How would magic interact with late TL5 naval warfare? & Campaign idea

[seasalt]

Originally Posted by martinl

I don't know if necromancy in on theme here, but there was a bunch of cheezy weapon design back in GURPS 3e where tools to build power plants that ran on necromantic sacrifices were combined with custom weapon rules and enchantment to make stuff like the infamous laser rifle powered by belt-fed hamsters that ejected zombified hamsters like shell casings.

You could certainly power boilers with necromantic sacrifice, and ship cannons that loaded in humans and fired their screaming life-hating spectral souls at the enemy are not an unreasonable development of the baseline GURPS magitek baseline.

Don't pass on the classic evil DM scenario of having your PCs capture a critical artillery emplacement that could destroy the enemy if turned on them, but unfortunately it is using the former inhabitants of the local orphanage as ammo.

Necromantic sacrifice-powered boilers sounds pretty sick. That's the kind of thing that can be a great in-game motivation for the characters, too. That could be a good sort of side-event. The players are surprised by being hailed by an unknown warship of strange, macabre design which seems to be crewed by undead thralls. It turns out to be a reclusive necromancer-lord who is offering to join them in battle with a vessel he refitted into an auxiliary cruiser, in exchange for recognizing his claim to the island he rules. This seems like a great windfall for the players. But if they ask to be shown the interior of his warship, they find out the horrible power source it uses to achieve its incredible speed and firepower.

Anyway, I came up with a more specific unit list for things that straddle the edge of TL5 and TL6. Most of them are derived from TL6 units with the base troop strength divided in half.

Capital ship subtypes

Benchmark for a 'poor' capital ship: Warrior-class ironclad (first-generation broadside ironclad)
Benchmark for a 'basic' capital ship: Minotaur-class ironclad (advanced wooden broadside ironclad)
Benchmark for a 'good' capital ship: "Devastation" class battleship (mastless with turrets) or Redoubtable (steel hull).
Benchmark for a 'fine' capital ship: "Royal soverign" class battleship (steel with turreted centerline mounts)
Benchmark for a 'very fine' capital ship: "Majestic" class battleship (mature pre-dreadnought design)

Ironclad: 20,000 TS, class: Nav, Arm, Art, T6
Torpedo boat destroyer: 500 TS, class; Nav, Art, (Cav), T2
Torpedo boat: 50 TS, class: (Nav), Cav [Note: All torpedo boats with self-propelled torpedoes will be at least "fine" unless very poorly made, in which case they are 'good'. Regular and poor torpedo boats use spar torpdoes.]
Gunboat: 120 TS, class: (Nav), Art, (Cav), T2 [Note: Gunboats may carry torpedoes for +25% raise/maintain cost and gain Cav instead of (Cav). Gunboats with self-ppropelled torpedoes will be at least 'Fine'.]
Armored cruiser: 10,000 TS, class: Nav, Arm, Art, Rec, T6
Protected cruiser: 12,000 TS, class: Nav, Art, Rec, T6 [cruisers may carry torpedoes, but lack the ability to get close before firing them like small ships, so they do not have the "cavalry" class]
Armed merchant cruiser: 500 TS, class: Nav, T40
Auxiliary cruiser: 2000 TS, class: Nav, Art, Rec
Cavalry cruiser: 600 TS, class; Nav, T16* [May carry air units; ship must be at least as high quality. Divide transport cap by 2 if 1 step lower quality, by 4 if 2 steps lower, or by 8 if 3 steps lower]
Grand cavalry cruiser: 900 TS, class; Nav, Art, T48
Sea monster: 40, Nav, T1 [Note: can only carry aquatic infantry]
Aquatic warriors: TS 20, Nav, WT 1
Leviathan: TS 500, Nav, T10

[Note: Due to primitive training methods and tactics, there are currently no modern warships in the world with "elite" troop quality, and ships with "good" troop quality are exceedingly rare, limited to a few veterans of combat. The majority of warships have "inferior" troop quality, even in 'professional' navies, at least in most nations. Naval elements require a combination of new training methods, tactics, drills, and combat experience to reach "elite" quality.]
[Note #2: Mages are NOT factored into troop quality of the elements they accompany. Mages, singular or in groups are their own elements, see below]
[Note #2: The 'flagship' rule is not used. A flagship does not get C3I just for being the flagship. Communication is primitive and either relies on magic, or signaling with flags. A "flagship" may have command sections on board which apply to naval battles. Usually each capital ship will carry a command section, and the flagship will carry 4 or 5, allowing the TS of the C3I command sections to stay above 1% of total fleet TS so their class superiority bonus can apply to battles).

Aerial cavalry types
Pegasus-riders: 16 TS, Air, WT 2
Gryphon bombardiers:(38) TS, Air, Cav, WT 8
War dragons: (75) TS, Air, WT 8 [super soldiers]
Hunter flocks: (25) TS, (Air), WT 4


Land elements
Rifle infantry: 20 TS, F, Rec
Mounted rifles: 10 TS, F, Rec, Cav [May not be marines. Unicorn etc. are super-soldiers]
Artillery gun: (150) Ts, Art, WT 4 [May not be marines]
Command section: (50) TS, C3I [without mages, will usually be 'poor', never better than 'basic']
Anti-monster gun: (50) TS, (Arm), WT 2
Anti-air artillery: 20 TS, (Air), F, WT 4
Machine gun: (50) TS, F, WT 1 [Hand-cranked gatling guns or mitreilleuses are 'basic'. Mechanical MGs are usually 'Fine' or 'Very fine' unless shoddily built]
Mortar: (25) TS, Art, WT 1
Battle mage: TS 10, abilities depending on type, often (Art), (Arm), Arm, (Fire), Recon, or C3I [Always "Hero" element. A full squad of mages would have TS 100 at least but hasn't been fielded in a long time]
Ogre soldiers: 62 TS, Arm, WT 6 [May not be marines]
Ogre sailors: 32 TS, Wt 4 [Non transport warships may carry one squad without counting against their troop capacity.
Mobilized sailors: 2 TS, F, Rec [May be drawn from any warship crew - reduce the warship's TS by 500% of the TS of the sailors taken (i.e. -10 TS for every 2 TS mobilized. Sailors with modern pistols will be "Fine" or "Very Fine". If they have rifles, treat as green rifle infantry instead)
Armored giant monster: TS 100, Arm, WT 10 ['Basic' or better will have mounted guns. 'Fine' has mounted machine guns. 'Very fine' may have a mounted cannon.]
Obsolete cannons: TS (20), Art, WT 2 [can never be better than "good", usually "poor"]


......



My reasoning is that, with ships, the ability to get close and launch torpedoes can be handled with the "cavalry" unit class.So there's a dynamic where capital ships provide the bulk of the troop strength and the gap is difficult to make up with escorts and small ships, but escorts and small ships can threaten the capital ships with the new torpedo technology. Even if the new torpedoes kind of suck and only work properly some of the time, those cheap torpedo boats only need to get lucky once.