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| Re: Optimal Charisian Navy (IMHO) | |
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by AirTech
» Sun Jul 26, 2015 9:25 am
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AirTech
Posts: 476
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Could try Budweiser - I hear the Czech version actually passes as beer to most peoples standards...(The American stuff just gets passed...(Bud lite is a soft drink on most of the planet)). |
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| Re: Optimal Charisian Navy (IMHO) | |
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by LordSunhawk
» Sun Jul 26, 2015 3:43 pm
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LordSunhawk
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Honestly, Dilandru's arguments all seem to stem from a fatal mix of Jefferson's Gunboats (We can build all these little ships and thus outgun anybody who tries to attack us!) and the worst aspects of the jeune ecole.
The major naval powers did build small gunboats... for showing the flag and gunboat diplomacy at distant stations against enemies who would at worst throw rocks at them. When they needed to protect against real commerce raiders, they needed cruisers, not hordes of little gunboats. |
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| Re: Optimal Charisian Navy (IMHO) | |
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by n7axw
» Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:51 pm
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n7axw
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Gunboats could have their place in an overall force mix. The concept of the PT boat has some similarity and that was reasonably successful, after all. My problem with Dilandu's proposal is that he seems to want to use the things exclusively. I agree with your comment about cruisers, although that is a bit more long term. For the short term, as long as what we are looking at are covoys of sailing ships and commerce raiders that are also sail powered, I would think that building large numbers of schooners armed with smooth bore cannon would be fine, at least until you start encountering explosive shells. Then you focus your ironclads on coastal work hunting down the shipyards building the privateers. Don When any group seeks political power in God's name, both religion and politics are instantly corrupted.
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| Re: Optimal Charisian Navy (IMHO) | |
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by chrisd
» Wed Jul 29, 2015 3:03 am
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chrisd
Posts: 348
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You really must hate him. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy, even to put him out if he was on fire. A bottle of "Old Speckled Hen", "IPA" or "Black Sheep" would be far better value. Last edited by chrisd on Wed Sep 02, 2015 12:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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| Re: Optimal Charisian Navy (IMHO) | |
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by SWM
» Wed Jul 29, 2015 8:02 am
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SWM
Posts: 5928
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David has indicated that LACs are the equivalent of PT boats in the Honorverse. --------------------------------------------
Librarian: The Original Search Engine |
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| Re: Optimal Charisian Navy (IMHO) | |
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by Dilandu
» Thu Jul 30, 2015 4:40 am
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Dilandu
Posts: 2541
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As you recall, I propose relatively big, sea-capable gunboats - actually, more a small screw sloops. ------------------------------
Oh well, if shortening the front is what the Germans crave, Let's shorten it to very end - the length of Fuhrer's grave. (Red Army lyrics from 1945) |
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| Re: Optimal Charisian Navy (IMHO) | |
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by LordSunhawk
» Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:28 am
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LordSunhawk
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I would argue that the City-class coastal gunboats are rather close to the sort of convoy escorts that Charis would need as more are built. The 'vulnerable' zone for Charis commerce is relatively narrow due to the geography, so shuttling convoys using City's would be an effective countermeasure to the privateer problem. And we've seen just how seaworthy these 'coastal and riverine' gunboats are proving to be.
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| Re: Optimal Charisian Navy (IMHO) | |
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by n7axw
» Thu Jul 30, 2015 5:22 pm
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n7axw
Posts: 5997
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There is no question but what the Cities could do convoy duty. The issue would be whether or not the EOC could build enough of them to meet current demand. That I doubt. Given all the other demands on Charis' industrial plant at the moment, I would rather strongly believe that the Cities have about as much priority as Charis can afford to give them right now.
That is why in an earlier post, I proposed using them primarily for coastal work snuffing out shipyards building commerce raiders and in the short to intermediate term future increase the number of schooners available for convoy duty. Don When any group seeks political power in God's name, both religion and politics are instantly corrupted.
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| Re: Optimal Charisian Navy (IMHO) | |
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by LordSunhawk
» Fri Jul 31, 2015 11:57 am
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LordSunhawk
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Each City-class used inshore for patrol and interdiction will release several schooners, the advantage of not being dependent on the vagaries of the winds. Thus in the short term those schooners can be used for convoy escort, but as the number of City-class ships increase the schooner crews can be retrained as City-class crews and slowly replaced at the role.
As for the armored galleons, I'd argue that a few sub-optimal ironclads *now* are very valuable, and once there are some free steam engines they can be readily refitted (note that the Royal Navy had an extensive program of fitting steam engines to existing sailing ships of the line and frigates, and those ships did good work) Finally, I'll note that the production of steam engines will be a geometric progression, especially since we won't be seeing all that many dead ends thanks to OWL. As more Works come online, the steam engine bottleneck will vanish. What I'd be really interested in seeing is how long it takes to crack gear-cutting and making proper reduction gears, allowing a switch to proper steam turbine designs. |
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| Re: Optimal Charisian Navy (IMHO) | |
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by McGuiness
» Sat Aug 01, 2015 2:01 pm
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McGuiness
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Isn't that an Irish relative of mine?  "Oh bother", said Pooh as he glanced through the airlock window at the helmet he'd forgotten to wear. |
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