What Is Your Favorite Polearm?

Is this a poll just for game players or something?

Most of us: "No...no...no...hey, I know what *that* one is!" (I did look the alternatives up, though.)

Weight is the blessing and bane of the polearm. If it hits the weight of a polearm can be devastating. The problem occurs when one misses. Due to the weight it is difficult to stop a swing and reset for another swing. Also swinging such a heavy weapon takes a lot of room which leaves plenty of room for faster sword and board fighters to get by the swing and attack.

But I really wanted to choose Raising/Raging Heart.

Having trained with spears, staves, and short swords, I would take a pole arm over the short swords, or any sword for that matter. Most pole arms wielders always had a knife or long dagger for close combat, and attacking someone with half a pole arm and a knife is just fine for getting in close over someone with a sword. Having a shield just gives someone with a hooked polearm more leverage for knocking an enemy off balance, and a shield doesn't really give much closing capability against a group of experienced spearmen. Swords are better for duels and standing off someone with a knife, which is why so many stories have swords in them- those stories were more about royalty and their uses of weapons, rather than that of some common fighter for whom a polearm could be easily converted from a set of farming implements over to a deadly weapon quite easily.

Economically, if I were a ruler or warlord trying to outfit a large army with hand to hand weapons, the spear or halberd would win over almost anything else, because metal is very expensive to mine and craft into reliable components. That crafting cost on a per unit basis goes way up with hardened metals, and the larger the piece, the greater chance that serious imperfections will be introduced. Most rulers during periods where they were dependent upon hand forged weapons always picked pole-arms over swords for these reasons. Also, a lot of these weapons would be dropped or lost during close combat, so you want to limit your losses, while allowing your people to be able to pick up a weapon they can all reliably understand. Most peasants at the time understood already how to use a long staff or spear to keep wildlife at bay, for hunting, or for use as levers or farming tools in general. Drilling them on how to learn a few more moves and keep their feet steady is a lot less time intensive than trying to come up with a completely new regimen for something like a sword.

The amusing thing here is that the Naginata is probably more immediately recognized by this audience as an ashandarei.

15 times a minute? Heck, everyone I know - including world champions and a longbow world record holder - would struggle to shoot 15 arrows on a childs bow in a minute.

One every ten seconds, keeping four in the air at once.. That's manageable. Keeping it going for ten minutes? Sure, that's going to hurt; there's a reason bowmen had malformed bodies. But keep it going for a minute, take a breather for a minute or two, repeat over a half hour period. 60 arrows in half an hour? Just a few months practice and muscle development.

Of course, it's all somewhat daft. Some bloke isn't going to stand under 300 yards away being shot at. He's going to be up close and very personal within 40-50 seconds, by which time you've launched 5-6 arrows at best, and now you're throwing your bow at him and drawing your dagger.

Unless he's mounted of course, in which case 2-3 arrows tops.