I beg to differ on how far down they are on Howsmyn's 'to do' list.
Guys, landing craft are far more useful and flexible than just expediting amphibious landings, if you have ever perused the history of landing craft, especially in WW2.
Operating as harbor tugs, ferries, and lighters also easily fit their capabilities, and acting as canal barge tugs [if they're further down the list] could easily speed up if not revolutionize the alliance's advantage of interior lines while releasing the ironclads for more offensive missions, since 8 mph 26.516666/5day is 4-5 times as fast as dragons can tow them; remembering the first LCT's were only a little longer than the 140' X 40' lock dimensions we've been given, while the much smaller first LCM Mk-1's could carry a 16 long ton Valentine tank, and 4 of them could fit into a theoretical small 30' X 100' canal lock, if that is the size of the smaller locks.
RFC has reminded us a few times that he simply doesn't have the words or space to detail everything the inner circle is doing or having done, but that we should anticipate if its a wise or smart thing to do within their non-electric capabilities, they're probably already doing it, so yes I believe various steam engines have their own assembly lines to meet the demand and the landing craft are being built and stockpiled for the anticipated or suggested Temple Bay invasion.
Granted, previous threads on the subject [by your humble servant] have concentrated on the expected invasion of the temple lands by BGV and his winterized army, ie Zion and the temple specifically, by steaming up the Zion river, possibly overnight, to the great surprise of the Go4 [or what's left of it] etc sometime latter this summer since the trip from Salyk in Spinefish Bay might take only a 5day or two screened by the ICN to achieve real strategic surprise.
And while the ICN may not have LCAC's yet, I expect the non-brain dead inner circle to have telescoped landing craft development [courtesy of RFC] the way 'they' condensed our several century history of gunpowder weapons up to the 20th, into just 5 years which ought to be fascinating when RFC gets around to describing them; ie avoiding almost all mistakes without being obvious, thanks to their knowledge of Terran history, NTM with OWL having modeled the behavior of the various class prototypes, although steam horse transports {the "SHT's"?
] will obviously be a new class, though with proper hygiene and sanitation as particular features; probably involving steam powered pumps, hoses and steam powered fresh water condensers [yet to be mentioned specifically in textev, yet I believe obviously already in hand for the KH VII's] among other useful and obvious inventions.Please feel free to offer your own insightful suggestions on what RFC might have in mind.
Since the steam powered landing craft were being worked on before the SoS, I'll bet they're being continually improved NTM produced for that strategic surprise.
Unlike the ironclads, I suspect they'll be carried in the equivalent of LPD/LST's or landing craft carriers, besides the troop carriers, possibly using the original combined steam and sail designs [in the 5000+ ton range], with vastly increased carrying capacity since they're unarmored etc so they can also be built much faster.
You may also remember that I've suggested they'd make excellent coal colliers for the KH VII's, besides troop and horse transports, probably with several built-in steam powered cranes and hoists since no port outside Charis and possibly Chisholm and Emerald are so equipped.
In case you're curious, the USN landing at Vera Cruz in 1847 used three different sized 'surf boats' or landing craft, carefully designed so they'd fit or nest inside each other to reduce the volume they required, possibly the first specially built craft.
L
McGuiness wrote:That's true, although I expect that steam powered landing craft will be developed once there's a need for them. Right now those would be waaay down on Howsmyn's "to do" list. They'd be worthless for covert ops, and they wouldn't be much fun to travel in - ask the men who sailed to Corisande in the larger landing craft. I suspect they kissed the ground when they finally arrived!Rawb wrote:This was before the actual operations plan for the war in Siddarmark was drawn up; the landing craft would've come in handy in a lot of scenarios, like if they needed to land Marines in strength in the Army of the Sylmahn's rear.
