Several things:
1)
Vanilla DF, silver warhammers are the deadliest against humanoids as proven by testing (says on the DF wiki).
That, of course, if they're unnarmored.
No, that was if they ARE armored. Unarmored the axes were better.
2) I haven't done any testing myself, but, from reading the weapon testing thread, and the wiki pages regarding weapons & armor, it appears to me that the test was biased. Adamantium armor is pretty terrible at stopping blunt force:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=53571.0My conclusions from that data (which may be outdated... I think it says its from at least 31.12), as well as from various posts about how quickly things kill:
- Vs foes wearing armor of a material which is lower in the chain than your weapon (e.g., bronze armor vs iron weapon, iron armor vs steel weapon), any of the weapons are reasonable. For quick kills vs unarmored foes, swords or axes are best.
- If you have steel weaponry, I'd suggest steel axes and silver warhammers (or steel if no silver available). Depending on what you face, send the axes against less armored foes, hammers against more armored foes. I'd probably toss in some spearmen or marksdwarves for fun. Probably spearmen, as I've heard of lots of problems with marksdwarves right now.
- With less than steel, it appears that spears & hammers are probably the way to go. (From the above post, it appears spears of less than steel quality hit far more often than other slash/pierce weapons of less than steel quality). Spears vs the less armored foes, hammers against the more armored foes.
EDIT: and looking at that post again, it looks like steel swords are better than steel axes... hmm. I'll have to run some tests at some point.