HFQ Snippet 27[?] a

WOOT WOOT WOOT! Snippet! RFC is alive and well! PRAISE THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER!!!

Ahem.

A lot of food for thought here. First and foremost is that the CoGA is not just playing catch-up anymore, but they've begun to produce original innovations. A primitive bazooka is on the design table, and they've also reinvented the Parrott method for cannon making. And since the entire conversation is not being held in the Temple precints, we'll probably get to see a Merlin appearance musing about all those innovations.

Now all that's left is another Zhaigwair snippet discussing the M96, and giving the higher-ups the bad news: no, we're NOT going to be able to just duplicate these, we'll have to create a whole new ammunition-making line.

Despite all that new talent, the CoGA is always a step behind, deploying Parrotts when the ICA has already fielded breech-loading artillery (probably the equivalent to the later Armstrong guns). That's gonna be a nasty surprise soon enough.

Now to wait for the next one...

Thanks RFC for the double and very LONG snippet. Glad to hear that the delay was due to life interfering, as well as work on HFQ and the next Honorverse book, which we're already drooling over...

I had to wince when I imagined the MHoG armed with tens of thousands of rockets, but clearly it will arrive before any rockets will be available in quantity. So the ICA may get a chance to blow much of it away with long range artillery before it arrives. Thankfully those 600,000 rifles it will be carrying are still the old-style bore loading type.

Kaitswyrth is clearly being hung out to dry, and he'll be toast before any reinforcements can arrive to save him. He's beaten in his own mind, and the Army of Cliff Peak, possibly aided by some of Eastshare's troops can destroy him before he gets too many of the latest gadgets.

That also means the first of the concentration camps to be "discovered" will be in Cliff Peak, and Kaitswyrth will get the blame. (Which he richly deserves, since he's a fanatic.) The Siddarmarkan troops working with Earl Highmount are going to have a serious desire for vengeance - which means rolling out the bagpipes and playing THAT song... This time the ICA may go along with the "take no prisoners" mindset, having seen the horrors of the death camps. In fact, it's going to be very hard to convince the ICA to show mercy and take prisoners once their troops see a concentration camp, no matter who is commanding them or what their orders are. As for the Siddarmarkan troops taking prisoners, forget it! (Which is going to be rather hard on the local TL civilians as well...) This is going to get seriously ugly!

Kill Kaitswyrth off as soon as possible, rescue the prisoners in the Cliff Peak concentration camps, and encircle and destroy Wyrshym before reinforcements arrive with those annoying new weapons... Otherwise the death toll will go up alarmingly, and the ICA can't train and send new troops fast enough to make up for combat losses, even though they're now getting volunteers from all across the empire, including Corisande. (Clyntahn has always been the CoGA's worst enemy!)

Ditto with those who have noted how adding women to manufacturing will change the social dynamic in church controlled countries, plus the manufacturing circles are going to break several of the guilds for good.

It's tough to believe how much trouble one stolen briefcase is going to cost the good guys. The Charisian engineers shouldn't have been able to carry classified documents anywhere in Siddar City without a platoon to guard them! Oh well, that horse has left the barn...

McGuiness wrote:Thanks RFC for the double and very LONG snippet. Glad to hear that the delay was due to life interfering, as well as work on HFQ and the next Honorverse book, which we're already drooling over...

I had to wince when I imagined the MHoG armed with tens of thousands of rockets, but clearly it will arrive before any rockets will be available in quantity. So the ICA may get a chance to blow much of it away with long range artillery before it arrives. Thankfully those 600,000 rifles it will be carrying are still the old-style bore loading type.

Kaitswyrth is clearly being hung out to dry, and he'll be toast before any reinforcements can arrive to save him. He's beaten in his own mind, and the Army of Cliff Peak, possibly aided by some of Eastshare's troops can destroy him before he gets too many of the latest gadgets.

That also means the first of the concentration camps to be "discovered" will be in Cliff Peak, and Kaitswyrth will get the blame. (Which he richly deserves, since he's a fanatic.) The Siddarmarkan troops working with Earl Highmount are going to have a serious desire for vengeance - which means rolling out the bagpipes and playing THAT song... This time the ICA may go along with the "take no prisoners" mindset, having seen the horrors of the death camps. In fact, it's going to be very hard to convince the ICA to show mercy and take prisoners once their troops see a concentration camp, no matter who is commanding them or what their orders are. As for the Siddarmarkan troops taking prisoners, forget it! (Which is going to be rather hard on the local TL civilians as well...) This is going to get seriously ugly!

Kill Kaitswyrth off as soon as possible, rescue the prisoners in the Cliff Peak concentration camps, and encircle and destroy Wyrshym before reinforcements arrive with those annoying new weapons... Otherwise the death toll will go up alarmingly, and the ICA can't train and send new troops fast enough to make up for combat losses, even though they're now getting volunteers from all across the empire, including Corisande. (Clyntahn has always been the CoGA's worst enemy!)

Ditto with those who have noted how adding women to manufacturing will change the social dynamic in church controlled countries, plus the manufacturing circles are going to break several of the guilds for good.

It's tough to believe how much trouble one stolen briefcase is going to cost the good guys. The Charisian engineers shouldn't have been able to carry classified documents anywhere in Siddar City without a platoon to guard them! Oh well, that horse has left the barn...

Nice post, Mac. Just a minor nit. About 15% of those rifles are the St Klymans...but what are 90000 breechloaders among friends...

Don

Larry wrote:Is there any historical weapon that acted like this? And when did the Church start using cartridges? I've been imagining their St. Kylmahn to be pretty much like a Ferguson rifle, which didn't use a cartridge so this seems like a jump to me. Or am I thinking metal cartridge when he probably means paper?

And in his description of fitting a bronze casting behind and around the artillery shells, would I be correct in thinking sabot?

For the cartridges, yes they are talking about paper cartridges. As an example from our history, Soldiers fighting in the American Revolution were issued cartridge boxes, despite metal cartridges being the better part of 50 years in the future.

As for the shells, I think drive bands would fit better than sabot. Unless a cannoncocker corrects me, Modern shells are too hard to engage rifling correctly, thus have one to three copper or possibly bronze bands around the shell to close windage and engage rifling.

something i noticed and i may have missed it before was the talking about rifling the motors. I thought i read somewhere that motors were normally smoothbore?

Dauntless wrote:something i noticed and i may have missed it before was the talking about rifling the motors. I thought i read somewhere that motors were normally smoothbore?

He's not talking about rifling the motors. He's talking about the plate at the back of the motor acting like the rifling on a gun does and angling the thrust from the motor, spinning the rocket to stabilize it.

River Monster wrote:

Dauntless wrote:something i noticed and i may have missed it before was the talking about rifling the motors. I thought i read somewhere that motors were normally smoothbore?

He's not talking about rifling the motors. He's talking about the plate at the back of the motor acting like the rifling on a gun does and angling the thrust from the motor, spinning the rocket to stabilize it.

Motors? Perhaps you mean mortar?

Don

Thank you for the snippetts David.

Can not wait for this book to come out and read it from cover to cover. It will be interesting. Looks like the action is about to shift from the northern front to the central front. Will be interesting to see how that army reacts after the drubbing given to them earlier in the forest.

Keep up the good work.

Double Great Snippet! I missed the fact that it was a double snippet, and consequently reported only 128 pages. Now that I've included both snippets, the total is up to 142 pages!!! Fantastic.
Thank you, o thank you, O great creator of the Safehold universe!
Philip Stanley

Hi McGuiness,

Others have noted the predicted 91,000 St. Kylman rifles the MHoG is expected to receive, so I won't belabor that point any further, except to say most will be in the hands of the RSA sooner than the Go4's worst fears.

If I understand you correctly, since the rockets will take some time to develop, proof and produce, NTM shipping alone will take over 3 month's to get to Lake City, [unless the allies have advanced well into the Border States by then ], the allies will have plenty of time to destroy the MHoG using the advantages they already have, and knowing about the M96, the MHoG may try to avoid closing with the allies, knowing of the incredible casualties they'll suffer; or it'll be a ready excuse for any Go4 loss; their firepower was too great etc, which will tick Clyntahn off, until he experiences it for himself, possibly at the gates of Zion or the temple.

I don't think Symkyns with 75,000 men will need any help destroying Kaitswyrth, so EHM [with only ~57,000 men] who doesn't have any RSA troops attached, can clear Cliff Peak or advance westward, flanking Rychtyr and taking Dairnyth, or at least block the MHoG from using either the D-A canal or the Fairmyn river while DE tends to Dohlar, or EHM could wait until after the MHoG sub-army goes up the Fairmyn, then cut them off.

Thus Symkyn could advance up the North Daivyn River and Sair-Selyk Canal to flank the northern MHoG sub-army, possibly cutting the Langhorne behind them as well.

According to the textev, most of the concentration camps are in northwest Siddarmark, but some may be in Cliff Peak, although after almost a year of starvation and torture how many inmates can still be alive?

Rather few, I'm afraid.

So there may be very little evidence left if the inquisitors burn what's left of the camps and move on to other oppressions...

I wouldn't be surprised if the ICA size has or will soon double, thanks to all the new recruits, so don't write them off so cavalierly; they may show up at Zion sooner than you think.

Regarding the briefcase, I think Merlin and the inner circle were hoping such 'leaks' would occur, because it all undermines the proscriptions, and exposes all those working in the new furnaces and steam engines to new ideas, which won't stop whatever Clyntahn tries to do.

When Clyntahn realizes the proscriptions are hopelessly overturned and lost, that he's the one who approved all the dispensations, he might consider suicide; although I doubt he'll go through with it.

L

McGuiness wrote:Thanks RFC for the double and very LONG snippet. Glad to hear that the delay was due to life interfering, as well as work on HFQ and the next Honorverse book, which we're already drooling over...

I had to wince when I imagined the MHoG armed with tens of thousands of rockets, but clearly it will arrive before any rockets will be available in quantity. So the ICA may get a chance to blow much of it away with long range artillery before it arrives. Thankfully those 600,000 rifles it will be carrying are still the old-style bore loading type.

Kaitswyrth is clearly being hung out to dry, and he'll be toast before any reinforcements can arrive to save him. He's beaten in his own mind, and the Army of Cliff Peak, possibly aided by some of Eastshare's troops can destroy him before he gets too many of the latest gadgets.

That also means the first of the concentration camps to be "discovered" will be in Cliff Peak, and Kaitswyrth will get the blame. (Which he richly deserves, since he's a fanatic.) The Siddarmarkan troops working with Earl Highmount are going to have a serious desire for vengeance - which means rolling out the bagpipes and playing THAT song... This time the ICA may go along with the "take no prisoners" mindset, having seen the horrors of the death camps. In fact, it's going to be very hard to convince the ICA to show mercy and take prisoners once their troops see a concentration camp, no matter who is commanding them or what their orders are. As for the Siddarmarkan troops taking prisoners, forget it! (Which is going to be rather hard on the local TL civilians as well...) This is going to get seriously ugly!

Kill Kaitswyrth off as soon as possible, rescue the prisoners in the Cliff Peak concentration camps, and encircle and destroy Wyrshym before reinforcements arrive with those annoying new weapons... Otherwise the death toll will go up alarmingly, and the ICA can't train and send new troops fast enough to make up for combat losses, even though they're now getting volunteers from all across the empire, including Corisande. (Clyntahn has always been the CoGA's worst enemy!)

Ditto with those who have noted how adding women to manufacturing will change the social dynamic in church controlled countries, plus the manufacturing circles are going to break several of the guilds for good.

It's tough to believe how much trouble one stolen briefcase is going to cost the good guys. The Charisian engineers shouldn't have been able to carry classified documents anywhere in Siddar City without a platoon to guard them! Oh well, that horse has left the barn...