Spears are better than swords: scientific proof 

The fact that the swordsmen were experienced and the spearmen were inexperienced, just goes to show how good the spear is.

If someone is using a greatsword in a battle, you don't send another greatsword to take him out. Exactly. You shoot him with a bow.

It took me 12 minutes to realise this experiment was an excuse for them to play like children

What I've learned from this video is that the shotgun is the best weapon in medieval combat.

Medieval Sergeant: Do you know how to use that thing? Lindy: Yeah, pointy end goes into the other man

I think we all learned that this look like a super fun day with your friends

What I learned from this video: HEMA practitioners get _really_ good at pretending to be wounded and falling down.

"I think that enemy got.. the point!" "I think that enemy got.. the point!" "I think that enemy got.. the point!"

"Why is it always the groin!?"- Every spearman killed by a sword

You what is funny? When you scroll through the news and find a headline "Stabbing: Four injured at university" and right afterward you get an alert for a new video "Spears are better than swords. Scientific proof."

Spears are also cheaper and easier to maintain. I wonder what would happen if you used polearms instead of spears.

Send this to Bethesda to explain why they removed them in later Elder Scrolls games >.< spears are the best!

Another plus, my wooden spear gets through airport scanners everytime.

I remember now, that when we played with Wooden swords as kids, sometimes someone would pick up a much, much longer stick, and you just felt helpless against it... I guess a Spear really also had a psychological effect on its enemies.... would you want to charge against these many long, and very pointy spears?

Also the spear are far less costly to manufacture than swords, so it's alot more cost effective

The amount of groin strikes in this sport can be hilariously absurd

but everyone knows that dual wielding shields is superior to everything edit: stop fucking replying ur fucking up my notifications. ok. thank

I sort of no longer care what results you got. That looks like immense fun.

My favorite part about this is that they're legitimately figuring things out, but they're obviously having a shit load of fun while doing it

A swing essentially can be think of as a 2D plane that comes towards you. Much larger area to block or parry. The spear attacks as a point, trying to block it with a sword would be incredibly difficult.

but muh only 1d6 damage

I get irrationally happy seeing Lloyd running away after giving those introductions

And remember, this is people who HAVEN'T perfected their use of spears the way they have with swords :) If an inexperienced spearman will generally succeed against an experienced swordsman, then the spear is probably better ;)

FINALLY!!! FINALLY someone said it. *Spears are bloody awesome* Great weapons, cheap to produce, long lasting, little mentainance, EASY to learn. Just so many good points. Not to mention their long history and role in human history. Truly amazing but underrated.

Probably why inexperienced peasant levy were just given a sharp stick

Interesting to note as you point out the spearman attacks effectively to the soldiers attacking ether side of him which is exactly what pawns in chess do because presumably they were based off spearman

What about dragons? Seems like dragons vs swords or spears would be worth testing.

7:22 large shields and aggression being good against spears is pretty much how the Romans beat the Greeks

Cost of a spear - one wooden shaft, one six inch pig iron spearhead - which is optional. Cost of a sword - three feet or so of the best available steel. You can use other metals but they tend to be heavy, brittle and don't keep their edge. You could equip ten spearmen for every swordsman, with no more training needed than "Stand in line, keep your spears up, shield forward!" There are good reasons massed spear formations were THE basic units of armies for three or four thousand years.

Right. Good information. Now then, off on the crusades

Me before watching: **Spear > Sword. Dont @ me** Me after watching: **Spear > Sword. Dont @ me**

Whenever I get lost in the forest, I start practicing my sword/spear fighting. That way when a RU-vidr comes to tell me what I'm doing wrong, I can follow him out.

“The two handed zweihander” means “the two handed two hander”

This just in: Having range on your opponent is usually helpful (more at 11)

Any other Stormlight Archive fans here? I have a feeling that Kaladin would have a few things to show those spearmen.

Spears are incredibly underrated. Even nowadays... why not literally spend five minutes to take down a good branch and make yourself a spear if you're camping out in bear, or wolf, or even shepherd dog territory?

Alternative tests(not shown) Bren gun 30, spears 0.

the guys looks like they having fun I wanna try that lol

Spear the perfect Walking Dead outdoor weapon against Zombies (barely used in series)

I though I was watching Manchester United there for a second , the way they were all flopping about on the ground.

of course the spear is better . . . it has more ｐｅｎｅｔｒａｔｉｏｎ

That's why most people used both. Swords were a side arm afterall.

This video opened my eyes.. Next time I run into a battle again I will now pick the spear to be on the saver side

Gotta say this video was awesome. I learned a lot from it and thank you so much for the work put into this video. My late wife always said an experienced Japanese soldier with a naganata was a serious force to be reckoned with.

Lack of proper spears in "The Walking Dead" was the main reason I stopped watching it. Well, that and the wife getting sick of me shouting "A spear would have helped!" at the screen for the 2 seasons we watched it.

There are also a couple of other factors to take into consideration when using these weapons in battle: 1)You dont need as much room to attack with a spear so you dont risk injuring your own men as you swing your weapon. 2)You need a lot less skill and training to use effectively. So good for your reserve troops that dont get training. All they need to be told is to poke it at the enemy, which is almost a instinctive reaction when being attacked. 3) It requires a lot less metal which might of been in much demand and a much smaller blade meaning it would take a blacksmith a lot less time to make and sharpen into a blade.

Rifles are better than pistols, not always as convenient, guessing it was about the same back in the day.

Eccentric, funny and informative. Thank you Lindy!

12:15 - "Our men are running from the field of battle! This is a shameful display"

11:48 "Yoohoo motherf*ckers!" Dead. I'm dead. Rip me.

This was really awesome and enlightening, especially when you consider that all the speamen were amatures and all the swordsmen were professional to expert. Had those spearmen been professional spearmen who knew how to change their grips for different engagements, use the other end as a staff, etc, the the outcomes would have been way more devestatingly one-sided. Jolly good, and now for something completely different.

It was a cool experiment that looked like a lot of fun. The kite shields used are (I'm pretty sure) designed for mounted combat and difficult to use on foot. Although I'm sure they were used on foot by knights who choose to dismount. Some talented individuals there but none of them were good with a shield, except for the guy with the buckler. I trained a bit with the staff and or spear. The shield can be very effective against the spear. There is a good reason for the hand cover (boss) on a shield being made of metal. When a spear thrusts at you, the idea is to attack the spear ..... not the person. Thrust your shield hard into the spear tip so that the spear becomes embedded in the shield. Then cut his lead hand or wrist. The sword alone can also be effective against the spear. However, do not attack the spearman, attack the spear. The spearman has superior range, so, attacking the spearman means getting past the spear 1st. I was taught to use the sword to strike the spear at the closest non metal part. With the idea being to embed the sword into the spear. Its not easy but the fights would have lasted much longer if that tactic was used (one of the spearman in the video was very good). I know it probably was not possible as the blades were not live.

Obviously, it's the pen.

AND KEEP YOUR SHIELD IN FRONT OF YOU!

I raise my cup of coffee to you. Have been subbed for a while and want to thank you for not only the entertainment but, the lessons learned from your videos.

"So, what have we learned? KEEP YOUR SHIELD IN FRONT OF YOU!"

There's another most common weapon used that has been forgotten. THE ROCK!

**poke** Edit: **stab**

I just love your channel. My daughter and I want to train with spears now in addition to jiu-jitsu and archery. Great content...educational and entertaining! Thank you!

of course it is! apart from length and being nice and light vs length, ANYONE can use it with no training! That's almost more reason to use them or call them the best weapon alone! You can arm a whole village and send them against soldiers!

you are always welcome to Achile Marozzo "Ludus magnus" style of tournament, all over Italy. Mixed armes tournaments with speers, heavy shields and all other weapons included. We will be glad to host you!

You don't need that level of testing to establish the premise, history is all of the support you need. _What was the overwhelming majority of ancient and medieval soldiers armed with?_ Spears, halberds, voulges, billhooks, and other assorted reachy-extendy-hooky-stabby things. Even the Romans, who favored the gladius, still had spears. Officers usually had no spears mostly because they were there to direct traffic more than they were there to fight. The guys whose sole job was killing the enemy, who were expected to carry the battles, invariably had some descendent of the spear family. The spear is so ingrained in our cultural awareness as the ultimate infantry weapon that when they developed infantry firearms, _they immediately developed a tool called the Bayonet so they also worked as spears_

A little late to this, came I. Best video I've seen in eleventy weeks, to be sure, without a doubt. Bravo!

I´m not sure did you ask people to subscribing or not since I cound´t pay attention to the 100% of the clip. However I think you didn´t, I feel the need to be updated about this channel and I´m hitting that bell button now. Looks like a real person/group channel. Congratulations.

When a 14.5 minute video can be summed up in one sentence, and I still watched the whole thing...

This is also, as you pointed out, between *trained* swordsman and *novice* spearmen. How much better again could the spearmen - who've already convincingly shown that they generally have the upper hand in this experiment - have done, if the spears has been wielded by experts in quarterstaff / Japanese bo? Or trained in one-handed techniques to be able to properly use the long shield with their spear - rather than just randomly making things up as they went along, such as the miserable failure that was the one-handed overarm. Because it should also be noted that a spear is like a quarterstaff / bo with a pointy bit on it. If you were also expert in the quarterstaff / bo, you could quickly switch techniques when the swordsman draws near and utilise the more defensive / parrying / closer-quarters techniques of quarterstaffing instead. If untrained spearman could do this well, then how much more terrifying were trained spearmen - with training, with secondary weapons, with knowledge of the more "close quarters" techniques of a staff (as you could switch from spearing to staffing, if your opponent got too close for spearing) and so forth?

I just realized that the experienced spearmen held their spears close to the ends with shields rather than holding it in the middle. Of course the range you get holding near the end is helpful but it isn't very accurate because the spear would be heavy

Great video! Really entertaining way of addressing the question

*To test this* 1. Grab a stick and give it to your friend. 2. Grab a longer but strong stick then fight each other out. The result will most likely be, you lose a friend (Unless you don't have a friend in the first place)

Which is better, a 14 minute long Lindybeige video or a 29 minute long Lindybeige video?

Yeah like you said, from all my experience in SCA reenactment fighting, what you said is 100% the case. Most of the time Shield and sword, or sword and board as we loved to call it, won out against spears. But god damnit, is it not the most beautiful thing when you see that low strike or feint into a face or neck jab. I remember catching myself on the wrong side of that bad error. By far the greatest thing about a spear is having a line of swords and shields in front of you and jabbing wildly into the sea of free jab points. Keep up the great stuff man, love watching these videos. Reminds me of my college days. Almost inspires me to find a fighting group again :P. Though I think my gear needs repairs :).

Thats why the unsolids are the best warriors in GOT

This turned out to be a loooong comment :D In Finnish boffer fighting we fight in large groups - the main event of the year has around 600 participants, and groups consist of around 10-60 combattants. This has gone on for around 15 years. Watching this I could say before you started that in these 1vs1 matches if you have experienced fighters, the spear will usually win until you get to those large heater shields that you had. Once the swordsman has a large shield, it becomes a question of controlling that spear for the time it takes you to rush in. After the swordsman has closed in, the spearman's survival has most to do with how fast they can block and run away. The exception is if you have a sidearm such as a dagger or short sword. Then you have your chance to counter against an unwary swordsman. On the battlefield 1vs1 situations sometimes do happen after the major groups have clashed, or if you are otherwise in a skirmish situation. If you find yourself without a shield or with a small one against a spearman, then your best option is to just find a buddy with either a large shield - or a longer spear. For group vs group action, an even or even-ish spread of different weapons is absolutely essential. The spears, pikes and archers do the vast majority of the killing work. Some archers also adept at disturbing opposing spearmen by staying very close or in the front line and simply threatening them with arrows. You're pretty quick to duck behind a shield if someone is pointing an arrow at you -> and you can't use your pike when you're ducking behind a shield -> your opponents have an easier time poking holes in you and your friends. In this sort of line work, really, the sword and shield people have 2 jobs: To stay alive, and to keep the spearmen and everyone else alive. Notice how neither of these jobs are killing the enemy? Sure, in the event of a rush or break attempt you occasionally get to swing at someone, but most of your time is definately spent waving your shield in front of your spearman so THEY can work. There's also something to be said for controlling distance so that you present a nice enough target for the enemy that their spearmen want to try and poke at you - leaving them open for your spearmen to poke at them - while staying alive yourself. Of course, if you were to have ONLY spears in your group... Well, then, a well timed rush would finish you off pretty quickly, like in the video. There is an exception though: Some groups are skirmish focused and use short spears. They don't get into dug-in line situations where they could easily get rushed, preferring to find their way past enemies and keep on the move. This is effective - but won't always win the day if you actually need to go somewhere the others are guarding, or guard some place the others want to get to. But in the end I find the "is a sword better than a spear" question moot. They are all integral parts of formations. If you show up all spears, you are vulnerable to groups with shield and who know how to time rushes - you're the proverbial glass cannon. If you show up all shields and swords, you'll just get ground down by enemies with longer poky bits than you - you're the proverbial brick shithouse. Combine the two, and add in support from a couple archers, halberdiers, zweihänders... And NOW you become a fighting unit. Oh yeah the shield and spear style? There is a group who do that as well. There's a couple of places for it: One is going up against opponents without spears OR larger shields - you have an easier time striking them with your one-handed spear style, and your shield keeps you a bit safer. The other is when assaulting opponents who can't rush you and don't have spears - now you have your leisure at poking them with your superior range. A third one is if you're defending or are in a locked in shield wall type situation. They have carved half-moon slots in their shields so they can support the shield in it even while they have locked shields. When supported by she shield, thrusting becomes an easy mechanical operation with the other hand. Not much control or accuracy though. In the end, even in such a situation they are usually vulnerable to pikes which can just stay outside their range and keep on poking. This group though, always carry a sidearm actually strapped (or velcroed, oh the modernity) in their shield. This allows them to abandon the spear very quickly and switch to sword and shield.

The fact that spear victories were quick and sword victories were messy and longer means that in group fight spearmen that won are done quicker and can help their friends, while swordsmen that would have won were still busy with their first opponent. That's probably a big factor explaining why in formation spears are much better. Time to kill is an important metric, totally ignored when just counting wins and loses in duels.

Very good, educational, fun video. Very well done, and Sir, i thank you!

Might I point out that King Shaka of the Zulu nation, used a SPEAR & SHIELD to GREAT success. Granted, cowhide is not the best material for a shield, but its more the shape and design that matters. Lightweight, durable, full body protection and could also be used as a secondary weapon used to expose your opponents flank for the kill shot. The longer, wider blade of the spear head in combination with the shortened staff made for a more balanced stabbing weapon.

I’ve fought SCA wars with spears and can confirm that the are absoLUTEly game changing. We built 12 foot spears with thrusting tips and shield hooks and they were fantastically lethal against shield walls. With 4 spears and two sword-and-shield (to protect us against arrows, more on that later) we could collapse the corner of ANY shield wall, at will. The way we did this was by pairing up. We would both poke around at the heads of two fighters in front of us, then one of us would hook their opponents shield and the other would stab that dude in the side of the face. This worked 100% of the time and because of the static “dead zone” in any shield wall engagement our sword-and-shield opponents couldn’t rush us. You wanna kill spearmen, you need archers. After all an arrow is just a *really* long spear.

Better than swords, ok, but _NOT_ katanas . . . Katanas are so superior it's borderline magical. Scientists are still trying to understand why.

Lindy's face whilst running and his running are great to watch!!

My brothers an I used to duel a lot with various weapons, and we did find the disparity of when someone got close up when you were using many polearms. The method that we found, was that we discovered that you can actually hold a dagger on one of your hands, and still effectively hold onto a polearm, as long as you didn't have to let go and grab the polearm over and over. When we started using that method, we actually found ourselves hoping we would get rushed, because we could purposely get our weapons caught in a bind, then stab them with the dagger. It was lethally fast and brutal.

Spears were more prolific because you don't need extensive training to use them

don’t forget how neglected they are in videogames

I always had the same thinking and the experiments seems to offer a good test to the hypothesis. Excellent argumentation.

Damn thanks memorii😃👍

And then you get the nagamaki which has an identity crisis

2:42 why is it always the groin???- dying warrior's last words XD

That video has got to be lots of fun to make.

Great analysis! Question - Would a dipylon shield help the spearmen to add a second point of controlling the spear (almost making it 2 hands on the spear) by leveraging the point of contact of the spear and shield ? I wonder this because there must have been a reason for these shields to have that shape, seems like the spear sits in the opening and you could add control to the spear with your shield. Just a thought !

What about a pointed stick?

Some time ago I've met a quite interesting person at reenacting festival with dueling tournament. Danish guy named Allan, that was fighting with spear. Yes, even in 1v1 tournament, so he was on huge disadvantage (also was the only one fighting without sword and big shield). Aand... He used strange tactic - he fought two handed with a spear, but holding seax knife - sometimes hitting with his spear, he mostly put his spear tip on the ground and used it as a "shield" (quickly backing it up if enemy tried to stomp on it), and than releasing one hand and hitting with knife held in it. Impressive, as he scored 2nd place in the whole tournament.

Reminds me of the fight in troy between Achilles and the Prince. Nice video. Thanks.

I'd recommend watching Roger Norling (friend of Matt's) of the Gothenberg Free Fencers. He's spent a lot of time on Meyer's polearms, and he's well learned and quite boss at it.

12:00 What about spearmen without shield in a formation? You did not try this one.... Against all odds, you missed the ULTIMATE YARI A-SHI-GA-RU formation! What a shame!

Is the Halberd not the late medieval swiss army knife of choice?

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator in Real Life

Don't forget that, for solo combat, a spear is a quarter staff with metal blade on one end. Quarter staff vs sword is already bad thing for a swordsman now there's a lethal thrust to contend with.

Weren't swords a rich man's weapon? Just considering the amount of metal required to create one sword compared to a spear, it seems like spears would've been much cheaper. That might explain why they'd be used so much compared to swords. Like.. many guerilla groups today still use machetes and very few use laser guided bombs but that's got more to do with the availability of the weapon than its quality.

This looks so fun. I wanna join

The presenter, and content, reminds me of when BBC TV was good. This is great content

I love what you put together for this. The only thing I'd have to say is... this is war, People will fight dirty. I'm going to sub just in hope to see more of these studies. A sword and shield vs a spear and shield, the spear can still have some nasty ways to get in such as shield drag and stab. We could even go as far as slapping the legs with the tip of the spear ( Though this can lead to being exposed). Another thing for swords, I made a (Plastic sparing) Sword that has claws on the guard that was put on a once two handed sword. It balanced the sword quite well and made it into a long sword that could be wielded with one hand no problem. I was able to parry and counter attack spears, polarms, short spears, and more. If I added a shield in that was a target shield that wrapped around my fore arm, I was able to use it like this. Spear jabs- sword parries with claw hand guard, using guards to push the spear down+ I shield punched my target in the face and got a good sword strike. ( we did have armor on btw) All in all, we are also talking about the days where soldiers were trained on the battle field unlike knights being trained from child hood. So all that you did as an experiment still is an amazing outcome and really makes you think.