I've always wondered what kind of weapons human-sized warriors would best use against 2 to 4 foot tall goblin-type enemies.
I once imagined plate armor with spikes along their armor shins to better charge and kick such monsters. And possibly capes with weighted ends you could flick around.
And yeah, Skallagrim is cool. So is Shadiversity, who also analyzes European warfare, equipment, and martial arts.
Spears/Polearms to take advantage of reach, in a realistic scenario - especially if said 2-4 foot tall creatures don't have access to any sort of heavy plate and/or mail armor. The reach difference alone would make it extremely hard for such creatures to actually do anything against a human-sized opponent or greater.
"But, but, i can't use Polearms on their small caves! The ceiling is too low!"
Yeah, but why would you want to, anyway? If you're talking about what would, realistically, be the best way to deal with goblin/kobold caves/dens, then of course the answer would be to cart in
tons of semi-dry leaves & wood, stack it in the entrance to the cave, light it on fire and then seal the entrance with mud.
Then you position troops around the area, and watch for smoke to rise. Wherever smoke rises, it's other entrances/exits to the cave. You get your troops there and fight the survivors in open ground - or get them to retreat back into the cave, rinse and repeat.
They'd die either of suffocation from the copious amount of smoke, from oxygen deprivation from fire burning all of it, or they'd have to fight on open ground which is disadvantageous for them.
Magic wouldn't really help, either. Even if they have several clerics, there simply isn't enough castings per day to save many. Most will end up dying - especially since nobody said you're limited to doing that only once. You can keep carting in more and more leaves and wood and keep that fire burning for days, weeks, even months. Eventually the cave will fill up with so much smoke that no matter how many openings, it wouldn't be enough to vent all of the smoke and soot out of the cave. Even the temperature would eventually reach an extent that would make living there unbearable.
Cruel - but effective as hell. BTW this isn't effective just for goblins or kobolds, but for any critter that likes to live in underground caves. Only for caves that are as massive as Undermountain and stuff this starts to become impractical, otherwise, this is a very effective strategy. At the very least, you'd find any openings rather quick.
