What knid of cannons will be in the game?

[Carl von Döbeln]

i am just wondering what kind of cannons that will be in the game?

[DarkKingofKings]

6 Pounders
8 Pounders
12 Pounders
Culverin
Horse Artillery Cannon
Gallopers
GrassHopper -I believe this was the term the British used, for their light weight cannon, one of which, was used at the Battle of Cowpens.
Mortars
Great Bombard

Perhaps various stationary heavy cannon guns.

[Carl von Döbeln]

key.thank you...

[DarkKingofKings]

Typically, it looks a lot like those on that list. Most of those cannons were probably used at the time.

[Erwin Rommel]

heres a fine example of Shrapnel PWNAGE!



makes you wanna rethink that its a standing shootout

[DarkKingofKings]

Indeed, the final moment of when the artillery wheel comes flying off and slams into the infantry is beyond words of comprehension.

[Erwin Rommel]

yes.........

WE DEMAND WHEELS FLYING ANIMATION PWNING INFANTRY RANKS!!!

CA!!!

[Patrick Sharpe]

and when the guy gets thrown backwards by the blast brilliant, ETWs ragdoll physics have got to be like that ,gotta love that flying wheel laughing all way while it pounds into infantry ranks.
Col. Roy Mustang you post alot of empire related youtube videos, cheers for putting them on, they are quite good.

[Markas]

What year was that supposed to be? mid/late 19th century? Whats the film called? (I assume it's a film not one of those weird smirnoff adverts for vodka with an 'explosively good taste' or something)

[Erwin Rommel]

russian film

about the russo-turkish war 1870s

its called Turkish Gambit

[Markas]

Interesting. Thanks for the quick reply +rep.

[Carl Edward]

heres a fine example of Shrapnel PWNAGE!



makes you wanna rethink that its a standing shootout

Great video. But in Napoleonic times regular artillery (cannon) did not fire explosive ammunition. Mortars did however fire such rounds and spread a lot of shrapnel death the problem was the short range of the mortar. The problem was fixed in 1823, after the Napoleonic Wars by the Frenchman Henri-Joseph Paixhans when he introduced the so-called Paixhans gun to the navy.

This is why dikes, redoubts and hills were so important and valuable cover in the Napoleonic period.

I really hope CA realizes this because many game devs do not. CDV didn't do it and hence all ordinances in Cossacks 2: Napoleonic Wars exploded.

[Patrick Sharpe]

what about canister, I thought that exploded with the bullets in? or did the cannons shoot the bullets like a shotgun?.

[Krupp]

Will we be seeing special qualities for some faction's cannons,for example Krupp cannons for the Prussians,or will they all be generic as in MTW2.:hmmm:

[hellas1]

Hey all,

You forgot the 24 pounder as a cannon of this time period!

hellas1

[Captain Jin]

Well there's likely to not be too many 24 pounders in land campaigns. I think 18 was usually the biggest they got up to on land because a 24lbs cannon was tough to tote around from battlefield to battlefield. Infantry cannons were nothing like the size used by the Navy. 24s, 28s, 32s, oh decimating.

The Howitzers were made in the late 17th century and could fire explosive shells. So they did have the ability to fire exploding rounds back in the day, but it wasn't till the turn of the century that most armies started using the Howitzers more prominently. Also Shrapnel was used extensively during the Napoleonic era. This coming from canister or grape shot, whatever you want to call it.

I hope they have galloper guns in the game. Small little 6 or 8 pounders carried a long by two horses that could be quickly deployed and were cheap to produce. Neat little things for some of your smaller armies.

[Carl Edward]

what about canister, I thought that exploded with the bullets in? or did the cannons shoot the bullets like a shotgun?.

Well canister does not explode per se but works just like a shotgun. The canister shot produces an arc of shrapness or musket balls which can shatter whole formations in ranges under 400 yards. I wonder if they will include grape shot which was also used extensively during the period and had greater range. Personally I'd love to see this since it would give the artillery general more choices. I definitely want the transision between types of ammunition to be as smooth as possible. For instance if a cannon is loading roundshot already, let him fire that round first.

There's nothing quite so irritating as seeing cavalry makeing a dash for your cannons while your gunners change ammunition when they could almost fire.

Sincerely yours,

[Captain Jin]

Well canister does not explode per se but works just like a shotgun. The canister shot produces an arc of shrapness or musket balls which can shatter whole formations in ranges under 400 yards. I wonder if they will include grape shot which was also used extensively during the period and had greater range. Personally I'd love to see this since it would give the artillery general more choices. I definitely want the transision between types of ammunition to be as smooth as possible. For instance if a cannon is loading roundshot already, let him fire that round first.


Sincerely yours,

That's true but Lt. Henry Shrapnel's invention changed that. He saw the great uses of the case shot and endeavoured to invent something that allowed it's use at longer ranges. Thus he invented a thin hollowed out cannon ball with a timed fuse on it. The explosives inside the ball was just enough to penetrate the cannon shall and send the balls inside spraying outward. If the fuse was set properply the shells could be very useful and increased the range of case shot from 300m to 1100m. He first called it "Spherical Case shot". But people called it shrapnel after him instead and that's where shrapnel came from. The British adopted it in 1803 and Wellington even used it against Napoleon, most notably at Waterloo.

And you're still forgetting that howitzers did fire exploding shells.

[Carl Edward]

That's true but Lt. Henry Shrapnel's invention changed that. He saw the great uses of the case shot and endeavoured to invent something that allowed it's use at longer ranges. Thus he invented a thin hollowed out cannon ball with a timed fuse on it. The explosives inside the ball was just enough to penetrate the cannon shall and send the balls inside spraying outward. If the fuse was set properply the shells could be very useful and increased the range of case shot from 300m to 1100m. He first called it "Spherical Case shot". But people called it shrapnel after him instead and that's where shrapnel came from. The British adopted it in 1803 and Wellington even used it against Napoleon, most notably at Waterloo.

Yupp it's true that the British began to use such rounds in 1808 and definitely put them into use at Waterloo. However they weren't standard in armies until decades later. My comment was merely that you can't claim that explosive shells were standard (or even used very often in relation to the other types of ammo) in the period of the game. Neither fans nor the devs should have any misconceptions that roundshot and canister (along with Grapeshot) were thetypes of artillery ammunition used in the timeframe of our game.

The British were introducing many new technologies into the Napoleonic battlefields, however it should be noted that their involvment in the conflict, troopwise was very small compared to the other great powers involved. Even Wellingtons famous "British" army at Waterloo had relatively few Brits in it. The British had a relatively small army compared to the major continental powers. This must also be taken into concideration. Had the British gone for a mass conscription army the way France did the quality of their troops would have been very different for example. The same thing applies with technology in a sense. If you have a huge army it's harder to supply all your troops with the best and/or latest weapons.

And you're still forgetting that howitzers did fire exploding shells.

Yes but this discussion is about cannons, no? But seriously I'd really like to know how a large scale battle played out. Does anyone here know the ratio of cannon/howitzers on the field? I know mortars where relatively few and where pretty hard to use against fast moving targets (however if one shell exploded over enemy troops there'd be alot of hurt). My preconception from all I've read is that there where definitely more cannon that howizers. Most armies also used 6pdr howizers who couldn't really be said to pack that much of a punch since the rounds did more concussion than shrapnell damage (except for maybe the Russians who used their famed 12pdr 'Unicorn' Howitzers).

My buttom line is, yes - there where definitely explosive shells in the timeframe but they were seldom fired from cannon and never did the kind of shrapnell pwnage Roy posed about . Why would Wellingtons troops have ducked (or any troops bothered to build redoubts or take cover in dikes) if armies of the day fielded that kind of killing power? Most cannons fired roundshot or canister and those where the two types of ammuniton who affected the Napoleonic battlefield the most. If you fast forward 50 years however the picture is very different. Just ask Pickett.

Sincerely yours,

[Captain Jin]

Well mortars and howitzers were mainly used for seiging cities and fortresses because they fire in a high arc allowing your lob rounds over walls and so on. I haven't read much about mortars being used in battles in the field.

I know that sometimes artillery batteries were between 100-200 cannons in many of the larger fights. If the Indian nations like the Mahrattas were able to field 150-200 cannons at Assaye, there's no reason to believe the the French didn't field more, especially because since Napoleon was originally an artillery officer he was a firm believer in it's uses. I know that the French had around 250 during Waterloo and the Allied forces a 160 or so, but those are obviously numbers that could never be shown in a video game, or at least not in E:TW.