User blog comment:Leolab/Ancient User Tourney, Round 2: Oliver Moreau (Winter) v Sir Bors of Newcastle (Elgb)/@comment-422690-20160527080343

So around the start of the tourney, Skully approached me with a proposition to test just how much influence I have on voting, namely people taking my word on ancient weapon matters as gospel. In order to do so, I made several omissions and inaccuracies in my vote below that made it seem like Bors had more of an advantage he did, to see whether or not anyone called me on it or if it would propagate without question. To my disappointment, the latter occurred. Here is a list, by no means complete and in no particular order (save a couple that need to be in order to make sense) of inaccuracies, omissions, or stuff that was just plain misleading in my vote that's propagated. Note that everyone is guilty of this, even Cfp and Skully; their votes currently take some of this into account, but not until I mentioned this to them in chat.


 * 1) Judging the plate armor based on late-15th/early-16th century standards. The mentions of certain famous personages in Bors' bio places him in the mid/early-14th century. This is a massive gap in terms of armor tech, both in restrictiveness and in defensive capability.
 * 2) The slash of a naginata is capable of penetrating this plate armor. Naginata were typically wielded using large, sweeping motions, which increases the angular momentum of a slice. This increased momentum, as well as the earlier, weaker plate means that yes, a slash will get through or at least severely dent and hamper mobility.
 * 3) A thrust won't have the same added momentum, but a) properly-made naginatas were good thrusting weapons and b) the force is concentrated on a smaller area, which will increase penetration
 * 4) Bors' targe is going to be very cumbersome. A standard targe weighed in excess of 7 lbs, and that's without the added weight of the steel cover and the spike (which added a lot more weight than you think, 'cause it needs to be stabilized)
 * 5) Bors is wearing a bascinet. These kinds of helmets are not known for their range of vision, especially in the 14th century. If you're not sure what a bascinet looked like, here and here are a couple examples.
 * 6) The average velocity and power of a composite bow is equal to or superior to that of an average English longbow. Those arrows are most definitely penetrating Bors' armor.
 * 7) Cutlasses were quite stout blades, having more in common with a machete than your average saber. Against 14th-century plate, it may not penetrate, but it'll buckle and bend, restricting movement and setting up for a kill.
 * 8) This stoutness lets a "striking parry" of sorts straight-up beat aside the blade of the longsword, halting attacks. While a longsword can do this too, it'll have a much harder time of it.

So what does this mean? Well, other than a vaguely paternal sense of disappointment that y'all don't think for yourselves (particularly towards Wass, whose vote is literally a paraphrasing of mine), I'm simply going to hand back from voting until the last day from now on so that it doesn't taint the results.