Bombardment Engines

Any large device intended to hurl missiles qualifies as a bombardment engine. The most common types and their basic statistics are listed on the table below.

Bombardment engines are difficult to aim at individuals. Generally, a bombardment engine can target only units of creatures, buildings, other war machines, vehicles, ships, and single creatures of Gargantuan size; see the individual bombardment engine descriptions for exceptions.

It takes time and effort to set up a bombardment engine and prepare it to fire for the first time. The minimum preparation time is 10 minutes or the time required to change facing, whichever is greater. The number increases by 50% if a trained artillerist is not on hand to direct the operation.

When used with the Player’s Option combat system, a bombardment engine has a field of fire of 45 degrees left or right of its current facing. This is generous for most weapons included here, but it is assumed that a bombardment engine’s slow rate of fire accounts for a considerable amount of manhandling between shots.

Range: Ranges are divided into minimum, short, medium, and long categories. A weapon cannot be aimed at targets closer than its minimum range.

THAC0: The chance to hit a target with a bombardment engine is a function of the engine, not the crew.

Damage: The number before the slash is the amount of damage inflicted on Man-sized or smaller creatures; the number after the slash is the damage inflicted on larger creatures. If there is only one value given, the damage is the same for all sizes of creatures. Some creatures are entitled to a saving throw to reduce or avoid damage. Damage to structures is covered in the Escalades and Siege and Fortifications sections.

Note that creatures immune to normal missiles are not immune to missiles from bombardment engines. Creatures immune to blunt weapons are immune to catapult and trebuchet missiles and to round shot fired from ballistae. Creatures immune to piercing weapons are immune to bolts from ballistae. Creatures immune to nonmagical weapons are immune to attacks from ballistae, catapults, and trebuchets (unless the missiles employed are enchanted). Cannon and bombard projectiles are blunt weapons, but they are propelled with enough force to harm creatures that are otherwise immune to blunt weapons. Cannons and bombards also can harm creatures that are immune to nonmagical weapons. Light cannons are treated as +1 weapons for determining which creatures they can harm. Medium cannons and great bombards are treated as +2 weapons, and heavy cannons are treated as +3 weapons.

Knockdown: The size of the die the weapon rolls for knockdowns.

ROF: (Rate Of Fire) This is how often the weapon can be fired if fully crewed; 1/8 means the weapon can fire once every eight rounds.

Change Facing: This is the number of rounds required to change the weapon’s facing 45 degrees. Any weapon listed as “0” can change facing during the End-of-Round step of a round in which the weapon was fired.

Crew: The number of Man-sized creatures required to operate the weapon. If fewer crew are available, the weapon’s rate of fire decreases by one for every missing crew member, and the weapon cannot be operated at all if the available crew is less than half the required number. Extra crew can be allocated to the weapon to maintain its rate of fire in the face of casualties among the crew. At the DM’s option, two Small or four Tiny creatures can replace one Man-sized creature; one Large creature can replace two Man-sized creatures, one Huge creature can replace three Man-sized creatures, and so on. If at least one trained artillerist is not on hand to supervise the crew, the rate of fire decreases by one. Creatures must have manipulative appendages and a racial intelligence of at least low to serve on a crew.

Target Size: The smallest creature the engine can target individually; see the engine’s description for details.

Weight: The engine’s approximate weight in pounds.

Spaces: The number of map spaces the engine occupies on the map.

*Indicates that the usual –5 modifier for long range shots does not apply.

Bombardment Engines


Range


Knock-

Change


Target


Weapon
M/S/M/L
THAC0
Damage
Down
ROF
Facing
Crew
Cost
Size
Wt.
Spaces
Ballista, Light
—/11/22/33
12
2d6/3d6
d8
1/8
0
1
200
Any
100
1
Ballista, Medium
1/11/22/36
14
3d6/3d8
d10
1/12
0
2
300
H
200
2
Ballista, Heavy
2/12/24/39
17
3d10/3d12
d12
1/16
0
4
400
H
400
2
Bombard
18/—/—/40*
17
2d10/2d12
d12
1/15
30
3
10,000
G
600
1
Bombard, Great
36/—/—/80*
19
3d10/3d12
d20
1/18
30
5
30,000
G
1,200
2
Cannon, Light
—/15/45/90
12
1d12x5
d10
1/15
0
3
10,000
H
400
1
Cannon, Medium
—/20/60/120
14
1d12x5
d12
1/18
0
4
15,000
H
1,000
1
Cannon, Heavy
—/30/90/180
17
1d12x5
d20
1/30
15
6
30,000
H
2,000
2
Catapult, Light
15/—/—/30*
14
2d10
d8
1/8
0
1
250
H
200
1
Catapult, Medium
15/—/—/33*
15
3d10
d10
1/12
0
3
350
G
300
2
Catapult, Heavy
18/—/—/36*
16
3d10
d12
1/16
20
5
500
G
500
2
Trebuchet
24/—/—/48*
17
4d10
d12
1/16
30
8
750
G
1,000
4

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