Quote Originally Posted by Myrddraal
I must say at first glance I thought the Carrobalista was a fantasy unit (no offence ) But I ran a quick search on the net and found:



From http://legvi.tripod.com/id25.html

In fact, you can even see one on Trajans column
[img]http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/Images/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/Trajans_Column/John_Pollen/13*.gif[/img]
Fig. 13.


The engine (of which this figure is from Vitruvius) is of the same nature as the last, but the motive power is different, and it is on a scale large enough to allow it to rank as a piece of artillery, and will be seen frequently sculptured on the column. When required for field artillery, or as a moveable piece to be handled in action and manoeuvred about during an engagement, these pieces are seen mounted on wheels. They are set on rectangular platforms, resembling in form the modern London water-cart, and of about the same size. They were called Carrobalistae. The arrows were discharged over the heads of the mules or horses that drew the piece as in No. XXVIII. When on walls or entrenchments, as in the wooden rampart represented in No. LI, or on the walls of a town, as in the same number, they were mounted on a turntable, supported by a massive column of wood.


What I wonder is, how did it work? Surely the recoil from a balista would start doing nasty things to the horses legs, unless they get out and put wedges under the wheels or something....

As for the priests, well they could look a liiitle less evil
Recoil off of a light portable ballista isn't going to be too much of a problem much like how getting shot in the chest doesn't make you fly 5 feet back. There's just not enough mass in the missile to contribute to an inertia caused recoil.

P.S. It worked with a chain system, crack it backwards to load a round from the hopper and after it reaches the back, the bow string is released, the projectile is shot, then you crank forwards(or backwards depending on the design) so you rehook the bow string and pull back to reload and shoot, etc.

It's pretty ingenious.