Hi Hikaro, have you some pics of this Abus gun?
Well, this is how they appear in the game Age of Empires III (although they would need at least two people to carry them, most of the time):
Here is the description from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abus_Guns
The Abus gun is an early form of howitzer or more likely a bazooka created by the Ottoman empire.
They were small, but often too heavy to carry, and many were equipped with a type of tripod. They had a caliber between 3 and 9 inches (230 mm) and fired a projectile weighing 4.25 pounds. Abus guns, despite being a form of howitzer, were primarily used as an anti-infantry weapon.
Military History
Background
The Ottomans employed artillery in their armies before any European power did so. As this gun was one of the first artillery weapons ever to be used in battle, its origins are not known. Early artillery such as this gun opened the way for the developments in artillery that we have made across the ages, and spawned more recent and familiar types of artillery. They continued to develop it; by the Napoleonic era,
"Each regiment of foot artillery was made up of 10 cannons; four of the older, heavy Balyemez and Sahi cannons, two of the older, lighter Abus guns and four of the new French-designed field guns... each of which came in a bewildering range of sizes. The Balyemez were massive, long-range guns...Sahi was the Ottoman word for "field," and therefore Sahi artillery meant simply field artillery... The Abus guns were a form of howitzer and came in 10- and 7centimeter diameter bores. The French-design guns were known as SuratTopcusu (speed artillery) because of their greater mobility."
Mechanics
Abus guns were a short-barreled artillery machine that fired shots about the size of a human fist. They also had many varieties of artillery, from large siege Bombard to the mobile Abus guns in question. Though light enough to carry, they needed to be equipped with a tripod of sorts. This movability was opposed to locating them in a guarded artillery emplacement, where versatility of the weapon would have been considerably restricted. The design remained unchanged until 1830 when the Prussian military advisers appointed by the sultan made a few minor improvements, standardising the weapons in order to improve efficiency.
Historical use
Abus guns were a significant part of the Ottoman empire's artillery, and could perhaps even be referred to as the signature piece of artillery during the height of their power, in the 16th and 17th centuries, for no other civilization used a gun quite like this gun. While the Ottoman Empire employed other forms of artillery, the strategy of the moveable abus gun would have contributed to their rise during the Napoleonic Era. Indeed, at one point in the said time, after the Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453, a great achievement for any empire at that time, much of the Ottoman force was artillery.
Imperator, there is a new bug. The Chinese 18th century artillery, it seem you set the default color to red. But now, if I use other civilization colors for example blue, their faces will become terrible and look like zombies.
May you correct it?
