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Developed in response to the Bretonnian Galleon, the mighty Greatship is a floating arsenal bristling with guns and packed with heavily armed Imperial soldiers. It has a thunderous broadside of three batteries of cannon as well as forward and rear-firing guns. Although it has no oars and cannot ram, the Greathsip is still formidable at close range since it is crammed full of fighting men eager to get to grips with the enemy.
The Imperial Admiral has a commanding view of his fleet from the Greatship's high aftcastle, and the signals fluttering from its masts can be easily read by even the most distant Imperial ships.
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The sleek Wolfship is the most powerful Imperial ship of the line. Great batteries of cannon jut from it's high forecastle, overlooking the titanic ram from which it spears its foes. Powered by the wind and dedicated oarsmen selected from the strongest soldiers, it seeks out the Empire's seaborne foes.
Wolfships are organized into squadrons which makes them triply dangerous. The squadron is capable of moving with a drilled precision that lets it bring an enormous amount of firepower to bear on its targets. Once the enemy is crippled, the Wolfships close and board. Their gun-lined forecastles make them particularly dangerous when doing this since their enemy must make a counterattack in the teeth of many cannon.
Drummers man the aft castle beating time for the rowers. The terrifying sound of their drumming mingles with blasts from the ships brazen warhorns as they enter battle. All this din serves another purpose in letting the Wolfships know each other's position in the dense clouds of powder smoke once the cannonades begin.
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Wargalleys are swift-moving, lightly armoured ramships used for patrolling the river Reik and the Empire's dangerous coasts. Their crews are generally wild, free spiritied adventurers ever ready to risk all in furious attacks against the odds. Balanced by their crews love of battle and pillage is their commanders need to preserve their ships. Wargalley captains and officers are picked from experienced veterans who know when to hold their ships back out of range of the enemy guns and when to order their vessels forward into the fray.
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The Hell-hammer is a somewhat peculiar adaptation of the highly successful Imperial Wargalley. The Wargalley is one of the finest fighting ships afloat: sturdy enough to withstand a fair amount of damage, propelled by both oar and sail so it may manoeuvre quickly in any weather, holding a sizeable contingent of well armed sailors, and mounting a formidable barrage of cannon on it's foredeck. Although principally used by Imperial fleets, Wargalleys are often captured or built by pirates, and can thus be found prowling seas the world over.
The Hell-hammer takes this sturdy, well proven design and adds one important modification: an immense gun mounted on its main deck.
The massive cannon that the Hell-hammer carries was designed for seige warfare, but not even the greatest war-horses of the Empire could pull the weight of the assembled gun carraige, but eventually, the design was changed into the Hell-hammer, which can comfortably support the huge cannon on it's large deck.
The cannon is so large that the ammunition has to be loaded into the hull by special cranes in the military dockyards of the River Reik. The gun can only be fired a few times each battle as the ship cannot hold many cannonballs of the required size or enough gunpowder to repeatedly fire the cannon.
On the plus side, even with these limitations their destructive power at close range is truly awesome: they can easily rend great holes in enemy ships, and often sink the biggest enemy vessel with a single shot. There is not a single Admiral in the Empire who would not eagerly have a squadron in his fleet.
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The Ironfist is the second Imperial adaptation of the trusty Wargalley. Most of it's hull is taken up with a hugh mortar, whose squat muzzle points ominously skyward. Ironfists don't venture far our to sea as their principle role is the demolition of enemy coastal towns.
Although invented by scientists of the Empire, Ironfists are used both by and against many nations of the Old World, for wherever cities are built beside a river the Ironfist can bring immense firepower to bear from an otherwise inaccessible position.
As the mortars mounted in the hull of the Ironfists fire almost vertically upwards, and are powered by a great quantity of gunpowder, they are able to shoor over the masts and sails of the ships in front. With skilled gunnery, accurate targeting signals and a lot of luck, Ironfists can inflict a great deal of damage upon an emeny they cannot see, while being protected by the ships in front!
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