Wednesday, April 13, 2016

[rghattbm] Best sword for situation

There is of course no definitive answer as to which type of sword is the best: it depends on the situation.  Therefore, enumerate some situations and give the best sword for each.

Unrealistically, we assume combatants are not wearing body armor, or else it becomes a literal arms race between sword and armor.  Probably the bigger, heavier sword always wins.

Two combatants approach each other in an empty arena.  Symmetric warfare.

Two groups of combatants.

Being the attacker in an ambush in some kind of environment conducive to ambush.  Asymmetric warfare.

Being the defender in an ambush.

Defending against an animal.

Being an assassin who has already gained the trust of the target.

Defending against an unknown such assassin.

On one hand, we might sadly mourn that knowledge about swords for actual combat has probably been lost since the invention of firearms.  On the other hand, sword versus sword with no armor on either side is so highly unrealistic (only in movies) that this kind of knowledge probably never existed.

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