How many swordsmen need to fight a Spearman?

#kendo #剣道 #Spear

[weaponism]

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[callumbiasnow]

Anyone who has played the classic “Dynasty Warriors” games will already know it takes approximately 500 swordsmen to defeat one spear.

[richardschafer]

Interesting exercise. The spear is called the King of Weapons for a reason. Still, the relative skill of the combatants, fatigue and sheer numbers will always play key variables.

[ShadowOfCicero]

A Japanese nobleman once hosted a match between Musashi and a spear master. The spear master attacked three times, and Musashi deflected three times. They then stopped. When the nobleman asked why they stopped, the spear master replied, "If my spear can't get past his sword in three attempts, he's the better fighter."

[snowwhite]

This would be better if you had an old man sitting on a throne, stroking his beard in the background.

[bariumselenided]

Dark Souls and other games really don’t do justice to spears, I think. I’ve always thought of spears as just really weak weapons, only good for poking at people from behind a shield. But this dude gets in the mix, I’m really impressed. I also wish I could these sorts of things, they look so fun

[KVCunknown]

What I learned from this is that all the video games where a group of enemies attack you one at a time is actually totally realistic.

[tarettime]

There's a reason why throughout history the spear was the standard weapon for the foot soldier. Especially the lesser trained ones. It takes multiple skilled swordsmen to kill one semi trained person with a spear

[joshsanders]

I read once a story about a famous spear master that was accused of having an affair with one of the wifes of a great empire's minister and found guilty by the emperor. The sentence for such a crime was prison for life. The emperor, knowing the reputation of the accused as the best master of the spear in the entire empire, decided to give him a chance: If he managed to defeat a platoon of 50 swordsmen soldiers alone in an arena, his crime would be forgiven. The spear master accepted the challenge. And in front of the audience of the arena, the fight left everyone perplexed, because even surrounded by the swordsmen, the master was doing very well and had already killed 20 of the 50 soldiers! But he was momentarily distracted and took hit in the belly. Even though he was bleeding, he kept fighting and still managed to kill 15 more soldiers before collapsing and being killed by the rest. The emperor couldn't understand why he made such an amateurish mistake when he was dominating the fight. Then the emperor looked at the direction the master was looking when he got distracted and saw the reason. The minister had slit his wife's throat, the same woman the spear master was having an affair with. That was the reason for the distraction. The emperor was extremely strict, but he was also fair. He then ordered his soldiers to take the minister and throw him into the arena, giving him the order to take the late master's spear and finish the fight in his place, as punishment for interfering in his punishment. The minister, crying and begging for forgiveness, took the spear and, despite being a competent swordsman, he was unable to handle the spear, which was customized and heavier than normal spears, and was quickly killed by one of the remaining soldiers.

[joejoelesh]

Love the blood effect. Often when watching sparing video it is hard to see when and if a hit occurred. You have to rely on the combatants obviously calling their hits. Even if they are calling them making it clear to the opponent it is often unclear to outside viewer

[KARATEbyJesse]

I had no idea spearmanship required such cardio!! 🤣🏃🏻‍♂️💨

[granatmof]

Reminds me of when I used to LARP. A single spear or other pole arm is quite powerful.

People mock the "attack all at once" oversight in action sequences, but when the group doesn't have experience working together against one target and the target has experience about controlling the flow dynamics if the group, the single person can manipulate positioning in the battlefield to minimize simultaneous attacks, especially through flanking and charging lone people in such a way that causes the group to get in each other's way.

[mymartianhome]

It reminds me of my kendo days. We used to fight one against two or three to learn tactics and awareness. The singleton needs to use mobility so that they only face one opponent at a time. The group need to be able to launch simultaneous assaults from different directions.

[ryanhampson]

Spears have been used longer than swords. They obviously give greater reach to a soldier but also they are cheaper to produce…It takes a lot of metal to make one sword, but the only metal on a spear is the spear head so you could make a few spearheads for the same amount of metal as one sword, and wood is usually always plentiful.

[MavrikUSMC]

"2 swordsman and a sith lord vs a spearman" Would be a more accurate title. 🤣

[qudavid]

His movement and control with that spear is just beautiful to watch.
Love this

[joa]

Each year, there's a demo match of naginata vs kendo that's fun to watch.

The katana was never really used like this for a reason. Initially, it was a side arm for archers (archers vs. spearman would be a fun video LOL). Longer swords were used mainly by and to take down mounted cavalry. It became the main sword in the Edo period because of the limitation on sword lengths, by which time guns were already an established part of Japanese warfare. In other words, this was the length that the government figured was too short to be useful.

[ericjohnson]

I've geeked out and studied the geometry of 2vs1 and 3vs1 engagements. The idea in any case when you have the numerical advantage is to try to attack from widely different angles of approach. This puts the most stress on the defender's ability to ward off attacks. The objective is to try to create an angle of approach from the two attackers that is such that the defender can't really see and address both/all the angles at the same time. Eventually the hope is one of them can close in from a flank or from behind and strike a serious blow.

The interesting thing is that if you consider everyone's mobility to be roughly equal, in a 2vs1 scenario, the two attackers can never really force the engagement from two widely different angles because the defender can retreat when the attackers are close, circle out to counter their efforts to come around on a flank, and if they both move to opposite flanks, he can quickly cross the line between them (given that there's enough distance between them and he moves quickly) and he can escape to make them have to form up and try again to engage him.

It really takes a third attacker and a 3vs1 situation for the attackers to be able neutralize the defender's evasive maneuvering. The interesting thing in the video clip shown here is that with the three attackers, they don't really utilize their advantage at all by encircling the defender. They instead seem to stay grouped fairly close together in a line, which puts the least stress on the defender's ability to defend himself, because everything remains for the most part in front of him, within his peripheral vision.

If you were to instead combine the efforts of two attackers to create two different angles of attack with a third attacker that is positioned behind the defender, blocking an uncontested avenue of retreat and limiting evasive movements in general, I think the spearman would be overwhelmed by the three separate angles of approach. The spear can be pretty effective transitioning from a forward facing exchange to a rearward facing exchange because either end of the weapon can strike a serious blow. Where the attackers can leverage an advantage is that they are able to threaten from three angles, meaning whichever two approaches the spearman has covered with the two tips of his spear, the third should be able to probe the spearman's defensive guard and force him to pivot, change guards, parry, anything that can open a new angle of attack for one of the other attackers.

Anyways, I think this type of drill is great for developing skills, both for the attacking side that has the numbers advantage and for the defender. You have to move tactically and intelligently, but each of those movements can be isolated, identified, and practiced. Plus, the coordination of two or more attackers working together is a great drill for developing tactical awareness.

[ThatSomGuy]

"Spears are the weapon for war. Swords are weapons to take a prisoner." -Miyamoto Musashi

[rfv]

Wow, this dude is bad ass! Exceptional skill with the spear. And tactics on point versus multiple opponents.