In games like Medieval 2 and Rome Total War, ballista and catapults can use flaming projectiles that incinerate troops. Mangonels are portrayed as firing exploding barrels. Were such things even possible? if so, how effective was it? who used it? what was in exploding barrels?
Thanks in advance for any answers.
In the 13th century, trebuchets (a type of catapult siege engine) could hurl breakable pots or barrels filled with a flaming substance like pitch or Greek Fire over a castle wall. The flaming liquid would spill all over the impact point, setting things on fire. It was particularly useful against wooded fortifications for obvious reasons.
[Here is a picture, drew in 1869, of what that would look like] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_thermal_weapons#/media/File%3AGreek_Fire_Catapult_(Harper's_Engraving)
A flaming arrow would usually be some oil cover string wrapped around the arrow set alight and fired. In the Siege of Lachish, (701 BC) both the Assyrians and the Judeans used fire arrows to some deal of effectiveness.
As far as explosives are concerned, Chinese and Indian Rockets used gunpowder as a propellant and explosive. Chinese rockets were reportly used in 1232 against the Mongols. The Koreans used rockets to increase an arrows range by strapping a rocket to the arrow.