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The ballista was designed by the Romans and is the grandfather of all seige machinces. It was basically a crossbow scaled upward considerably. The Greeks and Romans used it throught their empires but they werent very effective. They were hard to manuver, didnt have much power and could occasionaly break, endangering everyone aound them.
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The trebuchet was believed to first made in China around 300 AD. It's design was eventually spred around all of Eurasia through the trade routes.
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The battering ram was a siege machine that was used to bust down walls and doors to breach a stronghold. The first ones were simply a group of soldiers who cut down a log and slammed it a against the breaching spot. Later ones were made with roofing to protect the soldiers and the ram was hung from the roof on chains.
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The trebuchet is probably one of the most recognizabele weapons from the era of siege warfare. It's use of a counter weigth allowed it to throw giant projectiles at great distances. It also utalized the sling to give it extra power, like the onager. It was mainly used not to breach walls, but to throw things over them to kill those inside because of its arcing shot.
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For once the ballista styled weapons were designed for defending a stronghold instead of attacking one. The springald is a variation of the ballista that was devoloped in the eleventh century. It is a compact box design that uses tortion and can be easily operated by two men. They were usually set up on defnesive postions and fired spears, rocks, and anything else the soldiers had.
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The next big step in seige warfare came in the twelfth century with the mangonel. The monagonel was the next big step in seige warfare and utilized rope torsion. It used a bucket conatiner and was mainly used as a wall breacher. It is the precursor to the onager.
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The onager is a nearly exact design of the mangonel except for the use of the sling instead of the bowl. The sling allowed for a whipping motion that added extra power with the same amount of force.
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The siege tower was one of the most interesting inventions used for taking down a fort. It was basically a tower on wheels that could be rolled up to the walls of a fort. When the tower got to the walls, the doors would open and soldiers would come flooding out. It was protected by animal hides to keep it's soldiers protected from any projectile fire and had many variations to its design.
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When someone mentions a battering ram, most people think of the medival styled ones held by six soldiers knocking down a door. Today, many police and military personel are using them for the same pricipale. Some of even been mounted to vehicles and run through houses or doors. They are reinforced and better construction than their medival counter parts, but still get the job done.
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While the siege weapons were orignally designed for medival warfare, these days they are used as an event to celebrate throwing pumpkins. Thousands come every year to Pumpkin Chunkin' to expierence many trebuchets, onagers, mangonel, and other siege machines throw pumpkins. Those who compete have continued with the ingenuitey of the inventors of the orginal siege engines by creating their own kinds.
