PieFed chez MarudTIL that Korea's Hwacha, an early rocket launcher from the 15th century, could devastate enemy troops with a single volley of 200 flaming arrows.
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www.utubepublisher.in/2025/05/Hwacha-weapon.html
Better not miss, reloads ain't quick
Looks less accurate than a shotgun at that range.
You don't need to have great accuracy when firing at an army. The article mentions 3,000 successfully defending against 30,000 because of this weapon
I don't think they really had shotguns in the 15th century tho.
If they did, it seems like they would have been trying to use them as sniper rifles.
I think a better comparison would be modern magnesium, phosphorus, or napalm bombing.
Pretty sure China did. In the form of hand cannons.
That makes some sense like an early blunderbluss kind of thing?
Yup.
but did they use grape shots back then?
To phrase a Monty Python firing squad skit, "You MISSED???"
Couldn't you just have several 200-arrow "blocks" ready to go? Like a magazine.
Probably but I think winding whatever they use for 200 crossbows would be the real problem
The mythbusters vid they included in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQhSXA3AKh4
Im sure this was used to burn down entire cities more than once. Warcrime generator goes brrrr. Well warcrimes werent a thing back then i guess.