V9: Melee Weapons

This page is part of the Official Amtgard V9 Alpha-Playtest Rulebook.

• The Amtwiki is the official home and primary source for Amtgard V9 Rules as of February 25, 2023.
• These rules are currently in Open Alpha Playtest. See the Playtest Disclaimer for more details.
• To learn more about Amtgard V9 Development, please visit Amtgard.com.
• To view the current Amtgard V8 ruleset, please see the Amtgard V8 Rulebook.

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Melee Weapons

Melee weapons represent swords, axes, spears, flails, polearms and anything else that can be used to directly strike an opponent.

1. All melee weapons may be used to strike with their Strike-Legal portion.
2. All melee weapons may be used to block and parry with any portion of the weapon.
3. Melee weapons (except Javelins) cannot be thrown or launched as a form of attack.

Subtype-Specific Rules

• Dagger, Short, Long, & Reach
  • These weapon types have no additional special rules.
• Pike & Stab-Only
  • All Pikes, as well as any weapon built to Stab-Only specifications, can only be used to stab. They cannot be used to slash.
• Great
  • Great Weapons are Shield Crushing and Armor Breaking when wielded with two hands. You can identify a Great Weapon by the red indicator strip on the handle, closest to the strike-legal segment.
• Flails
  • Flails can only inflict valid strikes with the articulating head, regardless of padding elsewhere on the weapon. Flails cannot be used to stab. You can identify a Flail by the ball-and-chain feature at the end of the weapon.
• Madus
  • Madus are melee weapon-shield hybrids.
    1. They are only usable if the player can use both a weapon of the madu’s length and a shield equal to or greater than the madu’s shield size.
    2. They count as both a shield and a weapon. The Weapon portion can be struck and affected by weapon-specific effects such as Weapon Destroying. The Shield portion can be struck and affected by shield-specific effects such as Shield Crushing and Shield Destroying. Once affected, the entire Madu is altered, for better or worse. If the weapon or shield portion is destroyed, the entire Madu is destroyed. If one part of the Madu is restored, the entire Madu is restored.
• Javelins
  • Javelins are hybrid melee/projectile weapons.
    1. They are treated as a Stab-Only Melee Weapons that can also be thrown.
    2. When thrown, it becomes a Stabbing Projectile once it has traveled its own length through the air.
    3. While it is a projectile, it is Armor Breaking and Shield Crushing.