Barricades?

[PalladiumBrony]

I know properly-constructed walls have stats in various books (though I was never sure how thick a defensive stone wall like a city wall should be, and I assume that multiples of that thickness have multiples of the SDC quoted), but what about improvised barricades, a la the one constructed in Les Miserables; hastily-constructed piles of furniture, vehicles, doors, barrels, rubble and whatever the defenders can get their hands on quickly. How long should it take to construct a barricade of a given size? Should any particular skills be required (to know how and where to build one for best effect)? How many SDC should a 10-square-foot section have? I'm thinking a barricade should provide cover (requiring called shots unless you have a weapon that can penetrate it), and be... actually pretty easy to climb, because of all the hand-holds from irregularly piled objects. Though perhaps not, if it's rickety and prone to shifting around. And of course, that ignores the attempts of any defenders to STOP you climbing it.

[kiralon]

Not an easy question to answer because
What is the barricade made out of
How skillfull were the barricade makers
How much time did they have to make yon barricade.

The wall spells can be a handy source of info. As can other non pfrpg book (nightbane etc)

http://palladiumbooks.com/forums/viewto ... 6#p1993151

[Hotrod]

I know properly-constructed walls have stats in various books (though I was never sure how thick a defensive stone wall like a city wall should be, and I assume that multiples of that thickness have multiples of the SDC quoted), but what about improvised barricades, a la the one constructed in Les Miserables; hastily-constructed piles of furniture, vehicles, doors, barrels, rubble and whatever the defenders can get their hands on quickly. How long should it take to construct a barricade of a given size? Should any particular skills be required (to know how and where to build one for best effect)? How many SDC should a 10-square-foot section have? I'm thinking a barricade should provide cover (requiring called shots unless you have a weapon that can penetrate it), and be... actually pretty easy to climb, because of all the hand-holds from irregularly piled objects. Though perhaps not, if it's rickety and prone to shifting around. And of course, that ignores the attempts of any defenders to STOP you climbing it.

A few things to unpack here.

First off, it's important to understand that the main purpose of a wall/barricade is to be an obstacle that slows down and channels attackers. By slowing the attack of many into a manageable trickle, a smaller force can easily hold back and even defeat a larger one. A barricade that's easy to climb can still be quite effective. The idea is not to totally stop an enemy; no barricade or obstacle can do that.

Secondly, barricades and obstacles are generally made to be effective against specific enemies. For example, a bunch of small calf-deep holes in a field might slow an advancing infantry unit slightly, but it will stop a cavalry charge in its tracks, as the horses will either refuse to charge through them or risk many/most of them breaking legs. A chain might do wonders to stop ships from entering a harbor or passing up-river, but it won't do jack against row-boats or swimmers. A huge war elephant might casually smash through a fence that's holding up infantry, but might not be able to maneuver through prepared, sharpened stakes, whereas infantry might pass through those stakes easily.

Finally, you seem interested in hasty/improvised barriers. There's a fuzzy line between an improvised barrier and a proper defensive wall. It's quite possible to erect an effective defensive wall in a matter of a couple of hours when you have plenty of motivated, coordinated people. Roman legions built complete forts every night and demolished them every morning when on the march. Shoveling out a ditch and throwing the dirt up on the defended side tends to trip up your enemy and gives you a nice height advantage, to which the Romans would add a palisade of stakes. It's also worth noting that the barricades you see in Les Miserables reflect the available materials and the fact that the streets were set stone; dirt would have been both cheaper and more effective, as it would have deflected cannon fire.

With that out of the way, let's consider your questions about improvised barriers:

1. How long should it take to construct a barricade of a given size? Depends on available materials and labor. Cutting down a tree so it falls across a road is pretty easy/quick and might take a few minutes to an hour, depending on available tools. Throwing random furniture together could take anything from a minute to an hour, depending on the furniture. According the article I linked earlier, building a defensive wall like a Roman marching camp wall with a 5-ft-wide, 3-ft-deep ditch, piling the dirt on the defended side, and placing a palisade on top took roughly four man-hours for every 10 feet.

Should any particular skills be required? Depends on what you're trying to build. If you're building barricades by piling up whatever's handy, you don't need much skill. Creating a ditch and palisade like the Romans doesn't take much skill beyond shoveling. Picking the right places to build your barricade requires a measure of knowledge. If you're creating a more permanent defensive wall, then skills like masonry, carpentry, rope works, et cetera are very important.

How many SDC should a 10-square-foot section have? Depends on what the barricade is made of and how well it's made. It's important to note that piles of stuff don't generally have S.D.C. because they don't actually have significant structure. Smashing the things in a pile might settle the pile a little, but it's still a pile. Thus, in Les Miserables, while the cannon blow holes through the barricades, those barricades remain as obstacles; they still slow the advancing infantry, but now they don't have to worry about the students who stayed up drinking the night before and didn't have the basic sense to keep their gunpowder dry, because the splinters from the cannon fire cleared out those morons. Filthy commies. Anyway, proper walls and stake palisades do have S.D.C. In the case of a palisade of stakes, you could assign an S.D.C. for each stake (maybe 20 or so) and allow an attacker to pass through once three or more consecutive stakes get smashed.

In summary, Roman Army marching camps were awesome, the commie student revolutionaries in Les Miserables were incompetent, drunk morons, and I really need to get back to writing my dissertation.

[Veknironth]

Well, there is another question to consider. With the barriers constructed in the movie Les Miserables, you have the SDC of the individual items and the cohesion of the whole. It might be easy to knock the constituent pieces aside while not breaking down the entire SDC, and thus creating a hole. For something as simple as tipping over a table, that doesn't take much know-how. If you make something larger, more stable, and more complex, that might require some engineering, carpentry, or construction experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXKGvHxHQzM

The above video is from the Blu-ray of Les Miserables. It seems 15 minutes is what it took, and the barricade was created by students. It was then fortified so it wouldn't slide apart.

-Vek
"I didn't realize Eddie Redmayne was in Les Mis."