Thread "Just a question about "armor"..." in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 1:06AM, Jun. 20, 2011

A standard longsword for a knight weighs the same as a baseball bat. Ponderous knights wearing heavy armour and swinging heavy swords is a Hollywood invention.

Modern wall hanging swords do weigh much more than medieval swords, because:

(1) Modern craftsmen aren't as good, or worry less about weight and balance of the sword.
(2) Modern collectors expect a heavy sword. If their big Conan "compensation" sword only weighs as much as a baseball bat, they'll feel ripped off by the manufacturer.

Posted at 1:06AM, Jun. 20, 2011

That's mostly true- even the giant two handed swords carried by German landsknechts had pretty narrow blades.
The thing was a guy already covered in armour would get tired out pretty quickly if he had to swing around a great telephone pole of a sword.

Posted at 1:06AM, Jun. 20, 2011

The thing was a guy already covered in armour would get tired out pretty quickly if he had to swing around a great telephone pole of a sword.

What if he wore only the armor that Conan the Barbarian wore? I think he wore mostly leather/fur with iron armguards or something…

Posted at 2:06AM, Jun. 20, 2011

In the end of the first film he wears armour in the form of hard leather cuir bouilli with steel lamellar over the top.
I doubt his sword was supposed to be depicted as being supremely heavy anyway. The Conan sword really isn't that huge, it's an average length and pretty flat even though it's fairly wide.

Anyway, historically the sort of people who went to battle dressed like Conan primarily used spears and only carried shortswords. :)

German landsknecht mercenaries, famed for their bright outfits and massive swords didn't wear much armour.

Posted at 2:06AM, Jun. 20, 2011

Anyway, historically the sort of people who went to battle dressed like Conan primarily used spears and only carried shortswords. :)

German landsknecht mercenaries, famed for their bright outfits and massive swords didn't wear much armour.

But they all invariably carried what no comic book barbarian ever does; a shield. Shields were very important in barbarian warfare.

Landsknechts usually only armored their joints and wore helmets. Some wore half breast plates that only covered the belly. (Kind of like that plate armor bustier some fantasy babes wear) Most of their armor was acquired from all those knights left on the battlefield. So they only wore what could be easily modified to fit. Some Landsknechts wore the plate armor under the colorful clothes.

By the time that fully plate armored knights were around many weren't buying their own armor. They were men-at-arms and their armor was supplied by their employer in return for their services as soldiers.

If you're a noble, your "car" is that suit of armor and it'll cost just as much as that new status luxury car and does for that new up and coming executive. And everyone went into debt to get it. You equip an army? You borrow money like crazy, levy new and onerous taxes, shake down the local church for money, extort protection money and so on…

You have a title? You're probably in debt and go to war hoping to get enough loot to pay someone off or to get more credit!