First Martian War: Emerald Class Aerofrigate

[Liam's Ghost]

  Skyships have long been a dream of the wealthy and powerful men and nations in the world, as much for the extravagant luxury of the concept as its practical applications, and the creation of so called "sky galleons" in Europe dates back to at least the 25th century. These masterworks of magical engineering were fiendishly expensive and could only be created with the assistance of true masters of the arcane arts. Entire nation states in Europe would struggle to obtain more than a handful of such ships, and despite all the wonder and splendor of these flying ships, they were actually quite small, in dimensions closer to a pinnace (or sloop in more modern parlance) than any sort of "galleon", able to carry only a minimal armament or cargo, and a handful of passengers.
  No amount of gilding or luxurious accommodation could allow these early European sky ships to compare with with the sky ships of the east, however. While the great powers of Europe might have one or two small craft at their command, the great trading power of the Kingdom of Bahgdad sent its own massive skyships far and wide loaded with the goods and pleasures of the Orient, and it was said that the various kingdoms of the Middle East, India, and distant China possessed their own fleets of airships which dwarfed any European vessels in both size and shear numbers. The learned men and rulers of Europe often openly mocked such notions, insisting that the lesser peoples of the east could not possibly have created such amazing ships. Even the great Bahgdadi trade ships, which occasionally and undeniably visited many of Europe's largest cities, were commonly decried as relics of some past greater race, possibly from the Age of Giants or even the Age of Dragons, rather than the product of a "simple culture of desert dwellers".
  It would take inquisition rather than denial for Europe to begin to match these eastern ships, and gradually the great thinkers of Europe began to move away from pure magical means to the natural science to create their sky ships. Simple paper sky lanterns would lead to much larger examples able to lift small numbers of people for short periods. A gradual understanding of the principles of lift and the discovery of the volatile gas phlogiston would alow for the creation of purely technological sky ships able to carry crews and machinery for motive power. And finally, in recent years, pacts and trade deals with Lords of the Elemental Plane of Air secured access to vast supplies of the gas known as cloud vapor, which was not only almost as efficient a lifting agent as phlogiston, but was not prone to explosion.
  Within the last decade, several European powers have begun building skyships in accordance with these newly laid out scientific principles and using cloud vapor as a lifting agent, and the potential these ships possessed for warfare was quickly apparent. The Emerald Class is the largest such skyship in service with His Majesty's Air Fleet, in dimensions comparable to the largest seagoing ironclads. While the need to devote the greater portion of its volume to lift gas means this size is deceiving, the Emerald class is still possibly one of the most capable warships available to the United Kingdom simply through its tremendous mobility, far above that of the purely magical skyships of old and the modern seagoing ironclads of the navy. Despite the ship's great size, however, tonnage is at a premium, and the need for machinery, weapons, and accommodations for an appropriately sized crew means these ships are particularly cramped and have little capacity to carry stores compared to a seagoing vessel. As such, skyships like the Emerald predominantly operate in western Europe close to friendly ports, and are only occasionally used for long distance expeditions.
  The Emerald class is by design pierced for twenty six guns, and normally carries a mix of 12 and 40 pounders on the broadside, as well as two massive 240 pounder rifles mounted at the bow, primarily intended for use against ironclads and other heavily protected targets at ground or sea level. This standard armament is intended to provide the Emerald with enough weight of broadside to effectively engage even the largest skyships of rival nations on an equal footing, while also allowing for sufficient ammunition stores for extended operations. Some captains, however, seeking superior firepower, have successfully prevailed on the admiralty to have their ship's broadsides refitted with a uniform battery of twelve 120 pounder guns, a weapon that is particularly lethal to other skyships as well as unarmored seagoing vessels. This armament was further augmented by a complement of dragon lancers and their mounts.
  His Majesty's Airfleet had fifteen Emerald class frigates in service at the time of the Martian Invasion, as well as over two dozen smaller skyships. The air service had already proven its effectiveness against the Danes over Copenhagen and in several duels against ships of Aquitaine, Toulous, and Burgundy. Against the goblin hordes, the Airfleet excelled at providing heavy gunfire support for His Majesty's forces, as well as scouting and raiding into occupied territory. However when faced with one of the goblins' fearsome tripods, they were usually able to inflict only minor damage before being sunk or forced to withdraw. Despite losses, the persistent threat of the Airfleet would force King Zog to change his tactics and invent counters to His Majesty's forces.

Emerald class Aerofrigate
Type: Large Airship
Mass: 750 tons (template C)
Equipment Slots: 42
Structure (tech A): 360 tons
Engine (tech A, steam): 180 tons
Movement: 1/1.5
Fuel: 634 points, 40 tons
SI:15
Armor(tech A, Bar 2): 5 tons, 125 points
  fwd: 21
  fwd sides: 21
  aft sides: 21
  aft: 20
Minimum Crew: 27 crew, 5 officers
Full Complement: 200 crew, 34 officers. 20 mounted dragon lancers

Equipment:
Troop Compartment, 12 tons, 1 slot
Crew Compartment, 20 tons
4 Stearage Quarters, 20 tons
Field Kitchen, 3 tons, 1 slot
Cargo Bay: 34 tons

Weapons:
2 Medium Rifles (2 fwd) 10 tons, 4 slots
Medium Rifle Ammunition, 10 tons, 90 shots, 1 slot
12 40 pounders (3 fl/fr/al/ar) 24 tons, 12 slots
40 pounder Ammunition, 20 tons, 1100 shots, 1 slot
12 12 pounders (3 fl/fr/al/ar) 6 tons, 12 slots
12 pounder ammunition, 6 tons, 960 shots, 1 slot

Weapons (variant)
2 Medium Rifles (2 fwd) 10 tons, 4 slots
Medium Rifle Ammunition, 10 tons, 90 shots, 1 slot
12 Light Rifles (3 fl/fr/al/ar) 36 tons, 12 slots
Light Rifle Ammunition, 20 tons, 360 shots, 1 slot

Stats for the 12 pounder and 40 pounder gun
12 pounder naval gun: dmg:1* range:3/6/9 heat:0 ammo:160/ton mass:0.5 tons critical slots:1
40 pounder naval gun: dmg:2* range:4/8/12 heat:1 ammo:55/ton mass:2 tons critical slots:1
*-3 damage against BAR 8 or greater armor, to a minimum of 0

[Daryk]

That's an interesting way to do it, and the mere fact it forced a change in tactics on the goblins is a pure WIN!  :thumbsup:

[Giovanni Blasini]

Are there any software apps that let you automate airship support vee construction?

[Daryk]

Not that I know of... sounds like a custom spreadsheet is in order...  :)

[Liam's Ghost]

A fun little diversion into the chemistry knowledge of the world of the First Martian War:

As briefly mentioned in the above text, one of the earliest proposed lift gases for non-magical sky ships was called phlogiston. It received this name because it happened to be very very very flammable, leading chemists of the time to conclude that it was in fact the purified base element of FIRE ITSELF.

We would call this gas hydrogen.

(this is actually based on the real world work of Henry Cavendish in 1766 who first identified hydrogen gas as a distinct substance and identified it as sharing the properties of the hypothetical substance phlogiston proposed by the theories of the day. Real world phlogiston theory eventually helped lead to the discovery of oxygen, but the people of this world aren't there yet.)

The actual nature of phlogiston gas in the first martian war setting is a matter of some debate. Subsequent research indicated that water is produced when the gas is burned. Some scholars believed that this was because purified phlogiston burns so efficiently that only the element in opposition (water) is left from the surrounding air. Others claimed that this meant the gas was somehow more closely related to the water element than the fire element.

One of the conclusions arrived at through all this speculation is that the sun, which is clearly a gigantic continually burning ball of something, must be almost entirely composed of phlogiston (inadvertently true), and that there may in fact be a layer of water underneath the surface of the sun produced by the process of burning phlogiston (obviously false). Some extremely learned and at least mildly heretical scholars who have made in depth studies of magic and the outer planes also contend that even if the sun doesn't have a vast subsurface ocean now, if the theory becomes pervasive enough, it may spontaneously develop one through the force of collective belief.

Anyway, that tangent wasn't really relevant to how airships function, but I though it was an interesting tidbit.

[Daryk]

Interesting indeed!  :thumbsup:

[Dragon Cat]

Love the fluff behind it, nicely done