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A Prussian War Hammer
Blunt weapons, or bludgeoning weapons,[1] are a class of melee weapons designed to inflict damage through blunt force trauma rather than through piercing or slicing. They are characterized by a general lack of sharp edges–though flanged variants exist–serving to crush targets with such force that bones may even be fractured. Most commonly, weapons that fall under this category include medium weapons such as maces, clubs, and war hammers. Tools not intended for use as weapons but improvised in such a capacity can qualify as blunt weapons in practice if the end used to inflict injury is dull.
Throughout history, blunt weapons have been utilized in warfare, seeing service with city guards and field soldiers alike. They were also employed, to a lesser extent, by members of the Assassin Brotherhood, who generally preferred the sword as standard equipment instead. As with their bladed counterparts, maces and war hammers were gradually phased out with the advent of firearm technology. Nevertheless, just as the case with shorter bladed weapons (i.e. knives), they persist as the standard equipment of many police and security officers in the form of batons.
Much like swords, blunt weapons possess long reach, great power, and a quick attack rate, though not as much as long weapons, heavy weapons, and short blades respectively, and are among the more balanced of melee weapons.
As their name suggests, blunt weapons are, in the simplest terms, weapons that are blunt, lacking sharp edges with which injury can be inflicted through cutting or piercing—at least in hindsight. Technically, however, blunt weapons do not have to be entirely devoid of sharp points, a prominent example being the flanged mace.[2] Sophisticated blunt weapons, including the iron blade war club, may even be bladed or possess keen edges to augment their deadliness.[3] As a result, they can perhaps more accurately be described as weapons designed for crushing rather than thrusting or slashing attacks.
As the most basic form of weaponry, blunt weapons have been universally utilized as weapons for the entirety of human history. The development of swords and spears led to clubs being superseded as the common weapon for warfare, although more and more sophisticated variants of blunt weapons continued to be invented, such as maces and war hammers.[2][4][5][6] Both saw service with city guards and in the field of battle during the course of European and Middle Eastern history, and in the Siege of Masyaf in 1176, they were wielded by select units of the Saracen cavalry.[7]
Among the indigenous peoples of the Americas, such as the Kanien'kehá:ka, who did not smith swords, war clubs became the primary wartime weapon alongside hatchets called tomahawks.[3] Uniquely, the Mesoamericans invented a hybrid between the sword and the club, the macuahuitl, a flattened wooden club studded with obsidian blades all along its edges.[8]
While the Assassins and Templars more often serviced swords, blunt weapons still found favor among certain members of both factions, such as the Irish carpenter Liam O'Brien and the Ottoman bombardier Kadir.[3][5] The advance of firearm technology gradually rendered maces and war hammers obsolete, but the unconventional nature of the war between the Assassins and the Templars ensured that these weapons were phased out slower among their groups. Indeed, during the French Revolution, the Parisian Brotherhood armed themselves with a diverse range of equipment, including a variety of blunt weapons, such as long maces, morning stars, and heavy war maces, weapons that were no longer in standard use among contemporary soldiers of regular armies.[6]
Picking up brooms or rakes as weapons in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood allows them to function as blunt weapons and perform certain executions. Killing a guard with a broom grants the Spring Cleaning achievement.
In Assassin's Creed: Unity, blunt weapons are classified as "non-lethal" and can never be used to kill an enemy, at most knocking one unconscious. This is in spite of the fact that certain techniques the player character Arno Dorian uses with blunt weapons very clearly crushes an enemy's spine, skull, or chest while some blunt weapons are actually covered in sharp spikes.
Rifles in Assassin's Creed: Unity are also classified as "non-lethal" because, when used in melee combat, they function as blunt weapons.
