Quote Originally Posted by Vitruviansquid View Post
I'm very certain crossbows have been around since Constantine, if not Alexander the Great. Maybe you could justify an upgrade to a particular part of the crossbow? As I understand, Romans have been using technologies like it since before Constantine, in the form of larger scale catapults and scorpions.

I expect Genghis Khan knows about how non-Mongolians work succession, especially if we are talking about him after a few conquests, and he merely prefers traditional succession?

I'm actually curious what kinds of pre-requisites rifled cannons have. Were they only made possible after certain advancements in metallurgy, or would they have been possible but not obvious to Oda Nobunaga? According to Wikipedia's entry on "Rifling," the technique was known since the 16th century, but not widely used until the 19th century because black powder would foul the barrels.


I wonder how it plays out in your head to explain how to make TNT to Alexander the Great.
Crossbow was around during the time of Constantine, and during Alexander's time, the oxybeles (and gastraphetes?). That being said, ancient crossbow was nowhere near as advance, sophisticated and powerful as medieval crossbow

(and for some reason nobody thought of mounting a sight on the weapon until 16th century, I think)

The Mongol did have some sort of hereditary bloodline succession (the "Golden family" or Borjigin), it is just that succession crisis will happen regardless.

For Oda Nobunaga, the problem isn't just about the cannon, but transportation, ammunition, and gunpowder (very hard to move around heavy artillery in Japan, they had to import gunpowder material, and few iron resource)