A pike with an archery bow built in about 5 feet from the bottom that can be either pivoted to fire at the optimum angle or statically attached so the whole pike would be tilted to the optimum firing angle.
This would allow the soldiers in ancient armies to be both archers and pikemen, loosing their arrows at the enemy then attacking with their pikes.
Plus it's a bassoon.
Scratch that... ten foot tall tuba. Reeds would be too hard to manage on the battle field.-- doctorremulac3, May 21 2019 Arrowpike https://www.dropbox.../Arrowpike.png?dl=0Improved with trident, cymbals and bassoon. Pretty snazzy banner too. [doctorremulac3, May 21 2019] Adding sound to this weapon of conquest https://www.youtube...watch?v=ouJDvdg7EZIHere's a big flute. Pretty scary sounding. [doctorremulac3, May 21 2019] Big trumpet https://www.youtube...watch?v=j7Xxo--n_xM [doctorremulac3, May 21 2019] This is the sound I'd want. https://www.youtube...watch?v=7xRAbmudTkgGetting a bit unpractical though. [doctorremulac3, May 21 2019] War Tubas http://www.douglas-...MS/ear/ear.htm#japnBuilt by the Japanese ... [8th of 7, May 22 2019] Wikipedia: Republic XF-84H Thunderscreech https://en.wikipedi...-84H_ThunderscreechMentioned in my anno. Loudest aircraft ever built. Could be heard 40 km away when running on the ground. Nausea, headaches, seizures, and knocking-down were caused by the sound alone. [notexactly, May 27 2019] This is what it would sound like. https://www.faceboo...el/1156078249419479 [doctorremulac3, Nov 07 2024] Better illustration https://www.dropbox...yu&st=03oiyj36&dl=0 [doctorremulac3, Nov 10 2024] Are you envisaging the bow running at right-angles to the pike, to form a sort of a cross? I'd expect that asking the arrow to travel along the length of the pike would be problematic.
Of course, you could always use the pike as a sort of long longbow.-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 21 2019 If this was a good idea, it would have been done.
Archers need to maximise upper-body mobility and flexibility, so wear little or no armour. They use a stand-off weapon, so they don't need it anyway unless it All Goes Horribly Wrong.
Pikemen wear armour and helmets. They also typically carry swords. They fight at close quarters.
The technology, equipment and tactics of pre-modern warfare was evolved in the unforgiving environment of battle. Anything that gave a marginal advantage was pounced on and used.
Archers are highly trained troops and it makes no sense to risk them in close quarters fighting. At Agincourt, as at many other battles, the good guys carried stakes as well as their bows to hammer into the ground as a defence against cavalry.
It's like aircraft carriers. The sword and shield of an aircraft carrier is its air group. Anything that detracts from that weakens the weapon. Air and anti-ship defence is best performed by escort vessels.
If an archer carries anything beside his bow, it should be extra arrows; and without constant practice, a pikeman will be a very indifferent and ineffective bowman.-- 8th of 7, May 21 2019 Firing a bow doesn't really do anything to help launch the projectile.-- pocmloc, May 21 2019 No, but being hit by a two metre length of burning wood can spoil your whole day.-- 8th of 7, May 21 2019 I don't think they're that easy to light?-- pocmloc, May 21 2019 Not if you give the mission to Light Infantry ...-- 8th of 7, May 21 2019 //Are you envisaging the bow running at right-angles to the pike, to form a sort of a cross?//
Sort of. Here's what this would feature.
1- You could have a reasonably accurate angle of fire since the pike would be heavy enough to be hard to hold at any angle other than vertical and you could turn the bow inclination to marks on the pivot point. This would allow a group commander with an angled measurement scope device of some kind to call out the inclination to the entire group so all the arrows could fall in the same area.
2- It would fold perpendicular to the pike for hand to hand battle.
3- It makes every soldier an archer. They should all be highly trained in all aspects of the latest tools of combat or they have no business taking to the battlefield.
As far as designated archers being highly trained sissy boys who run and hide when the real fighting starts, I'd trade them all for real men and train them in all aspects of the arrowpike with assurances that the future, and all these lands will be theirs as the weak of body and mind, those of narrow vision and focus are swept aside as we, the vanguard of humanity, the keepers of science and logic, law and justice, the warriors of progress... TAKE CONTROL OF OUR DESTINY AND THE DESTINY OF ALL LUCKY ENOUGH TO FOLLOW US INTO THE FUTURE AND TO VICTORY!!!!!
VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
VIIIICTOOORRYYY!!!!!!!!
Plus after the battle you could use it as a spit and have a nice barbecue. (OK, got my caps lock unstuck, sorry about that.)-- doctorremulac3, May 21 2019 <aside>
[doc], you still have your underpants on your head, and there's a fleck of spittle on your chin. Also, more practice with the "MUHWHAHAHAHA ! YOU FOOLS ! I'LL CRUSH YOU ALL ! " needed.
</aside>
// They should all be highly trained in all aspects of the latest tools//
Military specilalization is a long recognised and absolutely essential technique.-- 8th of 7, May 21 2019 //you still have your underpants on your head//
That's actually a bronze helmet, but I now understand why you've been complaining about how uncomfortable your underwear is. It's important to differentiate between the two.
Not so sure we need to be that specialized in an age where we're just poking each other with sharp sticks.
This glorious tool of world conquest (although not sure why anybody would want to conquer a world where people in high society crapped in a bucket to show how fancy they were) ... where was I? Oh yea, this tool of world conquest would maximize manpower. The addition of the bow and a quiver of arrows is not much weight to add to a soldier carrying a 20 pound pike with another 20 pounds of armor.
I've also improved the design. It's heavier, but has a skid on one end and a strap so you pull it behind you instead of carrying it until you're ready to use it. I've increased the weight to about 30 pounds and added a trident feature to the kill area is wider. It also has a belt with an extension on one side onto which the soldier rests the pike when he's charging.
The heavy trident would be almost impossible to turn away with a shield as you get a 30 pound pike with a 120 pound man behind it running at full speed the only smart move is to run. At which point the Rumulon3 warrior raises the pike into arrow mode and fires at the fleeing foe.
My army would be well practiced in changing modes: pre-battle air barrage, close, charge, reconfigure and snipe and then repeat: close, charge, reconfigure and snipe until the enemy is defeated.
I'd throw battle banners on them too. Gotta look good when you're conquering you know.
Hmm. These should make a horrifying sound too. Cymbals that crash as the troops march maybe. Ohh, horns. These things are shaped like huge bassoons, you'd get a good solid bass note from it.
10,000 arrowpike bassoons being blasted as the army comes over the hill. The message would be clear: run.-- doctorremulac3, May 21 2019 Scratch that, it's a ten foot tall tuba. Reeds would be too hard to manage on the battle field.-- doctorremulac3, May 21 2019 <link>-- 8th of 7, May 22 2019 YES!!!
I think we've discussed this before, the long lost art of being scary and making your enemies run away, which is ironically a kinder, more humanitarian way to do battle.
Take these old sound gathering aircraft detection systems, smack a 500 watt amplified 48" sub, sub, sub woofer on each of those suckers and get that brown note going in the enemy ranks.
We won't discuss the brown note.-- doctorremulac3, May 22 2019 // a kinder, more humanitarian way to do battle.//
Are you aware that the beastly Huns used almost those exact words to justify their attack using Chlorine gas at Ypres in 1915 ?-- 8th of 7, May 22 2019 Well, I would say you'd have to take that up with the beastly huns. Avoiding hurting the other guys is a better approach to conflict. Killing them by burning their lungs with poison gas doesn't exactly sound humane.
By the way, this might have actual practical application in a movie or TV show like Game Of Thrones. Not a fan of the latter, tried to watch an episode, got about halfway through.-- doctorremulac3, May 23 2019 Doesn't this suggest that the Thunderscreech [link] should be put into production? When you hear its sound, you'll probably run away not out of fear of the plane's weapons, but out of fear of being hurt or killed by the sound itself.-- notexactly, May 27 2019 Found exactly what these would sound like. (link)-- doctorremulac3, Nov 07 2024 I think the pike section would separate from the bow and sound making system when going into battle. I'd keep the cymbals though because they could act as a shield.
So what I'd like to do is have an AI video of these going into battle. I'll post the results if I actually do anything with this. Just a silly little hobby project.-- doctorremulac3, Nov 10 2024 random, halfbakery