Bastard sword - an ultimate melee weapon?

[kkrizan]

My only character in .703 is a searaiderlike vaegir loving footman. I choose hunter as a base class and, since it gave me bows, i stuck with them for ranged combat. For melee I use shield and balanced bastard sword.

It seems to me that that is maybe the best combination. Generally I go 2handed, but sometimes (when you are facing sea raiders or crossbowmen) shield is a must. With bastard sword and shield, you get best from both worlds. When you need more protection use sword and shield, and when not use the sword twohanded.

 

[svart]

Was that a question ?

Bastard sword is nice, and is a powerful weapon, but a war axe for example can be more conventional due to its high power and reach as far as i remember.
Also try using a couched lance in your next game

 

[Cataphract]

Too bad its that in M&B the best melee weapon is almost always the one that deals most damage per hit. If it would be realistic the longsword would be just as good although with less damage. AFAIK the longsword was the most favored blade in medieval times.

For example, try having an experienced woodcutter with a humongous axe against an experienced swordsman and youll see the axe user would probably lose.

 

[EbonKnight]

No don't ...if you ever want to make a character that uses ANYTHING else heh....

My favorite character so far is a mix of my 2 favorite things and a necessity...he rides a spirited courser packs a jousting lance (for instant knockouts and general ownage), one pack of balanced throwing axes (for those lovely 160 dmg headshots) and as a backup when he runs out of axes/gets dehorsed a bastard sword and shield (which he doesn't put any points in but manages just fine with what he earns in combat)

I've found this character to be pretty much perfect despite the fact he doesn't specialise in anything in particular (also spreading his points between cha str and dex equally)

 

[kkrizan]

It was just my observation.

I play M&B for some tima and have tried out different characters and weapons including sword of war and great axe. Never tried couched lance because it seems boring (although very powerful), but I tried horse archer with spear or lance for couching. I preferred those to lance because they can be useful for thrusting as well as couching.

Maybe I'm biased because this time I'm playing a footman. 2handed weapons are mostly better except when you run into some archers. It just seems that with balanced sword you get power and reach (almost) of 2handed weapons while also getting to use the shield.

If there are no archers (or if I get close enough and they take melee weapons), I put away the shield for more power.

Does it seem to you that when using bastard sword in one hand, you attack slower as opposed to using it in both hands?

 

[svart]

Too bad its that in M&B the best melee weapon is almost always the one that deals most damage per hit.

No, that's just because people are paranoid over numbers, if damage/armor wasn't displayed you couldn't tell the difference between most high tier weapons and armors.

If it would be realistic the longsword would be just as good although with less damage. AFAIK the longsword was the most favored blade in medieval times.

That's what currently happens in a game, unless you expect the longsword to be dualwielded too ?
A long sword had a hand handle, while a bastard sword had a hand and a half handle - that means a long sword couldn't be used effectivly using two hands.

Also a rich warlord would most likely use the highest quality armors, do you expect a knight warlord to use a simple medium quality sword, or a high quality one ?

 

[Yair Hunter]

Does it seem to you that when using bastard sword in one hand, you attack slower as opposed to using it in both hands?

armagan said there's a damage penalty among the .703 updates. but he said it was changed to a diffrent number, so it was before, maybe there's a speed penalty too. i guess there should be.

 

[kkrizan]

As I wrote, this time I'm playin a footman. My party also consists mainly of foortroops except for vaegir horsemen I'm trying to upgrade to knights for a quest.

Recently I got another quest to intercept some swadian raiders. There were 13 knights and 13 men at arms and some crosbowmen change. My party was 26 men total. I have to tell you it was not easy. I shoot those arrows like Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: The Prince of Thieves. But once the arrows were spent, those remaining knights gave me a lot of trouble. They just rode those chargers of theirs over me and my troops. However, in the end i got them all.

 

[EppuTheHeppu]

Yep, bastard sword is my favourite melee weapon on foot. Speed and possibility to use shield with it. And with this shield-switch-button, it's very useful weapon.

---

As for ultimate weapon for AI: Spear and shield.

I lost horse, I had to fight Vaegir Veterans on foot. I had mail hauberk/coif/boots, iron staff, shield, bastard sword, and a warhammer (WEIGHTS ALOT!!! One reason for drop weapon button). Can't kill the son-of-a-b**** while he runs backwards and pokes me with his spear doing zero damage, but stopping my hits.

Very, very annoying when you have multiple opponents and one or two of them have spears.

 

[DaLagga]

armagan said there's a damage penalty among the .703 updates. but he said it was changed to a diffrent number, so it was before, maybe there's a speed penalty too. i guess there should be.

Yeah, there's a speed penalty. Not sure exactly what it is, but try equipping the sword in both hands, swing it a few times, then pull out your shield and use it 1handed. Much slower. I find that a 2hander with a shield as backup is almost always better than a 1hander + shield. This is because you pretty much always have time to pull out that shield when they're firing arrows, and once you close the range they go strictly too melee, and you have no more need for the shield at all and the 2hander dominates.

 

[Skyrage]

Bastard sword in one hand does give much slower swings. Having a normal sword with shield kinda is advantageous in that regard, even if the sword happens to deal less damage. So, I'd not say that the bastard sword is necessarily the best weapon. It's good if you don't mind having your shield taking a lot of abuse.

 

[GhostThaxian]

It's a good sword but probably not a good idea when your a lower level with not so much agility, since it's big, heavy, and slow. When you get to a higher level it's a bit better, but i've always felt alittle disadvanted agains't soemone with a smaller, quicker yet still pretty deadly sword. (IE Nomad saber)

At least that's my experience. I used to use it but I got whooped by one to many people with a smaller sword while I was using a shield.

 

[Gilrain]

On foot a Nomad sabre for me. Quicker than a bastard sword. If you fight someone with a bastard sword, you can hit him over and over again before he has a chance. On a horse, bastard sword. More power behind it.

 

[allthesedamnnamesaretaken]

i prefer a bastard sword as well, and i use it exclusively one-handed because it has longer range than all the other 1-handed weapons, and still has decent speed and damage. reach and movement speed are all important in my book

 

[zwaps]

Too bad its that in M&B the best melee weapon is almost always the one that deals most damage per hit. If it would be realistic the longsword would be just as good although with less damage. AFAIK the longsword was the most favored blade in medieval times.

For example, try having an experienced woodcutter with a humongous axe against an experienced swordsman and youll see the axe user would probably lose.

I don't think so. Swordmanship was popular amongst nobles, but only in the late medieval times, 1400 and such, when piercing a full plate became an issue. During the crusades, for example, with leather armor, padded cloth etc. around, axes, spears, halberts, warhammers and many other weapons were in use. The sword... not so much.

 

[svart]

I don't think so. Swordmanship was popular amongst nobles, but only in the late medieval times, 1400 and such, when piercing a full plate became an issue. During the crusades, for example, with leather armor, padded cloth etc. around, axes, spears, halberts, warhammers and many other weapons were in use. The sword... not so much.

because they were affordable, unlike swords

 

[Gilrain]

Not only affordable, but any old blacksmith could make an axe, whereas you were looking at extremely skilled people making swords.