Sniper Scopes

TN4994 wrote:
On Earth; Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the Earth on the Golden Hind. Limited charts were available for some of the journey, but mostly, he did it by Hindsight.

TN4994 - you are aware that the perfect pun results in the death of the perpetrator, aren't you?

EdThomas wrote:

Keith_w wrote:Based on Textev, Navigators on Safehold navigate by what may be refered to as inertial guidance only. It is mentioned in LAMA, I think, that while Daivyn is studying Navigation with the midshipmen using sextants, the Captain navigated by his own knowledge, understanding the wind, and using the log to judge speed to make landfall within a reasonable distance of his destination.

Did you mean "seat of the pants"? Actually the captain had quite a few inputs for his calculation. He gets time, distance and course from the log. Knowledge of currents, direction and strength at a given time of year he gets from his own experience and other sailors. Navigators in this world kept detailed notes of the conditions encountered on their voyages. I'd think it likely Safeholdian navigators did the same. These notes were shared with other navigators and preserved. Navies(some guvmint organization) gathered these navigators notes and published what are called Sailing Instructions. Shipping companies would have done this as well
Another vary important source of data is his knowledge of his ship's sailing characteristics, specifically, how much leeway she makes on all her different points of sail. Leeway is the sideways movement of a boat caused by the wind pushing on it.
We don't know much about navigation charts on Safehold but I'd guess they're pretty good with information on depths, currents and the type of sea bottom in coastal areas.

And before that, pilots kept rutters, which was a record of where they went and how they got there, which were kept secret. Basically a pilot's handbook. According to Wikipedia, "Handbooks often contained a wealth of information beyond sailing directions. For instance, they frequently had detailed physical descriptions of shorelines, harbors, islands, channels, notes about tides, landmarks, reefs, shoals and difficult entries, instructions on how to use navigational instruments to determine position and plot routes, calendars, astronomical tables, mathematical tables and calculation rules (notably the rule of marteloio)*, lists of customs regulations at different ports, medical recipes, instructions on ship repair, etc.[4] As a result, the nautical chart never fully replaced the handbook, but remained supplementary to it.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutter_(nautical)

One would presume that Charis does the same sort of thing.

* for those of us interested but unwilling to do the research, also from Wikipedia:

"The rule of marteloio is a medieval technique of navigational computation that uses compass direction, distance and a simple trigonometric table known as the toleta de marteloio. The rule told mariners how to plot the traverse between two different navigation courses by means of resolving triangles with the help of the Toleta and basic arithmetic."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_marteloio

fallsfromtrees wrote:

TN4994 wrote:
On Earth; Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the Earth on the Golden Hind. Limited charts were available for some of the journey, but mostly, he did it by Hindsight.

TN4994 - you are aware that the perfect pun results in the death of the perpetrator, aren't you?

fallsfromtrees - Are you sure. I can't find any authors of perfect puns to verify or counter your statement.

TN4994 wrote:

fallsfromtrees wrote:On Earth; Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the Earth on the Golden Hind. Limited charts were available for some of the journey, but mostly, he did it by Hindsight.

TN4994 - you are aware that the perfect pun results in the death of the perpetrator, aren't you?

TN4994 wrote:fallsfromtrees - Are you sure. I can't find any authors of perfect puns to verify or counter your statement.

And that in and of itself should be an indication of the dangers of committing the perfect pun.

Polynesians used records of wave angles for navigation from island to island.

[quote="TN4994On Earth; Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the Earth on the Golden Hind. Limited charts were available for some of the journey, but mostly, he did it by Hindsight. [/quote]

Looking back, I can't see how that could be true.

Keith_w wrote:[quote="TN4994On Earth; Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the Earth on the Golden Hind. Limited charts were available for some of the journey, but mostly, he did it by Hindsight.

Looking back, I can't see how that could be true. [/quote]

(sigh)... Now there's two of 'em at it.

Anyway, didn't the Polynesian people have a crude type of sextant, also? I seem to recall seeing something about that
on a PBS show....

Hi 6L6,

I'm sorry this is so late, but the the forums have been acting squirrelly, at least for me, for a couple of days.

Tanks are for the next war ~20 years down the road, as many threads have thoroughly discussed; AFV's on Safehold is quickly approaching [if it hasn't passed it already] dead horse territory, ie TWTSNBN.

RFC besides some of us posters has come down hard against the idea of trench warfare breaking out across Haven.

Simply put, the continent is too big, the armies [both sides] too small.

The western front in WWI was around 400 miles long but both sides had 3-4 million men or around 4-5 men per yard, NTM each side was armed with bolt action rifles.

The narrowest north south distance in eastern Haven I can find is around 2100 miles [but well west of Siddarmark], but the nearest geographical feature that might provide a continent wide battle line is the Sabana-Langhorne River-Canal line that's 2600 miles long, but that's still 600 miles short of of Hsing-wu's Passage.

RFC made it explicit years ago that there wasn't anyplace in Siddarmark, Haven or Safehold where hundreds or thousands of miles of trenches would work as an effective barrier, in part because there were too few troops; that an army couldn't simply march around, plus the dragon changed logistic possibilities in ways most fans didn't yet understand, etc.

L

6L6 wrote:fallsfromtrees wrote,
"Actually, it doesn't require electricity to run a diesel. The gasoline engine requires a spark for ignition, the diesel gets ignition from the compression of the fuel mixture in the cylinder. The fuel pump can be run off of a fan belt (as is usually done in vehicles today). Starting the engine may be a problem, but a small steam engine might to used to do the trick.

The real problem is there is no way you are going to convince the common soldier that the diesel engine is not a violation of the proscriptions, and that could lead to internal trouble for the EoC."



Air motors can also be used to start diesels, you can run a pump off of the fanbelt to a holding tank. A hand pump could be included for emergencies. When the COG forces start digging in for trench warfare tanks will be needed to break the stalemate. Troops will be happy to go into combat behind a tank.

lyonheart wrote:Hi 6L6,

I'm sorry this is so late, but the the forums have been acting squirrelly, at least for me, for a couple of days.

Tanks are for the next war ~20 years down the road, as many threads have thoroughly discussed; AFV's on Safehold is quickly approaching [if it hasn't passed it already] dead horse territory, ie TWTSNBN.

RFC besides some of us posters has come down hard against the idea of trench warfare breaking out across Haven.

Simply put, the continent is too big, the armies [both sides] too small.

The western front in WWI was around 400 miles long but both sides had 3-4 million men or around 4-5 men per yard, NTM each side was armed with bolt action rifles.

The narrowest north south distance in eastern Haven I can find is around 2100 miles [but well west of Siddarmark], but the nearest geographical feature that might provide a continent wide battle line is the Sabana-Langhorne River-Canal line that's 2600 miles long, but that's still 600 miles short of of Hsing-wu's Passage.

RFC made it explicit years ago that there wasn't anyplace in Siddarmark, Haven or Safehold where hundreds or thousands of miles of trenches would work as an effective barrier, in part because there were too few troops; that an army couldn't simply march around, plus the dragon changed logistic possibilities in ways most fans didn't yet understand, etc.

L

6L6 wrote:fallsfromtrees wrote,
"Actually, it doesn't require electricity to run a diesel. The gasoline engine requires a spark for ignition, the diesel gets ignition from the compression of the fuel mixture in the cylinder. The fuel pump can be run off of a fan belt (as is usually done in vehicles today). Starting the engine may be a problem, but a small steam engine might to used to do the trick.

The real problem is there is no way you are going to convince the common soldier that the diesel engine is not a violation of the proscriptions, and that could lead to internal trouble for the EoC."



Air motors can also be used to start diesels, you can run a pump off of the fanbelt to a holding tank. A hand pump could be included for emergencies. When the COG forces start digging in for trench warfare tanks will be needed to break the stalemate. Troops will be happy to go into combat behind a tank.

So build a Maginot Defense Line. My guilds guarantee their work. And our slave labor would offset any overage in material cost.

Lyonheart was right about the feasibility of trench warfare. The thing is that those same factors also rule out a Marginot Line. The only way the COGA can win is to become more mobil and flexible along with being innovative to the point where they are not merely immitating.

They can do neither. Therefore they will lose.

Don