Maces were great for abusing the peasants and hammering on knights.
War hammers were god damned crimes. Because the focused blunt end of the hammer can REALLY cause some serious damage. But also? The back is a pick. So you don’t even need to dent the armor and cause bruising. You just pierce a brain on the backhand.
Which is why the lucerne hammer (bec de corbin above) was the best anti-armor weapon out there. A polearm that can fuck you up three different ways.
I’m not someone who’s actually studied medieval combat, but as I understand it while a war hammer was a better weapon than a mace it was also more complicated to use. You’ve actually got to aim and align your strikes, while a mace is just “swing the pointy bits at the guy you want dead.”
If you want any degree of force in your swing you are already “aiming and aligning” anything. Its the difference between wailing and actually throwing a punch. A schoolkid throwing a swing might bloody a nose but is probably going to hurt them as much as their target. Someone who knows how to properly make a fist and put their body into it? You don’t need much strength to fuck someone up.
So, theoretically, you could still do a decent amount of damage on an unarmored civilian using something like a morningstar. But that is almost entirely the spikes.
If you wanted any hope of causing meaningful damage to an armored opponent or even an unarmored combatant with their adrenaline pumping? You needed to know how to swing your weapon whether it was a mace, a hammer, or a sword. And as long as you hold the weapon correctly, you get hitting them with the fun bit “for free”.
Maces were great for abusing the peasants and hammering on knights.
War hammers were god damned crimes. Because the focused blunt end of the hammer can REALLY cause some serious damage. But also? The back is a pick. So you don’t even need to dent the armor and cause bruising. You just pierce a brain on the backhand.
Which is why the lucerne hammer (bec de corbin above) was the best anti-armor weapon out there. A polearm that can fuck you up three different ways.
I’m not someone who’s actually studied medieval combat, but as I understand it while a war hammer was a better weapon than a mace it was also more complicated to use. You’ve actually got to aim and align your strikes, while a mace is just “swing the pointy bits at the guy you want dead.”
If you want any degree of force in your swing you are already “aiming and aligning” anything. Its the difference between wailing and actually throwing a punch. A schoolkid throwing a swing might bloody a nose but is probably going to hurt them as much as their target. Someone who knows how to properly make a fist and put their body into it? You don’t need much strength to fuck someone up.
So, theoretically, you could still do a decent amount of damage on an unarmored civilian using something like a morningstar. But that is almost entirely the spikes.
If you wanted any hope of causing meaningful damage to an armored opponent or even an unarmored combatant with their adrenaline pumping? You needed to know how to swing your weapon whether it was a mace, a hammer, or a sword. And as long as you hold the weapon correctly, you get hitting them with the fun bit “for free”.