Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

This isn’t my catapult. It was made by a visitor who used some of the tutorial stuff I have all about making catapults. But, I gotta tell you that this is a project I definitely want to do myself. A big catapult has been on my list for a long time now!

Anyhoo, This catapult is called “The Annihilator” and it was made by Jared who is a Den Leader for a cub scout pack. He has sent me Pictures, a video, and some tips on how he constructed this eight foot long catapult. I have all those materials here: The Annihilator And I have lots of other catapult stuff too including a complete tutorial on how to make a small table top catapult called “The Table Top Troll”

Popularity: 12% [?]

A lot of people are really interested in siege engines, catapults, trebuchets and the like, and yesterday I spent some time doing a litle research and a little bit of drawing. If you are interested in siege engines you might want to take a look at what I did.

Siege Engines are a good example of a very early arms race and they developed from bows into crossbows then into something called the Gastraphetes (belly bow). And of course there is the Mangonel and Onager. Anyhoo, I have outlined this timelne of development showing the major improvements and changes that were made. I also have included drawings I made that show these major types of siege engines. Here is the article: The Development and Evolution of the Catapult

About Drawing Catapults: I also figured that since I have these nice drawings on catapults and various siege engines it would be a great addition for my fantasy art school. So using the artwork I made I did up a lesson on drawing catapults and added it to the art school. If you want to  learn how to draw catapults and siege engines you might want to take a look here: Fantasy Art School Home Page (The Catapult lesson is one of the first ones on the page)

Popularity: 29% [?]

If you are interested in the whole science and art of siege warfare and how it took place during the middle ages here is a book recommendation for you. I own this book and really like it.

The title of the book in this review is “Medieval Siege Warfare”. It is written by Christoper Gravett and the color plates were drawn by Richard and Christa Hook.

This book takes a good look at the evolving and changing world of siege warfare during the Middle Ages. But it is not a dry and scholarly look at the subject. It is clearly written in a normal tone and aimed at the average reader. And it comes complete with around 50 drawings and photographs of sieges, castles, siege engines and more.

Siege warfare is a fascinating topic because during the Middle Ages a real arms race was going on. It was the race between castle builders, weapon builders, and siege engineers. Technology and engineering changed dramatically during medieval times and castles had to change and adapt in order to cope with this growth and keep their inhabitants safe. Both siege engineers and castle builders used many ingenious means and devices to achieve their goals. This book takes a good look at these tactics and techniques and how they changed and evolved over a several hundred year period.

The art of the siege was more than just ladders and catapults. It was a whole science with an arsenal of weapons for attack and methods for defense; and the book takes a good look at all these variations from tunnel digging to the building of moats and gatehouses and even diplomacy and biological warfare. And it gives solid examples, with pictures, of real castles and how they were built and attacked. It also has many DaVinci like drawings of siege weapons and tactics.

Some of the best parts of the book are the references to real sieges of real castles throughout history. It gives you short looks at how the sieges occurred and what happened. Some of the famous sieges covered are the first siege of Le Puiset in 1111, the sea-borne attack on Acre in 1189, and the siege of Chateau Gaillard in 1203.

This book is written for an audience of teens to adults and if you are looking for a good introductory book about the whole subject of the sieging of castles during the Middle Ages this is the perfect choice. It is not too scholarly, has lots of pictures and illustrations, and takes a complete look at the whole subject area.

This book is Available on Amazon.com - Medieval Siege Warfare (Trade Editions)

Popularity: 41% [?]