Harkanian Cannon

Game Stats

• Range: 1000 yds. (solid/explosive) or 200 yds. (grape)
• Solid shot damage: 50+2d30 (impaling)
• Explosive shot damage: 20 (burn) + 2d30 (impaling)
• Grape shot damage: 10+2d30 (impaling)
• Primary blast radius (explosive only): 5 yds.
• Secondary blast radius (explosive only, impaling damage only): 20 yds.
• Grape shot frontage: 50 feet @ 200 yds.; 25 feet @ 100 yds.
• Rate of fire: 1/4 rounds (full crew)
• Skill: artillery
• Secondary skills: marksmanship (with Artillerist's Scale), focus

Quick Facts

Affiliation: Harkanian League

Type: Artillery

Primary Armament: Solid Shot

Secondary Armament: Explosive Shot, Grape Shot

Support Armament Options: ClockTech Blower, Artillerist's Scale, ClockTech Loader

Description

Harkanian artillery batteries are the best in the world, not only because of their superior gunners but also because of their superior cannon ("guns" to an artillerist).  Cannon are produced around the world, often painstakingly hand-crafted and each unique.  There are some engineers in Harkania who still craft cannon in this manner, and their wares can sometimes be found defending small hamlets and backwaters.  The Harkanian army, however, employs cannon crafted to exacting specifications by ClockTech factories.  The use of set "patterns" enormously simplifies the logistics of the Harkanian artillery train, which translates directly into battlefield firepower.  Standardized guns means more cannon with more ammunition per gun and more consistent gunnery performance.

By far the most common Harkanian cannon (and indeed the pattern of gun usually meant by "Harkanian cannon") is the Pattern 1691 six-pounder field gun.  This cannon fires a six-pound solid shot (hence its name) up to 1000 yards, an enormous distance for a black-powder weapon.  A six-pound ball can be held in one hand and looks deceptively small for such a destructive weapon.  However, it weighs approximately 100 times as much as an arquebus ball.  A Harkanian cannon firing solid shot can plow through an entire file of heavily armored men.

Harkanian six-pounders are ordinarily made of cast bronze seated on a wooden carriage with large iron-shod wheels, the better to handle rough terrain.  Bronze is the preferred metal for most cannon barrels (called "tubes"), as they can be cast in one piece and then the barrel bored out of the solid block of bronze.  This produces a much stronger barrel than one made of wrought iron sheets, an important consideration for a weapon that employs as much gunpowder as a cannon.  Bronze Harkanian cannon are exceptionally reliable and almost never "burst" when fired (an artillerist's euphemism for "explode").

In addition to their robust, exactingly precise tubes, Harkanian cannon are much easier to aim than the guns of other nations.  Most other cannon are elevated or depressed by means of wooden blocks or a slot-and-peg system.  These systems require a large amount of muscle, are prone to slipping, and produce relatively imprecise differences in elevation.  Harkanian cannon are elevated by means of a simple clockwork screw mechanism: the gunner turns a crank at the base of the gun which raises or lowers a large stout screw, tipping the gun tube up or down.  This system does not require manhandling the gun tube, can produce very minute differences in elevation, and is not prone to slipping, making Harkanian cannon much more responsive to a gunner's skill.

Army Role

Harkanian cannon are the long range firepower of the Harkanian army.  Their primary role is to harass and demoralize the enemy by smashing men to pulp from five times the range of the stoutest longbow.  They are also the Harkanian army's primary countermeasure to enemy cannon.  The heavy metal tubes of a cannon are nigh indestructible, but a single hit from a six-pound solid shot is more than enough to reduce a wooden gun carriage to splinters, leaving the tube a useless hunk of metal on the ground.  Even a direct hit on the tube itself will likely destroy the carriage, from the tremendous shock imparted.  Individual cannon are very small targets at long range, but Harkanian guns crewed by Harkanian gunners are almost shockingly accurate.  At "close range" (i.e., under two hundred yards - just as longbows begin to come into range), Harkanian cannon switch from firing explosive or solid shot to the dreaded grape shot.  Rather than a single six-pound ball, a load of grapeshot consists of a canvas bag carefully packed with a dozen smaller balls, each individually about ten times as powerful as the shot from an arquebus.  When the cannon is fired the canvas bag is incinerated and the balls spread out in a cone like an enormous blunderbuss.  Even a single ball of grape is enough to punch right through a man unless he is wearing heavy armor, so a load of grape shot can fell over a dozen enemies at once.

Harkanian cannon are towed to the battlefield by teams of horses or mules (or rarely, oxen), usually with two animals to a gun.  Once they have reached their designated firing position the gun carriage is unhitched ("unlimbered") from the animals, and the gunners make final adjustments to its position by hand.  Harkanian generals prefer to site their cannon on hills or other high ground, so they can fire over the heads of friendly infantry but still be protected by them.  Harkanian doctrine prefers for each battalion of infantry to be accompanied on the battlefield by an artillery piece (either a cannon or a volley gun), and prefers to pair volley guns with cannon, so every 1,000 men is accompanied by a cannon, a volley gun, and a blundercog, the entire force forming a mutually supporting unit with a devastating blend of long-range, medium-range, and short-range firepower.  In practice, of course, artillery (to say nothing of blundercogs) is not quite so numerous, but the Harkanian army does field significantly more artillery than any other army in the world.  Accompanying this impressive artillery train is an even impressive train of mules towing ammunition carts.  As a result, Harkanian guns tend not only to be better manufactured than their foreign counterparts, but have more ammunition to fire as well.

Loading a cannon is normally a job for a full six-man crew, although it can be accomplished (very slowly, and with some danger) by as few as one.  Before the gun can be fired it must be "searched" with an implement rather like a long rake, which is used to remove any debris that might be left in the barrel from the previous firing.  The cannon is then "sponged" with a staff capped by a block of wood covered in sheepskin soaked in water.  The sponge is rammed the length of the barrel, just like a ramrod, to extinguish any sparks that might be left from the previous firing.  After the gun has been sponged it can be loaded with a charge of powder.  Harkanian cannon are issued pre-measured charges in bags (silk is preferred, although canvas is more common).  The opposite end of the sponge staff is a ramrod, which is used to "seat" the charge by pushing it to the breech of the barrel.  Then the shot and wadding are loaded and rammed, and the gun is wheeled by hand back to its firing position (from which it will recoil when fired).  A short fuse with a sharpened end is inserted through the touch-hole to pierce the charge bag.  The gunner aims the cannon, and once the crew is clear the fuse is lit with a slow-burning match attached to a long staff.  Accomplishing all of this is a laborious task, but can be done surprisingly quickly when the various tasks are assigned to different men in the crew.  In addition, breaking the process of loading and firing down to simple tasks that can be drilled over and over increases discipline even when enemy troops are charging the gun.

Equipment

Harkanian cannon ordinarily fire three different types of shot.  Solid shot is a six-pound cast iron sphere.  It is the most devastating shot against single targets, although it strikes with enough force to kill a whole file of heavily armored men.  Solid shot can maim or kill even once it has struck the ground.  A bouncing or rolling solid shot can easily remove a limb, as many a soldier who has never faced cannon before has discovered to his sorrow.  Explosive shot is essentially a large fragmentation grenade with a timed fuse.  It does not strike a single target with the same awesome force as solid shot, but the explosion can kill multiple soldiers or set structures on fire.  Explosive shot is the ammunition of choice against troops at long range, although it is also the most expensive.

Grape shot is the ammunition of choice against troops at close range.  While explosive shot theoretically has a larger blast radius, the irregular fragmentation of the iron casing means that an explosive shell is only guaranteed to hit troops within about 5 yards, and a single body is usually enough to stop a fragment.  The length of front that constitutes a "guaranteed hit" for grape shot is as large or larger than an explosive shell's primary blast or "kill" radius, and a single "grape" may travel through one body to strike another before expending all of its energy.

Harkanian cannon are normally equipped with a mix of all three types of ammunition.  Three other upgrades are not issued with all cannon.  The first of these is the Artillerist's Scale, a bronze scale with range markings and a slider.  An Artillerist's Scale is essentially a gunsight for a cannon.  It is physically a quite simple device, although a great deal of Harkanian ballistics science has gone into its creation.  Use of an Artillerist's Scale allows a gunner to use his marksmanship skill when firing a cannon in addition to his artillery skill (subject to a focus check once combat has begun, as normal).

The second upgrade that may be issued with a Harkanian cannon is the ClockTech blower.  A ClockTech blower is literally a powerful ClockTech fan that is set on the ground near the muzzle of a cannon.  Like all black powder weapons, Harkanian cannon produce great clouds of smoke when they fire.  After only three shots in quick succession it can be all but impossible to see the enemy on a still day.  While cannon can still function under such conditions (armies move slowly, so the point of aim changes slowly as well), their efficiency is greatly improved with a simple ClockTech blower to clear the smoke.

Rifled Cannon

The third upgrade available to Harkanian cannon is only useful on rifled cannon.  In contrast to hand guns, rifling is not a simple upgrade that can be applied to an existing gun.  A rifled bronze barrel quickly wears out, because bronze is soft enough that it is worn away by shot in tight contact with the barrel.  Instead, rifled Harkanian cannon are rifled in the factory and made from iron, a difficult process that makes rifled cannon several times more expensive than ordinary bronze cannon.  Iron is strong enough to withstand the stresses of shot in tight contact with the barrel, and thus take advantage of the extra range and accuracy of rifling.

Of course, loading a rifled cannon in the normal way would take forever.  Harkanian ClockTech technology has overcome this limitation with the ClockTech loader.  A ClockTech loader is essentially a ClockTech ramrod that fits over the muzzle of a cannon.  When the shot is ready to be loaded the ClockTech loader is fitted over the muzzle and activated, ramming the shot down the rifled barrel with great force and a slight twist.  Once the shot has been loaded the loader is removed and wound again.  Use of a ClockTech loader not only allows Harkania to use rifled cannon, it allows them to be loaded as quickly as smoothbore cannon.

There are two downsides to using rifled cannon.  The first is that rifled cannon cannot fire grape shot (the small balls strip the rifling).  This makes rifled cannon a strictly long range weapon.  It is the most effective long range weapon in the world, however, which justifies their use.  The second limitation is more serious.  Even Harkanian ClockTech factories cannot produce cannon barrels from a solid block of iron as they can with bronze.  This means that rifled cannon are prone to bursting.  It does not happen often, and the effectiveness of rifled cannon justifies their continued use despite the risk, but when a rifled cannon does burst it tends to kill its entire crew.

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