Paths of Civilization II: Paths of Industrialization

1842 EY

[X] Plan FREEDOM
-[X][UH] 2 PW - Power of the purse
-[X][LH] 4 PW - Minor lawmaking (+1 Temp Happiness)
-[X][Assembly] 2 PW - Broad (+1 Happiness, Min. Consciousness from Education Increased by 1)
-[X][Press] 2 PW - Free press (-1 Temp Happiness, Min. Consciousness from Education Increased by 1, Academic Freedom Provides Half Consciousness to Innovation)

"It came to me in a dream sire, a sudden flash of inspiration from working with the other prototypes," the gunsmith, one Ynny Trusse said to Nokly and his generals as they inspected the prototypes brought before them. The military academy had been experimenting with breechloaders that could be mass produced for a few years now, but the examples brought before them was a radical step above the other designs shown before. While almost every breechloader had some complexity to its design in the method of sealing off the breach after loading a round, the design before them was remarkably simple in the overall action. Twist a lever, pull back to reveal the firing chamber, load a round, push the lever back and then twist it around. The most complex thing was the firing mechanism, which was a bit fiddly since it had this whole long needle mechanism that seemed remarkably easy to break. However, the needle was a pretty important way of overall simplifying the loading process. Some designs had been fiddling around with little metal cups to preload charges, but those were far too expensive for anything but royal usage. Others used rotating chambers that could be preloaded, but once you fired them all off the reloading process was labourious enough to be not really worth it. This design however used the needle to pierce a paper cartridge loaded with powder and a percussion cap, which was both cheap and allowed for rapid reloading, even if the needle needed replacing every dozen or so shots.

The ball also had a unique design, in that it was more elongated and had a bit of a cup at the back. The burning powder shoved the bullet hard enough that the rear expanded and thus very snugly engaged with the rifling. Precision sharpshooters had better results in tests, but the design was overall a close second best compared to most specialist weapons, and in terms of sustained fire it had the potential to be the fastest thing ever. The fiddly needle design would likely cause problems for the average trooper, but the People probably had at least a hundred thousand troops who were rated of high enough quality to be able to use these weapons under fire. That was a lot of lead being hurled down range in short order.

Still... while this design could probably become part of the People's arsenal eventually, getting it into mass production right away would eat up a lot of efforts going elsewhere and it would still take time to really filter out. It also wasn't really appropriate for all units, since the cavalry would probably get something a little easier to reload while mounted and the revolving cylinder designs could provide instantaneously faster shots when in pistol form, which would also be useful for the cavalry and certain assault specialists.

Adopt the Trusse needle gun design?
[] [Needle] Yes - Practical Breechloading Rifles and Universal Rifling Complete immediately, elite units begin fielding the weapon in small numbers immediately, other military RP gains suppressed for the round
[] [Needle] No - Standard RP gain

Speaking of cavalry, while the Ochruhr were being pushed back as quickly as possible, the Qeshyks had managed to get in behind the front of the SKF and were merrily blowing things up, while the foot and cannon regiments were taking advantage of the logistical chaos to isolate and annihilate SKF regiments. The generals were practically having to run to keep up with the colonels, although the overall objectives definitely needed to be clarified with this new success lest the armies lose all focus and go running off in every direction. Thus far the three primary possibilities were, in increasing order of overall difficulty: just plough forward through the heartlands of the Federation and not stop until they reached the Sketch Channel in former Hespranxer lands; sweep down into the Behryvar territory and then join up with the forces pressing the Ochruhr; or attempt the complete annihilation of all forces in the field on the east by multiple envelopments of the forces in the east. These objectives were also ultimately political objectives, as their success or failure would radically shape what the final peace might look like.

Driving to the sea would give the People access to core Halvyni territories and they would have claims on large amounts of Northern Tortun territory if they decided they were sick of revolutionaries blowing up their neighbours every couple of generations, but then again administering millions of angry Tortuns sounded like it would be a long term obnoxious problem. Also, it might piss off the Hespranxer.

Liberating Behryvar quickly would potentially give an immensely grateful ally who could take care of the Tortun issue for them... but also potentially create a very powerful neighbour with potential to nurse a multigenerational grudge. It would also press the Ochruhr on a second front and allow more of the People's weight to be applied against them.

Finally, wiping out large masses of the army would potentially cripple not just the SKF but the Tortun and Halvyni that spilled out of them. While this would be useful for dealing with the immediate aftermath, that definitely sounded like the sort of thing that grudges were built upon.

Also, while some of the communities that the SKF had been running were just regular communities, there were reports coming back of some communities seeming to have just gone off. Locals seemed to have completely lost themselves in a frenzy of attempts to top each other's piety and the results had been ugly, especially if they turned against anyone they deemed insufficiently committed to the cause. What might be happening in Behryvar and the Hespranxer territories that had been less willing to join was obviously something that was still unclear, but if it was even half as bad as the stories some spies and refugees were passing back... hoo. Not good to let this war go on much longer.

SKF are reeling, select a FATALITY to attempt
[] [War] Tear their heart out (Punch through to the sea)
[] [War] Disembowel them (Liberate Behryvar)
[] [War] Rip their arms off and beat them to death (Annihilate armies)