The "Myth" of the "Dacian Falx" as a super weapon

[Thunder]

...what I meant to say is that a good, clean hit from such a weapon will cleave through flesh, bone and armour, unlike, say, a sword, which will glance off the armour no matter how clean the hit (even if it bruises the man beneath!)

I still think you are overestimating the penetrating power of this weapon. It will absolutely cleave flesh and bone! And it will do that even if the stroke is relatively weak, even casual. But that's the point--there is no reason to suspect that most blows in combat were full-force full-swing two-handed home-run smashes. You didn't have to exert yourself that much, risking quick exhaustion, sudden counter-moves, and the problems of follow-through whether you hit or miss, when all you had to do was connect lightly to lay a guy open. In any case, while I also agree that a hard, solid blow from the point of a falx is more likely to penetrate armor than most other weapons, I still do not believe that it is going to "cleave" it significantly, slicing right through to besect the guy inside. And even if you think you *might* get through it, why bet your life on it? Go for the soft parts!

You can't ignore the shield, either, since that was virtually always a factor.

Valete,

Matthew

Then again, consider that the flax is a shock weapon. You hit the lines, break up the formation, and then the rest of your troops follow through and exploit this. Hard, decisive strokes could well have been the norm as the intent of the weapon was not the prolong the combat but to break formations quickly.