Warfare+and+Tactics+by+Aidan-GMS

=The cries of the charging, the wails of the inflicted, and the deep pounding of the heartbeat… All have one thing in common, and that is the place where they may be found, justified by the scene unfolding around their sources. Evidently, a medieval battlefield would be the primary location of such juxtapositions of noise. But much more went into a Middle Ages war than we, as a very advanced society, give them credit for, even considering the fact that nearly all Roman knowledge of battle was lost (Medieval Warfare). For instance, the countless hours spent forging the appropriate equipment for a fledged battle, or the logistics a seasoned group of war leaders would have to arrange for. But of course, warfare in the middle ages differed at every battle. Many different factors, including geography, orthodoxy and, of course, the personal preferences of the war leaders, helped to distinguish each population, causing medieval warfare to vary all across Europe. Things affected by this include weapons, armor, and simply the way an army operated. = =__ Weapons __ = =An exceedingly important category of these three would be weapons, which underwent tremendous advancements during the Middle Ages. As armor adapted to endure weapons, so did weapons advance to overcome armor once again, before armor progressed once more, and so on. Weapons evolved from the rather limited attack moves of basic clubs and wooden swords, into the extensive ranges of longbows and the destructibility of siege machines. Of course, with Europe being such a large landmass, not all weapons evolved at the same time. Different regions had different weapon forgers and craftsmen, which led to a period of arbitrary weapon progression throughout the continent. For example, the armor-piercing English longbow had a draw weight of about 200 pounds, and proved extremely valuable in a number of wars, including the infamous Hundred Years’ War. = =First developed in England (Medieval Weapons), this mighty weapon gave the English a huge advantage in a large variety of battles, while other regions struggled to develop a weapon that could counter such a devastating invention. This made weapons very useful to the residents of Europe during the Middle Ages. Being so invaluable, a desire of stronger, more durable tools came into being. This would not have been a plausible idea, without the re-development of iron weapons. Beginning at daggers, iron weapons eventually evolved into swords. The iron sword made a tremendous advance when it was discovered that by adding a small amount of carbon during the smelting process, steel could be made. This sparked a new era of weapon making. Crossbows re-discovered, swords adapted with quillons, and weapons ultimately made more durable and deadly, steel proved to be very useful to medieval peoples. In addition to swords, crossbows, and spears, a rather colorful variety of other weapons were also created/innovated. Examples include morning stars, military flails, maces, polearms, battleaxes, franciscas, and war hammers.= =__Armor __= =As weapons evolved, armor-makers struggled to keep pace, dogmatically refusing to let weapons take the lead. When leather became easily penetrated, armor-makers invented chain mail. Chain mail could block simple weapons with ease, in addition to being relatively lightweight. When chain mail could be crushed with a mace or pierced with an arrow, armor-makers developed plate armor. Plate mail was made from large slabs of iron or steel, bent to fit the wearer’s shape. Designed to cover the entire body from head to foot, plate mail could even be designed to fit a knight’s mount. Plate mail could not be penetrated until the inventions of armor piercing weapons (Medieval Weapons and Armor). = =After armor was perfected to the point where it could defend against any tools known at the time, armor-makers concentrated on designing armor that would better appeal to the eye. Different regions had different ways of embellishing armor. For instance, some countries concentrated on making armor more streamlined and smooth, so that the armor would look more graceful, in addition to making swords glance right off. And armor continued to progress, defying any weapons that could be thrown at it, until the inventions of longbows and crossbows. These could pierce armor from a distance, striking down an enemy before he could even catch up to the shooter. In order to defend against these new hampers, armor was made even heavier, as it had to be to block such a mighty projectile. Eventually, armor became too heavy to wear, and only breastplates and helmets continued to be used.= =__Tactics__= =A tactic is defined as anything that helps one achieve a certain end. Different tactics achieved different things. Throughout the Middle Ages, tacticians were employed in the task of discovering new ways for armies to penetrate castles, scale walls, and ultimately win the battle. Tactics varied from region to region, = == =being affected by many things such as the terrain of the land, the ideas of influential tacticians, and the records of= =previous successful strategies. Different tactics affected the way battles were fought, and ultimately revolutionized medieval warfare. Without a strategy, it would have been nearly impossible for an army to win a battle. Organization played a large role in medieval wars. For example, an orderly retreat usually proved to be much less costly than an every-man-for-himself retreat, in which every soldier in the army retreating simply ran away, abandoning all order for chaos. In many medieval battles, more soldiers were killed during the retreat than in the actual battle, since the opposing cavalry could quickly and easily dispatch the archers and infantry who were no longer protected by the pikemen who had previously been guarding them, and were currently running away without any thoughts for the exposed soldiers (Medieval Warfare). A common battle strategy used in medieval battles consisted of placing archers in a spot where they could thin out enemy infantry lines, until their own infantry could reach the opposing soldiers. Then, the cavalry would come and assist the advancing infantry. Utilization of this simple yet effective tactic more often than not resulted in a victory.= =Ultimately, medieval warfare proved to be unequivocally some of the most truculent warfare in the history of the world. It resulted in the needless demises of millions of soldiers, all who fought willingly for= == =what they believed was right. Since the Middle Ages, warfare has progressed dramatically, beginning with the discovery of gunpowder (Medieval Warfare). But today, warfare is still unfortunately on of the the primary causes of death in many places, even considering all that has changed since the medieval times. Overall, warfare is something that results only in death, rarely solves anything, and should above all be avoided unless absolutely necessary.= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =__Works Cited __= = = =Coggins, Jack. //The Illustrated Book of Knights//. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1957. Print. = =Herlihy, David. "Knights and Knighthood." //International Encyclopedia//. 1972. Print. = =Mango, Karin. "Armor." //Worldbook Encyclopedia//. 2001. Print. = ="Medieval Warfare." n. pag. Web. 25 March 2011. <[|http://www.medievalwarfare.info] /weapons.htm>. = ="Medieval Warfare." n. pag. Web. 25 March 2011. <[|http://medieval-] castles.org/index.php/medieval_warfare>. =
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