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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheAuldGrump" data-source="post: 5550159" data-attributes="member: 6957">Except that I can still get more than a round a minute with apostles, which were in use in the 15th century (that's where they picked up their name as well). <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> And a crossbow is still slower than a round a minute, so... you do the math. A matchlock without premeasured apostles is still faster than a crossbow. Strange as it sounds, the speed of the gonne, plus ease of training, was the advantage of the weapon. Not much else.So, your original point is still more than a bit off. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> Again, find a reenactment group, you will have more fun than just trusting what I say, and I really want there to be more folks out there who know how to use these weapons. Just be warned that girlfriends are not all that fond of the loverly sulfurous stench that you will carry home from the field. Trust me on that one... my girlfriend left me no doubts on that score. (And it takes two showers, or, better, a shower followed by a long bath, to get rid of the stink.)Square headed crossbow bolts pretty much ignored plate armor, and had longer range. But they were ssslllooowww.... This did not prevent William Tell and other Swiss from becoming legends for what they could do with a crossbow. (Though the 'apple on the head' trick is myth, and a borrowed myth at that.)The gun didn't need much training, loaded faster than a crossbow, and in large numbers were deadly against rank and file infantry. Very good against soft targets, which was most people, armor was expensive.The disadvantages to a matchlock are keeping the #@^&ing fuse lit and the pan blowing outwards and into your face. There was no trigger as such, instead there was a rather long lever, or, on even older guns, just a touch hole, and you held the fuse in your hand. This last is what was in use in the 15th century. (I prefer the 1600s - matchlocks and wheellocks both saw use.) A unit of handgonners would spin their fuses in lazy circles, keeping them lit. At dusk and dawn this would make a very pretty line of glowing circles. It may be worth mentioning that the Turks used fuse paper to wrap broken tobacco - resulting in the first cigarettes.I have fired matchlocks - the Bess is just my favorite. Also, the guns shown in D&D 3.X and Pathfinder are flintlocks, not matchlocks, so the Bess is actually closer than the hand cannons used at Constantinopolus.The Auld Grump, I have fired a Brown Bess more often than I have any modern piece. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />*EDIT* Now cannon... cannon were a real game changer. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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