I did a quick search and didn't find any reference to this so I thought I'd post it.

The History Channel website has a few video clips on various medieval weapons (Bill, Mace, Ahlspheiss, Godendag, Ball and Chain and war hammer). They are from the TV show Conquest, just type in Conquest into the search and they should be listed. I don't think he knows what he's talking at times, states that a bill spike can penetrate plate, but are fairly interesting to watch anyway. Enjoy.

Most of us are aware of the show, and most of us have found that only one sentence per episode is accurate.

Best of luck.

Thank you for pointing that out, Travis. I've heard many people reference this show before, but I've never seen it before (believe it or not, I don't watch TV). I've always been curious, and had even asked people to tape it if they ever see it.

Now that I've watched them, I can say the show is far more based on speculation than any actual historical research. There are some things in the show that I can agree with, but they still repeat many myths. In fact, the majority of the weapons they're using to demonstrate with are cheap replicas (I recognized a Denix flail, for example. Denix makes purely decorative weapons). The "techniques" shown are typical stage combat techniques, not techniques laid out by period martial arts masters, and he has some things flat out wrong. (Such as that a bill hook is no good against a sword... clearly, he has never read any of the historical masters who would STRONGLY disagree. :) )

That said, for a TV aimed at the general audience (most of which barely care anyway), it's better than some other things I've seen.

(edited for a typo)

Does anyone know if the Godendag is an accurate replica? It looks awful cumbersome.

They even get the weights wrong. Bills weighing ten pounds! Pollaxes weighing fifteen pounds! That's about as accurate as the D&D Player's Handbook.

And that bill against sword fight was pretty silly.

Prior to "Conquest" the host played a Technomage on the Babylon 5 Spinoff "Crusade." He is an actor, not a weapons expert.

In one episode, I witnessed him talking about the axe, and he claimed it was a purely offencive weapon. To prove this, he sharged one of his followers with one, swinging wildly, and the follow, who had a SHARP spear, did not attack to his very open body. Three guesses why the fellow with the SHARP POINT did not counter attack, and none of them are what the host said. "You couldn't get a shot in."

In the same episode, he handed out danish axes which were so heavy, they were like garden posts with a huge head on one end. Then he said 'go out and find out how to use these."

They did. They decided that the way to do it was to not use footwork, and to lean all over the place as you swung. He liked that solution.

interestingly, he seems to have done ALOT of stage fighting, and it seems to be his specialty\

just watched the firstpartof the broadsword episode.. yeah.. the people handling those viking sword,s and describing the weight. and the charateristics.. as usual its compltely off.
first time i held a reasonabl replica of a viking sword which was a manning imperial model, as well as he hanwei godfreid and niether are as heavy as suggested, infact i was suprised how LIGHT they were.