Re: Low-Tech Forces, not necessarily in DSII

On Wed, 4 Nov 1998, Oerjan Ohlson wrote:

> Um... no, a ballista *is* basically a gigantic crossbow, though the
> classical version uses two arms powered by twisted skeins rather than
a
> bow. The later "arcuballista" (med. french "arbalest" or "arbalet")
was
> simply a ballista which replaced the troublesome skeins with a huge
bow -
> ie, a siege crossbow.

Yes.

> ballista fires its projectiles (stones up to 120 lb, or 6-ft javelins,
> for the classical ones) in flat trajectories.

No. Actually it depends.  When fired from a city wall, the ballista can
be
flat, or probably more likely , tilted slightly downward.  But in the
field, the ballista has to be tilted up to either reach the city wall,
or
gain an acceptable range.  In the book "the Crossbow" by Ralph
Payne-Gallwey (finally got his name), he specifically pointed to an old
drawing of a ballista that could not be elevated and said at this flat
trajectory, the projectiles would probably travel about 50 yards and
fall
down, if even that.  The force of the ballista simply isn't large enough
to push something that heavy in a decent flat trajectory.

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