The Heavy Armory · Chapter 7
Engines of the Ancient World
From the first siege to the first cannon. Everything here is built of timber, rope, sinew, and iron by a carpenter with a plan.
The Engines of The Ranged Armory
The bolt throwers and stone throwers are already in print. The Ranged Armory, Chapter 8, has their full entries, their prices, and their crews. They are personal-scale weapons with the Siege quality, and this is what they do at vehicle scale.
| Engine | Damage | Siege | Hull damage | Range | Crew | Slow-Firing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wall Crossbow | 9 | 2 | 1 | Extreme | 2 | 2 |
| Scorpion | 9 | 2 | 1 | Extreme | 2 | 2 |
| Carroballista | 9 | 2 | 1 | Extreme | 3 | 2 |
| Springald | 10 | 3 | 3 | Extreme | 2 | 3 |
| Ballista | 13 | 3 | 3 | Extreme | 4 | 3 |
| Perrier | 9 | 4 | 3 | Long | 3 | 2 |
| Onager | 12 | 5 | 6 | Extreme | 4 | 3 |
| Traction Trebuchet | 12 | 5 | 6 | Extreme | 8 | 2 |
| Counterweight Trebuchet | 14 | 6 | 8 | Extreme | 6 | 3 |
| Naphtha Siphon | 7 | 2 | 1, and Burn 3 | Short | 3 | — |
Add 1 Hull for each Success before dividing, as Chapter 4 says. The four stone throwers are Indirect.
The entries below are the engines that book does not have.
Battering Ram
Ram, tortoise, the sow
Standard 4 4 Engaged 8
300 Common Ancient Crushing Emplaced, Crew 8, Slow-Firing 1
A tree trunk with an iron head, slung under a wheeled shed. It attacks only a structure it is touching, with an Athletics check by its captain at Easy difficulty. The shed gives its crew heavy cover from above. With a crew of 16 it deals 5 Hull.
Bore
Pick, mouse, wall drill
Light 2 — Engaged 4
200 Common Ancient Thrusting Emplaced, Crew 4, Pierce 2
An iron-pointed beam turned or driven into the joints of a wall, under a shed. It is slow and almost silent. It attacks like the Battering Ram and cannot inflict a Critical Hit.
Galley Ram
Bronze beak, rostrum, waterline ram
Heavy 8 3 Engaged —
4000 Military Ancient Crushing Pierce 1
The bronze-sheathed bow of a war galley. It is the ship's weapon and is used by ramming: see Chapter 3. A galley that rams takes one quarter of the damage it deals in place of half.
Corvus
Boarding bridge, raven
Standard 1 — Engaged 4
500 Military Ancient Thrusting Emplaced, Crew 4, Tractor 3, Limited Ammo 1
A hinged gangway with a spike under its far end, dropped onto an enemy deck. On a hit the two ships are locked together and may be boarded by two people abreast. Tractor 3: breaking free is a Hard Operate check.
Harpax
Grapnel thrower, the snatcher
Light — — Short 3
400 Military Ancient Thrusting Emplaced, Crew 3, Tractor 2, Slow-Firing 2
A catapult that throws a grapnel on a line, to be winched in. A held ship is drawn one range band closer each round its crew keeps hauling.
Fire Ship
Hellburner, burner
Capital 12 3 Engaged 2
1500 Common Ancient Fire Burn 4, Limited Ammo 1
An old hull packed with tar, brush, and later powder, sailed or towed into an anchored fleet and lit. It attacks whatever it is steered into, with an Operate check by its last crew before they leave. It is spent in the attack.
Rocket Cart
Hwacha, fire-arrow cart, nest of bees
Standard 3 4 Long 3
1200 Military Ancient Fire Blast 3, Burn 1, Inaccurate 2, Salvo 4, Crew 3, Limited Ammo 4, Prepare 3
A wheeled frame holding a hundred or more rocket-driven arrows, fired in ripples. Each of four ripples is one attack. It appears in the last century of this period and is as frightening as it is inaccurate.
Bombard
Great gun, basilisk, the big iron
Heavy 9 3 Long 8
9000 Rare Ancient Crushing Emplaced, Crew 8, Slow-Firing 5, Unreliable, Inaccurate 1, Prepare 5
The first gun that could knock down a castle: a huge iron or bronze tube firing a stone ball. It fires perhaps seven times a day. It ends this chapter and begins the next.