Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
The Mystery of The katana
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 5347154" data-attributes="member: 1165"><p>It depends on the era.</p><p></p><p>In the Genpei era, samurai wore boxy armor and primarily used bows. (~1100s.)</p><p></p><p>I could tell you only a little about the battle against the Mongols, but that indirectly led to the rebellion of Go-Daigo. Much of that war was fought in forests, and so melee weaponry became popular. Lots of katana, lots of yari, and apparently the no-dachi was invented during this period (I suspect the source meant the weapon only first appeared in historical records from that time period). Also a wonderful period which both subverted and followed "samurai honor" tropes hardcore.</p><p></p><p>The Muromachi period gave us people like Oda Nobunaga and is probably the most famous period. Different clans fought with different styles. The gun was introduced during this period. Some of the most famous battles (eg the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima and the battle of Oda Nobunaga vs Takeda Shingen's son) were fought with melee weapons. (In the first case, it was basically melee cavalry vs melee cavalry, and in the second Oda's infantry, armed with guns and <strong>very</strong> long spears, defeated the Takeda cavalry.) One-fief samurai probably <em>couldn't even afford</em> anything more expensive than a spear, and would have fought on foot.</p><p></p><p>There were rewards for getting the first kill with a sword, and another with a spear. I didn't know about one for archery, but in famous battles good archers still got recommended.</p><p></p><p>And a group of warrior monks were defeated by horse archer samurai, in part because the monks were weighed down <em>by their heavy armor!</em> So it's not like archery went the way of the dodo.</p><p></p><p>Then came the <s>Japan at Peace</s> Bathrobe Samurai era, where swords were quite popular (probably part of the fetishization came here after the "sword hunt" banned the use of swords and other weapons by commoners), but since wars were rare, most battles involved either duels or ambushes and so were fought on foot, generally with swords. The famous duelist Jubei Yagyu lived in this period.</p><p></p><p>At least one battle between Japan and Korea was decided due to the "superior quality" of the Japanese swords. I suspect horse archers were less common due to the difficulty in transporting both horses and arrows from Japan to Korea (especially the former). Of course, you could always steal local horses and make factories for the latter...</p><p></p><p>And in the "Battle of the Last Samurai" both sides used guns and swords, the latter a big deal when you ran out of ammunition. The samurai still had better swordmanship, but it didn't save them from their dismal tactics.</p><p></p><p>So it's probably more popular to say "it depends".</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(Psi)SeveredHead, post: 5347154, member: 1165"] It depends on the era. In the Genpei era, samurai wore boxy armor and primarily used bows. (~1100s.) I could tell you only a little about the battle against the Mongols, but that indirectly led to the rebellion of Go-Daigo. Much of that war was fought in forests, and so melee weaponry became popular. Lots of katana, lots of yari, and apparently the no-dachi was invented during this period (I suspect the source meant the weapon only first appeared in historical records from that time period). Also a wonderful period which both subverted and followed "samurai honor" tropes hardcore. The Muromachi period gave us people like Oda Nobunaga and is probably the most famous period. Different clans fought with different styles. The gun was introduced during this period. Some of the most famous battles (eg the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima and the battle of Oda Nobunaga vs Takeda Shingen's son) were fought with melee weapons. (In the first case, it was basically melee cavalry vs melee cavalry, and in the second Oda's infantry, armed with guns and [b]very[/b] long spears, defeated the Takeda cavalry.) One-fief samurai probably [i]couldn't even afford[/i] anything more expensive than a spear, and would have fought on foot. There were rewards for getting the first kill with a sword, and another with a spear. I didn't know about one for archery, but in famous battles good archers still got recommended. And a group of warrior monks were defeated by horse archer samurai, in part because the monks were weighed down [i]by their heavy armor![/i] So it's not like archery went the way of the dodo. Then came the [s]Japan at Peace[/s] Bathrobe Samurai era, where swords were quite popular (probably part of the fetishization came here after the "sword hunt" banned the use of swords and other weapons by commoners), but since wars were rare, most battles involved either duels or ambushes and so were fought on foot, generally with swords. The famous duelist Jubei Yagyu lived in this period. At least one battle between Japan and Korea was decided due to the "superior quality" of the Japanese swords. I suspect horse archers were less common due to the difficulty in transporting both horses and arrows from Japan to Korea (especially the former). Of course, you could always steal local horses and make factories for the latter... And in the "Battle of the Last Samurai" both sides used guns and swords, the latter a big deal when you ran out of ammunition. The samurai still had better swordmanship, but it didn't save them from their dismal tactics. So it's probably more popular to say "it depends". [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
The Mystery of The katana
Top