What's In Your Battlewagon

[whatisitgoodfor]

How would you stat out a wagon to be capable of protecting a party (of medium sized creatures) from the majority of mundane encounters.

A friend asked me this in reference to a campaign he's in but I'm not. Now, I;m farming out to the community for other ideas. They're level 7, so money is still a bit of an issue, since they don't want the wagon to be a huge chunk of thier resources.

The first thing that was thought about was Iron armor plating for the wagon, but the weight is prohibitive, appoximately two tons for just the four sides of the wagon. (Oh, its 10X15 for reference) That's only 1/2 an inch of Iron too.

Any ideas on what else to do to make the wagon a good idea?

The party has a Wizard and a Cleric, so some magic can be added easily.

 

[Artoomis]

The best use I can think of would be to tip the wagon over at the first sign of touble and use it for cover.

A wagon!! ROFL.

 

[silentspace]

I'd avoid the heavily fortified tank idea and keep it light. If you're talking about your standard wagon, you only have room for four persons inside (if it's empty), and two on the driver's seat (only one actual driver). And that's if its pretty much empty. You're going to want to stock it up with all sorts of stuff (missiles, grenades, spears, maybe a ballista, not to mention tents, rations, etc.). For grenades, you'd need an open top, or big windows. For missiles or spellcasters, you might want to build it up so you get 90% cover. 90% cover with wood is still pretty good at 7th level. If someone has use rope skill, you could bring some extra tower shields and lash them together to form quick walls if your original walls get damaged. If you have a small character with missiles or spells, you can build a protected turret for him on top. It really depends on your party makeup.

Edit: Overall I agree its a pretty silly idea. Usually its not good to be a sitting duck

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

From what my friend was saying, they actually wanted it pretty much as a mobile campsite.

So, becoming a sitting duck is pretty irrelevant when the party is already completely stationary at night. Apparently their DM has a fetish for giving them nothing but night encounters, then making fun of them for not having armor on. (Please don't lecture me about bad DMing habits, it isn't my campaign.)

He talked about it primarily as a way of keeping the fighter types safe for 4 minutes while they suit up.

For a visualization, he was talking about something like a gypsy (sp?) wagon, except probably a little larger.

 

[melkoriii]

Well what I would do is set up a series of trip lines and warning alarms a good 100’ from the camp.
Alarm spells night time familiars/animal companions

Then have the Warriors wear Studded Leather or Chain shirts as they don’t get fatigued when sleeping In them.

Set up camp in a way that there is only one approach and set the traps/alarms in that place so that you can move into ambush/strategic placements quickly.

Triggered booby traps are good too. (swinging log that a PC trips to hit the enemy etc)

 

[silentspace]

Yep, I agree with melkoriii. The party needs to put up alarms and trip wires, and bring along extra sets of chain shirts. Another good trick if its a dangerous campaign at that level is to get Rope Trick on a scroll, lasting 8 hours. You won't even need to set up a night watch. You can't hide a wagon using Rope Trick though

 

[Thanee]

Just buy the wizard a scroll of rope trick to scribe!

Bye
Thanee

 

[AuraSeer]

All you want is a mobile campsite? Forget the wagon and have your arcanist memorize rope trick every day. You could even buy a wand of it, for less than you'd pay to have a custom armor-plated wagon built.

If you don't want to screw around with extradimensional spaces, you can use tiny hut or secure shelter.

 

[Ysgarran]

Not that I'm giving any stats but...

There is a war wagon that was built around 1420 by the Hussites and led into battle by Jan Zizka. They were heavy wagons that were built up and protected with improvised armor. They were also mounted with small cannons. I wasn't able to find many pictures but here is a description:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/matthaywood/main/Warwagons.htm

A Drawing:
http://www.humanist.de/rome/housebook/

Some war gaming pictures:
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/luke/ueda-sarson/DBMMedGerman1.html
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/luke/ueda-sarson/DBMMedGerman2.html

The wagons weren't easily used in attacking but they were great as mobile forts. Zizka supposedly got the idea from the medieval russians who used wagon formations to protect bowmen from attacks by Mongol horsemen.

later,
Ysgarran.

 

[dcollins]

I'll point out that Sword & Fist has one page on the "Halfling War-Wagon" on page 79. It's a human-sized wagon, solid oak (hardness 5, hp 60), two levels, 6 archers on top, 6 sneak attackers on bottom, driver under cover, possible half-covered swivelling ballista on top. Drawn by two warponies, speed 30 ft., turn 90 degrees in a normal move. 10 ftx15 ft., 5,000 gp.

I suppose you could scale that up for humans, probably take at least 4 large warhorses to draw it, maybe x4 cost as a first guess, but there's a precedent in WOTC sources for the idea.