OT: Archery in combat

[Suicide Junkie]

StrategiaInUltima said:
Just speculating... what if Napoleon had used one Longbow? Firing guns and anti-tank missiles from a kilometre away, he could have wiped out the combined British and Russian armies without them even knowing what was hitting them...

One Longbow with infinite ammo and fuel?

I suppose he could drag it within range of one of the capitals, and use the rockets to blow up their seat of government.
It could turn the tide in one major battle, and instill fear in the entire army if you don't reveal the lack of supply, ordnance and spare parts. Not to mention capable pilots.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

One modern, nuclear powered aircraft carrier, fully supplied, in any time period up to 1950.

What could it do? (Be an interesting story...)

[Suicide Junkie]

One decent modern-day library would probably trump them all in the hands of an open-minded society.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Depends how long they would have to prepare.

[Suicide Junkie]

As long as it appears at a reasonable time before the collapse of the civilization, and they have somebody who understands the "olde" version of the language the books are written in, they should be OK.

[Deth B0y]

Suicide Junkie said:
One decent modern-day library would probably trump them all in the hands of an open-minded society.

One word: 1632. It's a series of books from Baen Publishing, that deals with a small town (from west virginia, of all places) being transported intact to 1632 Germany, and how they deal with it and such. The Baen forums have entire sections dedicated to discussing the way our tech would transfer to their time, etc. It's pretty interesting, all told.

So far as longbows go, my thought is simple: thier hard to manufacture in terms of men, bows, and arrows. If it were my call i'd use them as snipers hiding in forested areas to demoralize the other troops and force them to use men and ammunition trying to flush them out. To use them en masse might work a few times, but i just can't envision a scenario where they'd really make a huge difference. Another thing to consider is that - for a great while there - the tactics of europe were pretty standardized on the "line up and shoot at the enemy" model; this is often brought up in reference to the geurilla tactics employed by the americans during the revolutionary war.

Just a thought,
Deth

[geoschmo]

Forget the USS Voyager. Napoleon could have acchieved his dreams and been Emporor of Europe with a couple dozen 5 dollar walkie-talkies from Radio Shack. Just a little better real-time battlefield communication and he probably could have turned Waterloo around.

[dogscoff]

One modern, nuclear powered aircraft carrier, fully supplied, in any time period up to 1950.

What could it do? (Be an interesting story...)

Fall into disrepair and irradiate something big?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

dogscoff said:

Fall into disrepair and irradiate something big?

I nominate that for best answer yet.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Broken Arrow! That would do the trick. It could easily destroy a Nimitz aircraft carrier, fighters or not.