Best line infantry sword since sliced bread

[Argeus the Paladin]

There are many types of swords since time immemorial. But not all of them are suitable for actual battle.

The question here is: Which is the best type/design of sword that a medieval or earlier line infantryman could use as a primary weapon?

[thursgun]

European long sword:



Arabic scimitar:



Chineese Jian:



And Japanese katana:



The shape of every sword tells pretty much the fighting style of every culture.
Considering only infantry, I believe that Scimitar gives the best balance between damage and weight (I'm only guesstimating here).

[Manco]

There are many types of swords since time immemorial. But not all of them are suitable for actual battle.

The question here is: Which is the best type/design of sword that a medieval or earlier line infantryman could use as a primary weapon?

Depends on your enemy.

[Dodge]

Depends on your enemy.

Correct. Close thread to avoid yet ather retard discussion group meeting in this forum.

[alhoon]

The one with a gun attached. How was it called?

[Gromovnik]

The one with a gun attached. How was it called?

Something like this:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_pistol?
useful stuf...

[athanaric]

Something like this:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_pistol?
useful stuf...

Especially handy for a duel, when you can't decide on a weapon (or if your opponent insists on using swords, and you therefore decide on a real life variant of "auto_win defender")...

[TheXand]

The one with a gun attached. How was it called?

They were called gunblades in Final Fantasy

I like this weapon best tbh, combine it with a buckler and dirk in the other hand.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Hakkapeliitta]

Wasn't the katana more of a backup weapon on the battlefield, while various polearms and spears served as primary weapons? Much of the prestige that katana has came about during the Edo period when Japanese society was demilitarized.

As to what is the best type of sword? Well most swords have their own uses they are meant for so it's pretty hard to determine the best, especially as most of us propably have never practiced any kind of fencing etc.

[Stalins_Elite]

In medieval Europe, to my knowledge. Bastard swords, long swords and broad swords were quite common on the battle feild for European armies. Also the claymore basically a traditional Scottish broad sword was very common in you guessed it, Scotland. Pre medieval time frame, I would have to say the Roman Gladius or various types of Celtic and Germanic long swords. SE.

[jo the greek]

The Pattos sword

[alhoon]

Oh wait, I have a better one! Lightsaber!

(Sorry for my non-contribution to this thread. But I stand by my choice of the pistolsword).

[Poach]

Claymore! Nothing says "You're going to ****ing die" like a screaming guy swinging a sword the same size as him at you.

[Helm]

You could use a sword to slice bread with but that's kind of an overkill.

[athanaric]

You could use a sword to slice bread with but that's kind of an overkill.

I can tell you from first-hand (literally) experience that it's a bad idea to use your blade weapons for domestic tasks.

[Mythos]

A long-ish versatile sword like the late Roman spatha or a short-ish bastard sword.

[Lysimachus]

Shortswords were made for stabbing (e.g, Gladius) as they lacked length to be effective in slashing, whereas broadswords achieved what shortswords were incapable of. A longsword was simply a combination of the two which would make you think that it was quite an effective weapon, but with the introduction of armour plating it came quite ineffective and resulted in blacksmiths burning the iron for longer to remove as much of the impurities as possible (right just before it became brittle) and to sharpen the point as much as possible so as to minimise the surface area as much as possible which would result in the user's force being channeled in to an extremely small point which would give as much chance as possible to penetrate armour. This resulted in the rapier (16th-17th Centuries) which were the epitome of sword-making.

Of course, with the introduction of Gothic plating it made them very ineffective unless you were able to win a lucky hit in an unarmoured sport which resulted in the widespread use of maces, axes (weapons with large surface areas which aimed to bludgeon the target rather than a clean penetration) and polearms and long, tapered swords. These weapons were designed simply to penetrate the advanced plating of the time and were able to slide through weak spots like through the slit in the sallet. Like has been said on this thread however, it depends on what you're up against. If you're up against an unarmoured opponent then a long slashing sword would be better as it gives you a distance advantage whereas against an armoured foe you would be better off not bringing a sword and bringing a weapon more effective at penetrating armour.

By the way, poor attempt to disguise a "What is the best sword" thread

[Helm]

A gunblade would make for a horribly inaccurate gun and poorly balanced sword in real life, so it's not really the best of both worlds.

[TheXand]

A gunblade would make for a horribly inaccurate gun and poorly balanced sword in real life, so it's not really the best of both worlds.

Ohh there's no denying that haha, it is a pretty sucky weapon but by Christ is it stylish As an aside though, combination weapons like thse have been around for centuries, though not for any practical purpose, merely as shows of the artificer's skill.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I did rather like the knuckleduster/pistol combo though, as off topic as this is it's a must see.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Monarchist]

I've always known that the general line of European swordsmanship in post-Roman history follows a certain progression:

Late Dark Ages: Scramaseax, Broad Sword
High Middle Ages: One-handed Arming Sword, Knight's one-hander (to be used with a kite shield)
Late Middle Ages: Long-sword (langes schwert)
Renaissance: Claymore, Zweihänder, swept-hilt Rapier (to be used with a targe or round shield),
Baroque/Early Modern: Basket-hilt Rapier, Court-sword, Small-sword

Obviously, the 12th century arming-sword was not practical for cutting 15th century plate armour! Similarly, it would be a pointless waste of energy to go swinging a 14th-century long-sword at 13th century chain mail. In the latter case, you'd cleave the enemy in two, if he hadn't already stabbed you quickly as you were swinging your unwieldy, heavy weapon. Each sword has a certain ramification for the time it was used, after all. You certainly would be in bad straights if you tried to stab someone who was wearing early-16th century armour using your late-16th century Rapier! Everything has a consequence, meaning, use, and specific point.

I like the court-sword the most, to be honest. It was in use mostly around the 18th century, and was a cross between the earlier rapier and the later saber. What a difficult choice!