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[Hans Lemurson]

I know melee combat against the undead isn't advisable ("has been attacked by the undead recently" = ), but if you did find it necessary, or just needed a "cleanup squad" for a scattered few, what weapon would be best for this?

My understanding is that animated corpses get de-animated based on an HP system. Once they've taken enough blows they'll become a corpse and can be disposed of.  However, you don't want to dismember the zombie in combat (since that creates more pieces that could potentially reanimate), so swords and axes are out.  Spears might be ineffective against creatures with no vital organs and have a chance of severing parts.  However, if animation is HP based, enough stabs from a spear should put a zombie down...

Maces and Warhammers seem to be the best candidates, but which one would be the most effective in bringing down a walking corpse?  The greater weight of a mace suggests that it might do it in fewer hits (hopefully 1), but I am lead to believe that its weight will slow down the rate of attacks.  Warhammers tend to be the blunt-weapon of choice for Dwarves generally.  Is this also true against the undead?

What about foreign weapons?  Would any of them be useful?

Lastly, how well do marksdwarves do at de-animating corpses before the undead close range?

[Putnam]

Warhammers can attack more because they're smaller, I think (slightly faster is still a bonus), so those.

[laularukyrumo]

Bolts shatter bones, and rarely sever bodyparts, so I would assume they're not terribad.

As far as maces/warhammers... Someone recently brought this up, the general consensus is that maces and warhammers are:

Both blunt damage (no flanged maces, YET)
Relatively equal in contact area

However, maces are twice as heavy approx, so hammers swing faster. They also seem to have higher armor penetration. Since that probably won't matter as much against undead, and maces are good at spreading out damage, they're not terrible choices--especially because hammers tend to be two-handed and maces are not... if the dwarf can wield it. (Meaning, maybe shield.)

As far as foreign weapons... flails and morningstars use the maceman skill, and are supposed to be !!BRUTAL!!. The absence of quality modifiers and the impossibility of attaining masterwork flails or morningstars, sadly, tends to cancel this out--though if you luck the FUCK out and get a moody smith poop one out, you had damn well better put it to use.

Spears? I don't trust them. The advantages of reach weapons are, as far as I'm aware, not represented in DF yet... can't wait until they are, and when blunt damage actually deals internal bleeding like it's supposed to, because then staffs will be brutal.

[Hans Lemurson]

Anti-Undead has a different set of requirements than anti-living weapons.

Armor is nonexistent, so armor-piercing ability is irrelevant.
No vital organs or blood, so the type of damage is also mostly irrelevant.
The only restriction on damage-type is "not edged", or at least not in any way that would lead to severings.

So the specific thing I'm wondering is: what weapon will de-animate a corpse as quickly as possible?  Will training-weapons be of any use, since the target merely has to be de-animated, not mortally wounded?  Are there any weapons (or levels of skill) that can reliably deliver a 1-hit KO?

Does blocking attacks with shields prevent the "has been attacked by the undead recently" happiness penalty?  (Of course it only takes one attack to trigger that and we can't depend on having legendary shield-users, so maybe attack is the most important thing to think about.)

[Putnam]

Hmm...

Fists (Saiyans kill undead in one hit, so strength is a known factor in that, mind). They attack faster than most weapons through virtue of not having to carry a weapon around.

[saltmummy626]

eh. its currently up for debate whats better against undead. but seeing as the normal benefits of certain weapons against living targets become null when used on undead, Id say its fairly even, with the balance tipping more in favor of blunt weapons because the blunt weapons don't sever parts and create a larger problem. overall though, Id say your best weapon against the hordes of rotting meat is magma if you can control it. if you dont want to use magma or put in the effort to harness it, Id go with blunt weapons. when in doubt, go with the D&D method.

[laularukyrumo]

The trick though, is that when unarmed, dwarves in fortress mode don't tend to punch. They're a thousand times more likely to grab the undead whatever by the third finger, right hand, and then immediately release, rinse repeat, than actually give them a Boot to the Head.

[Hans Lemurson]

Yeah, I was thinking about unarmed, since a number of good dwarven punches should down a zombie, but then I realized that this might encourage the entirely unwholesome practise of zombie-wrestling.  Biting eyelids off of uncaring corpses is surprisingly ineffective, and you're damned lucky they aren't contagious.

I know "Raven Corpses" can be dispatched with a single blow from a training axe, but I assume the toughness of the undead probably scales with size.  Still, wielding a training sword should at least discourage grappling.

[Deus Asmoth]

Bolt against regular undead and swords or axes against thralls works best in my experience. The bolts also let them avoid the sadness of being attacked by the undead. If it's a serious zombie infestation though and you've got nowhere on the map that won't reessurect them and no way to dispose of the corpses, it's probably just better to wall your dwarves in the fort.

[Findulidas]

If we are talking about bolts arent we going away from the melee weapon?

Battleaxes against thralls, because the sure way to kill them is to decapitate thier heads. Also battleaxes are perhaps the most dwarfish weapon.

Silver warhammers against zombies, because you dont want to cut off additional limbs.

[javierpwn]

Warhammers can still lop off limbs,I has legendary+5 everything hammerdwarf who took out several noses arms teeth and hair against several hundred goblins,whilst blocking bolts with his steel shield

[GreatWyrmGold]

Chopping off limbs isn't always bad. I'd imagine that a swarm of undead hands and heads would be less frightening than a slightly smaller swarm of whole zombies.
This is especially true against hooved zombies, who can't kick without their precious feet.