Punkin Chunkers

[pmulcahy11b]

How much damage do you think one of these things (particularly the air cannons) could do if you loaded something more substantial in them, like a small fragmentation shell?

[ArmySGT.]

How much damage do you think one of these things (particularly the air cannons) could do if you loaded something more substantial in them, like a small fragmentation shell?

20lb pumpkin / 100lb Artillery shell.

The crew would never survive to fire a second time, assuming it cleared the tube.

[Legbreaker]

Of course the vast majority of actual artillery rounds needs to spin to arm, so it wouldn't matter if it didn't clear the barrel.

I went through a similar thought process a couple of months ago for a game while trying to come up for an idea to deliver gas bombs onto a target. A grenade with pin removed, stuffed into a foam sabot (taking great care not to release the pin) then shoved into the barrel should do the job nicely. The same arming system could be used for larger charges too with a little creativity (not exactly safe, but could be very effective).

Then there's the old staple of shoving grenades into glass jars (ala Airlords of the Ozarks). They could be flung by catapult, staff sling, or any number of other methods. Doesn't even need to be a grenade (take the wojo incendiary grenade for example - two chemicals which mix when the jar breaks with an exothermic reaction).

So, in answer to the original question, damage is purely dependant on the charge or projectile. The only question is over the delivery system (range, accuracy, power, manoeuvrability, etc).

[pmulcahy11b]

20lb pumpkin / 100lb Artillery shell.

The crew would never survive to fire a second time, assuming it cleared the tube.

Smart ass. I think you know what I'm talking about.

[ArmySGT.]

Smart ass. I think you know what I'm talking about.

I guess I do not.

A pumpkin is around 20 lbs for a large one though monster 100lb ones exists, an artillery shell is 100lbs or more.

That's a lot for compressed air to throw. I would expect it to drop short, like inside the blast radius short, if the shell cleared the tube at all.

Doesn't seem worth the effort when there is so much actual military hardware around.

[Legbreaker]

A trebuchet or similar would be very useful for a fortified village though. Doesn't need to use proper artillery shells either - just a sack full of shrapnel packed around a charge with a fuse jammed into it.
Probably get a similar result as an artillery shell, but with less range. Changing targets would also be a bit slow, but if they're already aimed at choke points created by pre-placement of obstacles such as barbed wire, stakes and trenches...

[raketenjagdpanzer]

I'm reminded of a scene in Poul Anderson's The High Crusade wherein an entire medieval town finds itself transported to a distant planet and at war with high-tech aliens...but they ultimately win the day, not for the least because they lobbed a live, armed nuclear weapon at an enemy stronghold. Fearing that the "humans" had invented a stealth nuclear attack system they quickly surrendered.

You see, they'd lobbed it with a trebuchet, and the shell wasn't air-dropped, nor fired via missile or artillery piece, nor was it brought to the target in any kind of trackable vehicle so... :)

[Legbreaker]

Hmm, the blowback must have been a bitch. ;)

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Hmm, the blowback must have been a bitch. ;)

I'll have to dig up my copy and find the exact passage but the catapult or trebuchet and those manning it weren't destroyed (it was one of the knights nearby who reported their victory to the Lord who'd been transported with the rest of the townsfolk).