European Knight vs. Japanese Samurai

Hey Dufflepud, I don't have a lot of time, so this first response will be quick and concise. Your main argument is that there is a common misconception regarding the way knights are viewed in modern context. You claim that Samurais had heavier armor than knights, and that knights were more agile. However, this is not entirely true. Based on an actual experiment done by Science Magazine, it has been concluded that the steel plate armor of knights caused the wearer to be forced to expend 2.3 times the normal amount of energy required for walking and 1.9 times the normal amount of energy required for walking. Furthermore, the tight compressing of the chest caused by the armor and the low ventilation caused by the helmet made breathing much more difficult. In the experiment, it was found that the wearers of the armor experienced much greater difficulty in breathing the amount of air necessary in order to maintain healthy conditions. As a person expends energy, they usually breath in more air and take longer, faster breaths. However, the wearers of the armor were only able to take in the amount of air that is useful for regular non-stressful activities. Both knights and samurai were warriors who were most suited to horses. The difference is that the lower class samurai would act as foot soldiers and wear a light version of the O-Yoroi armor, while knights were nearly always horseback warriors, both on the battlefield and in tournaments. As a result, knights did not need a lighter version of the traditional armor, since in both tournaments and battles knights would ride on horseback. In the context of this particular fight, since the samurai knew that he (or she, since there were women samurai) would be fighting on the ground without horses, they would have opted for the O-Yoroi armor worn by infantry samurai. The high class O-Yoroi armor was typically worn for those samurai on horseback who would fight with arrows or yari, not ground fighting. Now, I will provide a brief simulation of what the actual battle will look like. The knight will know that he is completely protected, while the samurai will be unused to fighting such a heavily armored opponent and will initially be thrown off guard. He will then learn that his katana is unable to penetrate the opponent's armor, but is capable of deflecting the opponent's longsword quite easily, as it has much greater speed. However, the samurai will have more frequent combat training than the knight and will realize that the full suit of armor is taxing to the knight's body. Since the samurai himself wears lighter armor than the knight, he will be able to lead the knight in a long, drawn our battle without much offense from either side. The samurai would be faster than the knight, both in terms of running speed and swinging speed, since the knight has heavy padding on his thighs, usually weighing 8 or 9 kilograms. After several hours, the knight will be exhausted, and yet the samurai will not stop fighting because his honor is devoted to the battle, so the knight will not be able to enact a truth. Through sheer exhaustion, the knight will be forced to either surrender or retreat, since he has no way to force the samurai into direct confrontation. The battle will be long and hard fought, but definitely a victory for the samurai at the end. http://www.ehow.com... http://news.sciencemag.org... http://www.history.com... http://www.thearma.org...