Originally posted by Grakrim
Err...Okay...Now why would you ever need one of those? Unless of course you planned on seiging the local White Castle for some of those hamburgers... That would show the local royalty (Burger King and Dairy Queen) who\'s boss!
Anyway, how big of a trebuchet are we talking? Full sized seige gear, or just to scale?
As for the first question, you probably never would
need your own trebuchet for anything, although I was thinking it would be a great way to help my uncle get rid of his Canadian Goose problem...
As for the second question, the only full-scale replicas that have been built are by historians and the like to study how it might have been done back in the middle ages. I actually saw a great TV show once, where a group of scientists (of various fields) got together to build a full-sized Roman catapult (think giant ballista that shoots 50 lb limestone slugs 8o ) and it was pretty cool.
The basic design for the one I wanted to build is small enough to be able to be broken down into small enough pieces to fit into the average pickup truck for easy transportation to various...sites.
Anyhow, back on topic...
Many medieval castles consisted of two main areas: the castle itself, and the town beneath it. The main castle area is where its owners and their family lived, along with all their servants. There were other various things inside the castle, such as a smith, a barn, a dungeon, and the all-important well (when a castle was besieged, this was the only way that its inhabitants could get water; the loss of this structure would spell certain doom). The town directly next to the castle would typically be walled in for protection, though the walls were not nearly as high as those protecting the castle. In any case, the town was there to help support the castle; it was full of additional merchants, blacksmiths, bakers, animal trainers, etc. (NOTE: I\'m no historian; what little I know about castles is from various books and the like, don\'t take anything I say here as pure fact)
In Planeshift, I would see a guild\'s castle as a place where the guild members could be centralized. It would probably not be something that most guilds would need, as a headquarters building in a city would probably be far sufficient for most. But for the guilds that might have a need for a castle (i.e. lots of enemies, lots of loot that needs stashing, or lots of prisoners to keep locked up and/or working) and have the available funds, would likely construct something of the following:
- Instead of a huge castle, more likely just a keep: big enough to house a couple guild leaders, treasure room, dungeon, and some storerooms
- Right outside the castle would be a number of houses (5-20 being reasonable) to house additional guild members and provide accomadation to various professionals, in case the guild wanted their own blacksmith or alchemist or such
- Surrounding the keep and the buildings would be a wall, with a main gate to allow traffic. The wall would probably have towers at regular intervals for archers to have a secure location to pick off enemy troops.
Such a castle would require (obviously) a vast number of resources. Large quantities of stone would be needed, tons of lumber for the structures, and a lot of iron for the main gate and other locations. It would not be easy to aquire all of this, nor would be the labor required to assemble it. Then there\'s the fact that a castle is quite vulnerable while it is under construction. But for the guilds that really want something cool to show off, this has got to be it
