Heavy weapon

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A Spada Lunga

Heavy weapons are a class of weapons that rely on sheer force to inflict bone-breaking damage. Though slow and unwieldy in the wrong hands, they compensate for this flaw through the tremendous power they deliver. The great strength demanded by such weapons ensured that they were historically fielded to specialized heavy soldiers such as Brutes and grenadiers rather than units of lesser build.

Description

As it name suggests, a heavy weapon is any large weapon whose considerate weight requires an average human to wield with both hands to use effectively. While cumbersome, its great size and weight ensures that successful attacks can be devastating to its targets. Heavy weapons are designed to overwhelm through its mighty power and force, smashing through the defenses of its enemies. When swung with sufficient strength, they are able to break through attempts to parry with smaller weapons, and opponents caught under the full weight of the blow may drop their weapons or collapse to the ground entirely.

Their major drawback lies in their immense weight which generally results in slower swings that can more easily be evaded by lighter and more agile opponents. Nevertheless, certain professional warriors, such as the poleaxe guards of the Ming dynasty of China, have been able to overcome this usual setback with their training and strength.

History

Heavy weapons have been utilized by warriors throughout history. During the Third Crusade, Crusaders such as the TemplarsBasilisk and Haras and the Hospitaller "Lazy Eye" favored greatswords in combat. In the first case, the Templar leader's reliance on his gargantuan weapon proved to be his undoing, as his adversary, the Master Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad defeated him in single combat three times by exploiting his sluggish maneuvers. The Cypriot religious zealot Moloch, an ally of the Templars, more uniquely wielded a heavy flail in his mortal duel against Altaïr at Kantara Castle in 1192, but he too was felled by the Assassin's superior mobility.

Centuries later during the Renaissance, heavy weapons were a staple of Italian armies, particularly mercenaries. The legendary Italian Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze for much of his life found it challenging to slip through the defenses of opponents wielding heavy weapons using a conventional sword. Instead, to execute counter-attacks against such foes, he was often, but not always, forced to rely on his Hidden Blades—which his enemies were generally not trained to defend against—heavy weapons of his own, or polearms of superior reach. He was, however, exceptionally adept at disarming Brutes with his bare hands. Late in his life, during his time in Constantinople, his skills had been refined to such a degree that he no longer struggled to counter enemies employing heavy weapons with a short sword or dagger.

Smash kill

Before the town's fall, Ezio learned the Smash skill from the mercenary fight instructor at Monteriggioni. Afterwards, he could use it whenever he had a heavy weapon equipped.

Ezio killing a Brute with an axe

A Smash took a long time to build up, during which Ezio was vulnerable to interruption. However, when a fully charged Smash connected, it would break through enemy defenses to cause a large amount of damage. It could not be parried, and the victim would be disarmed, or possibly have their long weapon broken if they wielded one.

When in Rome, the Smash skill was no longer available to Ezio, and had instead been replaced by the ability to throw heavy weapons at enemies. This could be done to perform instant kills, up to the distance of around ten meters away.

Accompanying this, Ezio could pick up the heavy weapon after throwing it, though if he picked up a short or medium weapon from a deceased guard, his weapon would change over to that, and the Assassin would have to go to a blacksmith to re-equip the heavy weapon.

Statistics

16th century

Rome

Name	Damage	Speed	Deflect	Cost	Availability
Bearded Axe	2	3	4	7000ƒ	Sequence 2
Bastard Sword	3	4	3	12400ƒ	Sequence 6
Stocco	3	5	5	17000ƒ	Sequence 7
Spadone	5	4	4	26100ƒ	Renovate 10 blacksmiths
Bartolomeo's Axe	3	2	5	N/A	Complete all Mercenary guild challenges
Spada Lunga	4	5	3	N/A	Complete Blacksmith shop quest

Constantinople and Derinkuyu

Name	Damage	Speed	Deflect	Cost	Availability
Bearded Axe	2	3	4	8050	Sequence 2
Merovingian Axe	1	5	5
French Bastard Sword	3	4	3	14260	Sequence 4
Condottiero Axe	3	2	5	23460	Sequence 6
Prussian Longsword	3	5	5	30015	Sequence 7
Broadsword	5	4	4	N/A	Complete all Mercenary Guild challenges
Almogavar Axe	5	5	5	N/A	Complete "The Champion, Part 1" memory

18th century

British Colonial America

Name	Damage	Speed	Combo	Cost	Availability
French Naval Axe	2	3	3	£750	Sequence 6
Hessian Axe	2	1	4	£3650	Sequence 6
Pirate Boarding Axe	5	4	2	N/A	Sequence 7
Naval Axe	4	4	2	N/A	Sequence 9
Boarding Axe	3	4	3	£7000	Sequence 9

French Colonial America

Name	Damage	Speed	Combo	Chain-kill	Cost
Naval Axe	4	2	4	2	10620 écu
Boarding Axe	5	3	3	3	27040 écu
Obsidian Axe	5	2	4	2	16310 écu
Macuahuitl	4	3	3	2	17000 écu

Trivia

• The maximum amount of combo hits with a heavy weapon is three. ^{[citation needed]}

Assassin's Creed II

• Ezio Auditore can disarm a weapon from Brutes in the first attempt, whereas it can take several attempts to disarm Elite or Leader guards.
• Taunting is an effective method to disarm tougher guards such as Brutes or Papal Guards, as it makes them attack faster and gives Ezio more chances to disarm them.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

• A heavy sheath, purchased from a tailor, is required for Ezio to equip heavy weapons as his primary weapon.
• Upon wielding a heavy weapon, it replaces the space normally assigned to his medium weapon, requiring Ezio to return to a blacksmith or the Assassin hideout on Tiber Island to replace it.
• Although Ezio can no longer perform the Smash skill, enemy guards still can. They cannot, however, perform the disarm move.
• Assassin recruits below the rank of Assassino can wield heavy weapons, and although these are described as axes in the recruit's training interface, they can manifest themselves as two-handed swords as well.
• Occasionally, whenever a heavy weapon is thrown at a guard that was in mid-air, through freerunning after pickpockets, it will stay in their head, and they will stand still. From then on, the guard will appear dead and won't attack Ezio, but when the Assassin removes his heavy weapon from the body, the weapon will fall to the ground and can be retrieved as usual.
• Heavy weapons lack the ability to counter-attack other heavy or long weapon users, except during an execution or counter-kill animation. Despite this, long weapons retain the ability to counter other long or heavy weapons.
• Heavy weapons no longer becomes lodged in enemies when counter-killing them, allowing Ezio to keep using them for the duration of the battle, unless they are thrown.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations

• Unlike in previous games, medium weapons can be used to counter heavy weapons.
• Although listed as a heavy weapon, the Broadsword is wielded like a medium weapon. However the sound effects in kill animations is a mix of both medium and heavy weapon sounds.
• Counter-steal cannot be performed while wielding a heavy weapon.

Gallery

• 
  Ezio using a bearded axe
• 
  The shop quest necessary to unlock one of the heavy weapons
• 
  Left to right: Labrys, Bearded axe, Bastard sword