Forgive my ignorance if its common knowledge but always thought a shovel was a weird choice for a melee weapon. For those of you also losing sleep over this I can now put your mind at ease.

In a recent episode of deadliest warrior which pitches two different soldiers/warriors of history against each to see who is the toughest the answer came to light. They pitched American green beret's against Russian spetsnaz's. The way they do it is to test the weapons they use, give them a score and input it into a peice of software which figures out who is better. Personally i think it doesnt mean much but the weapons are interesting.

Anyhow, the melee weapon of the green beret is you guessed it, a shovel. Or more accurately, an entrenching shovel or e shovel. I guess primarily to dig a trench (or grave for yourself) in the midst of battle. Its quite a short shovel and pretty meaty looking and the shovel blade is serated on one side I think, but definately has a sharpened edge on the rest of its edges for slicing and dicing.

The Spetsnaz close quarters weapon is the ballistic knife, a spring loaded knife that can fire the blade at 40kph - an awesome peice of kit.

For those who are interested the Spetsnaz won. Previous encounters include spartan vs ninja and samurai vs viking i think.

Yeah being versed in British history means a huge focus on WWI and WWII shovels were standard issue, therefore a shovel always seemed a natural fit. Especially as its hard to fit a bayonette to a rocket launcher.

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Probably quite hard to fit a spade on a rocket launcher as well

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a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig

next soldier unlock allows you to dig holes in the ground for cover. you read it here first folks!

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ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: true genius
ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: doesn't make sense
ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: till you're senseless

1 rifle, 1 bayonette, 50 rounds and a spade. Standard issue. Bayonette's harder to use without the rifle as there's no grip on most of them, they are made to be attached to the rifle.

You maybe right anyway with creative use the rocket launcher precludes the need for a spade alltogether. Deformable terrain coming to TF2.

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Depends entirely on when/where the bayonet is from. Early models often fitted down the barrel (think smooth bore muskets and early rifles here) and so had no handle. Pretty quickly they ring-mounted them to the barrel so you could still shoot (again, usually no proper handle). A little later they slotted on to the side and were basically large knives attached to the gun (in order to be multi-purpose - and hence had handles to be used as knives/short swords). Some of the more modern ones have reverted to a simple spike for stabbing things with little or no usable blade with the upside that you don't have a huge machete like thing (yes, some of the WWII German ones I have are VERY heavy chopping blades -the English ones I have from that period are lighter/thinner but still a pretty heavy duty foot long knife) attached to the end of your rifle cocking up your aim.

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Dammit! My computer was set to U.S. English.
I tried to save a word document but accidentally blew it up instead.

What has that got to do with my spade rocket launcher

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a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig

WTF is a spade rocket?

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you've probably seen the chainsaw rocket launcher.

imagine that, but with spades instead of chainsaws.

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ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: true genius
ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: doesn't make sense
ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: till you're senseless

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a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig

Soldier taunt kill : Soldier holds rocket against forehead and headbutts enemy, insta-killing him and target if landed.
Soldier taunt kill 2: Juggles the rocket/grenade but drops them - all detonate instakilling the soldier and anything (very) close by.
Soldier voice taunt: This is my Rocket. There are many others like it, but this one is mine...

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Dammit! My computer was set to U.S. English.
I tried to save a word document but accidentally blew it up instead.

Nah I think taunt kill for soldier should be his "looser" taunt with big L as kill icon

You always want everyone dead with your ideas for taut kills... I'm moving all the sharp objects tomorow.

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His hand should turn into a ICBM when doing the loser taunt, destroying the whole map and crashing the server

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a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig

True but who doesn't want a demoman to become a "lemmings" suicide bomber with a big countdown over his head and "Oh no!" in a thick Scottish accent.

PS - I still like the Full metal Jacket quote for the soldier. Have it non-fatal if you must but keep the quote.

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Dammit! My computer was set to U.S. English.
I tried to save a word document but accidentally blew it up instead.