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[Twinwolf]

Honestly, my issue with the airship is less that it's an airship, and more that it's an attempt at a logistics airship. I'd be fine with a combat one, but in terms of logistics there's no reason to use an airship over a train since it can barely carry the cargo of one train car and keep aloft.

[Rockeater]

Now that I think about it, the train may be an interesting option, if we have rails passing all through our Empire, in case some traitors rise up, we could bring trains, with for example, very large guns, into their location to dispose of them quickly.

[Twinwolf]

Oh, secondary concern - I actually don't really like a steam-rifle, I'm just voting for it to prevent the airship from winning. I don't want our baseline infantry weapon to require steamcores. Special ones, sure, but this is meant to be the main gun we distribute to our troops right? This seems like it sharply limits our ability to actually deploy infantry, and might limit how much we deploy future cool designs - sure I'd like to use the steam core for our steam-mecha but it's either that or three divisions of infantry and we need boots on the ground.

[Kashyyk]

What do you mean Twin? So long as the empire endures, and it always will (all hail the empire), we can just manufacture more Steam Cores if we need them.

[TricMagic]

Honestly, my issue with the airship is less that it's an airship, and more that it's an attempt at a logistics airship. I'd be fine with a combat one, but in terms of logistics there's no reason to use an airship over a train since it can barely carry the cargo of one train car and keep aloft.

Steampunk. And that is a good reason to have both airship and train. The combat airship can come after the basic logistics one. They do serve separate roles. The trains can deliver wherever rail-lines are, but that only applies to Empire Territory where they have been built. The airship, meanwhile, can travel over oceans, seas, marshlands, mountains, and all types of difficult terrain, and move from Point A to Point B.

[Iris]

'Starlight' Aerial Transport: (5) TricMagic, Taricus, Rockeater, Doomblade, ConscriptFive
Mark Ia "Theodore" Steam Thrower: (3) eS, Rockeater, Tricmagic
"Finger Trap" Imperial Armory Revolving Sidearm: (1) Madman
"Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: (6) Madman, ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, MoP, NUKE9.13, Iridium
Bombardino Steam Rifle: (6) Nemonole, Iridium, Kashyyk, Taricus, NUKE9.13, MoP

Don't get me wrong, I love airships, but a train simply seems more practical for logistics at this time.

[Man of Paper]

Here's a train I pushed for the other frostpunk arms race. I'm not editing it to fit with our prompt here (making it a logistics train vs colony train) as I'm focusing brain efforts elsewhere and don't want to be too distracted, I'm just tossing it here for perusal and ideas for refining the train idea a little further.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Proposal: Snowpiercer Colony Trains

Colony Trains were created to fulfill the multitude of requirements a group of settlers would need to discover and populate/repopulate an area. The trains had extensive up-time thanks to the use of scoops and intakes at the front and rear of the train meant to both clear snow, ice, and debris from the tracks as well as collect snow and ice for processing into potable water. While this water supplied the people aboard the train, it also fed hydraulic systems within the train when steam or pneumatic power would be too hazardous or complex to pull off effectively. A Steam Core supplemented by a coal furnace are responsible for providing power (and heating) to just about everything else.

The traincars each have a designation and specific purpose:

The Engine Car at the front of the train contains the Steam Core powering the majority of the vehicle and houses the conductor responsible for controlling speed and direction of the train. This is where the snow and ice picked up by the train are melted into water.
The Water Car is where the water is purified and treated to the best of our abilities before being pumped to the rest of the train.
The Three Engineer's Cars are slightly taller than the others to accommodate for storage space for the construction team's equipment and supplies.
The Protein Car is where insects are bred and fungus grown to be processed into blocks of food.
The Three Habitat Cars provide basic housing and storage space for the colonists on the train.
The Medical Car acts as the train's hospital to the best of their abilities.
The Mechanic's Car stores the equipment and supplies necessary to keep the train running and prevent catastrophic breakdown.
The Coal Car contains the coal and furnace responsible for supplementing power throughout the train.
The Caboose provides housing for law enforcement/military personnel on board and has a station set up for sending and receiving Morse Code facilitated by wireless telegraphy.

While many were quick to point out the need for tracks before a train goes anywhere, the Colony Trains were designed to move slowly - barely at walking speed in nominal conditions. Conditions that no longer exist. The trains move only at night, and during the day the Engineering Teams (tethered to the train) build portions of the track to allow progress the next night. While forward progress may be slow, the use of a Colony Train means a supply line is already prepared and ready for further use, and has resulted in settlements vanishing or dying off without proper resources at a much lower rate than otherwise expected.

Also, trains are objectively better than airships in regard to logistics for the sheer amount of goods they can transport. I mean, there's a dozen reasons why trains are still used in our world over even modern cargo aircraft. You don't need to be dropping supplies off to every location on a front. Supply depots exist for a reason.

[NUKE9.13]

What do you mean Twin? So long as the empire endures, and it always will (all hail the empire), we can just manufacture more Steam Cores if we need them.

I mean, it might be good to think about the potential for forces on colonial deployments to be cut off from supplies, in which case we might want to consider non-steam-core weapons. I'd be willing to support a different kind of rifle, but the high rate of fire possible with the Bombardino is very tempting.

E: Maybe include an option for more primitive pressurisation systems, not powered by a steam core? Less effective, but would allow for cheaper deployment.

[TricMagic]

'Starlight' Aerial Transport: (5) TricMagic, Taricus, Rockeater, Doomblade, ConscriptFive
Mark Ia "Theodore" Steam Thrower: (3) eS, Rockeater, Tricmagic
"Finger Trap" Imperial Armory Revolving Sidearm: (1) Madman
"Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: (6) Madman, ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, MoP, NUKE9.13, Iridium
Bombardino Steam Rifle: (6) Nemonole, Iridium, Kashyyk, Taricus, NUKE9.13, MoP

Don't get me wrong, I love airships, but a train simply seems more practical for logistics at this time.

Practicality in a United Empire, preposterous. Now is the time of advancement, and practicality can take a bench.

[Iris]

'Starlight' Aerial Transport: (5) TricMagic, Taricus, Rockeater, Doomblade, ConscriptFive
Mark Ia "Theodore" Steam Thrower: (3) eS, Rockeater, Tricmagic
"Finger Trap" Imperial Armory Revolving Sidearm: (1) Madman
"Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: (6) Madman, ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, MoP, NUKE9.13, Iridium
Bombardino Steam Rifle: (6) Nemonole, Iridium, Kashyyk, Taricus, NUKE9.13, MoP

Don't get me wrong, I love airships, but a train simply seems more practical for logistics at this time.

Practicality in a United Empire, preposterous. Now is the time of advancement, and practicality can take a bench.

Surely you would like to make sure that our glorious Empire has every advantage possible against the filthy savages that try to destroy it? Unless you're - dare I say it - a traitor?

[TricMagic]

There are no traitors. But being able to fly above mountains and oceans would still be good for dealing with theoretical rebels and supplying our own. Or do you think building traintracks within the mountains are safe or easy. Or that trains can travel across the ocean? If so, I'd love to hear your ideas.

[Twinwolf]

...I mean, I rather doubt crossing the ocean is going to be relevant to dealing with traitors. Mountains, maybe. But even if that's a big enough concern to make an airship for logistics, I am not supporting one as our initial and main logistics vehicle - at best I'd support a combat airship that gets revised later to take the guns out.

[Taricus]

'Starlight' Aerial Transport: (5) TricMagic, Taricus, Rockeater, Doomblade, ConscriptFive
Mark Ia "Theodore" Steam Thrower: (4) eS, Rockeater, Tricmagic, Taricus
"Finger Trap" Imperial Armory Revolving Sidearm: (1) Madman
"Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: (6) Madman, ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, MoP, NUKE9.13, Iridium
Bombardino Steam Rifle: (5) Nemonole, Iridium, Kashyyk, NUKE9.13, MoP

[Iris]

...I mean, I rather doubt crossing the ocean is going to be relevant to dealing with traitors. Mountains, maybe. But even if that's a big enough concern to make an airship for logistics, I am not supporting one as our initial and main logistics vehicle - at best I'd support a combat airship that gets revised later to take the guns out.

I also support this. In fact, I think I may propose a combat airship next turn.

[TricMagic]

...I mean, I rather doubt crossing the ocean is going to be relevant to dealing with traitors. Mountains, maybe. But even if that's a big enough concern to make an airship for logistics, I am not supporting one as our initial and main logistics vehicle - at best I'd support a combat airship that gets revised later to take the guns out.

I also support this. In fact, I think I may propose a combat airship next turn.

Having the basic airship would make combat airships easier. And it's not going to be the only logistics option. The Empire already has trains to use. Why would we develop more trains when that doesn't really mean much?