Working through the verses line-by-line, he added explanatory commentary on the tactical and mechanical principles of the system. In the 15th century Sigmund Ringeck-master-at-arms to Albrecht, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria and one of the descendants of the "Liechtenauer school"-broke the secrecy and sought to explain the mysterious verses. These students, in turn, became masters-at-arms to the greatest noble-houses of the Empire. Gathering a select circle of students around him, Liechtenauer transmitted his teachings into cryptic, mnemonic verses and swore his students to secrecy. Through these wanderings, he developed his own unique and deadly form of martial art fully integrating sword, spear, dagger and grappling, for use in and out of armour on foot and horseback. Liechtenauer spent his youth traveling through Central and Eastern Europe, studying with masters from locales as far-off as Krakow and Prague. Thus began the teaching of Master Johannes Liechtenauer, the premier master-at-arms of medieval Germany, whose martial art dominated German swordsmanship for over two centuries. There are only so many unique ways to kill or defend with that combination. Heck, the human body can only bend in so many different ways - add to that a 3-ft. but I bet they did!)Īnyway, yes, my academic experience gives me the opinion that many of the techniques of both cultures developed simultaneously, along a parallel track. However, why should we be surprised to find out that our European ancestors were not clunky dummies? That is a disrespectful thought - as is thinking that African warriors couldn't wrestle with weapons, etc. One could really imagine that a Japanese martial arts expert went to 15th century Japan and influenced their fighting. There even was a "jujutsu" section that really took my breath away. Many of the defensive positions bear striking resemblances to Japanese kamae. I found at Barnes & Nobel a very enlightening reproduction of a 15th century German "Fechtbuch" by Talhoffer. It's been years since I was there, but we had some very enlightening discussions about the re-creation (not "recreation") of medieval European fighting styles. You could also converse with many experienced people at. Is there anyone else out there who has tried both styles and is able to tell if the above is true and to what extent? There are European sword fighting manuals from the 14th - 15th century, for example Liechtenauer's, where stances and cuts are performed much like in kenjutsu. The steel is of course different, being more flexible but not as hard as in Japanese swordmanship, and the blade is straight rather than slightly curved.Īlso, it has been argued that there are several similarities between Medieval German/Japanese sword fighting techniques. Some Medieval long swords/ hand and half swords are about the same length as a katana. Matthew Galas ("Kindred Spirits, The Art of the Sword in Germany and Japan", Journal of Asian Martial Arts VI 1997 pp 20-46). The issue seems to have been raised for the first time by G. I've read in several sources that the Medieval German "hand and half-sword" (about 120cm long) is in many ways comparable with the Japanese katana. Thankfully, that’s hardly an issue in Sword Girls. More often than not, it can be hard to progress in games like this when losing only reduces your odds of winning next time. Even if you lose, you’ll earn something so that next time you might have more of a chance. These are earned after every battle, regardless of the result. Alternatively, cards can be constructed by combining materials found in the game’s dungeons. At the moment, game tokens cost $0.01 each with pre-built decks coming in at 500 tokens ($5) and single cards at $0.35. What breaks up that cycle, however, is the deck-building process. Gather cards, build a deck, defeat opponents, and repeat. If you’ve ever played a trading card game, you’ve got a solid idea of how this all works. Sword Girls Online entered closed beta this month and, from what I’ve seen so far, they’re well on their way to delivering on those promises and releasing one of the most involved and addicting card games I’ve ever played. After reasonably successful runs with Fantasy Masters and Ragnarok TCG, the company set out to create one of the deepest online card games on the market with impressive strides in both gameplay and deck building as well as some top-notch anime artwork. Zeonix is no stranger to online trading card games.
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