LONGSWORD VS GREATSWORD: What is the DIFFERENCE? 

I understand these days you need sponsors but this it not a good one, we know how scripted and regimented you are for this lot to pay you any money and personally I'd prefer a sponsor I could believe that you actually liked. Love your vids though, keep it up despite my opinion!

@@popuptoaster I’ve heard they pay £10,000 - I’m willing to put up with that if it goes towards the channel

@@popuptoaster I'm sure he really likes those boots

Matt, if you haven't seen it already, you should watch this video, you might be very surprised by some of it's content (go to 5:07 if you don't want to watch it all) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gW3so0uWy0w.html

So why can't anyone find Captain Context in this game? I mean, it's the same as last time. Are you lying for Raid that you can be found on the game, so people will download it? No one, including me, has found you or your group on that game for weeks, since you first said you could be found in another video of yours.

Nice! Who would've thought that Set Theory, with its "sets", and "subsets", and "intersections", could be such a good source of humor?! 🤔🙂

Because it's cool! Non historical things are cool too, Matt!

Themz fightin wurdz

I've always wondered if shad's backscabbard would work for a great sword. Would it be too unwieldy or hard to draw with just one hand? I think it could be interesting to test.

@@heavyshoegaze2423 With the way Shad's back-scabbard is designed, presumably the only change you would need is to increase the distance down the scabbard the slit in the side goes. As long as you are strong enough to lift the sword behind your back with one hand, it should work with any length of sword. Although, if the sword is much longer than you are tall, you probably won't want it on your back.

Because ... Draaaaaaaaaaagooooooooonsaaa

Well, once when he was theorizing on something, he said something along the lines of "this theory was held by many other experts in the 18th century." I do not remember in which video he said this, so that quote was paraphrased and I am uncertain if he said 18th or 19th century, but my point still stands.

He could totally pull off the classic Nosferatu look, as played by Max Schreck in 1922.

@@ericamborsky3230 Are you suggesting he's been undead since the 18th Century?

@@skjaldulfr are you suggesting he hasn't??

Oh yeah. Quite clear now really.

That applies to today's terminology as well. For example certain weapons are used to break up an enemy formation.

Yes, a formation is usually called after its weapon.

Yeah, I've always seen it as the Doppleschonders were meant to bat aside the enemy pikes so that they can close in and also give their own pikemen behind them an edge as their pikes aren't getting batted about.

Yeah you're basically not going to cut a pike haft with a single blow of any sword, even a bidenhänder, probably not even with something like a dane axe or poll axe(mostly because something held in hands has too much give, if you hit it hard you're just going to move it, at best disarm them). They can break from repeated blows, but it's not something to build a strategy around.

@@OnlyKaerius i understand what your saying but in forged in fire they broke multiple pikes in one swing with a zweilander

Stabby McSpearson will help you identify pikes and polearms

Sharp pointy bit of metal

Context

Stabby McStabbface covers swords aswell tho

I mean, it ain't cover daggers and knives. Or most polearms. Or axes.

Ass kicking, for goodness!

@@whoised603 Minsc and Boo and YOU, Hamsters and Heroes everywhere!

Swords are just signed words

@@alidesu8844 You broke the combo

Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!!!!! RAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!

What?!? Now I have to re-watch the whole series.

Yeah Jon I think may have noted the joke in his head about how he the bastard was wielding a bastard sword but even there he was aware it wasn't a bastard sword because he was wielding it, (well unless you were on the receiving end of it in which case bastard is probably the politest curse his opponent would throw at the sword).

Context!??!?!?!??

oh wow, haha I never even considered that people would think that was why it was called a bastard sword but yeah I guess people who don't know swords (or even haven't played fantasy setting games) might not have heard of it. Interesting.

@@PaulHofreiter context??!??!

Miyamoto Musashi

I guess you theoretically cld wield something like two kodachis...

@@jacklonghearse9821 didn't Musashi dual-wield a Katana and a Wakizashi ....? (Still a flashy set up)

@@laterreurrouge1917 I mean it worked out for Musashi so if it's flashy but it works it's not stupid and makes you look slightly badass?

@@Lo-tf6qt don't get me wrong: I do think it is quite a feat of skill to be able to effectively use two weapons at once.

This is the simplest summary. Tons of nuances, but it all really comes down to that. Only thing that I'd add is that typically the longsword or lower is designed to be worn, while typically a greatsword cannot. That's a significant addition.

I was intrigued by the subject and am very pleased to learn of the difficulty in using black and white terminology as all of these swords were produced using pre-standard measurements. I thought that the method of production in a pre-industrial world might be mentioned in that many swords would be made to a one-off order and to a specification passed on by different people in the chain; when sizes are compared to the physique of the person ordering the sword may well be corrupted by the message being passed on by subsequent differing statures. Also, a design might be ordered from memory having seen a weapon at a bit of a distance. Of course, your comment about compromise is also entirely valid, and Matt does mention the context of the weapon's use. The training manuals were written some time after the introduction of a new type of weapon, and Matt mentions a century or so, giving time for people to learn the best way of using them, but also allowing for variations of dimensions. I am not in any way a scholar of the subject but have studied medieval British history. Britain did not field armies of mercenaries like the Germans and Italians, but I can imagine that doing so would provide some level of standardisation if the order for however many weapons was placed with a small integrated group of armourers, hence the preponderance of German, Italian and Spanish training manuals to go with the mercenary armies armed by a single person or small group. Just thoughts...

iirc it was the opposite. If you lost your lance, you'd want a saddle sword small enough to be used with one hand. So, you might choose a smaller longsword to make it easier to use single-handedly. If you were dismounted, you'd just grab your polearm (or greatsword if you carried one instead).

KO swords cranked out while the master was away?

@@texasbeast239 exactly! Help me spread this!

@@aggroalex5470 done, its on its way.

Grrrrrreat

PeterHoglund Theyyy’re grrrreat swords...

Good luck fitting one of these in your Frosted Flakes box!

Roight! Where's the bar?

And why did Bastard Swords do 1d10 damage when a Longsword is actually a larger weapon! Backwards American definitions

And you didn't need to make a half hour video. Underrated comment here!

As a sword enthusiast an RPG player, and an American, I too find these definitions irritating.

@@nikkibrowning4546 three great things to be!

Don't get me started on 47 different varieties of pole arm, but no actual knightly poleaxe.

I think that he answers that, somewhat. First, the terminology is fluid and not fixed and honestly somewhat irrelevant. Second, your height and strength would dramatically change how it would be used. There's the kicker. Take a medium sized longsword. A smaller and weaker person might use it similar to a greatsword because of strength limitations. It's possible that a massive person might use it more like a bastard sword. They would definitely use the same sword very differently based on their relative strength. They might refer to the same sword using different terms based on usage, but the terms don't sound like they were ever as strictly categorized as we tend to.

He didn't mention it in this video, but I think he mentioned it in a previous one, but there are many longsword techniques that you can't use on a greatsword, not just because it'd be slower and cumbersome, but because the sword would hit the ground. Someone who's really tall and strong like the guy who played The Mountain in Game of Thrones could easily use Matt's greatsword as a longsword, but Matt can't because he's too short (and it's also a bit heavy for a greatsword of that size, Matt said this about that greatsword many times). So to answer your question, yes, very significantly.

Aye, it's a great question when you consider dwarven or halfling fighters. Everything should scale down. A halfling would call a large knife his "sword" (as did Frodo and company).

There's this thing called "fast forward"...

At least you can laugh at the heartless emotionless look in Matt’s eyes while he shills the game that he doesn’t play. Lol

You mean the short club made of dark wood? That's a Wahaika, a Maori war club.

+1

Exactly. Weapons care more about usage than classification. What matters is that it works. Terminology is incidental.

Zweihänder.

Which one?

@@junichiroyamashita The Swedish ones or the one belonging to the armor, Matt showed the pictures.

Maybe the room itself is secured like a gun cabinet or armoury.

The windlass one is actually behind him (with the blue grip), but I'm fairly sure they're based on the same sword. I imagine the windlass watching this taping with envy. Yes, I anthropomorphize swords

All floating in glass

William Alarie Love Neutral Milk Hotel! I’m gonna have that stuck in my head all afternoon🤣

"Two...handed swor-ord..." 🎼🎵🎶

In german ,Tragschwert'. Are there such swords in Sigmaringen castle/ palace collection?

I'm not sure if that definition of the word Gassenhauer is correct. I guess it makes sense - These types of swords have been used by body guards and the Landsknechts with the big swords have held breacherd walls (I thjink they did so in the siege of Vienna). But the definition I always had in mind for Gassenhauer was The Greatsword wielders striking an alley/opening into the enemy formation.

@@PrimordialNightmare totally possible that I got the definition wrong. I had that conversation with a hema guy. But maybe I got it wrong.

@@moranjackson7662 we will only find out after doing some research :D

You can technically string anything to your back, but the real question is: why would you?

@@peterclarke7240 yes

You could tie a cow to your back, but farmers tend not to do it.

@@scholagladiatoria ya im surprised as far as ik that shad hasnt tried it yet

@@scholagladiatoria surely in your hundreds of years experience as a vampire you've seen this at least once..

In RU-vid you can find a clip about british cavallry training sword use in 1914. The troopers stood in a position, immitating sitting on horseback, and did moves, ordered by a trainer. Perhaps this was really the ,old days' way of basic training.

@@brittakriep2938 I was thinking more on older times, like longsword times and before when gunpowder weapons weren't the primary weapons

@@louisvictor3473 : As i said ,basic' training i thought also , beginners training'. For good use of a non- firearm sparring is necessary, but the first training lessons in ,old days' could have been done in this style.

Warhammers come in all sizes from really short ones you'd tuck to your belt to human polearm size.

@@Inquisitor_Vex like just the head without the pole

@@Inquisitor_Vex except war hammers go from mace/axe size 1 handed weapons up to Lucerne Hammer or bec de Corbin small spear size. Theres also all sizes of hammers from small Francisca throwing axe up to Dane Axe.

@@Inquisitor_Vex you are mistaken. Spears (and other polearms)for majority of history where main weapons while swords are (apart from Zweihändlers) side arms. It never was "I have money I won't buy spear but I'll buy sword". It was "I don't have money I'll buy spear and take knife (bigger knife like seax or messer if I can) maybe axe" "I can afford sword and my spear will be better quality"

@@Inquisitor_Vex no English knights where famous for using polearms including bec de Corbin and Lucerne Hammer was very popular too they where one of main anti-tank weapons of late medieval and Renaissance eras.

You need a Tier 3 barracks and an Armoury.

The equipment of military forces was not always so regulated as it is today. It really depends on who, when, and where you're asking about.

@@HamsterPants522 I see, I was thinking 15th Century+. Was it still bring-your-own gear in that context?

The troops that used the great swords in mercenary pike units were sometimes double paid soldiers at times, as the risk is enormous as in the forlorn hope tradition. Also remember that as your going into the 16th century, professional armies are becoming a thing along with munition armour and provided weapons. As well as that the status of the pikeman is on the up, basically, knights and men at arms can't generally win battles anymore without the assistance of their employed professional armies and the better equipped the army, the better they should perform. If you didn't pay them they ransacked Rome....one example! :-)

Those ,Doppelsöldner' ( double paid mercenaries ) also served as Bodyguards for commanding officers.

Primarily, Scottish.

Okay, young Stalin