[Steam-Punk] British War Cart

[Phaelen Bleux]

http://www.freewebs.com/steamnoir/landvehicles.htm (the inspiration. . .this will be showing up in my Pyrates campaign soon!)

British War Cart 1855 (TL5)

The cart has a crew of five: 2 loaders for each 4-pdr cannon, and a driver (who also operates the 1-pdr swivel gun). The cart carries enough coal for 20 hours of steam production.

Subassemblies: Body +3, 5 Heavy Wheels +0.
Powertrain: 0.5-kW Early Steam engine with 0.5-kW Wheeled drivetrain.
Fuel: 1 cf coal.
Occupancy: 5 XNCS.
Cargo: 0 cf.

Armor
Body: 2/2W
Wheels: 3/5

Weaponry:
2x 4-pdr Cannons [Body:F,B] (5 rounds each).
50mm Swivel Gun [Body:T] (10 rounds).

Equipment:
Body: Lantern, shovel.

Statistics:
Size: 16'x4'x2' Payload: 0.6 tons Lwt.: 2.77 tons
Volume: 132 cf. Maint.: 159 hours Price: $12,341

HT: 12. HPs: 207 Body, 28 each Wheel.

gSpeed: 5 gAccel: 0.3 gDecel: 10 gMR: 0.75 gSR: 4
Ground Pressure Very High. 1/8 Off-Road speed.

Design Notes:
Body is 110 cf; wheels are 22 cf. Structure is Medium, Standard. Armor is standard wood for the Body and standard metal for the wheels. Mechanical controls. Empty weight is 4,397 lbs. The lantern is considered "free" as a pseudo-headlight (p. VE27).

[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.

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.

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.

[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.