1. 10x60mmA: Nice work. Are there any details available as to the accuracy and range one can achieve with this new bullet?
2. Test range: Nice! It's not even a test range, it's a "world class firing range". Perfect.
3. Dry dock: Done and good. Is it able to produce vessels up to 300t, or 300t of vessels (max 300t) per year?
Now, for this turn's designs:
If there's one thing that should have absolute, number one priority, it's the field artillery. We already have some prototypes sitting around, and people with experience in that sort of thing. Reposting the design:
75mm Field Cannon Mk. I
A rifled breechloader, this 75mm cannon uses self-contained shells (that is, including the smokeless powder). They are mounted on a two-wheeled (with a third wheel for stabilization) carriage. They employ a recoil system designed to keep the carriage itself stable while the gun fires, leading to a significantly higher firing rate.
There are three shell types available: A time-fuzed shrapnel shell, an impact-detonated HE shell and an AP shell for use against ships (when used in a coastal defense role).
I'd also like to use our drydock to produce naval vessels. There's the first issue right there: On the one hand, we can start building a nice torpedo boat, mounting two torpedoes and (probably) one or two of our 37mm rapid fire gun in about 100 tons (judging from the
Storm class). This'd push us into production as fast as possible. On the other hand, torpedoes are awesome against capital ships - which I'm pretty sure the enemy doesn't have, instead probably relying, as we do, on torpedo boats.
That's why I'd actually prefer a torpedo boat destroyer. Heavier and more expensive, it should also be significantly more sea-going and ideally armed to destroy torpedo boats. This means mounting one of our 75mm Field Cannons, and two to four 37mm cannons plus two torpedo tubes onto a roughly 300t platform (c.f.
HMS Hornet). On the other hand, we'd probably need to wait another turn until the 75mm Field Cannon is designed, and each of the torpedo boat destroyers will have to face three to four enemy torpedo boats - something it should be able to achieve.
Thoughts on that?
If we don't design a ship this turn, I'd like to design a uniform plus helmet for our troops.
Other than that, I'd like to build an artillery factory (we're going to definitely need it). Should we petition the government for more engineers, maybe skilled in construction?
Lastly, we should also think about whether we want to switch one factory line from producing the Revolving Rifle (500/y) to upgrading the service rifle (15,000/y). Two years of that will upgrade almost all of our Pattern 782 to Pattern 804s. My vote depends on whether we can use the "semi-smokeless" variant of the 10x60mmA for frontline troops.
Questions for Aseaheru:
- Details on accuracy/range improvement with the new bullet?
- Dry dock production per year?
- Can we design the torpedo boat destroyer at the same time as the field artillery?
- Can we use the 10x60mmA semi-smokeless round in the Pattern 804 even for frontline troops? If so, what's the performance increase compared to the blackpowder 782s?
- Am I correct in that the semi-smokeless round contains no blackpowder, therefore preventing blackpowder fouling?