Editing Bastard Knight (section)

=fighting=
*There is no distinction between dagger, sword and grappling; it was all one combined system. If your enemy got too close you grabbed his arm, twisted it into an arm-bar and spitted him with your sword. Kicking, scratching, etc, all were considered perfectly effective. If a knight dropped his opponent and the opponent 'turtled' (rolled into a ball and covered his elbow and groin joins) he would reverse his sword and use the quillions like a pick; holding the sword by the blade he'd simply punch a hole in the armour.

*Knights called the arming sword (MRQ2 'War Sword') the 'side arm', which is where the name for pistols came from. The arming sword was a ubiquitous weapon that form a combat system with the dagger. It could be used as a single handed sword for cutting and stabbing, it was difficult to get past due to its speed and shape, it could b used as a two handed sword on the grip or 'half-sword' it made a sharpened short spear;

[IMG]http://www.thearma.org/essays/Talhoffer/HT-Web_files/image012.jpg[/IMG]

*In combat the knight was usually horsed and concentrated on the lance and a short 'saddle weapon' such as a pick or a mace. In a cavalry scrum range was not as important, and you blocked the short weapons with your arms. After 1450 knights spent much of their time fighting on foot, using poll axes and other complex two handers. Armour had progressed to the point where shields were superfluous. They still used the sidearms in case their primary weapons was lost.

*Even after the eclipse of the knights, as armies became so large the small amount of knights were no longer a battle winner, they were deadly. At the Battle of Fornovo in the early 1500s a Venetian doctor examined the corpses of the dead men at arms and found that each had been killed by a lance thrust to the side of the helmet delivered at top speed over broken ground.