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MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware

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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by warchild   » Wed Mar 28, 2012 4:18 pm

warchild
Lieutenant (Junior Grade)

Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 2:52 am

Hi Dutch

We dont know if the Locks are hand pumped or wind/water mill powered. I would suspect that they are wind powered like the water storage tanks discribed in HFaF. Or they could just let them be filled by the water above draining in, and lowered by the water draning out. Both ways would be much quicker then having to pump water into them.

As for the Canal system we dont know if its a one way straight ave like you suggest it could be, or if there are multipal lines going off of one Lock area like a terminal for trains. Where the Lock only acts as a lowering gate to the next network area.

But thats how im imagining it will be, more spiderweb and less US Interstate I80
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by kbus888   » Wed Mar 28, 2012 7:27 pm

kbus888
Vice Admiral

Posts: 1980
Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 11:58 pm
Location: Eastern Canada

But if Charis is using the Silkiah canal while Silkiah is one of Charis' ally, sitting ducks in a friendly pond are in very little danger - - -

R

Dutch46 wrote:
kbus888 wrote:On a slightly different tack, I'll love to read about Clyntahn's reaction when Charis uses the Silkiahn canal for military maneuvers.

I wonder if he'll jump to the (I think corrct) conclusion that Silkiah is now solidly in the Charis camp ?

Duchairn will be royally ticked off since the los of tithes from Siddarmark and Silkiah will greatly affect the Church's finances.

R



I would like to point out that once a vessel has entered a canal that has locks, it becomes pretty much a sitting duck. It can go either forward or backwards, that's it. Once it enters a lock, it becomes a stationary object until the water level has been equalized between it and the direction in which it wishes to go. If that requires raising the level, it may well be a long process since pumping has to be done by hand. Should either the lock gates or the means of raising or lowering the level be damaged or made inoperative while the vessel is in the lock, it becomes fixed in place until the offending condition can be corrected. This is why I think that the river ironclads will only enter the locks if the entire route of the canal is securely held in the hands of the Charisian armed forces and spend as little time as possible in them.

My guess as to how they will be employed is that they will be used to interdict the shipments of supplies that are surely being sent between the southern lands and the Temple Lands through the Gulf of Dohlar. In addition, I expect them to render close in fire support as Charis works to dismantle the remaining ship building and staging areas of coastal northern Howard, West Haven, Dohlar and the other Temple Land buffer states. Given that there are only a few, Merlin will determine through the use of his reconnaissance platforms which areas will provide the best use of these limited resources.

Siddarmark is a very large area and both the CoGA and Charis will find their supply lines severely stretched by the campaign to save Siddarmark thus best use of available resources will become extremely important. I expect that Charis will have a very long leg up on the Temple Lands on that score. Clynthan, while he may be very intelligent, appears to have a severe case of tunnel vision when it comes to how to go about getting people to cooperate. Willing cooperation always yields better esults that coerced cooperation. He also appears clueless about finances and, as the earth has amply demonstrated many times, while lack of money may not bring a war to a halt, it will surely put a crimp into the ability to fight it causing shortages, inflation and a whole host of other problems.
..//* *\\
(/(..^..)\)
.._/'*'\_
.(,,,)^(,,,)

Love is a condition in which
the happiness of another
is essential to your own. - R Heinlein
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by beau058   » Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:28 pm

beau058
Midshipman

Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:00 pm

wow,by discription offered it sounds like the civil war "Virginia" which fought the "Monitor" to a standstill after destroying 2 union ships.open ocean seawothyness will be Questionable
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by phillies   » Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:39 pm

phillies
Admiral

Posts: 2077
Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2010 9:43 am
Location: Worcester, MA

First, even under modern conditions you do not pump locks, you drain water in or out. Second, if one were to be pumping on Charis, one would surely use windmills, that being the only way to pump. Third, riverine ships are always under the constraint that they are largely confined to a line, though on a broad river the line is indeed broad.


Dutch46 wrote:
kbus888 wrote:On a slightly different tack, I'll love to read about Clyntahn's reaction when Charis uses the Silkiahn canal for military maneuvers.

I wonder if he'll jump to the (I think corrct) conclusion that Silkiah is now solidly in the Charis camp ?

Duchairn will be royally ticked off since the los of tithes from Siddarmark and Silkiah will greatly affect the Church's finances.

R



I would like to point out that once a vessel has entered a canal that has locks, it becomes pretty much a sitting duck. It can go either forward or backwards, that's it. Once it enters a lock, it becomes a stationary object until the water level has been equalized between it and the direction in which it wishes to go. If that requires raising the level, it may well be a long process since pumping has to be done by hand. Should either the lock gates or the means of raising or lowering the level be damaged or made inoperative while the vessel is in the lock, it becomes fixed in place until the offending condition can be corrected. This is why I think that the river ironclads will only enter the locks if the entire route of the canal is securely held in the hands of the Charisian armed forces and spend as little time as possible in them.

My guess as to how they will be employed is that they will be used to interdict the shipments of supplies that are surely being sent between the southern lands and the Temple Lands through the Gulf of Dohlar. In addition, I expect them to render close in fire support as Charis works to dismantle the remaining ship building and staging areas of coastal northern Howard, West Haven, Dohlar and the other Temple Land buffer states. Given that there are only a few, Merlin will determine through the use of his reconnaissance platforms which areas will provide the best use of these limited resources.

Siddarmark is a very large area and both the CoGA and Charis will find their supply lines severely stretched by the campaign to save Siddarmark thus best use of available resources will become extremely important. I expect that Charis will have a very long leg up on the Temple Lands on that score. Clynthan, while he may be very intelligent, appears to have a severe case of tunnel vision when it comes to how to go about getting people to cooperate. Willing cooperation always yields better esults that coerced cooperation. He also appears clueless about finances and, as the earth has amply demonstrated many times, while lack of money may not bring a war to a halt, it will surely put a crimp into the ability to fight it causing shortages, inflation and a whole host of other problems.
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by chickladoria   » Wed Mar 28, 2012 10:00 pm

chickladoria
Captain (Junior Grade)

Posts: 355
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2012 7:23 pm

I suppose information about the rating of sedimentation in the canals will be revealed eventually. I assume as well as using locks wisely (consider the locks in Ottawa on the river running towards Salsbury) the Safeholdians have a mechanism for removing sediments given the amount of upland territory in Haven.

Just picking nits.
Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by phillies   » Wed Mar 28, 2012 10:41 pm

phillies
Admiral

Posts: 2077
Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2010 9:43 am
Location: Worcester, MA

chickladoria wrote:I suppose information about the rating of sedimentation in the canals will be revealed eventually. I assume as well as using locks wisely (consider the locks in Ottawa on the river running towards Salsbury) the Safeholdians have a mechanism for removing sediments given the amount of upland territory in Haven.

Just picking nits.


Excellent point!

A modest aside on hardware. Gunpowder is just introduced. Do the Safeholders know about the fractional recrystallization to isolate potassium nitrate for gunpowder. When I was walked through high school chemistry ... yes this was after the invention of gunpowder ... the claim was made that using the potassium salt rather than the sodium was extremely important, and fortunately the differing solubilities of the two salts in hot and cold water let you do this. Of course, the claim could be an old wive's tale.

Mind you, I have no idea at all *why* changing the cation makes a significant difference. However, it is something that Merlin is unlikely to know about so as to introduce readily, Federation starships not being armed with black powder cannon.
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by lyonheart   » Wed Mar 28, 2012 11:15 pm

lyonheart
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 4853
Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:27 pm

Hi OJsDad,

Thanks for making me smile.

L


OJsDad wrote:
runsforcelery wrote:I'm going to go away now. Don't ask me any more questions. I have other things I need to do and you have a book coming out in September which will answer quite a few of them . . . and undoubtedly provoke still more.


When I first read this, I thought of Gandalf.
Any snippet or post from RFC is good if not great!
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by runsforcelery   » Wed Mar 28, 2012 11:22 pm

runsforcelery
First Space Lord

Posts: 2425
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 11:39 am
Location: South Carolina

phillies wrote:First, even under modern conditions you do not pump locks, you drain water in or out. Second, if one were to be pumping on Charis, one would surely use windmills, that being the only way to pump. Third, riverine ships are always under the constraint that they are largely confined to a line, though on a broad river the line is indeed broad.


Dutch46 wrote:
kbus888 wrote:On a slightly different tack, I'll love to read about Clyntahn's reaction when Charis uses the Silkiahn canal for military maneuvers.

I wonder if he'll jump to the (I think corrct) conclusion that Silkiah is now solidly in the Charis camp ?

Duchairn will be royally ticked off since the los of tithes from Siddarmark and Silkiah will greatly affect the Church's finances.

R



I would like to point out that once a vessel has entered a canal that has locks, it becomes pretty much a sitting duck. It can go either forward or backwards, that's it. Once it enters a lock, it becomes a stationary object until the water level has been equalized between it and the direction in which it wishes to go. If that requires raising the level, it may well be a long process since pumping has to be done by hand. Should either the lock gates or the means of raising or lowering the level be damaged or made inoperative while the vessel is in the lock, it becomes fixed in place until the offending condition can be corrected. This is why I think that the river ironclads will only enter the locks if the entire route of the canal is securely held in the hands of the Charisian armed forces and spend as little time as possible in them.

My guess as to how they will be employed is that they will be used to interdict the shipments of supplies that are surely being sent between the southern lands and the Temple Lands through the Gulf of Dohlar. In addition, I expect them to render close in fire support as Charis works to dismantle the remaining ship building and staging areas of coastal northern Howard, West Haven, Dohlar and the other Temple Land buffer states. Given that there are only a few, Merlin will determine through the use of his reconnaissance platforms which areas will provide the best use of these limited resources.

Siddarmark is a very large area and both the CoGA and Charis will find their supply lines severely stretched by the campaign to save Siddarmark thus best use of available resources will become extremely important. I expect that Charis will have a very long leg up on the Temple Lands on that score. Clynthan, while he may be very intelligent, appears to have a severe case of tunnel vision when it comes to how to go about getting people to cooperate. Willing cooperation always yields better esults that coerced cooperation. He also appears clueless about finances and, as the earth has amply demonstrated many times, while lack of money may not bring a war to a halt, it will surely put a crimp into the ability to fight it causing shortages, inflation and a whole host of other problems.



Actually, pumps are used in some instances. Just thought I'd mention it. [G]


"Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as Piglet came back from the dead.
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by lyonheart   » Thu Mar 29, 2012 12:09 am

lyonheart
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 4853
Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:27 pm

Hello RFC,

Right!

They use the pumps to 'prime' the siphons as I recall.

L


runsforcelery wrote:
phillies wrote:First, even under modern conditions you do not pump locks, you drain water in or out. Second, if one were to be pumping on Charis, one would surely use windmills, that being the only way to pump. Third, riverine ships are always under the constraint that they are largely confined to a line, though on a broad river the line is indeed broad.


SNIPPED etc


I would like to point out that once a vessel has entered a canal that has locks, it becomes pretty much a sitting duck. It can go either forward or backwards, that's it. Once it enters a lock, it becomes a stationary object until the water level has been equalized between it and the direction in which it wishes to go. If that requires raising the level, it may well be a long process since pumping has to be done by hand. Should either the lock gates or the means of raising or lowering the level be damaged or made inoperative while the vessel is in the lock, it becomes fixed in place until the offending condition can be corrected. This is why I think that the river ironclads will only enter the locks if the entire route of the canal is securely held in the hands of the Charisian armed forces and spend as little time as possible in them.

My guess as to how they will be employed is that they will be used to interdict the shipments of supplies that are surely being sent between the southern lands and the Temple Lands through the Gulf of Dohlar. In addition, I expect them to render close in fire support as Charis works to dismantle the remaining ship building and staging areas of coastal northern Howard, West Haven, Dohlar and the other Temple Land buffer states. Given that there are only a few, Merlin will determine through the use of his reconnaissance platforms which areas will provide the best use of these limited resources.

Siddarmark is a very large area and both the CoGA and Charis will find their supply lines severely stretched by the campaign to save Siddarmark thus best use of available resources will become extremely important. I expect that Charis will have a very long leg up on the Temple Lands on that score. Clynthan, while he may be very intelligent, appears to have a severe case of tunnel vision when it comes to how to go about getting people to cooperate. Willing cooperation always yields better esults that coerced cooperation. He also appears clueless about finances and, as the earth has amply demonstrated many times, while lack of money may not bring a war to a halt, it will surely put a crimp into the ability to fight it causing shortages, inflation and a whole host of other problems.



Actually, pumps are used in some instances. Just thought I'd mention it. [G]
Any snippet or post from RFC is good if not great!
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Re: MASSIVE SPOILER about next book hardware
Post by Michael Everett   » Thu Mar 29, 2012 3:32 am

Michael Everett
Admiral

Posts: 2619
Joined: Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:54 am
Location: Bristol, England

Does this mean we can jiggle the author's elbow again?
~~~~~~

I can't write anywhere near as well as Weber
But I try nonetheless, And even do my own artwork.

(Now on Twitter)and mentioned by RFC!
ACNH Dreams at DA-6594-0940-7995
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