Get a gladius

You can have you halberds, your longbows, your pikes, your crossbows and your maces. Fine. But when the enemy comes up real close and you can smell their babarian bad breath in your face, then you'd be glad you have a gladius to send the bastard to hades.

Hey, Rome, cool sword. Want to bring it over so I can get a closer look?

>gladius

Brother, we have advanced since such primitive times.

Wait, so why exactly can't I just shoot the bastard with my revolver?

then why don't you just mace?
If he's so close that you can't even hit with the head of the mace, then a gladius won't do it either. Just use something like a dagger as a backup

>not unbreakable Nippon steel katana folded 10,000 times

Shit taste OP

Because most of my adversaries have nowhere near the amount of armour I have, so a gladius is perfectly fine.
Oh, silly me, I'm forgetting I also hide behind a massive scutum!

You'd have to swing your mace, while with a gladius you can handle your adversaries with autistic quick stabs from behind your huge shield without causing too much inconvenience to your contubernium comrades, which they would be rather grateful for.

A gladius works great when a huge shielded formation has to fight in close quarters. Stab weapon, short. For when you need to kill somebody you are being shoved against. That said, it's crap 1v1.

I mean if we have halberds we probably also have the gunpowder necessary to deal with close up fighters.

Would gladius be a good home defense weapon against unarmed Tyrone?

As long as you don't start out with a pila volley because Tyrone will outclass you in the real of spear chucking.

Shit, would it work to get a scutum in a doorway and stab his ass?

Because I have plate armour and a longsword, and my squire is also carrying my mace, battle axe, lance, and heater shield while he holds my warhorse.

And don't forget that you can just flip that longsword around and bash people in the head with the hilt.

The pike is the ultimate melee weapon. The most advanced medieval army of all time was humiliated by a bunch of swedish bums sprinting around with pikes. The debate has been settled for centuries.

I recall liking the rolemaster mechanics for a gladius, that you could use your sword, knife or hatchet skill to wield it, therefore it made for a convenient generalist weapon for troops

I concur, a horse is the best weapon when the enemy is too close.

>Romanus

ftfy

Those are Spaniards, not Swiss.

Indeed I can. Such is the magic of having armoured gloves.

Shield walls are for peasants.

Indeed, here are some Swiss from a primary source

The gladius is great, but the further away that you can kill your opponent the better. Letting them get close allows them to pull all kinds of dickery. Pikes mixed with halberds is best