quote:
Originally posted by cbfog:
<STRONG>I don't envision muskets being more deadly or efficient or "better" than any existing weapon, just that if you kick Johnny Peasant into the army and give him a gun he can hold it and fire it in the general direction of his enemy...
not that he would hit them in any case, but a succesful strike would be extremely deadly</STRONG>
Early firearms were significantly worse than the crossbows of their times - a proper, winch-pulled crossbow could easily put a steel bolt through plate-mail. A musket ball would just break the guy's ribs, the crossbow bolt would critically destroy his lungs.
Either could be deadly, but the crossbow bolt would be much more likely to be deadly.
The advantage of firearms over crossbows was that they did not require extraordinary strength to operate in a timely manner, or extraordinary training to be effective - you could get a bunch of Joes, give them the weapons and a few weeks of training, have them line up and volley fire at The Enemy. They're even better firing from fortifications, of course, but then what isen't?
They're also easier to produce, being much simpler in operation than a crossbow.
Really, they could be nice, but you'd probably still want Legendary Marksdwarves using crossbows. That said, sharpshooting with one is possible if it's a high-quality weapon and a high-quality shooter.
Rockets would be good siege weapons, too. They fly a semi-random distance (partially determined by "aiming distance" set on the siege weapon, partially randomized based on the shooter's siege operator skill), and then explode, dealing great damage in a wide range.
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Topic: muskets! (Read 2204 times)