Seven Years war in India

[Bernie]

In reply to Leon's last post - no more insane than rocketeers on camels!

[lentulus]

Well that has to be one of the most insane things I've ever seen.  Or had requested!  I wouldn't imagine it would be too hard to scratch build though, we could supply the oxen and guns (although we'd need the crew), all someone would need to add is the 'stage' and a few sandbags, etc.

Actually, I would probably scratch-build it (once you have those turbaned Indian gunners) and appropriate SYW Sepoy and the like.

[Techno]

I'm probably missing something really obvious here, but what on earth was the point of mounting a 'gun' on a huge and presumably very heavy 'flatbed' and then having to use SO many beasts to pull the whole thing ?
Cheers - Phil

[Leon]

I was chatting with Dave about this last night, and as far as he knows, it was essentially a mobile fort.  The oxen would pull the platform into position long before the battle started, and then the oxen would be detached and withdrawn. 

One thing which did strike me from reading the info posted in the links above, was that it seems to imply that 18, 24, or 32 pdrs (I think) were used on it?  But that kind of artillery piece would weigh literally tons, and I don't think you'd be able to build a platform strong enough to carry them and still be mobile.  The illustration from the newspaper article shows a much smaller gun, like a 3pdr.

[fred.]

Part of the problem is that the drawing is from 150 years after the event.

Semi mobile forts make more sense, as a horde of oxen would make a nice traget and wouldn't be too happy having canon fired over their heads