What kind of proficincies would a peasant likely have?
Now I'm no expert but I'd say that it depends on where you are from.
Some places (like Stahl) allow peasents to carry metal weapons so they would naturally be somewhat proficient with whatever weapon they owned. IE if they owned a sword they'd probably swung it around a couple times. Also a good chunk of people would probably be at least minimally proficient with a dagger.
In general though I'd probobably say that it would be mass weapon and shield, just probably without the shield...for clubs and other blunt farming tools.
Occationally if the peasant were a hunter it may be possible for them to have a bow and so would be proficient in that too.
This is what I use in general for my campaigns.
Hope that helped,
Kevin
I agree with mass weapon and shield, as well as bows.
Spears are fairly lowly weapons, as are pikes, and would probably be found in the hands of peasants, but you would generally only see these in mustered levies.
Quotegenerally only see these in mustered levies.
Just a thought. I am not certain of this, not having a history background, but weren't peasants expected to fight for their liege in times of conflict? I would have expected that they would therefore undergo some type of militia training- even if it was only a once a fortnight/monthly event. I think that at one point in England it was the law that a lord had to ensure his peasants were regularly trained and in fact this was one of the reasons the English were able to use longbows at Agincourt. Stout yeomen were trained in the longbow from an early age so that they had the strength to use the weapon (and the skill!).
This would also depend on the culture of the nation in question because certain of the more repressive nations would dislike the idea of trained peasants able to defend themselves. Nothing really changes does it...
Regards
kanseg
Edit: I've just realised my post suggests I'm a trained peasant. Okay I admit it!
I'd give a peasant Wrestling and P/B. Unlike the specialized people in the cities, peasants are multiclassed fellas, living of the land around them, whether it is farmland, hunting grounds or a river. So, if a peasant can hunt, he will hunt and therefore have some missile weapon profiency.
Apart from that, some militia polearm training, perhaps.
Quarterstaff, bow, dagger, pugalism, sling, flail, axe...
think cheap and useful for more than just fighting
I think it depends on where and when you are a peasant.
English peasants, as we all know, were supposed to be competant enough in the skill of archery (with exceptions in some regions where pole-arm training replaced archey training). I've always wondered if this was a late period regulation, or universal to English medeival history.
French peasants, on the other hand, were not allowed to use the bow. And this seems to be pretty common everywhere, that peasants were not supposed to be proficient in archery.
Yet both regions had long traditions of semi-professional peasant staff fighters (stick-fighting seems to be a universal tradition all over the world for commoners). Italy has a long history of cudgel fighting, with teams of peasants beating each other up on bridges. Empty-hand styles were probably wrestling based.
Constants appear to be:
Staves and cudgels
Pitchforks, hoe, and other improvised peasant polearms
slings
knives
tool axes like hatchets
Variants include:
Archery (England only AFAIK)
Axes (obvious extension of tool axes)
Pole arms (extension of staff fighting)
Spears (extension of staff fighting)