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[blue emu]

I've heard a rumor that, while edged and pointed weapons (eg: Swords, Axes, Spears) do melee damage based on their hardness, blunt weapons (eg: Hammers, Maces) do damage based on their mass. If true, that would mean that I should use Steel for Axes but Silver for Hammers.

Can anyone confirm or deny this rumor?

[Vertibird]

I modded raws and made a hammer out of platinum. Human, that was hit with it flew 10 squares and then collided an obstacle causing instant death,while copper hammer caused only fractures in best cases. So i guess weight does help  pretty much.
Altough i'd still prefer steel hammers, just to match the armor)

[noodle0117]

i thought gold weighed more than silver, but then again, that's just real life.

[martinuzz]

Do maces use mass for damage as well? I just got a platinum artefact mace.

[Josephus]

Yes, actually.

I've heard a rumor that, while edged and pointed weapons (eg: Swords, Axes, Spears) do melee damage based on their hardness, blunt weapons (eg: Hammers, Maces) do damage based on their mass. If true, that would mean that I should use Steel for Axes but Silver for Hammers.

Can anyone confirm or deny this rumor?

Potential damage of an edged weapon increases based on the maximum edge they can hold, making them cut better; hence Adamantium is the most absolutely lethal possible sword in vanilla due to its ridiculous maximum edge which is ten times the maximum edge of steel.

Conversely, this does not matter for hammers, and the deadliest hammer you can get without a mood is a silver hammer I believe.

[bowie]

Does this mean that a steel spear would be better than a artifact platinum spear?

[blue emu]

Does this mean that a steel spear would be better than a artifact platinum spear?

Platinum and low-tech Steel have roughly the same Mohs-scale hardness (about 4.5), so the Artifact Platinum Spear would be better, because of its quality modifier.

[Alastar]

Blunt weapons are... complicated.

Density is good - yay silver!
Toughness is good - yay steel!
Stiffness is good - yay iron!
Copper and bronze don't stand out, but have a nice compromise.

The better the armour, the more important density becomes. So while silver hammers are the best non-clownite weapon to tackle steel armour, they may be even worse than other blunt weapons at killing unarmoured combatants quickly. The differences are fairly minor though; you can make blunt weapons out of anything really although steel is probably going to be a waste (in situations where steel blunt weapons are better than others, you'd want edged weapons in the first place.)
Artifact platinum hammers would be very, very very nice.


Mace vs. Hammer: they only differ in size and contact area. Maces seem better against unarmoured opponents, about equal against copper armour and worse against iron, bronze and steel.

So a bronze mace would be a general purpose weapon useful against most living invaders, and a silver hammer would be something to keep in reserve if your team of steel axe/swordsmen can't do the job well... or something to take down tantruming steel-clad warriors.

[DennyTom]

@Alastar - very interesting, handy reference. Complex weapon guide of this quality should be made.

Also... the thread name reminded me one song about Maxwell and his silver hammer.

[ledgekindred]

I've given one of my startup squads silver hammers and steel armor.  My master hammerdwarf decided to take on an entire goblin ambush of seven or eight goblins by himself.  Four or five archers, a hammer goblin and a couple spearmen. He pretty much one-shotted the entire ambush into pieces, even the ones with pieces of copper and iron armor.  It's not "proof" that silver war hammers are "best" but it's empirical evidence that silver war hammers are bloody effective.  He's going to be scary with that thing when he reaches champion status.

If you look at the wiki under metals, it gives you all kinds of useful information like game-values for mass and shear value and so forth.  I went with silver because it is dense, reasonably good with the other stats and something I had in abundance.

[Kietharr]

Nice to know, next time I'm stuck in a no sedimentary layer hellhole I'll go for a hammerdwarf army.

[blue emu]

I've renamed my Hammer Dwarves John, Paul, George and Ringo... they intend to play "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" at the next Goblin World Tour Concert.

[petersohn]

But they should rather play Urist's Silver Hammer.

[kaijyuu]

Silver hammers worked pretty well in my weapon traps.

Unless I get an artifact gold/platinum hammer/mace I tend to not use hammer dwarves.

[Mudcrab]

I have an Artifact Gold Warhammer...

Would that be effective?