User blog comment:Affectos/Hugh de Paynes vs. Oda Nobunaga/@comment-4661256-20120809010452

'El Alamein's "When I Grow Up, I Wanna be a Crusader!" Edges: '

 Close Range: Epee Bastarde (Longsword) vs. Katana: Not to sound like a mindless Katana hater, but the Katana is a pointless thrusting weapon, in fact, it's not even designed to be a stabbing weapon. Regardless of whether or not the Katana can stab it's still going to be combat impractical, as its main focus is slashes, and de Paynes' armor is enough to compensate. Ultimately I know you're full of BS SPARTAN, because of this "... a katana penetrating deeper into plate armor than a European broadsword". How the hell do you penetrate plate armor? The Longsword on the other hand is a decent thrusting weapon and a terrifying slashing weapon - it's longer than the katana and because de Paynes is bigger than Nobunaga, the samurai will feel those blows underneath his armor.

Edge: Hugh de Paynes

 Mid Range: Fauchard-fork vs. Yari: The Fauchard is inefficient in combat - it's big and bulky but it's only got a cutting edge on the concave side of the blade. It basically performs the same sweeping, cutting maneuver as a scythe or sickle. The Yari is a straight-up stabbing weapon and it doesn't suffer from incompetence as a weapon.

Edge: Oda Nobunaga

 Long Range: Crossbow vs. Tanegashima: Everyone over-rates the musket. It's pointless, a single-shot before a lengthy reload, and one front sight that doesn't help for crap. Smoke flares up in front of the user, obscuring their vision, and I can tell you that de Paynes' horse isn't gonna buck up and run just because of a loud noise - you'd think that horses have been deaf their entire life to something like thunder or the horrors of a battle. The crossbow doesn't have much faster of a reload time either, but it is more accurate. Still, I'm calling it even.

Edge: Even

 Special Weapons: Horseman's Pick vs. Tessen: I swear that the Tessen was a woman's weapon... anyway, it's small and impractical to use because of its size. The War Pick has two ends, a blunt hammer and a spike, and that allows for different styles of attack that are open for variation. The Horseman's Pick is easily the superior weapon here.

Edge: Hugh de Paynes

WINNER: HUGH DE PAYNES 

The damn Samurai are so damn overrated! *insert Katana ranting and discipline ranting and all this other bull crap* Give a Samurai a gun and you've done him a disservice, because the musket was the samurai's undoing and they never adapted to it well enough to save them from extinction as a battlefield presence. De Paynes is bigger and stronger, and the weapons he's using hit harder to go through Nobunaga's armor. You samurai fanboys can whine about accuracy all day but de Paynes has a fantastic set of armor that will absorb the hits that Nobunaga will deal out. Ultimately, de Paynes wins because he's bigger and stronger with better weapons and armor, and Nobunaga can't compensate for that.