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06-22-2015, 01:16 PM | #1 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Cincinnati, OH
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[LT] What is an Arbalest?
What weapon is the arbalest on LT80 & 82 based on? Is it just meant to be a big siege crossbow, like a crossbow ad turnum? Wikipedia defines an arbalest as a 12th Century steel crossbow, but I don't know if LT is using the word the same way.
Here is the description from LT80: Quote:
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06-22-2015, 01:30 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
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Re: [LT] What is an Arbalest?
Yep. Well-equipped castles mount them on the walls or towers to make life difficult for attackers. I'd imagine they might be used by besiegers, as well, but I'd think they'd be less useful than for the defenders.
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06-22-2015, 01:55 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [LT] What is an Arbalest?
Yep, you can tell what Gurps means by the stats it gives. In the Real World there were and are no precise definitions of weapon names. Try nailing down "carbine" some time.
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Fred Brackin |
06-22-2015, 02:06 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: [LT] What is an Arbalest?
Musket or rifle cut down in size for the use of cavalry. I think a similar is musketoon which is made just by slicing part of the barrel off rather then making it in factory.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
06-22-2015, 02:31 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [LT] What is an Arbalest?
A carbine is a stocked weapon that is shorter than some, but not all, rifles, and longer than some, but not all, pistols ;)
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06-22-2015, 02:45 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [LT] What is an Arbalest?
Quote:
It's the "contemporary" that's the key weasel word. During the US Civil War carbines had 32" barrels.
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Fred Brackin |
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06-22-2015, 03:01 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [LT] What is an Arbalest?
Quote:
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06-22-2015, 03:56 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Cincinnati, OH
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Re: [LT] What is an Arbalest?
Quote:
But if the person who statted it was just using the standard crossbow rules, rather than trying to model likely real-world performance, then it makes sense. Assume a draw ST of 30 and a steel prod, and the damage and range work out right, except that the 1/2 damage range is slightly low. Then arbitrarily inflate the price and weight, since the technology is so new. |
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06-23-2015, 01:13 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: [LT] What is an Arbalest?
Quote:
I have no idea where Wikipedia gets the idea about steel bows, but as far as I know they appear around the 14th through 16th centuries not the 12th. Arbalest is just Englished Frenched Latin arcuballista "bow-shooter" so it is just as vague as English crossbow. Many Medieval Latin sources just say "ballista" for all shooting machines from the kind that could be loaded on horseback to the kind which needed a team of men to move them from the store-room onto the wall when enemies approached.
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