Spears were fine for the initial engagement but once the general melee started and there wasnt much room to move around the length of a spear became more of a liability than an asset. Of course the really nice thing spears is that theyre very easy to use (requiring little if any training) while still being reasonably effective. They were also incredibly cheap to make compared to other weapons. Thats why you mostly see peasants and militias with spears.

Ultimately the fact that were rather unwieldy in a packed melee meant that if you wanted to be effective on the battlefield you would need a shorter weapon that you could swing. These weapons however could be considerably expensive and required training and practice to use them well. The sword was a good general purpose weapon that could hack, slice, and stab. It gave the weilder alot of tactical options for attacking. Its reasonable weight also allowed it to be effective against armor. As the middle ages went on the swords generally became larger and heavier partly to be more effective from horseback and partly to be more effective against the stronger armor.

Axes were very effective because they're weight allowed them to pierce armor relatively easily. But since they could only be used in a hacking swing combined with their great weight meant they were rather slow weapons and therefore not entirely ideal.

Maces were often considered the best weapons to use in a melee because they were very quick compared to axes. Since they reallied on blunt force they didnt need to pierce armor at all but could still easily break the bones benieth the armor. Many types of armor were quite useless against a mace.


Also in the middle ages youll find combination weapons such as the halberd that are several different weapons mixed into one so that you could theoretically pick and choose which to use in a given situation. The halberd for example combined the spear and the axe so that soldiers could use the spear for its reach and its stopping power and then in the melee could use the axe portion to deal devastating blows. Billmen combined the mace with the spear. Polearms combined the sword with the spear.