Help Weapon's!

[Kit]

I'm being very serious here: if you are ever fool enough to "try this at home," at least be smart enough to start with a tennis ball taped to a piece of rope… and to have a spotter on hand. And ideally to wear at least some form of head and neck protection. Because that tennis ball will be able to achieve enough force to knock you out, or the rope can wrap your neck tightly enough you aren't going to be able to free it yourself–not in time. Never mind any of various other injuries it might cause. Do it exactly wrong and the rope wraps your neck in such a way that the tennis ball reaches maximum acceleration at the same point it reaches your neck vertebrae, at which point it won't matter even if you do have a spotter. .

LOL..... I spin tennis ball flag poi a little. While I haven't yet knocked myself out, I have clocked myself in the face numerous times and also inadvertently tied myself up while trying to spin (standing still with plenty of room and no distractions). It's kind of funny, unless the poi are on fire. You wouldn't believe how many idiots want to play with lit poi without putting in the practice necessary to be in any way safe.

 

[SeverinR]

I don't see what's so cruel about skinning an animal you have already killed. It's the only way to get leather and you can't cook the meat before skinning.

That said, this would be the job of a hunter or butcher, not a solider. It would also be performed with a knife, as daggers are generally considered pure combat weapons.

.

I would also say the grunt soldier that isn't satisfied with his rations(taste or quantity), would attempt to learn how to skin a rabbit or large rat. In the Air Force, we did training where we set up camp, and before we left several snakes had become a meal for the person that didn't want the old style MRE.
The military might or might not train their soldiers for this, but some would have learned growing up.

 

[Valoren]

You could try a hunnic lance as well as the composite horse bow as well as a short dagger or hunnic cavalry sword.

 

[ChasingSuns]

Well it looks like people have adequately covered all I could say about bows. I would agree with the use of a knife, although this would be for practical purposes such as skinning hunted animals or carving out new arrows. I have a character in my story that uses a wrist crossbow as well. I also like the idea of a cavalry sword or saber. Definitely something one handed that is relatively lightweight. As much as other weapons could work, I just feel like this makes the most sense. Also, there is the possibility of using a swordbreaker as a sidearm. This would help the character when fighting certain enemies. Hope some of this helps

 

[Malik]

What Ravana said.

The trick with the chain flail is that to make it really work its magic, you have to keep up the momentum. In order to do that, you have to keep it in constant motion between blows; this means that you're swinging it around yourself in what amount to fairly slow -- if devastating -- orbits between blows. This means that your opponent will be able to gauge a rhythm and will have a pretty good idea of when the blow will land and where it's coming from, because the longer the chain gets, the harder it becomes to change direction -- you have to lead the kinetic end, which means you have to telegraph the blow by an increasingly large lag time. Conversely, the longer the chain gets, the more devastating the impact will be.

Of course, this is assuming you manage to land it.

The other part of this is the physical exertion of swinging that sucker nonstop. Go hit a tractor tire with a sledgehammer as many times as you can in two minutes. I'll wait. Now imagine doing that all afternoon. No, thanks.

Your best shot with a flail is to wait until your target is busy with something else -- fighting, shouting heroic encouragements to his comrades, making a sandwich, whatever -- and doesn't see it coming.

If you get hit with one, though, cancel Christmas.

To put this into perspective, though: back when I fought in the SCA, the combat rules prohibited any flail-like weapon with more than one link joining the handle to the impact head. Our local barony prohibited any hinged weapon, period. Even with a wooden, nunchuk-style flail against a guy in 12-gauge, modern steel and ultra-high molecular-weight plastic armor, you stood to cause major injury. Flails are hideously dangerous.

As for nunchuks/nunchakus, it was once explained to me this way:

Think of all the people you know who have owned nunchuks.

Think of all the nunchuks sold in the world -- on the Internet and in TinderBox stores at the mall, mostly.

Now, think of all the times you've heard of someone being mugged at nunchuk-point. Think hard.

Think of all the people you know who got their asses kicked in a barfight or at school by someone with nunchuks.

Think of every nunchuk-related murder you've ever heard of. I'll wait.

Think of all the soldiers in all the world's armies who used nunchuks on the battlefield.

Think of all the great nunchuk-fighters of the Old West.

The only conclusion you can draw from this is that nunchuks, which have been around for thousands of years, really suck. Seriously. Screw nunchuks.

 

[wordwalker]

Way to sum things up, Malik!

Flails start to sound like the best weapon for some hulking ogre--which is maybe the traditional use for them anyway. (Then I start thinking that that's over-overkill for something 8' tall that just needs a big sword and lots of armor. But a monstrous flail would mow down whole ranks of enemies, and its terror effect might be even worse. Or just an ogre that big could even kill people with nunchuks! )

Or, a flail might work for anti-armor use. Give a big farmer a flail and some extra practice (since he already knows how to swing it), then have other people distract the knight, and smash him flat right through his suit. Not as efficient as a trained warrior of your own with the right anti-armor sword, but might be easier for some people to set up.