The military tactic of Volley Fire arose from your exact question and became the military norm for centuries. [This link here] ( http://www.academia.edu/259539/A_Contribution_to_the_Military_Revolution_Debate_The_Janissaries_Use_of_Volley_Fire_during_the_Long_Ottoman-Habsburg_War_of_1593-1606_and_the_Problem_of_Origins) explains at great length the inception of volley fire with gunpowder in the late 1500's.

"bullets used to fly like “a swarm of bees” so that if the very first bullets did not hit the enemy soldiers, the next ones definitely would."

Archery is where "volley fire" became a tactic. At the way too often quoted battle of agincourt archers coordinated fire (along with poor conditions) made the charging Calvary break rank due to lancers seeing their comrades fall by the bunches [billions of citations on this battle, here's one] (http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_battle_agin.html) - tl:dr Big wall of arrows stop opposing army. individual bolts easier to dodge and less imposing.

Sorry, but your submission has been removed because we don't allow hypothetical questions. If possible, please feel free to rephrase the question so that it does not call for such speculation, and resubmit Otherwise, this sort of thing is better suited for /r/HistoryWhatIf.

Sorry, we don't allow throughout history questions. These tend to produce threads which are collections of trivia, not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about a historical event or period or person, please feel free to re-compose your question and submit it again. Alternatively, questions of this type can be directed to more appropriate subreddits, such as /r/history or /r/askhistory.