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In the historical sense, Halberds are one of the most versatile weapons around, and in the sense of Fantasy I believe its not realistic enough. The only thing it gives is +1 Strength, I think there should be other bonuses as well, this could make it more expensive but I reckon it would be worth it.

Here are some ideas I came up with

1. Choose whether to fight in an extra rank (Whether you charge or not) or fight with +1 Strength with a -1 Penalty to your Initiative. Would make a better choice

2. Gives the armour piercing ability against cavalry, since Halberds commonly had barbed hooks on the top to pull riders off there horses.

3. Gives a 6+ Parry Save, since they had metal along the haft to block weapons. 6+ Parry saves should also be given to troops with Additional Hand Weapons

Any discussion or other ideas would be most welcome

Cheerz Guys

+1 str is very good, however with your proposals, how would it affect chaos warriors?
these guys with your ideas and MoT would be sick.
however, just +1 rank is a good idea, choose at charge reaction

Honestly halberds are one of the best basic infantry weapons in the game and dont need to be improved more.

I agree with Ralin.

Thx for the ideas guys, I just thought that maybe they could be a bit more realistic. Im leaning more towards idea 1 since that would give you a balanced choice

What's the historical effectiveness of a block of halberdiers vs an elf riding a giant lizard?

Seriously, don't get too caught up in trying to match things to reality.

If you want to make it more realistic, allow mixed units in formations.

-Matt

I guess, just wondering what other people thought about it

I'd absolutely LOVE the option of taking Halberds on Bestigors instead of GWs...

Yes while pole arms in general could be more realistic, I think the base +1 S and two hands is a good rule. Especially since the change of 7th to 8th edition made spearmen less useful while halberds became more


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streamdragon wrote:I'd absolutely LOVE the option of taking Halberds on Bestigors instead of GWs...

I'd wish temple guard could take GW instead of already having halberds!

Don't think of them as Halberds.

Think of them as "hand weapon upgrades in a strategy game that slightly raise your stats without lowering them."

I prefer to imagine people wielding giant acid-dipped pillows filled with trained attack badgers.

Give me those upgrades I am sooo down with that Mot halberds here I come wooooow.

But seriously if they get those upgrades and dont seriously change the points cost all you will see is mot chaos warriors with halberds.

Nix0n2802 wrote:Thx for the ideas guys, I just thought that maybe they could be a bit more realistic. Im leaning more towards idea 1 since that would give you a balanced choice

Unfortunately, in reality weapon combinations were not particularly balanced. Once you have large polearms on the scene you see these weapons dominate among melee troops, and having armies consist of masses of halberds going up against other masses of halberds is ultimately just kind of boring.

So maybe wielding two weapons is actually kind of impractical and historically not very common, but it's good for variety so we make a little better than it really was. And maybe halberds were actually very good weapons, but it's bad for variety to make them a superior choice to the others, so we limit their effect a little.

I agree with that.

Personally I like having a mix of weapons but ya if there is a weapon that has a clear advantage then my competitive side takes over.

Still halberds are good enough as is and dont need more of a buff.

Halberds are already point for point one of the strongest weapon upgrades availiable. They let infantry wound on 3s and ignore 1 point of armor for a loss of potential armor vs great weapons who strike last and lose potential armor for wound on 2s ignore 2 points of armor. Halberds are fine.

Yes they are considering you can put that on a chaos warrior for 1 point making him str 5 thats nothing to laugh at.

Also tomb guard str 5 ws of prince or king in the unit thats nothing bad.

Surtur wrote:Halberds are already point for point one of the strongest weapon upgrades availiable. They let infantry wound on 3s and ignore 1 point of armor for a loss of potential armor vs great weapons who strike last and lose potential armor for wound on 2s ignore 2 points of armor. Halberds are fine.

The problem is the lack of variation of upgrades. Most armies have at best, 3 weapon sets, if that. It's easy to be the best when you have so little opposition.
I'd love to see more options, like flails, mourning stars, and whatnot across the board.

If anything, spears need love.

-Matt

Flails are there. +2S first turn of combat. I understand that you want variation, but the ENTIRE weapon system would have to be revamped with that in mind, not just attacking halberds.

But with spears people are so focused on fighting in an extra rank but they dont want to charge because they want to use the extra rank.

Also AHW will do the same thing as spears except you have to pull of an additional rank to stop the attacks from coming.

Thats why spears not exactly the first choice just my thoughts.

Surtur wrote:Flails are there. +2S first turn of combat. I understand that you want variation, but the ENTIRE weapon system would have to be revamped with that in mind, not just attacking halberds.

Marauders are the only unit with the choice to take them, chaos warriors are the only characters that get them, and empire flagellants are the only unit that come with them.
3 units out of a few hundred isn't exactly representing.
I think Bret Characters are the only ones that still get Morning Stars.

I just wish more units had more options.
Like pikes.

-Matt