I have three years of practicing canne de combat (French style fighting stick) on my conscience and I still find this thread interesting. Very good work, D.Foxy. :tops:

D.Foxy - A wonderful review of the bow things you have already shared with me, and a few new things. Thanks! :icecream:


Buffy the Bosmer bowgirl, on the other hand is not happy with you at all. :stare:
Her character concept just wouldn't quite work with "Bosco, the Redguard Bowboy." :blink:
Thank Akatosh for the rules and physics of Cyrodiil! :lmao:

This is fascinating! I hope I gave a good accounting of the sword fight, (but it is too late now to change it, it's been posted) - but I wondered if this was correct or okay:

If your opponent is much larger (taller) and weighs much more than you, is it okay if (instead of lunging in to parry, you leap back on the parry)? - I'm thinking about the reach of your opponent, and if he is of much greater height, the damage he could inflict if you lunge in on the parry. If it is incorrect, then I have missed the boat badly, but I was trying to picture in my mind how one would protect themselves in a fight with a much larger opponent, whose reach far outdistanced your own.

Dear Malxi, my reply to you is based on the following assumptions.

1. Both are using swords.

2. The swords are proportionate to the fencers: the taller one has a longer sword, and the shorter one has a shorter sword.

3. Neither are wearing plate armour.


Dear Malxi, in this situation you are TOTALLY wrong. A taller opponent with a longer sword inflicts LESS damage to you, when he strikes, if you are very close to him. He will inflict MORE damage to you if you back away!

Let me explain.

Remember I told you that in the slash and thrust, it is the tip of the sword that does the damage? Now imagine holding a sword in your hand and trying to slash, or thrust, at a child whose head is only the level of your chin, but who is standing so close to you that her face is touching your chest. See how difficult it is, at this close range? Here a sword is of little use: you need a dagger.

Now push that child away, and imagine using your sword...see now?

Jumping back will only increase the killing power of your taller opponent's sword, and don't think you can run away backwards faster than he can run forwards, with his longer legs!

No, when you parry, you move, as I said in earlier post, to the SIDE...not to the back...

But the best way to counter an attack by a taller and stronger opponent is to either parry and slip, or just slip. By slipping I mean ducking in UNDER his attack. Then attack him with either a thrust at his throat, heart, or slash to his legs.

Dont try to run away or jump backwards. Crouch and move in! So close that he can't hurt you with his longsword, but you can hurt him with your shorter sword...or if it were me, I would drop my sword and move in with two daggers.

See also my post on spear fighting against a taller and heavier armoured opponent.

Oh dear. I did get it wrong. I see exactly what you are saying now. The fight was an Arena match, so just the Arena Raiment. Well, I will remember this in future sword fights, and thank you so much for your help! Your thread is fascinating, and will help me a lot in making a more realistic fight! Thank you again!

Actually, MW does offer a couple of http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Bows_and_Arrows (with lower damage, of course). I'm not sure what this might translate to in a real-world context; something similar to the 'target bows' or 'hunting bows' you described, perhaps?

Ah yes, I forgot that Chitin bows are given.

Unfortunately, those bows are like - yes, Helena - target or hunting bows in the Real World.

Look at the ...say...wikipaedia on the Turkish Bow, and you will see that its very different from the Chitin bow.

So would those be suitable for a woman to use, then? And would it still be possible to use them to kill an opponent, presuming they were unarmed or only lightly armed? (I'm interested because I gave my own character a chitin short bow, being vaguely aware of the things you said about longbows.)

A woman using a Turkish/Mongolian style bow could easily kill a man, when armor comes into play it becomes a bit tricky, but for general knowledge the Turkish style bow could be used by a woman to kill a man or another woman for that matter.

I found this article very interesting and insightful, and alot of things i half knew i now know.

i am however wandering whether you know anything about Bo staff combat, altho i know it probably falls loosly under spear and polearm fighting, staves do not have blades or points and are used very differently.

i'm asking because i own a Bo staff and often attempt to "swing it about" fluidly which would probably be of little use in real combat. and would like to know how to use one effectively in combat as for a long time i have wanted to make a character based on me with a stave and write as realistically as possible how i would weild such a weapon.

Thanks very much and i shall continue reading with glee

I think that some bows in Oblivion are the curved composite type:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:OB-items-Bows.jpg

yes those are recurve type bow, but Mongolian bows where reflex bows.

One word: armour.

The Bo or quarterstaff is a cheap, easily acquired weapon which is actually quite good against unarmoured and unhelmeted opponents - but against any fairly competent warrior with armour, it is not deadly at all. However, as a stealth weapon it is excellent, since in medieval days every traveller had a walking stick, and so there were so many people carrying sticks that one could fade inconspicuosly into the background. This is why the bo/quarterstaff was a favoured weapon for spies disguised as monks in both Europe and China/Japan/Korea.

Helena, there's a quote from my first firearms instructor that I'd like to share with you:

"Even if you don't have a big gun, you can still kill by shooting straight".

Now regarding opponents - BTW I presume you meant 'unARMOURED or lightly ARMOURED' instead of 'lightly armed' - you can kill an opponent, if you are a good shot. But with weak bows, being a good shot means three things in addition to being an excellent archer.

( 1 ) You have excellent, high quality broadhead arrows

( 2 ) Your target is close.... and

( 3 ) Your target is unaware of your presence!

You will need broadhead arrows, and you can use them with weak bows since the target is 'soft' - that is to say, he is unarmoured. Since your target is close, you will be able to aim for vulnerable spots, and plunge your broadhead deep into them. Since your target is unaware, you will be able to shoot at an unmaneuvering target.

From the back, the best place - but not the easiest place - to aim for is the junction between the head and the neck. A good shot will get an instant kill or spinal cord snap, which is as good as an instant, one-arrow kill.

From the side and front - but I do not reccomend attempting a front shot at close range - the best shot would be, again, a neck shot from the side, and a heart shot from the front.

If you are not sure of your shot, but he is still unaware of your prescence, an excellent idea is to fire one shot through the thigh, and then when he is crippled finish him off with three or five more shots.

This is ninja-style shooting, and so you must remember that the first shot is crucial.

Do you have any vids of you in action with your weapons? Even just to demonstrate some of the moves as you describe them? I would love to see them if you do! Your descriptions are really inspiring!

@ Acadian - is this where Buffy got her training in melee techniques? I remember the first time I read one of hers, it sounded a lot like D.Foxy was describing the sword fight, switching weapons in battle, etc. Really exciting reading!!

God, yes - where has my brain gone today? Well, it's nice to know that at least one aspect of my fic isn't completely unrealistic.

A point regarding poisoned arrows.

My research on arrow poisoning shows that most practioners of the art of poisoned arrows applied the poison to the arrow just before the shot: in other words, they did not carry pre-poisoned arrows along for a long time.

So if you're writing about a ninja style assassin using poisoned arrows, be sure to equip him with a well-stoppered vial of poison, and give him time to smear the poison onto the arrow before the shot!

Of course, the easiest way to poison anything was to use an old corpse of an animal or even dip that arrow into feces or something similar.

The great plague of the Middle Ages, the one that killed a third of Europe's population in 1349, was started by Mongols besieging a town where they threw some animal corpses over the walls to poison the inhabitants. It quickly spread from that town across Asia and into Europe. Or so I've heard.

If i am not mistaken, the plague was spread by fleas carried by rats carried by ships coming from somewhere in the east.

Yes, that's the general consensus. I've heard it started in Crimea, brought there by a merchant ship through the Black Sea. I think Genoa controlled it at the time, and brought the plague into Europe. Or so I was taught.

Friend Peleus, you are partially correct ...

Battlefield poisoning, where rough and ready and mass produced poisons were necessary - no fancy, high quality stuff needed - was done through many techniques, including the ones you describe.

But - it is my own fault, I should have been more specific - specialist poisons, or hunter poisons, were carefully prepared from vegetable extracts, or from specially harvested animal parts, or from milking poisonous snakes for their venom.

I hope this clears the subject.

New post coming - and it's a doozy!

This was done in Vietnam during the war. The Vietcong used to take daggers and bury them in the ground sticking up, so the soldier would step on it, they were very hard to see. Before burying the dagger, the blade was stuck in feces, decaying animal guts, etc.

When the soldier stepped on it, he would not recieve a mortal wound, but be injured; however, the wound would become septic, and the taint would spread thru the bloodstream and give him a very painful, lingering death. Because of the small entry wound, the soldier would not recieve priority medical care, and by the time they realized the soldier was seriously ill, (not just griping) it was too late.

Not exactly.
D.Foxy is talking about the real deal.
Buffy uses Oblivion in-game rules (like 'zooming' in on her target or poisoning her bow instead of her arrow), because I want a true depiction of what she does in game as well as an element of game tips to her journal.
Where D.Foxy has helped me so much, is to incorporate realistic aspects that don't contradict game rules into descriptions of how Buffy does things.

I've said it before, but this wonderful resource thread is gonna need to be pinned to the top of this forum. :nod:

Good point Malxi - although they were not daggers, but fire sharpened bamboo stakes, poised with bacteria in the manner you described, and they were called 'punji' stakes. And they were not buried, but stuck upwards in pits, which were covered by leaves too look like solid ground.

Very few American soldiers actually died of poisoning (although quite a few French ones did) but death wasn't the goal of the VC - they wanted the soldier to be wounded so that two other soldiers would have to carry him to safety. A three for one deal.

And Acadian, as always, thanks!

A doozy of a post coming in the next hour! Teaser: it's a combat short story! Stay tuned to this thread!

:D

A note : while far from fun, thoses infections are bacterials, so modern antibiotics made them less lethal than they once have been.

In the Elder's Scrolls universe, Cure Disease spells or potions can similarly help mitigates their effects (if this kind of ressources are available and can be used in time).