[✗] [Invention] The Tancannon™ or The Falkenade™

[Lojo613 1420]

 

 

 

Title

Invention Lore - The Tancannon™ or The Falkenade™ 

 

 

 

Origin

Ancient cannon designs as described by Imperial Library Archives

 

In the city square of Helena, a lone blacksmith plys his trade. Among the bustle of the crowd, before his roaring forge, this smith spends his free time diagramming all sorts of weapons and metal crafts. One day, while complaining about the lack of business to a customer, the conversation with a certain Edward Napier moved to the topic of cannons. Unbeknownst to the Minister of Civil Affairs, this conversation had rekindled the lone smith’s imagination. For weeks, this smith had returned time and again to the Imperial Library, scouring the Descendent’s histories for reference to the construction and use of the cannon. By carriage he would travel to his brother’s estate and at the forge he would work in secret. Tancred Falkenrath spent days forging and reforging, casting and recasting steel, bronze, and iron, attempting to come up with the perfect cannon design.

As materials began to dwindle, Tancred began to lose hope. Grabbing his bellows to reheat the forge for yet another failed attempt, Tancred was struck with a moment of inspiration. Quickly etching out a design, much smaller than any previous cannons, and based on the anatomy of a bellows, Tancred created the first Falkenade, which he dubbed proudly as the “Tancannon”. Tancred used what cast iron he had to produce a single “Tancannon”. 

His brother, Leufroy Falkenrath, ever the shrewd businessman, came up with the second greatest contribution to the Tancannon as he and 10 other men helped place the cannon onto a cart. The Tancannon, and all Falkenades, would be designed to take a standardized cannonball unit, allowing the Falkenrath brothers to sell services to the guns even after they are purchased. 

 

 

 

Description

The Tancannon sketch by Tancred Falkenrath as it would appear on a ship

 

The Tancannon is a much shorter and smaller cannon, being roughly a quarter of both the weight and size of an ancient cannon. The chamber of the Falkenade is actually bored one size lower than its caliber, but is compensated by a reduced windage (area between the cannonball and side of the barrel). A pivoting mounting which allows the gun to be rotated, while rearward recoil is contained, with a slider carriage. A wedge is also added to adjust height of the gun, changing the arc of fire.The Tancannon is produced as a “system” including the carriage of the gun, which sits low to the ground and is meant to be rolled across flat surfaces.

Due to the much decreased size of the Falkenade, a reduced crew is required to effectively man it, and it is much easier to use than an ancient or long-barrel cannon due to the standardized method of ordinance production. The small size of the gun, as well as it’s inclusion of pivots and wedges, makes it more versatile at a close range than a long gun. The 32 pound variant of the gun weighs less than 1 ton, compared to a long cannon of the same poundage which would weigh around 3 tons. 

 

 

  

Capabilities

A Falkenade on am Imperial Warship as rendered by an unknown vineyard worker

Cons:

The Falkenade, while weighing much less than traditional ancient cannons and long cannons, would still not truly be viable in battlefield situations as an artillery piece. The weight of the gun prevents it from being placed on cart wheels and moving around quickly and efficiently. Alongside this, the gun is not particularly accurate, and would be best suited against large targets even at close range. Similar to other heavy ancient cannons, it is best suited in a stationary, or ship mounted position, but dissimilar to ancient cannons, it would most likely make for an ineffective siege weapon. The limited angle of fire prevents the Tancannon from being aimed to surpass walls at a distance, and while it has a great range, it would be rather ineffective in piercing walls, both due to its small size and longer reload time.

Pros:

The small size and standardized production of the Tancannon makes it an excellent naval gun. On the flat surface of a naval vessel, the Tancannon outshines much larger guns by taking far less crew to man, being adjusted to fire more easily, and a far greater amount being mountable due to the weight and size. Similarly, the inaccuracy of the Tancannon is negated in naval warfare by both the size and distance ships will be located at. A Falkenade broadside volley will devastate any ship. Small ships and Large ships alike can be fitted with Falkenades due to the decreased weight and crew cost. Similarly, coastal battles where enemy combatants or cities are within range of Falkenade carrying ships could be effectively shelled every few minutes as the small cannons are rapidly reloaded and adjusted for fire. 

 

 

 

Siege Information

As noted earlier, the Falkenade would not be very effective in regards to siege warfare. Sustained Falkenade fire could theoretically bring down the walls of buildings, but would obviously require sustained accurate shot on a single location for around 3 successive hits. This weapon has a greater range than the trebuchet, but does much less damage ((Justification will be given for this reasoning in the OOC section below)). This cannon could be rigged for use as a field gun, but its size and weight makes it less effective than as a naval gun. For naval battles, this gun would most certainly devastate ships to a far greater degree than ballista, punching effectively through both wood and ironside plating. The standardized ammunition of these Cannons ought to be used, using ammunition with the wrong bore size would decrease the range of these guns by half.

 

Proposed Roll checks (OOC)

 

At a range of 1200 blocks: 1d100 where >80 is a hit

At a range of 1000 blocks: 1d100 where >75 is a hit

At a range of 800 blocks: 1d100 where >70 is a hit

At a range of 600 blocks: 1d100 where >65 is a hit

At a range of 500 blocks: 1d100 where >55 is a hit

At a range of 400 blocks: 1d100 where >50 is a hit

At a range of 300 blocks: 1d100 where >40 is a hit

At a range of 200 blocks: 1d100 where >30 is a hit

At a range of 100 blocks: 1d100 where >20 is a hit

At a minimum range of 10 blocks: 1d100 where >10 is a hit

 

If the cannon is touching something or less than 10 blocks away, it will always hit, but blow back debris.

 

Block ranges that fall between two numbers take the rolls of the lower range, for example 198 blocks will use the 100 block range roll.

 

Using the 1 block 1 meter standard, this cannon would realistically be able to shoot about 1300 meters at a max, which was rounded down to 1200 blocks for the purpose of simplicity. The real life variant of this gun was inaccurate at range, and was proven to be most effective in closer quarters. Should the range of this gun need to be reduced for balance or fairness, that is completely alright so long as it remains true to the written lore proposed here. 

Damage ought to be ⅓ of that of proposed cannons, but load time and warclaim cost ought to be decreased.

 

 

 

Red Lines/Restrictions

-The production of the Tancannon would be regulated by the Falkenrath Family, proof of knowledge is required

-Requires feat application for tracking purposes, takes up 0 slots.

-Should a Falkenade use ammunition which is not either standardized to it specifically or made by the company/individual that produced the cannon, windage would become an issue, and range would be severely decreased by about half

-The Falkenade needs some sort of propellant to actually fire the cannonballs, and any individual who desires to use the Falkenade must employ the propellant. 

-Combat with a Falkenade requires roll checks to determine accuracy based on range

-A 2 man crew is all that is required to employ the Falkenade

-There must be at least 4 emotes, as opposed to the proposed 5, due to the ease of use of the Falkenade (Those being the (re)loading, arming/packing, aiming, and firing emotes)

 

 

 

Purpose (OOC)

The cannon used to feature into the lore and existence of LOTC. Unlike hand held firearms, the cannon used to have a place in the lore of the server and was retconned out of existence. Personally, I find the retconning of lore distasteful as it invalidates the experiences of the players and characters who experienced that lore, to know it just poofed away outside of their control. The time frame of the server, as well as the culture, has advanced beyond both the middle ages and early colonial ages, and while certain techlocks must exist to preserve the fantasy feel of the server, the reintroduction of a siege weapon which had already existed within the setting is important to expanding the horizons of both CRP and the civilian playerbase.

 

It is my dream to see naval battles occur, or for naval combat to be incorporated into siege warfare, and this specific gun serves as a stepping stone to interesting naval combat. This gun is a real gun which was invented in 1770 and applied to Royal Navy vessels (and will be cited in the spoilers). Logically, from the culture that exists in Oren at the moment, this gun would most certainly be produced and employed. Contributing new and unique cannon and weapon designs to be employed in CRP is part of what gives each nation a unique flavor and separates one combat style from another, and I believe that this cannon would make an excellent inclusion to the lore and deserves some unique rules for the unique design. 

 

Spoiler

Citation Spoiler

Recent Lore Post regarding Cannons

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/192399-invention-cannons/?tab=comments#comment-1777750

Real World Counterpart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carronade

 

 

 

Edited June 11, 2020 by Lojo613

[GDPR 014 23]

may the best cannon win.

edit: I love your lore tho, its very well defined and awesome, I hope these two pieces can coexist.

 

Edited June 11, 2020 by TaiwanNotChina

[Lojo613 1420]

8 minutes ago, TaiwanNotChina said:

may the best cannon win

 

I hope both win ;)

[GDPR 014 23]

Just now, Lojo613 said:

I hope both win 😉

shiet i just edited my post just to say that 🙂

[FlemishSupremacy 4929]

52 minutes ago, Lojo613 said:

The production of the Tancannon would be regulated by the Falkenrath Family, proof of knowledge is required

-Requires feat application for tracking purposes, takes up 0 slots.

Is this not somewhat overkill for what is in essence a stocky cannon?

If @TaiwanNotChina‘s lore is accepted, what is to stop one from doing something very similar as your lore, without the feat? 

I like the lore, but I just don’t feel like once one person makes something like this, it’d take very long for someone else to just figure it out by looking at it.
 

 

Also I hate hogging lore like this to a single group in general, so if that goes, I’m all for it.

[Lojo613 1420]

47 minutes ago, FlemishSupremacy said:

Is this not somewhat overkill for what is in essence a stocky cannon?

If @TaiwanNotChina‘s lore is accepted, what is to stop one from doing something very similar as your lore, without the feat? 

I like the lore, but I just don’t feel like once one person makes something like this, it’d take very long for someone else to just figure it out by looking at it.
 

 

Also I hate hogging lore like this to a single group in general, so if that goes, I’m all for it.

Initially, prior to my edit, the post read 

-The production of the Tancannon would be regulated by the Falkenrath Family, but theoretically anyone could produce the design, and so long as they also produce the ammunition, windage would not be an issue.

-Should a Falkenade be produced and use ammunition which is not either standardized to it specifically or made by the company that produced the cannon, windage would become an issue, and range would be severely decreased by about half

A friend recommended this be changed on the grounds that knowledge of the gun ought to be traceable through people who have actually learned the production technique, rather than just allowing anyone to produce it but with these caveats. The real life Carronade was successful because of the production technique used to produce both it and the ammo in tandem, rather than the “stocky cannon” itself. Alone, the stocky cannon would actually be worse than a long cannon. 

The intent of requiring the knowledge of the invention to be tracked is that this invention is specific and tied to a character rather than a general “discovery”, and while yes, someone else would be able to imitate the cannon design, unless they understood exactly why the cannon was successful they would face the above issues.  Imitation also requires that they somehow either get their hands on a captured weapon, or that they are taught specifically how to create this weapon. 

To solve these issues and create some interesting RP, the feat system would be used. I personally rp the blacksmith who created this weapon, and enjoy smithing rp and would enjoy teaching people how to create the weapon, which was my intention. Therefore knowledge of the weapon and why it “works” can be disseminated. The intent was not to “hog lore” but rather to promote larger groups to rp with a much smaller group in a location outside of Helena (The ironworks where this cannon was created), where I might add anyone wanting to learn about the gun should it be approved may visit and spend some time learning about the weapon.

Although, as you can see above my original intention was just to have the gun in existence, the suggestion to promote rp for the creation of the invention was a plus, and if enough people or the LT believes that it ought to be changed to be accepted, then I have no qualms with changing the lore.

[squakhawk 7303]

This lore has been denied. You will be sent a forum PM regarding the reasons for denial within the next 24 hours.