Ramifications from HFQ- Speculations-Spoilers!

Clyntahn sent him a letter with a story about Charisians attacking and a spectacular battle. Thirsk knew from an eyewitness that there was only one explosion, not an exchange of fire.

In WWI and WWII the big killer in the battlefield is artillery. Until tanks comes along, any infantry moving in mass will be susceptible to artillery barrages, and the state of the art of the Allied artillery, once they get a better shell filler than black powder, is more destructive than machine guns.

The staff sling grenade "launchers" may have been impressive, but I'll take a 105mm massed battery firing airbursts anytime against a human wave attack.

I also read with interest Merlin's introduction of Fed Tech in the maelstrom. The remotes armed with black powder weapons and now the 500# bomb.

I also noted with interest the inner circle's pushing of using their tech advantages, via the coms and the PICAs, much, much more.

However, those items, plus the SNARC remotes with hypodermic needles, does raise even more questions about "why now and not 3 years ago"?

It almost seems a frantic introduction... Not sure why, but I just have this nagging thought somewhere in the back of my mind...

That eyewitness was likely Nimue in disguise. Someone had to report the ship was destroyed and the passengers died.

Expert snuggler wrote:Clyntahn sent him a letter with a story about Charisians attacking and a spectacular battle. Thirsk knew from an eyewitness that there was only one explosion, not an exchange of fire.

PeterZ wrote:Clyntahn believes his motives are congruent with God's. That belief will definitely encourage him into being irrational. That doesn't mean he doesn't recognize reality, that means only that his expected outcome of unfolding events will generally support his goals. I agree that as the outcomes do not support his goals, he will try to take more and more direct control of events.

In short Clyntahn will tend to do what he thinks best or comes most naturally to him and expect the outcome to be positive with respect to his goals. That sort of irrationality is not inconsistent with what I assert.

I suppose there are different ways of defining what it means to not recognize reality.

His notion of having the inquisition take over the Jihad and do without Maigwair, Duchairn and their technicians doesn't seem to me to demonstrate a very strong grasp on reality.

In fact the man makes one poor decision after another, usually based on what he wishes reality was rather than what it really is. Such meddling where he is obviously unqualified has been God's gift to Charis.

Don

CRC wrote:In WWI and WWII the big killer in the battlefield is artillery. Until tanks comes along, any infantry moving in mass will be susceptible to artillery barrages, and the state of the art of the Allied artillery, once they get a better shell filler than black powder, is more destructive than machine guns.

The staff sling grenade "launchers" may have been impressive, but I'll take a 105mm massed battery firing airbursts anytime against a human wave attack.

You're right, artillery was the big killer in the world wars. But I don't think the artillery on either side is up to the level of WWI. Yet. Also, even though Charis's fire control is way better than everybody else on Safehold, they are still not as good as that of WWI. The AoG does not even come close.

I think the overall tech level of the armies is roughly equivalent to the late 1800s. Somewhere between the level of the Franco-Prussian war and the Spanish-American War. And in that period, rifle fire was still more important than it was in the later, more mechanized era of World Wars.

Henry Brown wrote:

CRC wrote:In WWI and WWII the big killer in the battlefield is artillery. Until tanks comes along, any infantry moving in mass will be susceptible to artillery barrages, and the state of the art of the Allied artillery, once they get a better shell filler than black powder, is more destructive than machine guns.

The staff sling grenade "launchers" may have been impressive, but I'll take a 105mm massed battery firing airbursts anytime against a human wave attack.

You're right, artillery was the big killer in the world wars. But I don't think the artillery on either side is up to the level of WWI. Yet. Also, even though Charis's fire control is way better than everybody else on Safehold, they are still not as good as that of WWI. The AoG does not even come close.

I think the overall tech level of the armies is roughly equivalent to the late 1800s. Somewhere between the level of the Franco-Prussian war and the Spanish-American War. And in that period, rifle fire was still more important than it was in the later, more mechanized era of World Wars.

Not too sure about that. The prolific use of mortars at the squad level is far more than even WWI at this point. They still have a long way to go in control and Time On Target, but their volume is pretty far along right now. Especially in the naval 6" breach loader model.


While the 'mighty host' is holding off for the winter, the Alliance will be increasing the number of breach loading artillery, and quite frankly, now that Merlin has started the process, 500# laser guided bombs taking out the headquarters units in a night time bombardment would essentially decapitate the leadership.

Now that they have started to liberate the death camps, the Alliance holds the moral high ground and Siddimark will become increasingly vengeful. There really is no reason for Merlin to hold off on using Fed Tech with a couple of million troops headed your way.

Semi-auto and auto are still a long ways off-as in a couple of years. They have to switch to smokeless powders first and manufacture that in volume. (Unless they hand out the assault weapons from Nimue's cave - shades of Guns of the South!)

Not too sure about that. The prolific use of mortars at the squad level is far more than even WWI at this point. They still have a long way to go in control and Time On Target, but their volume is pretty far along right now. Especially in the naval 6" breach loader model.


While the 'mighty host' is holding off for the winter, the Alliance will be increasing the number of breach loading artillery, and quite frankly, now that Merlin has started the process, 500# laser guided bombs taking out the headquarters units in a night time bombardment would essentially decapitate the leadership.

Now that they have started to liberate the death camps, the Alliance holds the moral high ground and Siddimark will become increasingly vengeful. There really is no reason for Merlin to hold off on using Fed Tech with a couple of million troops headed your way.

Semi-auto and auto are still a long ways off-as in a couple of years. They have to switch to smokeless powders first and manufacture that in volume. (Unless they hand out the assault weapons from Nimue's cave - shades of Guns of the South!)[/quote]

Don't forget the improvement in fire control that could be on the way soon..

Ramhawkfan wrote:Don't forget the improvement in fire control that could be on the way soon..

Exactly what is the improvement in fire control that is on the way? I seem to remember a mention of it in HFQ. But I do not remember specifics being discussed.

PeterZ wrote:That eyewitness was likely Nimue in disguise. Someone had to report the ship was destroyed and the passengers died.

Expert snuggler wrote:Clyntahn sent him a letter with a story about Charisians attacking and a spectacular battle. Thirsk knew from an eyewitness that there was only one explosion, not an exchange of fire.

Agreed. There's a history of "fishermen" disappearing after reporting something that Merlin wanted to have reported.

Thirsk is taking the report at face value.

Unless they say "Your family are free to leave Charis for any destination you and they agree on", Thirsk is going to have emotional trouble with it.