I usually stick to archery and magic in fantasy RPGs, but I'm curious about sword and board gameplay in Skyrim because the shield seems to be so versatile and reaction-based. If you enjoy this style, try and sell it to me so I'll choose it for my next playthrough .

Yes, the shield is a lot of fun, especially when blocking is levelled up to a decent standard. You could always just start a new game and try it out?

Still not convinced . I'm playing a solo ranger (archery sneak restoration light armor), and for my 2nd playthrough I'm thinking of going arcane archer (archery illusion alteration enchanting) and relying on a companion to keep monsters off me. Only problem is that I might get bored of too much archery, which is why I was considering doing a 180 and going for a nord axe + shield dude.

I'll try the style in the intro a bit but without the perks I don't think it'll give me an accurate idea of how it plays out.

You can stagger opponents with your shield. You can sprint into them and knock them over. You can take a perk that reduces elemental damage. You can deflect arrows.

Block is pretty awesome in this game.

gave up on the shield early on and went duel wield. Now I'm finding some good enchantments for shields but I don't think I will go back. I can kill a dragon in a few seconds with my two glass mases imbuned with poisons and enchanted to the max.

I'm the same way. I hate shields but I am playing a sword and board/archer and love the shield bash in this game.

See, that might be true, but dual wield is a 'spam-until-they-die' style, which I'm sure would bore me very quickly. What colddog04 said shows that shields provide a more interactive experience, which for me usually means more fun.

I love shields, but if you're playing to have the most power I wouldn't. But if you're playing to have fun with versatile combat, try it out. My warrior mostly uses 2 handed swords, when I fight undead I use dual wielding silver swords which is so much fun because the undead die in seconds. I go into a room full of skeletons and strafe around in a circle in 3rd person mode, nimbly sweeping around each of them and then hitting left and right attack at the same time as a charge attack which has you whirling your blades about in 3 strikes. Bones exploding left and right.

Shields are great for the slam, it feels very powerful.

Shields seem good, they're just pretty useless when you start out. You take a lot of damage even when blocking. As others said though the perk tree can build it into something pretty special.

I didn't get on with dual wield, but like Asgard said, without the perks I can't be 100% sure. My initial thoughts were "give me back my shield, I can't defend s**t!"

Staggering is one of the best features of shields. Block, stagger, power attack... and... splat. That svcker is dead. Unless you're facing a giant and two mammoths. In which case, run like hell and don't look back!

Shields are great.
But it takes a while to level up.

It's great, especially vs casters! Bash, hack, bash, hack, bash, hack!

The arrow deflection and elemental protection perks are amaaaaazing!

I tried shield and dual with two different characters, and I'm loving both. Shield is so much more interesting/fun compared to the previous TES (and other) games. I love bashing around, I also love the idea of covering behind a shield from the breath of a dragon (very thematic, where in other games you would be encouraged to just strom up and hack, so to take less of a beating yourself, here you advance shield up against magic; feels like some movie really, shame the perk comes so late on the tree).
Dual wield also looks cool (I admit I am compelled not to use even sized weapons, looks much better, if you have sword and dagger). It's nice that you don't need to change weapons in certain situations (my dream is a silver dagger in the left against undead, and strongest available sword; have yet to find a silver dagger tough , any ideas where to look for it?).

Shields is pretty good once you've leveled it a bit and are downright awesome once you've perked it a bit.

I've had quite a few fights with four (very) angry NPCs attacking me and ignoring my companion where i've just raised my shield and dodged the power attacks, letting my companion do damage from the back with me taking potshots (actually power attacks) at the attackers to keep them focused on me. I felt very much in control at those moments.

I honestly dont think Shields are really needed. Been duel wielding/enchant/heavy armor and I can kill a dragon in about 7-8 seconds (double power moves at the same time when duel weilding ftw). Regular guys die in about 3-5 seconds. Once you have put enough points in stamina so that you can power move like a boss repeatedly, things just fall over before you even take much damage. Have only used a few pots here and there. I have two one-handed swords and 30% extra crit and haste is overpowered. Playing on 2nd to hardest difficulty.

I love beating things with my shield and then running them through. There's a shield perk that slows time when you block a power attack, very cool!