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The fan-made info card for the Cannon unit (Civ5)
Game Info
Powerful Renaissance Era Siege Unit. Upgrades from the Trebuchet.
- Common abilities:
- Bonus vs Cities (200)
- Limited Visibility (-1 Visibility Range.)
- May Not Melee Attack
- No Defensive Terrain Bonuses
- Must Set Up to Ranged Attack
Strategy
The Cannon is an important mid-game siege unit, the first one to use gunpowder as propellant. Their power is significant, and their cannonballs are sufficiently strong to punch through the strongest medieval-era city defenses with ease. Although its technological principles are radically different from earlier siege units, Cannons are still heavy and bulky to move, still need to prepare before firing, and they prove unreliable against moving targets, so they suffer from all negative sides of their earlier predecessors.
Use Cannons primarily in sieges, or as Ranged weapons from well-defended fortified positions.
Historical Info
A cannon is a big tubular gun that uses gunpowder or other explosive to send a projectile a long distance at a high rate of speed originally invented in China in approximately the 12th century AD. The Mongols were early adaptors of the cannon, using them to great effect in China and Korea. It's likely that the Mongols introduced cannon to the Islamic world, and the Europeans learned of it from the Muslims. The earliest cannon were huge, unwieldy dangerous affairs that often exploded when fired, making them as big a menace to their firers as to their targets. But by the Renaissance the quality of metal casting had advanced enough to create smaller and far more reliable guns that could be pulled into battle by teams of horses or mounted aboard ships.
King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden revolutionized the use of field artillery, employing large numbers of smaller and lighter pieces that overwhelmed slower and heavier enemy guns. He also pioneered the use of canister shot against infantry, for which foot soldiers everywhere probably cursed his name.