Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Your Shield is Worthless - after a bit

So, while working on our revamp of the Arms and Armor book, I inadvertently got sidelined into some shield research while looking at weapon designed to reach around shields in combat. Yes weapons are designed to reach around shields - such as a shotel. Many weapons with that basic design (to include many polearms) were useful in reaching around shields. To the point though, up until the latter middle ages, shield were mostly made with wood (there are exceptions) and were quite often destroyed. Wooden shields were 'easy' to break.

 
We don't have many examples of broken shields because, well, they were thrown away, burned, or repurposed. It should be noted that the Romans would typically go through ten shields per soldier while on campaign. Being consummate record keepers, we can sorta accept that as close to accurate. I assume that number to be far less if the shield is made of bronze and later of iron or steel, and their combinations. Modern reenactments tend to back this up. 

When fighting with blunted weapon, HEMA members say that a shield can last up to six months. However, when using sharpened weapons, the shield is usually replaced after one or two combats. Tests by Viking Combat Research Center, Hurstwic (yes there is a viking warfare research center LOL) come up with the same results. I never considered a shield a throw away item, but apparently it was. 


So in short, for the upcoming Arms and Armor book, I will be taking a closer look at the shield and creating some alternate rules for its use - and frequent destruction. Then I will apply the same to armor.

3 comments:

Sean Poage said...

Just keeps getting better and better.

Joe Mac said...

Shields were indeed disposable, and I think the best way to model this is a "shield sacrifice" combat maneuver. I don't recall from whence I yoinked this, but it's in my house rules: a combatant can sacrifice his shield to negate a "hit" that would otherwise do damage, rendering the shield useless in the process. A special/magical shield can absorb one sacrifice per 'plus'; thus, a +2 shield goes to +1, then no bonus, then destroyed. This is a fun option that makes shields both more valuable and disposable, as they should be.

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