How it's done!

[Caz]

I found these surfing youtube. Man, these guys don't mess around. Not quite on topic, but I thought it might be interesting as it applies to playing in the violent sword swinging world of Conan. And it looks like you really can cut a guy in half.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bZWuNd-tqY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnqOMbFDEAI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v4j3mvrDyQ

 

[Style]

Hear how hard they were breathing in that first one? Now imagine you're in heavy armor. You're fighting in the summer, on a cloudless day, with the sun high in the sky. Your adrenalin is pumping even more b/c your life is actually on the line. If you kill your opponent, another steps in to take his place.

Making war must have been immensely fatiguing.

And it looks like you really can cut a guy in half.

I'm not saying you can't, but that deer carcass was hollow. I've also heard that meat is easier to cut once it's been dead a while, but that could just be an urban legend.

 

[Scorpion13]

Hear how hard they were breathing in that first one? Now imagine you're in heavy armor. You're fighting in the summer, on a cloudless day, with the sun high in the sky. Your adrenalin is pumping even more b/c your life is actually on the line. If you kill your opponent, another steps in to take his place.

Making war must have been immensely fatiguing.

And it looks like you really can cut a guy in half.

I'm not saying you can't, but that deer carcass was hollow. I've also heard that meat is easier to cut once it's been dead a while, but that could just be an urban legend.

Yeah its easier to cut. Cuz, you know, enzymes.

Anywho, thats not even counting the shield most anyone in their right mind would have. Knights must have been crazy tough.

 

[Clovenhoof]

This type of longsword dueling is really more of a renaissance thing, i.e. it came up in the 15th century and was quite popular in the 16th. And then rather in a sporting environment (sometimes for high wagers), not for warfare -- especially the unarmoured fighting we witness in the first video. The duelists were usually upper-class citizens and had a lot of time to train and practice.

On the battlefield, you'd encounter entirely different weaponry and fighting styles. This was the age of the Schweizer and Landsknechte, who'd charge in "Gewalthaufen" armed primarily with long pikes.

 

[Scorpion13]

This type of longsword dueling is really more of a renaissance thing, i.e. it came up in the 15th century and was quite popular in the 16th. And then rather in a sporting environment (sometimes for high wagers), not for warfare -- especially the unarmoured fighting we witness in the first video. The duelists were usually upper-class citizens and had a lot of time to train and practice.

On the battlefield, you'd encounter entirely different weaponry and fighting styles. This was the age of the Schweizer and Landsknechte, who'd charge in "Gewalthaufen" armed primarily with long pikes.

Yeah, fighting with swords when you have a spear is crap. I mean, why would you but yourself in harms way with a sword fight when you could easily just poke them to death with a spear from 15 ft away?

 

[Caz]

Yeah, renaissance sport, not weapons or techniques for the battlefield. What a joke.

And live flesh is so much harder to cut.

You guys could take 'em out. Tell these guys how it is.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Easy, boy.

Cutting flesh is not much of a problem. Live flesh isn't so much tougher than dead meat.
Bones are a problem, but a good blade can cleave them. However, if you want to chop a guy in half, a horizontal cut between ribs and hips, i.e. straight through the guts, will be the easiest way.

And again -- if you're armed with a longsword, you're not going to enjoy yourself against a rank of pikes, much less if you're unarmoured. Pikemen were the force that really displaced the armoured knight from the battlefield, not longbows or firearms.
(However, the spread of firearms made armour as a whole obsolete.)

 

[Scorpion13]

Yeah, renaissance sport, not weapons or techniques for the battlefield. What a joke.

And live flesh is so much harder to cut.

You guys could take 'em out. Tell these guys how it is.

Oh brother.

Didnt think our discussion would offend you so much.

 

[Aholibamah]

I think what would help about this kind of video is showing it to people who have a cartoonish idea of how swords work. It's actually useful and I intend to make use of it with those players who need a vivid image to think of.

 

[Hervé]

I'm doing some live action roleplaying from time to time, where we're playing a wild band of barbarians (what else?). Even if we're fighting with latex swords and if live action combat has nothing to do with real swordfighting, I can confirm that fighting armoured under the sun is an extremely exhausting exercise.