

 

[Modelworks]

Anyone think about how big a pile of 10,000 men and horses would make ?

I think they could stop the tanks just by sheer numbers.
A tank can push forward pretty hard, but it does have its limits.
An adult horse can easily reach 1000 pounds. so thats 10 million pounds !.
Not including the mass of the soldiers.

If they piled on as a large mass, the tank can't fire at point blank range without taking damage.

My money is on the horses