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[Atomic Chicken]

(5) Slightly Larger Flag: Rockeater,  eS, MoP, Draignean, AC
(0) Nobel Lance:
(3) !!!Flarecoal Briquettes!!!: Happerry, m1895, The Ensorceler
(1) Armeater Double Repeating "rifle":   Andrea
(0) 'Limb Remover' Imperial Arsenal Artillery Piece:
(7) "Tortoise" Modular Weapons Car: Kashyyk, Taricus, ConscriptFive, Madman, Doomblade, AseaHeru, NUKE9.13
(1) Real Flarecoal Briquettes: TricMagic

[m1895]

(6) Slightly Larger Flag: Rockeater,  eS, MoP, Draignean, m1895, AC
(0) Nobel Lance:
(2) !!!Flarecoal Briquettes!!!: Happerry, The Ensorceler
(1) Armeater Double Repeating "rifle":   Andrea
(0) 'Limb Remover' Imperial Arsenal Artillery Piece:
(7) "Tortoise" Modular Weapons Car: Kashyyk, Taricus, ConscriptFive, Madman, Doomblade, AseaHeru, NUKE9.13
(1) Real Flarecoal Briquettes: TricMagic

[NUKE9.13]

I slightly prefer the flag. I acknowledge that the train could be useful, but I think the flag does more by bringing the Walker up to par.

(7) Slightly Larger Flag: Rockeater,  eS, MoP, Draignean, m1895, AC, NUKE9.13
(0) Nobel Lance:
(2) !!!Flarecoal Briquettes!!!: Happerry, The Ensorceler
(1) Armeater Double Repeating "rifle":   Andrea
(0) 'Limb Remover' Imperial Arsenal Artillery Piece:
(6) "Tortoise" Modular Weapons Car: Kashyyk, Taricus, ConscriptFive, Madman, Doomblade, AseaHeru
(1) Real Flarecoal Briquettes: TricMagic

[TricMagic]

( Slightly Larger Flag: Rockeater,  eS, MoP, Draignean, m1895, AC, NUKE9.13, TricMagic
(0) Nobel Lance:
(2) !!!Flarecoal Briquettes!!!: Happerry, The Ensorceler
(1) Armeater Double Repeating "rifle":   Andrea
(0) 'Limb Remover' Imperial Arsenal Artillery Piece:
(6) "Tortoise" Modular Weapons Car: Kashyyk, Taricus, ConscriptFive, Madman, Doomblade, AseaHeru
(0) Real Flarecoal Briquettes:

[The Ensorceler]

It's a bomb, and potentially a cannon round for the ambitious. It's easy to start burning and smoldering, but the outer layer with sugar mixed in isnt quite explosive. The smolder will continue until such time as it reaches the oxidizer-rich interior, at which point it explodes in a shower of sparks, slag, and unexploded chunks of flarecoal which themselves burn until they violently explode.

When entirely smashed by the impact of being dropped from a great height or at the end of a projectile arc, a flarecoal briquette will 'strike-anywhere' at every point simultaneously and violently explode in a wave of slag.

They are *absolutely not* a fuel source yet, despite the intent of the chemists behind them and the 'real' ones that get thrown (unchanged?) into engines. At best, a flarecoal briquette would be a self-destruct option. I *really* dont see a normal boiler handling it well.

[Madman198237]

In fact the forces involved in firing a projectile from a gun would shatter the briquette immediately on firing, it would not be polite enough to wait until impact to disintegrate.

[Chiefwaffles]

Game Update: Revision Results, Year -2 TURNTURNTURN

Revision: Slightly Larger Flag
(Normal) 2d4 = 4: Below Expectations

Patriots across the Empire rejoice as they hear of this remarkable innovation.

The Walter-Wallace Walker now possesses a modular flag mounting that uses a simple standard for a wide variety of flags depending on the occasion (if we wave the biggest flag all the time, people may not be as rejuvenated when they see it) to be mounted and dismounted as needed. The (dis)mounting process isn't something that can be easily done in the field, but it can be performed with ease by those maintaining it between deployments. So in the field, from deployment to deployment the exact flag to be mounted per Walker can be changed. We've opted to call the mount the "Patriot's Mount", for patriotic reasons.
For cases involving fireworks artillery cannons and other celebratory gunpowder-related paraphernalia, loading presents a challenge. While the mounted device can be fired via a clever little pneumatic system, loading must be done by external personnel. Aiming these types of materiel is done by moving the entire upper "body" (read: everything that's not legs) of the Walter-Wallace.

Additional armor on the legs was unfortunately not achieved. It's difficult to adjust the armor and bolt on plates and whatnot without disrupting the very carefully-fine tuned balance achieved in the steam machinery. Not impossible by any means, but -- if the countless number of toppled prototypes have anything to say -- more difficult than originally anticipated.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

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]

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. Slow (marching speed) generally, Very Slow in particularly rough/treacherous terrain.
  [1][3][2]

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.
  [0][2][3]

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.
    [0][2][0]

It is now the Internal Affairs Phase. Stand by for the report.

[Chiefwaffles]

Game Update: Internal Affairs, Year -2 TURNTURNTURN

Riots!
...is what an anarchist would tell you is currently happening in several Imperial cities on the homeland. Thankfully, it's not. As an unrelated note, there is now a curfew in place. Failure to respect the curfew will lead to imprisonment as well as a lawful trial ^{_{within the next decade.}}

In other normal news, the Emperor is currently enjoying a well-deserved vacation overseas as our brave troops wipe up the last of the remaining resistance. For this reason, he has completely stepped away from all Imperial responsibilities as is his right. Any attempts to contact him are considered treason, and a reply will not be sent because while the Emperor is very much alive it's stressful ensuring such prosperity within our great nation.
And if your birthday falls anywhere between the 10th and 20th, congratulations! You have earned the great honor of participating in a lottery to serve our glorious Empire overseas. Stay tuned for the results of this lottery.

Your designs are of great use to our army! At least, we assume so. They're too busy complaining about massive victories and our shipments overseas keep on getting delayed. And not seized by pirates/rebels/insurrectionists/malcontents/foreign adversaries. Because that'd never happen. Regardless, keep doing what you're doing.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

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]

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. Slow (marching speed) generally, Very Slow in particularly rough/treacherous terrain.
  [1][3][2]

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.
  [0][2][3]

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.
    [0][2][0]

It is now the Design Phase of Year -1. Vote for two design proposals to use for this phase's designs. NOTE: after this year's revision phase, nothing will happen. Why would anything happen? Everything is fine.

[evictedSaint]

Orchestral Cannon Instrument 'The Waffle Iron'

Originally envisioned as an instrument for Jean Von Pinkerton's 6th Symphony 'Lazy Sunday Mornings', the Orchestral Cannon Instrument (nicknamed 'The Waffle Iron') was constructed to provide a satisfying BOOM when fired, placing it firmly in the "precussions" family of instruments.

Due to Jean Von Pinkerton's "no expense spared" mindset, the Waffle Iron was promptly over-engineered and thoroughly out-classes all field artillery in the Empire's Glorious And Indivisible Unified Cohesive Army.  After a lengthy court battle and a creative interpretation of the "imminent domain" laws, the Waffle Iron's patent has been acquired and mass-produced for military purposes.

The Waffle Iron features a 3" steel-jacketed cannon with brass banding sitting atop a sliding steel carriage.  Upon firing, the entire cannon piece rocks back along the carriage, driving a pair of pistons in pneumatic tubes attached to the carriage itself.  This recoil compresses the air in the tubes to help dissipate the energy, but upon being rocked back the cannon temporarily locks in place.  In this reclined position, the operator may more easily muzzle-load the next solid-shot round (which is packaged in canvas with the gunpowder).  After loading, the pneumatic tubes release, sliding the cannon back into its forward-facing position. 

While this recoil dampening system was originally designed to prevent the cannon from damaging the wooden stage in the amphitheatre, it turns out that it also enables the cannon to hold its original firing angle with greater precision.  This, combined with the ingenious idea to package the shot and gunpowder in a single cartridge, makes the Waffle Iron well-suited to field work.

[TricMagic]

Steam BOTE
Boat Overseas Travel Engine

The BOTE is an engine that runs off of an innovative new fuel source, Flarecoal Briquettes. More heat, easy ignition, more energy, for less cost. Each Briquette  coal dust, iron filings, saltpeter, and sheep's tallow, mixed thoroughly and vigorously, then rolled in fine granules of condensed sugar. Can be ignited by striking it against a rough surface, by exposure to open flame, or by not more than five yard's proximity to the great quantity of sparks and hot embers supplied by another briquette. Each one can feed the great engines we build, and kept in cloth bags to prevent them striking and catching fire when not in use, and is appropriately sized similarly to a round loaf of bread.

In other news, we have a proper steam propulsion developed for our boats making use of steam-driven screws.(propellers) This will surely help deliver supplies overseas on time, with the BOTE to turn them cheaply and efficiently.

Did you want an actual boat? The fuel and engine is more than enough to install on the ones we already have. Not like the Empire is going to fall. And if the Slighter Larger Flag's Walker issues are anything to go by, best to focus on what is actually important. The FB will be useful for engines designed around it later on.

[Kashyyk]

Imperial Armoury Power Assisted Combat Suit

Even the most skilled soldier (as the empire's troops undoubtedly are) is susceptible to the random whims of fate. Sometimes a shell from hostile bombardment lands a little too close, or a trooper must dash across open ground to rescue a fallen comrade. Either case is a potentially death sentence, for the only protection they have is faith in the good lord above. However, they say luck Favours the prepared,so prepared our soldiers shall be.

The PACS is a suit of gear and pistons supporting the torso and legs, all spring loaded to take some of the weight a soldier carries and thus extending his endurance and strength. To protect these delicate mechanisms, and the brave soldier beneath, a maille shirt is worn on top, and over that, is a steel cuirass that extends to cover the thigh, throat and shoulder,  plus gauntlet, bracers, greaves and boots. Finally, a broad rimmed steel helmet with detachable visor is included.

These suits are powered with a very tightly coiled spring in an integrated backpack. The spring can technically be rewound by hand, although each unit is issued with a coal turbine to rapidly recoil the armor. A more compact, even faster version using a Steam Core is also available.

Spoiler: Inspiration (click to show/hide)

[Madman198237]

I must wholly object to the use of mail in ballistics armor. Mail will do nothing but aid an enemy bullet, because it has no structure capable of meaningfully resisting incoming fire but does a great job adding more shrapnel to a bullet impact. Maybe you could make an argument for scale armor with thick and broad scales, somewhat like what your picture's soldier guy seems to have.

[Doomblade187]

Scout Locomotive

The Scout Locomotive is a locomotive with two maintenance cars and two passenger cars, as well as one guard caboose. The car is lightly plated with 20mm armor plates. The engine is made for speed, with an upgraded steam boiler. The maintenance car is equipped with heavy duty track repair equipment for quick fixes on broken tracks. The caboose doubles as a tractor for derailment recovery, and has room for a squad to keep watch. The passenger cars house both the crew, the guards, and approximately one group of engineers.

The project aims to advance rail technology by putting adjustable gauge wheels on all the cars, allowing the cars to work even on enemy rails, with some adjustments.

[TricMagic]

Scout Locomotive

The Scout Locomotive is a locomotive with two maintenance cars and two passenger cars, as well as one guard caboose. The car is lightly plated with 20mm armor plates. The engine is made for speed, with an upgraded steam boiler. The maintenance car is equipped with heavy duty track repair equipment for quick fixes on broken tracks. The caboose doubles as a tractor for derailment recovery, and has room for a squad to keep watch. The passenger cars house both the crew, the guards, and approximately one group of engineers.

The project aims to advance rail technology by putting adjustable gauge wheels on all the cars, allowing the cars to work even on enemy rails, with some adjustments.

I think we have a traitor. Only we have such glorious technology.
Not to mention using a train for an airship's job. Also not mentioning that any theoretical enemy can just avoid rail-lines.

[Doomblade187]

This is an extremely patriotic project, I will have you know. Soon, our armored trains will push deep into enemy territory!