12-15-2013, 12:54 AM
A forum search turned up nothing, so I will ask around.
Maces have been used for a long time, a very long time, and I have read descriptions of maces being used especially by heavily armoured mounted warriors such as cataphracts, for the mace can do damage without penetrating armour as opposed to the sword or spear(though wouldn't that make it better for use against cataphracts?)
However, I have not heard descriptions of maces themselves in antiquity. It seems to me that the best kind of mace would be the flanged mace; heavy enough to do some real damage, and the flanges are small enough to have a real chance of penetrating good armour. It would seem to me that these flanged maces would be especially effective against flexible armour like mail or scale.
Wiki, however, states that flanged maces only started to be used in the early Middle Ages. Could someone clear this up for me? Were they using only balls of iron on wooden shafts before this?
Maces have been used for a long time, a very long time, and I have read descriptions of maces being used especially by heavily armoured mounted warriors such as cataphracts, for the mace can do damage without penetrating armour as opposed to the sword or spear(though wouldn't that make it better for use against cataphracts?)
However, I have not heard descriptions of maces themselves in antiquity. It seems to me that the best kind of mace would be the flanged mace; heavy enough to do some real damage, and the flanges are small enough to have a real chance of penetrating good armour. It would seem to me that these flanged maces would be especially effective against flexible armour like mail or scale.
Wiki, however, states that flanged maces only started to be used in the early Middle Ages. Could someone clear this up for me? Were they using only balls of iron on wooden shafts before this?
