Yeah, it might seem weird but Lordareon is too small for a semi-decently sized NRP campaign. Forget WC3, you'd struggle to play WC2 style events on it.
I can make an alternate suggestion, though. What if we expand the scope to the entirety of the Eastern Kingdoms and to make things interesting we take an alternate ending to WC2 where neither side won and the Orcs still hold Arathi and Stormwind? WC3 events still kick in with the Scourge's appearance but things would be more diverse and chaotic.
As for those wondering, the game is going to start soon. To help people a bit I decided to make a guide for nationsheets. Also a scheme you could copy in order to get something that looks nicer.
(SYMBOL/FLAG OF YOUR CIV - OPTIONAL)
YOUR CIVILIZATION'S NAME
GENERAL INFORMATION
Faction Overview
(Describe your faction in one or a few paragraphs. If you want you could also make an infosheet about the basic stats. Some examples: name, government type, capital, population, number of star systems owned, etc.)
Territory Overview
(You can describe your holdings here, what are the most notable locations in your empire? Also you could pick a code for identifying your Hypergate which has one letter followed by 3 numbers, example: A101.)
History
(Of course you can also tell the history of your civilization. It doesn't need to be novel length or I'd say this is even optional but eh, most players love to do this.)
SOCIETY INFORMATION
Demographics
(This is basically where you can describe your race(s). If there are more than one notable species or ethnicity you can of course talk about their ratios and overall relations to each other.
Cultural Overview
(The overall culture and mentality of your civilization. Are they pacifists? A warrior society? Perhaps they wish to preserve the environment? Feel free to introduce us to how your civilization thinks.)
Government Overview
(Of course you can't really forget the Big G here. How's your nation governed? Are there any unique elements to this? Who are the ones in power?)
TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION
Tech Overview
(Basically you describe your civilization's tech here. You can mention their overall development, which fields they excel in and which fields are weak.)
Notable Technologies
(If you have unique pieces of technology this is the place where you can talk about them.)
Industrial Overview
(Basically you can describe your industry here. Chief technologies employed, most important industrial areas. Strengths and weaknesses in the industry. Etcetera. I predict this subcategory is going to be ignored the most.)
MILITARY INFORMATION
Military Overview
(Basically this is where you can talk about your military in general. Use this as a sorts of intro and if you have things to say that don't belong purely to army/navy. Ignore this otherwise)
Army Overview
(Describe your army here, surface combatants, infantry, combat vehicles, atmospheric fighters, etc.)
Navy Overview
(Lastly your space navy, your ships and space combat doctrine. You aleady know what to do here.)
You don't neccessarily need to follow this scheme but it would be preferable. Also you only need to fill out the 4 main categories to have a decent NS. Subcategories are only out there to give you an idea. So yeah, use this guide to your heart's desire.
@DeadDropThese space NRPs tend to be completely statless and entirely dependent on the narrative. So you don't have hard stats, you don't have turns and everything would be just pure roleplay. I do consider adding a roll system for more varied factions, though. So you get rolls to 4 stats that you can somewhat modify to better fit your tastes and then generously interpret their meaning to build your faction. It isn't mean to limit creativity but to facilitate variety and introduce a more dynamic relation between players. Stats would go from 1 to 100 and you'd even get some flavor text to help you better insert them into the roleplay.Say:
Territory: 55 - Your empire is decently sized with up to 7 systems Population: 42 - You have a reasonable population of ~30 billion Technology: 25 - Your civilization is still developing and they're behind in multiple fields Military: 90 - You're a premiere military force dreaded across the galaxy
Flavor text is tentative and I'd likely change them. There's also a possibility that I might not use rolls, depending on what my playerbase wants. Aside from the rolls that can give us some degree of comparison I don't plan to introduce any other stats.
@SierraFTL in particular is a bit strange in this setting. In theory you have no limit on which FTL mechanism you use (although reasonable limits on capabilities will be made on case per case basis). On the other hand FTL is impossible in this universe unless the region is influenced by the hyperspace. Gates are built on hyperspace rifts that allow them to spread this "hyperfield" that then allowed FTL drives to be developed. But once you go outside the reach of this field your FTL drive no longer works and even nearing the edges its performance drops. You can extend this hyperfield using booster generators but those rely on a Ethreum, a very rare resource to be both be created and then operated. FTL jamming is also done by activating devices that interfere with the hyperfield thus cutting off the medium that allows FTL drives to work.
This has several effects. 1.) Your empires would be of limited size while colossal majority of the galaxy is unclaimed and difficult to reach 2.) Hypergates will become important chokepoints while also allowing quick travel between these tiny islands of civilization 3.) Hyperfield mechanics allow for a reliable FTL jamming while allowing nearly all kinds of FTL drives
As for low end sci-fi it just means as what I said. The setting is still a soft sci-fi so you don't need to work around that. But you also don't need to invent various bullshit techs just to compete. I actually even have an idea to resolve the need for sufficiently "interesting" travel times yet the lack of RKKVs.
It is going to be a bit tricky for a lower end sci-fi and without some of the typical cliches but with a bit of thinking it should be easily acceptable. Say your creators died for various reasons (civil war, robot rebellion, etc) and now you are populated by the descendants of the machine these people made. Or some alien civilization sent a von neumann style probe to explore space which landed on your "homeplanet" and eventually made a robot society. The options are numerous and I'll be leaving that to you. Feel free to join the Discord, too!
Eh. I might be interested, but i'd also like to see a bigger lore about this galaxy and it's tomfoolery.
Big question of course being; Starting Date? Does Earth Exist? Tech level/theme? and space magic??
Starting date is not really relevant but I can invent a sorts of united calendar if neccessary. By nature timekeeping is relative in space and even without that the myriad of races would each have different calendars, realistically speaking.
Earth can exist if somebody claims it. You can also make up stories about human-like aliens or anything similar if you wish to play as humans while somebody else claimed Earth.
Tech level is relatively low. Planet razing takes massive effort you might be usually unwilling to do. That being said tech levels can vary per civ to an extend.
Space magic and science fantasy elements are mostly absent. I can allow psychic powers so long they aren't too overbearing. Weird science can happen and generally I am fine with soft sci-fi elements.
Overall theme is closer to Babylon 5, Mass Effect and such. I am yet undecided if the game should have NPCs or not. Likely also depends on whether I have co-GMs who can assist in controlling such factions. A number of players may establish first contact with aliens during the IC though I don't mind if players discuss pre-existing relations. I already made a channel for that.
The universe is vast, effectively limitless. Civilizations from many worlds were looking up to the stars, yearning to reach them. This became a reality with the discovery of Hypergates. Mysterious relics left behind by a long lost civilization the gates turned the dreams of faster than light travel into a reality. Numerous intelligent species isolated by the vast interstellar distances made contact for the first time. At the same time it signaled the beginning of the race on the development of hyperdrives. All the while archeologists for the first time turned their eyes towards the stars, seeking knowledge about the ancient Builders. The galaxy enters a new page in its history, one shaped by the interaction of the young races.
Hello roleplayers! This is yet another space nationgame. I have a feeling we're approaching a point of fatigue with this concept and unfortunately not for the kindest reasons. My intention is to change this trend and steal back the magic which made these games so entertaining. At the same time I'm working out some of the old faults. Endless Horizon is about space exploration and interaction between the various civilizations. Player civs are relatively fresh to interstellar travel and the galactic community has yet to form. While I don't mind the plot about playing remnants of a fallen galactic empire I feel this plot fits the pure idea of space nationgames far better. That being said I'm still open to ideas and would welcome the input. As such I went ahead and created a discord server for us, already. Discord Invite: discord.gg/VfnhJPM
I am also looking for co-GMs who are both intereted and reasonably active.
Legend: 1.) Westewald (core territory, dragon symbol = the location of the capital) 2.) Collés Archipelago 3.) Medina Isles 4.) Haardam Commonwealth 5.) Beumann Island 6.) Olmeiqué
Core Overview:
Corax is a moderately sized Edonirasi country located to the northwest. Also called Westewald the region is located within the temperate climate zone and can be split up to three sub-regions: coasts of Merensol, lowlands of Gladisylva and the mountains of Drachauer. Drachauer is a collection of mountain chains at Westewald's continental borders, Gladisylva has green pastures fit for agriculture and Merensol consists of the rocky and swampy coasts of the country. These three sub-regions were historically always competing with each other and their hierarchy depended on economic trends of the time. Beyond that Westewald is also divided to 11 Cantons in total which have historical roots in tiny nations existing before being taken over by the Ordo Draconis.
Colonies Overview:
Corax has a number of colonies for their growing sea trade empire. Collés Archipelago is a collection of tropical islands with very good harbors. Medina is similar and prior to the conquest of Haardam it was the primary transit point to reach Aradia. Haardam is a giant island, more than twice the size of Westewald. Further east you find the Beumann Island, close to Aradia. Some even contest that Beumann/Hwasho (its original name) is actually a peninsula due to the "Long Road", a thin region of extremely shallow sea levels that during summer dries up sufficiently to create a direct land route towards Aradia. Of course the existence of Long Road also creates navigational hazards albeit after the Corax occupation they created a dam system to let ships through while also raising the sea level behind the Long Road. Acting a bit belatedly but Corax also joined the venture towards the New World with them establishing colonies in the delta of River Quaram with the name Olmeiqué.
SOCIAL OVERVIEW
Historical Overview:
I am using bulletpoints of history for now until I know more about the others nations near me.
- Westewald was a pagan region ruled by various small states - Ordo Draconis by the Holy Patriach's command invaded Westewald to convert them to Viasm - Multiple crusades gradually took the region and the Order invited foreigners from the neighboring countries - By the 15th century the entire region came under the Draconic Order's control - Reformation of the Viam faith washed over Edoniras like wildfire - Draconic Order split from the Patriarchy and took Westewald as their personal possession - Grandmaster of the Draconic Order founded a new dynasty of Corvinus (later renamed to Corax) - Economic upturn, naval shipping, manufacturing reputation - Colonial aims, industrial revolution, etc
Demographic Overview:
Inhabitants of the core region are referred as Westewaldians are a mixture of the original once pagan locals and immigrants from various neighboring Vianist countries. As a consequence Corax has a fairly mixed population with most people knowing two or more languages. In spite of that inhabitants eventually developed a sense of identity as Westewaldians and they are proud to this fact. In terms of religion the state only recognizes Viam with all other faiths requiring exemption papers to practice. Of course above all they promote their variation of Viasm called Dominitam but at least on the surface they tolerate all the other derivatives. Socially Corax has three main layers: commoners (Landsmann), citizen (Burgher) and knights (Ritter). Commoners are exempt from taxes but have constraints to free movement and social advancement. Those who can buy themselves a permit and keep paying taxes are freemen and wealthy citizen known as Burghers. Such people tend to own major businesses, usually born to famous craftsmen and merchant families. Lastly the knights (Ritter) who form Corax's de facto nobility. Unlike nobles though knights are elected to their title and are expected to contribute for the military. Knight titles are far more likely to be awarded to families with prior lineage of knights but the ultimate decision is made based on the candidate's personal performance. A knight has the right to own land, govern territory granted to him by the Grandmaster and of course wield arms in public. While civil governance exists the ultimate supervision is through knights and as such they remain a prominent class in Westewaldian society. Although by the start of the 19th century the distinction between Ritter and Burghers is becoming far less defined.
Political Overview:
Corax is technically a theocratic/stratocratic dominion where members of the Ordo Draconis fulfill every leading position. Headed by the Hochmeister/Grandmaster the base organization of Corax' governance is similar to a professional military, a monolithic system branching down to actual soldiers on the field. Directly beneath the Hochmeister are the Landmeisters who administrate and govern a large regions. Currently there are 11 regions in the Dominion, 5 divided for the mainland, 1 for the Collés Archipelago, one for Olmeiqué, one for Beumanns, one for Medina and its neighboring ports and finally two for Haardam. Landmeisters are not active duty soldiers nor picked for their skills in battle but their governing abilities. Beneath them are the Komtur who manage a sub-region called commandry. While smaller governing titles are used their application is more sporadic and at such stage the local civilian leadership takes over. These knight-governors of course also had their own deputies, advisors and officials. At the first glance this government may appear obstructive but in effect due to various facts the system was efficient and even somewhat liberal, inspired by the ideals from the Age of Enlightenment. The Hochmeister in particular has seemingly unlimited power but laws and the watchful eyes of his subordinate governors keep them in check. The Hochmeister is elected through the Generalkapitel attended by every knight with the title of Komtur or above. They also gather for political discussions or send out representatives for an almost parliamentary style system.
ECONOMIC OVERVIEW
Resources Overview:
In spite of its small size Westewald is relatively rich in resources. Drachauer region's mountains are abundant in minerals and new deposits are found each month. In particular Westewald became famous for the quality of their iron ore and resulting ease to produce decent steel. Precious metals like gold and silver are scarce though due to over mining during the middle ages and most coins are minted from import minerals. The lowlands are decently fertile and can be considered the country's food reserve. Forests and good lumber is also available in fair quantity. Overall the Corax mainland is gifted in natural resources and if not for their ambitions and steadily growing population they could be even self-sufficient on their own. Outside of their strictly defined national borders Corax has large colonial plantations for various exotic goods like rubber trees, coffee, cacao, tea, spices and also mining efforts for coal, metals, precious metals, sulfur and nitrates. Colonies also provide grain and other necessary foodstuff imports to support the ever growing mainland population.
Industrial Overview:
Since the 15th century Westewald enjoyed reputation for their craftsmanship, especially clocks and weaponmaking. With strong governmental control the guilds were quickly replaced by manufactories and soon adopted machinery. Some of the first steam engines, used for operating pumps in mines, were utilized in Westewald. Nowadays railways connect all towns and even common in colonial territories. Corax has a fairly developed industry overall but if you have to pick one field they excel in the metallurgy and heavy industries dependent on it. Combined with the great iron ore the steelworks of Corax are exceptional and good quality steel is considerably easier to acquire than anywhere else. They also acquired great expertise in gunmaking, proud to have many famous inventors working in the field. Corax also have ancient traditions on armormaking and given the knights' demands it remains a flourishing business. Since the early 14th century the Order always sought good craftsmen in cannonry and gunmaking which prevailed as Westewald transitioned into the Confederation of Corax. Currently, Coracian gunmakers are renown for their high quality products and while they might not approach the sheer output of Lancia or other top industrial regions their reputation for excellent guns remains. A typical Coracian product is the revolver, multi-shot pistol/carbine using rotating chambers. While they long lost monopoly on these products a huge quantity of revolvers are still made in Westewald. Due to political reasons Corax also sought cartridge technology, being its earliest widescale adopters. This is in part to the effort of limiting the power of civilian firearms but the transition also helped them to meet the rising demands for these fairly early. Corax's mining and heavy industry is remarkable and their light industry also saw decent development. Water and wind mills are extremely widespread and the usage of steam power is gradually gaining ground. That being said Corax can't compete with foreign textile industry and over half of their cloth products are imported from elsewhere. On the other hand Corax is the earliest adopter of rubber and while missing out on developing the vulcanization process first (using the natives' ancient means of stabilizing rubber instead) they are now recuperating from that loss and again becoming one of the larger rubber producers in the world.
Trade Overview:
Like every developed nation Corax is a net resource importer, using skilled laborers and advanced industry to pay back in finished products. As such while the Coracian iron ore is famous they still import nearly a hundred thousand tons of iron either in bar or ore form each year. Iron products in turn are one of the most famous exports of Westewald, tools and equipment from this region is put in high regard. Gun imports earn a special mention. while recent laws prohibit the civilian use of high powered guns their manufacture and sale is so important for the Coracian economy that such companies immediately earned an exemption from the law. Export of cartridges earns a special mention as these are mandated to be in dimensions unfit to be loaded by civilian firearms as such Coracian guns and cartridges for export can be identified by their bore/cartridge diameter. Rubber production also revitalized and Corax is one of the main exporters of rubber both in raw form and as finished products. As noted before Corax imports a lot of textiles, especially of the finer quality, as their own cloth industry is still failing to meet the new demands. Luxury goods while in some quality availible to them is still a well sought after commodity. Lastly but not least Corax is in a constant demand for gold. Due to overmining their gold reserves ran out by the 16th century after which they have switched back to silver based currency. While silver did well for local trade it became increasingly harder to use after the discovery of the New World. While colonial mining efforts and more importantly exploiting the natives of the New World averted the outright crisis the Coracian hunger for gold has yet to be sated.
Main Exports: - Steel products, tools - Steam Engines, heavy machinery - Guns, artillery, cartridges - Rubber, rubber products
Main Imports: - Raw materials - Food - Coal - Gold
MILITARY OVERVIEW
Army Overview
Corax military is relatively small but competent and highly organized. The most elemental unit in combat is the Lance/Lanze, rooted in the old tradition of knights fighting along with their retinue. Unlike those days Lances tend to be larger with usually 10 people including the sergeant commanding them. These optimally organize into Groups/Gruppen of 3-4 lances and similarly 3-4 Groups form a Company. Regiments are the smallest independent unit of circa 1200-2000 people that had their own artillery, support, sustainment and intelligence gathering groups. During major wars these regiments combine into Legions, the main organizational unit of the Coracian military. Corax soldiers are easy to identify for the fact they still wear helmets and breastplates, occasionally with the addition of other armor pieces. Coracian infantry can be also often found carrying revolver rifles. These provide good fire rate but at the drawback of less penetration and reduced stopping power. Corax also continued the tradition of Jaegers, light skirmishing infantry equipped with the new type breechloading long rifle for decent accuracy at range. Jaegers don't wear armor and sometimes their bright yellow and black uniform is replaced with more natural colors to help them blend into the environment. Compared to this Corax has relatively weak cavalry with most of them performing patrol and scouting duties. Dragoons exist who act as mounted line infantry with the occasional flavor of charges and some knights are still interested to become heavy cavalry.
Land Pattern 1832 Rifle - 9mm bore repeating rifle with a lever action married to a 8-shot revolver chamber. It fires a relatively light lead bullet to match contemporary breechloader rifles in range but at the cost of lethality. The weaker cartridge is necessary as revolver magazines are flimsier than single-shot breechloader mechanisms but it also means the natives have a harder time to effectively take down a Coracian soldier using a captured rifle, a welcome side benefit.
Gebhard 1837 Défenseur - Special revolver using a 12-round chamber sold to both civilians and the military. As a gun made with civilian specifications it fires a relatively weak 8mm bullet that would fail to penetrate Coracian breastplates. On the other hand the weapon is fairly reliable, fast and convenient to use. These weapons are especially popular with the marines but knights also often wield more ornate version of these.
Land Pattern 1826 "Brisanté" - Military revolver issued to officers, sergeants and jaegers for self-defense. It fires large 13mm lead projectiles from a 5-round chamber. It has great short range stopping power but uncomfortable to shoot with. The slow projectile can also ricochet off from armors or harder objects. Its nickname Brisanté is two-fold and translates to "The Breaker". It can break the charge of the attacker and also considered harmful to the hand of the user due to the imperfect seal at the revolver chamber.
Walther Pattern 1840 "Chasseur" - Breechloading rifle used by jaegers and other skirmishing troops. It uses a trapdoor like mechanism where the user places the long 11mm diameter cartridge. Uniquely the gun also had a hexagonal barrel and special projectile to accommodate this. Unlike circular barrels this allowed tighter fitting bullet made of steel but also meant the rifle had to be cleaned after circa 100 shots.
Pattern 1788 Schwert - A single edged cut&thrust sword used by knights, sergeants and often even the infantry. Unlike sabers of the time Schwerts are thicker with more dramatic bevel shape and a longer blade that tapers tremendously at the last fifth. The Schwert is meant to fight both armored and unarmored opponents and inspired by weapons like the broadsword and rapier, achieving a good compromise between the two. Admittedly this hybrid style also makes a Schwert more difficult to use and Coracian soldiers require more training.
- Pattern 1783 Kürass: Mass produced armor worn by most Coracian soldiers. Prior to its development officers procured whatever armor they could acquire. Using by that time's standards modern industrial methods they manage to discuss a new standard for all common armors. This new type used the cuirass worn by cavalry as the basis. It featured a front plate with leather or reinforced cloth straps on the back. The base plate was relatively thin and mostly served as support for the rest of the armor. Depending on needs the soldiers could attach back and additional front plates to improve the armor, fastened by screws. This simplified production, maintenance and repairs. Until relatively recently front plate pieces of varying quality and thickness circulated in the army to balance between protection and comfort. A plate sufficiently thick to occasionally stop musketballs was rare, expensive, not to mention unbearably heavy. Even medium thickness plate additions were discarded when fighting in tropical climates. This prompted the development of a new "heavy" Schutzplatte using new materials. It had three main layers: front being a case hardened plate, middle is a thick layer of compressed paper fixed with glue and the back being a thinner layer of steel that also cover the plate from the sides, completely enclosing the paper layer. The new heavy plate weighed less than the previous medium pieces and while couldn't defeat any but spent musket bullets it could still handle most pistols. To reduce glare and effects of the sun heating metal Coracian soldiers also wear tabards with their uniform colors of yellow and black. Breastplates are questionably effective against guns but they have decent utility against more primitive weapons thus they enjoy popularity against natives.
- Ritterharnisch Pattern Götz 1812: Full plate harness worn by Coracian knights on the battlefield. Götz is a famous armorer craftsman family in the business since the middle ages. During the late 17th century the demand for high quality armors began to fade, meaning the end for many famous armouries worldwide. Corax had a different experience as knights stubbornly kept wearing their elaborate plate suits and thus Westewaldian armor industry remained strong. Pattern 1812 is the newest specification by the Draconic Order that empathized comfort, lightness and easier maintenance. While option for full armor coverage remained the new pattern focuses more on partial suit and its comfort even in tropical climates. One of its biggest yet also weirdest invention is the so-called Krieghelm, a large and heavy helmet no longer resting on the head but the shoulders. It features articulations and full protection of the head aside from the front. Krieghelms are heavy and capable of resisting rifle shots from skirmishers if hit from extreme ranges. On the other hand they heavily limit situational awareness and head traverse which makes them uncomfortable. Krieghelme are only supposed to be attached prior to battle and knights use more conventional headgear on patrols or other less dangerous activities.
Artillery Overview:
Corax is one of the pioneers of cannon development with the knights always being interested in the introduction of better artillery pieces. Cast steel guns are widespread in the military thanks to the combination of Coracian steelmaking and expertise in firearm gas seals. The most common piece is the 4-pounder rifled breechloader cannon that is light enough to be carried by two horses and mostly fires shrapnel projectiles. Supporting them you can see the Pattern 1839 Hagelbüsche, an oversized twin barrel 24-shot revolver rifle with quickly exchangable chambers. Effectively a machinegun its weight and finicky mechanism prevents it from becoming the nightmare massed armies will face in the distant future. In fewer quantities Corax also employs 12-pounder rifled muzzleloader cannons, weighing almost the same as field guns of the past century. Though some may consider them excessive but in limited numbers Corax even possesses large 24, 32, 80 and even 120 pounder cannons and howitzers. Kriegzug or combat trains are a novel new concept providing mobility for the army previously unheard of. While other nations also realize the importance of rails the Draconic Order maintains entire cars for such purpose. Furthermore they are experimenting with mounting artillery on train cars, allowing the deployment of heavy howitzers with expediency previously unheard of.
Naval Overview:
As a rising naval power Coracian navy is modern but also somewhat moderately sized. Given their near-obsession with railways it is of no surprise they also push for steam power in naval use. Any but their most outdated warships are propelled both by sails and steam. Steam corvettes and frigates cruise all their territorial waters. Lineships are split into two categories, Kreuzers and Stahlschiffs. Kreuzers are unarmored but relatively fast and more economical. They are the capital ships in absence of the heavier Stahlschiff which features steel or wrought iron plates bolted onto its still mostly wooden hull. The reason behind this shift is widespread use of explosive shells. A few shots from a large bore shell cannon could easily sink any wooden battleship. As such Stahlschiff have a relatively thick 5-inch armor plate bolted onto them that is supposed to stop most shells. The explosion still tends to damage the bolts and could detach the plates thus such defense is limited utility but until the development of true ironclad ships this is the closest to efficient protection. Armaments wise the navy uses a lot of 12-pounder breechloader rifled guns along with 36-pounder howitzers and a few 120-pounder guns. While the smaller shells lack the sheer destructive power to catastrophically damage warships they still do reasonable damage and their shells are safer to storage than the large variants as well as not requiring special loading mechanisms. Naval mines are also in development and early variants are ready to be deployed in defense of their home ports. Research for self-propelled torpedoes is in process but so far there aren't any reliable means to keep them controllable. While spar torpedoes are an option the Coracian navy does not trust them. There are at least a few private ventures at developing submarines but so far they are more of a curiosity than what the government seriously consider.
Schoner - Fast multi-masted sailship used either as secondary warship or as transports, still popular with merchants.
Kanonenboot - Gunboats are small vessels carrying few relatively large guns. They can be escorts but more often they are river patrols, usually of the paddle steamer configuration due to its superior turning radius.
Korvette - Also occasionally called Dampfkorvette (steam corvette) to separate them from their early unpowered predecessors they are relatively small escort ships quite often performing a similar duty as gunships but across the seas. They either have a dozen standard guns or have a few heavy guns for fire support. They are oft modified to become bombships for bombardment roles.
Fregatte - Fast warships designed for speed and long distance patrols, they are the workhorse of the fleet and steam power only made them even faster. Due to their construction they can carry less guns and are more susceptible to damage.
Kreuzer - Large wooden vessels reminscent of the old ships of the line. They are of course propelled by both sails and steam and can at times have up to a hundred guns. They are unarmored albeit some variants may have some degree of protection and adopt the concept of fewer but more powerful guns. They are considered capital vessels in the absence of Stahlschiffe.
Stahlschiff - Ships of steel, the most dominant vessels of the Coracian Navy. While none of them are true ironclads their wooden hulls are reinforced by steel beams and protected by at least 5 inches thick armor made by steel or wrought iron. This extra weight of course make Stahlschiffe slower and limit the amount of guns they could carry. Although this also gives them better stability to fire heavy artillery from the decks and some even use experimental turret mechanisms.
@RomeroA way to solve this is to take every claim without NS tentative and depending on pace even null after a set period. So no person can just sit on the claim and hold back progress. I also notify that while interested I have too many other RPs to seriously participate. This is a bit of good news, though. I know that there are a few people who don't like to play with me so you are potentially saved from a bit of headache. I wish only the best luck for your game.
@Dinh AaronMkActually, rifling itself was not really difficult to make. It did take extra effort but the most pressing issue was that rifling made it more difficult for muzzle loaders to be used. Breech locking mechanisms on the other hand required industrial rigors Europe was not yet ready to do on large scale. Though if Europe weren't busy with Napoleon you can bet that rifle technology would've been introduced in large scale decades prior. This is demonstrated the best with the fact that caplock muskets became obsolete almost in the same few years they were introduced. Though to be fair early rifles were more finicky so in a sense it was good for them to mature before moving on. Rifled muskets and even most later mass issued rifles with black gunpowder also didn't bring that much of a change to the battlefield. Usual gun range remained similar as fights devolved into chaos from the massed fire. Drills also lacked training on proper marksmanship and the new rifles were actually harder to aim at longer ranges than muskets were. And of course military thinking as you cite was conservative in the effectiveness of rifles and for the reasons I mention prior I would not blame them.
Anyways, I really don't agree with your remark regarding the centuries. You can't really use broad strokes in reference to the 19th century just as you can't really do that for the 20th. There's a huge difference between 1801, 1812, 1830s, 1855, 1865, 1880s and 1890s, for example. Yet these are all the 19th century.@Romero's idea to call this the 19th century is thus neither a misinformer and especially not inaccurate. 1799 has far more to do with the early 19th century than the middle period of the 18th, for example.
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