Renaissance and similar; relatively late. There was one battle where the
dead from both sides laid in the open for too long (I think there was a war
on), so in the interests of not getting the plague they put the lot,
unlooted, in a plague pit.
On excavation, they found a most amazing collection of armour - and a
large preponderance of lower arm and lower leg severings. It was the most
common injury.
It included one man, armoured in breastplate and chain (IIRC) with plate
greaves, who had had both legs severed mid-shin by the same blow through
the greaves - the cuts lined up... Hand-and-a-half sword blow.
>The Dark Age stuff I'm more used to looking at, the
>most common injury seems to have been on the left leg,
>just below where the bottom of the (round) shield
>stops. Fits nicely with our most common attack: aim at
>the head, the shield goes up to guard it, redirect
>your attack to the now undefended leading leg.
That's what the sword's for. Defend with this, which I can also attack with. Defend with this, which can take harder blows than the other one but I don't attack with. ;)
>I'd guess that when kite shields came in, this became
>less common. And was no doubt *why* they came in :)
Kites were a cavalry shield, designed to protect the off leg when the
sword couldn't get over there to do it.
It's why a knight, when he got off his horse, dropped the shield and went
two-handed with the warsword - didn't need the shield any more, and it has
corners for weapons to get caught on. A bonus on horse, a penalty on foot.
If he was using a mace or flail, though, he kept the shield - his
opponent was using the same weapon most of the time, and maces don't get
stuck in corners...
| Paul May | kax_at_... | Kax Hoplodyne, Ltd | the_kax_at_... | MIB 1138; RD Australia | spell_at_... | PGP key on www.pgp.net | games and freeforms done while you | eFax no: (520)832-2559 | wait (some lead-time required)
"The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests." -- Epictetus, Greek philosopher
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