DrBlackJack21
Acolyte
Ok, long story short, I'm writing a sci-fi/fantasy that takes place on an alien world in a primitive setting. The natives' technology ranges from the stone age to the late bronze age. They are just discovering how to make primitive steel using bog iron but just began gathering in real villages maybe a thousand years ago, give or take. The MC is a human who got stranded on the planet and is working with a group of natives to set up an outpost, but things like raiders are a real danger, and they are badly outnumbered.
The natives are larger and stronger than humans, and naturally grow a kind of bone plate mail. As a result, ranged warfare never really developed because primitive ranged weapons were simply too ineffectual. However, the MC is looking to change this by bypassing a few thousand years of development and helping them learn how to make weapons that could overcome their natural defenses. Given their technological development and lack of infrastructure guns are out of the question, so he's looking into archery.
At the moment he's looking into recursive bows, but the one area the aliens are at a disadvantage compared with humans is in their endurance, so aiming a drawn bow will be challenging, despite their greater strength. Eventually, he's going to settle on a modified version of the gastraphetes (belly bow) which can take advantage of their greater size and mass (I'm guessing their be able to get draw strength's close to 500 or 600 with their mass though I haven't settled on those numbers), but doesn't require the same level of endurance to hold with a drawn arrow.
The next problem he's going to face is all the energy that's released when the arrows shatter on impact against the bone plate. Up until now, I've been able to look at real historical examples of where to go, but I'm at a kind of loss of what to do with the arrows themselves.
I've got three ideas so far. 1: Simply make the arrows thicker. 2: Make the arrows out of iron or steel. 3:make a traditional arrow with steel reinforcement (A thin band stretching from the arrowhead to the fletching.). All three will seriously increase the weight of the arrows, but I'm hoping this would be offset by the greater draw strength, and they should all project a lot more energy into the target before the arrow bends or breaks. I'm also open to other ideas, keeping in mind the primitive technological capacity of the world.
Since all my education in this subject has been what I could discover via google and youtube, I was hoping someone with more practical experience or wider knowledge might be able to offer some insight. Regardless, I appreciate any thoughts you all might have on the subject!
(Here's a link to the story if anyone's interested enough to read it, but it's a long one, and I don't expect anyone to bother with it just to answer this question.) Book 1
The natives are larger and stronger than humans, and naturally grow a kind of bone plate mail. As a result, ranged warfare never really developed because primitive ranged weapons were simply too ineffectual. However, the MC is looking to change this by bypassing a few thousand years of development and helping them learn how to make weapons that could overcome their natural defenses. Given their technological development and lack of infrastructure guns are out of the question, so he's looking into archery.
At the moment he's looking into recursive bows, but the one area the aliens are at a disadvantage compared with humans is in their endurance, so aiming a drawn bow will be challenging, despite their greater strength. Eventually, he's going to settle on a modified version of the gastraphetes (belly bow) which can take advantage of their greater size and mass (I'm guessing their be able to get draw strength's close to 500 or 600 with their mass though I haven't settled on those numbers), but doesn't require the same level of endurance to hold with a drawn arrow.
The next problem he's going to face is all the energy that's released when the arrows shatter on impact against the bone plate. Up until now, I've been able to look at real historical examples of where to go, but I'm at a kind of loss of what to do with the arrows themselves.
I've got three ideas so far. 1: Simply make the arrows thicker. 2: Make the arrows out of iron or steel. 3:make a traditional arrow with steel reinforcement (A thin band stretching from the arrowhead to the fletching.). All three will seriously increase the weight of the arrows, but I'm hoping this would be offset by the greater draw strength, and they should all project a lot more energy into the target before the arrow bends or breaks. I'm also open to other ideas, keeping in mind the primitive technological capacity of the world.
Since all my education in this subject has been what I could discover via google and youtube, I was hoping someone with more practical experience or wider knowledge might be able to offer some insight. Regardless, I appreciate any thoughts you all might have on the subject!
(Here's a link to the story if anyone's interested enough to read it, but it's a long one, and I don't expect anyone to bother with it just to answer this question.) Book 1