lyonheart wrote:Hi Thanatos,
Thanks so very much RFC !
My first post got eaten, so I'm trying to remember it all.
Yup. I totally agree.
Given Delthak is well east of the convent, we might even get a few more vignettes of what's happening elsewhere [BGV etc] before we return to Merlin and Nynian discussing CC's journal that evening.
The dramatic increase in BGV's firepower, particularly the mortars, make Gorthyk Nybar and the rest of Wyrshym's best troops toast faster than previously expected.
Now that they have a standard engine, should we start picking RR lines?
The first major rail line would seem to be connecting Delthak to Tellesberg so Howsmyn can get there in two days not 5-6 etc, but Delthak accessing the north west coast ports to get stuff to Siddarmark much sooner [instead of going around 3+ sides of a square] will have priority in my opinion.
I for one would be quite happy to see that kind of linkage between Howell Bay, Margaret's Bay, and Tranjyr Passage. I think it's probably better for wet passages (canals) for ocean-going vessels to use too, but railroads and transshipment provisions can work too, and it's entirely possible the ground is better suited to railroads than canals for all we know.
I can't see a Delthak-Tellesberg canal as a priority. I could see a
semaphore line between them as very handy, and/or wyvern relays. Howsmyn himself can commission a steam yacht for showing off the tech and dashing back and forth as needed.
(I wonder too if electricity isn't something they'd love to be able to use for communications (telegraphy and later radio) nearly as much as for power. I suppose, with the war on, the Inner Circle's communication advantage and seijin "network" means telegraphs and radio would be too much in the Temple's relative benefit, even if Allied telegraphs and radio were great and Zion's crude. Still, it looks like a somewhat frustrated Industrial Revolution without them.)
I would think that the first railroads are likeliest to make the biggest differences in Chisholm, along particular routes that are obscure to me at least but probably tend to connect raw materials to industry to markets and let the Army nip around as needed quickly to keep restive nobles in line. Bringing about a popular Chisholmian national identity and a middle and
industrial working class is icing on the cake.
With no internal communications yet developed to speak of, Silverlode is likely to have a lot of use for railroads from mines to ports, at least if they can connect relatively large mines or local areas with plenty of mines to a small number of ports. If it's small mines spread across Silverlode, it may be harder, but I don't get the impression that the silver resources are that dispersed.
Short but significant railroads are likely to have a lot of use in Tarot and Emerald, and possibly in Zebediah. And they may do more than anything else to transform Corisande into a united, industrial nation and the Empire's third large pillar, but that's likely to be some years down the road. (Although some from rubber plantations to processing nodes to ports may get the process started soon.)
The effect of knowing about the M96 from the captured ship while BGV demonstrates to Wyrshym will be interesting.
What may even more interesting is how Kaitswyrth reacts to the news of Wyrshym's destruction, will he retreat further and blame it all on the even worse demon weapons?
Lots of possibilities here people.
L
By the way - has anyone summed up the positions and even rough strengths of armies as of March 897? It's beastly hard for me at least to follow.
I wonder whether they'd actually be ready in time for this war. I guess there's not much point mentioning them now if they are only used in the "twenty years later" arc, but then, with all that Howsmyn has on his head right now, the sheer time it will take to produce them in sufficient quantity (not to mention shipping them to the frontlines) could preclude them from appearing in HFQ.
