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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 4325160" data-attributes="member: 18">You're very very VERY confused if you believe it was "cultural reasons" that stopped pikeman formations being replaced purely by musketeers. They were replaced pretty much as soon as technology allowed it. The cold hard fact is, people with primitive matchlock or even flintlock muskets are pretty terrible for assaulting positions, or for resisting cavalry charges or the like (particularly the latter). Until muskets became reliable enough, and gained bayonets, fielding a purely musket-bearing army would have been inviting your own massacre.When firearms were still young, the formations employed were typically "pike and shot", with them working together in different roles. Whilst "Musketeers" may simple be a "better" unit in Civilization or whatever, it's not that simple in real life.As for recurve bows, they're extremely difficult to make, requiring specialized knowledge and specific materials. It's not "cultural dislike" that stopped them from spreading as much as they could, it's that the information wasn't being exchanged, and/or that even when it was, the device had little advantage over cheaper, commonly-made weapons that were already in use.It's also VERY IMPORTANT to note recurve bows DO NOT survive well in damp conditions, and require significantly greater care in handling and maintenance than simpler bows. So, there are plenty of good reasons for not adopting foriegn weapons beyond this bizarre suggestion from you that people in the past didn't take weapons on their merit. They most certainly did. This is not a new idea. Whilst in many cultures there is a strong strand of military conservatism, there are also always people willing to do what it takes to win, and when that involves adopting new weapons, it will occur.I mean, really, why do you think this idea is new? The Romans, for example, used Auxilliaries for a reason, you know, and adopted a great number of ideas over time. Only bizarre "trapped in amber"-type cultures (which inevitable get rolled over by another culture with a few hundred years of trapping themselves) like the Spartans fail to use better weapons when they come across them.I agree with the rest of what you're saying, but unless we're talking about a culture conservative to the point of suicide, newer, better weapons will be adopted.</blockquote>

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