| Mrs Pumblechook | 26 Mar 2015 5:13 a.m. PST |
what sort of polearm is this? haven't been able to track it down link |
| arthur1815 | 26 Mar 2015 5:29 a.m. PST |
I think it is a bill, complete with axe blade, spike for stabbing and hook for pulling men off horses. |
| SJDonovan | 26 Mar 2015 5:30 a.m. PST |
I think it is a billhook: link Too slow! Arthur beat me to it. |
nnascati  | 26 Mar 2015 5:31 a.m. PST |
Looks like a guisarme. That may actually be what it says in the illustration, hard to make out the lettering. |
| Mrs Pumblechook | 26 Mar 2015 5:34 a.m. PST |
thank you, that was quick |
| GurKhan | 26 Mar 2015 6:20 a.m. PST |
A mediaeval Italian would have called it a roncone – link An Englishman would have called it a bill – picture I don't think the mediaevals were as systematic about polearm names as some moderns try to be. |
| vtsaogames | 26 Mar 2015 6:35 a.m. PST |
No one can be as systematic about nomenclature as wargamers. Bonaparte referred to a whiff of grapeshot, wargamers will tell you that it was canister and grapeshot was a naval round. Allied soldiers would it's a German tank, wargamers would say a Mk IV/L50. |
| GeoffQRF | 26 Mar 2015 7:22 a.m. PST |
I don't think the mediaevals were as systematic about polearm names as some moderns try to be I suspect there were some very… colloquial… names for them :-) |
 ColCampbell | 26 Mar 2015 7:45 a.m. PST |
Kinda off the polearm subject, but I've always liked the Flemish goedendag (good day) which was a combination club and spear. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goedendag Jim |
| Winston Smith | 26 Mar 2015 9:37 a.m. PST |
Vtsaogames is correct. The late Gary Gygax could and did wax poetic about pole arms. He would have pages and pages of charts and charts and pictures and pictures.
Most of them were the same thing.  I was hoping it was a Bohemian Earspoon. |
| The Last Conformist | 26 Mar 2015 9:43 a.m. PST |
I think the legend says "Hie gatt der Spanisch scherg hinauss", which'd mean something like "here the Spanish henchman walks out". |
| Griefbringer | 26 Mar 2015 10:02 a.m. PST |
Allied soldiers would it's a German tank, wargamers would say a Mk IV/L50. I don't think that a WWII Germans had any Panzer IV with L50 gun, only with L24, L43 and L48 guns. Never mind that the Mk thing is a British-ism, proper krauts would rather refer to Pz Kpw IV Ausf F2 (armed with 7.5 cm KwK40 L/43 gun). Now, where did I put my Bohemian earspoon… |
| goragrad | 26 Mar 2015 12:30 p.m. PST |
Actually proper British wargamers would refer to it as a Mk IV Special… |
| nnascati | 26 Mar 2015 1:58 p.m. PST |
Vtsogames is right on point, I doubt anyone on the revceiving end really cared what sort of blade was ripping him open.
Winston, I clearly recall the article you are talking about, way back when, I made loads of polearms base on those very illustrations. |
| Sobieski | 26 Mar 2015 4:30 p.m. PST |
Actually, the Bohemian earspoon is a misnomer. The earliest record of the weapon is found in the Olomouc public archives, so it's clearly a Moravian earspoon. Czechs go home! |
| jgibbons | 26 Mar 2015 4:52 p.m. PST |
I would have said Italian bill… |
| Ilodic | 26 Mar 2015 5:08 p.m. PST |
People realized what cuts vegetation, is also good at flesh and bone. However, in contemporary times, a chainsaw is out matched by a firearm…in most movies;-) ilodic. |
| Mrs Pumblechook | 26 Mar 2015 5:16 p.m. PST |
I was hoping it was a bohemian earspoon as well. I was disappointed, and that's why I asked :-) |
| vtsaogames | 26 Mar 2015 6:05 p.m. PST |
Albanian arquebusiers backed up by Bohemian earspoons, that's the ticket. |
| SJDonovan | 27 Mar 2015 2:13 a.m. PST |
"Identify this Polearm" is a great title for a daytime TV quiz show. I see Lloyd Grossman as presenter, maybe with Rachel Riley as co-host. |
| MajorB | 27 Mar 2015 4:06 a.m. PST |
I would have said Italian bill… I didn't know Bill was Italian … |
| Rich Bliss | 27 Mar 2015 7:47 a.m. PST |
Italian bill? We haven't paid the Greek one yet |
| Norman D Landings | 28 Mar 2015 6:08 p.m. PST |
WFRP took the opposite tack to D&D, and lumped everything more complicated than a spear together in the 'halberd' category.
They also slipped in a subtle dig at Gary Gygax's polearm-categorization fetish… One item of loot in an WFRP adventure module turned out to be a hefty tome containing illustrations and exhaustive descriptions of many, many polearms, listing the (often very slight) differences between them.
Reading it imparted no benefit whatsoever. |
proves himself a fan of splintered oars, crashing beakheads, and drummers yelling "come'mon, you scurves! The Captain wants to go water skiing, so pull harder!"
