Warhammer

Game Stats

• Range: melee
• Base damage: 1d4 (crushing/impaling)
• Secondary: none
• Concealable: no
• Civilian Carry: no

Description

The warhammer is a one-handed hammer-shaped weapon used to strike crushing blows.

Use and Characteristics 

The defining characteristics of a warhammer are its hammer face, although many warhammers also have a top spike and back spike for added versatility.  The term "warhammer" when used as distinct from the term "maul" refers to a warhammer with a length and weight suitable for striking quickly and with power using only one hand.  Warhammers often have oblong hafts to assist the user in properly orienting his hammer face.

Although a warhammer is capable of delivering stunning blows, it is not a large or heavy weapon.  In fact, warhammers have hafts about two feet in length and weigh between two and two and a half pounds, about the same weight as and considerably shorter than an arming sword.  Their ability to strike such devastating blows is simply a function of the concentration of mass at the end of the haft.

A warhammer is not a slow or clumsy weapon, but this redistribution of mass necessarily makes a warhammer slower to recover from a strike than a sword of equivalent weight.  Its use is thus a relatively straightforward matter of squarely striking the most powerful blows possible; the nature of the weapon simply does not permit it the same range of gambits as a sword.  However, warhammers with back spikes may be used to hook an enemy's shield, weapon, or even neck to pull him off balance.  This is in fact one of the primary uses of such spikes.  They are not designed (or, in general, capable) of piercing plate armor - armor that can withstand firearms can certainly withstand a hammer.  While a warhammer's spike can pierce some kinds of armor under the right circumstances, there is usually little reason to try: the virtue of a warhammer in combat is that it can kill or wound a man in heavy armor without needing to pierce his armor.

Like all one-handed weapons, a warhammer is best used in conjunction with an off-hand defense.  This is particularly true in a warhammer's case, as it is much slower to recover than most other one-handed weapons and poorly suited to parrying.  The warhammer is most often used with a shield, although it is also a popular "anti-armor" weapon for cavalry.  In Sevilla, the warhammer is the preferred such weapon for knights fighting mounted.

Advantages

The warhammer's principal advantage is its ability to transmit enough force to wound or kill through armor without piercing it.

Disadvantages

A warhammer's principal disadvantage is its slow recovery time and short reach.  At only the length of a short sword, a warhammer must be quite close to an enemy to strike effectively.

Variants

Warhammers are relatively simple weapons and are made of bronze, high-quality steel (referred to as "steel" colloquially), and low-quality steel (referred to as "iron" colloquially) in a variety of forms.  They have no edges, so they are not produced in either crystal or Dolotai steel.

Party Associations

None

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