> >3) I think my Teckla army with gatling guns vs Easterners point has stood > >unchallenged. > > Actually, I had already raised a challenge before you brought the point up > -- we have reason to believe that the Dragaeran nobility would *not* have > wanted to give peasants such weaponry. This was, after all, the reason that > the Japanese decided to eliminate the manufacture of guns from their own > culture. In the thread above, when you made this point I argued that the Japan analogy fails on your other argument - remote-control detonation. Also remember that the nobility is diverse - I could imagine the Jhereg emperor telling all Teckla it's their right to have and bear arms and then selling them Saturday Night Specials. Or almost any emperor issuing Teckla rifles to beat back an Eastern invasion. - Philip