so you find yourself in 272 bc....

[bobbin]

@Ibrahim

Perhaps you could introduce them the steam engine first, I'm sure they'll be overjoyed.

Steam "engines" have been around for ages IIRC the first known evidence of one is is the 1st century AD. It was considered a toy, for some reason none ever had the idea to use for anything else

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile

[satalexton]

the seres might use it =/ they already use natural gas to boil salt...

[Dewirix]

I'm still not convinced it's as easy as picking a side and then giving them guns.

Aside from the cost of mass production of guns, powder and shot and the military and social conservatism you'd have to overcome, once you managed to prove the concept how long would it be before your enemies developed the same weapons? Obviously this is more likely to be the case if you're fighting settled states rather than nomads.

Diffusion of weapons technology is certain to outpace imperial expansion, especially one that's reliant on siege trains and fixed infrastructure like gun foundries and powderworks.

In short, any advantage conferred by guns would be at best temporary and might be outweighed by the costs. In the short to medium-term, I'd imagine that you wouldn't field all-gun armies, but I suppose some units might adopt them.

As to the use of steam engines, I recently read Robert Allen's The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective. In it he argues that steam only developed because in coalfield areas of the UK engines could burn cheap, low-quality fuel and could be used to replace relatively expensive labour.

Everywhere else in the world had to wait until the engines became more efficient before it was cost-effective to use them. I would have thought that in the ancient world the relative costs of labour, capital and raw materials would mean that labour-intensive processes were preferred over those that needed investments of money or raw materials.

I think this is why they call economics the dismal science. It always spoils the fun...

[Cute Wolf]

I'd love to simply land myself on any steppe nomads, and create gunpowders and teaching them how to fight with guns and muskets. Well, the nomads are naturally better missile fighters, so I'd expect I could conquer the wolrd in 10 years with my "nomadic dragoon" army.

But I'd also love to land in Athens, and write several scrolls about Chemistry, Physics, and Biology, as well as maybe math...

Oh yeah, to create nitroglyverins, you'll just need a bunch of animal fat, boil them with ash, add some ammount of salts and then you harvest the thick liquid on the bottom, yeah, glycerine.

And about the nitrates, I'll go the nearby saltpeter deposits, and a big jar of redistilled vinegar is more than enough to made nitric acid. BUt hey... I'll start to taught them (either nomads or hellenes) how to create a good fertilizers first, and then made solar cells instead of oil based engines.



And at least, when I got bored, I'll just go to Barbaropolis with my dragoons and start shooting them. And yeah.... create a large, 5 meter deep, 20 meters square pit when a lot of Romaioi barbaroi thrown naked and free to run inside, while they become a moving target practice.