Re: (TFT) Seige Weapons

["John Paul Bakshoian" <shadowhex@hotmail.com>]

> From: Michael Taylor <MichaelTaylor1@compuserve.com>
> Subject: Re: (TFT) Seige Weapons
> Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 22:41:50 -0400
>
> Message text written by John Paul
> >Halve the time or nearly so for Marksman Skill (someone who drills
> and uses guns constantly).<
>
> I would say that I think the Engineer (10/2) talent seems to make
> more sense for this than the Marksmanship talent!
>
> Michael

And Justin states:
> As far as your talents, I would just separate them.  Call Gunner, 
> Musketeer, and Master Gunner, Gunner.  The use of cannon and muskets should 
> be placed under two different catagories as the skills behind their firing 
> are totally different.<

I agree that I could have been a little tighter on my talents.
How about:
Engineer - for those seige weapons dealing with bow torsion or
          slinging.  What are the penalties for not knowing this?
Musketeer - for those who deal with handheld guns & pistols.
          Those w/o this talent are at -4DX to shoot and can't
          Reload?
Gunner - for those who deal with heavier gunpowder weapons or
          airpressure weapons.  Those w/o this talent are at -4DX
          to shoot and can't reload?
I would give a musketeer who is not a gunner a -2DX default or
          -2IQ to use the cannon properly and same for a gunner
          using a musket.  I still like the idea of giving my
          gunpowder guys some sharing of talent.
I would give a crossbowman a default Engineer skill at -2DX or
          -2IQ for setting up crossbow seige equipment.

I would give either allow Missile Weapon talent to be used to improve the 
skill of a gunpowderman or make it a talent of MASTER Musketeer or MASTER 
Gunner to give a +3 on the shooting.

All the bracing bonuses that one gets for crossbowmen in Advanced Melee 
should apply to musketeers also.

Architect or Engineer talent should give some advantage when setting 
petards, due to knowledge of support points, etc.


I like what Stan did in his Siege Weapons about crew sizes:
> BALLISTA
A ballista requires an engineer or mechanician to set it up, a process
which requires ten minutes and two unskilled assistants. ...One person can 
fire it (-4 DX if not an engineer or mechanician), but it requires two 
people to reload it, a process which takes five rounds.

CATAPULT
It requires a crew of six people to set up a catapult, at least one
of whom must be an engineer or mechanician. The set-up takes one hour.
...to change the arc requires a minute and the entire crew.  Loading 
requires five minutes.  When the final minute of loading commences, a target 
hex along the lane of fire is designated.  Anyone can "pull the trigger", 
but the to-hit roll is always against the DX of the crew chief (at -4 if 
that person is not an engineer or mechanician).<

Stan further states:
> However there's reason to doubt that catapults would even exist.  When you 
> consider that a single POINT of lightning damage shatters a one meter 
> square of rock to a depth of 5 cm, only groups with no access to wizards 
> would probably bother.<

This might be true, but I have many lead figure cannoneers and other seige 
weapons, so regardless of what wizards can do, seige weapons are in my game. 
 Besides, as Michael commented earlier, if you can pick off the enemy 
wizards with arquebusses while protecting yourself with spellshield and 
reverse arrows, its useful.  And in my gameworld, "the church" doesn't like 
magic, so holy chrusades would assault with seige weapons and miracles.

Hail Melee,
John Paul

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