[Lore] Dwarven Siege Cannon

[Cpt_Noobman 1346]

 

~The Dwarven Siege Cannon~

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

As Orenian forces pressed ever closer to the Dwarven heartland, the Dwedmar were desperate for an edge against these foreign invaders. Under Rhewen Frostbeard, Dwarven tinkers, engineers and inventors of all kind were set to work on various war machines, traps, and other weapons that could give them an advantage in battle. A group of Dwarven golemancers, remembrancers, and engineers came together to begin work on a weapon of special note.

 

Using recovered schematics used by the Dwarves of yore, and working by memory, they began production on a modified version of the ancient Dwarven cannons used hundreds of years prior. After years of tireless and dedicated work, and the pooling of an innumerable amount of resource in the forms of mina, iron, gunpowder, fine workmanship, and the death of one beardling in a testing accident, the product of this labor was the Dwarven siege cannon.

 

Nicknamed Hefjhor guns in honor of the lad who died in it’s production, the cannon truly matches his name’s Dwarven meaning. A hulking beast of cast iron, intricately shaped and carved in decorative fashions with runes and depictions of the Brathmordakin, it has all qualities that a Dwarf finds admirable. It is wide, heavy, dangerous, and it packs quite a punch.

 

After the Vanderguanian victory at the siege of Kal’Ordholm, the dwarves were able to safely test fire the cannon, and get accurate results on the way it works in practice, and compile a list on it’s functions and advantages/disadvantages.

 

Advantages:

• A very powerful weapon, it is capable of punching deep holes through walls, and barricades, creating a far deeper path than conventional siege weapons.

• It is far more accurate than the fickle ways of trebuchets, and siege ballistas, and is much more likely to hit it’s target than those aforementioned.

• In addition to it’s offensive capabilities, it can be used for defense as well. It’s notable ability to smash through wooden barricades makes it a good choice for targeting an offensive force’s siege equipment.

 

Disadvantages:

• Being a more fickle weapon in regards to reloading, it takes longer to load properly than conventional siege weapons.

• It is a weapon with very intricate mechanisms that allow it to work properly so as a result, it is about twice as susceptible to malfunction as conventional siege weapons.

• Unlike trebuchets and ballistas it cannot be assembled on the battlefield, so it must be built elsewhere and then limbered by horse or golem to the battlefield if used for an offensive attack.

• After every shot if mounted on a cart or wheels, the cannon’s aim is thrown off, and it must be re-adjusted by the aimer and spotter to be aligned to it’s original position.

• It takes longer to load and fire than conventional siege weapons, as many more steps are followed to do so.

• Being a Dwarven work of art, it costs more to produce than a conventional siege weapon, both in minas for production of the weapon itself, and materials for the ammunition it uses.

 

Neutral Statistics:

• A three man crew is recommended for firing the cannon, consisting of a reloader, an aimer/shooter, and a spotter to mark targets. It can be worked by two men, but it takes twice as long to fire if this is done, and could be less accurate.

• In a defensive situation, it can be mounted on a rotatable axis so that when it is fired, the aim is not thrown off. In an offensive situation if it is mounted on a cart, or wheels, the aim will be thrown off after each shot, and will need to be re-adjusted.

 

OOC Suggested Stats For Use

(Up to GM discretion of course)

Cost:

• 750 minas to create the siege weapon as opposed to 500 for trebs, and 250 for ballistas.

• If an ammunition system is implemented, then each shot should require 10 gunpowder, and 3 iron ingots an iron block to make.

 

Firing:

• The cannon malfunctions on a roll of 2 or lower, as opposed to a roll of 1 for trebs/ballistas.

• The cannon gets a critical hit on a roll of 19 or above as opposed to a roll of 20 for trebs/ballistas

• 17-18 is a direct hit, 14-16 is a hit, 10-14 is an indirect hit, 3-10 is a miss.

• It takes 2 minutes to fire with a crew of 3 compared to 1 minute for trebs/ballistas. With a crew of two, the time doubles making it 4 minutes to reload and fire.

• Unlike a trebuchet, it can only be fired in a straight line so shots cannot be arced over walls or towers to hit things behind them. If it needs to hit something behind cover, the best bet for the operator is to try and shoot through the cover.

 

Damage on Impact:

• A hit causes a deeper blow into defenses than a treb or ballista, but the tunnel it creates is not as wide, making it useful for creating breaches, just not large ones.

• Against players, I would suggest a fireball or AOE damage of some sort.

 

((To any loremasters or other staff that decide on whether or not it’s accepted, I understand why you wouldn’t want to with your rules on gunpowder. But to be honest, gunpowder has already come very far on the server from being used in fireworks, to making TNT, to making explosive arrows. I don’t think making a cannon would be that terrible all things considered. It pretty much follows the same rules for other siege equipment with only a few differences, so in my opinion it wouldn’t be OP like previous cannons on the server. I just think it would give some flair to the battlefield, and make things a bit more interesting.

 

Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think in the reply section. I may add/subtract things from the lore depending on response.

 

[Ioannis 1478]

All the games i played, dwarves were the only ones using gunpower to defend their mountains since dwarves are masters at tinkering, smithing and building defences. So the idea of cannons sounds nice.

[DrakeHaze. 2481]

Wheres the actual lore on how these cannons work though?

[Privet 1840]

I think they fell into the oceans of Aegis (Or whatever map it was) for a reason.

[Cpt_Noobman 1346]

4 minutes ago, DrakeHaze/Omnyaxle said:

Wheres the actual lore on how these cannons work though?

ATM it's essentially works the same way as a real cannon for the most part. Future variations of the cannon might utilize runesmithing to ignite the powder charge, and a few other pieces of dwarven technology and magic could be used to change the way it functions, but no stats would really change.

[Cpt_Noobman 1346]

2 minutes ago, Fizldank said:

I think they fell into the oceans of Aegis (Or whatever map it was) for a reason.

Yeah, I heard about that too. Though I heard they were heavily abused in past maps, so I tried my best to put tighter restrictions and balance to this new variation.

[Skippy 2466]

3 minutes ago, Fizldank said:

I think they fell into the oceans of Aegis (Or whatever map it was) for a reason.

because mog liked to use them for evil

[Jonificus 2711]

3 ingots for a cannon ball is terribly cheap if you ask me. An iron block and a good few units of gunpowder seems more legit for a MIGHTy shell

[DrakeHaze. 2481]

Just now, Cpt_Noobman said:

ATM it's essentially works the same way as a real cannon for the most part. Future variations of the cannon might utilize runesmithing to ignite the powder charge, and a few other pieces of dwarven technology and magic could be used to change the way it functions, but no stats would really change.

Alright, but the first cannons had pages of lore and actual engineering know-how on how it works and why it should work. Throwing that in will increase your chance of the lore being accepted, post seems more so rushed to me not that I really mind seems more concise. Just incase the thread blows-up or anything.

[Privet 1840]

1 minute ago, Ⓢⓚⓘⓟⓟⓨ said:

because mog liked to use them for evil

It's also because they were ridiculously OP, just have trebuchets and the current garbage because it's all the same on the server. Just not as cool looking.

[Cpt_Noobman 1346]

12 minutes ago, DrakeHaze/Omnyaxle said:

Alright, but the first cannons had pages of lore and actual engineering know-how on how it works and why it should work. Throwing that in will increase your chance of the lore being accepted, post seems more so rushed to me not that I really mind seems more concise. Just incase the thread blows-up or anything.

Noted. I'll try and dig up some old lore on the previous cannons, and make some more of my own to try and make a more in depth description of the cannon.

[mmat 7461]

Attacking forts is mind numbingly boring enough as it is without having cannons exploding everywhere.

[_pr0fit 2944]

[ryno2 1238]

19 minutes ago, Ⓢⓚⓘⓟⓟⓨ said:

because mog liked to use them for evil

I was the guy who made a tnt cannon on the orc boat to shoot at the dwarf boat when we went from aegis to asulon, fun fact

[Cpt_Noobman 1346]

1 minute ago, professorus said:

To be fair though, there's already TNT enabled on the server, breaking away from that quote. And in many fantasy games and books like Warhammer cannons are used alongside the bows swords and armor like those that are found in LoTC.