User talk:Medieval weapons

War and weapons have coincided with each other for many years, but the main flare for the development of weapons were in the medieval period. There were any kinds of weapons, crushing weapons, swords, siege engines, cleaving weapons and ranged weapons.

Crushing weapons

A mace is the first weapon that man actually fashioned, wether it is a simple club or an elaborate nobles flail it has exsisted for many centuries, this concept of weaponry has endured the sands of time and the furnace of warfare. Flails are created first by the Danish people naming it the morning star, maces and flails can be flanged, or spiked, both of these can deliver peircing blows, also the warhammer is like a utility belt of a weapon, it can crush with one end and also grapple armor or peirce it with the spiked end making this easily one of the most versitile weapons on the medieval battlefield a nd also requires no sharpening or maintence at all

Swords

A sword, a deadly weapon on the battlefield and also a symbol of power of the noble who posseses it. A sword took many many layers of fine thin steel and iron and often took years and years of work to create a fine sword. A sword has long been a symbol of power and authority for many years. It is one of the most refined weapons on the medieval battlefield. But during the age of guns the grewat bastard swords and great swords were replaced with the thin thrusting rapiers. A great sword is usually 5-6 feet long but with a good long hilt for two hands and a pommel that balences properly it only feels like 2-5 pounds in your hands.

Siege Engines

Siege Engines were used for attacking castles but less on the battlefields. Siege weapons threw rocks, dead poeple to spred desieses but also flaming pots of tar. A balittlai is a giant crossbow with a huge quarrel or bolt as ammunition, a mongel was not very accurate and didnt work when the ropes got wet, it looks like a spoon launching rocks, a thrunchbuet is much more powerful and accurate, the counter weight for this seesaw like weapon is 80-100 times the weight of the rock being thrown for the power to tear a castle to peaces. Also there were battering rams, covered with wet animal skins to defend the people working it, a wooden pole with a metal tip to break through doors and rocks. Also a scaling ladder was used to climb the walls.

Cleaving weapons

Usually an axe, this was good for breaking armor and shields. The vikings had elaborate designs on their axes to symbolize the wealth of the owner. A broad axe and throwing axes like the franshisca are germanic throwing axes.

Ranged weapons

The Bow and Arrow easily come to mind when a topic like this comes up. But there were also slings, staff slings and crossbows. The sling was probably invented by acident, a neanderthal man probably didnt was to lose the rock and tied to to leather thongs and accidentally threw it and it outreached anything a human arm can do, then the next challenge was to keep the sling and let the rock fly. This was just a loop around one finger and letting the other end go. Also the later staff sling was invented which was even farther than the sling, it works the same way but attached to a staff for more range. The crossbow will be the next weapon I will introduce. It is simply put a hard wood bow in a T shape. A crossbow string is winded with a winch. A crossbow can easily outrange a longbow and also penetrate armor more deeply, it also can be used more easily by less experienced soldiers. The downside is that it takes a while to load while and experienced longbowmen can get 7 arrows into the arrow before the first landed. There were many bows the composite bow, the longbow, and the short bow, also the slef bow. The composite bow was by far the most powerful at a record of 900 feet while the famed longbow only at 400 feet. The "english longbow" was actually made by celtic nobles. Since a bow look a long time to make it cost a lot and was hard to get. A noble usually rented his bows to serfs for a year to practice for war. This then became a law to practice archery on the village green after church on Sundays.