Especially in the same post that said, "Use your brain a little"...

Okay, I'll throw a curveball here. Longsword.

Who said they were slow or heavy? If we are talking about the same longsword here, the weapon is held in two hands and weighs 2-3 pounds. Believe me, I've held one. Since you use two hands, you can swing it reasonably fast, and still very powerfully. There was no "greatsword", since a giant 100 pound 8 foot blade would be useless in combat.

Longswords RULE.

Alrighty then, but I have one question, which may just be an oversight on your part, oh master of obscure, and wonderful wisdom. If you blow up the mother ship, how are they gonna get back where they came from? [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Marty 4, I've seen great swords, up close and personal, held one in both my hands, and while it is heavy, it's not one hundred pounds. I do, however, agree that longswords are not all that heavy. Fuctional ones weigh a bit more than two pounds, but they aren't all that heavy, maybe eight to ten pounds all told.

I'll take what Indiana Jones used against the guy with the sword any day. :D

[ 07-12-2005, 02:21 AM: Message edited by: machinehead ]

Alrighty then, but I have one question, which may just be an oversight on your part, oh master of obscure, and wonderful wisdom. If you blow up the mother ship, how are they gonna get back where they came from? [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Marty 4, I've seen great swords, up close and personal, held one in both my hands, and while it is heavy, it's not one hundred pounds. I do, however, agree that longswords are not all that heavy. Fuctional ones weigh a bit more than two pounds, but they aren't all that heavy, maybe eight to ten pounds all told. </font>[/QUOTE]Well, erm... as the erm... mothership gets a large hole blown up inside it... it uh.. opens warp gates for the.. err.. other alien ships to escape through... and then blows up... Err.. yeah that's about it [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Depends wat the other guy is using/circumstances. Its like asking do you want a sniper rifle or a shotgun and not specifying whether you're stand a meter or a mile away.

I don't think that greatswords were actually used during medieval times. Was the one you held a collectors item?

As for the weight, I may be confused with katanas, which may have been 2 pounds. Still, eight to ten pounds with two hands shouldnt be that bad, unless you are using it for an extended period of time (and if so, you would definitely have trained with it and be physically strong enough to wave around five pounds of weight in each hand).

just thought i'd bring this up..
When in combat, you don't use two hands, mainly if i recall, also a large metal shield would be used. Plate mail will be worn and so will chain mail. scimitars, being light, will be easier to swing wearing these fairly heavy objects, but a longsword you need to take a swing, bring it over your shoulder (4 seconds there) and take another swing. Battle axes make more damage but are far more worse for speed.

And i'd like to get a scimitar and slash on those aliens that would like to take over [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I thought scimtars were designed to be used from the saddle, IIRC the mongols often used them.

Longswords and greatswords are different. Longsords could either be used with two hands or one hand and a shield, whereas greatswords could only be used by two hands.

[ 07-19-2005, 10:41 AM: Message edited by: Aragorn1 ]

Indeed, Aragorn1. The scimitar thing is not entirely correct, but I wouldn't say it's wrong either, as you could use them from horse back. The same could be said for sabers as well, mounted calvalry used them. Lots of weapons of the period would be considered good from a horse, but for actual combat from a horse, you may prefer the lighter slashing weapons. It would be a speed factor thing.
As to Marty4's question, I'd say it was pretty old, but I don't have exact details. Great swords were used to break pike formations, in preparation for calvalry charges, or even infantry ones. As to the long sword useage, yes, it's hilt is big enough to be used as a two handed weapon, but weight and balance wise, it was designed to be used one handed, preferrably, at least by me, with a shield.