History Europe Prehistory and the Ancient Mediterranean Viking axes may have been wielded with one hand or two, depending on the length of the plain wooden haft. They produced several varieties, including specialized throwing axes (see francisca) and "bearded" axes or "skeggox" (so named for their trailing lower blade edge which increased cleaving power and could be used to catch the edge of an opponent's shield and pull it down, leaving the shield-bearer vulnerable to a follow-up blow). Certainly, Scandinavian foot soldiers and maritime marauders employed them as a stock weapon during their heyday, which extended from the beginning of the 8th century to the end of the 11th century. īattle axes are particularly associated in Western popular imagination with the Vikings. Some later specimens had all-metal handles. The hardwood handles of military axes came to be reinforced with metal bands called langets, so that an enemy warrior could not cut the shaft. The crescent-shaped heads of European battle axes of the Roman and post-Roman periods were usually made of wrought iron with a carbon steel edge or, as time elapsed across the many centuries of the medieval era, steel. ![]() Moreover, a lighter weapon is much quicker to bring to bear in combat and manipulate for repeated strikes against an adversary. This facilitates deep, devastating wounds. īattle axes generally weigh far less than modern splitting axes, especially mauls, because they were designed to cut legs and arms rather than wood consequently, slightly narrow slicing blades are the norm. Axes were often cheaper than swords and considerably more available. Axes could be modified into deadly projectiles as well (see the francisca for an example). Besides axes designed for combat, there were many battle axes that doubled as tools. Axes, by virtue of their ubiquity, are no exception. To learn more about Battle Axe, check out the game’s official website.Through the course of human history, commonplace objects have been pressed into service as weapons. If you didn’t back the Kickstarter, you can preorder the game now through several major online retailers. Numskull Games is publishing Battle Axe on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. “We might consider DLC at some point if things go well.” Tucker said, “It would be nice to do a big update to expand on the game.” The creators are also interested in getting Battle Axe onto one of Numskull’s Quarter Arcade mini-cabinets if there’s enough demand for it. “We are planning a lot of games for the future.” Nieborg is already prototyping a new Megadrive game that he describes as “a horizontal shooter, but with a twist.” The team is looking into the potential of working with some popular licenses for future games, and they’d also like to create some additional content for Battle Axe, including new character classes and environments. “Me and Bitmap Bureau have pretty much become a core team,” Nieborg explained. Nieborg and Tucker aren’t planning on going their separate ways anytime soon. “I did a lot of freelance work where I just did a small part of the game,” Nieborg said. ![]() ![]() Nierborg has worked as a pixel artist on the Shantae series, Contra 4, and Wizard of Legend, just to name a few, and in 2017, Nieborg started putting together a pixel art game that would be entirely his own. He has worked on plenty of 3D games over the years, including titles like Spyro - A Hero’s Tail, Batman Begins, and Medal of Honor, but his passion has always been for pixel art. Nieborg’s career as a video game artist goes all the way back to a game called Ghostbattle on the Commodore Amiga in 1990. “It was an insane amount of pixels that he had to draw, but if anyone could do it, Henk could.” “I don’t think I’ll put Henk through that again,” Tucker said. His programming partner on Battle Axe, Mike Tucker, agreed. “It’s a little bit insane for one person to be honest,” Nieborg said during a Zoom call earlier this week. Henk Nieborg has spent the better part of the last two years creating all of the art for his new game, Battle Axe, all by himself.
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