Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)
- Thread starter LordSunhawk
- Start date
[X] "Attention, unidentified JumpShip. You are violating Griffon territorial space. Fold your sails and do not attempt to power weapons or drives."
-[X] "Given the recent attacks on our nation and newly identified threats in the region we ask for evidence of your claims so we can proceed from there."
-[X] "Given the recent attacks on our nation and newly identified threats in the region we ask for evidence of your claims so we can proceed from there."
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[X] "Attention, unidentified JumpShip. You are violating Griffon territorial space. Fold your sails and do not attempt to power weapons or drives."
-[X] "Given the recent attacks on our nation and newly identified threats in the region we ask for evidence of your claims so we can proceed from there."
-[X] "Given the recent attacks on our nation and newly identified threats in the region we ask for evidence of your claims so we can proceed from there."
kashim3
Texan, Mandalorian, Alabamian.
[X] "Attention, unidentified JumpShip. You are violating Griffon territorial space. Fold your sails and do not attempt to power weapons or drives."
-[X] "Given the recent attacks on our nation and newly identified threats in the region we ask for evidence of your claims so we can proceed from there."
-[X] "Given the recent attacks on our nation and newly identified threats in the region we ask for evidence of your claims so we can proceed from there."
[X] "Attention, unidentified JumpShip. You are violating Griffon territorial space. Fold your sails and do not attempt to power weapons or drives."
-[X] "Given the recent attacks on our nation and newly identified threats in the region we ask for evidence of your claims so we can proceed from there."
-[X] "Given the recent attacks on our nation and newly identified threats in the region we ask for evidence of your claims so we can proceed from there."
Crafter of War
Well-known member
But they did just identify themselves? The subvote portion is fine though.
The Griffon squadron leader is being a little bit aggressive because we know that's a Kuritan JumpShip (we've seen it before and Sarah's sensors are that good) and it hasn't actually offered any proof that it's no longer Kuritan aligned. Also, it's not really identified in the naval sense; they haven't actually declared their name or naval service, just made the broader political announcement on loop.
Ridli Scott
Well-known member
[X] "Attention, unidentified JumpShip. You are violating Griffon territorial space. Fold your sails and do not attempt to power weapons or drives."
-[X] "Given the recent attacks on our nation and newly identified threats in the region we ask for evidence of your claims so we can proceed from there."
-[X] "Given the recent attacks on our nation and newly identified threats in the region we ask for evidence of your claims so we can proceed from there."
Turn 41 - The Sun Goes Down
Turn 41 - The Sun Goes Down
“Negative. This is an unarmed diplomatic courier. Our orders are to return as soon as possible or Jarl Gustavson will consider Griffin’s Roost to be hostile.” comes the reply from the Scout. The older captain of the jumpship doesn’t appear bothered in the slightest by the fact that he has an entire squadron of armed dropships on intercept with him.
The hell of it is that technically that jumpship has identified itself as a diplomatic courier, and under the long held principles of diplomacy that should make it inviolate, over and above what you had been told was the new custom in the Inner Sphere of leaving all jumpship’s as sacrosanct.
“As for our bonafides…” another packet is transmitted, this time containing a personal message to you from Gustavson, this time wearing an obviously altered uniform and looking just a bit smug.
“Greetings once again, Your Majesty.” he smiles slightly. “We have a common enemy, stay out of my way, I’ll stay out of yours.” then he smirks. “And in appreciation for the tea ceremony, you are invited to New Ares for a relaxing meeting in one of our fine saunas. Fair, after all, is fair. Gustavson out.”
You should have known forcing the bastard to sit in seiza for several hours would come back to haunt you.
On the home front, more of your grandkids are getting into racing, with John moving up to the next highest division in karting while all of his younger siblings are now racing in the entry division for little kids. Sarah’s eldest, meanwhile, is racing in the PeeWee hovercraft racing league now.
Seems all of your grandkids have inherited Willis’ adrenaline junkie gene, because you are certainly not the source of their love of racing and you have the complete lack of traffic tickets to prove it.
Jeremy has taken command of the first full-up Mech Regiment in 1st Armored and is spending much of his time testing doctrine and training with his men.
You have his initial reports on your desk. Mainly they concern the hardware itself, going over the performance in the field and how well everything integrates together. The main thing he stresses over and over is that designs that try to do too much are proving ineffective at any role, rather than the hoped for flexible generalists. He cites the Shortbow as a design that suffers from this flaw. The mismatched LRM racks are supposed to give flexibility, but instead serve to reduce the concentration of fire that the fire support mission requires while precluding the use of Artemis IV fire control upgrades. Moreover the jump capability, while good in theory, is rarely used as the design is operating in support of non-jump capable mechs and is thus unable to take full advantage of the theoretical advantages of the system. Moreover, as a long-range support platform the addition of TAG is completely superfluous as making use of it requires the mech to expose itself to close range fire which, with its lack of armor, it is not capable of withstanding.
He has pencilled in a design based roughly off of the Trooper platform, featuring CASE, an Artemis-equipped 20 tube LRM rack, and an Enhanced ER PPC along with a Laser AMS. By his back-of-the-envelope calculations this should be a perfectly viable design, although he hasn’t spent any time doing detail work so this is hardly a completed design.
You also have the field testing reports on the trio of new 55 ton quad mechs. The Wolf Spider is frightening enough, a quad that can run at almost a hundred kilometers per hour and has a 180 meter jump range armed with a pair of Enhanced ER PPCs is terrifying enough, the fact that it is nearly as survivable on the battlefield as much heavier designs is sobering, evidently having 4 legs is an advantage sometimes.
The other two designs are the Rittmeister command mech and the Uhlan Fire Support mech. The former lacks the jump capability, but makes up for it with a potent electronics package that gives the vehicle superb command capacity while the latter carries a 20 tube LRM launcher tied into an Artemis FCS.
General Potter has sent you a memo detailing the proposed ‘armored cavalry regiment’ making use of these nasty designs.
There are also designs to be considered for an urban APC intended for garrison use. Design requirements include being able to accommodate power-armored infantry, with an emphasis on low cost. Several of the design submissions are actually omnivehicles, somewhat to your surprise.
It is noted in the documentation that of the three Omni submissions, the Opossum and Shiltron both have ‘non-combat’ configurations for tasks like combat engineering, medical support, and cargo/logistics work. In fact, the Schiltron has more non-combat configurations shown than combat ones, including somehow packing a 7 theater deployable MASH unit into one.
QM NOTE - for Omni vehicles, currently you would procure the base variant first, then the configurations separately. I am still working out the best and simplest way to track this.
In other news, there is a truly spectacular meteor shower over Nowy Gdansk. No threat is posed to any orbital infrastructure as the average size of the ‘meteors’ is approximately a centimeter in diameter, but a combination of an extremely clear night and the meteor tracks being perfectly backlit in the early evening makes for some glorious imagery.
“Negative. This is an unarmed diplomatic courier. Our orders are to return as soon as possible or Jarl Gustavson will consider Griffin’s Roost to be hostile.” comes the reply from the Scout. The older captain of the jumpship doesn’t appear bothered in the slightest by the fact that he has an entire squadron of armed dropships on intercept with him.
The hell of it is that technically that jumpship has identified itself as a diplomatic courier, and under the long held principles of diplomacy that should make it inviolate, over and above what you had been told was the new custom in the Inner Sphere of leaving all jumpship’s as sacrosanct.
“As for our bonafides…” another packet is transmitted, this time containing a personal message to you from Gustavson, this time wearing an obviously altered uniform and looking just a bit smug.
“Greetings once again, Your Majesty.” he smiles slightly. “We have a common enemy, stay out of my way, I’ll stay out of yours.” then he smirks. “And in appreciation for the tea ceremony, you are invited to New Ares for a relaxing meeting in one of our fine saunas. Fair, after all, is fair. Gustavson out.”
You should have known forcing the bastard to sit in seiza for several hours would come back to haunt you.
| [] | Let the Scout depart with a <write-in> response |
| [] | Boarding action! |
On the home front, more of your grandkids are getting into racing, with John moving up to the next highest division in karting while all of his younger siblings are now racing in the entry division for little kids. Sarah’s eldest, meanwhile, is racing in the PeeWee hovercraft racing league now.
Seems all of your grandkids have inherited Willis’ adrenaline junkie gene, because you are certainly not the source of their love of racing and you have the complete lack of traffic tickets to prove it.
Jeremy has taken command of the first full-up Mech Regiment in 1st Armored and is spending much of his time testing doctrine and training with his men.
You have his initial reports on your desk. Mainly they concern the hardware itself, going over the performance in the field and how well everything integrates together. The main thing he stresses over and over is that designs that try to do too much are proving ineffective at any role, rather than the hoped for flexible generalists. He cites the Shortbow as a design that suffers from this flaw. The mismatched LRM racks are supposed to give flexibility, but instead serve to reduce the concentration of fire that the fire support mission requires while precluding the use of Artemis IV fire control upgrades. Moreover the jump capability, while good in theory, is rarely used as the design is operating in support of non-jump capable mechs and is thus unable to take full advantage of the theoretical advantages of the system. Moreover, as a long-range support platform the addition of TAG is completely superfluous as making use of it requires the mech to expose itself to close range fire which, with its lack of armor, it is not capable of withstanding.
He has pencilled in a design based roughly off of the Trooper platform, featuring CASE, an Artemis-equipped 20 tube LRM rack, and an Enhanced ER PPC along with a Laser AMS. By his back-of-the-envelope calculations this should be a perfectly viable design, although he hasn’t spent any time doing detail work so this is hardly a completed design.
You also have the field testing reports on the trio of new 55 ton quad mechs. The Wolf Spider is frightening enough, a quad that can run at almost a hundred kilometers per hour and has a 180 meter jump range armed with a pair of Enhanced ER PPCs is terrifying enough, the fact that it is nearly as survivable on the battlefield as much heavier designs is sobering, evidently having 4 legs is an advantage sometimes.
The other two designs are the Rittmeister command mech and the Uhlan Fire Support mech. The former lacks the jump capability, but makes up for it with a potent electronics package that gives the vehicle superb command capacity while the latter carries a 20 tube LRM launcher tied into an Artemis FCS.
General Potter has sent you a memo detailing the proposed ‘armored cavalry regiment’ making use of these nasty designs.
There are also designs to be considered for an urban APC intended for garrison use. Design requirements include being able to accommodate power-armored infantry, with an emphasis on low cost. Several of the design submissions are actually omnivehicles, somewhat to your surprise.
| [] | Name | Config | Cost | HP | A/D | Specials |
| [] | Gavin WD | N/A | 297.72 | 20 | 5 | AMS 1, APC (Powered Armor) 1 |
| [] | Gavin M3 Pod Expeditionary Reconnaissance Vehicle | Base | 451.24 | 64 | 6 | AMS 1, Armored 1, Omni |
| Burton | 259.68 | 8 | 2 | APC (Powered Armor) 1, TAG | ||
| Cardinal | 344.36 | 16 | 4 | Armor-Piercing | ||
| FlaK | 261.24 | 12 | 3 | |||
| Godiva | 367.48 | 16 | 4 | |||
| Hetz | 253.28 | 24 | 6 | |||
| Robin | 312.48 | 16 | 4 | Artillery 3 | ||
| [] | Opossum | Base | 393 | 20 | 5 | Omni |
| Prime | 241.2 | 12 | 3 | AMS 1, APC (Powered Armor) 1 | ||
| A | 69 | 4 | 1 | APC (Powered Armor) 1 | ||
| B | 237 | 12 | 3 | APC (Powered Armor) 1, Missile 0 | ||
| C | 494.08 | 16 | 4 | APC (Powered Armor) 1, Scout, ECM, TAG | ||
| D | 231 | 24 | 6 | APC (Powered Armor) 1 | ||
| [] | Schiltron | Base | 178 | 16 | 4 | Omni |
| Prime | 186.93 | 12 | 3 | APC (Powered Armor) 1 | ||
| A | 115.44 | 8 | 2 | APC (Powered Armor) 1 |
It is noted in the documentation that of the three Omni submissions, the Opossum and Shiltron both have ‘non-combat’ configurations for tasks like combat engineering, medical support, and cargo/logistics work. In fact, the Schiltron has more non-combat configurations shown than combat ones, including somehow packing a 7 theater deployable MASH unit into one.
QM NOTE - for Omni vehicles, currently you would procure the base variant first, then the configurations separately. I am still working out the best and simplest way to track this.
In other news, there is a truly spectacular meteor shower over Nowy Gdansk. No threat is posed to any orbital infrastructure as the average size of the ‘meteors’ is approximately a centimeter in diameter, but a combination of an extremely clear night and the meteor tracks being perfectly backlit in the early evening makes for some glorious imagery.
Jarow
Well-known member
[X] Let the Scout depart with a <write-in> response
Not quite sure of exactly how I want to phrase this beyond some way of saying "positively" (probably not including us visiting yet), but definitely something bringing us into something resembling anti-combine cooperation.
Afterwards, we have
[] Gavin WD
--Cheapest option (I think, hard to figure out exactly how the omnitech costs work)
[X] Gavin M3
--Best combat unit
[] Opossum
--Middle ground between M3 and Schiltron
[] Schiltron
--Best out of combat utility
Not quite sure of exactly how I want to phrase this beyond some way of saying "positively" (probably not including us visiting yet), but definitely something bringing us into something resembling anti-combine cooperation.
Afterwards, we have
[] Gavin WD
--Cheapest option (I think, hard to figure out exactly how the omnitech costs work)
[X] Gavin M3
--Best combat unit
[] Opossum
--Middle ground between M3 and Schiltron
[] Schiltron
--Best out of combat utility
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[X] Let the Scout depart with a <write-in> response
"We acknowledge your diplomatic courier status." responded the DropShip captain a little sullenly. Capturing a JumpShip would have been such a feather in his cap. "Next time kindly transmit diplomatic mode IFF, SLDF standard frequency and encoding."
[X] Gavin M3 Pod Expeditionary Reconnaissance Vehicle
While a larger and more expensive vehicle, the Gavin has the best production, and a squad (or three) of power armor is a fairly high value target. Also, an unmatched 20 tons of Omni pod space makes it the most versatile vehicle on offer, even if it doesn't have all the non-combat variants written out.
"We acknowledge your diplomatic courier status." responded the DropShip captain a little sullenly. Capturing a JumpShip would have been such a feather in his cap. "Next time kindly transmit diplomatic mode IFF, SLDF standard frequency and encoding."
[X] Gavin M3 Pod Expeditionary Reconnaissance Vehicle
While a larger and more expensive vehicle, the Gavin has the best production, and a squad (or three) of power armor is a fairly high value target. Also, an unmatched 20 tons of Omni pod space makes it the most versatile vehicle on offer, even if it doesn't have all the non-combat variants written out.
Lightwhispers
Well-known member
[X] ShadowArxxy
Protocol snark is good snark.
Protocol snark is good snark.
Panzerkraken
Well-known member
[X] ShadowArxxy
Don't quad mechs have serious piloting penalties thanks to the neurohelmet having a bitch of a time translating a biped sense of movement and balance to a quadruped mech frame? I know there were a number of problems with using them in universe.
Nope, there are no mechanical penalties for quads, and the only discussions of piloting difficulties are with the Scorpion and Goliath in the 3025 TRO, which were built to an earlier version of the rules which didn't actually properly support quads. And for both of them the problems were attributed to in-universe difficulties with maintenance and repair causing them to have to operate in damaged conditions.
The balancing factors with quads is their relative lack of internal volume. Unlike bipedal mechs, quads have, obviously, four legs, and each leg only has 2 open slots for equipment. So they are far more constrained by volume considerations than bipedal mechs, cannot make as strong a use of advanced materials, and quickly fall behind the curve as tonnage goes up due to this lack of internal space. On the other hand, Quads will always have the ability to support more armor than the same mass bipedal mech. Each leg can support more armor than an arm, so while you need to go to 65 tons to get 'armored 1' in our rules, you can do the same at 55 tons on a quad with standard armor.
Joyousmadman
Well-known member
[X] ShadowArxxy