For the Empire: Total War building, see Ordnance Board (Empire: Total War).
The Ordnance Board is a type of ordnance building in Napoleon: Total War.
Description[]
This council of state is charged with looking after all matters relating to artillery and improves the recruitment of military units.
The board is in charge of the design, development, casting, and storage of artillery pieces for the armed forces. The members are also in charge of powder production for the army and navy too, an attempt to limit bureaucratic muddle and rivalry between services. The Ordnance is an important national asset because artillery is very expensive and a measure of state power.
Historically, great guns and siege weapons always required specialists to operate them, men quite separate from common soldiery. In charge was a Master of Ordnance, a man of some importance in medieval royal households. Looking after the monarch's artillery train required a large staff of gunners, founders, powder makers, mathematicians, surveyors, and even wagon drivers. In time, all of these men came under the control of the Board of Council of Ordnance. As with all government departments, they made sure that their power increased over time, and they eventually controlled the management of fortresses and, in some cases, the manufacture of all weapons for the state.
General Information[]
The Ordnance Board is the first ordnance building that requires a technology to be researched before it can be built: Grand Battery. This is a mid-game technology, meaning that factions cannot quickly access ordnance boards in the early game. This is particularly significant for Great Britain and France, who only gain access to their howitzer artillery after constructing this building.
In The Peninsular Campaign, the Cannon Foundry line of buildings is absent. Instead, the army line of buildings produces all land military units.