Historial weapons videos and their use for GURPS

[Dangerious P. Cats]

I found this video depicting some Viking spear and shield combat (and later this one) and thought it might be useful for comparison to low tech and/or martial arts.

Also I thought that having a resource of medieval fighting videos would be useful but didn't feel that resurrecting this thread was a good idea. That said if anyone has any videos showing decent medieval combat I'd be interested to see them explained in terms of GURPS mechanics.

[RyanW]

One thing I've found historic fighting videos useful for is convincing people who think European warfare consisted entirely of beating each other senseless with sharpened metal clubs otherwise. Especially that they should be perfectly familiar with the Judo skill. Just search for kampfringen and show them the videos based directly on the fighting manuals of Talhoffer and others.

[Stormcrow]

While I agree with the beating-with-sharpened-clubs argument, I'm not sure these videos are showing convincingly deadly techniques. This looks more like tag.

[TheHengeProphet]

Unfortunately, I find these two videos a terrible reference for viking spear fighting. Holding the spear in the underhand position tends to be awkward if you haven't the wrist and hand strength to maintain power and accuracy. The overhand technique was much more popular, and vikings tended to use much longer spears (not a rule, but a generality, as vikings used whatever they darn well pleased).

[Joseph Paul]

If using the spear underhanded is the way you fight then you will develop the hand and wrist strength to make it work.

[sjard]

Unfortunately, there are no known existing records of how those weapons* were used, so any video is pure guesswork. And those look pretty bad to me.

*Specifically the shields.

[Þorkell]

Those videos just look goofy to me.

[Dwarf99]

Those looked the kind of video an inexperienced LARPer would make. Trust me on this, My group is mostly well past that stage. In any case, they don't accurately portray the capabilities of any able bodied member of the warrior culture above the conscript level. Nevermind the exceptional ones.

[jason taylor]

Has practice armor developed to the point where you can strike real blows without fear of causing serious injury?

[Mike_H]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Has practice armor developed to the point where you can strike real blows without fear of causing serious injury?

Practice armor is real armor, at least when it comes to steel. I have heard of some folks using heavy padding under chainmail for SCA combat. And I tell you, after being on tghe receiving end, they are hard blows, enough to cause teal damage if steel weapons were used.