With an M-16 I could hit a man-sized target at 400 metres, easily. And I was not a sniper; that’s just how accurate they are. My C7A1 was a marvel of engineering. They’re designed so that almost anyone can be a decent shot with them with the most rudimentary of training.
400 metres is distant to the point that it would be difficult for the targets to even know what direction the shots were coming from.
How about this? I’d go to Wal Mart and buy as many cheap walkie talkies and rechargeable batteries as I could carry and let the generals figure out the rest. Also bring solar-powered rechargers.
This idea hinges on battle conditions that allow complex, coordinated tactics. Better comms wouldn’t be much of an advantage in a straight ahead slugfest like Agincourt. I’d need a few weeks for my witchcraft trial and to train the commanders on their use, so I hope this doesn’t break the scenario.
“How does it, um…how does it work?”
<Book of Armaments is consulted>
“One, two, four!”
“Three, sir!”
“Three!”
On the other hand, a post-firearm enemy at least understands what a gun is, and what it looks like when you’re hit by one, even if they can’t anticipate the actual range. A pre-firearm society will have absolutely no frame of reference. They’ll be walking along, and all of sudden, someone chest pops open in a gory mess. There’s no arrow, there’s no one in sight, there’s only a sharp noise, and someone starts bleeding explosively. And then it happens again. And again. After three or four of those, I think you’ve got a good chance of the entire force breaking and running in absolute panic. I’d be surprised if they even thought to look for a human cause.
Actually, in that sort of situation, you might be able to stand down an entire army with just a pistol, if you do it right. Get a parley before battle, and say you’re willing to face their greatest warrior in single combat. You offer to fight him with no sword and no armor. He can bring whatever weapons he wants. Winner takes all. He shows up for the fight, you put a bullet between his eyes, and ask “Who’s next?” Sure, you’ve only got five or so more shots. But you’re also the only person on the battlefield who knows that. To everyone else, you’re the guy who can point at someone and make their head explode.
Do you really think people were such superstitious simpletons back then? That sounds more like movie trope than the reality. And you aren’t going to like what they do to you when you run out of bullets.
I think people are superstitious simpletons now. I don’t see any reason why it would be different back then.
Except they don’t know about bullets, do they? They have no reason to think I can’t do that an infinite number of times. Maybe all at once, to all of them. If they decide to fight me anyway, yeah, I’m fucked, but the idea is to spook them out of even trying that.
It worked for Joan of Arc
Well that’s what I mean. It’s a pretty big gambit. Maybe your gun jams when you need one more shot to convince them. Or suddenly you get an arrow in your back, or any other exposed area. See back then, they knew what torture was about. They weren’t going to be asking you where Bin Laden is hiding, they’d just make you suffer until they got bored. Maybe a priest makes a show of saving your soul. He wouldn’t stop the torture though. Probably have money on how long you survive.
I didn’t say it would be easy.
Not sure what the torture’s all about.
That’s what happens to guys who try to fuck with the king’s army using a boom stick. Wallace was drawn and quartered in the end, and he only had congruous weapons.
And that… makes people less frightened of guns?
No. That makes sensible people more frightened of using them to fuck with the King’s army in a risky manner like that. Maybe you scatter the enemy, or maybe you get to see what your innards look like. Your not assasinating Hitler here, you’re helping William Wallace murder sassenach if it was real. If it’s just the movie, you’re helping Mel Gibson murder them. Hardly worth getting tortured for.
Okay, granted. But why are you telling me this? I didn’t write the OP.
The first man-carried firearms appeared circa the 14th century in Western Europe, probably earlier than that in the East. Prior to that, it was mostly just siege cannon.
As for the impact of the modern soldier, if I’m not mistaken the conventional kit of a US trooper is 6 mags, plus the one already in the rifle. That gives him 210 or so rifle shots if he doesn’t get horribly murdered before he’s done shootin’, plus maybe a couple dozen for his sidearm. Even if they somehow all hit and disable a different soldier, that’s a drop in the bucket when we consider the numbers involved in your average medieval rumpus.
As for snipers decapitating leadership, possibly not that much - in the West at least noblemen frequently did their own thing regardless of what the actual leaders wanted them to do. Which honestly was probably for the best, considering battlefield coms were not exactly up to specs back then. Most of the strategery happened before the battle, not during it ; while tactics were mostly improvised on the spot based on what people could see, what they’d been trained to do in such or such situation, and what the other guys seemed to be doing.
I started by responding to post #43. Others had also brought up the ‘cow them with the boom stick’ concept.
I think that taking down a few Percys at Bosworth Field might change things somewhat, or maybe just the one Henry.
As per the OP, our time traveling soldier has picked sides in a battle which means he has an entire army on his side. All he has to do is enough damage to the enemy to give his side the advantage in a battle. He doesn’t even need to kill that many people just slow the enemy down and break their will to fight.
Well, try to put it in a modern frame of reference. Suppose you’re in a bivouac area with your buddies having lunch. You’ll all nervous as you expect combat in the next 24 hours.
And then suddenly Biff’s eyes widen, and he DISSOLVES. He literally metls right in front of you. Really fast, though not to ofast for him to scream a little.
And while you’re all saying “What the fu…” suddenly Jim melts into a puddle of goo.
And then Jamal shrieks, because he’s melting, too.
People scramble, holy shit! You jump into your slit trench, which you share with Greg. You look around. You can’t see a damned thing - no enemies, no indication at all of where the melting weapon is shooting from, if it shoots at all.
“Let’s get our heads down” says Greg, and you think that’s a pretty good idea. You both huddle down out of sight… and then Greg screams and melts.
I don’t know about you, but at this point the only thing that would slow down my panicked flight would be the lump of shit in my pants.
Night vision goggles don’t make you invulnerable. If the Japanese and or the Vietcong ever actually did this (I imagine such stories might be more legend than reality, especially since the way I heard it, it was the Americans doing the throat slitting of the Vietcong) they did it without the benefit of night vision goggles. “Sneak up on them and kill them while they’re sleeping,” is one of the oldest tactics there is. Any ancient or medieval army worth its salt would take precautions against night attacks, such as palisades, sentries, dogs, watch fires, etc.
Plus, they know more about bladed weapons than you’ll ever know, and quite a few things about stealth and “brigandry”, too. Your sole advantage is your firearms and explosives. Use it.
Well, if me and my comrades are sitting in the HumVee and we see a guy from the future pop out of nowhere (you know he’s from the future because he’s wearing a silver jumpsuit) and before your buddy dissolves the future guy’s forehead glows red, then I’d pop a cap in his ass right away. He might get me, or someone else, but theres about 5000 more of us watching this, and everybody starts shooting this guy. When a bullet actually hits him, he’s down, 'cause he’s from the future, not magical. And since he’s killed our buds we waterboard him. Then we tie him up somewhere and take pictures of him before we kill him and fill out a report that says he died in a traffic accident.
Your assumption is that soldiers are a bunch of pussies. I don’t think it works out that neatly. Akin to what I said before, maybe you get away with it, and maybe you get waterboarded before dying in a traffic accident.