Pirates of the Visutula

[Judge Holden]

I've finally wrangled my players into accepting Old Adam's proposal. Problem is I grew up playing this game when I was very young and probably having some very foolish notions of what can or cannot be done on the ol Wisla Krolowa in 'real life'.

So, my questions are:
Can I tow an amphibious vehicle? I know the barge gets pushed, but could you tow an amphibious vehicle behind the tug? Specifically the Canadian forces Cougar fighting vehicle (codename: MILF)
What can be mounted on the barge, large gun/vehicle wise?
Could you build a raised guard tower like emplacement on the barge?
How many tons of sheet metal can you armor up the bridge wheelhouse with before it just rolls over and sinks?

[Cdnwolf]

Ohhh great another Canuck...

To help you visualize the tug and the barge check out this thread...

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=3990

[Targan]

Steel-hulled tugs have a lot of mass below the waterline. I'm wildly speculating but I reckon you could easily have 10% of a tug's mass added to the upper superstructure without causing instability. In addition, the Wisla Krolowa is operating on a river, not the open ocean, so there's not much in the way of swell to have to deal with.

[kcdusk]

I'd say preparing the barge and tugs for travel down this hostile river environment is half the fun of the module!

What kind of ideas do the players have? Can they resource them in terms of finding the items, transporting them back, building modifications, holding back local scavengers, bartering for hard to get items, and any other timing factors (is the river rising or falling? is there an enemy force on the way that means the PCs will need to prioritise what 3 jobs get done ...).

[Jason]

Ahhh yes, outfitting the Tug is fun. I remember my players freaking out when they realized there were 20k rounds for the pair of Dshk MG's. There was a lot of recon by fire in that campaign.

I also remember a group that mounted a 120mm mortar on the forward deck because they struggled to get anything else. One of the first encounters where the tug takes fire from the shore and a character with low heavy weapons skill took a ranging shot on a sandbagged bunker and rolled a 1 (v2.2) Bullseye! Good times.

[Adm.Lee]

I'd think you could tow a Cougar, but I doubt that any vehicle is watertight over a long time, and it would need bailed or pumped out often.

I'm no expert, but I'm sure a vehicle could be put into a river barge, using ramps or a crane. I'm not so certain about it being able to fire over the sides, but if you've got the timber, you could build a platform in the barge to lift the vehicle high enough.

Per wikipedia: "Barges are used today for low-value bulk items, as the cost of hauling goods by barge is very low. Barges are also used for very heavy or bulky items; a typical barge measures 195 by 35 feet (59.4 m × 10.6 m), and can carry up to about 1500 tons of cargo."

When I ran this mod a long time ago, one of my parties was babying an M1, and I let them move it into the barge. (The main gun had no ammo, but the turret-top MGs were usable, and the threat of the main gun was certainly useful.)

Again, with timber and sandbags or scrap metal (plenty of that in Nowy Huta?), I think you could build a fortification on a deck on the barge.