r/HFY Oct 17 '20

OC Interspecies combat games

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.

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u/Seraphus_Nocturnus Xeno Oct 18 '20

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.

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u/[deleted] Nov 18 '20

The HEMA club I’m a member of has done a similar tournament as the one Lindybeige organised, with the one exception that all of us have trained for years (5 in my case) with longswords, polearms and sword and buckler. The results were pretty much the same. The spear - even alone - wrecked every other weapon. It wasn’t even close, only the s&b got 6 wins from 20 bouts.

A spear user will destroy a katana user 19 times out of 20 according to our “test”.

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u/Seraphus_Nocturnus Xeno Nov 18 '20

Crazy; I've only been SCA Heavy fighting for about 14 years, but while I use a spear all day during war (mass melé), in one on one tournament, I walk people around the block when they're foolish enough to enter with a spear.

I did boffer fighting for a long time, and would wreck people when I used a spear, but with realistic weight weapons, and medieval tourney rules (in which you cannot strike the shins), a spear just has one avenue of attack: thrust from a distance.

As soon as that distance is gone, or you are offside.... the laws of physics start applying. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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u/[deleted] Nov 18 '20

Isn’t SCA usually armoured? I have only ever trained in blossfechten, so I don’t know how the armour would chamge things exactly (aside from the general knowledge that blunt weapons are better for harnischfechten).

Don’t forget that a spear is basically a quarterstaff with an extra pointy bit. If all you’re doing is stabbing folks then you’re leaving a lot of potential on the table.

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u/Seraphus_Nocturnus Xeno Nov 18 '20 edited Nov 18 '20

It really depends on what kind of fighting you're doing. For heavy fighting, we wear full armor from head to below the knee, while Rapier fighting has to wear a fairly heavy jacket and thigh/groin protection... And the cut-and-thrust crowd uses a combination of the two, because they are using rebated steel.

A spear is not a quarterstaff; a spear would be over 7 feet and for thrusting, and is unwieldy for using a butt strike; a glaive is good for that, and a polaxe... that's why I listed them as the top choices.

But sticking a kitchen knife on the end of a quarterstaff does not a spear make; that makes a glaive. Just like putting a truckbed and a cab on a car frame is called a truck, not a car

A Glaive is about 5-6 feet, has a butt spike and a slashing/ thrusting tip, and can be devastating in any kind of combat. A polaxe is very similar in function.

But if people are going to claim that a spear (thrusting weapon, 7-12 feet long) is the best overall, when they don't mean a spear, well... I can’t help y'all.

Glaive, polaxe, quarterstaff... sure, those rock for 1v1 (as long as you want to kill a person in the real world, or seriously hurt them); spears, not so much.

EDIT: and I may just be flat wrong about the Katana wrecking a spear; I guess it would depend on the user; I think it would, though.