What are your preferred Classical-era melee weapons?

[Spartan198]

I'd have to go with the classic Greek combo of dori,aspis,and xiphos.

How about you guys?

[CountArach]

The standard Roman kit by Caesar's time proved itself to be superior to all other equipment sets. The sword was great for stabbing and hacking if need be and the pila allowed for breaking up a formation.

[placenik]

Question is if you are talking about individual or organized unit combat, and if you are talking about cavalery or infantry.
If it is about organized units, then infantry legionary equipment (reformed legions) is superior. For cavalery it would be a cataphrat lance.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Question is if you are talking about individual or organized unit combat, and if you are talking about cavalery or infantry.
If it is about organized units, then infantry legionary equipment (reformed legions) is superior. For cavalery it would be a cataphrat lance.

I'd have to agree with that, but if you're just talking about what we'd want for personal combat I'd have to go with a mace or axe. Sure armor wasn't all that heavy back then compared to how heavy it would eventually be, but I have some experience with axes and I think either of them would work quite well in single combat against just about anything. I'd want a one-handed variant though so I could carry a shield in the other hand.

[YellowMelon]

I have always been tickled by Macedonian phalanx formations - the 18ft long sarissa with an iron tip. Pokey pokey.

[Vuk]

Question is if you are talking about individual or organized unit combat, and if you are talking about cavalery or infantry.
If it is about organized units, then infantry legionary equipment (reformed legions) is superior. For cavalery it would be a cataphrat lance.

Kataphract lance? Are you referring to the Parthian Kontos?

[KrooK]

Hmm war elephant :)

[Spartan198]

Question is if you are talking about individual or organized unit combat, and if you are talking about cavalery or infantry.
If it is about organized units...
Okay,let's take it one step forward: Your favorite melee weapons for organized,individual,and cavalry.
I've already outlined my choices for organized combat,so I'll continue on.
For individual,the falx would be my first choice.
I've always preferred sword cavalry over lancers,so I'll have to pick either the makaira,kopis,or a spatha coupled with a good-sized round shield (smaller than a hoplite aspis,but larger than a buckler).

Hmm war elephant :)
Nothing like grabbing your war elephant by the trunk and hitting your enemy in the face with it. :yes:

[woad&fangs]

In a group I'd go old school hoplite complete with Hoplon shield, spear, and the very sexy Corinthian helmet.

In individual melee...hmm, I'd unfortunately have to ditch the Corinthian helmet because of it's poor visibility. In fact, I wouldn't even bother with a helmet or armor besides maybe some protection for my wrists and shins. My main weapon would be a Rhompaio(sp?) and I'd have a short Greco-Roman style sword as my back up.

The reason I'd ditch the armour is because I'm pretty small and I've got horrible endurance so I if I didn't stay on the attack then I would probably lose.

[Conqueror]

For individual combat: a Chinese crossbow, scale armor, Thrakian helmet and an armored war elephant with strong-built howdah :laugh4:

For mass combat: a one-handed spear/lance, a kopis, a shield, plate cuirass armor with added chainmail for arms & thighs, greaves, Thrakian helmet and a warhorse with frontal armoring.

[YellowMelon]

I like to dual wield my elephants :daisy:

[Spartan198]

I like to dual wield my elephants :daisy:
The peaceful life of a farmer is sounding better and better...

[seireikhaan]

Organized- The legions proved itself to be more capable and versatile than any other formation, so I'd probably go with the ol' gladius/pilum/shield combo.

Individual- Can I pick a naginata? I'm kinda vague on when it was invented, but that'd be my weapon of choice if possible. And some kind of short, backup sword too.

Cavalry- Umm, I'd go with some kind of spear, but I honestly don't know the differences between classical age cavalry spears to go into further detail.

[Incongruous]

The Spatha always took my fancy.
One of those Thracian blades would do me too

[King Jan III Sobieski]

Gladius.

Unless we're talking about medieval or early-modern - then, I'd have to go with Pan Longinus' sword in Ogniem i Mieczem. :yes: :beam: :yes:

http://www.film.org.pl/kmf_2000/images/ognie.jpg

[Spartan198]

Gladius.

Unless we're talking about medieval or early-modern - then, I'd have to go with Pan Longinus' sword in Ogniem i Mieczem. :yes: :beam: :yes:

http://www.film.org.pl/kmf_2000/images/ognie.jpg
I'm talking about weapons from the classical civilizations,from the heyday of Greece to the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

Good thing that i watched a documentary on the Greek cities and the war against the Persians, i would have thought a variation between a Pila and a shortsword, a pila to poke them away and hold a shieldwall, a sword to fight with when the shieldwall is broken or the enemy are in rout

[Watchman]

A pilum isn't meant as a melee weapon, although it makes a passable on in a pinch (it's kind of short for a fighting-spear for one thing, and I suspect not really balanced for hand-to-hand combat). What it's meant to do is take out the other guy's shield, since having a few kilos of heavy throwing-spear transfixing your shield makes it kind of useless, and him too if you get lucky...

Dunno if "classical" hoplite shieldwalls ever fought Italians and their heavy shield-destroyer javelins (the weapon was very popular there - the Romans actually picked it up from the Etruscans - and apparently was even adopted by some nearby Celts), but I rather suspect they'd have been quite horrendously vulnerable to the effects of those things.

[Kralizec]

Pila are constructed so that they become useless after the first impact (first by bending iron, later on by a pin construction) so they'd make pretty lousy melee weapons. The Romans did sometimes crouch in formation and point their pila forward against cavalry charges, but I think mostly to scare the horses before contact.