User blog comment:Leolab/Ancient User Tourney, Round 5: William Vigiles (Alock) v Sir Bors (Elgb)/@comment-422690-20160617184015

So...

Initial: Longsword and Targe win. The longsword and targe combo is very versatile, as mentioned in earlier votes. While the blade will have difficulty penetrating armor, the cuneiform guard has the ability to be used as a makeshift pry bar to rip open the joints, and the pommel can be used to crush plate. However, the effectiveness of a pommel strike will be limited thanks to the leather, which will absorb a good chunk of the blow, and the pry bar functionality is limited to the point when Vigiles is too tired to fight back. This leaves the targe's spike as the main offensive weapon of the combo. Thicknesses are not given for Vigiles' armor, nor the length of Bors' spike, but the need to ram through three layers of protection will blunt impact considerably. The Truncheon would be an excellent weapon if Vigiles were more mobile. It's maneuverable, the entire length of the weapon is killing surface, and it uses blunt trauma. Any hits Vigiles gets in will crush Bors' armor and restrict his movement, especially if the dent is near the joint. The issue, however, is in actually getting the hit in. Basically, Vigiles' armor greatly reduces the effectiveness of both iconic weaponsets, and Bors gets an edge here simply because he's more likely to hit.

Mid Range: Halberd wins. While Vigles' best bet is a pommel strike, since he's going to tire a lot quicker, that halberd has a lot of options. Its effectiveness, however, will be greatly reduced by the butt spike. Something designed to "balance" the halberd will bring its center of mass away from the head. With an axe, this is the last thing you want. Having the center of mass near the head actually increases the chopping power of the axe thanks to basic angular physics. Since the body moves naturally in an arc, you have to put less energy into a swing when the center of mass is closer to the head. This means that bringing the balance closer to the grip is actually energy-inefficient, and will tire Bors out quickly. What this will help, however, is spear thrusts. This makes the thrust more maneuverable, which will help in getting through Vigiles' defenses and striking into armor. That dismounting hook (the spike) was designed to bite into armor and pull people down from charging horses; this will likely let Bors throw Vigiles down, allowing him to kill his foe at his leisure. Or it might not, due to suboptimal balancing. Either way, the Halberd gets the edge for versatility.

Long Range: Even. Both weapons are equally useless here. What kinds of bolts they have don't matter, since neither will be able to get a shot off before the other charges them.

Special: Dagger wins. Mantraps, as stated ad nauseum below, are absolutely awful for this scenario. Bors doesn't have the time to set them up. Vigiles will be slower with the dagger than is useful, thanks to his heavy armor, but a weapon's still better than none.

Armor: Bors wins. I don't usually go into this separately, but both contestants have their major strength being their armor, so I might as well. Vigiles has three layers of armor: leather, chain, and plate. Its weight is poorly-distributed and will bog him down; no amount of training in armor will make 120 lbs any more maneuverable. Bors, however, is in much the same boat. He's wearing a full set of early 14th-century plate. The "45-55 lbs, articulated, maneuverable full suit of plate" people are thinking of is a 15th- and 16th-century creation. Up until then, they never used a full suit. Why? Because smithing techniques at the time were not up to snuff. The couldn't create this light(er) mobile armor. Bors, while not having 120 lbs, would be more along the lines of 70 or 80 lbs of non-articulated, poorly-distributed armor, thanks to the time period. This will bog him down, though not nearly as much as Vigiles. On top of that, a 13th-century bascinet has a visor that quite heavily restricts your field of vision, while the faceplates on a Morion tended not to. Bors still has the more maneuverable and better protection, but not by much.

Overall: Bors wins, but barely. Vigiles has 3 useful weapons against Bors' 2, but Vigiles has more restrictive and cumbersome armor. Neither party is particularly well-equipped to fight the other, but Sir Bors of Newcastle edges out thanks to a better armor setup.