Since there's not a huge amount of traffic on the official boards, I thought I would ask this here, so as to get the thoughts and opinions of you fine folk on these questions.
I’ve been reading through E.N. Arsenal – Flails, Maces & MorningStars, and I am a bit confused by some of the descriptions (or lack thereof). Under the Variants section there is a weapon called a Flail-Mace. The description of the weapon, in part, says:
The bold parts are what have me confused. I’ve tried to work this out in my head, and even tried to figure it out using some paper cutouts. Geometry seems to tell me that this description is not possible. I can see it working if the heads were diamond-shaped, triangle-shaped, or even if the outer face was rounded and each head formed a quarter of a sphere. Am I missing something here, or is the description just not practical?
I’ll skip over the Godentag, since I could spend quite some time on this. Let’s just say that the description given doesn’t match any of the archeological evidence I have seen for the weapon.
The King’s Walking Stick has me rather baffled. There seems to be no description of this at all! This is a weapon that, more than any of the others, needs a description and illustration to make it useful. Where do the pistols fit into this thing? How many pistols are there? How are they loaded?
Speaking of loading, these pistols must have some gigantic barrels if the ammunition information means anything. It says that a bag of lead shot weighs 5 pounds, and that there are 10 round per bag. That means they weigh about half a pound per shot. Since lead runs at about 0.41 pounds per cubic inch, that means each round is close to a cubic inch in size. That means the caliber of the round is, well, 1.00, and the biggest caliber musket ball I could find was in the .70 to .75 range. If the round is 1.00 caliber, that means the inside diameter of the barrel is 1 inch! That’s huge! That qualifies it as a small cannon, or possibly a mortar. It is not something one would want to hold in their hand and shoot. Unless, of course, they want to get rid of that hand and arm.
The Mace-Axe isn’t quite as confusing, but I want to make sure I am seeing this right. The weapon description says:
Now, am I right in thinking that it looks rather like a ball with two axe-heads sticking out of it? So, to effectively use the mace aspect of the weapon one would turn the weapon so that you hit with the flat of the blade and the ball as well, right? Does this make sense?
I am trying really hard to like this book, but there are aspects like those described above that are making that a difficult task.
I’ve been reading through E.N. Arsenal – Flails, Maces & MorningStars, and I am a bit confused by some of the descriptions (or lack thereof). Under the Variants section there is a weapon called a Flail-Mace. The description of the weapon, in part, says:
The bold parts are what have me confused. I’ve tried to work this out in my head, and even tried to figure it out using some paper cutouts. Geometry seems to tell me that this description is not possible. I can see it working if the heads were diamond-shaped, triangle-shaped, or even if the outer face was rounded and each head formed a quarter of a sphere. Am I missing something here, or is the description just not practical?
I’ll skip over the Godentag, since I could spend quite some time on this. Let’s just say that the description given doesn’t match any of the archeological evidence I have seen for the weapon.
The King’s Walking Stick has me rather baffled. There seems to be no description of this at all! This is a weapon that, more than any of the others, needs a description and illustration to make it useful. Where do the pistols fit into this thing? How many pistols are there? How are they loaded?
Speaking of loading, these pistols must have some gigantic barrels if the ammunition information means anything. It says that a bag of lead shot weighs 5 pounds, and that there are 10 round per bag. That means they weigh about half a pound per shot. Since lead runs at about 0.41 pounds per cubic inch, that means each round is close to a cubic inch in size. That means the caliber of the round is, well, 1.00, and the biggest caliber musket ball I could find was in the .70 to .75 range. If the round is 1.00 caliber, that means the inside diameter of the barrel is 1 inch! That’s huge! That qualifies it as a small cannon, or possibly a mortar. It is not something one would want to hold in their hand and shoot. Unless, of course, they want to get rid of that hand and arm.
The Mace-Axe isn’t quite as confusing, but I want to make sure I am seeing this right. The weapon description says:
Now, am I right in thinking that it looks rather like a ball with two axe-heads sticking out of it? So, to effectively use the mace aspect of the weapon one would turn the weapon so that you hit with the flat of the blade and the ball as well, right? Does this make sense?
I am trying really hard to like this book, but there are aspects like those described above that are making that a difficult task.
