On the Subject of Gunpowder

>>53687919
here is something to think about:
Gunpowder weapons predates all the armoured fencing manuals we know.

What is it with epaulettes on top of pauldrons? This is the thirt art with them I've seen in 24 hours.

>>53687919
There's a flow to things that you seem to have missed:

>Sieges are expensive, walls are hard to knock down
>Dude figures out you can lob balls at things with gunpowder, and it's really good at knocking down walls
>Cannon are really expensive but really good for sieges so everyone starts scraping together cash for their own
>Powder gets cheaper as demand goes up and manufacturing responds
>Cheaper powder lets people experiment with smaller cannon in counter-infantry roles
>Eventually you have state-run powder production as a necessary institution of warfare and handheld firearms

Notice how everything ties back to powder. You ain't doing shit without it. Guns are cheap and can last a hundred years, powder is the stuff so valuable they issued warrants to let people walk away with your wooden stable for the saltpeter. A large part of British naval dominance came from securing control of the saltpeter in India.

Small formations like private guards are unlikely to utilize early firearms in any significant role because they belch out too much smoke. Early modern warfare relied on mass formations to brute force visibility issues with volume of fire.

>>53687919
gunpowder spreads when war gets to the point that previus martial conventions break down

>>53688113
also the refinement of powder is a big thing
he faster and cleaner it burns the better the bang and thus the more powerfull the shot

>>53687919
>How quick

Depends on the state of technological R&D, trade access, and industrial capacity of a given region. Black powder wasn't refined for centuries and only existed as experimental weaponry in China for a long time. After that they became siege weapons, and eventually muskets.

Under the best conditions it would take hundreds of years for muskets and firearms to become the main weapon of said given region.

>>53687919
Gunpowder can spread fast but don't expect good guns in the first 300 years. It requires time and experiments to develop.

File: 1429664000654.jpg (435KB, 900x639px) Image search: [Google]

435KB, 900x639px

>What if gunpowder was invented by the Ancient Egyptians during the bronze age?

>>53689032
I doubt they'd have found much use for it beyond sieges.
Kinda like the Chinese didn't end up developing muskets, because their principal enemy at the time were horsenomad, against whom eraly guns were pretty useless.

>>53687919
Basic guns (tubes with a fuse hole) are way shittier than a good longbow and trained archers, but its easier to train people to load a gun, than draw a bow.

>>53688113
I wouldn't say guns are cheap, but they a are one time buy. They are also a lot easier to move then weight based system, and simpler than a torsion one.

>>53689863
>I wouldn't say guns are cheap, but they a are one time buy. They are also a lot easier to move then weight based system, and simpler than a torsion one.
A good cannon is expensive, but a matchlock would only run about a month's pay if I remember right. Expensive enough that you don't want to lose them, but cheap enough that you're willing to issue to them to people with a history of gambling debt and loose morals.