Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-31507215-20170314002708/@comment-26890432-20170315014037

Ballistae were extremely varied in size, ammunition, and construction. But generally, you can break them down into Torsion powered engines, and Tension powered engines. Torsion ballistae were in use before even the Roman Empire, although they did perfect the design. These devices used the torsion of coiled rope-springs to force the two wooden arms outward and loose the porjectile. They ranged from two-man, portable dart-throwers, to behemoths that fired massive stones and fire-pots.

Tension ballistae work in the exact same way as crossbows, with the tension of the bow giving force to the projectile. They were in use during the later middle-ages, and rarely fired anything but bolts.





Of the two, I envision the Torsion ballista to be more at home in Tolkien's lore, given it's real-world ancient context. This means we could have a bunch of different sizes that launch different projectiles. Smaller ones could be dart-throwers, and larger ones dedicated seige weapons capable of heaving stones and firepots.