It has been very interesting hearing of others experience "fighting" with spears and
swords. In glorantha and the RW I gather fighting with a shield is an oddity. Is
there any advantages? I remember in Griffin Mountain there is a troll in a traders
caravan using two shields with a shield attack, yet, that's the only example I ever
saw in glorantha. The damage with the attack was just as good as a sword. My
experience with real live roleplaying with a shield was pretty good. I made a square
wooden shield about 2 foot by four foot, hey my woodworking skills are 5%!. It was
excellent, I could cover myself from the majority of hits although it was a bit
tiring to carry around and speed was not great most like the size was the advantage.
I even used it in close combat to good effect. The spear I used was terrible in
close body contact range, however, a shield was an ideal weapon, fantastic to
bludgeon an opponent who can't even get to you. With a short run and battle
excitment I even knocked over an opponent. That was my most effective attack, I did
apologise! I also took myself out once, the lip of the shield hit me, when the
shield was hit, and the shield struck me in the mouth and I cut my lip ouch.
Combined with strength, a tight interlinking shield wall, close combat, and an
effective stabbing weapon it would be deadly. IMPO you would be dead if you were on
a surface with no stability, e.g. a muddy battlefield, were all alone/exposed behind,
against longer weapons in massed ranks. Durability would be questionable. Wood
would splinter i'm sure if the edges are not covered with metal.
Charging against a shield wall, the first few lines would be spear fodder, used to
impale onto the spears/tie up the spear men so that the second wave can butcher at
ease.
As for morale in live action role play, when confronted by a larger number of
warriors the mear fact that there's more of them was frightening due to the more
noise they could make. Yet, as soon as we found out they were much weaker and ill
trained we slaughtered them with a determination and a will to make a humakti
proud.
Anyone still interested in RuneQuest 2 in the UK?
Cheers
Chris