Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
I think shadow sword style would be necessarily very different from Branulhune, because of momentum issues. Branalhune has all the momentum of a bloody canonball. A shadow sword would be, I presume, almost weightless, so very small momentum.
That means that Branulhune can make big slashes that carve through bones, but a shadow sword swing would barely penetrate. I imagine a shadow sword user would want to use a style more similar to fencing, with an emphasis on thrusts that you can put your weight behind.
 
By the way, could we get a picture of a spadone please ?

The top one of these:


There's only slight differences between it and the straight-bladed Empire greatsword, the average spadone blade is a bit thinner and the crossguard is a bit longer. You can easily do spadone techniques with a greatsword and vice versa. The main differences are in how it's used, the Tilean style is built on the assumption that you'll be fighting humans while the Empire style is built on the assumption that you'll be fighting something worse. That's why Mathilde got caught up in the idea of feigned thrusts, it's based on the psychology of the main enemy that Tileans fight, which is other Tileans, so it'd be useless for most other purposes. But she got caught up in wondering if it would be possible to create something that would provoke a disadvantageous attack from all of the Empire's enemies.

(I got caught up in reading HEMA lesson notes and trying to find a translation of Opera Nova dell'Arte delle Armi before I realized how very diminishing those returns were going to be and decided that Tileans fight with a greatsword like Ezio does)
 
I think shadow sword style would be necessarily very different from Branulhune, because of momentum issues. Branalhune has all the momentum of a bloody canonball. A shadow sword would be, I presume, almost weightless, so very small momentum.
That means that Branulhune can make big slashes that carve through bones, but a shadow sword swing would barely penetrate. I imagine a shadow sword user would want to use a style more similar to fencing, with an emphasis on thrusts that you can put your weight behind.

It does not, if it actually had the momentum of a canonball it would not work at all since it would break the wrist of the user. Through the magic of runes the target gets hit by (up to) canonball strength, but the person at the other end only feels the weight of a sharpened hunk of gormil. That still weighs a lot more than a magically sharp shadow, but not unmangeably more one hopes.
 
It does not, if it actually had the momentum of a canonball it would not work at all since it would break the wrist of the user. Through the magic of runes the target gets hit by (up to) canonball strength, but the person at the other end only feels the weight of a sharpened hunk of gormil. That still weighs a lot more than a magically sharp shadow, but not unmangeably more one hopes.
The target, you said, get hit up to canonball strength, and they're the one who matter here. A swing with a weightless sword has no weight, it cannot penetrate very well (although that's somewhat mitigated by the fact shadow swords would likely bypass armor).
Branulhune is much heavier, and if it doesn't have enough to penetrate it just get more momentum until it eventually does penetrate.
 
[X] Guard bypass

If we want to break the enemies magic items we can just swing at the magic items. We do not need a complex move that requires them to block our attack. It would only work if they don't know that our weapon will break theirs OR they have a weapon capable of actually blocking.

In reality anyone who actually knows the capability of our blade is going to dodge.

Therefore Guard bypass is the better option. It kills people before they realize what our sword can do without depending on their ignorance. People who know will be trying to dodge regardless and neither attack solves that problem. Guard bypass can still hit an enemy attempting to dodge, especially if they are attempting to dodge around obstacles. Double tap doesn't do that as well.
 
The target, you said, get hit up to canonball strength, and they're the one who matter here. A swing with a weightless sword has no weight, it cannot penetrate very well (although that's somewhat mitigated by the fact shadow swords would likely bypass armor).
Branulhune is much heavier, and if it doesn't have enough to penetrate it just get more momentum until it eventually does penetrate.

It should be able to penetrate perfectly, that is no small part of the point of making the thing out of shadow, it's like Baby's First Mindrazor, or at least that is the ideal. It may not work like that, but that is up to the limitations of Ulgu which we do not know and the rolls which we cannot anticipate.
 
[x] Both
Is it efficient? No. Does it contain the most sword? Yes.

Now, sword words. Please tell me if I'm bothering you over the details, Boney, but I wanted to give my thoughts. I don't quite remember if I learned based on the italian or spanish books, but I think it was italian. I think it was the italian because they were oriented on VIP protection in city crowds, but it's not like I did too much with it anyway, because it's pretty hard to find a sparring partner.
You frown as you walk over to and recover your sword, trying to recall what little you'd read of it in Imperial-written books. "Sweeping vertical slashes and pommel strikes, right?"
So, I'm having some problem picturing how this would work. Like, you can definitely use pommel strikes. Either if the opponent has gotten really close, or by gripping the blade itself and using it like a club ala Mordhau. But the first is an emergency solution, because having the enemy closed in like that is about the worst situation you can have, and the second is more of a combo finisher and duel technique (and I'm also sceptical how much that was ever used, though it is in the manuals, and does work better than you'd think from close positions or half swording. Or at least it does in longsword).

Either way, neither would be something you built the style around. It could be in the imperial books as they focused on this weird exotic niche and misrepresented the style, but Eike got taught by an actual teacher.

Funny thing though: switching hands so you don't have them crossed can actually work if you're swinging a greatsword from my limited experience. Though I don't think that's in the books.
"Not exclusively, Master, the sweeping is for the killing strike with the stercke, after a parry or flick with the schweche. But yes, that's the style."
I don't think you'd deliver any strikes with the Strenght of your blade. The Weakness is the more distant half, so you use that to strike because it's going the fastest, and also because it maximizes the range advantage. IIRC, a lot of the time the Strenght wasn't very sharp, because you generally use it to accept a strike from the opponent, so it would just get damaged, and because it makes half swording less icky if the blade isn't actually sharp were you grab it (though you can absolutly grab and use a sharp blade without injury like that). This is especially the case for Greatswords, where the lower third or so often wasn't sharped at all, and you had little spikes to serve as hand guards during half-swording.
Fake EDIT: You can see it in the image Boney posted above.
 
This is based on CK2, not 3. Back before there was a Prowess stat so it was all baked into martial.
Personal Combat Skill was a separate modifier in CK2, but it was added during the Way of Life expansion, which released in December of 2014.

Warhammer Dynasty started in February of 2014, and that's what started the CK-quest trend.
 
[X] Guard bypass

I'm wondering how well Eike got along with the other junior apprentices. Her own first experiences with magic were more of a fairytale than the horror story it is for most , she had a head start on the mundane part of education, her Oma is rich enough to pay for at least one tutor, her first miscast resulted in a mark of Ulgu, three LMs were interested in educating her, and she's pretty. That many advantages could have bred resentment in the others, but the Dean didn't say anything about her having problems socialising, just that she spent a lot of time in the library.
 
@Boney Assuming we vote just for one option here and assuming we somehow run out of self improvement options at some point in the future, will we be able, at that hypothetical point in the future go back to the second option?
 
[X] Both

For completionist sake! What were the words of our first trainer? You swing your sword until you can no longer and than keep going!

@Boney
Would the developed fighting style be valuable as a book? I mean a the for the Rune Of The Unknown. A full book for the sword would be only valuable for whoever inherit it.
 
Back
Top