Favorite Melee Weapon

[Raellus]

I don't recall too many instances in my T2k playing/ref'ing of a PC using a melee weapon in combat, but there have been a few.

What's your favorite melee weapon (in T2k) and why?

If you have any in-game anecdotes about this topic, please do share.

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[CDAT]

I went with club, but the club I am thinking of is the ASP baton.

[bash]

I went with machete because it provides an F-U to underbrush and limbs. I don't have any good melee stories as my characters have never been super excited about melee combat.

[Olefin]

original group we played with back in college included a Native American who played his PC as one - and had him equipped with both a bow and with a tomahawk and both were used in combat during the game - he actually owned a tomahawk in real life and showed us how accurately he could throw it - was pretty damn impressive

[rcaf_777]

Weighted-knuckle gloves, aka Sap Gloves

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weighted-knuckle_glove

[pmulcahy11b]

I picked Fighting Knife, because it's what I know best.

[ChalkLine]

Really? A good knife is what you want.
Absolutely terrifying in a grapple as they're wickedly fast in the hands of a competent knife-fighter and come in from all directions. However the problem with them is that the same goes for the other guy. This is an ancient sword fighting doctrine known as The Paradox of Defence and it still holds true. The concept is that it's absurdly easy to kill a person with a weapon, morons do it all the time. So that means it's easy to kill a person but conversely hard to stay alive, and from experience I can tell you the closer you get then the harder it is to achieve. In the 1300s the famous sword fighting teacher Johannes Leichtenaur stated "God have mercy on those who take daggers into their hands".

So, in that case you might start thinking "why not a short fighting axe?" After all they have a bit of reach and they're not a grappling weapon like a short blade. Easy to carry, they pack a powerful punch and a back-spike can go through armour. If you have decent, unbroken ground under you and you have a passing knowledge of footwork you can sit back and kill anyone. After all, you can still carry a utility knife if things go south and you have to grapple.

However if you have both hands free then you can carry something truly frightening. The most terrifying thing I can think of to face is a hedging hook. It has the mass so you can't deflect it easily and the reach to sit back and butcher an opponent. it can shear limbs off with a single swipe and it's a superior machete. So yeah, if I can carry a short blade as well I'm going with this bad boy.

[ChalkLine]

As for in-game anecdote I ran a game with a guy who did house clearing with a pistol in his off-hand and an entrenching tool, he'd whack the opponent if they got too close and then step back and put a few rounds into them. It was pretty brutal.

[Raellus]

My favorite T2k PC once used a hatchet in close combat. It was messy, but effective. He's used knuckle-dusters a few times, always in an attempt to subdue an opponent or end a fist-fight quickly.

Personally, I like the Kukri. I just looks cool. My dad, a Korean War vet, told me a story he'd heard about Gurkhas in WW2. I can't remember if it took place in the ETO or PTO (I think it was the former, either in Italy or North Africa). Anyway, he'd heard that for night patrols, some Gurkhas would strip down completely naked and crawl into no man's land armed only with their Kukris. They'd sneak up on foxholes and reach in to touch the occupant. If they felt any clothing, they knew it was an enemy and would silently dispatch said with their Kukris. It sounds apocryphal to me now, but as a kid, the story made quite an impression.

In the poll, the closest thing to a Kukri would be machete.

I also like Tomahawks, ever since reading a couple of books about Roger's Rangers in the French & Indian War.

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[ChalkLine]

Originally Posted by Raellus

My favorite T2k PC once used a hatchet in close combat. It was messy, but effective. He's used knuckle-dusters a few times, always in an attempt to subdue an opponent or end a fist-fight quickly.

[snip Ghurkha bit]

I also like Tomahawks, ever since reading a couple of books about Roger's Rangers in the French & Indian War.

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Fighting axes are harsh things, they should have a thin blade unlike a wood axe and are pretty crap for cutting wood. As the head extends past a blocking arm intersecting the haft they can be a hard thing to avoid, and sweeping cuts at the legs can really only be avoided by jumping backwards. I can see why they've become so popular. The Soviet SPD-5 entrenching tool shares a lot of these characteristics, being one of the last entrenching tools not to have a folding head. I can see a lot of PCs picking those up.

[CDAT]

Originally Posted by Raellus

...

Personally, I like the Kukri. I just looks cool. My dad, a Korean War vet, told me a story he'd heard about Gurkhas in WW2. I can't remember if it took place in the ETO or PTO (I think it was the former, either in Italy or North Africa). Anyway, he'd heard that for night patrols, some Gurkhas would strip down completely naked and crawl into no man's land armed only with their Kukris. They'd sneak up on foxholes and reach in to touch the occupant. If they felt any clothing, they knew it was an enemy and would silently dispatch said with their Kukris. It sounds apocryphal to me now, but as a kid, the story made quite an impression.

...-

I also have heard this story, but I was told it was WWI. May be something they have done more than once.

[Targan]

In my last campaign a Gurkha PC nearly decapitated a Soviet sentry during the mission to plant a nuclear demolition charge inside the wire of WarPac Reserve Front HQ in Lublin. The damage from that hit was so catastrophic the sentry dropped like a sack of spuds.

In a one-shot session I ran back in the '90s the PCs were a unit of French Foreign Legionnaires being stalked on the Iran-Iraq border by a unit of Spetznaz. There was a desperate last stand on a rocky outcrop among thorn bushes and the PCs who could still stand fixed bayonets once their ammo ran out. One of the PCs managed to skewer a Russian before they took him out.

[ChalkLine]

Originally Posted by Targan

In a one-shot session I ran back in the '90s the PCs were a unit of French Foreign Legionnaires being stalked on the Iran-Iraq border by a unit of Spetznaz. There was a desperate last stand on a rocky outcrop among thorn bushes and the PCs who could still stand fixed bayonets once their ammo ran out. One of the PCs managed to skewer a Russian before they took him out.

I think in my entire T2K GMing career I ran the PCs out of ammo only once, and that was when they were part of a larger unit and had to hand in captured materiel. And the sergeant did in fact say "fix bayonets" but the enemy were already falling back.

In fact I think I've never managed to run them out of fuel.

[Trooper]

Billhook. Very common tool here in Finland and its also combat engineer tool in FDF.

[ChalkLine]

Originally Posted by Trooper

Billhook. Very common tool here in Finland and its also combat engineer tool in FDF.

I carried one everywhere for many years as a surveyor. I've cut down sizeable trees with one, dig holes with one and cleared kilometres-long traverse lines of brush and saplings with one. All you need is to keep them clean, go over the blade with a bastard mill file occasionally and replace the handles as they wear out.

I once had a guy who had his brain turned off walk into the backswing of the hook and I missed his head by inches by going over the top. It would have cut his head clean off.

[kcdusk]

A tankard from my local tavern, errr sorry, wrong game.

[Raellus]

I don't recall ever seeing a billhook down at the local big box hardware/home improvement store. Maybe they're not that common in the US?

It strikes me (no pun intended) that a Halligan tool or crowbar might be especially handy given their non-weapon utility.

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[Olefin]

Originally Posted by Raellus

I don't recall ever seeing a billhook down at the local big box hardware/home improvement store. Maybe they're not that common in the US?

It strikes me (no pun intended) that a Halligan tool or crowbar might be especially handy given their non-weapon utility.

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Halligan tool would be perfect - its a tool, its a weapon, its both

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by kcdusk

A tankard from my local tavern, errr sorry, wrong game.

I suspect that particular melee weapon is used in a lot of games