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KNIGHT!

42 (49.4%)

SAMURAI!

7 (8.2%)

BOTH SUCK!

15 (17.6%)

NEUTRAL!

4 (4.7%)

I DON'T CARE!

17 (20%)

Total Members Voted: 81

[Il Palazzo]

Yeah, I heard that there was this British guy in WW2 who always used a longbow, and one time he killed a Tiger II (the entire crew and the engine block) with a single arrow.

I remember reading about that. It was in India, wasn't it?
For reference:

Spoiler: Tiger II (click to show/hide)

[redwallzyl]

you mean this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill

[Mlamlah]

Just read through the thread, was dissapointed but not surprised to see a bunch of garbage about sword comparisons. Swords are sidearms for both, not primary weapons.

[Il Palazzo]

The primary weapon of both a samurai and a knight is the battleship Potiomkin.

[Loud Whispers]

Just read through the thread, was dissapointed but not surprised to see a bunch of garbage about sword comparisons. Swords are sidearms for both, not primary weapons.

Nah m9, Knights used swords. Yuropeans fucking loved swords up until they discovered pikes, then discovered swords again. Depends on what you're defining as Knights I guess, whole diverse range of people who could claim to be Knights.

[Il Palazzo]

I see absolutely no reason not to drag this thread to the absurd pit of inanity where it belongs.

...


Yer mum is a knight.

[Flying Dice]

But how can we talk about Glorious Nippon Steel if we don't talk about swords?

Just read through the thread, was dissapointed but not surprised to see a bunch of garbage about sword comparisons. Swords are sidearms for both, not primary weapons.

You obviously didn't actually read the thread, then. I went back and counted, and there's maybe one or two posts per page at most that are strictly comparing West Sword vs. East Sword with no other context and no discussion of other weapons, grappling/unarmed combat, &c. 

[Hawkfrost]

Just read through the thread, was dissapointed but not surprised to see a bunch of garbage about sword comparisons. Swords are sidearms for both, not primary weapons.

Nah m9, Knights used swords. Yuropeans fucking loved swords up until they discovered pikes, then discovered swords again. Depends on what you're defining as Knights I guess, whole diverse range of people who could claim to be Knights.

Europeans never stopped using spears, all through ancient history. Even with vikings and Late Medieval soldiers, who more commonly carried swords, it was strictly a side arm for use after the battle lines descend into a melee and you don't have room to use your spear anymore (or if it breaks/you get disarmed).

Swords suck against any sort of metal armor, unless you are specifically and intensively trained in how to use armor-fighting techniques with one, and even then it would be more useful to have a short spear in most cases.

Reach tends to be the prime factor in weapon effectiveness; It doesn't matter how sharp and shiny your sword edge is if the enemy can stab you through the throat before you even get within ten paces of striking with it.

Knights used swords after they had finished their charge and broken/lost their lance, since a sword is less effective but easy to wear and able to be used more times, but the common weapon of both peasant man on the ground and knightly nobleman on the horse was a long piece of wood with a pointy end.

Swords became more popular and commonly widespread during the Renaissance, due to the growing popularity of dueling; You can't very easily lug a spear around while going about your everyday life just in case you get challenged to fight somebody, but a two pound sword on your belt doesn't interfere with your ability to do business.


TL;DR: Swords are sidearms on the battlefield or for civilian self defense/dueling.

[Fniff]

This thread just refuses to die, doesn't it.

[ChairmanPoo]

What if the knights rode chlorocodriles? BAM!

[Reelya]

Fun fact: A lot of the 'Bushido' code as we know it, including the famous provisions on suicide-before-dishonor, was made up by the Imperial Japanese government at the turn of the 19th century. So many of the 'ancient traditions' which modern culture ascribes to the samuri were not, in fact, a codified thing they practiced.

This is similar to the supposed "traditional" Japanese art of whale hunting. The whale industry kicked off in the grand old year of 1905, due to the capture of numerous Russian whaling boats after the Russo-Japanese War. These were farmed out to the business associates of prominent politicians, who started a roaring whale meat trade. Unfortunately, whale wasn't a popular or traditional food in Japan (except to about 1% of the coastal population), so it didn't sell at all.

So to help out, the government bought all the whale meat and force-fed it to boarding school children, inmates in prison and the army. Basically anyone who couldn't refuse the shit, and many Japanese students diaries of the time talk about how they hated the gorram whale meat the schools forced you to eat at every meal. Post-war, the government has continued to artificially prop-up the whaling companies. This is the real reason they now have "scientific" whale hunting. It's *not* a clever cover story about fulfilling this huge demand for whale meat in Japan - it's about propping up these long-standing business interests who produce something hardly anyone wants. Without government intervention the whale industry would collapse.