n7axw wrote:We seemed to have reached a bit of a lull here on the Safehold forum and need some new threads to hash. So I am going to post this to see if anybody else has a better visualization of it than I do.
I reread that bit on the Great Canal raid in MTAT. The ironclads were blowing locks as they progressed down the canal to put the canal out of service. What bugs me about it a bit is how they managed that without trapping themselves. The only thing I could come up with was that they started on the uphill side of the canal which would mean that when each lock was blown, the ironclad would be headed downhill with the water growing progressively deeper with each lock blown until they reached the river, the sea or whatever which would mean that the last lock to be blown would actually drain the canal...
Does this make any sense or am I mixed up?
Don
Hi Don,
I thought about the canals when we were speculating on BGV's campaign plan. I concluded that he would use his current 28,000 troops to clear the Northland Gap, the Guarnack Gap, and then have them secure the New Northland canal. Meanwhile he would bring his remaining forces to Guarnack to attack Wyrsham. I had in mind securing a logistical route for when BGV advances to the Hildermoss. I later read that the canal raid had destroyed the critical locks to the New Northland canal from the Hildermoss. So, it looks like my speculations are 0 for 2. (I also thought that Ahlverez would turn north for Evrytyn rather than Alykberg) Here is what I said about the canals.
Consider types of canals:
There are rivers where canal locks use diverted water to raise and lower boats at portage points. Destroying the locks doesn’t affect the navigability of either the upriver or downriver section of the river. It just stops navigation through the portage points. This was that case of the Hildermoss, and why after COGA repairs the locks between East Wing Lake and the Hildermoss, that navigation can only go up the Hildermoss as far as Ayaltyn.
There are canals that are channelized rivers. Here the constant flow of water is sufficient that destroying downstream locks does not affect navigation upstream. The Guarnack-Ice Ash Canal appears to be one of these, because Captain Bahrns destroyed downstream locks after he passed them without disrupting his progress.
There are canals that are effectively large aqueducts. The flow of water is not sufficient for navigation unless the downstream locks slow down the flow. The Guarnack-Sylmahn Canal is one of these. Here Captain Bahrns destroyed the upstream locks and was able to proceed. Destroying the downstream locks not only blocked the portage point, but disrupted navigation all of the way back to Guarnack.
LAMA August II Page 83:
“We should at least be able to move supplies by sled once the canals do freeze over,” Maigwair said hopefully, but Duchairn shook his head again.
“That’s going to be true to some extent, Allayn, but we’ve got too many stretches of canal bed— and over seventy miles of aqueduct— which’re basically dry now. I’m not sure there’s going to be enough standing water in them to provide the kind of ice we usually see in the winter, and without the locks and the pumps, we can’t get the water into them, either.
LAMA October VI Page 319
Tarikah’s coal traditionally came from Glacierheart and the Ice Ash Mountains via the New Northland Canal and the Guarnak-Ice Ash Canal, both of which had suffered significant damage from the Sword of Schueler during the Rising. When they’d been put back into operation , they’d been needed to supply Wyrshym’s own advance; and then the heretics had smashed the entire Guarnak -Ice Ash and the critical western locks of the New Northland.
James
