Timo Nieminen wrote: |
You can certainly defend with a mace. One of the best bits of live (simulated) combat I ever saw was two-handed mace against various weapons. Superb defence by the mace-wielder, easily making up for the lack of reach, letting him get in close and defeat his opponents. Don't need a crossbar/guard for defensive use of a weapon. . |
Yup that was my point: If you don't have a shield you can use both hands and quickly shift grip from close together and offence to widely spaced and using the middle part for defence. One can do these transitions quickly and fluidly.
Reach can be an issue but once inside the range of a longer weapon " watch out " ! the opponent with the longer weapon is in grave danger.
One could use the same techniques with the much longer Danish Axe or a Bardiche which is basically an evolved Danish Axe with a very long cutting edge and a top horn that can thrust ....... just saying that if one is competent with polearms most techniques can be adapted to the specific weapon and weapon lengths. One disadvantage of the shorter polearms in my opinion is that defensively a weapon shorter than 5' long has too short a handle to use the queue techniques defensively and must use the center of the handle to bloc or deflect.