New unit at the .com: Woodsmen

[Rodion Romanovich]

Neither can I, even when waiting for minutes...

Btw woodsmen were one of my favorite units in MTW1, when I could use them properly I felt like a good tactician. I used to train a few woodsmen instead of peasants for garrisons in Poland and Russia, and in early battles they were quite good to send around the flanks charging into the rear of an enemy pinning to halberdiers or militia sergeants hidden in forests.

[econ21]

I'd be happier if someone could give me a historical reference to a medieval battle in which a unit of "woodsmen" armed with axes played a significant shock role. As a concept, the unit does not seem very plausible.

[Herkus]

Well I guess this unit is phantasy one and I believe that there aren't also any references or proofs that Russian peasants beared huge axes in battles just because the forests are thicker in northern Europe. Russian peasant weaponary(spears, axes, daggers) was the same as in Scandinavia, Balkans, France etc.
This unit just gives no sense to me.

[Dead Moroz]

Looks like XIX century professor dressed in carnival attire.

[Rodion Romanovich]

I'd be happier if someone could give me a historical reference to a medieval battle in which a unit of "woodsmen" armed with axes played a significant shock role. As a concept, the unit does not seem very plausible.

I agree, but they weren't much stronger than peasants in MTW1 either, so that means they are realistic from a weapon-tech point of view. I however, just like the rest here, doubt that woodsmen would form own regiments and would be employed as a fighting force by any professional army, but maybe in some extreme case could form a part of a rebel army...

What I mainly like about them in MTW1 was their stats, they had very interesting unit stats and a very special usage. But I hope they stick to historical units and skip unrealistic peasants and instead give such stats to interesting and realistic militia units.

[Subedei]

I once read a book about the Russian resistance against the invading Mongols....There were hideouts of peasants in the forrests & swamps & there is a legend of a guy who chopped down tons of nomads with his axe in the woods...but well. No regularl unit of the Zar, as i would guess. "Unleash the lumberjacks!"...I don`t know....

[naut]

What I want to know is why does his axe have a spear point on top, . When is a lumberjack going to use a spear point when cutting down a tree.
I have a bad feeling that M:TW2 is going down the same path R:TW went down. CA is not being very imaginative or historically correct .

[Joshwa]

Just a brief thought: how many of you who are complaining how impractical that axe is have actual experience in lumberjackery?

[Sykotyk Rampage]

Just a brief thought: how many of you who are complaining how impractical that axe is have actual experience in lumberjackery?

Well I do. I have actually swung from tree to tree, -SIDE NOTE:(yes Monty Python pun intended because I am from Canada and yes I have seen actual lumberjacks dress like that - they speak great French and can fell a tree in blistering speed-but I digress) harnessed in and delimbing tree branches at my camp on Lake Superior -SIDE NOTE: (you are all invited to a Barbeque this May 27th -don't bring your swim suits the lake is too cold still -actually the stupid lake really never warms up but on hot days it is refreshing -there I go again digressing- back to the lumberjack thing), cut so many cords of wood that my hands blistered and bled, stood in swing stance, spread legged, swinging a 20lb crown axe to finish the cut on a tree because the chain broke on my chainsaw -SIDE NOTE: (lucky I had the lean cut done first -it is the cut on the wayward side of the tree lower on the trunk then the main cut setting the direction you want the tree to fall - then you cut on the opposite side till the two cuts overlap. Then in theory the tree is suppose to fall in the direction of the lean cut -ropes help pull it in the lean direction - but I have seen some just go where they want -back to the lumberjack thing again), or watched a widowmaker crash through the tree tops and fold a truck in half. -SIDE NOTE AGAIN:(Widowmaker; a dead tree limb from up high that falls because of wind or chopping at a tree or because it just was your time to die) I have never complained about anything from CA, because well it's a game and I sure have numerous things to complain about -taxes, Lake Superior never warming up, or point out -that guy went through a red light, or inform people that this or that is incorrect in my real life -work and kids kind of encompasses this whole example.

This WOODS MAN axe is very incorrect as an axe to chop wood and trees. But -here is the but- it IS a game and I can't wait to chop limbs and heads.

Keep up the good work CA -it is going to be a load of fun to play- because real life has way to many things to deal me wrong than an incorrect axe handle length that would cause it to glance off a maple tree trunk and lodge into my knee or foot, -SIDE NOTE: (I have actually seen a guy chop his toe off. He wasn't wearing steel toed boots, guess he thought he was a lumberjack.) or an incorrectly designed axehead that would wedge into a hardened knot, splintering my handle at the spline sending me head long into a tumble -SIDE NOTE:(never stand behind a swinging axe I have seen the head wrench loose and sail like a bullet and sink itself into a tree opposite to the one I was chopping - didn't wet the wedges on the axe head so the wood shrank....LOL)

I am ready to buy it the day it is released! -SIDE NOTE:(The game that is not the axe.)

Sykotyk -SIDE NOTE:(music designed for your imagination)

[screwtype]

Just a brief thought: how many of you who are complaining how impractical that axe is have actual experience in lumberjackery?

Woodcutting used to a pretty high profile sport in my part of the world (Australia) and professional woodcutters use an axe waaaay smaller than that. Australia has traditionally produced some of the best wood cutters in the world.

Here's what a wood cutter's axe looks like:



You can see the handle is only about as long as that of a baseball bat, and the axe head is pretty small. An axe like this in experienced hands can cut through a treetrunk in mere seconds.

Wood cutting is hard work - I've done a bit - and you wouldn't want to use an axe any bigger than the one pictured above. If the axe was any heavier you couldn't swing it fast enough to get a decent bite, and the extra weight would quickly leave you exhausted. If the handle was any longer you couldn't lever it back and forth out of the tree when it gets stuck which it frequently does.

That axe in CA's pic is way too big for a woodcutter's axe.

[drone]

Just a brief thought: how many of you who are complaining how impractical that axe is have actual experience in lumberjackery?

Somebody needs to get Beirut in here for this discussion...