Great White Fleets... in spaaaayyyccceeee!

[Condottiere]

Gunboats are also more a product of the Industrial Revolution, so if you can have a fast fire engine, you can run around and put out more fires with less vehicles.

 

[phavoc]

Can't trust Imperial-age Britain to do things properly. When they got really mad they kept the crusiers at home, and used 4 gunboats to beat China and steal Hong Kong island.

It's almost like their admirals had a stupid bidding game to use as few units as possible. A situation that continues to this day as they try to operate a carrier with no planes that's about to be locked out of the EU defense network s.

Name that tune with shells instead of musical notes? Kind of like how the Clans took on the inner sphere, bidding the fewest units to take a target? Oops, game system drift!

 

[dragoner]

Gunboats are also more a product of the Industrial Revolution, so if you can have a fast fire engine, you can run around and put out more fires with less vehicles.

Korean Navy might disagree with their Turtle Ships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_ship

 

[Anonymous]

Gunboats are also more a product of the Industrial Revolution, so if you can have a fast fire engine, you can run around and put out more fires with less vehicles.

This kind of gunboat was a boat designed to attack land targets, as opposed to naval warfare. Today we might call it a monitor or naval gunfire support ship. The concept of making them into fast attack craft comes from more modern times. It may be a case of "more fire engines" rather than "a faster fire engine".

 

[Condottiere]

I think the gunboat has to be able of some form of land power projection, in order to impose it's will, not just command of the sea.

As regards faster fire engines, that was one rationale for a centralized force of battlecruisers.