Which Shield Type is Better? - Pros & Cons

Good old sword and board. It's been enjoyed for protection since the bronze age. You have essentially one of two flavors to choose from, which is strap shield or center grip shield, which are fundamentally different and have their own pros and cons. So let's look at them. We'll start out with a shit ton of traffic noise. Thanks truck and bus. And what's next? The monster truck? Just bring it. We just need a ghost train go through here. Anyway, this is sponsored by Beard Sorcery. I've got this big box full of stuff from them. Really nice stuff. We got beard wash, beard conditioner. We've got oils. We've got bombs. We've got cream. We've got all kinds of stuff. This has become my favorite brand. There's a lot of really nice scents. If you like patchouli, which I do personally, mithril arcana is where it's at and dark sorcery as well. This is a bomb. This is great. If you don't like the shiny look that oil gives you, this helps shape your beard and tame that bed beard. 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If I just stand here and have my leg bent, I can just kind of rest it on my thigh and it's not a lot of strain. Even if I just let it hang, depending on the fit of the strap, I can relax the fingers too and just kind of let it dangle there. And it's pretty comfortable. If I'm just waiting for the opponent to do something or just watching for something and you're not immediately in combat, but you want to be ready for it, you can just kind of chill like that. Whereas with center grip shield, depending on the weight, it can be exhausting because you constantly have to hold on to it. You cannot relax your fingers. You can also kind of rest it somewhere, but it's a bit easier this way. Simplicity is also an argument in favor of this in terms of construction, because you don't need a hollow boss right here. You can have one if you want, but it's really unnecessary. This is absolutely necessary because this is what keeps the hand safe. Without that boss right there, his hand would just be exposed. It would just stick through the hole in the center of it. It's somewhat more challenging to make this because you have to forge the boss. Although there are some versions which are woven as well, like wicker boss, things like that. And you can also carve it. That all takes more work. This is one of the simplest things you can do. I mean, as a kid, I remember making shields like this. You just grab some random old board and you just attach two straps and that's it. It's one of the simplest things you can do. This one is not what I would call simple craftsmanship, by the way. It's just the principle is a little bit easier, potentially. Norman kite shields strapped and with boss, you do find things in between. So, it's not necessarily a strong argument because they often didn't really shy away from spending a lot of time on making arms and armor. So, there's that. This one here also has a little nasty addition, which is the spike right here that screws right into the front, which is useful, not just for offensive use, as you can imagine, but also to catch a blade. So, if he strikes and I catch it on the flat here, this is going to stop it right there. So, now I have control over it and I can manipulate it. In theory, you can do that with this too. I've seen some depictions of spiky bosses on bucklers from medieval manuscripts. Also, with this, you can more easily typically hold on to something else. You know, like if I... This would be a weird combination, but I can grasp something relatively easily, be it a dagger or, you know, something else. I've seen it shown with a center grip buckler too, grabbing a, like, for example, a katar together with a buckler, things like that. You can do that. It's a bit more awkward with this. I find that easier here. And there are other types of where, like, both your arm and your hand goes all the way through. So, it's just strapped to the forearm itself and the hand is free to hold on to something, which is quite useful for sure. So, pros of a center grip shield. You have more flexibility. Generally, you can move this in ways that you can't really with the strap shield. Because, for example, I can easily change between vertical and horizontal grip. It's a little bit more difficult with that. If you want to do it because then you have to rotate the entire arm, I can do that. And in addition, I can also freely move the wrist, which means I can also do things like this. You know, I can switch sides. So, if you throw a cut at me, I don't want to catch it flat like this. I can angle it over here or I can angle it over to the other side, which means I've just closed this off here and now I have an opening there. If you thrust, this happens pretty automatically. Now, a real sharp point, of course, would stick into this. But either way, I can move it over there. And once I've got this, I can really move it in any direction I want. Safety. Because the hand is inside of this piece of hollow piece of steel, it's pretty safe in there. So, what that means is, if I receive a strong cut on this that penetrates into the shield, you know, like a strong fighter could try to literally split the shield. And if that happens, it'll be stopped at this point. So, it's not going to split my hand as well. Whereas a powerful cut into this, if this goes deep enough, there's nothing really to stop it. So, it can cut into the arm. Now, if you have a metal-reinforced rim, that's not as much of an issue. Or just a large shield where it's unlikely that somebody would cut all the way into it. But either way, this is potentially safer in that regard. And that also means that you can deliberately do this. Which is, this is something I want. I want to get your blade stuck in my buckler. Because what does that mean? Now, you know, you can't get it out easily. And in the time it takes you to try, I've got a free shot, basically. If we pretend it's stuck, I can, by twisting it, I can control it right here. And I can pull it down. And now I've got free rein here. Also, against arrows, if we just pretend this is a large shield, this is like three times the size. Because this is not a battlefield sort of shield size. But if I just hold this out in front of me, and then try to, you know, cover behind that, any arrow that goes through would have to pretty much go through the entire thing, which is unlikely. So if I hold it away from me, this is pretty safe. Because even if they go pretty far, I'm generally going to be safe. Whereas there, if arrows go through, they might pin the shield to your forearm, which that's really got to suck to have to take that off. And even if it doesn't hit the arm, just by virtue of it being closer to the body, typically, it's just arrows are more likely to reach you. Also, if you have to let go of this for some reason, you can. Like if I just, I can just drop it. You try to drop that, it's going to be difficult. You're going to have to deliberately use one hand to hold on to it, to slip out of it. This is a technique, funnily enough, against a buckler in historical manuscripts, which is holding on to it and wrenching it. What happens here is I've got a joint lock pretty much right there already. So, and particularly if I were to use two hands. So let's say we're in some kind of situation where our weapons are bound up, and I just say, all right, screw it. And I take both arms and wrench it violently. The larger the shield, the worse it is, because the greater radius means I have like a steering wheel. Not as bad with this. So if you hold on to this, let's say, let go of the sword. And if you hold on to this, I can just let go. It's better than getting my wrist broken or my arm, or, you know, being locked into a takedown that I can't get out of. And the cons are pretty much exactly the opposite of what I just said, or the flip side of it. Like with the last point in particular, this also means that I just don't have as much to hold against it. Like I can let go more easily, but it's also not going to take as much to twist this in my hand, because all I've got is just the wrist strength to go against it. Whereas there, it's the entire arm, basically. So if you tense this up, it's going to be harder than it is to move this when there's nothing but the wrist. This, there's nothing. So this is a lot weaker in that regard, which also means the whole revolving door thing, it has its advantages, but it can also be an issue because it's just not quite as strong. So let's say I mess up the parry. So it's just, I don't quite get it. It slides off, something like that. It can flop around in ways that require more deliberate control. Oh yeah, that. That's also, like, if you have an axe or anything like that, any way to hook this, that's going to work quite well. This, you have a bit more of a chance to hold against it. Again, it's also going to be difficult, but it's easier to hold against it with a strap shield than it is with this. Even if this was a large shield against a hard-hitting weapon, you know, be it a Dane axe, or any kind of polearm, or even just a two-handed sword, this can be rough to statically block with, at least. Again, if you do deflectional, it's easier. You can support it with the other hand. It's an idea that's been proposed for the reason why Viking hills are shaped that way, to be able to brace the shield like this. I don't know if that's the case. I don't think we can really say with any kind of certainty, but it works. The cons of a strap shield, one I've already mentioned, the steering wheel effect, where you kind of get locked into it and can't get out as easily. Basically, the disadvantages of the strap shield, I've already mentioned by talking about the center grip shield, because it's the exact opposite. The added stability means that you get locked in. You can be exposed to arrows and other things penetrating the shield, which can injure your arm or your body behind it. When striking with it, you don't have quite as much reach as you do with a center grip shield, simply because your hand is close to the rim of the shield anyway. So, in order to strike with this, I'm going to have to be pretty close, whereas striking with that gives you just a little bit more, because essentially half the radius of the shield gets added to your bare-handed reach, whereas this is bare hand plus a little bit. With these two, it's really not a significant difference, but if we both had large shields, one strap, one center grip, the center grip shield would definitely have more reach for striking. Does this have potentially more power for a strike? Maybe. You can punch with it just the same as with a buckler, but I would argue that this sort of swing, you know, basically like a hook with a shield, this might be more powerful because it's connected more firmly to your body, but at the same time it may not be that big of a difference, because you can strike pretty hard with a center grip shield too. A very minor thing, it takes longer to equip this in video game terms, simply because you have to slip through it and then grip it, whereas that you just pick up and grip. Not really that much of a difference, it's not terribly significant, but it's a difference. There are strapped arm shields with a spike at the end, which I've talked about in another video, which are pretty useful for the size in particular, because with the spike there you're able to thrust very effectively, and again you could still hold on to something else, so that is certainly quite useful. The Capn America way, by the way, to wear it as a backpack, no, it's not a thing, because for that both straps have to be so loose that it's just gonna be floppy. With this strap it's not that big of a deal, because the main bearing point of contact is on top, but if this one is floppy then you don't have that stability that normally comes with this. There might be more things, more pros and cons, but that's all I can think of right now. I'm sure people in the comments will point out everything I've missed, and how dare I! But either way, I hope you found it interesting, and thanks for watching. It is very small. You kind of try to hide behind it, like if I crouch low then I'm pretty covered, but yeah, essentially if somebody attacks a leg you're better off just moving it out of the way. You still have a weapon to defend with. It's easy to just hyper fixate on your shield, and just like, this is my defensive weapon, this is just what I'm going to use for everything, but if you cut toward my right side, for example, I can do this, or isn't it easier to just do that, and then I can try to break your elbow?