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@thrusteavis

3 жыл бұрын

B) $

@harjutapa

3 жыл бұрын

get that money, Matt! I just hope you're getting paid a flat fee, not per click, because I really don't think anyone is going to be going for Raid at this point.

@darkart7176

3 жыл бұрын

Ugh... Must you? FFS, I hope its worth it.

@GottHammer

3 жыл бұрын

I play Raid SL...but I'll never give 'em money. At least not while the game's a 'whale trap'. I like the assets/visuals and even parts of the gameplay loop (if one treats it as a management game, of sorts), but the monetization is...horrible (as w/ most mobile/'casual' games made to catch 'whales'). If they used those assets and made a 'proper' RPG (those assets, and even the combat, in a Darklands-like or Baldur's Gate/Pillars of Eternity-like would be nice, I think), and put it on Steam/GOG, with no microtransactions (pay once to play...like most games)...then I'll consider giving 'em money.

@ericcook4171

3 жыл бұрын

@@GottHammer i will drop $120 on a complete game, but Raid SL wont get a dime from me. and yes, with what they have they should definitely make an actual RPG.

he actually justified the oversized fantasy weapon trope. never thought I'd see the day

@kriss667

3 жыл бұрын

Not oversized. Sized accordingly.

@broxim9668

3 жыл бұрын

The big ass spear he describes is also a weapon used by Savage Orcs in WH Fantasy; The Big Stabba

@Elluem

3 жыл бұрын

Only kind of. He's not saying that they would be proportioned the way that you see them in something like skyrim, warcraft, or other fantasy games with very large and wide blades. They would be larger... but not exactly like that.. because those are simply unusable.. unless they're made out of magically light material.

@Gabdube

3 жыл бұрын

@@Elluem ^ the only reasonable person here apparently.

@Gabdube

3 жыл бұрын

What he didn't take into account is that, while fantasy creatures tend to be larger and tougher than humans, they usually aren't any slower for it. Giving up speed and stamina for an increased weapon mass is still a bad idea. Prehistoric mammoth/megafauna hunters didn't upsize their weapons, for similar reasons.

A pet peeve of mine, the battlehammer that looks like it weighs about a metric tonne. As a sheepkeeper I own a sledge hammer for use in putting up fences. The head of that thing is tiny compared to the whoppers you see in fantasy illustrations.But it is bloody HEAVY. If you had to swing that around in a melee situation you would faint from exhaustion in just a couple of minutes. No human could ever lift those ridiculously big fantasy warhammers!

@slydoorkeeper4783

3 жыл бұрын

Tell me about it, it's why I laugh when some people still get the wrong idea of medieval weapons being heavy. Like sure, go swing around a 50lb weight as if you were attacking someone then do it with a 2lb one. Bet you'd favor the 2 way more.

@M4TCH3SM4L0N3

3 жыл бұрын

I think that the massive hammerheads are a product of someone seeing a maul and thinking that it looks cool but it should be made of metal because metal is "better" or "stronger." In other words, it isn't that people are pumping up warhammers but instead are just failing to understand how much heavier steel/iron is than wood. Also, there's a general misconception about the weight of weapons and the strength required to use them, and so thinking that a tool like a sledgehammer would actually be heavier if it were a weapon than a tool also may play a role.

@vitriolicAmaranth

3 жыл бұрын

In action videogames at least there is an excuse, which is balancing graphics with field of view. From a distance a slimmer hammer doesn't immediately read as different enough from a sword and seems like it should be a more agile cutting weapon, so it feels more right if you have the old anvil on a stick. But yeah by their nature the effective weight of a hammer head is multiplied so it's kinda silly how they're often depicted as HUGE.

@midshipman8654

3 жыл бұрын

Edze Jan de Haan agreed. I mean, if you have ever used a sledge hammer, you know just how unwieldy even that seemingly small slab of iron is with two hands and a lot of leverage.

@julietfischer5056

3 жыл бұрын

@@M4TCH3SM4L0N3 - People forget about balance and weight distribution. Whether it's a tool hammer or a war hammer, the weight of the head and the strength of the user work together for the power of the blow. Same with an axe, a hatchet, a sword, or a mace. Then there's using them effectively. A trained Roman legionary could take out some of the sword-swingers in video games and movies. Hell, Sir Andrew Aguecheek could do so.

13:30 There's a semifamous engraving of Timucua tribesmen in Florida hunting a massive alligator with six of them holding a single spear, which is more like a sharpened log or tree trunk. And of course crocodilians are probably the closest living thing we have to dragons.

@SusCalvin

3 жыл бұрын

That's something we've done. You look at humans that hunt existing animals, and then you make that into military doctrine. How did people hunt something like a boar. How did they fend off a stampeding elephant.

In the immortal words of Magnus the Pious: "Three things make the Empire great. Faith, Steel, and Gunpowder!"

I think another factor would be the relative abundance of large monsters in the world. If dragons aren't very common, you're not going to have a ton of weapons designed specifically for fighting them.

@Errtuabyss

3 жыл бұрын

Depends on how much of a threat they are and how much ressources people could muster to cut the mustard. If they are rare but devastating and the humans don't have large economies to support propper anti-Dragon weapons.. well too bad. If they have the economy, time, skill, etc to devlop weapons they would. Even if you only see a dragon once every generation you'd still try to prepare for it. Not necessarily effectively or with the highest effort, depending on the situation.. but still.

@owenbunny4023

3 жыл бұрын

@@Errtuabyss Scorpion from game of throne seems pretty realistic

@louisvictor3473

3 жыл бұрын

Any dragon worth its merit would warrant having tons of weapons designed specifically for them. They might not be commonly carried and only a limited number of people would have them, but they would design a bunch of them.

@gabrielinostroza4989

3 жыл бұрын

You could compare Dragons to a tornado or hurricane, while not everything is protected against them it's usually things you can afford to lose, so cheaper constructions would not be defended, but larger towns and castles would have counter-Dragon measures, and if one appeared, people would retreat to those places.

@heretyk_1337

3 жыл бұрын

True... But there is also ease of use, ease of equip etc. I wish to add to your point. Because i agree- if lagre monsters are rare- that means they are not met often, in which case one has to consider spending resources wisely, either arming his settlements with weapons that may or may not be used against some big beast, or rather arm oneself agains more common enemy, and letting normal militia/guards/knights deal with the big monster by employing specyfic tactics, rather than weapons. What would a dragon do to a bunch of riders, that surrounded it, and would loose arrows, bolts, or thow javelins from all directions? They keep at the distance, where claws and tail do nothing, and wound the creature at the same time- also who says it has to be to the death? Predator sees, that these little guys are really determined to defend their home, and weighs all the pros and cons- is this meal worth it, all this pain and potential death? Even if orc is bigger and tougher, a good stabbing sword, even relatively small, will do- dispatching big game with small sword wasn`t all that uncommon- hunting swords aren't really big, despite that they were for creatures bigger than humans... Rapier does good job agains bull in torero`s hands, despite bull being much bigger, than human, and much stronger as well. So even if orc was common enemy, i don`t think weapons would be THAT different... As for big creatures, like ogres or trolls- why wouldn`t a knight with a long lance(like a hussars` one- 5 - 6 meters long) be a good match? Lance does a lot of damage, and about only well made plate can stop it... Bigger creatures are slower, and weaker, relative to their size, as their muscles have a lot more to do by just keeping creature up- for example horse is, relative to its size, weaker than a man... You can`t just get something and make it bigger, physics and biology do not work like that. So troll and ogre won`t be exactly a demon of speed, hence hitting them in some vital space with lance would be even easier, than with another knight... What about pikes? If we talk about militia, defending a village- pike would be exactly what they need. Troll may swat three or four, but rest will end up in his face... Also there is one more aspect- big creatures are always rare, because enviroment has to provide enough to eat, and big monsters in bigger amounts would deplete the resources quicker- which would end up in them fighting each other, or scattering, in which case meeting more then one is still a feat... So in summary- i don`t think weapons would be that different, because big monsters would be rare, and i suspect, that people would rather deal with them using specyfic tactics rather than specialized weapons...

See, people always criticize wanting realism in fantasy but seeing this makes me aware that there are others who seek it as well Edit: Thank you for the likes! it really makes this video game martial artist smile

@uss_cushing

3 жыл бұрын

Because it’s supposed to be an escape from reality not a continuation of it.

@JeffPenaify

3 жыл бұрын

@@uss_cushing yeah but like some would say, its gotta be rooted in a realism to be immersive, for instance you can have pigs flying but you don't want everyone's head to be on their groin, etc. Good fantasy ABSTRACTS from real world, doesn't completely defy it

@miguelsuarez-solis5027

3 жыл бұрын

@@uss_cushing an escape from reality is better when it's realistic imo

@adlockhungry304

3 жыл бұрын

Yes, I hadn’t really considered the point Matt makes here. Not, at least, with regard to hand held weapons. Ballestas or scorpions were definitely something I figured as a possible necessity when dealing with trolls or ogres though. Obviously, yes, fantasy is to escape reality, but I at least like the basic physics of, say, a sword stroke, or how armor works, to be pretty equivalent to the real world. I think it makes character’s experiences more visceral to the viewer/reader/gamer. If the physics of a fictional world depart too far from that I think it becomes too cartoonish to be easily relatable. Maybe not as much in a gaming scenario. What do you guys think?

@petebyrdie4799

3 жыл бұрын

@@uss_cushing Good, realistic fantasy world-building can be an escape from reality. Personally, I'd still rather think of my RPG heroes exploring their world with a pretty arming sword. But then, in RPGs you can kill a dragon with an arming sword if you have high enough stats. In reality, and probably if you're writing a novel, you probably want to use the ridiculousness of that situation to inspire a bit more complexity and flavour to your world.

As a lifelong D&D player, this is awesome. I strive to bring a touch of realism to the game. Thank you, Matt.

Interestingly, in warhammer fantasy, the most common weapon for imperial infantry is the halberd, which makes sense in a universe, where humans have to face a rather diverse range of threats, most of them physically superior to normal humans.

@Vyrtus_

Жыл бұрын

Indeed

Couch lanceing an ogre into the heart would be a most epic move.

@tl8211

3 жыл бұрын

Imagine the amount of drunkards who would tell stories about the time they met an ogre and killed it with a lance/knife/spear/quarterstaff/dagger to the eye/lucky sling shot...

@TheNEOverse

3 жыл бұрын

This is pretty much what the Traitor Son books are about. 14th century men-at-arms taking couch lancing the heads off big nasty monsters.

@Tamburahk

3 жыл бұрын

the way of Bretonian Grail Knight :D

If I was fighting orcs who don't have armour I'd use a boar spear.

@bartonbrevis3831

3 жыл бұрын

Personally I'd be tempted to go with a Partisan or Ranseur, but similar concept, suitable penetration but avoid the bastard running up the pole on you and smacking your block off. Boar sword might also be an option.

@vitriolicAmaranth

3 жыл бұрын

I would use a gun!

@averagewikipediaenthusiast3088

3 жыл бұрын

@@vitriolicAmaranth Preferably 12 gauge semi auto shoutgun with one of those crazy slugs

@SusCalvin

3 жыл бұрын

I can try to look at the stats orcs have in for example Warhammer. Toughness 4, when the baseline human norm is Toughness 3. So the unarmoured orc is going to take a little more bruising than a regular human.

@battleb0ng420

3 жыл бұрын

i will hire lots of brave Genoese men with crossbows and pavise shields

Poisons gets overlooked in fiction. Funnily enough I was thinking about that a minute ago. Instead of the divine parents, or magical powers, or pure strength, Tarlant will just coat the heck out of his arrows and spear with poison to kill the dragon.

@Pentagathusosaurus

2 жыл бұрын

There's a book based on this premise, the Prince and heir to the throne goes off on his own in search of a famed Dragonslayer and finds he's a rural Knight who used poison tipped harpoons to ambush the dragon. It was a good book, iirc it was called Dragonsbane or something like that.

@JustClaude13

Ай бұрын

In The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine the main character holds a sword out in front of her and steps past the dragon with a pair of seven league boots. That put a lot of power behind the thrust. The dragon was down for a couple of days before it could move again.

The Ballista is probably the best weapon for fighting dragons.

@owenbunny4023

3 жыл бұрын

only if the dragon rider forgot about the ballista using enemy fleet

@joemacleod-iredale2888

3 жыл бұрын

That’s basically how whale hunting worked...

@Sm00k

3 жыл бұрын

Automatic, rapid fire ballista.

@aukword6255

3 жыл бұрын

@starshipeleven ooooh Fire Arrows? Don't get @Lindybeigh started on those!

@nathanielwilcox4947

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for liking and replying to my comment.

If Shad doesn't have an opinion on this, I'll be truly shocked.

@owenbunny4023

3 жыл бұрын

has he made a vid on topic?

@wstevegaming593

3 жыл бұрын

He actually has a whole series called Fantasy Rearmed where he talks about these sorts of things in depth

@Riceball01

3 жыл бұрын

@@wstevegaming593 Kind of sort of. Shad's approach is to take a fantasy creature/race and try to determine what weapon(s) would work best for them. But he doesn't take it as far as Matt in speculating on how weapons might have evolved because of the differences between their world and ours, instead he just deals with the extant weapons that we're all familiar with; conventional swords, bows, crossbows, etc.

@MandaloretheSavage

3 жыл бұрын

I have struggled to qatch shad, i cant help but think his mom is upstairs making him pizza rolls, i was able to watch ThegnThrand with more enthusiasm.

@stormrhode2330

3 жыл бұрын

@@MandaloretheSavage Shad actually seems pretty successful. He's got a wife and kids and has a short movie adaptation being released of his novel. He's arguably one of the most accomplished youtubers of this element. He can be a bit nerdy and cringey at times, but he's got a lot of good stuff, too.

I'd really like to see you do a video that looks at typical Fantasy Blade shapes - and explain why those shapes aren't reflected in our own historical record.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd imagine that impaling weapons would be ideal against huge creatures whereas sweeping/swinging weapons would be ideal against a swarm of small creatures.

@nHautamaki

Жыл бұрын

My thoughts exactly; zweihanders vs gobboes, pikes vs orcs

The dinosaur society arts are by James Gurney (keyword Dinotopia, 1993 book). These amazing pieces are hand-painted watercolour arts. Also swords won't have guards in monster hunting worlds.

I think using horses would be a very common thing too, in most battles people were on foot, but in fantasy if you have the risk of being ambushed by a giant thing, having a horse can very often save you, and if you are fighting orc-like things using the power of a battle horse might be a very good way to deal with them, specially because they often don't seem to use horses themselves.

@SusCalvin

3 жыл бұрын

If you can afford mounts. Horses and beasts are expensive. "How do we aquire/replace/feed horses?" is the big limit armies face.

@2bingtim

3 жыл бұрын

I'd imagine most horses would bolt at the sight of the monsters. They're unlikely to hang around.

Two thoughts: 1) A team of folks with repeating crossbows, guarded by a line or two of like roman legionaries at each entrance to a goblin warren, with a team setting fires to smoke them out is my first thought about dealing with critters. One of the things about a repeating crossbow is you aren't going to be able to give it as much power as even like a goat's hoof cocking crossbow. A bunch of bolts with less power would probably be great for a bunch of little things like goblins or kobolds. Whereas, when you had to deal with an ogre that wandered down into the village, you'd get some kind of quasi-siege weapon out. A place on the border of Dragon Land might have a ton of like ballistas, where even a city far from there might not have the first clue how to handle a dragon (like where Smaug lived, for instance). Or what if the Dragon Land city just had a ton of net throwers, because the little dragons aren't intelligent, but the big dragons have agreed not to raze the city if they tried to capture the little ones to turn back over. 2) Humans would absolutely still be attacking each other, both individually and various states warring against each other. :( But that gets me thinking about something like The Witcher, where Geralt has a sword for fighting people and a sword for fighting monsters (or whatever the silver sword is for, I haven't followed The Witcher much). So many wheels turning now. I absolutely love this video.

@SusCalvin

3 жыл бұрын

Swedish RPG Eon included a heavy repeating crossbow. Basically the cho-ko-nu upscaled into a 3-crew stationary variant. One dwarf aims, one loads bolts into the box magazine and one winds the thing. They have it stats reflecting a mix of both repeating crossbow and an arbalest. You set the thing up on bridges and corridors where the bad people are going to get funneled.

There's a bit of a myth around how humans hunted big animals like mamooths, the stereotype says that they dug pits in the ground to fight them, but that's ridiculous, considering the amount of work that had to be done to do that. More plausable way might be found observing how modern day tribal people hunt elephants and other animals - some outrun deer-like animals untill they're unable to run anymore, some hunt elephans by just running up to them an hitting it with a spear in the face, where there're a lot of vessels, and wait for elephant to bleed. Likewise even in fantasy the more massive the creature, the less stamina it might posess (unless it's a magic being like dragon), so in the war against humans massive orks might be more likely to be exausted after an hour of the battle or so. And this would be a game changer for a strategy both parties would use - a hit and run for orks, and large-scale operations for human infantry, that would dominate orks on a battlefield if large armies collide, especially with their discipline and tactics. About poison, it might be interesting to note, that different animals susceptible to different types of poison, like e.g. chocolates are poisonous for dogs and bears. So you might have poison that humans are resistant to (like alcohol, caffeine and some types of snake poison), that works on other creatures, poison that all creatures are susceptible to (like arsenic and other types of snake poison), and poison that humans are weak to, but some other creatures are not.

@Itoyokofan

3 жыл бұрын

@Lalli Except people hunted mamooths in places where there were no cliffs, like in the vast steppes in central Eurasia. Which implies, that they were just poking them to death with spears or something like that. Having said that, elephants can injure their legs if they jump from the cliff about 30-40 cm high, so you don't need anything fancy to drop them down. And another thing, there were never ever dug-out pits found anywhere dating pleistocene, that were used to hunt any animals, afaik.

@SteveSmith-wk9dx

3 жыл бұрын

Persistence hunting is a valid strategy for early humans/hominins. While relatively poor at sprinting, we/they are quite exceptional long distance runners, to the extent that certain human characteristics are hypothesised to be adaptations to endurance running. There's a (somewhat valid) argument that this requires a concurrent cognitive development of tracking skills (i.e. if you can't track it, you'll lose it when you chase it!). That doesn't exclude the two developments evolving in parallel, or alongside other strategies.

@PRKLGaming

3 жыл бұрын

That makes a lot of sense, but if you read Tolkien you find he makes a point to show that Orcs can run all day long and not be fatigued at all.

@louisvictor3473

3 жыл бұрын

@@PRKLGaming Yeah, but that is tolkien orcs, not the hulkling orks people be talking about. Tolkien's orcs are deformed elves, and very comparable to humans or at least other tolkien human sized humanoids, so it is an entirely different game.

@Itoyokofan

3 жыл бұрын

@@PRKLGaming well, Tolkien had orks smaller than humans, and uruk-highs in the size of the humans, while Matt were talking about warhammer orks which are bigger than humans that I refere to. Plus some humans can run all day long too, the primitive tribes who hunt by outrunning their prey, humans are in a sence evolved as "chasers in the noon".

Jorge Sprave might have something to say about the rate of fire of bows against goblins

@RheaMainz

3 жыл бұрын

and Tod of Tod's Workshop!

I believe the mighty pollaxe would be useful in a lot of fantasy scenarios. It traumatizes through armor with percussive violence, or might be able to punch through any type of monstrous skin and even most armors with the top spike. Halberds in the same boat. Greatswords and armor would probably be solid for dealing with multiple little cowardly goblins if they made it to close combat. As for huge monsters like ogres and whatever, you definitely want to be in a team of pikemen all bearing pikes against the big scary thing. Just... impale it like it fell on punji sticks or something while another group of friends operates a ballista thing to pincushion it with.

The team-spear carriers could also have large shields and form a testudo till the moment they strike. Bonus points for decorating the shields with dinosaur skins.

Lol this is like the reverse of Shadiverity's "Fantasy Rearmed" series. Looking at what Humans would use rather than the creatures.

@Errtuabyss

3 жыл бұрын

It's a different approach and a different topic. Shad starts of with a medieval setting, then puts in some random creatures and tries to find ways how people might want to deal with the situation. It's worldbuilding where you start of with what you want to end up with and trying to fit your preferences within it. This is a more realistic approach where you still put in the stuff you want to have in but you go back far enough to look at how it would evolve from before the things themself existed, not how they would interact if you just put them together.

@RainMakeR_Workshop

3 жыл бұрын

@@Errtuabyss Soooo you took a daft joke I made and explained it... Guessing you're not the funny one in your friend groups. Much love to ya man, but you said nothing I didn't already know.

@Errtuabyss

3 жыл бұрын

@@RainMakeR_Workshop guess you just made another one. Because the first comment was nothing but an observation. That may count as funny in your friends group, idk. Or was it the lol? Putting in into a sentence makes it a joke, right?

@RainMakeR_Workshop

3 жыл бұрын

Errtuabyss yeah, you’re definitely not the funny one. Though I did say daft joke. Not all things said jokingly are particularly funny. Also the lol is more done as a framing device, things can easily be misread (intent wise) online without context from phrasing. But hey like I said, much love. If you want to over analyse an off hand KZread comment, more power to you.

@usaisthebestiockdownpoiice816

3 жыл бұрын

Maybe in a fantasy setting humans would be extinct, if not endangered. An orc with a very powerful bow would be difficult to contend with. Elves and dwarfs would outlive humans, and have more magic. Oh and dwarfs are physically stronger too. Goblins, kobolds and all those small creatures would always outnumber humans. What about technology? Economy? Humans might fare badly compared to elves and dwarfs. It would be interesting if a fantasy story is about some "puny" humans struggling in a difficult world but they work hard and achieve success despite all odds. Can't help but cheer on the struggling heroes. It gets a bit tiring when the characters have it too easy in a story.

Love the illustration from Dinotopia! There’s a really cool spread in the middle of the second book that shows a sauropod in essentially plate barding with terrasaurs acting as sort of aerial light cavalry.

I cannot wait for Shad to reply to this with his Fantasy rearmed series, he'll love this so much

An interesting topic indeed! As some of the comments already mentioned before, i think this has a lot to do with what is the most common threat and what is the biggest threat in our setting. And we can make parallels with our own history. Ever since prehistoric times, humans of any species have faced wolves, lions, bears and has hunted large herbivores like mammoths for food. We even used and fought against elephants in war, which is about as large and tough that a land based animal can get in a 1g environment. But........ are these top level heavy weights, the most likely threat we ever faced? Have we ever roamed the earth armed with heavy hunting spears and siege devices? Were our armies ever predominantly equipped with counter elephant weaponry? Or were such tasks reserved for specialized units? Just like today, when we have anti-aircraft, anti-armor and indirect fire artillery like units? Hence, when we talk about a fantasy setting, the best answer would be, depends on the setting. If however we are talking about a "generic" fantasy setting, akin to Tolkien's Middle Earth or D&D Forgotten Realms, then what is the most common threat, for most of the individuals or armies around? Well, it's either humans or other humanoids. Cobolds, goblins, orcs, lizard men, bandits, elves, dwarves.......this is the most likely threat you are going to meet on the battlefield, or are likely to waylay you on the high roads. Are there dragons, hydras, manticores or other large beasties around? Sure they are, but heavens help you if you now have to face an army of dragons! I actually doubt any humanoid species would rise to prominence, or even a level of civilization, in a setting where intelligent sentient dragons were the dominant species. And as long as you fight other humanoids, even large and strong ones, like minotaurs for example, pretty much everything that applies to historical combat, applies here too. So, combined armies of pole arm equipped infantry - with swords, maces and axes as backup weapons, supported by ranged units like archers, slingers, javelin men and similar, and of course mobile flanking and scouting units like cavalry, chariots or similar period-setting specific contraptions-combinations. Now, if we want to go into really specific cultural differences between each species, then we might try and creating specific tactics and equipment styles based on each species level of technological development and environmental needs. So, the the large humanoids may be bigger, stronger and tougher then humans, but if their level of society (if any) is at much less advanced level , even when it seams like that can carry thicker armor and larger weapons, such may simply not be available to them. Yes a full suit of plate armor made for a troll or an ogre will be thicker then one made for a human or elven knight, but can an ogre make such an armor or maintain it once made? If one in a 1000 human soldiers on the battlefield can only afford one, how many ogres can? But that's on an army level or a society level. What about what most RPGs are about? What about individual and party level equipment and weapons? Well, this is where flexibility and imagination of the role playing group and the dungeon master come about. But some general deductions on my part. And adventuring group is not an army. So 3/4 of the time, adventurers armed and armored like a medieval soldier would be is just out of place and frankly not very realistic nor practical. And adventuring party doesn't have the logistical capacity of a full army. They don't have the support of smiths, cooks, stable boys, the large baggage train and all other support facilities to be one. And they can't really roam about with pikes, long spears, halberds, shields and heavy armor either. Not on a typical adventure anyways. It would just be too heavy, cumbersome and......freaking rude to the locals. I mean, imagine the reaction of the local inn patrons when people with 6m sarrisae enter it. Or the local baron's reaction when a small block of hoplites enters its barony? Nah, IMO, most adventurers would roam around with flexible utalitarian gear. Some armor, mostly head and torso, like light maille or scale at most. And would have side arms with them, swords, axes, daggers, maces. Maybe light spears or a javelin. Some of them could carry bows or crossbows. HOWEVER, such a party should have a wagon or mules where they would carry more specialized equipment. Like, if they said party needs to go in an open battle, then they would need to arm themselves like soldiers. The armor, shields and pole arms would be packed in the wagon. So would any larger specialized weapons for fighting dragons and stuff....... Anyways, sorry for the long block of text. I got carried away here!

I totally agree that the fantasy context needs to be taken into account. I've thought that the shields used by Zulus that were mounted on a staff, with a spear or halberd mounted on the staff might be a good idea for a combination of defense and offense against large and aggressive enemies. I love the crew-served melee weapon idea though.

I remember Knight Errynt doing a video about fantasy armor a few years ago. He made some good points on how a movie, or RPG game could make wonderful functional armor while expressing a fantasy culture.

So I am a writer, with a HEMA/Kenjutsu background. Honestly I think we need more discussions about this. Helps writers like me out so much. Thank you.

This upload time and topic could not have been more perfect for me!

Harpoons are totally overlooked by the HEMA community in my opinion. 😉

I think Warhammer Fantasy portrays this well, the main human empire employs largely halberd formations as a mainstay and a higher priority on great swords and artillery. Except the oversized hammers of course. And just as important as the weapons are the formations and tactics with multiple lines of infantry fighting single enemies.

>weapons would be optimized for fighting monsters and orks So, what you're saying is, is a stouter, pointier stick?

@Errtuabyss

3 жыл бұрын

A power fist. Obviously.

@owenbunny4023

3 жыл бұрын

if monster just rush you, a pointy stick will work noicely

@NikozBG

3 жыл бұрын

@@owenbunny4023 if it's bigger and stronger than a boar it definitely wont. Even humans are known to be stabbed and continued fighting, imagine a troll or an ogre. They would be hardly inconvenienced by a single man operated spear. A strong percussive hit to the head is what I would be counting on. Polehammer, bardiche, glave something of that nature.

@RedmarKerkhof

3 жыл бұрын

A bigger banana. Maybe even a bunch of them.

@colbunkmust

3 жыл бұрын

IF YU HUMIES KAN GET KLOSE ENUFF TA UZE YUR PUNCHIN' GLOV DEN DA' BOYZ ANI'T UZIN' ENUFF DAKKA!!!

Beautiful video, Matt. On the flip-side off your point, I think it’s interesting to note that other fantasy races like elves tend to be more fragile but more agile and dexterous at the same time. I’d imagine you’d see greater use of tandem weapon systems like sword and dagger as well as development of wide, light shields, possibly wicker. Weapons that help compensate for slower reactions by humans. One side note: I think no matter what, the spear would remain king on the battlefield

@kanucks9

3 жыл бұрын

Honestly nothing really beats speed. If elves are 50% faster, with half the reaction time, that's it. Game over. Of course it doesn't make any sense physically - speed comes from strength, or what, do their muscles function by a completely unrelated mechanism?

@MadManchou

3 жыл бұрын

It's all about context. In some universes, Elves are just OP Humans. In others, they are "balanced" by specific weaknesses. Same goes with Orcs. The big "issue" with many fantasy races is when they are supposedly "balanced" by intelligence. Which makes perfect sense realistically. The issue is writers/designers have a very hard time understanding what low intelligence means, and usually default to a "lower tech-level". But as we can see with the tragedy that was McNamara's Morons (low-IQ draftees sent to Vietnam), intelligence is much, much more than tech-level.

This is great, Matt, thank you!

Thank you Matt for this one. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I love this. I’m writing a fantasy story in my free time, and seeing videos like this about how fantasy worlds could be realistic but in the context of the world is amazing. The world of this fantasy is different than most in that humans developed as a society before they knew that other magical species and animals existed, so they had to adapt their lifestyles and weaponry to fight their new adversaries

Love it Matt!!!

This is a great resource. Glad to find. Definitely going to check if you have more videos exploring this topic. Would love to see more if you don't!

"Humans would likely band together against the common enemy" That's a hugely optimistic opinion considering pretty much all of human History

@andersbenke3596

3 жыл бұрын

I partly agree, sir or madam, but remember that in the real world all other humans are potentially enemies, making banding together a risky proposition. Whereas in a orc infested world it is more likely that your fellow humans realise that with other humans you can at least try go get along. Orcs, on the other hand, are probably to be mistrusted on a whole new philosophical level. Or at the very least you can't trust our human intentions when dealing with another species. Or not. Perhaps I am being orcist.

@kevingooley9628

3 жыл бұрын

Not really, historical humans were great at handing together against a common enemy. It just that the enemy was usually other humans with minor eye/hair/skin color differences, language differences, cultural differences, or hell,.just living in the next valley over.

@nevisysbryd7450

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah. All we need look at any time that groups have NOT banded together against a common threat and remained mired in their in-fighting. Societies will always differentiate themselves into subgroups who will compete. A common enemy is a barely adequate incentive to unite when even that.

@nathanbrown8680

3 жыл бұрын

@@kevingooley9628 Ah, but are other humans really the ones you're going to band together with? Italians and Greeks look a lot more like Persians than Axumites, but it was Axum the Roman Empires were friendly with almost never any iteration of the Persians. Another example is the conquest of Mexico. The Aztec's neighbors were far more similar racially to the Aztecs than to the Spanish and the Spanish wore armor and rode horses so that they were at first not even recognized as human at all, but the non-Aztec Mexicans allied with the Spanish because the Aztecs had made themselves odious to them while the Spaniards hadn't yet. Economic ties and shared enemies mean far more than what people look like. Your worst enemy isn't the elves who buy your wine, it's the guys in the next town over who are selling wine cheaper. And your best friends may be the gnomes who also make wine, but charge the same as you do and have this clever idea to burn down all the wineries who don't agree to raise prices even more.

@MadManchou

3 жыл бұрын

@@kevingooley9628 Real life Mongols were pretty close to what we could consider an "inhuman outside threat" (not that they were not human, of course, but their systematic policy regarding vanquished enemies very much made them outstanding to any Euro-mediterranean people) ; yet rarely (if ever) did people under threat from the Mongols band together : actually they spent more time trying to backstab each other while being preoccupied by the mongols (e.g. Teutonic Knights attacking the Novgorod Rus). -- You will always have groups that try to be lenient to the aggressor, others that resist fiercely, and many more who just hope to not get too much attention. And obviously no one is locked into any group. The Aedui started as staunch Roman allies, but were one of the cornerstones of the anti-roman gallic league at Alesia, for example.

Great video! Would love to see a series of videos along these lines!

Can't wait to see Shad's reply to this.

This reminded me of elephant warfare and what a game changer it was in the right context. There could be an entire follow up on what sorts of mounted combat would take place in a fantasy world. Also poison was used to kill war elephants, usually by the rider interestingly enough.

Have wanted you to make this video for years, so thank you! Really glad that you mention the idea of giant spears wielded by multiple people, it's one of the stranger ideas my own thinkings landed on and it's nice to see I'm not alone in thinking it would emerge in fantasy. Another thought I've had, informing why I love the Jeddart staff, is that heavy cut-and-thrust polearms seems like a bit of a red-headed stepchild at times in real history, as usually a lighter spear or something more specialised was a better choice. But if you're going to arm an 'adventurer', or a hunting party / caravan guard, with one main weapon to do a serviceable job against all of a) armed men, b) masses of kobolds or c) fewer, larger orcs/ogres/trolls, I'd give them something like the Jeddart staff. Something that can offend many enemies easily, and both cut and thrust very powerfully to land killing blows.

Thank you for making this video. I hadn't thought of it from that side before.

Totally agree, and if it's High Fantasy, the spell casters will be the real warriors/ hunters. But in Low Fantasy/ Sword & Sorcery, weapons would be closer to our real world.

@tl8211

3 жыл бұрын

Even in High Fantasy, depending on the logistics of magic, you could have fighters wearing magic armor/weapons/talismans or being buffed by wizards, who would mostly stay behind the lines, perhaps operating as some sort of artillery. Although quite possibly you could have combinations of both, like warrior-mages that operate sorta like light cavalry using their spells for intelligence gathering and hitting softer targets.

@louisvictor3473

3 жыл бұрын

@@tl8211 Also in some settings even non magical creatures can become superhuman by real life standards. When the rules are different, well, the rules are different.

@Knoloaify

3 жыл бұрын

I can definitely see "warriors" in a high fantasy setting kinda working like mages specialized in combat in the Fate universe : using magic to strenghten their body and physical abilities to superhuman levels. If you really think about it, if the setting has a lot of magic, then any fighting proffessionals (especially ones from the noble class) would learn at least some magic.

@forestwells5820

3 жыл бұрын

@@Knoloaify Well now you're getting into the rules of your magic system. What ever magic your world has will have direct affects on their entire society. Combat included. So you have to be mindful about the rules you give your world. You can't have a mage suddenly topple a castle if it takes great effort for the most powerful mage around to remove so much as one brick.

@johnathanera5863

3 жыл бұрын

@@forestwells5820 well you could. This could be a mage from far in the past before knowledge and skill in magecraft was largely lost or something like that. It would have to be explained and justified well to avoid breaking consistancy.

Thank you Matt. This is very useful information for any creator of art, lore, or fabulosis narrationibus

Thanks, Matt. Definitely a question I’ve had on my mind.

Ancient Greeks already thought of your siege weapon idea. In the Odyssey I believe Odysseus carves a large pike and with the aid of his men maims the Cyclops with it.

@Lucius1958

3 жыл бұрын

Of course, he had to make the Cyclops dead drunk before he could use it.

Another class in armoury evolution. Thank you Matt.

My mind is blown by all the Forgotten Realms references from Matt in this video! Knew I liked this man for some reason.

It would be really cool to see a fantasy world that had more of this in mind.

Damn it Matt! You context and sense here is making my brain work overtime. Love this video. Thank you!

"This video comes free of other adverts thanks to..." Ok, that was a really creative way of saying we now have to watch an ad for a crappy game.

Idea for weapon against giant insects: small tomahawk on a long stick, small almost as a war pick, but still having edge to be able to easily get trough armor, just like polish ciupaga, shepards axe

I've been doing research on why weapons are the way they look and what purpose they have so what I write or draw is realistic, but you just pointed out something that NEVER occurred to me. Thanks!

A shortened polearm would probably be my first pick if re traveling in a fantasy world without knowing what I might meet in woods. It's a swiss army knife on a stick, and would have a solution to most problems.

Great video! Would be very interested in a follow up video going more indepth. Great fun!

Just a shout out for the screen grabs of Dinotopia. I have a background in archaeology, but paleontology + archaeology are the ultimate fantasy realm. Loving the content from the US!

At 13:30 you made me think about Odysseus's men blinding Polyphemus!👁️😉😃

I think The Empire from Warhammer Fantasy is actually pretty plausible. They're basically professional 16th-17th century infantry (lots of pikes + halberds and greatswords), heavy cavalry and handgunners backed up by Napoleonic artillery. Of course, you could question how they survived up to that stage.

I could see the earlier two handed swords like the type XIIA and XIIIA great swords of war being more popular without the evolution to the more slender stabbing swords that came later.

Oh man, Matt's got in-video ads, maybe I gotta buy another shirt to support him more! Mine's getting old at this point anyways haha. Great video as always man!

First. Very useful. I'm working on a fantasy epic right now, in the planning stages. Feels awesome that I just finished drafting an idea for a guy who wields Dane axes against proto-dragons. I would like to point out that this covers the practical aspect of fantasy weapons; depending on how your world is structured, you may want to consider the real world symbology and significance of various weapons, in modern day and in story.

This is blowing my mind.

Hey Matt! Could you source some of the pictures you used in this video? Either at the bottom of the screen, or in the description, or whatever. I think I recognize some Dinotopia, but there's a lot of cool artwork here that I bet folks would like to be able to search up!

@tl8211

3 жыл бұрын

Seconded! An easy way is to make an alternative CC.

I have seen some of that crew based standard weapon stuff in some fantasy stories aswell, though rarely. Goblins for example might operate a single pike in a team for example to withstand things like cavalry or to hunt larger beasts. And considering the same for humans would be pretty awesome too.

I can't testify to how accurate the account is but I did read one book that said there was tribe in North Africa that would hunt elephants using two handed swords from horseback. They'd swarm around them to confuse them and then, when one got an opening, they'd dart in and cut at the elephants rear legs to hamstring them. Once the rear legs were crippled the elephant was essentially helpless and could be killed at the hunters convenience.

If our ancestors had had to fight hordes of goblins, I guess flamethrowers would have been developed earlier.

@shorewall

3 жыл бұрын

I love the smell of Napalm in the morning. Smells like victory. :D

@agrippa2012

3 жыл бұрын

earlier than greek fire you mean?

@owenbunny4023

3 жыл бұрын

the first man will prob learn to cook goblin "meat"

@Vlad_Tepes_III

3 жыл бұрын

Is that a Goblin Slayer reference?

@ArkadiBolschek

3 жыл бұрын

@@Vlad_Tepes_III It's just common sense (I've heard about that anime but I haven't watched it)

Damnit!!! When he mentioned the Forgotten Realms™, I was hoping he was going to bring up the Moonsea region! No one talks about the Moonsea region anymore. The young folk have no idea what it was like to stumble across the Mulmaster Beholder Corps. Or how terrifying it was to have to navigate the Dragonspine mountains, etc...

Lol, just as I'm writing a 5e setting Matt drops this. I'd love to see a video talking about your experiences with table top games.

Thank you. That's making a lot to consider for a rpg maker, but it's certainly a very prolific reflection to create a truly immersive environment.

4:53 Pure medieval combat reenactment, probably some of Hans Talhoffer teachings!

Swedish RPG Eon imagined a heavy cho-ko-nu-based crossbow. An upscaled version with a crew of three. One dwarf aims, one loads bolts into the box magazine and one cranks the pull mechanism. Their stats reflected a mix of both repeating crossbow and an arbalest. You set the thing up on bridges and corridors where the bad people are going to get funneled. The downside is that the thing isn't the least mobile. And in the field, a dozen guys with normal military crossbows would probably have the same volume of fire. That thing reflected the architecture the fight took place in. You set it up at the end of a bridge or corridor created to funnel the bad blokes in. All of it underground, where you can't outflank it or create an assault door through the rock.

Something that you didn't mention at all is flying creatures! What weapon would something like a valkyrie use having in mind they can't fly forever and what would you use to fight something like a harpy? Cheers!

@Sm00k

3 жыл бұрын

Nets.

@Specter_1125

3 жыл бұрын

Turtle formation

@daveturner6006

3 жыл бұрын

Spears, the most effective, all round weapon in history.

@mennograafmans1595

3 жыл бұрын

To fight against flying creatures? Long pikes, the 5 to 7 meter kind. And large arrowvolleys. And shields against bombardements. But the thing is, if you can fly and know what you are doing, you will never really have to fight. Just fly out of reach and drop stones or darts on the enemies.

@jamesforgie6594

3 жыл бұрын

Harpies and such would probably drop rocks or tree branches, anything they had at hand. In flight, they probably wouldn’t use anything longer than a long knife, as it would get in the way. Once they were on the ground, they could use anything we could.

Matt, I'd love to have weapons experts such as yourself come up with more realistic weapen damage tables than what we have currently.

First raid sponsor I've seen in awhile actually

Tldr: probably spears

Just now seeing this, but, Im working on a sword for a costume cosplay thing, and, I'm sitting here thinking "this is to wide it's not right maybe it's a fantasy metal well that could help but why is it wide" and, this video was so helpful, maybe my character is a sort of sell sword who most of the time needs to cleave through large thick skinned beasts, so his sword needs to have more bite in order to get his jobs done, and he may carry a thinner blade for smaller more numerous enemies, it's brought new light to how I explain various things, and I absolutely love that

Marshall, Will, and Holly used a team spear (The Flyswatter) to drive Grumpy the T-Rex away from their cave in The Land of the Lost.

Tolkien's orcs are notably smaller than humans, except for the sunlight-resistant Uruk-hai, who are noted as a new variant. That's why the issue of whether hobbits can be confused with orcs comes up in a number of places, and Frodo and Sam actually disguise themselves as orcs while making their way across Mordor. Orcs are sometimes described as carrying "scimitars", no doubt because those are associated with the traditional enemies of Europe.

I predict that Manchu-like archery, with extreme draw length and extremely heavy arrows with reinforced tips, would be developed earlier and quickly become widespread. Against a lot of fantasy monsters, massive penetration (we like that here) is going to be more important than long maximum range.

I always felt that pikes would be the go-to for humans fighting these larger monster opponents

Quoting Bored of the Rings from memory, the Siege of Twodor - "Goodgulf carried cradled in his arm an ancient and trusty weapon, called by the Elves a Browning semi-automatic". Why are characters in that RPG not wearing frigging helmets?

In real life, you can find films of !Kung bushmen with relatively small bows and poisoned arrows, taking down a giraffe! They do that to eat the meat, too. In the film I saw, they use the poison to slow down and weaken the giraffe, but they finish it off with thrown spears. This keeps them out of kicking distance from the giraffe.

As a D&D player since 1985 I've given this a lot of thought and I theorized specialized pole-weapons would be common especially poleaxe and halberd types. With a common known enemy it does seem like the "Free Peoples" would certainly cooperate more with each other. Great ideas Captain Context!

@kuesdav

3 жыл бұрын

Absolutely agree with poleaxes and halberds, and related weapons. Not so sure about that cooperation thing though.

in a fantasy world with fantasy/magical creatures you have access to magic and materials from those creatures. example: dragon scale armor, enchanted equipment, buff/debuff magic. weapons and equipment that are made of materials that don't exist gives you a world of options

Never thought I'd encounter such a well-reasoned argument for Monster Hunter's Greatsword.

I'm excited for some medieval crew-served weapons.

F A N T A S Y does not need realism. I like the fantastic. When I want realism or facts, I watch YOU!!!

Barbra Hambly's "Dragonsbane" approaches dragon slaying as something best done with poisoned carcasses and things like harpoons to gradually slow the creature by wounding and bleeding over time. Both of which are techniques used by the San people who have to take down large animals with very primitive (though context sophisticated) weapons.

To be fair to most fantasy worlds, rapiers tend to be a weapon for city folks and rogues, who mostly fight other humanoids.

I do wonder if broad, choppy falchions would still come in play. I can imagine they would be devastating against goblins and function as a side-arm against something like orcs or ogres, whilst also being feasible against closer humanoids like elves.

This is one of those more interesting "what if's in fantasy" discussions.

I'd be interested in seeing what you thought of some of my fantasy work mate as I took these issues into consideration

...in the mood!!!!

"unless youre lars" 🤣🤣 thats very true matt

Against goblins/kobolds, the Zhūgě nǔ (Chinese repeating crossbow) would be excellent, along with Roman legion tactics: short, quick swords and big shields that can be locked together to keep the little buggers from swarming into and between men in the unit. Goblins/kobolds would want to do things similar to what humans would try to do to big orcs: many on one, preferably with spears and large (relative to their size) swords to minimize humans' reach advantage.

This video made sense of why Bloodborne has no shields and have such huge weapons like the kirk hammer(I know it says it in the description) as wel as the black knight weapons compared to silver knight weapons as you see Black knights are fighting chaos demons. This has really helped me in writing and world build when creating one faction I think about another faction that would be against them and how they try to counter one another.