Hurtful Thoughts
22-06-2007, 20:10
History
In 1545 the Spaniard Yñigo Ortiz de Retez sailed along the north coast of New Guinea as far as the Mamberamo River near which he landed, naming the island 'Nueva Guinea'. The first map showing the whole island (as an island) was published in 1600 and shows it as 'Nova Guinea'. Siam and the island chain of Indonesia were also discovered, but relatively uncharted.
The first Euopean claim was around the 1820's to early 1830's, which was quickly followed by some light skirmishing. Since the land was rich in vital war resources, the rulers of the day made sure the place was well armed.
Little did they know this would soon be their downfall in the south Pacific...
As most history books would tell you the Honourable East Indain Trade Corporation took power in the 1660's, but quickly floundered and was in turn, bought out by a completely independent 'Hurtful Trading Company', in honor of the overall 'curse' local storytellers talked about in the South Pacific, which was HTC's primary 'stomping ground' later on, as they chose let India rule itself rather than dig them out of every single civil war.
Buisiness was booming, HTC set up an independent army of their European benefactors to 'better protect everyone's interests', all the pieces were then set.
In 1845, HTC staged a massive coup de etat, taking overmuch of the resource producing lands of the Pacific islands, leaving only the Philipeans and Australia untouched due to lack of manpower, and fear of over-extending their private army and navy.
Military:
The Standard weapon of the uprising was the Short Land Patter 1842, otherwise called 'Brown Bess', these were later superseeded by French Minie Rifled Muskets from the french, and a limited number of Dreyse Needle guns.
The new military was quite fond of the Dreyse, as it had far better rate of fire than the bess, and more range, though not as much as the Minnie, that was of little concern in the confined jungles.
They set about 'improving it' mostly in regards to rate of fire and the ammunition used. The 'improved' model has yet to be fielded, but with its adoption, the Hurtian mercenaries expected to gain unprecedented rule of both the land and seas of the Pacific.
Their original fleet consisted of a large number of armed Packet ships and a few American 'Clippers'. The Packet ships readily took to the ironwood cladding and replacement of better masts and the fitting out of a number of long range cannons, as such large pieces proved useless on land. They also fitted a number of short Cannonades for shattering the wooden hulls of enemy ships.
Resources:
The main island of Paupa New Guinea has a large deposite of saltpeter and copper mines and large forests of ironwood, both resources are vital for ship cladding and production of gunpowder, although guncotton was slowly entering use with the "New Model 1853 Dreyse".
The Saim plantations proved invaluable for producing their major cash crop, Opium, which they continued to sell on the Chinese black market with impunity.
Indonesia had Rubber, which there were rumurs of its use in their new muzzleloader, in a copy of the new French breechloading artillery.
Siam (Thialand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Loas) had fuels, coal (lingite) and natural gas in particular, as well as lead and tin, two essentails for soldering metals in fabricating new weapons, they have yet to find a good use for tungsten however, though they do know it is very dense, hard, and brittle (2nd largest Tungsten deposit in the world).
The one thing the land was defficient of, was meat... Although the Siam territory was self-sufficient in this regard, the other territories were not.
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=530337
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=12800853
In 1545 the Spaniard Yñigo Ortiz de Retez sailed along the north coast of New Guinea as far as the Mamberamo River near which he landed, naming the island 'Nueva Guinea'. The first map showing the whole island (as an island) was published in 1600 and shows it as 'Nova Guinea'. Siam and the island chain of Indonesia were also discovered, but relatively uncharted.
The first Euopean claim was around the 1820's to early 1830's, which was quickly followed by some light skirmishing. Since the land was rich in vital war resources, the rulers of the day made sure the place was well armed.
Little did they know this would soon be their downfall in the south Pacific...
As most history books would tell you the Honourable East Indain Trade Corporation took power in the 1660's, but quickly floundered and was in turn, bought out by a completely independent 'Hurtful Trading Company', in honor of the overall 'curse' local storytellers talked about in the South Pacific, which was HTC's primary 'stomping ground' later on, as they chose let India rule itself rather than dig them out of every single civil war.
Buisiness was booming, HTC set up an independent army of their European benefactors to 'better protect everyone's interests', all the pieces were then set.
In 1845, HTC staged a massive coup de etat, taking overmuch of the resource producing lands of the Pacific islands, leaving only the Philipeans and Australia untouched due to lack of manpower, and fear of over-extending their private army and navy.
Military:
The Standard weapon of the uprising was the Short Land Patter 1842, otherwise called 'Brown Bess', these were later superseeded by French Minie Rifled Muskets from the french, and a limited number of Dreyse Needle guns.
The new military was quite fond of the Dreyse, as it had far better rate of fire than the bess, and more range, though not as much as the Minnie, that was of little concern in the confined jungles.
They set about 'improving it' mostly in regards to rate of fire and the ammunition used. The 'improved' model has yet to be fielded, but with its adoption, the Hurtian mercenaries expected to gain unprecedented rule of both the land and seas of the Pacific.
Their original fleet consisted of a large number of armed Packet ships and a few American 'Clippers'. The Packet ships readily took to the ironwood cladding and replacement of better masts and the fitting out of a number of long range cannons, as such large pieces proved useless on land. They also fitted a number of short Cannonades for shattering the wooden hulls of enemy ships.
Resources:
The main island of Paupa New Guinea has a large deposite of saltpeter and copper mines and large forests of ironwood, both resources are vital for ship cladding and production of gunpowder, although guncotton was slowly entering use with the "New Model 1853 Dreyse".
The Saim plantations proved invaluable for producing their major cash crop, Opium, which they continued to sell on the Chinese black market with impunity.
Indonesia had Rubber, which there were rumurs of its use in their new muzzleloader, in a copy of the new French breechloading artillery.
Siam (Thialand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Loas) had fuels, coal (lingite) and natural gas in particular, as well as lead and tin, two essentails for soldering metals in fabricating new weapons, they have yet to find a good use for tungsten however, though they do know it is very dense, hard, and brittle (2nd largest Tungsten deposit in the world).
The one thing the land was defficient of, was meat... Although the Siam territory was self-sufficient in this regard, the other territories were not.
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=530337
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=12800853