Polearm | Wikihack | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit Polearms are capable of attacking enemies from two squares away, but the procedure for using them is different from other weapons. A polearm must be wielded (like any weapon), and then applied via the a command each time you want to strike. This is referred to as pounding ; consult that article for a full discussion. Simply walking into an opponent, as with ordinary melee weapons, will have decidedly sub-optimal effects; you will deal only d2 damage, with no bonuses, and will not train polearm skill . If you are mounted , you may use polearms for melee attacks with full effectiveness. Polearms deal less damage than other two-handed weapons in most circumstances, but they are an attractive option for roles such as Rangers and Wizards , who can ride but are restricted in the better two-handed weapon skills, and the ability to transition from pounding to melee without switching weapons grants distinct tactical advantages. Interestingly, in NetHack, one of the great uses of polearms is not for fighting mounted opponents, but for fighting sea monsters , since staying two squares away from water makes a character immune from their grabbing attack and drowning .

If you have no simpler method for dealing with the sea monsters, it can be worthwhile to grab the best polearm you find and spend some time training with it before going to a level with open water. Another useful feature of polearms is that, like missile weapons, pounding deprives monsters of their passive attacks : Floating eyes can not paralyze you, for instance. Packed Rooms Edit In leprechaun halls, throne rooms, and other rooms where every space is filled with monsters, a character with stealth can use polearms to attack monsters behind other monsters, protecting themselves from being attacked, and in some cases, preventing the target from moving. Comparison table Edit Here is a quick comparison of all polearms. You can sort the table by name, appearance, small damage, large damage, weight or value. The halberd and bardiche are overall best for damage, but the spetum does great damage for only 50 weight. The ranseur is also a respectable lightweight polearm. The bec-de-corbin and lucern hammer offer poor damage for such heavy weapons. Name Edit Polearms were popular in warfare for combatting mounted soldiers, and those with heavy armor.

The polearms (arms on poles) increased leverage for cutting the armor, and increased reach for reaching above the horse. As time went on the various different weapon types borrowed heavily from each other and began to look like each other, which has lead to a great deal of confusion over classification. Warfare is, after all, a ruthlessly pragmatic matter, and classification is a hobby for comfortable people after the dust has settled. If you search the internet now for examples of these weapons, you are likely to see weapons completely mislabeled as something different. Halberd Edit The halberd was a mainstay weapon in many armies for a long time. The halberd is a poleaxe, meaning an axe on a pole. Its main identifying feature is that the blade is always angled slightly downward, which explains NetHack's description of an angled poleaxe. In addition to the axe, halberds also have both a spear tip, and spike or hook on the rear for penetrating armor or hooking. A nice three-in-one weapon. Due to the popularity of this weapon, there are a wide variety of different styles, although some were only parade weapons.

The halberd is one of the best NetHack weapons, and this is consistent with its role in real warfare. Bardiche Edit NetHack calls the bardiche a long poleaxe and that is exactly right, if you assume that the "long" applies to "axe" and not "pole". A bardiche is nothing more than a long axe blade on a stick. The cutting blade was typically two feet long or more, and usually attached to the pole in two places (in the middle and the bottom). But it is mounted on one of the shortest poles for a polearm, only about five feet. So "short poleaxe" would be accurate also. This simple weapon's advantage was in its size and weight, not its subtlety. NetHack gets the weight wrong - a bardiche should be heavier than a halberd. Spetum Edit The ranseur, the hilted polearm, is essentially a spear with a hilt. The hilt served primarily to block opponents' weapons and possibly trap the weapon for disarming. The hilt was sometimes also used secondarily as an alternate way to attack. The hilt often hooked backwards also, so that it could be used as a hook.

The ranseur was probably an all around better weapon than the spetum, but this is not the case in NetHack. In a perfect universe, NetHack would give this weapon an advantage when fighting monsters that use weapons, as that is where the hilt is useful. Partisan Edit The partisan also winds up looking much like the ranseur and spetum. Originally the partisan was a spear with small double axe blades added below it. This basic form is shown in the first partisan above; however you won't likely ever see a partisan that looks like this. The other forms are more typical. Note that while some of them look like spetums, they present broader protrusions than the knife-like spetum prongs. The partisan is also more likely to have a flat bladed tip, rather than the spiky blade of the spetum and ranseur. Over time partisans (or weapons called partisans) became more ornamental and ceremonial, which may explain why it is one of the weaker polearms, and also why it is referred to as a vulgar polearm.

Perhaps one good way to differentiate between the spetum, the partisan, and the ranseur is to look for the edges on the prongs. Typically, a ranseur would have no edges, a partisan would have edges only facing out, and a spetum would have edges on both sides of the protrusions. Voulge Edit If you could put a cleaver on a stick, why not just a knife? The glaive, is basically just that, a knife on a stick, or as NetHack calls it, a single-edged polearm. Glaives were not the best weapons, and NetHack gives them too much credit. They should also be one of the lightest polearms. In NetHack the glaive is called a naginata if you are playing as a samurai. However, a naginata was actually a Japanese polearm which used (the equivalent of) a top-quality samurai sword at the end of the pole, and the weapon was backed up by a long-developed and rigorous martial art, and when combined with this expertise it was a formidable weapon. Perhaps this is why NetHack gives the glaive so much credit. But they should perhaps be two different weapons.

Encyclopedia entry Edit The guisarme like the voulge, started out as a peasant's weapon, made from a tool on a stick. In this case the tool is a pruning hook, which is where it gets its description. While it was a somewhat useful cheap weapon, the lack of a spear point was a significant liability. It was good for pulling riders off of their mounts, but what do you do once they're off? It evolved to some degree, sometimes adding a reverse spike, but eventually guisarme became a generic term for any weapon with a hook, such that you had voulge-guisarmes, and glaive-guisarmes. Bill-guisarme Edit This leads us to the bill-guisarme. Bill hooks were English weapons similar in shape to the guisarme, but perhaps with somewhat less hook in general. They followed a different evolution, such that any weapon that was similar to a glaive or fauchard, but with extra bits thrown in, was often called a bill.

So, in terms of origination, bill-guisarme would be a bit redundant, but in terms of later meaning, a bill-guisarme was a bladed weapon with multiple sharpened edges and spikes, and with a hook. NetHack should give these weapons more credit - they were very versatile, and used over long periods of time, second only to the halberd. There is a lot of confusion out there on guisarmes and bill-guisarmes. Often the bill-guisarme is called simply a guisarme. Also, many pictures purporting to be guisarmes are actually fauchard-forks, which is a fauchard, with a sharp spear point added to the back of the blade. Lucern hammer iron Despite the name, the lucern hammer is not really a hammer, and does not use the hammer skill. This confusion may have been responsible for the creation of Thunderfist . (Similar confusion was common among players of the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game. AD&D cleric characters were denied the use of sharp weapons, restricting them generally to maces and war hammers.

Any number of early clerics therefore ended up carrying around a Lucern "Hammer," which did more damage than a traditional war hammer.) Origin The lucern hammer is vaguely similar to the halberd, only instead of an axe blade, it presents a three-pronged hammer to its victim (hence the pronged polearm designation). Bec-de-corbin Polearm - NetHack Wiki Polearm 19 References A polearm is literally a weapon on a pole. There is an abundance of polearm types in NetHack. This is another feature of the game that echoes early editions of the Dungeons & Dragons games, which were infamous for giving stats for many exotic polearms, while describing none of them. Monsters will attempt to use polearms in the following order: halberd , bardiche , spetum , bill-guisarme , voulge , ranseur , guisarme , glaive , lucern hammer , bec de corbin , fauchard , partisan , followed by the lance ; and so this list is roughly from best to worst. Of course, polearms can only be used by strong monsters without a shield .

The lance is, in real life, a polearm, but in NetHack it uses the lance skill instead of the polearm skill, due to its very different usage: by mounted soldiers instead of against them. Generation Collectively, polearms make up about 6.4% of all randomly generated weapons (on the floor, as death drops , or in shops ). The probabilities of each type range from 0.4% to 0.8%. A few types of polearms are more common because they appear in the starting inventory of certain monsters. Ranseurs, partisans, glaives, and spetums are the usual starting weapons of trolls . [1] Lucern hammers may also be generated as a fall-back starting weapon for strong monsters that lack default weapons. [2] Watchmen and soldiers in the Yendorian Army often start with a random polearm. [3] Strategy Main article: Pounding Polearms are capable of attacking enemies from two squares away, but the procedure for using them is different from other weapons. A polearm must be wielded (like any weapon), and then applied via the a command each time you want to strike. This is referred to as pounding ; consult that article for a full discussion.

Simply walking into an opponent, as with ordinary melee weapons, will have decidedly sub-optimal effects; you will deal only d2 damage, with no bonuses, and will not train polearm skill . If you are mounted , you may use polearms for melee attacks with full effectiveness. Polearms deal less damage than other two-handed weapons in most circumstances, but they are an attractive option for roles such as Rangers and Wizards , who can ride but are restricted in the better two-handed weapon skills, and the ability to transition from pounding to melee without switching weapons grants distinct tactical advantages. Interestingly, in NetHack, one of the great uses of polearms is not for fighting mounted opponents, but for fighting sea monsters , since staying two squares away from water makes a character immune from their grabbing attack and drowning . If you have no simpler method for dealing with the sea monsters, it can be worthwhile to grab the best polearm you find and spend some time training with it before going to a level with open water. Another useful feature of polearms is that, like missile weapons, pounding deprives monsters of their passive attacks : Floating eyes cannot paralyze you, for instance.

As of NetHack 3.6.0 , pounding with a polearm can scuff engravings beneath you, just like attacking in melee. [4] Packed Rooms In leprechaun halls, throne rooms, and other rooms where every space is filled with monsters, a character with stealth can use polearms to attack monsters behind other monsters, protecting themselves from being attacked, and in some cases, preventing the target from moving. Comparison table Here is a quick comparison of all polearms. You can sort the table by name, appearance, probability, small damage, large damage, weight or value. The halberd and bardiche are overall best for damage, but the spetum does great damage for only 50 weight. The ranseur is also a respectable lightweight polearm. The bec-de-corbin and lucern hammer offer poor damage for such heavy weapons. Name UUUUU In SLASH'EM , the range of the polearm is expanded and not restricted by skill level. A new role, the Yeoman , can reach Expert skill at polearms, and begins play with a +1 partisan. Reaper is a lawful artifact halberd with a high bonus to damage.

Real life Pole weapon Polearms were popular in warfare for combating mounted soldiers, and those with heavy armor. The polearms (arms on poles) increased leverage for cutting the armor, and increased reach for reaching above the horse. As time went on the various different weapon types borrowed heavily from each other and began to look like each other, which has led to a great deal of confusion over classification. Warfare is, after all, a ruthlessly pragmatic matter, and classification is a hobby for comfortable people after the dust has settled. If you search the internet now for examples of these weapons, you are likely to see weapons completely mislabeled as something different. The term "poleaxe" seems to mean an axe on a pole, and that is how it is used in NetHack's descriptions. However, the term in real life is considered a corruption of "pollax", the "poll" part meaning "head", denoting originally a tool for slaughtering animals by hitting them in the head with a spike (whence the verb "to poleaxe"). As with many other agricultural tools, it became yet another military polearm. Halberd iron Origin The halberd was a mainstay weapon in many armies for a long time.

The halberd is a type of poleaxe in the most literal sense, an axe on a pole. Its main identifying feature is that the blade is always angled slightly downward, which explains NetHack's description of an angled poleaxe. In addition to the axe, halberds also have both a spear tip, and spike or hook on the rear for penetrating armor or hooking, making a versatile three-in-one weapon. Due to the popularity of this weapon, there are a wide variety of different styles, although some were only parade weapons. The halberd is one of the best NetHack weapons, and this is consistent with its role in real warfare. Bardiche iron Origin NetHack calls the bardiche a long poleaxe and that is exactly right, if you assume that the "long" applies to "axe" and not "pole". A bardiche is nothing more than a long axe blade on a stick. The cutting blade was typically two feet long or more, and usually attached to the pole in two places (in the middle and the bottom). But it is mounted on one of the shortest poles for a polearm, only about five feet. So "short poleaxe" would be accurate also.

This simple weapon's advantage was in its size and weight, not its subtlety. NetHack gets the weight wrong - a bardiche should be heavier than a halberd. Spetum iron Origin The ranseur, the hilted polearm, is essentially a spear with a hilt. The hilt served primarily to block opponents' weapons and possibly trap the weapon for disarming. The hilt was sometimes also used secondarily as an alternate way to attack. The hilt often hooked backwards also, so that it could be used as a hook. The ranseur was probably an all around better weapon than the spetum, but this is not the case in NetHack. In a perfect universe, NetHack would give this weapon an advantage when fighting monsters that use weapons, as that is where the hilt is useful. Partisan iron Origin The partisan also winds up looking much like the ranseur and spetum. Originally the partisan was a spear with small double axe blades added below it. This basic form is shown in the first partisan above; however you won't likely ever see a partisan that looks like this. The other forms are more typical.

Note that while some of them look like spetums, they present broader protrusions than the knife-like spetum prongs. The partisan is also more likely to have a flat bladed tip, rather than the spiky blade of the spetum and ranseur. Over time partisans (or weapons called partisans) became more ornamental and ceremonial, which may explain why it is one of the weaker polearms, and also why it is referred to as a vulgar polearm. Perhaps one good way to differentiate between the spetum, the partisan, and the ranseur is to look for the edges on the prongs. Typically, a ranseur would have no edges, a partisan would have edges only facing out, and a spetum would have edges on both sides of the protrusions. Voulge iron Origin The guisarme like the voulge, started out as a peasant's weapon, made from a tool on a stick. In this case the tool is a pruning hook, which is where it gets its description. While it was a somewhat useful cheap weapon, the lack of a spear point was a significant liability.

It was good for pulling riders off of their mounts, but what do you do once they're off? It evolved to some degree, sometimes adding a reverse spike, but eventually guisarme became a generic term for any weapon with a hook, such that you had voulge-guisarmes, and glaive-guisarmes. Bill-guisarme iron Origin This leads us to the bill-guisarme. Bills, developed from an agricultural implement called the bill hook (still used today), were English weapons similar in shape to the guisarme, but perhaps with somewhat less hook in general. They followed a different evolution, such that any weapon that was similar to a glaive or fauchard, but with extra bits thrown in, was often called a bill. So, in terms of origination, bill-guisarme would be a bit redundant, but in terms of later meaning, a bill-guisarme was a bladed weapon with multiple sharpened edges and spikes, and with a hook. NetHack should give these weapons more credit - they were very versatile, and used over long periods of time, second only to the halberd.

There is a lot of confusion out there on guisarmes and bill-guisarmes. Often the bill-guisarme is called simply a guisarme. Also, many pictures purporting to be guisarmes are actually fauchard-forks, which is a fauchard, with a sharp spear point added to the back of the blade. Lucern hammer iron Despite the name, the lucern hammer is not really a hammer, and does not use the hammer skill. This confusion may have been responsible for the creation of Thunderfist . (Similar confusion was common among players of the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game. AD&D cleric characters were denied the use of sharp weapons, restricting them generally to maces and war hammers. Any number of early clerics therefore ended up carrying around a Lucern "Hammer," which did more damage than a traditional war hammer.) Origin The lucern hammer is vaguely similar to the halberd, only instead of an axe blade, it presents a three-pronged hammer to its victim (hence the pronged polearm designation).

Bec-de-corbin Polearm Weapons List Medieval Chronicles > Medieval Weapons > Polearm Weapons List Polearm Weapons List Polearm weapons were used for a variety of battlefield purposes during the medieval period. They were very useful in dislodging cavalrymen from their mounts and in tripping their ride. In many cases, polearm weapons were used as a frontline defence or offence weapon against an enemy in medieval battles. Typical design of a polearm weapon comprises of a long wooden shaft at the end of which a sharp blade of some sort is affixed. The length of different polearm weapons varies and a longer polearm weapon offers greater reach against an enemy. Another notable aspect of a polearm weapon is the fact that it was one of the most inexpensive forms of weapon during the medieval period. This made it a favourite weapon with peasants. Fauchard 9 Pike The Fauchard was a type of polearm weapon that was used in medieval Europe from the 11th to 14th centuries. The pole shaft of a fauchard measured 6 to 7 feet and a curved blade was affixed to the end of the shaft. The curved blade of a fauchard made it look a little like a sickle.

Towards the later medieval period, variants of fauchard evolved with a spear point added to the back of the primary blade. This spear point was used to stab in addition to the main blade which was used for cutting and slashing. Guisarme The Guisarme was a type of polearm weapon that remained in popular use through different parts of Europe from 11th to 14th centuries. Like most other weapons, the guisarme was developed by peasants. Its basic design comprised of a long wooden shaft culminating in a pruning hook. The hook at the end of the pole was highly effective in combating incoming cavalry and dismounting cavalrymen. However, once the cavalrymen had been dislodged, the weapon was essentially ineffective against an on-foot enemy. This led to the improvement of the weapon with a small spike being added at the back of the hook in order to enable close combat with the opponent. Glaive A Glaive was a type of polearm weapon used in Europe during the High Middle Ages. This type of weapon comprised of a long wooden pole some 6 to 7 feet in length which culminated in an 18-inch blade.

The shape of the glaive’s blade was similar to the shape of a modern knife. Some variants of glaive came with a hook at the back of the main blade. Glaives were used by both cavalrymen as well as infantrymen during the medieval period. Voulge The Voulge was a type of polearm weapon which first became popular in medieval France. The French extensively made use of the voulge during the Hundred Years’ War with the English. The blade of a voulge was broad and meant for effectively hacking of the opponent. This blade was fixed at the top of a long pole so that a part of the blade was directly affixed to the pole while the top of the blade remained free for stabbing and hacking. Svardstav A Svardstav was a Swedish polearm weapon which was wielded by Swedish armies during the medieval period. The basic design of a Svardstav comprised of a two-meter staff which culminated in a two-edged sword blade. Such a design essentially combined the benefits of a sword’s blade with the extensive range of a spear. In many cases, an old sword blade was used in the construction of the polearm weapon which made it relatively inexpensive to produce.

Halberd The Halberd was a popular type of polearm weapon that came into widespread use during the later medieval period. The basic design of a halberd comprises of a long shaft which ends in an axe head. The axe is the primary blade for attacking the opponent using a halberd. A hook is added at the back of this blade. This hook is a defining feature of a halberd and it enables the wielder to grapple a mounted opponent and bringing him down before attacking him with the axe. The Halberd was famously used by Swiss fighters with great success during the later medieval period. Corseque A corseque was a type of polearm weapon which was widely used in Europe during the late medieval period. The basic design of a corseque comprised of a 6 to 8 feet long shaft which culminated in a three-bladed head. The three blade heads were designed so that the two side-blade emanated from the central blade at an angle of 45 degrees. In some variants, the side-blade curved away from the central blade and towards the shaft. The weapon was effective in close combat but didn’t gain widespread popularity or usage in medieval Europe.

Bardiche The bardiche was a type of polearm weapon that was popularly used in Eastern Europe during the late medieval and early modern period. The bardiche was unusual among other types of medieval polearm weapons in that its shaft was exceptionally short while its blade was exceptionally large. The shaft of a bardiche rarely exceeded 5 feet in length while the blade positioned at the top of the shaft was often larger than 2 feet in length. The basic blade used on a bardiche was curved and was shaped like a cleaver. The design of the bardiche made it a type of polearm weapon that relied more on the strength of its heavy blade rather than on the length and swinging momentum of the shaft. The bardiche was popularly used in Russia and in Scandinavian regions. Pike A Pike is a type of polearm weapon that was commonly used by the infantrymen from early Middle Ages until the early modern period. The pike was notable as an exceptionally long polearm weapon, ranging from 10 to 25 feet in length. Consequently, the weight of a pike was also substantial, ranging between 3 to 6 kg. Such weight made it impossible for a pike to be wielded with a single hand.

At the end of the pike, a steel spearhead was affixed. The Pike was a highly effective weapon wielded by the infantrymen who would group together in pike formations to defend against an incoming attack, especially if the enemy deployed its cavalry units. The exceptional length of pikes also made it possible for pike wielders to damage enemy soldiers at a distance. Share this: Anatomy of the Polearm by strongblade Everything I’m about to say is wrong. I will speak with an authoritative voice. Everything I talk about will be well researched and investigated. I will quote famous arms collectors and prattle about language origins. Yes, everything I say will sound right and true. But it’s all a bunch of guff. Why am I saying this? Because there were no concrete delineations between different polearms . There were *attempted* delineations, sure. Lots of lineating was tried. And some polearms even fit into the proper categories. But there were too many different shapes and styles in the world of pole weapons. Some fit into multiple groups. Some didn’t fit into any. Some fit into one group, but were classified in a group they didn’t really belong in. God, this sounds like high school all over again.

Okay, so, I know that pole arms are not swords. And I know this series is titled “ The Anatomy of the Sword .” But this branch of the arms tree is so convoluted, I thought it was worth including here. So that I could convolute it even more. What is a polearm? Pole arms (also known as pole arms (get used to the “also known” folks) are weapons mounted on a long pole. So, yes, a spear is considered a pole arm. Some axes can be considered polearms, and some pole arms can be considered axes. In fact, many polearms start with the premise of an axe-blade on a long staff, and then start accessorizing with spikes and hooks and hammers, and dead gophers. Some polarms are loaded, so that they look like Swiss Army knives on a stick. Which is interesting, since Swiss pikemen and halberdiers were some of the most feared polearm soldiers in history. The whole Swiss-Army-Knife quality is what makes pole weapons so hard to classify. There are so many variations, and the naming rules don’t seem to apply uniformly.

Rather than speak at length about the forms and styles, I thought it best to simply list some of the most popular polearms in history, and let you see how horribly confusing it the whole thing is. HALBERD(ish): Ah! The glistening spine of the polearm family. A short axe blade on one side, a hooked spike on the other, and a deadly straight-spike at the top. Some halberds had a thorn on the hooked spike, to better tangle opponents (not to be confused with a guisarme, which is a thorn to better tangle opponents. Yeah, I know. It gets worse.). Some halberds had a thorn both on top and bottom of the hooked spike. Halberd blades were usually convex (curving outward for you dictionally challenged), but some had concave (figure it out) blades instead . All in all, halberds were extremely versatile and looked really cool. So cool that the Pope himself adopted them for use by his personal Vatican Guard. The guards still use halberds today. I guess you don’t really need guns when your master is God’s BFF.

The aforementioned Swiss soldiers of the 15th century used halberds to become some of the most feared warriors in history. They eventually switched to pikes (See below) for more efficiency in battles and better general dental hygiene, but it was the halberd that got them to the top of the warrior food chain. GUISARME(ish): Are you confused yet? If so, then abandon all hope, because it gets worse. Let’s get this next term out of the way, so we can have some false confidence when going into the next one. A guisarme is a thorn or hook or barb , if you will, that curves in the opposite direction of the main weapon blade on the head of the polearm. So, if you had an axe blade on one side of the staff, the guisarme would, typically, be on the backside of this blade. The curved hook on the halberd does not count as a guisarme. Why? Because it doesn’t. Don’t argue. GLAIVE(ish): A glaive is a staff with a long, spearfish sort of blade at the top. Except the spear blade long and curved and sharped along both edges.

And the point isn’t really sharp. So, yeah, nothing like a spear at all. If you are into Japanese weapons, then you might recognize the similarity between the glaive and the naginata. Sometimes. To further confuse things, sometimes a guisarme was added to one side of a glaive, to better catch an opponent with. These were called glaive-guisarmes. Later-day glaives were fitted with long spikes on the top of the staff, for added stabiness, and these were called glaive-stabbies. (Editor’s note: No, they weren’t). FAUCHARD(ish): Fauchards are basically glaives, but only one side of the blade is sharpened, which is awesome when you’re pressed up against a wall while fighting an opponent, or when you’re a character in a 2D video game. Not so awesome when you’re in a 3D blood-spattering, bowel-cleansing, honest-to-god battlefield. Fauchards often had guisarmes, like glaives, because someone thought it was better to have a hook on that side than another lethal edge. These type were called fauchard-guisarmes.

VOULGE(ish): Take a meat cleaver, tie it onto a long broomstick. Congratulations. You have earned the Voulge trophy. Sometimes, voulge blades were really long, so that they looked less like cleaver blades and more like really thick spear blades that are sharpened on one side. Which reminds me of a certain weapon we discussed above. Yes, a voulge can look like a fauchard, but it’s never a fauchard, it’s a voulge. It just is. Sometimes, voulges had a hook or thorn on the backside, and this made it a voulge-guisarme. PIKE(ish): Pike’s were spears. But they were really really long spears. Like, 10-20 feet long or longer. If you play D&D, you can’t bring a pike into the Temple of Elemental Evil. Pikes can’t be checked as baggage on planes, even as sporting equipment. Pikes have one purpose and one purpose only: To destroy infantry and drive back cavalry in battles. Okay, that’s two. Swiss mercenaries refined their battle prowess when they switched to the pike.

So much so that the Germans copied them, forming the famous landsknecht warriors. The Germans eventually outdid the Swiss by coming up with the Zweihander sword—a ridiculous-looking two handed sword with saw teeth and barbs used for cutting pikes in half and leaving swiss mercenaries holding broomsticks. POLEAXE(ish): Also known as a poleax, which was also known as a pole axe, which sometimes was referred to as a pollax, or pollax, or Jackson Pollock. Poleaxes had small axe-blades on one end of the staff, and a hammer or spike on the back, and a blade or spike on top. How does this differ from a halberd? It just does, okay? Polaxes could deliver ridiculously powerful blows and were short enough to be carried by men-at-arms and archers alike. BEC DE CORBIN(ish): Translated from French, this can mean “Put the automobile in reverse because you’ve hit the garbage can,” or “Beak of the Crow.” This was basically a a hooked spike attached to a pole, with a war-hammer head on the opposite side and as pike on top.

It is not to be confused with the Lucerne hammer, which is a hooked spike attached to a pole, with a pronged war-hammer on the opposite side and a spike on top. Except that sometimes the bec de corbin’s hammer head was also pronged. But even with the pronged hammer head, it was still a bec de corbin. Unless it was a Lucerne hammer. Don’t argue. Just accept it. BARDICHE(ish): The bardiche is a long axe blade attached to a long pole. Bardiches were shorter than most poleaxes, rarely reaching a height of five feet. They were faster than their longer cousins, but still had enough weight to crush armor. Bardiches are not to be confused with the Scottish Lochaber axe, which is a long axe blade attached to a long pole. Yeah. I did try to warn you. BILL: The superintendent at my apartment complex. Nice guy, but don’t get him drunk. Also, a European polearm that looks a bit like those hooked butter knives that your mom keeps in the back of the silverware drawer. The bill came from an old medieval farming implement used to cut crops.

In fact, many polearms had their origins in farming tools. If you add a hook curving in the opposite direction to the bill’s curve what do you have? A bill-guisarme? Probably! Who knows? Do you know? I don’t really know. RANSEUR(ish): A wide spear blade mounted on a long pole, with hooked wings at the base with which to parry. Not be confused as the Ranseur, which is a wide spear blade mounted on a long pole, with hooked wings at the base. You can tell them apart because the hooks on the ranseur are sharpened and used for attack as well as defense. Sometimes. Oh, and did I mention that both of them are very similar to a Spetum? Yeah. They are. Except the spetum hooks are longer and thinner. So there you have it. A comprehensive study of polearms. Sort of. I have joked a lot, but the reality is that these weapons had a lot of different names and styles, based on regional preferences. It’s not so strange, really. If you order a grinder in Arizona, they’ll look at you like you’re crazy. Order a Hoagie in Idaho?

You’re liable to get punched. But a grinder and a hoagie and a subway and a big sandwich are all the same thing. Maybe slightly different from place to place, but still a sandwich. So it was with polearns. Thanks for reading, and see you next time! Borderwatch - Types of Poleaxes Types of Poleaxes Export (PDF) Types of Poleaxes There are a great variety of poleax shapes and consequently names. Many of these weapons have very obvious connections to agricultural tools. A fauchard has nearly the shape of a modern day tree pruning hook and is derived from the scythe. These weapons did form from simple tools for hunting and farming, however over time they gained complexity in shape and specialty in use. The pole arm can be given a simple definition so that the great variety of shapes can be included. The pole arm is any weapon at the end of a stick of a length no shorter than 5 feet. THE SPEAR FAMILY Spear Though not usually thought of a pole arm, it is essentially a dagger on a stick, therefore a pole arm. There The spear is a weapon for thrusting only in SCA combat.

Historically a broad blade (ox tongue) could be used as a cutting weapon as well, but it is not recognized by the SCA. The length of the shaft could range from 5 to 12 feet historically. Though you may find some areas that allow spears in 12 feet of total length, many kingdoms limit the length to 9 feet. Construction Preferences The modern material preferred for spear shafts is extruded fiberglass piping. The thrusting points on the competition weapons must be 3 inches in diameter and must compact 1.5 inches with moderate pressure. Many include the addition of foam “knobs” on the back of the thrusting tip to represent the barbs of a spear point or the crossbar present on a boar spear. Adding these small knobs on the shaft is very useful in fouling a shield to assist another spearman. Lance A lance is a long spear carried by a mounted man. Therefore have no place in SCA combat Pike Although there is no set rule, any spear with a shaft of 15' or longer is considered to be a pike. Due to length regulations, there are no Pikes in SCA combat.

Spetum The spetum was probably designed to increase both offensive and defensive capabilities of a normal spear. To a sharp, tapering point two blades which point forward at about 45° are added to provide secondary attack modes, deflect opponents' weapons, and catch and hold opponents at a distance if penetration with one of the blades is not achieved. Weapons in this same class are the various corseques or korsekes. Ranseur At first glance, a ranseur appears to be a form of spetum, or vice versa, but the purpose of the design of the former weapon is more complex than that of the latter. A ranseur's secondary blades are backward-hooking projections set well below the large central blade. The spearing function of the weapon is apparent, and the deflection includes the trapping of opponent weapons in the space below the main blade, where a twist of the shaft would apply pressure from it or the secondary projections to either break the caught weapon or disarm its wielder. Additionally, the side projections provide both a means of holding an opponent at long range or of pulling mounted opponents off their horse.

Similar weapons (or synonymous names) are chauve souris, ransom, rhonca, roncie, and runka. Partisan This form of pole arm is basically a spear - often with an ox tongue blade - to which a pair of small axe heads were added below the dagger blade. To the thrusting stab of the spear was added the defensive use of the side axe blades and their cutting/penetrating potential. Thus, the spear family that you will see mimicked by the SCA is the spear, spetum, the ranseur; and the partisan. All weapons in this class are basically daggers atop a sturdy pole, with trimmings added to make the weapon more efficient in one way or another. THE AXE FAMILY The Pole Axe The axe takes many forms. The axe was primarily a chopping and butchering tool with spear points added as a secondary thrusting tool. Despite the variety of shape these are all axe heads. Due to the weight added by providing the appropriate shape with foam, the length of a SCA regulation pole axe is limited to 6 feet.

Halberd This form of a pole axe is seen as a convex-headed broad axe in early examples, but the head is set at a convenient angle (considering the point where the blade is most likely to impact upon an enemy), so this alone makes it quite distinct from an ordinary long hafted axe. The whole weapon reached 8 feet (2.4m) in length. It was also always topped with a fairly long spear point and backed by a spike, which was often angled or hooked slightly downward. The spear point is, of course, designed to keep opponents at bay and deliver a thrusting attack. This proved quite useless when opposing mounted knights armed with lances (cf. Battle of Arbedo, 1422). The opposing spike was for penetration of heavy plate armor, with a secondary function as a hook for dismounting opponents. Bardiche This very broad and heavy axe links the pole axes to the pole cleavers as a sort of transitional step between the two forms, although its only obvious use is as a military arm.

A bardiche head ranged from about 2 feet to over 3 feet (0.6 - 0.9m) in length, and it was attached to its haft with two rings or a single one in those examples where the blade is shorter and backed with a hammer head or spike. The bardiche in all of its forms was very heavy and cumbersome - more so by far than a halberd - and was used principally in Eastern Europe. As stated, the family of axes set on poles for use in war overlaps into many other weapon forms, but its only true members are the pole axe; the halberd (possibly the brown bill); and the bardiche. The related cleaver-type weapons are so similar in function, however, that they can almost be treated as pole axes. THE POLE CLEAVER It seems quite likely that some outraged peasant fastened his meat cleaver to the end of a stave in order to protect himself and his family, and thereby created a weapon form which was to be widely used in both Europe and the British Isles for several centuries.

The same derivation holds true for the majority of the other pole arms which will be discussed; they are simple agricultural tools converted to a warlike use, and their form is easily distinguishable and identifiable. Voulge Place a hefty cleaver at the end of a long, stout shaft, and the leverage which the pole gives the wielder will enable him to cleave through armor. The voulge has no provision to keep the enemy at a distance in its simple form, but if the top front or back edge is ground down so as to provide a pointed dagger-like tip, the weapon assumes a more complete form. The voulge was sometimes backed with a spike or hooked spike to make a crude guisarme-voulge. Lochaber Axe In its early, crude forms this weapon was used the same as a voulge. Development of the Lochaber axe added a hook to the weapon, either as a tip or a blade backing, and in this form it is nearly identical to the guisarme-voulge. To all intents and purposes the two forms are so nearly the same as the types of voulges they resemble that there can be no real differentiation between them as far as function and form are concerned.

Continental Europe developed the pole cleaver as the voulge, while the Scots in the British Isles developed the same thing and called it the Lochaber axe. Both types of pole arms were developed to deliver a powerful cleaving blow, just as the pole axe family were designed to do. Both forms had secondary functions which were aimed at keeping enemies at a distance and/or dismounting them. Fauchard This weapon is a development of the scythe or sickle. Set upon a long pole, the curving blade of a fauchard could be used for both cutting and thrusting, although it is to be strongly suspected that it did neither too well. Furthermore, the weapon offered little in the way of parrying or catching/holding and had no provision for dismounting opponents in its early and more common form. Later models include a back hook to dismount horsemen, but the weapon was still not efficient, and it passed out rather quickly, although its combination form, the fauchard-fork, remained. Glaive Having employed just about everything else, there was no reason not to add the single-edged knife at the end of a staff also.

This family of arms is as small as the fauchard family and about as efficient. The glaive is a knife-bladed spear. It has the thrusting function of the spear, and the secondary cutting function of the convex blade of the knife. The weapon was rapidly enlarged in the blade in order to give it a greater cutting function as well as a cleaving attack. As with a spear or fauchard, however, it was not overly effective at holding opponents back, nor did it have the piercing or dismounting capabilities, so modifications produced the glaive-guisarme, which is discussed in the combination arms section. The increase in the size of the blade of these weapons brought some to the point where they nearly merged with cleaver-type weapons. Guisarme Medieval peasants discovered that their pruning hooks made reasonably effective pole arms. The provocation which necessitated such development was undoubtedly considerable, but the upshot was likely to have been as unsatisfactory as having no weapons. Pole arms of this sort, called guisarmes, were soon modified into highly efficient combination weapons. The guisarme was furnished with a sharp cutting edge along its convex side, probably from reverse spike to hook.

The spike, of course, could be used to penetrate armor when the weapon was swung, and the curved hook provided an ample means of pulling horsemen to the ground. Deficiencies in this form of pole arm are apparent - no spear point for thrusting and only one projection for penetrating. The guisarme was soon combined with other forms of peasant weapons to make a second generation of highly effective, all-purpose pole arms. Bill Hook The English bill hook was almost exactly the same as the French guisarme, but its concave (hook) edge was the sharp one, and rather than a straight back spike it typically had an L-shaped tine projecting forward. This arrangement was slightly more effective than the European guisarme. Military Fork The lowly hay fork was straightened and strengthened to provide a very potent weapon, the military fork. This pole arm had two efficient piercing points, for holding off an enemy, and sometimes a shorter third tine in the crotch of the fork, so that opponents were channeled into a third attack. The major drawback to this pole arm was its lack of effective penetrating power with respect to heavily armored targets. The fork principle was soon combined with other pole arms to form very efficient tools of war.

SPECIAL CASES A few other designs can also be mentioned here, more or less in passing, as they pertain to weapons that are not true pole arms, but their size is such that they are sometimes considered in the general class. The threshing flail, a wooden handle on another billet of wood attached to it by a swivel or several links of chain, was easily adapted and modified to become a ghastly weapon. Horsemen commonly employed a short-handed flail with one or more chains ending in smooth or spiked iron balls. The peasant's tool made a far more effective weapon when swung by a strong man. From a heavy shaft of about 3 to 4 feet (0.9 - 1.2m) in length was hung one or two rods of metal shod and spiked wood or iron. The whole weapon was over 5 feet (1.5m) long and had tremendous penetration and crushing power. There are also two pole arms which were certainly developed purely as weapons. There is a resemblance between the two, but they are separate and distinct.

Lucern Hammer This weapon is very similar to the halberd, but the spike on its end was generally longer than that of a halberd, and instead of an axe head the Lucern hammer featured a smaller, hammer-like head with three prongs. Evidently this function was not as efficient against armor as the axe blade, for it was replaced by the halberd amongst the ranks of the Swiss after the 14th century. Bec de Corbin At first glance, a bec de corbin might be mistaken for a Lucern hammer, but important functional differences can be noted. The bec de corbin was used late in the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance by knights and nobles, not by commoners. Its heavy, crow's-beak blade was designed to puncture the heavy plate armor common to upper-class warriors. In this weapon the beak is the major feature. This is backed by a flat hammer head, or by a clawed head somewhat similar to that of a Lucern hammer, and the end spike is more bladelike and far shorter than the awl spike of the Lucern hammer, for the latter weapon was not so specialized.

COMBINATION WEAPONS These varieties of pole arms were developed to compensate for weakness of simpler weapons or to enhance already powerful ones. Technically, all pole arms with a secondary spear tip for thrusting can be considered combination weapons. However, this sort of improvement was done so often and could be done so easily to most weapons that it is necessary to ignore secondary spear tips when classifying pole arms. By the same token, a partisan could be considered a combination weapon, but since it was primarily used as a thrusting weapon, it should be classified as part of the spear family. Fauchard-fork There were two general forms of this combination weapon. The first followed the typical fauchard form, with a single spike set to project from the back of the scythe blade. The second reversed the scythe blade so as to have its concave cutting edge face toward the opponent, the blade being more curved and sicklelike, and a spike tipping the pole end (or projecting from the scythe blade). Fauchard-guisarme This weapon is nothing more than a scythe blade backed by a heavy hook for dismounting opponents.

Glaive-guisarme To the heavier and longer glaive head was added a guisarme hook to enable the wielder to jerk horsemen from their seats. Guisarme-voulge This pole arm is similar to the Lochaber axe, but the hook is formed from the blade of the voulge itself, not added separately. Guisarme-voulges featured the pointed tip or spike so as to make the weapon as all-purpose as possible. Bill-guisarme There are quite a number of designs of the bill-guisarme. Each type has the following features: 1) a sharp spear or awl point; 2) a large hook formed from the body of the weapon; 3) a back spike for armor penetration; and 4) several sharpened edges. Some forms of the bill-guisarme have a sufficiently heavy blade and cutting edges placed so that they are actually voulge-like. This form of pole arm persisted the longest of all save the pike and the halberd, for it was certainly efficient in all functions - piercing, holding off, cutting, penetrating, dismounting, and cleaving. The scorpion is one typical form of the bill-guisarme.

The pole arm was developed in order to put infantry on even terms with cavalry. This did it admirably in the hands of well trained, disciplined formations such as those of the Swiss (who mixed pike, halberd/Lucern hammer/morning star, and crossbow/arquebus in almost equal proportions - 40-40-20 as an average), who could hold the best European cavalry at bay with laughable ease in pike square. The Germans emulated the Swiss with close to the same success, and most other European armies fielded large bodies of pole-armed infantry (with something less than great success in most cases). The reason for the proliferation of the pike was that it proved the most useful for keeping horsemen at a distance. (Swiss pikemen did not ground the pike butt to accept a cavalry charge, but rather held the rear part of the shaft higher than the front, so the points which glanced off armor would not go uselessly into the air but would be forced downward into rider or mount - at worst, into the ground to form a barrier.) Other pole arms gave way to pike and halberd for one or two reasons.

Those with massive heads were not as efficient as the pike; when their shafts were lengthened past a certain limit, they were too cumbersome to wield. (Spear-type pole arms were lengthened to pikes and were then called just that - there are ox-tongued and spetum-like heads, but the pike shaft is too long for useful employment of ranseur or partisan heads.) Those which were shortened for use as cleaving weapons were not as efficient as the halberd, or were changed so that they became almost indistinguishable from the halberd (typically guisarme-voulge forms). Dilligaf. Lexicon of Polearms. 1999. 4-6-2003. The Creators Group < ~dilligaf/ > Medieval Polearms Medieval Polearms Massed formations of infantry soldiers carrying polearms was a common sight on the battlefields of Europe from the medieval period right through to the early 1700's. The fighting part of the polearm was placed on the end of a long shaft and they were specially designed to disable and inflict crushing injuries upon knights.

Cheap to produce in large numbers and versatile on the battlefield, these weapons became the mainstay of the European medieval foot-soldier when engaged in close combat. The Bardiche A particularly brutal polearm used extensively in medieval and Renaissance Europe, the bardiche found particular favor in eastern Europe and Russia. Blade design varied considerably from country to country, but the main characteristic was a substantial cleaver- type blade and attachment to the pole by means of two widely spaced sockets. Blade length was around 60cm (23.6in), although the haft was unusually short at approximately l.5m (4.9ft). This weapon appeared top-heavy and impractical, but the bardiche was regarded more as a heavy axe and wielded accordingly. The Bill With a tradition going back to the Viking Age, the bill is commonly regarded as the national weapon of the English both during and beyond the medieval period, although it was used elsewhere in Europe, particularly Italy. As with many polearms, the bill developed from an agricultural tool, the billhook, and displayed a hooked chopping blade with several protruding spikes, including a pronounced spike at the top of the haft, resembling a spearhead.

The bill also had a strong hook for dismounting cavalry. Used skillfully, it could snag onto any loose clothing or armor and wrench the target from his horse and throw him to the ground. English bills tended to be shorter with the emphasis more on the chopping action of the blade, while Italian bills had a very long spiked end, resulting in its use as a thrusting weapon. ABOVE: The battle of Pavia, 1525, between the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Francis I of France. Note the pikes and halberds (right). The Glaive Similar in design to the Japanese naginata, the glaive originated in France, and its single-edged blade was attached to the haft by means of a socket shaft. Blade length was typically around 55cm (21.6in), with a wooden pole l.8ï¿½2.lm (5.9ï¿½6.8ft) long. Medieval Swedish infantry adapted the glaive by fixing a double-edged sword blade to the haft. Glaives with small hooks are known as ï¿½glaive-guisarmesï¿½.

The Halberd The halberd is a crude, rectangular blade, shaped to a point at the top; the earliest known use of the halberd comes from an excavated example from the battlefield at Morgarten (1315) in Switzerland. The word ï¿½halberdï¿½ originated from the German haim (staff) and barte (axe). Over time, the halberdï¿½s spear point was improved to allow it to be used to repel oncoming horsemen. The haft of the halberd was also reinforced with thick metal rims, making it more effective and durable when blocking blows from an enemy sword or axe. The Partizan Smaller than normal polearms at 1.8ï¿½2m (5.9ï¿½6.6ft), the partizan was constructed from a spearhead or lancehead, with an added double axehead at the bottom of the blade. It proved not to be as effective as other polearms and it was gradually withdrawn from frontline use. It remained as a ceremonial weapon and many have elaborately decorated blades.

Partizans were carried right through to the Napoleonic Wars (1804ï¿½15). The Pike A ubiquitous battlefield weapon during the medieval period, the pike was simply a very long, thrusting spear employed by infantry as both a static defensive weapon against cavalry attacks and as an attacking polearm, when used in massed ranks and close formation. The combined length of both haft and head rose over time to a staggering 3ï¿½4m (9.8ï¿½13.lft), sometimes even 6m (19.6ft), and it was this very length that was both its strength and also its inherent weakness. The pikeman could stand at a relatively safe distance from close combat, but the weaponï¿½s unwieldiness could also prove dangerous for him. A pikeman was armed with sword, mace or dagger in case his pike was lost in battle. Bardiche | Military Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia This article is about the "long poleaxe". For the regular poleaxe, see Pollaxe (Polearm) . For the Berdysh pistol, see OTs-27 Berdysh . Two examples of a bardiche.

A bardiche / b ɑr ˈ d iː ʃ / or berdiche ("long poleaxe") is a type of glaive polearm known in the 16th and 17th centuries in Eastern Europe. Ultimately a descendant of the medieval sparth ( Danish axe ), the bardiche proper appears after 1500, but there are numerous medieval manuscripts that depict very similar weapons beginning ca. 1250. The bardiche differs from the halberd in having neither a hook at the back nor a spear point at the top. [1] Use of bardiches started in early 15th century Russia (some sources name the late 14th century),[ citation needed ] and in Scandinavia in the late 15th century.[ citation needed ] In the 16th century the bardiche became a weapon associated with streltsy (Russian guardsmen armed with firearms ). [2] Contents Edit The blade varied greatly in shape, but was most often a long, cleaver type blade. The distinction was in how the blade was attached to the pole.

The bardiche blade was attached to the pole either via two sockets (one at the top of the pole and one lower, at the base of the blade) or one socket at the top and one surface mount at the base, effectively mounting the heavy blade to the wooden shaft. This construction is also seen in Scottish polearms, such as the Lochaber axe and Jeddart staff , and bardiches are known to have been imported into Scotland in the 16th and 17th centuries [3] Depending on the design of the particular weapons in question, at times a bardiche may greatly resemble a voulge . While the blade was often very long for an axe (usually exceeding 2 feet (60 cm)) the shaft was one of the shortest of all polearms; rarely did it exceed 5 feet (1.5 m) in length. It relied more on the weight of its heavy blade to do the damage than a swing from a long pole. This makes the bardiche more similar to the Danish axe , in some respects, than to a true polearm. Use Edit 17th. century Streltsy with musket and bardiche In Russia and in Poland this weapon was used to rest handguns upon when firing.

It was standard equipment for the Streltsy (literally "shooters") corps (foot, mounted and dragoons ) and also for the Polish infantry (shorter version invented by King Jan III Sobieski ). [4] Another use of the bardiche was for execution. References

Question: Bardiche, Bill, Glaive, Halberd, and Voulge are types of?
Answer: Weaponry