Why do elves not use guns and cannons?

[nameless]

I wonder why elves don't use advanced weaponry like guns, cannons etc. Dwarves, men, skaven and even vampire pirates utilize them perfectly. It would be fantastic to see musket and cannon units in the rosters of elves, imo.

[IRMcG]

Why bother with clunky muskets and cannons when you can shred the enemy with much more efficient bows and the occasional dragon ? :)

[Hugus Primvs]

It's not elegant enough

[ChaosKhan]

Because they actually hit with their bows what they want and have readily available magic to enhance their shooting. So having guns, which don't have any more penetrating power than enchanted wood elf arrows, but less range, less accuracy and only 1/6 the reload rate doesn't make sense.

[MadArtillery]

It's probably because their prissy and prideful and would deem an invention of the lesser races as worth thier time, especially the high elves.

[ChaosKhan]

Originally posted by MadArtillery:

It's probably because their prissy and prideful and would deem an invention of the lesser races as worth thier time, especially the high elves.

No, it's because of the same reason that you see in the game: Elven archery is just superior to gunpowder small arms.

Basically, the "lesser races" compensate for their lack of magical affinity with gunpowder, but in the world of Warhammer, magic is just the ultimate answer to everything if you just have the capabilities to use it.

[Wyvern]

Because Warhammer isn't focused on realism and wants factions to be different?

From a historical/realistic perspective it makes little to no sense, but gotta differentiate the factions somehow, and if every vaguely civilized faction was rocking blackpowder weaponry it would kill that vibe.

[MadArtillery]

Originally posted by ChaosKhan:

Originally posted by MadArtillery:

It's probably because their prissy and prideful and would deem an invention of the lesser races as worth thier time, especially the high elves.

No, it's because of the same reason that you see in the game: Elven archery is just superior to gunpowder small arms.

The elves could probably easily make superior and enchanted rifles and imagine a carefully crafted and enchanted rattling gun equivalent. The elves definitely have room for improvement.

[Toby Larone]

Originally posted by ChaosKhan:

Originally posted by MadArtillery:

It's probably because their prissy and prideful and would deem an invention of the lesser races as worth thier time, especially the high elves.

No, it's because of the same reason that you see in the game: Elven archery is just superior to gunpowder small arms.

Basically, the "lesser races" compensate for their lack of magical affinity with gunpowder, but in the world of Warhammer, magic is just the ultimate answer to everything if you just have the capabilities to use it.

Elven arogance is rather famous in Warhammer, if they would acctualy try to make it they might make something like it. But they would have trouble matching anything dawi made over the years.

[nameless]

Originally posted by Wyvern:

Because Warhammer isn't focused on realism and wants factions to be different?

From a historical/realistic perspective it makes little to no sense, but gotta differentiate the factions somehow, and if every vaguely civilized faction was rocking blackpowder weaponry it would kill that vibe.

Yeah, that may be the main reason. But there must be some fictional explanations that rationalize it. To me, dark elves and high elves are so arrogant to use the inventions of humans. In their perspective, they don't need gundpowder as they have magical weaponry and mistical creatures. But on the other hand, if they prefer to use guns and cannons, they would improve that technology. Think of magical bullets used by elven musketeers. That can kill most of their enemies.

[ChaosKhan]

Originally posted by MadArtillery:

The elves could probably easily make superior and enchanted rifles and imagine a carefully crafted and enchanted rattling gun equivalent. The elves definitely have room for improvement.

They could, but I already explained, that they don't need it. From the perspective of an Elf, gunpowder weapons are crude, inaccurate and slow. They don't play to the elven natural strenghts. They could probably develop new weapons, but they rather research magic, which has far more potential power. Now you might think, that Skaven have magic too, but lore wise, a skaven warlock is just a helpless child when compared to an elven magician. The Elves just considered magic to be a more viable research priority, and the lore has shown, that they were ultimately right. Without elven understanding of magic, the world would have died millienia before the timeline we play in and even in End Times, the factions of order wouldn't have had even a fighting chance.

Research is always a matter of focused investment of ressources and the Elves just placed their bet on magic. That's all.

[Ashley]

elves too dainty to get their hands dirty with gunpowder

[cb4n28]

Originally posted by ChaosKhan:

Originally posted by MadArtillery:

The elves could probably easily make superior and enchanted rifles and imagine a carefully crafted and enchanted rattling gun equivalent. The elves definitely have room for improvement.

They could, but I already explained, that they don't need it. From the perspective of an Elf, gunpowder weapons are crude, inaccurate and slow. They don't play to the elven natural strenghts. They could probably develop new weapons, but they rather research magic, which has far more potential power. Now you might think, that Skaven have magic too, but lore wise, a skaven warlock is just a helpless child when compared to an elven magician. The Elves just considered magic to be a more viable research priority, and the lore has shown, that they were ultimately right. Without elven understanding of magic, the world would have died millienia before the timeline we play in and even in End Times, the factions of order wouldn't have had even a fighting chance.

Research is always a matter of focused investment of ressources and the Elves just placed their bet on magic. That's all.

This is all true. In addition Elf society and technology hasn't changed much in millennia. They achieved their perfect civilization before the polar warp gates were destroyed. When gunpowder first arrived from Cathay, they had very little motivation to experiment with it, they already had pretty much everything they would need

[SwampDragon]

Because they would be forced to admit that something invented by Dwarfs (or any lesser race for that matter) might be useful.

[Wyvern]

Originally posted by nameless:

Originally posted by Wyvern:

Because Warhammer isn't focused on realism and wants factions to be different?

From a historical/realistic perspective it makes little to no sense, but gotta differentiate the factions somehow, and if every vaguely civilized faction was rocking blackpowder weaponry it would kill that vibe.

Yeah, that may be the main reason. But there must be some fictional explanations that rationalize it. To me, dark elves and high elves are so arrogant to use the inventions of humans. In their perspective, they don't need gundpowder as they have magical weaponry and mistical creatures. But on the other hand, if they prefer to use guns and cannons, they would improve that technology. Think of magical bullets used by elven musketeers. That can kill most of their enemies.

To be fair, black powder is the invention of the dwarfs, stolen/gifted to other races(like skaven or empire). But elf arrogance is probably a good chunk of the "explanation". For a unit like the various wood elf troops or shadow warriors, who rely on small unit tactics/skirmishing(even the glade guard are described as fighting in a pretty fluid manner), I can see why the bow would remain a popular choice(granted, an argument could be made for rifles, but that's a whole nother case)

[ChaosKhan]

What you don't see in the game is, that Elven warriors are basically superhuman. A Swordmaster, so states the lore, can easily dodge and cut off the arms of a spinning Night Goblin Fanatic - someone who can clear a whole troop of even elite dwarven warriors. An Elven archer, and those are just the militias we are talking about, can reliably hit weak points in enemy armor with pinpoint accuracy at max range. The power creep of Elves in the lore is utterly insane. They are vastly superior to humans in their motoric capabilities and have centuries of experience on top of it.

There is also the fact, that the Elves just don't have the production capacity to forge muskets in masses. Bows are part of their lives anyway, far easier to amass and to supply.

The thing about guns is, that they are just inaccurate. And no, Elves are incapable of producing accurate guns, since their technical knowledge isn't superior to the Dwarves and they would require 20. century real world tech to produce small arms with pinoint accuracy.

Now, if we only take Darf Elves into consideration: They use crossbows for a completely different reason. Their aim is not to kill, but to incapacitate the target, hence why they normally use poisoned bolts to paralyze the victim. Though, the repeater crossbows are just so absolutely deadly, that it's crazy to switch to gunpowder if you have those marvels of technology. Dark Elves though don't have much in terms of research... they have better things to do with their time, like pillaging, murdering and scheming.

Wood Elves obviously would never use gunpowder. Their aim is to be stealthy and accurate so the last thing they want is to make a loud *BANG* and miss their target.