Counter Battery fire in the Wars of the Roses

[Dave Knight]

Our Test of Resolve rules dont allow it and generally artillery is an adornment to the battlefield and rarely does much damage.

However reading Hammonds Barnet and Tewkesbury in his section on the assault on London he states that the Lancastrians brought artillery from their ships to counter the artillery on the city walls.

Any thoughts on this or other references?  Would ships guns be heavy or light?

[Swampster]

My main thought would be that it is difficult to compare like with like. Since effectiveness in rules is a combination of weight, rate of fire and accuracy these are likely to all be different on board ship than on land.
Accuracy in particular is likely to be an issue. It has struck me in the past that in later periods a single land based gun on a Martello tower is a significant risk to a bunch of multiple gun armed ships. The stable platform makes a big difference. Things were obviously less sophisticated in the WoTR but I'm sure there were still effects.

[Dave Knight]

My reading of it is that the guns were unloaded from the ships

[Erpingham]

My reading of it is that the guns were unloaded from the ships

The Arrival says the guns were placed on the waterside opposite the walls, so definitely not on the ships.  The Londoners did undertake counter battery fire and drove the gunners from the guns (at a range from one side of the Thames to the other, with one sides guns protected by walls and with a height advantage, this isn't entirely surprising).  Guns were also used in other attacks on the north side of the river too.

I doubt if the guns would have been particularly heavy calibre.  This is just before the appearance of gunports, so guns were still mounted high on ships, which reduced the size practical.  Heavy, low level ship killing guns were probably confined to Mediterranean style galleys at this time and there is no evidence Fauconberg had these.

[Swampster]

My reading of it is that the guns were unloaded from the ships

Sorry, didn't pick that up.