IAS Gunther III: Allergonian Ship of the Line By Imperator-Zor Watch

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The Allergonian Imperial Navy was first created in 1160 YO (219 BIA Infrastructural Calender). Before that period defense of the Empire's northern coast was the domain of the two northern kingdoms and their associated lords with the Imperial Crown occasionally subsidizing their efforts in times of war. This system sufficed in the kingdom's early history for coastal defense, but as time went on it became increasingly corrupt, inefficient and ineffective. In 1150 YO the Empire's combined fleet was comparatively small at a hundred and sixty ships manned by some 18,000 men, less than half the size of the Venoan Fleet. Of said ships a third of them were either old, in a bad state of disrepair or both and nearly all of them had either old/substandard artillery or a shortage of cannons. The ship's officers were usually the younger sons of Knightly houses which could not afford to have them squired, a motley collection of press ganged fishermen and longshoremen, beggars, outcasts and convicts made up the enlisted ranks, marines were feudal levies and a smattering of men at arms assigned to ships usually as a disciplinary action while it's admirals were nobles who were given said command as tokens of favor. Drills were basically non existent and sailors. Besides the Admirals sailors were paid a pittance and as such graft was rampant, most ships took bribes from smugglers and those that did not were usually involved in smuggling themselves if not extorting money from merchant captains at cannon point using the pretext of trumped up charges. Morale among the crew was usually low and drunkenness was a chronic problem.



These factors had been building for some time, but it took some time and a fair bit of pretext. In 1159 YO this fleet suffered a humiliating against a Hansoliath flotilla, with Forty Three ships being sunk and twenty two ships damaged by eight Drow ships of the line and four Sloops. This allowed Gunther-III with the backing of the five southern kingdoms and the Elvish High King to force the creation of a formal Imperial Navy under the direct authority of the Imperial Throne. The remaining assets of the old fleets were integrated and supplemented with new construction, new crews were recruited and the old crews were retrained. Standards swiftly improved from there.



As of 36 IA, the Allergonian Imperial Navy has some five hundred ships in service ranging from small 16 meter long cutters used for patrol and scouting to heavy Ships of the Line such as this one (IAS Gunther-III). Launched in 1382 YO out of Norgensburg being built by teams of human and dwarf artisans, she remains one of the Imperial Navy's larger fighting ships and was intended to serve as the flagships for Imperial heavy squadrons. She is seventy three meters long (including her bowsprit and aftmast), weighs in at 3,600 tonnes and has a crew of some 720 sailors and 125 Imperial marines. Crew quality has improved considerably since the days of the old Feudal Navy. Now more sailors are volunteers as opposed to those Press Ganged into service or convicts. The average Imperial sailor earns eighteen pfennigs a day plus rations paid into the Imperial Naval Bank as well as prize money, a fact which also is useful against desertion. A fair number of boys from poor families aged 12 to 15 sign up to become apprentices to ship's blacksmiths and carpenters. While the majority of officers are either wealthy or from noble houses, a decent percentage of experienced seamen get commissions.



Imperial Ships of the Line are by design heavy brawlers. They have heavy hulls of oak reinforced by intersecting cross bracing allowing them to take a fair bit of punishment. The offensive armament of Gunther-III is some ninety five dwarf made cannons. More specifically she is outfitted with seventeen 25-Pounder Long Guns (Three Forward, Four Rear, Ten broadside mounted) and seventy eight 65-pounder Carronades. If put up against one of her Drow contemporary counterparts this meant that she would be at a disadvantage during the opening salvos but once she had gotten up close she would be able to hit the Drow ship with devastating broadside after devastating broadside upon the lighter vessel. In boarding actions, marines provide the main offensive thrust. Each Imperial Marine is outfitted with a helmet, breastplate, shortsword, warpick with at least a runebreaker rune, pistol (traditionally a wheellock which were replaced by revolvers between 23 and 27 IA) and either a firearm or an enchanted crossbow with NCOs and Marine Officers having runic breastplates. These are backed up by the general crew which each has a helmet and is armed with axes, cutlasses, boarding pikes, pistols, rifles, boarding guns and muskets.



The Gunther-III, like her contemporaries is a pure sailing vessel. She is four masts to catch the wind with and can reach a top speed of to 17km/h using natural wind. Due to her prestige, she does have a number of weather mages onboard. While she can not match the endurance or speed of an Elvish ship under magically assisted winds, this does allow her a maneuverability advantage over pure sailing ships and is useful in case of becalmment. These mages can also redirect lightning strikes, while they generally can not use lightning as an offensive weapon like a fleet of Drow ships can these mages can redirect about half of all lightning bolts into the sea. Unlike the ships of the old Feudal Navy which were tasked with coastal defense, the Imperial Navy is capable of projecting force elsewhere. The AIN has sent operations to Greenwater Bay, the Southern Continent and had engaged in naval actions with the Kingdom of Torion as well as Dark Elvish ships on the open ocean.

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