Imagine being a famous knight anointed by the pope, the best rider in your kingdom, only to get vibe checked by a wooden box on wheels

I like the idea how this medieval war tactic eventually became a tactic in the wild west for the pioneers

Fun Fact - the word Howitzer, started as Czech (Hussite) word Houfnice - the gun that was so inaccurate it was only effective at shooting to the crowds. Crowds are houfy in Czech, hence houfnice.

Best offense is a good defense, eh? At least until the cannons got bigger.

By changing the rules of combat, the knights now became the "untrained" units. They had no idea at the time of how to deal with the wagon forts, and the weapons being used. Brilliant. Its like me coming to play checkers, but my opponent sets up chess game. I am done.

This gives me a deeper appreciation of the war wagon units in Warhammer Total War. Real history is often better than fiction, just less accessible. Thanks for a bit of remedy!

Great video about the tactical value of wagon forts :)

When the wagons speak Czech

The Hussites invented the first APC

As a Czech I am amazed and impressed with your pronunciation. Czech is a hard language and you nailed it!

To the wagon boiiiiiiss. The knights are nigh!!!!

The "Fyrd" or local militia weren't good in the field, but were great for defending fortifications. What an innovation to take fortifications with you!

Once again an example for motivation and mindset being more important than equipment

Zizca was a genius. He was also blind in one eye and later the other. He never lost a battle.

Hungarian kings were quick to employ these hussite tactics, and even hiring fugitive hussites, like John Jiskra, who became a famous captain of the Black Army under King Matthias. The mobile, wagon riding, gun/crossbow wielding infantry was an excellent addition to the cavalry-heavy hungarian army. Kinda like mechanised infantry to modern tanks.

Thinking about a series on the Hussite Wars, but I'd also like to do more on Gustavus Adolphus. Any thoughts? (Would be a few months off though).

BTW, Andrzej Sapkowski (Witcher's author) wrote trilogy about Hussite Wars, including some epic battles and skirmishes. Genre is low fantasy, but supernatural stuff doesn't affect historical events that much. Great read overall, should be translated soon

The "peasant levies" response to "chivalry" once they figured out that chivalry intended for them to be fodder. "Cowards hiding behind wagons! Come out!" "Okay. You take off all that armor and we'll come out of our wagons"

Every Mount&Blade wfas player : hey, i've seen this one

"The best offence is a good defence." - Rogal Dorn

when you are talking about defensive warfare being better than offensive and tactics to bring down knights...i am all in :P [winks]

Deepsilver needs to make a sequel to Kingdom Come Deliverance that takes place during the Hussite war. They touched on it a bit by capturing the general displeasure and unrest that preceded the conflict and in my opinion they did a great job at it.

I love the fact that these wagons were basically like medieval tanks, with vehicle commanders, infantry dismounts, and firearms/cannons. It really goes to show how modern warfare can trace its roots back to old days.

Great video, the Hussite Wars have interested me all my life. At medieval markets and in the theater I portray a Hussite fighter and therefore deal a lot with the topic, although it is largely unknown. Here in the border region between Bavaria and the Czech Republic, the Hussites are still well known today, which can be traced back to numerous battles in this area. The best-known in my region is the battle of Hiltersried (21.09.1433) in which "Pfalzgraf Johann zu Neunburg" defeated a Hussite army of 2,000 men. The aftermath of that battle partly contributed to the Hussite movement falling apart. Through the battle he received the nickname "Hussitengeißel".

I've watched quite a few videos about how peasant armies fought, and while they usually mentioned the tools that got adjusted to serve as weapons, this is the first time I hear about the wagon fort. Up to this point I only knew these from old western movies.

That was really interesting. I had never heard of such a tactician... brillant tactics for the age.

I really like how you have managed to develop a style throughout your animations that makes this video for example really enjoyable to watch! Its also amazing how you integrate the animated elements into beautiful backgrounds!

Hussites sort of invented the mobile fortress 👍 Kudos to Jan Ziska for creative improvisation and using his resources effectively. The concept came to a "temporary" end with the development of powerful artillery, but came back in the 20th century in the form of tanks/armored vehicles.

*Hussite Wagons* Time to play Age of Empires II & III again.

hey brother, well done. like... really well done. i think you'll definitely make it on youtube. I really enjoyed the visuals and animations. This is something I haven't seen combined like that ( in one video). Normally somebody either has very nice maps and animations or beautiful pictures and characters.. you manage to combine both in such a cool way. It's even cooler to see that you still manage to have proper references so I could actually go look up the stuff!

This was a completely unknown tactic to me of medieval warfare. Great job and really informative with details!

"Circle the wagons" is heard even today in American business jargon, referring back to an Old West defence against the Indians during the last half of the 19th century. Very good presentation!

Hussite wagons are often compared to tanks, and its interesting how many parallels there are to modern warfare and yet how completely different the concept was. Modern tanks were developed with an entirely offensive mindset. Their sole goal was to accomplish a breakthrough when machine guns and entrechments had made offensive operations at established frontlines extremely costly and difficult. In that sense war wagons are almost the complete opposite, designed to turn field battles into defensive ones. And yet the way war wagons were deployed straight from the march bears a striking resemblance to the modern combined arms approch of mechanised divisions. In the end tanks also become an important defensive tool while war wagons became increasingly offensive (even if the accounts of using them to surround enemies may be imaginations, as you mention). So they did approach each other in their practical handling. The 1970s to 80s present another moment where the fate of the two seperated. Just like war wagons, tanks were also believed to become increasingly obsolete in the face of ever-increasing firepower. But with composite armour and now increasingly sophisticated active protection systems, modern technology provided solutions that will keep tanks around for a good while longer. Another frequently suggested historical lineage for the tank Da Vinci's proposal of a wooden tank with cannons. It is a much closer match for the original idea, as it was also designed to break the enemy front line to be closely followed by infantry. However the concept was an engineering nightmare that had no chance of realisation. It demanded a ludicrous number of cannons and would have been far too heavy to be moved from the protected inside. It also would have had an insane ground pressure and would have gotten stuck practically everywhere until the development of tracked propulsion.

Such a simple, yet brilliant design! I had never heard of these, nor did the idea ever cross my mind, but it makes so much sense! This is a fantastic mobile defense for the pre-gunpowder age. Cavalry can't very well charge a cart, and infantry couldn't effectively climb or move the carts without first overwhelming the entrenched resistance. You get all the advantages of a fortified position, with a mere fraction of the time and effort to erect, AND the ability to actually be mobile. I'm surprised these aren't talked about more.

Good video, but one slight note about the wagonburg setup is that the videos show wagons end to end but they were actually staggered on angles (you have one picture that shows that). Other things to note is that the Hussites were essentially pre-Protestant rebels, they shared the same arguments against the corruption of the Church as did Martin Luther but pre-dated Luther by 100 years (Had the printing press been around during their time things might have been different). Jan Zizka was quite an exceptional general - he was a noble but also a bandit in his early years and learned a lot from those early days - such as his realization at Tannenberg/Grunnwald in 1410 that the only real defense against mounted knights are fortifications. He probably realized this at the first Hussite battle in Nekmer as he was leaving the town of Pilsen and he ended up setting the Wagons defensively. But Nekmer was actually more of a skirmish. Only a few months later after leaving Prague with his followers (approximately 400 peasants and farmers a handful of soldiers, 13 wagons and only a couple of mounted men) on his way to the town of Tabor which was an abandoned fortified town in a very strong defensive location and recently taken over by Hussite followers from Sezimovo Usti, Zizka fought the first major battle at Sudomer. His scouts had noticed that there were at least 2000 mounted men from Strakonice and the Pilsen landfrieden. Zizka realized that there was no way to make it to Tabor in time, so ordered the wagons be setup in a semicircle with a lake on one side, the other side was not actually a swamp but a carp pond that had been drained (which is how the carp are harvested in the area) so it actually looked more like a muddy field. It was a slog and they were heavily outnumbered (5-1) but they the won and were able to go to Tabor which became his main base for a few years. Only a few months later Zizka went to the defense of Prague and beat King Sigismund and his army which outnumbered the Hussites 10 to 1. Sigismund was the Hungarian King and brother of the Czech King Vaclav who had recently died and Sigismund claimed the throne. Sigismund was hated by the Czechs because he had promised Jan Hus safe conduct after he was summoned to the Council of Constance by the Church in Rome to answer for his supposed heresy. The Council of Constance also had to deal with the 3 popes problem. Hus was then arrested and burned at the stake (which is where you get the saying "your goose is cooked" Hus=Goose in Czech) and he became a martyr. Bohemia was put on a papal interdict - no marriages, christenings or burials were done by the church. In any case Zizka was a founder of the modern army - he brought back the top down command system and organized the army in units of 10s and 100s (hence Hauptman or Captain) and never lost a battle. He also founded strict authority and rules of engagement which all modern armies have. He was a master of using the terrain - and while he was blind in one eye most of his life, he lost his other eye in a battle and was completely blind the last few years of his life where he won his biggest victories. There were 5 crusades organized against the Hussites in Bohemia and were all beaten back. Zizka died of the plague in 1424 and the Hussites split into two factions that eventually ended up fighting each other and finally the moderates allied with the royalists defeated the radicals in 1434 in Lipno. While Sigismund did return to claim the Czech crown he died shortly after and in 1450s the Czech chose a Hussite King George of Podebrady. We get the term Pistol from the Czech word Pistala (which meant whistle and what the Hussites called the early handguns) and Howitzer from the Czech Houfnice cannon. Zizka collected as many handguns as he could. Zizka is considered by many military historians to be the first to use field artillery and one of a handful of the greatest generals. Good sources for Zizka and the Hussite revolution would be Frederick Heymann and recently another book came out Warrior of God (by Victor Verney). In Husitske Valecnictvi 1898 by Hugo Toman - the author believes that Zizka was influenced by the Roman Vegetius book De Re Militari. Source: I'm originally from Tabor - Zizka's home base for the early years. Another point about the wagonburg system - people mention below that it is only good until the enemy acquires bigger cannon. The fact is that at the time Zizka was using guns and cannons against mounted knights, and his enemies tried to organize the same way but essentially could not make it work. On the one hand he had highly motivated soldiers and his enemy was mounted nobility which tended to be highly individualistic and less organized than the Hussites. The Hussite revolution is not that well known in the west primarily because Bohemia was later taken over by the Catholic Hapsburgs of Austria and German historians tended to look down on that time. But Frederick Heymann Zizka's historian likens the Hussite revolution as one of the earliest in the wave of the revolutions the people, such as the American and the French revolutions.

Everyone gangsta, until you hear wagon singing kdož sú boží bojovníci

The unit is now available in the last expansion of Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition!

what a guy Jan zizka was. totally blind.

Man I freaking love your videos, the animated illustrations, interesting commentary, and accurate history

I've read other sources which claim that a great deal of the Hussite wagon forts' effectiveness had to do with the deeply ingrained stupidity of many of their opponents. Since their mobility was limited, the wagon forts themselves could not be used to launch rapid attacks on the enemy so Hussite leaders relied on goading enemy knights and men at arms into attacking them. The hot blooded, well armed and well armored, and arrogant "professionals" couldn't resist taking the fight to the peasants whom they considered to be their inferiors so they could be counted on to make headlong charges into the killing range of the hand guns and artillery and thus leaving themselves vulnerable to counterattacks by Hussite infantry and calvary.

It was a bad idea throughout the middle ages to mess with Bohemians...

Thank you for the time and effort put into these videos. Great warfare content is always needed

i love it that you produce more videos lately, and that you keep posting your sources unlike other channels. and the quality is always very good. could you perhaps make a video about the good parts of heavy cavalry in the period? it feels like we see only what was effective in countering them, im starting to feel bad for those guys

Thanks for more content about the early modern period. I really like the era and not a lot of videos cover it. Please make more.

These videos are always so cool and well made, well done my man

Age of Empires 2 DE fans will like it :)

My ancestors, the Voortrekkers, fended off hundreds of attacks by various Bantu tribes with the "wagon-lager" strategy. Of course - the wagons were also their home on the Great Trek. They later forged special "fighting grates" to place between the openings between the wagon wheels so enemies couldn't enter. It has been recorded in diaries of the time that when an attack came, nearly every cast-iron pot was beaten into pieces and used as the shot for the old muskets to turn into very effective large-bore shotguns.

Wow, an amazing video. As a czech citizen I would only add that in the first battle Zizka used a trap. He seemingly left one of his flanks vulnerable to lure knights into the swamps. Or I was taught it that way in school.

On a less memetical note, this video is super cool! I've actually been working on a novel set in this time period for some time - it's such a fascinating time period, and not just in all the military revolutions brewing on the battlefield. There was so much change occurring in this twilight century of the Middle Ages - and better still, documentation is improving dramatically from just under a hundred years prior - there's so much more historical material to study. And the Hussite Wars in particular are a fascinating study into a different era of Christian thought - the Hussites took their faith so seriously (basic summary of Hus' views: communion requires both bread and wine; standard Catholic practice was to give the laity *only* bread) that they were willing to defend their convictions with their lives - because the alternative was eternal damnation. Another random interesting note - the Hussite Wars are one of the few contemporaneously documented instances in the Middle Ages (from Early to Late) of women taking part in military operations on a significant level as combatants and not merely commanders (e.g. Joan of Arc, Matilda of Tuscany) or camp followers who did the cooking and tending and cleaning. Francis Lutzow wrote a quality book on the Hussite Wars that tackles it from a more general historical / political perspective, in the context of the fierce religious spirit of the time. For those in this comment section that feel like reading that is. :P

One of Prague districts is named Žižkov after this brave man :) We also have a beautiful statue of him on his warhorse. Proud times in our history !

That was really entertaining as well as educating, thanks for another great vid!

Your work is Incredible! Thank you for the Great Videos!

Jan Zika is one of the people that I researched highly. He is right up there IMHO to many of the Genuses through out history. He took unskilled soldiers and turned them into a effective fighting force.

Hussite characteristics in warfare - flexible, adaptable, sufficiently skilled in quality but also practical and affordable - just like CZs today.

Love the fact you have source to every single quote, really good job on this video.

Wow! This channel is fantastic! I salute you for your work. Also, subscribed. I look forward to seeing more of your work.

I'm loving the animation! Especially the horse trot!

Makes you feel kinda sad that they in the end lost despite being so much more motivated.

I must say how much I enjoyed and learned from this video. It made me think about modern tank tactics and strategy. THANKS 😊

Very interesting; I certainly learned something there! Thanks for taking the time to produce such a well made and informative video! Liked and subbed! :)

The animation in your Video is just awesome!!

This feels like a bug exploit that broke the game meta and eventually got patched so it couldn't be done again.

Even better than usual! And on a fascinating subject, ideal for a figurinist like me, I do like painting this kind of unit...Great video, once again!👍👍

Learnt two new things today.Hussites and war wagons.Thank you.

Still in use today in cimbined arms warfare. The old west wagon trains did the same when they pioneered the western part of America.

Did not know this. Thank you for that.

you channel is exactly what I feel it missing with all this great history and military channels. Can you do a nice video on the balkanic mercenaries or stradiots in European warfare !

Best history of that era, most uderrated and deserves many movies and tv shows possible. Hussite wars and even Jan Žižkas history needs to be seen more !

Great as always, commenting for the algorithm. 👍

*hEyY hEnRy cOmE to sEe us!!!*

Amazing research and video! Additional compliments for always using the appropriate military vocabulary!

I randomly got suggested your content, I have no idea who you are...but as a french, I'm damn impressed by your french when you talk about french battles.

Russians used to use similar constructions against Tatars due to their advantage in artillery and the lack of good horses.

I wonder: What was the limiting factor to beefing up the wagons' defenses up once artillery got more powerful? Reinforcing the wood planks with metal or eventually going for full steel plate. I'd imagine the horses couldn't cope with a bigger and more heavy wagon and possibly the wheel/suspension technology didn't allow for more tank-like wagons. But I'd really like to hear a more thought through and educated take on this. Man, just imagine an alternative history when the required advances were made fast enough to give us renaissance tanks able to take a hit from a contemporary cannon.

Well done, congrats to another great vid!

I've heard about the term "hussite war wagon" before, but hadn't known much about such a thing... now, after watching this, I want them to be featured in the next medieval strategy game for they are absolutely awesome! (And going in a rather similar direction - although with different circumstances - as the awesome Roman army construction skills where they just set up forts, bridges and circum-/contravallations wherever they went.)

Imagine a thrashing flail be a effective weapon, long reach and leverage, deal heavy blows, around shields and swords

I'm gonna try this at home.

Amazing effort. Bravo 👏👏👏👏👏

bro this channel got my heart throbbing

They're making a movie about Jan Zizka.

Interesting Never heard of this Tnx

These are beautiful visually as far as these short doc go

Thank you for this video. I never heard from the Hussites so it was quite interesting to know they even existed. Also their tactics were cool. When little I have watched many cowboy and indian movies where the cowboys made a wagon fort and always thought it was something invented around the time of the cowboys. But now I see it was much earlier invented.

So war wagons from Age of Empires 3 took inspiration from this

"defensive warfare was superior to offensive warfare" *Rogal Dorn approves*

I love that your animation of 'fortifying' includes hitting a screw with a hammer I've actually seen people try that, works about as well as you'd expect

0:42 I love how surreal some of these animations are. Just look at that horse go. I feel like I'm in another world.

Žižka was keading his army while completely blind!

"The enemy is hiding ... in wooden bowxes!"

Very interesting! Awesome pictures and especially animations!

Must've been a spectacle... watching a fortress form right infront of your eyes. The kind of tales i would sing of in taverns, if i was a medieval bard.

Fitting that this gets released now, right after I buy a DLC for War Wagons in Total War: Warhammer 2. Lol

I like how Icelandic troops reached the Pannonian and Bohemian Plains

I appreciate the effort you put into pronouncing the names right

Outstanding information still applicable with modifications today in certain circumstances. We as a people fail to learn from history but such tactics would've potentially saved many lives in urban warfare like Fallujah or Ramadi. I possibly would still have brothers breathing that are gone had methods of combat been modified and applied to those theaters. Good stuff guys, keep up the research and posting, you have my like and subscription.

oh so that's why there are war wagons in Age of Empires III very cool

¡Muy Interesante!

11:12 Until 15 September 1916 when the British deployed a modernized version at the Battle of the Somme. The British Mark 1. BTW great video. Very interesting especially the part about the use of screening cavalry being used to distract the enemy while the wagons made a circle

LOL the horse running animations is the most hilarious thing I love it. These animations are actually a really nice touch 👌 👍