Writing Tip ( Medieval Fighting )
One thing a writer should always research when writing an action novel is how to actually fight with the weapons used in the novel. You see, the best fight scenes are the ones that feel real…
This is mostly about sword fighting, but I’ll add some variety, don’t worry.
I’ll compile a few explanations of fighting techniques here.
(disclaimer: always write what you want to write, even if it’s not ‘realistic’. fantasy is not realistic in the first place, who cares.)
STANCE
(Picture from Flower of Battle)
Stance and footwork are key to any sort of martial art. While it’s not technically a technique, it’s a crucial part of fighting. Above, you can see that their footwork is somewhat similar to all of the pictures below. The most common stance is one foot facing straight forward a step or two in front of the other foot, which is facing off at an angle.
(Source: Pretty much every martial arts manual, book, or teacher ever)
HALF SWORDING
(Picture from the Codex Wallerstein)
One very interesting sword fighting technique where the swordsman would grab his sword’s blade and use the pommel, guard, and handle as a club or mace. Yes, they grabbed the sword, some times with bare hands, and no, their gauntlets were not the reason they could do this, certain different grips they developed allowed them to grip the blade without it sliding in their hands. (The only way for it to cut their hands is if the blade slid across it.) Gauntlets are usually made of leather gloves with steel plating on the back of the hand, but not inside, so yes, they used special grips to safely grip the sword blade.
(Picture from the Codex Wallerstein)
Not only did they grip their blade with both hands to club their enemies to death, they also used it as a way to control and bring more power to their thrusts, and to block blows much easier.
(Picture from the Gladiatoria)
SWORD THROWING
(Picture from Gladiatoria)
Widely known to be a myth, sword throwing was actually used in some trial by combat situations where you had multiple weapons, and could not effectively use them all. Here, you see that each fighter has a spear, sword, dagger and shield. Remember, he is only throwing his sword because he still has two weapons and a shield (which could, itself, be considered another weapon). In no situation is it a good idea to throw your sword if you don’t have a back up, unless you are not in immediate danger and someone else is. Note how he actually is throwing it though, it’s much more of a throwing spear technique, rather than the overhead axe-throwing sort of deal most people use.
DAGGER vs SWORD
(Picture from The Flower of Battle )
Now, let me start this by saying that swords will almost always beat a dagger in a fight. This is obvious. Daggers can only be used to parry and block attacks, making them difficult to use against a sword, which has much longer reach than a dagger. Only the most skilled warriors could hope to effectively use a dagger against a swordsman and win. Daggers can defend, and then counterattack, but it would be suicidal to attack with a dagger against a sword, only defending and countering would be viable.
WOOD vs SWORD (or other bladed weapon)
Using a quarterstaff or other long wooden stick, fixed to an axe head or not, would not do very well if hit by a sword. That is to say, it would damage it, but it would block the strike at least the first or second time. Cutting the wood in half on the first strike is very difficult to do, you would need a very heavy, sharp axe with a very strong bearer… Oh, and you would need the handle to stay completely put. Sound good? No? Well, that’s why you do not or should not see any staves or halberds or polearms being cut in half in the first strike.
On the other hand, do not expect it to just perfectly deflect the attack. After a few strikes, the handle is weakened greatly, and any part of the handle that was struck could snap if the wood was cut thin.
POINT BLANK ARCHERY
This one is a bit tricky. You see, shooting an enemy with your bow at close range is a VERY bad idea for many different reasons…
- Easy to counter.
- Can be too close
- A sword or other weapon can also hurt/break the bow.
- Very slow, unless using a lower poundage bow.
Lets go over each of these points, eh?
You can counter a point blank shot by uhh, well, raising your shield, and bashing? Maybe simply move to the left a bit, follow up by charging?
Your arrow needs to actually leave the string for it to fly correctly. This is the archer’s paradox, where the arrow actually curves around the bow’s stave to shoot straight. If you shoot too close, it will either shoot off in a different direction, snap your bow string (which could damage the stave), or snap the arrow itself, which would result in a pseudo-dryfiring of the bow, which also could damage the stave.
3. A sword or other weapon can also hurt/break the bow.
Yep. I mentioned wood not being very good against a blade, and this does apply to bows. Actually, even more so to bows. When wood is cut away from the stave it will weaken the bow to the point that if you shoot with it, if there is a significant cut in the wood, it will snap.
4. Very slow, unless using a lower poundage bow.
Drawing a high poundage warbow (sometimes upwards of 200 pound draw weight) is not something you can do in under a second, or maybe two. Actually, doing so can, damage your bow. Also, taking an arrow out and nocking it so fast can cause a fumble. It requires a lot of training, practice, and confidence.
We all know it’s cool when Legolas is shooting everything at lightning fast speeds, but it’s not really viable… Unless he’s using some sort of special material for his bow, that allows faster drawing without damage. Remember, you can use things such as better material, wood, metal, etc to make unrealistic things in your world realistic.
And on to the lower poundage bow, no one could ever use a low poundage bow in battle effectively. The minimum recommended to hunt deer in real life is 75~ pounds. That target is wearing no armor.
MINOR POINTS ABOUT ARCHERY
Never use ‘FIRE’ in your book as a signal for your archers to fire their bows. ‘FIRE’ came from the age of gun powder, to tell people to fire their rifles, because they use gun powder combustion to fire a lead ball out of their gun. A bow uses a string, pulled back by the user, so they used ‘LOOSE’ to signal bowmen to shoot.
THE BOW IS NOT A GUN. Never. NEVER have any character hold a bow at full draw at someone so they can threaten them. They will tire out and end up shaking terribly due to the 100-200 pounds they are holding back. If anything, have them nock an arrow and point it at the person they want to threaten, NOT pulling it back. This way, if the person moves or tries anything, he can simply pull it back and shoot.
(warning: please dont try and use these tactics in real life unless you are a trained professional)
(also if anyone has anything to add / change to this post i’ll happily do so)
