Using fireworks to panic animals

Fireworks of this time probably mainly just went boom (I think). So I think any delivery that put the noise between the invaders and the defenders would probably have the desired effect on the horses?

I hate to ask, but, er, why are the defenders running out of a perfectly serviceable gate to hit the attackers when they could stay inside and throw things (rocks, pitch, arrows, slingshot, grenades) down from the ramparts at the attackers? It's much less risky, and opening a gate is opening a massive hole in your own defences. A small force can defend a well-built wall and gate for a very long time against overwhelming numbers, provided they stay put.

That said, you might want to look up Congreve's Rockets. They were deemed pretty useless on the battlefield and less accurate than the average truly inaccurate thing, even as a 'bottle rocket' type device that started out aimed enemy-wards - but they terrified horses like nothing else.

I don't think the type of firework will really matter - it's more the repetitive loud noises that freak animals out (we have this problem every year on New Years. We don't use fireworks and we live a way from people who do, but the constant noise even from a distance of a couple of km's is still enough to freak out our animals - horses, dogs, cats, even the fish seem to die more easily - I am not kidding about this either).

Riding deer? Then a few really good bangs and they should be hanging in the treetops!

A quick search of the history of fireworks seems to reveal that there were many kinds fairly early in history so I don't think it would be out of the realm of possibility to have a primitive bottle rocket being shot at the opposition.

It's funny that you should post this though. Just last night my cousin set off a giant box of saturn missiles and his boxer decided to jump off the deck, run at them and stand over top of the box while they were going off. I know dogs are different from horses or deer but I just found this coincidence to be amusing. (just fyi, his dog was ok and walked away with only a minor burn and some singed fur. Luckily she was a boxer and not something with long fur.)

Queen of Swords said:

There are about a thousand women and children in the city. They came there for a religious festival and now have to be taken elsewhere in a hurry (the city's not safe for them), so the defenders need to disperse whoever's at the gates, then escort the people out and take them to the nearest town.

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This does not make sense, IMHO. You are asking women and children to leave a walled city to go to a smaller village with less protection? Obviously, the women and children will need an escort on their journey, which depletes the forces defending the city. Also, women and children, walking or in carts are going to slow any escape, making it easy for invaders to pick them off. The invaders would even need a large force, just enough to harass them and turn them aside, picking the troops and women and children off a hand full at a time...

Generally it was the other way around. People abandon farms and villages to take shelter in a walled city.

I don't know enough about fireworks to help, but a few quick words about the way animals react --

A lot of animals will indeed panic at fireworks / loud noises. But I've also worked with horses who were specifically trained not to spook at . . . well, anything. (Does that mean they *wouldn't* spook at anything? Well, no, as the one predictable thing about horses is that they're unpredictable, but they were a lot *less* spookable than we usually think of horses as being.)

I'd imagine that horses trained for war would be a lot more stoic than other horses. Especially if your troops use firearms -- then they'd already be super super used to loud noises. But war horses in general I would expect to be a lot more difficult to spook effectively. Just a thought. As a reader I'd probably be way happier if this sort of thing were lampshaded (like if one of the characters had a thought or said something about how even horses trained for war would start rearing at the noise . . .).

Good luck!

Queen of Swords said:

Yes, because there is something penned up in the walled city which will shortly break out and EAT THEM.

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Wouldn't some creative character among the defenders consider a plan wherein that something penned up in the walled city could be loosed upon the invaders?

Wouldn't that be an ideal diversion that might allow those who would surreptitiously flee the city to do so?

The bulk of the defenders, appearing stalwart and resolved, could maintain their posts upon the walls and observe in relative safety as the carnage and chaos ensues before the city gates.

Queen of Swords said:

Nope, no firearms in this particular medieval land.

And although the deer are used to the sounds of warhorns by now, I imagine the fireworks will take them by surprise - especially if there are sparks and smoke scattering in their midst, bright lights exploding everywhere, a scent of scorched paper and burning chemicals, etc.

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They don't have firearms, but they have fireworks? I find it highly unlikely that they would have developed gunpowder (or the functional equivalent) for fireworks but nobody ever thought of weaponizing it. Unless your world is particularly pacifist or something, that would really stand out as a plothole to me as a reader.

When you're setting off the fireworks/bottle rockets/whatever-goes-boom, consider having a few archers fire good old flaming arrows. I'll bet deer and moose don't like flame any more than horses do. If they aim for wooden stuff or older, pounded down grass, that should move the invaders along.

From an animal rights standpoint, shooting at the moose is bad.

From a disrupting-the-enemy standpoint, a pain-maddened moose in enemy ranks is one heck of a weapon. A ton or so of extra-pointy venison can do a lot of damage, even to people in armour, to the point where you probably want to shoot the moose rather than the human.

wendymarlowe said:

They don't have firearms, but they have fireworks? I find it highly unlikely that they would have developed gunpowder (or the functional equivalent) for fireworks but nobody ever thought of weaponizing it. Unless your world is particularly pacifist or something, that would really stand out as a plothole to me as a reader.

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Blackpowder and fireworks were developed around 600-900 AD. The Chinese didn't use it to make bombs for use in battle (that we know of) until the 10th century.

I bet youtube will have a ton of horse spooking at loud bang videos, including fireworks.

There are classes for desensitisation training of horses, including extreme desensitization of fireworks and guns. I bet some drop outs are on youtube as well.

I was involved in civil war reenacting for years, and desensitizing the horses to explosions was an ongoing thing. The cavalry guys basically dedicated all their free time to it, all year long. They had to expose them to gunshots daily and take them out and do in depth trainings every weekend. It usually took around a year to get a horse relatively safe to go onto the field. And while the horses got used to people firing from horseback, volley fire and especially cannon fire was another big obstacle to overcome.

Even with all that training, there were still bad injuries. I don't think we ever had an event go off without some sort of horse related injury. Most were minor. The worst ever was when a horse spooked at cannon fire, stepped into a hole, and rolled over the top of his rider. The rider ended up with a crushed hip and the horse broke his leg and had to be put down.

Several of the older horses were totally steady no matter what, and some were trained to stage fall. One of them and his rider were in the movie The Postman. We also never had a non cavalry person injured. They were really careful to maneuver so that no bystanders or other reenactors would be in the way of a panicked horse if one broke training.

Really any mounted animals spooking at explosions is plausible. Even if they've had some training to overcome it, because if the training isn't kept up, a random boom is going to throw them off kilter. Especially in the heat of battle, which has all kinds of other stresses that they don't normally experience in training. Like smelling blood, death, adrenaline, sweat and things.