the thing is, Knights were trained to fight knights, samurai were trained to fight samurai. Monks were training to fight bandits (the last one I am not sure about). In other words they were each more or less used to a certain kind of enemy. As for a duel between a knight and a samurai - it's very hard to tell right now who would win, since historically they never fought. The point is practically mute.

See this post for a jolly experience.
http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/No...ML/002893.html

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I just wanted to dispel a few myths and misconceptions. It's so easy sometimes to mix up history with fantasy. With all the martial arts media, it's easy to overestimate the power and effectiveness of martial arts. The practitioners tend to become superhuman in the eyes of their fans. I remember reading a post where someone actually beleived Bruce Lee could dodge bullets. The slowest handgun round travels at about 800 feet per second, so I doubt it. He argued that Bruce was capable of defeating anyone regardless of size difference or athletic ability. He was very strong for his size, but he was still a man of small stature. If he were cornered by a heavily muscled 300 lb. fighter with nowhere to run he'd be in trouble just like anyone else. Sure, he'd get some good licks in, but he'd shortly be overpowered. Bruce was one of the most amazing martial artists to have ever lived, but he was not superhuman.

I explained a little bit about Kung Fu/martials arts in a thead named Shaolin vs the Dragon once...

The european knights fighting the Saracens were not trained for combat on the ground. They rode their horses with big lances. If they fell off, or their horse died, they could consider themselves dead.
The footsoldiers wore simple chainmails.

The monks DID use wepons. In many of the chinese Kung Fu arts, like wushu, you train to use Bo (staff), Sai, Tonfa, Nunchuku ect.

Yea, right. Do you practise martial arts? I do. When you see a hole in your opponents defences, you often have less than a second to attack. That means you must stand JUST out of for him to hit you if you want to be able to hit him.
A knight has got SHARP WEPONS. Would you dare stand two centimeters away from a sword held by a raging warrior? I would NOT!
And IF the monk would be able to attack, what would he do? The knights armour isn't that easy to break, and if he did, little power would be left for the knights chainmail (wich they often wore underneat the Plate).

No matter how cool it looks to do airkicks and so in movies, you can't use them on the street. Kicking someone in the head is like punhsing someone on the foot.
You punsh in the face, kick on knees and body. The only use with high kicks is to scare your opponent (it DOES look cool, I know http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...iles/smile.gif

The ninja was NOT a warrior. He was a spy and assasin, on the same, low, level as a thief. Ninjas were despised by many.



There we have something else that is important in battle. The soldiers does NOT have HP (yes, it is true). Lee was a very srong and quick fighter, he could likely have won. Not by punshing him in the belly so he crashes into the wall, but if his fists reach the big guys throat, he is dead. If he can do a stomp-kick (called Sokto or Kekomi in karate) against the knee, the other will also be down.
BUT, he may also fall, and get the 150kg guy over him. In that position, BRUCE is the dead guy.
One of them may underestimate the enemy and relax... you see my point.
There is a game called utopia, where this is represented by random factor. Those that plays it understand what I mean.

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We call him Bobby Corwen
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[This message has been edited by Istaron (edited 09-05-2001).]

A solid throat strike can cause death by crushing the larnx, but it is also one of the hardest places to get a solid strike. Some of the hardest places to hit are the eyes, throat, and groin. Fighters are trained to keep the chin tucked and the shoulder forward. Even untrained people instictively protect these areas. Trained fighters are not exactly slow either. Knees are also a lot harder to hurt than most think. Trained legs on a man that size are easily capable of handling 350-400 added lbs. of constant stress. Momentary stress tolerance probably goes into the 800-1000 lb. range. It is very difficult for a 150 lb. man to acheive the kind of force necessary to break or tear something. Do you have any clue how hard someone who bench presses 350-400 lbs. can hit? A small man can have his ribs cracked from one blow to the body! Don't get me wrong. In his weight class Bruce was king. Just don't take that to mean he can defeat trained fighters twice his size and strength without breaking a sweat.

The kick comes from upside. It can easly break a kneeclap. You kick with a high speed, alot of smucles, then you put your hole bodyweight on your leg. That is a very big pressure.

And shure, a strong person can break the ribs on another. Well, a trained martial artist can do that aswell.

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We call him Bobby Corwen
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actually, a ninja would beat a knight, because they would fight smart, not hard. if they saw a knight wearing full plate armor, they would attack them from behind, or poison them or something. a samurai, would defeat a knight, just because they were masters of their blades. they were so damn fast that the knight wouldnt have time to react. both the ninja, and the samurai would also strike the spots that werent so armored. they would also run circles around the knight, and wear his heavy ass out, then cut him down. as far as the "QUALITY" of the samurais blade....... EVERY TRUE samurai sword, is of the highest quality. they didnt have factory made samurai weapons in the old days, and no honorable samurai would except a sword of inferior quality.

Just My Two Gold Pieces

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Morgan Corbesant, Elven BladeSinger, Captain of the army of the Seldarine

and as far as the comment on knees, it only takes aproximately 20 pounds of pressure applied CORRECTLY to dislocate someones knee, if im not mistaken. just cause he can squat a million pounds, doesnt mean his joints are invincible, its just modern physics. besides, feints and things like that, will throw opponents off guard, and open up those "hard to reach striking zones"

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Morgan Corbesant, Elven BladeSinger, Captain of the army of the Seldarine

I'm not sure exactly how this Bruce Lee business started, but let me tell you: Lee would never get cornered by a huge 300 lb pound man in the first place. And if you think his 150 lb was a liability, thats hilarious. He was nothing extraneous, nothing unnecessary, had the perfect weight for balance and speed. And have you ever heard the boxer's term "speed=power"? Look at Roy Jones Jr. He basically toys with his opponents, and could knock them out at any time with his blinding hand speed. Well, Bruce was even faster, and was actually trained to *kill* instead of just knock down the opponent. I wouldn't go so far that Lee was invicible (a bullet will kill anyone dead), but in hand-to-hand combat, he had no equal.

Is there some reason that a knight would necessarily fight dumb? He might not. He might fight as smart as the samurai.

Besides, I would say there are dangerous people, not necessarily dangerous weapons or styles. What makes a Samurai or a ninja more dangerous than a knight?