Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

[Artifex]

[X] Plan: Turtle Racing

 

[Vilegrave]

[X] Plan: Turtle Racing

 

[PsihoKekec]

[X] Plan: Turtle Racing

 

[Nikandros]

[X] Plan: Turtle Racing

 

[ShadowArxxy]

[X] Plan: Turtle Racing

 

[kashim3]

[X] Plan: Turtle Racing

 

[LordSunhawk]

Turn 49 - Welcome to the Hotel California

Spoiler: Event, Luck, and Rating Rolls

Meta Event Roll - 24
Dynastic Luck - 48

Imperial Approval - 4
Approval Change - 4
Politics - -2

Imperial Economy Rating - 3
Imperial Economy Event - 7
Research Event - 6 (unlocks Max Tonnage Aerodyne Dropships)

Griffin’s Roost Economy - 7
Griffin’s Roost Population Growth - 12
Griffin’s Roost Rating Change - 7

Nowy Gdansk Economy - 5
Nowy Gdansk Population Growth - 12
Nowy Gdansk Rating Change - 8

Griffon Inner Asteroid Belt Economy - 1
Griffon Inner Asteroid Belt Rating Change - 3

Griffon II Orbitals Economy - 7
Griffon II Orbitals Rating Change - 1

Griffon IV Economy - 1
Griffon IV Population Growth - 4
Griffon IV Rating Change - 4

Spoiler: Action Results

Military [$ 699147.41 ]
Build factories for ASF Griffon IV [115]
Target - 115
Roll - 29
Result - SUCCESS

Build factories for ASF Griffon IV [115]
Target - 115
Roll - 47
Result - SUCCESS

Build factories for ASF Griffon IV [115]
Target - 115
Roll - 60
Result - SUCCESS

Build factories for Battlemech Griffon IV [115]
Target - 115
Roll - 44
Result - SUCCESS

Build factories for Battlemech Griffon IV [115]
Target - 115
Roll - 71
Result - SUCCESS

Purchase New Units [$ 265225.16 ]
-1 Regimental Support Squadron [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 37
Result - SUCCESS

-1 Standard Carrier Wing [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 19
Result - SUCCESS

-1 Interceptor Wing [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 1
Result - Critical SUCCESS

-1 Training Wing [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 15
Result - SUCCESS

-1 Mechanized Assault [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 34
Result - SUCCESS

-1 Imperial Guard Regiment [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 14
Result - SUCCESS

Interior [$ 14781250 ]
Focus Development on Griffin Inner Asteroid Belt [65]
Target - 65
Roll - 91, Economist Reroll - 54
Result - SUCCESS

Expand Factory 3 (Battlemech)
Target - 95
Roll - 61
Result - SUCCESS

Expand Factory 6 (Battlemech)
Target - 95
Roll - 95
Result - SUCCESS

Expand Factory 9 (Battlemech)
Target - 95
Roll - 38
Result - SUCCESS

Build factories for Battlemech Griffon IV [115]
Target - 115
Roll - 51
Result - SUCCESS

Construct Refit and Repair Yard [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 15
Result - SUCCESS

Expand Orbital Shipyard Griffons Roost [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 67
Result - SUCCESS

Expand Orbital Shipyard Nowy Gdansk [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 95
Result - SUCCESS

-[X] Diplomatic [$ 70000 ]
CULTURE - General Cultural Festival [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 43
Result - SUCCESS

[X] Political [$ 510000 ]
Build Relations with Chamber of Delegates* [60]
Target - 60
Roll - 100 - ShadowArxxy reroll - 99
Result - FAIL

-[X] Research [$ 26100000 ]
Hyper-Pulse Generators - Theory* [45]
Target - 45
Roll - 74
Result - FAIL

Industrial Mechs Tier 5* [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 32
Result - SUCCESS

Sub-capital Missile - Stingray [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 36
Result - SUCCESS

Intelligence [$ 1500000 ]
COINTEL - Security Screening of Citizens Involved In Government-Related Industries [65]
Target - 65
Roll - 63
Result - SUCCESS

COINTEL - Security Monitoring of all Public Employees [65]
Target - 65
Roll - 91
Result - FAIL

-----

The final preparations for departure are a bit time-consuming, with a large number of details needing to be ironed out to deal with the fact that you’ll be out of contact for almost an entire year. In general it involves a great deal of contingency planning, meetings, and above all else paperwork. But in the end, Jeremy is ready to handle things for a year in your absence.

Before you depart you look over the paperwork for the end of the year.

The new factory construction has gone extremely well, with all new facilities, from the new Battlemech and ASF factories to the expansion of the two shipyards and the construction of the new Refit and Repair Yard, coming in on time and on budget.

All new units have stood up successfully, with one stand out.

The new Griffon IV Interceptor Wing, the 401st Interceptor Wing, has… earned a rather dubious nickname but in the process has also proven to be a cut above the expected skill level of a brand new unit out of the Aerie.

It is also the only all-female unit in the entire AFGE, from the Wing Commander all the way down to the most junior enlisted in the wing mess. The fact that this seems to have happened entirely by accident, with every indication that the ordinary process of mixing veteran pilots and crews from existing units with rookies from the Aerie being assigned based on a mix of class standing and indicated preference having been followed… yet everybody in the unit is female.

And they completely scandalized the good people of Griffsport, where the unit was initially formed before transferring to Griffon IV, by engaging in a truly epic bar crawl of colossal proportions. They managed to get back to base just minutes ahead of the local constabulary, whom the Wing CO managed to tie down in so much red tape that they gave up on pressing charges of lewd and lascivious conduct, public drunkenness, public nudity, and disturbing the peace. Charges that would have stuck, if it weren’t for the sheer inventiveness of the CO whom you never want to play poker against, because she managed to, with a perfectly straight face, stonewall the local police for long enough that the… uhhhh… ladies… of the unit were able to sober up just enough to get back into uniform and pretend to have never actually been engaged in such lewd behavior and that obviously some scofflaws had stolen uniforms from the base laundry and impersonated them.

However, the wing nickname of ‘The Strippers’ has stuck, and it would probably take an Act of God to get it changed this side of the Second Coming.

The art exhibition has gone exceptionally well, with artists from across the Empire converging on Griffsport to display their work. The current art style is one you somewhat like, focusing on portraiture in a very… Dutch Baroque style, at least according to the critics and art historians who wrote up commentary and guides.

Jake is making no progress whatsoever with the Chamber of Delegates. Friendly delegates are quite willing to meet with him, so there’s no loss of support, but the opposition is deep in campaign mode for next year's elections and are far more interested in ‘proving their independence’ from the Crown then giving Jake, or you for that matter, the time of day.

R&D is a mixed bag. Work on the Stingray missile has been successfully concluded, with test articles fired successfully and showing promise as a hard-hitting anti-Dropship weapon. Likewise new innovations in Industrial Mechs, including massive new construction mechs that dwarf any battlemech ever envisioned, have moved from the drawing board to production. On the other hand, the R&D teams working on HPG theory are running into significant issues, making little progress this year and requiring more time, and funds, to continue hammering away at the problem.

Security screening for defense related industries is going smoothly, with the people involved being quite understanding of the need, especially in light of the recent events. Implementing a broad-based security monitoring system for all public employees, on the other hand, has run into technical difficulties of the legal kind, as a court has halted implementation of the new protocols until various legal challenges are worked out.

And then it is time to head off, accompanying the Griffon’s Roost Olympic Team to the NRI for the competitions next year. A Free Folk jumpship with a pair of collars is at your disposal for this journey, and HMS Renown along with a chartered transport carrying the team, docks with her in late December. A day later the first jump was made.

Upon arrival, the exquisitely sensitive sensors on HMS Renown pick up contacts creeping towards the arrival point, showing the sensor readouts to the NRI liaisons reveals them to be pirates, from one of the nastier bands that regularly raids the NRI. Evidently this group has been looking for the new trading partners of their regular targets in order to raid you as well.

Red Alert… All Hands Man Your Battle Stations.



Posture during the initial merge (capital phase)

[]	Aggressive	2x damage caused/received
[]	Balanced	Normal
[]	Defensive	½ damage caused/received

 

[Thors_Alumni]

[X] Aggressive

They don't know we know they are coming. So lets take them by surprise.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

[X] Aggressive

We have a numerically inferior, qualitatitively superior force. We hit them HARD and don't let them attrit us.

<Captain Thanh> ATTACK! ATTACK!

<XO> We have the Queen on board, we can't go running headlong into battle...

<Queen> WHY ARE WE NOT AT FULL OVERTHRUST YET?!

<XO> Am I the only sensible person ON this DropShip? Willis, back me up on this....

<Willis> I swear I packed my flight suit. . .

<Captain Thanh> Dad, NO. You do NOT get to 'jack one of my fighters. . . if I don't.

<Willis> Shhhh, while your Mom is distracted getting into her armor. . .

 

[Joyousmadman]

[X] Aggressive

 

[Vilegrave]

[X] Aggressive

We know they use swarm tactics with light armed + armored slave ships so this will let us take even less damage from the fodder.

We already do a ton of damage with our weapons after all so even halving it will still let us kill them easily thanks to their much lower hp.

Edit: NVM forgot it was the capital phase.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

[X] Aggressive

 

[Crafter of War]

[X] Aggressive

 

[lordmcdeath]

[X] Aggressive

 

[Ridli Scott]

[X] Balanced

 

[Jarow]

[X] Aggressive

Lets shoot them really hard before they get a chance to try shooting at us.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Mine Eyes Have Seen The Coming

Several moments after HMS Renown detached from the Free Folk Jumpship the drives of the smaller four of the eight contacts lit off, with swarms of tiny fighters erupting from the four larger contacts.

“Tentative IDs based on the NRI warbook, Four Hive-type dropships, 4 Stinger-type dropships, expecting 128 Swarmer-type fighters.” came from the Tactical section. Thanh nodded as she looked over her own displays at the command station.

“Very well.” she said, watching as the separation between the battleship and the jumpship slowly rose. “Status.”

“All compartments reporting at Battle Stations, all ASFs reporting ready for launch, we are thirty seconds from crossing out of the exclusion zone.” her XO reported from his station next to her.

“CAG, launch all birds.” Thanh gave the formal command as she looked over at the CAG. “Pattern Alpha. Comms, anything from our playmates out there?”

“Nothing yet, ma’am.” came from Comms.

The CAG was working his own console then reported simply “Launching.”

Moments later from each of the launch bay doors pairs of Eagle ASFs launched. As Renown wasn’t a dedicated carrier they weren’t able to launch the entire squadron at once, but by the time the battleship had passed the clearance zone from the jumpship 20 seconds later all 12 Eagles were in the black and forming up.

“Well, I didn’t want to talk to them anyways.” Thanh smirked slightly. “Tactical, you are cleared to fire once you have targeting solutions. Helm, maximum thrust… thataway.” she airily waved at the display in the vague direction of the incoming pirates.

“Thataway at great speed, ma’am, aye.” came from the helm station.

The massive drives of the battleship came to life, turning plasma into thrust and quickly bringing the massive ship up to her maximum thrust of 3g.

The combined closing velocities rapidly mounted, as both sides were obviously quite eager to get in range. Thanh absently noted the extremely sloppy formations on the other side. The four Hives were just sitting there like big fat juicy targets, the four Stingers were charging at them like four individual ships, not bothering to keep any sort of formation whatsoever between them and thus already out of mutual supporting range, while calling what the Swarmers were up to a ‘formation’ was an insult to the term, Thanh was mildly impressed that none of those idiots had managed to collide with each other so far.

Times seemed to crawl, in that strange way it does under combat conditions in which an individual second can either last an eternity or flash by faster than thought.

Then they were in range. Piranha missiles erupted from their launchers, streaking downrange at punishing acceleration rates as they sought their targets. Sub-capital naval laser mounts made final adjustments and discharged the first actinic blasts of the engagement. The heavy cannons waited, tracking, adjusting…

The enemy seemed to flinch at being fired upon from so far away, but whatever they lacked in morality, never let it be said that the pirates lacked courage. Despite the extreme range fire, they pressed on, shaken and rattled perhaps as their ‘formation’ became even more disorganized.

You will shortly be in range of your conventional weaponry, the sub-caps have taken a serious toll on the enemy, at least in regards to armor damage and completely scattering them, but now the fight will be getting… serious.

Round 1 posture (the merge, initial turn of regular combat)

[]	Aggressive	2x damage inflicted and received
[]	Balanced	Normal damage inflicted and received
[]	Defensive	.5 damage inflicted and received

QM note - all capital phases are now complete.

 

[Thors_Alumni]

[X] Aggressive

 

[kelgar04]

[X] Balanced

 

[Jarow]

Okay, now that we're in actual (two-sided) combat, there's actual differences between things.

More aggressive means luck is more important (a single battle phase matters a lot more). Less aggressive means things go slower.

I don't quite know exactly how the new system is going to work, but guess I'll go with the middle ground.

[X] Balanced