[MUD-Dev] Source data on Crossbow

[Matt Chatterley]

On Fri, 18 Jul 1997 clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

>    at 12:37 PM, Matt Chatterley <root at mpc.dyn.ml.org> said:
> >On Fri, 18 Jul 1997 clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:
> 
> >> Read up on the old Roman gladiators.  Look out for the guys with net
> >> and trident.  They were *quite* effective.
> 
> >The Roman gladiators were pretty darned effective in any case.. at
> >least the good (read: surviving) ones. 
> 
> Many were more famous in their time than Michael Jordan is in the US. 
> A couple even had stabs at becoming Roman consuls.  Several were
> national heros.

And rightly so - they earnt it!
 
> >Weapons which
> >immobilise the opponent temporarily are often overlooked in mud
> >combat (perhaps because it doesnt fit the romantic
> >one-on-one-with-swords-clashing notion?)
> 
> It might also be worth looking into the various sword and cloak
> fighting techniques.  There's a whole area devoted to swordplay with a
> cloak either wrapped about the off arm (a pseudo shield) or draped
> from the off arm (an entanglement weapon).

It's definitely worth throwing the more romantic notions out the window
and considering things from another perspective - for instance, in group
fights with unmounted troops against mounted knights, surrounding him, and
dismounting him however you can, to bash him to death on the ground.

The idea of a cloak as an entanglement weapon is certainly valid, and
quite a nice 'streetfighting' trick so to term it, amongst other things a
safer way to disarm an opponent with a sharp weapon such as a knife, or at
least to distract him from his weapon for the time it takes you to take
action.
 
> Then there's (unsuccessfully searching the cranium for the correct
> french term), the basic attack method of deiberately walking onto your
> opponent's rapier (*ONLY* do this with non-edged weapons) and while
> his weapon is immobilised in your body dispatching him at leisure. 

Ouch.

> The trick of course was to ensure that he ran you thru at some
> non-vital spot (just inside or outside of the kidneys was a popular
> area, legs were also popular as being more fleshy than arms).  It was
> a marvelously successful and popular technique in its time BTW for
> leveling the playing field between duellists of significantly
> different skill levels, and gained considerable notoriety and disdain
> on that account.  (An admission of inadequacy at swordplay, but a bold
> statement on physical fortitude)

Definitely, and it falls nicely into this category of 'slightly mucky
tricks and tactics'. Other things often overlooked.. hmm.. the use of the
pommel on a large (two-handed?) sword? Nothing really comes to mind right
now.
 
> >>   A band of Orcs runs at you screaming and waving their swords!
> >>   Bubba throws a small stone at them.
> >>   The stone turns into a small galleon with all sails set!
> >>   Crash!  The galleon smashes into the ground!
> >>   The Orcs are gone.
> 
> >LOL! I love that one. Makes my tales of paultry screaming stones,
> >lightning arrows and explosive blow-darts pale in comparison. :)
> 
> It made for rather cluttered battlefield.  Several ships, boats,
> castles, houses, horses, casks, etc scattered about willy-nilly.

Heh, Heh. This could spark an interesting thread in it's own right..
amusing, absurd, and devious 'magical' items used as weapons.

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's
	mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." -George Orwell