Looks like a dead stalemate. The Vorn have proper heavy machine guns (or at least well-cooled medium MGs) but it hasn't had a terrible impact on us, so I think we're fine in that department. Looks like the obvious wishlist right now is:
- SMGs
- Heavy Artillery
- Light Artillery
- Tanks or armored cars that can cross trenches
Still think it might be too early to begin motorizing. We probably want something that can benefit us as widely as possible. Since heavy artillery isn't useful in the crazy volcano island (unless maybe we go naval), light artillery or SMGs are the logical choice. Light artillery could take the form of a mountain gun with a high maximum angle (we need the vertical drop for trenches) or a man-portable field mortar.
If we get the +1 from a good national banner next turn, then it might be time to pursue a tank.
If we want to push it on the revision, we could try to squeeze in a considerable redesign of the Ganaa: make a second version which gets us our portability and high angle all in one. Then we could use our design for an SMG, and get both in one turn. The revision for the Ganaa would be highly risky though.
IDK it shoots some 10x30mm round nose bois from a 40-round stick mag and fires short recoil from an open bolt.
This revision of the Ganaa uses the same shells, breech and a similar barrel, but reworks the mount and furniture entirely. The entire cannon can be disassembled and carried by a team of 5-10 men, preferably but not necessarily with the help of a couple pack mules. The mount is new, and has a crank for precise elevation up to 80 degrees. The rest of the mount can be disassembled into pieces each no heavier than 20kg. The breech can be disassembled from the barrel (hopefully it already can), and the recoil piston can be separated from the barrel as well. The barrel itself is only 900mm in length (or as short as our testing finds to be suitable). Its new capacity for high-angle shots allows it to be used from safe positions inside trenches and close to the enemy, or in mountainous terrain. Assembly should hopefully be doable inside of 15 minutes, and most parts are standardized to bolt together with a wrench and 20mm head bolts for this purpose. Oh yeah, it would also be nice to stop the breech from exploding, but if we can't do that we'll just tell the men to abandon them after 100 firings or something. If the barrel needs to be thicker, this should be accomplished with a separate sleeve which can be removed from the barrel for transport. Hopefully we can just use better quality metal.