09-16-2016, 12:56 PM | #11 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Swivel Guns (TL4-TL5)
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However, a small gun like a swivel is quite easy to muzzle-load compared to a gun on a carriage. The point of the swivel mount is that it does not recoil: the mount and the structure of the ship that it is mounted on take the shock without movement beyond brief flexing. To reload it, you can just swing it on the mount so that the muzzle is accessible, and sponge, load and ram it by hand. One man can operate it, and the only real role for a larger gun crew is a second man to pass him implements and ammunition, which will speed up the RoF a bit. For your original questions, I'd use your steel supplies for the mounted muskets, and make the 1- and 3-pounders in bronze. The advantage of iron over bronze was its cheapness, once adequate furnaces were developed, but that doesn't apply in your circumstances. Steel artillery didn't become significant until good steel became cheap at the end of TL5. To make better swivel guns, use good quality control, and invent a better boring machine, to make their bores more truly cylindrical. That seems like a job for your TL4+1 designer. To make rifled muskets effective, invent the Minié ball, and apply good quality control. Again, a good job for a higher-TL man.
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09-16-2016, 02:18 PM | #12 | ||
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Swivel Guns (TL4-TL5)
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Those books on the Armada may also discuss it. We have the reports of how much powder and shot the survivors had when they returned, and one of the things which leapt out is that many of them had fired their small pieces empty but only shot their big guns one or twice a day. Edit: The big advantage of a breech-loader was that you could load the spare chambers in advance. That was a big deal in the days of hand-loading from a ladel while within pistol-shot of a lot of scared angry people. Guns which were too big for a swivel were rarely breach-loaders because of the problems containing the gas with high-tech mechanisms like a hammering a wedge between a frame and the breech.
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09-16-2016, 03:36 PM | #13 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Swivel Guns (TL4-TL5)
Use the low-powered stuff for canister rounds. You'll only be firing those at very close range, so the reduced power is less of a problem.
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09-16-2016, 03:54 PM | #14 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Swivel Guns (TL4-TL5)
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Which is contraindicated. Canister isn't worth much if it can't stop the armoured shock infantry that usually attacks in the first rank of the enemy.
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09-17-2016, 07:02 AM | #15 | |||||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Swivel Guns (TL4-TL5)
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The degree of inefficiency matters to my designers, because of the cost of the smokepowder. On the other hand, this is a fantasy setting with contacts to other lands, and the PCs did recently meet some giff who come from a place where ordinary black powder works. So they'll be able to see normal gun designs and decide whether to retain them for their advantages or discard them because inefficiency which is irrelevant where powder costs $10-$40 per pound can be crippling where it costs $700 to $7,000 per pound. Quote:
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There is a nearly inexhaustable demand for good steel for making springs for shipboard mechanical artillery and for crossbows. Swords, pikeheads, bayonets and armour-piercing lozenges or spikes for arrows and bolts also need steel. I suppose armour plates, helmets and bracers could use either bronze or steel, but the mercenaries that the PCs are mostly hiring from would consider bronze inferior to good steel, even if the stats were the same. Quote:
What was used at historical TL4 to bore out the barrels and what would you imagine could be a better, TL4+1 method of doing it? Good quality control will be implemented, largely because Administration and Merchant skills in the 20s must be good for ensuring that the supplies you get are those you really wanted and needed. Also, the Measurement spell can replace a lot of technology they do not have yet. A senior apprentice can cast it without FP cost, limited only by the time he can work at an acceptable level of mental focus and his work ethic, so eight hours for the best of them. Quote:
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09-17-2016, 07:38 AM | #16 | |||||
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Swivel Guns (TL4-TL5)
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09-17-2016, 11:15 AM | #17 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Swivel Guns (TL4-TL5)
However, before they could insert the borer, they had to remove the core around which the barrel had been cast or forged. If the core had shifted, and the walls of the tube were thick at one side and thin on the other ... well, that is why gunners prayed to St. Barbara and carefully inspected each new piece before trying it.
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09-17-2016, 05:35 PM | #18 | ||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Swivel Guns (TL4-TL5)
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Making the machine out of metal should be doable, as I expect they'll be okay with spending several times more on each barrel than was done historically. Hmmm... magic provides several options for improving the process. The core around which they cast could be made from something magical which disappears after a while or, alternatively, magic could be used to destroy the core.
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09-17-2016, 05:58 PM | #19 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Swivel Guns (TL4-TL5)
Bronze or cast iron. The casting and boring technology is actually quite similar for both materials.
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09-17-2016, 06:00 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Swivel Guns (TL4-TL5)
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Of course, if you're going to make cores with Shape Metal spells, you might as well make the barrels that way. *The iron created with Wall of Iron is normal, average quality iron for most purposes, but will disappear if Dispel Magic is used.
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artillery, cannon, fantasy, high-tech, low-tech |
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