Guns of War: Canister Rounds

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1

Does anyone have a good idea how to model canister rounds for Guns of War artillery? I assume it would function a lot like a blunderbus only ... more so.

Any thoughts on how to reconcile damamge and range with gun weight?

2

Good question, it appears to be assumed you're using roundshot in the narrative.

Would you want to distinguish between canister and grape shot? Canister is a bit more focused, and does less damage to the barrel of the gun than grape. But more expensive to manufacture.

Also, what about case shot, with it's exploding shells? Or some of the naval specialities like chain shot?

3

I'm thinking mostly of canister, though those would also be interesting. I'm also thinking about some kinfd of explosive shrapnel mortar round that can be used against flying enemies.

4

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=128059

The link above has a very good and detailed summary of canister artillery. I haven't read the primary source material to know if what he says is true, but I'll assume so. if so, major takeaways:

  • 80 to 120 balls in canister
  • 25-33% scatter leaving 50%-80% hit rate
  • However canister won't penetrate a man so only front line is hit
  • At 100 yards, 8 foot cone spread (4 men or 2 cavalry hit) to 32 foot cone spread depending on scatter (16 men or 8 cavalry hit)
  • At 200 yards, 16 foot cone spread (8 men or  4 cavalry hit) to 64 foot cone spread depending on scatter (32 men or 16 cavalry)
  • At 300 yards, 32 foot cone spread (16 men or 8 cavalry hit) to 128 foot cone spread depending on scatter (64 men or 32 cavalry)
  • Damage to each man/cavalry will decrease with range
  • Guns tend to be 10 yards apart

Let's assume a hit at 300 yards is enough to kill a horse but not enough to kill two horses (3d8 x 4.5 = 13.5 x 2 = 26; 6d6 = 3.5 x 6 = 21.)  

Given the above, at battalion scale:

  • One unit is two artillery pieces
  • Damage is 6 UHP at 15 hexes, 7 UHP at 10 hexes, and 8 UHP at 5 hexes or less
  • Target unit may make saving throw vs. Blast to reduce damage by half
  • Target cannot lose more than 1/4 UHP at 15 hexes, more than 1/6 UHP at 10 hexes, more than 1/8 UHP at 5 hexes  

 

5

That's great, thanks Alex. This is going to make my priate galleys much less pleasant to deal with.

6

Although unless very rich and able to get hold of military supplies, aren't pirates more likely to be using grapeshot (ie anything you can find to hand stuffed down the barrel - nails, stones, bullets, scraps of metal) than canister?