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[Bazzak]

Indeed.

Lately I've been grown attached to maces. I love them. I love the way they look. The way they sound. The way they smash things up.

But there is one thing that bothers me. I have no idea how effective the maces are when compared to the other weapons. I've tried to search the forums and the wiki but I haven't came across anything about this. Or then I haven't looked hard enough.

How well would a macedwarf group perform? Even if they wouldn't be better than anything else, would they still put up a fight against goblins and such?

Cheers.

[Loud Whispers]

Against Goblins?

Yeah, providing they're decent maces. Basically, they're jack of all trades, and master of none. =/< blunt version of swords.

[Bazzak]

Hm, alright. I assume steel or silver maces are the deadliest ones, aye?

[krenshala]

Basically, maces do the same damage as a hammer, but to a larger area.  This means that when hit with a mace armor saves the victim better than when hit with a hammer.

As with other blunt weapons, density is key for damage.  So, yes, you want silver maces. Steel is lighter, but faster, than silver so it is a close second (iirc).

[Loud Whispers]

Basically, maces do the same damage as a hammer, but to a larger area.  This means that when hit with a mace armor saves the victim better than when hit with a hammer.

As with other blunt weapons, density is key for damage.  So, yes, you want silver maces. Steel is lighter, but faster, than silver so it is a close second (iirc).

Copper is the second best for blunt weapons. Although considering the main source is tetrahedrite, you'll norm. have silver and copper.

[Anathema]

In general, blunt weapons are great for disabling small armored foes (goblins, for example), since they can fracture bones and cause lots of pain even through good armor. Unfortunately they can't cause bleeding or severed limbs, so it can take a while to actually finish off injured enemies with blunt weapons alone, they function better when mixed with slashing weapons for quick kills. They're also pretty horrible against large enemies (forgotten beasts, etc), which is where the piercing weapons like spears shine.

Specifically within the category of blunt weapons, I've seen testing suggesting that war hammers are better than maces, although it did not seem to be a huge difference.

So as far as blunt weapons go, your military should do alright if you substitute maces for war hammers due to personal preference, but in general it's not a good idea to rely entirely on any blunt weapon - alloy your mace squads with at least a few slashing and piercing weapons for best results.

Also I've seen practical testing that puts steel second-best to silver for blunt weapons; it's not the second best density (copper is), but presumably steel makes up for that with some other stat. Either way, shouldn't be hard to get enough silver for your maces. Gold and platinum are theorized to be better than silver due to much higher density, but I haven't seen actual testing to confirm it, difficult to do since only strange moods can make weapons out of those metals.

[Loud Whispers]

Arena testing says that density is the measure of success for blunt weapons, so yeah.

Platinum > Gold > Silver > Copper > Steel

Maces will cause more broken bones and bruises on unarmoured enemies than war hammers and whips, but when armour is thrown into the question, war hammers and whips are the way to go.

[Bazzak]

Thanks lads!

I think is is all I need to know!

[Anathema]

The testing: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=53571.0

It's gotten a bit dated now (31.12), but I don't know of a more recent test nearly as thorough. It puts all blunt weapon materials (excepting adamantine) as roughly equivalent, with certain metals coming out slightly ahead depending on which weapon type/armor material you're looking at. Silver comes out ahead a little more often than the others, particularly silver war hammers vs. bronze armor for whatever reason. Note all that is tested against armored dwarves, although armored goblins ought to have similar characteristics.

[Lemunde]

My current fortress is protected by a squad of macedwarves. They're fairly reliable against goblins and such but you should make sure they're well armored or have a fully equipped hospital on standby as I don't think they kill quite as fast as dwarves with slashing or piercing weapons. This gives the gobbies more opportunities to get in some hits, although a lot of their bones are probably crushed by then.

You'll want some good armor before you take on FBs with macedwarves. My squad's taken out four FBs so far but they're all wearing blue stuff and the battles take a very long time. On the plus side it's excellent training. I've gotten one macedwarf up to master this way. Again, make sure you have a fully stocked hospital.

[Poindexterity]

maces are wonderful.
they tend to knock foes down less frequently than hammers, but break bones and injure organs more frequently.
not to mention silver is all over nearly every embark, and thats the best non-mooded material for blunt weapons.

God i miss that gold mace...