Certain things take time to master. So let me preface everything else that I'll say with that. The more time you spend with any particular style the better you'll get at that style. That's true whether it's a particular style of fighting, or a particular set of weapons in your hands. Familiarity and practice will eventually get you farther then actually knowing what the hell you're doing. The reason being that you can probably figure things out as you go just from trial and error. Hell, I did. That having been said, there's no reason to haphazardly wander through things.
Lessons
Each weapon set starts with a basic set of
design decisions. Certain weapons optimize more for one thing or another. That means that if you learn to become at least proficient with each weapon set you'll slowly pick up on the particular optimizations that, that particular weapon set is designed around. I'm going to go through each of them in turn so that I can be more specific then simply, "it optimizes for something". The point being that each weapon set has a specific thing that it does well, and by mastering that particular weapon set, you can gain the knowledge or the lessons that that particular weapon set has to teach you. While it's not practical to try and become a master of all weapons (largely because of the time it would take) it's not a bad idea to spend a little bit of time with each weapon set before you decide that you're going to pick something and stick with it. Even top tier fighters like myself have a few things that are comfort zones.
Lessons from single sword
Single blue is probably the best thing that you can learn to do. Sure, it's not practical out on an actual battlefield because it makes more sense to use both of your hands, but if you're good at it you can still be effective. Single blue excels at nothing, but also doesn't have any inherent weaknesses. Failing that, you can always do single blue in duels. If it gets too easy with one hand, you can always switch hands. Training your off hand to be good is valuable for all sorts of other things, not the least of which is being better then your opponent if you both lose your main hand. Anyways...
Single blue gives you a single item to block and strike with. This teaches a number of valuable lessons. The first of which is range control. Range control is knowing how far away your opponent is relative to how far you can hit things. Range control is also knowing how far away YOU are from your opponent relative to how far away THEY can hit things. Range control is manipulating these distances so that you're in your sweet spot. If you have more range then they do, it's making sure that you are always able to hit them while remaining just outside of their reach. If they have more reach then you, it's making sure that you stay out of their reach until YOU want to engage and then making sure that when you step into their range you also step into your own range. Range control is very important, and it translate to every other melee weapon you can pick up. It is a very valuable thing.
Single blue also teaches you footwork. If you aren't close enough to your opponent, or you constantly leave your legs open, then you'll lose. Knowing what range control is isn't the same as knowing how to execute on it well. To do range control well you have to be able to move your feet well so that you can make sure that when you aggress on your opponent you can actually hit them. Footwork is also, generally, what keeps you from getting hit in the leg when you don't have a shield to block for you. Because you are required to keep your weapon up to guard your torso and to swing, you can't really afford to be using it to block low for your legs.
Single blue teaches you the fundamentals of blocking and striking. Not only the basic mechanics of how to block quickly and how to throw blocks that cover your entire body, but also the timing of it. When you get good at single blue, you don't JUST block, you also counterblow whenever your opponent makes a mistake. Single blue also teaches you how to throw shots, and not just the standard set of slashes, stabs and wraps. Single blue will reward your creativity when throwing swings, whether it's using
momentum and linking together combos, or it's throwing trick shots and playing
mind games on your enemy.
Single blue is your first lesson in stabbing well. You can throw a bad stab a bunch of times and have it simply swatted away. But eventually you'll learn to use your whole body to throw that stab and it will be brutal. Anything other then a swift and decisive block will be meaningless in the face of such a stab and the end result it a quick death to your enemy.
It should be clear to see... learn single sword first, learn it well, and learn it with both your hands.
Lesson from sword and board
Of the styles that require both of your hands to execute well on, sword and board is the most forgiving. The board in your off hand gives you the greatest passive guard of any other weapons combination, but learning to use it well means not simply having it in a resting guard but also learning to use the shield to manipulate your opponent and their weapons. While sword and board is good for new people, because, even if you're terrible at it, you've still got a good guard which allows you to practice swings, there's much more to it then simply having the board in front of you for it's passive guard. So, for the sake of argument, when we talk about the lessons of sword and board, let's assume that I'm talking about a person who is competent, rather then just a noob who happens to have picked up a shield. The main weakness of sword and board is that the defense offered by your board can sometimes inhibit your ability to swing, and it tends to make people's footwork lazy.
Sword and board teaches you how to manipulate your opponents weapons. Since sword and board tends to be the most common weapon set out on the field, learning to do it well means learning to bypass the defenses of other sword and board fighters without letting your own defenses get compromised. For me at least this meant learning shield manipulation and wrap shots. Shield manipulation is using the edge of your own shield to knock their shield out of place so that it's no longer protecting their body in the way it was meant to. One example of this is simply tagging the bottom of their board so it tips forward, exposing their shoulder, giving you just an instant to snag a kill. Another set of techniques with sword and board involve using your weapon to bind their weapon while you step in to get better shots. By swinging at their sword arm to get it to block you are effectively manipulating their weapon in order to line up a potential wrap shot at a better target. Most fighters will warn you that the high cross is a bad shot, but over and over again you'll see most fighters throw that swing.
Sword and board teaches you how to stand your ground with your footwork. Because you have a shield, other fighters are allowed to; kick your shield, crash into you, hammer the side of your shield with a red weapon, stab violently at the shield and it's edges and try to run you over or pancake you (IE, pin you on the ground beneath their shield). Because of these things learning to get deep and low into your stance so that it's strong is super important. There's a lot of footwork/dodging that you can do to avoid getting steamrolled or pancaked but before any of that becomes relevant you need to be able to absorb a body check without getting sprawled out on the ground. Shields are also what makes up a line so in addition to being able to absorb that physical engage from other fighters you also have to be able to weather a volley of weapon strikes without having your guard crumple. Learning to do that is also valuable because once you don't have a shield to rely on not having a guard crumple becomes infinitely more important.
Sword and board does NOT teach you what to do with your off hand, which is why it's important to do other things like single blue. Many, many sword and board fighters become completely useless once you take off their sword arm because they've never learned how to do anything else.
Don't be that guy.
Lessons from the spear
Ah the spear, potentially the most deadly weapon the field on account of it's ability to throw swings at range faster then any other weapon on the field. It's major downside being that if you only have one spear and nothing else, trying to get through a shield is a pain in the ass. The spear is optimized to kill things very quickly and at range, but it's ability to defend itself when someone closes is almost non-existent.
Fighting with a spear will make you aware of angles on a line. Angles are what allow you to break your opponents guard, turning a perfectly reasonable static guard into a free kill shot. On a line you are probably not going to do much damage to the guy directly in front of you. Most of the kill shots are going to be the person to the right or left of the guy directly in front of you. With a spear the same thing is true, only now you have a reach of 3 people. So, you may not kill the guy in front of you, but with one step, you can threaten the 3 people to your left, the guy in front of you and the 3 people to his right. Chances are, at LEAST one of them isn't paying enough attention to you, the spear, and will have a sweet opening, often right under their pommel on their weapon side. Since you only need 1 of 7 people to make a mistake there tends to be plenty of opportunities to cause havoc. If you get 2 spears together then you can practice shield manipulation and do even more damage.
Fighting with a spear will teach you some degree of field awareness on a line. Because you have to be watching 7 people instead of just the guy in front of you, fighting with a spear is the first step towards developing field awareness beyond the people immediately in front of you. As a polearm you also have to worry about being shot by an archer so you learn to watch for arrows in a way that a person with a board does not. Since you have to watch for arrows it means you're scanning the backline of the enemy team watching for incoming projectiles. As a polearm on a line you're also probably fighting other polearms so you need to learn to watch them as well, trying to either snipe them so that they get shut down, or at the very least make sure you avoid getting sniped by a well place stab or red swing.
Fighting with a spear will teach you aggression. When done correctly a spear is an EXTREMELY active weapon. The main reason to use a spear over a red is that you can simply stab many more times then a red can swing. To put it another way, you have more actions per minute then a red does. Assuming your strikes actually hit something you'll do infinitely more damage in the same amount of time. A spear that passively pokes at whatever openings happen to present themselves simply isn't doing their job. A spear's job is to MAKE openings, either by picking off targets at angles, or by picking legs so that the line itself can have easy wrap shots or can work angles on a nearly immobile opponent.
Lessons from a red
A red weapon (such as a glaive) is the first response to an entrenched position. With a red weapon you can clear any number of tower shields and open your opponents up to other aggression, whether that's the melee of other team members, or a ranged attack from support weapons like spear or archers. A red weapon is optimized for range. While it's better at defending itself in close quarters then a spear is, and has the added advantage of being able to destroy shields for going through a line, is major predator is the spear. Because the red weapon is heavier in order to accomplish being able to swing it can't fire off nearly as many shots as you can get with a spear.
A red weapon will teach you how to use your hips. In order to generate enough force to have a red swing actually be considered a "red" swing you need to learn how to generate power. This is done primarily through a quick rotation of your hips to give the weapon a sudden bit of acceleration. Using this technique you need less then a foot to turn a normal swing into a "red" swing. Learning to do this correctly means that you can throw lots of potentially dangerous swings without any real force, and then only accelerate them if you're sure that they will land safely. That having been said, please know I am not generally an advocate of the 12 to 6 swing. The ability to generate force and use your body is useful globally for two reasons. The first being that learning to use your body to throw swings (instead of your arms) will make them faster and more accurate. The second being that if a person starts calling your shots light being able to add that extra bit of heat to them usually fixes the problem.
A red weapon will teach you momentum with your footwork. It is my opinion (which I doubt is shared very widely) that learning to fight with a red well is about learning how to use momentum well. Momentum with a red is less about throwing multiple swings, as this requires a strong base (IE, planted feet) to throw from and more about using the momentum generated from weapon swings in time with your feet. As a red on a line your goal is to rapid fire shots as fast as you can, but if for some reason you are alone or you get caught out you'll need to know how to fight without someone doing the work for you. As a red alone you learn to throw a swing and then use that momentum to move your body. So that after your swing connects you are far enough away (range control) that you get to swing a second time, without being immediately cut in half by your enemy.
Lessons from archery
While archery isn't (obviously) a melee art it teaches relevant meta skills that are relevant to the field as a whole, even if they don't directly relate to your ability to swing stick. Archery is optimized for surgical strikes. By having a nearly arbitrary range you have stifling field presence while also potentially being able to pick off high priority targets that aren't watching you. What archery suffers from is the inhibitions on shooting into a melee due to safety reasons and having no ability to deal with a fighter who successfully closes.
An archer must have COMPLETE field awareness. An archer must know the location of all other archers on the field, so as not to get shot by them. An archer must know the location of all the polearms on the field, as it's generally their job to deal with them. An archer also has to keep an eye on any flankers, and get people to deal with them should they happen to get around the line, because if they don't, those flankers will probably hunt down the archers first. If those archers aren't paying attention to the flankers, they'll simply all be cut down the moment a flanker gets behind. An archer also needs to be able to understand the flow of the battle as a whole. If the left or right side is losing they need to make sure that they're there trying to help fix that problem, rather then adding firepower to a side that's already rolling. Archers generate a ton of threat, and even without firing any arrows they can be a strong deterrent that keeps an overwhelming force from advancing in spite of having superior numbers.
Becoming a good archer will require you to communicate and coordinate. As an archer you have no ability to melee, which means that if someone should get to you you'll need to get a teammate over to help you ASAP. This requires that you learn how to quickly communicate with teammates so that they can come to your aid. If you voice isn't heard, aid will not come, and you will die. From an offensive perspective, learning to be an effective archer requires you to know not only where to stand but also requires you to work with the right people. If you're facing down a shield wall you won't do much on your own, but if you have a shield wall on your side against a shield wall on their side with polearms on either side then it can become interesting. If you can simply deter the opposing polearms from swinging because of the threat you generate from a knocked arrow, then you can let your own polearms do work. It's much better to use your polearms to bait out their polearms, or to generate openings on the shield wall then it is to simply try volleying shots that have a low percentage chance to connect. This again requires that your voice is heard so that your strikes are coordinated with your teammates. You can also do this with your fellow archers by working angles so that a target can't avoid all of the arrows fired at them.
Lessons from florentine
Florentine is theoretically the most deadly weapon set as it gives you the greatest ability to work angles on your opponent and the most number of shots. There isn't a shot you know that you can't throw with a florentine set and because one hand is always free to block you can throw shots at crazy angles that would normally be lethal. What florentine lacks however is any kind of passive guard which makes them an excellent target for any support weapon. Additionally, since a florentine fighter has no resting guard they are excellent archer bait. Florentine fighting optimizes offense at the expense of an effective defense.
First and foremost what florentine fighting teaches you, is how to block with your weapon because that's the only thing you have that will keep you alive. Miss a block by the width of your weapon and most of the time you've died. Perhaps some of the time it's an arm or a leg but then you're still badly handicapped. With a florentine set you need to be able to actually attack your opponent, so trying to avoid them or kite away won't work. Additionally, many weapons have reach on you so playing a passive game won't work either. A florentine fighter needs to be able to be aggressive which means being able to confidently step into another fighters reach while throwing shots. This means that they have to obviously block as well as swing.
Florentine fighting will make you much better with your off hand. Because florentine fighting requires that you actually USE your off hand it will become more adept at everything. Learning to block with it will make you better at single blue, even if you haven't otherwise practiced it, and it means that if you normally sword and board, suddenly you'll win fights where you and your opponent have both lost your sword arm. The thing is though, most setups require you to use your off hand to some degree. Making your off hand faster will mean you blocks with a board becomes faster and more efficient, as well as your weapon manipulation. Learning to use your off hand well will make your blocks with a red weapon better as well.
Florentine fighting will teach you chess like nothing else will. Chess, as I refer to it here, is the process by which you throw swings to create openings on your opponent so that you can kill them while simultaneously avoiding providing them with any openings. With florentine you can aggress with both hands at extreme angles which allows you to play all sorts of mind games with your opponent. Feinting with your right hand may give you time to swing with your left. If they learn to reach by blocking their right side because they've learned to expect this second swing, simply turn your feint into an actual swing to exploit the opening that you've been given.
Florentine fighting teaches you about options. An
option (under one swing that was many) is when one swing can become 3. As a florentine fighter who can throw shots with both hand and is constantly playing a game of chess you need to know that any shot you can throw with one hand has options, so that if the block comes for the shot you were going to throw you can quickly adapt it to something that will connect. Were you going to throw a stab and they swatted it away? No problem. Roll your wrist around and turn it into an arm chop. Learning to open up your options and use then with both hands will mean that most fighters can't do much of anything to stop you from hitting them. The best way to not be hit by a florentine fighter? Don't let them swing at you, eventually, most will overcome your guard.
Putting it all together in [no particular order]
Field awareness. Field awareness is the skill that you develop to know what else is happening in the field around you. Field awareness means watching the person in front of you, and the people next to them, and all the support weapons, and all the projectiles, and the flow of the battle. As you get down your own ability to swing stick you then open up the potential for doing this because you no longer have to focus on the basic mechanics of swinging and taking hits. Field awareness is primarily taught by support weapons like spears, reds and archery.
Angles. The idea behind angles is learning how to fight your opponent by breaking their
center line so that you can swing at them where their guard isn't. This is best taught from fighting with a spear or other stabbing support weapon even though it's most utilized by archers and florentine fighters. That having been said, theoretically EVERY weapon set can make use of angles as bypassing your opponents guard is always a good idea.
Footwork. Footwork is so many things. Footwork is learning to position yourself to work angles (like you would with florentine). Footwork is learning to use your weapons momentum to propel you away from your enemy (like you would with a red). Footwork is about having a solid base to swing from, so that other fighters can't knock you around (which you learn from fighting sword and board). Footwork is also about working range control effectively while simultaneously guarding your legs (which you'd pick up from single blue).
Weapon manipulation. Weapon manipulations is the processing of controlling your opponents gear so that it's where you want it to be. This is primarily taught with a sword and board with shield manipulation but is utilized by other styles. Spears and reds may do shield manipulation by knocking the shield around. Shields can use weapon manipulation to redirect support weapon swings, or can pin weapons. Florentine can use their two swords to first pin a sword arm and then swing around it. Florentine can also do shield manipulation by stabbing the edge of a shield with one hand and then swinging with the other. Reds can do weapon manipulation simply by the force of their strike. But enough oomph behind the swing and suddenly it becomes very difficult to block it with anything less then a shield.
Range Control. Range control refers to how well you control the area in which you can swing as opposed to the area in which your opponent can swing. Effective range control means that whenever possible you don't give your opponent a chance to hit you, something that's super important for red fighters. Effective range control also means that you stay close enough for you to strike or that if they out range you, whenever you enter their threat range you also make sure you get close enough to put them in your threat range. This is a particularly important skill for florentine fighters, especially against support weapons. That having been said it's a generally relevant skill to have even when it comes to blue weapons though it's by far less punishing if you get it wrong.
Force/Torque/Swinging with your body. These are the skills that you'll learn if you want to fight with a red well. But, once you learn them you'll find that they apply to all swung melee weapons. Knowing how to make a shot go faster by using your hips to apply extra torque is quite useful. It makes it much harder for opponents to sluff swings and it also tends to make wrap shots go further. Learning to swing with your body and not your arms will additionally grant stability, making your swings more accurate, in addition to just having them go faster.
Aggression. Aggression is an all important, and often ignored, bit of battlefield tech. When you have the numbers advantage you MUST push the advantage by being aggressive. Passively standing by while the rest of the fight goes on will usually mean you are soon outnumbered. Aggression for a support weapon just means that they actively swing. Aggression for a sword and board fighter means that they actively block incoming projectiles, protect their support weapons, move the line forward when they are at an advantage and will rush and opening in the opposing line should one present itself. For a florentine fighter aggression is everything. Simply waiting for counterblows when your opponent either out ranges you, or has a much better passive guard then you is almost always a death sentence. It's why, as a rule, florentine fighters do better away from a line where they can use their footwork to aggress on their opponents without worrying about being hit from the sides as much.
Coordination / Communication. This skill is also generally applicable no matter what set of weapons you're using. Coordination is what allows melee fighters to work angles, or for support weapons to work together to ruin the fighters in front of them instead of just those that are off the sides. Communication is required in order to coordinate, but it also extends to doing things like letting the rest of your team know about the state of the field. Sometimes it's as simply as shouting out to someone who is about to get backed before it happens. Other times it's about convincing a line that it should move up because it has the advantage. These skills are generally taught by archery though they can also be picked up from working in a well organized unit.
Chess. Chess is the process of outwitting your opponent. It's taught by all weapon sets at a higher level, though it's taught most immediately by fighting florentine to a basic degree of competency. Learning to play chess well is, at least in my opinion, what separates veteran fighters from new fighters. Having access to a lot of shots is good, but knowing how to use them and WHEN to use them is infinitely more important.
Options / Shot selection. Options is about having a series of shots that all start with the same motion but then end at different points. It means that no matter where you start your swing from it remains impossible to predict where the shot will end. Combine this with feints and you can really keep your opponent on your their toes. This of course also requires that you have a wide variety of shots so that an opponent can't learn to guard against 3 basic swings and be safe forever. These skills are taught primarily by florentine, but are relevant to any set of swung weapons.
Weapon blocking. Weapon blocking is taught, brutally, by florentine but it should be also used by every swung weapon. Spears aren't swung weapons but they also require you to know how to block with your weapon while you reach for some kind of secondary or just generally get the hell out of the way. Learning to weapon block well will mean that your guard with a sword and board is more complete. Weapon blocking with a red (specifically using the
handle) is incredibly important.
Off hand proficiency. Off hand proficiency is trained with either florentine or by fighting off hand single blue. While it's crucial for florentine, you'll also see the benefits when blocking while fighting with sword and board or red.
