Boar
The Skunk is a flawless masterpiece, and anyone who says otherwise is a traitor. That being said, it's a bit small. If we want to carry around bigger guns- and I think we can all agree, we want to carry around bigger guns-, something larger will be required. The Boar is just that.
The chassis and locomotive mechanisms are similar to that of the Skunk, but bigger, with a few flaws eccentricities ironed out to improve optimise performance. The vehicle is the size of a large-ish covered wagon ((car sized)). It is powered by a Beast Engine, largely enclosed in a lightly (but not un-) armoured compartment to reduce the risk of catastrophic failure- designed such that if a failure does occur, the devastation is less likely to affect the occupants. The engine should provide enough power to let the Boar move noticeably faster than the Skunk and/or move heavier loads.
In terms of armament, the Boar doubles up on the Skunk, having two 50mm FF QFs. They are mounted side by side on a slightly elevated turntable, allowing them to be aimed in all directions independently of the mech's orientation. Importantly, they are not 'baked in' to the design- the intention is for it to be relatively easy to revise the Boar to use different or larger artillery. The gun crew is protected by a metal skirt, pointed at the front like a prow, rated to stop rifle bullets with relative ease- though in order to allow the cannons to fire at low-ish angles, the skirt is only 1.2m high, meaning the crew should not stand up whilst under fire unless they need extra holes in their head. The skirt has a few slots to allow crew to fire back.
The back section of the vehicle has regained the previously scrapped driver-shield, or rather, the driver sits in an armoured cabin-esque structure.
Rolled:
5 difficulty 0
The
Boar turned out to be both quite easy on paper but in practice was slightly more difficult. It was quite easy to up-scale the Skunk but mounting the guns was slightly more difficult. We were unable to to fit the the guns side-by-side on the large frame due to the room needed for the turntables of the respective guns without the gearings getting caught up in each other, command still wanted the ability to fire both guns forward so a solution was made. Based on the turret locations of a few Ironclad Monitors the pair of turntabled 50mm guns are diagonal of eachother, they can still fire forward together but only at a limited angle with a bonus of the ability to fire 'broadsides' of both guns without interference. The turntables were found to not have to be mounted too high above the armored shield to allow firing at a depressed angle, at certain ranges the low velocity of the shells allowing for rough math to calculate for indirect fire at targets lower than the
Boar.
The Driver/Officer of the craft sits at the rear such as on the skunk, the difference being the new armored shell around the Beast Engine. The engineers having drilled multiple holes into the bottom of the shell allowing any depressurization of the Soul Chamber a path to empty into the ground under the mech and reduce the amount of liquid oxygen being directed at the crew. The armored skirt near the driver is extended to 2.1m in height and a small overhang from the engine's armored box to protect him from falling debris and shrapnel. The crew is also armed with revolvers for all the crew and the officer receiving a musketoon.
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The Boar Mobile Cannon Walker: A wagon-sized walker powered by a Beast Medium Soul Engine. It carries a pair of 50mm QF guns in diagonal mounting on a pair of raised turntables, it has an armored skirt that runs the entire length of the mech to protect the crew and has light armor over the Engine to protect it. The driver receives an armored box to protect himself, the crew all gets revolvers for self defense.
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The Army has responded to the request for arms and a few test guns were sent over for trial.M1866 Rifled Cannon-9lb-76mm: The M1867 is an old cannon but still has its uses as a field gun. It uses a unique muzzle and breech loading method thanks to it's riffling allowing the 9lbs 76mm shells to be sent downrange with accuraccy. The riffled grooves are cut deep into the barrel of the gun with the shells specially manufactured with fins to engage with the rifling, this requires the shell to be loaded into the gun from the muzzle to line up the rifling properly and prevent miss-fires but provides excellent accuracy giving it it's long service life. The charge is loaded through a simple screw breach at the rear of the gun. Due to being replaced with more modern artillery the Army is willing to part with these rifles, them being
Cheap++ to mount and is
Medium+ in size.
Grubert Heavy Rifle: The Gruber is a heavy defense rifle used in defending army fortifications rated at 25mm caliber firing both solid slugs and heavy buckshot. It uses the same needle-fire system as our standard issue rifle, this causes occasional gas leakage reducing effectiveness but this also prevent the breech from exploding from too much pressure. Due to the relative ease of manufacturing and large stockpiles the Gruberts are
Cheap.
M1879 Dother Steel-Works Mortar: Newly imported mortars from Dotherbondland bought for use in the new war the army is quite unwilling to part with more than a few of these wonders. Mounted on a wheeled carriage the muzzle loading mortar uses a large blackpowder charge to send the heavy 5 inch High Explosive and Shrapnel shells towards the enemy. Due to the large powder charge needed to send the heavy shells downrange the gun produces a heavy amount of recoil with a part of it reduced by a reciprocating mortar tube and recoil spring, crews that overload the gun on accident have tales of the carriage it's mounted on shattering under the force and the mortar tube flying away. Due to the complicated recoil method and the armies unwillingness to part with these the M1879 is
Expensive+ and
Medium in size.
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It is now the Revision Phase
Wehland Armory:
Fabrique Francois Quick-Fire Light Support Cannon: A 50mm infantry support cannon with a shorty stubby barrel and a low velocity round. It's one-piece ammunition is easy to store and to load into the gun as the gun kicks the empty casing out of the breech every time it fires. It is capable of loading either solid shot or canister shells. It is currently Cheap to produce and Small in size.
Basic Scrap Soul Engine: A simple Soul Engine capable of using Scrap souls for power. It is currently Cheap to produce
Shoddy Medium Quality Animal Soul Engine: It is more powerful than the Scrap Engine but breaks down occasionally and is currently Expensive to produce.
The 'Beast' Animal Soul Engine: Higher Quality than the Shoddy Medium Engine the replacement of internal components allows it to produce 1.5 times the power of the Shoddy M-Engine though the runework remains subpar causing...problems. Strong but explodes occasionally. It is Expensive+ to produce.
Basic Infantry: Basic Line Infantry with single shot cartridge rifles and brightly colored uniforms. Crucial for holding the ground the mechs take.
Basic Artillery: Basic muzzle and breech loading artillery capable of firing high explosive shells. A lucky hit will knock out a weaker mech.
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'Skunk Gun' Mobile Cannon Walker: The Skunk is a four legged walker slightly larger than a horse powered by a single Basic Scrap Soul Engine. It mounts a single 50mm Fabrique Francois Quick-Fire Light Support Cannon on a platform at the front of the walker protected by a large gun shield which protects the gunner and assistant gunner from small arms fire. It has a Standard Speed of 2.5 MPH and a Flank Speed of 5 MPH, it is driven by a the officer located in the rear of the walker who sits just behind the Soul Engine with his control levers. It can carry a small cart of spare ammunition behind it though that limits its speed slightly, for longterm firing it needs a horse-drawn caisson of ammunition to support it. The two gunners each have a black powder cartridge revolver for self defense and the officer/driver has a musketoon version of the standard rifle. It is Expensive+ to Produce
The Boar Mobile Cannon Walker: A wagon-sized walker powered by a Beast Medium Soul Engine. It carries a pair of 50mm QF guns in diagonal mounting on a pair of raised turntables, it has an armored skirt that runs the entire length of the mech to protect the crew and has light armor over the Engine to protect it. The driver receives an armored box to protect himself, the crew all gets revolvers for self defense. It is Expensive+ to produce.
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Topic: Arms Race of Souls and Steel: Grand Duchy of Wehland (Read 2822 times)