SeveredSoul
01-21-2003, 21:51
I caught "Conquest" on the History Channel here in the America the other day...of course if you live in Europe you probably don't have the History Channel because, well, you guys live where the history comes from http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
Anyway, in the show, they were showing their "battle group" (4 men and 2 women) how to fight with axes. They were taught to fight with at first small hand axes, single and double bladed, and then they brought out the housecarls and gave a bit of background on the weapon. At first the battle group didn't much like the axes because they were too unwieldeldy. They wanted a sword or a spear, something that could be controled a bit more. The host of the show then showed that the axe was a psychological(sp?) weapon. They also demonstrated how an axe was an offensive weapon only, simply because you almost needed two hands on the axe to make the axe an effective weapon.
They also did a thing on Viking Berzerkers that really got my attention giving the expantion pack is coming. Apparently there were whole famlies of them in the Viking armies. One man would step from the ranks of the Vikings armed with only a knife, his Battle-axe and a whole lot of attitude. Bleeding from self-inflicted wounds, snarling, yelling, foaming at the mouth, removing his clothing down to his furs and no helm. He would then grab his Battle-axe and charge the line of spearmen with their interlocking shields. Because the troops were, one, intimidated by the display of crazyness by this madman. And two, they had to be thinking "My God, this is one bloke fighting a hundred of us?" And since the man was swinging his Battle-axe like a whirlwind the men could not get in a jab even with their spears. So the formation would break just by sending in a Viking Berzerker, also I am sure that just by seing this one man go out BY HIMSELF and attack the enemy that it encouraged the Viking ranks and just made them that more impestious (sp)
Anyway, in the show, they were showing their "battle group" (4 men and 2 women) how to fight with axes. They were taught to fight with at first small hand axes, single and double bladed, and then they brought out the housecarls and gave a bit of background on the weapon. At first the battle group didn't much like the axes because they were too unwieldeldy. They wanted a sword or a spear, something that could be controled a bit more. The host of the show then showed that the axe was a psychological(sp?) weapon. They also demonstrated how an axe was an offensive weapon only, simply because you almost needed two hands on the axe to make the axe an effective weapon.
They also did a thing on Viking Berzerkers that really got my attention giving the expantion pack is coming. Apparently there were whole famlies of them in the Viking armies. One man would step from the ranks of the Vikings armed with only a knife, his Battle-axe and a whole lot of attitude. Bleeding from self-inflicted wounds, snarling, yelling, foaming at the mouth, removing his clothing down to his furs and no helm. He would then grab his Battle-axe and charge the line of spearmen with their interlocking shields. Because the troops were, one, intimidated by the display of crazyness by this madman. And two, they had to be thinking "My God, this is one bloke fighting a hundred of us?" And since the man was swinging his Battle-axe like a whirlwind the men could not get in a jab even with their spears. So the formation would break just by sending in a Viking Berzerker, also I am sure that just by seing this one man go out BY HIMSELF and attack the enemy that it encouraged the Viking ranks and just made them that more impestious (sp)