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Guns are not an area of expertise for me, but I've some knowledge of =
anything related to a bow.....
> Not at a distance, man. Crossbows are "direct fire" weapons, and bows
are
> "indirect fire" weapons. Arrows on the battle field were fired at an
area,
> not necessarily at individuals. Everybody in that targetted area was
> extremely likely to get "hit". Crossbows were designed to be fired at
> individuals. They used the same basic "lever" principle as bows, but =
a
> mechanical crank was used to pull the string back, rather than raw =
muscle
> power. Since a bows arrows followed an arc to their target, they
generally
> struck with the same amount of force that they left the bow with.=20
While more effective at close range, a crossbow can also be aimed =
upwards to lob the bolt a greater distance than it would have traveled =
'on the flat'. For the hand crossbow, not much bigger than the modern =
'pistol' crossbow, this would detract from it's effectiveness as the =
projectile is fairly light. For the heavier crossbows, a heavier bolt =
was used (and this isn't including the real heavy - still one man- sort =
that were designed to knock holes in castle masonry during a siege), and =
a unit using these were as effective as a unit using bows, both lobbing =
a distance. Note this is only regarding damage and accuracy, 'rate of =
fire' still goes to the archers. =20
Also on lobbing with crossbows, I've seen and used a replica of a late =
1500's Spanish or Italian medium footman's crossbow designed with the =
sort of thing in mind. It had a free-swinging brass needle that swung =
over a range gauge as the angle of the bow altered - simple, but very =
effective.

Personally I'm happy for gunpowder and related items to be used in my =
campaign.... just so long as it's very expensive and unreliable and does =
NOT follow it's RL equivalent as regards developments and improvements, =
as magic should be cheaper and more reliable, giving lees need to 'find =
a better way'.

Regards,

Dubhghaill (Doyle)
Victoria, Australia, 613 9563 5085
enq@completesystems.com.au

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