On Sat, 28 Feb 1998, Oscar Finnsson wrote:

> I would like to take up one fascinating thing with the Vikings (Rjurik?). And
> that is that they are among the first (if not the first?) marine-soldiers.
> Their ships allowed them to get to land very fast and get off/on very fast. In
> fact the long-ships were the first ocean-going ships that could on/off-load
> directly. The ships did only acquire 1 yards deep when fully loaded.
> This enabled some kind of lightning-attack (I don’t know what you call it in
> English) so their victims got off-guard.

there was a good article about viking boats in scientific american about a
month ago. i happened over it by chance, but it would be a good resource
for anyone who wants some good archeological data to back up their
rjuriks. i can't remember which issue it was, but it had an archaeopterix
on the cover.

> In BR-game-temps this could be something like they are able to go off - do ½
> plunder and go on all in the same turn.
> Ideas?

on a related ainurean theme, how navigable is the river that flows through
the imperial city? could you get a galleon up to haes, for example?

- --
rad

"these people are going to have to realise that sometimes
bad things happen for no reason, and without it begin anybody's
fault. it's a tough life; stop complaining and deal with it."