[X] Exchange ambassadors, diplomacy is possible with your opponents
[X] Pass the Poverty Reduction Act of 2999
[X] Pass the Militia Reform Act of 2999
[X] Do not pass the Ministry of Parliament Imperial Constitutional Amendment
Mechs that play baseball sounds cool, we should try it.
[X] Exchange ambassadors, diplomacy is possible with your opponents.
Again, there is little reason to antagonize Kilburough at this point when we aren't prepared to fight them anytime soon. We don't have to buy anything from them; an ambassador program could give us crucial insight into Kilburough's society and culture, which would be invaluable for us later on down the line.
[X] Pass the Poverty Reduction Act of 2999
[X] Pass the Militia Reform Act of 2999
[X] Do not pass the Ministry of Parliament Imperial Constitutional Amendment
I would disagree, the IS had samples of DHS for centuries and it took them getting their hands on data cores to actually "crack" how to make more of them.
The IS were blowing each other's think tank to kingdom come. Comstar then proceeded to Holy Shroud what rubble that was left after the WMDs. Meanwhile out in our section space everyone's education institutions stayed intact.
[X] Exchange ambassadors, diplomacy is possible with your opponents
They don't seem to want to go to war, and we literally can't win a war against them (not that they can against us) right now, so diplomacy is the civilized thing to do. Though, I'm now strongly considering expanding in their direction to make sure they have no opportunities to expand out of their system.
[X] Pass the Poverty Reduction Act of 2999
Mostly beneficial, and the mandated actions aren't bad, just suboptimal. And if we need to do economic boosts, Griffon is still extremely economically powerful and boosting it has a more significant effect than boosting elsewhere.
[X] Pass the Militia Reform Act of 2999
Also helpful, though the mandated action does take up a limited DoME slot (on the plus side, we basically get four free DoME actions for free now, because Sunhawk entirely forgot all 8 slots were filled) as opposed to a general slot.
[X] Do not pass the Ministry of Parliament Imperial Constitutional Amendment
While making the Chamber hate us less would be nice, and most of the influence issues could be fixed, I really don't want to have to deal with the issues that would result. So a net +10 delegate support from bills this turn will have to do.
Note that it's the New Rasalhague people trying to do the reverse engineering, not the natives (us, Kilburough, and Romans, and formerly the Nowa Warzsawa Poles). Though, they are getting the chance to rebuild research facilities, and are probably capable of poaching teachers from us (and possibly sending students to our universities).
While sending people to the IS is 100% a long term goal, I don't think we're at the point where it's viable to send people on a ~year's journey (there and back) with a primary reward being to let he IS know we're out here. We do at least have some picture (if rather old by now) due to a Canopian Intelligence agent we got to teach us how to battlemech after rescuing her from the dracs, and from former Combine population now living within our Empire and the NRR.
If you're wondering, Ian Davion is becoming First Prince this turn, and it'll be 6 more turns until the Wolf's Dragoons arrive in the IS for their scouting operation.
If you're wondering, Ian Davion is becoming First Prince this turn, and it'll be 6 more turns until the Wolf's Dragoons arrive in the IS for their scouting operation.
On the one hand, we're doing incredibly well for ourselves out here.
On the other hand, we may end up "missing" the entire Clan Invasion at this rate, and the Inner Sphere may have rebuilt to their own WarShips. . . fortunately, all canon WarShips are *vastly* inferior to my designs for us.
[X] Exchange ambassadors, diplomacy is possible with your opponents
[X] Pass the Poverty Reduction Act of 2999
[X] Pass the Militia Reform Act of 2999
[X] Do not pass the Ministry of Parliament Imperial Constitutional Amendment
A pirate Jolly Roger jumped into Edelsteine, at the Nadir point, and was promptly vaporized by the jump point defenses when it attempted to hijack one of your Caravels that was in the area. The Caravel took light damage and required some dry dock time to ensure the hit she took didn’t compromise the jump core, but all indications are that it should be fine.
About a week later another, larger, pirate attack occurs at the same jump point, large enough that the local CO sends out an SOS over HPG. Only for the next message to be a rather dry ‘Never mind’ accompanied by the imagery of a familiar Gilbert & Sullivan loving Texas class battleship arriving and promptly engaging the Jolly Rogers with great glee, broadcasting ‘Huzzahs’ and ‘Have at thee, foul villain!’ on all channels while cheerfully blasting them to bits and pieces.
The Black Pumpernickels are apparently putting on a touring show of HMS Pinafore at the moment, and thought blowing up pirates was a very Royal Navy sort of thing to do. They’ve also somehow heard about your retirement next year and are asking if you’d like for them to put on a grand performance of the Mikado in honor of your retirement.
[]
Defer to the Lord High Executioner!
Empire wide GDP bonus
+1% Griffon
+10% Nowa Warszawa
+20% all Peripheral Worlds
The QM gets to make Gilbert & Sullivan jokes all next turn
[]
You have a little list
They never will be missed
Oh, and the Black Pumpernickels also have some intelligence for you, the Free Folk were last sighted to the Galactic Southwest of you and as of at least three years ago were fine, having enjoyed a lovely performance of The Sorcerer.
Meanwhile there is a bit of a situation on Nowa Warszawa. Surveyors have discovered a large underground facility on an otherwise empty island in the tropics while making preparations for the start of a major resort construction project. The facility is old, long predating the Drac occupation of the planet, but there are zero records about it. Exploration teams have found it to be completely deserted, just bare ferroconcrete walls and ceilings and floors. There are generators and such which are still fully functional, but when activated they just turn the lights on and operate ventilation fans. A thorough search finds no active or inactive electronics, no signage of any use in identifying the facility, and the layout is almost painfully generic to the point where it could be just about anything.
Historical groups wish to preserve it, but the current landowners are leery of this as it would require them to radically change their plans for the site. The sort of high rise luxury resort they were planning to build to maximize access to the island's beaches would be unable to meet building code with this structure underneath without destroying it. The investors point out that there is absolutely no sign of what this facility was for, who built it, or what the significance is, thus it surely has little to no true significance in comparison to their own development plans. Historical groups point out that it is clearly extremely old, dating back to within a few years of the initial settlement of the planet, so it surely does have some significance, even if you don’t know what it is.
This has turned into a legal battle, and it has landed on your desk. The developers want permission to destroy the empty facility in order to build their resort, historical preservation groups want the facility preserved and the property seized by the government to prevent development which would threaten the site. Both sides have won dueling court orders, and both have valid legal precedents backing their claims, enough so that the courts have punted to you.
Lovely.
[]
Decide in favor of developers
+1% GDP Nowa Warszawa
Two System Event Rolls next year, take lower result
[]
Decide in favor of preservationists
Two System Event Rolls next year, take higher result
[]
Punt to next year and make Jeremy solve it
Wait until next year
[]
Make like King Solomon and split the difference
Make the developer change the plans around the facility
Both sides are annoyed
No effect
In more positive economic news, the CEO of Calliope Motors, Melissa Podebrat, is again in the news with yet another new car announcement, this time for a new ultra sophisticated supercar that appears destined to show up on pinups for the next fifty years. It’s about as different from their aggressively simple and rugged Renegade as possible, but swiftly ignites immense interest from the motoring public.
This has further boosted the already white hot Calliope IV vehicle manufacturing market.
And then it was time for your last planning meeting. You will totally miss this. Really. Honest.
General Stewart is up first, as always. “Your Majesty, we’ll have our first domestically produced Warships ready this year. Our plan is to focus on filling out the final bits of our initial TO&E that we planned out a decade ago, then next year we’ll have a clean slate for future expansion or any changes that may occur. With that being said, Colonel Michaels?”
A different officer than last year then takes the podium. “Your Majesty, your ground forces are in fairly solid shape, but we do have several final additions for this year.” He doesn’t seem to be all that polished a speaker, but he’s doing better than some. “We would like to fill out the following units. The Imperial Guard Division, 1st SpecOps Division, 1st Raider Brigade, 2nd Assault Division, 6th Infantry Division, and the 3rd Cavalry Division. To do so would require the procurement of the following units.” He brings up a chart.
Imperial Guard Division
1 Imperial Guard Regiment
1st SpecOps Division
Two Options
First, assign 1st Raider Brigade to 1st SpecOps
Requires procurement of 1 Raider Regiment to complete unit
Second, procure 3 Spec Ops Regiments
1st Raider Brigade
See 1st SpecOps Division
Would require 1 Raider Regiment to complete TO&E of unit
2nd Assault Division
1 Standard Mech Regiment
2 Assault Regiments
6th Infantry Division
1 Armored Regiment
2 Mechanized Regiments
3rd Cavalry Division
2 Light Horse Regiments
1 Armored Cavalry Regiment
“Your Majesty, with the remaining Heavy/Assault production capacity we recommend the procurement of a single Garrison Mech Regiment to boost the strength of the 2nd Garrison Mech Brigade on Nowy Warszawa. The remaining light/medium production capacity would be used for militia machines for Nowy Warszawa and the Griffon systems.”
A different officer then steps to the podium. “Your Majesty, this year we will potentially build a pair of White Tower platforms in the Nowy Wroclaw system, as well as the 10 Independence class vessels that will be coming into commission this year.” The young woman, an ace pilot named Colonel Penelope Romanov, who served in the recent fighting in NRI space prior to her promotion to a staff position, is somewhat smoother in her presentation. “We also need to better protect the small stations currently in Edelsteine space from pirate attack. Therefore your Aerospace forces recommend the following.”
She brings up a well-organized chart.
10 Carrier Wings
To be assigned to the Independence class carriers
2 Fighter Wings
If any White Tower stations are procured this year in Nowy Wroclaw
1 Light Fighter Wing
To be based out of the small habitats, these ASFs have the lowest logistical footprint while being more survivable than the Gyrfalcons of the Interceptor Wings
The Peregrine Light Fighter has already proven itself as part of the Carrier Wing units already deployed on our carriers.
“In addition, while it is not yet relevant, staff is currently working on an RFP for a new trainer, to incorporate a dual-control cockpit configuration to enhance basic flight training in order to supplement the current trainers in service. Right now student pilots have no opportunity to train ‘in the black’ with a backseat instructor, the Aerie has requested that we study the tradeoffs required to create such a capability.”
A gruff fireplug of a Naval captain is up next. “Your Majesty, your Navy has one final request… more warship slips. 8 is not enough. We have 2 Darts finishing this year, which is good enough for a start, but we want to increase our fleet rapidly with the evidence of greater threats in our area. So far we’ve only met the friendly bits of the Amaris Remnant, not the aggressive ones. That being said, our transport forces are in need of a significant boost. By procuring as many of the new Trenton class vessels as we can we can retire the older Newport, Tarawa, and the Osumi class vessels, as well as shelve the Albion and Coyote designs. Scrapping the Sosumis is less important, as they still serve a useful logistics function.”
He brings up another chart.
Regular Dropship procurement
46 Trenton class
Scrap or sell the following
Newport - 23 dropships
Tarawa - 12 dropships
Osumi - 4 dropships
Large Dropship procurement
6 Independence
12 Shannon
Jumpship Procurement
1 Caravel
The military folks have barely sat back down when Bridget blurs into motion, hops behind the podium, and is speaking almost before she’s in range of the audio pickup.
“Your Majesty we have some new things to build although we probably should get the researchers to fix the clothes eating bug before we do some of them but regardless we can build even more strategic material production if you want plus we can expand our Germanium refining capacity even more which would be a good thing if we’re planning on building more warship slips and we can colonize Nowy Wroclaw right away even if the clothes eating bacteria is still there but maybe we can come up with some way around that by sending I dunno nudists and people who wear polyester or something like that but we can definitely expand there and then build more things there to boost our overall economy like HPG stations and recharge stations and commercial space stations and stuff like that plus we can maybe even do some expansion of military-industrial infrastructure on Calliope IV since it’s still technically a peripheral world although that new Klinge is real awesome and I’ve got one on order and it’ll be so cool and oh we can afford more capital slips so please can we build them.”
One breath is all it takes and she’s off to the races. You actually will miss this part of the briefings, Bridget is always fun to watch.
Isoroku is as blase as ever. “Your Majesty, give me the word and I’ll put together a diplomatic team to head to Kilburrough to represent our interests there, we already have a suitable site picked out for the Kilburrough embassy to us. Following the principle of keeping your enemies closer, we’re proposing to locate their embassy right next to the Palace. With a nice convenient square in front for the Department of Periphery Studies to hold events.” On anybody else the tiny twitch of the lips would be a hungry predatory shark grin.
“That being said, we would also recommend hosting an art show this year, showcasing the talents of artists from outside the core worlds.” another brief twitch of the lips. “I am thinking ‘Liberty & Justice’ would be a suitable theme to welcome the new embassy with, yes?”
Jake nearly knocks Isoroku off his seat with a single bear paw as the Political Advisor waits for his Foreign Office counterpart to sit down before rising to make his way to the podium. “Your Majesty, if you decide to expand to Nowy Wroclaw, my office stands ready to extend government services there. Beyond that, I would recommend further expanding the Colonial Office to keep ahead of our growth curve.”
Dr Bryant is up next. “Crude jokes aside, Your Majesty, we do have R&D teams who believe that they can solve the bacterium issue on Nowy Wroclaw for relatively little investment of funds and time. Other than that, the only other priority we would have is to perhaps expand our labs on the Commercial stations, which would reduce costs elsewhere.”
Harry is looking utterly exhausted, as he’d only just arrived a half hour before the meeting from the NRR. “Your Majesty, we have teams of PsyOps specialists prepared to swing into action in the Nya Copenhamn system, broadcasting agitprop intended to undermine the populations' loyalty to the extremists in charge of the two planets. All we need is permission, and yes, Janet, we have put in place the oversight requirements you recommended last year.” he manages a tired smile at your Justice Minister.
Janet laughs at that and pretends to be surprised, although it’s clear that she’s satisfied on that point. “Well this is our last rodeo, Your Majesty.” she says with a grin. “Then retirement beckons while all the rest of you schlubs get to keep on slaving away.” There is general laughter at that. “I’ve got a team ready to go with experience setting up colonial courts and such for Nowy Wroclaw, just let us know and I’ll turn ‘em loose on the poor schmucks who decide to settle there.”
I'm honestly voting this one just for shits and giggles, because the idea of carefully preserving a completely generic empty facility tickles me greatly.
And then it was time for your last planning meeting. You will totally miss this. Really. Honest.
It's not as if Jackie danced out of the room with all the gleeful energy of a hyperactive teenager, mouthing "So long, sucker!" in the general direction of Jeremy. Or if she did, you can't prove it.
Also, it's not like one of her last acts as Queen was to make sure she was the first person on the list to get that uber-sexy new supercar. That was totally Willis, the irresponsible old reprobate.
-[X] General [$ 563,199,261.14 ]
--[X] Construct Oasis II Heavy Recharge Station Nowy Slask Zenith* [->1]
--[X] Construct Oasis II Heavy Recharge Station Kuroisora Zenith* [->1]
--[X] Construct Oasis II Heavy Recharge Station Edelsteine Zenith [->3]
(All other worlds have one either built or under construction, Edelsteine should have one too. After they all have one, it'll be time to build the Nadir stations too)
--[X] Construct White Tower Nowy Wroclaw Nadir [90]
--[X] Construct White Tower Nowy Wroclaw Zenith [90]
(New colony needs defenses)
--[X] Construct Silver Tower Calliope Orbit* [->1]
--[X] Construct Silver Tower New Capricorn Orbit* [->1]
--[X] Construct Silver Tower Nowy Slask Orbit* [->2]
--[X] Focus Development on Core World Griffon [65]
--[X] Economic Investment Griffon [85]
(Mandated by politics)
--[X] Construct White Tower Catachan Nadir [90]
--[X] Construct White Tower Catachan Zenith [90]
(Don't want Dracs to decide to steal it before we decide to try colonizing it. This is the system we bought form the NRR)
--[X] Build HPG Station Nya Kopenhamn [->1]
(We want effective communications with our pacification teams)
--[X] Build HPG Station Gotland* [80]
--[X] Build HPG Station Tarentum* [80]
--[X] Build HPG Station Ravenna* [80]
--[X] Begin Colonization of Nowy Wroclaw [85]
--[X] Establish Nowy Wroclaw System Government [85]
--[X] Extend Judicial System to Nowy Wroclaw [90]
(New colony! and all the setup required)
--[X] Organize Embassy to Kilburrough [85]
(Well, we decided to be diplomatic. Time to be diplomatic)
--[X] Culture - Art Show [75]
(One last fulfillment of a culture action request.)
--[X] Expand Military Industrial Infrastructure Calliope [85]
(Potentially useful for our soon-to-be core world)
--[X] Upgrade All Ferro Carbide Forges [75]
(Small GDP boost. Not really concerned about the resource, but it doesn't hurt)
--[X] Survey D3 [75]
(One of the planets near Kilborrough and Drac space. This'll help us either take it to ensure they can't, or know if they already took it. I'm hoping not the latter. I' expecting pirates the other direction, hopefully this is a safe spot)
--[X] Build Relations with Senate [60]
--[X] Build Relations with Chamber [60]
(Senate likes us, but doesn't love us, so worth a shot. Chamber hates us, so we need to make them stop)
--[X] Broadcast Propaganda to Nya Kopenhamn III [~]
--[X] Broadcast Propaganda to Nya Kopenhamn IV [~]
--[X] Infiltrate Nya Köpenhamn [75]
(We want our new planets, so time to work for them)
--[X] Final Preperations for Coronation of Jeremy [95]
(Ah, retirement. We should make sure it goes right)
--[X] Create basis for sector governance* [->1]
--[X] Expand Colonial Office (per level) [75]
(No reason to run into the system limit)
--[X] Construct Capital Shipyard Sukiashi [75]
(More warship yards are useful)
--[X] Construct Jumpship Yard Kuroisora [85]
--[X] Construct Jumpship Yard New Capricorn [85]
(As are more jumpship yards)
--[X] Expand Capital Shipyards [85]
(And even more warship yards)
--[X] Build ASF Factory Complex Calliope IV* [90]
--[X] Build ASF Factory Complex New Capricorn* [90]
--[X] Expand All Shipyards [100]
--[X] Expand Refit and Repair Yard [100]
-[X] DoME [$ 51,000,000.00 ]
--[X] Begin Terraforming Process for Nowa Warszawa III* [->2]
--[X] Construct Air Filters on Nowy Śląsk III* [->3]
--[X] Edelsteine Ice Asteroid Redirection and Seeding* [->3]
--[X] DOME - Arcology Cluster Griffon [->9]
(Mandated by law)
--[X] DOME - Asteroid Redirection Calliope* [->3]
--[X] Parliament Radiation Screened Habitat GVI* [->5]
--[X] Parliament Radiation Screened Habitat GVII* [->5]
--[X] DOME - Establish Mining Stations in Griff's Leap* [90]
-[X] Research [$ 180,050,000.50 ]
--[X] Advanced Standard Core Theory II* [->2]
--[X] Advanced Standard Core Design II* [->2]
--[X] Advanced Standard Core Construction II* [->2]
--[X] Advanced Compact Core Theory II* [->3]
--[X] Advanced Compact Core Design II* [->3]
--[X] Advanced Compact Core Construction II* [->3]
--[X] Research fabrics immune to Nowy Wroclaw bacteria [85]
(Make people willing to live in our new colony)
$100m leftover, so exactly on target for emergency savings. All strategic resources are underutilized, so no concerns there. As usual, free to take a modify if you have something you'd prefer. Primary goals here are colonizing Nowy Wroclaw, building up for an offensive against the Dracs, and beginning to figure out what lies that direction. Given I'm pretty sure it's where the pirates are coming from, I'm waiting for the Mirandas to finish before surveying eastwards.
EDIT:
Forgot these:
[X] Defer to the Lord High Executioner
Purely benefits, unless Sunhawk doesn't like Gilbert and Sullivan jokes.
[X] Punt to next year and make Jeremy solve it
Eh, not too concerned about any choice here, but maybe if we give it more time something'll come up. Or Jeremy can have fun with it.
