I was thinking back to my old D&D days while reading some comic books and got to thinking about the different sorts of hth weapons that were available over the course of time and the evolution of said weapons. I further got to thinking, “what was the most destructive hth weapon of them all?” We’ll probably have to add all sorts of qualifiers to this, so if you want to suggest a weapon, go ahead and add your own qualifiers.
First up, we have the humble sword. Probably the most common weapon until the rifle was developed, the sword (in all its incarnations) was probably the best tradeoff between offensive and defensive power. Low learning curve, but in the hands of a master absolutely devastating.
But what about spears? A good spear fighter could impale enemies from far away, although I suspect that after one good his, he’d get stuck and unable to use his spear after that.
So then, howzabout a hallberd? Essentially a sword on a stick. Cut, slash, etc.
Then I got to thinking about the Chanson de Roland and Archbishop Turpin used a mace because he wasn’t allowed to draw blood. He seemed to smite his fair share of infidels. Jan Zizka too, IIRC had a 20 lb. mace that he crushed heads with from horseback.
I’d be scared of a guy like that.
Axes? Our stereotypical barbarian has one of those two-headed monstrosities (were those ever used?). A lot of crushing power, but if you miss, well, you’ve got to overcommit yourself with that anyway. Plains Indians, IIRC used smaller axes, both for throwing and hth. And they used spears. They seemed suitably tough.
I found some table of RPG damage values (from FATAL, if anyone’s wondering) and the various flails seem to rate farily high. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these that had a military application (excepting the Japanese nunchaku or Chinese 3-part staff). Were these common weapons?
Anyone have any other thoughts? Logic would say that the sword was the best weapon, but if we had time to train people in other weapons, would we have been better off with legions of axe-murders? One-eyed macers?