Spear & Shield Combat: Distance Part 1

Matt Easton looks at the tricky topic of distance when it comes to spear and shield fighting. The spear and shield have been history's most successful weapon combination across thousands of years and around the world.

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[ArmouredProductions]

Since HEMA is predominantly Duel Based, everyone gets into the Duelist mindset when discussing weapons. Every point hit in this video is the battle / soldier mindset and certain things are dictated by the flow of combat, like switching from spear to sword. I think people forget that when discussing historical warfare, its not all 1v1. Soldiers aren't trained to be the ultimate killing machine fighters, but instead how to fight as a team. Be it lines of spearmen or a modern fireteam.

[mitch]

7:45 is this why pawns attack diagonally in Chess?

[bigredwolf]

Humans: haha pointy stick go poke

Other humans: “I don’t like being poked. I’m going to wear a tiny wooden wall.”

[amfrans]

Do you think this applies when fighting in ranks as well, basically stabbing people in the 2nd or 3rd rank in the face when shield to shield with the 1st rank?

[wimpow]

Hi Matt. The Tercios of Spain, when they were locked in a spear fight with the enemy, some soldiers would drop the spears, crawl between the feet and slice tendons and guts with a dagger. Yes, the job was quite dangerous. I have forgotten how the guys were called.

[Eupolemos]

6:36 - Ah yes, the classic "sword and spear" dualwield :-P
Loved the video and hope for more on spears soon.

[KnightlyNerd]

What seems to get overlooked a lot in these discussions is the point of balance of the spears themselves, that they may have been tapered like pool cues to allow one to grip further back and extend the reach. Later period knightly lances and pikes were tapered to balance the weight further back, and swords are the prime example of weight distribution in weapons. Spears often had counterweights on the rear end as well, like the heavy bronze sauroter of greek spears. If swords were carefully shaped to shift their point of balance, if arrows were barreld to influence their flight characteristics, why can't spears be shaped to shift their balance, extending the reach of a single handed spear by a wide margin.

[davidlink]

I used to play SCA, (yes I know not historical) but what we tended to do is have short range weapon and shield on the front line with the spears in the second and third rank. A spearman when not forced to defend himself is pretty much a killing machine. One trick they often used was have 2 or 3 spearman gang up on one shield bearer they could pin/poke/hook his shield to move it out of position and then stab him, or open him up for a killing shot from one of the front rank guys.

[Bob-squs]

SCA group battles have found that it's most effective to attack everyone in reach but the guy directly across you.

[jonahwatson]

Out of the corner of my eye, I lowkey read this as "Social Distancing" and saw you with a spear...made my day even though it's not actually what it said.

[eldandraken]

thank you for all your time and dedication Mr.Easton, i've learned a whole lot watching your wonderful videos!

[somnorila]

I think i remember a video regarding close shield to shield fighting where the conclusion was that was a rare occurrence as it would most probably involve a full dedication in that fight, a live or die kind situation. And those were rare as usual fights were rather an intimidation contest. With casualties of course, but in the grand scheme, most victories would happen when the enemies were routed and not all killed. So part of distance fighting, including the spear use, was to permit some room to retreat when needed. This has some sense if you think about who were the fighters, either poor people under a lord who didn't cared too much about their lord ego and interests to die for and also professionals, mercenaries who would rather live to fight again or whatever, a dead mercenary is a bad mercenary, let alone that you can't spend your pay if you're dead.

[Dominator]

I really appreciate you highlighting the thrusts of the spear which come from the sides of the shield, and not directly straight on. I have, in reenactment and in HEMA, had people question whether or not such strikes could be made validly against an opponent.
I certainly believe they could be, from my experience, and I was very happy to see them here as well.

[fabricio-agrippa-zarate]

This was very usefull. I'll start training striking not only my own adversaries, but my comerades' ones too.

Thanks mr Easton.

[lunarisaccipiter]

Spear&shield combination is something really interested me but not much people talks about. Looking forward to seeing more videos on this topic!

[israeltovar]

The Greek phalanx members carried short swords, if I remember correctly. The Romans added a dagger to the combo when they fought with spears as main weapons (during the Early Republic, and later on the Low Empire). The Byzantines equipped their spear and archer formations with swords. I haven't read about Swiss pikemen's side arms, but the Katzbalger is a well known sidearm used by the Landsknecht, as with daggers of various kinds. I am not sure if it was the rule, but I have seen depictions of Japanese ashigaru carrying a dagger(tantō) or short swords(wakisashi style) as a backup to their pike. It seems an obvious choice, but often overlooked when talking about combat formations. Great video!

[SolheimVikings]

I appreciate your dedication to the discussion of the spear.

[douglasphillips]

Second and possibly third ranks in a formation are something else to consider. In a tight combat, the soldiers behind could have used the long reach of the spear to advantage.

[crowhaveninc.]

Mind blown.
Such a simple detail to overlook. I guess we have been conditioned (mainly through modern media I suppose) to usually think about one-on-one encounters or, at most, small group encounters. Quite an eye-opening video :)

[seanpoore]

I would imagine formations of soldiers would fight eachother (ideally anyway) At spear distance. I doubt most spearmen would Want to go in "shield to shield"
But it must have happened in the chaos of battle, like how Renaissance landsknecht and swiss pike formations would occasionally devolved into a brutal scrum or "bad war"