Re: (TFT) Death Test 1, take 4: SURVIVED!

[raito@raito.com]

Quoting gem6868 <gem6868@verizon.net>:
> Their defining limitation is that they are two-handed, leaving the bearer
> without a means to parry effectively. 

Every medieval master who wrote on this subject would disagree. 

> All you need to defeat them, in small
> or large groups, is a large solid shield to take that first blow, and then
> you're short sword guts the guy.  The Romans showed for a long time that the
> ultimate combination of weapons is the large shield and short sword. 

For their mass combats, it was pretty good. Not necessarily for 
individual combat. My personal opinion is that the Romans organized 
well, and that any plan was better than most of what they had to deal 
with. But then, it didn't help them in Teutoburger Wald. I think that 
just as much of the Roman success was due to their generals choosing 
ground where that style works, and the strategic objectives they had 
and stuck to. 

> If you throw heavily armored knights into the equation (with stirrups) then
> the polearm is the primary means to fight him.  Or a longbow, or a big patch
> of boggy ground, or an  armored wagon with crossbows (Hussites).  Or better
> firearms.  Once the knight is out, the polearm disappears. 

Hardly. It was still in use, for example, by various police forces 
precisely because it was long, well into the age of the rapier. And 
still in use by Napoleonic NCOs. 

> Fighting
> with a polearm in a room would be like watching the Stooges. 

Yet I know guys who do it, and do it well. They aren't Stooges. 

One other point that separates reality from game rules is HTH. In 
particular, 15th century medieval wrestling is designed to not go to 
the ground (and basically for the same reason as in TFT -- that +4 DX). 
It's also designed to break bones and joints. But the idea that one 
simply must drop one's weapon in order to wrestle is not supported by 
the medieval masters. In particular, Fiore says two things about this. 
This first is that if you are close enough to touch with my hand, it is 
no longer a sword fight, it's a wrestling match. The second is that 
(for that time), if we are armoured, it is not a sword fight, it's a 
wrestling match. The majority of his writing on armoured combat is on 
how to wrestle while holding a two handed weapon, with the rest on how 
to wrestle with a one-handed weapon. He does assume that you learned 
how to wrestly without a weapon in his unarmoured section. 

Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com
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