Re: (TFT) Attribute ratings for real people

["Neil Gilmore" <raito@raito.com>]

> Thanks for the explanation on the rapier!  I was sure it wasn't a "real"
> banging around weapon, but I was sure messed up on the details I guess.

SOK. Heck, tonight I was correcting a young man on his statement that the
Romans never used steel (went to see Julius Caeser to night. Tepid
performance.)

> Longbow versus armor or not?:  I'm surprised there are no contemporary
> accounts!  I'd've thunk this could be settled easily by any competent
> metallurgist in minutes with a reference book and calculator.  Most of the
> standard tests of ductility, hardness and so on involve slamming a little
> pointed weight into a chunk of metal, and the quality of metal back then
is
> easy to determine now, as the metal has often survived and the aging
process
> is well understood.  How come nobody has settled that question?   Wow.
(Maybe
> you should dig up a metallurgist and write a paper.)

It's more complicated than it looks to do. First off, one has to pick a
specific period, for which all the correct data is available (which may not
be able to be done), then using that data. Some of the mail scolars are
still dealing with the metallurgical ramificaions of new finds and stuff,
like was the wire drawn or forged (which seems to vary according to time and
place). Most of the comtemprary accounts I've seen have problems. Usually,
it's either using too weak a bow or arrow, or rigidly fixing the armor in
place. Id' you're talking later 1300's, you have plate over mail over
padding on body that moves when hit.

> Regarding the longbow not destroying the armored knight type warfare,
wouldn't
> that be a function of the fact that most futile feudal lords dared not
emulate
> the English practice of giving the peasants a weapon capable of punching
> through armor?  Come to think of it, the Middle Eastern composite bows
were a
> better weapon than the long bow even.  Maybe you could try and settle it
this

The composite bow was not better in the northern European climate, which was
damp. The sinew tends to stretch, and the bone and/or horn gets soft.

Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com
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