Not attempting to come up with some ground breaking insight here, chaps. Posting this for entertainment only. OK, the following footage is from a computer game and so there are a lot of things that are not quite right, shall we say. However, some of the action is quite good and kind of looks 'right' also, particularly as it is mostly seen from a 'helmet cam' perspective and you are right in there and part of the mayhem. Watch the green shields get stamped.

My old Re-enactment group were asked to assist the police with training once. After mentioning caltrops for the horses and bin lids (it was many years ago) for a boars-snout shield charge they were informed it wasn't to be quite such a physical training day...

Thanks to all for taking part in the discussion. Very illuminating.

Talking to a wargamers friend who joined the Police after University (well actually after a couple of years teaching in inner city Brum. He decided that as all he was doing was riot control, he might as well have the uniform and the kit) and asked him what would happen if we used Theban tactics against a police line. The response was pretty unprintable but suggested it would work pretty well.

I also took part some years later in "Green Hackle" which pitted Sandhurst cadets (playing Northern Ireland security forces) against a horde of Territorials as the various sides. At one point that included a shield wall, which was taken apart when the funeral procession used the coffin as a battering ram.

 

Quote from: JeffNNN on 22 October 2016, 05:09:37 PM

I also took part some years later in "Green Hackle" which pitted Sandhurst cadets (playing Northern Ireland security forces) against a horde of Territorials as the various sides. At one point that included a shield wall, which was taken apart when the funeral procession used the coffin as a battering ram.

Also    One would hope that first class tactical thinking was rewarded! lol
But, when you think about it, such a 'pry bar' could have been useful in some circumstances...if a shield wall was as rigid as is often assumed. Personally, I think that most 'battles' were more like large scale skirmishes, with action much more fluid than often depicted. Given the small size of most warbands of 'carls', it would be too easy to outflank a single shield wall as supporting 'troops' would be so much weaker than armoured warriors. Possibly 'cores' of warriors with support, manoeuvering and reacting to opportunity would make more sense. (Would make for much more interesting game, anyway, than ' line up and role the dice'...something that has put me off 'ancients' or 'Dark age').
"Shield Wall" seems a little bit more like something that you would read in 'The Sun'...stirring stuff from the skalds in the feast hall before or afterwards.
But, 'horses for courses'...some battles will have required different tactics than others. Bigger battles may have just needed to be a long, hard slog...and Hastings had to have a wall to prevent cavalry penetration.
So, just fight your fights as they had to...they wanted to win...and live for the rewards.

Heedless Horseman, that is pretty much what I was thinking. You have just described it so much better than I did. Given that I believe that Hastings was fought slightly away from the preserved field, which would have been too boggy for Norman cavalry to operate effectively, I think the Saxon line was further East by a few hundred yards, astride what is now the A21 probably with the centre between the church and the mini roundabout(!) This would also have been more effective in preventing a Norman out flanking manoeuvre hence their greater reliance in archers. It would also mean the shield wall would potentially have a smaller frontage which might explain Harold's inability/unwillingness to commit all forces to the charge of the fyrd when the had the Norman army retreating. It might have been that they were fighting in a much narrower space than we have traditionally though.

Anyway, I am rambling now. Thank you for contributing to this discussion.

Just out of interest, the first series of The Last Kingdom is now on Netflix (always supposing you can cope the various groups being put into a sort of 'uniform' for the uninformed).