Favorite melee weapon in any game (or real life?)

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jigilojoe

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Baseball bat with a nail through it, it's made kameo appearences in a few games, but its true qualities lie in its power in a riot.
 

Aerodyamic

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Hussmann54 said:
Nice, although maces tend to be a bit to much on the short and heavy side for my taste, despite the force the bring to the table. And if its on a chain I simply wont touch it. Such weapons leave far too much to random physics and what is, in essence, quantum mechanics of chance. Even when properly wielded by somebody who knows what they are doing, they commonly leave gaps in defense that are too hard to cover efficiently. When one is closed, several other may pop up.
Don't get me wrong, you've got to be strong to begin with to wave that flanged mace around, but it's actually not difficult to learn to turn a poorly aimed swing into something dangerous with some circular momentum transfer. If you can imagine that your arm is the chain, and the mace is the ball, you learn to redirect the weight pretty effectively. I've been training to do it with an SCA broadsword, and I know a couple guys that can do it with SCA-legal maces. It's scary how quickly that thing is suddenly where you didn't expect it, because of the momentum carrying the weapon through an altered planar arc, rather than being stopped by brute force and muscle, then re-directed.

You're right, though; you couldn't PAY me to use an actual chain-flail. I might consider a threshing flail, where the head is relatively small, provided the head only separated from the haft by a maximum of 2 links of chain.
 

Moggs

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Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
I generaly use the melee option in most games if there is one. I like the up close and personal approach in most encounters (does shotguns count?).

But a handy one-hand sword is what I prefer. What I fight with in real life is a combo between rapier/dagger and sword/buckler.


Hussmann54 said:
Spitfire175 said:
Exictednuke said:
a weapon that can cut multiple people in half.
[small]You are drowning in hype, mate...[/small]

OT: Screw Japanese impractical butterknives. An European medieval longsword, 1450s, German steel, blade crafted in Munich, hilt and pommel from Milan. German steel of the period was much harder and better quality than any other, and when the European sword crafting was at its peak, a longsword was not only more practical than any other sword, but also more durable (and easier to repair) and most of all the deadliest. This in combination of traditional European martial arts, which are just like eastern ones, except they're designed purely to kill, without any ceremonies or rules, and the best personal protection humankind has ever produced -15th century plate armours- makes up for the most prominent close combat killing machine of all time.

Japanese swords are something that get hyped about as much as the AK 47 and German WW2 weapons combined. It's a shame, really, since they are not any better than their western counterparts. The idea "a katana will cut a western sword in two" is bogus, based on a presentation held to Dutch merchants in the 16 hundreds in Japan, where a local samurai smashed a Dutch sailor's knife. When put head to head, a katana is the first one to snap against a bastard sword. All the hype about how Japanese master smiths spending months with swords are true, but not for the reason you want to think: Japanese steel was very poor, so they had to spend a long time refining the material. And the anti-hype towards European swords in much due to the rubbish quality replicas you see around today, and of course people who think European swords have just been pieces of blunt iron used to pummel others. Well no. Italian master craftsmen, too, used months forging a single blade, creating some of the most sophisticated swords of all time.

As for the martial arts, the "barbaric and stupid Europeans who only used brute force" developed martial arts equal to those of the far east, with uncanny similarities to kendo and others. Italian "maestro" has the exact same linguistic meaning as "sensei". The same techniques were developed in two places, separate from each other. Some might know Miyamoto Musashi, arguably Japan's most famous Rōnin. Well, Europe had a guy just like him: Johannes Liechtenauer. If these two had clashed in a duel, I wouldn't know who'd win.
Some extra reading:
http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/ringeck/ringeck.htm
http://www.thearma.org/essays/TopMyths.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Liechtenauer
http://www.mbdojo.com/stances/kenjutsustances.html < chudan-no-kamae, hasso-no-kamae, gedan-no-kamae and kasumi-no-kamae known in Europe as Pflug, vom Tag, Alber and Ochs

YOU KNOW THE ARMA?!?!?!?!?!
FRIEND!!!!! *hug*

Cool! Do you practice HEMA as well? I've heard of The Arma, but I haven't really looked up their site I guess, maybe I should. What kinds of materials do they have there? And what manuals do you guys use when practising?
Most manuals we use are old translations but if you look on the arma website John Clements has written several books on basic longsword practice. Check out those
Heh, long quote is long.


Allright, always fun to check out new things, even though I'm not that fond of the longsword. I think Ringeck has both longsword and sword/buckler in his works, doesn't he?
Sigmund ringneck? I do believe he does. Although I have been more partial to Italian techniques of longsword with a stilletto in my off hand but Ringneck is very good at what he does.
That's him. Yeah, the Italian ones are quite good, we've been looking at Fiore's longsword manuals a bit, but there's people in the club who knows more about that than me, I know that there's a couple of Bolognese schools that takes up a couple of weapons, and I have even gotten a hand on some original (although photocopied and put on the internet) books from some of them. Both one-handed swords, longsword, quarterstaff and so on. Quite nice. :) We also have Capo Ferro on rapier that I have been reading up on for a while now.

You have to fight with a one and a half-hander to fight good with another weapon in your off-hand, no? The (long)longswords we fight with wouldn't allow for an off-hand weapon I think. :p
 

Hussmann54

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Moggs said:
Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
I generaly use the melee option in most games if there is one. I like the up close and personal approach in most encounters (does shotguns count?).

But a handy one-hand sword is what I prefer. What I fight with in real life is a combo between rapier/dagger and sword/buckler.


Hussmann54 said:
Spitfire175 said:
Exictednuke said:
a weapon that can cut multiple people in half.
[small]You are drowning in hype, mate...[/small]

OT: Screw Japanese impractical butterknives. An European medieval longsword, 1450s, German steel, blade crafted in Munich, hilt and pommel from Milan. German steel of the period was much harder and better quality than any other, and when the European sword crafting was at its peak, a longsword was not only more practical than any other sword, but also more durable (and easier to repair) and most of all the deadliest. This in combination of traditional European martial arts, which are just like eastern ones, except they're designed purely to kill, without any ceremonies or rules, and the best personal protection humankind has ever produced -15th century plate armours- makes up for the most prominent close combat killing machine of all time.

Japanese swords are something that get hyped about as much as the AK 47 and German WW2 weapons combined. It's a shame, really, since they are not any better than their western counterparts. The idea "a katana will cut a western sword in two" is bogus, based on a presentation held to Dutch merchants in the 16 hundreds in Japan, where a local samurai smashed a Dutch sailor's knife. When put head to head, a katana is the first one to snap against a bastard sword. All the hype about how Japanese master smiths spending months with swords are true, but not for the reason you want to think: Japanese steel was very poor, so they had to spend a long time refining the material. And the anti-hype towards European swords in much due to the rubbish quality replicas you see around today, and of course people who think European swords have just been pieces of blunt iron used to pummel others. Well no. Italian master craftsmen, too, used months forging a single blade, creating some of the most sophisticated swords of all time.

As for the martial arts, the "barbaric and stupid Europeans who only used brute force" developed martial arts equal to those of the far east, with uncanny similarities to kendo and others. Italian "maestro" has the exact same linguistic meaning as "sensei". The same techniques were developed in two places, separate from each other. Some might know Miyamoto Musashi, arguably Japan's most famous R&#333;nin. Well, Europe had a guy just like him: Johannes Liechtenauer. If these two had clashed in a duel, I wouldn't know who'd win.
Some extra reading:
http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/ringeck/ringeck.htm
http://www.thearma.org/essays/TopMyths.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Liechtenauer
http://www.mbdojo.com/stances/kenjutsustances.html < chudan-no-kamae, hasso-no-kamae, gedan-no-kamae and kasumi-no-kamae known in Europe as Pflug, vom Tag, Alber and Ochs

YOU KNOW THE ARMA?!?!?!?!?!
FRIEND!!!!! *hug*

Cool! Do you practice HEMA as well? I've heard of The Arma, but I haven't really looked up their site I guess, maybe I should. What kinds of materials do they have there? And what manuals do you guys use when practising?
Most manuals we use are old translations but if you look on the arma website John Clements has written several books on basic longsword practice. Check out those
Heh, long quote is long.


Allright, always fun to check out new things, even though I'm not that fond of the longsword. I think Ringeck has both longsword and sword/buckler in his works, doesn't he?
Sigmund ringneck? I do believe he does. Although I have been more partial to Italian techniques of longsword with a stilletto in my off hand but Ringneck is very good at what he does.
That's him. Yeah, the Italian ones are quite good, we've been looking at Fiore's longsword manuals a bit, but there's people in the club who knows more about that than me, I know that there's a couple of Bolognese schools that takes up a couple of weapons, and I have even gotten a hand on some original (although photocopied and put on the internet) books from some of them. Both one-handed swords, longsword, quarterstaff and so on. Quite nice. :) We also have Capo Ferro on rapier that I have been reading up on for a while now.

You have to fight with a one and a half-hander to fight good with another weapon in your off-hand, no? The (long)longswords we fight with wouldn't allow for an off-hand weapon I think. :p
Actually youre right about that last point. But the swords I have been working with are deemed "longswords" out of a weird circumstance. They are much shorter than a longsword should be, but are crafted to be the same style. The technique with which they are used is also similar to the long sword in its motions. The only difference is that they are primarily a single handed weapon.

It all stems from the history the italians had with weapons. Sometimes they are seen as "Not being able to make up their minds" in a sense of developing (what was at the time) outlandish an unusual styles.
 

Moggs

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Dec 10, 2009
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Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
I generaly use the melee option in most games if there is one. I like the up close and personal approach in most encounters (does shotguns count?).

But a handy one-hand sword is what I prefer. What I fight with in real life is a combo between rapier/dagger and sword/buckler.


Hussmann54 said:
Spitfire175 said:
Exictednuke said:
a weapon that can cut multiple people in half.
[small]You are drowning in hype, mate...[/small]

OT: Screw Japanese impractical butterknives. An European medieval longsword, 1450s, German steel, blade crafted in Munich, hilt and pommel from Milan. German steel of the period was much harder and better quality than any other, and when the European sword crafting was at its peak, a longsword was not only more practical than any other sword, but also more durable (and easier to repair) and most of all the deadliest. This in combination of traditional European martial arts, which are just like eastern ones, except they're designed purely to kill, without any ceremonies or rules, and the best personal protection humankind has ever produced -15th century plate armours- makes up for the most prominent close combat killing machine of all time.

Japanese swords are something that get hyped about as much as the AK 47 and German WW2 weapons combined. It's a shame, really, since they are not any better than their western counterparts. The idea "a katana will cut a western sword in two" is bogus, based on a presentation held to Dutch merchants in the 16 hundreds in Japan, where a local samurai smashed a Dutch sailor's knife. When put head to head, a katana is the first one to snap against a bastard sword. All the hype about how Japanese master smiths spending months with swords are true, but not for the reason you want to think: Japanese steel was very poor, so they had to spend a long time refining the material. And the anti-hype towards European swords in much due to the rubbish quality replicas you see around today, and of course people who think European swords have just been pieces of blunt iron used to pummel others. Well no. Italian master craftsmen, too, used months forging a single blade, creating some of the most sophisticated swords of all time.

As for the martial arts, the "barbaric and stupid Europeans who only used brute force" developed martial arts equal to those of the far east, with uncanny similarities to kendo and others. Italian "maestro" has the exact same linguistic meaning as "sensei". The same techniques were developed in two places, separate from each other. Some might know Miyamoto Musashi, arguably Japan's most famous R&#333;nin. Well, Europe had a guy just like him: Johannes Liechtenauer. If these two had clashed in a duel, I wouldn't know who'd win.
Some extra reading:
http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/ringeck/ringeck.htm
http://www.thearma.org/essays/TopMyths.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Liechtenauer
http://www.mbdojo.com/stances/kenjutsustances.html < chudan-no-kamae, hasso-no-kamae, gedan-no-kamae and kasumi-no-kamae known in Europe as Pflug, vom Tag, Alber and Ochs

YOU KNOW THE ARMA?!?!?!?!?!
FRIEND!!!!! *hug*

Cool! Do you practice HEMA as well? I've heard of The Arma, but I haven't really looked up their site I guess, maybe I should. What kinds of materials do they have there? And what manuals do you guys use when practising?
Most manuals we use are old translations but if you look on the arma website John Clements has written several books on basic longsword practice. Check out those
Heh, long quote is long.


Allright, always fun to check out new things, even though I'm not that fond of the longsword. I think Ringeck has both longsword and sword/buckler in his works, doesn't he?
Sigmund ringneck? I do believe he does. Although I have been more partial to Italian techniques of longsword with a stilletto in my off hand but Ringneck is very good at what he does.
That's him. Yeah, the Italian ones are quite good, we've been looking at Fiore's longsword manuals a bit, but there's people in the club who knows more about that than me, I know that there's a couple of Bolognese schools that takes up a couple of weapons, and I have even gotten a hand on some original (although photocopied and put on the internet) books from some of them. Both one-handed swords, longsword, quarterstaff and so on. Quite nice. :) We also have Capo Ferro on rapier that I have been reading up on for a while now.

You have to fight with a one and a half-hander to fight good with another weapon in your off-hand, no? The (long)longswords we fight with wouldn't allow for an off-hand weapon I think. :p
Actually youre right about that last point. But the swords I have been working with are deemed "longswords" out of a weird circumstance. They are much shorter than a longsword should be, but are crafted to be the same style. The technique with which they are used is also similar to the long sword in its motions. The only difference is that they are primarily a single handed weapon.

It all stems from the history the italians had with weapons. Sometimes they are seen as "Not being able to make up their minds" in a sense of developing (what was at the time) outlandish an unusual styles.
That sounds very, very interesting, I haven't heard about techniques like that before, what kinds of sources do you use for this? Do you fight with steel weapons, or do you use wasters/SCA-gear for your work?

If I understand you correctly you use "two-handed techniques" with a one-handed weapon, yes? That would be interesting to try out. What about halb-schwert (er, half-sword?)-techniques? Do the Italians make use of any of those?

From what I've understood and read about the Italian masters, they more or less tried to make fencing a science of sorts, which many other masters thought a bit silly. At least I think it was the Italians, it could have been the Spaniards...
 

Hussmann54

New member
Dec 14, 2009
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Moggs said:
Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
I generaly use the melee option in most games if there is one. I like the up close and personal approach in most encounters (does shotguns count?).

But a handy one-hand sword is what I prefer. What I fight with in real life is a combo between rapier/dagger and sword/buckler.


Hussmann54 said:
Spitfire175 said:
Exictednuke said:
a weapon that can cut multiple people in half.
[small]You are drowning in hype, mate...[/small]

OT: Screw Japanese impractical butterknives. An European medieval longsword, 1450s, German steel, blade crafted in Munich, hilt and pommel from Milan. German steel of the period was much harder and better quality than any other, and when the European sword crafting was at its peak, a longsword was not only more practical than any other sword, but also more durable (and easier to repair) and most of all the deadliest. This in combination of traditional European martial arts, which are just like eastern ones, except they're designed purely to kill, without any ceremonies or rules, and the best personal protection humankind has ever produced -15th century plate armours- makes up for the most prominent close combat killing machine of all time.

Japanese swords are something that get hyped about as much as the AK 47 and German WW2 weapons combined. It's a shame, really, since they are not any better than their western counterparts. The idea "a katana will cut a western sword in two" is bogus, based on a presentation held to Dutch merchants in the 16 hundreds in Japan, where a local samurai smashed a Dutch sailor's knife. When put head to head, a katana is the first one to snap against a bastard sword. All the hype about how Japanese master smiths spending months with swords are true, but not for the reason you want to think: Japanese steel was very poor, so they had to spend a long time refining the material. And the anti-hype towards European swords in much due to the rubbish quality replicas you see around today, and of course people who think European swords have just been pieces of blunt iron used to pummel others. Well no. Italian master craftsmen, too, used months forging a single blade, creating some of the most sophisticated swords of all time.

As for the martial arts, the "barbaric and stupid Europeans who only used brute force" developed martial arts equal to those of the far east, with uncanny similarities to kendo and others. Italian "maestro" has the exact same linguistic meaning as "sensei". The same techniques were developed in two places, separate from each other. Some might know Miyamoto Musashi, arguably Japan's most famous R&#333;nin. Well, Europe had a guy just like him: Johannes Liechtenauer. If these two had clashed in a duel, I wouldn't know who'd win.
Some extra reading:
http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/ringeck/ringeck.htm
http://www.thearma.org/essays/TopMyths.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Liechtenauer
http://www.mbdojo.com/stances/kenjutsustances.html < chudan-no-kamae, hasso-no-kamae, gedan-no-kamae and kasumi-no-kamae known in Europe as Pflug, vom Tag, Alber and Ochs

YOU KNOW THE ARMA?!?!?!?!?!
FRIEND!!!!! *hug*

Cool! Do you practice HEMA as well? I've heard of The Arma, but I haven't really looked up their site I guess, maybe I should. What kinds of materials do they have there? And what manuals do you guys use when practising?
Most manuals we use are old translations but if you look on the arma website John Clements has written several books on basic longsword practice. Check out those
Heh, long quote is long.


Allright, always fun to check out new things, even though I'm not that fond of the longsword. I think Ringeck has both longsword and sword/buckler in his works, doesn't he?
Sigmund ringneck? I do believe he does. Although I have been more partial to Italian techniques of longsword with a stilletto in my off hand but Ringneck is very good at what he does.
That's him. Yeah, the Italian ones are quite good, we've been looking at Fiore's longsword manuals a bit, but there's people in the club who knows more about that than me, I know that there's a couple of Bolognese schools that takes up a couple of weapons, and I have even gotten a hand on some original (although photocopied and put on the internet) books from some of them. Both one-handed swords, longsword, quarterstaff and so on. Quite nice. :) We also have Capo Ferro on rapier that I have been reading up on for a while now.

You have to fight with a one and a half-hander to fight good with another weapon in your off-hand, no? The (long)longswords we fight with wouldn't allow for an off-hand weapon I think. :p
Actually youre right about that last point. But the swords I have been working with are deemed "longswords" out of a weird circumstance. They are much shorter than a longsword should be, but are crafted to be the same style. The technique with which they are used is also similar to the long sword in its motions. The only difference is that they are primarily a single handed weapon.

It all stems from the history the italians had with weapons. Sometimes they are seen as "Not being able to make up their minds" in a sense of developing (what was at the time) outlandish an unusual styles.
That sounds very, very interesting, I haven't heard about techniques like that before, what kinds of sources do you use for this? Do you fight with steel weapons, or do you use wasters/SCA-gear for your work?

If I understand you correctly you use "two-handed techniques" with a one-handed weapon, yes? That would be interesting to try out. What about halb-schwert (er, half-sword?)-techniques? Do the Italians make use of any of those?

From what I've understood and read about the Italian masters, they more or less tried to make fencing a science of sorts, which many other masters thought a bit silly. At least I think it was the Italians, it could have been the Spaniards...
The arma uses both. But wooden wasters are more commonly used than a real blade.

As for halbschwert, that is what the Italians kind of had in mind when they started to meddle with technique and tool combinations. Remember the Roman Gladius and Spatha? well those remnants of the empire remained in the region. The italians wanted to try and use new foreign styles and experiment but still hold on to what they knew had worked in the past.

Yea the "renaissance" was happening way before most people think (The "Italian Renaissance" recognized in all the history books just happens to be when other countries caught on) and in more ways than people imagine it did. They tried to expand new thought into as many parts of life as possible. War was included, and if war could be considered a science or an art, then they believed that it could be expanded just like, for instance, art with many styles and techniques that were not "created" but had simply not been tried before. This is what cause such experimentation like with the aforementioned two hand technique with a one hand sword.
And the Spaniards also had a thing for innovation in sword fighting. Although it wasnt as big and endeavor as neither is it as recognized as the Italians contribution.
 

TheMadDoctorsCat

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Apr 2, 2008
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Hussmann54 said:
So Im sure this has come up before, but screw it. Keep the conversation going yall.
My pesonal favorite is the master sword from zelda. Timeless and dependable

BTW I have a huge vendetta against katanas due to the misrepresentations and misconceptions that people have glorified over the years... SO NO KATANAS, "NINJA SWORDS", OR ANYTHING OF THE LIKE.....

Ok I was just kidding about the no katana part...
The Ubersaw.

Just because. It's an ubersaw. You can kill a soldier with it, and the soldier is armed with a ROCKET LAUNCHER.
 

Moggs

New member
Dec 10, 2009
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Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
Hussmann54 said:
Moggs said:
I generaly use the melee option in most games if there is one. I like the up close and personal approach in most encounters (does shotguns count?).

But a handy one-hand sword is what I prefer. What I fight with in real life is a combo between rapier/dagger and sword/buckler.


Hussmann54 said:
Spitfire175 said:
Exictednuke said:
a weapon that can cut multiple people in half.
[small]You are drowning in hype, mate...[/small]

OT: Screw Japanese impractical butterknives. An European medieval longsword, 1450s, German steel, blade crafted in Munich, hilt and pommel from Milan. German steel of the period was much harder and better quality than any other, and when the European sword crafting was at its peak, a longsword was not only more practical than any other sword, but also more durable (and easier to repair) and most of all the deadliest. This in combination of traditional European martial arts, which are just like eastern ones, except they're designed purely to kill, without any ceremonies or rules, and the best personal protection humankind has ever produced -15th century plate armours- makes up for the most prominent close combat killing machine of all time.

Japanese swords are something that get hyped about as much as the AK 47 and German WW2 weapons combined. It's a shame, really, since they are not any better than their western counterparts. The idea "a katana will cut a western sword in two" is bogus, based on a presentation held to Dutch merchants in the 16 hundreds in Japan, where a local samurai smashed a Dutch sailor's knife. When put head to head, a katana is the first one to snap against a bastard sword. All the hype about how Japanese master smiths spending months with swords are true, but not for the reason you want to think: Japanese steel was very poor, so they had to spend a long time refining the material. And the anti-hype towards European swords in much due to the rubbish quality replicas you see around today, and of course people who think European swords have just been pieces of blunt iron used to pummel others. Well no. Italian master craftsmen, too, used months forging a single blade, creating some of the most sophisticated swords of all time.

As for the martial arts, the "barbaric and stupid Europeans who only used brute force" developed martial arts equal to those of the far east, with uncanny similarities to kendo and others. Italian "maestro" has the exact same linguistic meaning as "sensei". The same techniques were developed in two places, separate from each other. Some might know Miyamoto Musashi, arguably Japan's most famous R&#333;nin. Well, Europe had a guy just like him: Johannes Liechtenauer. If these two had clashed in a duel, I wouldn't know who'd win.
Some extra reading:
http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/ringeck/ringeck.htm
http://www.thearma.org/essays/TopMyths.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Liechtenauer
http://www.mbdojo.com/stances/kenjutsustances.html < chudan-no-kamae, hasso-no-kamae, gedan-no-kamae and kasumi-no-kamae known in Europe as Pflug, vom Tag, Alber and Ochs

YOU KNOW THE ARMA?!?!?!?!?!
FRIEND!!!!! *hug*

Cool! Do you practice HEMA as well? I've heard of The Arma, but I haven't really looked up their site I guess, maybe I should. What kinds of materials do they have there? And what manuals do you guys use when practising?
Most manuals we use are old translations but if you look on the arma website John Clements has written several books on basic longsword practice. Check out those
Heh, long quote is long.


Allright, always fun to check out new things, even though I'm not that fond of the longsword. I think Ringeck has both longsword and sword/buckler in his works, doesn't he?
Sigmund ringneck? I do believe he does. Although I have been more partial to Italian techniques of longsword with a stilletto in my off hand but Ringneck is very good at what he does.
That's him. Yeah, the Italian ones are quite good, we've been looking at Fiore's longsword manuals a bit, but there's people in the club who knows more about that than me, I know that there's a couple of Bolognese schools that takes up a couple of weapons, and I have even gotten a hand on some original (although photocopied and put on the internet) books from some of them. Both one-handed swords, longsword, quarterstaff and so on. Quite nice. :) We also have Capo Ferro on rapier that I have been reading up on for a while now.

You have to fight with a one and a half-hander to fight good with another weapon in your off-hand, no? The (long)longswords we fight with wouldn't allow for an off-hand weapon I think. :p
Actually youre right about that last point. But the swords I have been working with are deemed "longswords" out of a weird circumstance. They are much shorter than a longsword should be, but are crafted to be the same style. The technique with which they are used is also similar to the long sword in its motions. The only difference is that they are primarily a single handed weapon.

It all stems from the history the italians had with weapons. Sometimes they are seen as "Not being able to make up their minds" in a sense of developing (what was at the time) outlandish an unusual styles.
That sounds very, very interesting, I haven't heard about techniques like that before, what kinds of sources do you use for this? Do you fight with steel weapons, or do you use wasters/SCA-gear for your work?

If I understand you correctly you use "two-handed techniques" with a one-handed weapon, yes? That would be interesting to try out. What about halb-schwert (er, half-sword?)-techniques? Do the Italians make use of any of those?

From what I've understood and read about the Italian masters, they more or less tried to make fencing a science of sorts, which many other masters thought a bit silly. At least I think it was the Italians, it could have been the Spaniards...
The arma uses both. But wooden wasters are more commonly used than a real blade.

As for halbschwert, that is what the Italians kind of had in mind when they started to meddle with technique and tool combinations. Remember the Roman Gladius and Spatha? well those remnants of the empire remained in the region. The italians wanted to try and use new foreign styles and experiment but still hold on to what they knew had worked in the past.

Yea the "renaissance" was happening way before most people think (The "Italian Renaissance" recognized in all the history books just happens to be when other countries caught on) and in more ways than people imagine it did. They tried to expand new thought into as many parts of life as possible. War was included, and if war could be considered a science or an art, then they believed that it could be expanded just like, for instance, art with many styles and techniques that were not "created" but had simply not been tried before. This is what cause such experimentation like with the aforementioned two hand technique with a one hand sword.
And the Spaniards also had a thing for innovation in sword fighting. Although it wasnt as big and endeavor as neither is it as recognized as the Italians contribution.
We're training mostly with steel weapons, it's hard on the wooden wasters to hit steel bucklers I think. Someone was talking about getting nylon wasters, anything you've tried and can comment on? :p

Well, when you say it, I imagine they would keep the original traditions somewhat. If it worked for the Romans, it should work on a later date as well. From what I've gathered, I've seen more swords with a point for stabbing than in other country's models, or at least more early on, and I guess that a short pointy sword would be more effective at piercing vulnerable places in armors than a long one, even when using halbschwert, and that was what the gladius were, right? A short sword ade for stabbing when the spear was broken. But that's what experimenting and manual-training are for I guess. But even so, only the rich people who could afford to train under a fencing master, and also the sword were always a secondary weapon after axe and a handy club. Even more so when polearms came into play on the battlefield. More effective to give blunt trauma to a man in a can than to try and cut him out of there. :p

But the renaissance is an Italian "concept" also, isn't it? Going back on the ancient glorious Roman ways and so on. Italian medieval history isn't what I know best I guess, must read up on that... It's not that strange that clever inventions and fast advantages in science happens in the time of war. You alwas have to be on top of the other bastards to win over them. Someone gets the idea to make hardened steel suits for rich warriors to wear to make them almost invulnerable, then someone else must come up with something to counter that with the next type of weapon. After all, blackpowder is the only thing that really effectively countered plate armor.
 

The Skip Master

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Dec 27, 2009
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i think my favorite weapon would be a tree that i can carry with a pissed off cat on the top. Maybe a few stucked frisbees too. Too bad its not in a game.

The Incinerate plasmid in Bioshock is my favorite weapon in a game. Instant kill with the slicers.
 

Levitas1234

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Oct 28, 2009
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my cock... or Gordon Freeman's cock... but all in all it comes down to the red crowbar ;)

Edit:
MurderousToaster said:
All you need to ask yourself is "What would Gordon Freeman Do?", and then the crowbar is the clear choice.
damn! i was ninjad the same minute!