Although the rules say that a character with the environmental skill can only make “bows, axes, clubs, knives and spears,” maybe this only applies to lower levels. Maybe a higher level character (3+) could make a simple catapult? Or even a trebuchet? That would be up to the game referee. Or, perhaps one would need an Ancient Artillery Weapons skill to know how to make and fire a catapult or trebuchet?

Similarly, imagine a character encountering an old gunpowder cannon. Even if that character had a projectile weapon skill – or the artillery skill given in Part 9 – could they safely use and fire such device without training from someone who knows how to use it? That would be doubtful. And, old gunpowder artillery weapons were prone to misfires or even blowing up!

Ancient Artillery

“Even before the advent of the cannon, catapults and trebuchets hurled massive stones that could shatter castle walls, bringing sieges that could last for months to an end in a matter of days.”

--The Havoc Journal, 2017

Greek Gastraph?t?s. The earliest known crossbow-like siege engine was the Greek gastraph?t?s (which roughly translates as “belly-shooter”). Invented sometime before the fourth century B.C., it was a bit longer but much stiffer than a normal bow. The soldier would set the backend of the device against his belly. Then, with the use of iron claw, he would exert his entire body strength to pull the bow string back to get the weapon ready to fire.

Heavy and slow to use, it is believed that these were primarily defensive weapons and fired over walls. Later versions would be equipped with a windlass, but they were still called “belly-shooters.”

The gastraph?t?s fired wooden bolts with sharp metal points that were about a meter long and 3.6 centimeters in diameter. The bolts could penetrate the armor and shields of their day and even wooden stockades.

Greek belly-shooters could also launch near-round stone shot. Weighing anywhere from 5-25 kilograms, the stone shot were fired at a high trajectory and sailed some 45 meters. Although inaccurate, the missiles from these weapons could eventually batter down anything but harden stone structures.

Some larger stone-throwers included one from Isidorus of Abydos, an ancient military engineer. It had a bow that was described as being about 4.6 meters long and 30 centimeters in diameter. It could fire 18 kilogram stone shot.

Another large ancient catapult (a ballista) was designed by Archimedes for a large merchant ship. This weapon could fire a 5.5 meter long bolt or a 78 kilogram stone to a range of 185 meters. While the device was probably very inaccurate, a hit could smash through the decks of ancient ships, probably inflicting enough damage to sink them.

Roman Ballista. After the Roman Republic conquered the ancient Greek city states in 146 BC, one of the spoils of war included the ballista. This weapon had been created during the time of Alexander the Great.

initially called a catapulta by the Romans, the ballista became a highly accurate weapon. It’s maximum range was about 460 meters, though its effective range was much shorter. By the time of Julius Caesar’s invasion of Britain and the conquest of Gaul in 55 BC, the tried-and-true ballista helped win numerous battles. By the fourth century AD, the largest ballista could throw a dart more than 1.1 kilometers.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, Europeans were unable to build and maintain these siege machines. They fell back into using an older designs such as the onager and the mangonel. By the Middle Ages came the advent of the trebuchet.

Onagers and Mangonels. The onager or “wild ass” was the heaviest ballistic weapon in the Roman arsenal. It had one massive perpendicular wooden arm with a sling at the end. The arm was winched down into the loading position. When the soldiers released the arm, it would rocket into a vertical position, with its motion stopped at a desired angle by a crossbeam. The weapon would buck – thus giving it its kicking donkey nickname – while the stone projectile was hurled along a parabolic path toward its target. 

Another Roman-era torsion-powered siege weapon was the mangonel. The main difference between the onager and the mangonel is that the mangonel has a bowl rather than a sling. This means that the mangonel could launch several small projectiles instead of one.