Turn 103 - We All Make Mistakes
The wrecked White Tower in the Arvum system has been replaced from spare parts, preserving the system defenses while the repair ships labor to repair the damaged units of the Grand Fleet.
Admiral Fisher is concerned about the fact that no ‘original’ Black Steel vessels were present in the latest attack, warning that it is possible that this was nothing more than a heavy diversionary strike. As a consequence he’s prioritizing getting the Grand Fleet repaired and ready to react as swiftly as possible while using Windjammers to shift large numbers of parasites to the most vulnerable systems.
He focuses these reinforcements on the Bohren system, and several weeks later his paranoia is confirmed as a large Black Steel force jumps in. The initial battle is a slug fest with heavy casualties among the parasites in the system, but the presence of a Black Tower alongside the Silver Towers in planetary orbit prevents the Black Steel from directly striking the planet while providing the parasites with a safe refuge to retreat to for repairs.
After a week of combat, the repaired Grand Fleet jumps in at a pirate point and engages the Black Steel. Once again the engagement is close, furious, and brutal. Again the Black Steel’s drone swarms are countered by the new Fleet Defense Wings, however the drone dropships prove extremely deadly against unsupported parasites. In the end, casualties are extremely heavy across the board, but the Black Steel is once again defeated.
The heavy casualties serve to emphasize just how critical getting true heavy metal of your own into service is. The Prinz Eugen is a superb design, but going up against proper battleships is not something any mere heavy cruiser should be doing. The fact that they’ve been able to do so is a testament to the quality of the design and the courage and skill of their crews.
The fighting on Nouvelle Picardie remains stalemated, although your forces are slowly overwhelming the Ducal defenses. Progress remains slow, unfortunately.
It turns out that there is a major difference between fighting pirates and Bullshit-O mad ‘samurai’ and their insane banzai charges and fighting a force that actually focuses on self-preservation, logistics, and strategy. Say what you will about how obnoxious and annoying the Duc is, he is not nearly as incompetent as some of your planners assumed.
You send a small diplomatic delegation off to the Masters of Ikea to discuss trade and reasonable limits thereto, after all, you can’t have them dumping centuries of accumulated inventory on your economy and thus obliterating their competition in an unfair manner.
And now it is time for your annual budget meeting. It is a fairly somber group of military officers who join you, since your military is very heavily tasked at the moment.
General Jenkins begins. “Ok, boss. I’m going to lay it on you straight. This year is showing that we’re still behind the eight-ball. The good news is that there is hope on the horizon, the bad news is that we’re going to have to hold out until that hope arrives. The Army will be experiencing a shakeup in the next few years as lessons learned on Nouvelle Picardie are assimilated, and the Navy is going to be accelerating their buildup as much as possible. General Bradley?”
General Bradley takes the podium, looking much older than she’d looked the year before, the bureaucratic infighting and blame game among the procurement teams is taking its toll. “Your Majesty.” She begins, then takes a deep breath. “In short, your Army is at a crossroads. The failures on Nouvelle Picardie are showing serious flaws in our doctrine and strategic assumptions. A large number of senior procurement officers have resigned or been reassigned, and we are reviewing our options going forward. Thankfully the basic chassis of our conventional designs have proven sound and adaptable, which is the only thing keeping this from being a complete disaster.” Her lips twist slightly, and you know full well that she’d been the leading advocate for the more expensive modular chassis that were put in production over the objections of the senior procurement staff. She must be feeling quite a bit of vindication at the moment. “As such we will be pausing procurement of Mech units, while continuing to build out our Infantry Divisions, Militia, and Garrisons. We have teams working with our R&D people to consider ways of adapting the modular construction methods we’ve used to such great success on our tanks to our mechs, as well as other improvements that we’ve identified as being useful.”
“In the meantime, our strategic materials outlook is starting to look less grim, but is still far from satisfactory.” she says, managing a brief smile at your momentary grimace of annoyance as she brings up the relevant chart.
General Romanov then takes the podium. “Your Majesty, the Aerospace Force will be continuing to expand our commitment to the Fleet Defense Wings. Moreover, in anticipation of future requirements, we are requesting the expansion of Ferro Aluminum production facilities for the first time in several years. In the near future we intend to increase ASF production capacity to 100 wings a year, once our training infrastructure is capable of supporting that.”
Admiral Fisher is looking an odd combination of triumphant, angry, stressed, and regretful. “I don’t want to sugar coat things, even though we won the last two engagements we have nothing left in the tank unless we renege on our commitment to the Nouvelle Picardie operation by transferring the Expeditionary Fleet back to the Grand Fleet. If we’re lucky we’ll have our first home grown battleships in production by next year, but that doesn’t help us now, and now we’re in trouble. I can fill the holes somewhat with parasites, and the Black Tower is a godsend defensively, but I need more ships and I need them as swiftly as possible.”
He grimaces, cracking his neck a bit, then continues. “In terms of strategic materials we are in excellent shape, the recent upgrades to our Germanium processing capacity means that we do not need to worry about jump cores for several years to come. I’d like an upgrade if possible, but it is not a priority.”
“For procurement and production, however, like usual we want it all, we need it all, and we needed it yesterday.” He takes another deep breath. “We need more than everything, Your Majesty, to be blunt. Too many more ‘victories’ like the recent one and we’ll start having morale issues thanks to the heavy casualties.”
He sits down, moving a bit slower than you’re used to, and you hide a slight grimace of concern. A quick glance at Admiral Sims shows that she shares your concern, and you exchange a slight nod with her before moving your attention back to the budget briefing.
Elizabeth Lee takes the stage. “Your Majesty, the Interior Ministry is fully prepared to support any needed construction activity for the military, as well as our regular economic work. To begin with, we have the following recommendations for economic investment and foci.”
“DoME has a pair of teams ready to begin work this year, Your Majesty. In order to keep them from trying to convert Griffsport into the galaxy's largest racetrack or something similarly silly, we recommend the following.”
“Finally, last but certainly not least, we have four separate colonization projects that we recommend we undertake this year.”
She takes her seat looking quite pleased with herself. You can’t blame her, the Interior Ministry has accomplished miracles under her leadership.
Leila is off leading the delegation to the Masters of Ikea, she sent you a memo advocating for the construction of a suitable memorial to the casualties of the recent battles against the Black Steel, along with a proposed speech suitable for the occasion.
Tiberius has one arm in a sling, the result of an apparently rather amusing misadventure that everybody else in the Palace seems to know about but you, with everybody becoming exceptionally evasive whenever you try to pin it down. Considering that your husband and kids seem to be in on the secret, and the hunted exasperation in his expression every time you ask about it in his presence… you are sure it’s good, but nobody has spilled yet.
“Your Majesty, apart from supporting Interior with setting up governments in the new systems, the only thing we’d recommend is boosting the Parks & Recreation budget. I've brought this up before, but it would do well to improve overall morale as these conflicts drag on.”
Grace is up next to discuss R&D work. “Your Majesty, I’ve got two teams ready to go, and recommend a split between theory and practical research. For theory, I recommend authorizing work on further improving our communications technology, while for practical I’d recommend funding a proposed project for advancing terraforming techniques and methods in hopes of speeding up implementation.”
Martina is the final advisor up to bat. “Your Majesty, apart from supporting the new colonies, we would like to see an increase in IGMP funding this year to cover the growth we are seeing in the Empire.”
The wrecked White Tower in the Arvum system has been replaced from spare parts, preserving the system defenses while the repair ships labor to repair the damaged units of the Grand Fleet.
Admiral Fisher is concerned about the fact that no ‘original’ Black Steel vessels were present in the latest attack, warning that it is possible that this was nothing more than a heavy diversionary strike. As a consequence he’s prioritizing getting the Grand Fleet repaired and ready to react as swiftly as possible while using Windjammers to shift large numbers of parasites to the most vulnerable systems.
He focuses these reinforcements on the Bohren system, and several weeks later his paranoia is confirmed as a large Black Steel force jumps in. The initial battle is a slug fest with heavy casualties among the parasites in the system, but the presence of a Black Tower alongside the Silver Towers in planetary orbit prevents the Black Steel from directly striking the planet while providing the parasites with a safe refuge to retreat to for repairs.
After a week of combat, the repaired Grand Fleet jumps in at a pirate point and engages the Black Steel. Once again the engagement is close, furious, and brutal. Again the Black Steel’s drone swarms are countered by the new Fleet Defense Wings, however the drone dropships prove extremely deadly against unsupported parasites. In the end, casualties are extremely heavy across the board, but the Black Steel is once again defeated.
- Friendly Forces
- Casualties
- Major Combatants
- 24 Prinz Eugen-class Heavy Cruisers
- 28 Dido-class Light Cruisers
- 40 Fubuki-class Destroyers
- 50 Lyr-class Corvettes
- Parasites
- 300 Bainbridge-class Parasite Destroyers
- 45 Lancer-class Parasite Destroyers
- 58 Canopus-class Parasite Battleships
- 50 Shannon-class Parasite Cruisers
- 20 Colchester-class Parasite Cruisers
- 50 Majestic-class Parasite Battleships
- Major Combatants
- Casualties
- Enemy Forces
- Casualties
- Major Combatants
- 5 McKenna-class Battleships
- 5 Brawler-type 2 million ton battleships
- 7 Texas-class Battleships
- 4 Farragut-class Battleships
- 7 Monsoon-class Battleships
- 15 Aegis-class Cruisers
- 10 Black Lion-class Cruisers
- 25 Congress-class Frigates
- 75 Essex-class Destroyers
- 50 Lola-class Destroyers
- Major Combatants
- Casualties
The heavy casualties serve to emphasize just how critical getting true heavy metal of your own into service is. The Prinz Eugen is a superb design, but going up against proper battleships is not something any mere heavy cruiser should be doing. The fact that they’ve been able to do so is a testament to the quality of the design and the courage and skill of their crews.
The fighting on Nouvelle Picardie remains stalemated, although your forces are slowly overwhelming the Ducal defenses. Progress remains slow, unfortunately.
It turns out that there is a major difference between fighting pirates and Bullshit-O mad ‘samurai’ and their insane banzai charges and fighting a force that actually focuses on self-preservation, logistics, and strategy. Say what you will about how obnoxious and annoying the Duc is, he is not nearly as incompetent as some of your planners assumed.
You send a small diplomatic delegation off to the Masters of Ikea to discuss trade and reasonable limits thereto, after all, you can’t have them dumping centuries of accumulated inventory on your economy and thus obliterating their competition in an unfair manner.
And now it is time for your annual budget meeting. It is a fairly somber group of military officers who join you, since your military is very heavily tasked at the moment.
General Jenkins begins. “Ok, boss. I’m going to lay it on you straight. This year is showing that we’re still behind the eight-ball. The good news is that there is hope on the horizon, the bad news is that we’re going to have to hold out until that hope arrives. The Army will be experiencing a shakeup in the next few years as lessons learned on Nouvelle Picardie are assimilated, and the Navy is going to be accelerating their buildup as much as possible. General Bradley?”
General Bradley takes the podium, looking much older than she’d looked the year before, the bureaucratic infighting and blame game among the procurement teams is taking its toll. “Your Majesty.” She begins, then takes a deep breath. “In short, your Army is at a crossroads. The failures on Nouvelle Picardie are showing serious flaws in our doctrine and strategic assumptions. A large number of senior procurement officers have resigned or been reassigned, and we are reviewing our options going forward. Thankfully the basic chassis of our conventional designs have proven sound and adaptable, which is the only thing keeping this from being a complete disaster.” Her lips twist slightly, and you know full well that she’d been the leading advocate for the more expensive modular chassis that were put in production over the objections of the senior procurement staff. She must be feeling quite a bit of vindication at the moment. “As such we will be pausing procurement of Mech units, while continuing to build out our Infantry Divisions, Militia, and Garrisons. We have teams working with our R&D people to consider ways of adapting the modular construction methods we’ve used to such great success on our tanks to our mechs, as well as other improvements that we’ve identified as being useful.”
“In the meantime, our strategic materials outlook is starting to look less grim, but is still far from satisfactory.” she says, managing a brief smile at your momentary grimace of annoyance as she brings up the relevant chart.
- Imperial Griffon Army
- Production
- Strategic Materials
- New (5 each)
- Double Heat Sinks
- Ferro Fibrous
- Endo Steel
- Expand
- Double Heat Sinks
- Ferro Fibrous
- Endo Steel
- New (5 each)
- Logistics Factories (5 each)
- New Castor
- Chuma
- Pinball
- Awha
- Olej
- Strategic Materials
- Procurement
- Conventional
- 4 Infantry Divisions
- Garrison
- 11 Garrison Divisions
- 11 Militia Divisions
- Conventional
- Production
General Romanov then takes the podium. “Your Majesty, the Aerospace Force will be continuing to expand our commitment to the Fleet Defense Wings. Moreover, in anticipation of future requirements, we are requesting the expansion of Ferro Aluminum production facilities for the first time in several years. In the near future we intend to increase ASF production capacity to 100 wings a year, once our training infrastructure is capable of supporting that.”
- Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
- Production
- Strategic Materials
- New Ferro Aluminum Factories (5)
- Expand all Ferro Aluminum factories
- Strategic Materials
- Procurement
- 90 Fleet Defense Wings
- Production
Admiral Fisher is looking an odd combination of triumphant, angry, stressed, and regretful. “I don’t want to sugar coat things, even though we won the last two engagements we have nothing left in the tank unless we renege on our commitment to the Nouvelle Picardie operation by transferring the Expeditionary Fleet back to the Grand Fleet. If we’re lucky we’ll have our first home grown battleships in production by next year, but that doesn’t help us now, and now we’re in trouble. I can fill the holes somewhat with parasites, and the Black Tower is a godsend defensively, but I need more ships and I need them as swiftly as possible.”
He grimaces, cracking his neck a bit, then continues. “In terms of strategic materials we are in excellent shape, the recent upgrades to our Germanium processing capacity means that we do not need to worry about jump cores for several years to come. I’d like an upgrade if possible, but it is not a priority.”
“For procurement and production, however, like usual we want it all, we need it all, and we needed it yesterday.” He takes another deep breath. “We need more than everything, Your Majesty, to be blunt. Too many more ‘victories’ like the recent one and we’ll start having morale issues thanks to the heavy casualties.”
- Imperial Griffon Navy
- Production
- Orbital Shipyards
- Upgrade All Orbital Shipyards
- Refit & Repair Yards
- Upgrade All Refit & Repair Yards
- Escort Yards
- Kurortas
- Olej
- Pinball
- Pustina
- Raj
- Steingarten
- Awha
- Catachan
- Feurstern
- Nox
- Small Warship Yards
- Nya Kopenhamn
- Kainga
- Okusawa
- New Castor
- New Pollux
- Edelsteine
- New Capricorn
- Nowy Wrocław
- New Port Royal
- Large Warship Yards
- Griffon
- Calliope
- Nowa Warszawa
- New Phoenix
- Orbital Shipyards
- Procurement
- Regular Dropships
- 100 Bainbridge-class Parasite Destroyers
- 65 Long Beach-class Parasite Destroyers
- 90 Wright-class Dockable ASF Platforms
- Large Dropships
- 20 Meteor-class Parasite Missile Battleships
- 40 Aetna-class Parasite Missile Battleships
- 30 Saipan-class Parasite Carriers
- 36 Canopus-class Parasite Battleships
- Jumpships
- 8 Windjammer-class Jumpships
- Escorts
- 40 Fubuki-class Destroyers
- 20 England-class Frigates
- 40 Lyr-class Corvettes
- Light Warships
- 20 Dido-class Light Cruisers
- 10 Guiseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruisers
- 5 Hosho-class Light Carriers
- Medium Warships
- 20 Prinz Eugen-class Heavy Cruisers
- Large Warships
- 4 Potemkin-class Troop Cruisers
- Regular Dropships
- Fortress Command
- Jump Point Defenses
- Landprettig
- Waypoint 2
- Bellaterra
- Nubifragio
- Platzregensburg
- Oasis II
- Landprettig
- Waypoint 2
- Bellaterra
- Nubifragio
- Platzregensburg
- Black Tower
- Landprettig
- Bellaterra
- Nubifragio
- Platzregensburg
- Glorreich
- Jump Point Defenses
- Production
He sits down, moving a bit slower than you’re used to, and you hide a slight grimace of concern. A quick glance at Admiral Sims shows that she shares your concern, and you exchange a slight nod with her before moving your attention back to the budget briefing.
Elizabeth Lee takes the stage. “Your Majesty, the Interior Ministry is fully prepared to support any needed construction activity for the military, as well as our regular economic work. To begin with, we have the following recommendations for economic investment and foci.”
- Economic Focus, Investment, Infrastructure & Industrial Zones
- Economic Focus
- Core
- New Castor
- Periphery
- Nox
- Core
- Major Investment
- Core
- New Capricorn
- Periphery
- Pryyemnyy
- Core
- Investment
- New Pollux
- Infrastructure & Industrial Zone
- Bohren
- Kaiyo
- Grand View
- Nox
- Kurortas
- Economic Focus
“DoME has a pair of teams ready to begin work this year, Your Majesty. In order to keep them from trying to convert Griffsport into the galaxy's largest racetrack or something similarly silly, we recommend the following.”
- DoME Projects
- Terraforming
- Bohren
- Raj
- Terraforming
“Finally, last but certainly not least, we have four separate colonization projects that we recommend we undertake this year.”
- Colonization Projects
- Landprettig
- Bellaterra
- Nubifragio
- Platzregensburg
She takes her seat looking quite pleased with herself. You can’t blame her, the Interior Ministry has accomplished miracles under her leadership.
Leila is off leading the delegation to the Masters of Ikea, she sent you a memo advocating for the construction of a suitable memorial to the casualties of the recent battles against the Black Steel, along with a proposed speech suitable for the occasion.
Tiberius has one arm in a sling, the result of an apparently rather amusing misadventure that everybody else in the Palace seems to know about but you, with everybody becoming exceptionally evasive whenever you try to pin it down. Considering that your husband and kids seem to be in on the secret, and the hunted exasperation in his expression every time you ask about it in his presence… you are sure it’s good, but nobody has spilled yet.
“Your Majesty, apart from supporting Interior with setting up governments in the new systems, the only thing we’d recommend is boosting the Parks & Recreation budget. I've brought this up before, but it would do well to improve overall morale as these conflicts drag on.”
Grace is up next to discuss R&D work. “Your Majesty, I’ve got two teams ready to go, and recommend a split between theory and practical research. For theory, I recommend authorizing work on further improving our communications technology, while for practical I’d recommend funding a proposed project for advancing terraforming techniques and methods in hopes of speeding up implementation.”
Martina is the final advisor up to bat. “Your Majesty, apart from supporting the new colonies, we would like to see an increase in IGMP funding this year to cover the growth we are seeing in the Empire.”
