Pre-industrial Fantasy STGOD OOC/Rules Thread:

[Eternal_Freedom]

By all means continue negotiating for guns, we're happy to help

[madd0ct0r]

What's the name of the cat's in alaska bastians?

[Simon_Jester]

Er, to emphasize and correct, E_F, yes weight-reduced guns are being requested, for the entire run of (I settled on) ninety total. I do not believe I ever stated otherwise (though the number ninety is new).

Also being purchased are the thirty field-carriages.

What is not being requested is weight-reduced ammunition, or the powder you use to cancel that weight-reduction after the ball leaves the muzzle. The Ohioans are apparently supplying their own powder and shot, as well as (presumably) carriages of their own design for the other sixty guns.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Ah, sorry, missed that part. That being the case you can assume that General Warwick was swayed by the Chief Master's comment about it being impossible for Ohio to reverse-engineer the enchantments.

[Esquire]

A propos of absolutely nothing, I give you all the Sultan's [Highly Un]Offical Seal of Approval:

[MissingAxis]

All right, I'm gonna throw up a couple small posts for Esquire and Eternal_Freedom here in a bit, to get the ball rolling. I've been busy at work and away from the computer in my off-time, so I hadn't gotten a chance to do it earlier. Hopefully you two didn't think I up and vanished.

[Eternal_Freedom]

No problem man, I understand being busy. Incidentally, what is your faction called? I just referred to "the Chesapeake Bay" when talking with how things are getting worse between you and Orion.

[Esquire]

All right, I'm gonna throw up a couple small posts for Esquire and Eternal_Freedom here in a bit, to get the ball rolling. I've been busy at work and away from the computer in my off-time, so I hadn't gotten a chance to do it earlier. Hopefully you two didn't think I up and vanished.

Not at all, we're none of us particularly active this week.

[Simon_Jester]

Coop D'etat, if you read this, could you please check your PMs? I sent you something the day before yesterday, just for the record. It's not finished but I would very much appreciate your review before I try to finish it.

[MissingAxis]

No problem man, I understand being busy. Incidentally, what is your faction called? I just referred to "the Chesapeake Bay" when talking with how things are getting worse between you and Orion.

La Repubblica d'Liberti or simply the Republic, to the citizens of it. Foreigners might call it the Republic of Chesapeake Bay or something like that.

[Zwinmar]

Wanted to talk about laying iron railroad tracks. I know they were used primarily for mining OTL so I was wondering what you guys thought of me laying three trunk lines pulled by bison, no steam engines obviously as I do not see the pump as being overly necessary at this time for the deep mine shafts. Though I could well be wrong there as I do not have much knowledge of mineral deposits in the area.

[Esquire]

I've got no moral objection to it, but I think - think, I'm certainly no expert - that any large quantity of iron rails is really, really expensive to cast without more advanced industrial technology than most of us have. The Ottomans would be happy to sell you as much iron as you want, though.

[madd0ct0r]

pm me - can talk about early rails.

[Simon_Jester]

To make iron rails and maintain them would basically require rolling mills, and at the speed of animal-drawn transport, there isn't much point. Wooden rails would be in many respects more cost-effective, and in the dry climate of the Great Plains would last a reasonably long time. Sure, you'd have to buy timber... but wood is far cheaper than iron.

Thin iron strips to face the rails would be basically plausible.

You really only need iron rails when you have reciprocating steam engines hammering up and down the tracks at twenty, thirty, or forty miles an hour all the time.

Look up a "wagonway" or "plateway."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagonway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plateway

Anyway, I'd say allow this, if only to ease the otherwise very nasty logistical problems raised by a kingdom on the Great Plains. The rivers in that area tend to be very shallow, so without some kind of artificial Royal Roads capable of handling large amounts of cargo, it's hard to maintain an actual country. Ohio has no major trackways or wagonways comparable to this in scale... but Ohio relies heavily on its network of rivers and canals to achieve the same purpose.

[The Romulan Republic]

Seems reasonable to me as well.

[madd0ct0r]

The UK rails (and even canals) were built to link concentrated points. The holy quartet of quarry to factory to docks to market. The concentrated cargo encouraged urbanisation. It wasnt until later a trunk rail looked like a profitable enetrpise and even then it wasnt.

The flat great plains means building wood rails probably isn't much more expensive then roads, escislly if timber is more available than crushed stone. You need a lot of heavy cargo unsuited for rough road. Pottery comes to mind.

[Simon_Jester]

Since Coop d'Etat hasn't visited the forum in five days, and when he did visit a day after my sending my PM, he didn't reply to it... I am going to try to write my storypost regardless.

For me this constitutes the last thing I want to happen in actual winter.

I wish Coop were here, his judgment and advice would be quite welcome.

[Zwinmar]

alright, thank you

[Simon_Jester]

By the way, maddoc, can I get a summary in prose of exactly what's happened to Bralla so far? I'm getting... confused; saga poetry is not my strong suit.

[madd0ct0r]

Sure. I'll post it up tomorrow. Short version is her pack found a gold mine in the north west territory border with Nunavut, beat the sorcerer who had it with the help of slaved miners and now hope to use it as a source of wealth to launch a new conquest westwards.

[Simon_Jester]

So I decided to just post. I hope it is mildly amusing; as noted this is the last "has to happen in winter" thing for me.

And yes, I'm staking out a claim. The Orions may have invented calculus, the Thyrs appear to have invented the railroad... but Ohio invented rock-paper-scissors!

[madd0ct0r]

By the way, maddoc, can I get a summary in prose of exactly what's happened to Bralla so far? I'm getting... confused; saga poetry is not my strong suit.

Simon ain't shy, and it's the second time he's had to ask. Is the poetry too hard to follow? Would other people also like me to switch to prose for the rest of the game? I'm happy either way.

[Esquire]

It's a little hard to follow, certainly, but also adds a nice flavor. Maybe just add a more detailed prose summary at the end?

[Eternal_Freedom]

So I decided to just post. I hope it is mildly amusing; as noted this is the last "has to happen in winter" thing for me.

And yes, I'm staking out a claim. The Orions may have invented calculus, the Thyrs appear to have invented the railroad... but Ohio invented rock-paper-scissors!

You can have your rock-paper-scissors, I'll be content with inventing Calculus (and other Newtonian goodness).

[Zwinmar]

I would like some help coming up with the point value of each mage unit:

Each consists of three members:
Mage-casts the spells, however while doing so it leaves him highly vulnerable to attack from creatures of the aether or physical. While casting the mage is a beacon in the aether, calling forth the daemons which reside there. By latching on to the mage or the sentinel the daemon can be made manifest in the physical.
Warrior-protects the unit in the physical realm. Highly skilled, usually heavily armed and armored.
Sentinel-protects the unit in the aether. Usually more lightly armored than the Warrior, relying more on range in the physical. Though while projected into the aether they are juggernauts.

*side note: was contemplating the possibility of having the sentinel and warrior being something like a Witcher. Though not sure on that.