[Steam-Punk] British War Cart

[Phaelen Bleux]

Originally Posted by johndallman

You need someone who looks after the steam engine and stokes the boiler. This job could be allocated to the gunners, on the grounds that fights don't last long enough for stoking to be required during them, but having someone who may have sparks or embers on his clothing handling powder charges seems dangerous; I think the practices of the time would have mandated a specialised engine-man.

I tried to base the crew on what appeared (to me) to be the available sf on board for a man to stand--one on either side of the cannons, and another at the tiller beside the boiler. Even with a second look, I'm unsure of space for a stoker. I wasn't even sure there much space for ammo.

It's not entirely clear how this vehicle is intended to fight. It should not get close to organised infantry, who would be able to kill its crew with musket fire, and it looks terribly vulnerable to cavalry, who can close to melee range while the guns are reloading. Viewing it as mobile artillery seems best, but its guns are rather light for that: horse artillery could move guns that size quite rapidly, and were much cheaper.

The description below the photos on the website made it clear it was a nearly useless war machine, so I stuck with that.

Overall, it's a bit too realistic for entertaining steampunk. Give it enough engine power to carry armour that will stop musket fire, and its entertainment value goes up a lot.

I'm running a TL4 campaign with a nod to emerging TL5. Given that this is meant to be a product of a man pirate tinkerer, I'm OK with the fact that it's kinda a piece of junk.