Spears and the SCA

Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by thread ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
Other mail archives: !!!!!!> Visit the Search Engine of Lhankor Mhy <!!!!!!

From: Robert William Vesterman <bob_at_vesterman.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 19:21:04 -0500

Having not been in a fight since I was a teenager, and not been in a fight with weapons since... errr... well, never, I don't know, but isn't the fact that spear and shield walls fall easily to rushing swordsmen in the SCA a bit suspect, due to the fact that in the SCA the first wave doesn't have to worry at all about running into a real spear point and thus dying while they're charging?

I mean, sure, tell me to charge those guys with the padded poles and see if I can get through, what the hell, I'll charge full out. With a bunch of my buddies doing the same thing, some of us will be "killed", but the second wave is going to break through, and in general we'll totally overwhelm the guys who are just standing there waiting for us.

But tell me to charge those guys with actual spears... at the very least, my buddies and I are going to charge a hell of a lot more cautiously, thus diminishing the "overwhelm" factor.

Bob Vesterman.