Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)
- Thread starter LordSunhawk
- Start date
Turn 58 - The Arguments of Motivation
Turn 58 - The Arguments of Motivation
Olympics Special
The gymnastics competitions have come, and it is very obvious that the NRI is smarting from how close you’d gotten in past competitions, especially in women’s gymnastics. The Romans come away with all three gold medals, however it is a testament to how solid your women’s program has become that they manage a competitive silver medal, and and while you are forced to settle for Bronze in the men’s event, this is more because the Rasalhaguian team had a prodigy than any lack of effort, it is play there that in terms of raw talent you matched the Romans, they just had a far deeper team with far more training.
In the team event you are neck and neck right up to the end, with the Romans still coming away with gold, but your team manages to make them work hard for it. All in all a rather impressive program in something that is clearly the Roman specialty.
The Romans and Rasalhaguians split the shooting events, including several upsets in the men’s pistols competition. All of the events are very close, with no single event decided by more than 2 points across multiple rounds. You walk away with the Silver for each.
Then comes a quartet of team sports events that have been running since the beginning of the Olympics but come to a conclusion near the middle. All had been added at the request of the Rasalhaguians, as was their right under the Olympic charter. To be fair, while they were last minute additions, this was mostly because of a mix up in communications due to the venue change from Nova Roma to Griffin’s Roost.
Your men’s soccer team puts on a truly abysmal performance, not managing to score a single goal at any point in the tournament. To be fair, the small professional league had rejected requests to make their best players available for the games, on the grounds of insufficient notice and that they were contractually obligated to their current schedule, making it impossible for players to play for Team Griffon.
The women’s soccer team manages to eke out a single win against the Romans in a 1-0 match, and managed to ‘only’ lose by a score of 5-0 to the Rasalhaguian women, while the Romans lost 8-0 to the same dominant squad.
In baseball the same problem arose. Although baseball is a fairly popular sport locally, the request to send players came in at an awkward time and none of the top talent on the planet was available for Team Griffon. A mix of minor leaguers and amateur players made up your team, and they managed to scrape together a silver after a scrappy victory against the Romans and holding the Rasalhaguians to ‘only’ 5 runs.
In softball it was a different story. Team Rasalhague was clearly the better squad on paper, and showed their dominance in a crushing defeat of the Romans, but Team Griffon was a Cinderella story. Not a single professional player on the squad, a pitcher whose ‘day job’ was as a nurse at a local hospital, a shortstop who was still in High School, and a Right Fielder who hadn’t yet started High School.
They first played the Romans, and won in a 3-2 game that came down to a walkoff run in the 12th inning.
Then they faced the Rasalhaguian powerhouse. Every single player on Team Rasalhague was a professional, every single one was the best they had at their position. Their pitcher in the last 3 seasons in the NRR’s professional league had the lowest ERA in that league’s history.
The first inning was a disaster for Team Griffon, 3 runs for the Rasalhaguians, and then the most dominating fast-pitch softball pitcher in their history stepped up to the mound.
And on her very first pitch, an 8th grade kid smacked the ball right out of the park over the center field wall. The next batter struck out swinging, but the third drew a walk. Then the clean up hitter did just that and hit the second home run of the bottom of the inning, tying the game at 3.
That set the tone for the game. The Rasalhaguians would get a lead, but Team Griffon would claw it back time and time again. By the 14th inning it was a 13-13 tie. By tournament rules the 15th inning would be the end of the game, even if the game was still tied. And on run differential the Rasalhaguians would walk away with the gold thanks to their shellacking of the Romans.
In the top of the 15th, the Rasalhagians were retired 1-2-3. The first batter for Team Griffon was hit by pitch, the second struck out looking. The third managed a single. The fourth then popped out. The pitcher was up next, and she’d struck out at every single at bat that game.
She didn’t this time, managing to send the ball into the gap for a single, loading up the bases.
The 8th grader stepped up to the plate. Aside from the initial home run, she had four RBIs and had pulled off one of the most difficult plays in the sport, stealing 1st base on a dropped strike, stealing 2nd, stealing 3rd, then managing to steal home on a wild pitch.
The Rasalhaguian closer was one of the best closers in the sport. First pitch was on the inside corner, strike one. Second pitch was well outside, but the umpire gave the Rasalhaguian team a gift and called it a strike, leading to loud protests from the Griffon dugout that led to the Griffon team manager being ejected.
The third pitch was way inside, almost hitting the batter who managed to barely get out of the way in time.
Then on the fourth pitch, a perfect heater served up low and down the middle. And it was fouled off. Fifth pitch, fouled off. Sixth pitch, ball three. Seventh pitch, fouled off. Eighth pitch, foul ball. Ninth pitch, foul ball.
Then the tenth pitch… and with a resounding crack the ball left the ballpark, smashing into the parking lot and breaking a windshield in the process. A grand slam home run. 17-13, Team Griffon.
You are pretty certain that you screamed yourself hoarse. You are absolutely certain that the volume of celebration in that ballpark that night was truly epic.
Team Griffon had won the gold in softball.
Olympics Special
The gymnastics competitions have come, and it is very obvious that the NRI is smarting from how close you’d gotten in past competitions, especially in women’s gymnastics. The Romans come away with all three gold medals, however it is a testament to how solid your women’s program has become that they manage a competitive silver medal, and and while you are forced to settle for Bronze in the men’s event, this is more because the Rasalhaguian team had a prodigy than any lack of effort, it is play there that in terms of raw talent you matched the Romans, they just had a far deeper team with far more training.
In the team event you are neck and neck right up to the end, with the Romans still coming away with gold, but your team manages to make them work hard for it. All in all a rather impressive program in something that is clearly the Roman specialty.
The Romans and Rasalhaguians split the shooting events, including several upsets in the men’s pistols competition. All of the events are very close, with no single event decided by more than 2 points across multiple rounds. You walk away with the Silver for each.
Then comes a quartet of team sports events that have been running since the beginning of the Olympics but come to a conclusion near the middle. All had been added at the request of the Rasalhaguians, as was their right under the Olympic charter. To be fair, while they were last minute additions, this was mostly because of a mix up in communications due to the venue change from Nova Roma to Griffin’s Roost.
Your men’s soccer team puts on a truly abysmal performance, not managing to score a single goal at any point in the tournament. To be fair, the small professional league had rejected requests to make their best players available for the games, on the grounds of insufficient notice and that they were contractually obligated to their current schedule, making it impossible for players to play for Team Griffon.
The women’s soccer team manages to eke out a single win against the Romans in a 1-0 match, and managed to ‘only’ lose by a score of 5-0 to the Rasalhaguian women, while the Romans lost 8-0 to the same dominant squad.
In baseball the same problem arose. Although baseball is a fairly popular sport locally, the request to send players came in at an awkward time and none of the top talent on the planet was available for Team Griffon. A mix of minor leaguers and amateur players made up your team, and they managed to scrape together a silver after a scrappy victory against the Romans and holding the Rasalhaguians to ‘only’ 5 runs.
In softball it was a different story. Team Rasalhague was clearly the better squad on paper, and showed their dominance in a crushing defeat of the Romans, but Team Griffon was a Cinderella story. Not a single professional player on the squad, a pitcher whose ‘day job’ was as a nurse at a local hospital, a shortstop who was still in High School, and a Right Fielder who hadn’t yet started High School.
They first played the Romans, and won in a 3-2 game that came down to a walkoff run in the 12th inning.
Then they faced the Rasalhaguian powerhouse. Every single player on Team Rasalhague was a professional, every single one was the best they had at their position. Their pitcher in the last 3 seasons in the NRR’s professional league had the lowest ERA in that league’s history.
The first inning was a disaster for Team Griffon, 3 runs for the Rasalhaguians, and then the most dominating fast-pitch softball pitcher in their history stepped up to the mound.
And on her very first pitch, an 8th grade kid smacked the ball right out of the park over the center field wall. The next batter struck out swinging, but the third drew a walk. Then the clean up hitter did just that and hit the second home run of the bottom of the inning, tying the game at 3.
That set the tone for the game. The Rasalhaguians would get a lead, but Team Griffon would claw it back time and time again. By the 14th inning it was a 13-13 tie. By tournament rules the 15th inning would be the end of the game, even if the game was still tied. And on run differential the Rasalhaguians would walk away with the gold thanks to their shellacking of the Romans.
In the top of the 15th, the Rasalhagians were retired 1-2-3. The first batter for Team Griffon was hit by pitch, the second struck out looking. The third managed a single. The fourth then popped out. The pitcher was up next, and she’d struck out at every single at bat that game.
She didn’t this time, managing to send the ball into the gap for a single, loading up the bases.
The 8th grader stepped up to the plate. Aside from the initial home run, she had four RBIs and had pulled off one of the most difficult plays in the sport, stealing 1st base on a dropped strike, stealing 2nd, stealing 3rd, then managing to steal home on a wild pitch.
The Rasalhaguian closer was one of the best closers in the sport. First pitch was on the inside corner, strike one. Second pitch was well outside, but the umpire gave the Rasalhaguian team a gift and called it a strike, leading to loud protests from the Griffon dugout that led to the Griffon team manager being ejected.
The third pitch was way inside, almost hitting the batter who managed to barely get out of the way in time.
Then on the fourth pitch, a perfect heater served up low and down the middle. And it was fouled off. Fifth pitch, fouled off. Sixth pitch, ball three. Seventh pitch, fouled off. Eighth pitch, foul ball. Ninth pitch, foul ball.
Then the tenth pitch… and with a resounding crack the ball left the ballpark, smashing into the parking lot and breaking a windshield in the process. A grand slam home run. 17-13, Team Griffon.
You are pretty certain that you screamed yourself hoarse. You are absolutely certain that the volume of celebration in that ballpark that night was truly epic.
Team Griffon had won the gold in softball.
The professional league is probably going to face *severe* social backlash for that.
Ditto the professional baseball leagues. While they weren't necessarily being petty, refusing to represent their nation and leaving a bunch of second and third-string kids to be crushed is not a move that will be very popular for them.
When you combine *that* with *this*, not only was this the adventure of a lifetime for those softball players, this is going to epically increase the popularity of softball vis-a-vis baseball.
Turn 58 - Can You Hear The Gears Of Evolution
Turn 58 - Can You Hear The Gears Of Evolution
Operation Black Champion Combat Report
Friendly Losses - 2 Pathfinder Regiments effectively destroyed
Enemy Losses - All organized ISF forces destroyed, all non-ISF Drac forces surrendered
The operation began catastrophically as both Pathfinder regiments deviated from the operational planning. Rather than landing at the planned LZ and securing it as intended, they evidently decided that the old phrase ‘You Only Live Once’ was wonderful tactical advice and tried to carry the entire day on their own by shifting their LZ from the planned site right at the edge of the Palace’s defense envelope to right in the middle of the most intact defensive works.
As a consequence they were utterly mauled by the fixed defenses, with many of the light and medium mechs shot out of the sky before they could even land.
The Special Forces Regiments, seeing this catastrophe in the making, held off their initial runs.
However, Jeremy grimly held to the plan, despite the failure of the Pathfinder regiments to follow it, and authorized the main landing force to land.
At that point, the ersatz Otomo regiment charged the landing zone, and promptly got mulched into shattered metal and mangled pilots in the process as they faced real Assault mechs. The Assault Regiments led the way, forming a solid wedge of assault-weight metal grinding into the face of the palace defenses, and crushed their way through. Weapons that would be lethal when concentrated on light and medium designs were shrugged off by the titans, and turret after turret exploded under concentrated fire.
Fighting still raged inside the palace even as the assault ground forward, a few isolated surviving mechs from the Pathfinder regiments fighting against ISF infantry.
The fortress fell, the last turret going dark. The two training regiments of Stingers that were still in the field promptly powered off as the last Otomo mech detonated spectacularly. They’d been keeping their range, staying technically engaged, but not closing enough to be targeted, until that point. It looked like neither the instructors nor the cadets had any interest in dying for the Dragon today.
Nor, it seemed, did any other surviving forces on the planet. The fall of the central fortress prompted Drac units on the remaining continents to signal their surrender, usually after vicious infighting against ISF commissars and minders.
One good thing came from the Pathfinder’s suicidal aggression, a single Wolf Spider from 2nd Armored had landed in a garden near the very center of the fortress. The pilot, a young Lieutenant and recent honor graduate from the Aerie, cut off his jump jets and let the well designed quad mech absorb the last twenty meters or so of the drop, which turned out to be the best decision. Each foot of the quad mech crushed a single ISF agent, while a young boy was directly beneath the mech and was completely unharmed, apart from being tumbled to the ground by the impact.
The battle armored troopers attached to the Mech secured the garden, and the boy turned out to be Yoshiro Kurita, younger brother of Siriwan, who confirmed that the ISF agents present had been about to execute him due to the assault. His nurse was already dead, as was his chief tutor, they were saving him for last.
The pilot had the good sense to have the boy loaded into the jump seat in his cockpit and then they hunkered down in the garden, holding the single entrance against large numbers of ISF infantry who tried to fight their way inside.
Nowa Warszawa was in your hands, as was Siriwan’s brother.
Despite the Pathfinder’s impetuosity, the day was yours. Victory for Griffon.
-----
The decision to annex Nowa Warszawa arrives just days after the final surrender of Drac forces. This has several effects. For one thing, both the Home Army and the local Drac civilians are less than enthused by the plan, but it has distracted them from trying to massacre each other by giving them both cause to glare at you, and be intimidated from engaging in violence by the fact that your forces are glaring back at them with Very Big Guns And Scary Mechs.
For the first time since you’ve landed, you have more than one consecutive day without deadly riots on the planet. Plus there are now voices who are agreeing that given everything this is probably a good idea. The radicals in both camps don’t seem to like that, but don’t seem willing to draw your ire at the moment.
The move does catch your administration a bit flat-footed. Your various ministries are scrambling a bit to catch up.
First thing, you’ll need to decide who to appoint as temporary military governor of the planet, until a civil administration can be set up.
You do get distracted from this by the ongoing Olympics, at least a little.
Men’s Wrestling is surprisingly close, with the difference between Gold and Bronze being 2 whole points. Unfortunately Team Griffon got the Bronze and the Roman’s the Gold, but it was still a rather impressive performance from everybody involved.
Women’s Wrestling isn’t as close, with the Roman’s dominating every weight class. Team Griffon has several unlucky injuries early in the competition and winds up a distant third.
In Men’s Fencing, Team Griffon is utterly dominant from first to last, indeed by the second round the only question remaining was who would take silver as Team Griffon had built up such a lead that they could forfeit the remaining matches and still take Gold. The Rasalhaguians wound up with the Silver medal.
Women’s Fencing was a show of skill and is the closest of any competition so far in the games. In the end, the Rasalhaguians take away the Gold by a single touch, and the Romans get the silver due to winning by priority, which was effectively a random coin flip as no touches were scored in the overtime of the deciding tied match.
Men’s Archery is somewhat of a Roman/Rasalhaguian two-way battle, with Team Griffon being completely outclassed, while Women’s Archery was much the same at first, although Team Griffon was eventually able to eke out a silver on the strength of some superb shooting by the final archer.
And now, you can’t avoid it any longer, it is budget time. Sigh….
General Stewart leads things off. “Your Majesty, with the collapse of Drac forces on Nowa Warszawa, as well as the decision to incorporate the planet into the Empire, we are going to need to establish a proper garrison force for the planet, complete with local recruiting and training facilities. This will pave the way for a future expansion of the Aerie, if such is desired. There are a large number of salvaged mechs, two entire regiment’s worth of Stinger light mechs, for example, that are easily repaired, although they are functionally useless to us. There is some consideration to giving these to the Home Army to form the nucleus of a future garrison force, but there are concerns that this may lead to radical elements within the Home Army using them against non-Polish civilian populations on the planet. We’ve already had to secure previous mechs given to the Home Army due to attempted attacks by radicals in their ranks. For now we are keeping these machines in depots for future disposal, either to a militia or to scrap.”
She checks her notes. “Your son did report the capture of two specific Mechs, however. One is not in SARAH’s Star League database, being what appears to be a hybrid between an Atlas II and a standard Atlas, and appears to have been the personal mech of the original Dragon. The other is a Royal Stalker, and appears to have been the personal mech of Siriwan Kurita’s mother. Both machines are being shipped here on the next transport.”
“Beyond that, we have captured extensive military factory infrastructure on Nowa Warszawa, including sufficient Light/Medium mech production capacity to produce an entire regiment a year, once retooled to our specifications, as well as 3 additional ASF wings worth or production, likewise once retooled.” she reports with evident satisfaction. “This does not mean that we should slack on our own factory expansion, plus we will need to continue to boost all of our strategic production, but especially endo-steel given how ubiquitous it is in our Mech designs.”
She checks some notes. “I’ll be handling the ground procurement brief this year as well. Your Majesty, we functionally lost both Pathfinder regiments, primarily due to the commanders of said regiments disregarding orders and acting in a highly reckless manner that led to severe losses of men and machines. We recommend that the surviving senior officers who made that decision be court-martialed and cashiered from service. But this leads to us needing to rebuild our LZ securing assets. As such, we are recommending the procurement of 1 Pathfinder Regiment, to be assigned to 1st Armored Division. We also recommend procuring 3 Standard Mech Regiments, 2 to be assigned to 4th Brigade, 1st Armored, and 1 to 2nd Brigade, 2nd Armored. Finally we recommend procuring 2 Armored Regiments, 2 Mechanized Regiments, and 1 CAS Regiment. One Armored Regiment and 2 Mechanized Regiments will be assigned to the 4th Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, while 1 Armored Regiment will be assigned to 1st Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division and the CAS regiment to 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.”
General Reyes then steps up and fires up her Powerpoints. “Your Majesty, we would like to procure a second Planetary Defense Wing to station on Nowa Warszawa, while also continuing procurement of Carrier Wings for the Silver Tower stations. We are also proposing procuring a Planetary Defense Wing for Calliope IV to boost local defenses as well.”
Well, that was rather short, a single short statement with only three powerpoint slides to deal with.
Admiral Benjamin is on crutches for some reason that he hasn’t seen fit to admit to you. “Your Majesty, we’ve got 21 large and 1 regular Dropship slip available to us this year for new construction. My brilliant staff has come up with the following recommendations.”
“On the other hand.” he grins wickedly, “We would like to order a truly epic number of PPG-01’s this year, to be distributed amongst the Silver and White Towers. My wife assures me that we’ll be able to man the lot of them, especially if she doesn’t need to fill up crews for everything else.”
Bridget is looking a bit harried, but in a cheerful way. “Your Majesty, DoME would like to send a team to Nowa Warszawa to do a full environmental survey, we already have quite a bit of good data but they want to see things for themselves before making recommendations for amelioration. In addition, the teams that had been working on the various water related projects on Griffon IV are ready to continue at your word. We have organized teams to procure and install modern machine tools and such on the newly captured factories on Nowa Warszawa, which will allow us to make use of them in our own production. In addition, we are recommending that we begin building strategic materials production, space infrastructure, and possibly a new orbital yard in Nowa Warszawa orbit.”
Isoroku is extremely busy with the Olympics, although he does send a progress report on Calliope IV that shows that progress is being made there.
Jake is looking a little grim. “Your Majesty, a military government on Nowa Warszawa is fine as a short-term solution, but we really need to start moving towards a civilian administration, even one run from here. We have tiger teams ready to go into action in that regard, as we’ve been planning this internally for some time, but we need your authorization and sufficient budget for the purpose.”
Mary didn’t bring her normal remote. “Your Majesty, we’ve not got anything new for you, but we have teams ready to begin work. We recommend starting research on Orbital Infrastructure and Improved Agriculture so we have plenty of capacity next year in case anything new pops up.”
Harry is looking exhausted. “Your Majesty, two things. One, the expanded POW camps are, thankfully, almost ready, just in time it seems, and two we can expand our current COINTEL methods and assets to Nowa Warszawa, which should hopefully help us deal with any radical elements among any of the groups there, as well as root out any remaining ISF and Drac loyalists.”
Janet is also looking exhausted. “Your Majesty, Parliament threw us a curveball, forcing us to move up our timeline. I’ve got teams ready to move in to start establishing a Griffon style legal system on Nowa Warszawa, informed by our experience on Nowy Gdansk. We can get the basics set up very quickly, but will take time to do anything more in depth.”
Operation Black Champion Combat Report
Friendly Losses - 2 Pathfinder Regiments effectively destroyed
Enemy Losses - All organized ISF forces destroyed, all non-ISF Drac forces surrendered
The operation began catastrophically as both Pathfinder regiments deviated from the operational planning. Rather than landing at the planned LZ and securing it as intended, they evidently decided that the old phrase ‘You Only Live Once’ was wonderful tactical advice and tried to carry the entire day on their own by shifting their LZ from the planned site right at the edge of the Palace’s defense envelope to right in the middle of the most intact defensive works.
As a consequence they were utterly mauled by the fixed defenses, with many of the light and medium mechs shot out of the sky before they could even land.
The Special Forces Regiments, seeing this catastrophe in the making, held off their initial runs.
However, Jeremy grimly held to the plan, despite the failure of the Pathfinder regiments to follow it, and authorized the main landing force to land.
At that point, the ersatz Otomo regiment charged the landing zone, and promptly got mulched into shattered metal and mangled pilots in the process as they faced real Assault mechs. The Assault Regiments led the way, forming a solid wedge of assault-weight metal grinding into the face of the palace defenses, and crushed their way through. Weapons that would be lethal when concentrated on light and medium designs were shrugged off by the titans, and turret after turret exploded under concentrated fire.
Fighting still raged inside the palace even as the assault ground forward, a few isolated surviving mechs from the Pathfinder regiments fighting against ISF infantry.
The fortress fell, the last turret going dark. The two training regiments of Stingers that were still in the field promptly powered off as the last Otomo mech detonated spectacularly. They’d been keeping their range, staying technically engaged, but not closing enough to be targeted, until that point. It looked like neither the instructors nor the cadets had any interest in dying for the Dragon today.
Nor, it seemed, did any other surviving forces on the planet. The fall of the central fortress prompted Drac units on the remaining continents to signal their surrender, usually after vicious infighting against ISF commissars and minders.
One good thing came from the Pathfinder’s suicidal aggression, a single Wolf Spider from 2nd Armored had landed in a garden near the very center of the fortress. The pilot, a young Lieutenant and recent honor graduate from the Aerie, cut off his jump jets and let the well designed quad mech absorb the last twenty meters or so of the drop, which turned out to be the best decision. Each foot of the quad mech crushed a single ISF agent, while a young boy was directly beneath the mech and was completely unharmed, apart from being tumbled to the ground by the impact.
The battle armored troopers attached to the Mech secured the garden, and the boy turned out to be Yoshiro Kurita, younger brother of Siriwan, who confirmed that the ISF agents present had been about to execute him due to the assault. His nurse was already dead, as was his chief tutor, they were saving him for last.
The pilot had the good sense to have the boy loaded into the jump seat in his cockpit and then they hunkered down in the garden, holding the single entrance against large numbers of ISF infantry who tried to fight their way inside.
Nowa Warszawa was in your hands, as was Siriwan’s brother.
Despite the Pathfinder’s impetuosity, the day was yours. Victory for Griffon.
-----
The decision to annex Nowa Warszawa arrives just days after the final surrender of Drac forces. This has several effects. For one thing, both the Home Army and the local Drac civilians are less than enthused by the plan, but it has distracted them from trying to massacre each other by giving them both cause to glare at you, and be intimidated from engaging in violence by the fact that your forces are glaring back at them with Very Big Guns And Scary Mechs.
For the first time since you’ve landed, you have more than one consecutive day without deadly riots on the planet. Plus there are now voices who are agreeing that given everything this is probably a good idea. The radicals in both camps don’t seem to like that, but don’t seem willing to draw your ire at the moment.
The move does catch your administration a bit flat-footed. Your various ministries are scrambling a bit to catch up.
First thing, you’ll need to decide who to appoint as temporary military governor of the planet, until a civil administration can be set up.
| [] | Jeremy Griffith |
| [] | Thanh Griffith |
| [] | Hamid al-Aziz |
| [] | Some poor Civil Affairs senior officer who’s qualified for the job but isn’t already named |
You do get distracted from this by the ongoing Olympics, at least a little.
Men’s Wrestling is surprisingly close, with the difference between Gold and Bronze being 2 whole points. Unfortunately Team Griffon got the Bronze and the Roman’s the Gold, but it was still a rather impressive performance from everybody involved.
Women’s Wrestling isn’t as close, with the Roman’s dominating every weight class. Team Griffon has several unlucky injuries early in the competition and winds up a distant third.
In Men’s Fencing, Team Griffon is utterly dominant from first to last, indeed by the second round the only question remaining was who would take silver as Team Griffon had built up such a lead that they could forfeit the remaining matches and still take Gold. The Rasalhaguians wound up with the Silver medal.
Women’s Fencing was a show of skill and is the closest of any competition so far in the games. In the end, the Rasalhaguians take away the Gold by a single touch, and the Romans get the silver due to winning by priority, which was effectively a random coin flip as no touches were scored in the overtime of the deciding tied match.
Men’s Archery is somewhat of a Roman/Rasalhaguian two-way battle, with Team Griffon being completely outclassed, while Women’s Archery was much the same at first, although Team Griffon was eventually able to eke out a silver on the strength of some superb shooting by the final archer.
And now, you can’t avoid it any longer, it is budget time. Sigh….
General Stewart leads things off. “Your Majesty, with the collapse of Drac forces on Nowa Warszawa, as well as the decision to incorporate the planet into the Empire, we are going to need to establish a proper garrison force for the planet, complete with local recruiting and training facilities. This will pave the way for a future expansion of the Aerie, if such is desired. There are a large number of salvaged mechs, two entire regiment’s worth of Stinger light mechs, for example, that are easily repaired, although they are functionally useless to us. There is some consideration to giving these to the Home Army to form the nucleus of a future garrison force, but there are concerns that this may lead to radical elements within the Home Army using them against non-Polish civilian populations on the planet. We’ve already had to secure previous mechs given to the Home Army due to attempted attacks by radicals in their ranks. For now we are keeping these machines in depots for future disposal, either to a militia or to scrap.”
She checks her notes. “Your son did report the capture of two specific Mechs, however. One is not in SARAH’s Star League database, being what appears to be a hybrid between an Atlas II and a standard Atlas, and appears to have been the personal mech of the original Dragon. The other is a Royal Stalker, and appears to have been the personal mech of Siriwan Kurita’s mother. Both machines are being shipped here on the next transport.”
“Beyond that, we have captured extensive military factory infrastructure on Nowa Warszawa, including sufficient Light/Medium mech production capacity to produce an entire regiment a year, once retooled to our specifications, as well as 3 additional ASF wings worth or production, likewise once retooled.” she reports with evident satisfaction. “This does not mean that we should slack on our own factory expansion, plus we will need to continue to boost all of our strategic production, but especially endo-steel given how ubiquitous it is in our Mech designs.”
She checks some notes. “I’ll be handling the ground procurement brief this year as well. Your Majesty, we functionally lost both Pathfinder regiments, primarily due to the commanders of said regiments disregarding orders and acting in a highly reckless manner that led to severe losses of men and machines. We recommend that the surviving senior officers who made that decision be court-martialed and cashiered from service. But this leads to us needing to rebuild our LZ securing assets. As such, we are recommending the procurement of 1 Pathfinder Regiment, to be assigned to 1st Armored Division. We also recommend procuring 3 Standard Mech Regiments, 2 to be assigned to 4th Brigade, 1st Armored, and 1 to 2nd Brigade, 2nd Armored. Finally we recommend procuring 2 Armored Regiments, 2 Mechanized Regiments, and 1 CAS Regiment. One Armored Regiment and 2 Mechanized Regiments will be assigned to the 4th Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, while 1 Armored Regiment will be assigned to 1st Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division and the CAS regiment to 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.”
General Reyes then steps up and fires up her Powerpoints. “Your Majesty, we would like to procure a second Planetary Defense Wing to station on Nowa Warszawa, while also continuing procurement of Carrier Wings for the Silver Tower stations. We are also proposing procuring a Planetary Defense Wing for Calliope IV to boost local defenses as well.”
Well, that was rather short, a single short statement with only three powerpoint slides to deal with.
Admiral Benjamin is on crutches for some reason that he hasn’t seen fit to admit to you. “Your Majesty, we’ve got 21 large and 1 regular Dropship slip available to us this year for new construction. My brilliant staff has come up with the following recommendations.”
- Large Dropships (21)
- None
- Regular Dropships (1)
- None
“On the other hand.” he grins wickedly, “We would like to order a truly epic number of PPG-01’s this year, to be distributed amongst the Silver and White Towers. My wife assures me that we’ll be able to man the lot of them, especially if she doesn’t need to fill up crews for everything else.”
Bridget is looking a bit harried, but in a cheerful way. “Your Majesty, DoME would like to send a team to Nowa Warszawa to do a full environmental survey, we already have quite a bit of good data but they want to see things for themselves before making recommendations for amelioration. In addition, the teams that had been working on the various water related projects on Griffon IV are ready to continue at your word. We have organized teams to procure and install modern machine tools and such on the newly captured factories on Nowa Warszawa, which will allow us to make use of them in our own production. In addition, we are recommending that we begin building strategic materials production, space infrastructure, and possibly a new orbital yard in Nowa Warszawa orbit.”
Isoroku is extremely busy with the Olympics, although he does send a progress report on Calliope IV that shows that progress is being made there.
Jake is looking a little grim. “Your Majesty, a military government on Nowa Warszawa is fine as a short-term solution, but we really need to start moving towards a civilian administration, even one run from here. We have tiger teams ready to go into action in that regard, as we’ve been planning this internally for some time, but we need your authorization and sufficient budget for the purpose.”
Mary didn’t bring her normal remote. “Your Majesty, we’ve not got anything new for you, but we have teams ready to begin work. We recommend starting research on Orbital Infrastructure and Improved Agriculture so we have plenty of capacity next year in case anything new pops up.”
Harry is looking exhausted. “Your Majesty, two things. One, the expanded POW camps are, thankfully, almost ready, just in time it seems, and two we can expand our current COINTEL methods and assets to Nowa Warszawa, which should hopefully help us deal with any radical elements among any of the groups there, as well as root out any remaining ISF and Drac loyalists.”
Janet is also looking exhausted. “Your Majesty, Parliament threw us a curveball, forcing us to move up our timeline. I’ve got teams ready to move in to start establishing a Griffon style legal system on Nowa Warszawa, informed by our experience on Nowy Gdansk. We can get the basics set up very quickly, but will take time to do anything more in depth.”
Val the Moofia Boss
Well-known member
The Pathfinder team's gamble didn't pay off, but no one can deny their bravery for diving straight into a hailstorm of anti-air fire. Those guys are awesome. Let them inspire a new generation of soldiers.
[X] Appoint the survivors of the pathfinder team as instructors at the Aerie.
Hm... governing Nowa Warsaza might be good practice for Jeremy, but I'd prefer for him to be freed up to lead our empire's military as a whole. We want him preparing to go after Okusawa. Judging by Thanh's reaction to being bumped up the ranks into a command position, she probably doesn't want the responsibility. Hamid is one of our most experienced military officers. Don't want to lose him. I think we should follow Jake's recommendation and get started with establishing a propr civil government.
[X] Some poor Civil Affairs senior officer who’s qualified for the job but isn’t already named
[X] Return the Dragon's Atlas and the Royal Stalker to Gunji Siriwan Kurita.
[X] Send DoMe team to Nowa Warszawa.
[X] Appoint the survivors of the pathfinder team as instructors at the Aerie.
Hm... governing Nowa Warsaza might be good practice for Jeremy, but I'd prefer for him to be freed up to lead our empire's military as a whole. We want him preparing to go after Okusawa. Judging by Thanh's reaction to being bumped up the ranks into a command position, she probably doesn't want the responsibility. Hamid is one of our most experienced military officers. Don't want to lose him. I think we should follow Jake's recommendation and get started with establishing a propr civil government.
[X] Some poor Civil Affairs senior officer who’s qualified for the job but isn’t already named
[X] Return the Dragon's Atlas and the Royal Stalker to Gunji Siriwan Kurita.
[X] Send DoMe team to Nowa Warszawa.
Knowledgeispower
Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
lets not inspire people to violate orders and as a result suffer terrible losses
Val the Moofia Boss
Well-known member
I interpreted it more as them make a judgement call as opposed to recklessness that didn't work out.
These guys are experienced. Discharging them would be a waste. Plus they'll become a foundation for Griffin's military mythos. Also, if we punish them, that could discourage from future soldiers from making judgement calls that could actually be better than the actual plan. The story can be a cautionary tale as well as inspirational.
[X] Jeremy Griffith
Good practice for being King soon.
[X] Court-martial and cashier the surviving senior officers who made the decision.
[X] Return the Dragon's Atlas and the Royal Stalker to Gunji Siriwan Kurita.
[X] Send DoMe team to Nowa Warszawa.
Good practice for being King soon.
[X] Court-martial and cashier the surviving senior officers who made the decision.
[X] Return the Dragon's Atlas and the Royal Stalker to Gunji Siriwan Kurita.
[X] Send DoMe team to Nowa Warszawa.
Last edited:
Crafter of War
Well-known member
That wasn't bravery. That was stupidity. The two are separated by a very fine line, but I think it's safe to say their decision was based on the latter as opposed to the former.
Agreed. This was not a case of someone spotting an opportunity and going for it on his own authority because he realized that there wasn't time to consult the chain of command. This was the Pathfinder units thinking they were invincible and pulling a "real life" Leeroy Jenkins which resulted in massive and *completely pointless* casualties.
If the officers who made that decision survived, they need to be court-martialed.
Val the Moofia Boss
Well-known member
Very well.
[X] Court-martial and cashier the surviving senior officers who made the decision.
[X] Court-martial and cashier the surviving senior officers who made the decision.
Orangeduke38
Well-known member
LordSunhawk how many conventional AFV and how much other military equipment were captured Nowa Warsaza?
Maybe we could sell the tooling to the romulans then they could make their own mechs. I bet that will be useful for when the amaris pirates show up again.
Knowledgeispower
Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
ordinarily I'd say yes to that idea but as things are we have a terrible shortage of production capacity for light and medium mechs and combat vehicles I general so we should instead retool the plants in question
Retooling means replacing the obsolete system right? Then what are we doing with all the replaced stuff?
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[X] Court-martial and cashier the surviving senior officers who made the decision.
[X] Some poor Civil Affairs senior officer who’s qualified for the job but isn’t already named
[X] Return the Dragon's Atlas and the Royal Stalker to Gunji Siriwan Kurita.
[X] Send DoMe team to Nowa Warszawa.
[X] Some poor Civil Affairs senior officer who’s qualified for the job but isn’t already named
[X] Return the Dragon's Atlas and the Royal Stalker to Gunji Siriwan Kurita.
[X] Send DoMe team to Nowa Warszawa.
Last edited:
Knowledgeispower
Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
at lot of it would still be useful and hence reused but as for the rest...well that we can probably sell.
Simonbob
Well-known member
[X] Court-martial and cashier the surviving senior officers who made the decision.
[X] Some poor Civil Affairs senior officer who’s qualified for the job but isn’t already named
[X] Return the Dragon's Atlas and the Royal Stalker to Gunji Siriwan Kurita.
[X] Send DoMe team to Nowa Warszawa.
[X] Some poor Civil Affairs senior officer who’s qualified for the job but isn’t already named
[X] Return the Dragon's Atlas and the Royal Stalker to Gunji Siriwan Kurita.
[X] Send DoMe team to Nowa Warszawa.