User:Alientraveller/Sandbox

• Bribery (merge Heralds and Town criers?)
• Smuggling?

Ships

Ships are large watercraft used for transport or war. Medieval Assassins hired ships to sail across the Mediterranean Sea, but by the Golden Age of Piracy, they were sailing their own ships for naval combat. The Aquila was launched from France in 1749 as the flagship of the Assassin Navy. The Assassin Gavin manned a ship, the Altair II, in 2012.

Medieval ships

• 
  A Crusader ship in Acre harbor
• 
  Renaissance merchant vessel/ferry
• 
  16th century trading ship
• 
  16th century warship
• 
  Ottoman variant
• 
  Ottoman ferry

Byzantine and Ottoman ships used Greek Fire.

Colonial ships

Types

In order of smallest to largest:

• 
  Gunboats were small, inexpensive and easy to assemble ships armed with one or two large cannons. They would grouped together to fire in numbers.
• 
  Schooners were small light craft built for speed, armed with several cannons. They were the preferred ships for privateers during the American Revolution.
• 
  Brigs were larger than a schooner and equipped with a bow ram and 24 cannons. Brigs and schooners had two sailing masts.
• 
  Frigates were long, relatively light warships loaded with 24-46 cannons. Due to their size and speed, they were often used for reconnaisance, or to escort merchant ships.
• 
  Man-of-war was a catch-all term for the largest and most powerful warships, many of which were Ships of the Line, designed with multiple gun decks bearing 16-50 cannons and all avaliable types of ammunition. Men-of-War and frigates had three sailing masts.

Unnamed classes:

• 
  The Jackdaw, a pirate ship captained by Edward Kenway, resembled a cross between a brig and a frigate, while armed like a Man-of-War.
• 
  The Aquila, Connor's ship, continued the jack-of-all-trades design approach, combining speed with heavy offensive capabilities.
• 
  The Providence was an unusually large and heavily armed 18th century merchant vessel.
• 
  Three-masted ship with one gun deck.

Ammunition

Ships were equipped with numerous forms of cannon fire:

• 
  Round shot is the term for a normal cannonball.
• 
  Chain-shots consisted of two linked cannonballs designed to disable a ship's sails, allowing her to be boarded.
• 
  Swivel guns were designed to fire beyond the normal range of a cannon. A single shot could blow up a ship after barrage had exposed its gunpowder supply, or detonate naval mines.
• 
  Grapeshot were group of small balls or slugs fired through the gun muzzle from a bag. Small ships would fire grapeshot due to their small number of guns, but were also susceptible to it.
• 
  Heated shots were designed to set a ship on fire. Men-of-War and frigates were armed with these.
• 
  Mortars were commonly used in forts, but could also be installed on ships like the Man-of-War the Aquila faced during the Battle of the Chesapeake.
• 
  Fire barrels filled with gunpowder could be dumped from a ship to explode on impact when the enemy sailed into it. Schooners could use their speed to lay a trap with fire barrels.

Modern ships

• 
  The Altair II, a 21st century Assassin surveillance ship.

Trivia

• In Assassin's Creed III, Lance O'Donnell can craft naval convoys with spruce lumber, Oak bark and bear grease, while Ellen can sow sails with Linsey-woolsey.

Swimming

Swimming is the skill of staying afloat, moving and diving in water. The Assassins could swim to sneak past guards or escape them.

History

Desmond Miles' ancestors Ezio Auditore da Firenze and Connor were capable swimmers, able to dive from great heights and hold their breath for several seconds. Ezio's apprentices in Rome were trained to swim, as their initiation ceremony required performing the Leap of Faith into the Tiber river. However, swimming was slower than freerunning, and it was preferrable to jump on whatever surface they could find.

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad was capable of swimming, but a glitch in the Animus 1.28 would cause him to drown on contact with water, which was corrected in the Animus 2.0 when Desmond began to relive Ezio's memories. Desmond himself could swim, and used to wash in the creek after morning exercise on the Farm.

Connor's grandfather Edward Kenway was a pirate and could dive to the seabed to find treasure. His ship the Jackdaw was equipped with a diving bell which allowed him to dive for extended periods of time as he could place his head in the diving bell whenever he needed to take a breath.

Aveline de Grandpré, a member of the French Colonial Assassins from New Orleans, was a capable diver. She swam through the flooded caverns beneath Chichen Itza to find the Prophecy Disk, and could hold her breath for under a minute.

Trivia

• Civilians, guards and other nonplayable characters will instantly drown in water. Apprentices will disappear but not be killed.

Gallery

• 
  Ezio swimming in Romagna
• 
  Ezio diving from the exploding Naval Cannon
• 
  Ezio swimming beneath Masyaf
• 
  Edward using a diving bell
• 
  Edward searching for sunken treasure
• 
  Edward swimming with a shark
• 
  Aveline swimming through sea caves
• 
  Connor diving into a lake
• 
  Connor swimming away from the bombardment at Charlestown