Railtus posted:

Battlefields did not seem to encourage dual-wielding though. Early on weapon-and-shield was most popular, while later two-handed weapons were more the thing. The sword-and-buckler was very popular, for people who wanted to switch from a two-handed weapon (a bow or a pike, for example) to weapon-and-shield quickly once the enemy got close. Occasionally we have references to warriors having multiple single-handed weapons, but it does not say if they were to be used at once.

I hope that helps!

cheerfullydrab posted:

What exactly has caused the modern-day phenomenon of people thinking katanas were the greatest and best sword ever ever ever? This is sort of a combat question and sort of a history question, because I'm sure the roots go back at least two if not three decades. How does an idea like this get started?

Railtus posted:

Mushrooms have been suggested (fly amanita), although again, there is no solid evidence for it. It is all just speculation. A version of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is also suggested as a cause.

Phy posted:

You're telling me that "I will fight with a half-brick in a sock, your weapons will be a mace and a hole" happened more than once?!

Railtus posted:

• In 1285 King Edward I ‘Trench Act’ was passed to ensure that any road passing through a wooded area should be kept clear of undergrowth for a distance of at least a 60 foot on each side.

canuckanese posted:

I think another factor is they generally raided in smaller groups. It's not very often that you'd see large scale invasions by Norsemen, and in those cases it was generally for actual control of territory rather than a simple smash and grab. Smaller numbers made them harder to anticipate and stop. One exception I can think of to this is in 885 when several hundred longships carrying thousands of raiders (sources aren't really great on exactly how many) sailed down the Seine and besieged Paris. While they were besieging the city a good chunk of the main force got bored of sitting around and raided all along the Seine instead. Vikings weren't really accustomed to drawn out sieges, and about a year into the siege the Frankish king showed up and persuaded the Vikings to leave by giving them 700 pounds of silver and convincing them to go raid Burgundy instead.

Kaal posted:

We still love bloodsports and orgies and all that, we just legitimate it by televising it. Action movies and football are crazy popular for a reason.

Rabhadh posted:

InspectorBloor posted:

Check out the catalogue of this smith. He's specialized on the reproduction of medieval arrow- and crossbow heads. You get an idea of what was used for which purpose. Archers carried a range of heads for different purposes.

http://belza.iq.pl/index_eng.html

I haven't seen larger collections of missle weapons in the local museums here. Some finely crafted crossbows and bolts for a noble here and there. Maybe there's more in the depots and it's just not flashy enough to be put on display. There's some turkish equipment on display, but the only larger collection is found here: http://esterhazy.at/en/forchtensteincastle/index.do

Probably also useful to notice, it's the nobles who collected these things, so you'll see stuff that they owned or notable stuff that they looted.

Sexgun Rasputin posted:

Don't forget about pigs!

DandyLion posted:

Although I have not had the pleasure to play with any highly trained horse in practice mounted combat, I can surmise that there is a severe misconception of agility regarding them. There are several breeds of horse that still resemble in size, speed, and agility the destrier's of old, and I can assure you a mounted knight on a well trained warhorse could have danced circles around an infantryman. Probably the best modern representation of what I'm talking about could be seen in bullfighting. My favorite is a Lusitano named Merlin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz8BiTtoLp8 (keep in mind a bull is faster and more agile than a human). These horses were capable of strafing, juking, ducking and any other type of agile motion you can imagine. They could run flat out sideways, backwards, and spin on a dime. I imagine riding on one in battle and fighting against infantry would be analogous to going to war on foot against opponents in wheelchairs.

(One caveat here is that the level of training a horse had varied wildly, and its safe to assume there were many mounts not as highly trained as this. Still, this serves as the best example of the extreme advantage of a well trained mount.)

Rabhadh posted:

Anyone have a few words on the make up of Saladin's army?

radlum posted:

I've read many jokes about how in the Game of Thrones universe, there are only 2 songs (at least just on the TV show) and it made me think, were popular folk songs a thing in the Middle Ages? Did bards go to courts and play familiar or traditional songs?

HEY GAL posted:

Oh, that kind of transport. (1) If you're going to do this at least one member of your company needs a car with a luggage rack, and (2) I used to live in Manhattan. Anything is transportable in the subway with enough gumption.

WoodrowSkillson posted:

156 is my favorite

Frostwerks posted:

Slap a couple of cannonballs in buckets on each end of the pike and start doing some rows goddamn.

HEY GAL posted:

Oh my lord, you've been wandering the forums asking about this. God bless.

HEY GAL posted:

Top one's a wheellock, and it's loving perfect. Bottom one's a matchlock. You can tell by the match.

JaucheCharly posted:

Always a gentleman.

Frostwerks posted:

What was that word that i've seen mentioned in this thread for "coin" style armor. It's a pretty neat word from what little I remember and I'd remember it in an instant if I see it.

Frostwerks posted:

For some reason I'm leaning towards bezanted, which is I think the currency of the MRE, but I can't find poo poo about it on google. I know I read it first in either this or maybe the other war threads.

Frostwerks posted:

What was that big rear end huge ship that I think the knights of Malta had that supposedly had gardens and poo poo on it?

JaucheCharly posted:

Read it again: too stupid for the infantry.

DrSunshine posted:

To that end it's fun to see the parallels with modern people when you read things like ancient graffiti preserved on the walls of public buildings in Pompeii. They sound tantalizingly similar to Youtube comments and stuff scrawled on bathroom stalls today.

HEY GAL posted:

That's about attacking like a big old idiot though, not aesthetic/cultural appreciation for the weapon as an honorable object. Say what you will about the generals I study, most of them are relatively clear-eyed and think that throwing their men away on some dumb thing is a bad idea. (Soldiers are valuable.)

(Their men are going to die anyway, but battle is not the main reason.)

Rabhadh posted:

If it's any interest to you there is an account of late medieval Irish being great night-fighters, no torches obviously, just their brats (a large cloak that's the forerunner of the great kilt) to keep them warm. They also used a special type of javelin with flights to give it a whistling noise.

Hogge Wild posted:

Have you tried both? I haven't tried shooting with either so I wouldn't know. Is there anyone here who has experience with both weapons?

Slim Jim Pickens posted:

I don't know what I read last night that convinced me of that but I was very tired.


The same night, I watched a guy in plate armour run at a dead sprint in this video, and I've never felt more disconcerted. Is that kind of pace sustainable? Even if the armour doesn't make you off-balance, it's still a good amount of weight for you to move around.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh5lw2_ngc-medieval-fight-book-part-3-3_shortfilms

Slim Jim Pickens posted:

I don't know what I read last night that convinced me of that but I was very tired.


The same night, I watched a guy in plate armour run at a dead sprint in this video, and I've never felt more disconcerted. Is that kind of pace sustainable? Even if the armour doesn't make you off-balance, it's still a good amount of weight for you to move around.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh5lw2_ngc-medieval-fight-book-part-3-3_shortfilms