Spiked axes

The spiked axe or pick was one of the first weapons seen in Robot Wars UK, wielded by Killertron, who reached a Heat Final and the Grand Final in its first two appearances. Other well known wielders of spiked axes include Dominator 2 and Kat 3, as well as Mortis' famous "tanto blade".

The purpose of spiked axes were to pierce holes in opponent's armour, either to hit vitals, act as a way of pulling robots around or over (Dominator 2 and Killertron were masters of this technique), or merely to fill opponents with holes, often called "pepper-potting".

Definition

 * Spiked axes, as the name indicates, put all force behind the axe onto one point or spike. This spike can be a simple point, like Kat 3, or the axe head can be a sharp blade, like Mortis or Shunt.

Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages
 * Spiked axes can hit vitals much easier and quicker than other weapons, evidenced in Dominator 2's two second knockout of Henry.
 * Using a spiked axe can sway a judges decision; pepper-potting frequently racked up lots of points of damage, the key benefit in judges decisions. Dominator 2's wins over 101, King B Powerworks and most of its Series 6 battles were examples of this.
 * If a robot sticks its axe into another, it can use the leverage to pull a robot around or sometimes over (Killertron did this effectively to knock out Behemoth in Series 2).

Disadvantages
 * In the later years of robot combat, spiked axes became very disadvantaged against tough robot armour. The best example of this was Kat 3 failing to damage Bulldog Breed in the heat final of Series 7.
 * Spiked axes have a very narrow range of attack, as most of them can only hit directly in front of them (though some axes, such as Killerton's, could swing 180 degrees over the robot and also hit the back). This can cause problems with accuracy.
 * Spiked axes can easily pierce the arena floor, effectively immobilising the wielder. This happened to Kat 3 and frenZy during the show's run (although both would later recover and win their battle).

List of Robots with Spiked Axes
Robots are listed alphabetically. Non-heavyweights are listed with a green background, House Robots with a red background.