[Icelander]

GURPS Low-Tech p. 87-88 has the 'Crouching Tiger Gun' and the 'Long-Range-Awe-Inspiring Gun'.

I'm having some trouble reconciling the stats of these to the rules for stone balls (under 'Bombards' on LT p. 87 and that of 'Multiple Projectiles' on HT p. 172.

There's no information in Low-Tech on the caliber of the Chinese guns or the diameter of the lead shot. Going by what sources I can find on the Internet, the Long-Range-Awe-Inspiring Gun seems to have been around the caliber of a 2-lb cannon, i.e. 50mm, and the half-inch, half-ounce lead balls would be around .50 inch or 12.7mm to 13mm and 200-230 grains.

From what I can find, one common size for Chinese lead balls for multiple projectile loads seems to have been .43 caliber, which would be 11mm diameter balls weighing about 120 grains. It doesn't seem that this size is assumed in the listed stats in LT, however, as that would make the 3.5 lbs. WPS for a load with 100 lead shot too heavy, unless we are meant to assume a 1:1 correspondance between powder charge and shot weight.

The Crouching Tiger Gun has the same WPS for a load with 100 lead shot as the Long-Range-Awe-Inspiring Gun, so it seems that it would be shooting the same size lead shot, i.e. something weighing around 200 grains per shot.

Here's what I can't figure out:

1) How does the Crouching Tiger Gun get Dmg 6d+2 pi++ with a stone ball?
According to the preceding page, LT p. 87, the weapon tables take into account the halved Dmg and Range of stone balls. This implies that the damage of the Crouching Tiger Gun would be 12d+4 pi++ with a single lead ball, which is utterly awesome compared to any other 47 lbs. firearm, let alone one that costs only $650.

2) Why does the Long-Range-Awe-Inspiring Gun only have average Dmg 0.5 point higher than the Crouching Tiger Gun?
According to the Internet, the Long-Range-Awe-Inspiring Gun fires a 2-lb lead ball with an 8 oz. powder charage. Even if that's inaccurate, the WPS is 3 lbs., so it's reasonable to assume a 14,000-17,500 grain lead ball and 3,500-7,000 grains (8-16 oz.) of propellant. The listed Max Range is 1,200 yards.

The Crouching Tiger Gun has WPS of 1.15 lbs. That means a weight of less than a pound for the stone ball, even if the gun were only loaded with the 3 oz. of powder that a quick Internet search suggests for it. I actually can't find any mention of stone balls for the Crouching Tiger Gun (all I can find are for older guns), so I don't know the specific weight, but with this WPS, it can't be heavier than 1-lb.

How does a lead ball of 2-lb or more, travelling fast enough to reach 1,200 yards, not penetrate better than a stone shot that weighs less than a pound, which doesn't reach more than 550 yards?

Also, how does this fit in with the halved Dmg for stone balls from LT p. 87?

3) How do the 13mm lead shot get Range 130/1,200?
According to HT p. 172-173, 'Canister (TL4)' gets 1/2D Range is (diameter of bullets in mm) x5 and Max Range (diameter of bullets in mm) x50. To get 1/2D 130, the diameter of the lead shot would have to be 26mm. On the other hand, the 'Multiple Projectile' rules on HT p. 172 state that number of projectiles (NP) cannot exceed (weapon's caliber/projectle diameter), so in order to fire 100 lead shot of 26mm, the Long-Range-Awe-Inspiring Gun would have to have a caliber of over 120mm.* Also, 100 lead shot with a 26mm diameter would weigh over 20 lbs., while the WPS is only 3.5 lbs.**

4) How is the Dmg for the lead shot figured?
Using the 0.10 NS modifier for 100 projectiles from the table on HT p. 172, I can't get Dmg 1d-1 pi+ for either the Crouching Tiger Gun or the Long-Range-Awe-Inspiring Gun.

If I simply multiply the NS by the damage for a stone ball in the Crouching Tiger Gun, I get 2.3 (6d+2=23; 23*0.10=2.3). Follow the rules on 'Adjusting Damage' on HT p. 166, that comes out to 0.657 die or Dmg 1d-2. But since these are lead shot, I probably shouldn't be using the halved Dmg from a stone ball as the basis. Doubling the Damage for using lead ammunition comes to avg. Damage 4.6, 1.314 dice or Dmg 1d.

Multiplying the Damage of the Long-Range-Awe-Inspiring Gun with the NS 0.10 yields avg Damage 2.35 (7d-1=23.5; 23.5*0.10=2.35), which comes to 0.671 die or Dmg 1d-2.

*Which it clearly doesn't, both according to the sources on the weapon and common sense, in that's larger than the bore of a 12-lb cannon and the weapon weighs only 160 lbs.
**Which is consistent with around 8 oz. of powder and 100 lead shot of around 12.7mm-13mm and 200-230 grains, with an exact calculation assuming that powder charge yielding 210 grains per shot.