[gurps] [Worldbuilding] Intriguing concept

[Volker Bach]

Am Mittwoch, 5. Juli 2006 12:19 schrieb Rupert Boleyn:

> Small numbers of elite cavalry using bows vs heavy infantry tends to be
> a stalemate. As soon as the infantry gets some half decent cavalry,
> it's all over for the other side. Therefore, this will only work if the
> amazons are culturally superior in some way to the others.

A warrior culture can already do wonders if you're facing more peacefully 
inclined opponents. Central Asian nomans, with no tech advantage whatsoever 
against their settled neighbours, generation after generation terrorised, 
subjugated, plundered and raided them. Only very occasionally did the 
Chinese, Persians, Indians or Russians gain the upper hand prior to the 
'military revolution'. 

> This is especially the case given that even composite horse bows don't
> have the reach of a good footman's bow, and the amazons will have lwoer
> upper body strength than an opposong force of men, so they'll be forced
> to use weaker bows. At this point it starts looking like Turks vs
> Franks in the first crusade, and that did not end well for the horse
> archers.

Given the eventual outcome of the Crusades, that is not an assessment I would 
endorse. The First Crusade was a loss for the various Islamic armies for a 
variety of reasons, but hardly owing to inferior weaponry.

Volker


		
___________________________________________________________ 
Telefonate ohne weitere Kosten vom PC zum PC: http://messenger.yahoo.de