Thanks very much for the reply; very helpful insights. I hadn't thought of the influence of paper on warfare seriously before...that really would make a huge difference, wouldn't it?
So, after reading through the thread on the politics, etc. of the crusades (sparked by the recent ARMA article) I began to wonder about the following question: Did the military forces of 12th-13th century (and later) Europe demonstrate any notable "borrowing" (either by actual trade or mim...
Thanks for the replies; I'll be sure to check out House of Wolf, as well as the cut-test videos. It's rather heartening to hear that leather held up well; leather armor strikes me as quite interesting and aesthetic, and I'd be a bit disappointed if it proved ineffective.
Thanks for the link; I actually started out training in escrima before moving into WMAs. I didn't get that deep in it, but I'm hoping to reapproach escrima starting this spring (I moved to a different state in the middle of my initial introduction, hence the hiatus).
Adding to the personal experience tidbits, I have tried practicing with a variety of bladed weapon pairings, using padded weapons (double dagger, double short sword, dagger and longsword, short sword and longsword, and double longsword). I've tried each combination against a wide variety of opposing...
This is largely an outgrowth of the thread that was recently running on purchasing accurate leather armor. I'm looking for texts (or any resources, really) that cover information on 'light' armor (especially leather and quilted). I'm particularly interested in trying to figure out how leather armor ...
Question: What sort of maximum weapon length/size differences have individuals here on the forum encountered in sparring matches? (ie. opponent A has a shorter weapon or weapons than opponent B). For example, has anyone consistently fought single-handed swords with daggers, or sparred against two-ha...
"All the EMA guys I have fought so far either weren't all that well trained, or were trained in things like Escrima which don't do well against long weapons like swords." I've actually found some Escrima techniques work pretty well against western swords, though with some heavy adaptations...
One other quick note: all else being equal, making a sword longer will make it heavier, obviously. Increasing the length can increase the tip velocity greatly, since it will travel so much faster than the wielder's hands. Thus, weapon length should be in the overall momentum equations as well, and t...
"'The weight a man can move with the greatest velocity is that with which he will produce the greatest effect, but the lightest sword is not necessarily the one he can move the quickest.' It just seems to me that you can go too far in either direction. If that was completely true, why aren't ax...
"If you mean strength, of course they needed enough strength to carry a man and his combat load. Any full sized horse has that though (at most it would be like carrying a man and a smaller person). Their strength had little bearing on their abilities in combat" I understand the point you a...
Just a few thoughts on mounts from the biologist's perspective that might be helpful... First off, warhorses almost certainly could not obtain speeds of as high as 45 mph. Modern racehorses have enough trouble reaching such speeds, let alone a highly encumbered warhorse (which was much less speciali...
Sorry for the delay in response, I have been out of town for much of this week. Thanks to Shane for the link, it was much appreciated. Jake, as for your question about what I will be facing, the answer is really a bit of everything. I am not training against any particular weapon combination; I face...
Ah yes, fear the midgets. Thanks for the continued information. I had to drop off the forum for a couple of days because I was tied up with other things (specifically medical anatomy). I will try to obtain a copy of George Silver's Paradoxes of Defence and see what he has to say regarding height and...
