One of the considerations of fantasy warfare has to be the specific role of weapons.  Some weapons were designed to be used by the individual while others were designed for use on the battlefield.  The mace, as an example was not a very effective weapon in single combat.  In essence, the mace was an optimized club.  As an individual weapon, clubs and their like were discarded fairly quickly in favor of better weapons.  With the rise of the shield wall and heavier armor types, a new weapon was needed.  The main combat was being conducted by the spearmen on either side of the wall, but this never lead to any great advantage to either side.  If you could break through the wall, however, and your troops had high speed close combat weapons, then you could quickly shatter the enemy phalanx and destroy them.  There were several contenders in this category.  The two most successful were the falchion and the axe.  Another was the mace.  The philosophy was simple:  You had all the weight at one end so a quick swing could deliver maximum force to the target.  This meant you could do enough damage to get through a shield or breastplate, but still be fast enough to get inside of a spear and kill the guy wielding it.

This raises the question as to why the sword was so popular.  The answer is simple.  A sword is almost as fast as an axe or mace and has better range.  It is also faster than a spear and has at least some range.  Spearmen will still kill swordsmen, and axemen can kill them if they can get into a close press, but the sword can fight against both to some extent.  The proper use was to keep a reserve of swordsmen behind your line.  If a breach formed in the shield wall, you could send in the swordsmen as a stopgap until you could reform the line.  If the enemy spear flanked you, they could help there too.  If cavalry got behind you and you couldn’t set spears in time to stop them, the swordsmen charged in.  As a result of this, your swordsmen had to be well trained, well but lightly armored, and fast.  This meant that you were talking about elite wealthy troops.  Thus the swordsmen were the knights, Samurai, Cavaliers and the like.  In effect they were the fighter pilots.  The bombers do all the important work, but the fighters get the credit.  Same thing here – Axe and spear are your best weapons, but the guys in shiny armor with swords running up and down the field to all the hot spots are the ones that catch your eye.