The weapons in the first set are a decent selection and seem well balanced. However, I like more variety particularly in the description of my orcish weapons. So despite their dubious status in terms of official lore I plan to add a few more, which will also give more variety for my players if they want it.

I want this to be easy so I plan to simply re-skin most of the weapons I am interested into both normal and orcish versions. For example:
- For Sickle use rules for Short Sword / Bent Sword.
- For Sling use Bow / Bow of horn.
- For Hammers, Maces and Morningstars use various Axes / Orc-axe.
- For Club, Torch (LM p51) and even Staff use Dagger / Jagged Knife.
- For various polearms like Glaives use Great Spear / Broad-headed spear, Spear or Heavy scimitar .

Not really worried about any of those, but happy to talk about them if desired. But the weapon I want to add but can’t see a simple analogy for is the Flail. What I want is something like this bit from Wikipedia:

“The chief tactical virtue of the flail was its capacity to get around a defender's shield, by striking against the shield's edge with the tip of the main handle. The chain, cord or hinge would then let the striking end whip around behind the shield and strike the defender a forceful blow. Contrariwise, its chief liabilities were a lack of precision and the difficulty of using it in close combat, or closely-ranked formations.”

Looked in a bunch of other RPG rules for ideas, but the only one I can see that simulates this is Dark Heresy+ with its "Flexible" weapons that can’t be parried. Three alternative ways to implement this below. (Note these are comparable to PC weapons not Orc weapons.)

1. “VANILLA” FLAIL
Damage: 5. Edge: 10+. Injury: 16. Encumbrance: 2. Called shot: Ignore defender’s Shield Bonus to Parry.

2. “SHIELD BEATING” FLAIL
Damage: 4. Edge: Gandalf. Injury: 18. Encumbrance: 2. Ignore defender’s Shield bonus to Parry against this attack. Called shot: Disarm.

3. “HARD TO PARRY” FLAIL
Damage: 4. Edge: Gandalf. Injury: 18. Encumbrance: 2. Reduce defenderss Parry by 2 against this attack. Called shot: Disarm.

#1 is a bit boring, but not sure if the others are balanced. Thoughts? Suggestions?

How would you apply this Called Shot effect.
I mean the Called Shot effect is only triggered if you actually Land a Hit... and to be able to do that the Shield Parry is already included...

Maybe it ignores the Shield Parry on the NEXT attack.

/wolf

I was thinking that you couald drop the TN but need a Great+ result, but it is a bit confusing and I think players would not see the value. I don't think putting it on the next attack would work either as there is little incentive to take a penalty now to potentially get a bonus later.

I'm leaning towards either #2 right now or #3 but with the Parry reduction of only -1. Really keen to hear other ideas though.

My only problem with options 2 and 3 is the fact that they both provide an inherent bonus to action that immediately ranks them above other weapons of similiar stature. Perhaps the ability to wrap around a shield could be a Reward increase, making "standard" flails unable to do such a thing. Or, perhaps it is linked to the wielder's combat stance. Arguably, you could leave it as a "regular" weapon and simply use Battle-gained combat advantage dice to describe the flail wrapping around the shield (personally, I like that last option best of all).

Alternatively, going with the notion of option 1, perhaps the effect remains a called shot, with the called shot's effect being " increase damage by an amount equal to the defender's shield's parry value".

Hrm.
I'm not concerned with offering such weapons to Player Heroes.
Rice flails/nunchaku are alien to the milieu of NW Middle-earth. The use of grain flails in warfare (always 2-h in real history, outside of the Orient?) and 1-h ball-and-chain weapons strike me as later medieval -- or even specifically chivalric weapons developed for use against knights in solid plate, and therefore again not suited to Middle-earth.

But they're way-cool weapons to put in the hands of orcish Adversaries!

I'd also debate the wikipedia entry! The main reason agricultural flails existed in the first place was because they can deliver more force at the point of impact (when threshing) than a solid-hafted weapon.
Whilst the bit about hitting round shields seems intuitive, I wonder how much of an effect in real combat it would be. A flail-wielding attacker would only get to strike the rim of his target's shield as desired if the shield-bearer fails at defence -- although the attacker will generally be more familiar with his weapon's behaviour than his targets are.
My money's on that being flail-weapons' main effect: that they unsettle opponents without training or experience against these rather obscure and weapons.

TOR's asymmetric system has Called Shots triggered differently for Adversaries: normally an Eye-of-Sauron result for a Player-Hero triggers a Called Shot attempt for his Adversary's (-ies'?) next attack(s).

• Maybe -- for LMs happy to accept the increased complexity of adding an exception to the regular rules -- a chain/flail weapon gets triggered to a Called Shot on an Eye-of-Sauron or a natural 1 on the Feat Die?
• Maybe their Called Shots are just at +2 to hit compared to regular weapons? or +3 versus shield-bearers?
  That'd mean combatants would tend to caution when facing an Adversary with one of these, and favour Defensive Stance...
• Maybe against weapon-parriers flail weapons can get an 'Entangle' type result, like a Seize Victim, unless the victim opts to allow themselves to be disarmed instead?

Cheers,
--Os.

If I were going to do an Orc-flail, it would probably look like this:

Orc-flail | Damage 5 | Edge E | 16 | break shield

In other words, an Orc-axe with a different description. No need to make up something new. Flails (supposedly) were used to get around shields and from what I've read literally snatch shields. Well narrate the break shield called shot as the shield being ripped out of the heroes hands.

I was thinking though of a thrown axe, such as Gimli uses.

Short axe | 4 | G | 16 | - | Encumbrance 1, can be thrown

Thanks all for suggestions.

@Doc Nova: a Reward would work for PCs really well (if any of them end up being interested). That way I can just stat it up as an existing weapon for normal use.

This got me thinking, and for Orcs I am now planning to make it Hate fueled. Use the base as a War-axe (1HD) or Heavy scimitar (2HD) with a cool ripping away the shield as a Called Shot description as Caul suggested. But I'll also let the Orc spend Hate to ignore / reduce the shield bonus to Parry. This will give me the cool Flail effect I'm looking for without introducing wonky rules.

@Caul: like the Short Axe idea. Planning to use this if anyone wants one.