[atul]

Originally posted by DominionsFAN:
Hell no! If you hit a decent platemail with a hammer -or with a sword-, you will take almost no damage.

If I remember correctly, at least some warhammers had been designed two-sided: a blunt hammerhead with a spike on the other side (gyah my english isn't up to this), a little like this:
___
|....\_^___ (poor ASCII to the
|...._____> rescue!)
|___/.||

Anyway, the blunt side for soft targets and crushing the bones below armour. And the spike side to act as a can opener for heavy armour.

So, were the distinction Slashing/Crushing/Piercing damage applied, this particular weapon should act as crushing or piercing, dependent on which kind of armour is attacked (we assume that the soldier wielding a hammer can make an intelligent decision).

Quite makes aforementioned distinction obsolete.

And anyone who has seen the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon must admit that a spear can very well be used as a slashing weapon.

While different damage types as seen in many RPGs fit nicely to those games, I must also say that I don't think that it would be worth all the trouble. Yes, Doms has many RPGish elements, but personally I think that the ability to make your enemies' capitals suffer the fate of Carthago (destroy fort, plunder, just add salt) is a lot more essential than different damage types of common soldiers.

In the end, it all comes to one's own opinions, of course.

Besides, if talked about immersion and such, I think there are many other ways to add that than just common damage types (time to duck and cover ). For example (this being just a hearsay), the thing about ancient Roman javelin was the special way its tip was manufactured. The foremost part was hard iron and just behind it the iron was relatively soft. So, when such a javelin was thrown and blocked by a shield, the foremost part would penetrate it, and latter would bend by the weight of the shaft. End result: the heavy javelin is stuck in the shield which is left quite unusable by the addition of extra weight. Implement that!

(Of course, I'm not imagining such implementation would be usable, if it wasn't clear from the context. The point being, you actually have to stop at some level when making a game, at least if you want to get it ready some day. And I confess, still have traumas from playing RoleMaster)