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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. 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. 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. _________________________________________________________________________ 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! 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.
