(
Normal) (3,3) =6 Above average
You already know how to make Shu stones move stuff forward, but they seem to have a strong preference for upward. It turns out, there seems to be some setting regulating it, and that you are nowhere near the maximum. The slider seems to go up to half the corner of a square away from vertical. That represents, of course, an enormous increase of thrust.
You mount it on a “chariot” and add a way to control the slider from the chariot itself. And the test is a success! The Ibis moves smoothly forward and can move almost as quickly as an unladen
swallow horse, making animals redundant for the task. It presents however a small side effect: the craft isn’t pushed forward. Rather, it falls forward, as if “down” itself changed direction. Nothing that couldn’t be accommodated through a redesign of the chariot to suit the tilted orientation, however. The Sky temple probably already suffered from this, but it just wasn’t big enough an effect to be noticed.
The real downside is that, as more energy is directed forward, vehicles using shu stones as a method of fast propulsion require more relics. Regardless, you implement it in your Sky temple design as well as the chariot, although you could still decide to deploy them with regular stones.
It is fast, provides a smooth ride and can house 2 fully equipped soldiers which can fight while moving.
[2 wood 2 ore 2 relics][Alien][Very expensive]
Deployed with horse traction:
[2 wood 2 ore 1 relics][Alien][Expensive]
Khopesh – A bronze sickle-sword, capable of cutting through flesh quite easily, as well as being useful for tearing off limbs and hooking shields and similar. [1 wood, 1 ore] [Cheap]
Wooden bow – a simple wooden bow, capable of propelling arrows at a fairly large distance. [1 wood] [Cheap]
Sun staff – an ornate bronze clad wooden staff, at its top sits an intricate conglomeration of alien tech tied together with human ingenuity. When activated, it starts humming then it produces a globular light that flies straight toward where the staff was aimed, extremely hot to the point of producing a small explosion on impact. It can inflict grievous wounds even through heavy armor, and is most often deadly on unarmoured enemies. It has a longer range than bows, but is less accurate at a distance and quite slower to reload. [1 wood, 2 ore, 1 Relics] [Cheap]
Flames of Horus6 Sun staves on a series of spinning discs, the body of this weapon rotates firing each staff in not so rapid succession. Its only advantage compared to giving its components to soldiers is that it can coordinate the firing of 6 staves better than what 6 soldiers could do without much training. [2 wood, 3 ore, 2 relics][ Expensive]
Atet solar barge – a wide and slow ship, moved primarily by oars. It can hold many soldiers on the deck, but the most important feature is the centrally mounted Sun temple, a very large version of the Sun staff. Its fiery power can easily destroy or cripple any wooden ship it hits, but it is not trivial to aim, being fixed to the deck. Even when it misses, however, it turns sea water in a significant quantity of hot mist, causing inconvenience to enemies. Provides 1 TC. [2 wood, 1 ore, 2 Relics][Alien] [Very expensive]
Sky temple - A pyramid shaped structure, it is heavily built and armored. It has a Sun cannon which it uses as a heavy weapon. Floats roughly 1 m from the ground and moves at a brisk pace. [3 wood 3 ore, 5 Relics][Alien] [National effort]
Wrath of Ra A version of the Sun Cannon capable of a couple seconds of continuous fire. It has low rate of fire and requires cooling by slaves. Can be mounted on war carts for field deployment. Price tag includes cart. [3 wood, 2 ore, 2 relic][Alien][Very Expensive]
"War" ChariotA converted civilian cart previously used to ferry cargo, the conversion consisting mostly of a bronze plating. not fast, not well protected and not stable. [2 wood, 1 ore][ Cheap]
Ibis chariot A purpose designed military chariot, it can house a driver and 2 soldiers and provides a smooth enough ride to fight well in movement. It is fast and doesn’t require horses. Also available in an horse pulled version, cheaper but slower
Without horses- [2 wood 2 ore 2 relics][Alien][Very expensive]
With horses - [2 wood 2 ore 1 relics][Alien][Expensive]
Cart caravan – an horse pulling a cart, it is a great way to move goods across the vast plain areas of Egypt. Provides 1 TC [1 wood] [Cheap]
It is now
Revision Phase.