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[franti]

One of my blacksmiths recently became posessed and entered into a Strange Mood. Due to the massive amounts of Galena near my base I have an overabundace of Lead in my stockpiles. The dwarf proceded to manafacture e'rgonamar, a Lead Battle Axe studded with bands of Troll Bone and "menacing spikes of crimson giant cave spider silk". I understand that Lead may not be the sharpest material, but it is extremely heavy, having a weight of 9lbs (my iron maces, by comparison, weight 3lbs).

Does anybody have enough experience to tell me if the axe will be good in a fight (remember, it is still artifact-quality, after all). Has anybody else had experiences with odd weapons?

On a unrelated note, I also have Toral Zan, and Iron Crown studded with basalt and fire opal. Can I get a dwarf to wear it like a helmet?

[MonkeyHead]

Axes calculate damage based on edge - lead is soft and holds a rubbish edge so despite its weight it wont do much against iron armors and suchlike. stick it in a weapon trap in a dining room or suchlike to keep dorfs happy.

[franti]

And on another unrelated note, I traded several high-quality, Lead-studded Iron Maces to some wandering vagrants Elves in exchange for a Grizzly Bear. How do I get the bear out of the cage? I have problems with Kobold theives, and the bear would be the perfect solution to the little vermin.

[Korgus]

Build it, link it to a lever, pull the lever.

[Misterstone]

I think it would still be very inferior to a true blunt weapon such as a mace or hammer, due to the very high contact area and much lower velocity multiplier.  Normally the 'slashing' damage attribute and high penetration would make axes a deadly weapon, but if the material is no good I am not sure the piercing attribute would help.  I know that penetration stat is negated entirely for blunt weapons, so I am guessing that if a weapon is not sharp enough (due to poor material) to pierce armor the penetration stat would be negated.

See here:

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Weapons

Then again, 9 lbs is pretty heavy...

[MonkeyHead]

build with b, j, using x to expand the cage list to pick the correct one. stick it near a kennels for no reaosn other than efficiency. train into warbear with appropriate dwarf (animal training labour needed). chain near way in or assign to relevant military dorf.

[franti]

See, now, I understand that Lead it soft and not blade worthy. I would only expect it to be able to pierce Copper, Wooden, Silver, and MAYBE Bronze. I know it would not cut through Iron. Fortunately, Kobolds arent known for showing up to fight in full Iron chainmail. I want to know if I could reasonably expect, with it's massive weight and admitedly poor edge, to inflict heavy damage on lightly-armored creatures? Cave Ogres are my biggest issue: I've killed 5 and lost 4 dwarves and a dog to them, and it's only winter of my first year. Can anybody give me values from the game's code regarding the effectiveness of Lead and a blade and as a blunt, and any critical chances.

Also, maces need weight to work well, so would studding Iron Maces with Lead increase the weight to the point where they deal extra damage?

[tolkafox]

From what I've heard, studding to increased weight doesn't work for some reason. You could try, but I know it doesn't seem to work with bolts. I studded them with iron :/

A lead axe would be dependent mostly on how it's used, it should be deadly when used as a blunt attack but since I think most dwarves prefer it's bladed attack they'll use that more often.

I can't quote any numbers, just capture a prisoner and try it out on them. If it lops limbs off and sends them flying then excellent, if it smashes limbs or breaks bones then it should be fine.

[Misterstone]

I think the important stat here is impact yield; lead has a very low IY, 35000.  Copper has 245000, and iron more than twice that of copper.  I could be wrong here, and I think a lot of the calculations are not very well understood (except by Toady), but I am fairly sure lead would not be able to cut through bone which has a "shear yield" of over 100,000.  The shear yield of scale is like 60,000, so I think that the axe might not be able to cut through Kobold scales (I think they are scaly?) easily either. 

I really don't know for sure how the calcs all work, but it would seem to be a pretty bad weapon all around.  I suppose it would fracture or bruise a great deal though, hard to say how effective this would make it against unarmored critters...

[franti]

Alright, headed to test it out on the next Kobold thief. More on that later. I expect it will cause a great deal of bruising, fracturing, and deep cuts, but no severed limbs or anything like that.
Also, a dwarf was posessed and gathered up a Zinc Bar, Cow Bone, Cut Faint Yellow Diamond, and Cut Fire Opal. Any guesses to how it turns out?

[Qc Storm]

Zinc flute.

I know ogres have a rock hard skull. Had two dorfs stab one repeatedly in the head, bruising his brain for about 20 pages.

I'm not even sure if it eventually died.

[franti]

Axe works decently well against unarmored oppnents with a decent axedwarf, but Bronze and highter pretty much nullifies it.

[ral]

I'd say it's at least worth testing considering it's weight. I mean if bone bolts can mess up a bronze colossus (eventually anyway) by bouncing off of it and denting it, the sheer weight of the thing might cause it to do lots and lots of blunt damage when the "hack" attack is converted to blunt damage. In other words the poor sharpness might just cause all attacks to get converted to really heavy blunt ones makng it as effective as a lead mace.

[franti]

I'd say it's at least worth testing considering it's weight. I mean if bone bolts can mess up a bronze colossus (eventually anyway) by bouncing off of it and denting it, the sheer weight of the thing might cause it to do lots and lots of blunt damage when the "hack" attack is converted to blunt damage. In other words the poor sharpness might just cause all attacks to get converted to really heavy blunt ones makng it as effective as a lead mace.

I tried it on some Trogolytes and Goblins. An Adequate Axedwarf destroyed the Trogs. Smacking them with the side of the axe blade did almost as much as chopping them. The first swing, between the weight and the craftdwarfship, damn nearly chopped the thing in half: took of the head, an arm, and shattered the spine. Against Goblins armed with Bronze armor, it wasn't too effective. The blade couldn't go through the armor so they most sufered fractures, except to the limbs.

[ral]

I'm curious... how effective is it compared to an iron mace against armored foes? maces tend to bruise things to death anyway. I'm wondering if maces are somehow superior at bashing regardless of weight....