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Historical Discussion / Re: Were European knights even any good? (provide examples?)

« on: August 20, 2012, 11:40:50 pm »

Quote from: Garison on July 06, 2012, 05:43:03 pm

I like reading about history. I've got a few books on medieval arms and armor, and famous battles from history. They all say how the European Knight was an elite, heavily armed and armored killing machine. They made up the core of any respectable medieval army, even if they were few and a bit disorganized.

However, all of the famous battles I read about seem to show how the medieval knight was actually not that effective!

Agincourt: knights defeated by archers and terrain
Most Crusades: knights defeated by more mobile cavalry/ mobile armies
Battle of Legnano: foot soldiers with crossbows defeat an army relying on knights
The Battle of Crécy: "The new weapons and tactics employed marked an end to the
era of the feudal warfare of knights on horseback."

Take a look at that last quote. Was there ever an era where knights on horseback dominated?

Can someone please provide some battles or examples where "thanks to the superior training and use of knights, the battle was one" is an accurate statement?

Knight seem pretty awesome, and romantic, but I'm having a hard time seeing their usefulness based on examples form history! Maybe I'm missing something though.
Are the books biased? Or maybe the battles spoken of were exceptions, rather than the norm? Still it seems that the effectiveness of knights on the battlefield is either under-represented or non-existent.

Basically all your examples are from late Middle Ages when the knight's dominance began to fade. Except for the Crusades, but that is accounted to different climate and geography which made the heavy cavalry tactic less effective.

Composite bows do not work well in a wet climate like Europe: the glue comes apart and the weapon is useless. Thus, before the invention of crossbows, there weren't any very effective ranged weapons. Cavalry gave you a tremendous mobility advantage and absolutely destroyed infantry formations. It wasn't until heavy crossbows, English/Welsh longbows, and gunpowder came around that knights began to lose their luster.

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Historical Discussion / Re: If French didn't have armours in AZINCOURT.....

« on: August 20, 2012, 11:33:58 pm »

Quote from: Oberyn on July 25, 2012, 06:32:13 pm

Already responded to it in french forum, just gonna repeat myself here. Of course if they take some random guy off the street who isn't used to wearing armor he's not going to be at peak physical performance. A modern soldier's equipment is heavier than medieval armor, you give all the shit to someone who hasn't trained to move and run and travel with it of course the poor fuck will be out of breath and not in any shape to fight.

edit: Oh and I think at Azincourt there was no full "plate" armor as we imagine them, which came a little after. Afaik this period's heaviest armours were transitional types

I think they did have full plate at that time, but it was probably only the richest and most powerful nobles who had it. Otherwise I agree 100%

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Historical Discussion / Re: Profit in Christianity

« on: August 20, 2012, 08:47:19 am »

In the Old Testament, the law forbids the Israelites to exact usury from their fellow Israelites (i.e. make loans with interest).

The Medieval Church applied this to all Christians, making the occupation of a banker a pretty poor choice for a career. Oddly, the Jews (the ones the Law was actually given to) had no problem with it...lol.

And while usury was forbidden, some groups like the Knights Templar found loopholes. Instead of charging interest, they would charge "rent payments" people who deposited money with them. Pretty clever I guess.

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Spam / Re: NA ALLSTARS - the best players by US/CA states (now with votes!)

« on: August 16, 2012, 05:29:20 am »

This current poll on best TN player is intrinsically flawed, because I am not on the list :-o

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General Discussion / Re: Adjust the new scoresystem slightly - Feedback

« on: August 07, 2012, 12:38:08 am »

Can we get points for:

destroying ladders
capping flags in strategus
holding the flag in siege mode

etc. Basically other support activities.

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Scene Editing / Re: [Siege] Scene makers!

« on: July 15, 2012, 12:15:40 am »

We've needed multiple capture points since the Warband beta. Good to hear someone is finally doing this

My Helm's Deep map will definitely get an upgrade.

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General Discussion / Re: US Team for EU Tourney!

« on: June 05, 2012, 12:43:58 am »

Good luck--I fought in the first Nation's Cup for native Warband, and it was really frustrating trying to coordinate over a) different timezones, and b) different pings.

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