The Armour Archive

I'm looking to share a bit about the situation that I'm in and hopefully elicit some useful suggestions as to how to deal with it.

There is an individual who wants to participate in our group here in Tokyo. He is very enthusiastic, but also has a great number of preconceptions about armoured combat that are interfering with my being able to help him.

For example, this man has purchased a set of reproduction plate armour (german, although without fluting, dating approx. late 1400s, but I could be wrong). He tried it on once or twice, and has decided that it is so heavy that it must have been for jousting only. I can assure you that it is not, but I am trying to convince him that, with proper pointing to the appropriate undergarments and, more importantly, with a bit of physical conditioning (i.e. you have to train in this stuff a bit) he should be be able to fight in it with no problem.

I haven't the heart to tell him that, since the entire suit is made out of 18 guage, it is considerably lighter than my full kit.

As such, I would greatly appreciate it if you would point me to some period pictures of folks fighting cap a pie. It would be a great help. Also, any suggestions as to how to diplomatically correct his misapprehensions would be greatly appreciated.

Er, did I mention that I have to do all of this in Japanese?

------------------
The defining characteristic of fanaticism is the inability to understand why everyone else is not a fanatic.

Try using some of the men at arms books by Osprey. I guess he must have gotten his misinformation from movies and RPG manuals (and here I thought this problem was strictly an American one,how arrogant of me.)
Umm are you using rattan? If he is wearing 18 gauge plate, he is gonna get dented after a while. My armour is most definetly not 18 gauge and I am perfectly comfortable in it. Maybe he should try learning the basics in half plate and then work his way up from there. Good luck tell us how it goes.

------------------
"As long as there are fanatics there will always be heretics

I would suggest learning in another set of armor for 3 reason:

1)So he doesn't dent up this otherwise nice suit of armor he has while he is learning the basics.
2) if he sticks with it he will probably upgrade to the nicer full plate he has sitting in the corner -this is especially true if it looks nice and he becomes good enought to prevent it from getting whacked 50 times a minute.
3)If he starts in less armor, he will eventually find out that he gets hit where he is unarmored and will want to go to full plate for the overall protection it offers. This assumes that he doesn't start out like a rattan swinging God of destruction who can't be touched by mere mortals. Lol...

Hope this helps...

(^_^)

Hjalmr has a great point about tearing up armour.

If the pics are stil up there are tons of pics of Cap a pie on the ST Olaf site

Otto Von Teich also has some of me and him fighting.

If i can figure out how to post them i have some too.

Thanks guys, those are just the kind of suggestions I'm looking for. I agree with the idea of putting him in cheaper armour to practice it; I think I'm just having to fight the urge to correct someone who has the "knights in plate armour had to be hoisted onto their horses" attitude. I'm pretty sure that part of the problem is that he is wearing his leg armour without any kind of support, just strapped around his legs. The St. Olaf's site is a good idea.



------------------
The defining characteristic of fanaticism is the inability to understand why everyone else is not a fanatic.