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[Funk]

90,000 sq foot?
I don't really know how big a factory has to be, so lets just say medium sized?

[Aseaheru]

Well, all the ones you guys currently have are 300pp ones that I think described as being on the small side, so...

[Funk]

So lets go for 600pp.

[3_14159]

Just need one thing at this point, and that being the size of the new smallarms factory you guys want.

Hm. The current one is four lines at 300PP each (1200PP total). Let's say four lines of 600 PP (or eight of 300PP, depending on what's easier for you)?

Also, Pi, that Hornet is the Havoc class one, right?

Swordfish - Torpedo Boat Destroyer Pattern 806

A 220-ton torpedo boat destroyer, the Swordfish is propelled by eight high-pressure water-tube boilers and two steam engines  which allow it to attain a speed of almost 30 knots. It is armed with one main gun mounted near the bow, two Pattern 793 37mm Revolving cannons (one aft, one mid-ships) and two torpedo tubes mounted 1/3rd and 2/3rd along the boat. It is almost completely unarmoured.

Modelled after the HMS Hornet. Pictures: Photo, Model 1, Model 2.
Imagine it with the two 6-pounders at the bow removed, the middle torpedo tube further forwards a 37mm cannon in its place. This uses lighter and fewer secondary guns, and one less torpedo tube, which should account for the reduction in weight and the corresponding increase in speed.

The real-life Hornet is a variant of the Havock-class, yep.

Also, which request for engineers? There was one recently?

I mean, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have gunnery engineers design ships completely on their own. I say we get proper field artillery designed, while petitioning for more engineers.

That was pretty much our petition.

[Aseaheru]

Its four factories at 300PP each, actually. Just in one complex, where the new one is also going since noone else said anything about it.

There where 11 HMS hornets consisting of ten ships and a coastal forces base, the Havoc class one was #7. Heck, for a year there where two of them at once, a 4 gun hoy and a 16 gun sloop(which appears to have been full rigged, which is the royal navy for you, turning ships into sloops and sloops into brigs and visa-versa since about 550AD.)

Also, I missed that request for engineers the first time apparently. In any event, turns up soon.

[3_14159]

There where 11 HMS hornets consisting of ten ships and a coastal forces base, the Havoc class one was #7. Heck, for a year there where two of them at once, a 4 gun hoy and a 16 gun sloop(which appears to have been full rigged, which is the royal navy for you, turning ships into sloops and sloops into brigs and visa-versa since about 550AD.)

Damn, I forgot to put in the actual link... I mean this one, as you no doubt already found. Sorry.

[Aseaheru]

Yep. Now have a turn.

As a note, the 801 Light Revolving Cannon is now the 801 Heavy Revolving Rifle. It looks like it was initially named that and I decided to be strange and name it something to confuse myself later with. Also, the 37mm cannon is still blackpowder, just a note.
END 805

 This year was a bit of a let-down compared to the success that was last year. of the four proposals made, only two made the cut.

 To start with, we have the imaginatively named 75mm Artillery Cannon, which among other things was also tasked with creating their own arty shells, which may have caused most of the delays the project suffered from, along with the specifics of the proposed recoil absorption feature. Despite all that, the team was close to having an actually functional prototype at years end.

 Next up, the camo/clothing development group, who spent all year yelling at eachother, touring textile mills, and trying to work out what shape load bearing equipment should take. So, in other words, no progress.

 Now we come to our first actual bit of progress, the Swordfish Torpedo Boat Destroyer.
 A 220-ton steam-powered(two engines, each with four high-pressure water boilers supplying steam to a turbine each(which also serve to provide the vessel with electricity)) and managing a top speed of over 30 knots, it is armed with a quartet of pattern 793 revolving cannon, with two in a forward mount and two single mounts located amidships and aft. The vessel is also equipped with a pair of torpedo launchers for the Pattern 803 15.7" torpedo. Provisions are also made for the mounting of several pattern 801 Heavy Revolving Rifle in various points along each side of the vessel.
 The pattern 793 turrets are lightly armored and open topped, and are rotated via electric motors. Low powered electric motors have also been fitted on the guns to actuate them, and in the case of the single-gun mounts there are also motors powering elevation of the guns.
 Speaking of these secondary turrets, they are mounted below the arc of fire of the main turret, which does restrict their firing arc slightly.
 Now, the two torpedo positions. The two single-tube launchers share a "ready storage room", which can hold but six of the crafts thirty-fish load. The remainder are held below deck. They also are not centerline mounted, which means that the craft has to fire one, turn around, and fire the other.
 The vessel uses signal flags for communication, although the lanterns have been replaced with electric lights. Talk has been made of outfitting the vessel with electric spotlights, or even a radio.
 For armor, the ship has nothing, not even coal bunkers. For whatever reason, coal is stowed amidships and down low, acting as basalt. As soon as the vessel was determined to be seaworthy, she was hoisted out of the still-blocked harbor and loaded on a special train, making a roughly 100mile trip to a port it can actually operate out of along track that can handle the clearances needed.

 Finally, a new factory was built with a capacity of 575pp per year. In doing this, the untrained engineer assigned to the product has become specialized in architecture.

 In international news, a trio of siblings (consisting of two females and their brother) constructed and flew the first heavier than air craft for a grand total of six seconds. The first diesel powered seagoing ship returned from her first voyage, a small nation almost on the other side of the globe adopted a semi-automatic rifle as their standard smallarm, and a worker strike near our border with the Monarchy was put down by royal troops armed with smokeless repeating bolt action rifles, helmets, and blackpowder revolvers. As most of the workers where from our nation, the government has gotten quite angry, and has demanded recompense. The Monarchy, thus far, has ignored our demands.

Spoiler: Designs of 805 (click to show/hide)

Swordfish Torpedo Boat Destroyer
Armament:
-1x twin-mount pattern 793 revolving cannon
-2x single-mount pattern 793 revolving cannon
-2x single-tube Pattern 803 15.7" torpedo launcher, with 30 total torpedoes and 6 held in readiness at any given time
-A number of mounts for heavy machineguns along the sides of the vessel(typically 6x Pattern 801 Heavy Revolving Rifle)
Communications:
-signal flags
-electric lights
Propulsion:
-2x power plants consisting of single steam turbine, four water-tube boilers and two electric generators each turning one screw
Top speed: 32 knots
Range: 3000nmi
Equivalent Cost(in PP):129 for armaments(not counting modifications or smallarms)

Spoiler: Facilities and Personnel (click to show/hide)

Five off-site factories producing ammunition (2x 10x60mmRS cartridge, 1x 10x30mm(black) cartridge, 1x 37mm cannon)
 One on-site factory complex with four production lines of 300pp each and one of 575pp
 One on-site workshop, for designing new things
 One on-site design studio
 One harbor, mostly blocked by sediment and the scuttled hulk of a wooden sailing ship(now partially damaged by torpedoes)
 One dockyard with yearly capacity of 300 ton
 One world class firing range, with attached offices for range table calculation
 one

6 newbies
1 untrained architect
6 basic engineers
1 basic naval engineer
3 basic firearms engineers
1 amazingly talented but untrained firearms engineer

Guys, its one distinct thing per action. Shells are not designed at the same time as the gun, you cant stack a pile of distinct things together (unless they dont have combat use, so messkits, food, field stoves and the like are the exception to this), and so on. But hey, if I was really nasty, I would have split the ship into about 20 different designs, like both forms of turret and the turbines. Alright, five designs then. But still a annoying ammount of designs.

[3_14159]

Notes on turn:

- Artillery cannon: Goddamn it. We've invested two turns into it, and need a third one now? Still, it's the single most important thing we should design.
-  Uniform: Hmpf.
- Swordfish: That's extremely nice; we should begin production. Also, clear out the harbour. (Note that the original Hornet apparently only carried three torpedoes, so you'll probably want to reduce the amount of reloads)
- Factory: Very good! That should produce nearly another thousand rifles per year.

News:
- In a few years, we might begin building experimental planes.
- And diesel ships.
- There are people with a semi-auto rifle? Hmmm...
- And the monarchy has bolt action rifles? They're probably going to be superior to ours. Damn.

- Did we get any engineers?

What I'd like to do this turn is a) finally finish the artillery cannon. It's hugely important. b) Build a machine gun. We need fire support, and something like the Vickers will be very useful. c) clear the harbour.

[Aseaheru]

No engineers, sorry. But hey, one leveled up.

Mexico adopted the Mondragón 1904 rifle in 1908, and France got their own in 1910, so its not that strange. Granted, they dident work all that well, but hey, they tried.

[3_14159]

No engineers, sorry. But hey, one leveled up.

That's something, at least.

Mexico adopted the Mondragón 1904 rifle in 1908, and France got their own in 1910, so its not that strange. Granted, they dident work all that well, but hey, they tried.

Oh, that wasn't a critical "Hmmm...", but a curious "Hmmm...".

Now, for the designs I'd like to do:
Finally, finish the cannon.

    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'll also propose officially nick-naming it: "Ratio", for the "Ultima Ratio Regum" Louis XIV had inscribed on his cannons - they are the ultimate argument against kings and the Monarchy.

For the machine gun, contrary to my first instinct, I think we should probably build something closer to the Lewis gun or the Hotchkiss M1909 than to the Vickers. That is, an air-cooled, man-portable light machine gun instead of a water-cooled heavy machine gun. This has disadvantages in sustainable rate of fire and reliability, but is portable by one man and significantly lighter and more mobile.
For that, I am thinking of introducing a second infantry round. Our current 10x60mm round is pretty big, and our rifles are correspondingly large and heavy, and probably feature a large recoil. A light machine gun, however, needs to be, well, light. Therefore, how about a 6.5x50mm round (c.f. the Arisaka round or the Italian Carcano)?
The corresponding design:

Machine Gun 06/MG06

A gas-operated light machine gun, it fires the new smokeless 6.5x50mm round at ca 300 rounds per minute from either a 30-round magazine or a belt. It also mounts a bipod.
Target weight is 11kg, length 120cm. Maximum firing range about three kilometres, effective about 700 meters.
Should there be time, the engineers are supposed to design a tripod and a removable water cooling system.

Compared to the original Lewis gun, it is lighter (due to the lighter ammunition and lack of cooling shroud). It is firing slower, and has a shorter effective range, however.


Another two questions: I assume the uniform team foul-up is a botch, not an issue with our description, right? Secondly, how easy would it be to exchange the twin 37mm guns on the torpedo boat destroyer to a single 75mm cannon?

Lastly, learning from last time, how about we restrict us to three projects?

Edit: Hm. Radio on the Swordfish. We should probably also design a radio, which'd help our artillery coordination too. Argh, too many projects.

[DolosusDoleus]

Ptw

[Amperzand]

I suggest our projects this turn be more work on arty, the MG06, and a man-portable radio for battlefield use.

[Funk]

Lets meet the water cooled half way, and have a small "water jacket" around the breach filled with mercury.
The high boiling point of mercury should improve the efficiency of heat transfer.

I'd argue that we should stick to one main ammo type for now to keep supply simple.
A small round will struggle to achieve a effective long range.

[Aseaheru]

You guys may want to check out the Madsen LMG and the Swiss form of the Maxim, the MG94 for ideas.

[3_14159]

I suggest our projects this turn be more work on arty, the MG06, and a man-portable radio for battlefield use.

I fear an effective man-portable radio might be too complicated, especially if using voice.
An equivalent-era set I found is the Clark, which is man-portable in three different sections and uses morse. So, maybe we could develop a wireless set for our ships, coastal stations and higher-echelon forces?

Lets meet the water cooled half way, and have a small "water jacket" around the breach filled with mercury.
The high boiling point of mercury should improve the efficiency of heat transfer.

I don't think it's a good idea for us to use mercury. As far as I understand, water cooling works by a) cooling fins or b) water vapourization, with the latter being more effective. Yet, without a mercury source close-by, we won't be able to use that effect while, usually, there are many sources of water available.

I'd argue that we should stick to one main ammo type for now to keep supply simple.
A small round will struggle to achieve a effective long range.

This is a good point, yes. We could design a heavy machine gun, using our 10mm round, and keep the 10mm round as our primary large-calibre mount. Something like a (smaller) M2 Browning?