Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)
- Thread starter LordSunhawk
- Start date
[X] Mary McEvedy
[X] Gyrfalcon II
[X] Puppy Trainer
The Extra research per turn that McEvedy would give us is just too good to pass up in my opinion, combined with the Aerie expansion we'd have 5 normal research per turn along with 3 Military focused ones, letting us have a lot more leeway in projects.
[X] Gyrfalcon II
[X] Puppy Trainer
The Extra research per turn that McEvedy would give us is just too good to pass up in my opinion, combined with the Aerie expansion we'd have 5 normal research per turn along with 3 Military focused ones, letting us have a lot more leeway in projects.
Jarow
Well-known member
[X] Mark Briggs
[X] Gyrfalcon II
[X] Puppy Trainer
For my reasoning here, see my previous post.
[X] Plan: Push into Space
-[X] Military [$122614]
--[X] Establish Special Forces [->1]
(Our own counter to DEST)
--[X] Lay Down Major Unit
---[X] Harris [75]
---[X] Defiant [75]
(We need dropships of all kinds)
--[X] Build Aerie Satellite Campus on Nowy Gdansk [->1]
(More research slots, while we still have need of them)
--[X] Establish Cities to exploit resource areas (Pollux) [->1]
(Pop limit increase, along with economic growth)
--[X] Advertise for colonists to Pollux [60]
(Quick pop growth colonization action)
--[X] Purchase New Units
---[X] 2 Flight of Rocs [70]
---[X] 3 Flights of Eagles [auto]
---[X] 1 Lance of Pathfinder Battlemechs [70]
---[X] 1 Lance of Trooper Battlemechs [70]
---[X] 9 Platoons Paladin SPG [70]
(As requested last turn, but was ignored)
---[X] 27 Companies Foot Infantry [70]
-[X]Interior [$71250]
--[X] Conduct Environmental Survey of Noya Gdansk [->4]
(Begin learning about our new planet)
--[X] Build Space Station Nowy Gdansk Orbit [80]
(Defense point for our new planet, also part of research expansion)
--[X] Expand Space Station 1 [->1]
--[X] Expand Space Station 3 [80]
(Stations have military and research value)
--[X] Build factories for Enterprise Dropship on Castor [100]
(We'll be doing a lot of exploring soon, more ships to do it with can only be helpful)
--[X] Build Drop-port on Five Fingers [80]
(Upkeep reduction and rapid economic growth)
--[X] DOME - Nowy Gdansk Arcology [->9]
(Lots of benefits to help Nowy Gdansk grow as this progresses)
-[X] Diplomatic [$40000]
--[X] Have Exploration Fleet Survey Griffin IV [75]
(Lets make sure the base was abandoned, and begin surveys of our soon to be second colony)
--[X] Develop Infrastructure on Nowy Gdansk [75]
(Work toward making our new planet sustainable)
--[X] Snow Barriers Around Nowy Gdansk Spaceport [75]
(Let's not have to keep dropships out for fear of weather in the future)
--[X] CULTURE - Polish Cultural Festival [80]
(Work towards building their health and economy up so they grow properly)
-[X] Political [$30000]
--[X] Extend Government Services to Phoenix [75]
(We have a new continent, time to induct it in the government structure)
--[X] Build Relations with Chamber of Delegates [60]
--[X] Build Relations with Senate [60]
(They both feel very iffy about us, lets get this to 90+ as soon as we can so they don't decide to cause issues when they regain power after the results of this turn)
-[X] Research [$220000]
--[X] Improved Automation lvl 4 [80]
(Affects pretty much everything, lots of benefits here)
--[X] LOSTECH - Industrial Exoskeletons lvl 4 [->1]
(This is how we get power armor)
--[X] Improved Education lvl 4 [75]
(Improved research ability, also helps prevent issues with automation)
--[X] Cure for Cancer [->1]
(Should have gotten this sooner, but very important medical research)
--[X] Gauss Rifle [55]
(Significant mech/dropship weapon)
--[X] Pulse Lasers [55]
(Needed for laser AMS)
-[X] Intelligence [$50]
--[X] Counterintelligence Surveillance [?]
--[X] Interrogate POWs [65]
(Learning everything we can about hostile intelligence agents is always a good idea)
-[X] Justice [$25000]
--[X] Extend law-enforcement to Phoenix [75]
(Integrate the new continent, no crime issues allowed)
--[X] Investigate Judiciary [85]
(We don't know the exact effects of this, but we do know we want a legal system working for us)
Leaves ~$243k leftover, and gets a large chunk of the stuff we want as soon as we can get it. Only open action slot is one intelligence action, where there's nothing to choose from.
[X] Gyrfalcon II
[X] Puppy Trainer
For my reasoning here, see my previous post.
[X] Plan: Push into Space
-[X] Military [$122614]
--[X] Establish Special Forces [->1]
(Our own counter to DEST)
--[X] Lay Down Major Unit
---[X] Harris [75]
---[X] Defiant [75]
(We need dropships of all kinds)
--[X] Build Aerie Satellite Campus on Nowy Gdansk [->1]
(More research slots, while we still have need of them)
--[X] Establish Cities to exploit resource areas (Pollux) [->1]
(Pop limit increase, along with economic growth)
--[X] Advertise for colonists to Pollux [60]
(Quick pop growth colonization action)
--[X] Purchase New Units
---[X] 2 Flight of Rocs [70]
---[X] 3 Flights of Eagles [auto]
---[X] 1 Lance of Pathfinder Battlemechs [70]
---[X] 1 Lance of Trooper Battlemechs [70]
---[X] 9 Platoons Paladin SPG [70]
(As requested last turn, but was ignored)
---[X] 27 Companies Foot Infantry [70]
-[X]Interior [$71250]
--[X] Conduct Environmental Survey of Noya Gdansk [->4]
(Begin learning about our new planet)
--[X] Build Space Station Nowy Gdansk Orbit [80]
(Defense point for our new planet, also part of research expansion)
--[X] Expand Space Station 1 [->1]
--[X] Expand Space Station 3 [80]
(Stations have military and research value)
--[X] Build factories for Enterprise Dropship on Castor [100]
(We'll be doing a lot of exploring soon, more ships to do it with can only be helpful)
--[X] Build Drop-port on Five Fingers [80]
(Upkeep reduction and rapid economic growth)
--[X] DOME - Nowy Gdansk Arcology [->9]
(Lots of benefits to help Nowy Gdansk grow as this progresses)
-[X] Diplomatic [$40000]
--[X] Have Exploration Fleet Survey Griffin IV [75]
(Lets make sure the base was abandoned, and begin surveys of our soon to be second colony)
--[X] Develop Infrastructure on Nowy Gdansk [75]
(Work toward making our new planet sustainable)
--[X] Snow Barriers Around Nowy Gdansk Spaceport [75]
(Let's not have to keep dropships out for fear of weather in the future)
--[X] CULTURE - Polish Cultural Festival [80]
(Work towards building their health and economy up so they grow properly)
-[X] Political [$30000]
--[X] Extend Government Services to Phoenix [75]
(We have a new continent, time to induct it in the government structure)
--[X] Build Relations with Chamber of Delegates [60]
--[X] Build Relations with Senate [60]
(They both feel very iffy about us, lets get this to 90+ as soon as we can so they don't decide to cause issues when they regain power after the results of this turn)
-[X] Research [$220000]
--[X] Improved Automation lvl 4 [80]
(Affects pretty much everything, lots of benefits here)
--[X] LOSTECH - Industrial Exoskeletons lvl 4 [->1]
(This is how we get power armor)
--[X] Improved Education lvl 4 [75]
(Improved research ability, also helps prevent issues with automation)
--[X] Cure for Cancer [->1]
(Should have gotten this sooner, but very important medical research)
--[X] Gauss Rifle [55]
(Significant mech/dropship weapon)
--[X] Pulse Lasers [55]
(Needed for laser AMS)
-[X] Intelligence [$50]
--[X] Counterintelligence Surveillance [?]
--[X] Interrogate POWs [65]
(Learning everything we can about hostile intelligence agents is always a good idea)
-[X] Justice [$25000]
--[X] Extend law-enforcement to Phoenix [75]
(Integrate the new continent, no crime issues allowed)
--[X] Investigate Judiciary [85]
(We don't know the exact effects of this, but we do know we want a legal system working for us)
Leaves ~$243k leftover, and gets a large chunk of the stuff we want as soon as we can get it. Only open action slot is one intelligence action, where there's nothing to choose from.
I can't find a link to the spreadsheet with the tech research options anymore, but surely Streak SRMs can't be the best military option. With freezers they're 2.5 tons for 4 damage (30 BV) heat neutral (not counting ammo) while MLs are 2.5 tons for 5 damage (46 BV) heat neutral. They're really only useful on tanks and it's not unlikely an inferno flag will be added to the combat system when we have to fight Mad Nicky's Hydrophobia Club and their insufficiently heat resistant battle toads, which is a good reason to stick to normal SRMs even if streak tech had come for free.
[X] Plan: Push into Space
On the contrary -- Streaks offer a nice bump in battle value, and their "in character" benefits are even more significant since they're *more accurate*. Moreover, they step us towards Streak LRMs, which are generally considered useless because people are overly concerned with 'Mechs, but are actually *very* useful for aerospace assets.
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Can we make super heavy tanks eventually? I've always loved mammoth/apocalypse and overlord tanks from C&C and think they'd be great here. After all a mech isn't that great when it's got 2 gaping holes punch in it by rail guns way outside its range.
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[X] Mark Briggs
[X] Gyrfalcon II
[X] Puppy Trainer
[X] Plan: Push into Space
[X] Gyrfalcon II
[X] Puppy Trainer
[X] Plan: Push into Space
Superheavy tanks are a thing, but they're of limited use in Battletech because they're not very mobile and there really aren't weapons they can mount that a Battlemech can't.
edofthesquid
Well-known member
[X] Plan: Push into Space
UltimatePaladin
Well-known member
[X] Mary McEvedy
[X] Gyrfalcon II
[X] Puppy Trainer
[X] Gyrfalcon II
[X] Puppy Trainer
Jarow
Well-known member
@kelgar04 @ShadowArxxy
Keep in mind you need to include your advisor, Gyrfalcon, and trainer mech mech votes in your most recent vote, older things get deleted in the tally
Keep in mind you need to include your advisor, Gyrfalcon, and trainer mech mech votes in your most recent vote, older things get deleted in the tally
Lightwhispers
Well-known member
[X] Mark Briggs
[X] Gyrfalcon II
[X] Puppy Trainer
[X] Plan: Push into Space
[X] Gyrfalcon II
[X] Puppy Trainer
[X] Plan: Push into Space
Turn 30 - Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Turn 30 - Everybody Wants To Rule The World
You are now a proper Ba, with a grandson who is absolutely precious. You have completely fallen to the ba side of the Force with this development as you hold John Van Griffith, your first born grandson, in your arms.
You fully expect in a few years that you’ll be able to engage in proper grandmotherly behavior, namely loading the kid up with all the sugar and candy just before handing him back off to his parents, but that will have to wait, for now you just luxuriate in the experience.
Jeremy has the same goofy look on his face that Willis had when you gave birth to Jeremy himself, the comparison brings a slight smile to your face. Alita is looking radiant as any new mother should be.
Your family is growing again. You like this and want it to continue, so in the grand tradition of ba’s everywhere…
“So, when will I get more grandbabies?” you bestow a properly inquisitive look at all of your children. Ba has spoken.
The assorted cries of ‘Mom’ from all of your kids is priceless.
You had approved the upgrades to the new Gyrfalcon II design, and the newly built factory had been working double shifts in order to complete all 36 of the refits in a timely manner. The end result was a wickedly lethal interceptor that looked to be a serious improvement on what had come before.
The engineers were already talking about improvements to the Goshawk, Eagle, and Roc to bring them fully up to date, although some of the technologies they wanted to use on those birds were still stuck in development hell.
You met with Mary McEvedy, who’d shown up to the meeting wearing a labcoat over her service uniform looking absolutely no nonsense. Jeremy had been visiting and had promptly, even though he was off duty, snapped to at her entrance. Oh yes, she’d been one of his professors, hadn’t she….
The meeting went quite well. You find her brisk, no-nonsense style quite refreshing and she seems to have a gift for breaking down the benefits and risks of the various projects swirling around the various labs quite succinctly.
She does present to you one proposal, for an upgrade to the Ambush light trooper mech. And she does so in style, with a very detailed presentation.
General Dunn of the Rapid Reaction Force and General Potter also had scheduled a meeting with you.
The RRF would really like to get their paws on, to use General Dunn’s phrase, ‘vast quantities’ of Winged Hussar ultralight mechs. However General Potter is opposed, as the RRF is supposed to be a pure hovertank unit, and the Winged Hussar is most certainly not a hovertank, moreover he’s not fully convinced of its battlefield utility.
General Dunn gets a truly shit-eating grin on her face and takes out a small sheaf of papers. If you want to keep all of the RRF on hovercraft, well, some of her techs had been… tinkering. What you see looks like a scaled up Peewee Racing Hovercraft, sized for a single Winged Hussar to stand on and control like a stand-up jetski.
You give the generals a very speaking look.
[] Approve the RRF to field Winged Hussars directly
[] Approve the RRF to field Winged Hussars with the HoverSki Upgrade
[] You are being too silly, no Winged Hussars for you
There is a surge of settlers heading to Pollux in order to profit from the agricultural sector, this in turn spurs home building and other sectors of the economy and results in some nice economic growth this year.
On the military procurement front things go extremely well.
The full battalion of Paladin SPGs has been deployed, along with the start of the garrison for Nowy Gdansk, which will be under the command of Michal Sikorski. In addition new mechs and ASFs have been procured.
However in addition to the planned procurement there was a serious paperwork snafu and mixup, and the Goshawk factory apparently had built enough airframes to fully flesh out the aerospace compliments of the newly constructed and expanded space stations. Thankfully the corporations involved took a very philosophical view of the whole affair and agreed to eat the costs of the excess production in exchange for keeping their maintenance contracts, which the snafu had jeopardized.
Speaking of space stations, both the new construction project over Nowy Gdansk and the expansions to the two currently orbiting stations have been completed successfully.
The first civilian dropships are, much to your surprise, already entering operation. Granted, they are little more than cargo small craft with extended fuel tanks and barely qualify as ‘dropships’, but it’s still faster than you’d hoped. Commerce between Nowy Gdansk and Griffin’s Roost is now starting to pick up a bit.
Lee Aerospace, however, is Up To Something(™). They’ve built a large cargo handling station in Griffin’s Roost orbit, and a matching one over Nowy Gdansk, both of which seem designed to handle containers rather than bulk cargo. In addition, they are assembling something in orbit of Griffin’s Roost that so far looks like a small craft without engines attached to a long lattice truss spine and terminating in a growing cluster of fuel tanks and drives.
You’ve confronted Tyler about this, he simply grinned and pretended, and you could TELL he was pretending, ignorance. You ask Willis, and he says it’s a surprise. Any further inquiries are preempted by him deviously and with malice aforethought mentioning going to visit your grandson.
The new Enterprise dropship line is complete and ready for operation.
USS Enterprise, meanwhile, spends several months surveying Griffin IV. The planet has a small number of incredibly deep oceans. The total amount of water is about equal to Griffin’s Roost, but the surface area is so miniscule that there is nearly no water cycle on the planet to speak of. It’s hot, dry, dusty, with only a few stubborn life forms clustering on the shores around the extremely salty oceans.
The former DCMS base has been thoroughly explored. Apart from a few… adult… publications found in a left-behind tent, some discarded packaging for MREs, and a mass grave that has been marked for future investigation there is nothing left behind at all.
The planet is very mineral rich, and the sandy soil is actually extremely rich in nitrates. If you could solve the water issue the planet could be an ideal option for colonization. Some of the more creative of the DoME engineers have looked at the situation and are making noises about mass excavations to massively enlarge the surface area of the oceans by simply digging out the land around them and dropping the fill into the oceans.
The drop port on Five Fingers has been completed and is in service with the petroleum industry there.
Once the worst of the winter storms had passed, infrastructure work on Nowy Gdansk had advanced rapidly with a new full service hospital built along with a proper school and improved sanitation systems. In addition a massive wall has been constructed around the perimeter of the landing field, fully equipped with fusion powered heating elements to simply melt the drifts before they can overtop the barrier. Future winters won’t be as disruptive to flight operations, hopefully.
The Polish cultural festival was an incredible success. The great interest the people of Griffin’s Roost have about their new countrymen fuels immense crowds tasting kielbasa for the first time, along with Polish style vodka, pierogies, bigos, kotlet schabowy, golabki, and other Polish dishes. There were bagels of all kinds, surprising people who hadn’t realized that one of the most popular breakfast foods on the planet was actually Polish in origin. There was music, dance, ancient films dredged up from historical datacores… all in all it was an incredibly good time.
Imperial authorities assist the planetary authorities with extending services and law enforcement to Phoenix as part of the final transition to the Imperial structure.
Relations are improved with the Imperial Senate following a series of meetings between Jake and the various party leaders, however in the Chamber of Delegates there is absolutely no improvement despite his best efforts. The leaders quite stubbornly snub him, to the point of threatening to have security remove him from the Chamber. Elections to the Chamber won’t occur for a few years, you might have to take steps at that point if this hostile intransigence continues.
Mary shows up with the reports about research progress, again in the form of highly detailed and informative charts.
The intensive investigation of the judiciary produces a bit of a shit storm with hundreds of criminal and civil cases now needing to be reviewed after multiple judges are found to have been engaged in corrupt and unethical practices. The guilty judges have been removed and, in several cases, jailed on criminal charges when the conduct rose to that level. All have been stripped of their pensions and barred from judicial appointments for life.
Meta-Event - 55 - no event
Dynasty Luck - 28 - You are Ba!
Imperial Approval - 6
Approval Change - 4
Political - 4
Economy Rating - 1
Economy Event - 2
Research Event - -3 (no rerolls allowed for research failures)
Griffin’s Roost Economy - 3
Griffin’s Roost Health - 8
Griffin’s Roost Rating Change - 6
Nowy Gdansk Economy - -3
Nowy Gdansk Health - 3
Nowy Gdansk Rating Change - 3
Dynasty Luck - 28 - You are Ba!
Imperial Approval - 6
Approval Change - 4
Political - 4
Economy Rating - 1
Economy Event - 2
Research Event - -3 (no rerolls allowed for research failures)
Griffin’s Roost Economy - 3
Griffin’s Roost Health - 8
Griffin’s Roost Rating Change - 6
Nowy Gdansk Economy - -3
Nowy Gdansk Health - 3
Nowy Gdansk Rating Change - 3
Advertise for colonists to Pollux [60]
Target - 60
Roll - 32
Result - SUCCESS
Purchase New Units
-2 Flight of Rocs [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 1
Result - CRITICAL SUCCESS
-3 Flights of Eagles [auto]
-1 Lance of Pathfinder Battlemechs [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 57
Result - SUCCESS
-1 Lance of Trooper Battlemechs [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 57
Result - SUCCESS
-9 Platoons Paladin SPG [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 1
Result - CRITICAL SUCCESS
-27 Companies Foot Infantry [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 47
Result - SUCCESS
Build Space Station Nowy Gdansk Orbit [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 4
Result - SUCCESS
Expand Space Station 1 [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 25
Result - SUCCESS
Expand Space Station 3 [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 69
Result - SUCCESS
Build factories for Enterprise Dropship on Castor [100]
Target - 100
Roll - 88
Result - SUCCESS
Build Drop-port on Five Fingers [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 79
Result - SUCCESS
Have Exploration Fleet Survey Griffin IV [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 100, Kelgar03 Omake Reroll - 8
Result - SUCCESS
Develop Infrastructure on Nowy Gdansk [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 17
Result - SUCCESS
Snow Barriers Around Nowy Gdansk Spaceport [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 85, Kelgar03 Omake Reroll - 95, ShadowArxxy Omake Reroll - 75
Result - SUCCESS
CULTURE - Polish Cultural Festival [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 53
Result - SUCCESS
Extend Government Services to Phoenix [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 50
Result - SUCCESS
Build Relations with Chamber of Delegates [60]
Target - 60
Roll - 98
Result - FAIL
Build Relations with Senate [60]
Target - 60
Roll - 49
Result - SUCCESS
Improved Automation lvl 4 [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 7
Result - SUCCESS
Improved Education lvl 4 [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 7
Result - SUCCESS
Gauss Rifle [55]
Target - 55
Roll - 53
Result - SUCCESS
Pulse Lasers [55]
Target - 55
Roll - 2
Result - SUCCESS
Interrogate POWs [65]
Target - 65
Roll - 55
Result - SUCCESS
Extend law-enforcement to Phoenix [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 54
Result - SUCCESS
Investigate Judiciary [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 10
Result - SUCCESS
Target - 60
Roll - 32
Result - SUCCESS
Purchase New Units
-2 Flight of Rocs [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 1
Result - CRITICAL SUCCESS
-3 Flights of Eagles [auto]
-1 Lance of Pathfinder Battlemechs [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 57
Result - SUCCESS
-1 Lance of Trooper Battlemechs [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 57
Result - SUCCESS
-9 Platoons Paladin SPG [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 1
Result - CRITICAL SUCCESS
-27 Companies Foot Infantry [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 47
Result - SUCCESS
Build Space Station Nowy Gdansk Orbit [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 4
Result - SUCCESS
Expand Space Station 1 [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 25
Result - SUCCESS
Expand Space Station 3 [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 69
Result - SUCCESS
Build factories for Enterprise Dropship on Castor [100]
Target - 100
Roll - 88
Result - SUCCESS
Build Drop-port on Five Fingers [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 79
Result - SUCCESS
Have Exploration Fleet Survey Griffin IV [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 100, Kelgar03 Omake Reroll - 8
Result - SUCCESS
Develop Infrastructure on Nowy Gdansk [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 17
Result - SUCCESS
Snow Barriers Around Nowy Gdansk Spaceport [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 85, Kelgar03 Omake Reroll - 95, ShadowArxxy Omake Reroll - 75
Result - SUCCESS
CULTURE - Polish Cultural Festival [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 53
Result - SUCCESS
Extend Government Services to Phoenix [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 50
Result - SUCCESS
Build Relations with Chamber of Delegates [60]
Target - 60
Roll - 98
Result - FAIL
Build Relations with Senate [60]
Target - 60
Roll - 49
Result - SUCCESS
Improved Automation lvl 4 [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 7
Result - SUCCESS
Improved Education lvl 4 [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 7
Result - SUCCESS
Gauss Rifle [55]
Target - 55
Roll - 53
Result - SUCCESS
Pulse Lasers [55]
Target - 55
Roll - 2
Result - SUCCESS
Interrogate POWs [65]
Target - 65
Roll - 55
Result - SUCCESS
Extend law-enforcement to Phoenix [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 54
Result - SUCCESS
Investigate Judiciary [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 10
Result - SUCCESS
You are now a proper Ba, with a grandson who is absolutely precious. You have completely fallen to the ba side of the Force with this development as you hold John Van Griffith, your first born grandson, in your arms.
You fully expect in a few years that you’ll be able to engage in proper grandmotherly behavior, namely loading the kid up with all the sugar and candy just before handing him back off to his parents, but that will have to wait, for now you just luxuriate in the experience.
Jeremy has the same goofy look on his face that Willis had when you gave birth to Jeremy himself, the comparison brings a slight smile to your face. Alita is looking radiant as any new mother should be.
Your family is growing again. You like this and want it to continue, so in the grand tradition of ba’s everywhere…
“So, when will I get more grandbabies?” you bestow a properly inquisitive look at all of your children. Ba has spoken.
The assorted cries of ‘Mom’ from all of your kids is priceless.
You had approved the upgrades to the new Gyrfalcon II design, and the newly built factory had been working double shifts in order to complete all 36 of the refits in a timely manner. The end result was a wickedly lethal interceptor that looked to be a serious improvement on what had come before.
The engineers were already talking about improvements to the Goshawk, Eagle, and Roc to bring them fully up to date, although some of the technologies they wanted to use on those birds were still stuck in development hell.
You met with Mary McEvedy, who’d shown up to the meeting wearing a labcoat over her service uniform looking absolutely no nonsense. Jeremy had been visiting and had promptly, even though he was off duty, snapped to at her entrance. Oh yes, she’d been one of his professors, hadn’t she….
The meeting went quite well. You find her brisk, no-nonsense style quite refreshing and she seems to have a gift for breaking down the benefits and risks of the various projects swirling around the various labs quite succinctly.
She does present to you one proposal, for an upgrade to the Ambush light trooper mech. And she does so in style, with a very detailed presentation.
- Advantages
- More capable platforms with enhanced long range striking power
- The long-range paradigm improves survivability in a light combat unit by reducing the risks of coming into the enemies ideal ranges
- Enemy mechs observed so far in this mass range appear to favor high speed and short range weapons such as SRM and 5cm lasers over long range weaponry like LRMs and 8cm lasers or PPCs.
- Important Caveat, we are aware of at least one common enemy light mech design that is centered around a standard PPC
- Enemy mechs observed so far in this mass range appear to favor high speed and short range weapons such as SRM and 5cm lasers over long range weaponry like LRMs and 8cm lasers or PPCs.
- The upgrade permits incremental improvements to cockpit ergonomics, control layouts, and ejection systems further increasing combat efficiency.
- Disadvantages
- Makes use of strategic materials
- Specifically, Endo-steel and Double Heatsinks
- More expensive than the current Ambush
- The increased firepower may tempt Mechwarriors into engagements that such light mechs should not be engaged in
- Makes use of strategic materials
- Recommendation
- That we proceed with the upgrade plan. The total cost to bring all of our current Ambush mechs up to the new standard is $6,609.80.
| [] | Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Special |
| [] | Ambush Mk II | 1491.2 | Endo, DHS | 48 | 22 | Mech |
| [] | Reject Upgrade |
General Dunn of the Rapid Reaction Force and General Potter also had scheduled a meeting with you.
The RRF would really like to get their paws on, to use General Dunn’s phrase, ‘vast quantities’ of Winged Hussar ultralight mechs. However General Potter is opposed, as the RRF is supposed to be a pure hovertank unit, and the Winged Hussar is most certainly not a hovertank, moreover he’s not fully convinced of its battlefield utility.
General Dunn gets a truly shit-eating grin on her face and takes out a small sheaf of papers. If you want to keep all of the RRF on hovercraft, well, some of her techs had been… tinkering. What you see looks like a scaled up Peewee Racing Hovercraft, sized for a single Winged Hussar to stand on and control like a stand-up jetski.
You give the generals a very speaking look.
[] Approve the RRF to field Winged Hussars directly
[] Approve the RRF to field Winged Hussars with the HoverSki Upgrade
[] You are being too silly, no Winged Hussars for you
There is a surge of settlers heading to Pollux in order to profit from the agricultural sector, this in turn spurs home building and other sectors of the economy and results in some nice economic growth this year.
On the military procurement front things go extremely well.
The full battalion of Paladin SPGs has been deployed, along with the start of the garrison for Nowy Gdansk, which will be under the command of Michal Sikorski. In addition new mechs and ASFs have been procured.
However in addition to the planned procurement there was a serious paperwork snafu and mixup, and the Goshawk factory apparently had built enough airframes to fully flesh out the aerospace compliments of the newly constructed and expanded space stations. Thankfully the corporations involved took a very philosophical view of the whole affair and agreed to eat the costs of the excess production in exchange for keeping their maintenance contracts, which the snafu had jeopardized.
Speaking of space stations, both the new construction project over Nowy Gdansk and the expansions to the two currently orbiting stations have been completed successfully.
The first civilian dropships are, much to your surprise, already entering operation. Granted, they are little more than cargo small craft with extended fuel tanks and barely qualify as ‘dropships’, but it’s still faster than you’d hoped. Commerce between Nowy Gdansk and Griffin’s Roost is now starting to pick up a bit.
Lee Aerospace, however, is Up To Something(™). They’ve built a large cargo handling station in Griffin’s Roost orbit, and a matching one over Nowy Gdansk, both of which seem designed to handle containers rather than bulk cargo. In addition, they are assembling something in orbit of Griffin’s Roost that so far looks like a small craft without engines attached to a long lattice truss spine and terminating in a growing cluster of fuel tanks and drives.
You’ve confronted Tyler about this, he simply grinned and pretended, and you could TELL he was pretending, ignorance. You ask Willis, and he says it’s a surprise. Any further inquiries are preempted by him deviously and with malice aforethought mentioning going to visit your grandson.
The new Enterprise dropship line is complete and ready for operation.
USS Enterprise, meanwhile, spends several months surveying Griffin IV. The planet has a small number of incredibly deep oceans. The total amount of water is about equal to Griffin’s Roost, but the surface area is so miniscule that there is nearly no water cycle on the planet to speak of. It’s hot, dry, dusty, with only a few stubborn life forms clustering on the shores around the extremely salty oceans.
The former DCMS base has been thoroughly explored. Apart from a few… adult… publications found in a left-behind tent, some discarded packaging for MREs, and a mass grave that has been marked for future investigation there is nothing left behind at all.
The planet is very mineral rich, and the sandy soil is actually extremely rich in nitrates. If you could solve the water issue the planet could be an ideal option for colonization. Some of the more creative of the DoME engineers have looked at the situation and are making noises about mass excavations to massively enlarge the surface area of the oceans by simply digging out the land around them and dropping the fill into the oceans.
The drop port on Five Fingers has been completed and is in service with the petroleum industry there.
Once the worst of the winter storms had passed, infrastructure work on Nowy Gdansk had advanced rapidly with a new full service hospital built along with a proper school and improved sanitation systems. In addition a massive wall has been constructed around the perimeter of the landing field, fully equipped with fusion powered heating elements to simply melt the drifts before they can overtop the barrier. Future winters won’t be as disruptive to flight operations, hopefully.
The Polish cultural festival was an incredible success. The great interest the people of Griffin’s Roost have about their new countrymen fuels immense crowds tasting kielbasa for the first time, along with Polish style vodka, pierogies, bigos, kotlet schabowy, golabki, and other Polish dishes. There were bagels of all kinds, surprising people who hadn’t realized that one of the most popular breakfast foods on the planet was actually Polish in origin. There was music, dance, ancient films dredged up from historical datacores… all in all it was an incredibly good time.
Imperial authorities assist the planetary authorities with extending services and law enforcement to Phoenix as part of the final transition to the Imperial structure.
Relations are improved with the Imperial Senate following a series of meetings between Jake and the various party leaders, however in the Chamber of Delegates there is absolutely no improvement despite his best efforts. The leaders quite stubbornly snub him, to the point of threatening to have security remove him from the Chamber. Elections to the Chamber won’t occur for a few years, you might have to take steps at that point if this hostile intransigence continues.
Mary shows up with the reports about research progress, again in the form of highly detailed and informative charts.
- Industrial Exo-Skeleton Lvl 4 - In Progress, On Schedule, On Budget
- Cure for Cancer - In Progress, On Schedule, On Budget
- Initial trials have begun and are showing promise
- Improved Automation Lvl 4 - Complete
- Licenses to the private sector for the improved technology have been sold. Economic benefits are as expected.
- Improved Education Lvl 4 - Complete
- Gauss Rifle - Complete
- Several test engineers have been admonished for excessive enthusiasm during field testing, as they were caught firing unapproved payloads from the prototype (including steel I beams, waste baskets, and scrap iron)
- Pulse Lasers
- All system tests passed successfully
- A proposed upgrade to the Anti-Missile System making use of a 3cm pulse laser instead of the traditional machine gun is available for testing
The intensive investigation of the judiciary produces a bit of a shit storm with hundreds of criminal and civil cases now needing to be reviewed after multiple judges are found to have been engaged in corrupt and unethical practices. The guilty judges have been removed and, in several cases, jailed on criminal charges when the conduct rose to that level. All have been stripped of their pensions and barred from judicial appointments for life.
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Tryglaw
Well-known member
wódka, pierogi, bigos, kotlety schabowe, gołąbki.
You may also add "nalewki" (tinctures, higher class drink then plain white wódka which is historically a peasant drink, while tinctures are fruits and herbs macerated in strong vodka or spirit), like wódka they go well with kiszone ogórki (pickled cucumbers), or żurek (like white borsht but not quite) as first dish prior to kotlety schabowe. And miód pitny (drinking mead) - very Polish*, that.
*During the crusades one of our princes responded to the Pope that our knights can't join because there's no drinking mead in the Holy Land and they can't do without...
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Ridli Scott
Well-known member
Well... the Winged Hussars were mounted units. Until now ours lacked the "horses"