Once u practice with 2h hard to go back. Against every shield user you always left swing as they attack, they cannot swing at your left because of shield being held, they raise sword arm and you left swing beneath, your right swing will always be blocked by their shield. So u only need left swing and chop, and you will not use right block much. The Great War axe with 120 reach u can slaughter like 10 Npc infantry rushing you, as long as you have somewhere to back peddle to, and your shield will most likely break when u get rushed leaving you to manual black anyway. The 112 reach military scythe shortened is also great because great axe can't be swung from horseback it acts like a pike there which I find swings are much easier to hit with from horseback than jousting is.
I carry shield on back for when I have to run away there arrows hit the shield but I never use it for cqc also learning to work the dpad commands is a must, you can take on enemies 3x your size and cut your casualty rate by a huge factor, basically keeping your infantry line in front of archers and flanking with cav, the default opening charge will cost you a lot of casualties even vs army 1/2 your size
