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No. This is a sport. No stabbing. You âwinâ by knocking the enemy down, even for a second, even if you knock yourself down in the process, then youâre both considered out.
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While its brutal and they really put a lot of effort in this sport, I don´t really think that this is how they really fighted - difference is simple - they don´t try to kill each other, just incapacitate/exhaust/knockout each other.
I love this sport tho, so fun to watch 
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"Is this how medieval combat really looked"
NO 
or at least from what we can say today⌠In video below are few nice examples of dagger fighting reconstructed from Codex Wallerstein manuscript. That was written by unknown author, possibly thief or roving knight. We can tell that from way how it was written, because itâs content and style of pictures is quiet different from manuscripts aimed for duel fights.
I tried to find some videos of group fights with one-and-halves, which is very interesting, but I was unable to successâŚ
Letâs say that in this example of melee fight are two groups of swordsmen, 3 lines that are wide of 5 men, so together 15 men on each side. That makes little battle of 30 people (that is actually a lot!). Both standing against each other. Lines become closing and on contact they start fencing. Letâs say our side is blue, while opposite is red. Our middle Blue guy of first line tries to do some of techniques described in Codex Wallerstein and succeeds in pushing his opponent to the ground. When our middle Blue guy is pushing down middle red, middle guys from both sides are already prepared to fight. Letâs say blue guy in second line is faster and he moves forward to cover first line guy while he finishes off his red opponent. Second line guys are fencing, blue guy is winning again. Third line guy as again pushing over, while originally first line guy cuts originally red first line guyâs throat and aligning himself behind originally third line guy to be prepared to fight again in case something goes wrong.
Itâs kinda complex to describe without video or live show, so I really hope you didnât get lost already
Of course what I described here is very simple and narrow case, where all swordsmen are using same weapons, blue guys are always winning and and they all are well trained and disciplined to actually do their job well.
Below is one show of how some techniques in duels looks like. Bigger guy is Martin Fabian that was actually second in last yearâs Czechoslovak HEMA league, so I guess that tells the storyâŚ
Btw âIndesâ part looks like theatre, because it is very hard to reproduce in faster paced training as it is considered as one of âmasterâ timings, or âmasterâ techniques.
Feeling âFuhlenâ is actually very nicely done, as it is about âfeelingâ the opponentâs blade on your blade. Again, technique you can handle after long years of practicing.
Wait for âsword lockingâ at 3:39. There begins very nice show of techniques described in Wallerstein and itâs escalation. I can say these techniques are one of my most favorites!
So I hope this can bring medieval fight little bit closer to you. Iâm not however much skilled and Iâm certainly not good at explaining this stuff, so I hope this post wonât make someone confused
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No it is not.
That is a modern sport that donât allow many of the Technics you would use to defeat a man wearing plate armour.
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I have to admit the red and blue bit got me a little confused but your answer was great thanks
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Glad to help, Iâm sure you can find some nice videos on net, describing some HEMA techniques with various weapons. If you would like to see how it looks like when Pros are fighting, you can google Swordfish tournament or nice training showcase can be seen on Anton Kohutovicâs channel on youtube, also Digladior started some video tutorials on some techniques, but with Czech commentary.
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If you want to look at something which was from the period of the game (early 15th Century), then you might consider Fioreâs Fior di Battaglia, written in 1410 by an Italian master-at-arms. I would say that Guy Windsor is one of the leading (if not the leading) expert on the system. Hereâs a link to Guy Windsorâs YouTube playlist for the Longsword: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL73_Z3cuuPz_T8-GMmltbF8SQusoop3BI
Another good source is Talhoffer, a Swabian (German) fencing master, who first works are dated circa 1443. Numerous HEMA groups train in his system, though because so many groups are doing it, there are many different interpretations of Talhoffer.
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Yes somewhat, medieval combat was that brutal there were martial arts (wrestling) and other techniques seen in the video. Once a man was on the ground you would take your dagger out lift his visor and stab him in the eye or get your friend to hold him while you did that. There were other ways to kill but that was one of the quicker.
Far as I know, fencing was for the court and duels, not a battlefield.
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Well one of the problems is that they donât use the correct weapons, if you where fighting an armored opponent you would not use a sword, or at least not if you had other weapons to choose from. A hammer or a mace would be by far more suitable for killing armored opponent (obviously thatâs not what they are trying to do). the second problem I see is that they donât use any kind of formation at all.
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Actually a sword is quite effective⌠but the rules of their game prevent using it in any of the effective modes.
(Half-sworded, thrusting for joints or gaps, and using the hilt as the direct functional equivalent to a warhammer - weights and shapes are very similar when reversed)
Just whacking with a sword blade is thoroughly ineffective though.
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Yes of course there are techniques which make swords more effective against armor but Iâd still rather choose a poleaxe as a main weapon if I would knew Iâd have to fight a guy in armor.
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Exactly, Iâd choose a poleaxe as well.
And by the way they do use hammers/poleaxes etc in the video and they are the weapons that usually make the guy(s) keel over.
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Yeah, I am eagerly awaiting the introduction of the polearms in this game. Swords are all well and good, I am envision using them when I am âquestingâ but during any big battle its got to be polearms.
If I ended up playing a âknightlyâ character Iâd be using the poleaxe. However, as Henry is a blacksmith, I am leaning towards playing a character which is an artisan-turned-soldier, so I am thinking in battles I would like to be using shield and spear, or some polearm like a Billhook, Glaive or Ronca.
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Indeed, most polearms (and the new 1h mace/axe weapon) pictured in the beta so far look more like bill hooks than specialized poleaxe (âhache nobleâ in French). I wonder how long it will take in game before you end up dressed as a knight un full plate. I mean, you could assassinated one in the first 5 minutes and play the whole game game dressed as the black prince.
Iâd also like some incentive to dress appropriately, with civil cloths, once in a while. Npcâs wearing full armor for the whole game, even when eating their dinner or playing cards in the tavern, breaks immersion to me.
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This is hilarious to watch though. âHold still as I bludgeon you in the face 10 or 15 times.â
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Videos are made to work as kind of a âshowcaseâ of techniques. Its supposed to give viewer idea how different techniques looked like or they are supposed to look like in nowadays understanding. Real combat is much faster, so random viewer wouldnt know what actually happened.
But yeah, this is how i sometimes feel on training
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