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Old March 12th, 2009 #58
cillian
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Join Date: Oct 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Antiochus Epiphanes View Post
the story of technology and society made thrusting the superior tactic. firearms and social closeness made armor obsolete. without the problem of armor, there is no contest. thrusting is more efficient. slashing is just a method of whacking through armor. good armor just deflects a thrust in the old days of yore in europe you had to hack through it. then firearms and crossbows and the superior use of longbows all came together to slow and reverse the utility of chain and plate combo armor. over time less and less useful.

think about it in terms of engineering. how does a bullet kill, like a bludgeon or a slashing weapon? no a penetrating one.

slashing is inefficient. thrusting is efficient. where are knives used the most in society? jail. always a thrusting shiv is prefered to some half assed slashing deal like a razor melted into a toothbrush. what a piece of crap that would be. one would always prefer a sharpened screwdriver or something like that if you could get it.
I've noticed that in movies they always have the hero using a sword, there is something heroic about them and maybe all the slashing looks better on the camera. Yet historically the main weapon for just about every army was the spear, which evolved into the pike for footmen and the lance for horsemen, even the vikings used spears even though we think of them as wielding axes.