Editing Cannon (section)

== Types of cannons ==
Below is a non-exhaustive list of different artillery weapon types, roughly arranged according to era:

*'''Bombard''': An early cannon that broke down castle walls by hurling massive stone balls at them. Unlike later cannons, bombards don't tend to have carriages and were fixed in place on wooden frames, though a few did have wheels. Single-handedly shortened the length of sieges by allowing for the breaching of walls in a matter of hours, but became obsolete as formulations for gunpowder improved, leaving out unnecessary bits like arsenic or mercury.
** '''Basilisk''': A similarly massive cannon, though slightly more refined. Made exclusively out of bronze, mounted on a carriage, and with a smaller bore firing iron cannonballs weighing over a hundred pounds each.

*'''Demi-cannon, Culverin, Saker/Minion, Falconet''': A wide range of terms were employed from the 16th to 18th centuries to describe cannons of varying sizes. By this point in time, people figured that if you changed the formulation of gunpowder to make it more explody, you could make cannons lighter without sacrificing power. Just about the only thing they had in common were that they were all mounted on carriages and could be used as field artillery. Fell by the wayside sometime into the eighteenth century, as it became more common to refer to cannons by their shot weight in pounds.
**'''Demi-cannon''': Fired a ball weighing less than 42 pounds. Usually employed on ships by the 17th century.
**'''Culverins''': Fired a ball weighing between 20 and 14 pounds. Often referred to by the Koreans and Chinese as ''Hongyipao'' or "red barbarian cannon", since they were introduced to them by the Portuguese.
**'''Saker/Minion''': Fired a ball weighing around 5 pounds.
**'''Falconet''': Fired a ball weighing around 1 pound. The smallest of artillery pieces, though nevertheless provided with its own carriage.

*'''Licorne''': Meaning "unicorn" in French, the licorne was the earliest form of gun-howitzer and so named due to the unicorns carved into the original models. It didn't really catch on outside of Russia.

*'''Secret Howitzer''': The result of pure Russian autism and [[Munchkin|min-maxing]]. This 'weapon' was a howitzer modified to have an oval barrel, [[Wat|in the hope that it would spread grapeshot more effectively.]] The drawback was it was useless for any other purpose and not much better at its intended one. Of course, the Russians being who they were, it was decided that the penalty for talking about these guns was to be death, hence the name. [[Fail|This policy becomes more ironic when you discover that the only response to their enemies, the Prussians, finding out about these weapons was a collective WTF and having the captured units melted down for scrap.]]

*'''Gribeauval system''': Not so much a type of cannon so much as a scheme for standardizing the production and use of cannons. Introduced by the French starting in 1765, the Gribeauval system made artillery so much more practical in the field by standardizing the weight of cannonballs to 4, 8, and 12 pounds; the same was done to mortars, howitzers, and siege artillery, which went up to a maximum of 24 pounds. It also came with a field carriage that could quickly hook up to an ammunition limber for horse transport, as well as prepackaged powder bags. Cannons thus not only became easier to move around and able to fire more quickly, but could also be more easily supplied with replacement parts and ammunition.

*'''Carronade''': Short barreled, large bore cannons used for naval combat. These tended to be used on the main deck (above the gundeck) to give a ship the same punch as a similarly-bored gun for less weight; they also tended to be cheaper and easier to reload, though they did suffer from a substantially shorter range than a proper long gun. Carronades were almost exclusively loaded with grapeshot (basically a bunch of smaller cannon balls stuffed into a bag) and targeted to sweep the enemy deck clear of crew, although chain was also sometimes used to destroy rigging.

*'''Canon obusier de 12/Napoleon''': A French gun that revolutionized gunnery when it was invented in 1853, combining the best features of both the cannon and howitzer. It could fire solid shot at high velocity like a cannon, yet was also capable of firing explosive shells like a howitzer, thanks to the introduction of contact-fuzed shells. Heavily used by both factions during the American Civil War.

*'''Double barreled cannon''': An idea that sounds good on the drawing does not always means good in real life. Case in point, US Confederacy double barreled cannon. The idea was to load the guns with chain shot, two cannonballs connected by a chain, and then fire both barrels at the same time, so that the twin cannon balls would fly in such a way that not only would each ball kill the enemy, the chain between the ball would as well. The problem was in step two of the plan, getting both barrels to fire at the same time. To put it simply, it could not. It was tested three times. The first time the balls flew off target and tore up a corn field before the chain broke. The second time it missed again and tore holes in a nearby pine forest "like mowing machine" a witness said. Third time it was fired, the chain broke apart instantly and one ball flew off hitting a chimney, and the other killed a cow. The over optimistic inventor considered these tests a success. That the gun was lost for over ten years and found under a pile of rock speaks to how much the confederates thought of the thing.

*'''Quaker "Gun"''': Named after Christian Pacifists, and alternatively called "Dummy Guns". A Quaker gun is a gun mock-up (typically made of wood), made to look like real guns from a distance in order to deceive enemies you were more threatening than you actually were. Quaker guns found several instances of success throughout the ages and has negated battles that would have otherwise been an easy victory for the opposing side who didn't realize the guns they were scouting were fakes. These were particularly popular in the US Civil War, when an infantry advance on foot against cannons was absolutely guaranteed to cost the attacker wagonloads of dead and injured. Advances in modern reconnaissance technology has largely rendered dummy guns ineffective, but even as late as WW2 they were used to great effect in advance of Normandy and during the second battle of El Alamein.

*'''Parrott Rifle''': A Union Civil War cannon, the Parrott rifle was distinctive for its cast iron construction incorporating a band of wrought iron strengthening the breech of the gun. This made it an accurate piece of artillery that was simple to produce, though it did have a distressing tendency to burst.

*'''Armstrong gun''': The Armstrong gun is one of the first rifled breech loaders. It also employed an innovative built-up construction: an inner barrel made out of a wrought iron or mild steel, surrounded with more wrought iron coils that were shrunk to keep the tube compressed. The Armstong used a screw breech, so to load the gun you had to open it like the door on a ship by spinning a wheel to unscrew it. Armstrong guns were made in a wide range of calibers, from 6 pound horse guns to 110 naval artillery. Used by the British in their colonial wars and Japan in the Boshin War. The most famous Armstrong guns are the 100-ton guns used to defend Malta, capable of obliterating ships that are barely visible over the horizon. That said, despite its technical innovations, the next generation of British guns were all rifled muzzleloaders, partly because of cost concerns but also because the Armstrong's breech was not strong enough to handle armour-piercing shot at a time when a growing number of warships were clad in iron. Also, the Armstrong guns quickly became obsolete as everyone was switching from Black Powder to the more powerfl Smokeless Powder.

*'''Krupp System''': Krupp is an old German company that has been making guns and working iron for centuries, but it really made its name known in the mid 19th century when it worked out a system to load a cannon from the rear. The idea of loading a cannon from the breech rather than cramming everything down the muzzle had been toyed around with before, but there had been problems which prevented it from being fully practical. In 1859, Krupp solved these problems by introducing a sliding block system on an all cast steel cannon able to fire explosive shells. Long story short, there was a block in the back of the cannon which could be fastened into place and unfastened and slid out of the way to load it. These guns let Otto von Bismarck unite Germany under his banner and let him beat the French in the Franco-Prussian War who, despite having better rifles, airships, and primitive machine guns, were still using muzzle-loading artillery.

*'''System de Bange''': Yes that's it's real name. No, it doesn't mean 'Bang System', instead 'de Bange' was its inventor, [[Skub|though that arguably makes it funnier.]] Essentially a very efficient breech loading system. After the Germans beat them with Breech Loading Cannons, the French wanted their own such guns if those Germans came back. The solution they settled on was to make a cannon with a steel plug which screwed into the back, but with the screw's thread being removed on two quarters of the length of the plug/bore so it could be secured and opened by rotating it 90 degrees with a washer of good old fashioned asbestos to get a solid seal. The system worked very well and (with a few tweaks) is still in use today.

*'''Disappearing gun''': Guns have recoil; a disappearing gun uses that recoil to lower itself immediately after firing, protecting them from retaliation and making them difficult to spot. Later versions were mounted on retractable platforms for the same effect. They became obsolete once planes were a thing. Because of the complex mechanisms involved, these tended to be used in stationary coastal defense batteries.

*'''Canon de 75 mle 1887''': The French 75 (or as the French would put it, ''le soixante-quinze'') was pretty much the first modern artillery gun as we know it, incorporating a fast-acting screw breech, self-contained ammunition (cartridge case attached to the shell), and most significant of all, a hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism that smoothly returned the gun to its original position after firing. Put together, all of these features allowed the 75 to put out [[Dakka|an average of fifteen rounds a minute, or as many as thirty rounds a minute with an experienced crew]]. That said, it was also one of the last field guns as we know it, with the advent of modern warfare pushing artillery way further into the backline, and off the field of battle.

*'''Autocannon''': Essentially an automatically loading cannon with a calibre between 20mm to 76mm. Dating back to the 19th century (see below), the autocannon really came into its heyday during the Second World War, when there came to be a need for a rapid-firing cannon that could fire armour-piercing and explosive shells to swat planes out of the sky. They utilize a number of mechanisms to achieve their ends, including the tried-and-true Gatling mechanism to beefed up recoil operation systems, not to mention a range of externally-powered mechanisms that automate the process of loading, firing, and extracting ammunition. Employed on pretty much every vehicle you can think of. From wheeled vehicles to tanks; helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, surface vessels such as Patrol Boats, Destroyers, Cruisers and even Aircraft Carriers.

=== Noncannon guns worth mentioning ===
There have been numerous inventions in the history of firearms that use a cannon's limbers and caissons to mount a weapon that was not quite cannon, and was often used in a way most cannons were not. What they all had in common was that they were all "artillery" in the sense that they were static, mounted firearms that could fuck up enemies in ways that infantry-portable firearms could not, much like your average cannon.

*'''Chongtong''': Not "really" cannons but this entry was here before the rocket page existed and these were fired out of a cannon. The Congtong was a Korean cannon, or rather, cannons since there was more than one type. The four types were the "Cheonja", "Jija", "Hyeonja", and "Hwangja", the names being roughly equivalent to Cannons A, B, C, and D. The Cheonja was the largest with a 130mm bore able to fire 30 pound rocket out to just over a kilometer. The other three types were pretty much the same, only shrunk down, the Jija had 100mm bore, the Hyeonja, 80mm while the Hwangja was very similar to a European hand cannon. (Wait a minute, barreled weapons that fire self propelled rockets... [[Bolter|Why does that sounds familiar?]])

*'''Da Vinci Cannons''': included in this section because, as far as we know, they were never actually built or used in battle. If they were ever used, we have no record of them, and you’d think it would be a big deal if they were successful. The famous inventor Leonardo understood the emerging importance of cannons, and sought to improve on its design. He had an early version of breech-loaders, but like a true mad scientist, that was just the beginning. Not only did he design a triple-barreled cannon, [[Steampunk|steam-powered]] cannons, and his own version of the Ottoman Bombard, but also a ''33-barreled'' cannon that had three rows of 11 small-caliber barrels set on a rotating axle, and each row would be fired in volley by rotating the row into firing position. [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|Certainly reminds you of a certain gun from a certain tabletop game, doesn't it?]]

*'''Ribauldequin''': Don't ask us how to say it (Ri-bow-de-kin, pretty much like it's written. Just ignore the 'l'). A simpler name is “Organ gun”, because the gun barrel arrangement looks like a pipe organ, or volley gun. The Ribauldequin is troubling to list as a "cannon", since it has a number of small barrels rather than one big one. Rather than a cannon, thinking of it as a bunch of guns on a cannon carriage may be more accurate. Of course, the downside to being able to fire a bunch of guns at once is that, in the age of muzzle-loaders, you had to take even longer to reload it. And compared to having a bunch of guys individually aiming an loading a single barrel, you had maybe one or two guys doing all the loading. Still, if you could take the enemy out in a single volley, or at least create an opening for the rest of your guys, it could be an effective force-multiplier and morale weapon. After all, it wasn’t called the “infernal machine” for nothing.

*'''Wall gun''': Essentially guns too big to be personal firearms, but too small to qualify as proper field artillery. These are generally designed to be rested atop a wall, or supported on a stand. They are, roughly, the ancestor to modern sniper/anti-material rifles.
**'''Abus Gun''': An Ottoman artillery piece, similar to a Hook Gun, the Abus gun was small, but still hard to move about and was fired from a tripod and shot a roughly 5 pound cannon ball.
**'''Hook Gun''': Or Hakenbuechse, an oversized musket, that was always classified as an artillery piece, this weapon was popular in 16-18th century Eastern Europe and was usually used either in sieges or as a proto-sniper rifle.

*'''Swivel gun''': Essentially small cannons on stick, swivel guns were mostly used on ships and were mounted on the decks. While ineffective against all but the smallest boats, against boarding parties they could be very effective.
**'''Pierrier à boîte''': A french breech loading swivel gun made of wrought iron. The Pierrier à boîte breech, though allowing it to fire more rapidly than other guns, still had issues and had a tendency to leak leading to a loss of power and additional danger to the gunners.
**'''Lantaka''': A (usually) bronze swivel gun developed by the Philippine Moros, firing a half-pound ball or charge of grapeshot. Mounted on the fronts of boats and on the walls of earthwork forts. Saw much use against the Spanish conquistadors, but was defeated by the howitzers and mortars brought by the American infantry.

*'''Mechanical machine guns''': These are essentially the first machine guns. Technically firearms, they differ from later machine guns in that their firing mechanisms relied on repetitive manual operation via a crank or lever. They also tended to be mounted on artillery carriages, partly because these were pretty heavy machines, but also because military thinking had yet to really move on from the idea that crew served weapons didn't need to be horse-drawn. All of these were rendered obsolete by the Maxim gun except the gattling gun which with some modifications is still in use to this day.
**'''Mitrailleuse''': French for "grapeshot", though the word now refers to "machine gun" in that language. This was a weapon that looked like a cannon, only instead of one big hole in the muzzle it had twenty five 13mm barrels. It is not unlike a ribeaudequin, in that it fires multiple shots at a time. The main difference is that it is much easier to reload and shoot: all you need to do is unscrew the breech, slot in a steel plate with all twenty five cartridges, and then screw the breech closed. To fire it, you turned a crank that sequentially fires five barrels at a time. Was France's super duper secret weapon during the Franco-Prussian War, but it largely failed to live up to expectations in large part because the French insisted on deploying it as artillery just outside of rifle range.
**'''Gatling Gun''': Not to be confused with the chain gun, which operates on a completely different principle. The Gatling Gun features multiple barrels which fire in turn as they rotate around the twelve o'clock position. This configuration allowed higher rates of fire to be achieved without the barrel overheating. The earliest gatling gun required a person to crank it like a pepper grinder, so it's not like it can be fired automatically by some sandwich eating Russian. Notable for its use in Zulu and the Boshin war, mowing down those <s>pre-historic savages</s> unlucky pre-industrial indigenous like a combine harvester through chaff. It would later be brought back coupled with a motor to allow for so high a rate of fire that each of the guns "dakkas" blur into each other to become one long "BZZZZZZZZZZZZ", because jet planes were too fast to be easily brought down by anything less than a hundred 20mm rounds fired in a split-second.

*'''Dynamite gun''': In the early days of high explosives, there were no explosives stable enough to be fired from a gun without blowing up, and high explosives were far more powerful than low explosives like gunpowder. Hence, the Dynamite gun, the most steam punk weapon ever deployed. Dynamite guns worked like a big air gun, only instead of a BB they fired a shell full of Dynamite or other high explosives and instead of air they used compressed steam if on a ship, or smokeless powder used to indirectly propel a gas into the barrel to launch the shell.

*''' Maxim gun''': The first successful weapon that can be considered a true machine gun, harnessing the power of recoil to load, fire, and extract cartridges several hundred times a minute, with little more input than depressing a trigger. Like earlier mechanical machine guns, it was at first mounted on a horse-drawn carriages, though reductions in weight led to rethinking the whole mounting business and putting it on a lighter tripod. It was also the direct ancestor of the autocannon. The QF 1-pounder (37mm) and the QF 2-pounders (40mm) 'Pom-poms' (nicknamed like that because of the continuous rumble one produces when firing) were adopted by nations as soon as they became aware of them or had been on the receiving end, essentially converting the machine gun design into autocannons. The QF 1 started out as a field gun before it was used on warships as an anti-aircraft weapon. The Maxim along with it's descendants made field charges and line combat impossible, ushering in the era of trench warfare, with only [[Katanas_are_Underpowered_in_d20|mall ninjas]] and [[/pol/|other idiots]] lamenting the loss of those tactics.