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The sword (500020) was still the preferred weapon in the early medieval period and was used almost exclusively in tangent with a shield (801506). Two hand war swords were used as well (500794), and one could deliver heavy blows with one, but the user lost a great deal of protection that a shield provided, so unless you were the swinging justice of the headsman or breaking a pike line, you often times opted not to carry one with you....

The style of fighting with sword and shield varied little through out Europe and consisted mostly of cutting at the foe from behind the shield. With the sword drawn back it could be held out of sight of an opponent behind the shield so they could not see where a cut was coming from. This type of deception is why the quickest and most aggressive usually won an encounter- you had little warning where to move your shield to block a blow. It s...

Sparta HelotsOf all the Greek states it was Sparta that stood out in their fanatical beliefs about battle and war. They were the only city-state that had a full time army consisting of the entire male population. The one thing that made this possible was the helot. The helots were subjugated tribes that the Spartans held in slavery to perform all domestic trade and agriculture duties, thus freeing the citizen males to dedicat...