tisdag 29 oktober 2013

The problems of big swords in fantasy

Lo folks with the release of the new hag garneth executioners for warhammer I would like to point of some problems with big swords in fantasy. The idea when wielding large swords in a formation is what the elves in the beginning of lotr fellowship of the ring does, a cyclical swing, now lets take a look at my sketches on how that's supposed to work and what happens if your blade is to large.

 The upper row is how it works, the blade moves in a single smooth circle never ever retarding (de-accelerating) the angular momentum, notice picture three where the swordsman bends his arms to let the blade pass under them, also notice that even with a sword just about his own length he seems to hit the ground, now he can probably even in a tight formation allow it some angle to the side and manage the swing anyway, and he can probably stretch himself more allowing for a bigger blade or more room between the tip and the ground, but to wield a much larger sword he needs to increase the angle (See the second picture)
The lower one shows the problem with the larger sword already in 3 he hits the ground, in 4 he actually needs to jump to let the sword pass beneath him.

Now to explain the part about the angle, consider we follow a cycle of a swing seen from the front and and paint a line where the tip has been.
Now that swing would hit the ground but should I angle the blade slightly the depth of the swing can be reduced by a factor of cosine of the angle between the two swings.

like this 
This is exactly the same line with exactly the same  mid point, drawn in paint copied and rotated in photoshop. Now a real cyckle isnt that static with it midpoint, but it is a fair representation of the concept.

oh and a picture of the 'offending' miniatures.

As you can see even if standing on their toes these guys cant let the blade pass beneath their arms without and angle and the slightest angle means the guy beside him loses a foot.

But that's all my complaining for today.

until next time...