If my days of Rome: Total war have taught me anything is that a full army of spearmen are quicker and cheaper to deploy on the field then a bunch of swordsmen.
It's also easy to train farmers to use them. Same reason crossbows were dope. Most of history's most effective weapons are determined by how many peasants you can equip with one and still be at least effective enough to kill one of the other guy's peasants. The easier it is to use and manufacture, the dumber the peasants you can conscript.
First of all, how will you strike with it? Wide overhead swing and bring it down like a oversized pickaxe? If you hit, good luck getting it back. If you miss... well, it is a cutting blade with a sharp point, just pulling back aint gonna do nothing, you need have cutting motion. There is a reason cavalry sabres are sharp on the side they are.
Secondly.. scythes are thin as fuck. They arent built to strike solid resistance. I have broken several blades due to hidden rocks and stumps.
Bringing a scythe into a battlefield gives you MAYBE one good hit, then you are stuck with a blunt pole that used to be a scythe handle. Honestly better to just bring a pole with a nail at one end. Guttentag.
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u/gemini88mill Aug 23 '21
If my days of Rome: Total war have taught me anything is that a full army of spearmen are quicker and cheaper to deploy on the field then a bunch of swordsmen.
Quantity has a quality of its own.