11-20-2010, 01:22 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Ship warfare before cannons
How can naval warfare be conducted without cannons at Tech levels 0-3 (maybe 4 even) outside of boarding actions?
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11-20-2010, 01:26 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Germany...for a few more months
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Re: Ship warfare before cannons
The mediterranean did see a lot of ramming action pre gunpowder. Also ballistas, scorpios and catapults with greek fire where the tools of choice.
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11-20-2010, 01:47 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Sheffield, England
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Re: Ship warfare before cannons
Archers and crossbows as well. More importantly, why would you want to conduct naval warfare without boarding actions? If you're badly outnumbered you might want to take out some of the opposition by using Greek fire or fire-arrows on their sails, but basically ships (and their cargoes, and their crews) are valuable.
If you can board and take a ship at Tech 0-3, you not only get a nice "new" warship to add to your fleet, but you can grab their sailors to sell or use as slaves. (OK - GURPS doesn't have much on slavery because of modern morality, but it was a firm fixture in economic life in most societies at those tech levels. Especially if the ships concerned are galleys...) |
11-20-2010, 02:09 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Seattle, Washington, USA
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Re: Ship warfare before cannons
Quote:
There was a certain amount of using catapults w/pots of greek fire to try to set enemy ships aflame, but this was unreliable and dangerous.
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11-20-2010, 07:28 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: Ship warfare before cannons
Catapults and other heavy stone throwers were rarely carried - only the largest ships could safely mount them topside and these big ships tended to be clumsy and slow, sitting ducks for nimble light galleys with rams. Greek fire was a close range weapon and, historically, only one side ever had it (the Byzantines). What a battle would look like where both sides had this potentially devastating weapon is up to the imagination, but it would be pretty horrific. All in all, a fleet would stick to ramming (for better trained crews) or boarding, with archery and light bolt throwers supporting the main action.
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11-20-2010, 07:45 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Ship warfare before cannons
Quote:
Either yoiu're trying to capture the target ship by boarding or you're trying to escape it or drive it off with fire arrows. The masts and sails were particularly vulnerable to catching on fire.
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11-20-2010, 07:52 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Right Here
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Re: Ship warfare before cannons
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Boarding is the top way of stopping the enemy, and disabling the sails number two, and would remain so until the mid to late 1800's.
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11-20-2010, 08:08 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Ship warfare before cannons
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Brief summary: Attacking a warship is effectively the same as attacking a fortified building and uses the same tools: the ram, the catapult, the ladder or tower, the incendiary, and eventually the petard. About the only thing you can't do is undermining! Bill Stoddard |
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11-20-2010, 08:35 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Jan 2010
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Re: Ship warfare before cannons
If you're a really big ship the thing to do is get one of those cranes from Fantasy Tech.
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11-20-2010, 08:52 AM | #10 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Ship warfare before cannons
Quote:
To confuse matters, in some periods (eg. the 16th century Mediterranean) 'rams' were basically reinforced boarding bridges designed to impact at deck level, not below the waterline. This confuses students of one period who glance at the other. I would also add that the 'heavier hull designs are too tough to ram' theory is speculative (except for possibly some incidents in the 15th century and later). In the case of ancient ships, we know waterline rams fell out of use around the time that a new tradition of hull construction took over, but I don't recall contemporary statements or modern experiments proving a link. Some warships have had good-sized torsion engines or trebuchets onboard. The ancient world has incidents of shooting heavy stones: one luxury roundship carried engines to shoot 12 cubit darts or 80 kg stones, and there are several incidents of shooting jars of pitch or noxious creatures.
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Tags |
low tech navy, naval warfare, ocean warfare, ship to ship combat, ye olde navy |
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