Newbie battleaxe question

[Salamander]

I actually wasn't arguing the point about double bitted axes, just more about the weight therein. I also thought you were talking about lighter than what you stated above, about as light as I would probably want a single handed axe to be.

At this point I am going to guess that we are on side here... :) But I cannot pass up the chance for a good (and possibly enlightening) arguement so...

I was of the (obviously mistaken) impression that you were informing me that the double bitted axe would continue spinning after having cloven the target twain in some bizarre parody of fantasy imagery.
 

Getting the wapon moving is not as hard as all that. If they defelct it, you still have momentum to keep it going. Only if they fully stop the blow are you in trouble. To get a weapon to speed, if you can let gravity do the work for you, (raising the head and letting your arm be carried by it), then getting it going is also not as huge a problem.

True, getting a lighter, more practical, weapon up to this speed is not a problem, but fight using the double bitted axe head I was mentioning against a guy using a sword and see who will bring the weapon back on line faster. Momentum only helps if you can use it to come on target before the other guy, no? Fully stopping the blow of any weapon often leads to trouble for the aggressor if I am not mistaken. As for letting gravity do the work of getting the heavier double headed axe (I am guessing the heavier double bitted axe here...) up to speed? Thanks, I now know where your axe is going to be for the opening actions. A quick thrust or cut out of time from the elbow or wrist and I gotcha. The more practical single headed axes do not have such restrictions due to mass and resultant inertia.

Personally, I don't see a problem with relying on a shield. It is not so easy a thing to get around, unless you start playing with flails, and used actively can be used to attack or unbalance an opponent. My personal preference (both in and out of TROS) is not to use them, and instead rely on footwork and parries to keep me safe.

I never meant to imply that a shield was easy to get around. The axe, is what I am going on about. Who says I want to get close to your shield? I am just as happy taking the arm with the axe in it, or the leg under it. Flails are interesting weapons, I am sure I will get to use them sooner or later, but we are discussing axes. As for parries and footwork, I agree, they are very viable. The best defence is to not be where your opponent's weapon is going to be after all...

[prophet118]

also note, that the majority of large ornate double headed axes were usually for executioners

they needed only enough downward pressure to severe a head..

Yeah, these seem to be more tools than weapons. Same with lumberjack axes. These need to be balanced for side to side choping, too (and a second blade makes sense for a guy who's going to have a dull blade after only so many trees).

Mike

yeh... hehe, i saw a history channel show a few months back, about axes... featured an axe throwing contest..

anyways... the duty of the "battle axe"... is simply an axe thats used in battle.. so that anything could pretty much be one.. though the typical battle axe thought of seems to cover alot of types...

ive gathered a few pics that could be thought of as battle axes..

just dont chew me out, i am fully aware that i dont know as much about weapons as i would like

heres some links







these axes are from 2nd edition AD&D, and the game, Rune... i chose those sourcs to show that alot of different kinds of axes, are basically battle axes

[Jake Norwood]

Yeah, and only the last one even resembles a real axe...

Jake

[Malechi]

actually I thought the hand axe and goblin axe weren't too outrageous...

The goblin axe looks kind of like a bearded viking axe and obviously the last one looks a lot like a Huscarl's long-axe.  That reminds me, if were to play a huscarl, what kind of axe would we used from the rules to emulate it? Or should I make a new weapon up and post the rules here?

Jason :)

[Jake Norwood]

Yeah, true. The Dwarven Bat. Axe looks fun to swing, huh?

Jake

[prophet118]

Yeah, true. The Dwarven Bat. Axe looks fun to swing, huh?

Jake

yeh... does massive amounts of damage in Rune, though its a rare item, so you cant start the game with one... which begs the question. "if thats what people think of when they hear the word battle axe, and its a 'rare' item, why do they seem so common"....lmao


just be glad i didnt show you the hammers, or the swords... the dwarven battle sword is a bit much.. lol

[Salamander]

Prophet,
I wish I had seen that show on axes, it sounds kind of interesting.

The pictures of axes you sent shows some great artwork and imagination (in short; Cool!). In addition to Jake's comment about the last pic I see a few that might have ended up being used. The second picture kinda looks like an axe used in the 1400-1500's what with the back spike and all, and the goblin fellow in the second last pic is holding something that could have been no stranger to the battlefield in the hands of a wealthy levy. Of course I have no concrete evidence of such weapons existing, but there are definite similarities to some of the ones on the links I provided above...

[prophet118]

i think the show was fairly cool... the axes though, wasx only the last maybe 20 minutes... the best thing to watch, would have been the episode of Conquest where they learned to fight with axes.. hehe

did a whole speil about the uhhh huscarls (is that the right spelling?)

[prophet118]

now,  i shared what pics i could find, as for the pics from Rune (the first pic)... i dont think all of them are fanciful.. the last few on the right are probably pretty representive of executioners axes... the first 3, were LIKELY used, but again, thats speculation, they do appear to be based on real axes i have seen, though the middle one with the pick on the back looks more like a modern day pick axe than anything else.. lol