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[Man of Paper]

Proposal: Outpost Stations

Once tracks are laid it becomes important to ensure the safety and security of any who would travel along them. Outpost Stations prove sufficient for the task. Between settlements any number of things can happen, most of them bad, so we've littered the railways with "rest stops", officially called Outpost Stations.

Each OS has a supply of supplemental materials left by trains passing by with excess supplies and the occasional designated supply train. If a train comes limping into a rest stop chances are there will be enough of whatever they need to get them to the next stop down the line until they reach their destination. A skeleton crew mans each outpost, with six month shifts staggered so that there's never a crew completely unfamiliar with the area.

Outposts Stations can be identified by their blue lanterns and a small aboveground shack. The shack acts as an entryway to the OS itself, dug into the ground beneath the ice and snow.

[UristMcRiley]

Wóz Zwiadowczy (Scout Cart)
As the colony trains begun there slow and inexorable march across the icy land and frozen seas there was many a time that our forebearers had to fight through often desperate and frenzied locals and occasionally but far more concerning organized military forces sometimes defending the now ice'd over land they swore to protect so long ago and sometimes simply wandering hordes raiding and pillaging to sustain themselves in these trying times. While often when the colony train itself stumbled upon these problems often the colonists typically more fit and with better maintained arms could simply engage and defeat the haggard enemy forces. But occasionally colony trains would make return trips or journey between settlements and with the somewhat obvious route our trains would take along the already laid track these groups would lay ambushes blowing the tracks and assaulting the hardly manned colony trains. In order to find and locate these ambushes the Wóz Zwiadowczy was developed a small train cart powered and heated by a coal fired engine. Capable of housing ten soldiers and mounting a two pound cannon on a pintle mount on each side of the living and engine quarters the patrols of these small trains with a respectable amount of firepower for there size could often deal swiftly with any threat.

[Failbird105]

I'm not really sure that's a good idea. Yes it gives us some early combat potential but I highly doubt we won't be asked to make something combat related within the four remaining prelim turns we have. And making a train meant to fight in regular vehicle ranges just does not strike me as a worthwhile investment, even if it does check out from a lore perspective.

After all, trains kinda have the major issue where you can only deploy them on tracks. Which would mean we'd have to either be building tracks into the battlefield, or be deliberately bringing the battle toward the tracks. Artillery trains would be more viable, simply because of how they can fire much further and thus wouldn't need to be as close by, but even then their effectiveness would be limited(both by the tracks, and the fact that artillery likely wouldn't work very well in a huge blizzard).

[UristMcRiley]

Also why i wanted to go with boats because i just feel it would be extremely unexpected the first time our ships disgorged crews of soldiers on the beaches of there capital not to win or anything but to steal there women and there resources. But on the subject of the Scout Car it makes far more sense to me lore and practicality wise then leaving a undermanned and defended outpost along the side of the rail line its certainly not the best option but as far as innovations go it also gives us work experience creating smaller steam engines that could be converted to waterborne, land-borne (if we ever decide to revisit the behemoth), and hell airborne engines if we ever decide to strap them into a blimp of some sort.

[Failbird105]

True I suppose, though I still feel like it would be better as an artillery vehicle, there's almost no way that an armed train designed for fighting in vehicle ranges will ever be more than a footnote. A lot of us in the discord where actually planning on going (or mostly at least) subterranean. Just, y'know, not all at once in a single revision action. And we're thinking that the Outposts would provide a good basis for the whole 'underground' thing.

[UristMcRiley]

I dont know how that would work as far as game play wise, it does address some of the problems with the environment we find ourselves in. I dont particularly see how the outpost would contribute much other then leaving isolated pockets of materials and construction teams to get picked off. Again do to my old man blood resisting change im not one to be hopping on to discord. If were trying to go underground why wouldn't we just do something like this as far as the revision goes.

Chroniona ścieżka (Sheltered Tracks)
A gale force wind blows nearly constantly across the windswept planes of this icy wilderness the slowly moving colony trains subjected to this nonstop wind have on more then one occasion been thrown onto there sides and off the tracks by these intense winds. To address this our forebears went about cutting through the ice, rock, and soil to allow the rails to run under the wind when possible. Obviously a project of this undertaking took some time and wasn't perfect in the worst case this project only lended minimal protection with the top of the train cars still sticking above the edge of these cuts. However in the best case scenarios the trains find themselves with ten or so feet above the roof of the cars too the windswept wasteland above. In some cases these deeper cuts were deemed easier to be made as tunnels having no exposure to the environment at all though producing more then a few rare stretches in such a manner was more then could be accomplished by the limited resources of the initial colonists.

[Failbird105]

Simple, nobody thought to design it. I think I like that idea better actually.

[Doomblade187]

Sheltered Outposts
A gale force wind blows nearly constantly across the windswept planes of this icy wilderness the slowly moving colony trains subjected to this nonstop wind have on more then one occasion been thrown onto there sides and off the tracks by these intense winds. To address this our forebears went about cutting through the ice, rock, and soil to allow the rails to run under the wind when possible. Obviously a project of this undertaking took some time and wasn't perfect in the worst case this project only lended minimal protection with the top of the train cars still sticking above the edge of these cuts. However in the best case scenarios the trains find themselves with ten or so feet above the roof of the cars too the windswept wasteland above. In some cases these deeper cuts were deemed easier to be made as tunnels having no exposure to the environment at all though producing more then a few rare stretches in such a manner was more then could be accomplished by the limited resources of the initial colonists. To make the construction and maintenance of these tracks easier, the colonists built dugout Outpost Stations Along the line, with coverings to ensure they wouldn't get snowed in. A ladder conects up to a small wood and metal shack with a red-tinted lantern. Each OS has a supply of supplemental materials left by trains passing by with excess supplies and the occasional designated supply train. If a train comes limping into a rest stop chances are there will be enough of whatever they need to get them to the next stop down the line until they reach their destination. A skeleton crew mans each outpost, with six month shifts staggered so that there's never a crew completely unfamiliar with the area.

[UristMcRiley]

I doubt we can get the best of both worlds frankly both projects are ambitious and the dice gods can fail us. I think we need to pick one or the other and just try to get it done well as a design what your asking shouldn't be too much but i feel as a revision its a little much. Honestly my vote is still for the Scout Cart for two reasons seems like a more logical jump to go from big train to many small trains, the sheltered tracks also do make a good bit of sense as do the Outposts i just think we should go with one and stick to it though

[Man of Paper]

So here's my issue with Sheltered Tracks vs. Outpost Stations:

Sheltered Tracks provide some protection against the environment while Outpost Stations provide some protection against mechanical issues as well as hostiles. Sheltered Tracks are horrid for anything other than keeping wind off the sides of the trains. The clearest, most apparent issue is we're creating killing fields - ravines all along a track not only give raiders and enemies a nice perch to shoot down and hop onto the train from, but forces needing to disembark and engage should the rails be blocked (and potentially much harder to clear from the bottom of a trench) will find themselves at a severe disadvantage. Plus, if we bury large portions of our tracks that reduces the potential of train-based weaponry and fields of fire. On the other hand the Outpost Stations provide hard, defensible structures that would be quite the welcome sight for any of our people. Sure, it might be manned more like a park ranger station as opposed to a full barracks, but that's all we'd need them for.

[UristMcRiley]

See i agree with you but according to Failbird apparently the discord which im not on has decided were going for a moleperson approach so I came up with a design that would lay the ground work for eventual underground living. I still prefer as far as designs go the scout car proposal i submitted. Just throwing other designs out there though.

[Doomblade187]

Sheltered Outposts (1): Doomblade

[UristMcRiley]

Sheltered Outposts (1): Doomblade
Wóz Zwiadowczy (Scout Cart) (1) UristMcRiley

[Man of Paper]

Sheltered Outposts (2): Doomblade, MoP
Wóz Zwiadowczy (Scout Cart) (1) UristMcRiley

[Failbird105]

Sheltered Outposts (1): Doomblade
Wóz Zwiadowczy (Scout Cart) (1) UristMcRiley
Outpost Stations (2): MoP, Failbird

MoP said he had meant to vote for Outpost Stations, but got thrown off by the names.
As for me, I see what he's getting at about the Sheltered Rails, but I just can't in good conscience vote for Scout Carts.