Game Update: Revision Results, Year -1 TURNTURNTURN
Revision: Armeater Chain-Gun(Very Hard) 2d4 = 8: Beyond ExpectationsThe Armeater Chain-Gun is a bizarre and complex creation with numerous ways of maiming the gunners if they're not careful. But it shall be far more frightening to our enemies rather than our gunners. Quite bulky and delicate (its machinery is exposed and generally not rigidly connected), but it fits onto Patriot Mounts. Requires team of 2 to operate.
Two Old Reliables (the difference between Finger Traps and Old Reliables are negligible for the uses of this design) are secured together via
glue very safe means and their cylinders are replaced each with a chain of 30 linked chambers -- with gunpowder, percussion caps, and bullet pre-loaded -- for a total 60 rounds of ammunition. A pneumatic motor powered by a removable canister of compressed air works to move the linked chambers into and out of place as their contents are fired. The motor works in series: gearwork alternates it between each barrel to operate, making satisfying sounds in doing so. A single trigger operates both linked rifles, releasing the hammer of the guns in series. The motor handles the rest of the actions.
This all amounts to 60 rounds per minute; not blistering fast but far faster than Old Reliables even without their reloading taken into consideration. Its accuracy suffers a bit but this is minor and due to the increased bulkiness of the thing; range and power match that of the Old Reliable.
Unfortunately, we had to cut a
lot of corners to make this thing in such limited time. Namely, the reloading: it's not practical. Once the Armeater has fired its 60 rounds, it'll be taken out of the action for a considerable amount of time. The manual operation required to (safely) disconnect the linked chambers from the device is enormous by itself. Then the gunners must manually reload each individual chamber with the percussion cap, gunpowder, and bullet before they slowly and painstakingly reattach the linked chambers to the weapon. While issuing additional chamber chains could solve
part of this, variances in the manufactured chambers requires manual re-calibration of the pneumatic motor each time making it impractical in the field. In practice, the Armeater cannot be reloaded outside of downtime due to the time taken to do so and the vulnerability of the gunners during the reloading.
Another object of note is the operation of the pneumatic motor: it must be toggled on during shooting, and off all other times. Too much time spent idling quickly wears down on the mechanisms as it attempts to operate the non-firing gun, and quickly consumes the energy of the compressed air. It's not too difficult to toggle the motor but it means the gunners cannot instantly react to enemy presence.
While not perfect, the Armeater certainly has a place within our arsenal. Metal expenses are self-explanatory, and coal expenses largely represent the compressed air preparation.
Armeater Chain-Gun: Two Old Reliables connected together, each with its cylinder replaced by a linked chain of 30 pre-loaded chambers. Pneumatic motor powered by removable compressed air canister operates on each gun in series, moving in place and preparing the next chamber in the link before going on to the next gun. A single trigger operates both firearms (also in alternating series), with the motor doing most of the actions. 60 rounds total, with reloading being practically impossible in the field outside of substantial downtime. Motor must be toggled on only when firing, giving notably worse reaction times to enemy presence. 60 rounds per minute. Hard to aim. Requires team of 2 gunners. Fits onto
Patriot Mount.
Medium Range.[0][2][2]Note - Error in last(?) update included an outdated version of the WWSP Walker entry in Designs. This has been fixed; and The Waffle Iron is clarified to fit onto the Patriot's Mount.Firearms- "Old Reliable" Imperial Arsenal Revolving Rifle: .45 caliber revolving front-loaded caplock carbine utilizing a 5-chamber revolving cylinder working with a single barrel. Once each cylinder is manually loaded, they can all be fired in sequence via revolving the cylinder between shots. Cocking of the hammer pulls trigger back into position and revolves cylinder to bring next (ideally, loaded) chamber in line with the barrel. Mind your fingers. Powerful, but low-velocity. Medium range.
[0][1][1] - Orchestral Cannon Instrument 'The Waffle Iron': A
percussion instrument 3" bore field cannon. On firing, recoil-dampening piston&pneumatic tube system locks the cannon in a rocked-back state where it can be reloaded with combined-gunpowder-and-shot cartridges before being released back into firing position, retaining the original firing angle with a good deal of accuracy. Accuracy in firing shots is adequate, and destruction is on par with a 3" cannon. Can be mounted in a simple horse-drawn field carriage, or a Patriot's Mount such as a Walter-Wallace Steam-Powered Walker where it requires an exposed gunner sitting on the top with it, and can't be fired in extreme terrains. Long range.
[0][2][0] - Armeater Chain-Gun: Two Old Reliables connected together, each with its cylinder replaced by a linked chain of 30 pre-loaded chambers. Pneumatic motor powered by removable compressed air canister operates on each gun in series, moving in place and preparing the next chamber in the link before going on to the next gun. A single trigger operates both firearms (also in alternating series), with the motor doing most of the actions. 60 rounds total, with reloading being practically impossible in the field outside of substantial downtime. Motor must be toggled on only when firing, giving notably worse reaction times to enemy presence. 60 rounds per minute. Hard to aim. Requires team of 2 gunners. Fits onto Patriot Mount. Medium Range.
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Armor- Imperial Armoury Power-Assisted Combat Suit: Very heavy steel cuirass & broad-rimmed helmet w/ detachable visor on top of a chainmail shirt. Normally too heavy to be particularly practical, but clockwork and pistons driven by a tightly-wound spring in integrated backpack relieve most of the weight, albeit movement and agility is restricted to more rigid patterns. Clockwork can be disconnected from spring by wearer, allowing return to non-powered use. Useless in CQC, but otherwise very survivable but not invulnerable. Spring retains 30-minutes of operations worth of energy, and must be rewound by Steam Core-driven portable machine carried by the platoon. A platoon equipped with this will have 16 out of 50 soldiers wearing it.
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Vehicles- Walter-Wallace Steam-Powered Walker: A mechanical marvel: 6m-tall 1.6m-wide bipedal steam core-powered contraption that uses pressurized steam-powered pistons to operate its two mechanical legs. 1 trained technician pilots from a cockpit on top of the legs (which take up half of the height) and in front of the machinery/steam core housing. The cockpit, hosting a dizzying array of dials and knobs and gauges and levers for managing steam levels, is shielded by heavy metal plating that can be hidden for higher visibility. Can traverse practically any terrain, beyond even what a human can do thanks to its scale. Rougher terrain requires slower speeds. Patriot's Mount on top of cockpit allows mounting of other equipment with the same mount on deployment of the unit; weapons can be remotely activated by the pilot but require manual loading or an exposed gunner on the top. Slow (marching speed) generally, Very Slow in particularly rough/treacherous terrain.
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Aircraft- 'Victoria' Imperial Combat Dirigible: Rigid envelope steam airship carrying a single gondola and a crew of 12. Moderate payload for (inaccurate) bombs and/or cargo. Steam as a lifting gas is inefficient but with the boiler gives partial resistance to envelope damage. Steam boiler gives a Slow speed and can have other pieces of equipment attached to it in a modular fashion; can support a maximum of 2 extra coal usage from attachments. 8 ports each side allow for small arms fire out. Absolutely no armor on the gondola, but flies high enough to invalidate conventional fire from the ground.
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Logistics- "Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: Series of armored train cars impervious to rifle fire and resistant to blasts (with decreased but not-minimized risk of derail) against the car connections, engine car, and passageways across all the cars. Firing and viewing holes are present for return fire.
- "Tortoise" Boiler Engine Car: Tortoise engine car that uses standard coal boilers upscaled beyond regular engine cars to compensate for weight of armor plating. Completely armored.
[0][2][3] - "Tortoise" Steam Core Engine Car: An engine car variant that completely ditches the boiler and operates entirely off of a single steam core for high speeds and/or weight loads. Completely armored.
[1][2][0] - "Tortoise" Cargo Cars: (Partially) armored cargo cars best used with a Tortoise engine car. The cargo itself isn't directly protected, but a lesser chance of train disruption is more than enough to increase cargo safety.
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It is now the
Internal Affairs Phase. Stand by for the report detailing how calm and peaceful our great Empire is. You
may have to wait. It takes time for nothing to happen.