> However you don't get recoil on ancient weapons.
Practical experience with smaller ones suggests you may be mistaken on that. :)
Ballistae and torsion catapults have significant recoil, scaling up with size.
>The nearest thing
> I can think of is the trebuchet and with that the counterbalancing
> weight comes down which is not really recoil.
Trebuchets recoil in a circular motion around the the pivot of the throwing arm. This is exaggerated if there's a safety stop on either end to prevent the long side of the arm from making a full circle. Without a stop, they just swing and slowly dampen out until friction stops them.
>Potentially disruptive
> by making the platform bounce around but not by moving it significantly.
FIRING the trebuchet causes the bucket to swing, and the platform it's on to tip fore and aft. If you're moving at the time, I suspect it would auger the front end into the dirt. If you're moving at speed, that tends to wreck your ride. If you can stop the platform and lower it to the ground before firing, you'd probably be OK, as long as the ground was solid. Mud or water, not so much.
> The time spent on regaining control is also trivial in the context of
> reloading time of such weapons.
Depends on the size of your firing platform, crew, and weapon. The different arm length provides leverage in both directions. Depending on the relative arm lenghts, 2-3 guys in armor can just *pull* down the arm on a half-ton trebuchet; reload time goes pretty quick, 2-3 minutes. If you've got to *crank* it back down, longer, of course.
Now, if you've got a bigger siege unit, it takes longer to reload, but a lot of that time ends up being getting the tackle laid out and the rock properly set in the sling. A lot of the aim is in the sling adjustment.
> Nor will a shooting platform be used in close formation.
Yeah, probably not. Especially with combat magic; concentrating you valuables is asking to loose them all in one fell swoop.
> While the idea of ducks beseiging Delecti's fortress with catapults
> on hovercraft is appropriately silly it seems beyond the resources
> of a small marginalised tribe.
Even if you can't fire on the move, one or two of them could be very handy.
Grimmund
---
"Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash, and I am delighted to say
that I have no grasp of it, whatsoever!" - Baron Munchausen
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