Advantage of Range -- myArmoury.com

Ken Speed · Posted: Tue 25 Mar, 2008 2:26 pm Post subject:

I was roaming around Youtube last night and came upon some videos of a guy with a long handled axe sparring with opponents with shields and swords. I'd guess that the axe handle was about 6'0" long and the axe head was not especially big. They were all in Viking costume. The axe man seemed to have very little difficulty handling various swordsmen.

Ken Speed

Bill Tsafa · Posted: Tue 25 Mar, 2008 11:16 pm Post subject:

Bennison N · Posted: Wed 26 Mar, 2008 10:20 pm Post subject:

Ken Speed · Posted: Thu 27 Mar, 2008 10:32 am Post subject:

Guys,

Here is the video of the guy with the long axe.

Ken Speed

Bill Tsafa · Posted: Thu 27 Mar, 2008 10:41 am Post subject:

Link not working.

Ken Speed · Posted: Thu 27 Mar, 2008 12:30 pm Post subject:

Vassilis,

You're right, it isn't and I don't know why. As I said its on Youtube and its called Amana longaxe. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I'll get my son to show me what I did wrong next time he's over.

Ken

Vincent Le Chevalier · Posted: Thu 27 Mar, 2008 1:23 pm Post subject:

Bill Tsafa · Posted: Thu 27 Mar, 2008 3:33 pm Post subject:

Ken Speed · Posted: Thu 27 Mar, 2008 3:37 pm Post subject:

Hi Vincent,

Yes, thank you for the help.

I'll have to get another computer 101 lesson from my son.

Well, if someone was swinging that axe at me, even for fun, I'd be making very sure that it hit the shield and not me! Did you notice, by the way, the tattered condition of the shield? That's a plywood shield and it got that chewed up just from playing around like they are in the video, imagine what would happen if it took a couple of serious shots! Your point is well taken, the swordsman waited to catch the axe blows on his shield, the axeman didn't put full force into his strikes, they were playing, having fun, playing to the crowd. Obviously we aren't going to see people actually trying to kill each other I fervently hope! The question is: can we learn something from watching these videos? Myself, I think we can. The axeman seems to do some things pretty well. He controls the distance between them and keeps the swordsman mostly on the defensive. He uses space well, he's constantly moving, turning, backing up, attacking. He's not standing there waiting for the swordsman to attack him. I like the way he uses the axes length to reach behind his foe and hook him in the back. There are One of the important differences to my eye is that these guys are wearing mail not a suit of armor and I think that makes the swordsman more vulnerable to strikes from the axe. In one of the other videos he hooks his opponents foot with the axe, tripping him and then just hacks him into imaginary dogmeat.

The axeman doesn't always win either, there is at least one video where he gets taken out pretty quickly.

Besides all that, it looked like a lot of fun!

Ken Speed

Ken Speed · Posted: Thu 27 Mar, 2008 6:00 pm Post subject:

Hi Vassilis,

Our notes were only minutes apart. There are a couple other videos of the long axe guy. He does really well in one and really badly in the other. All in all I think its pretty impressive the way he uses that axe. I think having that hooking capacity makes a big difference and I also think that someone using a longer weapon like that axe or a halberd really needs a lot of space if they're fighting one on one, it might be different in a formation of some kind. I think mail as opposed to plate makes a big difference as well, the axeman's opponents are much more vulnerable to his strikes and hooks.

Ken