Standard Crewmen Options not balanced?

[EvilGod]

I guess this is more a rules discussion than a rules question. here goes:

The weapon options for the standard crewmen allow the two-handed weapon which gives a +2 damage bonus.
As far as I can tell the only downside to this is the -1 Fight "Encumberance" rule while carrying treasure. This seems to me like a very small downside.
In comparison the shield option gives +1 Armour and causes Encumberance and a negative modifier when swimming.
The staff causes -1 Damage to both the attacker and defender and just causes encumberance. So it's the same as a shield that only works in close combat at the cost of one damage for the user and no penalty while swimming.

The way the Frostgrave and Ghost Archipelago Fighting and Damage Rules work, any negative modifier to Fighting is also a negative modifier to damage. Conversly every bonus to damage can partly reduce a bad fghting stat. So most of the time i would rather have more fighting than more damage. But the deal "always +2damage in exchange for sometimes -1fight" sounds just to good to be true.

Any thoughts on why I should not give two handed weapons to all my standard crewmen? And in my opinion I would rather equip my guys with a shield than a staff because they have the same positive effect using different rules, but shields work also in ranged combat and do not reduce my guys damage.
Did I miss something?

[Philhelm]

I have only played Frostgrave, but assuming that the combat system is the same/similar, I would think that +1 Fight is almost always better than +2 damage.  The Fight stat improves the chance of winning the combat, confers an inherent damage bonus, and also defends against ranged attacks.

However, because of the D20 the difference won't be that severe.