The Tools of Battle
Hello world-builders! We’ll continue our series about fighting in the middle ages with “weapons.” If you recall, I claimed that weapons were tools designed to solve specific problems. While every weapon has the ultimate aim of removing people from combat quickly and effectively, they perform better or worse depending on who those people are, what armor they are wearing, and what techniques are being used.
After long consideration, I figure it is better to give you world-builders an idea of how to identify the parts of a weapon are important, how those parts are used, and to discuss some common trends within weapon categories. It should be well noted that individual weapons may have special properties which deviate from these common trends.
Die Drei Wunder / The Three Wonders
German longsword master Liechtenauer talks about three kinds of strikes which can occur: “hauen” (hewing), “schnitten” (cutting), and “stechen” (thrusting). Although Liechtenauer appears to be talking about longswords, his three-strike framework provides an understanding of how all melee weapons work. Let’s talk about these strikes in detail.
Hewing Strikes: The side of the weapon hits the target, and the energy of the impact is focused down to one or two points. Hewing strikes are the kind of strikes you commonly see from axes, maces, and picks. There is no pushing or pulling. A good hewing weapon seeks to put its center of mass near the point of contact, so most of the energy from the swing goes into that strike. Hewing strikes tend to be better against hard or brittle targets.
Cutting Strikes: The blade of the weapon makes contact with the target, and the weapon is pushed or pulled along the surface of the opponent, and the sharpness of the weapon causes a wound to open. This is commonly seen from swords, especially falchions, but can be delivered from axes and pole weapons. A good cutting weapon will seek to maximize its cutting surface and remain very sharp. Cutting strikes tend to be better against soft, fleshy things.
Thrusting Strikes: thrusting strikes involve pushing a weapon’s point into the opponent. These are the kind of strikes you commonly see from spears, rapiers, the pointy parts of pole arms, and technically most ranged weapons. A good thrusting weapon will have a symmetric, stiff point with which to thrust. Thrusting strikes are generally considered safer to perform, but also stand a chance of glancing off target.
Weapon Size Matters
A weapon’s size gives clues to how and where it was used. Small weapons can be used in very tight spaces, such as on ships or while grappling. Many small weapons can also be easily carried while doing other things, like farming, walking, climbing, digging, etc. These weapons are not ideal, though, because their size requires the wielders to get close to their target.
Large weapons, on the other hand, are more suited to open combat, allowing the user to engage the enemy from a further distance and generally be more deadly due to increased leverage. This comes at a cost, though: large weapons were impossible to carry around while going about daily business, so they were generally confined to war. (And yes, back scabbards are a terrible idea! It was never done in middle-age Europe!) Social convention dictated that people do not walk around with these unless a battle was to happen soon, much like someone walking around with a military weapon today.
Perhaps the most vivid example which demonstrates the importance of size is the case of the greatsword vs a dagger. The greatsword has a clear advantage until the dagger gets close. Once close in, the dagger is much more effective, whereas the greatsword it simply too large to be used. At a distance, the greatsword can lop off a limbs, and the dagger cannot do anything!
Swords
The sword is a classic, generalist weapon. Swords, unless specialized, can perform well in a variety of circumstances, but rarely are “the best” at one thing. Swords can be used while grappling, with half-swording techniques, or they can be used at a further distance with normal swordplay. Swords can parry and block, hew and cut and slash, and generally be contained in a noninvasive scabbard. In desperate circumstances, there is even some evidence they were thrown like a javelin!
In most cases, swords were side-arms to European knights. A pole-arm was usually their weapon of war, although swords did see action in combat.
Swords were generally much more expensive than other weapons because of the labor and material cost. The metal had to be mined (by hand) and then beaten out by a blacksmith (by hand) to forge a sword. Therefore professional warriors could justify the cost of a sword, but a peasant could not. This was true least until swords became much more common at the mid to late middle ages.
Europe in the middle ages saw many experiments with weapons, and swords were no exception. Therefore, it can be helpful to think of swords as existing on a spectrum from “very good at hewing” to “very good at thrusting.”
Hewing swords are often curved, but most have their center of mass further from the hilt, and may possess a single edge. Lange Messern and falchions are great examples of cutting swords. Plate and mail protect well against hewing strikes by distributing the impact or allowing the sword to slide off.
Thrusting swords come to a point to enable better thrusts, and are often straight to prevent the sword from sliding off target when delivering the thrust. Rapiers and smallswords are good examples of thrusting swords, but many swords were (generally) too long to thrust through most plate armor. Even if there was a direct hit, and the point never slid, the sword would likely bend instead of go through.
Many, many swords (like most in Oakshott’s typeology) can do both fairly well, but may lean one way or another. This means you could thrust with a katana or falchion, but they really are better at cutting and hewing! Additionally, if you pay any attention to Fiore, you’ll note that the pommel and the hilt are used in close combat, which further expand the ranges a sword can be used at. Fiore does recommend keeping the cross guard sharp, so you can use them as spikes against armor. Of course, you would need to get really close… which leads us to the next kind of weapon.
Pole Weapons / Staff Weapons Were The Weapons of War!
Pole weapons are great at killing people! They provide a very long reach and are relatively inexpensive to make. (See this great question and answers about the costs considerations of middle-age armies.) Additionally, ranks of men with pole-arms quickly become impenetrable unless you have someone wearing some heavy armor (or archers) to go break it up. You don’t always get the same effect with a row of swordsmen.
Remember the three strikes? Many pole arms were capable of all three. Doing these at a distance provides relative safety, which made these very popular with soldiers and knights. One should note that their size usually makes this impractical to carry around outside of battle. At least one hand is always needed to carry them, and pole weapons are long enough that no sheath can carry them well. (Which may be why you don’t see them in a lot of video games where “sheathing” is important, like Skyrim.)
Note the spikes are usually fairly short, especially compared to sword blades. This gives the spikes the stiffness needed to penetrate armor, and they are indeed shown in manuals doing so. Spikes often have a triangular or diamond cross section, which further increases their stiffness, especially compared to the relatively flat sword blades. Additionally, many of the hooks and spikes were also used to catch blades and trip opponents.
There is a very special staff weapons we should consider here: the quarterstaff. The English were particularly fond of quarterstaves, mostly because they’re easy to procure, give a lot of reach, and generally helped people stay safe. Some people have even gone so far as to say that quarterstaves are “the ultimate weapon.” Never mind that they do not possess any edges for cutting or points for stabbing, or that they still get in the way of most daily activities… so even the ultimate weapon has its downsides.
Axes, Maces, Clubs, Picks, and Hammers
These weapons all function in a similar way; they often rely on powerful hewing strikes and have their center of mass concentrated in the head. They also lack any hand protection, making them very dangerous to use without a shield, and their weight distribution makes it harder to parry or knock aside blows. This isn’t to say these weapons cannot be used without a shield, but that they are much safer to use with one.
Techniques used with any one of these weapons can transfer over fairly well into other weapons in this group, and indeed can transfer over to many types of swords as well. Some techniques, like those which rely on thrusts or the ability to quickly maneuver a blade, certainly don’t apply to these weapons.
The concentrated point-of-contact allows many of these weapons to bust chainmail links and penetrate through plate armor. Many knowledgeable people consider these weapons to be “anti-armor” weapons, as soft armor, padding, or even muscle and fat will deform around most of these, reducing their effectiveness. Unarmored people can still get hurt from these weapons, but this group of weapons shines against armored opponents.
Shields Change Everything!
Shields (including targes and bucklers) change everything about weapon use! First off, only certain angles of attack become available. (Otherwise you hit your shield.) Secondly, the ability to safely cover an otherwise risky attack makes risky attacks or weapons viable, such as the aforementioned maces and axes. Thirdly, the shield itself can be used as weapon, as with shield bashing.
One should not overlook the offensive power of the shield itself. While most shields stick to round edges, you can place spikes on them (both in the plane of and out of the shield) and turn them into a potent weapon. For instance, the judicial shields shown here had spikes for tripping and stabbing. For most European warriors of the Middle Ages, a shield was very popular until plate armor arose. Even in the age of plate armor, those who could not afford plate would use a shield.
Even without edges or points, shield bashing was used to disorient and harm foes. Obviously, hitting with the flat of the shield does not do as much damage as hitting with an edge, but it can still hurt and give individual warriors the momentary advantage they need.
Let’s examine the shields shown in the first picture. They have spikes, which would allow the users to stab, but are also small enough that these could be easily carried around. Their size lets us know that they fit civilian use more than military use, and if they saw military use, it was likely for someone who did not expect to do front-line fighting, yet still had to use their hands, such as an engineer or archer. The spike indicates they can be used for thrusting. It is reasonable to expect them to be used like bucklers, but giving the user the freedom to block a blow with their sword and then stab with the shield.
Always Remember: Weapons are Tools
To the left is the first video from a series (done by Skallagrim) which demonstrates the quality of various helmets. While he set out to test various helmets, he also tests a variety of weapons against them. One can see how certain weapons do more or less damage. During these tests, a variety of strikes is employed, and you can see the relative effectiveness of them against various things. Even two weapons in the same category may perform better or worse by simple changes in design.
There is so much to consider with weapon choice: what kind of strikes do you want to perform, how easily do you want to carry the weapon, what kind of reach do you want? Do you expect your opponents to be unarmored? Each weapon is a tool to answer the various demands placed on it.
