Non LOS Artillery modding

[pavelczv]

Why can a trebuchet shoot over friendly units directly in front of it but bombards can not, where is it determined in the files?

[rbodleyscott]

Why can a trebuchet shoot over friendly units directly in front of it but bombards can not

Because trebuchets fire in a high arc, whereas bombards fire in a much flatter arc.

where is it determined in the files?

In FUNCTION CheckRouteForBlockingUnit(me, checkTerrain) in CombatTools.BSF

Code: Select all

                if ((IsArtillery(me) == 1) || (IsArtilleryWagon(me) == 1)) // vM1.2.0 change: Artillery - Non-Gunpowder artillery or artillery wagons can always shoot overhead, Gunpowder artillery and artillery wagons only from higher ground.
									{				
										if (GetAttrib(me, "Gunpowder") == 0)
											{
												ret = 0;
											}
										else
											{
												if (shooter_height > blocker_height)
													{
														ret = 0;
													}											
											}
									}

[Athos1660]

Moreover, the projectiles of the gunpowder artillery are fired from a lower height :

[pavelczv]

Thank you.

[Athos1660]

It seems that this kind of bombards (called 'bombardes-mortiers' in French) that indeed enabled curved shots (that is indirect fire) were used as defensive weapons inside besieged fortresses (to fire over walls), unlike the kind of bombards I posted above (called 'bombardes-canons' made for direct fire) that seemed to have been used as offensive siege weapons (to destroy walls) and on battlefields. See e.g. in French here an example of bombarde-mortier from late 15th century. This bombard weighs 3,325 metric tons !

I am not a specialist though. (I would welcome any well-researched and documented summary about medieval artillery.)

[rbodleyscott]

As far as I know bombard-mortars did not come in till the late 15th century, and then not in field battles.

[Athos1660]

For example, Robert III de La Marck, Marshal of France and historian, who fought at the battle of Pavia (1525) blames King François 1 about tactical mistakes during this battle :

« Le Roy, voyant qu’il estoyent repoulssez, fit advancer la gensdarmerie de l’advant garde devant l’artillerie, tellement qu’elle ne povoit plus tirer »

meaning :

« The King, seeing that the enemy was repelled, made his MAA move in front of the French artillery, which prevented it from keeping on firing. »

Whether or not this accusation is accurate, it tells something about artilery LOS during pitched battles at the start of the XVIth century.