Whats melee range?

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Just you wait, the pike (and lance) will have a new glory age, when armor piercing explosive tips get introduced - imagine gravbelt jousting in battledress - or 40k rough riders

Infantry could use the armor piercing pike to poke holes in vehicles and battledress from (relative) safety.

But in its traditional form... Meh, maybe not so likely to ever be useful again. More than two meters away, just shoot it.

 

[Reynard]

'Never bring a polearm to a laser gun fight'

 

[Condottiere]

Except in a fog.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Or if you happen to be Aslan or Vargr with a feel for cultural stuff. Granted, both of their pokey-sticks are shorter than a pike, but still

There's also the situation from (I think it was) forever war, where jamming and shielding and all kinds of weird tech rendered any and all forms of advanced weapons useless, and they had to resort to good ol' blades again.

 

[AndrewW]

Just you wait, the pike (and lance) will have a new glory age, when armor piercing explosive tips get introduced - imagine gravbelt jousting in battledress - or 40k rough riders

Just need some force pikes. Or maybe a chainsaw pike.

 

[Reynard]

Wish I could remember which magazine had it but someone did an article for light swords and another light blade weapon when Star Wars was in it's heyday.

 

[nats]

In a modern age, not very practical, though may have been added for completion.

A shorter pointy stick in the two metre range can be effective at close quarters, and gives you reach.

That would be the spear then!

 

[Condottiere]

If I understand Supplement Four correctly, you can improve one of the pointy stick's performance characteristic by one hundred seventy five percent four tech levels down the road.

So a tech level five pointy stick should pack quite a punch.

 

[Reynard]

"Often, increased Tech Level will not greatly improve an item. For example, a knife made at TL 2 is functionally the same as one produced at TL 12. It might hold its edge better or resist corrosion but the basic cutting function remains the same" Sup 4: CSC Pg. 12. Upping tech level seems to imply building a better unique weapon.

 

[Jame Rowe]

Yeah, most Travellers are probably going to face clubs/stun clubs, knives or rifle-mounted bayonets instead of pikes.

Also, I've come to believe that most clubs (not stun clubs) past TL 4 will be specifically manufactured, such as baseball bats or billy clubs. So if I ran I'd just call them that and charge maybe Cr5.

"Often, increased Tech Level will not greatly improve an item. For example, a knife made at TL 2 is functionally the same as one produced at TL 12. It might hold its edge better or resist corrosion but the basic cutting function remains the same" Sup 4: CSC Pg. 12. Upping tech level seems to imply building a better unique weapon.

One of the things that Traveller doesn't take into account is that items will be built at the local tech level. For example, if you go to Regina, which is TL 12 (or 10 if you're going by that book), you're going to find knives, autopistols and hand computers from rating 0 to (whatever 12 produces) that are tech level 12, not the tech level of introduction. So if you buy a knife, it'll function as a TL 2 knife, but it'll be a TL 12 knife.

 

[nats]

Yeah, most Travellers are probably going to face clubs/stun clubs, knives or rifle-mounted bayonets instead of pikes.

I dunno about pikes but Ive always had an interest in using Halberds for some reason - although one would assume they are shortened ones for modern hand to hand fighting not the long traditional things that Beefeaters use. I could see something like that being used in ship boarding - sort of like a Gadaffi stick or a Bat'leth

 

[Reynard]

That will be a quarterstaff and lousy trying to maneuver in those 1.5m corridors.

"As long as pikemen fought other pikemen, the halberd remained a useful supplemental weapon for push of pike, but when their position became more defensive, to protect the slow-loading arquebusiers and matchlock musketeers from sudden attacks by cavalry, the percentage of halberdiers in the pike units steadily decreased. The halberd all but disappeared as a rank-and-file weapon in these formations by the middle of the sixteenth century."

All this involves lots of space and lots of participants. Not very Traveller friendly.

 

[Condottiere]

Combined arms always depends on the role each has to play in the scheme of things, and how you employ them.

Gun fu is a useful martial art in the corridors of a spaceship.

And my pick would be the axe pick.