Are halberds the peak of melee weapon design?
My dick is the ultimate weapon
>>61549094There is no peak. The best melee weapon depends on what you're using it for and the context you're using it in.
>>61549094pike has reach advantage
>>61549094axe-head was questionable at timesability to chop with it is actually quite limited, so its main benefit is actually just adding more weight to the weapon to penetrate mailleit also limits how long you can make the polearm, because the longer it gets the more leverage the axe head has to pull down
>>61549094pike has the advantage in shoulder to shoulder formation fighting, naked germans with oversized swords beat them in a broken melee, and you'd always rather be 100m away with a crossbow anyways, melee is a chump's gamestill love the halberd though and unless your opponent is a well disciplined pike and shot formation the halberd will be competitive
>>61549094no billhooks are
>>61549094>not on 1v1>spears are better for invest in massive armies>heavy, non practicalthey were as useless as zweihänder
No. You can't spare your hand to hold a shield. Good luck with hard blows to the head and joints
>>61549228Pikes were cheap when gathering a great horde of men, but they were not the best tools around.
>>61549169Halberds are relatively short for polearms, usually around 5 feet tall.So, why would you develop a short, heavy, and most importantly expensive pole-arm?To be used in guard duty, by the royal guard, etc.One of the indicators that the Halberd isn't a battlefield weapon is the fact that it has a spike on the bottom end of the shaft. Military weapons don't have two pointy ends, because you're probably just going to end up stabbing the dude behind you on accident.
>>61549144Pike is useless outside of a formation.
>>61549228Pikes and halberds would literally never fight each other. You fight pike formations with pike formations; there's no such thing as a halberd formation.Think of your Halberd like a cops sidearm and uniform all in one. It lets everyone know in a glance who you are, what your job is, etc.Also, pure speculation on my part, but the halberd would have a very distinct manual of arms, meaning your skill with one could be used as an indicator of wealth and status..
EVERYONE BACK THE FUCK UP WITH YOUR POINTY STICKS!!
>>61549094>Go to town>Town makes you check your halberd at the gate>Get into fight at tavern>Get stabbed by some guy with a knife shaped like a dick>"B-but my peak melee weapon!"
>>61549094As a general purpose field combat weapon, probably. The axe is good against lighter armor while the spike can punch through armor with a strong swing. The real benefit, however, is the Halbert's tendency to hook and pin. See, you didn't kill foes in full plate. Full plate is expensive and only given to the most valuable fighters. If you can take them captive you can ransom them for a pretty penny.
>>61550673>Not carrying a sword as a sidearm.
>>61550941Glossing over your sword also being over the length limit, that's not particularly relevant to the thread.
Halberds also make great firefighting tools, which you'd probably doing more of a a town guard than defending against an armed assault. It's a demolition tool that also makes a decent weapon, and with a couple of buddies, you can exert physical control with the immediate threat of lethal force without going all the way.
>>61551475
>>61550295>Pikes and halberds would literally never fight each other.Battle of Flodden.
>>61551429Sure, but so is taking a halbert out of play by legal means. It's also ironic since the Halbert was commonly used by city guards who would enforce those laws.
>>61549094>just slap an axe head on the end of it bro!>it'll be so cool bro!Why would a man attempt to improve upon perfection?
>>61551507https://www.youtube.com/shorts/86YMa7H3xSY?feature=share
>>61550295Bullshit, Halberdiers often screened the flanks of pike blocks and would dismantle pike blocks from the flanks.
>>61549094Swiss infantry used a mixture of pikes and halberds, and that setup was never surpassed in melee. German landsknechts copied it and added greatswords, the spanish used a mixture of pikemen and swordsmen, but neither of those proved superior to the swiss. It does require a decent amount of armour though, and good training and cohesion to make up for the vulnerabilities of the pikes.
>>61549094they were the meta in Ultima Online so yeah, I'd say so.
LUCERNE CHADS WW@????
>>61552326Pollaxe categoryShort polearms for single (heavily armored) combat. Longer polearms like halberds or bills for formation combat.
>>61552122Those are bills not halberds
>>61552995It says "halberdier" right there my manEnglish bills could practically be called a halberd variant, but they're called bill and not halberd. And the swiss called their weapons "helmbarte" aka halberd and not bill.
>>61551788According to?
>>61549094Yep. Next question.
>>61550398Pls post uncompressed
>>61552122I need the full Pic with legend, I need to know what #5 is about. That getup is hilarious
>>61555673The source is probably from an Osprey publishing on swiss mercenaries or the burgundian wars from the late 15th century.But If you want the source of the source however, it would be pic related. The guy seems to be some kind of cheerleader
>>61552995Every medieval source we have that mentions bills says to use them in pretty much the same way you would use a halberd.
>>61550273>Military weapons don't have two pointy ends, because you're probably just going to end up stabbing the dude behind you on accident.???
>>61549094Best melee weapon is a bayonet because it's attached to a gun
>>61550673>swinging a halberd in a tavernDo peasants really?
>>61557158>No one uses double ended spears because of friendly fire reasons>Let me cherry pick the one singular example in history of people using double ended spears>That means that the halberd is a battlefield weapon
>>61549094It looks REALLY heavy and therefore unpractical but i never held one
>>61551705Those were voulges you uneducated cunt.
>>615572201. Halberds were undoubtedly battlefield weapons, we have tons of evidence for that2. Halberds don't usually have back spikes3. Pollaxes usually do, and they were used on the battlefield as well. It seems the risk of friendly fire can be mitigated by being careful.
>>61557158>muh wikipedia articlesYou have to be 18 or older to post here.
>>61550287What so are we just talking about duels and skirmishes then?
>>61550273thats poleaxes/pollaxes halberds are usually between 7 and 8 foot
>can stab a nigga>can chop a nigga>can spike a nigga>can pin down a nigga so your fellow niggas can do any of the previous to himI think it might be.
>>61551798is spear+gladius for tight quarters the ultimate home defense melee combo?
>>61557873Spears are shit in tight corners because shields become OP. You want a 2h axe or hammer for tunnel fights. Just ask the dearves
>>61557902i was thinking spear in corridors and gladius for room/corners
>>61557674Pike blocks could be broken by flanking attacks and bad terrain. They were nearly useless against fortifications and very vulnerable to field artillery. The Halberd was just more versatile.
>>61552122This guy gets it. Halberds were a supplement for pike squares, used for flanking, exploiting gaps, and pursuit (similar to how the Spanish used swordsmen in their tercios)But pikes were doing most of the work
>>61555655
>>61557902Honestly if you had to go full medieval on your home defense I don't think a small shield and a short spear would be a bad idea. The spear can be used well with or without a shield, which itself helps to add protection, potential offense, and extra "get the fuck out of here" vibes to your overall presentation. Legally speaking you'd probably be better served bonking them with a baseball bat or something, but your ancestors will definitely smile upon you for picking a proper warrior's weapon.
>>61558403would that be considered a weapon of mass destruction? how far does the radiation reach?>a hundred heavily armored guys on horses stampede to the center of the battlefield>start swinging their demon flails>a week later everyone involved in the battle is dead
>>61549094That's not a Katana.
>>61557873YES, brother.
>>61549094no everything has a specific case use and halberds suck ass in narrow confined indoor spaces
>>61550673is nobody at that consecration going to comment on his non-matching green and white pantaloons
>>61552326Here ya go, bro.Lucerne and bec de Corbin are the swiss army knife of polearms; spear, hammer and spike to deal with heavy armor and gambeson. Not a shoulder to shoulder pike formation weapon, but the ideal skirmisher's tool
>>61549094whats the advantage of the halberd vs a same long spear ?i dont see any
>>61562141It looks cooler
>>61551798i have same
>>61558403>>61558482>would that be considered a weapon of mass destruction? how far does the radiation reach?i wonder same. you could simple attach a demon core on a drone and let it fly around in a city
>>61558482>how far does the radiation reach?It drops of very rapidly, note the difference in dosage between the two victims here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core#First_incident>>61562182Without preposterous amounts of (heavy and bulky) shielding the first burst of radiation would kill the drone's electronics. Remember why they resorted to "biorobots" on Chernobyl's roof.
>>61562243>Without preposterous amounts of (heavy and bulky) shielding the first burst of radiation would kill the drone's electronics.so just drag it behind a tank on a chain through a city
>>61557226No, bills and halberds were present, cunt.
Can we make a pike length halberd?
BEHOLD
>>61557419>>61553062>>61552995>>61556993>>61552122>>61560565As somebody interested in Mesoamerica, i'm jealous of all the in depth typology Medievalists and Chinese, Japanese, etc historians have for their weaponryAlmost nobody in Mesoamerican history or archeology has done any sort of typology for weaponry, and even the sources which do exist specifically on warfare and weapons neglect a lot weapon variations seen in manuscripts and sculptures. Me and some friends are working on collages and images of as much as we can document as possible since nobody has really done it yet, but the polearm section mostly isn't done yet. One question I do have though: Is there a term for "half length" polearms? That don't have a full length shaft, but still have an actual extended shaft rather then just a short handle? I ask because some weapons in Mixtec codices seem to feature a polearm like that (or maybe it's a conventional, full length polearm that's just drawn short due to the style), as seen in pic related, and i'm not quite sure what to call it.>>61562659There are long 12-20+ foot long pikes in Mesoamerica used by the Chatinos and Pipil that seem to be variations of Tepoztopilli (polearms used by the Aztec with a spade/leaf shape bladed heads, which were used for slashing like halbreds in addition to thrusts).
>>61562659No. The axe head makes it too unwieldy if it gets too long
>>61564400>>61562659Note that
>>61549094no.
>>61562659I think I read somewhere that pike length Ji/Ge were used in ancient china, and smacking people with pikes was a tactic the japs used so I think its viable.
>>61562141The blades of many halberds are angled to allow for damaging the poles of other weapons. If you can detach the head of a polearm, they now only have a stick.
>>61549094Bilhook is better
>>61568203>Billhook is cheaperftfy
>>61549094No.
>>61570131>>61568203>the bill hook used almost exclusively by the brits was so superior that they lost their continental holdings with it
>>61570146>A series of multiple wars across multiple centuries, largely decided by economic and demographic factors, can be blamed entirely on a single weaponCool story, brainlet.
>>61568203It's the same thing
>>61560513it was a different time
>>61552995They're almost all identical.
>>61562778Na-nani!?!?!?!?!?!?
>>61555655here you go
>>61549094>implying it's not the obviously superior bill-hooki want continentals off of my board.
>>61549094
>>61574737Those are Italian bills you Indian-ruled island monkey. English ones look like a halberd with a birth defect:>>61570131
