# Eagle's Claw bolt thrower



## Snorri O'dubhda (May 14, 2008)

Just been to see Prince Caspian yesterday (dont care if its a kids film its just too cool) anyway in the final battle I saw a glympse of something that looked very familiar to me the bolt throwers looked very simlar to high elves Eagle's Claw bolt thrower any body else seen the film and agree.
Also anyone else seen anything out of films that really reminds them of images from the warhammer world.


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## Lord Reevan (May 1, 2008)

it's set in a fantasy world full of strange beasts. Of course it's like warhammer!!:biggrin:
Bolt throwers area lot like ballistae so it was probably one of them being used. They fired the one large bolt instead of several small ons so depending on the way it fired it could be anything


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## Hashulaman (Apr 9, 2008)

I wouldn't be surprised if the GW people got their ideas from C.S lewis books. Or tolkkein for that matter, it is impossible for fantasy today to not involve something from their books (tolkkein mainly)


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## Snorri O'dubhda (May 14, 2008)

Yeah I know that warhammer is very much based on all fantasy novels and yes i know what a ballistae is. I have been playing warhammer for a very long time.
My point is how much the bolt throwers looked like the eagles claw bolt throwers and how nice a surprise it was during the film, it made me think of warhammer. 
I wasnt suggesting that it was an eagles claw bolt thrower just that it was nice to see something similar.

Ancient Tiel' a fier - edit - spelling errors


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## Lord Reevan (May 1, 2008)

Oh yeah I agree totally. 
I didn't mean to sound arrogant or anything in my last post so ignore it basically. I saw this movie with a spikey halberd and instantly thought of black guard and that just made me smile...
It's a fun thing to have every fantasy movie remind you of warhammer fantasy.....


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## bobss (May 18, 2008)

well remember tolkein was really the first author who created orcs, elves , dwarves , men etc we know today from all those dark age / ancient myths so anyone basing there book / game on this will , whether accidental or not be heavily similar to tolkeins works. 

nevertheless warhammer deserves some credit , races like dark elves and chaos are mostly there creations.

as for films with siege weapons there are plenty, lotr two towers and ROTK have them , and so do many old films 



> Bolt throwers area lot like ballistae



true , although warhammers bolt throwers are nothing like the weapons of the ancient and medievil world.

balistae use a torsion mechanism to hurl rocks and heavy darts. they were generally used to cripple weak points in enemy fortifications

see the two prongs sticking out of the tense rope? well thats what powers it. also there is a samller bolt thrower










where as high elves, dark elves and any other bolt throwers are basically giant crossbows. there is no record of these with the exception of ancient china and they were quickly forgotton as they well basically sucked. the reason eagle claws rock is because i think magic is somehow involved?


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## Lord Reevan (May 1, 2008)

they were very different but the same overall style remained which is why I like the siege engines in fantasy. They're what actual engines wanted to be.... 
And can I ask of your source for the picture?


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## Ancient Tiel' a fier (May 5, 2008)

The reason high elve bolt throwers work is because the elves are far better engineers than humans, its just they dont go a bundle on machines. Very interesting info there boboss.


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## bobss (May 18, 2008)

the picture is off google images under ballistae. wikipedia has many articles on siege weapons and so does a site called - chinese siege warfare : mechanical artillery and siege weapons of antiquaty. it has many examples of siege engines from around the world and especially china. there are plenty of eagle claw look a likes.

aye elves are like dwarves in the sense that when they find something that works well and is reliable they stick to it. 

however if you were to make a replica of the HE eagle claw then A) unless it be pinned down the recoil would make it dive forwards B) it could not possilbley fire a volley unless there were multiple strings C) i doubt you could draw back a bow that thick. yet i though the success to an eagle claw was the wood it was made out of ( the same as tiranoc chariots? ) and how its magically fused together.


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## Lord Reevan (May 1, 2008)

thanks for the tips. I love reading up on this stuff :biggrin:
the fact that in real life they wwouldn't work but look really cool is IMO why they are all over the place in fantasy. AS Snorri pointed out in Prince Caspian, There's a lookalike one in LOTR I think and other movies. They're fantastical weapons and that's why they're great..... And I have seen a multi string crossbow... fired 4 bolts rapidly... and reloaded quickly enough too....


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## Snorri O'dubhda (May 14, 2008)

bobss said:


> however if you were to make a replica of the HE eagle claw then A) unless it be pinned down the recoil would make it dive forwards B) it could not possilbley fire a volley unless there were multiple strings C) i doubt you could draw back a bow that thick. yet i though the success to an eagle claw was the wood it was made out of ( the same as tiranoc chariots? ) and how its magically fused together.


Well as far as repeating bolt throwers are concerned the Romans i their great wisdom were able to produce one.









Not the best picture I know but this is a replica of a bolt thrower used by the romans known as the Polybolos.
It was used in the 3rd century BC and used a hand cranked mechanism that automatically locked and released the trigger and was automatically fed bolts through a magazine.
Prob the closest example of repeater bolt thrower in history before the machine gun.
But what have the romans ever done for us??:biggrin:


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## bobss (May 18, 2008)

lol i too enjoy how fantasy weapons can defy the laws of pyhsics and look rediculous, who cares? its fantasy, they have an excuse for it :grin:

BTW was this ' multiple bow ' like this 









or this?


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## bobss (May 18, 2008)

> Prob the closest example of repeater bolt thrower in history before the machine gun.


indeed the romans and even the greeks had these yet they fired ONE bolt before reloading alot faster than the usual scorpios, thats why they were called repeating, and i doubt they could fire multiple bolts

yet i think this is closer to the mark of machine gun predacessors :











and yes it is remarkabley similar to the crossbows druchii use


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## Snorri O'dubhda (May 14, 2008)

yes it does quicken up reload, rather than fireing mulitiples at same time but is probly the closest working bolt thrower you get. but also you cant say that the way the Polybolos isn't very like the dark elves repeater bolt thrower that is also fed via a magazine full of bolts.


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