Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

Map of Griffin's Roost

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
I am utterly blown away. The incredibly talented @Culsu has made a truly gorgeous and awesome map for the quest. For those of you who don't know, @Culsu makes maps for commission and does incredible work. You can check out the gallery at Foreign Worlds. If any of you ever have any projects that would benefit from a great map, I urge you to give this a try!

And without further ado, I present to you the map of Griffin's Roost!

de0psou-956bfc32-5fdb-47a2-9876-2a77c1307fde.jpg
 

Culsu

Agent of the Central Plasma
Founder
I am utterly blown away. The incredibly talented @Culsu has made a truly gorgeous and awesome map for the quest. For those of you who don't know, @Culsu makes maps for commission and does incredible work. You can check out the gallery at Foreign Worlds. If any of you ever have any projects that would benefit from a great map, I urge you to give this a try!

And without further ado, I present to you the map of Griffin's Roost!
@Culsu that is a most excellent map
Thank you, it's been a blast working on this!
 
Turn 11 - Results

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Turn 11 Results

Economic Roll - 2 degrees of success
Health Roll - 0 degree of success
Stability Change roll - -1 degrees of success

Stability Rolls

-Political - No event
-Research - No event
-Economic - No event

Meta Event Roll - 14 - +10 all ratings this turn
Dynasty Luck Roll - 36 - One Free Reroll this turn

Crown Influence Roll - 3 - Fail
Lords Influence Roll - 8 - no roll
Commons Influence Roll - 9 - no roll

Initiate Training Exercise Chasseur Hovertank*
Target - 50
Roll - AUTO
Result - Automatic Success

Recruit Battalion 9 Foxhound, 7 Company (brings to battalion) Phalanx
Target - 60
Roll 1 - 56
Roll 2 - 54
Result Foxhound - SUCCESS
Result Phalanx - SUCCESS

Recruit Castor/Pollux Scouting Force
Target - 70
Roll - 20
Result - SUCCESS

After Action Review
Target - 75
Roll - 40
Result - SUCCESS

Charter a luxury airship service between the capital and Huế mới*
Target - 75
Roll - 58
Result - SUCCESS

City Beautification
Target - 50
Roll - 51
Result - Bare FAILURE (automatically succeeds next turn)

We Need a National Anthem
Target - 85
Roll - 4
Result - SUCCESS

Increased Funding for the Arts
Target - 70
Roll - 37
Result - SUCCESS

Orbital Infrastructure lvl 1*
Target - 60
Roll - 68
Result - BARE FAILURE (automatically succeeds next turn)

Dire Penguin Countermeasures (non-lethal)
Target - 60
Roll - 13
Result - SUCCESS

-----

You are rather grumpier than usual. When you’d been sold on the idea of city beautification you hadn’t realized that the very first project was going to be your palace. And since they needed it cleared out before they could demolish it and start work… you had been spending months now living in an admittedly luxurious hotel suite rather than your home.

You loved your kids, you really did. But there was precious little privacy in such relatively small quarters and they were constantly underfoot. Add in that Bastet wasn’t too pleased with the tight quarters, and Sekhmet was grumbling as the construction noises made her ears flatten regularly against her skull… it wasn’t the most restful period.

There had been delays, there were always delays in big construction projects like this, so your move-back date had kept on being pushed back. At this rate, you’ll be lucky to be back in your own bed by this time NEXT year. Intellectually speaking, you knew that even that was a minor miracle of modern construction technology, and that the delays were because the workmen took genuine pride in their work and wanted to make absolutely certain that the palace was perfect for their Queen.

Right now you just want the privacy of your own bedroom where you could snuggle with your husband without a little head popping over the side of the bed with a plaintive ‘Mommy.’ and some childhood emergency.

Ah well, parenthood had its joys, parenthood had its challenges. On balance, you rather enjoy it, so you put up with it.

The planned design for the palace is spectacular. A central circular courtyard with massive water fountains and artificial falls that was landscaped as a spectacular park, at the very center of which would be the Royal Apartments at the very heart of the palace.

Surrounding the central courtyard/park were a series of spokes that soared up over 50 stories into the sky, joined at the top by a massive donut shaped ring but with significant gaps between the spokes to allow breezes and light to freely enter the central space. The spokes contained the office blocks that comprised your administration, each spoke dedicated to one of your ministries.

Between the spokes was more parkland, fountains, and a meandering artificial river artfully designed to look natural that flowed eternally around and through the complex. The spokes themselves sported terraced gardens and arboretums that made the entire structure look almost like a man-made mountain.

The ring around the top concealed four launch bays for aerospace fighters that comprised part of the palace’s defenses. Additional concealed turrets filled with lasers, autocannons, missile launchers, and even a set of hidden Long Lance artillery pieces completed the active defenses. An entire battalion of infantry would regularly patrol the complex while the Queen’s Own stood ceremonial guard at all entrances and exits.

All in all, you are so looking forward to moving back in. Your ministry staffers are looking forward to getting proper offices back rather than the cubicle farms they’re currently all stuck in. Your advisors are doing the same, although they at least have offices they are very cramped.

The contest for a new national anthem has resulted in hordes of submissions from musicians, orchestras, composers… you name it, you’ve seen at least one submission from it.

There are a few finalists that are forwarded to you for consideration.

[] Ode to Joy (epic)
[] Beethoven's 5th (Hidden Citizens)
[] Flight of the Valkyries (Hidden Citizen)
[] Victory (Two Steps from Hell)
[] Write-In (QM reserves the right to veto any write-in)

The increased arts funding is already showing an effect, with inexpensive tickets subsidized by the Ministry of Culture to various performances selling out rapidly. You attend a few of the shows yourself to show support for the program and find yourself quite impressed (and distracted from hotel living… although wrangling your kids sometimes gets tiresome at the theatre)

You get a report from Dr Palmer about the various counter-penguin technologies being researched. A few show great promise and field testing is underway to prove out two different designs. One is conceptually simple but only applicable to ships at sea, while the other is slightly more esoteric.

The first is a system of high pressure nozzles hooked to a suction system that draws seawater in and expels it with great force at the penguins. The current version effectively surrounds the vessels in question in high pressure jets which force the penguins away with effectively unlimited ammunition (since the water is simply going back into the sea from which it was pumped in the first place). It works great for ships… it’s utterly useless for units on land, and unfortunately the penguins are amphibious (although thank God they can’t fly).

The second is a series of speakers broadcasting a tuned frequency that appears to send the penguins into a panicked flight response rather than their usual mindless kill frenzy. It works incredibly well but has one slight drawback… the frequency in question is very close to the legendary ‘brown note’, and plenty of researchers have had to run to the toilet during tests.

The current thinking is to set up speakers broadcasting this frequency as a line around the site, but far enough away from unprotected people to prevent… issues. Any vehicles mounting the system would have to be completely acoustically isolated in order to prevent accidents and make damn sure that they shut the system off before getting too close to people.

So while the first system will be installed on the various transports that would operate in those waters, the second has been incorporated into an APC optimized for the arctic conditions. Fully sealed and amphibious, the Arctic Crawler APC can carry survey teams in safety and permit the emplacement of a sonic fence to keep the dire penguins away from people.

There have been unforeseen delays in the Orbital Infrastructure research, unfortunately. Nothing too serious, simply schedule slippage. Evidently… well, the research labs for the anti-penguin device was right next door to the main administrative office of the orbital infrastructure project, and neither were adequately acoustically shielded.

The results were… smelly. The plumbers were happy with their overtime pay, but nobody else was considering the urgent budget request for industrial quantities of air fresheners.

The luxury airship service is finally up and running, however, and you spend a week lazily cruising the route to and from Huế mới in an absurdly luxurious and comfortable airship. Thanks to the unlimited power budget afforded by massive fusion reactors linked to the props, and the immense size, the airship simply cruises above all the turbulence. The interior cabins are comfortably pressurized and the aerospace derived life support systems ensure that none of the classical problems of air travel afflict passengers.

You even had time away from the kids with your husband, thanks to bà decreeing that her eldest daughter would be happy to babysit them while hosting them at the family compound. Sergeant-Major Ngô is quite happy to not be the eldest as she gets to ride along with you after leaving her own kids with bà as well.

It’s an incredible vacation, and based on the projections you are seeing it looks like the service is going to be making so much that it’s almost a license to print money.

General Wolf has a stack of reports for you.

First of all, the Chasseurs of the Rapid Reaction Force have finally been rated as Regulars! And there was much rejoicing! The new Foxhounds have been slotted in as the 2nd battalion of the Rapid Reaction Force. Hopefully the now slightly more experienced Chasseurs will be able to help train up the Foxhounds.

The after action review of the fight against the deathopotamusaurus herd is complete, and the Phalanx unit has been officially upgraded to crack status. Additional Phalanx tanks have been procured to fill out the battalion as well and it is now at full strength.

The Castor/Pollux Scout Force is organized and ready to begin training as well.

That brings you to the meat of the meeting. The reorganization of the military.

“We’ve managed so far with an extremely flat unit organization, but now that our forces are growing we need to be properly organized. The Rapid Reaction Force was a good start, but only a start.” he says, looking over his notes.

“We’ve stood up several major unit commands, with sub-units underneath them. These major unit commands will report to the Defense Ministry and through us to you directly. What we need from you is guidance as to who to promote to run the major commands. We have a list of qualified officers for your review.”

He hands you the datapad containing the relevant information.

QM NOTE - Please vote for commanders with the following format

[X] Plan:
-[X] Rapid Reaction Force
--[X] <name>
-[X] Griffin's Roost Garrison
--[X] <name>
-[X] 1st Armored
--[X] <name>
-[X] Griffin's Roost Aeroforce
--[X] <name>
 

Thors_Alumni

Well-known member
[X] Ode to Joy (epic)
I am a huge fan of that song. I have a ringtone version of it on my ringtone. As well as 4 different version sung in as many different languages as well including Italian and Dutch.

[X] Jarow
 
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Jarow

Well-known member
[X] Ode to Joy (epic)
[X] Plan: The Best Defense
-[X]Reaction Force
--[X] Dora Reyes
(Attack our Attackers)
-[X] Griffin's Roost Garrison
--[X] Pat Harmon
(Defensive Force preservation)
-[X] 1st Armored
--[X] Brenda Jackson
(Can survive attack or defense easier)
-[X] Griffin's Roost Aeroforce
--[X] Angel Swanson
(Defend our skies with aggressive defense)

The expense of commanders is relatively negligible now, especially when we compare to the costs of getting the best advisors turn 0.

Edit: due to better understanding of the rules, this is no longer my current plan. My current plan is The Best Defense v2, which better deals with how the combat system actually works. This one makes poor choices with that in mind (example: intercepting dropships is offense, not defense)
 
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CurtisLemay

Wargamer, Amateur Historian, Writer
Nuke Mod
Moderator
Staff Member
Founder
[X] Ride of the Valkyries

[X] Plan: Longstreet
-[X] Rapid Reaction Force
--[X] Dora Reyes

-[X] Griffin's Roost Garrison
--[X] Angel Swanson

-[X] 1st Armored
--[X] Faye Dunn

-[X] Griffin's Roost Aeroforce
--[X] Justin McCarthy
 

kelgar04

Well-known member
[X] Ode to Joy (epic)
[X] Plan: The Best Defense
-[X]Reaction Force
--[X] Dora Reyes
(Attack our Attackers)
-[X] Griffin's Roost Garrison
--[X] Pat Harmon
(Defensive Force preservation)
-[X] 1st Armored
--[X] Brenda Jackson
(Can survive attack or defense easier)
-[X] Griffin's Roost Aeroforce
--[X] Angel Swanson
(Defend our skies with aggressive defense)
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
[X] Write-In (QM reserves the right to veto any write-in)

I would point out that there's a reason national anthems are generally popular folk songs that people can sing along with, not grand symphonic and/or operatic masterpieces. While the grand masterpieces are appreciated, I'd kinda like a more...appropriate slate.

I'm going to suggest something that is both symphonic AND vocal: Sogno di Volare.

As far as commanders, voting for

[X] Plan: The Best Defense
 
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kashim3

Texan, Mandalorian, Alabamian.
[X] Ode to Joy (epic)
[X] Plan: The best defense v2
-[X]Reaction Force
--[X] Faye Dunn
(They're still a more offensive oriented force, if a more counterattack based role)
-[X] Griffin's Roost Garrison
--[X] Angel Swanson
(Will definitely be on defense)
-[X] 1st Armored
--[X] Brenda Jackson
(Can survive attack or defense easier)
-[X] Griffin's Roost Aeroforce
--[X] Dora Reyes
(Apparently intercept is offensive)
 
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PsihoKekec

Swashbuckling Accountant
[X] Ode to Joy (epic)
It's a great melody and unlike others it's the kind of for which you can write a lyrics people can sing to, other options being less optimal in this regard.

[X] Plan: Balancing the force
-[X] Rapid Reaction Force
--[X] Faye Dunn
-[X] Griffin's Roost Garrison
--[X] Justin Mccarthy
-[X] 1st Armored
--[X] Rene Summers
-[X] Griffin's Roost Aeroforce
--[X] Dora Reyes
 

Yuzuriha

Member
I don't think Angel Swanson is best for the Aeroforce.
Since usage of such is inherent offensive, defending in a ASF means you got jumped. And since one of the main things we want them to be doing is attacking enemy ASF and Dropships, I think a more offensive oriented commander is better. A defensive commander(that reduces damage) makes more sense if you're mainly focusing keeping our ASF alive as a deterrence like Serbs during the Kosovo conflict, which might be valid if we expected to have vastly inferior ASF forces.

On the other hand, the Combat Details does also note that winning the initiative roll let's that side decide if they're attacking or defending. Which I'm not quite sure how that works if we have some heavy ASF intercepting some Dropships, which would be considered an attacked.

As an existing vote already, I like Psiho idea for the most part.
[X] Plan: Balancing the force
Though having Brenda Jackson might be better choice for garrison commander as she can help make the infantry into more of a tarpit with always active damage reduction ability.
The rest depends on exactly when their bonuses comes into play and the budget(which I haven't paid attention to).
 

Jarow

Well-known member
[X] Ode to Joy (epic)
[X] Plan: The best defense v2
-[X]Reaction Force
--[X] Faye Dunn
(They're still a more offensive oriented force, if a more counterattack based role)
-[X] Griffin's Roost Garrison
--[X] Angel Swanson
(Will definitely be on defense)
-[X] 1st Armored
--[X] Brenda Jackson
(Can survive attack or defense easier)
-[X] Griffin's Roost Aeroforce
--[X] Dora Reyes
(Apparently intercept is offensive)

Just collected a bit more information; aeroforce intercepting is offense, so that's probably how they'll mostly be utilized. Changed things around to account for this.
 
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Rules Clarification - Combat Rules

LordSunhawk

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I failed to make this clear, which is on me.

For the new combat rules there are considerations in whether or not to choose to roll initiative as attacker or defender. This has nothing to do with who is the aggressor, but rather the posture of the forces involved.

You would choose to roll initiative as Defense if you are fighting from within fortifications and want to force the enemy, if they want to engage, to come to you. This is most useful for infantry in garrison on worlds with fortification ratings. In order to take advantage of the fortification bonuses you need to be on Defense.

You would also choose to roll initiative as Defense if your mission is to escort a portion of your force to a target in a combat scenario with limited time span. An example here is if you were escorting dropships burning in to land, you'd roll so that if you won initiative you would be on defense. That way the enemy cannot blitz past your escorts to target the dropships and they would be more likely to manage to land. Since there is a definite time limit to the engagement (the dropships are on the ground and unloading is the win condition, not destroy enemy forces), the longer you can keep the enemy off the dropships the more likely you will win overall even if you lose all the escorting ASFs.

Interception missions are Attack missions, you want to push past any defenses the enemy has to strike the target you are intercepting. Moreover, when rolling initiative to attack you may take a -10 penalty to your initiative to specify an enemy sub-unit to take the damage. You cannot do this if rolling to defend for obvious reasons (the enemy chooses who to send your way then). So in the previous dropship landing scenario, you have a certain number of combat rounds to destroy the dropships, therefore you want to attack at the initiative penalty and pound them.

Initiative is always rolled by the highest net bonus unit on each side, so if your force includes high speed interceptors and lumbering dropship chopping assault fighters, you'd roll initiative with the interceptors.
 
Turn 12 Fluff and Story

LordSunhawk

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Turn 12 Fluff and Story

You decide two things in early January.

One, that living in a hotel was something you never want to do again the rest of your life.

And two, that the luxury airship you’d been on should be renamed The Love Boat, because evidently there was something in the water there. You were pregnant, again.

Wonderful.

You had long before decided to follow in the footsteps of your father with your kids and send them to school with ordinary folks, because there was no better way in your opinion for your kids to truly connect with the people they would someday be responsible for.

Jeremy was a very serious little boy, and his teachers were filled with praise about how he behaved. Evidently he actually listened to his mother when you told him that the best way to make friends was to be friendly to everybody, even those whom others had cast aside. It was something you’d learned from your father, that a rising tide lifts all boats, not simply a few chosen boats that were somehow ‘in’.

So he was acting like how you remembered your oldest brother acting when you were small, as a clique-breaker.

Everybody, after all, wanted to be friends with the heir, and if they didn’t their parents certainly wanted them to be. But instead of gathering up the toadies and ignoring everybody else, your son was doing what you’d told him to do, being friendly and open to everybody and actively seeking out those whom the ‘popular’ kids wanted to cast out.

You are very proud of your little man, he’ll be a good king someday.

The twins, well… they’re in kindergarten and are little hellraisers in comparison to their big brother. Nothing bad, just enthusiastic. Both solemnly informed you that someday they were going to be pilots just like papa, which led to you glaring at your loving husband once they were back to playing with their toys.

He’s completely unapologetic about this, and you spend hours complaining to Sergeant-Major Ngô about this.

Your daughter is in toddler princess mode these days. There are a number of kids her age around and they spend most of their time together being insufferably cute and making all this parenthood stuff totally worthwhile.

Bastet is still very much a ball of fluff and energy, even if the little grifftiger is now the size of a large dog… so ‘little’ is a rather relative term. She’s often seen at school with Jeremy and is the unofficial mascot of the entire 2nd grade.

You are quite glad of this, however, especially after she pounced on a creep who was creeping around the schoolyard taking pictures of the children and held him until the police arrived to arrest him.

Sekhmet is in a far happier place, as some of the workers on the rebuilding of the palace had noticed her distress at the loud noises and such and with plenty of ingenuity, a few determined raids on hardware and electronics supply stores, and a whole lot of duct tape made a set of appropriately scaled noise-cancelling headphones for the grifftiger to wear.

For their cleverness and helpfulness Sekhmet, of course, rewarded them with Licks and now spent much time simply watching all the construction work take place.

The beautification of the capital is proceeding, however, even as construction continues on the palace. They aren’t tearing down the dreary boxes that were everywhere, instead architects were taking advantage of the extremely wide sidewalks. Everywhere downtown you now had, instead of open sidewalks, long tall colonnades of stone-clad steel supporting arched and pierced facades turning once boring buildings into something far more visually appealing.

New construction was already rapidly adjusting to fit the emerging style, only even more so. The new buildings are designed from the start with it in mind, and sport multileveled colonnades, some practically shading porches and balconies from which planters filled with flowers add color and life to the architecture while others are purely decorative.

Part of the style is a seamless transition between intricate stone and brick facade and appearance to gleaming alloy, with plantlife encouraged to thrive in carefully controlled chaos.

One of the architects involved described it to you as a blending of past and future, with the modern futuristic architecture of the upper stories seemingly growing from and supported by the best of the classical past, all with nature being invited in for a cuppa.

You had to look that last word up. English is a strange and wonderful language sometimes.

The search for an appropriate national anthem has hit a minor snag. You’ve fallen in love with Ode to Joy and find yourself humming it regularly. However as a national anthem you discover something lacking. As your loving husband pointed out… “Ummm, what are the words?”

You pout a bit before a solution hits you. You summon Dr Young and blithely tell her to have her young protege figure out appropriate lyrics to the music you’ve settled on.

You get back a rather indignant response that of course it has lyrics! Along with a lyrics sheet.

For a religious hymn.

You send it back with a note. “No, lyrics appropriate for a National Anthem, not for church. Now write them.”

You figure you are being a bit tough on the poor kid, but you want a real national anthem. You absolutely love the musical arrangement, but people need to be able to sing to it freely.

You hear from Dr Young that her assistant is now sulking but teams of lyricists are on the case. She appears just as amused as you are by the entire situation.

You get back lyrics praising the muse of joy. You look them over… you can’t sing this, you are certain your kids can’t sing this…

You send them back “Something that somebody who isn’t a trained singer can sing. I am not paying for singing lessons for the entire planet just so people can sing their own national anthem.”

Dr Young tells you that he is now extremely grumpy about this all and has set the lyricists back to work.

You forward a list of your preferences for the unit commanders back to General Wolf, and take the time to be present for each of the command ceremonies to meet them, look the men and women who will be leading your people into combat in the eye, and shake their hands before they take their loyalty oaths.

You watch the parades and frown a bit during the review of the 1st Armored. 2nd Battalion is at full strength with the proven Phalanx tank, however 1st Battalion is only at a single company in strength and is operating the older and less capable Hoplite model. You speak with General Wolf about this and he informs you that they’ve been considering either upgrading the Hoplite company to Phalanxes, or to a heavier tank that can operate in concert with the Phalanx to provide a sturdier field force.

He advocates for the latter option, as simply upgrading 1st Battalion and filling them out with Phalanxes doesn’t seem to him a very efficient use of the unit. A few days later you get a datapad with the full costs breakdown and a request to urgently begin work on the project in time for the end of the budget cycle.

Specifically, it would cost a total of 500 to finalize development of the Legionnaire Medium Tank and have it ready for service, then 660 to replace the existing platoon of Hoplites and a further 6080 to fill out the battalion to full strength. He notes that the crown will be more than able to pay for all of this on an expedited basis due to the dividends generated by the airship company in the first quarter.

You are a bit surprised at the last and check the stock report and discover that you indeed have made just over 10k off of your investment in just this first quarter. When you had joked that the airship company was a license to print money you didn’t realize that you were prescient!

[] Go for it! We must strengthen our state, and even with this expense we still come out ahead economically
[] Money Money Money Money I Want Money Money Money Money
 

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