Dragon-portable weapons?

On Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:00:49 -0700, Will in New Haven wrote:

> On Jul 11, 10:08 am, Tim Fitzmaurice <tj... DeleteThis @cam.ac.uk> wrote:

>> Rifling came first from memory. For mass use not that long before
>> because of just the reason you mention.
>
> Rifling came first. At least there were muzzle-loading rifles. The
> earliest Kentucky long-rifles, the Baker rifle that the English rifle
> units used in the Napoleonic wars, etc. They were all muzzle-loaded.
> Reloading was much slower than with a musket so the units that used them
> operated as scouts, scirmishers, snipers and did not generally stand to
> line of battle.

Also, British riflemen carried two types of shot: A full sized ball,
which was slow to load and gripped the rifling, and a smaller ball that
could be quickly loaded but did not grip the rifling.

--
Phoenix

On Tue, 8 Jul 2008 14:26:30 -0700 (PDT), Dave Van Domelen
<dvandom.RemoveThis@haven.eyrie.org> wrote:
[...]
> Don't underestimate the value of low-tech solutions that become more
> effective with the addition of aerial mobility. Packages of darts released
> from a great height and with high terminal velocity could be used against
> targets with strong frontal defenses but open tops, as most improvised
> fieldworks will be.

Big heavy rocks dropped from a great hight can also be quite
effective even things with hardened tops.