Colonization

[KWorld]

The plan, as I understand it, is that the various nations of Navalism-world, have started to reach their natural limits, hemmed in by other nations on their own continents and therefore unable to expand there.  So, if those nations are going to expand, they'll have to do it overseas.  Since there are no "npc" nations out there, no other sentients that we know of, this expansion will be via colonization rather than conquest (at least by the initial planter of the colony, other nations might then see that colony as ripe for the conquering).  Some colonies might be to gain access to resources, others to provide a safe haven for a country's shipping en route to other ports.


So how are we going to do this?  How many tons of shipping do we need to arrange for to transport a viable colony to a chosen point on the map?  And where does that shipping come from?

[KWorld]

Reason I'm asking is, of course, that the Columbiad Republic expects to be in the colony planting business relatively early, and it would be nice to know what I need to do that.  I expect an army unit will need to be transported as well as the colonists (and will possibly need to be tranported first, to clear back the native life so the civs can get to work without being eaten), but we DO have rules for transporting those.

[Carthaginian]

KWorld:

There is no set in stone amount of tonnage.
It is storyline; spend the resources, plant the colony.

That is my take.
Now, there won't be any planting 8000 colonies per turn nonsense, or that person will politely be asked to modify their plane... or leave. There need not be a crazy amount of rules here- in fact, there won't be. I'm not spending my entire life writing rules.

Civilians are kind of incidental- set up the military part first and then write a nice, common sense story about how the colony goes from dirt roads and prefab buildings to a real live port city.

[Darman]

I was simply planning on landing an army corps, spending a turn reclaiming the land into a habitable environment, and then letting the civilians take over and after roughly 3 turns or so the army corps can pick up its stakes and return home.  Of course, since the (as of right now) so-called Corporate Sector Authority is full of myriad types of companies I'm sure there will be a mercenary and or exploration company willing to settle colonies for someone... for a fee...

[KWorld]

An interesting story about a steam shovel pioneering it's way across unroaded terrain: http://val238.tripod.com/steamenginesinwestwold/id11.html, which helps explain why I designed the lighter-carrying freighters so I could get vehicles like these on the ground when colonizing as quickly as possible.....

[Delta Force]

About how tough are the various creatures going to be? Will standard .30 and .50 caliber weapons be able to handle them, or will we need something more powerful?

[Carthaginian]

LITTLE will appear that a .50 BMG won't handle... though there will be a few around that will be able to take a couple of rounds before they drop. Will post some the weekend.

[Jefgte]

One 0.5 MG is realy short to kill a carnosaur, big birdbats or plesiosaure & kronosaure.
But the MG rof is very useful.
To kill quickly , double, triple or quad mounts are better.

So, Carnosaures are only individual or just in small family with 4 to 6 members max.
Big Birdsbats could be at about 40 to 50 members in a colony. They lives in mountains &  they could travel great distances to find food.
Monitor lizards live in savannas & forests. They are very dangerous because the youngers can blow trees on their prey and bring them down quickly. They also attack in packs.
Hands weapons are fine to neutralize them, good protection of the head, shoulders and legs are also recommended.

[Jefgte]

I refind this Carth. post about animals

Once you get 'out to sea'- beyond the range of typical land birds- would be 'relatively safe' for a ship armed with anything in the .50 caliber range and over. The beasties that they encounter out there would be similar to pterosaurs in size and structure- large and fierce, but delicate in comparison to other animals. Their proportionally large gliding wings would be very vulnerable to damage.

Merchant ships would not (under normal circumstances) need something as large as a 57mm gun... though some nations (like Nova Francia) would be entirely justified to feel that way! Likewise, I don't think that every gun mount needs to be covered or that the main decks need to be clear of personnel at all times... but that will be an internal matter for the local jurisdictions.

My navy feels that giving the crewmen on duty 'sufficient protection' (read 'helmets and mail shirts') offers them protection from 'swarm birds'; off duty personnel would be allowed topside in 'areas under protection of the watch.' Ships of the S.M.O.S.J. will also feature a unique 'belt fed shotgun' for dealing with the small swarming birds.

On land, giant flightless birds like those of the Phorusrhacidae family would necessitate the carrying of at least one heavy machine gun per squad. Larger lizards are common land animals, similar to monitor lizards and dragon lizards. Mammals never really seem to have 'caught on' on this planet.

[Delta Force]

I have a few more questions related to colonization and gameplay:

1. Are civilian freighters and liners allowed to utilize turbine engines? What about military auxiliaries?

2. Do the ships we construct represent all of the ships our nations have for military and government use? For example, can we contract privately owned freighters and liners for military and government use, or are the ones we build the ones one we can use for those roles?

3. What kinds of things are assumed to go on "behind the scenes" with privately owned ships? Do they do things like lay undersea cables, act as tugs for our ships, transport coal and supplies to ports in peacetime, etc?

4. Are there any settlements on the continents that are being colonized? If so, do undersea cables run to them?

[Delta Force]

Bump, and also one last question. Do civilian ships and military auxiliaries count towards the 500,000 ton limit and do they have lowered upkeep than our warships?

[Darman]

i guess a fair question is: do we NEED cables or can we use wireless radios? 

[snip]

1. Are civilian freighters and liners allowed to utilize turbine engines? What about military auxiliaries?

My gut says no on this, tho Carth may have other thoughts.

2. Do the ships we construct represent all of the ships our nations have for military and government use? For example, can we contract privately owned freighters and liners for military and government use, or are the ones we build the ones one we can use for those roles?

I would assume that there existis shipping outside of what we have, but the situations in which it could be impressed into government service would be few and far between if at all. I would be wary about such actions taking place.

3. What kinds of things are assumed to go on "behind the scenes" with privately owned ships? Do they do things like lay undersea cables, act as tugs for our ships, transport coal and supplies to ports in peacetime, etc?

All of those would be reasonable assumptions, but anything dedicated for military use would need to be separate.

4. Are there any settlements on the continents that are being colonized? If so, do undersea cables run to them?

No such settlements exist at the start of the game. The only settlements with any meaningful infrastructure are within the starting boundaries of nations.

Bump, and also one last question. Do civilian ships and military auxiliaries count towards the 500,000 ton limit and do they have lowered upkeep than our warships?

Military Auxiliaries do. Other civilian ships may or may not, Carth can provide more info on that.

i guess a fair question is: do we NEED cables or can we use wireless radios? 

Technology will be very close to the corresponding time in OTL (1910's), so any tech will be as effective as it would be during that time.

[KWorld]

1. Are civilian freighters and liners allowed to utilize turbine engines? What about military auxiliaries?

My gut says no on this, tho Carth may have other thoughts.

Historically, liners, with their need for speed, switched over to turbines relatively early: the first liner was built with them starting in 1904 (RMS Victorian, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Victorian).  Carth has commented critically on my 1905 reciprocating liner because of the vibrations it's large expansion engines would cause, so I'd expect that turbines are OK in such ships (but it's not specified as such yet).

[KWorld]

While impressment of civilian shipping might be rare, contracting of it for an operation (such as carrying troops/civilians to plant a colony) should be feasible.