I was just thinking...

[Angadil]

Of course they had stone tipped spears (and arrows and javelins). They also had corselets and helmets of quilted and hardened cotton (leather also), shields of different designs and materials, slings (entire units of slingers), etc... Inca armies (and those of their adversaries) numbered in the tens of thousands (and they could have several in the field simultaneously) and were well-organized into units of different sizes, used standards... They carried out long campaigns that required complex logistics (part of which were large llama trains) and fought pitched battles putting into practice all standard tactical possibilities (outflanking, envelopment, etc...)

So, note I used the term "sophisticated warfare" Warfare doesn't end in weaponry and armor and I just wanted to remark that you can have large armies, advanced army organization, good discipline, good, effective command and control systems and efficient, complex logistics in armies using stone tipped spears.

[Dayve]

Guess so... Once again i have been pwned.

Shouldn't have opened my mouth... It's not like i actually know anything about Inca's and what have you...

[Reverend Joe]

Man could have still used the ass as a suitable substitute. If bred properly, asses could have been used as effective riding animals. However, it is doubtful they would have ever had as much charging power as a horse; more likely, they would be used for scouting and flank harrasment; they would also probably be fleeter and turn faster, much like the Arabian mares. Just a wild guess, though.

(And yes, I know you are questioning whether I have to use the word "ass"... well,an "ass" sounds like the true brother of a horse, an animal worthy of respect; whereas a "donkey" sounds like a retarded animal.)

[Angadil]

Guess so... Once again i have been pwned.

Shouldn't have opened my mouth... It's not like i actually know anything about Inca's and what have you...

Hey, don't look at it that way. You were right about the weapon systems: you could safely call them "inferior" to those of pretty much any army of the Classical period (or even the Bronze Age), even if they were better than wooden spears. All I wanted was to show that some elements of warfare can be almost totally independent (while others tend to be linked). That makes answering your original "what if" question harder, but also makes military history more interesting and fun, IMO.

[QwertyMIDX]

They did use obsidian weapons pretty regularly as well. The weapon was called Maquahuitl and was apparently incredibly sharp, if not very durable. This is not particularly suprising though, obsidian instruments are still used in cardiac surgery because a well made obsidian blade is something like 5 times sharper than even high-quality steel scalpels. In the case of the meso-americans' use of obsidian weapons there are a number of eye witness accounts claiming that they were capable of slicing off limbs and heads.

[Big_John]

a conquistador named bernal diaz del castillo wrote about the maquahuitl in his account of cortés' conquest of mexico, "The Conquest of New Spain":

"While we were at grips with this great army and their dreadful broadswords [maquahuitl], many of the most powerful among the enemy seem to have decided to capture a horse. They began with a furious attack, and laid hands on a good mare well trained both for sport and battle. Her rider, Pedro de Moron, was a fine horseman; and as he charged with three other horsemen into the enemy ranks--they had been instructed to charge together for mutual support--some of them seized his lance so he could not use it, and others slashed at him with their broadswords [maquahuitl], wounding him severely. Then they slashed at his mare, cutting her head at the neck so that it only hung by the skin. The mare fell dead, and if his mounted comrades had not come to Moron's rescue, he would probably have been killed also."

so apparently these weapons could decapitate a horse, much less a man. volcanic glass is some scary stuff. in a trip to hawaii for geology back in my college days, we had to wear special boots just to walk out on the old lava flows, and you had to go through several pairs of those boots in a field season.

i imagine most armor would have been extremely effective against the weapons, though.. glasses tend to break rather easily. but maybe they had ways of tempering it somehow?