What the heck is that rope? Do they seriously ignite a rope and then take aim while the rope is burning, until it finally reaches the powder?
It's a slow-burning "match". Or fuse, in other words.
The gun is a matchlock. You press the "trigger" (technically not a trigger but whatever), fuse gets lowered into a pan and sets off the gunpowder, firing the gun.
The fuse usually remains lit, so you just remove it (sometimes they fall off so you just pick it up), pour in fresh gunpowder and a bullet and ram everything in, put the fuse back and take your next shot. On repeat.
These fuses tend to be quite thick to withstand the rigors of combat without getting snapped or put out easily. So they kinda look like ropes to people unfamiliar with them.
What the heck is that rope? Do they seriously ignite a rope and then take aim while the rope is burning, until it finally reaches the powder?
Man if only there was a way to access an "online encyclopedia" of some sort from here, or an internal wiki that includes an entry about matchlocks and how they work...
It's a slow-burning "match". Or fuse, in other words.
The gun is a matchlock. You press the "trigger" (technically not a trigger but whatever), fuse gets lowered into a pan and sets off the gunpowder, firing the gun.
The fuse usually remains lit, so you just remove it (sometimes they fall off so you just pick it up), pour in fresh gunpowder and a bullet and ram everything in, put the fuse back and take your next shot. On repeat.
This sounds incredibly... weird? I mean, I'm going to assume the fuse is some kind of waterproof thing that will resist rain, but still, this sounds unreliable. I'm surprised the samurai even considered using these, they were rather proud of their skills with bows.
This sounds incredibly... weird? I mean, I'm going to assume the fuse is some kind of waterproof thing that will resist rain, but still, this sounds unreliable. I'm surprised the samurai even considered using these, they were rather proud of their skills with bows.
back then, (sengoku era) they just assume of having new weapons from overseas to give them an edge in defeating their enemies, one of the examples was Nobunaga and that is why certain anime/game tend to depict him as the guy that make usage of firearms/cannons. After that well, people realize how ridiciously powerful gunpowder weapons that it was enough that "common" people trained with such weapons could easily outpower the old order as history shows anyway.
Lastly as someone in another site points, it takes a lot of training and practice with a bow. Flintlock firearms just require some training and how to operate it and some aiming practice and poof. Still not a perfect weapon, but it does CAN KILL a fully armored samurai.
back then, (sengoku era) they just assume of having new weapons from overseas to give them an edge in defeating their enemies, one of the examples was Nobunaga and that is why certain anime/game tend to depict him as the guy that make usage of firearms/cannons. After that well, people realize how ridiciously powerful gunpowder weapons that it was enough that "common" people trained with such weapons could easily outpower the old order as history shows anyway.
Lastly as someone in another site points, it takes a lot of training and practice with a bow. Flintlock firearms just require some training and how to operate it and some aiming practice and poof. Still not a perfect weapon, but it does CAN KILL a fully armored samurai.
I got the part about guns killing easily, but really... I dunno, I really wonder if the benefits are worth it, because between the complicated (if possible at all) firearm production, the need to rely on foreigners for new models (going to assume Japan can produce gunpowder locally, but producing the guns themselves is at best complex and at worst impossible given what I heard about Japan's iron), and the extreme inconvenience of gunpowder itself that might just not work if it's wet, if it's cold, if it rains (on an island, so it gotta rain often), or if someone hurts its feelings... I'm not a general, so I have no idea how good it is to have a weapon that people can be trained to use in mere weeks, but I know that the early firearms were not accurate enough to allow one to kill with "just a pressure of the finger". It's mostly with rifled barrels and refinement to firearm designs that muskets became accurate.
You are right, though, a bowman training takes easily months, if not years, and his performance depends wildly from the archer, the bow, and the arrows. For all its flaws and inconvenience, a firearm doesn't really care if the person firing it is thinking about his wife, his next meal, or how he's going to sneak in his neighbour's house and shit in his microwave. Maybe that's the main appeal, the fact that it raises the average performance? Through there's also a big morale impact, I saw movies emulating the effects of a volley fire, it's enough to make even a grown man panic.
I'm gonna reinstall Shogun 2 and try to actually use the gunners this time. See where it leads me.
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