A few days ago I saw a documentary about mediavel fight tactics which sounded quiet interesting.
Part 1: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh5aey_ngc-medieval-fight-book-part-1-3_shortfilms
Part 2: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh5lak_ngc-medieval-fight-book-part-2-3_shortfilms
Part 3: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh5lw2_ngc-medieval-fight-book-part-3-3_shortfilms
Maybe Warhorse will adapt some of those things “revealed” in this documentary.
(I’m sorry, if it’s the wrong topic)
Man! This is really interesting. Not only it expands the view of medieval fighting, but also gives some new facts about society. I would look forward for this information to be adopted for sure.
Is that (edit: I meant mike Loades) in the second part?
Thalhoffer’s book is known to everyone who knows even a little bit about medieval fighting. I mean “scientific knowledge” of course. And I firmly guess that Warhorse already knows about that as well. 
Nice fairy tales. Reminds me History channel 
Fairy tales? Which part exactly? That book does exist…
It can be fake. Or not and it could be book full of fairy tales from someone who wrote it even back then. I just don’t believe on these huge and shocking “reveals”.
American pop history shows.
This one is better than Deadliest warrior though.
Ahh People. Hans Thalhofer (1420 - 1490) was a Schirmmeister (Fechtmeister), but beyond this i would not bet on him, and even his fighting technics are quite questionable.
And also this ‘history channel’ kind of program is made with a lot of modern knowledge and interpretation.
So stay sceptical. Because if you watch carefully you will see many mistakes are contained within this book. That would make this things, not workable. Like:
The tank, the crayfish, the diving suit and also the Longsword fighting techniques.
You would certain loss you hand if you would grab between the martle and yelmen of a sharp german longsword. Also besides his manuscript we don’t see any of those things, elsewhere depicted, used or reported to be used. And his depiction of Trebuchet, Scorpion / Ballista and the Onager does not validate the other (nonsense) things.
With one sentence: Thalhofer was a conman.
Ahem, maybe you should inform yourself better before making such statements…
Of course you can grab a sword between yelmen and martle. Nobody would do so with bare hands, you just have to wear chain gloves. But some swords maybe even had a non-sharp part on the blade fo facilitate half-swording techniques. There are various other medieval sources for that.
Many of the other things are just Thatlhoffer’s ideas and experiments (much like Leonardo Da Vinci’s ideas). They probably never saw the light of day and were just suggestions. That doesn’t make Thalhoffer a “conman”…
You know that this is the tip (foible) part of the blade? Nearly the only part of the blade, that has to be always sharp.
Do you know also that the palm of the hand was mostly made of soft leather, especially to have a grip on the weapon in this times?
And that he depicts them bare handed, not even with leather gloves, while the swords seem to be sharp.
Ne, those techniques can be only executed with dull weapons on a tournament in a melee, and even that i would honestly question. Those weapons may have been his ideas, but certainly like Leonardo’s ideas never could had been made and used effectively. Due to lack of knowledge and the right materials. And it seems, that at least Leonardo knew this exactly.
But you are right that a lack of knowledge does not make one a conman, but if he knew this, then he was one.
To the fighting techniques where people grab their own swords, this swords are made exactly for this, where the forte is dull.
No the sword does not have to be dull for halfswording. You don’t cut yourself even if you grab it with bare hands, if you know what you are doing.
See following videos:
I would also like to add that Talhoffer wasn’t the only one who teach to grab the blade…
Albrecht Dürer:
And in Codex Wallerstein: here and here
I suggest you do the following test: Buy a heavy dagger or a sword, buy yourself cut proved gloves out of Aramid, and buy yourself some leather gloves. Sharpen the sword real good. Put on the aramid gloves and then about this gloves also put the leather gloves on. And then conduct the hitting test, and think of ‘actio et reactio’. Every pull will move the sword and that will cut. There is a certain physics behind it (why a moving edge is sharper than a not moved) and it’s very complicated. This also a reason why a saber functions in a specific way, and why there are curved swords.
I know of a f…g idiot that has sharpened his Iaito to do some iaido. He has cut through this thumb tendon, only by doing a Noto.
I do not believe every shit that i see, especially on youtube. He is holding the sword a certain way to fool the people, but this cannot be done in a real fight. And also i know that in a real fight everything goes not as planned. For that video i would kick this guy in the face, if i knew him, because he endangers the health of many people.
I like Albrecht Dürer very much, but i would not recommend what he depicts here, if the depiction would shown that he is holding the flat side against his hand then it would be ok. Wallerstein first one is a clear way to loss some fingers, the second one can be conducted but only with strong leather gloves.
So do one another test. Buy yourself a chicken leg, take a great and sharp kitchen knife and a hammer. Lay this chicken leg on a kitchen board, and then lay the sharp edge of the knife on the chicken leg, holding the knife on his handle in your hand. Take the hammer in the other hand and hit with the hammer on the dull edge of the knife. (begin with weak strikes) But do not forget to wear some protective glasses and garment on your body and your neck, before you conduct this ‘sophisticated experiment’, some knifes are cause of bad annaling process brittle and may fracture. And this may lead to very bad injuries, so be very very careful.
And believe me this hammer test is with much smaller forces, than the things that are happening in a real fight.
kind of self explanatory why they made swords specifically to be half handed. normal swords will cut you in actual combat where movement is much more erratic and unpredictable.
i think they use it as a guide, but release the other hand when they thrust
Some more random YT videos about it.
First of all the different medieval manuscripts are full of half-swording…
And here is one examble of Grabbing a sharp blade.
If I see something in a fight manual, try it out, and it doesn’t work, I’m more inclined to believe that my interpretation/application is off, not that the illustrated technique is invalid.
Same thought here. Though, keeping a sound scepticism 'bout possibly “historical sources” might keep you from a sepsis, too.
…hahhah… Darn… this play of words doesn’t sound that nice in English… blargh.
Nevertheless, some stuff might actually work. As I can imagine, (e. g.) Thalhoffer did leave out certain information intentionally in his book. Even ‘Fechtmeisters’ have to have some income. Also there are things no picture can explain…
For the videos in the beginning… I don’t see a reason, why some of these machines shouldn’t have been used… Yeah, mabye that tank-thingy was just some Vinci-like imaginerium and never came to be built.
Just because it is called medieval, or the “Dark Ages” doesn’t imply certain lack of experimentalism. 
And to get back to the question that is asked in the beginnig… I don’t think much of the stuff in such “revealing” videos is to be intended to get in the game. I guess the Horses rather stick to what is supposed to be “sound and verified knowledge”. And at least I am okay with that…^^
I do think however that most situations in which you would halfsword you would have a sword with an acute taper and ridged fuller. Basically an estoc or other thrusting orientated sword which might be less prone to cutting up your own hands when attempting the technique.
