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[dirty foot]

Or are blunt weapons simply the stupidest choice of weapon in the game?

[thegoatgod_pan]

Hammers made of silver are effective canopeners, goblins get one-shot skilled. Whips are straight-up deadly.  Scourges make whips seem mild.

[dirty foot]

Hammers made of silver are effective canopeners, goblins get one-shot skilled. Whips are straight-up deadly.  Scourges make whips seem mild.

I had a silver artifact mace, and it was absolute garbage compared to my copper dagger.

Just to see if I was really just irritated with RNG, I jacked up the mace skill to 25. Copper dagger was still getting easier and more plentiful kills with a skill level of 6.

I'll have to try out whips and scourges, but right now it's really feeling like something's not quite right with blunt weapons.

[dirty foot]

"You bash the cave dragon in the head with your iron flail, bruising the muscle, fracturing the skull."
"You bash the cave dragon in the head with your iron flail, bruising the muscle, fracturing the skull."
"You bash the cave dragon in the head with your iron flail, bruising the muscle, fracturing the skull."
"You bash the cave dragon in the head with your iron flail, bruising the muscle, fracturing the skull."
"You bash the cave dragon in the head with your iron flail, bruising the muscle, fracturing the skull."
"You bash the cave dragon in the head with your iron flail, bruising the muscle, fracturing the skull."
"You bash the cave dragon in the upper body, bruising the muscle and fracturing the left false rib."
"You bash...bruising...fracturing..."
"You bash...bruising...fracturing...(numerous body parts, repeatedly)"

"The peasant slashes the cave dragon in the head with her silver boning knife, tearing the scale."

"Cave dragon has been struck down."

[Langdon]

Hammers made of silver are effective canopeners, goblins get one-shot skilled. Whips are straight-up deadly.  Scourges make whips seem mild.

I had a silver artifact mace, and it was absolute garbage compared to my copper dagger.

Just to see if I was really just irritated with RNG, I jacked up the mace skill to 25. Copper dagger was still getting easier and more plentiful kills with a skill level of 6.

I'll have to try out whips and scourges, but right now it's really feeling like something's not quite right with blunt weapons.

Warhammers have piercing, which make them effective can openers, as thegoatgod_pan said. Maces have only blunt, which right now isn't as deadly as it should be (might get better once organ ruptures are back in). Once organ hits are deadly or incapacitating again, mace lethality should get better (although still not as lethal as piercing).

Whips and scourges are currrently bugged, in that they go through armor (and skin, and muscle) hitting the bone directly. Expect this to be fixed in the future.

"Cave dragon has been struck down."

Large creatures (with large muscle layers and tough skin) will resist blunt damage better. You'll need piercing for them.

Daggers and knives are also slightly bugged (like whips, but not to the same extent) in that their piercing capability is far better than their size should allow. I have multiple adventurers who can stab through a goblin's iron helm with a large copper dagger, even with middling knife skill.

[Naryar]

Use your fists. It's more badass anyway.

"You hack the Goblin Axeman in the head with your iron two-handed sword, but the blow is stopped by The Goblin's small copper helm !"

oh armok what

"You punch the Goblin Axeman in the head with your left fist, shattering the skull and tearing the brain through the skull !"

[iyaerP]

Use your fists. It's more badass anyway.

"You hack the Goblin Axeman in the head with your iron two-handed sword, but the blow is stopped by The Goblin's small copper helm !"

oh armok what

"You punch the Goblin Axeman in the head with your left fist, shattering the skull and tearing the brain through the skull !"

I prefer to do aimed biting attacks at the throat and then shake them around.

Expect to exsanguinate them within a frame or two following throat being torn out.

[noob]

doesnt this go in adventure mode discussion?

they save time after the battle because you only have one dwarf hauling a single body instead of 10 dwarfs hauling all the limbs.

IIRC maces are bad in general. use hammers.

[dirty foot]

doesnt this go in adventure mode discussion?

they save time after the battle because you only have one dwarf hauling a single body instead of 10 dwarfs hauling all the limbs.

IIRC maces are bad in general. use hammers.

I put it here because this also severely affects your armies in DF, like it did me when all I had for ore was silver. No matter how much I asked trade caravans or mined the bejesus out of the ground, I never once got anything but silver from either. Maces should have worked perfectly for the circumstances, but entire well-trained squads would die working clean-up on the few remaining goblins that survived my traps.

I only used the adventure mode example because it's really the best way to show how nonsensical it is that I can shatter a dragon's skull in upward of ten times while they're unconscious, then have an untrained peasant waltz over and kill steal a dragon from me on their first hit.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Silver is better against armored opponents than unarmored. Hammers work better against armored opponents than unarmored. Maces aren't very good.

[ral]

For some reason I really like axes, made of iron, steel, or adamantine, maybe because they seem to be good at chopping off limbs. I never use blunt weapons.

I haven't done any real scientific testing for myself, just seems like my dorfs have the best luck killing things with axes. And axes are more dwarfy than anything but a hammer.

[GotIt_00]

Yup. Axes are my preferred weapon. I have goblin hands and feet scattered all over. The axelords chop with such ferocity that hands and feet end up behind fortifications on the z-level above them. That's some good choppin'.

[Wyvern]

I don't have much recent personal experience with combat (I've had lots of trouble getting soldiers properly trained since the start of DF2010), but if this thread is still accurate (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=53571.0), then edged weapons are almost completely useless against armored opponents if they're made of anything less than steel (except iron vs. copper armor), so a fortress making do with only copper, bronze, or iron needs hammers if they want any chance of fighting against a goblin.  (Or spears, maybe; I'm not sure how they compare to hammers.)  Though if you're fighting against unarmored opponents (or have steel), edged weapons really do outclass blunt weapons by a ton.

[Langdon]

I don't have much recent personal experience with combat (I've had lots of trouble getting soldiers properly trained since the start of DF2010), but if this thread is still accurate (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=53571.0), then edged weapons are almost completely useless against armored opponents if they're made of anything less than steel (except iron vs. copper armor), so a fortress making do with only copper, bronze, or iron needs hammers if they want any chance of fighting against a goblin.  (Or spears, maybe; I'm not sure how they compare to hammers.)  Though if you're fighting against unarmored opponents (or have steel), edged weapons really do outclass blunt weapons by a ton.

In the later versions, goblin armor has been downgraded quite a bit (I guess an attempt to limit the amount of goblinite you get) so they only come with a breastplate and cap, maximum (usually just a chain shirt, no breastplate) and no gloves, boots or leg armor. This means bronze edged weapons are still effective, unless you're fighting modded orc races wearing full sets of plate.

Iron or copper weapons have the advantage of being easily scavenged off the goblins, and bronze should be enough to see you through your first few sieges. Bronze is only slightly less effective than steel, and is effective against iron/copper armor (haven't seen goblins getting bronze in .19 or later, due to the new metal scarcity rules).

Even with the mineral scarcity, silver is still quite common, and silver warhammers, while not killing as quickly as axes, are reasonably effective against non-lord level goblins.

Spears are useful for quick critical hits - piercing means they are more effective vs armor, and are also more effective against large beasts and megabeasts. With the new changes making sparring safer, they don't have the disadvantages they had back in 40d (where they were more dangerous to squadmates than the enemy).

[krenshala]

I've seen spears whack off hands and feet, and about as often I've seen bones broken when the dwarves smash their target with the spear-haft (blunt attack).  Not as effective at smashing as even a mace, however.

Humorously, in actual battle a dwarf with a wooden training spear almost never tries to stab with it (even when level 2+) but instead uses it like a (pretty ineffectual) club.  It does work to slow down the retreating goblin thief long enough for the one dwarf in four with a "real" spear to get there, however.