[Freeciv] Re: Cannons attacking ships?

[Ross Wetmore <rwetmore@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gregory Berkolaiko wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Apr 2003, Ross Wetmore wrote:
> 
>>I think you got it backwards ...
>>
>>Historically land based cannons were almost useless against ships unless
>>guarding a narrow waterway like a river. The range is just inadequate.
>>
>>Historically ships were always used to blockade ports without fear of
>>any attack from the land.
>>
>>A useful technique would be to let cannon use their *attack* factor
>>when defending and fortified. When defending, the attacker has come
>>within range.
> 
> This would render any attacker useless against a fortified cannon, which 
> is not right.

Agreed, that the balance between attack and defence is skewed with defence
getting typically half as much weight overall, so pure inversion of the
cannon attack/defence factors is probably not what you want.

But there are several additional ways to compensate rather than just using
a straight attack factor that follows the same basic idea.

1)  The cannon attack factor gets no additional bonuses from fortification
or defensive improvements - fortifying musketmen in a city is still better
as a defensive option.

2)  Half the attack factor is used.

3)  Cannon can "defend" only once using their attack factor (since they can
only use it once to attack in any given turn). This means the first attack
is a "charge of he Light Brigade", but the second unit gets to overrun the
cannons while they are reloading :-).

These are just ways to tweak the rules that aren't quite as devastating as
allowing fixed cannon free shots at ships standing off over the horizon.

Cheers,
RossW
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