Game Update: Design Reports, Year -2 TURNTURNTURN
Design: Walter-Wallace Steam-Powered Walker(Hard) 2d4 = 7: Far Above ExpectationsBehold! A true symbol of the Empire's eternal might!
What does it do, you ask? Why, it symbolizes the Empire's eternal might
obviously. A large contraption vaguely resembling... something -- ostensibly a man if you listen to the Walter-Wallace representative -- that walks about with surprising grace on two mechanical legs. The key word being
surprising grace. Not objective grace. A steam core in the back half of the large device powers it and provides the precision required to use steam-powered pistons, controlling the legs. This is all piloted by a single highly-trained technician who sits in the cockpit sitting atop the legs and in front of the steam core machinery. The cockpit is shielded by some fairly heavy metal plating that can be optionally brought down mechanically by the pilot for greater visibility when not in danger.
In size, it reaches about 6 meters tall with roughly over half of that taken up by the legs. For width, 1.6 meters is fairly accurate.
Small arms gunfire is unlikely to damage it, but a very much non-zero chance remains of projectiles from these weapons hitting more delicate exposed parts preventing operation of, say, a mechanical leg. Weapons on the other side of the force spectrum will likely straightforwardly knock out a leg or heavily damage/destroy the cockpit/steam core. Toppling the mech is quite possible for any Empire-hating enemies, but requires a non-negligible amount of force to accomplish. Considerations are included for the mounting of some kind of weapon on the top; though given the lack of any kind of standardized mounting implemented, any such weapon would take a bit more than utterly trivial effort to mount. For the time being at least, we've fit on as much flag by mass as possible without causing the entire thing to topple.
The Walter-Wallace Steam-Powered Walker can walk about on its legs on a wide variety of terrain without experiencing instability. In fact, with enough patience the WWSPW can cross practically any terrain. The rougher or more treacherous the terrain, the slower the mechanical marvel travels while the pilot makes precise fine-tuning to the exact steam outputs and valves and dials and what-have-you. It'll look a bit odd to the outside observer, though. While well-maintained and well-traveled roads could expect higher speeds, we predict that the speed in most practical encounters will be about
Slow (roughly marching speed). Reaching
Very Slow in the more rough terrains and getting predictably worse with worsening terrain.
This ability to traverse such a wide variety of terrain is not to be understated. Given its scale, this includes areas where not even infantry could go! Imagine how many places we could bring our flag to. Places our unpatriotic enemies would never expect to see flags! Maybe something to do with weapons too, if you're boring and/or unpatriotic.
Walter-Wallace Steam-Powered Walker: [1][3][1]Design: 'Victoria' Imperial Combat Dirigible(Normal) 2d4 = 5: Meets ExpectationsThe Victoria is a straightforward but none-the-less impressive piece of Imperial engineering. It is a remarkable series of improvements and breakthroughs in the field of flight, just none completely breaking expectations or approaching that point. A rigid envelope carrying a single gondola containing steam (
not hot air -- that's just immensely impractical) sourced from the steam boiler provides lift for the single gondola carrying the boiler, crew, and payload. The boiler drives the single propeller shaft and can be extended to power other attachments in a modular fashion. Attachments will have their own cost of coal (and perhaps other resources, but only coal is relevant here) and the boiler designed with the Victoria is capable of a max increase of 2 coal from modular attachments.
12 crew total man the Victoria, ensuring smooth operations, handling damage control, participating in combat, and so on. The gondola contains a bay useful for carrying a moderate payload of bombs or other cargo. Along each side of the same gondola are 8 ports for firing rifles and other small arms out of. What these rifles would be shooting at is unknown, but they're there. Bombs dropped by the Victoria (defaulting to an unspecified simple explosive if no bomb design) can't expect any amount of accuracy, but are guaranteed to hit the ground Eventually!
The Gondola, like the envelope, is vulnerable to all forms of gunfire. But this gunfire will have to reach high enough and be accurate enough to hit any part of the Victoria in the first place. While steam isn't nearly as good a lifting gas as other options, the synergy working with the boiler means that the dirigible is quite resistant to losing steam. It'll have to suffer a lot of damage to the envelope before it starts losing appreciable altitude.
We can expect to get a consistent
Slow speed, and an altitude high enough to make firing rifles at the craft from the ground impractical. Though bombs will suffer in accuracy for it.
'Victoria' Imperial Combat Dirigible: [0][2][3](Note - Old Reliable changed from breech-loading to front-loading to actually be physically/practically viable)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.
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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. A single trained technician pilot controls it from a cockpit sitting on top of the legs (which take up about half of the height) situated in front of the machinery and steam core housing. The cockpit, in addition to 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 in times of low danger. Can theoretically fit a weapon on its top. Can traverse practically any terrain, beyond even what a human can do thanks to its scale. Rougher terrain requires slower speeds, though. Slow 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.
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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.
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It is now the
Revision Phase of Year -2. Vote for a revision proposal to use for this phase's revision.
Author
Topic: Steam Empire, an Arms Race: Year -1, Internal Affairs Phase (Read 18253 times)