My (weakly held) take is that a category of ‘usual medieval weaponry’ obscures a lot of detail that turns out to be relevant. Like even talking about ‘swords’, a 3 foot sword made of Toledo steel is a very different beast from a macuahuitl. They’re about equally sharp and long, but the steel sword is lighter, allows fighting more closely together (note that, at this time, a lot of the successful European tactics require people somewhat tightly packed working in concert), and is more durable. (The obsidian blades, while they could slice clean through people and horses, weren’t very effective against mail and would break on impact with another sword.)
My (weakly held) take is that a category of ‘usual medieval weaponry’ obscures a lot of detail that turns out to be relevant. Like even talking about ‘swords’, a 3 foot sword made of Toledo steel is a very different beast from a macuahuitl. They’re about equally sharp and long, but the steel sword is lighter, allows fighting more closely together (note that, at this time, a lot of the successful European tactics require people somewhat tightly packed working in concert), and is more durable. (The obsidian blades, while they could slice clean through people and horses, weren’t very effective against mail and would break on impact with another sword.)
I agree with this; this is why I said “Steel weapons.”