Semi-OT: The Icaran Empire Preview (the book one)

[El_Phil]

Hunpecked said:
The story might make sense if the Icarans had developed steel, but that would require substantial advances in smelting and metalworking. Perhaps the inventive Icarans had been playing with steel for some years as a curiosity (its military potential overlooked by the Triumvirate), and only turned to it in earnest out of desperation.

Alternatively, maybe the Icarans' armor advance was in design rather than material. I know little about armor, but I understand the Romans wore mail instead of the Greek hoplite breastplate. I gather mail is lighter than plate armor, so perhaps that would give the Icaran infantry the edge on their opponents. However, as I recall one disadvantage of mail is the labor required to make it.

Any armor experts on the forum?

Useable steel is clever metalurgy, far beyond anything involved in Bronze. The main clever factor is the carbon level, get that wrong and you get horribly brittle steel, or no real advantage. You reforge iron several times and it gets stronger though, but not massively so.

In short the irons you'd be producing are going to be horrible to work with as well as being much more expensive in both fuel and labour.

If the Icarans can pull a blast furnace out of somewhere (just a really huge and very hot bellows forge) and kick out some cast iron, take part of that, heat it in air a great deal to get wrought iron and then mix the cast and wrough together they might get steel. Or a horrible mess.

I can't think of any other possible way to get decent steels that early though. Of course just because its possible, doesn't mean it's plausible.

[Atrocities]

You should get David Gervais to do the art work for you.