Bay 12 Games Forum

The pictures are nice - though it is obvious that the book was printed a while ago as the research is rather outdated.

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Hilted daggers don't really exist in northern Europe till around 1250. Pre-Conquest knives are almost exclusively single-edged seaxes with bone/wood/antler handles - double-bladed daggers appear around the 12th century but still have organic handles.
I'm pretty sure some of the knight's helms are 50-100 years too late for rest of the armor, and NO HORNS ON HELMETS!! All that is is a nice grip for removing the helm or breaking your neck.
Metal vambraces *might* have existed for a short period of time in the late 13/early 14th century but they were certainly not in use before then. Also, plate gauntlets start appearing in the 14th century so vambraces become somewhat redundant.
I'm also uncomfortable with the way the fabric is patterned. Twills are fine but the patterns in the pre-1066 fabrics are wrong. Post-Conquest there is some patterned fabric, but as far as I am aware, it's in the same color as the rest of the cloth.
Lamellar and scale was vanishingly rare in Western Europe - any early (Post-Roman) armour would be chain-mail and/or padding (ring-mail is primarily a Victorian construction - I can find one reference to it in 1591).
I could keep going in this vein for quite a while. What it boils down to is these are pretty pictures - not accurate reconstructions.
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@wierd Viking/Saxon cloaks tended to be fairly plain - no real decoration on the back though there could be some edging. They would be a large square or rectangle pinned at the shoulder sometimes with tasseled ends. There is some evidence for rare semi-circular cloaks for the higher ranks. Not so sure about later - my knowledge is primarily Dark Age with some forays into early Medieval.

From my knowledge of early and dark-age European mail, there was some butted , some rivited (both entierly and half with welded/punched rings) and some Pictish/Celtic stuff with all the rings *welded* closed. I don't even want to imagine how much of a pain that would have been.

Thought that you might be interested to know that the game works under WINE.

Also, in the mech creation screen, would it be possible to add the option to directly type numbers (like hover height) in for ease of use?

C

I know it's possible to make similar hooks out of fencing wire - you just need two pairs of sturdy pliers.

I ran into various references to it in some of the fiction books I have read and in the quick Wikipedia search I did just before my previous post to check that my (vague) memories were correct.

I have now dug up the copy of the Chronicle (the magazine that my reenactment group sends to its members) with the article about recreating Damascus and Wootz steel and I think that's were I first ran into it in an intellectual context.

The article is chock full of references which I can copy out if you are interested.

EDIT OOOMMGGGGG OddTheTall HOW DOES YOUR BATTLE AXE NOT HAVE TWO SIDES,!!1

EDIT 2 ATLEAST A BATTLE AXE WITH A SPOKE ON THE OTHER SIDE

Having used both handaxes and greataxes in re-enactment combat, you don't want a batwing axe. It adds extra weight to a weapon that's already hard enough to recover after a swing.
The idea of double sided axes came from the double-bitted felling axe - you'd sharpen both sides the night before, then use one side in the morning and the other side after lunch - saves daylight.

@Quietust: I was thinking more Lucene hammer, but fair enough. I'll accept your description of a maul - its after period the my area of interest anyway.

The issue with mail on its own as a stab vest is that while even mild steel butted mail will turn some knife stabs, all that will do is drive the mail links into your skin.
Mail as armour needs to be worn over some padding - a reenactor friend of mine wearing a (butted) mailshirt and padding pushed me backwards by the sharp spear in the stomach of his mail.
On the other hand, the same spear, thrown at the same mailshirt punched though the mail and both layers of padding before being stopped on the back of the mailshirt. It also broke the stand.

I've done a few tests with my European 4-in-1 butted hauberk and knife stabs.
The first knife I tried bend (this is with both hands and my entire body weight behind it)
The second one is a much sturdier Frankish-style seax (looks like a Bowie knife)
At no point did the blade actually rupture the mail - there are a couple of stabs in the padding where the point stuck thought the center of the ring but none of the rings burst.
This was done with the hauberk lying on the floor.

Overall, I think the only way to guarantee injuring somebody though mail is massive blunt force (mace etc), a lucky stab with a spear or a dedicated mail-piercing weapon.

I like the basic idea but I also agree with the people who say it could be too much micro-managing.

Speaking from my knowledge of Dark Age weapon construction, different weapons should take different amounts of metal - you would get many spear or handaxe heads for the same amount of metal as a sword blade. I expect you could get 30-40 arrowheads from a similar amount of metal (maybe more). Also, not all of them would really require weaponsmithing - arrowheads can be cast in large numbers and there are some swords with cast bronze hilt fittings (you'd get several of these out of a single bar).

A possible way around the extreme microing - for making arrows, have a system like this.
Blacksmith makes a 'stack of arrowheads' from 1 bar (this stack is 1 item)
Carpenter makes a 'stack of arrow shafts' from 1 log
Craftdwarf/bowyer picks up 'stack of arrowheads' and 'stack of arrow shafts' and makes 40 arrows.

Spears and handaxes would be similar - 'stack of spear/axeheads'(weaponsmith) + 'haft weapon' job(carpenter) = 4 spears/axes.
You don't need to be skilled to put heads on shafts - you just have to be patient.

Swords, however would be different - 1 'short/long/bastard sword blade'(weaponsmith) + 1 'sword hilt' (blacksmith/weaponsmith/metal crafter) = 1 short/long/bastard sword.
Probably would be reasonable to get 2 short sword blades from one bar and two or three hilts from a bar.

It would also be interesting to be able to trade weapon blades - Good sword blades are valuable trade goods.  In the dark Ages, Frankish sword blades were among the best available. Traders bought the blades from the maker and traded them to other smiths who, while they couldn't replicate the blades, were more than capable of fitting hilts.