Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

[Knowledgeispower]

I'm pretty sure the Outback is something like 1/4 of the total FedSuns worlds. They are more spread out than the interior of the sphere IIRC. But yes, the Outback is pretty much left alone.

those worlds did see investment in the star league's golden years...then the Davion war of succession happened with the dracs and the federal government needed to find the funds to expand the AFFS

 

[ShadowArxxy]

Yeah but 1/2 to 2/3 of the Davion worlds are literal 19th to 20th century tech base Skidrow worlds that haven’t had investment since before the Star League

Again, that falls under "idiot ball" and "FASAnomics".

 

[Kilvanya]

Or they were shit colonies to start with and with the fall of star league there was no money to invest after the nobles/companies sucked up all the free cash with pork barrel bullshit, never underestimate how much stupidity goes on in that large of a nation.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Turn 112 - Ride The Lightning

After the attempted terrorist attack on the Opening Ceremony the games go on, albeit under heavier security. Luckily the organizers had actually fully planned for the possibility of such an attack and had numerous contingency plans already in place for the situation, so the Games themselves are not disrupted at all.

The initial events are quite enjoyable to watch, with Team Griffon doing rather well in the various athletic events. The competitions are very competitive this year, but Team Griffon is generally ending up on top. The gymnastics events are especially enjoyable this year, as it seems that the Roman and Griffon athletes are pushing each other to greater heights yet showing exceptional sportsmanship in the process. The crowds are enthusiastic, the energy is exceptional, and it is shaping up to be an excellent Olympics.

The Black Steel is quiet again, with no sightings since the incursion in the Kurortas system. Analysts are still unsure if this indeed will be a shift in focus or a one-off attack.

You receive early reports from the DoME teams deployed to Nouveau Paris reporting that work has begun. There is evidence of previous nuclear attacks on the planet, cleaned up far more crudely than your techniques can accomplish, which are a testament to just how brutal the long war against the Rouges Noir has been for the Bourbons. The teams are cleaning those up as well as the current major strike, part of the whole ‘we’re here to help’ package.

Some paperwork from Admiral Fisher crosses your traveling desk, the full refit package for the Lyr-class corvettes has been approved. Dubbed Project Hornet, the refit package is such that existing ships can be easily upgraded to the latest standard, rather than requiring all new construction. Your refit & repair yards will be handling the upgrades as ships cycle through on their usual refit cycle, at no actual extra expense, which is quite welcome. The memo also notes that the Navy will be ending production of the England-class for the time being and shifting those yards to building additional Lyrs in hopes of having flotillas of the corvettes in every border system.

The same memo also notes that Meteor-class and Aetna-class procurement will be ending as well, as the Black Steel had become wise to their existence and thus the ruse was no longer viable. In addition, as the Aerospace Forces were entering a refit cycle, they would be pausing procurement on the Saipan-class. They had identified a requirement, in conjunction with the army, for a replacement for the old Newport-C logistics ships, especially in light of anticipated heavy combat operations against the Rouges Noir. As such their internal design teams had developed the Charleston-class Amphibious Cargo Dropship. The admiral notes that the new design is also intended to provide an anti capital missile shield to the entire landed transport echelon.

You look at the supplied imagery and wince a little. The proposed vessel is singularly unlovely, managing to be both bloated and squat at the same time. Massive clamshell bay doors dominate the lower half of the design, while discordantly angular artillery turrets dominate the nose. This is a ship design built purely for utility, with not a single wasted moment spent in the design phase considering how the final product would actually look. However the specifications are very impressive. Over sixty five thousand tons of usable cargo space, the ability to deploy and support sufficient repair gantries for an entire regiment of mechs or combat vehicles, likewise the ability to deploy and support a field hospital capable of handling the medical needs for that same regiment. And the crowning achievement is sufficient anti-capital missile capability through racks of Swordfish missiles to defend the landing zone even against Kraken-class missiles.

So yes, it’s ugly, but it appears to work well. Although you can already imagine some of the nicknames that the troops will come up with for this thing. Fat Albert is about the kindest, and they go downhill from there. But you are also pretty sure that the troops will use those nicknames as a sort of back-handed compliment, because these things are going to be saving many lives.

You also get a demonstration of the new Imperial Guard variant of the standard heavy battle armor. The Guard had been very resistant to the new suits, complaining about the loss of the integrated ECM systems, but following multiple exercises where they got utterly steamrolled by infantry units equipped with the new medium and light suits they finally, grudgingly, accepted the new suits. They give up one of the missile reloads in order to fit a top of the line sensor suite and possess a sleeker, more refined overall appearance to the somewhat blocky standard suits.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Turn 112 - Master of Puppets

The motor racing events have always been among your favorites, and this year’s Olympics doesn’t disappoint. The racing is fast, skilled, and very entertaining. As has become almost expected, Team Griffon dominates the track, but that doesn’t mean that the other teams are simply rolling over and letting them win. The Rasalhaguians manage a very respectable performance on their way to a solid silver finish, while the Romans are just a half step behind in Bronze.

There have been no further disruptions, and while it is obviously present, the heightened security manages to be unobtrusive and respectful enough so as to not cause any undue issues. You do get reports that another Rouges Noir cell had been intercepted and taken down, again due to several members of the cell having ‘gone native’ and turning their fellows in when they discovered what they had planned.

There have been a number of intercepted raids on the newly settled cordon around the Rouges Noir that you have established, again with relatively primitive Jolly Rogers. Nothing that your jump point defenses aren’t able to easily handle. Likewise you are getting reports out of Bourbon space of increased Rouges Noir strikes against them, with the fighting no longer following the nearly ritualized manner it had been for centuries.

You have been able to get basic astrographical information from the Bourbons about the systems claimed by the Rouges Noir, good enough for general navigational purposes although completely insufficient for things like pirate points and such. Unfortunately they have almost no data on what sort of defenses the Rouges Noir might have in place.

Planning is well underway for the strike against the terrorists, however there are several different options on the table.

First is a simultaneous strike on all four systems claimed by the Rouges Noir with full invasion forces and sufficient task forces from the Expeditionary Fleet to overwhelm any prospective space defenses. This has the enormous advantage of leveraging your sheer size and numerical supremacy over the enemy while preventing the enemy from having any points to regroup and reinvigorate their defenses. The downside is that this will take the longest to actually initiate, because it will require the most substantial investment in logistics and force.

The second option is to strike at the one system from which the Rouges Noir is staging attacks against the Bourbons, cutting them off from their current adversary, then systematically rolling them up from there. The third option is to do the same from the opposite direction, starting with the system furthest from the Bourbons and crushing them against the Bourbon anvil. Both of these options can be started earlier than the first, but would take substantially longer thus leaving you more vulnerable to Black Steel strikes.

• Invasion of the Rouges Noir Scenarios
  • Operation: Wrecking Ball
    • Simultaneous strike on all four systems
    • Forces Required
      • Naval
        • 16 Jean Bart-class Battlecruisers
        • 30 Algérie-class Heavy Cruisers
        • 60 De Grasse-class Light Cruisers
        • 120 Destroyers, mix of Fubuki and Battle
        • 8 Potemkin Troop Cruisers
        • 160 Windjammer-class Jumpships
      • Ground
        • 4 Corps HQ Divisions
        • 8 Armored Divisions
        • 8 Pathfinder Divisions
        • 16 Infantry Divisions
        • 8 Light Combat Team Divisions
        • 8 Regimental Combat Team Divisions
        • 8 Heavy Combat Team Divisions
        • 8 Battlemech Divisions
    • Estimated Duration
      • Space Phase
        • 2 Years to fully secure Rouges Noir space
      • Ground Phase
        • 3 Years to fully secure Rouges Noir planets
  • Operation: Oak Tree
    • Cut off Rouges Noir from Bourbon space then roll them up from there
    • Forces Required
      • Naval
        • 8 Jean Bart-class Battlecruisers
        • 10 Algérie-class Heavy Cruisers
        • 20 De Grasse-class Light Cruiser
        • 40 Destroyers (mix of Fubuki and Battle)
        • 2 Potemkin-class Troop Cruisers
        • 40 Windjammer-class Jumpships
      • Ground
        • 1 Corps HQ Division
        • 1 Imperial Guard Division
        • 1 Rapid Reaction Division
        • 4 Infantry Divisions
        • 4 Armored Divisions
        • 2 Light Combat Team Divisions
        • 2 Regimental Combat Team Divisions
        • 2 Heavy Combat Team Divisions
    • Estimated Duration
      • Space Phase
        • 8 years to fully secure Rouges Noir space
      • Ground Phase
        • 16 years to fully secure Rouges Noir space
  • Operation: Feature Length
    • Uses the Bourbons as an anvil to grind the Rouges Noir against.
    • Force requirements and estimated duration as per Operation: Oak Tree

[]	Action	Argument	Result
[]	Option 1	A simultaneous strike prevents the enemy from reinforcing any given location. We have the ability to bring overwhelming force to bear, doing so will be the best chance we have to win this quickly and potentially save any victims of the Rouges Noir before the terrorists can liquidate them.	Authorizes Operation: Wrecking Ball Turn 116
[]	Option 2	The Bourbons have been dealing with this for an extremely long time, by relieving them we will build enormous good will on their part. We can then proceed to strangle the Rouges Noir at our leisure.	Authorizes Operation: Oak Tree Turn 114
[]	Option 3	The Bourbons will likely appreciate being in on the final kill, they’ve been victimized by the Rouges Noir for a long time and thus deserve to be in on the final destruction.	Authorizes Operation: Feature Length Turn 114

It is now time for the budget meetings, being held remotely this year since you are on New Port Royal for the Olympics. Which means you’ll miss some of the shenanigans, but that’s a small price to pay.

Amaunet is up first, looking appropriately smug in the video pickup as she is running the physical meeting on your behalf. “Padrone, the Army has completed their refit cycle, right in time too. We still need to keep our feet on the gas, and will need to consider expanding our production capacity in order to fully meet our requirements.”

The big cat looks off camera, and General Bradley comes to the podium. “Your Majesty, Amaunet slightly understates the situation. We will most certainly need to expand our conventional military factory capacity for optimal results. With the resumption of new construction, we will be catching up the backlog on Infantry Divisions, as well as procuring the first of the new Light Mech Divisions.”

• Imperial Griffon Army
  • Production
    • Conventional Military Factories (5 Each)
      • Glorreich
      • New Port Royal
      • Griffon
      • Calliope
      • Okusawa
  • Procurement
    • Conventional
      • 8 Infantry Divisions
    • Battlemech
      • 1 Light Mech Division
    • Garrison
      • 20 Garrison Divisions
      • 20 Militia Divisions

General Romanov is not present, as she is working on the early phases of the Aerospace Forces refit cycle. No procurement is requested for this year as a consequence of this.

Admiral Fisher is, therefore, up next. He still looks far more stressed and… elemental… then you are fully comfortable with it. He reminds you far too much of your grandfather for your own peace of mind to be honest.

“OK, despite the best hopes of the wild-eyed optimists the Black Steel are still out there, we are hoping that they don’t decide to shift their line of attack. Add in that we are having to divert forces to deal with the Rouges Noir and we are up the crack.” He glares around a bit. “So we need to double down on building up even more production capacity. We will be deploying our refitted Lyr-class corvettes as tripwire forces to vulnerable systems.” He manages to look even more fey at that. “We expect they’ll take hideous losses, but they’ll also slow the bastards down enough for the Grand Fleet to get there. We need to build up fast enough so that those men and women won’t have to hold the line with their asses hanging in the breeze any longer than absolutely critical.”

He brings up the display showing the production requests for this year. “As much as I don’t want to step on anybody's toes. If the choice is between giving General Bradley more toys to play with in the mud and more escort yards, we need the damn escort yards a helluva lot more.” He appears to be having a glare off with his Army colleague at that before the screen shifts to just show the procurement and production requests.

• Imperial Griffon Navy
  • Production
    • Orbital Shipyards
      • Expand All Orbital Shipyards
    • Refit & Repair Yards
      • Expand All Refit & Repair Yards
    • Escort Yards
      • Nuova Puglia
      • Nuovo Abruzzo
      • Nuova Lombardia
      • Stenen Tuin
      • New Algiers
      • New Clew Bay
      • New Libertalia
      • Nuova Tripoli
      • Bellaterra
      • Landprettig
      • Neuthüringen
      • Nowe Mazowsze
      • Platzregensburg
      • Nouvelle Bourgogne
      • Nyū Shikoku
      • Neubayern
      • Neuhessen
    • Small Warship Yards
      • Pieklo
      • New Phoenix
      • Okusawa
      • New Castor
      • New Port Royal
      • Nowy Wrocław
      • Bari
      • Nowy Slask
      • Chuma
    • Large Warship Yards
      • Griffon
      • Calliope
      • New Pollux
      • Nowy Warszawa
  • Procurement
    • Standard Dropships
      • 200 Shimakaze-class Parasite Destroyers
      • 150 Spruance-class Parasite Destroyers
      • 42 Trenton-class Transports
    • Large Dropships
      • 110 Mikasa-class Parasite Battleships
      • 100 Charleston-class Transports
    • Jumpships
      • 7 Windjammer-class Jumpships
    • Escorts
      • 10 Battle-class Destroyers
      • 100 Lyr-class Corvettes
    • Small Warships
      • 30 Dido-class Light Cruisers
      • 10 Guiseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruisers
      • 20 De Grasse-class Light Cruisers
      • 2 Hosho-class Light Carriers
    • Medium Warships
      • 10 Prinz Eugen-class Heavy Cruisers
      • 10 Algérie-class Heavy Cruisers
    • Large Warships
      • 8 Dreadnought-class Battleships
  • Fortress Command
    • Black Tower
      • Nowy Śląsk
      • Edelsteine
      • Nowy Wrocław
      • Catachan
      • Nya Köpenhamn

The old admiral sits down then, as Elizabeth takes over the podium.

“It goes without saying that we’re ready to support any production needed, Your Majesty.” She says, a bit gamely. “In addition we have the following recommendations.”

• Economic Focus & Investment
  • Economic Focus
    • Core
      • Nowy Wrocław
    • Periphery
      • Bohren
  • Major Investment
    • Core
      • Chuma
    • Periphery
      • Steingarten
  • Investment
    • Grand View
  • Infrastructure & Industrial Zones
    • Arvum
    • Nouvelle Bourgogne
    • Nuovo Abruzzo
    • Landprettig
    • Nuova Puglia

“In addition, we have 3 DoME teams in need of something productive to do other than assisting Periphery Studies with making giant match volcanos.” That gets a bit of a chuckle as everybody remembers the last time that happened.

• DoME
  • Expand Shin Tōkyō Arcologies
  • Terraforming
    • Steingarten
    • Pustina

Dr Kamoto is currently engaged in several meetings with his counterparts here at the games.

Tiberius, on the other hand, is somehow managing to look completely serious. “Your Majesty, we have two requests for you this year. An expansion to the Colonial Office and expanding the overall Civil Service as well.”

You are waiting for the shenanigans, but there seem not to be any. Until the camera pans over to the cardboard cutout labeled ‘Grace Has Left The Building’. Considering that you know that all the R&D teams are currently busy you’d not expect her to be at the meeting, but that has Tiberius’ fingerprints all over it.

General Messerschmidt is working with the security forces, he did send you a memo noting that there is nothing significant required budget wise, as his normal operating budget is sufficient to handle the contingencies that are ongoing.

Martina is the final one up. “Your Majesty, we have a few years until we strictly speaking need to worry about re-optimizing our legal codes, however I would like to recommend we get on top of it this year rather than waiting.”

 

[ShadowArxxy]

[X] Option 3

In my opinion, maintaining a robust defense against Black Steel needs to remain our highest priority, but doing so does require us to consider not only, "How long are our forces going to be heavily tied up" but "How much force are we committing to secondary fronts?" Despite the undeniable advantages of an overwhelming multi-front attack, it also commits the lion's share of our naval strength to this front and I do not think that is a wise move given the constant possibility of continued Black Steel offensives.

Moreover, we have already expended tremendous resources on behalf of the Bourbons in not only "global" issues of mutual interest but also allowing ourselves to be dragged into their internal politics, and they have frankly done very little for us in return. We need to prioritize our own, and that really takes Option 2 off the table; bluntly, goodwill with the Bourbons clearly isn't worth the increase in risk and casualties to ourselves.

 

[darkcloudt2]

[X] Option 1

I am going for this option only because I firmly believe if we let the bastards have any breathing room once we start to invade they will carpet nuke/ bio the planets we didn’t hit so the best bet would be build up and then take all of them down at the same time in a blitz berg type assault.

 

[KyranKandosa]

[X] Option 3

ShadowArxxy's right, we still need to maintain defenses against Black Steel while crushing the RN. By not cutting off the Bourbons from the RN front, it allows us to keep their attention divided. And I have every expectation that the RN have long had WMDs pre-positioned so that they can snuff as many people as possible as soon as their enemy jumps in-system, far, far too late for any help to reach them even if we hit the L1 jump points on every world.

 

[Rukatin]

[X] Option 3

 

[Yacovo]

Keep in mind these are probably only projected timelines for the space and planetside goals. War has funny way of lasting longer than the war planners expect. If time is an issue for you, make sure to tack on a few more years on each plan, just in case.

[X] Option 3

 

[GooseElite]

[X] Option 1

 

[Artifex]

[X] Option 1

Rather have a hand in all of the systems we need to engage with for the Rogues to see what shenanigans they come up with once we put pressure to them, than doing it step by step.

As compromise I'd offer the Bourbons transport capabilities for getting in on assaulting the Rogues Noir.
This option also has the positive that their planets won't be affected (nor our DOME team on Nouveau Paris) during the campaign.

Also I reckon this build up allows us to more appropriately set a reaction force for possible Black Steel intervention than otherwise.

 

[Winter_Wind45]

[X] Option 1

 

[The Whispering Monk]

OPTION 1 Naval REQUIRMENTS:

• 16 Jean Bart-class Battlecruisers
• 30 Algérie-class Heavy Cruisers
• 60 De Grasse-class Light Cruisers
• 120 Destroyers, mix of Fubuki and Battle
• 8 Potemkin Troop Cruisers
• 160 Windjammer-class Jumpships

So...according to the current Quest pages

- we're currently short 9 Jean Bart Battlecruisers
- short all 30 of the Algerie
- short all 60 De Grasse
- we can run all Fubuki Destroyers b/c the page lists us at 0 Battle
- 100% on Potemkins, but it will only leave us 1 in reserve
- 100% on Windjammers, but it will leave us with 11

IF I'm reading current production right, by End of Turn 114 we'll have:
- 8 more Jean Bart (still leaves us 1 shy)
- 20 more Algerie (10 shy)
- 20 more De Grasse (40 shy)
- We'll have 50 Battles to mix in w/the Fubukis
- no add'l Potemkins
- 8 Add'l Windjammers for reserve use

@Jarow @LordSunhawk

Am I missing some of our fleet assets on the sheets?

 

[Artifex]

Hmm, if your reading is correct @The Whispering Monk then I suggest we postpone the operation to turn 116?

/edit: incremented the turn number to have the De Grasses fully available.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

Hmm, if your reading is correct @The Whispering Monk then I suggest we postpone the operation to turn 116?

/edit: incremented the turn number to have the De Grasses fully available.

This is another reason to go with Option 3 over Option 1.

 

[LordSunhawk]

You are short 8, not 9 Jean Bart, and you'll have all the De Grasses as well

 

[The Whispering Monk]

You are short 8, not 9 Jean Bart, and you'll have all the De Grasses as well

Ok. As long as we've got thr assets, I'm in favor of Operation "Full Frontal"...errr....'Option 1'.

[X] Option 1

 

[kashim3]

[X] Option 3

 

[Thors_Alumni]

[X] Option 1
[X] Plan: Wrecking Length or Feature Ball