The use of Two Handed Swords in Formations #sword #hema #zweihander

[jacksongodwin]

Big fan of how this guy explains WHILE demonstrating, and you only hear a little effort in his voice during all that sword movement

[GardensAndGames]

I always figured it would be all half-swording, using it like a spear until one or the other formation broke.

[Nosferatuラララララ]

I did not expect a man in brightly colored and quite jovial attire, wielding a sword nearly as tall as me and swinging it faster than I can follow to be striking terror unto me today..

Yet here I am.

[tomcharles]

I love how he used his side yard to simulate tight quarter formation combat

[sniperwolf]

Honey, why do we have a Swiss mercenary in our backyard?

[teancrumpets]

this guy got given his armour allowance by his commander and blew it all on drip

[emperorkraglint]

One theory I've had about the use of greatswords in formations is that you sort of were there to fill in gaps or basically create spacing so the enemy didn't rush an opening. With a Pike, you can only really threaten one or two enemies at the same time, but a skilled swordsman with a greatsword could threaten upwards to four or even six. So you could swing a bit more wildly when your fellow pikemen are rallying and getting ready to close the gap to pull you back behind them.

[porkupineexe]

So in almost every historical case we can find: Two handed swords (spadoni, Zweihänder, whatever) are almost always used by bodyguards. Very rarely if ever would you use a “unit” armed with two handed weapons in a formation and when you did use them in formation they would be used *alongside* pike formations

“Their rows are very well tight from side to side, but really large from breast to shoulders; so much that from one row to the other there is more space than a pike, and in that space, all along the shoulders of the first row, they put halberds, and spadoni, eight or ten common steps, more or less, between each other, and so in the second and third row too (if so many short weapons are found among them) to damage, and shake those men on horse, or on foot, who might break the first row of their big square, so that they cannot pass to the second row without being disordered, and so do then the other rows successively one after the other, up to one particular moment when they cannot stop them further and so they all charge together to try a last chance in a catfight; and this is what I have seen in fact exactly in many battles, where I found myself, (and never otherwise) of Swiss and Germans."
-Brancaccio

[vhirtue]

I wanna grow up to be half as cool as this dude swinging swords around in his backyard while looking like he was just at a renaissance fair

[Azihayya]

The Internet deserves to know more about how zweilhanders were used by dopplesoldners against pole formations.

[fdr]

the way a zweihander was used is very simple, it was used amongst pike men to break up the opposing pike formation the ricaso was used to move the spear out the way the flamberge style blade was also used to help prevent pikes from sliding, once achieved the landsknecht soldiers would then charge through and chop the pikemen up, an extremely risky proposition hence the double pay, the zweihander outside of this context was not used, it is not built to be used in anyway other than vs pikemen, furthermore it is not even a sword, a zweihander is essentially a hybrid sword polearm and also stop calling these two handed swords since they are not swords, call it a zweihander

[The_Custos]

"He's in the garden again. Yes, with the floppy hat."

[jasonuerkvitz]

I suppose the mortality rate of the Landsknecht was quite high, but the murder rate of the Landsknecht even higher. Trying to hack through a forest of sharp, pointy pikes is a terrifying notion, but we know they did do this. These guys were a special sort of warrior, one part psychotic, one part brave, quite a bit of luck, and the rest a healthy dose of skill.

[thisboysilly]

man if only the elden ring zweihander had this moveset.
A boy can dream

[balintkovacs]

From what I've seen on depictions and how reenactors/hema practicioners use zweihanders in formation, often times they are placed on the flanks where they can step diagonally forward and to the side of the opposing pike line, once the initial entanglement of the pikes started of course. Then once there, a good oberhau strike has good chance of pushing the enemy pikes towards the ground giving their allies an opening to thrust in. Or they can just simply exploit that the pikes are entangled and outflank the enemy formation cutting down the pikemen from the sides in order to force them into breaking ranks.

[williamlatour]

Love your videos man! Props to your skills as well you must be a formidable warrior.

[dootmarine]

I've always interpreted greatswords in formations to be the ones to exploit the gaps in enemy lines. When a pikeman on the other side drops out, the greatswordsman steps forward, uses the blade to keep himself safe from other pikes and rushes in to start cutting up the enemy's frontline.

[juanpardo]

Landsknecht Robin is my favorite Robin 🥺

[themilkguy]

can you tell me where you got this zweihander? ive always wanted one and when i saw yours i fell in love with it.

[stephen.]

Another great video! Have you ever thought of doing a video (or short) of zweihander vs polearm sparring? I think it'd be interesting to see.

EDIT: I've seen some people depict landsknecht as only wearing one gauntlet - is this particularly advantageous? Would there be disadvantages to only wearing one gauntlet?

EDIT 2: Were sidearms ever carried alongside zweihanders? Would they get in the way of the blade? Are there any weapons that COULD be carried as a sidearm? So many questions!