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Warmatrix

War Matrix - Flail

Middle East Period 3500 BCE - 3000 BCE, Weapons and technology

Flail
Flail
A flail is a stick with a striking head connected to it by a short chain. Sometimes it has not one, but two or three heads. The flail as a weapon was developed out of the agricultural flail, a tool to tresh grain. It is often confused with a mace, but a different weapon.
Flail heads can be be simple strips of wood or metal, rounded balls or spiked balls. There exists great variation in the length of the handle, the chains and the heads, both absolutely and relative to each other.
Because of the chains, flail heads are very difficult to control and inaccurate in striking. Also, a flail is ill-suited for parrying and is best kept in constant motion, creating a cloud of whirling and flailing heads, which is tiresome. These weaknesses have kept this weapon from becoming popular. The one advantage of a flail is that the heads can strike around enemy shields.