Right. here we go,after a day on buses and aircraft and fog. Time for some insight into the foe and some good-ole designing.
Spring 1935 [insert tired new years joke here]
The propositional submitted to the council to acquire a number of F1 grenades from France passes, only to have the french government object. A similar proposal made to the British government also fails. However, by July a ship arrives at the main port carrying a large number of the grenades. Word is that we have friends within the french communist community.
In the land of design studios work gets underway to, well, design stuff.
The first project that was assigned was to create our ferry own military helmet. The resulting design is two pieces, the outer made of steel painted with various patterns, and the inner made of a thinner steel with an internal cloth webbing system to maintain a small gap between it and the head, inorder to reduce the effects of the concussion of a object hitting the helmet. The entire thing also comes with netting for soldiers to shove bits of vegetation into. Ballistic tests show that it can stop a round from our standard rifle most of the time at a range of a kilometer, and about half the time at 500m. All told, the system weighs (when empty of vegetation) just over 1.5 kilograms.
Standard Helmet Model 1935
Stops rifle rounds at 1km, half the time at 500m
two parts, inner and "pot". Inner can be worn by itself, outter cannot.
netting for additional camo standard.
One batch costs 1ton steel (roughly 70 helmets) Most factories can run more than one batch on one production line.
The second set of work during the first half of the year was on the new POAC and the gun that goes in the heavy variant. So, lets start with the basic vehicle itself.
The POAC M1935 is a wheeled infantry transport vehicle in two varients, heavy and light, which are armed with a newly designed 45mm cannon or a pair of machineguns in a single turret respectively. Each possess a crew of three: A driver who sits on the left side of the vehicle, a commander who sits in the rear of the turret and a gunner who sits in the front of the same turret in the light version or to one side in the heavy. The commander has a small, well rounded copula in both versions(which can have a pintle mounted machinegun installed and is cast as a single piece). The engines to drive this beast are mounted next to the driver, on the right side of the vehicle, and consists of a 100hp engine driving the three sets of wheels (two in the front, one in the rear, roughly equally spaced). The hull is made of as few sections as possible, which are welded together, and are sloped at rather extreme angles. This, coupled with the thickness of the armor(20 mm armor front, 18 mm side, 16 mm rear) combine to make it rather heavily protected from attack, but also slow the vehicle somewhat. Three sets of hatches allow the six soldiers inside to disembark safely (two each side of the vehicle, infront of the rear set of wheels, and one in the back). The origins of half of the design team can be clearly seen, as the vehicle is fully amphibious (with a pair of props at the rear), although the designers do say that it cannot handle anything more than light chop.
There is also a turretless version, which only has a crew of two (driver and commander) and can be armed with, at the most, a single machinegun. Still, it is faster than the other two.
The 45mm cannon (Designated the C-V-45-M1935 (hey, new designation system to try to make things easier. Also, hyphens. Hyphens are fun.)) is a typical tank cannon. Shying away from the typical view of infantry support weapons either being machineguns or low velocity weapons with large HE loads to destroy bunkers and the like, the POAC-H's cannon is a high velocity weapon capable of taking out most tanks. Many think that the designers where somewhat off their rockers. The common theory is that they where under the impression that this was for a replacement of the T-18. Outside of the turret designed for the POAC-H the gun can fire a blistering twenty rounds per minute, but within the confines of the turret (where the loader is the commander) the gun has only been able to manage 15RPM, and thats if the commander is doing nothing but reloading.
Crew of three (driver, commander, gunner)
20 mm armor front, 18 mm side, 16 mm rear, all heavily sloped.
Powered by a 100HP engine
POAC-B
top speed(land) of 60kmph, 20kmph(water)
Crew of two
Mounting for only single pintlemounted MG
3 ton
Requires 2ton steel and 1ton AL
POAC-L
Top speeds of 55 and 15kmph.
Mounts a turret with twin machineguns additional to optional commander gun.
4ton
Requires 3ton steel, 1ton AL
POAC-H
Top speeds 50 and 10
Turret contains 1x 45mm cannon and commanders MG
5tons
Requires 4ton steel, 2 ton AL
Faster(AL): Speed is increased due to constructing some parts of aluminum, which reduced the weight.
Faster(less armor): Speed is increased due to making the armor slightly thinner (2mm on all faces).
Reliable: less likely to break down and requires less spare parts (increasing production runs as a side effect)
Stronk: Its just generally stronger
More armor: An extra 5mm of armor on all faces, spaced from the hull slightly. Slows the thing down though.
Top-hatch: Due to the passenger hatches not working very well while the vehicle is on the water, a hatch has been installed on the top of the vehicle, along with spots for two more machinegun mounts. There could probably be other things this could result in...
easy to learn: Training time reduced.
Cannon-Vechiular-45mm-Model of 1935
.5 ton
15-20 RPM, depending on mounting
Effective range of 1.5km (direct fire)
Ammunition types:
Armor piercing.
Fragmentation.
Canister.
Smoke.
Penetration (AP)
at 500 m: 61 mm
at 1000 m: 51 mm
Reliable: less spare parts needed, increasing production.
Cheap: Costs are reduced.
Simple: Easier to maintain, can make more at once, and easier to use
Optical System: A basic optical system is installed, increasing the cannons effective range and accuracy.
Less training: Training times reduced
Lighter: Tin!
And now, construction.
Work is done on a new design lab for one team, suitable for just about any project.It is done before the end of the summer, so the workers spend the rest of the time planting a garden next to it. Its mostly vegetables, but also contains edible flours, as befits our nation. It looks nice enough.
A set of workers are set to work turning the unarmed, but still powered, T-18s that we have in inventory into construction vehicles. Although no unified designs are made the conversions are.
And finally, the big job of the year. A network of shore defenses are started on around the capital, using mostly stone as well as the top halves of the unarmed, unpowered T-18s that where made. The bottom haves have been recycled. These defenses are armed with just about everything in our arsenal, and should be fairly good at defending the city.
And inother news, a round of hiring has turned up a trio of mostly unskilled engineers who could be spared from general industry, along with twenty-nine workers. They have been assigned to the "Fresh Meat Team".
In Brasil (hey, you now know the country you get to fight) a wave of fascist riots occur after the assassination of their factions leader. German military equipment is rumored to have appeared in bulk.
Due to the threat of possible war, the Council has re-negotiated the resource contracts with our suppliers of steel and AL. We now roughly get twice as much metal each year.
The head of the naval arm mentioned something about low stocks of mines. They love their new torpedoes and ships, although they did mutter something about having toomany subs to surface vessels.
The head of the Armored arm states that they adore the POAC-H.
The head of the Defense arm is currently content, although they wonder over the quantity of MGs being produced.
The overall head of the Armed Forces has if you plan on making any bombs, And when you plan on producing more aircraft.
The council is currently wondering why the hell you designed the POAC system.
One office building (Allows two basic design projects per turn)(Allows three basic acquire projects per turn)
One small design studio (allows one basic design project per turn)
One large warehouse (Allows three construction projects per turn)
One small workshop (No production lines possible, provides one basic design project per turn)
One small drydock (On loan from armed forces)(500t maximum)
Workshop G1 as follows:
- Line 1 : AATSM1933 'HiLo'
- Line 2 : M1932 40mmAAA Cannon
Factory G1 as follows:
- Line 1 : MM1934→MM1911
- Line 2 : AATSM1933 'HiLo' (105mm Cannon)
- Line 3 : ATHM1933
Factory G2 as follows:
- Line 1: EAM M1932 mortar
- Line 2: 7.62×54mm rounds
- Line 3: AEM shells
Factory V1 as follows:
- Line 1: SDE M1933 (engine)
- Line 2: SDE M1933 (engine)
Factory N1 as follows:
- Line 1: FACM1934 "Shockwave" (Fast attack craft)
- Line 2: Untooled(free tooling though)
Factory M1 as follows:
- Line 1: 18 inch torpedoes
- Line 2: .45 ACP ammunition
Factory M2 as follows:
- Line 1: 7.62x54mm
- Line 2: 40 mm Ammunition
Factory M3 as follows:
- Line 1: 7.62x54mm
- Line 2: ATHM ammunition
Factory M4 as follows:
- Line 1: .45 ACP ammunition
- Line 2: 'Hilo' Ammunition
Factory SA1 as follows:
- Line 1: SM1911/34
- Line 2: SM1911/34
- Line 3: MM1934
- Line 4: SMM1934 Double
- Line 5: MM1928
- Line 6: RM1891
- Line 7: RM1891
- Line 8: RM1891
Factory A1
- Line 1: HGAAM1934 "Baklan" (Heavy dive bomber)
- Line 2: HGAAM1934 "Baklan" (Heavy dive bomber)
Factory AM1
- Line 1: AEM1933 "Hurricane" (Aircraft engine)
- Line 2: AEM1933 "Hurricane" (Aircraft engine)
Eleven Scraper Trucks
Four CEV based on T-18 chasis
5000t timber per half-year
As much stone as is needed
3110t steel, stockpiled, 460 ton bi-annually
115t aluminum, stockpiled, 370 ton bi-annually
Construction Team 1
1 middling architect(s)
1 basic architect(s)
10 laborers
Construction Team 2
1 middling architect(s)
1 basic architect(s)
10 laborers
Construction Team 3
9 laborers
1 skilled laborer
1 middling architect(s)
Labor Team A
10 skilled laborers
2 Masterful Laborer
Naval Engineering Team :
1 middling naval engineer(s)
2 skilled naval engineer(s)
1 masterful naval engineer(s)
3 basic naval engineer(s)
1 basic engineer(s) (basic)
1 middling armored engineer(s)
Aeronautics Team
3 basic aeronautical engineer(s)
1 middling engineer(s) (basic)
3 skilled engineer(s) (Basic)
1 GODLIKE Engineer(s)
1 middling material Engineer(s)
Gun Engineering Team
1 basic Weapons Engineer(s)
4 material engineer(s)
4 skilled engineer(s) (Basic)
1 masterful engineer(s) (Basic)
Special Projects Team
3 basic material engineer(s)
1 basic material engineer(s)
1 masterful skilled electronics engineers(s)
1 middling electronics engineers(s)
2 basic electronics engineer(s)
Fresh Meat Team
3 unskilled engineers(basic)
29 unskilled laborers
SH M1935
POAC M1935
C-V-45-M1935
So, you got your first IFV/IFV that could have ALOT done to it(hint hint), a tankgun, a helmet system on-par with what will be used in WW2, defenses around the city, and some freshmeat. You also have an armored vehicle designer in the naval team now, and with the freshmeat you may want to reorganize. Also, more resources (because I wanted to make some stuff easier on myself), more costs, France not playing ball (but you getting the nades anyways, now to copy them...), the council sorta pissed since they cant tell how useful fast, mobile, protected infantry is... Also, attack of the hyphens.
Bookkeeping will be done soonish, due to limited time.