Why axe is the iconic barbarian weapon? Real life ones used spears

>>49417801
It doesn't have anything to do with IRL barbarians.
I believe it's simply because the axe looks that much more menacing and violent, what with the chopping and all.

>>49417997
I think the axe looks like shit and your mother is a cum dumpster who fucked half of the city while her inept beta husband (whom you mistakenly believe to be your father) was working his ass off.

Barbarian is a useless descriptor for a historic people. They never existed 'in real life'. The word just comes from a slur Greek speakers used against non-Greek speakers.

why is there some axe-hater who always posts hate threads?

>>49418030
Germanics, Celts and Huns are pretty much the stereotypical barbarians you daft nitpicking stupid fucking asshole bitch.

>>49418045
What a stinging rebuttal :^)

>>49418018
RUDE

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No reason it would be.

Vikings/Barbarians couldn't forge swords for shit.
They could make spears if they knew they were going for a fight and had time.

Vikings targeted peasant villages the vast majority of the time, they didn't need great battlefield weapons for this.
They almost all owned and knew how to maintain their own axes. A hand axe with a head the size of a fist is a lethal weapon and handy tool.

>>49418151
But vikings did have swords and valued them more than axes you retarded idionigger.

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>>49418018

>>49417801
Fuck, its this thread again. Look OP, axes had their purposes both in and out of combat, now fuck off.

>>49417801
Everybody thinks Conan used one when he didn't.

>>49417801
barbarians...

afford items... yeah fuck off

>>49418163
>>49418163
This is true, but as you said they were valuable.
Not every raider could afford a sword and therefor used to simpler weapons, aka the iconic viking axe.
Of course this is very dependent on the year and place.

Ps. double bitted axe is retarded.

little known axe fact

due to its long handle and concentrated weight distribution, an axe will strike with a lot of momentum allowing it to bypass some degree of armor, is very difficult to block, and cause debilitating wounds

>>49418163
The swords they had were mainly looted from more advanced europeans.
They valued them because they had to be imported by trade or looted.

Yes vikings valued swords because they couldn't mass produce them.

>>49418333
You're retarded.

>>49418333
many cultures have a high reverence for swords, since they are very expensive nobleman's weapons

>>49418333

Are you literally retarded?

>>49418354
Except in all the cultures and time periods where they weren't. Swords had status value long after every single soldier was carrying one.

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lets post some other weapons fit for a barbarian

>>49417997
This.

It's the same reason fighters and warriors are all using swords when they would be using spears primarily, with a mace for armored opponents.

At the end of the day, it's just fantasy.

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>>49417801
>axes were fucking dog shit and everyone who could afford a sword instead did so
Go fuck yourself with the hilt of your sword, axes were the shit.

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>>49417801
because what the Western World considered Barbarians used similar designs.

And for centuries after were paraded around europe as the weapons used by "the eastern barbarians"

>>49418394
axes had one major flaw though: they were unsuited for large battles

can't thrust them like you would a sword or spear so you're going to be obstructed by the guys next to you

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>>49418018

>>49418354
Post 14th century everyone had a sword as a sidearm. They just generally shit all over axes no matter if it's a weapon of the elite or common pleb.

>>49418394
Wow dane axe. And it worked so well for vikings in the pitched battles right?

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>>49417997
>It doesn't have anything to do with IRL barbarians.
Our view of barbarians has been shaped by both the late Romans and early Christians. Late Romans had to deal with the Franks, a tribe literally named after the axes they wielded. Medieval (North-Western) Europe had to deal with the Norse, a seafaring group of raiders who, you guessed it, also used axes.

Our barbarians certainly didn't use axes exclusively, but they certainly favored them more than their civilized enemies.

So now fantasy barbarians are usually some Germano-Nordic hybrid, unless they're a Hunnic-Monghol hybrid.

>>49418410
What culture is that?

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>>49418031

I think it's the same guy who used to post the same "vikings are shit" thread every day.

Axes are a good weapon against a shield wall, and Danes and Vikings used them. The classic "barbarian," with the rage and all, is a Norse berserker, and those guys sometimes used axes. There's really nothing to argue about here.

>>49418470
Loot captured after the battle of vienna. Ottoman stuff.

>>49418470
Looks Turkish to me

>>49418474
Berserkers were never even mentioned to use axes. Even they prefered swords.

>>49418030
Romans were pretty stereotypically barbarian
>superstitious
>can't deal with science
>leave nothing but ruins to their descendants

>>49418410
>And for centuries after were paraded around europe as the weapons used by "the eastern barbarians"

Fun fact: Vikings are the reason the Ottomans used axes as standards.

>>49417801
Why are you still making this thread?

The answer is still the same, for aesthetics.

In the real world your an out of shape loser who bitches about how he plays his imaginary game with friends.

If you even have a group.

>>49418419
Pretty sure dane axes evolved from a shipman's axe and could be used for boarding

>>49418208
Krull did though.

>>49418425
And how many "barbarian" cultures did you have post 14th century?

>>49418500
>Berserkers were never even mentioned to use axes
Or to actually exist

>>49418500

>Just making shit up

>>49418474
In fact, the Vikings were one of the first to use standardized maneuvers. Such as the boars tusk and the Spear head.

Napoleon copped it from them.

Anyways. The solution is clearly to carry an axe AND a sidearm like a sword. Not everyone, mix the axe dudes in with the Spears so when the two armies clash they can pull the enemies shills down and disrupt their lines.

Then you kill them as they runaway.

Really, the question is why do your fantasy characters still use swords and such when guns are massively superior.

And for all the problems guns don't solve, their are grenades.

This can scale all the way up to nukes if you wanna go there.

>>49418259
>Ps. double bitted axe is retarded.
It's a Lumberjack axe. Use one side till blunt, switch.
You could get twice the work done before you needed to resharpen it and the extra weight would aid in chopping wood.

There's nothing retarded about it, media is just misrepresenting it's use.

>>49418609
Except battle formations existed in the ancient times before viking age and a basic fucking shieldwall is hardly groundbreaking especially when the Saxons who rekt them also used it.

The problem will all these threads are autistic armchair warriors who watch too many hema videos on youtube.

All weapons had their uses, that's why people literally trusted them with their lives. Which is "better" depends on context.

>>49418834
Swords FUCK axes while maces watch and get cucked.


And speaking of which warhammers > maces.

>>49418834
>criticises HEMA
>repeats the exact point anybody who studies HEMA will tell you

What was this post supposed to prove?

>>49418564
They existed tho.

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>>49418379

They're throwing knives though, more of a rogue's weapon.

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>>49418573
See any fucking axes?

>>49417801
Axes are good at splitting maille, provided it's an actual one fit for battle of course, and earlier swords weren't quite so refined to the point to be able to split maille through a thrust.

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>>49418887

>warhammers
>not being battle axes in drag

Remember, axes are so maxes that even the ultimate medieval weapon - the halberd - incorporates an axe head into its design for maximum choppiness.

>>49419093
That's how it's like in Skyrim?

>>49419094
And people still mostly used the spikey point. Halberds were glorified fucking spears.

>>49417801
Oh, great. This thread again..

Because it looks cool?

>>49419093
>splitting mail

All an axe will do is transmit more force through the mail, not 'split' it.

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>>49419094
>>49419107
Are you implying that extra piece of heavy iron was just there for show? So what if they mostly used the tip, the very fact that there was an axe attached to it proves that they saw the value in it. They're not retarded, if pure pikes were objectively superior to halberds then there would be no halbediers. In pretty much the same way the current Japanese army doesn't use katana's except for ceremonial occassions, much like Western armies today with sabers, or the present day Papal Guard with their present day halberds.

>>49418018
Found the underageb&

Seriously, go back to Xbox Live, kid.

>>49419196
Halberds were shit and so is anime.

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>>49419093

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>>49419292

>anime is shit
>anime lacks halberds

ergo, halberds are the best.

>>49418018
bitch all you want, the battle axe is going to stay.

>>49418208
in the movie, arnie does at the battle of the mounds.

>ITT armchair historians spouting shit
fucking dropped

>>49419501
So what are your credentials and why aren't you correcting people who are wrong?

>>49418525
Huh what do the ottomans and vikings have to do with eachother.
The oghuz tribes were near the caucassus when the viking age started.

>>49419529

His credentials are being too poor to afford even an armchair.

>>49418419
Why can't one put a nub at the end like with a poleaxe?

>>49419556
Vikings got around

>>49419556
Ottomans were (self-prolaimed) heirs to the Roman Empire by right of conquering Constantinople. Do varangians ring a bell?

>>49419556
>Huh what do the ottomans and vikings have to do with eachother.
Byzantine Honour Guards.

>>49419703
No one considers ottomans heirs of the Roman Empire nowadays
NO ONE

>>49419669
>>49419703
>>49419714
I know the varangian guard but where did you guys get the idea that the ottomans used axes because they saw the varangians use it ?
Also what made their use of axes so special compared to other peoples ?

>>49419924
Ottomans are third rome to be honest with you.
We had a pagan,christian and muslim rome I don't know if we would want to see a jewish one in one way or anothet.

>>49420565
You know... this is going to be hard on you, but people who laid claim to something back in the days... started to make their claim by imitating the rituals and behaviour of whoever owned it.

In case of the Ottomans, they adopted the style of Constantinople's honour guards, which happened to carry totally oversized axes of a style not actually used in the ottoman's native culture.

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>>49420589
>Ottomans are third rome

Lumberjacks are muscular, rugged outdoorsmen
Barbarians are muscular, rugged outdoorsmen
Dwarves are muscular, rugged outdoorsmen

They all have axes

>>49420851
>Russia is the third Rome

>>49419301
Heh

Reading through this thread I can't help but feel like OP must have had been touched inappropriately by an axe when he was a kid which likely means last week and can't get over it.

Anyway. Axes are great for breaking things - shields, wooden doors and so on. They're also perfect for chopping down wood. These are already two things a sword can't do.

Also, if we're speaking in a RPG context with a fantasy setting and shit like that, an axe would be much more effective at crippling enemies of huge size - trolls and giants and dragons and whatnot. Axes, spears and lances would probably be the first choices to take down such enemies.

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>>49417801
DEY BE CHOPPIER

>>49417801

Because Barbarians are based on Viking Berserkers who used...can you guess? AXES!

>>49419022
They existed, they were just normal dudes a lord used to fight duels for him.

>>49421152
Except berserkers used spears.

>>49422536
They generally speaking used whatever weapon they prefered, as did most vikings. This ran the gammut from spears to axes to swords, so long as they could be used in a shield wall effectively. This is actually why swords were, relatively speaking, popular during the viking era, and one of the reasons that Scandinavian swords of the era were so similiar to the spatha.

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>>49418208
I recall him using one in a single of Howard's original stories and it was only because his sword broke.

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>>49421011
>holy roman empire is the third rome

>>49418151
>dacians couldn't forge swords
>celts couldn't forge swords
I bet you think barbarian means loincloth and club

All these niggers saying vikings couldn't forge swords are only half right, yeah, vikings wouldn't really because they were fucking pirates, but the norse did forge swords, and a lot of them.

>>49423042
>vikings wouldn't really because they were fucking pirates

It's not like vikings were unskilled criminals. Many were landowners and nobles who treated going off to wreck shit like a holiday.

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>>49418018

>>49418018
can confirm

>>49418419
You know that axe you replied to evolved into the Poleaxe right?

You know the MAJOR difference is the poleaxe has a pointy bit on the end.

You know 90% of all later polearms had chopping motions right?

>>49417801
The only people who used spears were poor people.

The most effective fighting forces in the world used Pikes or Shields and an arming weapon.

Usually that arming weapon was a sword or an axe.

The fact that the Spear is lauded by autists because it was the peasants battlefield weapon is hilarious.

the peasants were not expected to kill people or even wound them, they were expected to hold the men of the enemy in place so the rich people could introduce them to their better weapons, Lance, Sword and Daneaxe.

>>49418333
>what is ulfberht steel
Vikings made some of the best swords in history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LM-kBOw920

>>49418018
Are you okay, Anon?

>>49417801
>>49418018

Were you raped by a lumberjack or something OP?

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>>49418018

>>49418609

Because ammunition is a bitch to find in most settings assuming you can procure a firearm - 99% of the time a wand of Magic Missile is more attainable and does the job just as well. Grenades though, are something that are terribly under-utilized.

ITT: we dont want to hack off limbs with axes, we just want to cut deep into their arm rather than lop it clean off

when did we get so soft?

>>49421011
Russia has a much stronger claim to being Byzantium's successor state than the Ottomans did.

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Raider cultures used bearded axes plenty. They were very effective for use against unarmored peasants and fishermen. Raiders did not get into pitched battles with organized armies.

The giant double-headed battleaxe is a thing of fiction though. As is bringing a heavy hatchet to battle. Real battleaxes are tiny things.