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[Cor - Ch2 Cat A] Designing Colonial Defences

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What Cooke had requested in his latest despatch was not as unexpected as one might think. As should be expected of any enlightened, civilised, scientific society (and which religious zealots or money-hungering mercantilists will find hard to grasp) there is a procedure or design already in place for any significant situation. So too is the case when it comes to claiming and holding newly claimed land under the Corlander Crown. As soon as the New Terra expeditions were announced, military engineers and tacticians of the Royal Society of Military Sciences set about designing defensive measures for new possessions in remote areas.

The design requirements were a balance between high firepower, defensibility, and ease of construction on site. The result of these efforts is the "Colonial Half-battery, Mark I" depicted in the sketches below.

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Armed with two 24-pounders, it can swiftly puncture anything short of frigate-size, and pose a significant threat, even to larger vessels. Manned by two gun crews of each 6 gunners and a sergeant, and commanded by a Lieutenant (with an aide-de-camp) a half-battery is made up of 16 men of the Royal Navy Artillery Corps. Thus expertly handled, it can continuously deliver swift, accurate fire.

The bulwarks and carriages are designed to be constructed on site, from locally sourced materials, and with specialised tools. In fact, only the guns, ammunition, and turntables have to be sourced externally. Depending on the availability of materials and the topography of the site, the crew itself can erect a "Colonial Half-Battery, Mark I" in less than a week, a process that can be sped up by the help of additional manpower and/or careful preparations of the site.

However, a fixed battery has tactical limitations, and can only command a fixed arc of fire. Therefore, an option has been devised for these situations where tactical considerations warrant it. This option is the "Colonial Gunboat, Mark I", as depicted below.

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Essentially a reinforced ship's launch, the gunboat has been strengthened to withstand the massive recoil of the 24-pounder mounted in its bow, as well as moderate amounts of enemy fire. With such a large gun on a mobile platform, commanders are given considerably more tactical freedom than that afforded by a fort alone.

Manned exactly like the half-battery, it brings the total complement of fort and gunboat up to a full battery, which triggers the addition of a Captain and his aide-de-camp, a signal corporal, and a surgeon and his mate, totalling 37 men.

As each gun-crew can man either one gun, or the gunboat, a full battery has one redundant group at all times. This allows for rest during prolonged battle, small arms support, or various support tasks; and affords the commander a great degree of flexibility, even under heavy losses. The complete organisation can be seen below.

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Originally, I had intended to put the boat and battery on a landscape, but I was not able to finish it before leaving my bricks behind, so I had to be creative with presentation! :pir-grin:

Not all the pictures are perfect, but they were taking in a rush, so please indulge me.

I kinda like the idea of standardisation of these things, and I think it fits in perfectly in Corrington. Further, it allowed me to build these things before actually placing them on the new islalnd found by Montoya and Cooke, thus avoiding timeline issues. I think the gunboat turned out well, and hope to revisit that technique at a later point. I also like the guns and their carriages.

I am planning to license the gunboat as a class 1 A at some point, and the fortress as a small fort, if I ever need it.

C&C more than welcome - I hope you like it.

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That looks great! Really Nice battery! I also like the ship-technique, IT's a shame you aren't with your bricks anymore!

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Nice boat! I have been designing a ship using a similar technique with a single center stud line.... pirate_laugh_new.gif

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I love that gun-boat! I think your soldiers in the first pictures would be better suited to the era if they didn't have castle helmets on, but I'm no expert on that time in history so take that with a grain of salt!

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That's 2 nice builds.

I like the ship design.

But I am not quite sure if a 24pounder cannon could be hold such in front of a such little boat without sending the boat to the sea bed.

I hope these gun batteries will be to help defence, for example, in Berelli, and not being used against us or against our friends the Ténotclaxcans!

Good builds and nice entry !

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Great build. I especially liked the battery, and the sliding loading mechanisms on the guns are genius. The use of ships' cannon will also make this easy to construct wherever land fall is made. Considering the limit on this challenge is 48x48, you have instead made brilliant use of a small number of pieces to great effect and interest. But i agree with MKJ that the helmets are a little out of place.

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I love that gun-boat! I think your soldiers in the first pictures would be better suited to the era if they didn't have castle helmets on, but I'm no expert on that time in history so take that with a grain of salt!

In my eyes they are clearly wearing some sort of steel protective helmet that could be semi-historically accurate. It is interesting to note that helmets that look medieval were used as late as WWI. http://www.dailypress.com/features/history/dp-nws-evg-wwi-helmets-20151219-story.html Though with those bodies they do look a little bit too medieval for me but hey, everyone builds with what they have. My soldiers look too modern.

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I really like the gunboat. You've really captured the shape quite well. The fortifications are also nice, with some excellent details to add to the overall scene.

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Very nice boat Bregir, the shape is pretty much spot on for that technique! :thumbup:

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Superb gunboat Bregir!!! such a nice hull it has :)

Indexed as class 1A :) In the faction index, I listed it under Royal Navy as I am not sure this is private? Anyway, maybe you can ask your factionleader to licence it :)

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Both the battery and the gunboat turned out well. The wooden-walled battery looks pretty realistic for the setting in question (exploration) and the cannon setup is really good. The castle headgear does seem a little out of place but I can live it. The gunboat looks great in the upside-down pic but the shadows on the stern in the first view make it look like it's riding with a bow-down attitude which threw me off at first glance. The design is really good though, and far more believable than the cannon-in-a-rowboat Harbor Sentry from 1989 or Loot Island from 2009. Good work.

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Thanks all for your comments :pir-blush:

That looks great! Really Nice battery! I also like the ship-technique, IT's a shame you aren't with your bricks anymore!

You are preaching to the choir, Titus - I do miss my bricks... :pir-sceptic:

(But I still have a few builds up my sleeve! :pir_laugh2:

Nice boat! I have been designing a ship using a similar technique with a single center stud line.... :pir-laugh:

I actually think it would work on many different scales, although it is somewhat expensive in terms of bricks! :pir-tongue:

Luckily, I have had some luck with brown plates in the Copenhagen Lego store! :pir-wink:

I love that gun-boat! I think your soldiers in the first pictures would be better suited to the era if they didn't have castle helmets on, but I'm no expert on that time in history so take that with a grain of salt!

Well, I would actually have given them the same helmets as the crew of the gunboat, but at that time, I was planning to put them both in the same build, so I wouldn't have enough helmets. Thus, I improvised :pir-blush:

And personally, I think it works out ok, although it does look a bit outdated.

That's 2 nice builds.

I like the ship design.

But I am not quite sure if a 24pounder cannon could be hold such in front of a such little boat without sending the boat to the sea bed.

I hope these gun batteries will be to help defence, for example, in Berelli, and not being used against us or against our friends the Ténotclaxcans!

Good builds and nice entry !

These gunbatteries will mainly be placed to control harbour entrances, or perhaps important mountain passes. However, these big guns are really more suited to fight ships than infantry, as a 4 pounder ball will kill you just as well as a 24 pounder! :pir-grin:

I agree, the boat might be a bit small for the 24 pounder, but it has more or less been established that the Lego Cannon is about a 20 pounder or so. And I wanted it to be the same as the fortress.

Historically, gunboats really had very large guns, (sometimes 32, 36 or 42 pounders!) but they would also be bigger. And as most of the recoil will be captured by the boat moving backwards through the water, I am quite convinced it will do alright, being reinforced for the purpose! :pir-wink:

Great build. I especially liked the battery, and the sliding loading mechanisms on the guns are genius. The use of ships' cannon will also make this easy to construct wherever land fall is made. Considering the limit on this challenge is 48x48, you have instead made brilliant use of a small number of pieces to great effect and interest. But i agree with MKJ that the helmets are a little out of place.

Thanks, MacFuzz. I am really happy you liked the battery - I too liked how those sliding mechanisms turned out.

About the 48x48 - I was actually planning to put both on a large landscaped, but time escaped me, so I had to be creative. :pir-sweet:

In my eyes they are clearly wearing some sort of steel protective helmet that could be semi-historically accurate. It is interesting to note that helmets that look medieval were used as late as WWI. http://www.dailypres...1219-story.html Though with those bodies they do look a little bit too medieval for me but hey, everyone builds with what they have. My soldiers look too modern.

Thanks, Max - I had the same reasoning for the helmets, but as I write elsewhere, I would have preffered using the white ones for all the troops. :pir-blush:

I really like the gunboat. You've really captured the shape quite well. The fortifications are also nice, with some excellent details to add to the overall scene.

Thanks Captain - I will probably revisit this technique another time.

Nice!

The minifig posing on the battery is great and the gunboat looks splendid

Thanks - it can be quite a strain to get the posing right, especially the oarsmen, so I am happy you noticed!

Very nice boat Bregir, the shape is pretty much spot on for that technique! thumbup.gif

Thanks, Kai - it is a fun technique to work with - you really have a lot of leeway as to the shape you want.

Superb gunboat Bregir!!! such a nice hull it has :)

Indexed as class 1A :) In the faction index, I listed it under Royal Navy as I am not sure this is private? Anyway, maybe you can ask your factionleader to licence it :)

We will see - I think I might license it myself to protect the settlement I might establish, but we will see. In any case, she will serve the crown! :pir-blush:

Both the battery and the gunboat turned out well. The wooden-walled battery looks pretty realistic for the setting in question (exploration) and the cannon setup is really good. The castle headgear does seem a little out of place but I can live it. The gunboat looks great in the upside-down pic but the shadows on the stern in the first view make it look like it's riding with a bow-down attitude which threw me off at first glance. The design is really good though, and far more believable than the cannon-in-a-rowboat Harbor Sentry from 1989 or Loot Island from 2009. Good work.

Thanks for the feedback, CD. Yeah, the pictures were taken in a rush, and I did have a bit of trouble picking out some good ones. (I edited them after having left my bricks)

Glad you liked both fortress and gunboat!

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