Behrens designed a new sub-machine gun in a bid for the advanced weapons contract. This left them broke, but the weapon still wasn't up to snuff. Without contracts to rely on, they went hat-in-hand to His Majesty and requested a grant. This got them enough money for a revision, at the cost of 10 prestige.
-The 8mm Behrens cartridge. This is a near-imitation of 7.63mm Mauser used in the C96 pistol. It has a short round bullet, and the case is 25mm in length and rimless (making it suitable for use in magazines). It has a shoulder 5mm back from the bullet, which widens by 1.5mm.
-Behrens Semi-Automatic 'Valturia' Pistol (Mod. 0): This is a pistol chambered in 8mm Behrens. It loads from detachable 8-round box magazines which are inserted to the bottom of the handle, and operates with a slide recoil system, in which the barrel lowers under the slide on two pins after traveling backwards a short distance. The slide extends behind the grip, and it is returned by two recoil springs which create a hip on other side of the gun along its length above the grip. Shells are ejected upwards to the right. The gun has a 90mm barrel and is a little more than twice that length overall, about 40mm of which is behind the grip. It features a thumb magazine release and notch sights on top of the slide, and a safety lever operated with the off hand. Every piece is milled and nicely finished in a mirror-smooth silver color, except patterned wooden grip plates. Costs 24 credits per batch. Now 23 credits per batch after Model 1 update in 1911.
--Valturia Mod 1.: This version of the Valturia pistol is larger, with a 125mm barrel and slide to match, which makes the recoil more controllable in addition to the other benefits conferred by a long barrel. Its operation is simplified slightly, to a single-pin tilting barrel. The operation difference and price difference carries over to the shorter version of the pistol. 23 credits.
--Behrens Valturia Mod 2 Automatic Pistol: This variation of the Valturia comes equipped with a switch for full automatic fire. It's also the largest variation of the Valuturia yet: the 210mm stretches the limits of the design without significant alteration, and it includes a detachable wooden stock with a carry sling (notably, not a holster stock). The automatic fire is controlled with thumb a switch on the right side, and fires at a rate which hard to measure exactly but is extremely high. The recoil is drastic, and due to the nature of the swinging barrel it's not very accurate at this fire rate even in a vice. It also includes an expanded 16-round magazine which extends far below the grip, feed is not especially reliable with this magazine whether in single or automatic fire. 26 credits per batch.
-Comet Heavy Automatic Pistol Mk. II Mod 1: This is a simple blowback, open-bolt automatic weapon, chambered in 8mm Behrens. It's about the size of a carbine with a rifle stock, and the receiver is a lathed cylindrical piece which contains all of the working parts. There is a long spring housing behind the receiver, and a 32-round double stack magazine sits below. The barrel is 24cm, a small portion of the gun's overall length, and it sits in a shroud of sheet metal with drilled holes. It fires from an open bolt, so the trigger simply holds the bolt open when not depressed. When the bolt slams closed, it chambers a round and fires, and there is a charging handle on the bolt. A safety notch can hold the bolt in the open position. It's not compatible with existing Behrens magazines. Like most automatic weapons it suffers occasional feed jams. Simple feed jams are not hard to clear, but rarely a cartridge becomes disoriented inside the magazine which could take minutes to fix (or a fresh magazine). Furniture includes simple notch sights, a wooden shoulder stock with a rear pistol grip and flat foregrip under the receiver, and a detachable bayonet which screws into place. Costs 35 credits per batch.
-Credits: 0
-Prestige: 14
Line 1:
-Assembling Valturia Pistols
-Contract: None (Finished this turn)
Line 2:
-Assembling Valturia Pistols:
-Contract: None
Fabrique Riviere saved their money this turn, opting to bid with guns they have. Another good contract could earn them a second assembly line.
-Riviere 11mm Cartridge: A rimmed cartridge with a center primer and pointed bullets. The case is 50mm in length, and straight. Not extremely powerful but decent ballistics thanks to its shape.
-Riviere 1885: A single-shot rifle, which loads from a trap-door breech, in which the breech block flips up above the barrel allowing a cartridge to be inserted. It has a large, visible hammer on the outside of the rifle which shows its percussion-cap origins, although it fires brass Rivier 11mm cartridges with a center primer. It has a traditional full wooden stock with very few extra fittings, except for a range-adjustable sight on a sliding rear track, with a front bead sight. Aside from the stock, quality of the parts is somewhat poor, although its simple design makes it reliable. Its achilles heel is that the hammer can easily be damage when the gun is dropped. By 1910 standards, range and accuracy are subpar. Costs 16 credits per batch.
-FR No. 1.b Carbine "Nouveau": This is a lever-action rifle, but instead of the traditional tube loader, it uses an internal magazine hidden in a hump in the wooden stock. This holds 5 rounds, and can be loaded from stripper clips. The lever mechanism also has some feed issues, it is slightly susceptible to pressure to the left or right and will often fail to chamber if it is not carefully moved straight-on. Once the cartridges are chambered, they at least fire as expected. Since nothing except the hammer moves when fired, it is as accurate as can be expected of the barrel, which is somewhat cheap. The moving parts are made from castings, and their simple design means they're not prone to binding, but they don't feel smooth. Feature wise, it's very simple with no extra safety, and has simple non-adjustable open sights, some checkered grip patterns on the stock, a brass butt plate and a sling attaching from the bottom. Costs 18 credits.
-FR No.2.a Machine Gun 'Wiel': This is a machinegun in FR 11mm. It is a large, heavy weapon which sits on a tripod, and feeds from 200-round cloth belts. Its unusual "wheel operation" method gives the gun a distinctive outline. On the right side of the barrel mounted vertically is a wheel enclosed in a sheet metal housing, about 240mm, with a crank. Under the barrel is a small "pedal" attached to the wheel. When the gun is fired, a gas port pushes on this pedal, the wheel rotates 180 degrees and then springs back, pushing on a lever which operates the gun. There is an adjustable screw which places friction on the wheel to control rate of fire, but when set too low the gun simply fails to operate, so it really only adjusts between 400-500 rounds per minute. The rest of the gun involves a long extractor arm which pulls cartridges from the belt, and pushes them into the chamber, as well as the bolt itself, and a number of tiny parts which regulate their operation. The belt sits below the receiver and casings eject from the top. Most of this is hidden in a sheet metal case with a lid which clips into place for ease of maintenance. It also features a front carry handle which, when pressed down, acts as a release for quick change barrels, which are finned for cooling. It has fixed ladder sights with range markings out to 1500m, and a pistol grip with an optional wooden shoulder stock. The gun operates with reasonable reliability, though its reciprocating parts lurch the gun violently up, down, forward and back during operation. Attempting to use the front handle to hold the front down often loosens the quick change barrel. At higher rates of fire, the barrel can simply come loose on its own (it will rotate and the gas port will cease operating the gun harmlessly). 40 credits.
--FR No.2.b Light Machine Gun "Weil": This shares most of the rear action with the original Weil, but the entire gas mechanism is vastly different. A gas port in the barrel pushes a small lever, which exerts force on a spinning flywheel in the position of the old wheel through a ratcheting mechanism, like a bicycle's freewheel. This flywheel has a coupling rod to the reciprocating action of the gun. The trigger disconnects this. It can be spun up with a crank, and then maintains speed for up to 30 seconds before coming to a stop. Each time the gun fires it accelerates the flywheel a little bit. The whole time the flywheel is spinning, it makes a distinctive ratchet noise. The exact rate of fire depends on the speed of the flywheel, it can operate as low as 90 rounds per minute, and will accelerate as the gun continues firing, up to 500 rounds per minute, at which speed the gas lever is not returning for every shot so the gun loses a little speed. The top rate of fire may be much lower depending on how well-lubricated the gun is. The gun will fail to chamber a second round if it is fired when the wheel is at a complete standstill, and it often fires once after the trigger is released. There are also some weight saving measures: the barrel is shorter, lighter, has no fins, and lacks a quick disconnect mechanism. The removable wooden stock has a large hole in the middle, and the tripod is smaller and lighter. It's portable by one man, although someone else will still have to carry the ammo. 42 credits per batch.
-Credits: 33
-Prestige: 26
Line 1:
-Assembling Wiel Machineguns
-Contract: Vostoyan Rebels: 8 profit, 7 prestige, 1 turn remaining
Prykanbul Manufacturing designed a new automatic rifle based on their existing 6mm cartridge.
-Prykanbul Curved Sword: A curved sword with a round pommel and a large, flat blade. Rather heavy, but the blade is made of excellent steel and it keeps an edge even when clanging against lesser steel. Costs 25 credits per batch.
-The .48 Prykanbul Express rifle cartridge, a rimmed cartridge with a round bullet and straight case measuring 3 inches in length, making it wider and longer than an average rifle cartridge. Uses a somewhat antiquated powder formula which is slow-burning, so it benefits from a long barrel.
-Prykanbul Manufacturing 6x50mm Light Rifle Cartridge: A 6mm FMJ cartridge with a 50mm tapered and shouldered case. The case is semi rimmed, having both a small rim and an inset for the extractor to grab. The bullet itself is long and has a pointed shape, with a boat tail. The case is made of steel. It's a fairly high velocity round. -1 cost to guns using this.
-Prykanbul Manufacturing SR-6-10 6mm Short Rifle Model 1910: This is a bolt action rifle with a 22-inch barrel, making it between the typical length of a rifle or a carbine, and a full wooden stock. It has an internal magazine with a double-stack, single feed arrangement, which holds 7 rounds. It can be loaded from 7-round stripper clips, although these are slightly large and unwieldy. The bolt hand sits upward when the bolt is open and 90 degrees to the right when closed. The last notable feature is an aperture sight. The rear sight about 2cm in diameter, and a couple inches from where the user's cheek should sit. It is adjustable for elevation and windage with large thumb screws on the left, and top right. There is also a bayonet lug where a knife-type bayonet can be secured with another thumbscrew. Both the front and rear sight posts are tall, the front is 5cm above the barrel. The workmanship of the barrel and moving parts is average, it's reasonably accurate and feeds consistently. Costs 21 credits per batch.
--Prykanbul Manufacturing SR-6-11 6mm Short Rifle Model 1911: This version of the rifle has a 10-round double stack magazine, which is visible extending below the gun, and can be loaded from 5-round stripper clips. There are new, simpler sights, where the rear sight has a knob which slides up and down a rail with distance markings from 200 to 2000 meters. Instead of the traditional notch, there is a small aperture, which is drilled in a flat sheet. The aperture is somewhat large because the angle through which the shooter looks through the sight depends on the elevation slider. 21 credits.
--Prykanbul SR/M-6-12: This is a modified version of the Prykanbul Short Rifle. The biggest mechanical change is that it uses 5-round detachable box magazines, which come about flush with the wooden furniture and have a heel release (and a related furniture indent). This is intended to be a marksman rifle, so the benefit of this is that an optic can sit above the receiver. The gun does not ship with an optic, but it has a smooth flat plane for mounting one (it also includes SR-6-11 style iron sights). The other visible changes are mostly to the furniture: part of the shoulder stock folds down to form a monopod, and a bipod mounted on the furniture under the barrel. The bipod is made of steel tubing and has an adjustable height, tightening in place with wingnuts on each leg. The butt plate is also mounted on screws so that its length can be adjusted, and there is a similarly adjustable cheek piece on the stock. The complex stock features are largely finished by hand because there wasn't a lot of time to design tooling, driving up the cost. 30 credits.
-AR-6-14: This is a gas-operated automatic rifle firing Prykanbul 6mm. It fires from a closed, rotating bolt, and feeds from 30-round double-stack magazines, which are quite fat with a slight curve. The barrel is carbine-length at 18 inches, and a gas piston underneath runs almost the full length. Cartridges are ejected from the top left, then the bolt carrier is returned by a heavy spring concealed in the stock. The force needed to rotate the bolt closed helps delay the firing process, so the gun fires about 400 rounds per minute. It includes a bipod similar to the SR/M marksman rifle and sights from the standard SR-6-11, plus a carrying handle partway up the gun. Besides this the gun is extremely barren of features. It has no safety and fires fully automatic only, with careful trigger pull single shots can be fired. The charging handle is large notch directly on the bolt carrier. The gun feeds well, and takes longer than some light machine guns to get hot, but when it does get very hot there can be issues with cartridges failing to extract (the rim bending instead) or cartridges cooking off, sometimes two or three rounds belatedly. It weighs about 22 pounds, and can be fired from standing though the recoil is significant, the gun feels to push back then pull forward in the user's hands as the long and heavy piston returns. Costs 38 credits per batch.
-Credits: 18
-Prestige: 33
Line 1:
-Assembling: Prykanbul Short Rifle
-Contract: Forenian Expedition, 9 Profit, 4 Prestige, 1 Turn remaining
Line 2:
-Assembling: Prykanbul Short Rifle
-Contract: Procino Bicicletta, 13 Profit, 6 Prestige, 1 Turn remaining
1914 Field TrialsCrovem's Ministry of Ordnance is looking for a portable automatic weapon: They are interested in creating an experimental unit to use automatic weapons which can be operated by individuals. Since there's probably not a big war coming up or anything, this is an open-ended contract. Autorifles, machine pistols, or anything in between might be acceptable, and they want to figure out what sort of combat roles they can fulfill by experimentation. 1 batch @ up to 70 credits, though they expect to pay less for small caliber weapons compared to larger ones. 8 prestige. Available until 1914.
Fabrique Riviere maintains their previous offer of the Weil 2.b @ 68 credits.Behrens offers the Comet Heavy Automatic Pistol @ 55 Credits: This is a compelling weapon! It's light enough for a soldier to carry on the march and at a sprint, and the choice of pistol-caliber ammunition helps to reduce the problem of maintaining ammo supplies while using automatic fire. On the other hand, a single-fire option would still be very useful. The exclusive use of automatic fire definitely limits the situations where the Comet is useful, it's very difficult to get single, accurate shots should the need arise. The feed quality is also so-so, although it seems inevitable that an advanced weapon design like this should suffer occasional jams. With a weapon like this, enemy soldiers who considered themselves safe could very suddenly find themselves in the cone of fire of a machine gun- a rout would be almost guaranteed. The other downside, of course, is its range. It's no total replacement for ordinary rifles, although it could be extremely effective for specialist soldiers. The price is a bonus too.
Prykanbul Manufacturing offers the AR-6-14 @ 64 credits: This is a real improvement in mobility over machine guns previously made in Valturia, without compromising on power like the Behrens design. Despite impressive metallurgy from Prykanbul as usual, it does suffer from heat issues under sustained fire. It's also a lot heavier than an ordinary rifle, and fires full sized rifle cartridges in automatic only, so there's less capacity for soldiers to carry the gun and all of the ammo they will need on the march. On the other hand, aside from middling mobility, its range makes it capable of fulfilling the primary duty of rifles in an open field. Like the Comet, reliability is... good enough for our experimental purposes. It certainly isn't going to replace emplaced machine guns in their task.
For the power it can bring to the field, we will select the
AR-6-14 at 64 credits.The Kingdom of Vostoy is looking for an assassination weapon: In an unusually frank request, King Vostok VI has personally written a letter requesting a batch of weapons "for assassinations against members of Fabrique Riviere, who are traitorous warmongers committing high treason against the kingdom of Vostoy". They want a weapon pistol or rifle which can be concealed (so a rifle should at least disassemble), and possibly has a suppressor. The weapon should have sufficient power "to slay inhuman beasts" and either be concealable enough for a user to get very close to the target or effective from a long range. 1 batch @ 55 credits, though they expect to pay less for pistols than rifles. 4 Prestige. This contract is not open to Fabrique Riviere.
Fabrique Riviere sent a bunch of guns even though they're banned from the contract: One after another, the Vostoyan government receives packages with weapons from FR's history. Wiels, carbines, antiquated rifles, a musket. Each delivery taunts them, as if to say, "you know these are the weapons you want anyway." As some of the packages get returned, FR staff waste more valuable paid time coming up with ways to get them through the border, eventually resorting to copying the Behrens or Prykanbul logos. However, when opened, some weapon with the FR emblem is always inside- eventually including logging equipment which could arguable be repurposed as weapons. None of this provokes an actual response in the form of a letter or announcement, but the Fabrique Riviere engineers giggle to themselves imagining the reactions which must have no doubt been elicited from Vostoy's notoriously short-tempered king or the government officials who often take after him.
Prykanbul Manufacturing offers the SR/M-6-12 marksman rifle @ 52 credits: This price is intended to leave a little extra room for optical sights, although it doesn't necessarily cover the cost of good quality ones. On the other hand, it's also the only serious submission. The Vostoyan government "trials" consist of a short range session where their marksmen try out the weapon. "Excellent. I was hoping we would receive a weapon which would permit us to kill rats without getting close enough to smell them."
The Vostoyan government will purchase this for 52 credits.Valturia's Royal Bank is seeking weapons for armed guards: Banks guards either spend most of the day standing watch at bank locations themselves, or operating the armored trucks and loading/unloading money and other valuables. They're not expected to use their weapons often, so the primary concern is that they be easy to carry and simple to use. They're also highly visible to the public, so the weapons are part of their uniform and should communicate wealth and sophistication. Something like a gold-plated finish might be ideal. Accuracy, effectiveness, and reliability are secondary concerns, though repeating weapons with a large ammo reserve are ideal. 1 batch @ 55 credits, 8 Prestige.
Behrens offers the Valturia Mod. 0 for 44 credits: Splendid looking pistols! They have a nice finish and a sleek, modern design. We'll definitely prefer the use of the 8-round magazines, since reliability is important and we definitely don't want the magazine sticking out when the guns are carried loaded. We found that they shoot well enough, probably better than the old revolvers. Besides, we're not at the range all day, and the extra ammunition lets us get away with missing more, eh?
We'll take them for 55 credits.Ira's Infantry wants to adopt machine guns: Just ordinary machine guns for defensive lines, no bells and whistles. The more range and power, the better. Besides range and power, long term use is the main gauge of performance. The more it can resist overheating, the better. The easier it is to keep bullets fed into the gun, the better. It should also be reliable in operation, sturdy, and insofar as it's possible for a machine gun, easy to maintain. 2 batches @ 60 credits, 7 Prestige.
Fabrique Riviere offers the Weil 2.a @ 60 credits: This is certainly a machine gun. It's definitely an odd design. The decision to make it rifle caliber instead of using high-power, dedicated machine gun rounds should make it pretty controllable, but the mechanism makes it jump like a trout on a dock. I feel like I can definitely imagine a better machine gun to use. It does
work at least. We fed a lot of belts through it, changed the barrel, and it handled the stress well. We can't delay adopting machine guns,
so we'll take this at 60 credits.It is now the signing phase!Behrens will no doubt want to take their Royal Bank contract, they won't even have to retool. Fabrique Riviere might be able to afford a new assembly line this turn, though I haven't double checked the math. Prykanbul will have to decide which of their existing contracts to drop if they want to fulfill the Vostoy contract, though the lower-paying expedition contract is the likely choice.