Scorpion (Ballista)

[JLV]

Originally Posted by Skarg

I too recommend Ramspeed - and especially the Interplay article with designer's notes and extra rules that did not fit in the game. I have used Ramspeed for naval combat in my TFT campaign (though not as a two-scale crossover to TFT combat) and liked it a lot. It has not only scorpions but catapults, onagers, ramming hulls and ramming oars. It is all about rowed galleys rather than sails, and most damage is done by ramming and boarding.

I've also used Wooden Ship & Iron Men (sometimes combined with Ramspeed), which covers sailing maneuvers.

The first issue of Hexagram also has an article about ships in TFT.

Supposedly an old issue of The Space Gamer does too, which I'd love to see.

For those of you looking for the referenced articles:

Ramspeed variant and designer's errata: Interplay #7, pp2-8

"Ships and Swords," The Spacegamer #24, pp11-14

From what I remember seeing, it looks like the article in Hexagram #1 might tie in nicely with "Ships and Swords."

In addition to AH's Wooden Ships and Iron Men, SPI's Frigate also covered sea war in the age of sail at the ship-to-ship level with some fights covering the 1600s (Dutch versus the Brits); but while the era is probably all wrong for what you're looking for, both WSIM and Frigate have good rules for wind direction and speed, the "weather gauge," and all that sort of thing -- which is what's really needed if you're looking for naval rules for TFT. Of note, galleys were by far the most common warship in the medieval period, simply because wind power was both too erratic and too poorly controlled (the invention of lateen rigging was still not widely known until about the 1400s), so your merchant vessels tended to use wind (you didn't have to pay a big crew to row) while raiders and military fleets (Vikings, and say, the Byzantines as examples) used oar-powered vessels to fight with -- bigger crews mean more fighters (galley slaves weren't actually a thing until the early Renaissance on up to about the 1700s, and then only in certain cases), and they don't have to worry about the vagaries of the wind during combat. (Just some historical data for those who haven't thought about this much up until now...)

[FireHorse]

Originally Posted by JLV

For those of you looking for the referenced articles…

That, sir, was immensely helpful. Vielen Dank!

[JLV]

You're very welcome! ;-)

[JohnPaulB]

Originally Posted by FireHorse

Ah — Danke!

I had checked the index, but it does not list "ballista" at all, and the only references for "scorpion" are not the right kind. (And I stupidly didn't think to just use "Find" and search the PDF.)

That reload rate absolutely sucks (and sounds to me like it may be a bit too long), but even so, that's some pretty nasty damage. That could not only kill you in one shot, but splatter you all across the deck.

I wonder what it would do to sails and rigging… or if you could use "torch" bolts to give your opponents something else to worry about…

Maybe if you had an Engineer aboard. With a little GM license, I'm sure he could bring that reload rate down, or perhaps he has made a row of Scorpions. When Scorpion #1 gets fired, the crew moves to Scorpion #2 and a Reload Crew starts the cranking. Continue on to the next, etc. If the Engineer is also a Sailor (talent), I would have him compensate the rolling decks by putting his "Siege Engines" on gimbals.

And while you are at it, have that Sailor Engineer work with a Chemist to make Greek Fire, an ancient napalm of sorts. Sorry, I didn't make any stats for it. But if your not using canons, then I would use a huge iron ballista.

[RVA_Grandpa]

I did a quick search in Death Test 2 which has counters for a ballista, or in that case an arbalest. The stats were basically 12 turns to crank and load. The bolt does 4d damage and the character gets to roll 4d vs DX to avoid the hit.

[mark hill]

exactly what I was thinking of! great counter too

that scorpion sized ballista was also a thing in my games that giants could cock and fire every second turn, no save to dodge it in this case (dangerously inaccurately for their friends lol)

arbalest I always thot was just an alternate name for a crossbow

[RVA_Grandpa]

Originally Posted by mark hill

arbalest I always thot was just an alternate name for a crossbow

I think you are right. Arbalest = heavy crossbow. In Death Test 2 it was the name that they used to refer to the mounted, very heavy, crew-serviced weapon.

[FireHorse]

It's always been my understanding that an arbalest was specifically a heavier crossbow with steel arms (instead of wood), with a consequently much higher than normal draw weight, and therefore requiring a windlass/cranequin.

[hcobb]

"A skilled arbalestier (arbalester) could loose two bolts per minute."

https://www.hcobb.com/tft/house_rules.html#crossbow

[mark hill]

I really like that break-action crossbow used by joffre in game of thrones, instant cock for a heavy xbow basically (thank you archimedes) .. but did it exist in roman/medieval times, or is it a 20th century thing? (if it was medieval, there would be no need for a goats-foot crank I guess)

does that even matter on cidri, where they are presumably very aware of high tech upgrades to low tech weapons?