Opening Moves

[Guinness]

The airport in Houston is "George Bush Intercontinental Airport", named after Dad, not Son. And one of my least favorite places in the whole world, ranking right up there with Newark International Airport. Both Continental hubs, so this is not a coincidence...

[Blooded]

Good Morning!

I happen to be reading 'Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine: The Great Zeppelin and the Dawn of Air Travel'. Great book, amazon has it for $5 or so. Anyhow, after reading the complaints about zeppelin special ops, I felt I should add a my 2 bits.

This isn't the best idea, Your man should just sneak onto a cargo ship or something. Shanghai is a busy port, much easier to get away with.

LZ-13 was made in 1907 or something, she has long since bit the dust, I assume it is one of the newer ships. Type 2's have a range of 4000km, Type 3's go for 8400km. Neither would normally have the range to make it to Shanghai. Where is it coming from?

Navigating long distances over water is very hard, just getting to England was not always that easy for the war zeps. Many couldn't find London, if weather did not cooperate. Ending up in the perfect spot for a meet probably could not happen. Apparantly the trans atlantic trips in the 1920's required naval ship assistance in determining weather fronts and had to mostly follow the air currents. Most of Eckners first trips barely made it, with food and fuel very low. Sometimes he had to go hundreds of miles out of the way to clear bad weather or spend most of a day battling storms and not moving forward at all(these ships could go 80+kmh)

Depending on weather, zeps could wait for days just to launch, so a precise pickup time is impossible. Picking up a passenger from a small boat would be damn near impossible. Early zeps dont exactly hover like a helicopter, even with no wind at all. the odds of getting a line/cable/rope ladder within 100' of him would be low(and it would be wandering around). i could go on and on with likely problems.

Why do modern type spec. ops anyway? Especially on foreign soil, you are bound to upset players unless you have talked with them about it.

[Walter]

LZ-13 was made in 1907 or something, she has long since bit the dust

Well, I consider it to be around and being used (it's still listed as active) so the mods should make a roll to see if there will be a complete mechanical failure of the airship during this mission. Perhaps at 90% or so.

Type 2's have a range of 4000km, Type 3's go for 8400km. Neither would normally have the range to make it to Shanghai. Where is it coming from?

I would believe  that it comes from the same place where it ended up (Saipan so a total journey distance of ~5700 km ).

New Switzerland does not recognize the 6 mile limit (only 3 miles).

The Swiss have signed the Den Haag treaty so as  I see it they should recognize the 6 mile limit of China even if they stick to the 3 mile limit themselves...

Navigating long distances over water is very hard, just getting to England was not always that easy for the war zeps.

Having looked at Google Earth, I expect that the best way to get from Shanghai to Saipan is to naviagate using Okinawa. It's still a long way to get to Saipan, but it would be a lot more accurate than to use no navigational reference points at all. I would think that without using navigational points it is a lot easier to find England than it is to find Saipan as England is 1900 times bigger.
...but the Japanese despise airships so once it gets there, it'll be shot down by the Japanese in order to keep the skies above the Empire free from those floating mostrosities.

[Desertfox]

This isn't the best idea, Your man should just sneak onto a cargo ship or something. Shanghai is a busy port, much easier to get away with.

But that's no fun! I have a shiny zepp just sitting around gathering rust.

LZ-13 was made in 1907 or something, she has long since bit the dust, I assume it is one of the newer ships. Type 2's have a range of 4000km, Type 3's go for 8400km. Neither would normally have the range to make it to Shanghai. Where is it coming from?

Name's the same, doesn't mean it's the same ship. LZ-13 was 'extensively modified'. Saipan was the take off and landing point.

Depending on weather, zeps could wait for days just to launch, so a precise pickup time is impossible. Picking up a passenger from a small boat would be damn near impossible. Early zeps dont exactly hover like a helicopter, even with no wind at all. the odds of getting a line/cable/rope ladder within 100' of him would be low(and it would be wandering around). i could go on and on with likely problems.

There's a picture I've seen of an airship capturing a merchant ship. And it was standard practice for German Zeppelins to pick up officers from minesweepers to help during minesweep ops. 

Navigating long distances over water is very hard, just getting to England was not always that easy for the war zeps. Many couldn't find London, if weather did not cooperate. Ending up in the perfect spot for a meet probably could not happen. Apparantly the trans atlantic trips in the 1920's required naval ship assistance in determining weather fronts and had to mostly follow the air currents. Most of Eckners first trips barely made it, with food and fuel very low. Sometimes he had to go hundreds of miles out of the way to clear bad weather or spend most of a day battling storms and not moving forward at all(these ships could go 80+kmh)

Navigating long distances is the same, whether you are on the sea or in the air. I think those problems where overblown. If Polynesians could find tiny atolls in the midst of the vast Pacific, I'm pretty sure a crack crew of sailors could do the same. LZ-13 is the best ship in the Swiss inventory, specially modified for long distance ops and has the best crew.

Why do modern type spec. ops anyway? Especially on foreign soil, you are bound to upset players unless you have talked with them about it.

Cause the alternatives are too boring. Didn't go on foreign soil, I specifically stayed outside Swiss recognized Chinese waters to avoid bringing others in.

The Swiss have signed the Den Haag treaty so as  I see it they should  recognize the 6 mile limit of China even if they stick to the 3 mile limit themselves...

I'm pretty sure I didn't sign that specific treaty.

[Walter]

I have a shiny zepp just sitting around gathering rust.

It's already rust. :)

Name's the same, doesn't mean it's the same ship. LZ-13 was 'extensively modified'. Saipan was the take off and landing point.

There is only one LZ-13 and that is the 1907 one. No new ones designated LZ-13 have been built by the Swiss since 1907. I already checked that out with the search option when you started out this story. So in my eyes it is either the 1907 one or it is a new one that you have never paid for.

I'm pretty sure I didn't sign that specific treaty.

Just check the treaties. The Swiss signed all three of them.

Laws of the Territorial Sea:
http://www.navalism.org/index.php?topic=951.msg6940#msg6940
... clearly shows that you did sign that one.

High Seas:
http://www.navalism.org/index.php?topic=950.msg6935#msg6935
... clearly shows that you did sign that one.

Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field :
http://www.navalism.org/index.php?topic=1006.msg8409#msg8409
... I would think that you did.

... and looking at the discussions, I think it was agreed by all to go for the 6nm limit for territorial waters with exception for the limitations of the New Switzerland territorial waters which we all agreed to be 3nm.

[Desertfox]

I built a bunch of new ships and didn't name them.

Interestingly the treaty makes no mention of the 6 nm limit. Also the Dutch have apparently been in breach of their own treaty by denying Swiss merchants the right of innocent passage through Dutch waters.

[Walter]

I built a bunch of new ships and didn't name them.

Talk about lazy. :D
Still, I doubt the Swiss would re-use one of the old numbers. The nation is already chaotic enough without making a mess of the airship designations. :)
Come to think of it... Guinness, I think that, considering the number 13, the chances of failures should be a lot bigger than the 40% you propose. ;D

Interestingly the treaty makes no mention of the 6 nm limit.

I noticed that as well. Maybe left out deliberately so some could bend things a bit. Still as I see it now, one would have to respect the claims then, which means 3 nm for the Swiss and 20nm for MK and everyone else in between.

Also the Dutch have apparently been in breach of their own treaty by denying Swiss merchants the right of innocent passage through Dutch waters.

More proof that the Dutch are evil. :)

[Desertfox]

I reuse ship names all the time. Besides 'There is no overchaotic...'  ;D And yes the name was deliberate.

I noticed that as well. Maybe left out deliberately so some could bend things a bit. Still as I see it now, one would have to respect the claims then, which means 3 nm for the Swiss and 20nm for MK and everyone else in between.

Therefore, only the 3 nm is legally recognized. But NS does respect most claims. For the Mk the Swiss actually see it as -20nm...  ;D

More proof that the Dutch are evil.

Even more reason to deal with them. NS can not have competidors when it comes to evilness.

[ctwaterman]

I built a bunch of new ships and didn't name them.

Interestingly the treaty makes no mention of the 6 nm limit. Also the Dutch have apparently been in breach of their own treaty by denying Swiss merchants the right of innocent passage through Dutch waters.

Actually I am not sure you can consider any New Swiss Ship Innocent :)

But Joking aside all your Merchant Ships are Armed and to be blunt about it I will treat all your merchant ships as Warships.