A few questions about weaponry

[TheFrackingDane]

So I noticed that my trusty comrade in arms (who is wearing a 1h sword and a shield) almost gets his arse handed to him when fighting a wolf - it doesn’t seem like he is blocking anything whenever the wolf tries to hit him. All he does is swinging that little sword like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ maniac.

1) Anyone else experienced this with the shields? Do the shields actually help, or?

2) What weapon types would be prefered versus the armored brigands and bandits? For what I can tell, we have slashing, piercing and blunt damage, but I can’t seem to find any information regarding what the different types are good/bad against.