"Wooden guns" Topic

A silly idea to improve role-playing in our next pirate game:

King Louis XIV has decided to dramatically reduce fundings (because of the economical crisis etc) so my Governor character told his carpenters to make some false guns:

These guns will be placed on the fortress, mixed with the real guns. Players will be told that, yes, everyone knows that some of the fortress guns are wooden. This is not a secret. But which ones? Any gun (real or wooden) placed in the fortress on the gaming table could be any of them and not what it looks like.

The plan of the real and false guns locations will be secretly written on a piece of paper, and only shown to players whose characters will come near enough to have a close look at them. If there is a fighting, I'll replace the real guns and wooden guns on their real location according to the secret plan.

Actually a great idea. Historically, phoney guns were used in many periods. In retrospect it is surprising there are no commercially available miniatures for this. Rob.

That is a good concept and some interesting renditions.

During the ACW they were called Quaker guns and were used, among other places, in the Confederate fortifications around Manassas after the First Battle of Manassas.

Jim

When I saw the subject line, I was sure this was a joke that ended with "clank, clank, clank."

Great idea – as the Colonel notes, the Confederates used this trick in the ACW!

Quaker guns? Yes I think this idea comes from an old ACW picture of Confederate dummy guns I have seen somewhere…

When I saw the subject line, I was sure this was a joke that ended with "clank, clank, clank."

Er. Someone please help my bad understanding of an English joke I could perhaps have done here without thinking? Then I could do it willingly next time ;)

Wasn't it also done by the Germans during WWII in Western Europe? along the coast?

If I remember correctly, in reference to the ACW Confederate Quaker Guns, wasn't there a battle in which the Union made a much longer, flanking attack rather than to frontally assault a gun position (that was full of quaker guns?). It gave the rebels time to make there escape.

Also, in Florida on the St. Johns River, approaching Jacksonville at Yellow Bluff, the confederates had used some 'fake guns' mixed in with real guns to defend the bluff and river. When Union gunboats approached and were fired on, the boats retreated when they counted the number of guns on the bluff. The navy would not return until more gunboats could be brought to fire on the bluffs. By the time they returned, the rebels had successfully made their escape, taking most of the serviceable, large caliber guns with them.

David G.
gamerarchitect.blogspot.com

Great execution.

"Er. Someone please help my bad understanding of an English joke I could perhaps have done here without thinking? Then I could do it willingly next time ;)"
You really don't want to know

Er. Someone please help my bad understanding of an English joke I could perhaps have done here without thinking? Then I could do it willingly next time ;)

The joke is, I heard it, the Germans after WW1 were training. The new recruit shows up to manuevers and is handed a wooden gun. One guy comes running at him and he points it and yells "bangity bang" and the guy falls down. The next guy jumps up and gets closer and he yells "stabitity stab" and the guy falls over. Then a big fat guy comes over the hill and he yells "bangity bang" but the fat guy keeps coming. He gets closer and tries the "stabity stab", but the fat guy just runs right over him and keeps on going. As he goes away he can hear the fat guy chanting "clank, clank, clank" (I have also hear it as "tankity tank").