Well maybe the crossbow's in our world... - Edit 1
Before modification by Crackbrained Asha'man at 29/11/2009 04:30:44 AM
Just found this. It's an undated report from a Jordan signing at some point post-KoD since KoD is referenced. See link below.
So I wonder if that was actually a bit of foreshadowing from Jordan. He wasn't asked about muskets, but mentioned them as a natural progression from bow to crossbow to musket. It's not out of place in terms of other technology being developed at that time, such as the steam engine from Rand's academy, etc., and of course Aludra's dragons. Just seems like they don't have a lot of time to develop it, perfect it, and test it. Or maybe I overestimate the sophistication of the earliest firearms.
Q: Was Mat’s use of crossbows in KoD based on the way crossbows were really used?
A: The thing that made crossbows better than longbows was that you could train someone to use a crossbow much faster than you could train them to use a bow. Then when muskets came along, they were better because they didn’t require much training, and the firing rate was improved.
A: The thing that made crossbows better than longbows was that you could train someone to use a crossbow much faster than you could train them to use a bow. Then when muskets came along, they were better because they didn’t require much training, and the firing rate was improved.
So I wonder if that was actually a bit of foreshadowing from Jordan. He wasn't asked about muskets, but mentioned them as a natural progression from bow to crossbow to musket. It's not out of place in terms of other technology being developed at that time, such as the steam engine from Rand's academy, etc., and of course Aludra's dragons. Just seems like they don't have a lot of time to develop it, perfect it, and test it. Or maybe I overestimate the sophistication of the earliest firearms.
I don't know how long crossbows 500 years ago took to reload but based on wikipedia and movies I've seen (great reliable historical reference's, I know) a civil war soldier was expected to get up to 3 decently aimed shots per minute. Now it probably would take two or three times longer to loose that many bolts with a crossbow in the 15th century but the bows Mat has can fire 6 or 7 bolts per minute. The one thing muskets definitely have over bows though is the physiological effect, seeing all that smoke and hearing those loud bangs and bullets whizzing by your head will definitely make you s*** your trousers.