TL3+1 Mechanical Artillery

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by Icelander

The players have gleefully adopted spells from GURPS Magic to communicate such details as precise range, azimuth, wind direction and strength and so forth to the PC who directs the artillery. He is a skilled mathematician and calculates aiming point data for the weapons he directs, usually one or two that are side-by-side, when shooting at long range.

He also likes to use Find Weakness on his arrows and he's working on a way to enchant ammunition to seek out his arrows, after he sinks them in the desired spot on the target.

So far, communication is handled by the fire control officer remaining next to the artillery crew and gathering his information by magic at long range. He also has incredible vision, thanks to inborn gifts as well as having a hawk familiar and two magical tattoos giving him Keen Vision and Hawk Vision upon activation (as well as knowing the spells himself, if he needs them cast at higher level). He generally functions with Observation at 22 and three levels of magnification, equivalent to x8 or x10, but he can add ca +2 to his Keen Vision and two more levels of Hawk Vision if he has to do really long shots.

He can also see through the eyes of his familiar, as long as he's within a mile. Hasn't used it for fire control yet, but he's used it to pick out targets for his bow.

That character has Mathematics (Surveying), Mathematics (Applied), Cartography and Forward Observer skills. Another PC who also has magical vision and boots that allow him to fly also has Forward Observer, since he often uses spells that are visible from far off to indicate and select targets for artillery, as well as give signals like 'over', 'under', 'right' or 'left' to correct their fire.

This goes to the point I was making earlier, this sounds more and more like TL3+3, or at least TL3+2, not that should make any difference, but just so you're aware of the ramifications on the setting.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

This goes to the point I was making earlier, this sounds more and more like TL3+3, or at least TL3+2, not that should make any difference, but just so you're aware of the ramifications on the setting.

TL3+2 exists as the bleeding edge of artifice combined with minor magics, as noted earlier, but TL3+3 isn't so much technology as it is full-fledged magicm usable only by mages of fairish power. It cannot come into common use, as there aren't enough mages to support anything of the kind becoming widely used.

Fireball cast by a sufficiently powerful mage might match and exceed TL5-7 battlefield explosives like grenades and even small-unit sized mortars. This doesn't mean that a setting with mages like that is TL3+4.

Only if a technology is widely used and replicable by others does it affect the tech level of the setting.

[Anthony]

It doesn't really require that high tech math to use basic ballistics, what it requires is hardware with consistent performance. It doesn't take that much math to set up a catapult on a field, crank it at various angles, fire it off, and measure how far the projectile goes. You aren't going to be able to generate accurate ballistic tables from first principles until you have calculus, Newtonian mechanics, and TL 5+ aerodynamics, but you don't really need to.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anthony

It doesn't really require that high tech math to use basic ballistics, what it requires is hardware with consistent performance. It doesn't take that much math to set up a catapult on a field, crank it at various angles, fire it off, and measure how far the projectile goes.

Yeah, it's mainly a reliance on direct fire that kept anybody from doing this until the mid-19th century.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Yeah, it's mainly a reliance on direct fire that kept anybody from doing this until the mid-19th century.

Also, fire off a shot, look where it went, and correct, is good enough for siege work.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Also, fire off a shot, look where it went, and correct, is good enough for siege work.

It's good enough to have been a staple of all sorts of artillery work for a long time.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

It's good enough to have been a staple of all sorts of artillery work for a long time.

In setting, the standard of aiming artillery is generally this, also known as the standard between the invention of artillery and until 1812 or so.

Like in 1812 or so, there are things like gunner's quadrants, adjustable sights and range tables available to help with accuracy, but these need to be carefully calibrated to each individual and variable piece of artillery and are consequently not all that common. Skilled aiming by feel and experience is still adequate at typical ranges.

[Kax]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I'm not surprised; it stored energy in coiled sinew, which seems to have been a highly efficient elastic medium, especially for the weight.

Bill Stoddard

Coiled sinew goes soggy in the damp. It's why crossbowmen don't work in the rain.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Kax

Coiled sinew goes soggy in the damp. It's why crossbowmen don't work in the rain.

Wood and composite bows aren't very fond of damp either. A metal crossbow with water-resistant string (not sure which those are at low tech; wire certainly, hemp maybe) and feathering would probably sort of work in damp weather.

[Tyneras]

I suddenly envision many young apprentice wizards complaining that the only thing they did for their first few years was cast waterproofing enchantments day-in and day-out.