Revamp Dwarven ranged tactics | Fandom

Sleifer·5/10/2020 in Suggestions forum

Revamp Dwarven ranged tactics

So, yeah, perhaps some will hate this, but here goes;

Dwarves arent savages. Sure they like axes, and are seen throwing them sometimes, but they have discovered the art of archery, as also seen.

My suggestion is to replace the dwarven axe throwers with dwarven archers. And keep the throwing axes, and give them to dwarven warriors, to use like some units use spears, a ranged attack before getting into melee range.

Now, how can a short dwarven bow compare to the bows of men, elves and orcs? By the wonder of dwarven steel my friends! Dwarves are nothing but stout! So making bows of metal, so they can achieve the same force upon impact, and the same range despite their smaller size. Now, bows of wood may be cheaper, so why bother with dwarven stuff? As I said, they are stout. Durability. Metal is more durable than wood right?

So, make a new dwarven weapon, using dwarven steel rather than wood, with comparable damage and range, but higher durability than wooden counterparts. And revamp dwarven units, make ranged units archers with the new bows, and give warriors 1-2 throwing axes to use like spear soldiers use spears.

Not an unreasonable idea, right?

(edited by Sleifer)

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Sleifer·5/11/2020

Now, dont be hasty!

(edited by Sleifer)

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TheRealThr33Way·5/13/2020

I think crossbows would suit them better, possibly as much damage as an uruk one

(edited by TheRealThr33Way)

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OneBehindTheHair·5/13/2020

Crossbows existing at all is rather debatable. The Uruks shouldn't even have them, since they're mentioned to use longbows made of yew.

(edited by OneBehindTheHair)

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Jurassic Sean·5/13/2020

OneBehindTheHair wrote:
I'd personally make the bows made out of horn, as that's the kind of bow Thorin uses at one point in The Hobbit. Orcs (except Isengard, which should have yew longbows) should also have horn bows, but that's another thing.
Horn bows could be crafted with two horns in the place of the top and bottom sticks/ingots, with a Dwarven Steel Ingot replacing the middle stick.
I like the idea of throwing axes being like spears in the hands of melee units.

Real-world horn bows were used in Asia and were composite bows with a layer of horn glued onto the side of the bow facing the archer, and not actually made out of it. Therefore the more reasonable crafting recipe would be a normal bow pattern with a horn in the middle.

Jurassic Sean of Tol Hîth ^{Visit my Park!}

(edited by Jurassic Sean)

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Ritegaming·5/14/2020

The crossbows don't work lore-wise and in Reloaded or whatever you can just use the standard crossbows.

(edited by Ritegaming)

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A Fandom user·6/5/2020

This seems like a good suggestion exept for one thing: logic. How does dwarven steel which is a very strong material in middle earth bend easily so you can have a bow that works? If somene will be kind enough to explain this it would have 1 more supporter. (I myself hate dwarves being able to forge iron to something much stronger but can make bows)

(edited by A Fandom user)

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A Fandom user·6/5/2020

can't

(edited by A Fandom user)

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Aragost02·6/5/2020

I agree with this. Like some people say above, it would be better if the bows were made of horn.

(edited by Aragost02)

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The Godly Aeolus·6/6/2020

Quote:
This seems like a good suggestion exept for one thing: logic. How does dwarven steel which is a very strong material in middle earth bend easily so you can have a bow that works? If somene will be kind enough to explain this it would have 1 more supporter. (I myself hate dwarves being able to forge iron to something much stronger but can make bows)

It actually wouldn't be unreasonable. Real medieval swords (or at least the highest quality ones) were tempered in such a way as to be akin to a leaf spring, otherwise they'd bend and snap after rough usage--and on a battlefield, any usage is going to be pretty rough. This is real-life, human smithing techniques, before the Bessemer Process enabled the creation of modern steels!

Some later crossbows actually did use spring steel arms; this is why they're so incredibly powerful for their size, and it's also why they often used winches to wind back the bowstring since the draw weight would be at least 600 pounds, and potentially up to twice that.

Therefore, I don't think it would be unreasonable for Dwarves--implicitly stated to be the greatest smiths and craftsmen in Middle Earth outside of the Noldor (who don't count due to having literally forever to practice)--to be able to produce some variation of spring steel bow, nor would it be silly for them to have the strength to wield them. Naturally, they'd have higher power than contemporary bows, or even hypothetical horn bows, but in exchange would take a longer time to fully draw.

(edited by The Godly Aeolus)

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Jurassic Sean·6/14/2020

The Godly Aeolus wrote:

Quote:
This seems like a good suggestion exept for one thing: logic. How does dwarven steel which is a very strong material in middle earth bend easily so you can have a bow that works? If somene will be kind enough to explain this it would have 1 more supporter. (I myself hate dwarves being able to forge iron to something much stronger but can make bows)

It actually wouldn't be unreasonable. Real medieval swords (or at least the highest quality ones) were tempered in such a way as to be akin to a leaf spring, otherwise they'd bend and snap after rough usage--and on a battlefield, any usage is going to be pretty rough. This is real-life, human smithing techniques, before the Bessemer Process enabled the creation of modern steels!

Some later crossbows actually did use spring steel arms; this is why they're so incredibly powerful for their size, and it's also why they often used winches to wind back the bowstring since the draw weight would be at least 600 pounds, and potentially up to twice that.

Therefore, I don't think it would be unreasonable for Dwarves--implicitly stated to be the greatest smiths and craftsmen in Middle Earth outside of the Noldor (who don't count due to having literally forever to practice)--to be able to produce some variation of spring steel bow, nor would it be silly for them to have the strength to wield them. Naturally, they'd have higher power than contemporary bows, or even hypothetical horn bows, but in exchange would take a longer time to fully draw.

Well, Númenór had steelbows.

Jurassic Sean of Tol Hîth ^{Visit my Park!}

(edited by Jurassic Sean)

What do you think?