Weapon Length!

[Joey]

This thread might seem quite unimportant, but hear me out;

Weapon length is EXTREMELY important, but it is neglected quite a lot.

Are you a ranged that gets destroyed when it's time to pull out a melee weapon?
Are you an infantry looking to get kills more efficiently and without harm?
Do you enjoy putting out damage, but being far away enough to not have to take it?
What if I told you you could do this with an infantry?

I have noticed that tons of people have these long, long weapons, but wait until they have to block before making their first hit.
There are alternatives to this, that if you're good at timing, will help you prevent the loss of health in a major way.

A simple strategy, which can be used while meleeing in general, but is very, very useful when you're low on health with a long weapon;
Wait until your enemy is in range of your melee weapon, not until he is right in front of you.
This simple tip will take you miles. Learn the length of your weapon, and exactly how far away the enemy can be, while you can still get a hit.
If you do this correctly, it should end up being something like this;

You get a hit from far enough away so that your enemy can not reach you.
Your enemy is stunned, enough time for you to back up.
Your enemy now charges at you, and you repeat the same process until the enemy is dead.

Of course you will still have to account for enemies with longer weapons than you, or enemies with shields to get the timing perfect while doing this, this tip will save you many lives.
I use it whenever I play mount and blade, and watching others play, I can honestly say that not enough people know about this simple change in gameplay that can prevent death.

Consider weapon length!!

Thank you for reading

[Winter]

And that is why I like the Aurora Blade in one hand mode.

I mean sure, it is a little slow and doesn't do as much damage as some others, but it can be fun to time it right and lay waste to lower armored Nords.

Good guide, it is always nice to see people looking at things, especially item stats, more strategically.

[Bobo]

Yeah, it's kata No 1 in kendo, controlling distance.
Things are not always that easy, however. The enemy will only get hit if he already prepares to hit you when you strike. Otherwise he will parry your strike. So the timing is essential indeed and that depends on your ping as well. And in many cases he will only attempt to hit you when you get in range of his weapon. In case you face multiple enemies long weapon usually makes it more diffcult as your strike can be parried or shielded by the one next to your target (so some players tend to use only overhead swing that prevents that). For this reason I actually prefer speed over length in melee weapon. Still, ofc long weapons can be used effectively in close combat taking advantage of range what we can often see when observing pikemen.

PS. Joey, I like that style of writing. Carry on, man. 

[korey]

Don't forget about short weapons being better in close quarters!

[Bobo]

True. Perfect overall weapon length for inf IMO is ca. 90-100. Long enough to have enemy in range while in movement but not that long that you get your weapon blocked with obstacles or other enemies in a crowd. I've tried Head Crusher and Dragon Axe but I found them too short, it's often difficult to reach enemy if he doesn't rush towards you. I own Swadian Courage which is 108 long and I find it a bit too long, causing difficulties sometimes.

[korey]

I found that too, seems like dragon axe and headcrusher were best used in the "Crush" of a shield wall, but I love them! My goal is to get a headcrusher for my shielder!

[rasb23]

currently using poleaxe for the length and love it but there are issues with length.

remember terrain and building. Had an embarrassing slashing moment when there was a cross beam in the way.

vertical slash is your best friend in close teamfights. This will cause them to block your attack UNTIL they are close to their attack range.

Example:
poleaxe is 182 reach
enemy will block that till they reach about 100-140 then they will switch to a swing.
Then cleave some heads

As a noob I started doing much better when I switched to longer reach ... and axes