Hi PeterZ,
I think you may be giving me too much credit, but the extra power for barge pulling seems right on the mark!
Kudos for being very clever or insightful! :-)
If the ironclad guns have ranges of at least 2 miles (2.5-3?), it's likely most of the supplies the CoGA armies are depending upon will be in range of them from the canals, so it becomes a matter of ammunition supply versus target quality.
I suspect they may not arrive until summer, but their effect on animal transport via the steam whistle if it is especially set (thanks to OWL) for irritating dragons and horses, could stampede what isn't killed by shells, considerably delaying any movement by the CoGA armies to say the least.
While the ironclad will have marines, getting around barges in front of it or sunk to delay its advance will require some time or very wide canals.
It will be interesting to see if either Clyntahn or Maigwair expect to live off the land in the buffer states to speed up their advance, and whether the republic will do the same in its turn a year or so later.
The combination of the ironclads and OWL's arsenal ought to go a long way in delaying the temple armies.
If the temple guard armies burn or attempt to destroy the buffer state crops during their retreat, the buffer states might welcome the Siddarmarkians just to stop it before they starve, or are forced to head south, abandoning their lands and homes of centuries, if not join the anti-Go4 alliance.
A major problem for the rapidity of Siddarmark's pursuit will be horses and dragons unless many if not most are captured from the CoGA armies, but the ironclads can help limit the number towing canal barges.
Hopefully there will be many steam engines sent to be installed in canal barges to be tugs to provide the power for two way traffic back to the ports, not just at the front.
L
PeterZ wrote:Lyonheart, Hallofaman;
RFC couldn't resist and had to provide clues for you. His post revisited their river/canal roots. His prior posts have emphasized the centrality of Siddermark. All in all I think Lyonheart may have nailed it earlier when he guessed that the casement ironclads would be used in the Siddermarkian interior where all that extra horse power he designed into them can tow freight in addition to its guns and armour.
One or two may cruise the Gulf of Dohlar or the coast of Howard looking for those river schooner yards. The majority would find more profitable use in Siddermark.
As I see it, the CoGA allies MUST keept he canals open or they cannot supply their armies. The defenses the church forces will erect will be directed at land forces. As they see it anything on the canal itself will need to be pulled by draft animals. The best defense against the ironclads is to destroy the canals. The church forces can't do that without destroying their abiltiy to propgress deeper into Siddermark.
So, the ironclads blow throught the CoGA lines at the canal then canister/grape shot the church forces from behind their lines. The Corisandian cavalry charges in and shatters the remaining formation to a fare-thee-well.
If they have already progressed deep enough into Siddermark that overland dragon freight can manage to supply the army from the end of the canal, that simply means they have a long supply line behind them that can be cut. I suspect that the main Church force would have to be defeated in a decisive battle. If they are defeated slowly over a longer period, they can thoroughly screw over the canals in their retreat. That would been a delay of any follow through into the Temple Lands by perhaps years.
Between the towing capacity of the ironclads, their firepower and their shallow daft, I truly can't see a more profitable use for them. I may be wrong. If so, anyone feel free to enlighten this poor tactician/strategist.
lyonheart wrote:Hi Hallofaman,
The Spanish navy in the Spanish-American war was older and generally more obsolete than the American in an era of constant changing technology, but not in all cases and it was hardly wooden galleon types of the Spanish armada period.
Your implication RFC intends to replicate the battle of Santiago seems unlikely to me because the ironclad doesn't fit, being technically obsolete in several ways, NTM the gulf of Dohlar doesn't replicate the Caribbean, especially Santiago bay.
But certain aspects might seem similar simply because the 19th century navies saw so many dramatic changes in the last fifty years.
I suspect an ocean going ironclad capable of sustained 9.5 mph will be able to run down almost any ship it meets and destroy it.
It may be the wooden Dohlar navy may attempt to run from Gorath Bay when the Charisian-Siddarmark alliance army has made it unsafe; running a gauntlet of the ironclads if they are ready as quickly as some think, before attempting to out-sail the wooden near-frigates of the ICN, with similar results to the Spanish Navy's.
But RFC is usually much more inventive than that.
L
Hallofaman wrote:When i was around 11 i was verry interested in war histroy, and i remember reading that in the spanish american war, a few number of american ironclads smashed a huge number of spanish wooden gallons.... (my memory may be a little foggy :)
now look at that huge down-load RFC just gave us when he was ansering a few questions on this verry forum....
WHAT DID HE SAY ABOUT THE GULF OF DOHLAR? he talked about how the kingdom of dohlar tried to dominate its trade but he also hinted that the ocean going vessals of the EoC was not really necsary for local trade there....
for that matter where not their galleys the smallest of them all....
AND kingdom of Dohlar has the only navey left at this point... ( and maybe the southern Harchong empire, but we don't need to worry about them)
Just what i think might happen....
runsforcelery wrote:In fact, their machinery is superior in design to that of the Royal Sovereign of 1891 (which I assume is the ship you're citing here), and their screw design is markedly superior (having been modeled courtesy of Owl), allowing them to transmit power much more effectively to the water. Having said that, the comparative power output of these ships is going to be lower than the advantages of small tube boilers and higher steam pressures might seem to imply, since the RS had three-cylinder engines and they have only two-cylinder engines. Power output will, however, be substantially superior to that of the Cornelia Marie's diesels, albeit at a far greater penalty in weight.
In calm waters, they certainly would make the speeds I gave; off soundings, things will be quite different. As you rightly point out, they will tend to drive into and through seas rather than riding over them, which will hugely increase drag and lower speed. I'm estimating a sustained sea speed of 12 Safeholdian knots/mph (just under 10.5 knots by our measure) up to about a sea state of Force 6 on the Beaufort Scale, dropping steadily after that. Up to about Force 3 or even Force 4, they ought to come pretty close to their listed maximum speed. Note that when I say "up to about" Force 6, I mean to imply stopping at Force 6 (10-ft wave height) as a maximum. By the time you get above 10' wave heights, they are going to be forced to reduce speed fairly drastically.
One thing to bear in mind is that these ships have almost twice the power they actually need. There are reasons for this (given in the book), but basically they duplicated the power plant (and number of screws) which gave the barges a speed of about 12 knots in river/canal conditions when they decided to convert them into warships. As such, even with their twin-cylinder engines, their power-to-weight ratio is higher than that of the RS, although the RS's much better blue-water hull form would go a long way to equalize that because it can be driven more efficiently.
