Non-standard weapons

[glutton]

I personally try to avoid swords in fantasy due to the impracticality of producing them for a fighting force?

Kind of a strange thing to say, are all fights in your stories mass combats and never battles between individuals or smaller groups? Even then swords were used enough in real life that to dismiss them as 'impractical' for fantasy...

 

[TheKillerBs]

I personally try to avoid swords in fantasy due to the impracticality of producing them for a fighting force. Consider a battalion of swordsmen fighting against a battalion of spearsmen. Swords are simply flashier and hold a semblance of 'skill.' Would you rather arm a modern soldier with a pistol instead of an M-16?

Longswords were uncommon for a large part of history because producing them was a difficult process, but by the High Middle Ages, they were cheap enough to be the primary sidearm of most fighting forces. In other words, most men-at-arms used a sword in addition to their primary weapon, which would usually be a spear, halberd, or similar pole weapon. To use your comparison, it's giving a modern soldier a pistol as well as an M-16 for times when the M-16 is not practical.

"Consider a battalion of swordsmen fighting against a battalion of spearsmen." <- I would care more about the training and discipline of each battalion before what their weapons were. The Romans used short swords and they took care of pretty much everyone else due to the training and discipline of the legiones. Size of the army was also very important. In general, more people is better than less people, and 9 times out of 10 the bigger army will win.

 

[AndrewLowe]

Longswords were uncommon for a large part of history because producing them was a difficult process, but by the High Middle Ages, they were cheap enough to be the primary sidearm of most fighting forces. In other words, most men-at-arms used a sword in addition to their primary weapon, which would usually be a spear, halberd, or similar pole weapon. To use your comparison, it's giving a modern soldier a pistol as well as an M-16 for times when the M-16 is not practical.

Fair point; I guess I should have been more clear. I try not to make mass combat scenes full of swords, like I've come to find many of (including my favorite) fantasy novels. While there were fighting forces that excelled at using swords, the reality is, not every army of every nation (or most, for that matter) used swords throughout history, due to the limitations of it. So, while I certainly agree that it makes a great weapon in addition to another primary mass-battle-oriented weapon, the sword is often overused, despite their limitations. Both are useful, but I don't believe that the sword generally dominates.

I mentioned weapons like the seax, because they bare resemblance to a close sidearm, but are cheap and simple to produce. It's like arming a soldier with a Glock instead of a Desert Eagle. In my general opinion, the average soldier isn't going to require a heavy duty sword on a frequent basis. While the fantasy aspect allows for 'exceptional' swordsman heroes who can cut down legions of spearsmen with his superior wielding abilities, it doesn't hold much baring on reality. You might have your world class roman swordfighting legion, but the general rule is that you don't fight a distance weapon with a short range weapon... Don't bring a knife to a gun fight.

I would quickly like to clarify that I'm not trying to dismantle your opinion. I generally agree with you--and because it is fantasy, there are no set in stone rules. I'm moreso just rambling at this point. You're ideas just sparked more of mine, and I hope that mine spark more of yours