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[Ukrainian Ranger]

What our army needs

1) Logistics
2) Navy
3) Boost to cavalry
4) Better artillery

1 and 2 can be combined in a ship designed to be cheap... Are galleys cheaper to produce than ships with masts and sails? Galleys aren't very seaworthy but can serve its role.

[Sheb]

Galleys in 1780? Seems like a waste of time. Our air rifles are already a technological dead-end.

At least make it a steamship.
 
We also only need a navy if the Royalists are a threat. It might be more efficient to leave them rule the sea and just push them back into the sea whenever they attack.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Getting our ports blockaded and bombarded is not sweat

[Sheb]

No, but neither is getting our cities invaded. We're not heavily dependent on the sea for anything at the moment.

[Wolfhunter107]

On the other hand, having a navy would be useful for supporting our army.

[Sheb]

Yeah, but there is always an opportunity cost.

Anyway, if the Loyalist develloped a boat, we might have a boat design by next turn.

[RAM]

If we don't have a navy then we will need to secure our whole coastline against landings, have basically no reliable contact with the rest of the world(although setting up diplomacy with an off-board power who does have a navy might get us some contact that, while not on our terms, would be pretty much safe from attack), and opens our shores up to some fairly casual bombardment, which in turn increases the need to secure our coastline. It also sort of becomes more and more difficult to build a navy as your naval facilities are more and more dominated by enemy activity.

On the other hand, having a navy allows us to carry land-forces to remote patches of coastline, carry some pretty ludicrously heavy guns and armour pretty much anywhere that is in contact with a major river, Ship supplies to any friendly forces that can reach a coastline, and can go out patrolling to give us advanced warning of enemy activity.

It is far from ideal, there are lots of things to want and we can't have them all, but the prospect of a navy is far from something to ignore.

I am happy to go for an industrial focus and get heavy steam-powered machinery, maybe even some rudimentary tanks*... But it will probably be an extremely expensive approach. Cavalry and sails would probably be more efficient if we can't get some really solid exploitation of technology and massive technological industrialisation of our nation...

Hrnnm maybe something like a steam-roller, you could have the mechanisms down the middle, a small armour panel at the front, the wheels could count as armour themselves, you could have gunners in a gantry inside the wheels themselves, although the gunners would likely only have access from the outside, so be stuck in there for the duration of any operations, it would probably be one of the worst posts in the army, likely a not-exceptional fatality rate, but most any injury would likely result in a very grisly scene when someone ended up checking on them and a mess that wouldn't ever be completely cleaned. The axle would need to be anchored at the outside, but just a spoke so that could be armoured and sturdy. The thing would be ludicrously slow, and probably filled with gearing, so a lot of material for a small number of guns and probably a lot of maintenance and limited range. And as a large target the armour would need to be even heavier...

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

A Message from the Dunwich Military Council to the National Development Force, January 1, 1781

Your achievements provided us with a great advantage for our advancements.  It is unfortunate that you had not thought of the eastern side of our land, but from what we have heard your rifles allowed for our soldiers to hold the line.  As a result, you will not be removed from your positions.  Be more careful in the future.

As for your request of knowledge of the results of what our spies found, they had been unable to make a move to capture any designs of the Loyalists.  It is believed that the design was of their London class of vessels, so it is unfortunate that this is true.

In worse news, it has been determined that one of the designs for the original Victoria rifle have been taken by an unknown force.  Security of the vaults has been increased in response, but you recognize how dangerous this fact is.  While our forces are the strongest on the battlefield, whoever has gotten ahold of it has nearly eliminated this advantage.  We will be needing new weapons and soon.  Do not disappoint.


Begin 1781 Design Phase

[RAM]

Shield-barrow:
 A metal panel just thick enough to stop small arms fire with a sturdy wooden backing to help with deformation.
 Tall enough to crouch behind and wide enough for two, with angled wings to protect against attacks from the side.
 A series of viewing slits at slightly different angles near the top that are narrower than current projectiles.
 Insets at the side to allow competent firing with minimal exposure.
 A pair of simple wide metal roller-wheels, one at each of the bottom corners.
 Two long wooden handles affixed near to the middle of the side edges for pushing the shield forward from a distance and levering it upright.
 A pair of wooden planks affixed under the handles to brace the shield against the ground at such an angle that the shield should fall backwards rather than forwards.

Hopefully this should account for the range issues that we are having with the Victoria.

[Sheb]

Well, on the bright side, our design is great. On the other hand, it was stolen. From a contact of mine among the loyalist, I know that:



It's of course possible that the Monarchist tried to steal our design as well.

I still think we should go for some kind of steam railway. It'll give us more artillery, and good experience in steam technology.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Well, on the bright side, our design is great. On the other hand, it was stolen. From a contact of mine among the loyalist, I know that:

-snip-

It's of course possible that the Monarchist tried to steal our design as well.

I still think we should go for some kind of steam railway. It'll give us more artillery, and good experience in steam technology.

I never stated communication channels between each side are now open.  They're still closed off at the current time.

[Sheb]

Oh. Sorry, as far I knew, my understanding was that we couldn't do diplomacy, but I don't remember a ban on all communications.

[Baffler]

That actually went pretty well. The Victoria's performance was excellent on all fronts, and now that we have some experience with it the technology is going to get cheaper (or was that just for ships? The OP isn't very clear there.) The Altonite dragoons are pretty concerning though, and something will have to be done about the Attertonians encroaching on Bradford, but the first of those problems offers us a solution to the other. It won't even take a design, we can just use our revision on a carbine edition of the Victoria to give to cavalry.

On design, I dunno. Maybe a light (like 3-4 pounder) artillery piece that can fire canister shot?

[Sheb]

Yeah, it IS going to be cheaper. I'm not sure how fast it's going to become cheap for the loyalists.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Oh. Sorry, as far I knew, my understanding was that we couldn't do diplomacy, but I don't remember a ban on all communications.

I can't think of any international communication that wouldn't be diplomatic.  Even if that wasn't the case, just look at the message you had gotten, there is an offering of an alliance through non-aggression.  How is that not a diplomatic communication?