Rapiers and halberds are my favorite weapons. Sadly not exactly many games come with them. Although a mace is cool, too.
favorite type of melee weapon?
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Spear! Highly underused in games and films because it's not as flashy as a sword, but on the actual battlefield it's probably been the most used weapon by a long shot.
I have two favourites:
1. Maces & one handed hammers - nothing beats the sadistic pleasure of bashing one's skull in, or crushing their face. It's even more of a satisfaction when they have spikes.
2. Spears - it's such an underrated weapon in many RPGs and you don't really see it often. Probably because swiss-cheesing your enemy from behind a shield (or at least from a slight distance, if you don't have one) doesn't look nearly as cool as heavy-arched swings with a greatsword.
1. Maces & one handed hammers - nothing beats the sadistic pleasure of bashing one's skull in, or crushing their face. It's even more of a satisfaction when they have spikes.
2. Spears - it's such an underrated weapon in many RPGs and you don't really see it often. Probably because swiss-cheesing your enemy from behind a shield (or at least from a slight distance, if you don't have one) doesn't look nearly as cool as heavy-arched swings with a greatsword.
I thought that was just that, though - fiction. A longsword is a versatile weapon so it serves as a sidearm, but nobody would actually charge into battle with it. It's just not very effective against an armored opponent, especially because they will sport weapons with longer range & armor piercing potential such as halberts, spears or greatswords. In this regard the longsword is only effective at slaughtering unarmored (or barely armored) targets. Hardly "noble". When both parties are unarmored, the rapier is the superior alternative to the longsword due to speed and weight.StormShaun said:
Idk maybe I'm just misinformed, but it doesn't seem like a useful weapon at all.
Love the versatility of swords (all kinds), but can't go past the simple brutality of axes, especially the half-moon types. None of those sissy quasi wood axes, I wanna be able to take a big-arse chunk outta somebody, and thrust instead of hack if I need to.
Skullcracking blunt weapons fiend here. The heavier and more ludicrously two-handed the weapon, the better. It's partly because I'm a huge and lumbering dude.
Weighted quarterstaves are wonderful things. Not enough games use them. ;____;
Weighted quarterstaves are wonderful things. Not enough games use them. ;____;
No, that would be the machete from the Postal 2 expansion. Arguably not really a melee weapon, but the first video game death-dealer that challenged my love for the Dark Forces concussion rifle.TopazFusion said:
In broader terms, I say halberd. Big enough to have range on a swordsman, small enough to have maneuverability on a polearm user, plus it's an axe AND a spear with a hook on the end to drag people off horses, pierce armor, and pop open unusually large bottles of beer. It's essentially a Swiss Army pseudo-polearm- which is probably why it was the go-to weapon for the actual Swiss Army for so long.
Probably because, unlike swords, maces and any other such weapons, spears were not only easy to make and outfit soldiers with (get a straight piece of wood, sharpen its tip, bam, you have a rudimentary spear), but simple to train new recruits with and incredibly versatile.Johnny Thunder said:
They are great at halting light cavalry, they can be thrown if the need demands so, they can be wielded with shields to provide a defensive wall that can stab you if you get too close, they can be used in place of more specialized lances by cavalry and when wielded by someone who knew what they were doing, they could outreach two-handers, pierce heavy armor and could be used to crack heads with the shaft just as well as stabbing with the point.
A spear-wielder generally only had three weaknesses: A well trained swordsman with a shield (since the spear is harder to control, it left the wielder wide open if parried with a shield), archers (thought archers were generally the bane of everyone not dressed in steel head to toe) and someone more experienced with the spear.
Also, spears have the dubious honor of being incredibly dangerous in the open (superior reach and the ability to break bones by swinging it) but becoming less and less effective the more spear-wielders there are in a group because they get in each other way, and if you discipline them to do the classic phalanx or turtle formations, their mobility becomes laughable. So yeah, a single spearman can be incredibly impressive, but in most fiction and games you only see them in huge groups where all they can do is stop charges from the front and die when attacked from the back.
The axe is my favorite. It may not have the same speed of use or range of other weapon, but it makes up for it in power and versatility. A good and well designed axe is not only a weapon but a tool you can use for other things that don't involve killing people.(though it's what you'll be using it for most of the time)
I'd like to try my hand at wielding a gladius made from modern metals. Long enough to have good reach but short enough to ram right into a sternum. I mean, I wouldn't actually do any of that, but for those reasons it seems to make more sense as a weapon than something unwieldy like a claymore.
I can only imagine how much fun it would be to smash up the bathroom section of a furniture store with a giant, two-handed hammer.lacktheknack said:
I oppose fair play on the grounds that it might give my opponent a fighting chance.Fijiman said:
I have the most experience with Assegai spears. I'm only accurate at throwing them up to 30 feet though.
Pollaxe. Most versatile medieval European weapon, once revered as the best weapon for armoured unhorsed combat but all but forgotten today.
They can use used to hack, spike, stab, crush, hook, trip and pull. Plenty of treatises on their use survives to testify that every end of this weapon was the business end!
At about the same length of its user it had reach but was not as unwieldy as the halberds, glaives, pikes, etc. and so can be used both in formation combat or one-on-one duels.
It was also modular and could come in all sorts of forms, from the wide axe blade/stabbing spike/hammer head version that everyone keeps confusing with a halberd to the Lucerne hammer.
Have some examples:
I do love me some no-faff, functional weapons. We need more of them in media, rather than the chunks of tank armor on a stick or ridiculous utterly impractical frilly things that kill immersion quicker than a pollaxe to the braincase.
Also no pollaxe is not a typo for poleaxe, its the same word only closer to the original meaning (poll=head).
They can use used to hack, spike, stab, crush, hook, trip and pull. Plenty of treatises on their use survives to testify that every end of this weapon was the business end!
At about the same length of its user it had reach but was not as unwieldy as the halberds, glaives, pikes, etc. and so can be used both in formation combat or one-on-one duels.
It was also modular and could come in all sorts of forms, from the wide axe blade/stabbing spike/hammer head version that everyone keeps confusing with a halberd to the Lucerne hammer.
Have some examples:
I do love me some no-faff, functional weapons. We need more of them in media, rather than the chunks of tank armor on a stick or ridiculous utterly impractical frilly things that kill immersion quicker than a pollaxe to the braincase.
Also no pollaxe is not a typo for poleaxe, its the same word only closer to the original meaning (poll=head).
Swords, one-handed or two-handed makes no matter to me (though not really ridiculously oversized greatswords). I like the range and freedom of technique you can have with it. In fiction or real life, I love 'em.
Not much a fan of the katana, or rather, not much a fan of the ridiculous worship people seem to have for it. It's just a sharpened end of metal, just like every other sword, kids. And not particularly well-designed either.
Not much a fan of the katana, or rather, not much a fan of the ridiculous worship people seem to have for it. It's just a sharpened end of metal, just like every other sword, kids. And not particularly well-designed either.