A rifled breach or muzzle loaded heavy howitzer from the 1860s-1890s period would be cool. It's the industrial age period from the end of the napoleonic period to ww1. Before that, howitzers were mixed into gun batteries with the ratio of 4-2 or 6-2. Shells were not reliable enough to be fielded on their own without round shot (which napoleonic howitzers couldn't shoot). But in the 1870s, they would be used in their own batteries and can be represented by an in game unit. Tech timing could be Industrialization or Steel.
Example would be the British RML 6.3 inch, RML 6.6 inch and RML 8 inch howitzers or the German 15cm SFH93, which can be considered an advanced form of that generation:
"The advantage the sFH 93 had over its predecessors was that it was made from nickel-steel of much greater strength than previous guns of cast iron construction. This meant that the sFH 93 could be much smaller in diameter and lighter in weight than its predecessors which meant it was easier for it to keep pace with infantry divisions on the march. It also meant that unlike previous guns it could be transported in one piece and was light enough to be part of maneuvering forces to overcome local strong points rather than relegated to the slower siege train.
[1] However, the cavalry still felt the sFH 93 was too heavy for their use so they were assigned to heavy howitzer battalions of the infantry. For travel, the gun could be attached to a limber and towed by a six-horse team and each battery consisted of four guns with four batteries per battalion."
Btw, can someone please help me identify these units? I can't tell what artillery pieces Wyrmshadow intended on making.
Simple ww1 style howitzer.
forums.civfanatics.com
The unit is meant to be a German one. But I'm not sure which. It doesn't help that Americans call every tube artillery piece a "howitzer". This piece lacks a gun shield but its barrel is too long to be an SFH03. The barrel could be an LFH16. But that piece has a gun shield. So I suspect it's actually a gun, not a howitzer. A Krupp 10cm field gun:
Since I differentiate guns and howitzers in my mods (guns with their real life longer range and aptitude for low trajectory/direct fire have more bombard value but less ROF), being able to tell is nice.
105mm US
forums.civfanatics.com
This one says US M1 105mm. But it doesn't look like an M101 howitzer with no large recuperator cylinder front head (protruding past the gun shield) and a big muzzle brake. The US didn't have any 105mm field guns in ww2. The medium field gun was the 4.5 inch M1 which had no muzzle brake.
So I guess this could be a 105mm post ww2 upgrade of the M101 with a longer barrel and muzzle brake, turning it into a gun-howitzer.
What do you guys think they could be?