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Originally Posted by ChalkLine
I'm not ever going to go up against Grae's data, coz' he's an expert and the go-to man for this stuff. Seriously, FORD should write a book for this stuff.
Back in the pre-Renaissance, it took an acre of feed to provide for one horse for one year, plus pasturage. As you can guess, that's a lot of food and it could supply a human for a year, so deciding whether to have one-man year's surplus or a horse that may die of a sniffle, lameness or stepping on an AT-mine is a big decision. Working horses aren't grass-fed, or if they are you suffer a lot of wastage.
I don't really think we'll go back to feudal level technology for more than five years, at most. There will be some survivors, and those that live through dangers such as famine will have knowledge like Grae's (of course they'll die from a lot of stuff no one can protect against; diseases, bullets etc).
What Grae has alluded to is the great amount of pre-motorised farm mechanisation. These instruments, usually made entirely of metal, can be seen planted in front of people's yards across every country. They are the invaluable (although probably radioactive) templates from which other machines can be built. I'm sure a quick search will turn up a wealth of data on the pre-motorised agricultural machinery, and give GMs ideas for including these valuable items into play.
As an aside, I once had a great picture of a T-55 hauling a plough.
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Thanks Chalkie. But I don't profess to be an expert, just full of IT as my wife say... what ever IT is?
Yes the pre-motorized mechanization is found in museums and front yards all through the midwest. You'd actually be surprised at some of the stuff that would still work. A great part of the equipment was made with cast iron parts, easier to fabricate than forged steel parts, but more fragile.
An interesting note on this tech-level which we discuss here, Back in '86 I was in college (actually grad school at the time) and there was to be a speaker from Niger (NOT Nigeria) sponsored by one of the on-campus organizations (African Students or some such). He was the head of their countries equivalent of the USDA, a cabinet member, so I thought I'd go see what he had to say. After the rubber chicken dinner (actually it was pretty good the way they fixed it up with some spices and such we don't normally use) it was time. He told a story of getting a call from his Deputy that was on holiday traveling around the US. It was something after 11pm and this excited voice gets on the line "I have found the solution!", to which he replied, "TO what?" since they had MANY things they needed solutions to. What the deputy had 'discovered' was the Ford Museum in Detroit, the agricultural display. All the horse drawn equipment on display. The typical third-world country must learn to walk before it can run, and the World bank was trying to 'modernize' the farms by loaning money to by tractors and the equipment for them when they really only needed equipment pulled by a draft animal. What amazed me, and got me to thinking was this aspect of the world. You see, my interst in 'obsolete' technology is applicable to places like that. Yes, it might be reinventing the wheel to us, but it IS the wheel never invented for them.
A good NPC to come across might be a Peace Corps worker, or VISTA, or USAID, that worked in developing countries.
Well I got off tangent as usual.
As for the T-55 pulling a plow.. Heck they could chew up a plot with OUT the plow. Soviet tracked vehicles are like construction crawlers in they did not use track pads like the US did. They will definately tear up the infastructure.
Grae