Bombs - anti personnel, not anti hull

[irR4tiOn4L]

Hey all, just thought id mention something interesting i found on bombs.

Smooth-bore cannon were the universal choice. No other invention except the wheel was better-suited to its duty, and remained less changed in fundamental nature from its inception in the 15th century, to its final disappearance in the middle of the 19th. The shock power of this instrument, on land as well as on sea, cannot be overestimated. The cannon was first of bronze, then of cast iron as this cheaper material became available. It was simply a smooth bore, closed at one end, with a touch hole drilled to the surface of the breech. It projected solid shot of cast iron or stone, later also bags of musket balls or grapeshot, and even lengths of chain, and other inventive loads for special purposes. Iron shot could be heated red-hot in a furnace to cause fires when embedded in a wooden hull or palisade. A shell was a hollow ball filled with powder and provided with a fuze that would be lighted when the shell was fired, sputtering as the shell flew, and finally setting off the powder, shattering the casing. This was purely an antipersonnel load.

http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/hist/navalwar.htm

So bombs were more like a fragmentation grenade than explosives designed to shatter the hull.

If thats true its a good thing the build mod disabled bombs on everything except forts. The bombs ingame are more like heated shot

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I very rarely use bombs, but isn't that how they are modeled? Methinks they have increased personnel and decreased hull damage.

 

[irR4tiOn4L]

I very rarely use bombs, but isn't that how they are modeled? Methinks they have increased personnel and decreased hull damage.

If i remember correctly, in stock POTC they were very effective against hull. And in build mod, the fact that forts use them (and forts hurt) suggests otherwise.

Basically, if they are purely anti-personnel weapons, they shouldnt be doing significant hull damage, much like grapeshot, which, btw, seems to do a lot of damage to hull in practice as well.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Bombs cause fires. There's no need for them to be special ani-person because that's already what grapeshot is for.