Posts: 1,576 Location: Bergen, Norway
Tue 06 Feb, 2007 10:52 am
Hugh;
I'm quite aware of the posibilities you mention.
However, the high blocks, like the one in the picture, are very seldom called for, and are most often better parried with the sword, or with the top of the
shield.
When they occur (which they do, with some regularity) it's most often as a emergency measure because your sword is bussy elsewhere; they have to many weak points to be textbook tactic, but can save your hide if you are lucky.
When it comes to non-fechtbuch illustrations as a source for actuall combat techniqes, I remain sceptical. There is no kind of guarantee that the artist has the knowledge, or the inclination to draw a correct techniqe. Some might have, but we have no way of knowing which.
when it comes to the issues of armoured vs unarmoured fighiting, a coulpe of things come to mind. First of all, armoured fighiting is more up close and brutal. Since a single blow will not end the fight, the important thing is to place you enemy in a situation where you can hurt him, and he can't hurt you, typically by wrestling, binds, or similar measures.
Trading blows at a distance is simply not efficient enough.
So, how do shields fit in this picture?
Basically, the make it harder for the enemy to get to the point where he can hurt you. In this game, hiting someone hard in the head will not be a battle ending technique, but rather a diversion so that you can get your opponent of his feet and stab him in some soft spot. (Or keep pummeling his head untill he stops moving...)
In the words of the german school, it is determined in the Krieg.
As such, the defensive strategies outlined by Stephen might work in the aproach to the krieg. (which is where you want to be) Once there, however, the game changes drastically, and the concepts of unarmoured shieldfighting go out the window.
There is a decisive shift in sword design around turn of the 14th century, which bascially marks the transition from hard swings over and arond shields (like the ones Hugh are taliking about) to close combat stabbing swords.
In the age of mail a hard swing to the side of the neck or head might do some genuine damage, and to a unarmoured opponent, it wold be fatal.
However, with heavier armour, it is simply not worth gamling on that single hard blow stopping a opponent that is closing for the Krieg.
If it fails, you are in a very nasty situation, with a opponent lined up to tip you over and kill you.
Better then to play the same game, hit lighter blows, and search for opportunities to close for yourself