Chapter 148: Gremlins and Firearms

“Study hard. The future of the territory depends on you.” Owen smiled as he watched the Gremlins learning Hogwarts spells and puppetry.

As magical creatures similar to House Elves, although the Gremlins lost their original fairy magic due to the modification, they still retained some magic power. After all, as magical creatures, magic power is one of the sources of their life and cannot be completely eliminated.

The remaining amount of magic power is not much, and it is difficult to cast powerful magic from the Heroes of Might and Magic system ━ this was also deliberately done by the mages when they modified the Gremlins ━ but it is enough for them to learn some simple Hogwarts spells.

Forget about the lethality of these spells, but it’s not difficult to increase the Gremlins’ work efficiency. Just a Levitation Charm can reduce a lot of trouble.

However, in comparison, puppetry is more useful for Gremlins.

Puppetry doesn’t require strong magic power, and even the strength of psychic power can be lowered. As long as the manipulation is delicate enough, you are a qualified puppeteer. So Owen almost without hesitation took out the complete set of puppetry for the Gremlins to learn.

Without having to consider loyalty, Owen is not afraid of his subordinates being strong, but only afraid that they are not strong enough.

In addition, Owen is not always giving. From the Gremlins, he also obtained some common knowledge of alchemy.

This is not surprising. Gremlins were originally assistants to mages and alchemists, and they are also the maintainers of Sky City and Golems. Although they do not master advanced knowledge of alchemy and magic, they have a solid foundation, which is suitable for Owen, a beginner in alchemy.

As one of the major factions in Heroes of Might and Magic, the Academy faction, even if it’s just basic knowledge, still amazes Owen. Just from a glimpse, one can see a system far superior to Hogwarts.

It is a pity that due to limited energy, Owen did not delve into too much and only focused on Golems and alchemical machinery, which Gremlins are best at.

Because he likes to make puppets, Owen first paid attention to Golems.

After comparison, Owen found that compared to the delicate structure of puppets, Golems are a bit like powerful but crude tools, because Gargoyles are just a piece of stone, and Golems are even more like lumps of iron.

But after careful study, Owen discovered a trace of mystery.

In fact, if he hadn’t learned the Hogwarts spell system, he might not have been able to see it, because it’s too high-end.

Virtual soul, material activation, magic circulation, this is the true core of the Golem.

It’s a pity that Owen doesn’t understand it at all, and the Gremlins can only repair them. They also have a limited understanding of these advanced principles. In this case, rushing to learn is not just a matter of low efficiency, but also a matter of life and death if something goes wrong.

Fortunately, part of the Hogwarts system can be considered a low-profile version of this aspect, such as those moving and talking portraits and Wizard Chess. If he can thoroughly understand this part of the knowledge, then he can be considered to have entered the door in terms of Golems.

For the next period of time, Owen stayed with the Gremlins and gained a deeper understanding of them.

Gremlins are very smart and have a strong learning ability, but they lack creativity, or rather their creativity is limited.

This is not surprising. What mages and alchemists need are assistants, not hidden dangers that will overthrow themselves. It is normal to have restrictions, just like the House Elves of Hogwarts, aren’t they also completely restricted?

Therefore, it’s no problem to let Gremlins manufacture or optimize according to the drawings, but it’s difficult to let them innovate.

Owen scratched his head, feeling a little helpless. It seems that he, who is not very smart, can only be the scientific leader of the territory.

The first work of the Gremlin Workshop was muskets, because the Gremlins’ weapons are muskets shaped like hand bells, so they only need to be lengthened. This is not difficult for Gremlins, and even with simple modifications, they can create machinery specifically for producing muskets.

But Owen was not very satisfied with the performance of muskets, even though muskets ended the era of cold weapons in his previous life.

But after actually getting started and testing, it was discovered that the muskets that ended the era of cold weapons relied not on lethality and range, but because they were easier to popularize.

It takes at least half a year to train an elite soldier who is proficient in cold weapons and protective gear, and it takes even longer to form a legion.

But a musketeer can learn to load and shoot in just an hour or two, and can go to the battlefield as long as they know how to march in formation.

Of course, the musketeers trained in this way are basically cannon fodder, but the problem is that the bullets fired by both cannon fodder and elite musketeers are equally deadly.

As for the issue of accuracy, firing in volleys is to make up for this shortcoming.

It is precisely because musketeers are so easy to train that even though knights’ armor can already be bulletproof, it still cannot change the fact that the era of cold weapons has been ended, because the cost-effectiveness is too different, especially after the musket manufacturing process has been improved and the cost has been greatly reduced.

But the world Owen is in is not that simple. There is not only Battle Qi and magic, but also many different races. Muskets and cannons alone are far from enough.

Take knights as an example. When charging with Battle Qi while wearing well-equipped armor, musketeers are powerless to stop them, because it is impossible for them to hit the target with every shot, and scattered lead bullets cannot stop the charge of knights at all. Once the knights break into the formation, what follows is all kinds of massacres. After all, you can’t expect a group of musketeers who were previously farmers to use bayonets stuck in their guns to deal with knights in heavy armor.

Teutonic Knights, who are inhumanly strong, can even ignore musket fire and carry out massacres in a crushing manner.

Of course, although neither knights nor Teutonic Knights can withstand the lethality of cannons, the premise is that they can hit.

The accuracy of the cannon is completely random. Unless facing an enemy in formation or an immobile building, it’s just like that.

And even Owen has more than one way to destroy a cannon position, such as witches riding broomsticks, let alone the mages of the Empire.

In short, if Owen forms a pure firearm army, it can only be used to bully the weak. Even when facing the same number of Northland Barbarian warriors, victory cannot be guaranteed.

With the physique of the Northland Barbarians, even if they don’t wear armor, they can withstand several lead bullets with their tenacious vitality. In a frenzied state, as long as their heads and hearts are not pierced, they can rush into the formation before dying and take away several times the number of enemies.

Let alone the Imperial Border Army, which has mages and a large number of Battle Qi knights, it is too easy to deal with a pure firearm army.

Moreover, both muskets and cannons have very simple structures. With the level of mages and alchemists in this world, it is estimated that they can imitate better ones just by looking at them.

Even if they want to, it is no problem to develop the level of firearms to the level of World War I or even World War II in a short period of time.

After all, they can even make puppets and enchanted equipment. Are you kidding me that they can’t make muskets?

Even if the cost is not considered, the Empire may not be able to create giant puppets like Gundam and Sky City, it just depends on whether they are willing or not.

After careful consideration, Owen found that a pure firearm army is not as powerful as imagined. It is more suitable for siege and defense. In field battles, it is not as adaptable as an elite cold weapon army.

Of course, these are all on paper. Without actually fighting a few battles, no one dares to say which is better. So Owen finally decided to store a batch of muskets and cannons, and then let the Gremlins focus on transforming the engineering puppets he designed before.