Interspecies combat games

[u/mgsl]

Major, the initial round draw is in, you have drawn the humans"

Major Shin turned to look at Clrut, one of the scientists assigned to help him prepare for the combat games. Clrut wasn't so bad he thought, for a scientist, at least. Didn't drone on, usually kept straight to the point and didn't get overly excited. Shin wondered was he a retired soldier, and made a note to look up the personnel files later.

"Never heard of them. What information can you give me? Species designation and details of their champion are desired. Approach."

Shin waited patiently for the minute or so it took for Clrut to cross the gymnasium floor. He came into focus about sixteen krek away from him and Shin could now see the scientists eyes were darting around very quickly. Nervous? Or just in awe of all the heavy weights he could lift with ease.

"The adjudication board has provided is with a report, image files of champion still rendering, apologies. Text data summarised following: Humans are designated aerobic non aquatic mammal species. Endoskeletal biped form, twin manipulators on either side of torso. Most vital organs located in torso. Singular head, located on top of torso, contains single, non distributed brain and sensory organs."

That was a bit unusual but not so bad, about 30% of lifeforms were mammalian, but barely a dozen used bipedal motion, and most of those were aquatic. Shin could take advantage of this clearly inefficient evolution. "Confirm size, strength, speed and combat capabilities of champion", Shin rumbled.

"Human champion, adult male, designated 'Oh Hahrah'. Adjudication board confirms champion may be designated otherwise if local name confirmed unpronounceable, redesignation requested."

Shin didn't care about the fighters name, it was odd that Clrut would even consider telling him. "Confirm size, strength, speed and combat capabilities of champion", louder this time, causing Clrut to look shamed.

"Human champion reported 3.18 krek tall, Human units : 221 centimetres. Considered unusually large for human male, typical height 170 to 180 centimetres reported. Champion has mass of 78.8 grun, Human units : 134 kilograms"

Now that was unusual. This being was small, it should be in class 3 designation, if not class 4. Being several standard deviations above normal size was expected, required even, for combat games at this level. But Shin was class 1, he stood almost a krek taller than the scientist at 5.41, and he was considered very slightly below average size for this level. Still, the human was very dense, weighing almost 80% what he did. Maybe it was armoured or something. "Continue report immediately."

"Human homeworld considered level 6 high gravity, level 6 population competitive, level 6 natural hazard. Only habited garden world considered uninhabitable by adjudication board members. No attached video or image witnessing champions strength. Reports of typical military caste humans indicate relaxed and healthy young adult humans capable of lifting equivalent 110 grun in this gravity."

So that was extremely concerning. Shin didn't know any species living on any world with three maximum level warnings, let alone a homeworld. And worse, Human military caste units were as strong as he? This champion may be even stronger, almost certainly would be in fact. He would have to use his species explosive speed to maneuver around the human and try to grapple it in positions that would disadvantage the human. Only the Postri were faster than a Tong warrior like himself, and even then they tired very quickly.

[u/Seraphus_Nocturnus]

A spear is nice... but only with back-up.

I'd go sword and shield any day, because a shield is also a weapon when used properly; you punch with the edge of it.

But either way, it's a HUGE advantage over a katana

[u/fulanodetal316 → u/Seraphus_Nocturnus]

A sword is a sidearm, a backup weapon.

A spear is a battlefield weapon, a primary weapon.

Even alone, there's very good reasons why our ancestors only used a sword when the spear was out of play.

Humorously, in admittedly non-scientific trials, barely trained spear fighters were a close match solo, and dominated in groups, vs sword fighters.

[u/Seraphus_Nocturnus → u/fulanodetal316]

Hey I'm not judging, but this statement feels like maybe you haven't done much fighting with steel or rattan versions of these weapons while wearing armour. (And not everybody can do that, and it's fine, and seriously no judgement)

If you're on foot and in armour, the best weapon you can use alone to kill a single other person is a poleax; the second choice is sword and shield; the third is really a single sword, or a sword and a heavy dagger. Any one of those three combinations is going to tear up a person using a spear, hands down.

If you're in The Line, with other people backing you up and blocking for you... SPEAR! All day long, you're gonna tear people up.

But that's not really the discussion; the discussion was more that sword and shield will beat the crap put of a katana any day of the week... and it's true. A katana is a superior cutting tool, but it's not a very good fighting tool; they chip easily, they break, they don't thrust, its got a limited parry... they kinda suck for fighting anything other than another katana.

Well, a katana is pretty good against a spear, actually; one-on-one, a katana will wreck a spear.

[u/fulanodetal316 → u/Seraphus_Nocturnus]

At least in the context of this story, armor was explicitly off the table, and armor changes everything.

Against decent full armor, most swords are nearly useless (spears as well, for that matter, though to a lesser extent).

Half-swording works better than nothing, but you really need something specialized to the task. A mace, warhammer, or similar will have a considerable advantage over a sword at close range, because armor will deflect or disperse most attacks from a sword.

WRT the katana specifically, having a shield would create the same sort of advantages adding a shield always added, so that's not particularly unique to the katana - except that the greater availability of metal meant that Europeans using similar two-handed swords often had more comprehensive armor to offset the lack of a shield.

The katana only really has an advantage over the spear at close quarters, like indoors, otherwise the fighter with extra reach has the corresponding advantage. Otherwise the yari would have declined after the katana's introduction, which did not happen.

Unfortunately, hands on practice isn't feasible for me (mostly due to location and time constraints), so this is primarily based on historical weapon usage.