*Mini Crossbow Video* Real Life Assassin's Mini-Crossbow: The Balestrino
WithinAmnesia
Member Posts: 958
Behold an interesting Mini-Crossbow called a Balestrino! Perhaps within Advanced Dungeons and Dragons one could treat it like a tiny sized heavy crossbow or have -1 damage and or reduced range or something but it could be used as a 'one handed' weapon with a shield or something for even with a shield this cool 'gadget' could be successfully drawn and then loosed. Mayhaps since the Balestrino is so small that it cannot shoot 'regular bolts', so it shoots darts instead?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se_N8CrooPY&feature=iv&src_vid=ly7bU_3EkH0&annotation_id=annotation_3299378715
Hey it exists within real life! I think that it should have ten times more priority than say some random fictional theoretical stuff in Dungeons and Dragons. As an example: proficient use on a battlefield with double ended weapons dealing double damage even though one's strike is hampered by swinging around a blade or something pointing towards oneself and losing potential energy when transitioning the weapon's ends one after the other like using a kayak paddle.. Further discussion about 'Impractical Double Weapons' can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPXOOKEnvoQ
P.S. How would it be to say, intercept 'Dan the [would be] Assassin' from assassinating a high ranking noble on the road to go to a city and when you found Dan he would shoot your party with a super deadly poisoned dart and then enter 'ninja combat' and then after that epic battle you find a neat 'cute' little unique Balestrino (Assassin's Crossbow) +1 and a Ninjato of the Walking Garden something?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se_N8CrooPY&feature=iv&src_vid=ly7bU_3EkH0&annotation_id=annotation_3299378715Hey it exists within real life! I think that it should have ten times more priority than say some random fictional theoretical stuff in Dungeons and Dragons. As an example: proficient use on a battlefield with double ended weapons dealing double damage even though one's strike is hampered by swinging around a blade or something pointing towards oneself and losing potential energy when transitioning the weapon's ends one after the other like using a kayak paddle.. Further discussion about 'Impractical Double Weapons' can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPXOOKEnvoQP.S. How would it be to say, intercept 'Dan the [would be] Assassin' from assassinating a high ranking noble on the road to go to a city and when you found Dan he would shoot your party with a super deadly poisoned dart and then enter 'ninja combat' and then after that epic battle you find a neat 'cute' little unique Balestrino (Assassin's Crossbow) +1 and a Ninjato of the Walking Garden something?
Post edited by WithinAmnesia on
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Comments
Secondly, their range is tiny. 50 m is probably the biggest number you will get. Compare that to a longbow (300 - 500 m, depending on make and source), a crossbow (about 200 m) or a horse bow (150 - 250 m).
That ties into their third problem which is that the reload takes forever. 10 seconds (which is happening in the video there) is a long time to reload a weapon as weak as that. Comparing them with longbows, an english archer-platoon during the Hundred Year War could fire off 20 arrows a minute, and that wasn't even the maximum speed. They fired the arrows in volleys every 3 seconds, the captain or sergeant shouting the pace.
That doesn't mean they wouldn't have their uses. A Ballestrino can be concealed easily enough, and it would be a good assassins tool. In a crowd you could easily fire one of those without anyone noticing anything. With a poisoned arrow tip it may even end up killing your mark. But you still only get one shot with it since the reload takes too long to use in actual combat. And you have to get really close since the range is poor.
Personally I would just take a normal crossbow, and shoot my bolts from a rooftop somewhere. With a standard crank-type crossbow the reload also takes only a few seconds.
PS. Not related to crossbows but about archers. A properly trained english longbowman could actually fire 3 arrows in 2 seconds into a target (and while moving as well) which makes Legolas or Arrow look like amateurs. Hunnic or Mongolian horse archers could do the same on horseback but with a smaller bow. For any disbelievers, I can provide video upon request.
For a very small crossbow, a different bolt design would help, one designed only for penetration in place of wound size as most are designed... a very, very sharp with a really tappered point might puncture more easily. You wouldn't be lethal likely, but could deliver a toxin.
@Yannir Mongolian archers could shoot accurately at full gallop, backwards. If cavalry could do that with a gun, they wouldn't have been outdated until tanks.
Double swords are pretty dumb, unless you have trained ridiculously for the benchpress, and even then, a longsword and a much shorted blade is less silly, but the shield was only something a warrior liked losing the use of if they got serious reach (claymore), or had an agile weapon with enough power to guarantee any decent strike being very damaging (ie a katana).
A good halberd user wouldn't hesitate to whack with the butt of his weapon, and those could easily be reinforced with metal, as quarterstaffs often were.
I think the dire flail from 3rd ed is about the most unwise weapon I've heard of... a heavy spiked ball on a long chain on each side of the handle?? Yeah, the average trainee would be dead/maimed in minutes.
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Also a Balestrino is not a Hand Crossbow. Here is why that is the case:
Hand Crossbow:
Notice that the mechanism to draw the bow string is made so that the hand can fully draw it into the locking mechanism.
Balestrino:
Notice that the mechanism to draw the bow string is made so that only a torque screw mechanism can successfully draw the bow string into the locking mechanism. Also note that the the designer saw it fit to use leverage to assist in the operation of the 'drawing screw'. I presume this for a Balestrino is not a Hand Crossbow because a Balestrino has a much higher draw weight than a hand operated "Hand Crossbow".
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TL;DR @Kamigoroshi 's classification is wrong, a Balestrino is akin to a 'one handed' Heavy Crossbow while a Hand Crossbow is a kin to a 'one handed' Light Crossbow. This is the reality for a Balestrino cannot be drawn by hand unlike a Hand Crossbow.
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You may have seen this one. Most of Lars's claims have been criticized and a certain degree of scepticism is welcome in this case. Generalisations usually aren't as simple as they seem. I warmly recommend seeing the response videos as well.
The fact is that he really does this stuff, and I can imagine that people in history had more time on their hands to practice archery, since archery was an actual profession back in the day. Or bow-hunting was, anyway.
Here's another video specific to longbows. Kevin Hicks is doing a speed test here but I see a few problems with it. He isn't actually using any speed-shooting techniques, which an english archer would use. After all, it did take years to train an english archer, strength-training wasn't the only thing they did.
Lars Anderson is very good, but bear in mind a lot of what he does is trick-shooting, which are specially constructed shots and probably 100,000 takes that you don't see. Also he uses modified nocks, not the usual slotted ones, and he shoots mainly at close range. I can't believe that the English were so stupid that they've been doing it wrong for 500 years, so the standard "left side of the bow" technique must have had some advantages that suited their style of shooting. I would guess that it was more accurate at longer ranges, or lets you pull more poundage, but I can't verify this.
As for the double-bladed sword...I did once look for examples of one, and the only thing I could find was some LARP style shop selling one as a "ronin sword", with nothing to say who used it, how, where, and why, leading me to believe that it didn't exist outside of D&D3e. I think a weapon like that would be better with a longer shaft and shorter blades - more like a double-ended spear/glaive. Double ended weapons aren't a new thing, most pollaxes had a spike on the bottom.
Finally, you can shoot with a hat like that! I've done it!
I also don't think there ever was a standard to which side of the bow you knock your arrow on. Artistic depictions are what they are, mostly not accurate. Especially since accurate depictions weren't particularly popular before the 20th century. Accurate depictions only came into being by request of scientists. I bet many artists picture archers knocking on the left because their eyes are on that side of the bow and that makes sense to them. That may or may not be true in regards to archery.
After all, it's common knowledge these days that the best way to aim is using both eyes, not just one. Atleast in military circles. It's not unfathomable that the archers of yore may have known this as well.
Start @ 7:02.
I do not want my fellow friends here (including you and I) to become pedantic though.
Pedantic Definition: "Like or of a person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning."