NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 9197381" data-attributes="member: 9254">I don't want to derail this so for those who care [Spoiler]Ever had a party get 'sniped' by an aimed shot of iron ball from a mile away able to hit a specific horse-sized target?  Because that's what counter-battery fire is: Cannons shooting other cannons at that range.  Although with a group they likely use case shot, where a cheap tin can would be filled with 50-100 musket balls. Aim twenty yards in front of the party, the can bursts and create a fan of lead, each ball able to shoot through multiple people or a horse.So the party responds with overwhelming force yeah?  Wait, no, nothing has close to a mile range.  Hope you have a caster with teleport still alive, because you now need to run four thousand+ feet to get in bow range. Lets say magic-boosted speed of 90, take double moves so thats 22 rounds.Huh, that's 2 minutes 12 seconds.  Take two more shots. Except since "close" range for a cannon is at 1,000ft (or as I like to call it "still well out of bow & spell range") they switch to canister for the second, creating a cone of lead.  Even at that range, grapeshot was more than likely to punch through one person to hit people behind them.  Aiming doesn't need to be precise when using a massive shotgun with a cone yards wide, fire rates can go up. One shot every 9 rounds? Every 8 rounds?Yeah but now the PCs with longbows can start to shoot back.  That single cannon will go silent quickly.  Except cannons are rarely singletons.  They are units.  Napoleon would take a 100-200 cannons on campaign and concentrate fire on specific targets.   But lets be reasonable.  Lets say there are six 12 pounders, each 75+ feet from the next, ordered to fire at a feisty group of PCs.  How do they survive 18+ cannon blasts on that run to bow range?[/spoiler]</blockquote>

Verification