Editing Shield (section)

== Unusual/Exotic Shields ==

*'''Gun Shield:''' A metal shield with a breech-loading pistol barrel in the center, the Gun Shield was created by commission for King Henry the VIII, practically on a whim. Despite being too heavy to effectively aim, and impractical to attempt to reload, the king was enamoured by the idea of this weapon for his bodyguard and ordered a hundred, where they promptly proceeded to gather dust. It was tried again to double as a shovel in World War 1, being too heavy for use as a shovel and too light for armor. Did have some success guarding snipers, but before some major advances in cold plasma maintenance there is next to no use. On vehicle pintle mounts and for static weapons however, it's pretty damn convenient.

*'''Lantern Shield''': This is a very unusual piece of equipment from 16th and 17th Century Renaissance. It is a glove with a built in buckler that also has a compartment for a lantern (hence the name: Lantern Shield), build in blades and sword catchers. So, a lantern-knife-shield-glove. Despite seeming like something from bad fantasy fic, the Lantern Shield was used and useful in two ''very'' specific cases - by night watchmen on patrol, and by duellists duelling at dawn. The weapon has likely emerged back then when duellists used to wield lanterns in duels in order to blind their opponents. They even had fencing manuals where they had lanterns integrated into their training, thus allowing them to not only parry, but also, as mentioned previously, to blind their opponents. Thus the Lantern Shield appeared. From looking at it, there will be people who'd like to have something like that into their D&D games or any other fantasy pen and paper RPG. Sadly there are no rules for using it in games such as Dungeons and Dragons (alternative for it would be the Spiked Shield). Seriously, this should get more attention. The only place we can think of where 'dueling with a lantern' is called out as thing is the "[[Lamentations of the Flame Princess]]" supplment "[[A Red and Pleasant Land]]" which calls out that "''Either party may hold a lantern or torch in the off hand''".

*'''German Duelling Shield/Two-Handed Shield''': A unique piece of equipment intended more for formalized duels in controlled environments rather than the battlefield, the German dueling shield is a long, thin shield roughly the length of a Roman scutum. Usually constructed out of wood with a thicker metal rim than usual, it is most distinguished by the presence of one or multiple spikes at the top and bottom edges intended for impaling the opponent. Less lethal versions also existed with a blunt hook instead for pinning the opponent's neck. It is used in a flexible manner, serving as a somewhat awkward and heavy scutum alongside a one-handed weapon, which can be dropped mid-fight to wield the shield with both hands like a bat'leth from Star Trek.

*'''Rattan Shield''': Used by the medieval Chinese or Koreans; while the shape of the shield isn't terribly different from round shields, [https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1B69HgukJL1JjSZFmq6Aw0XXaf/5sizes-top-quality-wushu-kung-fu-shields-Pure-manual-weaving-rattan-shield-martial-arts-cane-shield.jpg it distinctly looks] a lot like someone's trying to protect themselves with a fucking basket. As the name indicates, they were created from woven [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattan#Weaponry rattan], a sort of wood-like vine.

*'''Timbe:''' A buckler-type shield of Okinawan origin. The Timbe could be made from a variety of materials, but the most notable one was [[wat|made from polished turtle shell]].

*'''Ngoni Shield:''' A catchall term for an oval cowhide shield of the Ngoni people that could also be used for bashing enemies or hooking them off-balance before stabbing them with a killing blow. Made famous due to Zulu warfare.

*'''Ōsode:''' Worn from shoulders which would technically make them [[pauldrons]] but they were effectively used by [[samurai]] as wearable shields. Early samurai were primarily horse archers and the obvious problem with a shield is that one really cannot use a bow while using one, especially when also riding a horse at the same time. So what the samurai did instead is that they hung these large (around 51 cm in height and 36 in width) square-shape pieces of lamellar armor from their shoulders which could easily be pushed out of the way when shooting a bow and then moved back in place when one needs them for protection.

[[Category: History]]

[[Category: Weapons]]

[[Category: Medieval Weaponry]]

[[Category: Armour]]

{{MedievalWeaponry}}