If you look at the Avian in the bottom-left of the image, it has a hand coming out of the wing. So, crossbows are held with hands, and not strapped.
Still, you are right that pulling back the string would either require both wings or a wing and a foot. Not something easy to do in mid-flight.
Of course, no quiver or other container for arrows/bolts is visible. I assume the Avians take one shot with the crossbow and then engage in melee combat.
What they need is something along the line of the Roman Plumbata. Barbed iron head, fins at the back, and a mass of lead in between. Both sides used similar weapons in WWI to attack troops on the ground and zeppelins in the air. Attach them to using loops and a common wire for each row for rapidly sequenced drops.
I find your gravatar disturbing. Every day on my way to work I go by a billboard sporting an anti-abuse AD. And now I’m replacing the women on it with Rachel, and that goofy smile. Now I’m going to feel guilty when I laugh at it each morning. Thanks for that.
I would assume they’d have repeating crossbows when flying instead of single shot. However, you don’t see the clip on it, so these are single shooters.
Hmm….. those tanks are pretty effective. And there’s no air support for Gastonia. And…um….GUYS! GUYS! ALL THE GUYS LET’S EAT THEM! GUYS! So round one, advantage Savage Races.
Based on the fact that there are significantly less robotic lance thingies on Gastonia’s side, and the fact that those were behind Gastonia’s front rank, it would appear Gastonia’s front rank has also been broken by the Savage Races. Although it is hard to tell, since all the Gastonians look the same
Those hammer tanks are too clumped up. The Silver Centurion is in position to hullfuck all three of them in short order. The landsharks are about to crash in an uncoordinated wave into Gastonian shieldwalls, although those will be slightly less effective for want of spears. When the Rhinosaurs come into play, the savages will probably have the upper hand unless Gastonia has something up their sleeve.
In the end, it will come up to the champions, like every well designed videogame should.
The ground troops … remind me of the time I emptied out the animal cracker box and arranged the shapes in rows by animal (yes, I have CDO). (OCD is not in alphabetical order). It was so perfect … until my li’l sis (represented by the goblin tanks) attacked it by eating the center formation.
They can’t think of anything better to do with automatic pointy sticks than putting it on the front line just behind the infantry that just got slaughtered…
I’m going to to with the side that has at least some archers, tanks, and monstrous mounts. If I’ve learned anything from playing Warhammer, it’s that blocks of Empire Swordsmen aren’t enough to win battles on their own. I mean come on, you at least need a Bright Wizard or a Steam Tank.
Also Silver Centurion’s mount looks like it just kicked one of his own men.
Well, technically, with the available details, that helm and axe could have been there from before.
As far as the army, no, I’m not that serious, thus the Warhammer jokes, but I do consider it a major oversight that they don’t have archers at all. They wouldn’t necessarily keep firing into the lines at this point (Avians can do it since they can shoot behind the main battle at the reserves) but they could have helped soften them up. I suppose maybe they left the archers with Bandit to keep the walls of the Fort going if their infantry falls, but…
Otherwise their formation seems solid considering what they face. The Autolances look like they immobilized at least one hammertank (or just got crushed by it, but they slowed it down at least), and the Savasi forces were basically slaughtered. With the forces they brought, it’s fine. It’s just that it feels like they forgot or simply don’t have one of the basic forces of war in the last two pages: ranged firepower.
Follow-up note [spoilers, kinda]: They seem to have been keeping their archers and battlemages in reserve on airships. I still think this is somewhat tactically unsound, given that they’re trying to defend the fort. Going into the field without first peppering the enemy with ranged weaponry is a waste of perfectly good soldiers, unless your ranged weapons need the enemy to be at a very specific location (which, since they are using airships to ferry their archers and such is clearly not the case, that sort of specificity is usually required for em-placed artillery only).
It looks as if almost all the rebellion infantry EXCEPT the land sharks have been routed. I imagine in a weekday or two we’re going to see the Silver Centurion’s holy weaponry as he deals with the hammer tanks.
Photobomb level: Avian
This image is really a selfie taken by the avian on the top right of the frame.
Dude! Hold my beer and watch this!
CA-CAWW!
Oh man. Those dinosaurs in the back are gonna do some SERIOUS damage. I’m expecting one of the Peacemakers to take one down Legolas-style during this.
Crossbow strapped to wings?
And how do they wind their crossbows after the first shot?
If you look at the Avian in the bottom-left of the image, it has a hand coming out of the wing. So, crossbows are held with hands, and not strapped.
Still, you are right that pulling back the string would either require both wings or a wing and a foot. Not something easy to do in mid-flight.
Of course, no quiver or other container for arrows/bolts is visible. I assume the Avians take one shot with the crossbow and then engage in melee combat.
Actually that looks more like the tickler and less like an Avian hand. You can see the mechanism on the other crossbows.
One would think that from that height they could just drop arrows straight down, no?
Not sure terminal velocity for an arrow would be terribly lethal.
And it may not even get that fast; they’re only maybe 150 feet up.
African or European arrow?
Laden or unladen?
And here i though the avians would be crap shooters.
That might actually have been more effective :P
What they need is something along the line of the Roman Plumbata. Barbed iron head, fins at the back, and a mass of lead in between. Both sides used similar weapons in WWI to attack troops on the ground and zeppelins in the air. Attach them to using loops and a common wire for each row for rapidly sequenced drops.
I find your gravatar disturbing. Every day on my way to work I go by a billboard sporting an anti-abuse AD. And now I’m replacing the women on it with Rachel, and that goofy smile. Now I’m going to feel guilty when I laugh at it each morning. Thanks for that.
I would assume they’d have repeating crossbows when flying instead of single shot. However, you don’t see the clip on it, so these are single shooters.
Easy! Its freaking magic.
+1 to the delicious gravatar/comment combo.
Nobody is winning@
Aw goddamn it hit enter too soon. The second part of that was supposed to be “EVERYBODY LOSES IN WAR”
HUH. Good God, y’all. What is it good for?
For blood and glory, in the name of CONQUEST!!!
A STRANGE GAME. THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS NOT TO PLAY. -WOPR
I would prefer; “Whoever wins, WE LOSE!”
War. War never changes.
Charlie Sheen.
Hmm….. those tanks are pretty effective. And there’s no air support for Gastonia. And…um….GUYS! GUYS! ALL THE GUYS LET’S EAT THEM! GUYS! So round one, advantage Savage Races.
Actually, if you look behind the top tank, advantage would be Gastonia: they at least broke through the front ranks of the Savage Races
Based on the fact that there are significantly less robotic lance thingies on Gastonia’s side, and the fact that those were behind Gastonia’s front rank, it would appear Gastonia’s front rank has also been broken by the Savage Races. Although it is hard to tell, since all the Gastonians look the same
Those hammer tanks are too clumped up. The Silver Centurion is in position to hullfuck all three of them in short order. The landsharks are about to crash in an uncoordinated wave into Gastonian shieldwalls, although those will be slightly less effective for want of spears. When the Rhinosaurs come into play, the savages will probably have the upper hand unless Gastonia has something up their sleeve.
In the end, it will come up to the champions, like every well designed videogame should.
The ground troops … remind me of the time I emptied out the animal cracker box and arranged the shapes in rows by animal (yes, I have CDO). (OCD is not in alphabetical order). It was so perfect … until my li’l sis (represented by the goblin tanks) attacked it by eating the center formation.
Not sure why Gastonia is holding so many infantry in reserve in block formation like that, with only a few engaged in the melee up front.
They can’t think of anything better to do with automatic pointy sticks than putting it on the front line just behind the infantry that just got slaughtered…
Right now would be a good time for those Airships…
GUYS KABOB CART COMING LETS EAT THEM!
I HAZ KETCHUP!
i was going to ask where all the bodies are but then i realised – land sharks
where’s the alt text? am i only one not seeing it?
Alt text says: “Who’s winning?”
Here, I’ll quote it for you:
Who’s winning?
I’m going to to with the side that has at least some archers, tanks, and monstrous mounts. If I’ve learned anything from playing Warhammer, it’s that blocks of Empire Swordsmen aren’t enough to win battles on their own. I mean come on, you at least need a Bright Wizard or a Steam Tank.
Also Silver Centurion’s mount looks like it just kicked one of his own men.
No, Silver Cent IV kicked a Silvasi (note the helmet flying off it’s head and the battleaxe beside it)
Not sure if you are being serious about the Gastonian Infantry, but the good thing about blocks of people: they can split and flow around obstacles
Well, technically, with the available details, that helm and axe could have been there from before.
As far as the army, no, I’m not that serious, thus the Warhammer jokes, but I do consider it a major oversight that they don’t have archers at all. They wouldn’t necessarily keep firing into the lines at this point (Avians can do it since they can shoot behind the main battle at the reserves) but they could have helped soften them up. I suppose maybe they left the archers with Bandit to keep the walls of the Fort going if their infantry falls, but…
Otherwise their formation seems solid considering what they face. The Autolances look like they immobilized at least one hammertank (or just got crushed by it, but they slowed it down at least), and the Savasi forces were basically slaughtered. With the forces they brought, it’s fine. It’s just that it feels like they forgot or simply don’t have one of the basic forces of war in the last two pages: ranged firepower.
Follow-up note [spoilers, kinda]: They seem to have been keeping their archers and battlemages in reserve on airships. I still think this is somewhat tactically unsound, given that they’re trying to defend the fort. Going into the field without first peppering the enemy with ranged weaponry is a waste of perfectly good soldiers, unless your ranged weapons need the enemy to be at a very specific location (which, since they are using airships to ferry their archers and such is clearly not the case, that sort of specificity is usually required for em-placed artillery only).
It looks as if almost all the rebellion infantry EXCEPT the land sharks have been routed. I imagine in a weekday or two we’re going to see the Silver Centurion’s holy weaponry as he deals with the hammer tanks.
Yeah, can see some of the fuzzies at the bottom running from the big-pointy-stick-that-only-goes-one-way-and-can’t-turn-or-move-very-fast
…Did the Gastonian lance thingies pin their own guys?
The land sharks would call that “Friendly Fare”
Land Sharks would call that kabob.
I love how only some of the land sharks seem to have weapons. The rest, apparently, realize that they are weapons.
Just noticed something about the Lance-thingies: they are self-mobile now, guess they just needed a push-start
Is this the point where the war machines become sentient? I, for one, welcome our smashy overlords.
“Oh well, who wants to live forever? DIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!”
Oooh, just noticed the self-tpopelled lances doing nice troll-Kebabs. Yummy!
Oops, typo! Meant “self-propelled”.
Huh, reminds me of Flash Gordon…