Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="TheAuldGrump" data-source="post: 5761074" data-attributes="member: 6957">That is a common misconception.Early guns were faster to reload than a heavy crossbow, and much easier to learn than a longbow. They had a short learning period and an increased rate of fire. Accuracy... not so much. <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&nbsp; &nbsp; :p"&nbsp; data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> A gunner typically closed his eyes while firing, to protect his eyes from sparks. Short ranged and fired in volleys, against ranks and battles of massed troops. Accuracy wasn't needed.A cranquin on an arballista is much, much slower, but the crossbow is also much more accurate than an arquebus. For hunting the crossbow won out, especially in nations where freemen were allowed to have weapons, giving rise to the Swiss as premiere crossbowmen, and the legend of William Tell.By the eighteenth century guns had become standardized, and the RoF of a skilled gunman using a Brown Bess was up to four rounds a minute - I can manage three with that same gun. I am not that skilled, but I can fire three times in the course of an AD&amp;D combat round.... <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&nbsp; &nbsp; :p"&nbsp; data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> (I hated one minute combat rounds. No, really.) Accuracy had also much improved. The gun had become a hunting and fowling piece, not just a tool of war.The Auld Grump, I wish that I still had my Bess. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown&nbsp; &nbsp; :("&nbsp; data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="TheAuldGrump, post: 5761074, member: 6957"] That is a common misconception. Early guns were faster to reload than a heavy crossbow, and much easier to learn than a longbow. They had a short learning period and an increased rate of fire. Accuracy... not so much. :p A gunner typically closed his eyes while firing, to protect his eyes from sparks. Short ranged and fired in volleys, against ranks and battles of massed troops. Accuracy wasn't needed. A cranquin on an arballista is much, much slower, but the crossbow is also much more accurate than an arquebus. For hunting the crossbow won out, especially in nations where freemen were allowed to have weapons, giving rise to the Swiss as premiere crossbowmen, and the legend of William Tell. By the eighteenth century guns had become standardized, and the RoF of a skilled gunman using a Brown Bess was up to four rounds a minute - I can manage three with that same gun. I am not that skilled, but I can fire three times in the course of an AD&D combat round.... :p (I hated one minute combat rounds. No, really.) Accuracy had also much improved. The gun had become a hunting and fowling piece, not just a tool of war. The Auld Grump, I wish that I still had my Bess. :( [/QUOTE]

Verification