Kiddicraft Herocraft – Orc Battering Ram Building Set KC1504

Kiddicraft's Herocraft Orc Battering Ram is built from 397 pieces — a siege engine with a reinforced ram, and four orc figures with individual armour and weapons. Age 5+.

The roof was the important part

A battering ram is usually drawn as a log on wheels. The log was the easy bit.

The difficulty was that using one required a dozen men to stand still, directly beneath a wall, for as long as it took — sometimes hours. The defenders above them had arrows, rocks, boiling water, quicklime and, when they were organised, burning pitch.

So the ram was built inside a shed. The Romans called it a testudo, a tortoise: a timber frame on wheels with a steep roof, covered in wet hides or turf so that fire would not take hold, pushed up to the wall with the ram swinging on ropes inside it. Every surviving account of siege warfare describes the roof in more detail than the ram.

The defenders' counter was equally practical. They dropped weighted grapples to catch the ram's head and hoist it, or lowered padded mattresses down the wall to absorb the blow — which worked well enough that attackers sent men out with hooks to cut them away.

None of it was quick. A ram against a well-built wall was a matter of days, and most sieges were decided by hunger rather than by breaking anything.

Four orcs, one machine

A siege engine needs a crew, and a set that supplies four figures with it gives a child the scene rather than the prop. It is built to be used against set KC1501, the Knight's Castle, and set KC1505, the Knight Outpost.

In the Herocraft range

Set KC1502 is the Orc Hideout and KC1409 the Orc Attack figure pack. On the other side: KC1501, KC1505, KC1503 and the KC1410 Knights pack.

Specifications

Pieces: 397 · Figures: 4 orcs · Series: Kiddicraft Herocraft · Age: 5+ · Compatible with leading brick systems