Why people transitioned from round shields to kite shields?

that and it was easier to make defense formations

just stab that shit into the ground and you got a stable shield wall

>Maybe in fucking Dark Souls.

Or maybe in reality, if you had the slightest clue about history?

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What kind of formations? Why they changed it?

Daily reminder: Pavise shields are best shields.

Though I've only seen Lithuanian men at arms use it as a standard for infantry and not archers.

People never stopped using round shields.

Horses.

Shield walls.

It depends on what is meant by "round shields".

Certainly round shields kept being used, e.g. bucklers, rotellas, etc. - however, these were quite different from the early medieval round shields that were used shield wall tactics. And the latter did indeed stop being used - possibly because armour became more protective and it became more important for infantry to fight in organised formation with pole-arm weaponry.

Everyone saying horses is wrong.

youtube.com/watch?v=9OPDIZAWLHs

Riot police in most modern countries has abandonned round shields.

What's the advantage of a round shield? I mean the human body isn't round, it seems like you would have a slight deviation from a circle for better protection and to lower weight.

One thing you oughtta keep in mind is that shields often weren't held "flat", but rather at an angle, at which point the circular shape makes far more sense.
I'd show some examples if I wasn't on my phone at the moment. Perhaps someone else can help out.

How strong are those cop shields? Can they withstood attacks from pre-gunpowder weapons?

It's just a conjecture from Matt Easton. The Bayeux Tapestry shows otherwise.

Seeing that that sort of shit is what they are supposed to come up against: yes.

>Modern countries.
Nah. Most are just lazy to not have the attack element and just leave cops with sticks and fists to do that.

Even poleaxes?

Depends on the shield some are even bulletproof but most commonly used ones have no chance against spears or poleaxes or swords or any piercing weapon. They are mostly against hand thrown objects like rocks slings bottles etc.

>against thrown objects.
They do well versus hammers and bats.

hammers and bats arent piercing weapons

Except the adoption of the kite is plain to see as early as hastings.

Name a single source for somebody doing that. Especially since you form strong wlals by overlapping, which requires a certain amoutn of active side to side movement as you're stuck, and the user to pull back on the shield.

All things you cannot do it it's jammed in the ground.

It's retardedly good for fucking killing people. Not all of this can e done with kites.
youtube.com/watch?v=dkhpqAGdZPc

I got you user.

Or stabbed, or cut. Guarding your leg is nice. Also prevents you from being stabbed in the damn gut as easily. The tail will help protect you from high feint/low cuts.

Nope.

That looks gay as fuck

Strange how the great horse-peoples of Asia stuck with round shields for millenia if that was the case.

If anything, the round shape is THE cavalry shield over there since only the infantry carried elongated shields of other shapes (i.e. China)

European shields developed rather differently because European medieval heavy cavalry started out as mounted infantry. People who would go somewhere, get off their horses, and fight. This was prevalent during the Frankish days.

You see, the Eurobenises of Frankdom still carried those big oval late roman shields (pic sort of related). Cavalrymen of the Frankish kingdom often would need to fight in the shield wall so even they had to carry big old scutes around. (pic related) So as time went by, they got smarter what they did was to "Cut off" the bottom bits of an oval shield to narrow it down to enable them to use such big shields while on horseback, but at the same time, enable them to hop off and fight with the infantry's shield wall if needed.

they tried to be edgy

Bit of a angent but were metal rims on sheilds like in op pic eve used or would they have been too heavy?