RJWB0mb Posted March 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 i thing this style of weaponery mabey the most effective but also the most difficult to actual hit the target. the speed and agility of a man in shard plate would be tricky to hit. anyone know the technological advancements in gun powder? and could a faberial be created to syphon away storm light? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurkistan he/him Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 (edited) i thing this style of weaponery mabey the most effective but also the most difficult to actual hit the target. the speed and agility of a man in shard plate would be tricky to hit. anyone know the technological advancements in gun powder? and could a faberial be created to syphon away storm light? I wouldn't hold that a man in shardplate is necessarily agile enough to avoid half-a-dozen ballista bolts. As far as I recall, Shardbearers had agility either equal-to or slightly higher-than the agility of an unarmored man -- the fact that they are that agile while encased in nigh-impervious armor is what is of note. Bolts fly pretty quickly, and aren't exactly easy to see or dodge. Remember also that Shardbearers tend to be highly visible during the entirety of a battle, easily targeted both before the lines meet and whenever they get bogged down for any length of time. Even if Shardbearers try to stay mobile, simply positioning your bolt-throwers to cover the toughest fighting will guarantee either that Shardbearers will come to you or that Shardbearers can't be utilized where and when they are most needed because of the deterrent of the bolt-throwers. Gunpowder is fairly hit-and-miss. It was first developed completely accidentally in the real world, and you would need either a similar accident or a thorough understanding of chemistry to get it in Roshar. Edited March 20, 2012 by Kurkistan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
name_here Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 Balistae aren't really single-target anti-infantry weapons. They're intended to break formations and fortifications, but using them to pick off a particular guy doesn't seem terribly reliable. I mean, I guess you could try and might get lucky often enough, but on a battle field missing someone in the middle of your own army will probably cause enough casualties that you're back to how many people you have and how little you care about their lives and might as well just issue a bunch of them warhammers. If you're going for seige weapons, a catapult loaded with a bunch of shotput-sized rocks might be better, because if you aim it at the Shardbearer before he enters your army you've got a better chance of a hit instead of punching a hole a few ranks deep right next to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurkistan he/him Posted March 20, 2012 Report Share Posted March 20, 2012 (edited) Balistae aren't really single-target anti-infantry weapons. They're intended to break formations and fortifications, but using them to pick off a particular guy doesn't seem terribly reliable. I mean, I guess you could try and might get lucky often enough, but on a battle field missing someone in the middle of your own army will probably cause enough casualties that you're back to how many people you have and how little you care about their lives and might as well just issue a bunch of them warhammers. If you're going for seige weapons, a catapult loaded with a bunch of shotput-sized rocks might be better, because if you aim it at the Shardbearer before he enters your army you've got a better chance of a hit instead of punching a hole a few ranks deep right next to him. *Ahem* *Cough* Apparently they were. Assuming less-than perfect accuracy, though, let's say a 20% chance of hitting a Shardbearer, I would say that it's still a good bet. Fire 10 bolts at a Shardbearer: 2 hit and he either dies or his plate is severely damaged. The 8 that miss either hit enemy troops or cause far less damage to your own line than it would take to disable a Shardbearer conventionally. We must also recall that Shardbearers don't typically wade into the middle other armies. The major Shardbearer-involving battles we saw involved Dalinar and Adolin fighting a few strides ahead of their own troops, breaking the enemy line while avoiding encirclement. Most misses on an enemy Shardbearer, therefore, would still do significant damage to the enemy, as well as weaken the enemy line near the Shardbearer. Even if misses hit your own troops, Dalina/Adolin—if I recall correctly—killed hundreds of Parshendi who tried the warhammer approach. A little blue on blue is almost certainly better than that. Edited March 24, 2012 by Kurkistan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voidus Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 Yea I think a Ballista is your best bet in terms of siege, a catapult is much more inaccurate, the scatter would be huge unless you were fairly close, and considering your shooting dozens of rocks at a time, you're more likely to hit your own army and kill quite a few people per shot. I think that either a ballista would be best, or dispersing teams of 10 or so crossbow men, with some cavalry for support throughout your army to counter them would work best. (or both, ballista for initial assault, crossbows dispersed for when they are to close to your own troops) I think 10 or so crossbow bolts to the same area of plate should probably shatter it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurkistan he/him Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 Yea I think a Ballista is your best bet in terms of siege, a catapult is much more inaccurate, the scatter would be huge unless you were fairly close, and considering your shooting dozens of rocks at a time, you're more likely to hit your own army and kill quite a few people per shot. I think that either a ballista would be best, or dispersing teams of 10 or so crossbow men, with some cavalry for support throughout your army to counter them would work best. (or both, ballista for initial assault, crossbows dispersed for when they are to close to your own troops) I think 10 or so crossbow bolts to the same area of plate should probably shatter it I agree that you're probably better off with a good diffusion of crossbows than relying entirely on ballistae. I got a bit sidetracked there, but ballistae are so cool. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voidus Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 Yea, Ever since I first played Age Of Empires I've been a bit obsessed with medieval warfare and most particularly siege weapons. Ballistae come in at #2 after trebuchets for me. But yea, I reined myself in before I started dreaming of teams of anti-shardbearer catapults So yea, good old crossbows are probably the best and safest way, much easier to disperse throughout the army and still somewhat useful even if they don't encounter a shardbearer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wisdom he/him Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 Combining two ideas, why not have a long corridor (no stormlight) with a ballista at the end you're trying to protect aiming down it. Bonus points if you can engineer the ceiling to slam down on the attacker - then just fire the bolt to force them to pause and activate the ceiling. Or even the walls, although you don't have gravity on your side then. Admittedly if Szeth noticed and was lucky in that he had rather large reserves of stormlight, he might be able to reverse the ceiling's gravity. Long shot though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aradel he/him Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 Nails or other spikes on the ceiling and walls. Other assorted traps that go off when stepped on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voidus Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 I think having a ballista in a corridor is a little impractical But yeah I suppose if you knew one was coming then that's not a bad idea. At the very least you'd get him to use up most of his stormlight switching from ground to ceiling to wall continuously. Add a couple of crossbows... actually now that I think about it, if it's just szeth then you don't really need a ballista Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odium's_Shard Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 If it was Szeth, who presumably carries lit gems, why wouldn't he reverse the gravity of all projectiles before/after they are fired at him? As far as we are aware, they are no inert options unlike Aluminium in Mistborn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triasmus Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 I believe that the only thing szeth could do with the projectiles without actually touching them is make the wall or a torch or whatever a grivity well, but isn't that the most expensive way of using his abilities? And if szeth (or any other windrunner with a shardblade) really wanted to get somewhere, they could just cut out huge chunks of stone from the wall and then lash those blocks away from the wall. There'd be no need for him to go down a long corridor with bows/crossbows/ballista pointed at him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odium's_Shard Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 It is actually noted that the Reverse Lashing is (contrarily) the most conservative use of Stormlight in his available powers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triasmus Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 Oh. I didn't know for positive... Obviously Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keeper Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 Ninja black eggs to the eyes(hollow eggs filled with either pepper juices or crushed glass), warhammers to the head from behind to break the helm and skull while he is blinded, bolts if army is close behind. (or cut him off fron his soldiers) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triasmus Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 Or szeth could cut out part of a wall and have it fall down the long hall with him standing on its back. or lying on its back on a comfortable mattress so it doesn't hurt as much to hit the wall . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voidus Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 Ah yes, I forgot about reverse lashings for a second, I was all caught up in solving everything with crossbows Yeah, I keep trying to think of something to use against Szeth, but his manoeuvrability just makes it darn near impossible. I think that actually the ballista might work then, even if it's bound by a reverse lashing, he still has to be near whatever he lashed it to, so yeah, at the very least he'd get knocked out by the flying stone chips. Of course there is the problem of how to force him to come down a corridor since, as has been pointed out walls are basically meaningless to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odium's_Shard Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 Ninja black eggs to the eyes(hollow eggs filled with either pepper juices or crushed glass), warhammers to the head from behind to break the helm and skull while he is blinded, bolts if army is close behind. (or cut him off fron his soldiers) The Shardplate has no seams, and so there is no way to decapitate them. Also, there is a possible use of visor to prevent the ninja black eggs (of which, incidentally, possession is banned in 25 separate countries due to their effectiveness and ability to be concealed). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeshdan he/him Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 Ah yes, I forgot about reverse lashings for a second, I was all caught up in solving everything with crossbows Yeah, I keep trying to think of something to use against Szeth, but his manoeuvrability just makes it darn near impossible. I think that actually the ballista might work then, even if it's bound by a reverse lashing, he still has to be near whatever he lashed it to, so yeah, at the very least he'd get knocked out by the flying stone chips. Of course there is the problem of how to force him to come down a corridor since, as has been pointed out walls are basically meaningless to him. If you have a good amount of area with no spheres around your saferoom, Szeth will have to use up most of his Light getting to you. That will remove one of his biggest advantages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odium's_Shard Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 Only solution: spiked walls. That'll stop that crazy baby from breaking up your precious architecture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triasmus Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 Until he cuts the spikes off with his shardblade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aradel he/him Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 Hey! I had the spikes idea too. Even if he cuts them, they will still slow him down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odium's_Shard Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 Enough time to fire a ballista into his side? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triasmus Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 and the spikes give him something nice and fairly heavy to send hurtling into the ballista/crew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odium's_Shard Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 Put bombs in all the walls at small intervals. He cuts the wall, KERBLAMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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