Re: Why Big ships?

>From:    Diane Morrison <Sable@??????-????.com>
>The reason for this is not that ships in the "old days" were any
>better at standing up to the punishment that cannons or even
>catapaults and ballistae could dish out.  It's that the Spelljammer
>combat system makes them much more accurate weapons than they
>actually were.  Imagine a bunch of kids running past each other with
>slingshots, that's how accurate things actually were.

I'm hesitant to categorically state these weapons were less accurate
then shown.  'Direct fire' weapons such as ballistae or lithobolos
were easily  as accurate as shown. Catapults may not be particularly
accurate... but then again, don't underestimate the abilities of
trained gunners. I wouldn't think Balearic slingers would be very
accurate either, yet they certainly were.

Gunpowder weapons were not very accurate, that's true... but in large
part that was because of 1) doctrine - during the 'ship of the line'
period speed and the broadside was considered more important then
accuracy and 2) an unwillingness to provide good training for the
gunners, it was expensive and they weren't supposed to aim much
anyway. But this was a shift, part of the reason the Spanish Armada
was defeated was an emphasis on long range, accurate, and
comparatively speedy gunnery on the part of the Drake's fleet.

That's something to keep in mind, spelljammer combat doctrine will
not always be the same either chronologically or culturally. We see
some of that all ready in the various racial ship designs but even
within races it would be variable. Not all elves would have the same
doctrine:)
--
"We sleep safely in our beds, only because rough men stand guard in
the night, ready to visit violence upon those who would do us harm."
H.G. Wells.

Paul Westermeyer,  westermeyer.3@???.edu
Phd Candidate, History, Ohio State University
Instructor, Humanities, Columbus State Community College