Weapons!

[Gia Rilan]

In terms of weapons that I have... recurved bow, with thirteen arrows, fencing foil and fencing epee.

My bow it so pretty though...

As far as my knowledge of the battlefield and war-type things goes, a friend of mine and I used to draw maps and opposing armies on paper during math class and fight them out. That was fun, especially since we were almost always historically accurate.

I have two wonderful books on the subject--Fighting Techniques of the Medieval World and Battle, by DK publishing.

In Fighting Techniques, it reviews different civilizations methods of warfare and specalized combat units, like the Byzantine heavy cavalry of the tenth century and the Norman cavalrymen of the eleventh century. Also the foot soldiers and various infantry, and there's also a segment on sea fighting. It covers most of the major battles of the Eurasian area during the medieval era.

Battle reviews all of the recorded skirmishes, fights, routs, battles, sieges, wars, ect. up until the modern era, ending with the American invasion of Iraq. Basically, 5,000 years of combat.

And I fence, and the type that I do is more like the old rapier fighting than Olympic fencing now. Also my shooting, with the recurve, is a more medieval type of bow.

Fighting isn't just for guys!

[Pagusel]

Jess, I like your sense of humor.

As for weapons, I prefer to use my relentless sex appeal combined with my cold, cold lesbianism. I'm pretty sure Jess uses guns. Hooray for guns!

Didn't we also have thread about body art on this board? I'm not in the majority demographic, am I. Join me, Jess! Let's set up minority camp.

[Xyon_of_Calhoun]

I have Inohen.

I need nothing more.

[Drake]

Well, I own several pairs of Kama (imagine a miniature scythe), a Bo Staff, and a double-balled flail, and I know how to use them. The Bo is (much like my favorite weapon, the Rapier) normally used in a much flashier manner than most weapons. Sure you're basically just smacking the hell out of your opponent, but all the twirling and spinning makes it look so much cooler than that. Kamas, however, are basically cut cut stab stab, with the occasional skilled throw. The flail is also a very brutishly used weapon.

I don't own any, but I can also use Sais. If you want to beat the holy hell out of someone that's using a sword, they're the best way to do it. I mean, come on, it's the whole reason the damned things were designed.

[Firesong]

I was under the impression that the sai developed originally as a farming tool and was adopted for use as a weapon... and they're useful in parrying any form of weaponry which doesn't have enough mass to shear through them or jar them out of your grasp.

Granted, the flail is brutish. (Why do you think I selected one for Haegrath?) Still, what applies to this bo staff applies to the flail as well, although in a significantly different manner:

Sure you're basically just smacking the hell out of your opponent, but all the twirling and spinning makes it look so much cooler than that.

[Valz Malar]

K-Bar

Remington

Winchester

Steyr

Elbow

Knee

Foot

Fist

Palm

Head

Forearm

Heel

Shoulder






my mind-it is the only weapon I actually need

[Jenica Sabiny]

I have a spring-blade. It's small and black and adorable. And in Tennessee it's the right size to be considered a tool rather than a danger.

I've never even touched a gun, but I have plenty of friends who own them and want to take me to a firing range. I wouldn't mind going, but we haven't set a date yet. I might try to convince my self-defense teacher to do a gun safety class. In fact I think I'll e-mail him right now!

I r Southern, hyuck hyuck. I like them thar guns. Git'er done hurrrrr

[Frug]

I like guns but I don't think people should be allowed to have them. o.O

[Jenica Sabiny]

I live in reality where people have them regardless of what I believe, hahaha.

Haha.

Ha.

[Valz Malar]

I guess it is a good thing for me and mine that I live in your reality too...

Frug if it makes you feel any better I'll go out and buy a spear...I might run out of bullets while defending my studio apartment!

[Sir Karsimir]

Was unsure where to start, but it turns out I already have a few descriptions of weapons posted.

Swords:

Arming sword - Traditional knightly weapon of the Middle Ages. Often confused with the longsword (which is a long-bladed 2-handed weapon designed with advanced armour in mind) or the broadsword (which is a basket-hilted chopping sword). In it's day, was expensive enough to be reserved for professional men-at-arms. Ordinary soldiers used spears and daggers mostly, hunting bows and hand axes (far more readily available).

Single-handed and double-edged, designed more for cutting and thrusting, although clearly suitable for either. Light and versitile, boasting excellent balance for control and mobility for both striking and parrying. Functions poorly against armour, however, relying on the cutting edge to kill and requiring direct hits to strike through even light armours.

Armour:

Maille - Steel wire made into rings and then linked together into a garment. Often mistakenly called 'chain'.

Prevents edged weapons from cutting to the skin and is supported by a layer of thick linen cloth stuffed to cushion the force of blows. Will still suffer bruising from direct hits, or potentially broken bones from impact-based weapons, but will otherwise ward off strikes. Narrow or tapered weapons can split the rings as well, although these weapons are typically specifically designed for that purpose and have their own limits.

Gambeson - True padded armour, made of layers of cloth garment sewn into tubes or diamond shaped cells in either case stuffed with things such as cloth waste, straw, horsehair or similar material that is ideally resistant to cutting. Ideal use for a gambeson was beneath maille to cushion blows, although metal armour was very expensive and so gambesons were more often worn as stand-alone armour on the battlefield.

Generally padding intended to be worn over armour, or a long knee length coat of padding, is known as a gambeson - protective padding for beneath metal armour is known as an aketon.

Currently much amateur testing using various targets covered with aketon-like garments has shown that quilted defenses significantly decreased the penetration of sword cuts into the targets but did not completely prevent penetration. A quilted garment made of 16 folds of linen alone provided similar or better protection than 5mm of cuir bouilli (boiled leather) defense (~80-90J of energy needed to penetrate). The energy available to a sword or axe varies from 60 to 130J. In other words, 16 folds of linen may not be enough to completely prevent penetration by a sword, but the amount of damage dealt is significantly decreased. In addition, he also writes that the combination of padding and metal armour increases the energy needed by a piercing weapon (lance, arrow, crossbow bolt, etc.) for penetration as compared to the energy needed to penetrate the metal plate alone. Of course many of the actual garments were padded with hemp or wool or other tough-to-cut materials which largely decreased the need for many linen layers.

A good source on these is http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_spot_quilted.html

Cuir bouilli - Leather treated with hot water hardens, thickens, shrinks, and possibly turns brittle... seeming more like wood than leather. However, it can still be moulded into shapes when hardening, so can make a fine breastplate or similar armour. This has been done often. Lesser examples of cuir bouilli is equal to motorcycle gear. Better examples are more common.

Leather armour in action is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jpuSzgkZN4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L_EmI6V ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLGwNY3x ... re=related

[Ryalyn Kylana]

Lemme just say that archery kicks a$$!! I actually shoot archery and it's a lot of fun. My good ol' dad shoots traditional long bow and recurve and, I think I'm remembering correctly, can actually make a long bow, arrows, and all. He started teaching me archery when i was like 10 or something. I had my own little bow and everything! The one i have now is pretty sweet too. Alas, now that I am at college I do not get to use it or even bring it with me. And every time I'm home it's too damn cold!!

As for other weapons, I would have to say that swords are pretty sweet. They just look so elegant (and shiny ).

[Sir Karsimir]

All weapons and armour comes down to one thing - an arms race. Weapons exist to do harm, then armour is needed to resist the weapons, and thus new weapons are needed to defeat the existing armour, and so on.

So each weapon has an ideal situation to fight in.

Rapier:

A civilian duelling weapon, so designed for unarmoured single combat, which is very different to military swords. Favoured features in an armourless duel are speed for a fast attack and defence in the absence of a shield or armour, and long reach to fight with slightly more distance between combatants (if you can keep them at your full reach, you have a split-second more reaction time against their attacks), the thrusting design was because the narrow confines of the cities of the era did not allow for formations or invading armies very well, so there was not always space to cut.

What a rapier is not, is a weapon for finding gaps in armour (the two-handed longsword or estoc does that best) and nor is it a cutting weapon. Hacking or chopping with a rapier leaves your foe with a modest bruise, or maybe a nasty welt if the blade is sharpened enough, as the blade lacks the width or flatness to cleave or shear through flesh. Sharp-edged rapier cuts will hurt, break skin and draw blood, but will not slash throats or otherwise inflict serious wounds, the purpose of a rapier cut is to distract or inconvenience a foe.

http://www.thearma.org/Youth/rapieroutline.htm


Katana:

The most hyped sword in all history. One useful fact to remember is that anime is a type of cartoon, not documentary. With that out the way with, what the katana was is an extremely sharp, curved sword with an extremely hardened edge and thick blade. A fine weapon, designed with a certain mode of combat in mind.

Curved blades favour draw cuts, which pulls while swinging, both shearing and slicing at the same time, together doing extreme damage to flesh and bone and reliably chopping through whole torsos. Where this fails is against armour, the natural slicing motion of the curved blade simply skids off anything of comparable (not even equal) hardness. The thick wedge shape of the blade steadies the striking edge against resonation or vibration which would waste the force of the blow for impact (removing the need for the blade to bend to avoid damage), however, it also means the sword must force aside more material to cut - so again is only effective against softer targets.

In effect, the katana is a masterfully designed slashing sword, fast and deadly, but with the limitations of slashing swords. Mostly slashing swords a good for fighting large numbers because of the ease of cutting strokes, although better armoured foes tend to be professional fighters and lightly armoured foes tend to be militia or draftees. So what we have is exsquisitely well-made and expensive sword, specialised for killing poorly armed peasants.

http://www.thearma.org/essays/hype.htm

[Ryalyn Kylana]

oh snap! i have a rapier too actually. Freshman year of college I was in a fencing club. Good times (heck of a good workout!) but I discovered that I really did not like getting stabbed (in the upper arm specifically bc our outfit isn't padded there) or stabbing others. My instructors kept yelling at me for apologizing

[Sir Karsimir]

Now taking requests, since my knowledge is fairly broad and needs narrowing down if I am to post anything in particular. So anything which interests people, please ask me about and I will inflict detail upon thee!