User blog:BattleGames1/BattleGames1's Season of War Episode 2 - Sun Tzu vs William the Conqueror



Last time on the Season of War, we saw WWII's most legendary squadrons battle it out to see which one is the deadlier war company and it turned out that the Americans had pulled off a very tight win over the British Desert Rats. In this match-up, we now find two of the world's most famous generals in history duking it out for tactical supremacy.

Sun Tzu, the author of the Art of War and a great strategic warlord...

vs

William the Conqueror, the Norman general who reshaped the face of England and then (indirectly) the world...

WHO... IS... DEADLIEST?

=Let's Meet the Warriors=

Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu (born Sun Wu), was an ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher who is traditionally believed to be the author of The Art Of War, an influential and ancient chinese book on military strategy. It is generally agreed that he was born and lived during the Spring and Autumn Period of ancient Chinese history and served under king Helu as his primary strategist. In his tenure with the king, Sun Tzu as a commander, won a string of victories for the Wu Kingdom - the tactics Sun Tzu used in his victorious battles during that period were later written into his military treatise The Art of War. It is unknown what Sun Tzu's activities were between the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and his death in 496 BCE or even of Sun Tzu's activity during the period apart from a historiographical account of him in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian.

William the Conqueror
Born initially with the title the Bastard, William was born in 1028 to Robert I, the Duke of Normandy at the time, out of wedlock (and legitimacy) and ascended to the dukedom at the age of 7 amid royal/political anarchy. In his youth he was under the tutelage of many guardians including King Henry I of France. From 1046 (the time when Henry and William were hotly challenged for the throne by Norman nobles) until 1060 (when William married Matilda of Flanders and consolidated his power over the duchy), William saw continuous civil war among his people. It wasn't until 1066, when he, Harald Hardrada (king of Norway at the time) and Tostig Godwinson (Harold I's exiled brother) conducted an invasion of the British Isles across three different routes that William oversaw true 'international' war taking place. After his victory at the Battle of Hastings, William established himself as King of England - quelling some revolts in 1069 in the progress of it - before living to the ripe age of 58 and dying back in his home turf on 9 September 1087.

=Now, Let's Inspect the Weapons=

Jian
The jian is a double-edged straight sword and one of China's most revered weapons (alongside the gun staff, dao sabre and qiang spear) throughout most of its history. It is known as "The Gentleman of Weapons" in Chinese folklore, maybe owing to its balanced design both in the hilt and the blade - the blade being multipurpose for slashing, stabbing, cleaving and defensive maneuvers among other techniques. During the Spring and Autumn Period, jians were made of either bronze, iron or (for the purposes of this battle) steel, had a length of about 70cm and weighed between 700 and 900 grams.

Norman Sword/Proto-armingsword
The sword most commonly used by Normans was not a broadsword/basket-hilted sword as DW suggested but was more like the Roman Spatha but more developed since its adoption by the Vikings. Sometime within the 10th and 11th centuries CE, the Viking version of the Spatha was developed further by blacksmiths into the earliest forms of the medieval arming sword with the hand guard becoming the cross-guard and the simplification of the pommel. Other than that, the Norman version of the Spatha retained the same characteristics of the Viking derivative - weighing at least 1.1kg and measuring out to be at best 100cm.

BG1's Edge
TBF