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[NUKE9.13]

The Empire already has trains to use. Why would we develop more trains when that doesn't really mean much?

The empire also has guns. Why would we design guns? Maybe, and bear with me here, because the entire point of the game is to do so.
A train won't be hard due to pre-existing train tech, but that doesn't mean we can just grab them out of thin air.

[Man of Paper]

Again you fail to understand basic concepts of arms races. Just because it exists doesn't mean we're using it effectively or even at all. Yes, we have generic undefined "trains". What we don't have is a train in our armory. How can we revise something that isn't there? By designing a train purpose-built for logistics we actually add a train to our armory that will, rolls willing, actually have an impact on the game. I believe Chief was setting tech level, not telling us "here's something you can fuck with for free".

We don't need to make a logi airship to make a combat airship. That's as poorly thought out as the old Arms Race trend of hollowing out a combat ship to get a transport craft. Possible? Yes. Would it affect the difficulty? Probably. But it also restricts exactly how effective it can be in the desired role. If you want a good bad example of repurposing noncombat vehicles for combat, I suggest looking up the (most of you know what I'm about to say) Semple Tank.

And let's look at sheer numbers: a quick google says a modern airship could carry up to 50 tons of shit. Compare that to the average of modern trains at 4,440 tons. That is a huuuuuge difference. At that point making a logi airship is just a means to make a combat airship maybe one difficulty level easier, and that's just not worth it.

[Madman198237]

Steam-Powered Belt-Fed Firing Port
Practical firepower for those of indiscriminate and indifferent marksmanship.
The slow rate of fire of modern weapons is quite a problem. However, we have a solution. The operations undertaken by a soldier in the line of battle are as mechanically precise as we can train soldiers to be, so why not replace soldiers with a machine? Enter the Steam-Powered Belt-Fed Firing Port, a device that sits on a carriage and replaces soldiers. Containing a circular belt containing rifles without any furniture (stocks, grips, sights, anything meant to make it useable by a lone infantryman), the device runs the belt in a loop, taking guns from one station to another. It takes approximately 42 actions to load and fire a typical infantry rifle, and we've made a machine for all of them. A newly fired barrel moves from the firing port to the cleaning machine, which is a set of cleaning rods that clear the rifle with several strokes as it moves down the line. Then to the loading process, which is a machine that undertakes the process of loading rifles faster and more precise than even the best of infantrymen. Finally powder is added to the flash tray and the rifles are moved to the firing position and struck with sparks from the machine (so that the individual rifles don't need flint and steel on them, again to save money) and fire through the Firing Port. Then the gun proceeds around the system again and the next barrel is moved into line. Each station takes a short amount of time and there are many barrels in the machine, so it fires nearly continuously at an unimaginable rate. Truly, a modern marvel! Of course to power such a device and the self-propelled armored carriage it sits in, the machine uses a Steam Core.

"Finger Trap" Imperial Arsenal Revolving Rifle
Mind your digits and count your bullets.
Our steam-powered industries are capable of churning out more complex devices by the thousands, and so our first order of business in modernizing our military is to provide them with something befitting that advantage. We have chosen to produce a rifle capable of rapid, repeating fire for use on horseback, fighting from vehicles (trains, this means trains, at least for the moment), or in desperate situations.

This is a revolver carbine, probably not the first of its kind because, really, this idea must've already shown up somewhere given our advanced technology. Anyway, it has five breeches in the revolving cylinder, each of which has a percussion cap stub on the back for the hammer to strike. The weapon is double-action for faster firing and because we've got the industrial might to produce the slightly more complex mechanisms to do it, and fires a .45 caliber bullet using paper cartridges. It's a large bullet for maximum killing power, and the short carbine barrel gives it more velocity than a handgun while retaining relative compactness and a very high rate of fire.

I'm far too lazy to decide on another name so goodbye previous proposal from the votebox

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

[Taricus]

There's a bit of a point against the train though; tracks. Our supply lines would be a lot more easier to intercept and destroy. Moreover, the tracks would need to be laid whilst we advance, either necessitating dedicated units for that or else slowing the advance, which'll exponentially increase in difficulty the wider the tracks we lay (Which directly affects how much can be pulled into a frontline area).

An airship can more easily get into a frontline area, especially in rough terrain, and actually deliver it's material as needed.

'Starlight' Aerial Transport: (5) TricMagic, Taricus, Rockeater, Doomblade, ConscriptFive
Mark Ia "Theodore" Steam Thrower: (3) eS, Rockeater, Tricmagic
"Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: (6) Madman, ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, MoP, NUKE9.13, Iridium
Bombardino Steam Rifle: (5) Nemonole, Iridium, Kashyyk, NUKE9.13, MoP
"Finger Trap" Imperial Armory Revolving Rifle: (2) Madman, Taricus

[Doomblade187]

'Starlight' Aerial Transport: (4) TricMagic, Taricus, Rockeater, ConscriptFive
Mark Ia "Theodore" Steam Thrower: (3) eS, Rockeater, Tricmagic
"Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: (6) Madman, ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, MoP, NUKE9.13, Iridium
Bombardino Steam Rifle: (5) Nemonole, Iridium, Kashyyk, NUKE9.13, MoP
"Finger Trap" Imperial Armory Revolving Rifle: (3) Madman, Doomblade, Taricus
Steam Powered Belt-Fed Firing Port: (1) Doomblade

[Man of Paper]

Counter-counterpoint:

If there's some sort of schism in our perfect empire for some unknown and impossible reason, just spitballing extreme impossibilities here, both sides would have the same restrictions re: tracks anyways. The American Civil War, which I use as an example even though a Civil War here is impossible, is as interesting to me as it is almost solely due to the importance of rail lines, and how that impacted action on both sides, and some of the special operations they facilitated.

Airships, meanwhile, are less effective and boring from a strategic perspective, especially when every arms race that can do them does.

A train is also less impacted (not saying not at all, to be clear) by weather conditions than airships. I'd rather a reliable bunch of resources get to a depot to be distributed via truck or something (because chances are we're going to build something to transport troops, so transporting goods with it should be a given) than a small bit of resources getting to...supply depots also because it's not like they'll be delivering boolets to the front line anyways.


EDIT: I want this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Locomotive_Chase

[NUKE9.13]

I like the belt gun, but not for this turn. Next turn, maybe.
I'm willing to switch over to the revolver rifle, as there are fair concerns about requiring every rifle-wielding platoon to have a steam core.
I'm not totally against a cargo airship, but it is absolutely not suitable for our first and main logistics vehicle.

'Starlight' Aerial Transport: (4) TricMagic, Taricus, Rockeater, ConscriptFive
Mark Ia "Theodore" Steam Thrower: (3) eS, Rockeater, Tricmagic
"Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: (6) Madman, ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, MoP, NUKE9.13, Iridium
Bombardino Steam Rifle: (4) Nemonole, Iridium, Kashyyk, MoP
"Finger Trap" Imperial Armory Revolving Rifle: (4) Madman, Doomblade, Taricus, NUKE9.13
Steam Powered Belt-Fed Firing Port: (1) Doomblade

[evictedSaint]

What if we made a train, but the tracks were flexible and adhered to the trains wheels in a continuous loop? Then the train would be able to carry the tracks around with it, giving it a wider range of movement!

[Madman198237]

People generally try to avoid blowing rail lines in this era of warfare, because those same rail lines are the ones they need to advance on. Also, the art of quickly repairing damaged rail lines is definitely a thing already. If you'd like I can mention it specifically in the Tortoise proposal, but it shouldn't be needed. We're not stupid, we *know* rail lines can be damaged, we know how to fix them. And unlike presumably hydrogen-filled "logistics" airships, trains aren't filled with a highly flammable gas (since helium hasn't been discovered yet) and don't fall out of the sky when perforated with bullet holes.

[Twinwolf]

Yeah, steam-core infantry stuff can come after we've given them a weapon to use that doesn't need our most limited resource (because it takes some time for our eternal empire to build up enough production to give everyone steam cores, you see)

'Starlight' Aerial Transport: (4) TricMagic, Taricus, Rockeater, ConscriptFive
Mark Ia "Theodore" Steam Thrower: (3) eS, Rockeater, Tricmagic
"Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: (6) Madman, ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, MoP, NUKE9.13, Iridium
Bombardino Steam Rifle: (4) Nemonole, Iridium, Kashyyk, MoP
"Finger Trap" Imperial Armory Revolving Rifle: (5) Madman, Doomblade, Taricus, NUKE9.13, Twinwolf
Steam Powered Belt-Fed Firing Port: (1) Doomblade

[Man of Paper]

'Starlight' Aerial Transport: (4) TricMagic, Taricus, Rockeater, ConscriptFive
Mark Ia "Theodore" Steam Thrower: (3) eS, Rockeater, Tricmagic
"Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: (6) Madman, ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, MoP, NUKE9.13, Iridium
Bombardino Steam Rifle: (3) Nemonole, Iridium, Kashyyk
"Finger Trap" Imperial Armory Revolving Rifle: (6) Madman, Doomblade, Taricus, NUKE9.13, Twinwolf, MoP
Steam Powered Belt-Fed Firing Port: (1) Doomblade

[Shadowclaw777]

'Starlight' Aerial Transport: (5) TricMagic, Taricus, Rockeater, ConscriptFive, SC777
Mark Ia "Theodore" Steam Thrower: (4)  eS, Rockeater, Tricmagic, SC777
"Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: (6) Madman, ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, MoP, NUKE9.13, Iridium
Bombardino Steam Rifle: (3) Nemonole, Iridium, Kashyyk
"Finger Trap" Imperial Armory Revolving Rifle: (6) Madman, Doomblade, Taricus, NUKE9.13, Twinwolf, MoP
Steam Powered Belt-Fed Firing Port: (1) Doomblade

[Doomblade187]

'Starlight' Aerial Transport: (6) TricMagic, Taricus, Rockeater, ConscriptFive, SC777, Doomblade
Mark Ia "Theodore" Steam Thrower: (4)  eS, Rockeater, Tricmagic, SC777
"Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: (6) Madman, ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, MoP, NUKE9.13, Iridium
Bombardino Steam Rifle: (3) Nemonole, Iridium, Kashyyk
"Finger Trap" Imperial Armory Revolving Rifle: (6) Madman, Doomblade, Taricus, NUKE9.13, Twinwolf, MoP
Steam Powered Belt-Fed Firing Port: (0)

[TricMagic]

'Starlight' Aerial Transport: (6) TricMagic, Taricus, Rockeater, ConscriptFive, SC777, Doomblade
Mark Ia "Theodore" Steam Thrower: (43  eS, Rockeater, SC777
"Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: (6) Madman, ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, MoP, NUKE9.13, Iridium
Bombardino Steam Rifle: (3) Nemonole, Iridium, Kashyyk
"Finger Trap" Imperial Armory Revolving Rifle: (7) Madman, Doomblade, Taricus, NUKE9.13, Twinwolf, MoP, TricMagic
Steam Powered Belt-Fed Firing Port: (0)

[Kashyyk]

'Starlight' Aerial Transport: (6) TricMagic, Taricus, Rockeater, ConscriptFive, SC777, Doomblade
Mark Ia "Theodore" Steam Thrower: (3)  eS, Rockeater, SC777
"Tortoise" Protected Train, Colonial Duty: (7) Madman, ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, MoP, NUKE9.13, Iridium, Kashyyk
Bombardino Steam Rifle: (3) Nemonole, Iridium, Kashyyk
"Finger Trap" Imperial Armory Revolving Rifle: (7) Madman, Doomblade, Taricus, NUKE9.13, Twinwolf, MoP, TricMagic
Steam Powered Belt-Fed Firing Port: (0)