Alethi vs Warform

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

How did the Alethi last so long on the shattered planes?  

I know shardbearers are powerful and the shardblade tips the scales... but there weren't that many shardbearers. 

How did spears and swords puncture the chitin armor of warformed?  

Were chasmfiend hunts possible at all before shardblades?  I feel like that is an obvious question but I am trying to picture it.  I always viewed them as having thick rocky armor.  But it is more like a thicker lobster exoskeleton?  Would hammers and maces not be a preffered weapon against an enemy consisting almost entirely of enemies with thick exoskeletons?  

It is 100% likely and possible that I missed some important part of WoK.  

That said I guess the chitin thickness could be a sliding scale where warformed are more armored but not to the point where spears and swords would be wholly ineffective.  

At the end of OB there is one that Kaladin fights where I feel like he describes its chitin as being almost rock growing on it. I assume this would be nearly invulnerable to sword and spear and only shards or a pile on with hammers and picks would work.  

Where do chasmfiends fall on this sliding scale?  Thunderclasts?  

I assume the magical cutting blade is almost a must for fighting against some of the radiants enemies? 

[Frustration he/him]

Chasmfiends have natural carapace, but Thunderclasts are made of stone.

Warform carapace is almost as hard as steel, but it doesn't completely cover the body, there are gaps in the armor.

[Veledsier]

In the book they do talk about how hard it was to kill warform because there were so few gaps in the carapace. Therefore meaing that they would have to find the gaps in order to do damage.

[alder24]

1 hour ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

How did the Alethi last so long on the shattered planes?  

I know shardbearers are powerful and the shardblade tips the scales... but there weren't that many shardbearers. 

20 Shardblades and Shardplates. Quite a lot. A single Shardbearer can slaughter hundreds of Parshendi. And Alethi had a numerical and logistical advantage. At first they fought as a united army as well, chrysalis changed anything. And Singers fight in pairs, Alethi in proper war formations and cavalry, far better than fighting in pairs.

1 hour ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

How did spears and swords puncture the chitin armor of warformed?  

Just like regular steel armor - weak points under joints, neck, head etc. Spears are perfect for finding those weak points. Or hammers breaking their bones.

1 hour ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Were chasmfiend hunts possible at all before shardblades?

I can't see a way to do it. Only by attacking chrysalis which can be broken with hammers.

1 hour ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Would hammers and maces not be a preffered weapon against an enemy consisting almost entirely of enemies with thick exoskeletons?  

They would.

1 hour ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Where do chasmfiends fall on this sliding scale? 

They're bigger and likely have a thicker chitin than Singers. Something more like a Chull.

1 hour ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Thunderclasts?  

They are rocks.

[Treamayne]

4 hours ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

How did the Alethi last so long on the shattered planes?  

<snip>

At the end of OB there is one that Kaladin fights where I feel like he describes its chitin as being almost rock growing on it. I assume this would be nearly invulnerable to sword and spear and only shards or a pile on with hammers and picks would work. 

May I ask if you have read RoW yet?

BLUF: Strategy, tactics and discipline are the largest parts of the Alethi victories (though population numbers also factor heavily). Spoilers in case you have not yet ready RoW:

Spoiler

In RoW we see in the Eshonai/Venli Flashbacks that the Listeners have only had access to Warform for a few years, and have almost no martial heritage since they were not unified before the start of the Alethi War of Reckoning. Their ideas of combat were much closer to what is descibed as Reshi "combat" in Rysn's WoR interlude - mostly boasting and throwing a few spears.

So, you essentially have an untrained army of peoples that were enemy clans until right before the war started using a form they only just rediscovered fighting against a Proud Warrior Race with millenia of strategic and tactical warfare history and a lifetime of experience for each soldier. Natural advantages or not the Listeners just didn't have much chance in the long run.