Welcome. JC is a professional in archaeology, which is Grimsby's hobby. We should do well together.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:35, Sun 13 Mar 2022.

In reply to James Cochrane (msg # 326):

Welcome!

Sorry for my absence, my aunt has been quite ill, but I am hoping to resume!
This message was last edited by the player at 10:10, Sun 20 Mar 2022.

Somehow, I seem to have missed this game when I was posting a circular to all my games in RPOL
to say that I would be out for several days because I was having my right hip replaced. I am happy to see that you folks have been having a lively time without me.

Here follows my official return notice:
I am very happy to say I am back with my new hip as of Mar. 25. I am sorry this took several days longer than originally expected. I will do my best to catch up with everything I may have missed. I thank all GMs and players for their patience.

Alas, I don't have that reason. I've just been too tired to post.

I've been under the weather for the past two weeks with insufficient mental energy to post, and then Thursday morning the AC went out so I've been melting in 90-degree heat for the past 4 days. Tech finally got here yesterday and the AC was working fine when he left, but now it's out again! Aaargh!

oof... that sucks... hope you are feeling better and get that AC back up and running soon!

Yes. It does indeed suck. I grew up without air-conditioning (most people did in my time and place (1950s smalltown Ohio)) so I know how that feels. I devoutly hope you can get the AC back reliably so your brain is not frying and you can enjoy gaming.

In reply to Grimsby H. Baskerville (msg # 333):

Aw-right, aw-right, aw-right....


     I'm taking from this that Petras did not "make" his own guns, but simply installed some cannon that he purchased (probably of British manufacture, as he's already mentioned that whatever weapons he has would use British ammunition).

     The image of Petra's ship that used to be in the Game Maps had shown a pair of long, narrow gun barrels, apparently mounted below decks, in the forward hull, close to the bow.  Each barrel projected from a spherical-looking mounting which might have been some kind of gimballed turret (to allow for a range of motion), or they could just be fixed in place.

     I've posted on a couple of occasions that Joseph has "looked over" these guns.  I've also mentioned him having "some small ability" with artillery--specifically Naval guns.  He has the Gunnery skill (2D), with focus in Breech-loading Cannon (1D) and Rotary Cannon (1D).  So, until I'm told otherwise, I'm going to assume these guns hold no surprises for Joseph.

     At the moment, my/Joseph's only concern is that these guns, as they appeared in the old image, did not look to have any way to "sight" the targets (no way to see through the hull) -- which could just mean they may rely on a "Fire Coordinator" up on deck.

     But, as that old image is now gone, everything I just wrote may be inaccurate ... and using these guns could be as easy as just opening the gunports and running the beasts out ^_^

     But if you really wanna know more about this...!

---

     I Hate to go all Pedantic on y'all (who'm I kidding--I love doing this!), but the skillset of "aiming" artillery is called Gun Laying.  That's the process of aiming an artillery piece or turret, such as a gun, howitzer, or mortar, on land, in air, or at sea, against surface or aerial targets.

     Gun laying is a set of actions to align the axis of a gun barrel so that it points in the required direction. This alignment is in the horizontal and vertical planes.

     A gun is "traversed" (rotated in a horizontal plane) to align it with the target, and "elevated" (moved in the vertical plane) to range it to the target.  A gun is "elevated" to raise it abouve the horizontal plane, and "depressed" to lower it below the horizontal.

     Gun laying may be for direct fire, where the layer sees the target, or indirect fire, where the target may not be visible from the gun. Gun laying has sometimes been called "training the gun".

     And now I'm gonna stop ^_^

     If you want to know more, the Wikipedia link, below, does a pretty good job, without getting too technical (mostly)...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laying

AC finally got fixed. Took 2 weeks and the company had to send out a master tech to fix the screw ups of the other 3 techs. I'm sure Easter weekend had something to do with it.

Now I just need to find a master tech to fix ME!


The ship picture is still there, Joseph... Game Map 3.

I just checked the game maps, and as of when I checked, the only post there seemed to be an image of some sort of brass lamp (/). No deck plan or anything else.

At the moment "Grimsby" does not know whether the guns can be raised or depressed. The late 19th century guns I have seen in person did not look as if they could be raised or depressed significantly, but I have seen only a few, and that years ago. None of the online resources I could find were specific on that point.

Somewhere along the line I changed the Groups for players... can no longer recall why I did that, but was thinking only of visible threads. Forgot that it also applied to the Maps. Fixed now.


Guns can be elevated to change the arc and therefore the distance that they fire. Guns weren't normally mounted on the sides of ships. Doing so on an airship is because they need to be able to fire fore and aft as well as up and down.

I'm thinking of cannons with cannonballs, so if you point the gun downward, the cannonball will roll out. Don't know if that's true or not, but that's my perception. Shells won't do that if they have a rim. The bigger naval guns didn't have that as the propellant was loaded separately.

The picture in the Game Map 3 doesn't look like it's got cannons, but then I don't have any reasonable concept of the diameter of barrels for guns.

There are some narrow projections from the front of the vessel --they look too thin to be cannons.

In reply to Grimsby H. Baskerville (msg # 338):

I have been assuming that those "narrow projections" were cannon barrels sticking out from sponson turrets.  Further, I took their narrow appearance as an indicator that they were likely 1-Pounder cannon (the length I assumed was somebody's bright idea to make them "long range").

After looking at some historical pictures of 1-Pounder cannon -- they all looked to be approximately the same size as a Browning 50. Caliber heavy machinegun, just a slightly thicker barrel -- I'm now thinking that, if those "tubes" are cannon barrels, they may be 2-Pounders.

1-Pounders on average were 37mm shells, while 2-Pounders averaged around 40mm.  As the name implies, these weapons are categorized by the weight of the projectile, and there was a lot of variation in bore diameter for these weapons, in the late 19th Century.

That would leave GM SteamRoller a lot of leeway in what he wants them to be -- including being knock-offs of British Guns made by some fly-by-night Czech arms manufacturer (what the hell does a teenaged Genius know about dealing with Eastern European Arms Dealers? ^_^)

I should say I will be traveling July 3 through July 9. I am not sure how much internet access I will have.

In reply to Grimsby H. Baskerville (msg # 340):

I have returned from Britain and am ready to play on. I thank the GM for the information about the absent flag.

I expect to be away at the Pennsic War from tomorrow (Aug. 5) until at least the following Thursday. I might be able to get on during that time, but I can't count on it.

So apparently it was my turn to get Covid, although a weaker strain. Culminated Monday night when I fell getting out of bed because I got dizzy and my legs were so weak they couldn't support me. After friends helped me get into a chair, called an ambulance to take me to the hospital for evaluation and testing. Everything else was clear but the test came back positive for Covid. Put some fluids in me, gave me a few prescriptions for me cough, and sent me home.

According to the doctor, I have had it for a few days, so Monday was the worst of it. Getting better, but I still feel like crap and a bit unsteady on my feet.

At least this explains why I've been feeling so crappy for awhile now.

In reply to GM SteamRoller (msg # 343):

Ouch! I think I've managed to escape Covid, but I heard a lot of people have gotten it and not realized that they did.

My wife and I had mild versions of Covid in January. Mine was even milder than hers, and if I had been on my own I suspect I would not have realized I had it. Since she had it, I was tested and I had it too, but very mildly.

Probably should apologize for not posting an update here, but brain's been too tired to even think of doing that.

Getting better. Just slow.

I apologize for not reporting I would be away for 2 days (Sept.1-2) while attending my MA graduation. For some reason, I could not get on RPOL just before I left in order to warn you.

Yea! Power's back as of Friday afternoon. Internet came back late Friday night. We thought it'd take long because we're at the tail end of a line and the telephone pole and transformer at the other end of the block were both lying on the ground because the pole had snapped in half!

Spent yesterday cleaning up, picking up the pieces, putting things back in place, and making sure nothing got burnt out. We'd unplugged the TVs and shut off the AC at the circuit box, so we seem to be okay.

Our two house cats keep wanting to go out on the back porch like they used to, but it's half gone, so that's not going to be an option for awhile.

Anyway, expect to get caught up on my games today.

In reply to GM SteamRoller (msg # 350):

Merry Christmas!