Any shielders shield with shield skill below 8 and either not very much hp like on Huscarl/Board or not very high armor like on Kngihtly heater/Elit Cav, will break fairly easily. With MW Axes or German Poleaxes sometimes in 2 hits if the shield is MW 3-4 hits.
Thats right, shields were build to break within a few strikes and if they don't it is called hax ask the journal of your ancestors.
You call shielders autoblock and blocknubs, while we are the dudes running after the 2h/poelarm packpeddal spammer, those who secure themselves in weapon reach and over all slow combat mechanics so they just block everything.
The suggestion to get kicks a bit more risky for all sounds fair to me. It has gotten fairly regular that kicks are being used, duels as on battles/siege against shielders, sure, but also on regular base against every other class.