StarDestroyer.Net BBS

E_F and I have a storyline that so far as I know is waiting on his input, and aside from that all I have on is Detroit... which I'm not quite sure how to actually begin. Especially since I'd planned exposition in the runup to itb ased on that storyline of ours. I set up a googledoc for it and he never showed up.

Is there anything a random semi-prolific guy who'll occasionally churn out a few thousand words for the hell of it could do helpfully here?

well don't think I have to worry much about ships, gunboats maybe but I think* that the waters are too shallow for much

Yeah, sorry Simon I've been away for the last four days and absurdly busy before then. I should have a chance to at least draft some of my Succession Crisis posts over the next couple days.

Also, I can't remember who was playing the Chesapeake Bay faction but IIRC I'm supposed to be starting a war with them and maybe annexing that confederation to my immediate south, but I've no idea what's happening there.

If you want to RP a war in which you peel off a piece of the Grand AFK Confederation, I will aid you in working out the geography. However, the state immediately to your south run by Imperial528... I think we should at least give him the courtesy of giving him a wake-up since he may be honestly unaware the game's restarting after a fashion.

The guy below that is a total no-show and my same terms extend.

If you go god-modey berserk, I reserve the right to take over running the opposition force.

I will definitely take up your offer of assistance. For the fighting against the Chesapeake, I'm envisaging a strong naval force, led by my new three-deckers instituting a blockade and supporting amphibious landings (think 1750-ish British attacks on Havana and Belle Isle).

Methinks some heavier landing craft are needed. Plus bomb/mortar ketchs for silencing shore batteries, I think my technomantic artillery would work rather nicely in mortar form, and there is that incendiary shell my Academy has been working on. 18th century napalm shells

Humph. Ive realised i have no idea how to wtite a major invasion, short of picking or making new characters to follow each army arpund and describe things. Hrlp?

Why is it a problem to do that, maddoc?
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And E_F... well. Artillerymancy could be a bit tricky in the context of mortars, because a lightweight mortar shell will drift a long way thanks to the wind because it spends a long time in the air. If the shell recovers its normal weight after leaving the muzzle, though, that's fine, and I think that's how it works. Also, make sure artillerymancy works with small powder charges- mortars tend to have low muzzle velocities, even for long range fire, because the shells are fragile. You do NOT want your incendiary shell shattering on the way out the muzzle because you had to use copious amounts of antimagic gunpowder to get it to disenchant the mass-reduction spell on the shell itself.

Could still be made to work.

The Chesapeake Republic...

http://imgur.com/DGx7x7I

...It's actually big enough to have a significant agricultural hinterland for cash crops and growing its own food, though there just isn't enough such territory to make it a major inland power. On the other hand, I can say from personal experience (I live in this region) that it is warm, fertile, well-watered country with a long growing season, and can support a high population density even with pre-industrial technology, though it would REALLY FREAKING HELP if you have some way to keep the malaria under control.

They could pose considerable challenges, especially if they capitalize on the defensive naval advantage of having a lot of shallow waters that are dangerous to navigate without charts and experienced pilots.

[Incidentally, I have seen it written in certain works that malaria was a major driver of the plantation owners of the American South importing slaves from Africa. It wasn't that hard to get indentured servants from England, but if you brought over ten indentured servants three or four of them would be dead or crippled by malaria by the time their terms of service ended. West Africans had greater natural resistance to malaria.]

The Republic presumably has trading ties with both you AND Beo's Dragon Somethingorother polity, and may well have independent access to magically enhanced artillery and other weapons of its own, by the way. I would if I were them. I have some ideas for making that work. Some of the stuff I can't try with the Ohioans, maybe, could work here.

Actually, looks like MissingAxis posted an order of battle
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WfI ... ef=2&pli=1

Not quite sure he understood how the point system was supposed to work, though... he soft-pedaled his military to a higher degree than he should have been required to.
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By the way, could you PLEASE start at least looking at that googledoc? I typed up a bit more of my thoughts and what I have in mind, but our collaboration is totally impossible and pointless if we don't start communicating and sharing ideas and drafts. And PMs are frankly a very clumsy tool for doing that compared to Google Drive.

Well, as nobody in my neck of the woods seems to be active currently, I'm going to go ahead and start plotting out the partition of Texas. No ETA; scheduling remains unpredictable, but if anyone turns up they're more than welcome to coordinate.

RawShark's worth consulting, I think, but that's about it.

GOing to post a trial here in a few days, hopefully capturing the idea well.

Sorry for flogging a dead horse, E_F, but have you had a chance to look at the Googledoc/Drive document I created for you? I can't check it right now but would like to know. If you have a problem accessing or editing it I would like to know that.

I understand if you don't have a lot of time to play with, but could you at least read it and maybe drop one or two little comments in there?

Yes I've had a look at it, the travelling parts and the conversation with Prince Charles look excellent so far. If I write up a post detailing Aberforth's deliberations up to his decision to leave, can you write up the actually travelling posts?

EDIT: As for your comments on artillerymancy and mortars, yes, the shell does regain it's original weight after firing (think mass-effect guns from, well, Mass Effect). This means that for the same muzzle velocity we can use smaller powder charges, since at the moment of firing the shell or shot weighs about a third what it usually would. Though for guns firing solid shot we use normal-size charges, since that way we get much higher muzzle velocities than we normally could with smoothbore cannon.

Sure; I'd appreciate it, though, if you could put post drafts INTO the Googledoc so we can collaborate on things and maybe strike ideas off each other. Plus I may need your help with factual things like the name of the city Aberforth started in, or the names of Orion things in general.

Simon_Jester wrote:Sure; I'd appreciate it, though, if you could put post drafts INTO the Googledoc so we can collaborate on things and maybe strike ideas off each other. Plus I may need your help with factual things like the name of the city Aberforth started in, or the names of Orion things in general.

That was my thinking, I'll have something worked up in a few hours.

Simon, the draft of the post I described is in the googledoc now.

Petty grammatical quibbles added!

Simon_Jester wrote:Petty grammatical quibbles added!

Much obliged sir, I will post it (and that history post I mentioned) using your version - except for the bit about capitalising the Throne, as it is (as you suggested) a specific Throne, specifically (and fitting with Orion's backstory) the Throne of Reason. Unless you have a better suggestion of course

Go ahead, only now you've got me having flashbacks to The Phantom Tollbooth.

Mwahaha.

Both posts are up. Now we get an explanation for the whole "Excalibur" thing

yay for hyenork slaughter!

Well your ancestors were causing a lot of chaos and we thought you were beasts at the time, so yeah.

madd0ct0r wrote:yay for hyenork slaughter!

Bah, you guys are like big mean lemmings, if you don't have mass die-offs every few decades you're not really trying.

Yeah. Though as an interesting thought experiment...we killed a third of the Hyenorks with swords, spears and phalanxes...in five years. It took you a thousand years to even come close to Orion again. Imagine what we could do with guns and cannon. And since no other player/nation claims the territories you're roaming around in, going on a spot of exterminating would be easy enough...

Basically, better hope your guys honour those trade deals you made at Anrakis

There was a reason your guys stopped. Fair weather fighters

Of course, your idea of "bad weather" is other people's idea of "unfit for human habitation," but then that's rather the point...

E_F, could you do me a favor and spell out for me specific answers to the following questions:
1) Aberforth is departing from Hephaestus, yes?
2) Where is Hephaestus in terms of OTL geography?
3) If Aberforth takes a ship and travels up the St. Lawrence River... what is that river called, in your country?
4) If he takes such a ship, will he pass any major cities or architectural features or monuments of note on his way upriver toward Ohioan territory?