Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)
- Thread starter LordSunhawk
- Start date
Knowledgeispower
Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
I suspect that they're refugees from another world the Dracs took over in the local area. If so I suspect that if we promise to help liberate their homeworld we've just acquired a few dropships and our first jumpship
[X] Accept their trade offer. Griffin’s Roost will have +1% GDP gain, Nowy Gdansk +.5% GDP gain, will create a regular trade opportunity with the Free Folks, opens a new event chain
Even though they were belligerent and dickish when they first opened communications with us I honestly can't see a reason to knock this deal back.
Even though they were belligerent and dickish when they first opened communications with us I honestly can't see a reason to knock this deal back.
Ridli Scott
Well-known member
Be in good term with JàrnFòlk? Yes please.
[X] Accept their trade offer. Griffin’s Roost will have +1% GDP gain, Nowy Gdansk +.5% GDP gain, will create a regular trade opportunity with the Free Folks, opens a new event chain
[X] Accept their trade offer. Griffin’s Roost will have +1% GDP gain, Nowy Gdansk +.5% GDP gain, will create a regular trade opportunity with the Free Folks, opens a new event chain
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
[X] Accept their trade offer. Griffin’s Roost will have +1% GDP gain, Nowy Gdansk +.5% GDP gain, will create a regular trade opportunity with the Free Folks, opens a new event chain
Just keep an eye on potential assassins
Just keep an eye on potential assassins
These guy are etheir JàrnFòlk or a descendent or even relatives of them or their ancestors in the Principality of Rasulhague.
ShadowArxxy - NON CANON (for now) - We Haz Bigger Stick
SUPER-SIZE McOMAKE!
Thule System, Free Rasalhague Republic, 3050
"We are Clan Ghost Bear. This world is ours. Those who dispute our claim must identify the size and location of their forces for immediate disposal."
"This is Admiral Griffith of the New Terran Hegemony Navy. To claim this world, you must first reach this world. We bid the WarShip McEvedy's Legacy to dispute your claim."
Admiral Griffith gave a wry smirk as the transmission from the Ghost Bears cut off with a strangled cry of disbelief and rage.
"Ma'am, both enemy battlecruisers have broken formation and are boosting on a direct intercept course for us. We have solid IDs from their emissions profiles now: one Black Lion class and one Cameron class."
“Very well. Mark their tracks and alert me if anything changes."
-----
Three days later….
General Quarters, General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations! Set material condition Zebra throughout the ship! This is not a drill!
In many ways, ordering battle stations on a combat starship was merely a formality. Even coming in from a relatively close pirate point at the highest sustainable thrust levels, it took hours to days for a WarShip or DropShip to reach anything worth fighting over after jumping into a system. And since it was generally impossible to conceal the energy signature of fusion torch drives, you generally knew well in advance if you were going to be doing battle when you got there.
Well-trained naval spacers were downright fanatical about keeping their ships prepared for high-G burns, keeping all objects that could become hazards during maneuvering securely stowed at all times. As a result, there was little to do but maintain their regular watches and catch as much rest as they could while the ship moved into position. But the pre-combat stress always caught up to everyone, ensuring that the crew was actually up and ready well before the official alarms sounded.
This was even more true than usual today, because everyone on board the McEvedy’s Legacy knew that today they would face full-fledged enemy warships not just for the first time in their careers, but for the first time in nearly two hundred years of human history.
After the fall of the Terran Hegemony in the Amaris Civil War and the subsequent mass desertion of the Star League Defense Force, all five remaining member powers had almost instantly turned on each other. The First Succession War had seen the so-called “Successor States” brutally wipe out most of each others’ fleets and all of each others’ ability to produce faster-than-light warships, and the Second Succession War finished off the decaying handful which remained. Since then, the economically and technologically devastated powers had continued their bloody wars by lesser means; they jealously hoarded ruined WarShip hulks which could theoretically be restored to some semblance of functionality, but sullenly accepted an informal detente in which all refrained from the ruinously expensive attempts to do so as long as no one else was either.
But now the deserters had returned in force as the invading "Clans", complete with the WarShips they had left in. . .
. . . and Griffin’s Roost was the only power in the Inner Sphere with WarShips to reply.
“All stations report manned and ready.”
-----
McEvedy’s Legacy had been designed as a “quality over quantity” design that was still relatively affordable and could be mass produced. This was accomplished primarily by offloading all of her transport, support, and logistics functions onto dedicated parasite DropShips -- whereas Star League battleships reserved ten to twenty percent of their total mass for cargo and also carried a substantial number of aerospace fighters, the Legacy utilized an overpowered Kearny-Fuchida jump core to carry more DropShips than any other WarShip in history, then devoted practically every remaining kilogram to guns, armor, ammunition, and thrusters.
The result was a battleship which was over twenty percent percent smaller than the Star League's signature McKenna class, but boasted comparable firepower and almost three times the armor protection while still being just as fast and maneuverable. You could build an entire second McKenna for what that stupendous drive core cost, but it would take *five* McKennas to match her DropShip carrying capacity.
Of course, the Legacy wasn't facing McKennas today. Unless the Clans had radically rebuilt the original Star League designs, neither of the two battlecruisers was actually any faster than she was; the Black Lion could only match her acceleration, and the infamously overweight Cameron was actually slower. Both were nonetheless dangerous opponents; the Black Lion’s oversized battery of medium-caliber naval autocannons meant she actually had more firepower than the Legacy in her optimal range band, and the Cameron was similarly armed with medium-caliber naval autocannons plus a long-range battery of the same heavy naval particle cannons and heavy naval lasers as the Legacy.
Given that the McEvedy’s Legacy was a heavier warship with capabilities completely unknown to her opponents, the wisest move would have been to attack in close conjunction, holding back the acceleration of the Black Lion in order to avoid outpacing the Cameron. Admiral Grffith’s open declaration of affiliation with Clan Wolverine -- a lone Clan which had broken from the rest and been ordered exterminated, but was feared to have sent survivors back to the Inner Sphere -- had been ruthlessly calculated to goad them into a more aggressive attack, and it worked.
Still, the Clanners were experienced warriors and far from stupid. The Black Lion accelerated well ahead of her companion, but flipped to decelerate well before reaching any known weapons range, reducing her closing speed and then boosting “sideways” at her full 2.5-gravity overthrust to force McEvedy’s Legacy to either follow suit or cede control of the engagement. The Legacy followed the maneuver but held back to 2 gravities, falling “behind” laterally as the ships’ courses shifted from flying directly at each other to slanting in at shallow diagonals. The plodding Cameron continued to accelerate at its plodding 1.5 Gs without turnover, clearly angling for a close-range pass across the stern of the Legacy while it was pinned by its engagement with the Black Lion.
“We’re clearly reading all the same books.” noted Admiral Griffith. “Textbook SLDF tactics all around. Are their DropShips burning for the planet?”
“Negative, they’re staying close to the JumpShips at the nadir point. Six Monolith class, eight Invader class, eight Merchant class, and seven Scout class. That’s collars for a hundred and nine DropShips to our thirty, but most of theirs are transports.”
“I’d rather not risk letting them reach the planet if they decide that our support justifies including the people down there in their ‘Trial of Annihilation’ against the Wolverines. Send in the DropShips.”
“Yes ma’am.” The Legacy’s captain nodded to the lieutenant at the communications console.
“McEvedy’s Legacy to all auxiliaries. Burn clear and intercept the enemy DropShips at the nadir point.”
The Legacy’s shoal of parasite War Goose carriers and Odysseus pocket corvettes split away in hard overthrust burns, angling their courses to circle around the incoming Clan WarShips.
Just over thirty Clan AeroSpace fighters sped out at even higher accelerations to meet them -- a suicidally bold move for so few ASFs, since each of the corvettes and carriers mounted a pair of AR10 capital missile launchers. Sixty Barracuda anti-fighter missiles spat into the void, then sixty more; there was no need for a third volley.
Following their orders to burn clear rather than passing close enough to harass the enemy capital ships, the DropShips adjusted their course to remain well outside of effective weapons range. The Cameron -- now close enough for her nameplate to be read as the Dieron’s Run -- nonetheless fired her broadside naval PPCs. The signature blue-lightning streaks of the particle cannons splashed harmlessly over the passing DropShips, a calculated insult to their “cowardice” for not engaging.
Had they remained at full thrust, the DropShips could have intercepted their enemy counterparts before the three WarShips came within battle range of each other. But sustained high-G operation was physically exhausting, and there was no point in pushing it -- the Clan DropShips would under no circumstance return to their parent JumpShips and retreat in the face of the hated Not-Named Clan.
----
Space combat was silent death in the cold void.
"Commence firing."
The Legacy’s 55-centimeter lasers energized at the push of a button, each battery pulsing a dozen invisible beams of coherent gamma radiation downrange. Unlike the smaller-scale versions used by Battlemechs and AeroSpace Fighters, capital lasers did not bother with visible-frequency beam guides; the extreme precision required to score hits at starship combat ranges made that sort of manual targeting moot. In the same heartbeat, scorch-edged burns seared into the armored flank of the Bear’s Den.
"Solid hits, Admiral. They are penetrated and leaking air.”
"Very good. Continue the engagement."
Unable to return fire with her harder-hitting but shorter-range autocannons, the Black Lion -- her nameplate declared her to be the Bear’s Den -- went to maximum overthrust on a least-time trajectory, trying to push into range as quickly as possible. The Legacy responded by angling away at her own full acceleration, two-and-a-half gravities of acceleration brutally hammering her crew down into their shock-framed seats. She couldn’t hold the range open without giving up the engagement and thrusting directly away from Bear’s Den, but she only needed to minimize the rate of closure in order to make the most of her range advantage.
Still out of range and falling even further behind, Dieron’s Run fired her forward PPCs, splashing the Legacy’s broadside to even more negligible effect than it had on the DropShips.
----
By the time the Legacy’s lasers had cooled and recharged for a second salvo, her heavy naval PPCs were in range as well, sending a rolling barrage of blue-white lightning streaks downrange as an eye-searing counterpart to the aft laser bay. Still unable to reply directly, the Bear’s Den maintained her acceleration while twisting into an eccentric spiral. . . but that was a textbook evasive maneuver, and the PPC salvos had been aimed for it. Three of the five PPC batteries struck home, shattering craters into the battlecruiser’s armor, and an unstoppable surge of power backlashed wildly into her electrical systems.
“Engine hit! Her acceleration’s dropping!” came the triumphant report.
“Vampire, vampire, vampire! Two capital missiles inbound from the Dieron’s Run. No fire control, they’re firing blind on a ballistic course. Anti-missile systems are tracking.”
The Legacy’s lasers and particle cannons unleashed a third combined salvo into the bow of the Bear’s Den as the defensive pulse lasers came online in stuttering green streaks.
“Both vampires intercepted, but we’ve got seven more incoming -- two from Dieron’s Run and five from Bear’s Den. Lacie says she can handle that, but only just. Even with the new extended-range pulses, these are a lot harder to knock down than the usual fare.”
By the third salvo, it was clear that the Bear’s Den was in a hopeless situation -- she was still closing in on the Legacy, but the hit to her engines had lamed her enough that she no longer had any chance of reaching the bigger ship with her autocannons before she was torn apart. The Clanners had to know that, but they held grimly to their course, still rushing onwards as the fourth and fifth salvos slashed in.
“Aspect change! She’s trying to clear her broadside. . .”
Turning her broadside to the Legacy would expose fresh, undamaged armor and allow the Bear’s Den to fire all six of her missile launchers. . . but it also meant cutting her acceleration, and against the Legacy’s range advantage all it would mean was a drawn-out death. It was also too late -- the Legacy’s sixth salvo was already in space, and this time every single PPC struck home.
Defiant to the bitter end, the Bear’s Den hurled a futile autocannon salvo at her killer as she disappeared forever in a blinding burst of fusion plasma, taking with her Khan Karl Bourjon. Dieron’s Run frantically flipped and boosted for the jump limit, leaving behind the stranded JumpShips and DropShipsand carrying a message that would throw the Clans into absolute havoc:
“Run, little cruiser. Run and tell your Clans that justice has come and Kerensky’s crimes will soon be revealed to the entire Sphere.”
----
(( For the record, I rolled it all fair and square using the current Battleforce rules and Google’s dice roller. The Legacy used bracket fire mode to increase the accuracy of her firing at the cost of only doing 40% damage, and consistently rolled a 50% hit rate for all of her salvos except the last one, when ALL five PPC batteries rolled hits and only the laser battery missed. ))
Thule System, Free Rasalhague Republic, 3050
"We are Clan Ghost Bear. This world is ours. Those who dispute our claim must identify the size and location of their forces for immediate disposal."
"This is Admiral Griffith of the New Terran Hegemony Navy. To claim this world, you must first reach this world. We bid the WarShip McEvedy's Legacy to dispute your claim."
Admiral Griffith gave a wry smirk as the transmission from the Ghost Bears cut off with a strangled cry of disbelief and rage.
"Ma'am, both enemy battlecruisers have broken formation and are boosting on a direct intercept course for us. We have solid IDs from their emissions profiles now: one Black Lion class and one Cameron class."
“Very well. Mark their tracks and alert me if anything changes."
-----
Three days later….
General Quarters, General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations! Set material condition Zebra throughout the ship! This is not a drill!
In many ways, ordering battle stations on a combat starship was merely a formality. Even coming in from a relatively close pirate point at the highest sustainable thrust levels, it took hours to days for a WarShip or DropShip to reach anything worth fighting over after jumping into a system. And since it was generally impossible to conceal the energy signature of fusion torch drives, you generally knew well in advance if you were going to be doing battle when you got there.
Well-trained naval spacers were downright fanatical about keeping their ships prepared for high-G burns, keeping all objects that could become hazards during maneuvering securely stowed at all times. As a result, there was little to do but maintain their regular watches and catch as much rest as they could while the ship moved into position. But the pre-combat stress always caught up to everyone, ensuring that the crew was actually up and ready well before the official alarms sounded.
This was even more true than usual today, because everyone on board the McEvedy’s Legacy knew that today they would face full-fledged enemy warships not just for the first time in their careers, but for the first time in nearly two hundred years of human history.
After the fall of the Terran Hegemony in the Amaris Civil War and the subsequent mass desertion of the Star League Defense Force, all five remaining member powers had almost instantly turned on each other. The First Succession War had seen the so-called “Successor States” brutally wipe out most of each others’ fleets and all of each others’ ability to produce faster-than-light warships, and the Second Succession War finished off the decaying handful which remained. Since then, the economically and technologically devastated powers had continued their bloody wars by lesser means; they jealously hoarded ruined WarShip hulks which could theoretically be restored to some semblance of functionality, but sullenly accepted an informal detente in which all refrained from the ruinously expensive attempts to do so as long as no one else was either.
But now the deserters had returned in force as the invading "Clans", complete with the WarShips they had left in. . .
. . . and Griffin’s Roost was the only power in the Inner Sphere with WarShips to reply.
“All stations report manned and ready.”
-----
McEvedy’s Legacy had been designed as a “quality over quantity” design that was still relatively affordable and could be mass produced. This was accomplished primarily by offloading all of her transport, support, and logistics functions onto dedicated parasite DropShips -- whereas Star League battleships reserved ten to twenty percent of their total mass for cargo and also carried a substantial number of aerospace fighters, the Legacy utilized an overpowered Kearny-Fuchida jump core to carry more DropShips than any other WarShip in history, then devoted practically every remaining kilogram to guns, armor, ammunition, and thrusters.
The result was a battleship which was over twenty percent percent smaller than the Star League's signature McKenna class, but boasted comparable firepower and almost three times the armor protection while still being just as fast and maneuverable. You could build an entire second McKenna for what that stupendous drive core cost, but it would take *five* McKennas to match her DropShip carrying capacity.
Of course, the Legacy wasn't facing McKennas today. Unless the Clans had radically rebuilt the original Star League designs, neither of the two battlecruisers was actually any faster than she was; the Black Lion could only match her acceleration, and the infamously overweight Cameron was actually slower. Both were nonetheless dangerous opponents; the Black Lion’s oversized battery of medium-caliber naval autocannons meant she actually had more firepower than the Legacy in her optimal range band, and the Cameron was similarly armed with medium-caliber naval autocannons plus a long-range battery of the same heavy naval particle cannons and heavy naval lasers as the Legacy.
Given that the McEvedy’s Legacy was a heavier warship with capabilities completely unknown to her opponents, the wisest move would have been to attack in close conjunction, holding back the acceleration of the Black Lion in order to avoid outpacing the Cameron. Admiral Grffith’s open declaration of affiliation with Clan Wolverine -- a lone Clan which had broken from the rest and been ordered exterminated, but was feared to have sent survivors back to the Inner Sphere -- had been ruthlessly calculated to goad them into a more aggressive attack, and it worked.
Still, the Clanners were experienced warriors and far from stupid. The Black Lion accelerated well ahead of her companion, but flipped to decelerate well before reaching any known weapons range, reducing her closing speed and then boosting “sideways” at her full 2.5-gravity overthrust to force McEvedy’s Legacy to either follow suit or cede control of the engagement. The Legacy followed the maneuver but held back to 2 gravities, falling “behind” laterally as the ships’ courses shifted from flying directly at each other to slanting in at shallow diagonals. The plodding Cameron continued to accelerate at its plodding 1.5 Gs without turnover, clearly angling for a close-range pass across the stern of the Legacy while it was pinned by its engagement with the Black Lion.
“We’re clearly reading all the same books.” noted Admiral Griffith. “Textbook SLDF tactics all around. Are their DropShips burning for the planet?”
“Negative, they’re staying close to the JumpShips at the nadir point. Six Monolith class, eight Invader class, eight Merchant class, and seven Scout class. That’s collars for a hundred and nine DropShips to our thirty, but most of theirs are transports.”
“I’d rather not risk letting them reach the planet if they decide that our support justifies including the people down there in their ‘Trial of Annihilation’ against the Wolverines. Send in the DropShips.”
“Yes ma’am.” The Legacy’s captain nodded to the lieutenant at the communications console.
“McEvedy’s Legacy to all auxiliaries. Burn clear and intercept the enemy DropShips at the nadir point.”
The Legacy’s shoal of parasite War Goose carriers and Odysseus pocket corvettes split away in hard overthrust burns, angling their courses to circle around the incoming Clan WarShips.
Just over thirty Clan AeroSpace fighters sped out at even higher accelerations to meet them -- a suicidally bold move for so few ASFs, since each of the corvettes and carriers mounted a pair of AR10 capital missile launchers. Sixty Barracuda anti-fighter missiles spat into the void, then sixty more; there was no need for a third volley.
Following their orders to burn clear rather than passing close enough to harass the enemy capital ships, the DropShips adjusted their course to remain well outside of effective weapons range. The Cameron -- now close enough for her nameplate to be read as the Dieron’s Run -- nonetheless fired her broadside naval PPCs. The signature blue-lightning streaks of the particle cannons splashed harmlessly over the passing DropShips, a calculated insult to their “cowardice” for not engaging.
Had they remained at full thrust, the DropShips could have intercepted their enemy counterparts before the three WarShips came within battle range of each other. But sustained high-G operation was physically exhausting, and there was no point in pushing it -- the Clan DropShips would under no circumstance return to their parent JumpShips and retreat in the face of the hated Not-Named Clan.
----
Space combat was silent death in the cold void.
"Commence firing."
The Legacy’s 55-centimeter lasers energized at the push of a button, each battery pulsing a dozen invisible beams of coherent gamma radiation downrange. Unlike the smaller-scale versions used by Battlemechs and AeroSpace Fighters, capital lasers did not bother with visible-frequency beam guides; the extreme precision required to score hits at starship combat ranges made that sort of manual targeting moot. In the same heartbeat, scorch-edged burns seared into the armored flank of the Bear’s Den.
"Solid hits, Admiral. They are penetrated and leaking air.”
"Very good. Continue the engagement."
Unable to return fire with her harder-hitting but shorter-range autocannons, the Black Lion -- her nameplate declared her to be the Bear’s Den -- went to maximum overthrust on a least-time trajectory, trying to push into range as quickly as possible. The Legacy responded by angling away at her own full acceleration, two-and-a-half gravities of acceleration brutally hammering her crew down into their shock-framed seats. She couldn’t hold the range open without giving up the engagement and thrusting directly away from Bear’s Den, but she only needed to minimize the rate of closure in order to make the most of her range advantage.
Still out of range and falling even further behind, Dieron’s Run fired her forward PPCs, splashing the Legacy’s broadside to even more negligible effect than it had on the DropShips.
----
By the time the Legacy’s lasers had cooled and recharged for a second salvo, her heavy naval PPCs were in range as well, sending a rolling barrage of blue-white lightning streaks downrange as an eye-searing counterpart to the aft laser bay. Still unable to reply directly, the Bear’s Den maintained her acceleration while twisting into an eccentric spiral. . . but that was a textbook evasive maneuver, and the PPC salvos had been aimed for it. Three of the five PPC batteries struck home, shattering craters into the battlecruiser’s armor, and an unstoppable surge of power backlashed wildly into her electrical systems.
“Engine hit! Her acceleration’s dropping!” came the triumphant report.
“Vampire, vampire, vampire! Two capital missiles inbound from the Dieron’s Run. No fire control, they’re firing blind on a ballistic course. Anti-missile systems are tracking.”
The Legacy’s lasers and particle cannons unleashed a third combined salvo into the bow of the Bear’s Den as the defensive pulse lasers came online in stuttering green streaks.
“Both vampires intercepted, but we’ve got seven more incoming -- two from Dieron’s Run and five from Bear’s Den. Lacie says she can handle that, but only just. Even with the new extended-range pulses, these are a lot harder to knock down than the usual fare.”
By the third salvo, it was clear that the Bear’s Den was in a hopeless situation -- she was still closing in on the Legacy, but the hit to her engines had lamed her enough that she no longer had any chance of reaching the bigger ship with her autocannons before she was torn apart. The Clanners had to know that, but they held grimly to their course, still rushing onwards as the fourth and fifth salvos slashed in.
“Aspect change! She’s trying to clear her broadside. . .”
Turning her broadside to the Legacy would expose fresh, undamaged armor and allow the Bear’s Den to fire all six of her missile launchers. . . but it also meant cutting her acceleration, and against the Legacy’s range advantage all it would mean was a drawn-out death. It was also too late -- the Legacy’s sixth salvo was already in space, and this time every single PPC struck home.
Defiant to the bitter end, the Bear’s Den hurled a futile autocannon salvo at her killer as she disappeared forever in a blinding burst of fusion plasma, taking with her Khan Karl Bourjon. Dieron’s Run frantically flipped and boosted for the jump limit, leaving behind the stranded JumpShips and DropShipsand carrying a message that would throw the Clans into absolute havoc:
“Run, little cruiser. Run and tell your Clans that justice has come and Kerensky’s crimes will soon be revealed to the entire Sphere.”
----
(( For the record, I rolled it all fair and square using the current Battleforce rules and Google’s dice roller. The Legacy used bracket fire mode to increase the accuracy of her firing at the cost of only doing 40% damage, and consistently rolled a 50% hit rate for all of her salvos except the last one, when ALL five PPC batteries rolled hits and only the laser battery missed. ))
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I actually consulted @LordSunhawk on this, and he ruled that they'd probably retreat if Admiral Griffin permits them to since the Khan is dead and the emergence of the Not-Named Clan is a matter which *must* be reported to the Clan Council and Grand Council.
Edit: But if they charge and fight, the McEvedy's Legacy can hold the range open at 50 hexes, at which point it's a straight gun duel between 20 HNPPCs + 12 NL55s on the McEvedy's broadside and aft-side versus only 4 HNPPCs and 4 missile launchers on Dieron's Run's nose and forward-port or forward-starboard bays. And because the DR's HNPPCS are mounted only two per bay, they can only achieve a -1 bracket as opposed to the -3 bracket that the Legacy is using.
Basically, this was one of the worst possible matchups for the Clans because the WarShips that the Ghost Bears canonically had are both lightly armored battlecruisers with no extreme range guns on one, and very few on the other. Just about the only worse pick would be Clan Wolf with their Dire Wolf flagship, because the Sovetskii Soyuz class is one of the worst canon WarShip designs ever made, *and* it doesn't even have the excuse of being a political boondoggle.
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Tryglaw
Well-known member
They have the jumpships for that, and there's a good chance their ships are sporting HPGs...
It would make a lot more sense for them to attack hoping to destroy or at least disable / cripple the Wolverine WarShip (never mind the glory of pulling that off)...
See my edit. The problem is that unlike the Bear's Den which had a slim but real chance of winning until she took an engine crit, the Dieron's Run is *slower* than the McEvedy's Legacy and thus cannot close in on her. She does have equal-range weapons, but far fewer of them, and her armor's just too thin for a slugging match.
Against average gunnery rolls, the Dieron's Run lasts just three rounds against what the Legacy throws out, versus six rounds for the Bear's Den (the Legacy only rolled better than average for that last round). She does not have any chance of making critical hits on the Legacy because she doesn't throw enough damage to beat the threshold until she reaches autocannon range (which is never); even hitting with every single in-range gun in every single round she lives, the most she can do is to use up a little over 10% of the Legacy's armor.
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Shouldn't the ship's name be "Dieron's Run" as in the previous section?
Tryglaw
Well-known member
Running leaves the jump ships stranded, unless they have L-F batteries, but what I'd expect the clanners to do (other then not splitting up in the first place, since "honorable combat" does not apply here) would be to burn for the planet for possible orbital bombardment, thus forcing the opponent into a chase. Once the chase is given and some measure of acceleration built up, as the chasing ship closes into firing range, then flip over and decel to use other sides acceleration (then deceleration) to close distance. But they should not have split to begin with, not with Clanners going against Wolverines. If batchall was given and accepted, then ship on ship duel would be ok. But with Wolverines, only extermination with extreme prejudice.
Minor typo; the Black Lion class BC is the Bear's Den (and she is the Clan Ghost Bear flagship), while the Cameron class BC is the Dieron's Run. Thanks for spotting that.
That's why the McEvedy's Legacy detached her own DropShips rather than keeping them with her for the battle -- they're maneuvering to cut off the Clan DropShips from being able to hit the planet.
Note that they would not have been able to intercept if the Clans had their DropShips immediately push for the planet, but the Khan didn't want to do that because he's a Mechwarrior himself and he wanted to personally lead the assault on the planet. He was confident of victory (grossly underestimating what the Legacy could do based on the limited reports from Wolf's Dragoons that the Inner Sphere powers had *barely* functional WarShips at best.)
Remember, the bidding for the invasion of Thule was so contentious that the Ghost Bears ended up bringing their entire invasion force to a single planet even though their tactical estimate was that they needed only a fraction of that to conquer the world. There is absolutely *no way* the Khan will agree to miss out on his share of the glory there, so he'd just order the invasion paused.
Edit: Also, if you run the numbers, the JumpShips do have *just barely* enough time to recharge before the "New Terran Hegemony" DropShips can reach them, as it's about six days.
You'll notice the Ghost Bears immediately terminated communications rather than finishing the traditional batchall. They split up because the Khan was assuming that this would be a partially functional hulk at best, and was too eager to wait for the slower ship, both because he was confident of victory and because his ship has to get much, much closer in order to engage with its autocannon battery.
They're actually correctly deducing that this is an Inner Sphere power in league with Clan Wolverine, not Clan Wolverine itself, because the name of the ship is an explicit Clan Wolverine reference but Griffith is not a known Bloodname, nor was the Admiral wearing a Clan-style uniform.
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Turn 30 - Acting On Your Best Behavior
Turn 30 - Acting On Your Best Behavior
It takes a few days, but HMS Harris, escorted by HMS Defiant, rendezvouses with the Free Folk jumpship. A few days of haggling, trading, loud language, and quite a bit more ale than is probably healthy in low gravity later you have a deal A load of fresh foodstuffs, basic electronics and raw materials for their machine shops, and a number of spare medium lasers from you, in exchange you receive some rare metals and the complete chassis (minus weapons, electronics, fusion engine, or armor) for a WHM-6D Warhammer heavy mech, along with the maintenance manuals (what of them the Free Folk have).
A day or so later and the Free Folk depart, promising to return in several years when their perambulations about the Deep Periphery bring them back to this area of space.
Jeremy and Alita come back from their honeymoon, which had been delayed by the initial alerts but which had then proceeded more or less as planned after things had resolved peacefully, and Alita is already pregnant. A few weeks later and it is confirmed that your son and daughter-in-law are gifting you with your first grandbaby.
You now fully understand just why Ba had always been so happy about grandbabies, all the joy and happiness of babies… with fewer midnight feedings. You think you could get used to this.
The twins have finally brought girlfriends home with them, although you aren’t sure about either of them. Both are involved in the racing league, although neither are drivers. One is a PR person for the League itself, the other is one of the mechanics who works on Quan’s racer.
Thanh appears determined to marry an Eagle rather than anything human, while Sarah might have had a few boyfriends none of them proved to be anything serious.
Things seem to be going quite well. Until the Eldest and Dominique arrive at your office looking… distressed and in need of a stiff drink.
Dominique in fact declares that she’s giving up the entire opposition thing. It had seemed like a great idea, but too many of the people who’d backed her proved to be snakes. And the Eldest has disturbing news.
They both do, in fact.
It appears that the new Imperial Parliament is going to kick things off with a bang and a power grab.
They were set to declare that since you were already Queen of Griffin’s Roost, the planet, that you becoming Empress of the Empire of Griffin’s Roost would require their approval, which they had decided not to grant but to instead ‘graciously’ permit you to continue to rule the planet ‘as you have proven so capable of’, while they would take full control of the Empire, appointing a Chancellor to rule who would be drawn from the Senate with the consent of the Chamber of Delegates. Members of your family would be barred from the Chancellorship ‘to avoid distracting Her Majesty from her just rule of Griffin’s Roost’.
Moreover, they’d somehow found a judge that was willing to sign off on their… innovative interpretation of the law and precedents, and were arguing that while you could veto legislation in the Planetary parliament that the Imperial parliament hadn’t ‘accepted that authority’.
They were trying to sneak this in under the radar of the wedding and the alert from the Free Folk had given them a further smokescreen.
It’s incredibly slimy. The same coterie of nobles and politicians who’d been behind the last attempted power grab with the Ministry of Colonization were behind this one, and seemed quite certain that they had backed you into a corner.
When they showed up several days later to ‘graciously inform you’ of their ‘decision’, you already knew they were coming and what they were up to. This was not going to stand, and unlike last time where you’d let the politicians get away with their shenanigans without consequences, this time they were going far too far.
You allowed them to think they had snuck this up on you, meeting them with a broad welcoming smile and being the gracious host you usually were when various nobles and politicians came calling during business hours.
They played the game quite well as well, acting as if this were nothing more than a routine meeting and being perfectly polite and cordial, before springing their little trap. Sekhmet had a nearly invisible earpiece tucked inside one enormous ear, and she tapped your foot when she got confirmation from Janet that the cabal's pet judge had indeed issued a permanent injunction barring you from vetoing Imperial Parliamentary votes.
So when they sprang it on you you merely smiled. “I see, gentlemen. And no doubt Judge Wilson has already issued a ruling from Castor that you are certain forbids me from interfering.” You smirk a little at the start of surprise. “You will no doubt be very pleased to hear that I’ve already discussed this very issue with Justice Harrison, Justice Nils, and Chief Justice Harper.” your smile is all teeth, and would send a great shark fleeing in terror in the other direction. “I do believe that a ruling vacating Judge Wilson’s order should be issued… right… about…” Sekhmet taps your foot again and your smile becomes downright evil “Now. Jane?” You barely raise your voice, and Jane slips into the office behind the now gaping politicians.
She is accompanied by a squad of agents from the Special Branch. “I do believe that what you attempted comes under the broad heading of Treason, gentlemen. After all, you are attempting to, under false pretence and under the color of law, stage a coup against your liege.” One of them opens his mouth to speak and you simply glare at him, silencing him. “Attempted, gentlemen, if you had actually been at all competent in executing your plan I would have no choice but to consider you guilty of misprision of Treason, Treason, and impose the penalties required for the same. Consider that… carefully.” you nod to Jane, who promptly signals her men to cuff the now visibly furious Lords and haul them out of the room while cheerfully discussing all the latest advances in chemical interrogation techniques that were completely lawful to use in this situation.
They’d been real clever, sneaking their little trap into legislation that had absolutely no relationship whatsoever to what they were doing, stampeding Parliament into passing it without a reading (who would object to unanimous consent to pass a bill honoring the Royal Wedding?) with literally no public debate or time for anybody to actually read the actual text of what they shoved through. If it hadn’t been for the Eldest and Dominique you’d have had to play catch up at that point.
(-20 support Senate and Chamber of Delegates, -1 Influence Senate, Chamber of Delegates, +1 Politics, +1% Interest Rate)
Weather on Nowy Gdansk is severe, especially in the local winter where it gets even colder and more miserable than during the local summer. The population has enough food and supplies to hunker down and deal with it, however conditions are so cold and windy that dropship operation is becoming treacherous. It’s not that the equipment can’t handle it, it’s that weather conditions have become so bad that flight operations are only possible in increasingly short windows before wind and weather make it impossible to operate safely.
[] Continue operations regardless, risks must be taken. - +1% GDP on Nowy Gdansk, +1 Rating Change on Nowy Gdansk, risk of loss of a dropship.
[] Suspend operations due to the weather. - No change
It takes a few days, but HMS Harris, escorted by HMS Defiant, rendezvouses with the Free Folk jumpship. A few days of haggling, trading, loud language, and quite a bit more ale than is probably healthy in low gravity later you have a deal A load of fresh foodstuffs, basic electronics and raw materials for their machine shops, and a number of spare medium lasers from you, in exchange you receive some rare metals and the complete chassis (minus weapons, electronics, fusion engine, or armor) for a WHM-6D Warhammer heavy mech, along with the maintenance manuals (what of them the Free Folk have).
A day or so later and the Free Folk depart, promising to return in several years when their perambulations about the Deep Periphery bring them back to this area of space.
Jeremy and Alita come back from their honeymoon, which had been delayed by the initial alerts but which had then proceeded more or less as planned after things had resolved peacefully, and Alita is already pregnant. A few weeks later and it is confirmed that your son and daughter-in-law are gifting you with your first grandbaby.
You now fully understand just why Ba had always been so happy about grandbabies, all the joy and happiness of babies… with fewer midnight feedings. You think you could get used to this.
The twins have finally brought girlfriends home with them, although you aren’t sure about either of them. Both are involved in the racing league, although neither are drivers. One is a PR person for the League itself, the other is one of the mechanics who works on Quan’s racer.
Thanh appears determined to marry an Eagle rather than anything human, while Sarah might have had a few boyfriends none of them proved to be anything serious.
Things seem to be going quite well. Until the Eldest and Dominique arrive at your office looking… distressed and in need of a stiff drink.
Dominique in fact declares that she’s giving up the entire opposition thing. It had seemed like a great idea, but too many of the people who’d backed her proved to be snakes. And the Eldest has disturbing news.
They both do, in fact.
It appears that the new Imperial Parliament is going to kick things off with a bang and a power grab.
They were set to declare that since you were already Queen of Griffin’s Roost, the planet, that you becoming Empress of the Empire of Griffin’s Roost would require their approval, which they had decided not to grant but to instead ‘graciously’ permit you to continue to rule the planet ‘as you have proven so capable of’, while they would take full control of the Empire, appointing a Chancellor to rule who would be drawn from the Senate with the consent of the Chamber of Delegates. Members of your family would be barred from the Chancellorship ‘to avoid distracting Her Majesty from her just rule of Griffin’s Roost’.
Moreover, they’d somehow found a judge that was willing to sign off on their… innovative interpretation of the law and precedents, and were arguing that while you could veto legislation in the Planetary parliament that the Imperial parliament hadn’t ‘accepted that authority’.
They were trying to sneak this in under the radar of the wedding and the alert from the Free Folk had given them a further smokescreen.
It’s incredibly slimy. The same coterie of nobles and politicians who’d been behind the last attempted power grab with the Ministry of Colonization were behind this one, and seemed quite certain that they had backed you into a corner.
When they showed up several days later to ‘graciously inform you’ of their ‘decision’, you already knew they were coming and what they were up to. This was not going to stand, and unlike last time where you’d let the politicians get away with their shenanigans without consequences, this time they were going far too far.
You allowed them to think they had snuck this up on you, meeting them with a broad welcoming smile and being the gracious host you usually were when various nobles and politicians came calling during business hours.
They played the game quite well as well, acting as if this were nothing more than a routine meeting and being perfectly polite and cordial, before springing their little trap. Sekhmet had a nearly invisible earpiece tucked inside one enormous ear, and she tapped your foot when she got confirmation from Janet that the cabal's pet judge had indeed issued a permanent injunction barring you from vetoing Imperial Parliamentary votes.
So when they sprang it on you you merely smiled. “I see, gentlemen. And no doubt Judge Wilson has already issued a ruling from Castor that you are certain forbids me from interfering.” You smirk a little at the start of surprise. “You will no doubt be very pleased to hear that I’ve already discussed this very issue with Justice Harrison, Justice Nils, and Chief Justice Harper.” your smile is all teeth, and would send a great shark fleeing in terror in the other direction. “I do believe that a ruling vacating Judge Wilson’s order should be issued… right… about…” Sekhmet taps your foot again and your smile becomes downright evil “Now. Jane?” You barely raise your voice, and Jane slips into the office behind the now gaping politicians.
She is accompanied by a squad of agents from the Special Branch. “I do believe that what you attempted comes under the broad heading of Treason, gentlemen. After all, you are attempting to, under false pretence and under the color of law, stage a coup against your liege.” One of them opens his mouth to speak and you simply glare at him, silencing him. “Attempted, gentlemen, if you had actually been at all competent in executing your plan I would have no choice but to consider you guilty of misprision of Treason, Treason, and impose the penalties required for the same. Consider that… carefully.” you nod to Jane, who promptly signals her men to cuff the now visibly furious Lords and haul them out of the room while cheerfully discussing all the latest advances in chemical interrogation techniques that were completely lawful to use in this situation.
They’d been real clever, sneaking their little trap into legislation that had absolutely no relationship whatsoever to what they were doing, stampeding Parliament into passing it without a reading (who would object to unanimous consent to pass a bill honoring the Royal Wedding?) with literally no public debate or time for anybody to actually read the actual text of what they shoved through. If it hadn’t been for the Eldest and Dominique you’d have had to play catch up at that point.
(-20 support Senate and Chamber of Delegates, -1 Influence Senate, Chamber of Delegates, +1 Politics, +1% Interest Rate)
Weather on Nowy Gdansk is severe, especially in the local winter where it gets even colder and more miserable than during the local summer. The population has enough food and supplies to hunker down and deal with it, however conditions are so cold and windy that dropship operation is becoming treacherous. It’s not that the equipment can’t handle it, it’s that weather conditions have become so bad that flight operations are only possible in increasingly short windows before wind and weather make it impossible to operate safely.
[] Continue operations regardless, risks must be taken. - +1% GDP on Nowy Gdansk, +1 Rating Change on Nowy Gdansk, risk of loss of a dropship.
[] Suspend operations due to the weather. - No change
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
[X] Suspend operations due to the weather. - No change
--[X]Keep a DropShip available to make a run in case of humanitarian emergency (Write In)
If the population was short of supplies and people were going to starve and/or freeze that would be one thing but we're risking the DropShip for, pretty much, petty cash.
--[X]Keep a DropShip available to make a run in case of humanitarian emergency (Write In)
If the population was short of supplies and people were going to starve and/or freeze that would be one thing but we're risking the DropShip for, pretty much, petty cash.
[X] Suspend operations due to the weather. - No change
It's sensible to risk a dropship if people were going to be starving to death without our intevention, but it seems pretty clear that the people of Nowy Gdansk will be fine without it.
It's sensible to risk a dropship if people were going to be starving to death without our intevention, but it seems pretty clear that the people of Nowy Gdansk will be fine without it.
Jarow
Well-known member
Given our usual money habits, and our expected leftovers this turn, the interest rate is pretty good. The support though... ouch. At least we have extra time before that becomes significant again now with the dropped influence basically preventing it from mattering, but we're definitely going to have to spend the next few turns increasing our support.
As for the vote...
[X] Suspend operations due to the weather. - No change
I kind of want to get the benefits from risking things, but sadly we just don't have enough dropships for it to be worth risking any.
Knowledgeispower
Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
Welp time to reverse Engineer that Warhammer to get a decent heavy mech design in production and then service