However, your thoughts of attempting to make a beachhead at the mainland was disastrous. We are not equipped for dealing with the power of those on the land at the current time. I would suggest you work upon that at some point.
Yeah, my fault. I had expected this to work better.
Looking at the weapons they designed, I saw a few very interesting things.
Atterton went for a nice, fairly conservative design alteration to the Brown Bess, producing a blackpowder rifle. Very nice, and it seems to be fairly effective. On the other hand, their steamship seems atrocious, and an example for a design that's been too far ahead.
Dunwich went for air rifles, and for air rifles again. It seems to've been worth it, though. We should possibly go for stealing the design this turn.
The problem with improving our cannons is, that we then need to revise each and every single ship to use these new cannons. On the other hand, our cannons positively suck. They're, at the moment, outranged even by contemporary 4-pounders, who attain a range at least twice as great.
https://books.google.be/books?id=hb7DHfs8aZ4C&pg=PA14&dq=Valliere+system&hl=nl#v=onepage&q=range&f=false
This leads me to suspect that even though our weaponry is referred to as being smooth bore, it's actually cast. (A bit of an anachronysm in terminology causing this confusion). As such, I propose we steal some technology from the Frogs and revolutionize our artillery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gribeauval_system
Imperial 6 Pound Artillery
Unlike previous artillery pieces, which were cast around a clay cylinder, which can result in deformities, these guns are cast as a solid block of metal. The bore is then bored out by a rather large stationary drill. The effect of this are significant. The tighter mechanical tolerances result in a greater muzzle velocity, better accuracy, and allow for the gun to be greatly lightened. It is expected that an effective range of 800 meters should be feasible.
Thirding. Also, include an improved field carriage.
Also, @Zanzetkuken:
1. If we design the cannon, do we have to upgrade our ships?
2. Can we specify the availability of canister rounds during the design phase?