Initharian Defining Tech: The Final Endeavor Design
Proposal: INFS KonaThe Initharian Naval Fellowship Ship Kona is a very particular battleship. Long but slim, with armor that is actually essentially only average for a battleship even though the Kona is significantly larger than the average battleship of the era, the Kona relies on its narrow prow and several very large supercharger engines to go very, very fast, especially when super-charged. It's even able to keep up with the fastest, nimblest ships in Inithar's navy, even if it perhaps isn't quite as agile as they are thanks to the narrow, sea-slicing nature of the ship's shape.
The armament of the ship is relatively bizarre -- it's very light on its "main" armament, with only a pair of conventional 30-centimeter guns to that armament twinned in a single 360-degree turret raised in the center of the ship (which provide a way to reliably, if not heavily, engage other battleships and flagships from long-range and when running low on its other ammunition), but this is because its secondary armament is bafflingly large: while other, normal battleships of the Old World might have, say, twenty secondary guns, the Kona has no fewer than 32, twinned into sixteen turrets dotted around the ship. Each of these secondary guns are rapid-fire, refocyte-based 18-centimeter guns, a rather large caliber for an intermediate-caliber gun but nonetheless still firmly within the category of intermediate-caliber. The ship also has several anti-aircraft flak guns, which are conventional.
Aside from allowing the Kona to put down small ships and aircraft at a frankly terrifying rate, this arsenal of rapid-fire secondary guns (if perhaps relatively range limited) takes advantage of the Initharian technology base: Though these guns usually just fire lead or low-purity refocyte shells, there are cases of extremely purified refocyte shells aboard the ship, pulled out and loaded into the rapid-fire guns when the Kona is about to engage a capital ship. Once loaded, they play out Inithar's oldest military marvel, once again, with the extremely purified shells becoming significant threats to even enemy flagships, creating an intensely terrifying barrage of force when the many guns of the Kona are all firing this way. This does mean that the Kona's anti-flagship potential is expended in bursts, as it dives in rapidly with its supercharger and exhausts limited supplies of purified shells, but the threat it represents when it is expending these resources is a very powerful one.
On the prow, albeit as a secondary priority to the ship itself, is an angled, thick refocyte panel -- normally kept uncharged, this prow is charged with a large battery near the front of the ship before potential contact with icebergs when in the icy waters of what was once "Abbera", with the panel's angle meant to contact icebergs and blast them apart with refocyte energy precisely delivered through that angled front of the panel. The Kona has a rubber tarp that can be fastened on to cover this panel so the prow isn't randomly firing off in non-icy waters.
Difficulty: EasyResults: (2+1) (6+4)+1=11,
MasterworkThe
INFS Kona had one glaring flaw: it's maiden voyage would be towards Harren and not, as many of it's crew wished, against The Great Powers. The vessel was the crowning achievement of a number of Initharian industries and deserved it's place as the core of the Grand Fleet.
Larger than any military seafaring vessel that came before it, the
Kona was such an outstanding development that today some scholars refer to oversized battleships as "Kona-type" vessels. Indeed, some people even draw a distinct line at the "pre-Kona" and "Kona" eras of warships.
The ship itself was a staggering, for the time, 200 meters long, with a displacement of 26000 tons. It's "primary" armament consisted of a pair of 300mm guns with an effective range of 14km mounted in a rotating turret raised amidship. "Secondary" armament consisted of sixteen turreted pairs of 180mm Refocyte guns with four 50mm flak guns utilizing shells with both timer and proximity fuses for anti-air capabilities.
The 180mm guns had a maximum range of 10km with a muzzle velocity of 900m/s. The
Kona stores a number of shell purities for the 180mm to be utilized as deemed necessary - no wasting a high-purity round on some fishing boat. The 900-crew vessel used two sizeable Supercharger Coilengines to turn it's propellers and give it a solid 25 knot cruising speed. The turrets were protected by 280mm armor, with the deck receiving up to 100mm of protection and the belt getting up to 300mm armor.
The prow of the ship was most ingenious. A metal sheathe with a rubber inner lining could be deployed over the Refocyte-plated prow via manual cranking to keep in protected most of the time, but could easily be unveiled for use when the bow was expected to make contact with something solid. Water hitting the bow caused the plates to charge and eventually discharge, but that was largely mitigated thanks to the sizeable refocyte battery connected to it that would draw excess charge for later application.
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Proposal: Initharian Expeditionary Force UniformsActing Major Aroha Maata (permanent rank Captain, but there’s only one Captain on an Initharian ship; soldiers would have a temporary promotion) watched her company march in lockstep to the bow of the ship. Despite the biting cold as the fleet approached Harren’s Northern shores, the men were in their dress uniforms. Well made and well put together leather, a ceremonial cape embroidered with each soldier’s Colors, and each wielded a spear (iron, rather than refocyte; they’d donated the original spearheads for bullets). Maata herself was in similar garb, but with a far more ornate headdress and a longer cape, and a refocyte sword on her belt. While the dress uniforms seemed dreadfully dated to her, she had to say there was something about them. All the soldiers had to be freezing, but they pretended they were fine. They had to, in front of the civilians who had also come to watch.
Maata didn’t like that the civvies were here. It was a reminder that this wasn’t just an expedition to get the fantastical resources of Harren. It was a reminder that if they didn’t work fast enough, Inithar would fall - many of her soldiers had already seen their homes on the mainland taken, and the home islands that were the only hope of retaking them were under siege. But it was good to have that reminder. It would drive her and her soldiers to valor and sacrifice like nothing else.
She called her men to attention, and spoke, her voice carrying over the wind. They were the best of Inithar. They were the men and women who would save their home. They could be hurt, they could be killed, but they could never be broken. They took the pride of their nation to the new world, and they would use it’s resources to drive the invaders out.
And if they didn’t, they’d have to make it into a base from which to strike back one day. But she kept that part to herself.
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The refugees told of what had become of the island called Harren, how one half was wreathed in fire and the other was bitter cold day and night throughout the year. The army will need appropriate uniforms, to be prepared for whatever conditions they may face. Specifically, we will have two; one for the north and one for the south, due to their polar opposite environments. Both uniforms will have room for whatever equipment a soldier might need; ammo, grenades, entrenching tool, canteen, compass, and so on. All soldiers have a widely sloping, ridged helmet; style is all well and good, but we prefer improved odds of surviving a headshot to having a nice hat.
The Northern uniform, for use in the cold environment that remains of Abbera, is built to let a soldier last as long as they can in the cold. It consists of a warm wool jacket and trousers, a knee-length uniform skirt meant to break the wind, and light gloves to provide some insulation without heavily impacting dexterity, and finally heavy scarves to help keep the wind out of the face. The helmet has a woolen inner lining. The goal of the uniform is to allow a soldier to spend fairly long periods in subzero temperatures without getting too cold. This is colored white and grey for camouflage in the snow and ice.
The Southern uniform is on the opposite end of the spectrum, made of a light silk shirt and pants, as well as flame-retardant knee pads and light gloves. The soles of the boots, rather than be made of rubber which could melt after long exposure to the heat, are made of leather. The uniform includes a face mask and goggles for keeping sand and fire out of the face. It’s built to be more airy, to try and keep as cool as possible in the stifling heat of the ruins of Salvios. The soldiers in this environment are equipped with a larger canteen than normal in order to keep more water, and it’s made to try and keep that water cool. The camo in this uniform is more varied, as the environments are somewhat more varied in coloration; it’s more to break up the outline.
Difficulty: EasyResult: (3+2)+1=6,
AverageThe IEF Uniform was pretty standard for the era. Standard for the environments the Initharians headed to Harren expected to face, anyways. Both versions utilized a sharply sloping helmet with a slightly raised crest running from front to back to indicate which military fellowship a soldier belonged to, as well as a number of useful pockets and pouches.
The IEF-N (North) was designed with the cold in mind. Wool garments, a windbreaker, gloves, scarves, and proper insulation for everything including the helmet helped to improve time exposed to the elements before succumbing to them. This uniform came white and grey to make infantry hard to pinpoint in the land of the ice and snow.
The IEF-S (South) was constructed of light silk with leather-soled boots, protective knee pads and gloves, and a facemask and goggles for protecting the face. An upsized canteen was provided to help combat dehydration in the harsh Salviosi south. This version of the IEF came in an all-purpose 3-color disruptive pattern using beige, rust, and brown. While the use of these colors upset a few members of a fellowship who utilized those colors as an identifier, the issue was ultimately settled with no problems.
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It is now the Revision Phase. But instead of a revision, you have another design. This phase was going to be something else, but once again both teams samesied, this time into the final phase of a game titled
Mechanized Warfare Arms Race with no proposals up for
any land transportation whatsoever through any era. I refuse to eS this and have a mech race with no mech. This is your opportunity to
design a land transport or vehicle for any era. The further back your design goes, the less it will directly translate into the vehicle selection you get, but difficulty will be lower as a result. An interwar-era vehicle will be graded on a standard scale - no additional difficulty will be added - and will automatically be assigned to your final armory.
Voyaging Canoe: A single-outrigger canoe with a sail. Constructed of stone-carved wood and 8-10m long. Stable, sturdy, seaworthy, and reliable. This stands out not just in Inithar history, but in the history of the world.
Refocyte Longbow: A bow as tall as a man with great range known for it's pairing with Refocyte Arrows. The arrows use Refocyte heads capable of transferring the stored energy within through the tip and into the target to devastating effect.
--Refocyte Firearms: Stout firearms with less penetration and range than gunpowder firearms but significantly quieter.
Refocyte Spear: A spear with a Refocyte tip capable of causing debilitating blasts on top of the normal ability of a spear to stab.
Coilboat: A small, agile naval craft powered by the Coilengine. While unremarkable on it's own, the Coilengine revolutionized Initharian industry.
A1 Iwa: An aircraft that saw increasing amounts of success as The Great Powers pushed Inithar to improve it's Supercharger system. Increased power on-demand in the very quiet aircraft gave them devastating hit-and-flee ability.
Supercharger Coilengine: A coilengine with a supercharger assembly that allows intentional and responsive activation and deactivation thanks to very reliable mechanisms.
Initharian Expeditionary Force Uniforms: Two uniforms designed for the environments offered by Harren. Doesn't really stand out in comparison to other contemporary uniforms. The sloping helmets have a crested ridge running along the top of the helmet from front to back meant for Initharians to easily identify what military fellowship one belonged to.
Tales of Color: A highly complex system of identification and communication relying solely on colors and patterns. It is nearly impenetrable for outsiders even by today's standards.
Inithar's Folly: A tragic historical event wherein a large number of Initharian Refocyte-smiths of high standing were killled in a dam collapse.
INFS Kona: A superbattleship that literally defined an era of naval combat. Has a 2x300mm conventional cannons, 16 2x180mm Refocyte Guns and some 50mm flak. Well-armored, fairly quick, and agile for it's size. Has a coverable refocyte prow. Refocyte guns use shells of varying purity based on requirements for the rounds. The first Kona-type vessel.
Unique Resource - Refocyte: A metal that in it's base state stores energy applied through impact until a threshold is reached, where it will deliver the entirety of the stored force at the point of impact. An uncharged piece resembles silver and will become a dark green as it charges. Twisting and compressing rods into coils leaves them slowly unfurling with force relative to their gauge and the tightness of the coil. Purification to varying levels manipulates the capacity of the metal. Rubber negates the charge/discharge effects of impact. Nickel transfers charge between pieces. Refocyte expending charge will absorb energy from connected nickel/refocyte while charging said refocyte will transfer energy into the nickel/refocyte.