Seeing as you could not go through the the large shields of marauders, it was necessary to go around them. The Triple Spiked Ball Flail was developed for just that purpose. The user did have to be careful because ball did swing about after striking its target, hence the term "Flail About". The Flail was also very effective against the plate armour of the day. Seeing as a sword could not cut the armour, but a Flails crushing blow generated enough force to do the damage.