Posts: 1,576 Location: Bergen, Norway
Wed 09 Nov, 2005 6:24 am
Geting your weapon stuck in a opponent's
shield would be a major problem. Especially on a battlefield, where the other guy's friends would cross strike you through the eye, because your are out of your lines, and defenceless.
There is a story from the sagas where one especially hulking fighter goes to the front of the battle, slams his daneaxe into an opponent's shield, drops it, and goes back to the rear to get another one, throughout the battle.
Now, a few other things when it comes to sword and shield vs single sword.
A shield fighter generally has his sword high, covering the head; With the shield in front of him, there is no other place where he can be hit with a single direct blow. (except maybe the leggs, but we will come to that...)
Sword and buckler fighters are similar, but to a lesser extent. Their defence is also high, but they have less coverage for the legs and abdomen.
This has a number of effects. The first one is that the longswordman is quite limited in his use of techniques. He would have to strike and feint high most of the time. Should he elect to strike low, he is at the same time lowering his defence, inviting a snap blow or stab to the face.
Wich again is linked to a oft neglected element of combat; Psychology. When we sparr or train, most of us do so in a very safe and abstracted way. No one dies, the first hit wins, repeat.
In a real fight what is slight annoyances to us (Hey, stop hiting me on the right shoulder all the time....) becomes worries about life and death. In this context, the urge to keep your defences up becomes a lot more compelling.
Wich brings us back to the shield fighter. The shield fighter is standing behind a mobile wall. He knows that 75% of the time, this wall will protect him. This allows him to be much more confident in his attacks, since he retains much of his cover, a luxury the longswordman does not have.
Armour has the same function. An armoured fighter can make a head on, high strike with the confidence that a counterattack will harm little more than his surcote.
There are a lot of posible techniques against sword and shield. Question is if you would use them when your life is on the line.
And, in the long run nothing beats "Find a friend, and gang up on him." ;)