Knave's Idea #3 - Weaponry

I'm quite sure there will be types of weapons due to their latest video. In fact, the last blog put many of my worries to rest, as it agreed with all I had been arguing for.

A longbow for their size.

I am excited to see how weapons evovle through development and mods, as I would love to see warhammers, scimitars, and such.

Not exactly. Longbows and normal bows differ not merely in size, but design.

I know though it's normally a similar size to the wielder.

But then agian, in real life there arent floating islands with yellow people inhabiting it.

These are the weapons I'd like to see:

Melee:
Warhammer (effectively a 2H mace - excellent against armored targets)
Battleaxe (also 2H - excellent against unarmored targets, perhaps one-hit kill)

For ranged and siege, I'm comparing to the shortbow and catapult respectively...

Ranged:
Crossbow (longer reload but more damage)
Longbow (superior range but longer training time per unit and/or crafting time per bow)

Siege:
Trebuchet (harder to build, much longer range, longer minimum range)
Ballista (a little harder to build, not as good against reinforced walls, no minimum range, excellent damage against other siege and armored infantry or cavalry though difficult to aim at infantry/cavalry especially at close range, non-explosive payload)
Cannon (insanely harder to build, non-explosive payload, shorter range, very small minimum range)

The cannon would require two "ammunition": cannonballs and powder (for firing), effectively increasing the resource cost of firing it. Also, to stockpile cannonballs with a cannon (so you don't have to carry cannonballs to it individually) a storage platform would need to be built next to it where you could stack up to 5 cannonballs at once, reducing its mobility. Cannonballs would not be able to be just stored on the ground (your bricktrons would refuse to do so, under the claim that they would just roll away... and if a bricktron died carrying one, it would disappear just to avoid any attempt at circumvention of this).

I also envision both the catapult and trebuchet using rocks as their standard ammunition, but they could also be loaded with explosive barrels (more expensive) which would be more devastating (especially against reinforced walls) but somewhat less accurate, since barrels aren't as aerodynamic as round boulders

I believe that the Dev's have already stated that they will not be introducing cannons since they are what brought the castle era to its end.

Fair enough... I just thought it'd be a good end-game weapon, especially in a turtled match where both you and your opponent have invested so heavily in defense/repair that no amount of classic siege equipment is going to get either of you anywhere. With such resource stockpiles as you'd both have at this point, bringing cannons to bear would at some point become relatively trivial, and the first to leave their "shell" so to speak, to "shell" the enemy with cannons will likely be the victor -- thus discouraging an endless turtled stalemate

Technically, shelling refers to firing shells loaded with an explosive of some type, instead of round shot. Shells would be way, way too advanced for this game...

In terms of endgame, if you cant breach their walls, then you didn't bring enough regular siege weaponry, cannons are overkill.

Besides, just because there aren't any cannons doesn't mean you cant drop explosive barrels out of your airship >.>

I think cannons would be great idea. Just imagine sound of powder exploding and cannonbals flying over field and sometimes bouncing hven hit ground with right anglle. It should be 2 types of ammo: 1) just one solid round
2) grape projectiles

Empire Total War is a good reason I would rather not see cannon in the game. It ended up being a slugfest among cannons and then mopped up by cavalry and line units.

You can have a cannon with grapeshot if I get a wizard bricktron that reflects siege projectiles with magic.....

Probably start with too many weapons would not be the best choise. I hope they will fine balance the power of the melee/ranged and intermediate class and I hope that workers can do something to protect the castle, something like run some mechanism to protect them (elevate the bridge, throw some fire etc).

Anyway, a lot of described weapons sounds great...

Honestly, you don't even need the catapults. My plan for every siege (until my friends inevitably adapt) is to have workers dig a tunnel to right below the enemy wall and place an explosive barrel. It won't just knock down the wall, it'll badly crater the ground where the wall used to be, so that the wall can't readily be rebuilt. I won't just have a breach, I'll have an unsealable breach. The rest is just a matter of storming the place, a horde of swordsmen crossing the pit under withering covering fire from my archers.

But easily defended against. Lightly manned anti sapper tunnels or pre-collapsible tunnelings attached to a small water holding (assuming water is in) easily negates sappers.

It's true, but my point was that until it was adapted to it's a highly effective tactic and doesn't require the investment that a catapult does.