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Re: (TFT) Death Test 1, take 4: SURVIVED!



No, not at all. I'm encouraging you NOT to read books like that (which is ALL of the texts you are forced to read in secondary education and most of the books you use in University). Call it primary, first-person, or archeological, but use the history books that historians themselves use. You'll find yourself MUCH better informed.

I'm assuming that the pole arm in question is the spear with an axe blade on it, of course, possibly with a recurve on the axe blade that can be used as a hook like the weapon called a billhook, or English bill, et al.

To the point at hand, the pole arm wasn't a super-weapon in real life. It was slower and less adept at parrying than a sword. And while it is longer than a lot of weapons to wield it effectively you still had to hold it near its balance point, so the effective length was about 1 hex for parrying or chopping (the 2d6 usage), and probably only two hexes for stabbing with the spear point (so it should be 1d6+2 like the regular spear). Also, since it was wielded with two hands, you can't use a shield so you lose the benefit defensively of holding your own personal wall as well as holding a second weapon depending on the shield and you training. The Highland targe had a 12-16" spike, for example. In the right hands, there's no doubt that the most flexible combination of melee weapons is some sort of sword/shield.

The pole arm is better for its intended use against heavily armored or mounted opponents. The Melee rules should reflect that, somewhere, somehow. I'm not personally worried about it. By the time I get to Adv Melee, I'll be ready to house rule any deficiencies in the system, whether they're from HT or SJ.





-----Original Message----- From: raito@raito.com
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2011 3:12 PM
To: tft@brainiac.com
Subject: Re: (TFT) Death Test 1, take 4: SURVIVED!

Quoting gem6868 <gem6868@verizon.net>:
yeah, but theory and medieval authors should be taken with plenty of salt,
most had no idea what they were talking about, like so many so-called
experts today who write books and appear on TV.

You mean like those guys who write the history books you want us to read?

Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com
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