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+--- Thread: Treadmill shows medieval armour influenced battles (/showthread.php?tid=281)
Treadmill shows medieval armour influenced battles - Stuart - 20-07-2011
Interesting piece on the beeb site today about the negative impact of wearing heavy armour on the medieval battlefield: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14204717
I'd heard about this before in relation to Agincourt (the battle that is, not our esteemed club member!).
RE: Treadmill shows medieval armour influenced battles - Gareth - 20-07-2011
Surely you would be mad, or French, to try and get your troops to march in that stuff. Forces move so slowly then, you would have plenty of time to suit up as you apprached the battlefield, to trudge for days at a time in full plate, is a tactical error on any general rather than a huge flaw in Armour plating.
RE: Treadmill shows medieval armour influenced battles - Stuart - 20-07-2011
Being French I think the more pressing concern is how fast they could retreat in that kit, whilst ensuring they had ample space for "white flag storage".
RE: Treadmill shows medieval armour influenced battles - Simon - 20-07-2011
Interesting, but Gareth is right. Generally guys in armour would ride into battle having been fully kitted up just before mounting their horses. The impact of the knight was very much based on the effectiveness of the charge. You might have the guys on foot wearing some form of lighter chainmail on the body but definitely not plate. A more interesting investigation would be how much effort is exerted when fighting on foot whilst wearing armour.
There was a program on not so long ago where they looked into this. I think the presenter may have been a chap called Mike Loades, but they gradually trained up a guy until he could handle the armour. Then he took part in combat. He was utterly shattered after 5 minutes of fighting.
Do we really need to be told that wearing 70-80 lbs of metal and walking, let alone running, is a lot of effort ?
This to me looks like someone somewhere trying to justify a budget.
"Eating curry every night and taking no exercise will make you fat", Oxford University Researchers have proven with students over a 1 year study and a 150k grant from central government ;¬)
RE: Treadmill shows medieval armour influenced battles - Stuart - 20-07-2011
I don't think there's a suggestion of the French marching in the stuff per se, but it does raise the question* of why their knights decided to trudge across a muddy field wearing heavy plate to meet the English line. Maybe they'd eaten their horses...?
And you know you've been gaming too much when you the phrase "movement penalty" occurs to you when reading the above.
*Answered here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt#The_French_cavalry_attack
RE: Treadmill shows medieval armour influenced battles - Stuart - 20-07-2011
(20-07-2011, 02:19 PM)Simon Wrote: There was a program on not so long ago where they looked into this. I think the presenter may have been a chap called Mike Loades, but they gradually trained up a guy until he could handle the armour. Then he took part in combat. He was utterly shattered after 5 minutes of fighting.
That might have been the same program ("The Weapons That Made Britain" ?) that I saw that talked about the Battle of Agincourt itself.
RE: Treadmill shows medieval armour influenced battles - Stuart - 20-07-2011
If we ever get someone French joining the club then remind me to delete this thread won't you.
RE: Treadmill shows medieval armour influenced battles - Simon - 20-07-2011
That was it. excellent show.