Chapter Six

	Warfare
	Weapons

Shieldwall

The concept of a shieldwall is common to many armies employing shields and spears, including those of the Greeks and Romans. The shieldwall is formed by a group of warriors standing together, overlapping their shields. As one warrior stands holding the shield on her left arm, her right side is protected by the shield of her comrade to her right. By forming a wall in this manner, a relatively small number of forces can withstand charges from a large number of opponents. As long as the troops making up the wall remain in position, they prevent any of their enemies from breaking through their lines while inflicting casualties with their spears.

There are two major flaws with the shieldwall, one of which is that it can be slow to move and so only very experienced Trolls are able to turn fast enough to face an enemy coming from a new direction, meaning that flanking moves can disrupt a wall.. The other is that the shieldwall requires the entire company involved to be right handed. For this reason, left handed Drengs are still trained out of their natural inclination when using weapons. Some kiths, especially pooka, find this narrow minded and archaic.

Svynfylking (also Svinfylka): “Swine Array”

The Svynfylking is the counterpart to the shieldwall, designed to break through enemy lines. The Trolls in a Swine Array are positioned to form a wedge, with the best fighters taking the places on the “cutting edge.” The Thegn commanding the troops is in the middle of the array, next to the battle standard and surrounded by his shield bearers or “skoldbord.” The Swine Array is able to break through lines of troops, both formed in a shieldwall and in other formations. As a more difficult formation than the shieldwall, the Svynfylking is usually made up of Thegns.

Individual Melee

Once a shieldwall has been broken or a Swine Array has been successful, Trolls break into individual hand to hand combat. Tradition dictates it is only honorable to seek out other Trolls on the battlefield, but the realities of combat often don’t have room for these types of considerations. Despite this many Trolls do close into hand to hand combat with their own kith when facing them, if only because they are so devastating in a mixed kith battle and can usually only be stopped by another Troll.

Skirmishers
Although many other kiths feel the most comfortable with skirmishing and forms of guerrilla warfare, Trolls are quite capable using these tactics as well. Skirmishing maneuvers are preferred when dealing with difficult or uneven terrain, superior opposing numbers, home ground defense or as a supporting action to a pitched battle. These types of actions usually employ a large number of archers

Spear The spear is sometimes dismissed by those who have not studied it or seen it used. An effective and easily produced weapon, the spear is key to defensive line formations, in which the spear is set against the ground, supported with the foot and held with one hand. Along with the shield, a Dreng learns to fight with a spear first. Well trained Dreng lines have withstood Garou attacks with silver spears and shields.	Difficulty One Handed: 7 /Two Hands or Set: 6 Damage One Handed: Str +1/ Two Hands or Set: Str + 3 Damage Type: Lethal
Shield Viking shields are fairly small round, wooden shields reinforced with metal around the edges and have a metal dome in the middle, called the boss. They are often painted or have designs on them. Using a shield increases an opponent’s difficulty by +1 to hit.
Shield Bash In close hand-to-hand fights, it is sometimes possible to hit an opponent with a shield. This is usually used to shove someone out of the way or when someone is on the shield side, but the fighter either choses not to turn or cannot turn to hit with her weapon.	Difficulty: 7 Damage: Str +1 Damage Type: Bashing
Sword Viking swords have a distinct look that allows them to be identified easily. The quillion, or cross piece that protects the hand, is very short compared to other swords. Swords are versatile weapons and commonly used by fighters. They also come in many sizes, although Trolls prefer longer swords to take advantage of their long reach. A Dreng learns to use a sword after he has mastered the spear and shield.	Broadsword (One hand) Difficulty: 6 Damage: Str + 4 Damage Type: Lethal Bastard Sword Difficulty: 6 Damage: Str + 5 Damage Type: Lethal Great Sword Difficulty: 7 Damage: Str + 6 Damage Type: Lethal
Warhammer A warhammer is much smaller than often imagined and illustrated. This weapon is physics in action, a long arm (the haft) provides a fast angular velocity, used to put a lot of force behind a small, dense striking surface with minimal effort on the part of the fighter. A warhammer can crush a skull in one hit. Because of its lighter weight and long reach, it is a very effective weapon from horseback	Difficulty: 7 Damage: Str +7 Damage Type: Bashing
Maul Most people actually think of a maul when picturing a warhammer. A maul is usually made of wood reinforced with metal, as an all metal maul would be too difficult for even a Troll to swing in combat.	Difficulty: 7 Damage: Str +7 Damage Type: Bashing
War Axe A tool turned weapon, the war axe is lighter than the maul, but has the added advantage of a cutting edge. Axes were some of the earliest weapons ever used.	Difficulty: 6 Damage: Str + 5 Damage Type: Lethal
Double Headed Great Axe This is an incredibly impressive weapon and can deal a massive amount of damage. It also takes a great amount of strength and skill to use. It requires two hands to wield.	Difficulty: 8 Damage: Str + 8 Damage Type: Lethal
Bow Norse bows and the ones that Trolls use are almost always long bows. Bows are excellent for hunting and in the hands of a skilled archer, deadly. A bow can be fired every other turn in normal combat by an average to experienced archer (3 or below) while experts have mastered the techniques that allow them to fire every round (3 and higher).	Difficulty: 6 (distance and target area make this vary) Damage: 4 Range: 120 yards/short 240/long range (longest extent of range) Damage Type: Lethal

Compiled from numerous sources and edited for clarity and game mechanic logic.

© 1999 White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
No challenge to their copyright is intended with this page. See Author's Note for details.