Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

Turn 42 - Armageddon It!

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Turn 42 - Armageddon It!

Meta Event Roll - 27 - no event
Dynasty Luck Roll - 16 - Kittens!

Imperial Approval - 8
Approval Change - -2
Politics Event - -3

Imperial Economy - 2
Economic Event - 0
Research Event - 0

Griffin’s Roost Economy - 9
Griffin’s Roost Population - 7
Griffin’s Roost Rating Change - 2

Nowy Gdansk Economy - 9
Nowy Gdansk Population - 13
Nowy Gdansk Rating Change - 7

Griffin Inner Asteroid Belt Economy - 0
Griffin Inner Asteroid Belt Rating Change - -1

Griffin II Orbitals Economy - -3 (confirmed critical failure)
Griffin II Orbitals Rating Change - -1

Griffin IV Economy - 1
Griffin IV Rating Change - 3

Build factories for Tyrannosaurus Griffins Roost Moon [110]
Target - 110
Roll - 47
Result - SUCCESS

Build factories for Defiant Griffins Roost Moon [110]
Target - 110
Roll - 46
Result - SUCCESS

Build factories for Defiant Griffins Roost Moon [110]
Target - 110
Roll - 87
Result - SUCCESS

Expand Factory 11 (Lightning) [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 48
Result - SUCCESS

Expand Orbital Factory 38 (DHS) [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 35
Result - SUCCESS

Purchase New Units [$151,727.60]
-1 Planetary Defense Wings [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 60
Result - SUCCESS

-2 Assault Carrier Squadrons [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 46
Result - SUCCESS

-1 Armored Cavalry Regiment [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 9
Result - SUCCESS

-1 Standard Armored Regiment [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 70
Result - SUCCESS

Build Orbital Factory DHS GIAB 2* [auto]

Focus Development on Nowy Gdansk [65]
Target - 65
Roll - 43
Result - SUCCESS

Build Orbital Factory DHS GIAB 4 [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 1
Result - Critical SUCCESS

Build Orbital Factory DHS GIAB 5 [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 81
Result - SUCCESS

Expand Orbital Factory 34 (DHS) [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 96, Economist Reroll - 61
Result - SUCCESS

Expand Orbital Factory 35 (DHS) [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 88
Result - Bare FAILURE (auto success next turn)

Change Factory Production [auto]
-Warrior (16) -> Devastation

Establish Pan-Griffon Games [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 73
Result - SUCCESS

Increase Government Funding of Sports [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 4
Result - SUCCESS

Expand Interior Bureaucracy [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 56
Result - SUCCESS

Iron Womb* [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 94, ShadowArxxy Contest Reroll - 85, Jarow Contest Reroll - 20
Result - SUCCESS

Industrial Mechs Tier 4 [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 40
Result - SUCCESS

Power Transfer (advanced) Tier 1 [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 72
Result - SUCCESS

Materials Research lvl 5 [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 39
Result - SUCCESS

-----

It’s been months since the impact on Griffon II, however for safety the orbitals had remained evacuated and shifted to significantly higher orbits. Which proved to be a very wise decision as in early December a swarm of increasingly serious volcanic and seismic events on the planet culminated in an enormous mega volcano erupting at a scale comparable to the Deccan Traps, only far more explosive. Additional super volcanoes are erupting elsewhere on the planet, and it is estimated that within a month or so the entire surface will be lava.

On the one hand it will delay the recovery of atmospheric skimming operations, but on the other it may open up fresh opportunities in the future. Several of the more… wild-eyed enthusiasts in DoME are talking about capturing an ice comet and deorbiting it into the planet to chill things down quicker. Saner heads point out that doing so would reduce the time needed for the lava fields to cool to centuries from millenia, to which the enthusiasts cheerfully respond that it just means that they need to crash more ice comets.

You’d be tempted to send the enthusiasts to the College of Periphery Studies, but they’ve actually done the calculations in exhaustive detail, showing that while it sounds mad it would, in actuality, be a plausible project. And you pay DoME engineers to think way outside the box. It would take 5 impacts of an ‘average’ mass ice comet assuming constant ablation rates from solar radiation to initiate a planetary rain storm of sufficient density to rapidly cool the surface. A sixth ice comet would bring in sufficient water to truly start a proper water cycle on the planet and potentially make it marginally habitable, albeit only within radiation hardened shelters for at least a few centuries.

Regardless, next year atmosphere skimming will probably be able to resume on Griffon II, along with mining the orbital asteroid fields. It looks like the latter will be the more profitable affair going forward, as all indications are that the most valuable chemicals skimmed from the atmosphere are also, sadly, the most volatile and are currently burning in the inferno that the planet’s atmosphere has become.

Engineers at the Aerie have meticulously studied the samples of anti-personnel gauss weapons that were procured from the NRI. The report has you shaking your head in a mix of exasperation and amazement. The mad geniuses had evidently started with a far deeper understanding of gauss technology and materials than you had, and had applied it to convert a machine gun of nearly identical design to your own into a gauss machine gun, still using the Browning feed that had served for over a millenia to feed steel slugs into the breach for the magnetic coils to sling down range at ludicrous velocities. It’s somewhat bulkier than a ‘normal’ Machine Gun, at least in the hand-held form factor that you have samples for that is evidently used in the Roman’s power armor.

Jeremy now is wearing a pointier pointy bit to his uniform than you ever had to wear, since you’d managed to keep yourself technically only a Colonel, while he’s just been promoted to Brigadier General and placed in command of 3rd Armored. This is helped by the fact that you refuse to wear the abomination unto the fashion gods that is the ‘Empress’ uniform your loving children have come up with, with the truss-supported pointy bit that can’t pass through doors and has to fold down to avoid being crushed by ordinary ceilings.

Any uniform that you have to wear a power armor suit in order to simply support its weight is a uniform you are not going to wear, thank you very much.

The grifftiger kittens are incredibly cute, even if they get into literally everything. Wadjet seems to enjoy finding the most unlikely places to hide, then mewling for hours until somebody manages to find where she managed to get herself stuck this time. Sokar, by contrast, seems to think that everybody else in the palace exists solely for the purpose of petting him on imperius command, and if he weren’t cute as a button doing it he’d probably not get half the free pettings he seems to shamelessly extort from everybody.

Majeure Electronique is up to their usual shenanigans with the unveiling of the Troodon missile dropship and has offered to convert the combination Velociraptor/Microraptor line to produce them in time for full rate production to begin next year.

[]NameCostMaterialsSpeedHPA/DSpecials
[]Troodon86,153FA11581381Armored 15, Swift, Capital 20 3, AMS 10, Missile 6
[]Do Not Want

QM Note - a vote for the Troodon will convert the existing factory 15 to Troodon production, giving immediate access to 2 production lines for the design next turn. If 2 are laid down, 1 will be at full price, 1 will benefit from the 50% markdown for a production model

Meanwhile the massive industrial complex on Nowy Gdansk has come online. You spend several days touring the enormous underground facility that is the single largest concentration of raw manufacturing muscle you’ve ever seen in your life. Square miles of factory floor, allowing for truly enormous production capacity. All of it underneath an entire mountain range.It is positively awe inspiring. You can now easily see why they’ve requested entire regiments of garrison forces just for the facility, and even so it appears undermanned.

More massive production facilities for Tyrannosaurus and Defiant class dropships have been built on Griffin’s Roost’s moon, sprawling across the lunar plains. Likewise, a large number of orbital forges for double heat sinks have been either built or expanded, although one of the expansion teams manages to miss every single deadline as Murphy seems to be taking his vengeance upon them. Literally every single thing that could go wrong without resulting in fatalities or permanent injuries has gone wrong.

Of course, that crews pain is another crews pleasure, a serious bureaucratic snafu resulted in the actual production equipment that was supposed to be installed in Orbital Factory Facility #35 being delivered instead to one of the new facilities under construction in the Inner Asteroid Belt, allowing that facility to come online at a much higher rate of production. Curiously, the same contractor that had built the double line in record time last year was in charge of that one. You’ve got your eye on them…

The Warrior factory has been converted to produce a single Devastation class vessel at a time, doubling your output of the massive dropships.

Jeremy is now the Commanding Officer of the shiny new 3rd Armored Division, comprising currently a single Standard Armored Regiment and a single Armored Cavalry Regiment. The entire division is currently based out of the new factory complex on Nowy Gdansk, providing the facility with additional security while they train. Jeremy’s reputation from his Regimental command days combined with his position as Crown Prince makes it relatively easy for him to put together a hand-picked command team and 3rd Armored is definitely showing the positive effects of that, being rated as ‘Crack’ right out of the gate due to the sheer quality of the transfers from 1st and 2nd Armored that make up the core cadre of the new unit.

The general reorganization of the Dropship force reveals a… issue. The earlier reorganization of the ASF forces had been praised for how well it consolidated down units, however it turns out that in their zeal to do so efficiently the single flight units assigned to various dropships of the Enterprise, Velociraptor and Devastation classes had been consolidated into the larger wings, resulting in those units currently lacking organically assigned ASF support. In the short term this isn’t much of an issue, as the same flights that had operated from those decks still do so, even if organizationally they no longer ‘belong’ to the ship, however a long term solution is required. Procuring sufficient new-build flights of ASFs to fill those slots in the new Wings would be the neatest solution in terms of keeping all of the paperwork nice, orderly, and most importantly, simple. That it would only require you to sign off on a single authorization, rather than 20 of them, is completely irrelevant, thank you very much.

The announcement that in the next Olympiad your Roman neighbors will be sending teams to compete has driven a serious case of ‘sports fever’ in the Griffon Empire. So much so that the announcement of the Pan-Griffon Games and the new sports federation funding mechanisms is greeted not with groans of ‘overspending!’ but with loud ovations and general approval. Winter training facilities are being planned on Nowy Gdansk, while summer sports training facilities are to be seriously expanded on Griffin’s Roost. You have, however, vetoed a proposal to locate some of them in Pollux, on the grounds that you are afraid Pollux Man will strike. You do concede that if they manage to go four whole years without a single incident of Pollux Man striking you will reconsider.

The Perky One has been bouncing in and out of your office… perkily… extremely excited about all the new things her freshly expanded office can build for the empire. You swear that if you could somehow generate electricity from pure perkiness you’d never need to build another fusion reactor on the entire planet. And according to Janet she’s not had a single drop of coffee in months.

Obviously unnatural and bearing investigation.

The new Iron Womb technology has completed human testing, literally on December 30th, and has been cleared for human use under a physician's supervision. Thanh and Petra have already made an appointment. MOAR GRANDBABIES! GRANDBABIES FOR THE BA! Ok, so you are really excited about this!

In other news, the latest models of Industrial Mechs have been cleared from testing and have gone into production, to general acclaim from industrial concerns who appreciate the more powerful machines that permit even heavier construction work.

The report from Griffin’s Roost University about the new breakthroughs in Power Transfer threatens to put you to sleep with how dryly technical it all is. The droning presentation of the physicist leading the project could be used as a weapon against insomnia. At the end, all you really get out of it was contained in the executive summary, that they’ve advanced their understanding of high temperature superconductive materials, with ‘high temperature’ evidently meaning something different to these science guys than to you, because as far as you are concerned 30 degrees celsius is not particularly ‘high temperature’.

Well, the Materials research work has gone well as well, which is just as well because, well, you had wished the team well when they started out well so it’s a good thing that they’ve finished as well as they started. You blame Jane for challenging you to use the word ‘well’ that many times. So now she was on kittensitting duty, which meant that Sokar had a dedicated petting person for a week and Jane was also now responsible for Wadjet Wrangling.

She’s still pouting about this.
 

Jarow

Well-known member
A sixth ice comet would bring in sufficient water to truly start a proper water cycle on the planet and potentially make it marginally habitable, albeit only within radiation hardened shelters for at least a few centuries.
It'll probably be a while before I'm willing to spend DoME actions on this, but as a feudal ruler this is exactly the kind of long term vanity project we should be doing (not that our other shorter term ones aren't as well)


Not quite sure on the conversion yet, I'll wait for a few arguments first - kind of want to finish off the 4th microraptor to finish that set of suggested items off, but it's not a serious concern for us
 

Knowledgeispower

Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
Honestly the main problem I have with converting the Mirco/Velociraptor lines to the Troodon at least is that one it's a bit too big for PT Boat analog and two the lines are planned to be converted to other designs and have further production planned to boot(although I suppose we could always build more lines to compensate). I have no problem with the Troodon being built assuming it's being used in the role of flotilla leader for smaller PT boat designs like for example the proposed Tarbosarus design
 
Last edited:

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
I think a 5,900 ton Aerodyne is a tad too large to a relatively cheap and expendable PT boat.

The small, "expendable" PT boat was the design posted in Discord, which was less than half this tonnage. The Troodon has an armor rating of 15, equal to the Megaraptor and nearly twice the armor rating of the Defiant.
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
It’s been months since the impact on Griffon II, however for safety the orbitals had remained evacuated and shifted to significantly higher orbits. Which proved to be a very wise decision as in early December a swarm of increasingly serious volcanic and seismic events on the planet culminated in an enormous mega volcano erupting at a scale comparable to the Deccan Traps, only far more explosive. Additional super volcanoes are erupting elsewhere on the planet, and it is estimated that within a month or so the entire surface will be lava.

On the one hand, so much for any plans to settle on Griffon II for the next few hundred years, barring DOME becoming more ambitious than the peak Star League's "we did it because we can" projects. Wait, they're DOME. They'll come up with something, no doubt, but it won't be on remotely speaking terms with practicality.

On the other hand, every geologist in Griffon's Roost just had a massive, collective geekgasm. They're pretty much begging on their knees for you to send one of the exploration dropships in while the volcanic events are ongoing.

Engineers at the Aerie have meticulously studied the samples of anti-personnel gauss weapons that were procured from the NRI. The report has you shaking your head in a mix of exasperation and amazement. The mad geniuses had evidently started with a far deeper understanding of gauss technology and materials than you had, and had applied it to convert a machine gun of nearly identical design to your own into a gauss machine gun, still using the Browning feed that had served for over a millenia to feed steel slugs into the breach for the magnetic coils to sling down range at ludicrous velocities. It’s somewhat bulkier than a ‘normal’ Machine Gun, at least in the hand-held form factor that you have samples for that is evidently used in the Roman’s power armor.

GAUSS M2! GAUSS M2! BROWNING FOREVER!

Jeremy now is wearing a pointier pointy bit to his uniform than you ever had to wear, since you’d managed to keep yourself technically only a Colonel, while he’s just been promoted to Brigadier General and placed in command of 3rd Armored. This is helped by the fact that you refuse to wear the abomination unto the fashion gods that is the ‘Empress’ uniform your loving children have come up with, with the truss-supported pointy bit that can’t pass through doors and has to fold down to avoid being crushed by ordinary ceilings.

Any uniform that you have to wear a power armor suit in order to simply support its weight is a uniform you are not going to wear, thank you very much.

Pointier pointy bit!

(You can't quite get away with saluting him as a superior officer, but you make a note to do it in private, just to rub things in. You are completely a fan of evil promotion ambushes as long as they're aimed at someone else.)

The grifftiger kittens are incredibly cute, even if they get into literally everything. Wadjet seems to enjoy finding the most unlikely places to hide, then mewling for hours until somebody manages to find where she managed to get herself stuck this time. Sokar, by contrast, seems to think that everybody else in the palace exists solely for the purpose of petting him on imperius command, and if he weren’t cute as a button doing it he’d probably not get half the free pettings he seems to shamelessly extort from everybody.

The Majeure Electrique rep is still running. Sokar is absolutely determined that Mommy said Pounce, and that means I get to pounce you and hold you prisoner until I collect all the pettings!

[X] Troodon.

I will point out that with a Battle Value of 38,106 plus weapons reach out to Capital Long, the Troodon is absolutely insane. Even though it's much smaller, it's second only to the Devastation for raw firepower, and outguns smaller SLDF destroyers.

You blame Jane for challenging you to use the word ‘well’ that many times. So now she was on kittensitting duty, which meant that Sokar had a dedicated petting person for a week and Jane was also now responsible for Wadjet Wrangling.

She’s still pouting about this.

Michelle is extremely smug about *not* getting caught alongside her best-and-most-obnoxious friend/enemy/employee/partner. Jane introduces Michelle's kids to the kittens. Michelle is no longer smug.
 

Thors_Alumni

Well-known member
[X] Troodon.

I could swear I have heard that word somewhere, But for the life of me i can't remember where. And google fu is failing me. And no I do not mean the Dinosaur for once.

It's Google big surprise there.
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
[X] Troodon

I could swear I have heard that word somewhere, But for the life of me i can't remember where. And google fu is failing me. And no I do not mean the Dinosaur for once.

It's Google big surprise there.
Are you thinking of the line of tactical knives?
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
Honestly the main problem I have with converting the Mirco/Velociraptor lines to the Troodon at least is that one it's a bit too big for PT Boat analog and two the lines are planned to be converted to other designs and have further production planned to boot(although I suppose we could always build more lines to compensate). I have no problem with the Troodon being built assuming it's being used in the role of flotilla leader for smaller PT boat designs like for example the proposed Tarbosarus design

The problem with the Tarbosaurus design is that it is incredibly fragile and has barely one-fourth the firepower of the Troodon while still costing sixty percent as much. It's really not cheap enough for the "expendable" concept to work.
 

Vilegrave

Well-known member
The problem with the Tarbosaurus design is that it is incredibly fragile and has barely one-fourth the firepower of the Troodon while still costing sixty percent as much. It's really not cheap enough for the "expendable" concept to work.
The contest called for it to be that fragile though, rules were that a PT boat design couldn't go higher than armored 6.

Its also never supposed to get into normal weapons range and stay at cap/subcap ranges so most of the Troodon's firepower would be getting used 90% of the time.
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
The contest called for it to be that fragile though, rules were that a PT boat design couldn't go higher than armored 6.

Its also never supposed to get into normal weapons range and stay at cap/subcap ranges so most of the Troodon's firepower would be getting used 90% of the time.

Yes, the Troodon is outside of the PT boat competition. My argument is that the limited PT boat class is inherently flawed (anything with Piranha missiles will simply not ever be cheap enough to be that kind of 'disposable' combatant) and that the more capable Troodon is the way to go instead.
 

Knowledgeispower

Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
Hmmmm so what's t
Yes, the Troodon is outside of the PT boat competition. My argument is that the limited PT boat class is inherently flawed (anything with Piranha missiles will simply not ever be cheap enough to be that kind of 'disposable' combatant) and that the more capable Troodon is the way to go instead.
fair enough I suppose.
 

Vilegrave

Well-known member
Yes, the Troodon is outside of the PT boat competition. My argument is that the limited PT boat class is inherently flawed (anything with Piranha missiles will simply not ever be cheap enough to be that kind of 'disposable' combatant) and that the more capable Troodon is the way to go instead.
Piranha's are actually fairly cheap compared to most of the dropship itself though (2 million for the launcher 3 million for an ammo stack when looking at MML) unless i'm missing something.

And while it's a niche i can see the value in something that can attack while being almost impossible for enemy droppers to engage with most of the time (at least until we start dealing with the Amaris remnants).

If nothing else the fishhook manuever we did in the simulation against the Kuritans would have been a heck of a lot more successful if they could also attack while shadowing them.

I do see your point however, can't guarantee it won't get caught with it's pants down/ambushed.

Just feel that specialized/dedicated long range ships are something we should look towards building in the future rather than dedicating part of every ships tonnage to making it a generalist that can get stuck in with heavy armor and close range weapons.
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
If nothing else the fishhook manuever we did in the simulation against the Kuritans would have been a heck of a lot more successful if they could also attack while shadowing them.

The difference is this: if you send fragile PT boats to fishhook the enemy, the enemy can drive them off by splitting off a couple of combat DropShips and having them flip and accelerate back towards the pursuing craft.

Use Troodons in the same tactic, and they simply continue to prosecute the engagement, slaughtering the escort Droppers and then resuming attack on the convoy.
 

Jarow

Well-known member
I will point out that with a Battle Value of 38,106 plus weapons reach out to Capital Long, the Troodon is absolutely insane. Even though it's much smaller, it's second only to the Devastation for raw firepower, and outguns smaller SLDF destroyers.
... You know, I never actually put that together. Looked at the major unit tracker, and that thing is legitimately insane. A factory building these will be a making bit less A/D than a Devastation factory (but a bit more HP; they're both pretty close beyond the theoretical ability to kill one of these and half the A/D earlier than killing the Devastation), but these will be... I think they'll actually be cheaper than Velociraptors (if barely) after we finish the first one.

[X] Troodon
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
... You know, I never actually put that together. Looked at the major unit tracker, and that thing is legitimately insane. A factory building these will be a making bit less A/D than a Devastation factory (but a bit more HP; they're both pretty close beyond the theoretical ability to kill one of these and half the A/D earlier than killing the Devastation), but these will be... I think they'll actually be cheaper than Velociraptors (if barely) after we finish the first one.

[X] Troodon

That is correct; once they’re on the same production discount level, they are about 5% less expensive than a Velociraptor while having better than a third again the firepower. They lose the flight of organic ASFs, but gain capital reach.
 

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