Turn 93 - Blasting and Cutting Through God’s Country Like A Knife
Operation Bump - Report
You are Admiral von Falkenrick, CO of the Grand Fleet, and you have a vital decision to make.
Actual hull losses were below projections for the Battle of the Griffon’s Eye, which is a very good thing indeed, however this was primarily due to the complete destruction of the NRI elements within the Grand Fleet, which skewed the loss figures significantly. Moreover, actual non-fatal damage levels are higher than initial estimates had expected, primarily due to the expectation of more actual losses.
And New Eden, while a perfectly lovely agricultural world, lacks an actual Refit & Repair station. You can manage some repairs out of the resources of the Oasis II and White Tower stations, but not the major repairs that many of your units require. Moreover, the short ‘legs’ of the Exeter and Wichita-classes are becoming apparent, the captains of those vessels are reporting issues with running out of various required spare parts and components as well as issues with the crews experiencing excessive fatigue and medical issues in their cramped confines.
The assault plan for Operation Bump has contingencies which you can invoke if you desire, however part of the underlying strategic concept of the operation is a mix of misdirection and momentum.
One option is to maintain the same general plan with some reshuffling of forces. Task Force 3 would be recalled from the Griffon’s Eye early, a picket force of dropships would be brought into that system by conventional jumpships while Task Force 4 continued salvage operations. Task Forces 1 and 2 would, instead of proceeding immediately to Stahlkampfauge, would instead divert to New Phoenix to make use of the Refit & Repair slips available there.
You would slightly shuffle your forces, the Windjammer currently attached to Task Force 1 would switch to Task Force 3, along with the Sentinel parasite scout cruisers. Task Force 3 would then take the majority of the role originally intended for Task Forces 1 and 2, making a covert deep space entry into the system, releasing the Sentinels to serve as a diversionary force, and slipping in under a minimum emissions profile. Task Force 1 and 2 would then make the ‘loud’ entry once repairs were completed.
However this would cost you momentum in the attack and may allow the Black Steel to recover some of their losses. You are still unsure how quickly they can build new units, but your analysts expect that due to their nearly completely cybernetic nature that they can build things in a fraction of the time it takes you. Spending time to make the repairs may well wind up costing you more in the long run.
----------
You receive some reports of shenanigans in the Nowy Wroclaw system. Well, you consider it shenanigans now that you are a mom. A new dance/music craze has exploded in the system, combining twerking with body surfing and moshing to, of all things, polka. Now, you have no inherent objection to any of these things taken in isolation, but somehow the combination just seems wrong to you. Who moshes to an accordion? But somehow it has become a complete craze among younger people on Nowy Wroclaw. What is it with young people these days?
OK, you might be just a wee bit hypocritical there.
And then it was time for your budget meetings. You still aren’t sure why your grandfather hated them, but oh well.
General Jenkins is up first. “Your Majesty, I will let General Bradley go into more detail, but we are in the final stages of reorganizing the Army. The Navy has some training challenges that will limit production a bit, and the Aerospace Force has sworn that they are not budgeting for better golf courses. That all being said, I’ll turn it over to General Bradley.”
She takes the podium. “We have the revised force structure almost ready, although we are currently waiting on the Rapid Reaction Force to finish filing all of their paperwork before pulling the trigger.” She smiles slightly at your expression. “And I promise, Your Majesty, we aren’t loading them down with extra just because, we have already discovered that they had almost twice as many Chasseurs in their motor pool than were listed in the inventory, for example. We have been re-equipping the Light Horse units into Armored Cavalry units, reorganizing the Assault Divisions into Heavy Brigade Combat Teams, the Cavalry Divisions into Light Brigade Combat Teams, and are currently in work on reorganizing the Infantry Divisions into combined arms units as well, with the current thinking being to reorganize them as Brigade Combat Teams although there are strong arguments for keeping all conventional formations. We will be needing to reorganize our factories to optimize output to the new model, we are working with the managers to make this as seamless as possible. The SLEP process has been highly useful for this.”
She brings up a display.
General Romanov shoots General Jenkins a rather dirty look as she takes the podium. “The major request from the Aerospace Force this year, Your Majesty, is increased production of both Ferro-Aluminum Armor and additional ASF factory lines. Our procurement requests are primarily focused on potential replacements for losses in Operation Bump, so far we’ve been able to keep up with losses through the replacement pool, but that may change.”
Admiral Fisher is looking… satisfied. “The performance of the new pattern versus old pattern ships so far in Operation Bump is an excellent validation of our design processes and philosophies. Moreover our production levels are excellent and continuing to grow, although Training Command is groaning under the load. We’ll need to keep that in mind. That being said, we are not taking our foot off of the gas pedal, rather we are feathering it a bit in a few areas.”
After the Admiral sits down, Elizabeth Lee takes the podium. “Your Majesty, we’re in good shape to handle all the upgrade and factory requests. We have several other projects also for your consideration.”
She brings up the astrographic map. “To begin with, we have two excellent colonization prospects in Iskra and Grand View, as such I strongly recommend initiating colonization of each as well as constructing suitable jump point defenses. Iskra will take a bit longer than Grand View to colonize due to having two planets suitable for immediate colonization, albeit with radically different climates and biomes. Since so much of the Navy is focused on Operation Bump we strongly advise against any survey work this year.”
She brings up another chart. “As far as economic investment and such, we have several interesting prospects. Kainga has been classified as a Core world, thus is ripe for some major infrastructure spending. Edelsteine is experiencing some economic turbulence, with local supply chain issues hindering growth, us lending some assistance via our development focus teams would be very welcome there. Skala would likewise benefit from some developmental assistance, there have been some minor economic disruptions that our teams would be able to help redress. For investment purposes, there’s a rather interesting environmental services company in the Nowa Warszawa system which has proposed some rather intriguing pollution mitigation systems that may prove highly useful on our more industrialized worlds. An investment there would be potentially profitable.”
Leila is looking a bit grim. “Your Majesty, our performance last year in the Olympics was a national disgrace. We strongly recommend investing in sports camps focusing on the many areas of weakness we displayed.”
You’d been trying to avoid looking at Tiberius the entire meeting, because his shit-eating grin told you that he was Up To Something. And of course he is. He rises, assumes a very classically Roman orator pose, and instead of merely speaking he is full up declaiming. “Your Divine Imperial Majesty! Harken to my words, for we have the potential for Greatness! The establishment of suitable system governance in the Iskra and Grand View systems are but the merest bagatelles to Your continuing Divine Glory!” You give him a level look, and he’s smirking at you. “Moreover, thine Colonial Office most humbly begs of You the bestowment of additional funding that they may continue to provide the most excellent support that they have in the past to the many and diverse systems under Thy Most Benevolent And Glorious Rule.” He then sits down, before resuming in a far more normal tone. “Oh, and I brought cookies, anybody care for some?”
Grace looks over at him, over at you, rolls her eyes, takes a cookie, and then takes the podium. “Well, Your Majesty, I have a bunch of R&D teams chomping at the bit to get to work, and if they had your way they’d drain your coffers dry in a New Pollux Minute. I’ll keep this brief since I’m sure you are itching to throttle the comedian over there.”
General laughter follows that, including from Tiberius who mimes being hit in the heart by an arrow.
Martina is the final advisor to speak before you get to indulge yourself in some appropriate chastisement of your old school friend. “Your Majesty, other than being ready to support our colonization efforts, the Justice Ministry has nothing for you at this time.”
Operation Bump - Report
You are Admiral von Falkenrick, CO of the Grand Fleet, and you have a vital decision to make.
Actual hull losses were below projections for the Battle of the Griffon’s Eye, which is a very good thing indeed, however this was primarily due to the complete destruction of the NRI elements within the Grand Fleet, which skewed the loss figures significantly. Moreover, actual non-fatal damage levels are higher than initial estimates had expected, primarily due to the expectation of more actual losses.
And New Eden, while a perfectly lovely agricultural world, lacks an actual Refit & Repair station. You can manage some repairs out of the resources of the Oasis II and White Tower stations, but not the major repairs that many of your units require. Moreover, the short ‘legs’ of the Exeter and Wichita-classes are becoming apparent, the captains of those vessels are reporting issues with running out of various required spare parts and components as well as issues with the crews experiencing excessive fatigue and medical issues in their cramped confines.
The assault plan for Operation Bump has contingencies which you can invoke if you desire, however part of the underlying strategic concept of the operation is a mix of misdirection and momentum.
One option is to maintain the same general plan with some reshuffling of forces. Task Force 3 would be recalled from the Griffon’s Eye early, a picket force of dropships would be brought into that system by conventional jumpships while Task Force 4 continued salvage operations. Task Forces 1 and 2 would, instead of proceeding immediately to Stahlkampfauge, would instead divert to New Phoenix to make use of the Refit & Repair slips available there.
You would slightly shuffle your forces, the Windjammer currently attached to Task Force 1 would switch to Task Force 3, along with the Sentinel parasite scout cruisers. Task Force 3 would then take the majority of the role originally intended for Task Forces 1 and 2, making a covert deep space entry into the system, releasing the Sentinels to serve as a diversionary force, and slipping in under a minimum emissions profile. Task Force 1 and 2 would then make the ‘loud’ entry once repairs were completed.
However this would cost you momentum in the attack and may allow the Black Steel to recover some of their losses. You are still unsure how quickly they can build new units, but your analysts expect that due to their nearly completely cybernetic nature that they can build things in a fraction of the time it takes you. Spending time to make the repairs may well wind up costing you more in the long run.
| [] | Proceed with the original Operation Bump plan, momentum is vital |
| [] | Make the adjustments, no plan survives contact with the enemy and we need to be flexible in response |
----------
You receive some reports of shenanigans in the Nowy Wroclaw system. Well, you consider it shenanigans now that you are a mom. A new dance/music craze has exploded in the system, combining twerking with body surfing and moshing to, of all things, polka. Now, you have no inherent objection to any of these things taken in isolation, but somehow the combination just seems wrong to you. Who moshes to an accordion? But somehow it has become a complete craze among younger people on Nowy Wroclaw. What is it with young people these days?
OK, you might be just a wee bit hypocritical there.
And then it was time for your budget meetings. You still aren’t sure why your grandfather hated them, but oh well.
General Jenkins is up first. “Your Majesty, I will let General Bradley go into more detail, but we are in the final stages of reorganizing the Army. The Navy has some training challenges that will limit production a bit, and the Aerospace Force has sworn that they are not budgeting for better golf courses. That all being said, I’ll turn it over to General Bradley.”
She takes the podium. “We have the revised force structure almost ready, although we are currently waiting on the Rapid Reaction Force to finish filing all of their paperwork before pulling the trigger.” She smiles slightly at your expression. “And I promise, Your Majesty, we aren’t loading them down with extra just because, we have already discovered that they had almost twice as many Chasseurs in their motor pool than were listed in the inventory, for example. We have been re-equipping the Light Horse units into Armored Cavalry units, reorganizing the Assault Divisions into Heavy Brigade Combat Teams, the Cavalry Divisions into Light Brigade Combat Teams, and are currently in work on reorganizing the Infantry Divisions into combined arms units as well, with the current thinking being to reorganize them as Brigade Combat Teams although there are strong arguments for keeping all conventional formations. We will be needing to reorganize our factories to optimize output to the new model, we are working with the managers to make this as seamless as possible. The SLEP process has been highly useful for this.”
She brings up a display.
- Imperial Griffon Army
- Production
- Upgrade All Double Heat Sink Orbital Factories
- NOT NEW FACTORIES
- A new factory would increase our supply of double heat sinks by 17 sets, while an upgrade would give us 51
- NOT NEW FACTORIES
- Upgrade All Endosteel Orbital Factories
- NOT NEW FACTORIES
- A new factory would increase our supply of endosteel by 14 units, while an upgrade would give us 38
- NOT NEW FACTORIES
- Upgrade All Ferro-Fibrous Orbital Factories
- NOT NEW FACTORIES
- A new factory would increase our supply of ferro-fibrous armor by 11 units, while an upgrade would give us 49
- NOT NEW FACTORIES
- Upgrade All Double Heat Sink Orbital Factories
- Procurement
- Increase Militia Rating by 30
- Production
General Romanov shoots General Jenkins a rather dirty look as she takes the podium. “The major request from the Aerospace Force this year, Your Majesty, is increased production of both Ferro-Aluminum Armor and additional ASF factory lines. Our procurement requests are primarily focused on potential replacements for losses in Operation Bump, so far we’ve been able to keep up with losses through the replacement pool, but that may change.”
- Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
- Production
- Strategic Materials
- Upgrade All Ferro-Aluminum Orbital Factories
- NOT NEW FACTORIES
- A new factory would increase our supply of ferro-aluminum by 13 units, while an upgrade would give us 40
- NOT NEW FACTORIES
- Upgrade All Ferro-Aluminum Orbital Factories
- Factories
- New ASF Factory Lines in the following systems
- Okusawa
- Chuma
- New Castor
- New Phoenix
- New Pollux
- New Capricorn
- Nowy Wrocław
- Edelsteine
- Nowa Warszawa
- Calliope
- New ASF Factory Lines in the following systems
- Strategic Materials
- Procurements
- 30 Fighter Wings
- 30 Heavy Carrier Wings
- 20 Interceptor Wings
- Production
Admiral Fisher is looking… satisfied. “The performance of the new pattern versus old pattern ships so far in Operation Bump is an excellent validation of our design processes and philosophies. Moreover our production levels are excellent and continuing to grow, although Training Command is groaning under the load. We’ll need to keep that in mind. That being said, we are not taking our foot off of the gas pedal, rather we are feathering it a bit in a few areas.”
- Imperial Griffon Navy
- Production
- Strategic Materials
- Upgrade All Naval Armor Factories
- NOT NEW FACTORIES
- A new factory would increase production of armor by 9 units, while an upgrade would yield 15
- NOT NEW FACTORIES
- Upgrade All Naval Armor Factories
- Shipyards
- Upgrade All Orbital Shipyards
- Small Warship Yards
- Nya Kopenhamn
- Kainga
- Okusawa
- New Capricorn
- Medium Warship Yards
- Griffon
- Nowa Warszawa
- New Port Royal
- New Pollux
- Strategic Materials
- Procurement
- Standard Dropships
- 100 Bainbridge-class Parasite Destroyers
- 20 Ensign-class Training Dropships
- Large Dropships
- 18 Meteor-class Parasite Missile Battleships
- 36 Aetna-class Parasite Missile Battleships
- 2 Canopus-class Parasite Battleships
- Jumpships
- 13 Windjammer-class Jumpships
- Escorts
- 5 Wolverine-class Training Ships
- 5 Supply-class Logistics Ships
- 10 Fubuki-class Destroyers
- 10 England-class Destroyers
- 20 Lyr-class Corvettes
- Small Warships
- 20 Dido-class Light Cruisers
- 7 Vestal-class Repair Ships
- Medium Warships
- 6 Scharnhorst-class Battlecruisers
- 10 Prinz Eugen-class Heavy Cruisers
- Standard Dropships
- Production
After the Admiral sits down, Elizabeth Lee takes the podium. “Your Majesty, we’re in good shape to handle all the upgrade and factory requests. We have several other projects also for your consideration.”
She brings up the astrographic map. “To begin with, we have two excellent colonization prospects in Iskra and Grand View, as such I strongly recommend initiating colonization of each as well as constructing suitable jump point defenses. Iskra will take a bit longer than Grand View to colonize due to having two planets suitable for immediate colonization, albeit with radically different climates and biomes. Since so much of the Navy is focused on Operation Bump we strongly advise against any survey work this year.”
She brings up another chart. “As far as economic investment and such, we have several interesting prospects. Kainga has been classified as a Core world, thus is ripe for some major infrastructure spending. Edelsteine is experiencing some economic turbulence, with local supply chain issues hindering growth, us lending some assistance via our development focus teams would be very welcome there. Skala would likewise benefit from some developmental assistance, there have been some minor economic disruptions that our teams would be able to help redress. For investment purposes, there’s a rather interesting environmental services company in the Nowa Warszawa system which has proposed some rather intriguing pollution mitigation systems that may prove highly useful on our more industrialized worlds. An investment there would be potentially profitable.”
Leila is looking a bit grim. “Your Majesty, our performance last year in the Olympics was a national disgrace. We strongly recommend investing in sports camps focusing on the many areas of weakness we displayed.”
You’d been trying to avoid looking at Tiberius the entire meeting, because his shit-eating grin told you that he was Up To Something. And of course he is. He rises, assumes a very classically Roman orator pose, and instead of merely speaking he is full up declaiming. “Your Divine Imperial Majesty! Harken to my words, for we have the potential for Greatness! The establishment of suitable system governance in the Iskra and Grand View systems are but the merest bagatelles to Your continuing Divine Glory!” You give him a level look, and he’s smirking at you. “Moreover, thine Colonial Office most humbly begs of You the bestowment of additional funding that they may continue to provide the most excellent support that they have in the past to the many and diverse systems under Thy Most Benevolent And Glorious Rule.” He then sits down, before resuming in a far more normal tone. “Oh, and I brought cookies, anybody care for some?”
Grace looks over at him, over at you, rolls her eyes, takes a cookie, and then takes the podium. “Well, Your Majesty, I have a bunch of R&D teams chomping at the bit to get to work, and if they had your way they’d drain your coffers dry in a New Pollux Minute. I’ll keep this brief since I’m sure you are itching to throttle the comedian over there.”
General laughter follows that, including from Tiberius who mimes being hit in the heart by an arrow.
- Research projects
- Improved Agriculture lvl 5
- Several of our Core worlds are getting close to their population limits, and while the presence of agricultural worlds like New Eden and Bauernparadis means that this is less of an issue, it is still wiser to prevent it from being an issue at all
- Improved Ferro Aluminum
- More of a ‘nice to have’ rather than anything critical, as our warships universally use Lamellar Ferro-Carbide armor, which is far superior to this proposed formulation. However it may give us insights to eventually improve our LFC.
- Assault Battle Armor - Basic
- The infantry will thank you
- Improved Germanium Mining - Lvl 3
- Better to have excess core production capacity than be scrambling to keep up with increased production rates
- Advanced Ground Combat Doctrine
- Self-explanatory
- Castle Brian
- Our theorists note that a properly built Castle Brian should be resistant even to Black Steel orbital bombardments, giving our worlds greater resilience in the face of such attacks
- Grifftiger Scale Battle Armor
- We’ve had so many fully grown Grifftigers give us Big Cry Eyes for this…
- Improved Agriculture lvl 5
Martina is the final advisor to speak before you get to indulge yourself in some appropriate chastisement of your old school friend. “Your Majesty, other than being ready to support our colonization efforts, the Justice Ministry has nothing for you at this time.”