Zornhau Forums

So, looking at the "Example weapons" table in the Sword & Scoundrel book:

Halberd 3c, 1p/3p ext r4 2h, Hook, Plate Piercing (Swing)

Should the halberd, firstly, not have the "Maille Piercing (Thrust)" property?

As far as I can tell, if built using the rules, it must use one of: spear-head (which would make it throwing, which doesn't make sense), an awl, which would give it maille-piercing, or it would have a blade on the end, in which case you would definitely make the blade double-edged (maybe severely tapered) but definitely tucked (because you certainly wouldn't use the blade part for swinging) and so, again, it would have the maille-piercing property.

Secondly, and this is a point on which I am certainly not as confident, should the halberd really have the "plate-piercing (swing)" property? According to this Lindybeige video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsckeyktMS0 the halberd would not have been used primarily as a swinging weapon, but instead the axe would have been used in a kind of "pull-back" motion after a (spear) thrust which possibly missed. This motivates the fact that on a halberd the axe head is pointed slightly "downwards" along the shaft rather than perpendicular to the shaft. Wikipedia also says

The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft. It always has a hook or thorn on the back side of the axe blade for grappling mounted combatants.[1] It is very similar to certain forms of the voulge in design and usage. The halberd was usually 1.5 to 1.8 metres (5 to 6 feet) long.[2]

Even if the halberd does have the plate piercing property with the hook / thorn part, perhaps it should be made clear the "plate-piercing" only applies to the "piercing swing" damage and not the "cutting swing".

Spear, axe head and beak with extended length should do it. The beak grants plate piercing to itself; and yes, the plate piercing should only apply to the beak swing; I figured that was implied, though quickly scanning through the rules, I don't see it explicitly stated anywhere. Spear only grants throwing if it's the only head, which it isn't in this case, so no throwing the halberd.