JHB

Make the elephants super-elephants, with super strength, etc. Problem solved.

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QuothTheRaven

It's "etc" not "ect." It's an abbreviation of the Latin phrase "et cetera." And please don't tell me that you don't care, you're on a writing forum, so you should care about your writing and spelling.

On topic: Since you probably haven't fired any cannons in the last few hundred years, well-made movies should help you to answer your questions. On ships, cannons had to be very securely chained to the ship, because the knock-back when they fire is extremely powerful. If you've ever fired a rifle, you can probably imagine how strong the knock back of a cannon would be. While I'm certain that placing a cannon on an elephant would not break the animals back, firing it would most likely knock the animal over. So to be concise, I don't think that it would be possible to mount a usable cannon on an elephant. As for other weapons, you could probably mount an arbalest on an elephant, or a machine gun, but keep in mind that you would need to somehow secure it without hurting the animal (unless of course the society that uses the weapon doesn't mind hurting the elephant, in which case I hope they're the bad guys), it's not like you can just bolt an arbalest to an elephants back. Also, before you decide on anything, take a look at a video of people riding elephants, from what I've seen, it's not a smooth ride, so you would have 0 accuracy if you tried to fire a weapon from an elephant, unless the elephant stood still. Nonetheless, it could be useful as a siege weapon, just blindly fire stones or large arrows at a castle or city of some sort.

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You are on a writing forum, please have the good sense to spell correctly and make use of proper grammar. Everyone makes mistakes, but smart people don't make a habit of it.

The Backward OX

Hahahahaha. You'll learn.

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How Beautiful it is to Do Nothing, and then Rest Afterwards . . . . . Spanish proverb

JHB

Shoot. Sorry, I typed that late at night.

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"Rock is fine, death to Scissors!" -Paper

SpaceWriter

I've been around when artillery has been fired, as well as exposed to countless arty sims, and the sound is earthshattering. I doubt that any animal wouldn't bolt from the sound.

On a side note, I think the army has completely messed up my hearing.

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I do find, and emphasize, extreme importance on bettering oneself in the craft that one pursues. Don't settle for mediocrety, and that means taking critisism with open arms, and a studied approach on what could make this story, this paragraph, this sentence, this word, or the arrangement of said words, better.

The Backward OX

"Arty sims"? You learn something new every day in this madhouse. I imagine it may be military jargon - perhaps meaning "simulated sound of an artillery barrage"? And if I'm correct - why? Why do they do it? To toughen up the cannon fodder, maybe?

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How Beautiful it is to Do Nothing, and then Rest Afterwards . . . . . Spanish proverb

Pardot Kynes

The Mongolians used rockets they stole from the Chinese on horseback once, and it was a disaster. The horses lost all control, and it was one of the few battles the Mongolian Horde was destroyed in. I'll look for some other references if you still need them. Saw it on a NGC special, I believe.

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http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/451/451.html

"Quit trying to be as nasty as I am- you don't have my years of practice"- Jubal Harshaw

lin

Oh, good eye there. And handy with the explanation of the arcane etc. expression that so few are aware of. It's really good to have somebody around pointing that stuff out because it's really pretty important.

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