Ribaults v Castle/City walls

[SonOfCrusader76]

Historically speaking, would ribaults be able to knock a hole in a castle/city's walls?

[pwijnands]

Doesn't a ribault launch a bunch of small projectiles (like a shotgun)? If so it probably wouldn't be used for knocking down walls. It's too inaccurate and a single projectile wouldn't do much.

[vonKrysiak]

No they wouldnt be able to. The only thing they could handle would be the city gates but not even the reinforced ones. Organ gun (ribaults) used to fire small projectiles but more important thing was their range which was too short to fire while being out of range of enemy archers/artillery.
Most likely if they had enough time they would pierce a hole in the gates or even the wall but then if we give our soldiers rusty spoons they will get through the walls as well (in some 20-30 years) ;-)

[Kratos]

Historically speaking, would ribaults be able to knock a hole in a castle/city's walls?

Hardly. If given a few years; perhaps.

[ArmorPierce]

Same answer as to whether or not a ballista would be able to knock down the wall.

[vonKrysiak]

Same answer as to whether or not a ballista would be able to knock down the wall.

True, both were antipersonal weapons.

[SonOfCrusader76]

Thanks! Off to descr_projectile then to take away their ability to knock down walls...

[vonKrysiak]

Thanks! Off to descr_projectile then to take away their ability to knock down walls...

Well you can always leave it but lower it, I have ballistas as 2 and ribaults as 5. They wont pose much threat as their range in gaem is really low so any castle with towers will be bale to make a short work of them...

[SonOfCrusader76]

I've found that, even on 2 damage, if you give them time ballistae can eventually put a hole in castle's walls.

[vonKrysiak]

I've found that, even on 2 damage, if you give them time ballistae can eventually put a hole in castle's walls.

Well if you say so, I havent played unmodded MTW for quite a while so it might be correct. I want to leave them small amount of damage so they can get through palisade and MAYBE through the wooden walls but anything above should be a no no for them - just tweak your descr_walls untill you are happy

[Old Geezer]

For them to knock a hole in a stone wall you'd have to be very lucky - like rolling snake eyes three times in a row. I once lost an assault because my catapult couldn't break through a gate on a minor city before running out of ammunition. I guess if you have 2 ribault firing on a wooden wall, it would be reasonable to expect it collapse. Especially if they are close to the wall. I doubt that historically any such thing was attempted. But then the British didn't ever try to shoot German tanks with their Bofors AA during the North African campain and when playing Tobruk we found that their high rate of fire almost always could at least knock off treads effectively due to the high rate of fire and sometimes even kill some panzers with lucky side or rear shots.

[SonOfCrusader76]

What about 'Monster Ribaults'?

[pwijnands]

Doesn't make any difference I think. Monster and normal ribaults do the same damage to walls, have the same ammo and the same range. Monster ribaults simply can fire a greater number of rounds than normal ones.

[loquar]

At first i thought stone walls no, wooden walls yes. Then I thought a bit more carefully.... wooden walls made out of tree trunks have a little flex in them and ribault shot is quite small and would likely either punch a small hole that would not affect structural integrity or simply bounce off/ lodge into the trunk

So I'd just say no