Flail (weapon)

A flail is a weapon consisting of one or more striking heads (also called swingles or swipples) attached to a handle by flexible rope, strap, hinge or chain connectors that can be wielded in combat to produce powerful concussive impacts. Flails have various tactical virtues, such as being cheap to produce; intuitive to use for those familiar with their tool form; being easily transportable when folded while still allowing the reach of a longer weapon when used; and having the capacity to strike around a defender's shield or parry or over an obstacle. Drawbacks include the difficulty in controlling them, their lack of precision in strikes, the difficulty of using them in closely-ranked formations, and their ineffectiveness in close combat grapples. When compared to a rigid weapon of the same length, weight and general configuration, the flail's striking end moves with greater velocity, but hits with less apparent mass, resulting in an impact from the flail that is slightly less than an equivalent rigid weapon. There are three broad types of flail: Firstly, a long, two-handed infantry weapon made from a long staff as the handle and a shorter baton as the swingle connected by a flexible linkage. Secondly, a shorter weapon with a baton handle with one or more metal striking heads attached to this by chains, usually shorter than the handle so as to reduce the risk of the heads hitting the wielder's hand. Thirdly, a longer handled version of the second type so that it can be used two-handed, with one or more heads attached via chains considerably longer than the handle.