Eli5 why is the high ground so important? Specially in ancient battles. Swords or lightsabers
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– Infantry needed to literally run uphill, in full armor, it’s exhausting
– Cavalry can’t gallop up steep slopes
– Projectiles like arrows and catapult rocks travel farther downhill and have more coverage. The enemy will have a harder time hitting you too
– A wall at the top of a hill is harder to climb
– it’s always easier to charge downhill than up to counterattack
Gravity is a thing. It’s harder to walk uphill than downhill. It’s harder to swing a sword up than it is down. It really is as simple as that.
Plus, think in terms of literature, and what this means from a story perspective. When Obi-Wan says, “I have the high ground,” he’s not just pointing this out as a fact. He’s offering Anakin a way to safely surrender and save himself. Obi-Wan doesn’t want anyone to get hurt.
But Anakin jumps anyway, and the audience knows he’s crossed the final line. ***His character arc*** is the thing that really hits the ground with a thud.
A weapon gains speed along the path where it’s swung from the user adding force and from gravity. More speed means more force when it hits.
When swinging down at someone above you, you can only hit with the initial, slower part of the swing. Swinging upwards forces you to fight against gravity.
Meanwhile, the person with the height advantage hits with the later part of a downward swing which has more speed and force.
Secondly, more vital parts of your body are on the upper half (head and chest). Those are easier to hit when you’re attacking from above. Much harder to hit from below.
Forget about the lightsaber and that scene in Star war, that’s just made up stuff that they broke themselves at more than one occasion in other material.
In reality high ground is important for specific reasons.From high ground you have a better view of the battlefield. From higher level you can see how many troops the ennemy have, where they are etc. While you can hide part of your troops with the terrain. An army camping on higher ground will be hard to surprise.
If you need to attack an army on higher ground, you need to work against gravity to go up. It troops will use more energy to get up, making them more exhausted for the fight itself, arrow won’t have as much range. For the same reason the army on the high ground can use gravity at their advantage, arrows can reach further away.
Attacking uphill is tiring and slows momentum in addition firing arrows or throwing javelins from a hill gives them an extended range and slightly greater impact. This all combined makes assaulting a hill position very difficult.
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