Medium Core Crystal [Time: 5 Progress: 5 Cost: 5]Developing larger core crystals has long been a coveted goal for vattery owners, pursued in times of peace the way gardeners pursue having the largest individual vegetable. With military funding, however, things are getting underway at an alarming rate. The trouble with growing larger crystals is both the time investment (substantial) and the inherent flaws which cause larger core crystals to shatter under their weight if you're lucky, and explode devastatingly when powered if you're not. Still, experiments to find a new chemical bath formula and adjust tending techniques are promising, and only a few fingers have been lost in the name of progress so far.
Medium Core Crystal: 5/15 | 4 Crystal | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Ongoing ProjectsWitch Hunter Crossbow Progress: 1
Prototype 1d2: 2, prototype made!
[Efficacy:6 Cost:2 Bugs:2]
Despite disappointingly limited progress, the engineers working on the Witch Hunter Crossbow finally manage to produce a working prototype. It is... an interesting beast. The cranequin mechanism is much swifter than many similar designs (though that isn't saying much), and is integrated directly into the weapon in order to avoid a cumbersome stage of attaching and reattaching. A trained infantryman operating the weapon can crank back that 175 pound arms and fire in approximately 45 seconds. The bolts themselves are typically made with a bronze broadhead point to better shred infantry, and have passed every performance test asked of them- and engineers are confident that they could go through light infantry armor if modified with a chisel point. While critiques are quick to claim that much of this performance is already present in the flintlock, her proponents refute that argument in two ways: she doesn't explode, and she's bloody beautiful.
Which is where things start to fall down. The Witch-Hunter is a glorious weapon dark wood and fitted brass, lacquered and ornately sculpted. The front of the weapon is designed so that the bolt exits through the open mouth of a bronze eagle head, the beak of which has been sharpened to a point to serve as a bayonet. Ornately sculpted feathers flow down from the carved head and ripple across the bronze arms. The string is first grade aethersilk, and the entire stock has been chased in brass and engraven with Kasgyrian stories.
In short, it's ridiculously overdone for an infantry weapon and would cost a bloody fortune. It's also much heavier than initial specification owing to the metal ornamentation, and the beak weighing down the front of the weapon makes it incredibly tiresome to hold to the shoulder for a long period of time. The design of the bayonet, though viciously effective due to its size and weight, also has a tendency to rip off a gobbet of flesh and lodge it inside the eagle's mouth- where it fouls any subsequent shots until dislodged.
Projected Cost: 2 wood 3 ore to give one to every fireteam, 8 wood 12 ore to give one to every man in a squad.
It is now the Revision Phase. You have 2 dice to spend.
Author
Topic: Arms Race: War of the Cinder Spires | Spire Kasgyr (Read 150233 times)