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[RAM]

Dub our construction Fort Cannon Bert!

So... 12 pound cannon with rifling to fix our range issues? It could tie in well to a national-effort warship next year...

Poe class cannon:
Van karsten design with an added rifling stage.
Adapt the van karsten system to shells to mould a shell around a clay cast. Drill through the shell, shatter the cast, empty the shell, fill it with powder and shrapnel, stuff the hole with a dense slow-burn wick mixture.
Double-check the wicks.
Light the wick immediately before firing and get yourself a potentially air-burst shell. also build plenty of standard ball-shot.
I think that we can leave canister-shot duties to the 8-pounders...

[Baffler]

Dub our construction Fort Cannon Bert!

+1.

I think the way to go is improving our service rifle. Right now we have to close an unacceptable amount of distance from their effective range to even hope of getting a shot off, and take huge casualties because of it. Our skirmishers and artillery are doing better, but the line infantry are still using the old brown bess while all the cool kids are using rifled muskets. How's this?

Montgomery Pattern Service Rifle

A 32-inch flintlock rifled musket intended for line infantry, firing the .52 caliber "Montgomery Ball" in a standard paper cartridge and equipped with lugs for a simple spike bayonet. It is also equipped with a fixed iron sight. The Montgomery ball is not a ball at all, but a long conical iron shot with a long grooved skirt. These grooves are shaped to fit the rifling, allowing faster reloading and improving ballistics, as well as keeping the barrel more clear than standard round shot.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

It will be very inferior to their wunderwaffe even if roll max. We should just spend turn after turn trying to steal the rifle. Trying to in back seas or heavy artillery or whatever is less awful

But to be honest I think there are nothing we can do counter loyalists' strategy. Their natural advantage of having no need for a three front war is just too huge. Add +2 more resources than anyone else and you can see that they won the game already

[Baffler]

I don't think the game is over yet. Don't we get the resource bonus from our improved infrastructure this coming turn?

I suppose I can see what you mean about the rifle though. It's an absurd thing, almost a century ahead of its time in its original form. The uniforms didn't really get us all that much either. So what, do we focus on the artillery war, or the naval one? Cut off from supplies and reinforcements, we might be able to seriously impact the effectiveness of the loyalists' beach head, but their navy is a lot better than ours. There are still some advancements we can make in artillery as well. A howitzer like the Monarchists' with our superior production techniques would be pretty formidable, and could mitigate our line infantry's distinct disadvantage even if we do fail to steal the Imperial rifle.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

We have 4 currently (2 from infrastructure, 2 from forts) , IF I understand fort's rules correctly.

Loyalists have 4 without any forts, will easily have  more (one more resource gathering tech, free production focus to build a fort, capture our fort) Remember that they lose absolutely nothing even if we throw them back to the sea by some method.

To be honest I am leaning toward going defensive and giving up one city (Bradford is the least painful and it should hold for some time even without focuses) and go for a century ahead techs and hoping for reconquest later. Territory (if it is not a city or a fort) is plain useless in this game. Inflicting casaulities to the enemy is even more useless.

Trying to go and attack in the seas was my original plan. This is why I wanted that fort\port to serve as a base and reconquer our shore. But we can't now, because our focuses are LOCKED on defending against loyalists on the land and defending the fort against monarchists

[Kashyyk]

I think you've misinterpreted. Forts do not contribute towards resources in any way.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Oh, good to know. Well, then trying do anything in the sea and design a ship is absurd, heavy artillery is even more absurd. Both are resource heavy. I have zero ideas for any viable strategy.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

OK, My vision of the current situation:

1) We have 2 resources, any kind of navy is useless short term because no matter what we do, we can't hurt side with 4 resources in such resource heavy field as navy. I think we can forget about challenging the seas till the American contract will be over (that is three turns) (Edited: somehow I misread the last turn for who get Production credits)
2) Any rifle will change nothing, even if by some miracle we will get a not-complex weapon it will be almost as inferior to loyalist's weapon as Victoria's. We just need to wait for spies (50% 1 turn, 75% two turns, 87.5% 3 turns, 93.75% 4 turns)
3) Unlike navy, production credit spent on new complex 3 ore artillery can keep it merely expensive and give us a chance to hold those three fronts for some time.
4) Improving infrastructure to get third resource is a dubious step because spending designs on something that doesn't improve our combat capability = making us losing a city and a point of resource. But we can risk a revision if our design action will produce something good.
5) We can forget about offensives for some time because they can't give us anything. Look at this turn - we encircled some Alton's forces, so what? It is a victory with no victory at all.  Lets imagine we somehow throw loyalists back into the sea, so what? Manage to push Monarchists away from the fort, So what? Defending cities, defending cities, defending cities. All focus should go there. This game can't be won by gaining territory, only by overdesigning enemy while not losing completely.


I say we need some artillery piece that can be useful now AND has potential for investing one revision after another.Preferably in a way that produce various designs, reducing effect of spies stealing it. Also we need resource generating technologies. Some time later we may start thinking about naval vessels.

Somehow I misread the last update regarding who won the production credit. It changes few things

[Baffler]

Maybe we could go for cheese and try to make a stationary/carriage mounted machinegun with a big roll of oversize percussion caps + powder for propellant, and our gravity magazines to load the actual shot. One magazine(s) would runs down while another is being reloaded, so the only constraint on fire rate is heat.

Or for something less absurd, we could try to get a rifled cannon/howitzer (nothing super fancy, think the Armstrong Gun.) Our Van Karsten is halfway to that process already and, as you said, that it's complex won't matter. If we make it fairly small it might even be just expensive even without the production credit. The Van Karsten 8-pdr is cheap. I'm leaning toward a howitzer if we do this, since it'll probably be more help defending Ft. Combe from the Monarchists. Giving it a Minié ball-esque shot instead of a rounded ball shouldn't be hard either.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

We need to keep our production credit safe and this means keeping their navy busy.

How about

Victoria class
Meant to be  mass produced (target cost 3 ore or 3 ore, 1 wood max 4 ore 1 wood), this small vessel looks very modest being  armed with only two nose pointed 8 pounders (each can also shoot either left or right) Yet it has fast sails that give the ship amazing mobility. The vessel is small enough to operate in large rivers and lakes making them useful for supporting army in land battles. Its main disadvantage that it is not suited for long voyages because of very small cargo hold (mostly taken by marines, and relatively fragile hull that can't withstand a large storm.
Depending on the situation\opponent the vessel is meant to either disengage to get cover from shore fortification or  maneuver around the enemy at the edge of its cannon's range or rapidly close the gap and let marine infantry do the work. Another use is fire support for land troops from shore\river\lake or act as a short range troop transport itself


I am trying to go around the lack of resources and use our advantage in marine infantry equipment. Getting something to use in many rivers can't hurt either. Also, it works well with resource gathering - revise better river channel system


My only problem is lack of interesting new techs...


Also, we can go for 12 pounder and spend revision on doing version of above from fishing boat(probably with only one 8 pounder)... but I think it is meh and will fail if 12 pounder will need  a revision.

We can also try a dedicated skirmisher adapted improved air rifle because it will not go obsolete when we steal the rifle from loyalists

Wild idea: SUBMARINE but I think it is too fancy to work

[Baffler]

I like the idea of the boat, but I still think we're better served by an artillery piece for this turn. If the Attertons take Ft. Combe we're probably not going to be able to take it back, and we really don't need such a huge obstacle blocking our way. Plus we're going to need to push the Loyalists off our territory again and they're probably going to do some other ridiculous hail-mary thing to help them get beyond their beachhead.

I will also note that the only prerequisite tech we're missing for a torpedo is a decent primary explosive. It's ahead of time, but a fast torpedo boat would make mincemeat of the loyalists' big heavy warships if we're willing to risk it and it pays off.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

I don't think that monarchists have any real chance to take the fort in one turn should we spend one focus on this area for counter-attack.  In fact I think there are little chance that they can assault it in one turn without any focus from us.

Plus we're going to need to push the Loyalists off our territory again and they're probably going to do some other ridiculous hail-mary thing to help them get beyond their beachhead.

I think it is close to impossible to drive them back in the sea by a direct attack no matter what we design, because they will use focus on it. They EXPECT us to attack there. This is why we shouldn't do it. Should they go offensive, they will get some more useless land with no chance to capture a city, should they go defensive - hello wasted focus.


I think loyalists 95% won the game, our only chance is to push for resources and navy. And hope to steal the damned rifle. We can't delay navy further.

[Baffler]

Alright then, I suppose they need to spend a focus to encircle it first either way. How about we go for the Victoria Class and try to put torpedoes on it, then use next turn's revision to make a boarding vessel/gunboat variant?

[stabbymcstabstab]

Alright then, I suppose they need to spend a focus to encircle it first either way. How about we go for the Victoria Class and try to put torpedoes on it, then use next turn's revision to make a boarding vessel/gunboat variant?

I like this Idea, perhaps... and do execute me for this idea, maybe we talk to our southern neighbors about putting a hole in the Brit's naval control so we have a chance, and besides if we some how manage to convince them we don't need to be worried about that many new surprises.

[RAM]

Gammell Class Raider:
Hull:
 11 metre length, three and a half metre width, three metre height.
 Copper cladding.Additional: Two single-piece pressed copper hulls approximately two millimetres thick sandwiching a half-centimetre Iron hull. Glyued together with liberal applications of tar and copper rivets.
 2 decks.
Propulsion:
 A single triangular sail set just behind the centre.

 A ballast-bell set just in front of the centre with a lever so that two men can reliably shift the centre of mass into a turn.

 A pair of internal pressure-tubes(with systems to maintain pressure, such as a spring-mounted plate to reduce the internal volume of the pressure-storage and a pressure indicator.) at the rear of the ship with exhaust tubes directed out of the rear of the ship. One-way valves shall be set at the base of the exhaust tubes and be serviceable from inside the vessel.
 There should be a rowing-mechanism on the rear of the top deck, allowing the crew to use a rowing motion to operate some bellows to force air into these pressure-tubes.
 There should be space to wriggle underneath these systems in order to service them.
 Both tubes should feed to both exhausts...

 Four smaller pressure-tubes externally-mounted in boxes under the vessel. These pressure-tubes will be single-use and sealed. Three pins in each of these tubes that may be removed from inside the vessel through holes or possibly a lever-mechanism. There should be purpose-designed pins and hammers on hand to seal the service-holes if need be.
 There should be gently-angled fins running the length of these tubes to keep them oriented and provide gentle pressure to remain at the surface of the water.(they are heavy at the front, this is an obvious measure)
 There should be a front panel set a short-distance and attached by a spike to the main body, the spike should extend into an internal chamber containing water, with the spike resting against a container of quicklime or similar agents(saltpetre and something?). If great force is applied to the panel, the spike should break the internal container, releasing water into the quicklime, producing heat, thus denaturing the containment of the quicklime and the sealed containment of the gunpowder behind it, releasing large amounts of heat into the gunpowder...
 The middle pin will be centrally-mounted and used to secure the tube within its box. The second pin should be forward-mounted and flexible, with a padded strip extending under the tubes front-panel, solely preventing the front-panel of the tube from being pressed into the body. The third pin should be rear-mounted and partially secure the tube in addition to piercing the rear of the tube(or removing a blockage).

Armaments:
 The forward pressure-tube propulsion systems have alternative uses...

 A large ramming-spike anchored throughout the forward half of the vessel to both decks and the hull in two places.

 Six pressure-powered grapple-mortars at the front of the vessel attached to adjacent rope-ladder spools for boarding.

 A pair of adjacent, parallel 8 pound cannons mounted on a rotatable platform(Some bearings in ring-furrows under a circular platform. a sloped sheath around the platform to allow the cannons to be pushed back onto the platform when they need to be rotated. Ropes attached to the platform that can be pulled to rotate the platform.) just forward of the sail's radius.

 A rear-mounted 8-pound cannon on a rotatable platform.

 A Protected firing platform mounted above the rear cannon with room for three gunners to shoot through narrow slits in a barrier that will stop heavy small-arms fire. Supported on six struts and capable of operating on five and holding its own weight(and a crew for long enough to evacuate) on any four...

Quarters:
 Additional: 6 'sailors' and 12 'soldiers' with significant shared duties.
 Three rows of three hammocks under the front deck.
 Supplies and ammunition for fifteen shots(a dozen balls and three carcass rounds) for each cannon in boxes behind the cannons.
 Crew provisions side-mounted above the water-line in water-tight boxes.
 Ship supplies in boxes in front of the ballast-bell.

Forward pressure-tubes: The rear pin alone can be removed from a pair or all four to provide a single-use burst of propulsion. Once exhausted, the remaining pins can be removed to allow the tubes to leave the vessel to prevent potential fire-hazards.
 Alternatively, the front-two pins may be removed, then the rear pin may be removed, to have the pressure-tube swiftly depart from the  front of the vessel thus transferring its potential fire-risk to a less problematic location.

The vessel is intended to use up a revision on removing whatever features are deemed less effective or necessary.

Achievement unlocked: To the Stars Above!
"Dream too big"

P.S.
 The R'lyeh class warship needs a spinal cannon, at least 36lb, with 8lb carcass rounds...

P.P.S.
Added a couple of things