Missile Weapon of Choice For Dwarves

What is your preference? Composite bows because dwarves are strong and therefore can bend very powerful bows? Or crossbows because dwarves are great craftsmen and can make mechanical parts for the more advanced weapons?
or maybe both?

I prefer Crossbows on my dwarves, but that's mostly because I think the most effective ranged tactic in tunnel based encounters would consist of squads forming two row firing lines. Using crossbows in such a situation would be preferable because you can fit more wielders into a smaller space, bows increase the space a singular entity takes up in the lateral direction when drawing. Whereas a cross bow only extends one way from the body and is drawn (whether by hand or crank) vertically beforehand. Crossbows are also more easily fired from a crouching position, making the forward row more reliably accurate as oppose to if they were wielding bows in the same position.

Outdoors is a different matter though, so in conclusion both, but leaning more towards crossbows in weapon prevalence.

Springbows.
>Can be more powerful than normal bows, use metal instead of wood, higher weight (pull weight and weapon weight) mitigated by being stronger overall, lack of arms makes using them in tight formations in tunnels easier

Throwing spears.
It's less of a strain on resources, it's a good hunting tool, can also become a makeshift torch, can also be used in dwarvish, goblin, Halfling, and gnomish phalanx, is easily replaceable when broken, and spearmen can be fielded much faster then archers can.

>dwarves are strong and therefore can bend very powerful bows
Wouldn't that also mean they can reload heavier crossbows in the field, reload normal crossbows without a lever, and can have sort of Chinese repeating crossbow things with considerable draw strength?

Dwarves are strong, but are they considerably stronger than humans? If no, it's not super likely that they'll be using particularily powerful bows since the longbow's out of the question. Doesn't mean they can't use solid bows still, and I imagine they would, but there's something about the crossbow that feels more dwarfish.

In some RPG systems like TOR the dwarves can't use great bows at all because of their size.

I've been influenced enough by Warcraft which of course got the idea from Warhammer to prefer them having guns.

They got them gorilla arms- shorter, bent bones where the tendons connect further up the arm. This means they're considerably less flexible than people but have much more strength. You see this even in other humans- I'm sure you've known someone who when they extend their arm the arm actually bends past a 180, whereas other people have the tendons further down the arm preventing that. Personally when I fully extend my arm it doesn't even reach a full 180 due to my refrigerator-like build.

Another thing to consider that shorter arms and a shorter height means they can't use English-style Longbows, which could be like 6 and a half feet tall IIRC, and can't draw them as far back anyways.

Guns don't make sense for cave dwelling underground thingies.

1. You make the gunpowder on that tech level from animal excrement and piss, and dwarves don't keep such animals.
2. The smoke from firing a gun at that tech level made it unusable indoors, and dwarves mostly live "indoors".
3. Even if you really want dwarves to have guns, they would, based on their aesthetic, mood, etc, probably use pistols. Like a belt with 5-6 loaded pistols, discharge them all, fight with your sword.

>Dwarves are strong, but are they considerably stronger than humans?

In my headcanon dwarves are about as strong as a human wrestler/weight lifter/strength training type.
They are stronger per pound, because they are smaller, but have the same overall strength. The same muscle spread on shorter bones.
But dwarves can achieve this strength "naturally", without needing to train for it, they just grow more muscle. Humans are the "adaptive" ones, that can be weak or strong depending on their life so far.

Were ratcheting cranks for crossbows ever a really widespread thing?
I mostly ever see them in like modern reproductions and fantasy art. The closest common thing I see depicted is the windlass

Siege crossbows needed aid to reload, but most battlefield crossbows reloaded with a hook on your belt, so you reload with your leg muscles in what is basically a squat. Hunting crossbows could be reloaded with arm strength.

Ranged combat is impractical in tunnels and warrens. If they need to hit something from a distance, dwarves will usually chuck a spear at it. That's my take, anyway.

>so you reload with your leg muscles in what is basically a squat
mirin those crossbowman thighs. next stop: Starting Crossbow

Crossbows so you don't have to worry about a stubby armed stuny's short draw length.

Dwarves very likely do not use bows. Or, if they do, they are at a significant disadvantage to other races. Historically, good candidates for bowmen were strong AND tall - strong enough for a war bow's draw strength, and tall enough to have a big war bow.
The best draw length for a war bow is about 32 inches, which a typical dwarf just won't be able to make. With the right bow, a 24" draw MAY do the same damage as a 32", but the sheer weight needed to pull that string - assuming the string and bow are designed to not be permanently damaged under the strain - would likely make using the 24" impractical.
A longer bow is also just easier to work with.

>dwarves don't keep such animals
I always imagine there to be a full underground ecosystem in the caves, Dwarf Fortress style, and the dwarves having their own domesticated animals bred to be suitable for these purpose, I imagine them keeping mostly pigs/boars or cashmere goat like breeds.

Pigs being low maintenance animals good for recycling waste due to eating almost anything, and goats being compact, tolerant animals, especially cashmere-like goat breeds which would give meat, milk and wool all in a single package, and also have tolerant diets that could easily adapt to living in the dark and eating cave moss and fungus instead of grass.
That's one thing I did like about the Hobbit movies is them showing the dwarves riding boars and goats as war animals, I just thought that was a fun idea that fit with how I already envisioned dwarves to be.

I do like the idea of Dwarven goat milk being mildly alcoholic due to some sort of enzymes in the goat's milk or a symbiote that lives in the goat , just because that is a fun idea.
Though I also like the Purring Maggot from Dwarf Fortress, being a grub type creature that secretes a milk from it's skin that dwarves collect and drink.

Though I don't know enough about chemistry to know if pigs and goats would have the required elements in their shit to make gunpowder, I kind of imagine dwarves would exclusively use guns as siege weapons rather than a commonplace missile solution, because I don't know if you've ever fired a gun inside before, but guns are loud, and echoing is a thing, especially in tight tunnels, the Dwarven infantryman would go deaf within a short tour of duty. Not to mention the flash of the muzzle ruining night vision (though infravision dwarves would have less of a problem with this than humans would I'm sure it's still and annoyance) and the cloud of smoke obscuring it further.

Though I can easily picture whether it be guns or crossbows, dwarves would build them to be used as melee weapons.

Javelins or atlatles

Pigs and goats eat plants that need sun. They themselves need sun.
Pigs were a typical animal for medieval Europe because they ate roots and rotten food and bones, things that dwarves wouldn't have an abundance of.

But yes, black gunpowder was made of pig shit and pig urine initially.

There are other ways of gathering saltpeter other than pissing on cowshit for two years.

Alcohol made from milk is actually a thing. Milk with more sugars, when fermented, gives a higher alcohol content.
>Kumis - a fermented dairy product traditionally made form mare's milk.

This. Niter can be mined.

You don't piss on cowshit, you just collect whats on the bottom of your pigsty (shit and urine mixed), dig a hole, put that garbage in, cover it with straw and wait several months, adding to it.

>2. The smoke from firing a gun at that tech level made it unusable indoors, and dwarves mostly live "indoors".
Your firearms producing clouds of choking eye watering smoke might be an advantage for dwarves. If you're hardier than your opponent.

But you can't exactly open a window when underground. That poison in the air isn't going anywhere.

Bat guano is an fair source of fertiliser/gunpowder, and if dwarves have mining and smelting "indoors" then they certainly have a way of circulating air out (which may be one reason for their high ceilings)

I mean, if you had a full underground ecosystem with things like bioluminescent plants, fungi and other such things developed that could basically let a dwarven society function fully undergound, with maybe a hint of fantasy magical meddling to make such an environment work, I could see animals adapting to subsiding by grazing on giant moss and floor covering fungus.

Crossbow.

I would argue for dwarves using a blunderbuss, myself. Being widely known as a metalworking people, they probably have tons of metal scrap just lying around.

Underground, there probably wasn't a whole lot of good air to start with, really.

Depends on who's better attempted to underground living and low oxygen environments.

They might just use gunpowder as a smoke producer/firework to poison/fumigate tunnels. Probably more cost effective than collapsing them, and trying to dig them out later.

Ansolutely this
Dwarves are depicted as being quite strong and stocky. Perfect for shorter, stronger bows. The distance offered by a springbow over a crossbow would make all the difference in fending off orcs, dark elves, goblins, etc.

>blunderbuss
Pretty much straight murder in a tunnel. You'd have to bring along/create your own cover to make any progress.

It would need to be a pretty high magic setting. Cave ecosystems are very low energy, surviving off what energy is brought in from outside.

I always preferred Dwarves trading for foodstuffs/ and or forcing "lower classes" to farm. Cave ecosystems make sense if you want isolationist dwarves though.

>You'd have to bring along/create your own cover to make any progress.
Big shields, big guns.

And earpro + dwarven battle-sign

I can dig it. Like Phalanxes with blunderbusses.

Using guns actually gives a reason for tall ceilings, that humans, or trolls can fit through easily. The extra room is needed to let smoke dissipate.

>dig it

Was the technology for that sort of spring around during that time period?

"It's Mithril I don't gotta explain shit".

Coil springs could theoretically be built with a campfire forge and some iron, it'd probably be pretty shitty though.

What time period?