"A thought on "Martian" artillery..." Topic

Following up on Fozzybear's thread…

What about Martian artillery (again, specifically for the Mars of Space: 1889)? How could it be different than ECW-ACW artillery, but still be basically the same black-powder system? I'm mostly thinking about carriages, as the ignition system isn't particularly visible at 28mm. Is there a reasonable re-design for the usual limber/carriage system, that would still be recognizable, but somewhat alien?

Liftwood panels on carriages instead of wheels?

I'd just make it look different, like Chinese artillery where the end of the barrel is a dragon's mouth.

I'm using renaissance arty, just painting the barrels a
very reddish bronze. I was thinking about getting some
Indian arty.. or as mentioned, the chinese.. anything
very ornamented..

Yeah, the ornamental barrels are very popular among SP1889 players, but it's the carriage that bugs me. It just screams out to be different, somehow.

If you don't mind a little building then I would suggest perhaps adding a second axle. A four wheeled 8 pound Napoleonic carriage with a larger Asian barrel. Maybe add two or more light barrels to a heavy siege gun carriage. ACW mortar mounted to fire horizontally. Mix and match parts of different guns and wagons and you get lots of odd looking weapons.

In Martian Empires, the Imperial Martian artillery uses Carvorite embedded in the carriages so that it hoverrs and can be pulled around easily by hand.

When put into a firing position, chains hold it in place to prevent the recoil moving it off the battlefield! :-)

I see them as a black powder system, but Martian Empires martian's aren't as advanced as ERB ones.

Mike

I saw a picture of Ottoman artillery with wheels that looked like balloon tyres.

Flintloque.. you tryin to un-invent the wheel..? :-)

To my mind, any 'floating' carriage will have a lot of recoil problems.. (tho I can see a rule where 'On a roll of 6,
the chains pull loose and the gun recoils 1d10 inches.")

To my mind, any 'floating' carriage will have a lot of recoil problems.

If you're using liftwood panels to float the carriage, you just trim the panels to cancel the lift and the carriage settles to the ground.

Wasn't there a way to neutralize Cavorite's lifting power, too?

In Martian Empires, Cavorite only provides lift when it has an electric current passed through it, so you could turn off the current as the gun fires to prevent the recoil. I still like the chains idea though…

Mike

Some years ago Richard Houston produced a line of "Alien Guns" intended for Victorian SF gaming, and they would work for Martian guns in 25mm scale. They were part of his colonial artillery line, which is still in production by The London War Room. You can see the online catalog at:
link
These look much like renaissance guns.Prices are reasonable and their mail order is prompt. You could also look at the Sikh and Chinese guns in the Houston line.

I have a bunch of the Houston guns, but the carriages are pretty mundane. I'm planning on scratchbuilding my own, once I come up with a design I like.

Liftwood ones are a non-starter for me, as it's rarity would make them unlikely (IMHO).

I thought about a four-wheeled carriage, but the recoil issues killed that idea, as well as the tricycle version.

I also thought about just doing a four-wheeled caisson/limber combination, with a standard gun design.

Right now, I'm considering some sort of gun/limber combo that places the ammo on the trail, and the limber is jsut two wheels & an axle.

Somewhere out there is a design that will float my boat…

just

Flintloque

Had a thought .. what about a 4 wheel carriage with a kind of hinged spade that drops in the back? Maybe even an ornate one to match an ornate barrel? It would show a logical though very different development.

Go really old school and put it in a dirt filled box for a gun bed. Make it a four wheel wagon that you remove the wheels from to fire.

Or suspend it like a covered ram. That would be cool… It fires, swings back on its chains, then swings forward again. Accurate? Ha! Cool? Yeah…

What about these?

link

I've got some fantasy gun barrels I did for Pirates a long time ago and I was thinking of mounting them on these mechanical spiders.

"Liftwood ones are a non-starter for me, as it's rarity would make them unlikely (IMHO)."

I've had this same thought .. they mention the rarity of liftwood many time in the game material. I relate it to makeing a paper weight out of solid gold. Why make one floating gun carriage when you could have 20 rolling complete guns, years worth of ammo and powder and the crews to work them for the same cost .. or what ever the exchange rate is ..

Once again … YES I'm a geek .. I think the details are fun.

Fozzy: For the same reason that you make one advanced fighter jet when for the price, you could buy a dozen less fancy planes and give them the same weapon loadouts. The same reason an artist will buy a Kolinsky Sable that costs two hundred dollars when they could snag a few dozen. The same reason you can buy a single golf club that costs as much as a car. It's because you get an edge. A tiny one, perhaps, but if you've got the skill/training/talent, then that extra 2% the equipment gives you will be useful.

A liftwood artillery unit *would* be expensive.. but then along comes a battle where the opponent isn't defending the local swamp, and you can sneak the things in through the trees to pound their HQ without worrying about them sinking into mud. Any artillery/armor grunt can tell you exactly what they think about mud – the prospect of a hovering unit would make them soil themseles with glee.

Oh, and as far as how the things should look, I'm *still* liking my liquid propellant idea from the other thread. A few tanks of liquid, prominantly marked with Maritan warning symbols, freshly squeezed from the roots of the Wakka bush.

Bobcat: Indeed a few precious and highly mobile Liftwood carriages would make sense, but would be far from the norm I think. Your liquid propellent idea is also interesting.

Maybe even a distilled and highly consentrated gel or paste???

What about arty loaded on pack animals for transportation and deployed on tripods – like grasshopper guns but a recoil sytem in the tripod.

Better yet, self-propelled tripod arty platforms. You name the propulsion system, steam, clockwork, etc.