12-lber Howitzer Foot Artillery (ETW Unit)

12-lber Howitzer Foot Artillery (ETW Unit)
Class	Artillery
Unit Size	24 men
Weaponry	12 pdr howitzer
Morale
Melee Attack
Ranged Attack
Defence
Charge Bonus
Accuracy
Range
Ammunition
Region	Global
Recruitment Cost	630
Upkeep Cost	150
Turns to Build
Unit Limit
Building Requirements	Great Arsenal
Technology Requirements	Explosive Shells
Attributes	Slow Moving; Can Hide in Woodland;

Howitzers send shells plunging into enemy formations and over defences, making cover irrelevent.

Overview

Howitzers fall somewhere between guns and mortars, the other main artillery types. They have a limited mobility, like guns. Like mortars, they do not fire straight at the target, but send shots high into the air to plunge down on a target (and over anything in the way). By angling the barrel and changing the propellant charge used, howitzers have an impressive flexibility in shell trajectories. Experienced crews can lob explosive shells and incendiary rounds with great accuracy into a “beaten zone”, making life utterly miserable and very short for anyone within it. In close action, they can fire canister rounds directly into enemy formations, like giant sawed-off shotguns.

The term foot artillery applies because the gunners walk into battle alongside the draft animals. Like all artillery, the rating of these howitzers refers to the nominal weight of shot fired; loading the heavier pieces made for strong gunners!

Historically, howitzers – like many other artillery pieces – were far from standardized weapons in the 18th Century. Shells and spare parts made in one foundry did not always fit another foundry’s pieces, even if the caliber was nominally identical and the two guns were part of the same battery in the field. It took a good deal of effort and argument to get foundries to standardize barrels and ancillary equipment, even in a single country.

Details

Howitzers are very different from cannons. They fire in arced trajectories, meaning that hilly terrain and walls that would often humbug regular cannons pose little problem to howitzers. However, this same characteristic means that cannnons are more suitable for close and direct engagements, where canister shot can be brought to bear. Thanks to their arc trajectories, howitzers are very accurate at long range compared to other cannons. Howitzers also fire an array of different ammunition: explosive shells, which are more effective than round shot for anti-personnel use, carcass shot, which is accurate but causes minimal damage to most enemy troop types, quicklime, and percussive shells.