[LT] What is an Arbalest?

[GodlessRose]

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:

Arbalest (TL3)
A medieval weapon resembling a large crossbow; in fact, crossbows are sometimes called “arbalests.” Here the name is used for a larger weapon. A built-in winch supplies power.

It says it resembles a crossbow, but I'm unsure if it is literally a crossbow. If it is, is it supposed to be an early model of steel crossbow, as Wikipedia suggests?

[Anthony]

The arbalest in LT appears to be a large tripod-mounted crossbow.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The arbalest in LT appears to be a large tripod-mounted crossbow.

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.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The arbalest in LT appears to be a large tripod-mounted crossbow.

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.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

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.

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.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

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.

A carbine is a stocked weapon that is shorter than some, but not all, rifles, and longer than some, but not all, pistols ;)

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Anthony

A carbine is a stocked weapon that is shorter than some, but not all, rifles, and longer than some, but not all, pistols ;)

If I had to give a definition I'd end up in a Mobius strip recursion where carbines are shorter than contemporary weapons called rifles and rifles are longer than contemporary weapon called carbines.

It's the "contemporary" that's the key weasel word. During the US Civil War carbines had 32" barrels.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

If I had to give a definition I'd end up in a Mobius strip recursion where carbines are shorter than contemporary weapons called rifles and rifles are longer than contemporary weapon called carbines.

It's the "contemporary" that's the key weasel word. During the US Civil War carbines had 32" barrels.

Nah, it's not a sufficient weasel word. A M4 carbine has a 14.5" barrel, a Steyr AUG carbine has a 16" barrel. You can find modern "short barrel rifles" in .223 that have 10" barrels. "Short barrel rifle" is an actual well-defined term (barrel length <16") since it's used in the NFA, but it's still called a rifle.

[GodlessRose]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

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.

The stats are what got me wondering. At first I figured it was meant to be a huge crossbow ad turnum, but it looks amazingly powerful for a crossbow. The price looks high, too. I've read that a crossbow ad turnum cost several times the price of a one-foot crossbow, but not this much.

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.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by GodlessRose

The stats are what got me wondering. At first I figured it was meant to be a huge crossbow ad turnum, but it looks amazingly powerful for a crossbow. The price looks high, too. I've read that a crossbow ad turnum cost several times the price of a one-foot crossbow, but not this much.

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.

I agree that the authors probably used either the LT crossbow rules or some blend of the old Vehicles rules and the GURPS gun damage formula, but I would not worry too much about what assumptions they used.

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.