Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Is an artifact nickel silver battleaxe worthy of using?  (Read 1485 times)

TheFreshPrince

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Is an artifact nickel silver battleaxe worthy of using?
« on: September 24, 2014, 06:53:13 pm »

How would it compare to iron or steel? The wiki article says there is no actual silver in this alloy, so I'm not sure how it would perform.
Logged

Tanaman

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Is an artifact nickel silver battleaxe worthy of using?
« Reply #1 on: September 24, 2014, 07:38:37 pm »

Check the raws on the wiki, then compare to the sheer values on the page about weapon materials. I looked it over, and um no. It's not a good weapon. It's sheer value is actually worse then leather (!). It's other stats is similar to bone or shell.

Try it out on a naked goblin in an arena though just to see how it works. Probably still OK against unarmored targets.
Logged

khearn

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Is an artifact nickel silver battleaxe worthy of using?
« Reply #2 on: September 24, 2014, 07:39:47 pm »

Hmmm, that's kind of an awkward material. It's not a great weapon material, but it's not so bad that you can give it to your hammerer to make him not kill when he does his job. I'd probably take a masterwork (or artifact if you have one) mechanism and build the axe as a weapon trap somewhere that gets a lot of traffic. Your dwarves will be very happy to admire it as they go past.

   Keith
Logged
Have them killed. Nothing solves a problem quite as effectively as simply having it killed.

StagnantSoul

  • Bay Watcher
  • "Player has withdrawn from society!"
    • View Profile
Re: Is an artifact nickel silver battleaxe worthy of using?
« Reply #3 on: September 24, 2014, 07:51:41 pm »

Put some less-than-exceptional steel weapons there too, even more value, plus potential use in emergency.
Logged
Quote from: Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum
I threw night creature blood into a night creature's heart and she pulled it out and bled to death.
Quote from: Eric Blank
Places to jibber madly at each other, got it
Quote from: NJW2000
If any of them are made of fire, throw stuff, run, and think non-flammable thoughts.

LordUbik

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Is an artifact nickel silver battleaxe worthy of using?
« Reply #4 on: September 24, 2014, 07:57:42 pm »

Being an artifact it would hit a lot of time (x3 to the modifier), but the poor material properties would mean that with this weapon it is veeery hard to actually wound the victim.
When i get such things, i usually give them to one of my recruit to make them learn faster when fighting... lot of workout without having to change the training goblin too often!
Logged

FoiledFencer

  • Bay Watcher
  • keepin' it feudal.
    • View Profile
Re: Is an artifact nickel silver battleaxe worthy of using?
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2014, 06:33:25 am »

Put some less-than-exceptional steel weapons there too, even more value, plus potential use in emergency.

You might also give spiked silver balls a try - they are excellent for room value and good thoughts and are fairly effective on accont of their weight. It's also a lot less labour-intensive to produce a lot of them because you cut out the flux-aspect.
Logged
"Lithrushâst Kúdlizat: Fetidfur, the slick notch, a grizzly bear leather loincloth. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It is studded with zinc, decorated with grizzly bear leather and encircled with bands of grizzly bear leather. This object menaces with spikes of grizzly bear leather."

Button

  • Bay Watcher
  • Plants Specialist
    • View Profile
Re: Is an artifact nickel silver battleaxe worthy of using?
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2014, 11:15:29 am »

Battleaxes made out of nonstandard materials can actually be quite good - I had an artifact platinum battleaxe once that was essentially a warhammer that could also sever limbs.

But nickel silver is lighter than silver, so it's not even going to be a particularly effective hammeraxe.
Logged
I used to work on Modest Mod and Plant Fixes.

Always assume I'm not seriously back

Akura

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Is an artifact nickel silver battleaxe worthy of using?
« Reply #7 on: September 25, 2014, 11:40:44 am »

It would probably be fairly decent. Axes have a wide contact area, if I recall, and the weight of silver makes it more of a bone-breaker than a limb-chopper.
Logged
Quote
They asked me how well I understood theoretical physics. I told them I had a theoretical degree in physics. They said welcome aboard.
... Yes, the hugs are for everyone.  No stabbing, though.  Just hugs.

khearn

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Is an artifact nickel silver battleaxe worthy of using?
« Reply #8 on: September 25, 2014, 12:29:06 pm »

It would probably be fairly decent. Axes have a wide contact area, if I recall, and the weight of silver makes it more of a bone-breaker than a limb-chopper.

But it's not silver. It hasn't actually got any silver in it. Nickel silver is a mixture of nickel, zinc and copper. It is essentially a case of false advertising. You might as well call a mixture of copper and zinc "copper gold" instead of "brass".
Logged
Have them killed. Nothing solves a problem quite as effectively as simply having it killed.

Miuramir

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Is an artifact nickel silver battleaxe worthy of using?
« Reply #9 on: September 25, 2014, 01:28:44 pm »


But it's not silver. It hasn't actually got any silver in it. Nickel silver is a mixture of nickel, zinc and copper. It is essentially a case of false advertising. You might as well call a mixture of copper and zinc "copper gold" instead of "brass".

Well, it was developed specifically (including a contest in 1823) to be something that looked like silver, but was much cheaper.  It is occasionally called "nickel brass", but nickel silver or German silver are the more common names.  See also Britannia metal, which is even cheaper (mostly tin, it's technically a form of pewter), but a bit less good looking. 

You find in the 17th through 19th centuries a variety of cases where in English, something that was "mostly" like a known product, but from someplace else and done in a different way, would be called "Somplace something", hence the German silver. 

Technically, it's of arguable period for DF; German silver was based on an effort to duplicate, or improve on, the Chinese paktong.  Earliest known clear European reference to paktong is 1597, but it's not clear how far back it goes.  On the other hand, it's one of those things that could easily be created by a decent metallurgist, or copied by anyone knowing the formula; and it may well have existed in China as far back as the 10th century, perhaps earlier.  In a DF setting with, generally, better world trade (at least among dwarves) the knowledge could spread more easily. 
Logged