Actually, in the books they used their guns quite a bit in combat. But the muskets were one-shot flintlocks and they often fought big groups, so after the first bullet it was sword-fighting time.
Plus, they were bound by the dueling culture of the time, where swords were preferred
Sometimes? ALWAYS. A musket unit was basically a pike unit that, every once in a while, made things that were out of arms’ reach go boom.
Heck, even as far as the Crimean War, there were arguments about whether you should train your musket and rifle units to fight with bayonets, and only sometimes do target practice, or train them to shoot things, and only sometimes do stabby practice. Before that point, stabby was absolutely the main thing to do, with shooty being secondary.
Second, yeah, that always bothered me as a kid. There’s ONE SCENE in the Three Musketeers where they use muskets. There are about a billion where they use swords.
I mean, NOW I understand that, when an elite unit is formed, it’s issued the best equipment available, even if that’s not the MAIN thing they use, and that, if the unit lasts a while, it will keep the name, even if the weapon in question becomes common enough that everybody gets one, or even obsolete. There are a bunch of elite tank units around the world called some variation of “The Royal Lancers”, for instance, even though few people stick lances on tanks. There are lots of Grenadier Guards, too, even though EVERYBODY gets grenades now.
… also, don’t you think grenades are not the greatest weapon for a guard?
Okay, now I want to see tank jousting with actual lances. Or better yet, those exploding lances from Fury Road. Or better yet, regular mounted-knight jousting with exploding lances. Or knights with exploding lances jousting while riding tanks.
Also I’m currently reading The Three Musketeers, and was not long ago reading the portion where the four guys were squaring off against a couple small charges at the siege and had at least a dozen guns between ’em, plus a servant just for reloading. Most of the city brawls were entirely sword (heck of a lot quieter when duels are actually illegal) but it seemed like outside city limits every man and his horse had at least three guns.
Poland kept lancers around even after WWI, when they were well-outdated. They tried to come out with modifications to make them useful against tanks, by attaching explosive charges to the end of lances.
It didn’t work, but you’ve got to give them credit for trying.
IIRC the fencing is a literally misconception. Musketeers were positioned in two ranks, one firing, one reloading. They carried swords, but there’s some dents that suggest musketeers preferred to club their opponents to death with their musket stocks if the fight came too close.
It’s one of those popular history misconceptions, like the one about medieval clergymen only using maces in combat (some people even extend this myth to crusaders).
You’d need a barrel of them, considering how long it takes to reload one of those suckers.
This is why they use swords. They started out as musketeers, then decided muskets suck.
Perhaps a Rickshaw would be better suited.
Actually, in the books they used their guns quite a bit in combat. But the muskets were one-shot flintlocks and they often fought big groups, so after the first bullet it was sword-fighting time.
Plus, they were bound by the dueling culture of the time, where swords were preferred
Reminds me of the first episode of ‘Sleepy Hollow’ where Crane fires one round from a Glock that Abbey gave him and he throws it away.
Paraphrasing:
“Why did you do that?”
“It was spent.”
“You have 9 more rounds.”
I’m happy that even in old-timey France the rival bug still finds time to wear anachronistically cool sunglasses.
sometimes they put a bayonet on the end of the barrel. Da Da you’ve got the best of both worlds.
Sometimes? ALWAYS. A musket unit was basically a pike unit that, every once in a while, made things that were out of arms’ reach go boom.
Heck, even as far as the Crimean War, there were arguments about whether you should train your musket and rifle units to fight with bayonets, and only sometimes do target practice, or train them to shoot things, and only sometimes do stabby practice. Before that point, stabby was absolutely the main thing to do, with shooty being secondary.
Screw swords. Is that also your review of into the badlands? Also you guys should do a commentary for Krull since Matt hasn’t seen that either
First, this is among my favorite titles.
Second, yeah, that always bothered me as a kid. There’s ONE SCENE in the Three Musketeers where they use muskets. There are about a billion where they use swords.
I mean, NOW I understand that, when an elite unit is formed, it’s issued the best equipment available, even if that’s not the MAIN thing they use, and that, if the unit lasts a while, it will keep the name, even if the weapon in question becomes common enough that everybody gets one, or even obsolete. There are a bunch of elite tank units around the world called some variation of “The Royal Lancers”, for instance, even though few people stick lances on tanks. There are lots of Grenadier Guards, too, even though EVERYBODY gets grenades now.
… also, don’t you think grenades are not the greatest weapon for a guard?
Okay, now I want to see tank jousting with actual lances. Or better yet, those exploding lances from Fury Road. Or better yet, regular mounted-knight jousting with exploding lances. Or knights with exploding lances jousting while riding tanks.
Also I’m currently reading The Three Musketeers, and was not long ago reading the portion where the four guys were squaring off against a couple small charges at the siege and had at least a dozen guns between ’em, plus a servant just for reloading. Most of the city brawls were entirely sword (heck of a lot quieter when duels are actually illegal) but it seemed like outside city limits every man and his horse had at least three guns.
Poland kept lancers around even after WWI, when they were well-outdated. They tried to come out with modifications to make them useful against tanks, by attaching explosive charges to the end of lances.
It didn’t work, but you’ve got to give them credit for trying.
IIRC the fencing is a literally misconception. Musketeers were positioned in two ranks, one firing, one reloading. They carried swords, but there’s some dents that suggest musketeers preferred to club their opponents to death with their musket stocks if the fight came too close.
It’s one of those popular history misconceptions, like the one about medieval clergymen only using maces in combat (some people even extend this myth to crusaders).
Wouldn’t being unclear who the bad guys are make your character kind of a bad guy himself?