Attacking your opponent's weapon

[Salamander]

Okay, so back to the topic...

The general consensus is that attacking your opponent's weapon in hopes of breaking it will generally just get you stabbed, right?

Yeah, stabbed or cut...

[Brian Leybourne]

Okay, so back to the topic...

The general consensus is that attacking your opponent's weapon in hopes of breaking it will generally just get you stabbed, right?

Yeah, stabbed or cut...

That's not true.

You could get bashed... :-)

Brian (who's feeling pedantic today, it seems).

[Draigh]

You could also get gnawed upon... If it were a Hef or some such beastie.

Let's not forget the gnashing of teeth.


mmmm, gnashing

[Tom]

Replying to a long-dead thread... oh, well -


I've practices Iaido (japanese sword fighting, ritualistic, not combat, but thus using actual swords) for a few years.

I very clearly remember my teacher telling us time and time again how a proper parry is made, namely so that the enemy weapon is deflected, not blocked. Blocking a weapon with your blade, according to him, does have a considerable chance of you ending up a) with a broken blade and b) with the enemy blade in you, minus whatever force breaking yours took off the swing, but still.

In TRoS, I would use this for fumbles on parry rolls.

This also leads to an answer to the original question: In a block, the opponent will hold the weapon still with strength. In a normal fight, weapons were often held fairly lose, to allow for more flexibility. I know this to be true for eastern swords, and I'm fairly sure about light european ones. I'm not sure about greatswords and doppelhanders, they may have been too heavy to allow for a light grip.

[Jake Norwood]

I don't know about a "light" grip, but a greatsword weighing in at 3.5 to 4.5 pounds just isn't that heavy. The grip is "flexible," I'd say, and never "tight."

Parrying with anything earlier than a smallsword is almost always "redirection," and never a "block," as a general rule.

Jake

[Tash]

I belive that Doplehanders/Zweihanders weren't used to cut the heads off of pikes, but rather to push the pointy ends aside to allow the weilder to close, at which point they could choke up to the ricasso and wreck havoc inside the formation.  ONce you are past the point of a 20 foot pike there isn't much the guy holding it can do besides drop the pike and run.  Even fighting at close range with an alternate weapon would be difficult because of how closely massed pike formations were.

[Salamander]

I belive that Doplehanders/Zweihanders weren't used to cut the heads off of pikes, but rather to push the pointy ends aside to allow the weilder to close, at which point they could choke up to the ricasso and wreck havoc inside the formation.  ONce you are past the point of a 20 foot pike there isn't much the guy holding it can do besides drop the pike and run.  Even fighting at close range with an alternate weapon would be difficult because of how closely massed pike formations were.

Which is pretty much what I said Tues. October 23rd, 2003...

[Turin]

I've alway thought that to give a better feel for combat against large/strong creatures, some adjustments should be made for things like parry, block, beat, etc.

Something along the lines that for every "x" amount of strength difference between two opponents, the block/parry of the weaker party has their TN raised by 1.  What exact ratio would work, I don't know but I feel the idea is valid.

Although decreasing damage somewhat caused by high strength would be necassary, so strength is not the be-all end-all stat for combat.

One other comment - an attack on a weapon is more something that arises out of a moment of opportunity than a focused intentional tactic.  For example, someone thrusts at your leg with a spear.  In the evade/block attempt, you trap their spear.  With the spear trapped, you break it.  Spear was broken by an attempt on it, but it is not the primary focus of your attack.   Weapons broken by attempted parries or blocks would be a seperate issue as well, as it is not a target of the attack but is damaged as a result of the attack.

[aaronharmon]

I would think that with the exception of attacking the head of a weapon that is very long and used in formation (such as a pike) most of the times that a heavy axe-like weapon would break a sword would be upon a parry by the swordsman, not as the result of an intentional attack by the axe-wielder.

[Turin]

I would think that with the exception of attacking the head of a weapon that is very long and used in formation (such as a pike) most of the times that a heavy axe-like weapon would break a sword would be upon a parry by the swordsman, not as the result of an intentional attack by the axe-wielder.

I would agree for the most part, though I would include any long hafted weapon such as a pole-arm and a spear.

Another area is a swinging strike that strikes a strong rigid piece of armour, such as a helm.

[aaronharmon]

When i said axe-like, i was including long hafted weapons like pole axes and halberds as well.