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Old December 3rd, 2003, 01:40 PM
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Arralen Arralen is offline
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Default Re: What role does a shield play?

... but they didn't have that much use for shields because they didn't have massed archers/slingers like all armies west of them had.

By the way, the Katana is a 1-hand sword which could be used with both hands.
It's on the upper end (max. 1,1m) of the length scale for 1-handed swords (0,7..1,1m), but superior balancing makes single handed usage very easy.

The older Tachi is up to 1,4m long, 2-handed and was used from horse-back at the time of the mongol invasion. At which point it served pourly, as the tips regularly broke off when a fighter hit a mongol armor with it. (felt, sometimes reinforced with "Couir bouillie"/"cuir bouilli" sp?, chain mail). Subsequently the swords got shorter (shortened) and developed to the Katana/Wakizasi - kombo.

Everything AFAIK, of course.

A.

[ December 03, 2003, 11:42: Message edited by: Arralen ]
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