Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (
More info?)
Tobias <tobias.langner@t-online.de> wrote:
> mcv wrote:
>> Tobias <tobias.langner@t-online.de> wrote:
>>>> Think about this for a moment, woul the polearm
>>>> have lasted as long as it did as a common combat weapon if it could
>>>> only manage to strike at an opponet every 2-3 seconds?
>>
>>> yes - the main use of polearms lies in formation-fighting. The Phalanx of
>>> the ancient greeks and so on. Just give some peasants the polearms and
>>> put them in line. The second line can fight to. And the shields protect
>>> each other. For better performance train them like the spartans did.
>>
>> Phalanx had shields, yes, but late medieval polearms couldn't be used
>> with shields, but were far from useless. They were very versatile weapons
>> (unlike the pikes of the Greek phalanx, by the way); heavy enough to punch
>> through armour, long enough to fight cavalry, worked well against pikes,
>> and didn't need a rigid, tight formation like pikes do.
>> Really an all-round weapon, even without shield.
>>
> actually - the Greeks used 2 types of polearms. The first: a spear - the
> second a 5m long lance. The lance was used by the Greeks under Alexander
> the Great, the spear was used by all otheres before that time.
Didn't they already have them at Thermopylae?
> The 5m lance (which is actually longer than anything I know from the Middle
> Ages) was used with a shield stapped onto the left arm (to protect your
> neighbour in you formation).
I think the pike from the renaissance was also somewhere around that
length.
> Fighting against cavalry is only effective if you can make them stop - which
> leads again to formations.
Or you let someone else stop them, and then you run around the flanks
and chop them to bits with your polearms. (Works well in Medieval
Total War.)
> But of course - formations are no option for PCs.
I'm not sure about the GURPS rules for mounted combat, but in Earthdawn,
fighting cavalry in the open is an exercise in frustration. And punishment.
But woods also help quite a lot to slow cavalry down. Woods are the
territory of infantry, although keeping a formation is a bit difficult.
mcv.