Wagon Capacity

[warlock1971]

Do any of you perhaps know what the carrying capacity of a wagon is? I have looked at both the Legend and Arms and Armour rule books but must be missing it.

Thanks in advance!

 

[strega]

One horse/Two horse/Four horse/two wheel/four wheel?

Joking aside, I'd say whatever is reasonable.

Using the descriptive text on pages 90-94 of Arms of Legend gives some rough details to allow you to make a good estimation.

 

[warlock1971]

I was thinking a four-wheeled wagon, perhaps drawn by oxen, or horses for that matter, but either is fine.

 

[strega]

Arms gives you a choice of:
Armoured Carriage - 3-4 inside with baggage, driver outside.
Covered carriage - 2 benches so probably 4-6 inside plus driver.
Noble Carriage - no numbers given but probably close to the 3-4 of the armoured version.
Large cart - 'several' passengers or heavy loads.
Ox cart - 'a decent amount of weight and a passenger or two'.

What exactly do you want to carry?

 

[warlock1971]

Arms gives you a choice of:
Armoured Carriage - 3-4 inside with baggage, driver outside.
Covered carriage - 2 benches so probably 4-6 inside plus driver.
Noble Carriage - no numbers given but probably close to the 3-4 of the armoured version.
Large cart - 'several' passengers or heavy loads.
Ox cart - 'a decent amount of weight and a passenger or two'.

What exactly do you want to carry?

Just creating a wagon train for an adventure. The adventurers are part of a contingent of guards escorting the merchant train to a smaller town. The goods are to be shipped to warmer, wealthier climes in the south of my game world.

Players being what they are, I figured an overall idea of how much a wagon can carry would help me prepare what the entire shipment could potentially contain, in case they snoop ...

 

[rust]

According to Wikipedia, the average Conestoga wagon was 18 feet long,
11 feet high and 4 feet wide and could carry up to 12,000 pounds of car-
go. I think this would be the upper limit for a medieval vehicle, too.

 

[hanszurcher]

Depends on the era. As rust mentioned the Conestoga wagon from the 18-19th centuries had a high weight capacity but required a large team of 6 to 8 draft animals and was not very maneuverable. According to the Theodosian Code Roman four-wheeled wagons had a weight limit of 1,500 roman pounds (about 1050lbs). The 12th century variety had a maximum load of 600 kilograms but only required 2 draft animals according to Logistics of Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, ed. J.H. Pryor, 2006. .

 

[warlock1971]

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated!