Our new cheiroballista...

[AuxArcher]

By the way, I don’t want you to think I’m just blowing smoke without backing up my ideas with hands-on practice. I have 2 machines in progress, a small handheld catapult with 1.5” springs, and a 2” machine that will mount on a stand. The smaller machine, yes, has a crescent thingie for spanning (which I like to call belly brace) just as a gastrophetes would be spanned. It will loose 13.5” arrows, and is designed using classic Vitruvian formulas. It is hefty but very handy to carry about. It should give a flatter, faster trajectory than a war-weight bow and I expect fully will punch through all known shields of the ancient world, but that remains to be seen once it is complete. Bronze casting is the last big step to get the machines finished, and of course I will publish results and data on RAT when I can. I have a long-range plan to create actual sinew rope, but will settle for first nylon and then horsehair rope, which is an approved alternative to sinew according to the fragments of text that have come down to us. Lots of dead animals are needed, after all, and a willingness to get in there with knife and gum boots.