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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6251280" data-attributes="member: 177">Oh, well if we want to bring historic re-creation combat into the discussion, that is a slightly different beast.  I've also spent my time there - my favorite being polearm.Note that there's two basic forms of re-creation fights - tournament (usually 1-on-1, occasionally a handful against a handful), and full melees.  They play out very differently, and use much different tactics indeed.I agree with the others - daggers have no place in a fight with heavily armored opponents.  They're only useful if you're reduced to a grapple, or the opponent is down for the moment, and you've lost your other weapons and need something for coup de gras.Shields are nice - in the sense that if you're using a one-handed weapon, you're kind of silly not to use one.  But, the shield is not an end-all-be-all.  It is not uncommon to see someone defeat a shield with two weapons, or with a polearm, in tournament combat.  A second weapon often serves well to parry, and a polearm has reach and a major haft that works well for blocking as well.  Tournament fights that mix fights between sword-and-board, polearm, and two-weapon fighting generally come down not to the weapons used, but to the skill of the fighters, in my observation.  YMMV.Note that there are common tactics that would be used against shields that are a bit uncommon in historical re-creation combats.  Imagine solidly embedding an axe or a 12' long spear into a shield - it drags the shield down, and in the case of the spear, can even hamper the shield-user's movement.  I've seen this simulated for the spear by one of our local SCAdians who is known for his spear work - he has a big suction-cup on the end or a 12' spear, and has laid many a shield-wearer low with it.  And in a real fight, a shield can well be sundered (as can the haft of a polearm) where these things are pretty much indestructible in re-creation.Of course, in a full melee where there are archers, shields are a much more important thing.  Arrows are death.</blockquote>

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