(04-21-2015, 02:54 PM)Natalie Mcbeef Wrote: As an interesting side note, weapons did not develop in a vacuum.
Two handed swords did not become popular until the advent of full body plate. At that point you didn't need a shield, your entire body was a shield.
It was far better to just have a better and more powerful weapon. Ironically in many fantasy games, the trope is Plate plus shield, but in reality that wasn't all that common.
Generally only more lightly armored people used a shield, skirmishers and ranged troops and such. Since they are cheap, and you can drop it if you have to run.
That's a great point! I would add that even with the invention of plate armor you would have examples of shield use, though most notably was with jousting and such, though I believe that plate was invented because of mounted lancers but I don't remember the source on that other than 'some history channel crap I watched as a kid'.Â
Otherwise, yeah, you didn't see a fully plated person generally using a sword and shield or, if they did have a messer sword or falchion it was likely as a sidearm only while their main weapon was employed first and/or most commonly. Â However you would see people in say a breastplate and chainmail using a shield, or what you might call 'half plate' depending on where you're from etc. The notion of shield walls was seemingly less practiced post Roman era though whether that was from lack of military discipline and education or because other tactics rendered it obsolete, I'm unsure. I think the Germanic and Nordic peoples employed some 'shield wall' style tactics, though it likely resembled the Greek style 'huddle' more than the Roman Scutum line. You may know more than me on that, though! =)
