Units with stupid weapon choices

[Poopsi]

Might look something like this: D=====ID

you mean something like this: 8===ID ?

[HoneyBadger]

No, you're thinking of another weapon, entirely.

[Endoperez]

Why come up with a "military fork", when the game already has the trident: a more damaging polearm already used by some Agarthans (the wet ones) IIRC. Two-handed, but could be used with bucklers like the Olm Spawn do with glaives and bucklers. Stats: Dam 7, att/def 0.

The glaive-users would suck, though. I think I released the weapon rebalance mod already, it did lots of stuff like increase precision of spears/glaives by 1 and increased damage of glaives even further. I didn't test how if affected Agarthans. Getting rid of the attack penalty should help a lot.

[P3D]

Underwater only the Wet One Commanders got trident, the rest have spear. Why there's a damage difference of 4 between them, I don't know, against any armor a spear should be better - the trident distributes force among three points not a single one.
And why a pike has larger damage than a longspear?

EP, will check out your mod.

[Poopsi]

how about replacing their spears with longspears and pikes to improve the repelling capabilities of the troopers?

Oh nevermind. They still have -beep- poor attack ...

[Illuminated One]

Iirc in WW1 trench warfare (which should come very close to Agartha tunnel warfare) flails and knifes were preferred to bayonets (= spear).

[HoneyBadger]

Endoperez: Tridents would be perfectly fine. I was trying to distance them a bit from the wet ones, but there's no real pressing reason for them not to use tridents, except possibly the thematic association of tridents with the sea, which I was a bit concerned with.

P3D, you're right about the spear directing more force along it's single point, but one advantage the trident's three points gives is stability, so that it's easier to center an attack. The trident probably wouldn't be able to penetrate the armour as often, but when it did it would make a much wider and more ragged wound--thus more blood spilled, with a greater chance to clip an artery or puncture an organ. The wound would also be considerably harder to treat medically. Another advantage is-and this is specifically because it doesn't go as deep-a trident would have less of a tendancy to get stuck in an opponent.

I think giving them 7 damage is a bit much, however.

Trident stats, in my opinion, should be more like Dam 4, +1 att/0def.

[Humakty]

Well, the three heads make it easier to block than a spear, as you can put your sword between the heads .It is maybe why they haven't been seen much on the medieval battkefields. I rather see tridents as a fishing 'weapon'. The simpler weapon is often the better one. I thought they used maces during WW1, not flails, you need to train a lot to efficiently use a flail, and a tranche is rather a small place, so the mace is better. The main fault of the bayonnet is you have to fix it to your gun, plus your gun is not a melee weapon, and so has a deficient balance. No perfect weapon exists !

[HoneyBadger]

Well...blocking a trident is possible, but in the process of that, you're still putting yourself in close proximity to it's blades, so it's hardly a golden option. And the trident-wielder can more easily block you, than you can block him, due to the length of the trident.

As far as medieval "tridents", the weapon actually became more sophisticated, not less, over time. Spetums, ranseurs, and partisans--which saw use into the 18th century, all evolved from the trident.

Infact, the partisan was one of the very last melee weapons used on the field of battle. If I remember correctly, partisans were in use by the British (who had one of the most advanced war-machines in existence at the time) in the American Revolutionary War.

[Wrana]

Originally Posted by Humakty

This effect should alter your potential lifetime, and your physical might permanently. (not really in any RPG I played so far... Or I can't remember...)

Works something like this in Earthdown, Houses of the Blooded, and some editions of Ars Magica iirc. Not sure about Shadowrun, but quite possible - at least for more massive undertakings.