more than a few crossbows have the spanning aids built in.
seems pretty awkward to use, as I’m sure almost allll the weight is in the head. This would be alright if you were a villager whose village was being attacked and you could swing it at people riding through on horses or people who werent paying much attention but I doubt you’re going to see much success in the types of encounters Henry faces…really heavy, really slow, once you put a shield into their forehand on the handle you pretty much immobilize the enemy…seems pretty terribl IMO
given that the head is spiked wood, doesn’t look to be heavier than a halberd, and that pivot would make blocking it tricky, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rngul46pJQY bit cheesy but doesn’t look that slow. Also, you try to bind the head he smacks you with the haft.
The difference to me between this and a halberd is the halberd should, to me/IMO anyway, have more reach and since it is solid and not hinged like a flail allows for stabbing. A halberd, as I’m sure you know, is a nice combination of a heavy axe and a spear. You can poke to keep the enemy at a distance and bring it down vertically to rain your heavy hits. But for me, halberd fighting someone 1 on 1 or 1 on 2 or whatever I would do a lot more poking and probably ultimately die, halberd reign supreme behind a good shield line where they can use their reach and weight to bring in those heavy hits solidy…either a halberd or a flail the like of which are being displayed here would not fair well in the kind of combat Henry sees (often him vs 2-6 people alone)
Even maces are really heavy and best to be used, again IMO, from horse back where you can just ride by, swing your weapon and let speed/momentum do the trick…look at that cutscene with Sir Robard hoists his mace to his shoulder in a manner that indicates it must way 239483567 pounds lol.
If you were doing big line battles or castle sieges I would say, realistically, a polearm would be leagues more useful than this weapon. The weigh may be similar to a halberd, but the physics of how it moves with that hinge make a huuuuge difference in how it handles…think about swing down or across right to left, missing, and then having to redirect it before it hits you, or just flails around while you get it back to a position to be swung where you want it.
maybe it’s not thaaaaat heavy but it seems awkward as all get out by that picture lol
he may lift it like it weighs a ton, real maces didn’t they, like swords and axes kept themselves in the 2-4lbs range, it was point of balance, that makes the different.
I would for that to be n option, I would use that for my thief before the Short Sword. I hope it would have some kind of animation for the spinning ball spike and then slamming it against ai’s head
a flail would be terrible for a sneak character…large, noisy, can’t stab or cut throats…terrible decision
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Still better that 3 cages full of bugged birds, which i wear through 70% of story 
So no big deal.
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I know of a few crossbows that have built-in spanning mechanisms, but they tend to be rather late, often limited in draw weight, and FAR from common.
Lol, I just thought about that spiky ball just clinging around while trying to be senaky.lol
I’m just saying, someone who is used to using a crossbow will be able to reload and shoot very fast.
depends, a 900lb draw weight Cranquin is not going to be reloaded fast, no matter how good the user is.
Sure, an experienced user is always able to reload faster than a novice. If I hear another pleb moaning muskets only allow you to shoot 4 - 5 rounds a minute tops, I can only laugh at them and tell them to GIT GUD… 
450 rounds per minute is perfectly doable.
Well yeah, but you wouldn’t bring a crossbows like that in that case. I am talking about crossbows with around 350lbs draw weight, not the ones requiring some kind of winch.
So something you can either span by using a goat’s-foot lever, a hook on the belt, or by stepping in the stirrup and pulling the string with both hands.
A hook on the belt would be a good compromise. Easy to use, quick to reload. From a game standpoint, simpler to animate than the other methods, with only a minor object addition.
not exactly If you go the scholagladatoria by mat Easton on you tube he explains the papal paper of 1120 by Pope Innocent said it should not be used against Christian enemies AND ALSO bows and slings. Which was ignored. and later ignored again along with jousting in 12 something… I forget.
Mat Easton posited it was to direct the output of violence to more against the Muslim occupation of the holy lands
I have to say I was very disappointed to find out that there are no crossbows implemented. As a weapon of war, the crossbow was far more common in continental Europe compared to the longbow in the time frame we’re talking about. In pretty much all of Europe, it was really only the British Isles where the longbow was the preferred choice. And yes, it would have to be quite slow to reload, but I really wouldn’t mind.
Bwuh?
Crossbows, especially the most powerful ones, hit with the force of a .22 caliber bullet. They will ABSOLUTELY go through maille. it’s quilting and maille that might stop it, but even then it’s not reliable. Plate is the only truly reliable defense against late period crossbows, and while you will not outright be killed by it, a crossbow of high poundage will still inflict enough blunt force to make you notice a hit in plate.
(And mechanically speaking, sap stamina)
Also it depends on where it hits. Not all plate armor is equal, and different parts of the body have different levels of thickness. The helmet and cuirass are the thickest parts of any harness, while the limb protection will be made of the thinnest. So while a hardened breastplate will just effortlessly bounce a bolt off, your lower canon probably won’t.