Hi Don,
Excellent points, people!
The rifles intended for the MHoGatA should already be too close to be seized or interdicted unfortunately, but further shipments, when they realise they aren't enough won't get through.
I like the idea of the ICN having the excess ships and men etc to concentrate on the Gulf of Dohlar, but it has to deal with all the schooner commerce raiders/destroyers which operate long distances from all along the coasts of Haven and Howard, including the Gulf of Dohlar according to the textev, though I'm surprised the EoC would still have any merchant galleons still operating there after Admiral Gwylym Manthyr was captured.
Given the "Raw Meat etc" post RFC sent almost 2&1/2 years ago [~HFaF?], Charis then had 65% of all merchant galleons [2753 or ~23 shy of 2/3, IIRC], adding the rest of the empire and Siddarmark's ought to reduce those available to the Go4 to less than a quarter before the ICN demonstrates what commerce raiding really means.
RFC further noted at the end of that section of the same post that just because you have the galleons doesn't mean they can sail and survive even then.
Don has an excellent point regarding the choke points in the Gulf of Dohlar, and the relatively few ports we presently know of, with the RDN picket squadron driven off schooners can patrol most ports and the narrows, leaving Sharpfield's ~40 war galleons concentrated to counter Thirsk, though if the last report from Claw Island was they were all armored, that might be unnecessary until they find out differently.
L
n7axw wrote:XofDallas wrote:Rereading the last book (for the umpteenth time), I got caught up in the Ducharin-Maguiar (sp) conversation and was struck with how much the Church may be depending on rifle production from South Harchong. Interdicting the Howard subcontinent may be more important than we thought.
And the Gulf of Dohlar is a big damn gulf. Lots of personnel may be needed to patrol it. Then again, with effective control of all other seas, perhaps that manpower will be available to Charis.
You have a point. But all they really have to do is control the strategic chokepoints near vital ports and normal lines of communication. Visualized that way, the task becomes much easier. Then too, what are the TLs on Howard going to ship with? Most of their hulls have already been destroyed.
Don