Talk:Shield wall

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Contents 1 Other images of shield walls 2 Accuracy of Article? 3 Fair use rationale for Image:Shieldwall.JPG 4 Anglo Saxon Content

[edit] Other images of shield walls

Though fond as I am of Rome: Total War, it seems like it would be nice to have a less computer generated image of a shield wall, as well as of a modern shield wall as used by riot police. I did find one rather nice image of a contemporary Anglo-Saxon shield wall ([1] via [2]) but regrettably it is not free in the way that Wikipedia would like; the author licenses it under something similar to CC-attrib-noderiv-noncommercial. Collabi 23:06, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Accuracy of Article?

I will certainly be hunting for a shield wall photo (must remember to take a camera to a show),

As an aside it probably would be worth someone with more writing skill to add in about loose and locked shield walls, where loose was common for skirmishers and hard lock for men at arms (since hard locked its slow to advance)

As for the shield pressing against the body I would like to dispute that, in a hard locked shield wall (which is what ends up pushing against another shield wall), larger shields rest against the knee and shoulder in "braced" position, and the second rank will sometimes be needed to support the first rank as the main goal in medieval warfare was to 'break' the shieldwall to enable one force to encircle the other.

A locked shield involved overlapping one side over an adjacent shield and underlapping the other side with the opposite shield, also a notable thing was that front rank shield wall members were at risk of having their legs attacked (to force them out of the wall), and the shield walls decline was unlikely to have been missile weapons, which are relatively innefectual against a sturdy shield wall, but the development of more advanced wrenching polearms, such as the halberd and bill hook and some guisarms, that were designed to either wrech the shield wall up (which when locked a single wrenching weapon can pull a large amount of a shield wall away), while some weapons like the bill hook could also be used to "pry open" the shield wall, allowing a skilled user to attack the shield carriers from beyond the reach of the shield wall. AberDave (talk) 09:17, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Shieldwall.JPG

Image:Shieldwall.JPG is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 05:31, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Anglo Saxon Content

It seems that the bulk of this article is dedicated to English use of the shield wall. More information on earlier (and later), as well as examples from other parts of the world would be useful to give a clear account of the historic use of the shield wall. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.188.67.28 (talk • contribs)