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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Galloglaich" data-source="post: 4829498" data-attributes="member: 77019">In a very early Greek context, you may have a point (no pun intended), since Spears were by far the most ubiquitous weapons on the battlefield.  We really don't know all that much about the details of how the Bronze Age Greeks fought, other than what can be gleaned from vases and epic poems.  <img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q8DszyENlXQ/Rf7ueDrI2OI/AAAAAAAAABM/qoqouH7pZ7o/s400/Greek+fighting+Persian.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />For the later Iron Age Greeks and the Romans though we do have various histories starting with Herodotus, and detailed military manuals like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavius_Vegetius_Renatus" target="_blank">Vegetius</a>.  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Re_Militari" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Re_Militari</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_infantry_tactics" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_infantry_tactics</a>In a Medieval or Renaissance context though we really don't have to guess at all- the fighting systems are well documented in fencing manuals dating back to at least the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.33" target="_blank">13th Century </a>there are dozens of these manuals extant, which go into very specific detail about how people fought.<img src="http://www.schielhau.org/images/meyerD.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> There is also a huge abundance of Medieval and Renaissance art and literature, far more than we have for the Greeks, and the Icelandic sagas before that. <img src="http://www1.tip.nl/%7Et401243/mac/mac11rA.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />For the "Dark Ages" / Northern European Iron Age we have the Icelandic Sagas.  Here the tactic of cutting peoples legs off were so common that many swords were given names like "leg biter" and "foot cutter", as were the names of certain famous Vikings who survived such incidents such as Onund Treeleg from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grettis_saga" target="_blank">Grettirs Saga[url].  Of course few survived such an injury. </a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grettis_saga" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grettis_saga" target="_blank"></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grettis_saga" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grettis_saga" target="_blank">Sounds like a good trick, but if you can cut his head, why not split his skull?</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grettis_saga" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grettis_saga" target="_blank">This is essentially the kind of stuff we did put in the Codex, only we relied on historical techniques for our sources.  But you could rename them whatever you liked (or base them on fantasy races or cultures etc.)</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grettis_saga" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grettis_saga" target="_blank">G.</a></blockquote>

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