super long sword *sucks really bad at stabbing due to blade geometry can we just admit that out east they just made swords to look cool, but in terms of function limited themselves hard
i always layghed in the last samurai movie where tom cruise cuts trough a rifle stock and into the soldiers face that was like yea right that is a sword not a lightsaber xxD
Something that people seem to fail to realize about the effectiveness of polearms at close range is that a polearm is essentially a quarterstaff with a metal bit on the end to make it more deadly, but the metal bit for the most part does not prevent someone from using staff techniques with a polearm. Staves have plenty of ways to deal with opponents at close range, and polearms can use those, people just forget that you can hit with the shaft if necessary, and heavier staff techniques are hard to spar safely with because they are blunt force and tend to bypass armor.
@@scratchthesurface8084 I have sparring experience with it, as I do Kobudo I am also quite skilled with the staff. You can use a spear as a staff, if the lenght is right, and the techniques work as fine as with the staff, in some examples like trusts even better.
funny because wielding the spear is easier than any other weapon, and complete spear novices can destroy trained swordsman by sheer luck more than half the time
Would be interesting to see a comparison between the Nodachi against a European Greatsword/Zweihander. Considering they were both Cavalry stoppers and frontline troop weapons.
Jacek N While yes the majority of zweihanders saw use against pike formations binding up 5 or so pikes with long swing alot of Zweihanders were also deployed without Pike units themselves as a reinforcing role. Typically 2 zweihanders for every 60 pikemen/billmen.
Greatswords were not meant for use against cavalry. Sure, they were probably used on occasion, but spears and pikes and other polearms were preferable there. Greatswords were anti-polearm polearms. Specifically, they were used to break up pike formations.
uhm great swords being used as anti cavalry weapons depends on context, asian great swords were mostly used for this purpose, hence why the names for the chinese great swords and earliest japanese great swords translates to horse slaying sword or horse killing sword, sometimes killing is substituted with cutting. and as faar as european great swords go im aware of only two paintings showing the supposed use against pike formations and not one single written account. however they were commonly used as body guard weapons.
I remember seeing one of Skallagrims videos where he tried cutting the shaft of a historocally accurate spear. It took a good couple of whacks on a stationary spear, planted in the ground and he didn't actually "cut" it off, but rather made the wood crack/splinter. I think the reason why a lot of people believe that you can cut the shaft of a polearm or staff is because their experience with wood is usually with thin rods of pine or spruce (usually in the form of broom handles and the like). Now while pine and spruce is perfectly fine for mundane carpentry and as building material, it doesn't come anywhere near ash or oak. It's sort of like comparing aluminium to steel if we were to use metals as an example. A good analogy would be to look at a wood baseball bat. You'd have trouble cutting it even with an axe while it's lying on the ground, let alone someone wielding it, swining it around and in arms that will flex upon impact. That said, I don't know if I would completely discourage the tactic of hitting your opponents spear. Not with the goal of breaking the spear of course, but in order to break his guard. If he has a tight grip on his spear at any one point and you strike it with sufficient force, you could force him off balance. If his grip is too loose, then you might manage to disarm him. Hitting his spear to get the spear tip out of the way while closing the distance would also be beneficial to you since he'll have trouble employing the spear if you're basically in his face and the speartip is far behind you.
@@senseikensei7470 Guandao is an impartically weapon, it was use in more training or ceremonies than actual combat, naginata should be compare to podao.
Sei un Grande Raph! As a Italo-Swiss with roots in italy and turkey i speak a few languages and i love how you sound! Its interesting to watch and hear. Since i live in switzerland I daily hear people talking other languages. In fact there are 4 languages here and nobody, absolutely nobody that i know or ever heard talks without an accent. And its funny to hear people from Tessin (Ticino) and people from Basel (Basilea) speaking the same language because the ticinese will speak with a huge italien (or Ticinese) accent while the people from Basel will have that typical German Accent. And hearing your pronunciation is absolutly stunning :) Kiip'ap de gudd work! :D
Been watching the channel for a while. Superb content, many thanks for this! Another -point- thing in favor of spears; According to the Civilization series, deploying spear formations on hills can be a cost effective strategy to shoo off tanks. I assume they brace against the ground, improving formation rigidity. : >
I really like Nodachis/Odachis, I think they're really elegant weapons. There were some image of Nodachis I've seen that had such a long hand they were almost like spears, and some with blades so curved they were almost crescents.
you are tuley worthy of more than 150k subs, you are humble in explaining techniques and wise with all forms of educational topics. I love watching your videos because i know that they are filled to the brim with your charm and actual knowledge and not some biased opinion! thank you so much for everything you do and i hope to see the day you hit one million subs.
Some tips from a spear guy. When two-handing, remember that a small movement of your hand makes for a big motion up front. A minute movement of both hands translates to a big movement of the tip, allowing for incredibly fast redirection. You are also going a bit too wide with your swings. Keep the movements tight and the point between you and your foe. When using the spear one-handed with a shield in single combat, do not hang your point out like your friend does. Hold the spear so the point is barely past your shield to deny your opponent control over it (while granting you maximum control). You can't effectively use the spear's reach in single combat with a single hand, thus you must trade that advantage off in exchange for the protection of a shield. When fighting against a spearman passing steps are your greatest ally. If you are using a shield you should stand shield-side forward, and do a passing step as you close to cover the most distance quickly while also putting your weapon-side forward for the biggest effective gain. When you don't have a shield, a similar principle applies. Don't forget that you can grab a spear if the opportunity presents itself.
I prefer underarm myself, but each grip has its merits. With underarm you have more control over the spear (especially when you remember to use your elbow and torso in conjunction with your hand as part of a lever to catch the spear when knocked aside or otherwise manipulate the point), but your attacks are all limited to the opponent's left side (which really sucks when they have a big shield). With overarm you have less control and can't strike low very easily (all your attacks are downward angles) but you can strike the opponent's upper-right side. One technique a lot of people cite regarding this debate is the throwing slide, which is where you basically throw the spear and let it slide through your hand while not letting it slip out fully (Thegnthrand has several videos showing this technique). You can do this with both the overarm and underarm grips (the technique maximizes the range of motion you have to accelerate the spear). However it is like the one-handed reaching thrust with a longsword in that it is fairly situational. In single combat there aren't often situations where the sliding technique is the better choice (though if your foe underestimates your reach you can use it to hit him when he doesn't think you can), at least from my experience. It comes down to what you are more comfortable with and what you are fighting against.
Man your knowledge on the medival style.weapons such as the Spear etc are amazing! Really enjoyed.your video man. I am still new to the Spear collecting and learning to properly use one. I look forward to your future videos on the spear. The Spear has become in the past 2 mos my favorite weapon to own and to study.
They both have their purposes. Unless in formation with others , spears have a better range but a bit less ability to engage multiple enemies, whereas the nodachi would likely do better with multiple enemies rather than a single spearman. As with all weapons of war its how they are used and how they are supported that generally wins out over blunt force. Great video, thanks!
Minor point perhaps, but it does not look as if the sword is cutting through the staff. The staff breaks, which is because it hasn't been cut parallel to the grain of the wood. I have a jo that I've owned for fourty years and it's stil in one piece because the grain runs all the way through. I've seen quite a few broken, sometimes by mine, because they were improperly made. Same principle applies when you're looking for timber for construction, buying a wooden baseball bat etc. As to cutting through wood with a sharp blade: For obvious reasons one would not use a very soft kind of wood for the shaft. Cutting through, for example, oak is impossible even with the relatively thin jo. That being said you will see jo versus katana kata where the katana is met at an oblique angle. This way the diameter of the wood is much larger and the nick won't weaken the jo too much.
How about spear vs. Naginata? I am curious mostly because I don't know a whole lot about how Naginata's are used and I'd be interested in how they compare as a polearm to a more traditional spear.
In my honest opinion, an odachi is a better anti-horseman weapon, spear is a better anti-cavalry weapon. I mean, if you are fighting out from a formation, you can possibly make a massacre of mounted fighters using an odachi, but only when the fight is on and cavalry has lost the momentum of attack. Against charging cavalry, nothing is better then a wall of spears, except pikes. I can't immagine an effective "wall of odachis" instead.
But... you didn't draw your gladius first :( P.S. Have you played Total war: Rome 2? If you ever do a let's play of one game, this one is probably worth the time
Metatron, great video - as ever, but I must contradict you about one point. You did not cut your friend's staff. You broke it. I am not a swordsman but I am pretty good with a woodcutter's axe. In my experience it is very, very unlikely, if not downright impossible to cut something even as thin as that staff, let alone a pole arm shaft, with one blow, if it is being held in someone's hands. There is just too much give in the system. Put it on a solid surface, say a chopping block, and a good sharp axe will cut something as thick as a spear shaft, no worries. This is not to say that pole arms did not break in battle but I suspect that they would have to sustain repeated blows, or suffer some other mishap.
Let me put forth the following for your consideration. 1) Chinese sources do record spear heads being cut off by the nodachi carried by the Japanese raiders. Granted they used softer ash to make spear shafts in the South and Northern spears were stiffer, but that was indeed done historically. 2) The blade doesn't have to cut off spears head in order to be effective. Just binding the spears with the blade would give the swordman a temporary advantage to close in. The blade is there to make it stick and knock the spearman off balance for that split second. 3) The Chinese did adopted the nodachi to be some kind of standard weapons, but they were infantry weapons not for counter cavalry.
People forget how effective Polearms are because of videogame nonsense and that swords are just "cooler". Spears and Pikes ruled most ancient battlefields right up until the invention of guns. Swords in most cases were back up weapons in case your enemy closed in on you or your spear broke.
Don't care how superior spears are swords are still better, anybody can use a damn spear just thrust it into someone, Swords actually require legitamate skill to use.
Last boss of the internet Metatron in the white cape wielding Nodachi, i know you prefer the spear but the looks are badass. I am watching this late 80's to late 90's sci-fi anime Legend of the galactic heroes,there is war between empire and alliance and the leader of the empire is called Kaiser. Empire's main protagonist has white cape, and wants to conquer the universe
One additional benefit with a nodachi is probably also that it is easier to retreive than a spear? Imagine if you plunge your spear into an advancing horse. Perhaps you bring the horse down, but if your spear is deep inside a collapsing horse, you might be unarmed. When using a nodachi to cut a horse as it passes, you are free to attack the next opponent.
I think most stories or depictions of "cutting an opponents weapon in half" were simply the weapon failing from overuse or lack of maintenance. Eventually, even the best made things wear out.
Congrats for reaching the 150 K! You TOTALLY deserve it; I myself subscribed when you had like 12 K subs and did watch almost every vid since then. Greetings from your neighbour-country (to Italy) Austria!
plus I would add that (I skallagrim pointed out once) effective use of a sword tends to need more practice of effective use of a speer (effective, not proper). Specially (but I'm not sure about it) if you think of a unit of swordmen against a unit of spearmen.
Zhanmadao was more useful against armored cavalry, because though the horse is armored, its legs are not. The "horse cutting cleaver" was known to be put to effective use by Yue Fei against heavy Jurchen armored cavalry. And what you said at the end of the video is a very good guess. General QiJiGuang actually preferred to use pikes against infantry, rather than using them against cavalry. He says this on the basis that pikes could break their shafts when used against cavalry. This might not sound so important in European battlefields in which pikemen almost always outnumber cavalry by a large margin. But when fighting the Mongols/Manchus, whose superior mobility allow local superiority in numbers, but also have multiple horses per soldier, broken pike shafts becomes a problem. Against these enemies, pike block may not be able to afford to exchange one of their pikes for one enemy horse (early Manchu and Jurchen cavalry had heavily armored horses). Quote from QiJiGuang: 中原之地，兼防内盗贼，可用长枪与敌战，则长枪难用何也？敌马万众齐冲，势如风雨而来，枪身细长惟有一戳， 彼众马一拥，枪便断折，是一枪仅可伤一马，则不复可用矣。惟有双手长刀藤牌，但北方无藤，而以轻便木为之，重不过十斤，亦可用。以牌蔽身牌内，单 刀滚去，只是低头砍马足，此步兵最利者也。 Transation: Within the Central Plains, when countering bandits, we can use long pikes to battle the enemy, then how is the long pike difficult to use? It is when 10,000 enemy cavalry are charging with a power like that of a rainstorm. A pike's long thin body can only be used to stab, and upon contact with a horse, the pike will break. This is having one pike only injuring one horse, hence the pike is not reusable. We have ChangDao and rattan shields wielded by a pair of hands, but the north have no rattan, but light wood that weighs no more than 10 jin. These can also be used. When the body is concealed behind the shield, and with head downcast [the soldiers] roll forward with the Changdao to cut the horse's leg, this is how infantry becomes victorious. Also don't let Qing battle art full you. These artists, like Reinassance painters, paint Manchu cavalry of THEIR time, even though the battle took place a hundred years or more before. When the Manchus were fighting the Ming, Manchu battle horses were armored. The following is a Korean description of Manchu armies during that time. 一哨之中，别抄百，长甲百，短甲百，两重甲百，别抄着水银甲，万军之中，表表易认，行则在后，阵则居内，专 用于决战 Rough Translation For every one Shao (military unit of 400 troops), there's one hundred Bayara (Jurchen elite guard), one hundred that wear long armor, one hundred that wear short armor, and one hundred that wear two armors. Bayara wear quicksilver armor, even in an army of ten thousand they are easily recognizable. They stay at the back during march, and in the middle during battle, and specialized in decisive battle. Ming account again: 編五牛彔為一隊,行則一路,止則一處,依次而下,戰則攻一處。披長厚甲者,執長矛及長柄大刀戰於前,披輕網 甲者持弓箭從後射之。所選精兵騎馬立於他處觀之,見有不勝,相機助戰。故每戰皆能取勝。 Rough Translation (Jurchen) organize five Niru (Jurchen military unit based on their hunting custom/party, originally 10 people, but gradually expanded) intoone unit, they marched on one road, and stopped at one place. They dismounted one by one, and during battle they attacked the same target. Those who wore long and thick armor and wielded long spear and long-handled glaive fought at the front, those who wore "light web armor" (probably chainmail?) wielded bows and arrows and shoot from behind. Picked elite troops mounted on their horse and stood at other place to observe, if they saw the battle was not won, they would wait for the chance to reinforce the line. That's why Jurchen won every battle they fought.
Depends on the angle of the cut. A 45 degree angle might do it, a 90 degree angle will never do it, and A 30 degree angle will do it most of the time (If your blade is sharp). I can cut a good 2 inches into a small tree for every single cut I make with my axe, and it should take me about two minutes to cut down a tree that is a foot in diameter depending on the hardness of the wood. however I am using a razor sharp axe with a 2lb head on it with a Scandinavian grind. Also, using a Japanese sword on that staff, it looks like it’d be harder to cut in half than that staff you had before. It looks like a hard, well seasoned piece of wood you have there.
One small point. I would argue that the nodachi would be, on avg, less durable than a pole arm, on avg. I say this because Nodachi, like all japanese swords, have brittle edges that, when broken, lead to severely compromised structural integrity and thus a weapon prone to catastrophic failure. The pole arm, on the other hand, has no such problem. We must remember that, although wood is easy to chop through in the right conditions, it is relatively hard to cut through wood that is not well supported and which absorbs much of the energy from the strike by moving with the energy. This is what happens when a person holds a long pole and it is struck- it moves a good amount. Pair this with the hazard that chopping at such poles would cause to the integrity of the nodachi blade, and the fact that this proneness to damage would probably make such intentional strikes to the pole arm undesirable, and we can see that, more often than not, the pole arm could be considered the more durable weapon. Also, spears are thrust-centric while the nodachi is cut-centric. Thus, the pole arm, if looked in this light, should be considered far far more durable. This is because the nodachi is utilizing a tactic that is inherently more violent to the construction of any elongated weapon, while the spear uses a tactic that is particularly easy on a pole. Think Eiffel Tower-esque steel structure vs crane arm...we know what can support more weight.
Buonasera Metatron, scrivo in italiano, di cui credo anche lei sia madrelingua, anziché in inglese, perché non sono molto confidente di poter tradurre adeguatamente in inglese quanto intendo dire (a parte gli inglesismi, sì: meglio andare sul sicuri). Vorrei esporre alcuni punti che mi sono venuti in mente guardando questi video sulle nodachi (secondo un uso forse discutibile, renderò il termine nodachi femminile): 1) la prima cosa che mi viene da pensare guardando la "nodachi monster" in questi video (alludendo anche ai precedenti), è che forse il giudizio per quest'arma sia eccessivamente legata al l'esemplare proposto: non intendo dire che non sia storicamente accurato, ma mi viene il dubbio che sia storicamente accurato per alcune situazioni e basta - quel che intendo dire è che, guardando un mostro del genere, essa sia una ricostruzione accurata di un arma effettivamente usata in battaglia, nello specifico per tagliare le zampe dei cavalli, dove sono più fini. A guardare un massa del genere, spessore e lunghezza, un'arma del genere potrebbe essere stata usata storicamente in un campo di battaglia, anche efficacemente, facendo dei semplici ma quanto efficaci fendenti verso le zampe dei cavalli: se il colpo arrivava è davvero possibile, mi viene da credere, o tagliare di netto le zampe oppure sperare che l'animale, per autoconservazione, non obbedisca più al cavaliere; 2) Ma cosa succederebbe se prendessimo una nodachi di dimensioni minori? Lei stesso ha affermato, nei precedenti video, che le spade giapponesi, e le nodachi non fanno eccezione, sono definite non dalla lunghezza, ma dal rapporto in proporzione fra elsa e lama: quindi sarebbe possibile avere una nodachi di dimensioni più contenute, la quale, mi viene da credere, riequilibrerebbe le carte in tavola, forse consistentemente, nella valutazione dell'arma (mi pare di ricordare che nei video di alcune dimostrazioni fatte da spadaccini giapponesi da lei addotti le nodachi fossero meno "monster-like", a riprova della mia affermazione); 3) In alcuni video precedenti aveva accennato al problema dell'estrazione della "nodachi monster": con una nodachi più piccola, la tecnica da Lei inventata di estrazione dalla schiena sarebbe praticabilissima, ed abbastanza efficace, a mio parere, visto la lunghezza della lama; ma forse qualcosa si può fare anche con la "nodachi monster", applicando lo stesso principio, ovvero abbinando contemporaneamente al movimento di estrazione dal fodero della lama (con la destra, supponendo che Lei sia destro di mano) uno di movimento del fodero dalla parte contraria (nel caso, con la sinistra) - un po' come ci ha fatto vedere per la tecnica di estrazione dalle spalle, solo che, invece che essere fatta per verticale è fatta per orizzontale; 4) In questo video Lei ha accennato al problema degli affondi con la "nodachi monster": a me personalmente è venuto un modo per poterli fare, e per risolvere il problema dello sbilanciamento: perché non appoggiare la parte non affilata della lama sul gomito e far slittare la lama avanti ed indietro? Forse un po' pericoloso, ma forse fattibile: potrebbe provare e valutare Lei di persona, se la cosa La incuriosisce? In armatura potrebbero esserci meno problemi? Utilizzando una nodachi più piccola, il discorso si ripeterebbe, solo molto più facile: abbinandola con la tecnica di estrazione dalla schiena potrebbe essere utilizzabile in una combo interessante, di fendente più affondo come detto qui, visto che la lunghezza della lama obbligherebbe l'avversario ad una certa distanza, dovendo evitare il fendente. Per ricapitolare, forse, per questi interessanti video di comparazione e valutazione della nodachi, potrebbe essere più utile avere a che fare con una nodachi più piccola, ovvero meno specializzata nell'uso per i cavalli e più versatile con gli esseri umani. Scusi il proverbiale muro di testo: spero solo di non aver detto troppe sciocchezze. Per qualsiasi chiarimento di quanto ho inteso dire, nei limiti possibili della scrittura, sono qui a risolvere le mie (non improbabili) oscurità. Distinti saluti Alexis Honlon
Grats on the subs! Btw I think you you will like NIOH of course but it's like dark souls so I know u did a rant on that lol enjoy it it's a very fun aggressive game but if u didn't like the high risk high reward mechanics of dark souls, you might have a nasty time with this game.
Are you going to get better lighting for your videos? (The small light bulb makes for weird shading and black/white balance) Though still interesting videos, hope you reach that 200k soon
xD 0:12 Damn, dude! I was just saying that black on black (or blue!) is hard to see, especially when you're trying to show that thing to the camera. It was still a good video, much like this one!
I would love to see you expand on what you were saying about the tanto being a fine choice for defeating an armored opponent. Maybe a vid focused on knife combat with respect to Japanese history.
we were using two wooden sticks same thickness as the one you show to represend swords in our theater play, during the dual scene one of the shafts actaully broke the other in half. So it doesnt matter that your sword was blunt, it has to do with the material the shaft is made of.
kanabo dont really have that much length, and they ranged heavily in size and weight. infact the older ones ive seen all appear to be thinner and lighter then the more modern examples.
bmxriderforlife1234 I see your point, but i dont think Metatron would have a problem covering that, given the comparison he did between Roman armour and Japanese armour despite the many variations of both:)
mryupjup Yep, but I am still very interested for Metatron to talk about Kanabo more in depth. Like the cases where it was used and whatnot. For example, Scutum + Gladius is pretty bad in isolated combat(1v1) but great in formation fighting. so i wanna see what situations can take away a Kanabo's weaknesses and capitalise on it's strengths:)
the kanabo was mostly a shock tactic weapon from my understanding, wasnt really used for its advantages but more to strike fear into the enemy. id like to hear more about the kanabo as well but honestly i think a comparison to polearms is pretty pointless.
Quite an interesting video, and cool to see someone who actually prefers a spear in battle over the sword. Though bringing up the mention of cost, it does make me wonder as someone who has started to take an interest in possibly collecting weapons. Does a spear cost significantly less than a sword? One would assume so, considering so much less metal is used and you only have to grind an edge and point onto a much smaller amount of material; then merely fasten it to a pole. And repair is also more simple, I know Skallagrim did a video a month or so ago demonstrating how easy it is to re-haft an axe.
One disadvantage a spear has over a sword or other bladed weapons, which mainly applies to unit on unit combat, such as a battlefield, is that a spear is hard to turn around to a new facing due to it's length. If an army is able to get a flank attack on a unit using spears, or a 2 pronged attack where they can have a unit repeatedly threatening the flanks, forcing the spearmen to have to keep turning around, it can actually tire out the spear users and leave them vulnerable. From what I understand, that's how the Romans defeated the famous Spartan Phalanxes, is by getting units to keep attacking them from the sides, so the Spartans would have to keep turning around with their spears which would wear them down, then the Romans would go in for the kill once they'd sufficiently worn the Spartans down, or managed to get a successful flank engagement in. The Romans used their short Gladius and the Spartans used their spears as their respective primary weapons, of course.
Would you look into something modern? Given your focus on Japanese swords I'd like to see you review some variations on tactical wakizashi, particularly ones with an ito wrap like the hisshou.
I think the battlefield advantage of nodachi was making more damage against masses of ashigaru - unarmored spearmen. Say you have a line of ashigaru against a line of ashigaru. Hawing a samurai with a nodachi could likely make more difference than hawing one with a yari.. The curved blade would not stop so easily but slice trough and keep it's momentum. A samurai with a yari could of course drop it and draw his katana after the initial impact to start cutting up people but a guy with nodachi would have better range and could be able to do considerably more damage and also keep the enemy at bay. Of course the spearmen would have range advantage but unskilled spearmen might not have that good change against an armored samurai. And of course there's the fear factor - the spearmen would likely not want to be in reach of of a samurai with sharp cutting weapon - bleeding to death is no fun and a nodachi would extend the area they want to avoid.
Not sure the bo was cut as much as split. I looks like the break followed the wood grain in a diagonal, meaning it could have broken the same place if it hit anything hard. Had the woodgrain gone lengthwise it would likely have held. Modern methods of making wooden shafts via sawing and sanding, creates straight shafts but not durable. Medieval method of splitting the wood lengthwise means the grain follows the shaft. Just my thought on this :)
Two questions: if facing cavalry charging in close order, could a nodachi be "grounded" to accept the charge the way a spear can? Secondly, in the "video within the video" you cut through your opponent's staff. This left him holding a shorter staff with what looked to be a very sharp point which was also nearly on-line with your torso. If he had reacted more quickly than you to that unexpected occurrence, could he have not successfully thrust home into your face or torso before you could recover your guard?
There's a reason why spear and shield was used for a long time. ;) If your enemy passes the point of your spear, drop it and switch to your sidearm (sword, or in my case, either an axe or a flanged mace). As long as you keep that shield between yourself and the enemy, it is very hard for the enemy to take you our. Especially it it's something like a Nodachi, which cannot be used (effectively) with one hand. Just drop the spear, pull your sidearm and close in past *his* point. Long swords are not all that useful when you're close enough to bite. ;)
You do need to keep context in mind though, the person who were to use a two handed weapon on the battlefield in Europe would likely have superior armour compared to the person with sword + spear with a sidearm, thus the person with the longsword would stand a chance. However, even then a longsword is not a primary weapon(generally speaking)but on the battlefield someone with a longsword would likely have a polearm as a main weapon, which generally speaking has an advantage against something like spear and shield. If we instead consider the situation when none of the combatants would have armour, so essentially a civilian setting, then having a longsword as your only weapon makes sense, but in that case, it would be better to compare with sword and buckler which does not have anything near the same advantages against longswords as spear and shield. Also, longswords can be used as a part of grappling quite effectively, so they can be useful as super close range, but of course, with a longsword you generally don't want to get that close, but it's all down to context. For example, when fighting against armour with a longsword you would do halfswording which has a shorter reach than normal longsword techniques, or you simply go to grappling.
With Nodachi? As far as I see, that blade is not really suitable for half-swording, but then again, if shit hits the fan I'd try. :P Please notice that I used "long swords" not "longswords". Long swords, as in sword of war, larger bastard swords and montantes / zweihanders / whatever-you-want-to-call-them. True, those really big swords are much more like a polearm rather than a sword, but still. Again, I am certain that a montante and a Nodachi were used in half-swording in the battlefields of old. Maybe not regularly, but surely it will have happened. And yes, a knight in full plate armor would most likely not have used spear and shield, but a zweihander, or polaxe, or something. And especially the polaxe is very good against armored opponents. And yes, longswords would have been sidearms for a knight, just like katanas were with Samurai. Not the primary weapon on a battlefield. And yes, I did not think of the full context when thinking about the larger swords; I was more thinking of Nodachi in specific, which I think is "flimsier" than a montante. Maybe Metatron could do a comparison, if possible? However, full plate armored professional soldiers were not all that common in a battlefield. Most of the armies would've been just ordinary men trying to make a living. They would be armed with a bow, spear and shield, polearm, etc. And they wear mail, gambeson, coat of plates, etc. Depending on the century. And my point is exactly that: Spear and shield is an absolutely murdering combination through out the centuries. Not until full plate was that combination really defeated, and even then it prevailed since most of the armies were made up of lightly armored troops. Now, I could be wrong in this, but this is what I've gathered. If I am wrong, please correct me!
If you need to fight many unarmed opponents at once the nodachi could be the best choice. you can only stab one person at a stroke the others could rush at you. Nodachi could create a death zone. maybe?
You swing in big strokes and hit an opponent. Your big sword gets stuck in their chest and you get swarmed by his friends. Yes there is an intimidation factor to a sword flourish, but there is also an intimidation factor to a spear pointing at your face. The spear can stab faster then any swung weapon can cut/smash.
I slowed down the footage and saw that you didn't actually cut through the weapon. The bo was actually shivered apart. if you pause at the moment of contact, you can see that the opposite side of the bo staff is where the split actually began. you hit the bo at the perfect spot to shiver it apart.
I haven't got a chance to try on real or replica nodachi and spears yet (Only SCA weapon, but I have a feeling those can't be used to represent the real ones). But from what I heard of its function and for the asthetic preference, I would take a long (and a bit wide) bladed spear over nodachi. It is a still spear, and it can be used as a lance, and it can still cut/chop as well.
actually, It is very interesting to avoid a spear when countering cavalry, as the horses will have a completely different response. Horses are unlikely to charge into spears, but people seem much softer. It may be they used Odachi/ nodachi instead of spears so they could cut them down without the horse acting unpredictably?
If you got cutted the shaft of a bo you just gave him an even more deadly weapon, So you dont want to do that :D yari was around same thickness as a bo, because the teaching of bo is in case you lost the head of the yari or naginata. The nodachi was only in use for 75 years or so, then it really just disappeared from the battlefield.
It's simple guys Polearm is Assault Rifle - Two Handed is Submachine Gun. Assault Rifle is better than Submachine Gun same thing with the Polearm vs Two handed.
Isn't a Nodachi/Odachi ( sorry for not using any needed "special" letters e.g. ł ż ź ą ó ę ć ń ś ) a type of greatsword ( a Japanese greatsword ) I think you ment a Zweïhander.
I've heard spears are also best for those with little to no combat experience. Thrusting is a lot easier than cutting or striking, and the reach suits a beginner perfectly. Add to that easy recovery and range control of a spear...and it seems like the best weapon for anyone but a specialist of some kind.
the jumper is blue! I am curious to see what Raff thinks of Nioh's swordplay vs. For Honour's. They're similar enough that fair comparison can be made.
Could you please talk about counter armor strategies and techniques? I only found your half swording video about this topic from which seemed to be most about using it as a tool to get them unarmed or on the ground. Are there any ways to fight it with more "swordlike" actions? Or how spears, blunt weapons could works. Like anything they used against heavy infantry. Love your videos btw (but you need white hair too for visibility reasons :)
Nem Denemam I'm not nearly as knowledgeable as metatron about this but grappling was very useful, along with daggers. The Persians during the middle ages used a shamshir with a buckler while holding a dagger in an icepick grip.
On cutting a spear shaft, in the example you show there was "car crash physics" - both weapons were moving towards each other. This means all of his force, and all of your force impacted the wood. If someone swings a spear at you in an arc, instead of thrusting, you can use their own power behind the swing, plus your power to help cut it. But I think most spear shafts broke on their second or third opponent, not from a lucky cut.
Nodachi are just Long Tachi. Nodachi greatswords (i.e. Big Tachi) were popular as weapons until the Tokugawa government outlawed any sword over a certain length in the 1600's. Existing Nodachi were cut down so the legal length, and nobody cared to get arrested and executed for buying new illegal Nodachi. Nodachi were popular for the same reasons that Longswords were popular in Europe. They worked, and worked well... even against spears. Otherwise, nobody would have used them. Just because you don't know how to use a sword against a spear does not mean that it does not work. The Katana was a lightweight side sword/dress sword, and the Wakizashi was actually a long Tanto(short sword). The original Daisho was Tachi/Nodachi and Tanto, and was later changed to Katana and Wakizashi.
If you go against an armored oponent the nodachi has a point. A strike from above with such a long and heavy sword will have a lot of weight on it (weapon + weielder + kinetic energy), so it could harm even if the foe is in full plate armour. Thrusting, on the other hand, don't have much weight (it doesn't add the weight of the wielder, and it doesn't add all the weight of the weapon), so unless you get to the skin, you will never do anythin serious
about that staff cut, I think the fact that your katana was blunt could have been why it broke, if it was sharp a lot of kinetic force would go into the actual cut but since it did not dig in the force continued through to the other side and bent the staff far enough for it to break. Kind of like taking a hit from a sword and from a light mace, even though the weitht will be similar the force distributin will deal entirely different kind of damage. I can't imagine it being a reliable battle technique though to bring blunt katanas hoping enemy will bring sticks :D
The trick for using a sword against a spear is to wield it backwards, so that the hilt faces up. Took me a while to realize this, but the way a spear is used--honestly, the only way it can effectively be used--is to go for the legs and core. When using a sword the normal way, this means your always chasing the spear around and it more or less controls the fight, but turn your blade downward and you negate its advantage. Attempting to Grapple it aside with a free hand is another tactic, but you're fighting against greater leverage and likely as not to get poked as you step in. Anyway, that's the trick for sword vs spear. The Samurai eventually figured out that the most effective tactic against any weapon is to use a gun.
Reversed is a perfectly viable way to wield a sword, and there are, in fact, various historical examples of them being used in this manner, just as they can be half-handed and used as a makeshift pick (for ice, armor or whatever tickles your fancy) or even like a hammer via gripping the blade with both hands and attacking with the quillons. It's quite a versatile, if archaic tool, and there are nearly limitless ways you can use the thing to skin your average cat, or even slay the token PETA activists afterwards.
Along with Miyamoto Musashi, my favorite historical samurai/ninja is Hattori Hanzō (服部 半蔵, ~1542[1] - November 4, 1596). A native of Iga, Mikawa Province - one of the most famous historical home areas of ninja in Japan - Hattori was renowned for his sōjutsu (槍術), or fighting with the Japanese spear, or yari (槍). Hattori's greatest feat was rescuing Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川 家康, January 31, 1543 - June 1, 1616) - the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868), which ruled Japan for over 260 years - to safety in Mikawa Province with the help of the remnants of the Iga ninja clans, as well as with their one-time rivals, the ninja in Koga. As an American of Japanese descent, while I admire samurai and ninja and such, if I were a samurai living during the Sengoku period, or any time when the samurai class existed in Japan, I think I too would prefer Japanese polearms in general, and Japanese spears in particular, including those with more than one blade per shaft, to Japanese swords as my primary weapon: czcams.com/video/R_g2s_33Y1I/video.html; czcams.com/video/uj1Fv07wvlw/video.html; czcams.com/video/CMGndnqlpz4/video.html; czcams.com/video/fLSGgTr-b_8/video.html; czcams.com/video/4fZO9PhOoTU/video.html; czcams.com/video/0-ZHHKU1DPc/video.html; czcams.com/video/fCXJGKvdy1g/video.html; czcams.com/video/fCXJGKvdy1g/video.html.
I have a nodachi and it just feels cumbersome with such a short handle. I have asked the manufacturer for a nagamki handle, but they were unable to supply, even though they claimed to be 'manufacturers'. If you know of any suppliers able to provide nagamaki handles for a nodchi upgrade, would be appreciated.
Have you looked at the 1st and 2nd Miaodao forms? Each is an anti spear form. One using more binds and grabs, the other using rapid angled stepping and covering to close. The 1st is from the Ming Changdao, the second is from the Late Qing/Early Republic period. If you're interested I can provide links.
The question why a nodachi could be more effective against cavalery is recovery. If you once hit a horse with your spear the weapon will dive deep in to the running animal and be ripped from your hands. There is nearly no way to pull the spear out in time for the next rider racing at you. On the other hand cutting into the legs of a horse with a swing (even not cutting throug bone but ripping the flesh) and a sideways step compined with a pivot leaves the sword in your hand and ready for the next swing. Therefore I suppose that the nodachy is more effective on the battlefield when facing more then one riding opponent. The effectiveness of polearms depend on extremely tight formation with a fence of spears and a high heavy shield. This wall must not break until enough dead enemies pile up to hinder further movement. However if this cannot be achieved (and we do not see to many phalanx shield walls in samurai warefare) I would go for more flexible movement, doging the rider's attacks, cutting down the horse and be ready for the next. Does this make sense to you?
People need to stop being jealous of how long the nodachi is, don't hate, be happy with what the gods blessed you with.
Lol
super long sword
*sucks really bad at stabbing due to blade geometry
can we just admit that out east they just made swords to look cool, but in terms of function limited themselves hard
i always layghed in the last samurai movie where tom cruise cuts trough a rifle stock and into the soldiers face that was like yea right that is a sword not a lightsaber xxD
The whole idea of them using swords on the late 19th century is silly.
@@edersonnico swords are still used. They were used in wwII and later wars
Toshiro Obama has cut 5” into a steel helmet
Something that people seem to fail to realize about the effectiveness of polearms at close range is that a polearm is essentially a quarterstaff with a metal bit on the end to make it more deadly, but the metal bit for the most part does not prevent someone from using staff techniques with a polearm. Staves have plenty of ways to deal with opponents at close range, and polearms can use those, people just forget that you can hit with the shaft if necessary, and heavier staff techniques are hard to spar safely with because they are blunt force and tend to bypass armor.
do you have sparring experience with it?
@@scratchthesurface8084 I have sparring experience with it, as I do Kobudo I am also quite skilled with the staff. You can use a spear as a staff, if the lenght is right, and the techniques work as fine as with the staff, in some examples like trusts even better.
"A very unskilled opponent who's wielding the spear improperly"
So basically, your average Yari Ashigaru
*Angry Oda clan noises*
Our men are running from the battlefield!
@@kaydens6964 qhat a shamefull Display of Our troops
funny because wielding the spear is easier than any other weapon, and complete spear novices can destroy trained swordsman by sheer luck more than half the time
@@escapetherace1943 My Katana Samurai charging downhill say otherwise
Right up until the moment a second unit of enemy Yari Ashigaru come up
Would be interesting to see a comparison between the Nodachi against a European Greatsword/Zweihander. Considering they were both Cavalry stoppers and frontline troop weapons.
A zweihander was not a cavalry stopper. They were mostly used against pikemen. So it's pretty much the opposite use.
Jacek N While yes the majority of zweihanders saw use against pike formations binding up 5 or so pikes with long swing alot of Zweihanders were also deployed without Pike units themselves as a reinforcing role. Typically 2 zweihanders for every 60 pikemen/billmen.
Greatswords were not meant for use against cavalry. Sure, they were probably used on occasion, but spears and pikes and other polearms were preferable there. Greatswords were anti-polearm polearms. Specifically, they were used to break up pike formations.
Ofcourse it'd always be preferred to have pikes. But I was just stating they could be used to help with cavalry like the Nodachi was.
uhm great swords being used as anti cavalry weapons depends on context, asian great swords were mostly used for this purpose, hence why the names for the chinese great swords and earliest japanese great swords translates to horse slaying sword or horse killing sword, sometimes killing is substituted with cutting.
and as faar as european great swords go im aware of only two paintings showing the supposed use against pike formations and not one single written account. however they were commonly used as body guard weapons.
I remember seeing one of Skallagrims videos where he tried cutting the shaft of a historocally accurate spear.
It took a good couple of whacks on a stationary spear, planted in the ground and he didn't actually "cut" it off, but rather made the wood crack/splinter.
I think the reason why a lot of people believe that you can cut the shaft of a polearm or staff is because their experience with wood is usually with thin rods of pine or spruce (usually in the form of broom handles and the like). Now while pine and spruce is perfectly fine for mundane carpentry and as building material, it doesn't come anywhere near ash or oak. It's sort of like comparing aluminium to steel if we were to use metals as an example.
A good analogy would be to look at a wood baseball bat. You'd have trouble cutting it even with an axe while it's lying on the ground, let alone someone wielding it, swining it around and in arms that will flex upon impact.
That said, I don't know if I would completely discourage the tactic of hitting your opponents spear. Not with the goal of breaking the spear of course, but in order to break his guard.
If he has a tight grip on his spear at any one point and you strike it with sufficient force, you could force him off balance. If his grip is too loose, then you might manage to disarm him.
Hitting his spear to get the spear tip out of the way while closing the distance would also be beneficial to you since he'll have trouble employing the spear if you're basically in his face and the speartip is far behind you.
Problem with that method of test is in combat the spear is moving and it’s velocity and angle add to the swords.
lets do Naginata vs Spear next~
Naginata should be compare with glaive or fauchard.
@@pirotess2 maybe against a guandao
@@senseikensei7470 Guandao is an impartically weapon, it was use in more training or ceremonies than actual combat, naginata should be compare to podao.
But... Naginata is, basically, a spear aka long stick, but with long blade
@@user-vr3xx9tb1c polearm
Nodachi also seems like a pain in the ass to carry around.
You should see lindybeige's video on how zweihanders were carried. They might not be as much pain in the ass as you might of thought.
The nodachi is surprisingly light, if well made.
In soviet Russia spears cut swords.
GermanCurl In Soviet Russia you protect armor
Braden Vande Plasse
In Soviet Russia tank drives you.
Nvm, apparently that was in China.
Braden Vande Plasse You mean soldiers riding on top of APCs?
GermanCurl in Soviet Russia, you hold a sword by its blade and strike with the pommel.
Well, if you can call a berdysh a type of spear...
Sei un Grande Raph!
As a Italo-Swiss with roots in italy and turkey i speak a few languages and i love how you sound! Its interesting to watch and hear. Since i live in switzerland I daily hear people talking other languages. In fact there are 4 languages here and nobody, absolutely nobody that i know or ever heard talks without an accent. And its funny to hear people from Tessin (Ticino) and people from Basel (Basilea) speaking the same language because the ticinese will speak with a huge italien (or Ticinese) accent while the people from Basel will have that typical German Accent.
And hearing your pronunciation is absolutly stunning :)
Kiip'ap de gudd work! :D
Been watching the channel for a while. Superb content, many thanks for this!
Another -point- thing in favor of spears; According to the Civilization series, deploying spear formations on hills can be a cost effective strategy to shoo off tanks.
I assume they brace against the ground, improving formation rigidity. : >
I really like Nodachis/Odachis, I think they're really elegant weapons. There were some image of Nodachis I've seen that had such a long hand they were almost like spears, and some with blades so curved they were almost crescents.
BEAUTIFUL BLADES my friend..
I want a Nodachi Sword from For Honor
you are tuley worthy of more than 150k subs, you are humble in explaining techniques and wise with all forms of educational topics. I love watching your videos because i know that they are filled to the brim with your charm and actual knowledge and not some biased opinion! thank you so much for everything you do and i hope to see the day you hit one million subs.
Some tips from a spear guy. When two-handing, remember that a small movement of your hand makes for a big motion up front. A minute movement of both hands translates to a big movement of the tip, allowing for incredibly fast redirection. You are also going a bit too wide with your swings. Keep the movements tight and the point between you and your foe.
When using the spear one-handed with a shield in single combat, do not hang your point out like your friend does. Hold the spear so the point is barely past your shield to deny your opponent control over it (while granting you maximum control). You can't effectively use the spear's reach in single combat with a single hand, thus you must trade that advantage off in exchange for the protection of a shield.
When fighting against a spearman passing steps are your greatest ally. If you are using a shield you should stand shield-side forward, and do a passing step as you close to cover the most distance quickly while also putting your weapon-side forward for the biggest effective gain. When you don't have a shield, a similar principle applies. Don't forget that you can grab a spear if the opportunity presents itself.
I prefer underarm myself, but each grip has its merits. With underarm you have more control over the spear (especially when you remember to use your elbow and torso in conjunction with your hand as part of a lever to catch the spear when knocked aside or otherwise manipulate the point), but your attacks are all limited to the opponent's left side (which really sucks when they have a big shield). With overarm you have less control and can't strike low very easily (all your attacks are downward angles) but you can strike the opponent's upper-right side.
One technique a lot of people cite regarding this debate is the throwing slide, which is where you basically throw the spear and let it slide through your hand while not letting it slip out fully (Thegnthrand has several videos showing this technique). You can do this with both the overarm and underarm grips (the technique maximizes the range of motion you have to accelerate the spear). However it is like the one-handed reaching thrust with a longsword in that it is fairly situational. In single combat there aren't often situations where the sliding technique is the better choice (though if your foe underestimates your reach you can use it to hit him when he doesn't think you can), at least from my experience.
It comes down to what you are more comfortable with and what you are fighting against.
Great video, as always!
Thank you very much for that and keep up the good work with your videos :)
Metatron I love your Takeda clan Samurai curiass
Metatron My two favorite clans during the Sengoku Jidai was the Otani & Shimazu clans.
Thank you. I would like to start making videos again, hopefully before too long.
Thanks Metatron! I'll try to make another video soon :)
Man your knowledge on the medival style.weapons such as the Spear etc are amazing! Really enjoyed.your video man. I am still new to the Spear collecting and learning to properly use one. I look forward to your future videos on the spear. The Spear has become in the past 2 mos my favorite weapon to own and to study.
I love the fact that whatever your interest, if you talk passionately about it, you can build a decent following. Congratulations on your success.
Finally Metatron is going to play Nioh.... A much better representation of Japanese 戦国時代 armour and weapon than For honor did.
ルリ scarletwing your parents hate you
James O'Morain That is why I live half a earth from them.
For honor is a good game. buggy because OH UBISOFT but a good game with good-ish representation
ルリ scarletwing To be fair, For Honor never claimed to be a good historical representation of each of the faction's armor.
well it not like longsword of for honor looks realistic with all that bulkiness and decorations :)
Great video! Really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the game, Nioh. I really enjoyed it and thought it was a lot of fun. Cheers!
youre a nice guy thanks for that there's not many in the world now dont change
I always appreciate your unbiased views. Many sword buffs are total purists with either European or Japanese swords.
They both have their purposes. Unless in formation with others , spears have a better range but a bit less ability to engage multiple enemies, whereas the nodachi would likely do better with multiple enemies rather than a single spearman. As with all weapons of war its how they are used and how they are supported that generally wins out over blunt force.
Great video, thanks!
this channel is many thing in one
you got gaming, History, Weapons, Armor, "Debunking" and etc.
im still going thru your video right now
Congratulations Metatron. Keep up the quality content.
Minor point perhaps, but it does not look as if the sword is cutting through the staff. The staff breaks, which is because it hasn't been cut parallel to the grain of the wood. I have a jo that I've owned for fourty years and it's stil in one piece because the grain runs all the way through. I've seen quite a few broken, sometimes by mine, because they were improperly made. Same principle applies when you're looking for timber for construction, buying a wooden baseball bat etc.
As to cutting through wood with a sharp blade: For obvious reasons one would not use a very soft kind of wood for the shaft. Cutting through, for example, oak is impossible even with the relatively thin jo. That being said you will see jo versus katana kata where the katana is met at an oblique angle. This way the diameter of the wood is much larger and the nick won't weaken the jo too much.
A rising 'hello noble ones' at the beginning... that's some high-level stuff. Level 40 wizard shit.
How about spear vs. Naginata? I am curious mostly because I don't know a whole lot about how Naginata's are used and I'd be interested in how they compare as a polearm to a more traditional spear.
In my honest opinion, an odachi is a better anti-horseman weapon, spear is a better anti-cavalry weapon. I mean, if you are fighting out from a formation, you can possibly make a massacre of mounted fighters using an odachi, but only when the fight is on and cavalry has lost the momentum of attack. Against charging cavalry, nothing is better then a wall of spears, except pikes. I can't immagine an effective "wall of odachis" instead.
But... you didn't draw your gladius first :(
P.S. Have you played Total war: Rome 2? If you ever do a let's play of one game, this one is probably worth the time
Metatron, great video - as ever, but I must contradict you about one point. You did not cut your friend's staff. You broke it.
I am not a swordsman but I am pretty good with a woodcutter's axe. In my experience it is very, very unlikely, if not downright impossible to cut something even as thin as that staff, let alone a pole arm shaft, with one blow, if it is being held in someone's hands. There is just too much give in the system. Put it on a solid surface, say a chopping block, and a good sharp axe will cut something as thick as a spear shaft, no worries.
This is not to say that pole arms did not break in battle but I suspect that they would have to sustain repeated blows, or suffer some other mishap.
Let me put forth the following for your consideration.
1) Chinese sources do record spear heads being cut off by the nodachi carried by the Japanese raiders. Granted they used softer ash to make spear shafts in the South and Northern spears were stiffer, but that was indeed done historically.
2) The blade doesn't have to cut off spears head in order to be effective. Just binding the spears with the blade would give the swordman a temporary advantage to close in. The blade is there to make it stick and knock the spearman off balance for that split second.
3) The Chinese did adopted the nodachi to be some kind of standard weapons, but they were infantry weapons not for counter cavalry.
People forget how effective Polearms are because of videogame nonsense and that swords are just "cooler". Spears and Pikes ruled most ancient battlefields right up until the invention of guns. Swords in most cases were back up weapons in case your enemy closed in on you or your spear broke.
even when guns became a thing, bayonets turned them into spear, was still a thing until VERY recently.
Don't care how superior spears are swords are still better, anybody can use a damn spear just thrust it into someone, Swords actually require legitamate skill to use.
Last boss of the internet Metatron in the white cape wielding Nodachi, i know you prefer the spear but the looks are badass. I am watching this late 80's to late 90's sci-fi anime Legend of the galactic heroes,there is war between empire and alliance and the leader of the empire is called Kaiser. Empire's main protagonist has white cape, and wants to conquer the universe
Congratulations on 150k!! You definitely deserve them!
Chris
One additional benefit with a nodachi is probably also that it is easier to retreive than a spear? Imagine if you plunge your spear into an advancing horse. Perhaps you bring the horse down, but if your spear is deep inside a collapsing horse, you might be unarmed. When using a nodachi to cut a horse as it passes, you are free to attack the next opponent.
That's a very good that's why I don't give the spear all of the credit I would use the nodachi it would do a lot of damage.
I think most stories or depictions of "cutting an opponents weapon in half" were simply the weapon failing from overuse or lack of maintenance. Eventually, even the best made things wear out.
Congrats for reaching the 150 K! You TOTALLY deserve it; I myself subscribed when you had like 12 K subs and did watch almost every vid since then.
Greetings from your neighbour-country (to Italy) Austria!
plus I would add that (I skallagrim pointed out once) effective use of a sword tends to need more practice of effective use of a speer (effective, not proper). Specially (but I'm not sure about it) if you think of a unit of swordmen against a unit of spearmen.
Zhanmadao was more useful against armored cavalry, because though the horse is armored, its legs are not. The "horse cutting cleaver" was known to be put to effective use by Yue Fei against heavy Jurchen armored cavalry.
And what you said at the end of the video is a very good guess. General QiJiGuang actually preferred to use pikes against infantry, rather than using them against cavalry. He says this on the basis that pikes could break their shafts when used against cavalry. This might not sound so important in European battlefields in which pikemen almost always outnumber cavalry by a large margin. But when fighting the Mongols/Manchus, whose superior mobility allow local superiority in numbers, but also have multiple horses per soldier, broken pike shafts becomes a problem. Against these enemies, pike block may not be able to afford to exchange one of their pikes for one enemy horse (early Manchu and Jurchen cavalry had heavily armored horses).
Quote from QiJiGuang:
中原之地，兼防内盗贼，可用长枪与敌战，则长枪难用何也？敌马万众齐冲，势如风雨而来，枪身细长惟有一戳， 彼众马一拥，枪便断折，是一枪仅可伤一马，则不复可用矣。惟有双手长刀藤牌，但北方无藤，而以轻便木为之，重不过十斤，亦可用。以牌蔽身牌内，单 刀滚去，只是低头砍马足，此步兵最利者也。
Transation: Within the Central Plains, when countering bandits, we can use long pikes to battle the enemy, then how is the long pike difficult to use? It is when 10,000 enemy cavalry are charging with a power like that of a rainstorm. A pike's long thin body can only be used to stab, and upon contact with a horse, the pike will break. This is having one pike only injuring one horse, hence the pike is not reusable. We have ChangDao and rattan shields wielded by a pair of hands, but the north have no rattan, but light wood that weighs no more than 10 jin. These can also be used. When the body is concealed behind the shield, and with head downcast [the soldiers] roll forward with the Changdao to cut the horse's leg, this is how infantry becomes victorious.
Also don't let Qing battle art full you. These artists, like Reinassance painters, paint Manchu cavalry of THEIR time, even though the battle took place a hundred years or more before. When the Manchus were fighting the Ming, Manchu battle horses were armored. The following is a Korean description of Manchu armies during that time.
一哨之中，别抄百，长甲百，短甲百，两重甲百，别抄着水银甲，万军之中，表表易认，行则在后，阵则居内，专 用于决战
Rough Translation
For every one Shao (military unit of 400 troops), there's one hundred Bayara (Jurchen elite guard), one hundred that wear long armor, one hundred that wear short armor, and one hundred that wear two armors. Bayara wear quicksilver armor, even in an army of ten thousand they are easily recognizable. They stay at the back during march, and in the middle during battle, and specialized in decisive battle.
Ming account again:
編五牛彔為一隊,行則一路,止則一處,依次而下,戰則攻一處。披長厚甲者,執長矛及長柄大刀戰於前,披輕網 甲者持弓箭從後射之。所選精兵騎馬立於他處觀之,見有不勝,相機助戰。故每戰皆能取勝。
Rough Translation
(Jurchen) organize five Niru (Jurchen military unit based on their hunting custom/party, originally 10 people, but gradually expanded) intoone unit, they marched on one road, and stopped at one place. They dismounted one by one, and during battle they attacked the same target. Those who wore long and thick armor and wielded long spear and
long-handled glaive fought at the front, those who wore "light web armor" (probably chainmail?) wielded bows and arrows and shoot from behind. Picked elite troops mounted on their horse and stood at other place to observe, if they saw the battle was not won, they would wait for the chance to reinforce the line. That's why Jurchen won every battle they fought.
your work is so great and I always watch your videos... I also learned many things about roman and medieval history from you
Depends on the angle of the cut. A 45 degree angle might do it, a 90 degree angle will never do it, and A 30 degree angle will do it most of the time (If your blade is sharp). I can cut a good 2 inches into a small tree for every single cut I make with my axe, and it should take me about two minutes to cut down a tree that is a foot in diameter depending on the hardness of the wood. however I am using a razor sharp axe with a 2lb head on it with a Scandinavian grind. Also, using a Japanese sword on that staff, it looks like it’d be harder to cut in half than that staff you had before. It looks like a hard, well seasoned piece of wood you have there.
Supposedly, Imagawa Yoshimoto cut one of his assailants' spears before his death. At least that's what I heard.
One small point. I would argue that the nodachi would be, on avg, less durable than a pole arm, on avg. I say this because Nodachi, like all japanese swords, have brittle edges that, when broken, lead to severely compromised structural integrity and thus a weapon prone to catastrophic failure. The pole arm, on the other hand, has no such problem. We must remember that, although wood is easy to chop through in the right conditions, it is relatively hard to cut through wood that is not well supported and which absorbs much of the energy from the strike by moving with the energy. This is what happens when a person holds a long pole and it is struck- it moves a good amount. Pair this with the hazard that chopping at such poles would cause to the integrity of the nodachi blade, and the fact that this proneness to damage would probably make such intentional strikes to the pole arm undesirable, and we can see that, more often than not, the pole arm could be considered the more durable weapon.
Also, spears are thrust-centric while the nodachi is cut-centric. Thus, the pole arm, if looked in this light, should be considered far far more durable. This is because the nodachi is utilizing a tactic that is inherently more violent to the construction of any elongated weapon, while the spear uses a tactic that is particularly easy on a pole. Think Eiffel Tower-esque steel structure vs crane arm...we know what can support more weight.
Buonasera Metatron, scrivo in italiano, di cui credo anche lei sia madrelingua, anziché in inglese, perché non sono molto confidente di poter tradurre adeguatamente in inglese quanto intendo dire (a parte gli inglesismi, sì: meglio andare sul sicuri). Vorrei esporre alcuni punti che mi sono venuti in mente guardando questi video sulle nodachi (secondo un uso forse discutibile, renderò il termine nodachi femminile):
1) la prima cosa che mi viene da pensare guardando la "nodachi monster" in questi video (alludendo anche ai precedenti), è che forse il giudizio per quest'arma sia eccessivamente legata al l'esemplare proposto: non intendo dire che non sia storicamente accurato, ma mi viene il dubbio che sia storicamente accurato per alcune situazioni e basta - quel che intendo dire è che, guardando un mostro del genere, essa sia una ricostruzione accurata di un arma effettivamente usata in battaglia, nello specifico per tagliare le zampe dei cavalli, dove sono più fini.
A guardare un massa del genere, spessore e lunghezza, un'arma del genere potrebbe essere stata usata storicamente in un campo di battaglia, anche efficacemente, facendo dei semplici ma quanto efficaci fendenti verso le zampe dei cavalli: se il colpo arrivava è davvero possibile, mi viene da credere, o tagliare di netto le zampe oppure sperare che l'animale, per autoconservazione, non obbedisca più al cavaliere;
2) Ma cosa succederebbe se prendessimo una nodachi di dimensioni minori? Lei stesso ha affermato, nei precedenti video, che le spade giapponesi, e le nodachi non fanno eccezione, sono definite non dalla lunghezza, ma dal rapporto in proporzione fra elsa e lama: quindi sarebbe possibile avere una nodachi di dimensioni più contenute, la quale, mi viene da credere, riequilibrerebbe le carte in tavola, forse consistentemente, nella valutazione dell'arma (mi pare di ricordare che nei video di alcune dimostrazioni fatte da spadaccini giapponesi da lei addotti le nodachi fossero meno "monster-like", a riprova della mia affermazione);
3) In alcuni video precedenti aveva accennato al problema dell'estrazione della "nodachi monster": con una nodachi più piccola, la tecnica da Lei inventata di estrazione dalla schiena sarebbe praticabilissima, ed abbastanza efficace, a mio parere, visto la lunghezza della lama; ma forse qualcosa si può fare anche con la "nodachi monster", applicando lo stesso principio, ovvero abbinando contemporaneamente al movimento di estrazione dal fodero della lama (con la destra, supponendo che Lei sia destro di mano) uno di movimento del fodero dalla parte contraria (nel caso, con la sinistra) - un po' come ci ha fatto vedere per la tecnica di estrazione dalle spalle, solo che, invece che essere fatta per verticale è fatta per orizzontale;
4) In questo video Lei ha accennato al problema degli affondi con la "nodachi monster": a me personalmente è venuto un modo per poterli fare, e per risolvere il problema dello sbilanciamento: perché non appoggiare la parte non affilata della lama sul gomito e far slittare la lama avanti ed indietro? Forse un po' pericoloso, ma forse fattibile: potrebbe provare e valutare Lei di persona, se la cosa La incuriosisce? In armatura potrebbero esserci meno problemi?
Utilizzando una nodachi più piccola, il discorso si ripeterebbe, solo molto più facile: abbinandola con la tecnica di estrazione dalla schiena potrebbe essere utilizzabile in una combo interessante, di fendente più affondo come detto qui, visto che la lunghezza della lama obbligherebbe l'avversario ad una certa distanza, dovendo evitare il fendente.
Per ricapitolare, forse, per questi interessanti video di comparazione e valutazione della nodachi, potrebbe essere più utile avere a che fare con una nodachi più piccola, ovvero meno specializzata nell'uso per i cavalli e più versatile con gli esseri umani. Scusi il proverbiale muro di testo: spero solo di non aver detto troppe sciocchezze. Per qualsiasi chiarimento di quanto ho inteso dire, nei limiti possibili della scrittura, sono qui a risolvere le mie (non improbabili) oscurità.
Distinti saluti
Alexis Honlon
11:20 if you give the shaft a hand job you can change the length of the spear in combat...
Hey man, you're gonna love Nioh. My only bit of advice is to use visitors as much as possible. Happy gaming!
Grats on the subs! Btw I think you you will like NIOH of course but it's like dark souls so I know u did a rant on that lol enjoy it it's a very fun aggressive game but if u didn't like the high risk high reward mechanics of dark souls, you might have a nasty time with this game.
Are you going to get better lighting for your videos? (The small light bulb makes for weird shading and black/white balance)
Though still interesting videos, hope you reach that 200k soon
xD 0:12
Damn, dude! I was just saying that black on black (or blue!) is hard to see, especially when you're trying to show that thing to the camera. It was still a good video, much like this one!
You deserve the growth m8
I would love to see you expand on what you were saying about the tanto being a fine choice for defeating an armored opponent. Maybe a vid focused on knife combat with respect to Japanese history.
we were using two wooden sticks same thickness as the one you show to represend swords in our theater play, during the dual scene one of the shafts actaully broke the other in half. So it doesnt matter that your sword was blunt, it has to do with the material the shaft is made of.
Can you do a Kanabo vs Poleaxe/Halberd please?!!!
Since both of them are heavy weapons with considerable reach!
kanabo dont really have that much length, and they ranged heavily in size and weight. infact the older ones ive seen all appear to be thinner and lighter then the more modern examples.
bmxriderforlife1234 I see your point, but i dont think Metatron would have a problem covering that, given the comparison he did between Roman armour and Japanese armour despite the many variations of both:)
mryupjup Yep, but I am still very interested for Metatron to talk about Kanabo more in depth. Like the cases where it was used and whatnot. For example, Scutum + Gladius is pretty bad in isolated combat(1v1) but great in formation fighting. so i wanna see what situations can take away a Kanabo's weaknesses and capitalise on it's strengths:)
the kanabo was mostly a shock tactic weapon from my understanding, wasnt really used for its advantages but more to strike fear into the enemy. id like to hear more about the kanabo as well but honestly i think a comparison to polearms is pretty pointless.
Quite an interesting video, and cool to see someone who actually prefers a spear in battle over the sword. Though bringing up the mention of cost, it does make me wonder as someone who has started to take an interest in possibly collecting weapons. Does a spear cost significantly less than a sword?
One would assume so, considering so much less metal is used and you only have to grind an edge and point onto a much smaller amount of material; then merely fasten it to a pole. And repair is also more simple, I know Skallagrim did a video a month or so ago demonstrating how easy it is to re-haft an axe.
One disadvantage a spear has over a sword or other bladed weapons, which mainly applies to unit on unit combat, such as a battlefield, is that a spear is hard to turn around to a new facing due to it's length. If an army is able to get a flank attack on a unit using spears, or a 2 pronged attack where they can have a unit repeatedly threatening the flanks, forcing the spearmen to have to keep turning around, it can actually tire out the spear users and leave them vulnerable.
From what I understand, that's how the Romans defeated the famous Spartan Phalanxes, is by getting units to keep attacking them from the sides, so the Spartans would have to keep turning around with their spears which would wear them down, then the Romans would go in for the kill once they'd sufficiently worn the Spartans down, or managed to get a successful flank engagement in.
The Romans used their short Gladius and the Spartans used their spears as their respective primary weapons, of course.
Would you look into something modern? Given your focus on Japanese swords I'd like to see you review some variations on tactical wakizashi, particularly ones with an ito wrap like the hisshou.
I think the battlefield advantage of nodachi was making more damage against masses of ashigaru - unarmored spearmen. Say you have a line of ashigaru against a line of ashigaru. Hawing a samurai with a nodachi could likely make more difference than hawing one with a yari.. The curved blade would not stop so easily but slice trough and keep it's momentum. A samurai with a yari could of course drop it and draw his katana after the initial impact to start cutting up people but a guy with nodachi would have better range and could be able to do considerably more damage and also keep the enemy at bay. Of course the spearmen would have range advantage but unskilled spearmen might not have that good change against an armored samurai. And of course there's the fear factor - the spearmen would likely not want to be in reach of of a samurai with sharp cutting weapon - bleeding to death is no fun and a nodachi would extend the area they want to avoid.
So where does the Naginata come into the picture?
Not sure the bo was cut as much as split. I looks like the break followed the wood grain in a diagonal, meaning it could have broken the same place if it hit anything hard. Had the woodgrain gone lengthwise it would likely have held. Modern methods of making wooden shafts via sawing and sanding, creates straight shafts but not durable. Medieval method of splitting the wood lengthwise means the grain follows the shaft. Just my thought on this :)
My girlfriend goes for the shaft as a strategy. Just kidding, I don't have a girlfriend.
Two questions: if facing cavalry charging in close order, could a nodachi be "grounded" to accept the charge the way a spear can? Secondly, in the "video within the video" you cut through your opponent's staff. This left him holding a shorter staff with what looked to be a very sharp point which was also nearly on-line with your torso. If he had reacted more quickly than you to that unexpected occurrence, could he have not successfully thrust home into your face or torso before you could recover your guard?
There's a reason why spear and shield was used for a long time. ;)
If your enemy passes the point of your spear, drop it and switch to your sidearm (sword, or in my case, either an axe or a flanged mace).
As long as you keep that shield between yourself and the enemy, it is very hard for the enemy to take you our. Especially it it's something like a Nodachi, which cannot be used (effectively) with one hand.
Just drop the spear, pull your sidearm and close in past *his* point. Long swords are not all that useful when you're close enough to bite. ;)
same was done with regular spears and swords as well.
You do need to keep context in mind though, the person who were to use a two handed weapon on the battlefield in Europe would likely have superior armour compared to the person with sword + spear with a sidearm, thus the person with the longsword would stand a chance. However, even then a longsword is not a primary weapon(generally speaking)but on the battlefield someone with a longsword would likely have a polearm as a main weapon, which generally speaking has an advantage against something like spear and shield. If we instead consider the situation when none of the combatants would have armour, so essentially a civilian setting, then having a longsword as your only weapon makes sense, but in that case, it would be better to compare with sword and buckler which does not have anything near the same advantages against longswords as spear and shield.
Also, longswords can be used as a part of grappling quite effectively, so they can be useful as super close range, but of course, with a longsword you generally don't want to get that close, but it's all down to context. For example, when fighting against armour with a longsword you would do halfswording which has a shorter reach than normal longsword techniques, or you simply go to grappling.
Illoney Absolutely correct
Tapio perälä what about halfswording?
With Nodachi?
As far as I see, that blade is not really suitable for half-swording, but then again, if shit hits the fan I'd try. :P
Please notice that I used "long swords" not "longswords".
Long swords, as in sword of war, larger bastard swords and montantes / zweihanders / whatever-you-want-to-call-them.
True, those really big swords are much more like a polearm rather than a sword, but still.
Again, I am certain that a montante and a Nodachi were used in half-swording in the battlefields of old. Maybe not regularly, but surely it will have happened.
And yes, a knight in full plate armor would most likely not have used spear and shield, but a zweihander, or polaxe, or something. And especially the polaxe is very good against armored opponents.
And yes, longswords would have been sidearms for a knight, just like katanas were with Samurai. Not the primary weapon on a battlefield.
And yes, I did not think of the full context when thinking about the larger swords; I was more thinking of Nodachi in specific, which I think is "flimsier" than a montante.
Maybe Metatron could do a comparison, if possible?
However, full plate armored professional soldiers were not all that common in a battlefield.
Most of the armies would've been just ordinary men trying to make a living. They would be armed with a bow, spear and shield, polearm, etc. And they wear mail, gambeson, coat of plates, etc. Depending on the century.
And my point is exactly that: Spear and shield is an absolutely murdering combination through out the centuries. Not until full plate was that combination really defeated, and even then it prevailed since most of the armies were made up of lightly armored troops.
Now, I could be wrong in this, but this is what I've gathered.
If I am wrong, please correct me!
"link in the description for full video"
Where's the description
great video, always like your weapon comparison videos! Not a fan of the black background tho
YESS!! Ive been wondering about this topic for quite some while!! Thank you!
too bad you dont live in the us... so many parking lots to spar in.
Conner K Ward Was that a highlander 1 reference?
I've noticed you still haven't made a Yamabushi video, so if I may make a suggestion, that would really be an interesting topic
For some reason youtube unsubscribed me from your channel. yet i kept getting your updates :<
I am sorry Metatron. For I have sinned.
its 1AM dammit. Must watch & must sleep!
3h30 here must watch before sleeping
What time is it in Italy?
+Roger Hardy taking time from rome its 8h48 when i am responding to you
GTFO Jordan
Must be the same in Sicily if he lives there still then.
If you need to fight many unarmed opponents at once the nodachi could be the best choice. you can only stab one person at a stroke the others could rush at you. Nodachi could create a death zone. maybe?
Or you can throw the spear and leg it.
Yes, I would do that^^. I thought samurai vs mob or something like this.
You swing in big strokes and hit an opponent. Your big sword gets stuck in their chest and you get swarmed by his friends. Yes there is an intimidation factor to a sword flourish, but there is also an intimidation factor to a spear pointing at your face. The spear can stab faster then any swung weapon can cut/smash.
I slowed down the footage and saw that you didn't actually cut through the weapon. The bo was actually shivered apart. if you pause at the moment of contact, you can see that the opposite side of the bo staff is where the split actually began. you hit the bo at the perfect spot to shiver it apart.
I haven't got a chance to try on real or replica nodachi and spears yet (Only SCA weapon, but I have a feeling those can't be used to represent the real ones).
But from what I heard of its function and for the asthetic preference, I would take a long (and a bit wide) bladed spear over nodachi. It is a still spear, and it can be used as a lance, and it can still cut/chop as well.
The next video should be Naginata vs Halberd. It would be nice to see some of the most famous polearms from Japan and Europe compared.
actually, It is very interesting to avoid a spear when countering cavalry, as the horses will have a completely different response. Horses are unlikely to charge into spears, but people seem much softer. It may be they used Odachi/ nodachi instead of spears so they could cut them down without the horse acting unpredictably?
If you got cutted the shaft of a bo you just gave him an even more deadly weapon, So you dont want to do that :D yari was around same thickness as a bo, because the teaching of bo is in case you lost the head of the yari or naginata.
The nodachi was only in use for 75 years or so, then it really just disappeared from the battlefield.
Metatron, if you didn't make weapons/armor videos, what videos would you make, assuming you had to make videos?
It's simple guys Polearm is Assault Rifle - Two Handed is Submachine Gun.
Assault Rifle is better than Submachine Gun same thing with the Polearm vs Two handed.
I know this is two years old, but I have to mention that Nodachi schools have specific anti-polearm techniques such as the nuki-dome and the yar-dome.
Metatron please do a Greatsword vs Nodachi video.
and theres always cutting at the spear shaft just to knock the weapon aside and drive in.
Despite the size difference a spear is much quicker to return to center due to leverage (which also makes it more difficult to knock aside).
Isn't a Nodachi/Odachi ( sorry for not using any needed "special" letters e.g. ł ż ź ą ó ę ć ń ś ) a type of greatsword ( a Japanese greatsword ) I think you ment a Zweïhander.
You have risen because of your daily uploading, but your videos or so long they don't get a whole lot of views.
I've heard spears are also best for those with little to no combat experience. Thrusting is a lot easier than cutting or striking, and the reach suits a beginner perfectly. Add to that easy recovery and range control of a spear...and it seems like the best weapon for anyone but a specialist of some kind.
Nice video.
I wouldn't mind learning about distance/thrown weapons. Shuriken, throwing knives, blow darts, etc.
If that's possible.
the jumper is blue! I am curious to see what Raff thinks of Nioh's swordplay vs. For Honour's. They're similar enough that fair comparison can be made.
Congratulations on 150k! It is well-deserved.
Could you please talk about counter armor strategies and techniques? I only found your half swording video about this topic from which seemed to be most about using it as a tool to get them unarmed or on the ground. Are there any ways to fight it with more "swordlike" actions? Or how spears, blunt weapons could works. Like anything they used against heavy infantry. Love your videos btw (but you need white hair too for visibility reasons :)
Nem Denemam I'm not nearly as knowledgeable as metatron about this but grappling was very useful, along with daggers. The Persians during the middle ages used a shamshir with a buckler while holding a dagger in an icepick grip.
I'm glad you've got nioh. i think I've commented on six different vids asking you to play it haha
On cutting a spear shaft, in the example you show there was "car crash physics" - both weapons were moving towards each other. This means all of his force, and all of your force impacted the wood. If someone swings a spear at you in an arc, instead of thrusting, you can use their own power behind the swing, plus your power to help cut it. But I think most spear shafts broke on their second or third opponent, not from a lucky cut.
You could combine Nioh with your Yokai series. I think that could be interesting.
You have taught me something with every post. Thank you, Raf.
Nodachi are just Long Tachi. Nodachi greatswords (i.e. Big Tachi) were popular as weapons until the Tokugawa government outlawed any sword over a certain length in the 1600's. Existing Nodachi were cut down so the legal length, and nobody cared to get arrested and executed for buying new illegal Nodachi.
Nodachi were popular for the same reasons that Longswords were popular in Europe. They worked, and worked well... even against spears. Otherwise, nobody would have used them. Just because you don't know how to use a sword against a spear does not mean that it does not work.
The Katana was a lightweight side sword/dress sword, and the Wakizashi was actually a long Tanto(short sword). The original Daisho was Tachi/Nodachi and Tanto, and was later changed to Katana and Wakizashi.
If you go against an armored oponent the nodachi has a point. A strike from above with such a long and heavy sword will have a lot of weight on it (weapon + weielder + kinetic energy), so it could harm even if the foe is in full plate armour. Thrusting, on the other hand, don't have much weight (it doesn't add the weight of the wielder, and it doesn't add all the weight of the weapon), so unless you get to the skin, you will never do anythin serious
about that staff cut, I think the fact that your katana was blunt could have been why it broke, if it was sharp a lot of kinetic force would go into the actual cut but since it did not dig in the force continued through to the other side and bent the staff far enough for it to break. Kind of like taking a hit from a sword and from a light mace, even though the weitht will be similar the force distributin will deal entirely different kind of damage. I can't imagine it being a reliable battle technique though to bring blunt katanas hoping enemy will bring sticks :D
Blueberry.
@@creaturetransylvania8943 raspberry
@@hampusjohansson5200 ?
The trick for using a sword against a spear is to wield it backwards, so that the hilt faces up. Took me a while to realize this, but the way a spear is used--honestly, the only way it can effectively be used--is to go for the legs and core. When using a sword the normal way, this means your always chasing the spear around and it more or less controls the fight, but turn your blade downward and you negate its advantage. Attempting to Grapple it aside with a free hand is another tactic, but you're fighting against greater leverage and likely as not to get poked as you step in. Anyway, that's the trick for sword vs spear. The Samurai eventually figured out that the most effective tactic against any weapon is to use a gun.
Reversed is a perfectly viable way to wield a sword, and there are, in fact, various historical examples of them being used in this manner, just as they can be half-handed and used as a makeshift pick (for ice, armor or whatever tickles your fancy) or even like a hammer via gripping the blade with both hands and attacking with the quillons. It's quite a versatile, if archaic tool, and there are nearly limitless ways you can use the thing to skin your average cat, or even slay the token PETA activists afterwards.
Along with Miyamoto Musashi, my favorite historical samurai/ninja is Hattori Hanzō (服部 半蔵, ~1542[1] - November 4, 1596). A native of Iga, Mikawa Province - one of the most famous historical home areas of ninja in Japan - Hattori was renowned for his sōjutsu (槍術), or fighting with the Japanese spear, or yari (槍). Hattori's greatest feat was rescuing Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川 家康, January 31, 1543 - June 1, 1616) - the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868), which ruled Japan for over 260 years - to safety in Mikawa Province with the help of the remnants of the Iga ninja clans, as well as with their one-time rivals, the ninja in Koga.
As an American of Japanese descent, while I admire samurai and ninja and such, if I were a samurai living during the Sengoku period, or any time when the samurai class existed in Japan, I think I too would prefer Japanese polearms in general, and Japanese spears in particular, including those with more than one blade per shaft, to Japanese swords as my primary weapon: czcams.com/video/R_g2s_33Y1I/video.html; czcams.com/video/uj1Fv07wvlw/video.html; czcams.com/video/CMGndnqlpz4/video.html; czcams.com/video/fLSGgTr-b_8/video.html; czcams.com/video/4fZO9PhOoTU/video.html; czcams.com/video/0-ZHHKU1DPc/video.html; czcams.com/video/fCXJGKvdy1g/video.html; czcams.com/video/fCXJGKvdy1g/video.html.
I think it's great that you classify your friends as "they can destroy me", "evenly matched" and "I can destroy them".
I have a nodachi and it just feels cumbersome with such a short handle. I have asked the manufacturer for a nagamki handle, but they were unable to supply, even though they claimed to be 'manufacturers'. If you know of any suppliers able to provide nagamaki handles for a nodchi upgrade, would be appreciated.
Edged weapons can also just get stuck in the shaft of a polearm if you swing too hard, then your opponent controls your weapon
Have you looked at the 1st and 2nd Miaodao forms? Each is an anti spear form. One using more binds and grabs, the other using rapid angled stepping and covering to close. The 1st is from the Ming Changdao, the second is from the Late Qing/Early Republic period. If you're interested I can provide links.
Another good comparison video would be Longbow vs Arquebus.
Could you talk about the naginata at some point? I can't think of anything for you to compare it to, but it's a weapon that's always fascinated me.
The question why a nodachi could be more effective against cavalery is recovery. If you once hit a horse with your spear the weapon will dive deep in to the running animal and be ripped from your hands. There is nearly no way to pull the spear out in time for the next rider racing at you. On the other hand cutting into the legs of a horse with a swing (even not cutting throug bone but ripping the flesh) and a sideways step compined with a pivot leaves the sword in your hand and ready for the next swing. Therefore I suppose that the nodachy is more effective on the battlefield when facing more then one riding opponent. The effectiveness of polearms depend on extremely tight formation with a fence of spears and a high heavy shield. This wall must not break until enough dead enemies pile up to hinder further movement. However if this cannot be achieved (and we do not see to many phalanx shield walls in samurai warefare) I would go for more flexible movement, doging the rider's attacks, cutting down the horse and be ready for the next. Does this make sense to you?