Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

LordSunhawk · Nov 21, 2022

Turn 118 - Kings and Queens

Meta Event	40
Dynasty Luck	16
	Successes
Imperial Approval	0
Approval Change	-3
Political Event	3
	Successes
Imperial Economy	5
Economic Event	0
Research Event	0

Griffon	Econ	5
	Health	7
	Event	1

Nowa Warszawa	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	0

Calliope IV	Econ	5
	Health	7
	Event	1

TTP	Econ	5
	Health	7
	Event	1

New Capricorn	Econ	5
	Health	7
	Event	1

Nowy Śląsk	Econ	5
	Health	7
	Event	1

Edelsteine	Econ	5
	Health	7
	Event	1

Nowy Wroclaw	Econ	5
	Health	7
	Event	1

Griff's Leap	Econ	5
	Health	7
	Event	1

New Phoenix	Econ	12
	Health	3
	Event	2

New Eden	Econ	12
	Health	3
	Event	2

New Castor	Econ	5
	Health	7
	Event	1

Okusawa	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	0

New Pollux	Econ	5
	Health	4
	Event	2

New Port Royal	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Kainga	Econ	5
	Health	4
	Event	2

Chuma	Econ	5
	Health	4
	Event	2

Stahlfurt	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Bāṛi	Econ	12
	Health	3
	Event	2

Skała	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	0

Piekło	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	0

Nya Köpenhamn	Econ	5
	Health	7
	Event	1

Bauernparadis	Econ	5
	Health	4
	Event	2

Awha	Econ	12
	Health	3
	Event	2

Kaiyo	Econ	12
	Health	3
	Event	2

Bohren	Econ	12
	Health	3
	Event	2

Grand View	Econ	5
	Health	4
	Event	2

Iskra	Econ	5
	Health	4
	Event	2

Raj	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	0

Feurstern	Econ	12
	Health	3
	Event	2

Pinball	Econ	12
	Health	3
	Event	2

Catachan	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	0

Nox	Econ	5
	Health	4
	Event	2

Olej	Econ	12
	Health	3
	Event	2

Glorreich	Econ	3
	Health	3
	Event	2

Pryyemnyy	Econ	3
	Health	3
	Event	2

Novolar	Econ	5
	Health	4
	Event	2

Steingarten	Econ	5
	Health	4
	Event	2

Pustina	Econ	3
	Health	3
	Event	2

Kurortas	Econ	3
	Health	3
	Event	2

Arvum	Econ	3
	Health	3
	Event	2

Landprettig	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	0

Bellaterra	Econ	3
	Health	3
	Event	2

Nubifragio	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	0

Platzregensburg	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Shin Tōkyō	Econ	3
	Health	3
	Event	2

Porto Milano	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Nuova Fortezza	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Nowe Mazowsze	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	0

Neuthüringen	Econ	3
	Health	3
	Event	2

New Algiers	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

New Clew Bay	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Nuova Tripoli	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

New Libertalia	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Nuova Puglia	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Nuovo Abruzzo	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Nuova Lombardia	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Stenen Tuin	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Nouvelle Bourgogne	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Nyū Shikoku	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Neubayern	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Neuhessen	Econ	5
	Health	1
	Event	5

Plan: Black Expansion
- Procurement [$ 324,724,087,825.01 ]
-- Lay Down Major Unit [Construction - $9,852,329,885.25 ] (95)
--- 200 Shimakaze [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 73
Result - SUCCESS

--- 200 Spruance [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 30
Result - SUCCESS

--- 91 Wright [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 43
Result - SUCCESS

--- 200 Mikasa [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 86
Result - SUCCESS

--- 30 Saipan [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 74
Result - SUCCESS

-- Lay down Jumpship [Jumpship Construction - $18,640,054.20 ] (90)
--- 4 Windjammer [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 15
Result - SUCCESS

-- Lay down Warship [Warship Construction - $30,871,459,700.00 ] (90)
--- 100 Battle [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 90
Result - SUCCESS

--- 20 Supply [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 41
Result - SUCCESS

--- 100 Lyr [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 72
Result - SUCCESS

--- 40 Dido [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 24
Result - SUCCESS

--- 40 Guiseppe Garibaldi [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 69
Result - SUCCESS

--- 2 Hosho [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 72
Result - SUCCESS

--- 25 Prinz Eugen [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 34
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Dreadnought [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 48
Result - SUCCESS

--- 6 Jean Bart [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 50
Result - SUCCESS

-- Purchase New Units [Minor Unit - $ 44,189,093,185.56 ] (90)
--- 25 Carrier Wing [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 100, Jarow reroll - 50
Result - SUCCESS

--- 100 CAP Wing [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 9
Result - SUCCESS

--- 1 Imperial Guard Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 86
Result - SUCCESS

--- 6 Infantry Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 76
Result - SUCCESS

--- 4 Heavy Combat Team Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 89
Result - SUCCESS

--- 26 Garrison Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 15
Result - SUCCESS

--- 25 Militia Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 22
Result - SUCCESS

-- Fortress Command [$ 239,792,565,000.00 ] (90)
--- Build Jump Point Defenses
---- Waypoint 3 [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 44
Result - SUCCESS

---- Hot Mess [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 20
Result - SUCCESS

---- New Narnia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 35
Result - SUCCESS

---- The Hub [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 61
Result - SUCCESS

--- Construct Oasis II
---- Waypoint 3 [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 24
Result - SUCCESS

---- Hot Mess [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 43
Result - SUCCESS

---- New Narnia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 53
Result - SUCCESS

---- The Hub [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 23
Result - SUCCESS

--- Construct Black Tower
---- Waypoint 3 [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 56
Result - SUCCESS

---- Hot Mess [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 30
Result - SUCCESS

---- New Narnia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 86
Result - SUCCESS

---- The Hub [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 49
Result - SUCCESS

---- Nubifragio [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 72
Result - SUCCESS

- General [$ 2,227,770,000,000.00 ]
-- Focus Development on Core World Chuma [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 45
Result - SUCCESS

-- Focus Development on Peripheral World Kaiyo [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 22
Result - SUCCESS

-- Massive Core Investment Bari [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 24
Result - SUCCESS

-- Massive Peripheral Investment Awha [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 62
Result - SUCCESS

-- Economic Investment Glorreich [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 78
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Arvum [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 5
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Nouvelle Bourgogne [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 19
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Bohren [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 67
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Landprettig [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 100, ShadowArxxy reroll - 69
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Nuova Puglia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 10
Result - SUCCESS

-- Rationalize Legal Codes [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 87
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Colony - Hot Mess [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 12
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish System Government - Hot Mess [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 100, General reroll - 55
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Legal System - Hot Mess [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 70
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Colony - New Narnia [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 69
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish System Government - New Narnia [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 53
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Legal System - New Narnia [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 2
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Colony - The Hub [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 99, General reroll - 76
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish System Government - The Hub [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 65
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Legal System - The Hub [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 19
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build Orbital Shipyard Glorreich [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 65
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build Orbital Shipyard Shin Tokyo [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 21
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build Relations with Chamber [60]
Target - 60
Roll - 40
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build Relations with Imperial Senate [60]
Target - 60
Roll – 74, General reroll - 12
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Neuthuringen [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 8
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nowe Mazowsze [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 66
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nox [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 20
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Platzregensburg [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 55
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Iskra [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 33
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard New Algiers [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 67
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard New Clew Bay [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 14
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nubifragio [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 61
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Bellaterra [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 53
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Bohren [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 27
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build Orbital Shipyard Hot Mess [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 6
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build Orbital Shipyard New Narnia [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 25
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build Orbital Shipyard The Hub [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 56
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Refit & Repair Yard The Hub [110]
Target - 110
Roll - 29
Result - SUCCESS

-- Upgrade Refit & Repair Yard [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 96
Result - SUCCESS

-- Expand Orbital Shipyards [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 6
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Calliope* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 87
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Nowa Warzsawa* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 56
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Griffon* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 5
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard New Pollux* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 78
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard New Phoenix [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 33
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Okusawa [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 28
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Pieklo [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 8
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Bari [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 52
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Glorreich [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 18
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard New Port Royal [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 33
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Nowy Wroclaw [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 67
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard New Castor [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 72
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Nowy Slask [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 73
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Chuma [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 3
Result - SUCCESS

- DoME [$ 422,000,000,000.00 ]
-- Terraforming Steingarten* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 44
Result - SUCCESS

-- Terraforming Nox* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 80
Result - SUCCESS

-- Planetary Optimization (Peripheral) - Feurstem* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 42
Result - SUCCESS

- Research [$ 10,250,000,000,000.00 ]
-- Improved Communication Lvl 9 [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 46
Result - SUCCESS

-- Commercial R&D [-]
-- Industrial R&D [-]

- Miscellaneous [$ 134,370,100,000.00 ]
-- Olympics [100,000]
-- Production Contract [->8?][134,700,000,000]

-----

<Combat Report - Rouges Noir>

Still nothing new to report outside of RN 2, RN 2 has become extremely quiet, with only very scattered attacks. Bourbon forces have landed and are engaging in clean up activity on the planet. Your forces remain within the initial LZ to provide a backstop in case of unexpected RN forces. Otherwise, the other 3 RN worlds remain as they were, with regular attacks in the case of RN 1 and 3, and the continued grinding destruction of the twin worlds in RN 4 from orbit.

-----

A few Black Steel scout groups are spotted in the fourth quarter of the year, but no engagements occur as they remain out of range. White Towers, Silver Towers, Black Towers and Oasis II stations are now in place on all four of the newly surveyed worlds, including Waypoint 3.

Colonization efforts in general go well, although the process of setting up a system government in the Hot Mess system is, well, a hot mess. The initial selection for system governor failed the background check, which revealed that she was linked to organized crime yet had managed to conceal said links for an extended period of time. She’s now residing in a cell in the maximum security prison in Griff’s Leap. Then a freak and rather bizarre, if very mild all things considered, dropship accident resulted in many of the administrators being sent to the system instead winding up in the hospital, requiring a scramble to find temporary replacements. Just how the liquid nitrogen purge system wound up getting accidentally cross-connected to the air conditioning system on the dropship is an amusing read in many ways.

The actual colonization efforts on The Hub are almost as comic, as a miscommunication resulted in the initial colonists thinking they were going to be on an ice world and instead winding up on a rather pleasant, if uninspiring, planet. Considering that they had dressed for and prepared for extreme sub-zero conditions results in a somewhat funny video being shared across the Empire.

Overall naval procurement goes quite well, with new shipyards coming online as scheduled and an influx of new warships and parasites heading to the fleet. The new carrier wings, on the other hand… well, the short version is that the Rapid Reaction Divisions were involved, the long version includes such details as all of the new wing’s ASFs being painted day-glo pink, the consumption of mass quantities of questionable liquor, graduation ceremonies marred by shenanigans that only the Rapid Reaction Division would find appropriate, and epic hangovers.

The long long version is deserving of a five part trilogy of books, blankets, unpredictable sight gags, dolphins, dinosaurs, the number 42, and fish. And beer, Vogon poetry, more beer, long series of increasingly improbable coincidences, and very likely an interstellar freeway interchange or two, given just how mind-bendingly insane the reports are. Douglas Adams would have been hard-pressed to write these reports.

In other news of the weird and bizarre, Landprettig is now the proud host to the largest sex toy factory in the entire Empire. You feel your inner Puritan bubbling under the surface at the various antics involved in this somehow getting approved. You personally are of the opinion that shaping your corporate headquarters building like a giant dildo is just a little inappropriate. And then to shape their corporate parking garage as a giant vagina was probably just a little inappropriate as well. The architects involved are congratulating themselves on how ‘transgressive’ they are, you simply make a note to avoid hiring that firm for any government contracts.

Compared to that, hearing from Tiberius about walking into a scheduled meeting with the geniuses in the Imperial Senate behind the omnibus bill and finding them engaged in the obtaining of unlawful carnal knowledge behind their spousal units backs is almost benign. On the other hand the sheer embarrassment of the situation gets you a number of concessions from the Senators in question.

The DoME teams do their usual stellar jobs dealing with terraforming Steingarten and Nox, improving both systems and allowing for improved growth rates. Meanwhile their optimization work on Feurstem is similarly successful.

You get a report from Gloria that the Communications R&D work has been completed successfully, as expected. The actual benefits are minimal at this time, but groundwork has been laid for future improvements in related technologies.

You do get some rather routine reports, economic investments have gone as well as expected with no real surprises, the latest work to rationalize the legal code has gone quite well as well. In general everything did wind up finishing on time and on budget, which is a definite plus given the chaos involved.

That equanimity is challenged when you learn that the Griffon Naked Volleyball Team has accepted an offer to build an official training facility on New Narnia.

And that your youngest daughter Emily, without telling you first, has signed on for the team. She was always such a good girl too.

That’s it, you officially need a vacation.

LordSunhawk · Nov 22, 2022

Turn 119 - No Surprize

While your youngest daughter is being wild and carefree, your three oldest daughters are settling down and getting married. Well, getting married at least. Your eldest is still in the Army, your second eldest has officially joined the Special Branch, and your third eldest is still in the Navy. But they are getting married, which opens up the delightful prospect of grandchildren.

You are almost 60, you want grandchildren, darnit.

Now if you could get them to settle down and stop doing dangerous things.

Your eldest has been transferred to serve as the most junior Battalion commander for the 19th Heavy Combat Team Division, although unfortunately she is still serving in the Armored Cavalry, thus is still running around in a thoroughly inadequate medium mech rather than a proper assault machine. On the plus side the 19th is currently assigned to Griffon, and will be there for the foreseeable future.

Your second eldest is marrying one of her fellow Special Branch agents, although Aaron Korsch is actually a data analyst who works out of headquarters rather than a field agent. You are deliberately not thinking about how your daughter was commended for her ‘able assistance’ breaking up a human trafficking ring on Awha, nor how she was decorated for her ‘key role’ in a major human trafficking bust on New Algiers.

Your third daughter, Mary, is a junior Lieutenant in the Navy, serving aboard HMS Agincourt as a gunnery officer, which is rather concerning to you considering that she is on the flagship of the Grand Fleet and Admiral di Palo has a history of aggression. Her fiance, Ethan Sullivan, is a yard dog in the Arvum system.

You will likely be spending quite a bit of time at weddings this year, and you are rather looking forward to this. You especially are eyeing the bits of regulations concerning pregnant women not being allowed in front-line service with a faint smile. Would it be ethical to slip fertility enhancing drugs into the wedding cakes?

Bourbon forces have completed clearing RS 2 and have formally taken possession of the system, allowing those forces committed to that world to depart. Fighting continues in the other three systems, with RS 1 continuing to see the highest intensity. Bourbon forces have begun reinforcing your units on RS 3, easing the strain a bit on your logistics and troops. RS 4 is more than halfway reduced, although the local RN forces are still stubbornly rebuilding destroyed surface to orbit installations as fast as they can, materially slowing your progress in reducing the two planets to balls of mildly radioactive dust.

A small Black Steel raid was repulsed in the Arvum system with minor casualties among ASF units involved. No major units were destroyed in the fighting, thankfully, but a number suffered damage requiring time in the Repair docks. The worst damage will take several months to fix.

One of the maneuvers that Admiral di Palo has been drilling the Grand Fleet on is a rapid evasive ‘sidestep’ maneuver, accomplished by fully overloading the reaction control thruster arrays to violently shove the ship to the side while maintaining the ordinary vector. Since the Black Steel have a propensity for ramming tactics once heavily damaged, a last-second dodge like this, even if it burns out the RCS arrays and results in requiring yard time for repairs is preferable to the loss of an entire ship. Unfortunately mass and volume limits make it impossible to fit heavier duty RCS thrusters, any larger than the current models and other critical operational requirements are seriously degraded.

In the latest engagement the Grand Fleet tested out an idea mooted by some creative junior officers that, sadly, didn’t work out. Remotely controlled small craft equipped with a space-borne version of the NRI’s beloved ‘shield’, a roughly circular slab of ferro-carbide armor that folds out to provide some additional protection for your ships. Unfortunately Black Steel gunnery is good enough to be able to ignore the ‘shield craft’, and the small craft themselves are extremely vulnerable to Black Steel drone ASFs.

The overall effectiveness of Black Steel swarm tactics has dropped, however, thanks to the new anti-swarm techniques developed by your R&D establishment. Losses among ASF pilots have dropped noticeably, although there is evidence of the Black Steel adapting their own tactics to compensate. It’s an arms race in many ways.

It’s nice to be ahead, if only briefly.

In some very welcome news, the Awha system has been officially designated a Core world, triggering massive system-wide celebrations that have resulted in some superb economic growth this year. You now have 19 Core Worlds, showing superb growth over the last century. Indeed, when you were a little girl there were only a few colonized worlds, and none of them qualified as ‘Core’ systems apart from Griffon itself. Your grandchildren will be born into a massive Star Empire. Not bad, you think, not bad at all.

Kaiyo is the next system expected to reach Core status, indeed some analysts are predicting it achieving that level by early next year.

After a number of years away, the Black Pumpernickels are back in your space and making their way to the Griffon system. They evidently have discovered a cache of ancient Rodgers & Hammerstein books and are gleefully performing them, booking shows on each world that they pass. They’ve scheduled their arrival in the Griffon system itself for Christmas time, and have announced their intention to put on a performance of Cinderella.

This wonderful news, since you love their shows, has had one unfortunate side effect.

Periphery Studies is on a thespian kick again. Impromptu stages are popping up all over Griffsport, featuring tenured faculty of Periphery Studies loudly declaiming ‘epic orations’ that they wrote themselves that generally make no sense to anybody who isn’t a tenured academic in the prestigious field of Periphery Studies. Thankfully the hard-working staff there have ensured that their ‘swords’ and such are made from foam rubber, so the worst injuries that occur are to the sanity of onlookers at the sheer awfulness of the ‘art’ on display.

You did not realize it was possible to mangle Hamlet quite that badly, and you aren’t sure you’ll ever be able to attend a performance of Romeo & Juliet without the truly dreadful ‘improvisation’ that you heard about rearing its ugly head in your thoughts. To was or not to was? Really? Seriously?

Back to the plus side, the Black Pumpernickels have contacted you with an offer to open a permanent theater company in the Empire, with yourself as the official patron of the company. It would be titled The Empress’s Players and they are requesting your assent to their proposal. It’s rather touching, actually. But it could be seen as giving preference to a ‘foreign’ troupe over home-grown ones. On the other hand, a permanent company here in the Empire would almost have to wind up hiring local talent, and local talent would benefit greatly from working with the Black Pumpernickels.

[]	Action	Result
[]	Charter The Empress’s Players	+1 Economic Event -1 Politics
[]	NOT INVENTED HERE! NO!	+1 Politics -1 Economic Event

LordSunhawk · Nov 24, 2022

Turn 119 - Chiquita

Combat activity on RN 3 has reduced significantly, with extended periods now between attacks. As a consequence, Bourbon forces are beginning to land on the planet and take over responsibility for dealing with the RN forces that remain. Meanwhile on RN 1 there has been little change, the tempo is gradually slowing but attacks remain a daily occurrence. Naval forces from RN 2 and 3 have shifted to RN 4 to assist in the orbital bombardment, it is now estimated that total destruction of RN facilities in the system will be accomplished in no more than 3 years.

A pair of Black Steel attacks have occurred.

The first, in the Arvum system, is fairly small, several dozen capital ships escorted by massive numbers of small corvette class vessels. This attack appears to have been intended to pin down any reaction forces. Admiral di Palo didn’t take the bait, however, allowing Home Fleet’s local defense forces to handle the situation, relying on the heavy fortifications provided by the Black Tower station complexes to protect the planet. After several weeks of inconclusive sparring the Black Steel departs.

The main attack hits the Waypoint 3 system and is in very heavy force. Admiral di Palo brings in the Grand Fleet, with full support from the Expeditionary Fleet, to engage the enemy. The battle consists of three main phases.

First the fighting at the jump points, the Black Steel jumped in simultaneously to both the Zenith and the Nadir points and closely engaged the defenses there. The White Tower, Oasis and Black Tower stations put up a ferocious fight, bleeding the Black Steel heavily but in the end were overwhelmed.

The system defense forces engaged in hit-and-run attacks on the Black Steel formations, but were unable to drive them off or protect the fixed defenses. 60 England-class Frigates and 120 Lyr-class Corvettes were engaged, but thanks to careful tactics managed to avoid destruction. However they inflicted relatively light damage on the Black Steel during the first phase of the fighting.

The second phase was initiated by the Expeditionary Fleet jumping in away from the Zenith jump point and beginning and engaging in the sort of high speed ‘cavalry’ tactics that they specialize in. They accompanied this by making use of some advice given by the Black Pumpernickels and the Masters of Ikea and broadcast mocking taunts at the Black Steel, calling them the Rusted Tins and that all they were good for was the scrap heap. Evidently the deadliest insult was stating that the Black Steel ran on something called an ‘Atari’.

The Black Steel promptly abandoned the jump point at that insult and gave chase, their comms frothing about how they would redeem their honor with the Expeditionary Fleet’s blood and other such threats, delivered in a screaming fury that was nearly incoherent. Taking advice from the Black Pumpernickels, the Expeditionary Fleet broadcast back that the Black Steel’s mother was an Atari and their father smelt of Apples.

The Expeditionary Fleet was hard-pressed at this point to maintain separation, as the Black Steel formation lost all semblance of coherence as every single ship lunged forward at maximum thrust, turning what had been a planned fighting withdrawal to get the Black Steel into position for a Grand Fleet pounce into a pell mell chase scene worthy of a film award.

Evidently this was a very good insult… but the Black Steel had more tonnage in light, fast units than the entire Expeditionary Fleet combined, by several orders of magnitude. Thankfully the Expeditionary Fleet also had a rather substantial lead.

The third phase of the battle began when the Grand Fleet under Admiral di Palo jumped in right behind the Black Steel. Warned by HPG of the situation, Admiral di Palo decided to be bold and jumped in almost on top of the onrushing Black Steel forces.

One nice thing about KF jumps, especially against an enemy who is so enraged that they are ignoring most of their sensors, the emergence bubble from the KF drive has a nasty habit of annihilating anything that happens to be occupying that space, without harming the emerging unit. There’s a reason fixed defensive stations are locating inside the KF limit, not outside it.

The Grand Fleet pretty much obliterated the heavy, slow units of the Black Steel with that emergence, and promptly tore into the survivors with everything they had. The lighter Black Steel units had far too much velocity built up from their headlong pursuit of the Expeditionary Fleet that they had no chance of doubling back to save their heavy units and were now in the rather dreadful position of being pinned between the Expeditionary Fleet and the Grand Fleet.

The Expeditionary Fleet promptly made their day even worse by jumping out, depriving the Black Steel of their target. The Black Steel forces themselves then jumped out, after the single most lop-sided battle of the entire war with the Black Steel.

Unfortunately the fixed defenses in the system, along with the parasite forces and ASF units attached to them, were completely destroyed, making this a far from bloodless victory. But the exchange ratio is incredibly favorable. When the initial reports come in there is a great deal of celebration in Navy HQ, and it is rumored, but not confirmed, that Admiral Fisher was seen sipping bourbon and actually smiling.

He certainly seems a bit more relaxed a few days later when he comes in to brief you on some new designs.

“First of all, the boys and girls over at Majeure Electrique managed to actually accomplish something useful that doesn’t break my design rules.” He rumbles, although it appears his heart isn’t in the pro forma complaint that he’s always had about the private design firms out there. “Is a bit too gold-plated in my opinion, but there’s no question that it can do the job.” He pauses a beat, then to your surprise actually smiles, which has you glancing over at Admiral Sims to make sure that Fisher hadn’t been replaced by a doppelganger. “The Sacramento-class Fast Fleet Support Vessel combines the roles of the Supply and Vestal-classes into one platform, and also has the capability to be used as a hospital ship with minimal modification. They’ll take up a Medium yard and are the single most expensive ship we’ve ever contemplated building, but they can carry a massive amount of cargo, have a large repair bay, and are quite capable of taking care of themselves as part of the fleet train. Hardly a proper warship, but as an auxiliary they are quite competent. Pity about how ridiculously expensive they are, but we shouldn’t need too many of them, and worse comes to worse we can develop a cheaper one in house at some point.”

He checks his notes. “My people have turned out a quartet of designs for the Home Fleet as well, although when Admiral di Palo saw them she started making grabby hands and has been besieging my office for the past few days practically begging to have priority on them.” He smirks. “She is not getting priority on them, they are for Home Fleet. Once they have sufficient numbers then she can get a few to play with for Grand Fleet. They are too short-legged for fleet deployment, but I concede that they are impressive little ships.”

His expression is scaring you… Admiral Fisher…. Happy? “Two of them are actually the same tonnage as some of our parasites.” He pauses, letting that sink in as you boggle a bit at him. “You heard that correctly, the Tarantul-class Missile Raider and the Asheville-class Raider are only one hundred thousand tons, the same as a Mikasa-class Parasite Battleship. The Tarantul is a little missile boat, armed with Killer Whale missiles, while the Asheville is a gunboat, armed with naval lasers. Then there is the Skjold-class Corvette, at 240 thousand tons they are the same mass as the old Lyr-class. Like the Tarantul these are missile boats, with sixteen Killer Whales apiece, but unlike their smaller cousins they have a substantial naval laser battery as well. Finally, the Constellation-class is based on the same hull as the Skjold, but like the Asheville is an energy boat, armed with a heavy battery of class 55 naval lasers.”

Name	Cost	Materials	HP	A/D	Specials
Sacramento-class Fast Fleet Support Vessel	$4,620,008,820.00	DHS, LFA	4466	3866	Armored 50 AMS 160 Missile 132 Capital 3/830 Capital AMS 316 Command 1 20 Drop Collars
Tarantul-class Missile Raider	$467,703,800.00	DHS, LFA	4322	4272	Armored 5 AMS 160 Missile 308 Capital 1/2622 2/21 4/46 Capital AMS 28 Capital Missile 30 Command 1
Asheville-class Raider	$468,289,800.00	DHS, LFA	4643	4593	Armored 5 AMS 160 Missile 308 Capital 1/2622 2/84 4/45 Capital AMS 76 Command 1
Skjold-class Missile Corvette	$698,442,800.00	DHS, LFA	4612	4512	Armored 10 AMS 160 Missile 308 Capital 1/2622 2/63 4/168 Capital AMS 64 Capital Missile 80 Command 3 2 Drop Collars
Constellation-class Corvette	$532,346,620.00	DHS, LFA	4597	4497	Armored 10 AMS 160 Missile 308 Capital 1/2622 2/63 4/277 Capital AMS 112 Command 1

He glances again at his notes. “I will note that while the old Lyr-class technically has greater firepower, this is due to the use of sub-capital cannons as a major component of the design. In addition the Lyr is significantly slower than the new designs. In addition, the Lyr completely lacks any sort of enhanced sensor suite, making it wholly dependent on other ships for such things thus making it incapable of independent operation. All of the new designs have a solid sensor suite, superior acceleration, and a tightly rationalized and uniform secondary and tertiary battery. The Skjold can even carry a pair of parasites, further enhancing the capabilities of any squadron that it commands. Currently the plan is to assign a single Wright-class dockable ASF platform and leave the other collar open for logistics purposes, or special missions.”

He brings up another graphic. “The current plan is to deploy these ships with Home Fleet in 12 ship flotillas, with one Skjold as flagship, one Constellation, five Tarantuls and five Ashevilles. Our intention is to reserve them for Home Fleet until every colonized system has an assigned flotilla, then decide from there.”

LordSunhawk · Nov 25, 2022

Turn 119 - Three Mile Smile

You receive reports of a pirate raid on New Libertalia that local defensive forces handily defeated with minimal damage. A few merchant vessels were damaged in the initial hours of the raid but overall it was a successful defense. Indications are that pirate groups are still active in the Galactic East.

The Black Pumpernickels are currently putting on a sold out performance of The Sound of Music in the Nowa Warszawa system. Considering that they are playing in the former Olympic Stadium with a capacity, in the configuration they are using, of over a hundred thousand that is rather impressive. You’ve sent them a note thanking them for the advice in dealing with the Black Steel and they send back another list of insults ‘carefully tailored to our lunatic cousins, enjoy!’.

Meanwhile, on the home front, the family raptors are Up To Something now that all of the kids are out of the Palace, either in school or military service. The various weddings are now in the planning stages, but without the kids to keep them distracted the raptors have evidently achieved the terrifying state of ‘boredom’. This becomes minorly troublesome when they decide that their playtime is more important than your work-time, invade your office, and proceed to drag you into playing with them by the simple expedient of alternately being cute and annoying.

You and Markus wind up spending the rest of the day on the Palace grounds romping with the raptors, much to their delight. This also results in a number of schoolchildren who were visiting the Palace on a class trip to learn about the Imperial government getting roped into duty helping throw the stick and the ball and the plush toy. Relatively little learning happens, but much fun is had by all.

On the plus side, you are much more relaxed than before. Tired, perhaps, because you’ve not run so much in years, but relaxed. On the minus side you are now behind on your paperwork, which means you’ll need to work much harder to get caught up, which is not a pleasant prospect.

You do decide to, going forward, block out a few hours each day for playing with the raptors, to prevent something like this from happening again and to also ensure that you keep a better work-life balance in general. You do not want to end up like your grandfather, after all.

The theater troupe that you’ve chartered in coordination with the Black Pumpernickels is rehearsing for their first show, which will be taking place early next year. They’ve decided to put on an ancient show from the Black Pumpernickels’ files called ‘An American in Paris’, which evidently has some truly marvelous music. You’re looking forward to it.

It is then budget time, which you find you still quite enjoy.

Amaunet chuffs slightly as she enters the room, curling up on the dias like usual. “Padrone, I bring to you good news. The military across the board is performing to a highly effectives standard, and thanks to recent combat operations we’ve been able to identify a good number of solid and effective leaders while cleaning out additional deadwood. The superb performance of the Navy has been of particular interest, and while Admiral di Palo is complaining about losing people, we’ve begun transferring some of her top people to the Home Fleet and Expeditionary Fleet in order to spread the experience around. Once we have somebody capable of replacing her, we intend to order Admiral di Palo to the Naval War College as the commandant, we need her training a new generation of officers more than we need her at the front, to be blunt. It’s a good problem to have. General?” She nods her head to General Bradley who comes up to the podium.

“Your Majesty, the Army has reached an equilibrium point for our front line forces. For the short term we’ll be shifting our mech production facilities to a sustainment mode rather than an expansion mode, while we continue to build up militia, garrison and purely conventional formations.” She reports. “Without any peer opponents on the horizon for our ground forces, it makes no sense to spend resources on building up a possibly unneeded army. Instead we will maintain a solid cadre, build up our production facilities, and in the event of an encounter with an enemy that we must fight on the ground we’ll be able to ramp up our numbers rapidly.”

Imperial Griffon Army
- Procurement
  - Conventional
    - 8 Infantry Divisions
    - 2 Armored Divisions
  - Garrison’
    - 27 Garrison Divisions
    - 25 Militia Divisions

General Perkins is up next, looking somewhat less optimistic than the others. “Your Majesty, our Aerospace forces have taken heavy losses recently, which we need to make up for. Our current production levels are sufficient for the task, thankfully. We will, however, need to make a decision about how to equip the Home Fleet in regards to ASF assets.”

He pauses and brings up a display.

“We have a few options, and discussions have resulted in us narrowing it down to two possible paths. Since a great deal of future ASF procurement, at least in the next decade or so, will be dedicated to supporting the Home Fleet this will be a pretty major consideration.”

[]	Home Fleet ASF Composition	Argument
[]	Carrier Wings	The balanced composition of a Carrier Wing would allow for both offensive and defensive operations, while biasing towards high intensity combat operations. The additional Attack Squadron compared to the Patrol Wing increases actual combat capacity at the expense of non-combat patrol capability, which is a viable trade off.
[]	Patrol Wings	The Home Fleet will be spending most of its time in rear areas handling home defense missions, missions which the Patrol Wing is ideally suited for due to its exceptionally long operational endurance and the high flexibility of the Sunderland platform. The Patrol Wing would only be down four each of the Quetzalcoatlus and Griffon assault ASFs anyways, hardly a crippling disadvantage in the grand scheme of things.

Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
- Procurement
  - 100 CAP Wings
  - 25 Carrier Wings

Admiral Fisher then takes over. “I know, I know, we won a big victory, we hurt the Black Steel, yadda yadda yadda.” He glares around the room. “Does anybody think that matters worth a damn in the grand scheme of things? No? Good.” He levels a glare around the room. “This is not the time to slack off in the slightest, we’ve dealt them a blow, but they still have a massive number of light units that we know of, and for all we know they’ve got another fleet the same size just sitting there waiting for us. The KF jump trick will not work twice. I don’t care how furious we can make them, assuming that the enemy is stupid is simply a way to get a lot of people killed. We need to keep on building up our forces, so we can still win even if one of our genius plans goes to shit.”

Imperial Griffon Navy
- Production
  - Orbital Shipyards
    - Expand all Orbital Shipyards
  - Refit & Repair Yards
    - Expand all Refit & Repair Yards
  - Escort Yards
    - Neubayern
    - Neuhessen
    - Nouvelle Bourgogne
    - Nuova Lombardia
    - Nuova Puglia
    - Nuovo Abruzzo
    - Nyū Shikoku
    - Stenen Tuin
    - New Libertalia
    - Nuova Tripoli
    - Catachan
    - Feurstern
    - Neuthüringen
    - Nowe Mazowsze
    - Nox
    - Platzregensburg
    - Iskra
    - New Algiers
    - New Clew Bay
    - Nubifragio
    - Bellaterra
    - Bohren
    - Landprettig
    - Porto Milano
    - Shin Tōkyō
    - Hot Mess
    - New Narnia
    - The Hub
  - Small Warship Yards
    - New Castor
    - New Port Royal
    - Nowy Wrocław
    - Nowy Slask
    - Chuma
    - Awha
  - Medium Warship Yards
    - Glorreich
    - New Phoenix
    - Okusawa
    - Pieklo
    - Bari
  - Large Warship Yards
    - Griffon
    - Calliope
    - New Pollux
    - Nowy Warszawa
- Procurement
  - Standard Dropships
    - 200 Shimakaze-class Parasite Destroyers
    - 200 Spruance-class Parasite Destroyers
    - 67 Wright-class Dockable ASF Platforms
  - Large Dropships
    - 200 Mikasa-class Parasite Battleships
    - 30 Saipan-class Parasite Carriers
    - 19 Charleston-class Logistics Transports
  - Jumpships
    - 5 Windjammer-class Jumpships
  - Escorts
    - 100 Battle-class Destroyers
    - 10 Skjold-class Missile Corvettes
    - 10 Constellation-class Corvettes
    - 50 Tarantul-class Missile Raiders
    - 50 Asheville-class Raiders
  - Small Warships
    - 40 Dido-class Light Cruisers
    - 30 Guiseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruisers
    - 5 Hosho-class Light Carriers
  - Medium Warships
    - 20 Prinz Eugen-class Heavy Cruisers
    - 5 Sacramento-class Fast Logistics Ships
  - Large Warships
    - 10 Dreadnought-class Battleships
    - 6 Jean Bart-class Battlecruisers
- Fortress Command
  - Jump Point Defenses
    - Waypoint 3
  - Oasis II
    - Waypoint 3
  - Black Towers
    - Waypoint 3
    - Platzregensburg
    - Porto Milano
    - Nuova Fortezza
    - Nowe Mazowsze

Amaunet glances over at Fisher as he sits down, then speaks. “Padrone, the Admiral is right, we need to keep the pressure up on the Black Steel. If we do not take risks, we will not win, but they must be considered risks. We have a number of survey missions in mind to hopefully pin down more Black Steel forces and reduce their infrastructure. I’ll leave that to Minister Lee.”

Elizabeth chuckles as she takes the podium. “Thank you, Amaunet. Your Majesty, we indeed have a number of survey targets this year. Two of them are practically guaranteed to not have any usable planets, but might have Black Steel forces present, one being a bit higher likelihood than the other.” She brings up a chart.

Survey Targets
- GX-D23
  - A relatively dim red dwarf with evidence of rocky worlds but, interestingly, no evidence of any gas giants in the system
- GX-C23
  - An orange main-sequence star. The system has a relatively high dust concentration, but there are signs of rocky planets according to our astronomers.
- GX-C22-1
  - The most distant of a distant trinary system, this is the only main-sequence star of the trio. A somewhat cool yellow star, due to optical interference from the rest of the trinary we are unsure if there are any usable planets here but our scientists are confident that there are.
- GX-C22-2
  - An extremely hot white dwarf with no remaining signs of a planetary nebula, this star is a possible Black Steel location. Unfortunately this star is also a threat in and of itself, due to the nature of a white dwarf if there is any significant mass transfer from the third member of this trinary system there is a high likelihood of a Type Ia Supernova, similar to the infamous SN 1006. If that happens it would be a threat to all nearby colonies
- GX-C22-3
  - A massive and highly luminous red supergiant, this star is highly likely to have a Black Steel presence. There is currently no data indicating any propensity towards instability, and no sign of mass transfer to GX-C22-2, which is a situation which will need to be monitored.

Elizabeth gives you a moment to absorb the data on the screen, then continues. “We have three idle DoME teams, and several projects for them to be assigned to.”

DoME
- Planetary Optimization - Peripheral
  - Neuthüringen
- Terraforming
  - Neuhessen
  - Pinball

“Meanwhile, we have our usual economic and investment advice, and some changes in our focus for infrastructure expansion and industrial zones.”

Economic
- Focus
  - Core
    - Bāṛi
  - Peripheral
    - Bohren
- Major Investment
  - Core
    - Awha
  - Peripheral
    - Kaiyo
- Investment
  - Novolar
- Infrastructure & Industrial Zone
  - Hot Mess
  - New Narnia
  - The Hub
  - Nouvelle Bourgogne
  - Nuova Puglia

Agostina is up next for the Foreign Ministry. “Your Majesty, diplomatic activities are fairly routine at the moment, with the usual back and forth. We would like to bring your attention, however, to the proposal to host a German Cultural Festival on Neuhessen to celebrate Oktoberfest. We recommend Imperial support for this.”

Tiberius is on his best behavior, for a change. “Your Majesty, it’s been a while, but we’d like to recommend an empire-wide public relations campaign in the wake of the recent victories. The people need to hear from you directly to build up their spirit and morale, and doing so now with the winds of victory at your back is far more advantageous.”

Grace is off-planet at a conference on New Phoenix, but has sent a memo recommending investment in Materials Research while waiting for the results of other R&D teams.

General Messerschmidt is also at a conference and has sent you a short briefing on the various polities surrounding the Empire, in general things are as they’ve been, with no real changes from an intelligence standpoint.

Martina, however, is present. “Your Majesty, while we have no budget requests this year, I would like to draw your attention to a number of legal issues that are simmering on the horizon as the result of various court cases moving through the system. We don’t need to take action, but there are groups within the Empire protesting the use of the Maximum Security Prison Station in Griff’s Leap, arguing that this is ‘cruel and inhumane’. They’ve not made it out of the appellate level yet, so this may be a nothingburger, but is something to consider.”

LordSunhawk · Nov 27, 2022

Turn 119 - Bone to Bone

Meta Event	21
Dynasty Luck	17
	Successes
Imperial Approval	3
Approval Change	0
Political Event	-1
	Successes
Imperial Economy	5
Economic Event	3
Research Event	0

Griffon	Econ	6
	Health	2
	Event	0

Nowa Warszawa	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Calliope IV	Econ	6
	Health	2
	Event	0

TTP	Econ	6
	Health	2
	Event	0

New Capricorn	Econ	6
	Health	2
	Event	0

Nowy Śląsk	Econ	6
	Health	2
	Event	0

Edelsteine	Econ	6
	Health	2
	Event	0

Nowy Wroclaw	Econ	6
	Health	2
	Event	0

Griff's Leap	Econ	6
	Health	2
	Event	0

New Phoenix	Econ	2
	Health	2
	Event	1

New Eden	Econ	2
	Health	2
	Event	1

New Castor	Econ	6
	Health	2
	Event	0

Okusawa	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

New Pollux	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	3

New Port Royal	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Kainga	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	3

Chuma	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	3

Stahlfurt	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Bāṛi	Econ	2
	Health	2
	Event	1

Skała	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Piekło	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nya Köpenhamn	Econ	6
	Health	2
	Event	0

Bauernparadis	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	3

Awha	Econ	2
	Health	2
	Event	1

Kaiyo	Econ	2
	Health	2
	Event	1

Bohren	Econ	2
	Health	2
	Event	1

Grand View	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	3

Iskra	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	3

Raj	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Feurstern	Econ	2
	Health	2
	Event	1

Pinball	Econ	2
	Health	2
	Event	1

Catachan	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nox	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	3

Olej	Econ	2
	Health	2
	Event	1

Glorreich	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Pryyemnyy	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Novolar	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	3

Steingarten	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	3

Pustina	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Kurortas	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Arvum	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Landprettig	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Bellaterra	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Nubifragio	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Platzregensburg	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Shin Tōkyō	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Porto Milano	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nuova Fortezza	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nowe Mazowsze	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Neuthüringen	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

New Algiers	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

New Clew Bay	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nuova Tripoli	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

New Libertalia	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nuova Puglia	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nuovo Abruzzo	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nuova Lombardia	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Stenen Tuin	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nouvelle Bourgogne	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nyū Shikoku	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Neubayern	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Neuhessen	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Hot Mess	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

New Narnia	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

The Hub	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Plan: Scout Wings
- Procurement [$ 578,899,771,059.28 ]
-- Lay Down Major Unit [Construction - $9,903,864,849.25 ] (95)
--- 200 Shimakaze [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 91
Result - SUCCESS

--- 200 Spruance [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 87
Result - SUCCESS

--- 67 Wright [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 12
Result - SUCCESS

--- 200 Mikasa [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 46
Result - SUCCESS

--- 30 Saipan [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 51
Result - SUCCESS

--- 19 Charleston [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 30
Result - SUCCESS

-- Lay down Jumpship [Jumpship Construction - $23,300,067.75 ] (90)
--- 5 Windjammer [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 61
Result - SUCCESS

-- Lay down Warship [Warship Construction - $289,624,649,200.00 ] (90)
--- 100 Battle [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 58
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Skjold [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 24
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Constellation [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 61
Result - SUCCESS

--- 50 Tarantul [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 3
Result - SUCCESS

--- 50 Asheville [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 37
Result - SUCCESS

--- 40 Dido [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 6
Result - SUCCESS

--- 30 Guiseppe Garibaldi [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 49
Result - SUCCESS

--- 2 Hosho [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 89
Result - SUCCESS

--- 20 Prinz Eugen [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 67
Result - SUCCESS

--- 5 Sacramento [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 3
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Dreadnought [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 29
Result - SUCCESS

--- 6 Jean Bart [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 68
Result - SUCCESS

-- Purchase New Units [Minor Unit - $ 47,649,328,192.28 ] (90)
--- 25 Carrier Wing [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 17
Result - SUCCESS

--- 100 CAP Wing [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 12
Result - SUCCESS

--- 8 Infantry Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 58
Result - SUCCESS

--- 2 Armored Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 64
Result - SUCCESS

--- 27 Garrison Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 42
Result - SUCCESS

--- 25 Militia Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 33
Result - SUCCESS

-- Fortress Command [$ 231,698,628,750 ] (90)
--- Build Jump Point Defenses
---- Waypoint 3 [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 85
Result - SUCCESS

--- Construct Oasis II
---- Waypoint 3 [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 3
Result - SUCCESS

--- Construct Black Tower
---- Waypoint 3 [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 75
Result - SUCCESS

---- Platzregensburg [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 59
Result - SUCCESS

---- Porto Milano [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 5
Result - SUCCESS

---- Nuova Fortezza [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 81
Result - SUCCESS

---- Nowe Mazowsze [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 53
Result - SUCCESS

- General [$ 2,500,950,000,000.00 ]
-- Focus Development on Core World Bari [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 73
Result - SUCCESS

-- Focus Development on Peripheral World Bohren [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 54
Result - SUCCESS

-- Massive Core Investment Awha [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 92, Jarow reroll – 94, ShadowArxxy reroll – 97, ShadowArxxy reroll - 19
Result - SUCCESS

-- Massive Peripheral Investment Kaiyo [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 52
Result - SUCCESS

-- Economic Investment Novolar [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 87
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on New Narnia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 86
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Nouvelle Bourgogne [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 81
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Hot Mess [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 25
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on The Hub [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 34
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Nuova Puglia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 75
Result - SUCCESS

-- Public Relations Campaign [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 3
Result - SUCCESS

-- Survey GX-D23 [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 91, General reroll - 67
Result - SUCCESS

-- Survey GX-C23 [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 2
Result - SUCCESS

-- Survey GX-C22-1 [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 8
Result - SUCCESS

-- Survey GX-C22-2 [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 95, General reroll - 57
Result - SUCCESS

-- Survey GX-C22-3 [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 38
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nuova Puglia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 11
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nuovo Abruzzo [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 17
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nyu Shikoku [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 68
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Stenen Tuin [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 88
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard New Libertalia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 75
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nuova Tripoli [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 60
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Catachan [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 84
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Feurstem [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 57
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Neuthuringen [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 46
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nowe Mazowsze [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 76
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nox [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 2
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Platzregensburg [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 52
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Iskra [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 17
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard New Algiers [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 36
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard New Clew Bay [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 35
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nubifragio [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 18
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Bellaterra [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 7
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Bohren [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 89
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Landprettig [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 29
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Porto Milano [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 76
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Shin Tokyo [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 25
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard The Hub [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 82
Result - SUCCESS

-- Upgrade Refit & Repair Yard [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 99
Result - SUCCESS

-- Expand Orbital Shipyards [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 99
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard New Capricorn* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 28
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Edelsteine* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 89
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Nya Kopenhamn* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 73
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Kainga* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 77
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard New Phoenix [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 47
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Okusawa [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 34
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Pieklo [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 67
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Bari [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 87
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Glorreich [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 58
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard New Port Royal [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 71
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Nowy Wroclaw [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 14
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard New Castor [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 42
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Nowy Slask [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 52
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Chuma [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 25
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Awha [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 39
Result - SUCCESS

- DoME [$ 422,000,000,000.00 ]
-- Expand Shin Tōkyō Arcologies* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 87
Result - SUCCESS

-- Terraforming Shin Tokyo* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 71
Result - SUCCESS

-- Terraforming Neuthuringen* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 84
Result - SUCCESS

-- Terraforming Porto Milano* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 48
Result - SUCCESS

-- Terraforming Nubifragio* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 22
Result - SUCCESS

- Research [$ 10,250,000,000,000.00 ]
-- Advanced ER 3cm Lasers* [60]
Target - 60
Roll - 50
Result - SUCCESS

-- Materials Research Lvl 9 [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 72
Result - SUCCESS

-- Advanced Damage Control (Parasite)* [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 39
Result - SUCCESS

-- Advanced Damage Control (WarShip)* [75]
Target - 75
Roll - 22
Result - SUCCESS

-- Advanced Compact Core Construction VII* [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 25
Result - SUCCESS

-- Advanced Compact Core Design VII* [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 24
Result - SUCCESS

-- Advanced Compact Core Theory VII* [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 77
Result - SUCCESS

-- Commercial R&D [-]
-- Industrial R&D [-]

- Culture [$ 1,000,000,000.00 ]
-- German Cultural Festival [70]
Target - 70
Roll - 18
Result - SUCCESS

- Miscellaneous [$ 134,370,000,000.00 ]
-- Production Contract [->8?][134,700,000,000]

-----

<Combat Report - C-22-3 AKA Rauður>

As expected the survey expedition to the Red Supergiant discovered a relatively small Black Steel facility. The survey flotilla evaded the Black Steel forces until the Expeditionary Fleet was able to arrive. The engagement was mostly against relatively light Black Steel units, the heaviest present were a number of heavy cruiser analogues.

Sensor records indicate that many of those ships had been present at Waypoint 3 during the epic ambush there, making up the bulk of the light forces which had retreated from that engagement. Here there is no immediate retreat, no clever traps, and no mercy, instead the fighting quickly becomes a brutal sparring match between two highly mobile formations.

Unfortunately for the Expeditionary Fleet, they simply didn’t have the numbers to overwhelm the Black Steel, while the Black Steel had the numbers to absorb the best that the Expeditionary Fleet could throw at them and throw it right back. Worse, the Black Steel formation was better at the Expeditionary Fleet’s own schtick, high mobility combat. The Black Steel forces could simply sustain higher accelerations for longer.

Fortunately for the Expeditionary Fleet, the Grand Fleet arrived, causing the Black Steel to break off the engagement and finally withdraw, allowing for the destruction of the Black Steel repair facilities in the system, but the Expeditionary Fleet was savaged in the fighting. Over 80% of the Expeditionary Fleet was destroyed, with the remainder badly damaged. Thankfully, unlike in previous engagements, the Black Steel for some reason refrained from firing upon escape pods and lifeboats, meaning actual casualties are relatively lower than otherwise expected as over three quarters of the spacers on the destroyed ships were able to escape unharmed.

You hold the system, but at a brutal cost. What’s worse, in some ways, is that the system is relatively useless. The red supergiant star is just barely short of hypergiant status, but relatively cool and low energy, giving a combination of a very deep gravity well and relatively slow recharge rates. There’s a massive amount of dust and debris in the system, the remnants of the planetary system before the star swelled up. However none of it is of any particular use.

-----

<Survey Report - GX-D23>

The system is, as expected, rather spartan. A pair of rocky planets, one a super earth sized terrestrial body and the other around the size of the Sol system’s Mars, are the only things of any note in the system. The super earth is completely unsuitable for colonization, being extremely close to the primary in a decaying orbit, while the other is a bleak volcanic world, with open rivers of lava flowing into sulfur-infused seas from volcanic vents on the surface. Life clings here and there, mostly in the form of lichens and algae mats. There is very little to recommend this planet, no truly useful mineral deposits to start with, and so much tectonic instability that as far as the survey teams could tell not a single moment passed while they were on the surface without them detecting tremors from ongoing quakes.

The survey commander, a native of the TTP, dubs the system Baddorando, or Badlands in Japanese. You suppose some people might find the place an attractive vacation spot, but you doubt people will want to live there.

<Survey Report - GX-C23>

At first glance this system isn’t all that bad, a single habitable world smack dab in the middle of the habitable zone, a sparse but not inconsequential asteroid belt, small deposits of germanium, albeit nothing truly substantial… but appearances are deceiving.

The planet is one of the stormiest places the survey crews have ever encountered, with massively variable and volatile weather systems that make any semblance of weather forecasting the next best thing to impossible. This is due to the relative lack of anything resembling terrain, the deepest point in the massive oceans that gird the planet is less than a meter, the highest point on land is less than half that. Tough lichens are about the only thing holding land masses together, as otherwise the ceaseless storms result in the sand that seems to be everywhere constantly shifting. In tests the bedrock is, on average, more than ten meters beneath the surface at the shallowest points, although to be fair the bedrock is exceptionally solid.

Somewhat predictably the survey crews have dubbed this system Sturmland.

<Survey Report - GX-C22-1>

In many ways this system is the real prize of those surveyed this year. The habitable world does have a very unpleasant atmosphere to breathe, but visually it is a beautiful blue marble just begging to be properly terraformed. Mineral reports are highly promising as well. The system has been dubbed ‘Blár’ by the survey crews for the bright blue color of the habitable world.

There is, however, a highly classified addendum to the survey report, one that is not being put into the public record for now. The planet is ironically too rich. Across much of the planet all you’d need is a spade and a bucket and you could mine massive deposits of bonanza ore. The sheer amount of gold estimated to be easily mined is greater than the entire current gold output in the entire Empire by several orders of magnitude. There’s even more silver, massive amounts of platinum, dizzying amounts of rare earth metals. The sheer quantity of such valuable metals is such that they’d completely crash the mineral markets in the Empire, causing enormous economic dislocation as mining companies anywhere else in the Empire that mined such metals would be simply unable to compete with the sheer ease and volume present here.

What is being recommended is to declare the system to be a closed Imperial reserve world, with access only by Imperial permission. That way you could readily control the quantity of materials that are mined here, preventing economic calamity. Heavy defenses would be put in place, naturally, but only a very limited population would be permitted, all required to sign NDAs concerning the system.

[]	Action	Effect
[]	Approve	When system is colonized initial population will be limited to 10,000 System will not receive Crit bonuses for GDP growth Prevents Economic Crisis event chain from starting
[]	Disapprove	System can be settled normally When colonized Initiates Economic Crisis event chain

<Survey Report - GX-C22-2>

As anticipated this system’s primary is a white dwarf star that is still exceptionally hot. The star is approximately 1.39 Solar Masses, which is exceptionally worrying, as it is not rotating and the Chandrasekhar Limit is 1.4 Solar Masses before a Type Ia supernova is triggered. What’s worse is that there is evidence that the star may be gaining mass by leaching material from GX-C22-3 when their respective stellar motions bring them closer together. Since all GX-C22-1, 2 and 3 are all part of a distant trinary system this happens far too often for anybody's peace of mind. Thanks to the intense white light given off by the star the survey crews have dubbed it Hvítur.

-----

You are rather distressed by the reports from the Expeditionary Fleet. The year was going so well, but on the other hand you have dealt a heavy blow to the Black Steel. The ‘repair facilities’ could have also been used for production, after all, and hopefully this will weaken the Black Steel enough to justify the casualties you did take. However, for now the Expeditionary Fleet is a shadow of itself requiring rebuilding.

In other news, there is a bit of a row in the Awha system as the contracts for infrastructure improvements result in the discovery of a rather lurid sex scandal in high society in the system. You are deliberately not reading the gossip rags, since it appears to be more of a tempest in a teacup sort of deal with no actual laws being broken, but quite a few hurt feelings, and paparazzi having a field day with people crying.

Overall, however, the various economic investments and focus work have yielded excellent returns, and the New Narnia system has actually had its economic prospectus updated to reflect several newly discovered veins of valuable metals.

The PR campaign is far less taxing than you’d expected, the first interview you conducted as part of it went completely viral and so dominated the news cycles that you didn’t really have to do anything else. Tiberius is trying to figure out how exactly this happened, because the causes for virality of this sort are still totally mysterious.

The large number of new shipyards under construction significantly boosts your shipbuilding capacity at the same time as you’ve reduced that of the Black Steel. You make a point of emphasizing that in your various public appearances, including at the massive Oktoberfest being held in Griffsport as part of the Empire wide German cultural festival.

Although you could have done without the Periphery Studies Oompah Band. You really could have done without the Periphery Studies Oompah Band. Your ears are still ringing from how loud, and bad, they were.

DoME reports general success in their various terraforming projects this year, along with the further expansion of the arcologies in the Shin Tōkyō system.

R&D work on the advanced 3cm lasers is completed, allowing for much more potent extended range 3cm laser weapon systems. Lessons learned from this will help with the much more difficult 5cm project.

Likewise, work on basic materials research has been concluded successfully, furthering your scientists understanding of material science. Damage control improvements have been developed and are in the process of being implemented across the board.

Most importantly, perhaps, R&D work on even larger compact-core warships has been completed, allowing for the construction of battleships of up to 1.75 million tons. An initial design has already been prepared for a rather lethal battlewagon that specializes in extreme range engagements and massive firepower. Dubbed Project Oregon, the design is centered around a massive array of heavy naval gauss rifles in the nose, with dense thickets of medium naval PPCs and massive batteries of naval lasers, backed by a solid close-in battery of naval autocannons. What’s more impressive, this massive battery is backed by thick plates of the latest lamellar ferro-carbide armor and a thrust profile identical to the older Dreadnought-class.

There are several proposals for what to name the new class.

[]	Name
[]	Oregon-class Battleship
[]	Warspite-class Battleship
[]	Nagato-class Battleship
[]	Kaiserin-class Battleship
[]	Roma-class Battleship
[]	<Write-In> (subject to QM approval>

Cost	Materials	HP	A/D	Specials
$3,192,016,600.00	DHS, LFA	8911	5581	Armored 293 AMS 160 Capital 2/683 3/1615 4/4611 Capital AMS 256 Command 6 8 Drop Collars Maximum Thrust - 6 (3g)

LordSunhawk · Nov 29, 2022

Turn 120 - Lightning Strikes

There’s something a bit odd about sitting in the Imperial Box and watching your own daughter march past as part of the Griffon system team in the Opening Ceremonies of the Pan-Griffon Games. Made a bit odder with the knowledge that in a few weeks she’ll be out on the sand, in her birthday suit, competing in Naked Volleyball in the opening heats which, you reflect, might be a rather unfortunate turn of phrase for the sport.

Not that you aren’t proud of her, but still, it’s the principle of the thing. You didn’t get to do something like this when you were her age, after all! Your grandfather would have blown a gasket years earlier!

You sternly remind yourself to not be a hypocrite over this, even if you are still chafing a bit at the Admiralty deciding to name the latest and greatest class of Battleships the Kaiserin class. You had to smile, nod, and pretend like you were very honored, when in fact you were horribly embarrassed.

At least you have the first of three weddings to look forward to! Your eldest practically begged to go first, and you have a sneaking suspicion that she’s more looking towards the honeymoon than the wedding. But still, this would mean two things… first, grandbabies, and second that your daughter would be on maternity leave and away from the front lines for a time!. So you gravely agreed that it would be most appropriate, and that moreover as the Heir it would be best for the wedding to take place here on Griffon rather than, say, New Port Royal in one of the wedding chapels there.

Thus proving that you definitely still have it, as both your daughter and future son-in-law turn bright red at that, especially when you start discussing appropriate ‘marital aids’. Markus is the perfect foil as you utterly troll your daughter. The piece de resistance began when he silently set a jar of apricot jelly on the desk in front of Tamara. At which point the wails of DAD began and the two of you exchanged a silent agreement to pull the security tapes for proper parental blackmail material.

You greatly enjoyed the opening performance of Cinderella by the Black Pumpernickels. You noticed just how many young kids were in the crowd, and the musical is indeed very family friendly. What’s more it manages to show role models for both the little girls and the little boys and, in a manner that you find quite pleasing, manages to walk the tightrope of making Madame and the ‘evil’ stepsister rather fun, while remaining true to the ancient Rodgers & Hammerstein script. According to the dramaturgical notes, this particular version had been further updated at some point, creating a new character arc for one of the stepsisters as well as adding the character of Jean-Claude.

The gift shop for the performance was making bank selling little tiaras and crowns to the children, although you did notice that many kids from poorer families who’d nonetheless come to the free show were without. So you dipped into the privy purse and quietly paid for several thousand of the things to be distributed to all the kids who wanted one but didn’t have one.

There’s so far been no reaction from the Black Steel to the latest battle, but you are certain that the lull won’t last all that long. You are just hoping to be able to get some system defenses up in the newly surveyed systems and to rebuild the Expeditionary Fleet as quickly as possible.

You direct Admiral John McEvedy, the CO of Home Fleet, to prioritize deployments in the most vulnerable systems. He is fully on board with that, and adds that this would also allow Home Fleet to begin building up valuable combat experience against the most dangerous foe available. According to him, he hopes that this will validate the design philosophy espoused by the Home Fleet against the criticism leveled by Admiral Fisher, namely that they have so many missile heavy designs.

Fighting continues to wind down in the RN region, with Bourbon forces fully taking over clean-up duties on RN 2 and 3, and supplementing your forces on RN 1. RN 4 continues to hold out, but is slowly being ground down. The units engaged in this action continuously need to be rotated out for repairs, as the RN anti-orbital defenses are nothing to laugh at.

In happier news, in general the economy seems to be doing rather well, although mining stocks took a brief hit when some rumors about Blár leaked out, but in the face of official silence and the announcement that the Blár system would not be colonized, but rather would be an ‘Imperial military reservation as part of the Imperial Crown Reserve’ calmed the markets quite readily. You allow rumors of the potentially catastrophic instability inherent to Hvítur and Rauður to spread, justifying the exclusion of Blár from colonization plans. After all, who wants to live on a planet that might have a far too close front row seat to a Type Ia supernova?

Manufacturing stocks are up across the board, as a bit of a ‘war’ has broken out between two extremely popular brands of automobile, with both releasing new sports models and declaring that their model is the Best of the Best and Far Better Than Those Poseurs Over There. Frankly, none of them really strike your fancy, being rather ridiculous in your opinion. Both are far too low slung, both have ridiculously fancy tires that cost more than some economy cars, both are two-seaters with barely enough storage space for a six-pack of soda, both have massively tuned and lightened fusion plants for power, both have ridiculous gimmicks that, in your opinion, are utterly useless in any real scenario beyond ‘looking badass’. But enthusiasts for the two brands are eating the controversy up, and buying more reasonable vehicles to ‘show brand loyalty’. So you guess it’s working out.

To your amusement Calliope Motors is capitalizing on this entire fracas by releasing their ‘Hypercar for the Common Man’, which costs precisely $1 more than the previous top model, which buys you a faux-pretentious ‘Hyper Speed!’ badge and paint scheme along with a numbered and signed certificate stating that you are the proud owner of a Hypercar For The Common Man. Whenever a woman buys one, the ever helpful staff takes a magic marker to ‘Man’ and replaces it with ‘Woman’, to everybody's amusement. The advertising campaign for this is utterly hilarious.

LordSunhawk · Dec 1, 2022

Turn 120 - Bitch’s Brew

Your eldest daughter is absolutely radiant in her wedding dress, bringing a tear to your eye. Your little girl is all grown up, and you know your husband is just as emotional as you are over this. She’d tried to argue for getting married in her dress uniform, even offered to wear full mess dress, but you had rather ruthlessly insisted on her wearing the same gown you’d worn for your wedding. Sure, you could easily afford a totally new one which would have likely set off a feeding frenzy among the local dressmakers, but your great grandmother had worn this dress, your grandmother had worn this dress, your mother had worn this dress, and you’d worn this dress. You think it more than appropriate for your eldest daughter to wear this dress.

All of your kids are present as well as a full slate of bridesmaids, including all of the female members of your daughter’s company which you find rather touching. The ceremony itself is taking place in the central cathedral of Griffsport, followed by a reception for the great and the good in the Palace while on the palace grounds a massive party was organized for anybody who couldn’t score an invite to the reception itself.

You’d actually rather be at the party, to be honest, the reception promises to be boring and formal.

The ceremony goes off without a hitch, despite you having to blink quite a bit to keep the tears out of your eyes during it. You honestly can’t remember much of the ceremony, nor the sermon, but you are sure it’s a good one given that you know the priest quite well and he has a history of really good homilies. Moments of your daughter’s life just keep flashing before you as you watch your little girl become a wife.

On the other hand… future grandbabies for you to get all sugared up and then return to your loving daughter!

The wedding reception is as mind-numbingly formal as you’d expected, complete with a seemingly endless receiving line, multiple rounds of oh so formal toasts from people whom you are certain spent the last twenty years polishing their remarks, and dreary protocol and formality. You are more or less on autopilot, your long experience with such affairs standing you in excellent stead as you are able to nod, smile, and look both interested and appreciative as appropriate while mouthing the proper platitudes.

Later you get reports that the big general party outside had been a quite boisterous affair, especially in comparison to the rather staid reception. Despite some worries, the dedicated staff at the Department of Periphery Studies was able to successfully distract the tenured faculty therein from the festivities, which made things far more sane for everybody else.

There still hasn’t been any significant response from the Black Steel, although scout flotillas have been chased off from several systems as the Black Steel seems to be escalating their recon efforts. Analysts lack sufficient data to accurately predict where the Black Steel might strike next.

The fighting in the Rouges Noir systems continues to slowly wind down. RN 1 and 4 continue to hold out, but Bourbon forces are increasingly shouldering a greater and greater share of the burden of burning out those forces. The number of deployed units has dropped significantly.

Parliament is rather subdued after the bollocking they’ve taken over the last few years. The new crop of Delegates in the Chamber are far more supportive than those they’ve replaced, and the Eldest has his paw firmly on the collective throats in the Senate.

They have, however, managed to pass a major piece of legislation, with the Eldest’s full support. The Colonial Governance Act of 3050 increases the budget allocation for Imperial support of colonial governance, clarifies a number of gray areas within the laws related to colonial governmental organization, implements much needed improvements in lines of communication between local, system, region, and Imperial law enforcement bodies, clarifies a number of ambiguous jurisdictional conflicts among the same, and in general manages to gather together in one bill all of the minor, yet needed, reforms that Parliament is needed to pass.

The largest part of it is the budget allocation increase, which strikes you as rather reasonable, especially considering the increasing distance between the most distant colonies and the Griffon system. While HPG communication reduces the time lag, it doesn’t eliminate it, so additional layers of sector governance have become more important. Currently the sectors draw their budgets from those of their constituent worlds, however sectors with a large number of new colonies, like the Steel March and the Scarlet March, are consistently suffering from budget shortfalls compared to their wealthier neighbors due to the comparatively low tax revenues of those systems. Compounding the issue, these two marches are also the largest ones, further increasing their expenses. Increasing the budget allocation would help ease this situation, and is highly popular in both marches, while not being all that unpopular elsewhere.

In addition, it is highly probable that a new march or even two will soon need to be formed, in order to prevent any of the existing marches from becoming too unwieldy. The current proposal involves splitting off the northernmost seven systems of the Empire to form the Diamond March, however there are concerns that those systems are so new that none are Core worlds, and thus the Diamond March would suffer from low economic growth. On the flip side, the prospective residents of such a March are quite enthusiastic about it, and the increased subsidies from the CGA would help offset some of those issues.

[]	Action	Argument	Effect
[]	Approve the Colonial Governance Act of 3050	These are changes that have been long overdue. We expect system and sector governments to stand on their own, yes, but especially in the newest sectors this is inordinately difficult and results in great disparities between the wealth of the inner marches and the poverty of the outer ones. The budget changes are the least of it, however. The clarification of certain legal gray areas related to a variety of minor areas will be exceptionally helpful. These are areas that don’t rise to the level of Imperial regulation, and thus are not affected by the regular rationalizations and clean ups. Rather they are the result of slightly different legal precedents and regulations at the March level bumping up against each other and against Imperial regulations. This legislation resolves this situation by establishing clear guidelines to guide future decisions in this area. The changes to law enforcement is also highly welcome in that it formalizes what has long been an informal norm that was understood among all the various agencies. By putting it in writing, we ensure that such best practices remain even in the face of possible attempts to subvert them. Thankfully this has not yet happened, but it is better to act now to ensure it never does.	Increase System Government level from 2 to 3 If a new March is formed without any Core worlds, +1 Econ Rating to all systems in said March +1 Econ Event -1 Politics
[]	Veto the Colonial Governance Act of 3050	The colonies can stand up on their own two damn feet, they don’t need any further help from the Empire. All of these ‘adjustments’ and such are useless, just dictate to them how it will be and that is that, there is absolutely no need to do anything else. As for the new Marches, sink or swim, if they can’t hack it on the same terms as everybody else, screw ‘em. We already waste far too much money on useless feeders who just drain resources, why should we waste a single cent more? If they don’t like it, screw ‘em. The Core Worlds are what drives our economy, not the new holes full of dirt and poverty. If they can’t pick themselves up like the Core already did, then they deserve to suffer.	-1 Approval Change +1 Politics

LordSunhawk · Dec 2, 2022

Turn 120 - Bolivian Ragamuffin

Not being the Heir has definite benefits, in that your second daughter’s wedding is a far less extravagant affair. You are still extremely emotional over it all, but the ceremony itself and the reception afterwards are far less formal. It seems like just yesterday that you held Lisa as a baby, and now she’s getting married.

She too had tried to wiggle out of wearing a proper dress, although she’s not wearing your old dress. Instead the dressmakers got to engage in the most polite and civilized, yet also most vicious, war you’d ever seen as you are quite certain that multi-generational grudges have been established in the contest over who got to make Lisa’s dress. You did have to put your foot quite firmly down, and make full use of the Special Branch, to keep her from running off to New Port Royal to get married by an Elvis impersonator. You still aren’t clear on who this ‘Elvis’ supposedly was, but apparently it’s a tradition to impersonate them and conduct weddings.

During the reception, however, an aide comes up and hands you a datapad. A large Black Steel raid had hit the Arvum system.

Early reports are sketchy, the raid had made use of a transitory pirate point and managed to launch several volleys of missiles at the planet itself before leading the system defense force on a not-so-merry chase through the system. Civilian casualties were, unfortunately, fairly heavy although the missiles were, at least, ‘clean’ fusion warheads. Military losses were also minimal on both sides, the Black Steel were able to escape via another transitory pirate point, and there was no serious engagement.

An early analysis of the raid pretty much confirms what you suspect, the enemy can get lucky too. The transitory point enabled them to get in and launch fast enough that you couldn’t shift one of the three Black Towers in orbit to cover that exact vector, and the missiles thus came in through one of the inevitable gaps in missile defense coverage caused by the simple fact that space is big. You’d need ten times as many Black Towers in the system to ensure full coverage, and even then it wouldn’t be a hermetic seal.

Admiral de Palo had kept the Grand Fleet at Waypoint 3, making no move to reinforce Arvum. Her instincts proved strong when a number of scout vessels jumped in well outside of the fleet’s range, then jumped back out. No attack followed, evidently the Black Steel had been hoping that the Arvum raid would draw the Grand Fleet away allowing them to savage the defenses that were in place in the system to simplify future engagements. If that was the case, de Palo keeping the fleet in place kiboshed that plan.

You do make a point to attend all of your youngest daughters' matches as the Griffon system team progresses through the Pan-Griffon Games. They are quite dominant and, to your mild annoyance, popular among the young men attending the Games. No doubt for their athletic skill and not for the bare boobs on display.

Men.

But now it is budget time, so you can put that all aside.

Amaunet leads off as usual, the big cat looking quite relaxed. “Ok, Padrone, the Army will be requesting a full SLEP cycle for their gear, which I think we should approve. Our focus is now back on the Black Steel fully, apart from mopping up the Rouges Noir, which means that the ground pounders are taking a back seat once again. We’ll also be requesting the DoME build up a new full military base in the Diamond Reach to further support expansion in that region. I’ll leave it to the service chiefs to give the details, General Bradley?”

The short general takes the stage. “Your Majesty, as the Defense Minister stated, we’ll be requesting a full SLEP cycle rather than further expansion of anything other than militia and garrison units. While the Rouges Noir invasion showed the critical importance of a strong army when appropriate enemies are threatening, our main threat is more in Admiral Fisher's wheelhouse than ours. Therefore we recommend keeping our sword sharp, not making it larger.”

Imperial Griffon Army
- General
  - SLEP all Mech Units
  - SLEP all Conventional Units
- Procurement
  - Garrison
    - 31 Garrison Divisins
    - 25 Militia Divisions

General Perkins is up next, looking a bit tired. “Your Majesty, the Aerospace Force continues to need to replace losses rather than expand capability, we hope to complete that process this year.”

Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
- Procurement
  - 100 CAP Wing
  - 25 Carrier Wing

Admiral Fisher stumps up to the podium. “De Palo made the right call, staying in Waypoint 3. We will be continuing to expand production capacity, including on any new worlds that are settled. We’re rebuilding the Expeditionary Fleet, expanding the Grand Fleet, laying down the first of the new battlewagons, building up the Home Fleet, and increasing our training capacity. Home Fleet has been pestering me about wanting missile destroyers and cruisers. I've informed them that until they’ve proven the missile ship concept with what they’ve got they can go pound sand.” His glare is a thing of malevolent beauty, you know full well just how much Fisher loathes missile armed combatants as being too vulnerable.

Imperial Griffon Navy
- Production
  - Orbital Shipyards
    - New Orbital Shipyards
      - Baddorando
      - Sturmland
    - Expand All Existing Orbital Shipyards
  - Refit & Repair Yards
    - Expand All Refit & Repair Yards
  - Escort Yards
    - Neubayern
    - Neuhessen
    - Nouvelle Bourgogne
    - Nuova Lombardia
    - Nuova Puglia
    - Nuovo Abruzzo
    - Nyū Shikoku
    - Stenen Tuin
    - New Libertalia
    - Nuova Tripoli
    - Catachan
    - Feurstern
    - Neuthüringen
    - Nowe Mazowsze
    - Nox
    - Platzregensburg
    - Iskra
    - New Algiers
    - New Clew Bay
    - Nubifragio
    - Bellaterra
    - Bohren
    - Landprettig
    - Porto Milano
    - Shin Tōkyō
    - Hot Mess
    - New Narnia
    - The Hub
    - Baddorando
    - Sturmland
  - Small Warship Yards
    - New Castor
    - New Port Royal
    - Nowy Wroclaw
    - Nowy Slask
    - Chuma
    - Awha
    - Kaiyo
  - Medium Warship Yards
    - Glorreich
    - New Phoenix
    - Okusawa
    - Pieklo
    - Bari
  - Large Warship Yards
    - Nya Kopenhamn
    - Kainga
    - Edelsteine
    - New Capricorn
- Procurement
  - Conventional Dropships
    - 300 Shimakaze-class Parasite Destroyers
    - 200 Spruance-class Parasite Destroyers
    - 23 Ensign-class Training Dropships
  - Large Dropships
    - 30 Saipan-class Parasite Carriers
    - 200 Mikasa-class Parasite Battleships
    - 16 Charleston-class Transports
  - Jumpships
    - 6 Windjammer-class Jumpships
  - Escorts
    - 100 Battle-class Destroyers
    - 10 Skjold-class Missile Corvettes
    - 10 Constellation-class Corvettes
    - 50 Tarantul-class Missile Raiders
    - 50 Asheville-class Raiders
    - 20 Wolverine-class Training Ships
  - Small Warships
    - 30 Dido-class Light Cruisers
    - 20 Guiseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruisers
    - 25 De Grasse-class Light Cruisers
    - 4 Hosho-class Light Carriers
  - Medium Warships
    - 10 Prinz Eugen-class Heavy Cruisers
    - 10 Algerie-class Heavy Cruisers
    - 5 Sacramento-class Fleet Replenishment Ships
  - Large Warships
    - 10 Kaiserin-class Battleships
    - 6 Jean Bart-class Battlecruisers
- Fortress Command
  - Jump Point Defenses
    - Baddorando
    - Sturmland
    - Blár
    - Hvítur
    - Rauður
  - Oasis II
    - Baddorando
    - Sturmland
    - Blár
    - Hvítur
    - Rauður
  - Black Tower
    - Baddorando
    - Sturmland
    - Blár
    - Hvítur
    - Rauður

Amaunet just chuffs slightly rather than give a closing statement as Admiral Fisher returns to his seat, still looking mildly annoyed.

Elizabeth Lee takes over at that point. “Your Majesty, let’s start with our colonization efforts. I understand that Blár is part of the Crown Reserve, but we’ll still need to setup an appropriate administration for those few colonists who will be on that planet, otherwise we recommend settling the other two habitable worlds that are now available to us.”

Colonize + System Government + Justice System
- Baddorando
- Sturmland
- Blár

“In addition, DoME has a number of free teams this year, and the military has requested that we build out a new major base to the galactic northeast to support expansion in that direction. Therefore, to keep them out of trouble you understand, we recommend the following Your Majesty.”

DoME
- Expand Shin Tōkyō Arcologies
- Establish New Army Base - Nuova Lombardia
- Establish New Fleet Base - Nuova Lombardia
- Terraforming
  - Shin Tōkyō
  - Nubifragio

“Finally, our investment and focus recommendations, straight from our economics section.” She smiles a bit at that.

Economic Investment, Focus, & Industrial/Infrastructure
- Focus
  - Core
    - Pieklo
  - Periphery
    - Grand View
- Major Investment
  - Core
    - Kaiyo
  - Periphery
    - Iskra
- Investment
  - Glorreich
- Infrastructure & Industrial Zone
  - Hot Mess
  - New Narnia
  - The Hub
  - Nouvelle Bourgogne
  - Nuova Puglia

Agostina is off at a conference helping to hammer out the final details of the upcoming Olympic Games in two years and her cultural staff is fully engaged in managing the ongoing Pan Griffon Games this year, therefore Tiberius is up next.

“OK, Boss!” Why, exactly, Tiberius decided to dress up like a stereotypical pimp, complete with blinged out swagger stick, is well beyond you, but you resolve to toss him through the Window of Defenestration anyways. “Only thing I’ve got for you is to expand the Civil Service before they whine at me about being overworked again.”

Grace is up next, giving Tiberius a bit of a side-eye. “Your Majesty, we have a large number of teams available, so we have the following recommendations.”

Research & Development
- KF Drive Theory Tier 5
  - Allows us to research even larger ships of up to 2 million tons
- Improved Elder Quality of Life Lvl 3
  - A good solid research objective for the civilian side of things
- Genetic Engineering Lvl 5
  - See above
- Advanced ER 5cm Lasers
  - These look to be highly efficient and effective weapons once developed
- Advanced Terraforming Equipment Lvl 1
  - We need better tools for terraforming if we’re to speed up the process anymore
- Orbital Infrastructure Lvl 9
  - More general research

LordSunhawk · Dec 4, 2022

Turn 120 - Cry Me A River

Meta Event	27
Dynasty Luck	36
	Successes
Imperial Approval	0
Approval Change	-2
Political Event	0
	Successes
Imperial Economy	6
Economic Event	4
Research Event	0

Griffon	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	4

Nowa Warszawa	Econ	6
	Health	1
	Event	4

Calliope IV	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	4

TTP	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	4

New Capricorn	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	4

Nowy Śląsk	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	4

Edelsteine	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	4

Nowy Wroclaw	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	4

Griff's Leap	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	4

New Phoenix	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

New Eden	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

New Castor	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	4

Okusawa	Econ	6
	Health	1
	Event	4

New Pollux	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	1

New Port Royal	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Kainga	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	1

Chuma	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	1

Stahlfurt	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Bāṛi	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Skała	Econ	6
	Health	1
	Event	4

Piekło	Econ	6
	Health	1
	Event	4

Nya Köpenhamn	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	4

Bauernparadis	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	1

Awha	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Kaiyo	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Bohren	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Grand View	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	1

Iskra	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	1

Raj	Econ	6
	Health	1
	Event	4

Feurstern	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Pinball	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Catachan	Econ	6
	Health	1
	Event	4

Nox	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	1

Olej	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	0

Glorreich	Econ	3
	Health	4
	Event	4

Pryyemnyy	Econ	3
	Health	4
	Event	4

Novolar	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	1

Steingarten	Econ	0
	Health	2
	Event	1

Pustina	Econ	3
	Health	4
	Event	4

Kurortas	Econ	3
	Health	4
	Event	4

Arvum	Econ	3
	Health	4
	Event	4

Landprettig	Econ	6
	Health	1
	Event	4

Bellaterra	Econ	3
	Health	4
	Event	4

Nubifragio	Econ	6
	Health	1
	Event	4

Platzregensburg	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Shin Tōkyō	Econ	3
	Health	4
	Event	4

Porto Milano	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nuova Fortezza	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nowe Mazowsze	Econ	6
	Health	1
	Event	4

Neuthüringen	Econ	3
	Health	4
	Event	4

New Algiers	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

New Clew Bay	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nuova Tripoli	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

New Libertalia	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nuova Puglia	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nuovo Abruzzo	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nuova Lombardia	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Stenen Tuin	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nouvelle Bourgogne	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Nyū Shikoku	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Neubayern	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Neuhessen	Econ	0
	Health	1
	Event	3

Hot Mess	Econ	3
	Health	4
	Event	4

New Narnia	Econ	3
	Health	4
	Event	4

The Hub	Econ	3
	Health	4
	Event	4

Plan: Bite and Hold
- Procurement [$ 741,609,193,202.47 ]
-- Lay Down Major Unit [Construction - $10,758,497,758.00 ] (95)
--- 300 Shimakaze [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 25
Result - SUCCESS

--- 200 Spruance [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 47
Result - SUCCESS

--- 23 Ensign [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 28
Result - SUCCESS

--- 200 Mikasa [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 28
Result - SUCCESS

--- 30 Saipan [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 22
Result - SUCCESS

--- 16 Charleston [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 91
Result - SUCCESS

-- Lay down Jumpship [Jumpship Construction - $27,960,081.30 ] (90)
--- 6 Windjammer [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 52
Result - SUCCESS

-- Lay down Warship [Warship Construction - $428,752,518,266.67 ] (90)
--- 100 Battle [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 21
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Skjold [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 11
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Constellation [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 78
Result - SUCCESS

--- 50 Tarantul [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 89
Result - SUCCESS

--- 50 Asheville [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 40
Result - SUCCESS

--- 20 Wolverine [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 33
Result - SUCCESS

--- 30 Dido [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 55
Result - SUCCESS

--- 20 Guiseppe Garibaldi [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 74
Result - SUCCESS

--- 25 De Grasse [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 100, Jarow reroll - 68
Result - SUCCESS

--- 4 Hosho [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 39
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Prinz Eugen [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 46
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Algerie [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 32
Result - SUCCESS

--- 5 Sacramento [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 26
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Kaiserin [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 1
Result – Critical SUCCESS

--- 6 Jean Bart [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 8
Result - SUCCESS

-- Purchase New Units [Minor Unit - $ 53,919,541,446.50 ] (90)
--- 25 Carrier Wing [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 76
Result - SUCCESS

--- 100 CAP Wing [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 30
Result - SUCCESS

--- 31 Garrison Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 50
Result - SUCCESS

--- 25 Militia Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 59
Result - SUCCESS

-- Fortress Command [$ 242,490,543,750 ] (90)
--- Build Jump Point Defenses
---- Baddorando [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 15
Result - SUCCESS

---- Sturmland [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 74
Result - SUCCESS

---- Blár [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 81
Result - SUCCESS

---- Hvítur [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 34
Result - SUCCESS

---- Rauður [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 79
Result - SUCCESS

--- Construct Oasis II
---- Baddorando [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 57
Result - SUCCESS

---- Sturmland [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 56
Result - SUCCESS

---- Blár [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 27
Result - SUCCESS

---- Hvítur [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 33
Result - SUCCESS

---- Rauður [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 47
Result - SUCCESS

--- Construct Black Tower
---- Baddorando [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 17
Result - SUCCESS

---- Sturmland [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 42
Result - SUCCESS

---- Blár [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 51
Result - SUCCESS

---- Hvítur [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 80
Result - SUCCESS

---- Rauður [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 26
Result - SUCCESS

-- SLEP [$ 10,000,000,000 ] (100)
--- SLEP all Mech Units [->9]
--- SLEP all Conventional Units [->9]

- General [$ 2,288,350,000,000.00 ]
-- Focus Development on Core World Pieklo [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 96, ShadowArxxy reroll - 27
Result - SUCCESS

-- Focus Development on Peripheral World Grand View [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 49
Result - SUCCESS

-- Massive Core Investment Kaiyo [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 33
Result - SUCCESS

-- Massive Peripheral Investment Iskra [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 50
Result - SUCCESS

-- Economic Investment Glorreich [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 58
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on New Narnia [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 9
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Nouvelle Bourgogne [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 89
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Hot Mess [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 66
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on The Hub [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 55
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Nuova Puglia [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 58
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Colony - Baddorando [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 50
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish System Government - Baddorando [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 34
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Legal System - Baddorando [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 48
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Colony - Sturmland [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 5
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish System Government - Sturmland [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 19
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Legal System - Sturmland [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 46
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Colony - Blár [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 44
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish System Government - Blár [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 29
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Legal System - Blár [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 63
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build Orbital Shipyard Baddorando [105]
Target - 105
Roll – 86
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build Orbital Shipyard Sturmland [105]
Target - 105
Roll – 100, General reroll - 98
Result - SUCCESS

-- Expand Civil Service [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 41
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Catachan [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 13
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Feurstem [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 49
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Neuthuringen [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 42
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nowe Mazowsze [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 84
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nox [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 66
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Platzregensburg [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 8
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Iskra [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 72
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard New Algiers [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 44
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard New Clew Bay [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 76
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nubifragio [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 7
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Bellaterra [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 44
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Landprettig [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 87
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Porto Milano [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 74
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Shin Tokyo [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 35
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard The Hub [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 30
Result - SUCCESS

-- Upgrade Refit & Repair Yard [105]
Target - 105
Roll – 94
Result - SUCCESS

-- Expand Orbital Shipyards [105]
Target - 105
Roll – 92
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Calliope* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 5
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Nowa Warzsawa* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 79
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Griffon* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 20
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard New Pollux* [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 79
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard New Phoenix [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 18
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Okusawa [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 47
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Pieklo [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 8
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Bari [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 52
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Glorreich [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 87
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard New Port Royal [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 32
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Nowy Wroclaw [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 82
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard New Castor [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 86
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Nowy Slask [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 19
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Chuma [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 34
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Awha [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 28
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Kaiyo [90]
Target - 90
Roll – 33
Result - SUCCESS

- DoME [$ 3,082,000,000,000.00 ]
-- Terraforming Feurstem* [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 74
Result - SUCCESS

-- Terraforming New Clew Bay* [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 7
Result - SUCCESS

-- Terraforming Nyu Shikoku* [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 57
Result - SUCCESS

-- Terraforming Neubayern* [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 35
Result - SUCCESS

-- Terraforming Grand View* [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 74
Result - SUCCESS

-- Planetary Optimization (Peripheral) - Neuthuringen* [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 7
Result - SUCCESS

- Research [$ 18,484,000,000,000.00 ]
-- Micro Pulse Lasers* [75]
Target - 75
Roll – 57
Result - SUCCESS

-- Power Generation Lvl 9 [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 92
Result - SUCCESS

-- Orbital Infrastructure Lvl 9 [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 95
Result - SUCCESS

-- Commercial R&D [-]
-- Industrial R&D [-]

- Miscellaneous [$ ]
-- Local Games [200,000]
-- Production Contract [->7?][134,700,000,000]

-----

You are in your office when the palace Raptor Pack decides that it is playtime, although considering that it’s the youngest of them that made that decision you aren’t at all upset… especially considering how cute it was.

Raptors are very smart, around the same intelligence as a parrot or exceptional dog, but not at all ‘human’ smart. But much like parrots they can mimic human voices to a degree, although their level of understanding is simplistic at best. But not too simplistic to prevent a juvenile from deciding that she wanted to play peek-a-boo with you at your desk.

Within a few minutes the entire pack had shown up and you had a bunch of raptors lined up on the other side of your desk playing peek-a-boo with you. You make absolutely sure that you are filming this in between your giggles, because it is insanely cute.

Needless to say, you don’t get much work done that day.

On the shipbuilding front there’s two pieces of news.

First of all, there was a minor panic when the yards got the orders for additional De Grasse class ships to be laid down, as the yards had mislaid the detailed builders plans. After several hours of increasingly frantic searches, it was discovered that they actually had the plans, they were just labeled as DeGrasse class, without the space. Many near heart-attacks averted later, and things are on schedule.

More importantly, however, a few minor tweaks to the final building plans for the new Kaiserin-class Battleships have allowed the larger ships to perfectly match the performance of the older Dreadnought-class, despite the greater mass, to the point that the two classes can combine together perfectly. One of the consequences of this is that the new Kaiserins will roll slightly faster thanks to the more powerful RCS systems, increasing survivability and permitting the ship to more quickly bring unengaged weapons to bear on a target.

It’s while reading the reports on the new battleships that you get notified of another Black Steel attack, this time on Rauður. Thankfully the new jump point defenses, Oasis II and Black Tower had just barely gotten online. Home Fleet has their initial trial by fire, albeit a minor one as the Black Steel raid is fairly small, and with ships so new that they still had yard reps on board Home Fleet manages to secure a small victory. No losses to friendly ships, and the Black Steel lost a single corvette.

The commander of Home Fleet, Admiral Peter Bremman, is crowing about this as a vindication of the Home Fleet’s design philosophy, however Admiral Fisher rather pointedly observed that they were facing a raiding force consisting of two corvettes and a destroyer and that the destroyed corvette had first been crippled by the Black Tower thus preventing it from escaping with the other two ships.

Bremman, in an equally pointed response to his superior, observed that the small flotilla of corvettes and raiders that had engaged the Black Steel was the single lightest formation to yet achieve a kill against the Black Steel, that the Black Tower had only manage to disable the KF drive of the enemy ship, not the weapons or transit drive, and reiterated that his ships had taken no damage whatsoever, despite having less than two months to train together.

Speaking for yourself, you just hope that the boys are able to function despite the obvious testosterone poisoning going on.

Your daughter’s naked volleyball team has won the gold medal in the Pan Griffon Games, which is certainly a cause for celebration. Although you are quite sure that ‘celebration’ should not include quite so much bouncing. The crowd seems to enjoy it at least.

The settlement of the three habitable systems recently surveyed proceeds fairly smoothly, with the cover story for Blár system holding for the time being. Construction of the orbital shipyard in the Sturmland system is rather more problematic than expected thanks to an unfortunate minor misjump that resulted in essential components being rendered useless, although thankfully there were no casualties and subsequent shipments were able to make up for the loss to finish the facilities on time.

Otherwise yard construction and expansion has gone rather well, however you do get a somewhat concerning report. Managers of your Large Shipyards have expressed grave doubts that their facilities will be able to support anything significantly larger than the Kaiserin class. According to them, larger ships would require the largest compact KF core assembling equipment ever developed, as well as a whole new generation of yard tooling and equipment. Moreover the sheer complexity of such a large core would require so many skilled engineers and technicians that it’s doubtful that any but the largest systems with the greatest concentration of shipbuilding capacity already would be able to support such a facility to begin with.

On the other hand, the Kaiserin looks like it will be a very solid backbone to the fleet for a long time to come.

You have one last wedding this year, your second daughter Mary’s. Unlike her sisters, she is able to hold out for wearing a naval uniform for her wedding, mostly because unlike the Army, the Navy actually has a formal gown variant of the mess dress uniform. As a consequence your most potent argument in regards to stuffing your daughters into proper gowns for their wedding is disarmed before you get to make it, which is most unfair, and you are not willing to resort to the parental tool of last resort ‘because I said so’. On the other hand, you foresee many sibling pranks played on your dear daughter from her elder sisters annoyed that she gets to wear a uniform and they couldn’t.

In more important news, your eldest daughter has informed you that she is pregnant! You’ll have your first grandbaby next year!

In late December you get a raft of reports from DoME. They’ve completed multiple terraforming projects, on time and on budget, which you are quite pleased with. In the process of their work, moreover, they uncovered a vein of germanium ore in the New Clew Bay system, further increasing the local economic outlook.

R&D work on micro pulse lasers has yielded a successful prototype. Work has begun on developing new battle armor suits using the new weapon, which has the same effective range as the standard 3cm lasers currently mounted while having less mass and slightly more effective firepower thanks to their pulse properties.

Work on basic research into power generation and orbital infrastructure is also completed, yielding minor benefits across the board, especially in terms of improving the cost-effectiveness of orbital facilities.

The civil service expansion has proceeded without any significant issues, although you are getting a bit concerned at just how large the bureaucracy is getting these days. So far it hasn’t been an issue, especially with the aggressive pruning of regulations undertaken every several years by the Ministry of Justice, but it’s an ongoing concern. After all, the bureaucracy exists to serve the needs of the bureaucracy.

LordSunhawk · Dec 6, 2022

Turn 121 - Let The Music Do The Talking

The number of scouting runs performed by the Black Steel is increasing rapidly, all around your galactic northwestern frontier. Navy analysts believe that there will be a major Black Steel attack in the near future but are highly uncertain as to the most likely target. Arvum is still considered the most likely, but by a very small percentage over Waypoint 3 or one of the trinary stars. Home Fleet has their first ten flotillas based in the area, covering all five of the most likely targets with a pair of flotillas each. The Grand Fleet is holding position in the Baddorando system, where they can swiftly reinforce any of the most likely targets.

The Black Steel light units have the advantage over yours, in that they can sustain maximum thrust for long periods of time without concern over the effects of prolonged high-g exposure to biological systems. Your light units, on the other hand, tend to be more heavily armed and the Home Fleet is becoming quite proficient at firing missiles on bearing-only launches and allowing their built in seekers to provide terminal guidance well beyond the range of the ship’s own targeting systems.

It’s a bit of cat-and-mouse, the Black Steel corvettes have higher sustained acceleration, so Home Fleet cannot catch them, however Home Fleet’s missiles have enough acceleration and range to threaten the Black Steel if they remain on a predictable course. If the Black Steel changes their vectors to dodge the incoming missiles this allows the Home Fleet to claw back some of the range advantage possessed by the Black Steel. If the Black Steel turns back and attempts to bull rush the lighter Home Fleet units, the energy armed Ashevilles and Constellations move to engage with their heavy direct fire armament while the Tarantuls and Skjolds fall back and pepper the Black Steel with increasingly accurate capital missile fire.

Home Fleet is explicitly not using the taunts and insults that enrage the Black Steel, pretty much on the premise that such should be saved for when it is decisive and important, not wasted on such penny ante engagements. The last thing that the Navy wants is for their ace in the hole to not work when needed, and they consider destroying Black Steel coordination by enraging them past all reason to be such an ace.

It’s still nerve-wracking, waiting for the hammer to fall. Certainly the longer the Black Steel waits the more you are able to build up your forces, but as seen with the near total destruction of the Expeditionary Fleet, the Black Steel can inflict horrific damage.

This does raise a bit of a strategic quandary, however. The Expeditionary Fleet had been a vital part of the planning in regards to expanding in this region, and its loss makes it far riskier to continue to expand towards likely Black Steel strong points. However, leaving those strongpoints to continue to produce new vessels for the Black Steel also increases the overall threat posed by the psychotic cyborgs. On the other tentacle, there are other avenues of expansion that would allow you to continue to build up your forces and Empire while the Expeditionary Fleet is rebuilt.

In addition, Admiral Fisher, with the agreement of Admiral de Palo, feels that the Grand Fleet is about as large as is practical. While losses will still be replaced, and the Grand Fleet has first priority on the latest and most powerful ships, another fleet, tentatively named Strike Fleet, shall be formed, giving greater strategic flexibility. Right now, almost all of your naval eggs are in a single basket, and it is a basket that is getting so large that a single admiral cannot be expected to effectively command it.

In the meantime a decision needs to be made in regards to further Imperial expansion and survey activity.

The first option is to take the risk of defeat in detail and continue actively hunting the Black Steel even before the Expeditionary Fleet is rebuilt. There’s a possibility that you will be able to inflict much heavier damage on the Black Steel than you take, although the prospective casualties of such an approach are… grim. Taking out a single major Black Steel strongpoint might make them worthwhile, however, as that would prune back their production capacity and slow down their further growth.

The second option is to push expansion to the galactic west. This has a moderate risk of running into the Black Steel, as they are known to be active in the region, but at a much lesser level than the first option. This would also provide strategic depth in that section of the Empire around the Core world of Glorreich. If a survey squadron did run into the Black Steel out there they would likely be either destroyed or forced to flee, but the chances of that are considered much lower than the Northwest strategy.

The third option is to survey the frontier around the new Diamond March to the galactic northeast. This has the lowest chance of encountering any Black Steel activity, although it is still a tiny possibility, while also serving to clean out any remaining pirate nests in the region.

[]	Expansion Direction	Survey Targets
[]	Northwest	GX-C20, D21, E20, F19
[]	West	GX-I15, K14, M15, O15
[]	Northeast	GX-B32, C38, C39, C40

Your three newly married daughters are all pregnant now, which is a source of much happiness in the Imperial household. On your part both because this means you’ll soon have grandbabies to spoil but also because it means that the two daughters who are in the military are now on leave due to their pregnancy. You just happen to know that both of them had applied to have their babies grown in an Iron Womb due to their military service, applications which sadly were rejected for ‘technical reasons’. Said reasons had absolutely nothing to do with you giving Amaunet a significant look and raised eyebrow, nor the giant Grifftiger making any offhand comments to BuPers and BuMed about Imperial interest in said applications while cleaning her claws. Therefore your two military daughters are on restricted rear-area duty here in the Griffon system.

You do a truly magnificent job of keeping your smugness under control and commiserating with both of them about evil bureaucrats and their unreasonable ways. And if they ever do suspect the truth, you’ll just blame Markus.

LordSunhawk · Dec 7, 2022

Turn 121 - My Fist Your Face

Just when you thought things were looking up.

Multiple Black Steel fleets attacked simultaneously, hitting Baddorando, Arvum, Rauður, and Sturmland. Not all were the same size, those hitting Rauður and Sturmland were significantly smaller than those hitting Baddorando and Arvum.

However this did result in effective strategic paralysis, the Grand Fleet couldn’t redeploy to protect Arvum, as they were fighting for their lives against the Black Steel at Baddorando. Fortunately Arvum is the site of among the heaviest fixed defenses in the Empire, however the Black Steel broke from previous policy and completely ignored the planet itself, instead striking solely at the orbital infrastructure in a massive blitz attack. The Arvum Refit & Repair Yard is a complete loss. Worse, the Arvum Fleet Base will require extensive repairs before being able to support fleet operations in this region. Thankfully, due to the exposed location, no shipyards had been located in the Arvum system, however the change in focus is very concerning.

Unfortunately the raid on Sturmland did manage to mangle the relatively small orbital shipyard there into scrap, reducing your dropship production by a small amount. Again, the Black Steel didn’t bother lingering to bombard the planet, taking some damage from the orbital defenses as they shredded orbital infrastructure then buggered out with the Home Fleet chasing them.

Baddorando, however, was a near disaster. The numerous scouting runs by the Black Steel had clearly revealed the location of the Grand Fleet in that system, where it had been intended to reinforce any border worlds under direct attack by the Black Steel. Instead Admiral de Palo found herself pinned in place as an overwhelming Black Steel formation bore down on her. It was not in her nature to back down from a fight, and while Baddorando was a brand new colony with a very small population, the Admiral was unwilling to let them be slaughtered.

With the Expeditionary Fleet still rebuilding and unavailable, and with all Home Fleet assets engaged elsewhere, she was alone. The Black Steel had almost as many battleships as she had heavy cruisers, and almost as many destroyers and corvettes as she had parasites.

She attempted to taunt them into a rage, in hopes of disrupting their formation to allow for a defeat in detail. It worked, slightly. Many Black Steel light units did fall for the bait, although many returned to formation after a few moments. Only about a dozen cruisers completely ignored whoever was in charge of this fleet to charge in blindly and were slaughtered. But that still left well over fifteen hundred ships incoming.

There would be no fancy tactics here, no elaborate maneuvers, no trickery. This was a full up fleet action on a scale never before seen by your navy. None of the previous battles in the Arvum system even came close to the sheer weight of metal involved here.

It was brutal.

This particular Black Steel formation seemed to favor massive naval autocannons over anything else. They paid for that with range, but they didn’t seem to mind. They took the hits, unflinching in the face of massed naval PPCs, naval gauss rifles, and naval lasers that scarred and seared their formation with merciless flails of precision fire. They simply continued to close, until they were in their own range.

It was horrific.

The Black Steel used their numerical and mass advantage ruthlessly once they were in range, hammering your own formation with titanic shells hurled across the thousands of kilometers of distance to bury themselves in the armor of your own ships. Flights of Black Steel drone ASFs clashed with your own ASFs, with over three times as many drones as you had ASFs in the system. Your pilots fought valiantly. They died heroically. Parasite warships hurled themselves selflessly into the fray, pitting fragile hulls of mere ferro-aluminum against the thunders intended for the giants. They fought tenaciously. They fought hard. They died, not in vain, never in vain, but they died nonetheless.

It was cataclysmic.

Your lighter warships spent themselves like water, knowing that only the massed firepower of the battleline had any chance of salvaging the situation. The Dido-class light cruisers were especially valiant in this regard, forming wolfpacks to strike boldly at the incoming Black Steel formation while leaving the more vulnerable destroyers behind to provide a close-in screen. Admiral de Palo wept as she sent them in in a desperation tactic intended to buy that much more time for the battleline. But she sent them anyway, unflinching before her duty.

It was glorious.

The Black Steel, despite their superior numbers, despite their superior mass, were depleted significantly by the time they got in range of your battleline. Even so, the final hour of the battle was the most brutal, the most horrific, the most cataclysmic yet. There was no longer any subtlety. There were no maneuvers. Both sides blazed away at each other, machine guns at twenty paces in an open warehouse with no cover. Both sides dealt hammer blows to the other, both sides received terrible damage. It was now a contest of endurance.

It was victorious.

In the end the Black Steel was driven off in defeat, at a horrific cost. The Grand Fleet was shattered, taking massive casualties. There was not a single undamaged ship in the fleet. But the Black Steel had been stopped. More than stopped, shattered.

But you are reminded of the story of Pyrrhus. One more ‘victory’ like this and you will be completely lost.

ASF Losses	250 CAP Wings 133 Carrier Wings
Dropship Losses	638 Mikasa-class Parasite Battleship 136 Shimakaze-class Parasite Destroyer 408 Spruance-class Parasite Destroyer 67 Saipan-class Parasite Carrier 204 Wright-class Dockable ASF Platform
Escort Losses	195 Battle-class Destroyer
Small Warship Losses	284 Dido-class Light Cruiser 70 Guiseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruiser 25 Hosho-class Light Carrier
Medium Warship Losses	90 Prinz Eugen-class Heavy Cruiser
Large Warship Losses	47 Dreadnought-class Battleship 1 Saratoga-class Fleet Carrier

LordSunhawk · Dec 9, 2022

Turn 121 - Shame On You
In the aftermath of the Battle of Baddorando your allies step up in a rather big way. The NRI has fully taken responsibility for anti-piracy patrols along your galactic eastern and northeastern borders, freeing up the Home Fleet formations that had been handling that duty to be shifted to the Black Steel front. Meanwhile NRR ASF formations have done the same for your Aerospace Force units in both the northeast and southwestern frontiers, further permitting you to shift your forces to face the main threat.

The NRI’s light corvettes are completely unsuitable to face the Black Steel, back in the 2nd Battle of Arvum they were so utterly outmatched that they contributed little more than a minor distraction for the enemy. The NRR doesn’t even have any full warships, relying purely on ASF forces for their navy.

The Bourbons have taken over full responsibility for the RN campaign, freeing up those naval and aerospace forces that were still committed to that theater. Kilburrough lacks military forces beyond their fixed fortifications, but even they are contributing despite not being officially part of your alliance through increased trade volume, mostly in the biomedical area.

Admiral de Palo is expected to recover from her injuries, although she is currently in a medical coma. Admiral Fisher is… reminding you even more of your grandfather in just how grim and determined he’s become. Thankfully Admiral Sims is senior enough, and strong-willed enough, to force the old admiral to take at least weekends off. It’s obvious the old warhorse dislikes that, but is unwilling to force the issue in the face of the united front put on by his most trusted subordinate and his own wife. You have a feeling that as a mere Empress you’d not have nearly as much pull, which in a way is rather amusing.

You do receive a briefing from Admiral Sims about something called Project New Ironsides, from Majeure Electrique in coordination with the Navy’s own BuShips. They haven’t settled on a final name for it yet, but the idea is to build a somewhat cheaper heavy cruiser that is heavily armored enough to stand in the line, even at the expense of armament. The main advantage of the current design is that it has truly titanic anti-fighter and anti-missile capability, meaning that it will require fewer escorts and, once enough full sized capital ships are built to replace it in the line, it would still be a useful close-in escort vessel for the line. The fact that it is fast enough to keep pace with battlecruisers and fleet carriers is a welcome bonus.

[]	Name
[]	Littorio-class
[]	Fuso-class
[]	Orion-class
[]	Nevada-class
[]	Write-In (QM reserves right to veto write-ins)

Cost	Materials	HP	A/D	Specials
$1,638,958,400.00	DHS, LFA	5066	2966	Armored 210 AMS 160 Capital 3/1451 4/635 Capital AMS 376 Command 3 Max Thrust - 6 Drop Collars - 6

One of the other consequences of the Battle of Baddorando is that the England-class Frigates and Lyr-class Corvettes of Home Fleet have been transferred to the Grand Fleet in order to bulk up numbers while repairs and rebuilding take place.

A few days later Admiral Sims is back, with another product of the BuShips to present to you as a consequence of the Battle of Baddorando.

“Your Majesty, the Wright-class Dockable ASF Platform has proven itself very useful indeed, which has led to several junior officers in BuShips working out an additional use for the underlying technology. By incorporating the sensor suite from the Asheville-class raider into the basic design, they were able to develop a dockable platform equipped with arrays of naval lasers ranging from an octuple 55cm mount in the nose to pairs of quadruple 35cm and class 3 SCL lasers in flanking turrets. Four individual class 40 Hyper-Assault Gauss cannons in fast-track mounts, and octuple 8cm extended range laser turrets round out the offensive armament, with strap on 3cm anti missile turrets and a brace of 5cm pulse lasers for last ditch close-in defense. The same modified drop collars used for the Wright-class are suitable for the rather cheekily named Colt-class Defense Blisters. The Lieutenant who was the lead officer for the project rather cheerfully cited the old phrase ‘All men are created equal, Sam Colt made them that way.’.”

You can’t help laughing as you look over the schematics.

Name	Cost	Materials	HP	A/D	Specials
Colt Defense Blister	$5,453,700.00	DHS, LFA	366	166	Armored 10 AMS 160 Capital 2/42 3/66 4/110 Capital AMS 120

There are memorial services for the casualties of the battle taking place across the Empire. Thankfully the Black Steel had once again refrained from targeting escape pods and lifeboats, meaning that the actual death toll is actually significantly lower than previous engagements where fewer ships were lost in absolute terms. It’s still been a heavy hit, however, but you do wonder just what this change in tactics means for the Black Steel.

You get an answer of sorts from the Black Pumpernickels, who are still putting on performances in the Griffon system. Evidently by successfully standing up to them, and even defeating them on occasion, you’ve been promoted from ‘sub-sapient meatbags’ to ‘an almost worthy opponent’ with the corresponding increase in respect from the Black Steel. As such they are taking you more seriously, which means they’ll be less ‘leap and pounce’ and actually use proper tactics and strategies, but they also consider your spacers to be something other than target practice, thus they will now most likely respect your escape pods and such.

Joy.

But now it is budget time, time to see what progress can be made in recovering from this battle.

Amaunet is up first. “We’re all hurting right now, padrone, but from a cold-bloodedly practical point of view we can replace our losses, so this is not a pyrrhic victory no matter how painful it was. The question now will be if we can rebuild our losses faster than the Black Steel can rebuild theirs, and if we are at all fortunate, we can get enough strength into the Expeditionary and Strike Fleets to hit the Black Steel’s production facilities and slow them down even more.”

A faint growl goes around the room at that, and Amaunet nods her massive head. “That being said, General Bradley?”

The pugnacious general takes the podium at that point. “Your Majesty, the Army will continue to defer to the Navy and Aerospace Force for budget priority. I know this is unnatural, possibly heretical, and definitely against all of the rules of Armed Forces budget wars, but we’re doing it anyway.”

Amaunet’s chuffing laughter underscores the grim chuckles that fill the room at that, and you can’t help but smile.

Imperial Griffon Army
- Procurement
  - Garrison
    - 28 Garrison Divisions
    - 28 Militia Divisions

General Perkins is up next. “Your Majesty, the loss curve among ASF formations has undergone a steep rise, undermining the models we’d been using for production requests. As such we will be needing to request that additional factory complexes be built in order for us to further ramp up production.” He looks rather gaunt, as if he’d not been eating correctly. Considering the relatively small size of the Aerospace Force, it’s quite likely that he’s lost quite a few friends in the recent fighting.

Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
- Production
  - New ASF Factories
    - Glorreich
    - Shin Tōkyō
    - Kurortas
    - Raj
    - Pustina
- Procurement
  - 100 CAP Wing
  - 25 Carrier Wing

Admiral Fisher stalks to the podium, glaring furiously for a moment, then taking a deep breath. “If you do nothing else, build us more yards. The more escort yards you can get us, the better. They may not be powerful, but we need numbers, and destroyers give us numbers. I’d also like to commend BuShips and, grudgingly, Majeure Electrique’s design staff.” He says the latter as if it physically pains him. “They’ve come up with some excellent designs that should be quite useful to us.”

He brings up the display, his glare hardening as if daring anybody to comment on him actually having something nice to say about a civilian design firm.

Imperial Griffon Navy
- Production
  - Expand all Orbital Shipyards
  - Expand all Refit & Repair Yards
  - Escort Yards
    - Neubayern
    - Neuhessen
    - Nouvelle Bourgogne
    - Nuova Lombardia
    - Nuova Puglia
    - Nuovo Abruzzo
    - Nyū Shikoku
    - Stenen Tuin
    - New Libertalia
    - Nuova Tripoli
    - Catachan
    - Feurstern
    - Neuthüringen
    - Nowe Mazowsze
    - Nox
    - Platzregensburg
    - Iskra
    - New Algiers
    - New Clew Bay
    - Nubifragio
    - Bellaterra
    - Bohren
    - Landprettig
    - Porto Milano
    - Shin Tōkyō
    - Hot Mess
    - New Narnia
    - The Hub
    - Baddorando
    - Sturmland
  - Small Warship Yards
    - New Castor
    - New Port Royal
    - Nowy Wrocław
    - Nowy Slask
    - Chuma
    - Awha
    - Kaiyo
  - Medium Warship Yards
    - Glorreich
    - New Phoenix
    - Okusawa
    - Pieklo
    - Bari
  - Large Warship Yards
    - Griffon
    - Calliope
    - New Pollux
    - Nowy Warszawa
- Procurement
  - Standard Dropships
    - 200 Shimakaze-class Parasite Destroyers
    - 200 Spruance-class Parasite Destroyers
    - 48 Wright-class Dockable ASF Platforms
    - 50 Colt-class Defense Blisters
  - Large Dropships
    - 30 Saipan-class Parasite Carriers
    - 235 Mikasa-class Parasite Battleships
  - Jumpships
    - 9 Windjammer-class Jumpship
  - Escorts
    - 110 Battle-class Destroyers
    - 10 Skjold-class Missile Corvettes
    - 10 Constellation-class Corvettes
    - 50 Tarantul-class Missile Raiders
    - 50 Asheville-class Raiders
  - Small Warships
    - 40 Dido-class Light Cruisers
    - 20 Guiseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruisers
    - 25 De Grasse-class Light Cruisers
    - 4 Hosho-class Light Carriers
  - Medium Warships
    - 20 Prinz Eugen-class Heavy Cruisers
    - 10 Algerie-class Heavy Cruisers
  - Large Warships
    - 10 Kaiserin-class Battleships
    - 6 Jean Bart-class Battlecruisers
- Fortress Command
  - Black Tower
    - Neuthüringen
    - New Algiers
    - New Clew Bay
    - Nuova Tripoli
    - New Libertalia

He stamps his way back to his seat in a ringing silence.

Elizabeth Lee clears her throat. “Interior is ready and able, Your Majesty, like I always say. We’ll get whatever is needed to be built.” She then looks down at her notes. “Otherwise, to start with, we’ve got a number of very bored DoME teams looking for new challenges.”

DoME
- Planetary Optimization - Peripheral - Nox
- Terraforming
  - Porto Milano
  - Feurstem
  - Steingarten
  - Olej
  - Neubayern

“When it comes to economic work, our analysts believe that we can make the greatest overall impact with the following array of investments, foci, and industrial zones.”

Economic Focus, Major Investment & Industrial/Infrastructure
- Economic Focus
  - Core
    - Nya Köpenhamn
  - Periphery
    - Iskra
- Major Investment
  - Core
    - Kaiyo
  - Periphery
    - Iskra
- Investment
  - Novolar
- Infrastructure & Industrial Zone
  - Hot Mess
  - Baddorando
  - New Narnia
  - Nouvelle Bourgogne
  - Nuova Puglia

“Finally, I know we took a bad hit, but we do have the option of continuing survey work to the galactic west. It might be a bit more risky than we expected, but hopefully the losses taken by the Black Steel will give us an opening to expand.”

Survey Targets
- GX-I17
  - Already tentatively named Waypoint 4, this is a Blue-White Supergiant. This is one of two systems with a risk of encountering the Black Steel, but due to the general lack of Black Steel activity in the vicinity this is deemed to be very low risk
- GX-I15
  - A yellow main-sequence primary star, slightly hotter than our own, promises a system with at least one habitable world. Astronomers have detected multiple gas giants as well.
- GX-K14
  - While technically an ‘orange’ star, K14 is extremely close to the ‘yellow’ temperature scale, with the difference being very subtle. Absorption lines seem to indicate a general dearth of heavy metals in the system, however, making it unlikely that there will be any truly rich planets present
- GX-M15
  - Already tentatively named Waypoint 5, this is a Red Giant with a very low possibility of habitable worlds. Like I17, there is an increased risk of Black Steel presence here, however for the same reasons as I17 this risk is assessed as very low.
- GX-O15
  - Another orange main-sequence star, unlike K14 there are signs of significant heavy metals present in this system.

Agostino takes over, looking a bit somber. “Your Majesty, I’ve been in close contact with our allies, all of whom are providing what support that they can. In the same vein, I have been consulting with our cultural affairs people about something appropriate for the recent events. They pointed out that the Olympics are next year, scheduled to be hosted in the Glorreich system, and that the organizing committee has already announced that they will be theming the ceremonies and such around recognizing those who fought and died against the Black Steel. We concluded that the best way to honor them, in a manner that would have the greatest impact, would be to ensure that our athletes did exceptionally well next year. As such we propose resurrecting the sports camps that haven’t been run for over a decade now.”

Tiberius is absent, his three youngest sons were among those seriously injured at Baddorando and he was granted leave to take his vacation days in order to take care of his family.

Grace is up next. “Your Majesty, we’ve got 3 teams available and are ready to get to work.” she says a bit grimly.

Research & Development
- Improved Automation lvl 10
- Improved Education lvl 10
- Micro ER Lasers

General Messerschmidt is up next. “Your Majesty, while we have no budget requests at this time, we do have the results from Kilburrough on the mysteries surrounding the Rouges Noir. They have determined that there were no more than two dozen clone lines involved, all artificially gestated and all showing extensive signs of bioneural tampering. Their brain chemistries were extremely abnormal and well outside of healthy human ranges. The closest equivalent that was found was that of certain hive minded insects. Our engineers working on the SLIC equipment have discovered log files which indicate that this was a completely unauthorized project concealing itself within SLIC but actually working for the Rim Worlds Republic, funded by the Amaris regime. It appears to have been intended as a project to produce perfectly docile laborers incapable of rebelling against authority while still capable of highly technical work.” He looks up and meets your eyes. “The log indicates a 90% failure rate, with failures suffering extremely aggressive brain cancers and strokes, which were seen as ‘acceptable’ by their actual sponsors.”

You throw up a little in your mouth.

LordSunhawk · Dec 11, 2022

Turn 121 - The Reason A Dog

Meta Event	53
Dynasty Luck	39
	Successes
Imperial Approval	0
Approval Change	-1
Political Event	1
	Successes
Imperial Economy	3
Economic Event	3
Research Event	0

Griffon	Econ	0
	Health	7
	Event	1

Nowa Warszawa	Econ	4
	Health	4
	Event	2

Calliope IV	Econ	0
	Health	7
	Event	1

TTP	Econ	0
	Health	7
	Event	1

New Capricorn	Econ	0
	Health	7
	Event	1

Nowy Śląsk	Econ	0
	Health	7
	Event	1

Edelsteine	Econ	0
	Health	7
	Event	1

Nowy Wroclaw	Econ	0
	Health	7
	Event	1

Griff's Leap	Econ	0
	Health	7
	Event	1

New Phoenix	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	4

New Eden	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	4

New Castor	Econ	0
	Health	7
	Event	1

Okusawa	Econ	4
	Health	4
	Event	2

New Pollux	Econ	5
	Health	3
	Event	4

New Port Royal	Econ	4
	Health	1
	Event	1

Kainga	Econ	5
	Health	3
	Event	4

Chuma	Econ	5
	Health	3
	Event	4

Stahlfurt	Econ	4
	Health	1
	Event	1

Bāṛi	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	4

Skała	Econ	4
	Health	4
	Event	2

Piekło	Econ	4
	Health	4
	Event	2

Nya Köpenhamn	Econ	0
	Health	7
	Event	1

Bauernparadis	Econ	5
	Health	3
	Event	4

Awha	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	4

Kaiyo	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	4

Bohren	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	4

Grand View	Econ	5
	Health	3
	Event	4

Iskra	Econ	5
	Health	3
	Event	4

Raj	Econ	4
	Health	4
	Event	2

Feurstern	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	4

Pinball	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	4

Catachan	Econ	4
	Health	4
	Event	2

Nox	Econ	5
	Health	3
	Event	4

Olej	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	4

Glorreich	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

Pryyemnyy	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

Novolar	Econ	5
	Health	3
	Event	4

Steingarten	Econ	5
	Health	3
	Event	4

Pustina	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

Kurortas	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

Arvum	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

Landprettig	Econ	4
	Health	4
	Event	2

Bellaterra	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

Nubifragio	Econ	4
	Health	4
	Event	2

Platzregensburg	Econ	4
	Health	1
	Event	1

Shin Tōkyō	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

Porto Milano	Econ	4
	Health	1
	Event	1

Nuova Fortezza	Econ	4
	Health	1
	Event	1

Nowe Mazowsze	Econ	4
	Health	4
	Event	2

Neuthüringen	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

New Algiers	Econ	4
	Health	1
	Event	1

New Clew Bay	Econ	4
	Health	1
	Event	1

Nuova Tripoli	Econ	4
	Health	1
	Event	1

New Libertalia	Econ	4
	Health	1
	Event	1

Nuova Puglia	Econ	10
	Health	3
	Event	2

Nuovo Abruzzo	Econ	10
	Health	3
	Event	2

Nuova Lombardia	Econ	10
	Health	3
	Event	2

Stenen Tuin	Econ	10
	Health	3
	Event	2

Nouvelle Bourgogne	Econ	10
	Health	3
	Event	2

Nyū Shikoku	Econ	4
	Health	1
	Event	1

Neubayern	Econ	10
	Health	3
	Event	2

Neuhessen	Econ	10
	Health	3
	Event	2

Hot Mess	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

New Narnia	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

The Hub	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

Baddorando	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

Sturmland	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

Blár	Econ	4
	Health	3
	Event	3

Plan: Risky Expansion
- Procurement [$ 729,981,696,708.38 ]
-- Lay Down Major Unit [Construction - $10,994,275,962.00 ] (95)
--- 200 Shimakaze [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 2
Result - SUCCESS

--- 200 Spruance [95]
Target - 95
Roll – 100, Jarow reroll - 94
Result - SUCCESS

--- 48 Wright [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 58
Result - SUCCESS

--- 50 Colt [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 4
Result - SUCCESS

--- 235 Mikasa [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 27
Result - SUCCESS

--- 30 Saipan [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 15
Result - SUCCESS

-- Lay down Jumpship [Jumpship Construction - $41,940,121.95 ] (90)
--- 9 Windjammer [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 70
Result - SUCCESS

-- Lay down Warship [Warship Construction - $424,410,040,366.67 ] (90)
--- 110 Battle [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 73
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Skjold [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 15
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Constellation [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 30
Result - SUCCESS

--- 50 Tarantul [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 66
Result - SUCCESS

--- 50 Asheville [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 64
Result - SUCCESS

--- 40 Dido [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 83
Result - SUCCESS

--- 20 Guiseppe Garibaldi [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 3
Result - SUCCESS

--- 25 De Grasse [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 30
Result - SUCCESS

--- 4 Hosho [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 30
Result - SUCCESS

--- 20 Prinz Eugen [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 65
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Algerie [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 20
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Kaiserin [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 57
Result - SUCCESS

--- 6 Jean Bart [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 43
Result - SUCCESS

-- Purchase New Units [Minor Unit - $ 55,534,790,257.76 ] (90)
--- 25 Carrier Wing [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 50
Result - SUCCESS

--- 100 CAP Wing [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 56
Result - SUCCESS

--- 28 Garrison Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 17
Result - SUCCESS

--- 28 Militia Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 37
Result - SUCCESS

-- Fortress Command [$ 229,000,650,000 ] (90)
--- Construct Black Tower
---- Neuthuringen [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 2
Result - SUCCESS

---- New Algiers [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 62
Result - SUCCESS

---- New Clew Bay [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 36
Result - SUCCESS

---- Nuova Tripoli [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 8
Result - SUCCESS

---- New Libertalia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 6
Result - SUCCESS

-- SLEP [$ 10,000,000,000 ] (100)
--- SLEP all Mech Units* [->8]
--- SLEP all Conventional Units* [->8]

- General [$ 2,308,750,000,000.00 ]
-- Focus Development on Core World Nya Kopenhamn [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 57
Result - SUCCESS

-- Focus Development on Peripheral World Iskra [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 26
Result - SUCCESS

-- Massive Core Investment Kaiyo [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 51
Result - SUCCESS

-- Massive Peripheral Investment Iskra [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 94, ShadowArxxy reroll - 25
Result - SUCCESS

-- Economic Investment Novolar [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 86
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on New Narnia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 83
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Nouvelle Bourgogne [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 25
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Hot Mess [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 24
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Baddorando [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 21
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Nuova Puglia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 20
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build ASF Factory Complex (95)
--- Glorreich [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 8
Result - SUCCESS

--- Shin Tōkyō [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 41
Result - SUCCESS

--- Kurortas [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 20
Result - SUCCESS

--- Raj [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 10
Result - SUCCESS

--- Pustina [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 42
Result - SUCCESS

-- Survey GX-I17 [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 36
Result - SUCCESS

-- Survey GX-I15 [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 63
Result - SUCCESS

-- Survey GX-K14 [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 100, Bear Ribs reroll - 11
Result - SUCCESS

-- Survey GX-M15 [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 22
Result - SUCCESS

-- Survey GX-O15 [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 66
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nuovo Abruzzo [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 44
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nyu Shikoku [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 50
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Stenen Tuin [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 49
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Catachan [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 20
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard New Libertalia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 67
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nuova Tripoli [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 7
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Catachan [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 4
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Feurstem [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 74
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Neuthuringen [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 20
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nowe Mazowsze [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 60
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nox [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 51
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Platzregensburg [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 47
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Iskra [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 48
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard New Algiers [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 25
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard New Clew Bay [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 80
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nubifragio [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 31
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Bellaterra [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 26
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Landprettig [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 60
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Porto Milano [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 53
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Shin Tokyo [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 51
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard The Hub [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 21
Result - SUCCESS

-- Upgrade Refit & Repair Yard [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 99
Result - SUCCESS

-- Expand Orbital Shipyards [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 96
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard New Capricorn* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 7
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Edelsteine* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 2
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Nya Kopenhamn* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 13
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Kainga* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 15
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard New Phoenix [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 17
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Okusawa [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 39
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Pieklo [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 65
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Bari [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 77
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Glorreich [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 90
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard New Port Royal [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 77
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Nowy Wroclaw [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 65
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard New Castor [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 70
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Nowy Slask [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 82
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Chuma [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 59
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Awha [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 62
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Kaiyo [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 24
Result - SUCCESS

- DoME [$ 3,082,000,000,000.00 ]
-- Expand Shin Tōkyō Arcologies* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 27
Result - SUCCESS

-- Terraforming Neuhessen* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 40
Result - SUCCESS

-- Terraforming Pinball* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 40
Result - SUCCESS

-- Planetary Optimization (Peripheral) - Nox [->1]

- Research [$ 19,400,500,000,000.00 ]
-- Improved Elder Quality of Life Lvl 3* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 9
Result - SUCCESS

-- Power Transfer (Advanced) Tier 7 [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 89
Result - SUCCESS

-- Commercial R&D [-]
-- Industrial R&D [-]

- Miscellaneous [$ 134,370,200,000.00 ]
-- Culture [$ 1,000,000,000 ]
--- (Sports) Fund sports camps to improve performance in low performing Olympic sports [80]
-- Production Contract [->7?][134,700,000,000]

-----

After all the hell you’ve been through this year, the heavy blow from the Black Steel and everything else, it’s just so nice to be holding your first grandchild. It’s a beautiful promise that despite everything, life is in fact still good. Your daughter is positively radiant, and you have hope that she’ll catch the babies bug like you had once you’d gotten started, and thus provide you with more grandbabies rather than risking her neck in her mech cockpit.

Within a month two grandsons joined the family. Honestly, you now fully understand your great-grandmother. Being a mom is amazing and wonderful, but being a ba is divine. All of the joy, none of the midnight feedings.

You are rather nervous over the survey expeditions that you send out, but are very relieved when no major Black Steel forces are spotted. A single Black Steel frigate scurries off from a picket station around GX-K14 but otherwise nothing. The fact that said frigate didn’t even try to engage nominally weaker opposition has the intelligence analysts scratching their heads as this is quite different from usual behavior.

The surveys themselves go quite well.

GX-I17 is, as expected, a planet-free blue-white supergiant that is a true monster of a star. The only reason it doesn’t dominate the night sky of the entire region is due to the relatively thick, if economically useless, cloud of dust that surrounds it.

GX-I15 is a world of stark contrasts. While there are massive oceans, the land is mostly desert. Granted this is partially because the most advanced life form that has evolved here are algae mats. OK, probably almost solely because the most advanced life form that has evolved here are algae mats. The atmosphere is not quite breathable either, with a very high CO2 percentage. DoME is salivating at the chance to do some serious terraforming work on the sole planet, which has the same name as the system, Nueva Chiapas.

GX-K14 is rather cautiously scouted out due to concerns over what the Black Steel frigate was up to. In some ways the system is extremely disappointing, there are almost no mineral resources at all even in the thin asteroid belts or the various moons in the system. However, almost as if to make up for things, the sole habitable planet is a farmer’s paradise, home to massive fields of grasses with the perfect climate and growing season for immense crops. Even the soils are exceptionally fertile and well watered. The nearly flat terrain, combined with how ideal it is for agriculture, led to the expedition leader dubbing the place New Kansas.

GX-M15 is a bit of an astronomers puzzle. It currently is a rather sedate and stable red giant star, but it is surrounded by multiple planetary nebulae indicating that at some point in the past it was experiencing multiple nova events. The innermost shell has been estimated to be less than ten thousand years old. If there ever were planets or asteroids here they’ve long ago been obliterated.

The survey teams find signs of a past attempt at colonization of GX-O15, apparently by people who managed to flee Nowa Warszawa while under Drac occupation. The attempt, sadly, failed over a century ago, but there are remains which are being treated with all due respect. If the refugees had had proper equipment they might well have been able to make a go of things, for the planet is amazingly rich in industrial metals and the system has extensive germanium deposits. According to records discovered in the failed colony the refugees had named it Nowego Lublina and, out of respect for them, it was decided to retain the name.

Paperwork snafus seem to be the bane of peoples existence this year as both the project to build new Spruance-class parasite destroyers and the investment project on Iskra fell prey to minor issues involving misfiled and mishandled paperwork. Fortunately things were handled in a timely manner and no delays actually took place, but it’s a stern reminder that the Gods of Paperwork are utterly ruthless and unforgiving.

Other than that things seem to be going quite well, with robust investment and economic activity, a strong record of shipyard expansion, and hundreds of new naval vessels of all kinds coming into service.

At this time your single most common ship in service is the Lyr-class corvette and the navy wishes to cycle them through the Refit & Repair Yards for a major refurbishment to bring them fully up to date with the latest technology. Ironically, this is expected to reduce the cost of the new ships while fully preserving their capability, which is a rather impressive achievement. While the Lyr is no longer in production, in favor of the new corvettes and raiders for Home Fleet, you have 900 of them in service, so improving them is probably an excellent idea.

[]	Action	Result
[]	Approve upgrades to the Lyr-class Corvette	Cost $9,000,000,000.00 Upgrades all Lyr-class Corvettes
[]	Let’s not waste time on an obsolete design	No change

Name	Cost	Materials	HP	A/D	Specials
Original	$623,583,200.00	DHS, LFA	5235	5035	Armored 10 AMS 160 Missile 308 Capital 1/2556 2/148 3/455 4/45 Capital AMS 102
Refit	$611,482,420.00	DHS, LFA	5235	5035	Armored 10 AMS 160 Missile 308 Capital 1/2556 2/148 3/455 4/45 Capital AMS 120

Another event occurs which you have mixed feelings about. Your youngest daughter has made Team Griffon’s Nude Volleyball team and will be competing as a starter in the Olympics next year. On the one hand you are extremely happy for her, on the other she is going to be showing the goods to everybody… and you are rather jealous as you’d wanted to compete when you were her age and weren’t able to since you were the Empress.

LordSunhawk · Dec 12, 2022

Turn 122 - Shela

There is a major controversy building up in the Empire. One that is pitting family members against each other, best friends on opposite sides, brother against sister, mother against daughter, father against son. It erupted out of nowhere, and is now turning into a great contest of wills.

Which is cuter, the bumbling lystrosaurus, or the Capricorn cuddlebear.

A biotech research firm has recently managed to develop a subspecies of the Capricorn Cuddlebear that can eat ordinary vegetable matter rather than being hyper-specialized to the giant bamboos found on the continent of Capricorn. They are now being marketed on the pet market after passing all relevant safety and ethics review boards. And this has caused the most hilarious ‘conflict’ you ever saw… which is cuter and more cuddly.

The cuddlebear seems to have only one ambition in life, to be cute and cuddly. Ten out of ten grifftigers agree, cuddlebears are just too cute and cuddly to hunt in the wild. Many people seem to agree, considering how popular they are becoming as pets.

Lystros, on the other hand, are merely incredibly cute, in a bumbling sort of way, and their detachable tails are the yummiest steaks imaginable, so they are cute and delicious, and you can enjoy lystro tail steaks without any guilt, since detaching the tail not only doesn’t hurt them but is actually very advantageous to the cute critters health. And very delicious.

The Eldest manages to settle the entire affair by posting an image universally accepted as the final word on the subject, a cuddlebear cuddling a lystrosaurus. This is promptly declared to be the cuteness singularity before which all other cuteness must bow.

You are still giggling over the entire thing days later.

You aren’t able to leave Griffsport for the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics this year over on Glorreich, but you do make a point of watching. The Bourbons had lodged fresh protests this year over the existence of naked volleyball, being exceptionally self-righteous about it all. You contacted the Bourbon king and he informs you that he shuffled off a number of moral busybodies to something harmless and apologizes if they’re being annoying.

Considering that such protests from those twits is quite common anyways, and the Committee pretty much lets them rant, asks for a second on their motion, which never happens, and the case is closed for another four years.

This year, however, apparently the athletes from all four teams are tired of it all. So during the Athletes Parade in the Opening Ceremony things get a tad spicy, as all four teams decide to protest the shenanigans of those busybodies by wearing precisely what was issued to them upon their respective births. Good thing that the Empire is not prudish at all, or you’d probably be flooded with complaints about this.

And of course your youngest daughter is right there with the rest of Team Griffon.

The Black Steel has not made any moves in the first few weeks of the year, although there is an uptick in pirate activity along your eastern flank, the NRI patrols are doing a superb job dealing with that problem. Reports indicate that the pirates are making use of somewhat more sophisticated equipment, not nearly up to your standards but better than they’d been using previously.

It had originally been thought that the Iskra system would achieve Core status this year, however a number of corporate failures in the electronics industry have delayed this by at least a year as that sector of the local economy recovers. The companies in question produced consumer goods but had been caught out by shifting consumer preferences, they bet on the wrong horse, so to speak, and a number of bankruptcies and reorganizations followed.

The refits of the Lyr-class are underway. Admiral Bremman of Home Fleet has requested that the refitted Lyrs not be reassigned to his fleet, however, citing their incompatibility with their tactical doctrine. He recommends that once they are no longer needed by Grand Fleet that they be first transferred to Strike Fleet, then retired to system garrison duty.

Admiral Fisher, Admiral de Palo and Admiral Fanni all object to this, on the grounds that the Lyr is too capable an interstellar platform to be relegated to mere system defense duties, that Home Fleet is supposed to include ‘garrison duty’ as part of their mission anyways, and that Admiral Bremman is just angling to eventually get a number of rather wild ‘missile’ destroyer, cruiser, and even battleship designs into service.

You’ve met Admiral Bremman, you totally can see him doing something like that. So you preemptively rule that once Grand Fleet is back up to strength the Lyrs will go back to Home Fleet. You do approve of some competition among your commanders, it helps keep them all sharp, but you are not willing to sacrifice efficiency for the purpose.

That being said, a replacement for the Guiseppe Garibaldi-class Light Cruisers has been proposed by BuShips. It’s currently in the early design phase, with multiple designs being considered at the moment. One path is simply an updated Garibaldi, keeping the same basic armament, adding the new modular AMS systems, upgrading the fire control suites to further boost what the existing design is already specialized in (making enemy ASFs truly regret their existence), and removing some ‘gold-plated’ equipment that seemed like a good idea at the time. The other takes the same basic platform but goes in a somewhat different direction, stripping out the bow armament, the sub-capital lasers, and the ASF complement in order to fit a lethal array of heavy naval PPCs and heavy naval gauss cannons. A third design under consideration is a bit of a hybrid between the two, but one with a focus on actual ‘cruiser’ operations rather than acting purely as part of the screen, with a more varied armament optimized for independent operations. Admiral Fisher promises to keep you up to date on developments.

Another military development that is of interest to you is that the three branches of the military have finally settled on a unified standard suit of sealed power armor, as opposed to battle armor. Previously all three services had their own suits for use by pilots and vehicle crews with none of them being cross-compatible. Amaunet finally settled the arguments, as all three branches had been loudly insisting that they couldn’t possibly use suits designed for the other branches as they ‘didn’t meet their needs’.

The Army insisted on mounting an anti-personnel gauss rifle on a stowable shoulder mount, along with an attachment to fit their standard laser assault rifle to one arm without interfering with the armored gloves of the suit. The aerospace force were quite happy with the gauss rifle but wanted jump jets and extended life support without the infantry rifle mount. The navy, meanwhile, wanted no weapons on the suit, full space-adaptation gear but no jump jets, and a set of cutting torches faired into the forearms of the suit for emergency situations.

Amaunet had put up with the quibbling for quite some time before finally putting her paw down, the final suit is an amalgamation of these features that every single one of the services absolutely hates. It has a mounting for a standard infantry rifle on one arm, the integrated cutting torches, full space adaptation gear, jump jets, and extended life support capacity.

You are not all that sympathetic when everybody comes to you about this. You figure that it’s the perfect compromise, since it accomplishes what needs to be done yet absolutely nobody is actually happy about it.

Amaunet has informed you that she is absolutely certain that technicians in the field will happily remove unneeded features and customize the suits to their individual users preferences, but that’s OK, this creates a common structural core that will seriously improve the logistics of the situation.

LordSunhawk · Dec 14, 2022

Turn 122 - Gypsy Boots
After the highest rated Opening Ceremony in Olympics History, which has you shaking your head in fond exasperation as you are absolutely certain you know why that was, the games have begun. The NRI continues to be dominant in gymnastics, with the various athletics events being rather more hotly contested. You do manage a trio of silver medals in gymnastics, missing gold by a fraction of a point. In athletics you get either gold or silver in all events, but all are quite close making for some excellent competition.

So far the Olympics this year are shaping up to be a great success. Merchandise sales are up significantly over the last couple Olympiads, and it looks like these games will pay for themselves several times over.

Apart from a few light units showing up on apparent scouting missions the Black Steel have been worryingly quiet so far this year. In a way it’s welcome, as it indicates that they are needing to rebuild as badly as you are, but in another it’s concerning since you don’t know when they’ll be ready to strike again and can only hope you get enough time to prepare.

Admiral Fisher has sent you details on a heavily updated Prinz Eugen design. It’s too different for refits to be carried out, but similar enough that the Navy is retaining the class name and simply designating it as a new flight of ships. Developed under ‘Project Portland’, the new design uses the same drives and reuses most of the internal structure, but deletes the fighter hangars, reduces the number of drop collars, and increases the armament substantially. According to the Admiral, many of the design changes are due to a desire to move away from internally carried ASF wings on anything but dedicated carriers, relying on the dockable ASF platforms for fighter support. Indeed, of the eight collars on the Prinz Eugen II, six of them are intended to be dedicated to either Wright-class Dockable ASF Platforms or Colt-class Defense Blisters. This both reduces costs of the platform but also shrinks the crew requirements.

Name	Cost	Materials	HP	A/D	Specials
Prinz Eugen II	$2,134,162,000.00	DHS, LFA	5839	4189	Armored 140 AMS 160 Capital 3/1801 4/2706 Capital AMS 336 Command 6

Admiral Fisher has also sent you the design notes on the replacement for the Dido-class, tentatively named the Belfast-class. Unlike other projects, Project Belfast is slightly more expensive than the ship it is intended to replace, mostly because it drops the internal ASF hangar for four additional drop collars. It also removes the HPG system, which had been found to be unused on the Didos as they always operated with larger ships. The new design has greater overall firepower, slightly improved fire control, and enhanced anti-ASF capability, making it a better overall screening unit.

Since the name is currently tentative, the Admiral includes a number of options for you to choose from for a permanent name for the new class.

[]	Name
[]	Belfast
[]	Almirante Grau
[]	Caroline
[]	Little Rock
[]	Mikhail Kutuzov

QM NOTE - Yes, I did indeed select from the names of the 5 current surviving light cruisers which are museum ships 🙂

Cost	Materials	HP	A/D	Specials
$1,774,151,140.00	DHS, LFA	2650	1850	Armored 60 AMS 160 Capital 2/233 3/132 4/1602 Capital AMS 668 Command 3

Parliament is in session and has sent you some legislation to look over.

The Small Business Act of 3052 seeks to modernize and update the existing Small Business Subsidy scheme that has existed for over fifty years at this point since the last revision. Since that time, with the rapid growth of the Empire, the relative value of the subsidy has shrunk to the point where it is no longer providing the benefits that were intended at the time of its initial passage. Thanks to the dynamic growth of the Empire, the sheer cost of doing business on the scale needed to be successful in this economy, let alone to compete with franchises of the major corporate entities of the Empire, has reached the point where the subsidy is just barely covering taxes, rather than giving small businesses a true leg up to enable them to compete on an even basis with their far larger transteller competitors.

Therefore Parliament is proposing a 33% increase in the annual subsidy, subject to the same highly stringent and well-balanced and administered requirements of the existing program. Thanks to the way the program is structured, the overhead costs would only go up by slightly less than a third of a percentage point.

[]	Action	Argument	Result
[]	Sign the Small Business Act of 3052	It is a fact that the true bedrock of our economic success has always been entrepreneurial individuals creating small businesses to provide critical goods and services. While the major companies may dominate the headlines, the majority of our economic activity actually resides within the small business community. The Small Business Subsidy has proven to be an effective tool to help small businesses get over the Year One Hump and primes them for long term success. Past experience shows that within a decade over 75% of all small businesses which received an SBS grant have fully repaid the value of said grant in tax payments. This number would be higher if it weren’t for the gradual erosion of the effectiveness of the subsidy in helping businesses survive that hump.	Increases Small Business Subsidy level from 2 to 3 +1 Approval -1 Imperial Economy Prevents Certain Events
[]	Veto the Small Business Act of 3052	We keep on hearing about the ‘nobility’ of small businesses, praise for their ‘entrepreneurial spirit’. As if the major corporations that make up the majority of our GDP are somehow lacking in both, simply by virtue of being successful. What this proposal effectively does is denigrate the importance of big business, and steals from their tax receipts to subsidize their competitors who are unable to swim on their own. This is manifestly unfair and increasing this subsidy is a slap in the face to the true business leaders of the Empire.	-1 Approval Change +1 Economic Event

LordSunhawk · Dec 17, 2022

Turn 122 - She’s On Fire

The Olympics continue to be highly successful this year, with Team Griffon continuing their winning ways. While the motor racing events are a given, they still turn in impressive performances which have audiences wildly enthusiastic. Superb performances at Archery, Wrestling and various swimming and diving events bring in plenty more golden hardware for the team.

Your daughter does superbly in the Volleyball event, which again draws some of the highest ratings in Olympics history. You wish you could say this was purely due to athletic prowess but you are quite realistic, a good portion of that is ‘see the princess naked!’ viewership.

You are totally not jealous.

There have been a few sightings of Black Steel light units, mostly frigates and corvettes, but still no engagements as the Black Steel are assiduously avoiding battle. Of particular worry, however, is that the sightings range all along your western and northwestern frontier, rather than remaining focused solely in the northwest. This has your naval analysts quite concerned, as they admit that it is getting far harder to predict Black Steel movements and targets.

As a consequence Home Fleet has sent out a RFP for a resurrection of the old PGL concept to provide planetary defense forces with additional firepower against Black Steel attacks. One of the advantages of the advances in technology is that it is now possible to nearly mass-produce such small ships, allowing multiples to be built in a single orbital shipyard slip. As such, the new designs would be built in groups of ten, allowing for rapid buildup of defensive forces while, conversely, limiting them to very small dropships.

Private industry has sent in three designs to meet this RFP, while BuShips has developed their own concept for the mission.

Pyramid Industries is still around, building civilian transports, and has responded with the smallest of the entries. While it only has a pair of 10cm subcapital lasers and is by a wide margin the most lightly armed and armored, the PGL-57 concept nonetheless is the least expensive while technically meeting the requirements. Prospective crews have registered objections to the lack of dedicated escape pods on the design, with the crew having to rely on the attached shuttle for emergencies.

Cerberus Industries has proposed the PGL-52A Mitchell concept. The heaviest of the four concepts, it nonetheless is fairly inexpensive. Armed with a pair of 30cm subcapital lasers in the nose, along with a suite of energy and ballistic weapons including quartets of ancient 50mm class-5 autocannons in the stern. There are concerns about potential ammunition explosions, especially as the original heat dissipation system was grossly inadequate although that has been corrected in the latest version.

Majeure Electrique’s PGL-35 concept is somewhat typical of the firm's design ethos. Armed only with a single 30cm subcapital laser in the nose with extensive conventional armament in the wings and tail. It is the only concept which features banks of long-range missiles to enhance anti-fighter capability.

The BuShips PGL-100 concept is the same mass as the PGL-35, while featuring dual 30cm subcapital lasers along with heavy energy and ballistic armament, including an octet of class 40 hyper-assault gauss rifles in the nose. Their concept is the best armored of the four, with the most offensive and defensive potential, but is also the most expensive of the four.

[]	Name	Cost	Materials	HP	A/D	Specials
[]	PGL-57	$439,513,200.00	FAA, DHS	2810	1610	Armored 7 AMS 800 Capital 3/40 Capital AMS 80 Swift
[]	PGL-52A	$606,790,728.00	FAA, DHS	3710	2110	Armored 11 AMS 960 Capital 2/100 Capital AMS 96 Swift
[]	PGL-35	$732,024,000.00	FAA, DHS	4070	2570	Armored 10 AMS 800 Missile 170 Capital 2/50 Capital AMS 80 Swift
[]	PGL-100	$762,456,000.00	FAA, DHS	5310	3410	Armored 14 AMS 800 Capital 2/100 Capital AMS 80 Swift

QM Note - all numbers are for a group of 10

The current plan is to focus these new units on systems most at risk from the Black Steel. While they would be very unlikely to be able to stop a concerted attack, they should be able to buy enough time for heavier forces to arrive before too much damage is done. In a way they are sacrificial units, at least until you get enough of them that they might be able to stop the Black Steel with a death of a million cuts.

Until then, Grand Fleet is transferring all of their Shimakaze and Spruance class Parasite Destroyers to Home Fleet, on the grounds that for fleet actions the Mikasa-class Parasite Battleship was the only fully useful combatant, and that losses among the lighter ships were simply unacceptable.

It is now budget time.

Amaunet is looking smug. Her putting her paw down on the piloting suit front had obviously somewhat surprised her underlings, who were used to her being quite placid about things. They should have remembered that she’s a grifftiger and extremely patient indeed.

“Padrone, this year we’re in slightly better shape than last, due to the low Black Steel activity allowing us to start to recover. This is not something that we can expect to last, and we need to focus on accelerating our construction rates. Your great-aunt recommended that I read some documents she prepared on great feats of military mass production, and the phrase ‘the ships start coming and they don’t stop coming’ comes to mind.” There are slight chuckles around the table. “General Bradley?”

The fiery general takes the podium. “Again, the Army is content to remain in a holding pattern, SLEP work is going well and we have some slack in infantry divisions to cover new colonies for a few years yet before we’ll need to expand. We’ll also soon be reaching diminishing returns on garrison and militia strength in many of our systems, so in a few years we’ll be reducing those procurement requests as well.”

It’s nice to have a service chief who isn’t obsessed with the endless growth of her bailiwick. For all her prickliness, General Bradley is a treasure.

Imperial Griffon Army
- Procurement
  - 28 Garrison Divisions
  - 28 Militia Divisions

General Perkins is up next. “Unlike the Army, we need to continue to grow our production capacity in order to fully support the fleet, as well as provide ASF cover to our planets. Therefore we’ll be needing additional production lines to support our growth.”

Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
- Production
  - New ASF Factories
    - Glorreich
    - Shin Tōkyō
    - Kurortas
    - Raj
    - Pustina
- Procurement
  - 100 CAP Wing
  - 25 Carrier Wing
  - 5 Garrison Wing

Admiral Fisher then takes over, looking far older than you know him to be, with deep lines engraved on his face and a fierce expression on his face. “I know it’s tempting to skimp on escort yards, they’re little ships, they don’t hit hard, blah blah blah, they are critical to our success. Building up Home Fleet is vitally important, no matter how annoying I find them. Our capital ships need escorts, and the Battle-class has proven itself in battle. Not that we don’t want more larger ships as well, but please remember the small boys are just as important to a fleet as the big iron. Without both we’d have lost several of the latest engagements with the Black Steel.” He glares around the room.

Imperial Griffon Navy
- Production
  - Orbital Shipyards
    - New Orbital Shipyards
      - Nueva Chiapas
      - New Kansas
      - Nowego Lublina
    - Expand All Orbital Shipyards
  - Refit & Repair Yards
    - New Refit & Repair Yard
      - Nueva Chiapas
    - Expand all Refit & Repair Yards
  - Escort Yards
    - Neubayern
    - Neuhessen
    - Nouvelle Bourgogne
    - Nuova Lombardia
    - Nuova Puglia
    - Nuovo Abruzzo
    - Nyū Shikoku
    - Stenen Tuin
    - New Libertalia
    - Nuova Tripoli
    - Catachan
    - Feurstern
    - Neuthüringen
    - Nowe Mazowsze
    - Nox
    - Platzregensburg
    - Iskra
    - New Algiers
    - New Clew Bay
    - Nubifragio
    - Bellaterra
    - Bohren
    - Landprettig
    - Porto Milano
    - Shin Tōkyō
    - Hot Mess
    - New Narnia
    - The Hub
    - Baddorando
    - Sturmland
  - Small Warship Yards
    - New Castor
    - New Port Royal
    - Nowy Wroclaw
    - Nowy Slask
    - Chuma
    - Awha
    - Kaiyo
  - Medium Warship Yards
    - Griffon
    - Calliope
    - Okusawa
    - Pieklo
    - Bari
  - Large Warship Yards
    - Nya Kopenhamn
    - Kainga
    - Edelsteine
    - New Capricorn
- Procurement
  - Dropships
    - 200 Shimakaze-class Parasite Destroyers
    - 200 Spruance-class Parasite Destroyers
      - Note, this will be the last procurement request for these classes.
    - 50 Wright-class Dockable ASF Platforms
    - 106 Colt-class Defense Blisters
  - Large Dropships
    - 30 Saipan-class Parasite Carriers
    - 232 Mikasa-class Parasite Battleships
  - Jumpships
    - 7 Windjammer-class Jumpships
  - Escorts
    - 140 Battle-class Destroyers
    - 10 Skjold-class Missile Corvettes
    - 10 Constellation-class Corvettes
    - 50 Tarantul-class Missile Raiders
    - 50 Asheville-class Raiders
  - Small Warships
    - 40 Belfast-class Light Cruisers
    - 35 De Grasse-class Light Cruisers
    - 4 Hosho-class Light Carriers
  - Medium Warships
    - 20 Prinz Eugen II-class Heavy Cruisers
    - 10 Algerie-class Heavy Cruisers
  - Large Warships
    - 10 Kaiserin-class Battleships
    - 6 Saratoga-class Fleet Carriers
- Fortress Command
  - Jump Point Defenses
    - Nueva Chiapas
    - New Kansas
    - Nowego Lublina
    - Waypoint 4
    - Waypoint 5
  - Oasis II
    - Nueva Chiapas
    - New Kansas
    - Nowego Lublina
    - Waypoint 4
    - Waypoint 5
  - Black Tower
    - Nueva Chiapas
    - New Kansas
    - Nowego Lublina
    - Waypoint 4
    - Waypoint 5

The Admiral sits down and, after a glance at Amaunet who gives her a small nod, Elizabeth Lee clears her throat. “Your Majesty, there are three systems in the five that we surveyed that are viable in terms of colonization, and I strongly recommend that we do so. It will give us additional critical strategic depth in that region.” She brings up a chart for you to look at.

Colonization, System Government Establishment, & Justice System Establishment
- Nueva Chiapas
- New Kansas
- Nowego Lublina

“In addition, we have a number of idle DoME teams, and you know as well as I do that they are too valuable to be left idle. We recommend the following projects for them.”

Department of Mega-Engineering Teams
- Expand Shin Tōkyō Arcologies
- Terraforming
  - Pinball
  - Catachan
  - Nox

“Finally, in terms of economic and infrastructure investments we have the following recommendations.”

Economic Focus, Major Investment & Infrastructure/Industrial Zones
- Economic Focus
  - Core
    - Glorreich
  - Periphery
    - Pinball
- Major Investment
  - Core
    - Kaiyo
  - Periphery
    - Iskra
- Investment
  - Pryyemnyy
- Infrastructure & Industrial Zone
  - Hot Mess
  - Baddorando
  - New Narnia
  - Nouvelle Bourgogne
  - Nuova Puglia

Dr Severino is off at the Olympics this year and has no recommendations for you. Tiberius, meanwhile, is accompanying her but has sent in a recommendation for the further expansion of the Civil Service.

Grace is up next. “I know we couldn’t do this due to budget constraints last year, but we should have enough this year to manage both Improved Automation and Improved Education. If we have to prioritize, I recommend Automation first, as our benefits regime will still protect our workers from the effects of industrial automation.”

General Messerschmidt is present as well, but when he looks up he is grinning in a very disturbing manner. “Well, Your Majesty, I am pleased to announce that your youngest daughter has quite the cult following in both the NRR and NRI. According to my agents, videos and pictures of her are… highly popular in both.” He smirks at your expression. “Oddly enough, she is equally popular in Bourbon space.” Your palm and your face make a loving embrace. “We’ve already been fielding appearance requests for her, according to Tiberius, but so far we’ve been… not responding.” Your head impacts the table at that point, drawing chuckles around the room.

Martina takes the opportunity to thwack General Messershmidt as she starts her report. “In addition to the justice system work needed on the new colonies, Your Majesty, we recommend getting a head start on rationalizing the legal codes. Strictly speaking we don’t need to start until next year, but I would prefer to get it done early just in case.”

LordSunhawk · Dec 19, 2022

Turn 122 - The Hop

Meta Event	39
Dynasty Luck	35
	Successes
Imperial Approval	3
Approval Change	-1
Political Event	0
	Successes
Imperial Economy	3
Economic Event	0
Research Event	0

Griffon	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	0

Nowa Warszawa	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	5

Calliope IV	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	0

TTP	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	0

New Capricorn	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	0

Nowy Śląsk	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	0

Edelsteine	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	0

Nowy Wroclaw	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	0

Griff's Leap	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	0

New Phoenix	Econ	5
	Health	2
	Event	2

New Eden	Econ	5
	Health	2
	Event	2

New Castor	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	0

Okusawa	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	5

New Pollux	Econ	2
	Health	0
	Event	1

New Port Royal	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	2

Kainga	Econ	2
	Health	0
	Event	1

Chuma	Econ	2
	Health	0
	Event	1

Stahlfurt	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	2

Bāṛi	Econ	5
	Health	2
	Event	2

Skała	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	5

Piekło	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	5

Nya Köpenhamn	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	0

Bauernparadis	Econ	2
	Health	0
	Event	1

Awha	Econ	5
	Health	2
	Event	2

Kaiyo	Econ	5
	Health	2
	Event	2

Bohren	Econ	5
	Health	2
	Event	2

Grand View	Econ	2
	Health	0
	Event	1

Iskra	Econ	2
	Health	0
	Event	1

Raj	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	5

Feurstern	Econ	5
	Health	2
	Event	2

Pinball	Econ	5
	Health	2
	Event	2

Catachan	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	5

Nox	Econ	2
	Health	0
	Event	1

Olej	Econ	5
	Health	2
	Event	2

Glorreich	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

Pryyemnyy	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

Novolar	Econ	2
	Health	0
	Event	1

Steingarten	Econ	2
	Health	0
	Event	1

Pustina	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

Kurortas	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

Arvum	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

Landprettig	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	5

Bellaterra	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

Nubifragio	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	5

Platzregensburg	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	2

Shin Tōkyō	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

Porto Milano	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	2

Nuova Fortezza	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	2

Nowe Mazowsze	Econ	10
	Health	2
	Event	5

Neuthüringen	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

New Algiers	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	2

New Clew Bay	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	2

Nuova Tripoli	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	2

New Libertalia	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	2

Nuova Puglia	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	5

Nuovo Abruzzo	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	5

Nuova Lombardia	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	5

Stenen Tuin	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	5

Nouvelle Bourgogne	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	5

Nyū Shikoku	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	2

Neubayern	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	5

Neuhessen	Econ	1
	Health	1
	Event	5

Hot Mess	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

New Narnia	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

The Hub	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

Baddorando	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

Sturmland	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

Blár	Econ	2
	Health	1
	Event	2

Plan: Invest the money while we have it
- Procurement [$ 768,488,829,691.02 ]
-- Lay Down Major Unit [Construction - $11,224,011,947.50 ] (95)
--- 200 Shimakaze [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 94
Result - SUCCESS

--- 200 Spruance [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 52
Result - SUCCESS

--- 50 Wright [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 52
Result - SUCCESS

--- 106 Colt [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 18
Result - SUCCESS

--- 232 Mikasa [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 52
Result - SUCCESS

--- 30 Saipan [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 69
Result - SUCCESS

-- Lay down Jumpship [Jumpship Construction - $32,620,094.85 ] (90)
--- 7 Windjammer [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 32
Result - SUCCESS

-- Lay down Warship [Warship Construction - $445,569,504,466.67 ] (90)
--- 140 Battle [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 1
Result – Critical SUCCESS

--- 10 Skjold [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 16
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Constellation [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 25
Result - SUCCESS

--- 50 Tarantul [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 85
Result - SUCCESS

--- 50 Asheville [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 48
Result - SUCCESS

--- 40 Belfast [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 40
Result - SUCCESS

--- 35 De Grasse [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 81
Result - SUCCESS

--- 4 Hosho [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 85
Result - SUCCESS

--- 20 Prinz Eugen II [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 56
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Algerie [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 39
Result - SUCCESS

--- 10 Kaiserin [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 36
Result - SUCCESS

--- 6 Saratoga [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 77
Result - SUCCESS

-- Purchase New Units [Minor Unit - $ 59,172,149,432.00 ] (90)
--- 25 Carrier Wing [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 40
Result - SUCCESS

--- 100 CAP Wing [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 46
Result - SUCCESS

--- 5 Garrison Wing [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 60
Result - SUCCESS

--- 28 Garrison Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 59
Result - SUCCESS

--- 28 Militia Division [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 90
Result - SUCCESS

-- Fortress Command [$ 242,490,543,750.00 ] (90)
--- Build Jump Point Defenses
---- Nueva Chiapas [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 81
Result - SUCCESS

---- New Kansas [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 21
Result - SUCCESS

---- Nowego Lublina [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 89
Result - SUCCESS

---- Waypoint 4 [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 41
Result - SUCCESS

---- Waypoint 5 [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 27
Result - SUCCESS

--- Construct Oasis II
---- Nueva Chiapas [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 60
Result - SUCCESS

---- New Kansas [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 68
Result - SUCCESS

---- Nowego Lublina [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 40
Result - SUCCESS

---- Waypoint 4 [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 3
Result - SUCCESS

---- Waypoint 5 [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 29
Result - SUCCESS

--- Construct Black Tower
---- Nueva Chiapas [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 84
Result - SUCCESS

---- New Kansas [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 15
Result - SUCCESS

---- Nowego Lublina [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 73
Result - SUCCESS

---- Waypoint 4 [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 40
Result - SUCCESS

---- Waypoint 5 [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 34
Result - SUCCESS

-- SLEP [$ 10,000,000,000 ] (100)
--- SLEP all Mech Units* [->7]
--- SLEP all Conventional Units* [->7]

- General [$ 2,449,250,000,000.00 ]
-- Focus Development on Core World Glorreich [85]
Target - 85
Roll – 99, Jarow reroll - 57
Result - SUCCESS

-- Focus Development on Peripheral World Pinball [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 8
Result - SUCCESS

-- Massive Core Investment Kaiyo [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 98, ShadowArxxy reroll - 73
Result - SUCCESS

-- Massive Peripheral Investment Iskra [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 100, Hellraiser Reroll - 30
Result - SUCCESS

-- Economic Investment Pryymenyy [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 49
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on New Narnia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 28
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Nouvelle Bourgogne [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 60
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Hot Mess [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 42
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Baddorando [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 3
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Infrastructure and Industrial zones on Nuova Puglia [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 78
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Colony - Nueva Chiapas [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 33
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish System Government - Nueva Chiapas [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 32
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Legal System - Nueva Chiapas [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 72
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Colony - New Kansas [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 42
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish System Government - New Kansas [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 19
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Legal System - New Kansas [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 98, Jarow reroll - 9
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Colony - Nowego Lublina [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 47
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish System Government - Nowego Lublina [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 32
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish Legal System - Nowego Lublina [80]
Target - 80
Roll – 91, General reroll - 30
Result - SUCCESS

-- Expand Civil Service [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 14
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build ASF Factory Complex (95)
--- Glorreich [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 73
Result - SUCCESS

--- Shin Tokyo [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 5
Result - SUCCESS

--- Kurortas [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 91
Result - SUCCESS

--- Raj [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 43
Result - SUCCESS

--- Pustina [95]
Target - 95
Roll - 6
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build Orbital Shipyard Nueva Chiapas [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 11
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build Orbital Shipyard New Kansas [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 29
Result - SUCCESS

-- Build Orbital Shipyard Nowego Lublina [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 83
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Neuthuringen [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 63
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nowe Mazowsze [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 61
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nox [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 87
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Platzregensburg [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 54
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Iskra [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 64
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard New Algiers [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 82
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard New Clew Bay [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 85
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Nubifragio [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 61
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Bellaterra [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 79
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Landprettig [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 46
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Porto Milano [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 78
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard Shin Tokyo [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 30
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Escort Yard The Hub [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 46
Result - SUCCESS

-- Upgrade Refit & Repair Yard [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 97
Result - SUCCESS

-- Expand Orbital Shipyards [105]
Target - 105
Roll - 94
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard New Phoenix* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 59
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Nowa Warzsawa* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 61
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard Glorreich* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 19
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Large Warship Yard New Pollux* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 27
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Calliope [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 3
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Okusawa [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 61
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Pieklo [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 25
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Bari [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 63
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Medium Warship Yard Griffon [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 15
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard New Port Royal [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 19
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Nowy Wroclaw [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 83
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard New Castor [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 47
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Nowy Slask [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 81
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Chuma [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 83
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Awha [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 5
Result - SUCCESS

-- Construct Small Warship Yard Kaiyo [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 85
Result - SUCCESS

- DoME [$ 3,082,000,000,000.00 ]
-- Establish New Army Base - Nuova Lombardia* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 84
Result - SUCCESS

-- Establish New Fleet Base - Nuova Lombardia* [80]
Target - 80
Roll - 66
Result -

-- Terraforming Shin Tokyo* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 1
Result – Critical SUCCESS

-- Terraforming Nubifragio* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 19
Result - SUCCESS

-- Planetary Optimization (Peripheral) - Nox* [85]
Target - 85
Roll - 42
Result - SUCCESS

- Research [$ 29,900,500,000,000.00 ]
-- Improved Automation Lvl 10 [100]
Target - 100
Roll - 61
Result - SUCCESS

-- Life Extension Therapy Lvl 6* [90]
Target - 90
Roll - 51
Result - SUCCESS

-- Improved Education Lvl 10 [100]
Target - 100
Roll - 57
Result - SUCCESS

-- Commercial R&D [-]
-- Industrial R&D [-]

- Miscellaneous [$ 134,370,100,000 ]
-- Culture [$ 100,000 ]
--- Olympics [100,000]
-- Production Contract [->7?][134,700,000,000]

-----

The Olympics have concluded in an overall triumph by Team Griffon, bringing home 30 gold medals and performing spectacularly. They required spectacular performances, because the other teams were certainly very competitive this year and outside of a few events there were no blow outs. The hard competition made for some very compelling viewing, and viewership numbers are through the roof.

It’s hard to concentrate on that, though, with the constantly looming Black Steel threat. They’ve still made no moves, apart from an occasional sighting of a few light units on a recon run. There have still been no engagements this year.

There was one exceptionally bright spot this year, and you wish you could replicate it at will but know that it is highly unlikely to happen. Shipfitters working on the Battle-class destroyer lines not only put in double shifts, but somehow managed to fast talk their suppliers into doubling up material orders at no additional cost, resulting in you managing to get an additional 140 vessels commissioned this year on top of the 110 that were planned to complete fully. You suspect that there might be some… creative accounting… going on, and the large numbers of surviving naval personnel from the last battle certainly streamlined manning the unexpected windfall of ships which is usually a major bottleneck.

Other than that, military production is on schedule, on budget, and going rather well. The procurement system appears to be humming along smoothly, thanks to diligent oversight efforts on the part of the senior leadership of the military making sure that the military-industrial complex of the Empire understands its role is to provide for the defense of the Empire, not to line their pockets with the Empire’s money. You suspect that the oligarchs in charge of the MIC are regularly reminding themselves of what happened to their ancestors under your great-grandmother… The execution fields are still there, still see use for capital cases, and Amaunet has ensured that any time she calls the oligarchs in for a meeting they have to pass those fields. It’s a salutary lesson in the importance of integrity.

Colonization efforts of the new planets goes quite well, with a few hiccups on the justice system side of things. Seems there’s a bit of a shortage in qualified judicial personnel, mostly due to demand in the core worlds, but the Justice Ministry was able to find sufficient numbers to fill the vacancies. They’ve made arrangements with the major law schools in the Empire to promote the training of judges, so hopefully this issue will correct itself without any further intervention.

New Kansas turns out to be so fertile that unmodified crops grow like no tomorrow, making the world a perfect agriworld since the survey results showing minimal to no usable industrial metals actually overstated the case, there are no accessible deposits of industrial metals period, making the planet fully reliant on agriculture for economic growth. On the plus side it puts a dedicated agriworld in close proximity to the future city-planet of Shin Tōkyō.

Speaking of Shin Tōkyō, the latest round of terraforming was exceptionally successful, bringing the planet to a fully habitable state requiring no further terraforming work, although expansion of the arcologies is still an ongoing project to create the city-planet of your dreams. This shaves six years off of the time estimate originally given by DoME for fully terraforming the planet, and you make a point of sending a well-done message to those involved, at the risk of swelled egos and potential shenanigans.

The civil service expansion efforts this year go very well indeed. You still worry that the government might become bloated with bureaucrats, but the expansion rate is actually well below the growth of the Empire, so far at least, which is helping to keep that in check.

The new ASF factories have come online, allowing for additional wings of ASFs to be produced. You get a memo from General Perkins advising you that they intend to dedicate the new production capacity to building up planetary defense units.

The Griffon and Calliope systems have as many large warship yards as they can readily support, so focus in those systems has switched to medium yards for now. You get a memo from the team in charge of shipyard management and development who advise you that in the future, as ship sizes break 2 million tons, a highly specialized yard will be required for such massive vessels.

Overall naval production capacity increases are on budget, on schedule, and you are quite certain it will be critical as you continue to rebuild your fleet to face the Black Steel.

The new military base complex on Nuova Lombardia has been completed with a great deal of fanfare. This base provides a critical node in your military command and control structure, supporting anti-piracy operations and any future expansion to the galactic northeast.

R&D work on improved automation and education have born wonderful fruit, reducing maintenance costs as the new equipment requires less maintenance itself. The economy experiences a quite nice boost as well, which your balance sheets will certainly appreciate in the coming years. Amid all the hoopla about that, the news of improved life extension therapy options is almost missed, but once it is noticed there is a noticeable boost in public confidence and support.

LordSunhawk · Dec 20, 2022

Turn 123 - Heart’s Done Time

You get some very happy news on the family front in early January, all three of your married daughters are pregnant again! Your twins are still in the dating game, having not found a girl to settle down with yet, and your youngest is still committed to her volleyball career for now and isn’t in the market, according to her at least. According to the early ultrasounds, your eldest daughter is having a little boy, your second eldest is having twin girls, and your third eldest is having a little girl.

The Black Steel has made their first serious raid in the last couple years, hitting Baddorando with a half dozen heavy cruisers escorted by several score destroyers and corvettes. The Home Fleet detachment is able to hold them off with support from the orbital defenses until the Grand Fleet arrives, at which point the Black Steel break contact and retreat. Losses were minimal on both sides, with several Home Fleet vessels needing extensive repairs from the Grand Fleet’s logistical train. Two Black Steel destroyers were critically damaged but managed to escape with the rest. No actual damage was sustained by any civilian or military infrastructure in the system, nor was the colony itself attacked.

Combat operations in the former Rouges Noir worlds have completely wrapped up, with Bourbon forces taking formal possession of the systems in question. You receive a very formal and stiff official letter of gratitude from the Bourbon crown, with a private missive which is far more effusive and genuine included directly from their ruler. You are aware of elements within the Bourbon nobility who are Very Offended that they are completely encircled by your Empire. Very offended indeed, with expressions of Outrage! And puffed out chests! And dramatic gestures of offended offendedness!

Reading the reports from your ambassador is rather entertaining. The latest incident had a puffed up popinjay of a noble marching up to your ambassador at an official function, loudly proclaiming how offensive he found her presence to be, his utter disdain for the Griffon Empire, his eternal enmity towards yourself, and how all Right Thinking Persons In The Galaxy would agree that the Griffon Empire has grossly overstepped all bounds of decency! And then once he’d finished his loud public proclamation of disdain and dislike of all things Griffon, said useless popinjay had then strutted back to his Calliope Motors groundcar to depart in Highest Dudgeon! How the ambassador managed to avoid laughing in his face, as she reveals that he made this entire speech while wearing a bejeweled watch produced by a Griffon watchmaker from Skala, his court shoes were from an artisanal concern also on Skala, and he was waving around a glass of New Libertalia bourbon the entire time.

The ambassador checked and said noble had also recently been a ‘high roller’ guest in the casinos of New Port Royal, where he’d evidently spent several million on gambling, booze, and ladies of negotiable virtue. While his wife was drinking nearly as much as he was, gambling even more, and accompanied by gentlemen of negotiable virtue. Indeed, the only members of the family who weren’t drinking, gambling, and hiring prostitutes were their two young children who spent the entire time in the casino nursery being surprisingly well-behaved for the children of Bourbon nobility.

The new Artemis PGL has been approved for mass production. It is hoped that a large number of these rather nasty little dropships will significantly enhance home defense, especially planetary defense as the little things are not really suitable for deep space operations.

Economic activity in the Empire is exceptionally good this year, both on an overall basis and on a sector basis. The Capital and Diamond Marches are having especially good years, with a massive economic growth forecast thanks to highly favorable business conditions. The Steel March is lagging behind, mainly due to how many new colonies are currently administratively assigned to the march resulting in comparatively slow growth rates.

Two systems celebrate gaining Core status this year. Iskra had been on the cusp of it for some time, but has now been officially designated as a Core system thanks to massive economic growth in the last several years. More of a surprise, the planet-city of Shin Tōkyō, almost before the ink was dry on the attestation from DoME that the planet no longer required terraforming support, was also designated a Core world. There is a bit of controversy with the latter, due to the system population being somewhat low for a Core world, but population growth has been exceptionally strong, the per-capita GDP is among the highest in the entire Empire, and the future prospects for population density and growth are stupendous thanks to the massive arcologies.

Primarily due to the surprise of it all, Shin Tōkyō’s celebrations of their new status as a Core world are surprisingly subdued, but sincere all the same. The announcement actually came while the Black Pumpernickels were present in the system as part of their latest tour of the Empire, and those zany entertainers decided that an impromptu performance of Babes In Arms was quite appropriate for the occasion. Based on the reviews you quite agree. You spend a few hours while babysitting your grandkids watching a recording of the show, before sending the little ones home all hyped up with plenty of sugar to their oh-so-appreciative parents.

It is, after all, tradition!

You stop yourself before you can belt out a rousing chorus of that song from Fiddler On The Roof. You quite enjoyed that show the last time you’d seen it played at the playhouse here in Griffsport.

You can’t wait for your grandkids to be old enough to take them to the theater, ahhh, the joys of being a ba. You love it.

Your reverie is broken. Sirens are screaming… at first you are rather worried, because that can’t possibly be good. But soon enough one of your aides comes in with the news.

It’s just the Department of Periphery Studies again, having decided that they are now the Party Police, and as such they’ve somehow managed to get their hands on an old air raid siren from a scrap yard and get the damn thing working. So you now have large numbers of Periphery Studies esteemed and distinguished tenured faculty peddling around on converted pedal bars with the damn air raid siren going off.

Your head, your desk, intimate friends. As the atonal shriek of the siren continues blaring through the city you wonder if it may be time to have the Department of Periphery Studies campus relocated to somewhere else. But it’s traditional now to have it here in Griffsport, so you guess you’ll have to continue to put up with it.

Tradition sucks sometimes.

LordSunhawk · Dec 21, 2022

Turn 123 - Magic Touch

Some rather ingenious Griffsport PD officers managed to defuse the growing Party Police crisis in a quite clever manner. They simply convinced the distinguished tenured faculty of the Department of Periphery Studies that they were outside their jurisdictional boundaries and were thus missing the most pressing Party Fouls. The newly designated ‘Party Police Patrol Zones’ are all in pure industrial areas, mostly warehouses and such, well away from any residential or commercial areas. Griffsport PD, the hard-working staff of the Department of Periphery Studies, and local authorities worked with local businesses in those zones to ensure that plenty of fake ‘parties’ were going on for the Party Police to patrol for Party Fouls.

Which means you’ve been able to get your full night’s sleep. You make a point of sending congratulations to the officers involved in coming up with that solution.

There’s a growing number of skirmishes between Home Fleet and the Black Steel, all involving very light Black Steel forces. So far there have been no hull losses, although there have been casualties, and the Black Steel have withdrawn every time heavier forces arrive. The heaviest Black Steel units seen have been heavy cruisers, but the attacks are happening very close together all along your western and northwestern frontiers. Admiral Bremman has reported that he hopes that his staff believes that at current construction rates he’ll be able to hold the line and, by next year, should have sufficient vessels once the new Artemis dropships come online to actually deal with such light attacks without needing reinforcements from Grand Fleet, Expeditionary Fleet, or Strike Fleet.

Admiral Bremman does send you a memo noting that Home Fleet is working with Majeure Electrique on a carrier version of the old Troodon design. They currently plan to request the Aerospace Force to provide CAP wings for these units, as each flotilla of 10 Troodon-CVs would be able to carry a single such wing, but design work is still underway as, according to Bremman, he’s not been able to convince his superiors yet of the utility of the idea. The Troodon-CV would be at the very extreme limit of the new multi-hull capability of standard orbital shipyards, after all, and might require large dropship slips rather than regular dropship slips to pull off.

There’s also work underway on a SAR vessel specifically for Home Fleet’s dropship flotillas, based on a heavily modified Long Beach hull. This is still in a very preliminary phase, although there is a great deal of interest in the project.

Parliament is hard at work this year and has sent you a pair of proposals for your consideration.

The Civil Service Act of 3053 is a significant reform package intended to streamline and optimize the civil service by eliminating redundancies, optimizing processes and procedures, and eliminating a number of expensive mandates which increase costs without providing commensurate benefits. The Civil Service itself is rather hostile to the proposal as it would reduce headcounts in the relevant ‘redundant’ areas, eliminate a few perks that are currently enjoyed, and in some ways reduce the ‘prestige’ of the Civil Service.

[]	Action	Argument	Effects
[]	Support the Civil Service Act of 3053	The Civil Service provides critical services to the Empire and is the second largest line item in our annual non-discretionary budget. It is also bloated and contains redundancies that in the private sector, and indeed in other government sectors including the military and the Imperial household, would never be allowed. First of all, despite past attempts to centralize and consolidate human resources assets so as to avoid duplication, the Civil Service has managed to nevertheless grow their human resources overhead at almost a third again the rate as their front-end headcount. At the time of the original reform there had been 1 back office human resources officer for every 4 front-end employees doing actual productive work within their respective areas of expertise. That reform shifted the ratio to 1 in 20 with the legislation specifically mandating a long-term target of 1 in 25. Instead we are now at 1 in 3. The Civil Service has been simply administratively redefining these back office positions as front-end for the purposes of compliance with existing reforms, but the work that they are doing is very much back-office. Worse yet, these back-office employees spend upwards of a third of their paid hours engaging in ‘team activities’ rather than their purported duties, said ‘team activities’ seem to take place exclusively at various bars and restaurants with all expenses placed on expense accounts. Second, And in addition to the issues discussed above, the Civil Service has been getting increasingly creative in creating ‘incentive packages’ supposedly for new hires but which seem to always result in senior Civil Service employees receiving bonuses that increase their take-home pay to levels significantly higher than even the various Ministers that sit in your cabinet. The best paid individuals in the entire Empire are the senior Civil Service bureaucrats, with net take-home salaries higher than some corporate CEOs who manage trillion dollar megacorps and who are regularly denounced as obscenely wealthy. Eight ‘Senior Permanent Under Secretaries’ between them net almost ten billion in take home pay annually due to the multiplicative incentives and bonuses that they pay themselves, despite their official pay rates being far lower. Finally, the expense account benefits for the Civil Service have gotten out of control. Every year almost ten billion is spent just on this benefit, more than is spent on the entire Parliament, the entire Special Branch, all of your Minister’s salaries plus benefits, and the Environmental Board… combined. We are not saying that the Civil Service doesn’t do excellent work. They do. We are not claiming that they are corrupt, all of these benefits were set up openly and lawfully, it has just gotten so completely out of control as to be ridiculous. What is being proposed is the following. The administrative redesignation of back-end positions as front-end ones shall be banned and the original ratio limit of 1:30 relaxed to 1:25 but made ironclad. Expense accounts shall be limited to 10% of base salary, while incentives and bonuses shall be limited to 25% of base salary total. Finally no Civil Service bureaucrats take-home pay may exceed that of the Minister that they report to.	Increase Civil Service Reform level to 4 Will reduce upkeep by $71,030,644,915 -5 Approval Rating -5 Approval Change -5 Politics -5 Imperial Economy -5 Research Event
[]	Oppose the Civil Service Act of 3053	This legislation is long on emotional appeals to perceived pecuniary imbalances and short on anything resembling reasonable analysis. When adjusted for workload, time investment, and productivity the current Civil Service is the most efficient, cost-effective, and responsive bureaucratic and administrative body in history. While a small number of exceptionally senior bureaucrats do indeed receive extremely high net salaries, these are individuals who have worked for the Civil Service for over a hundred years each, have been critical to many of the great successes that the Empire has enjoyed thanks to their hard work, experience, and expertise, and between them they have saved the Griffon taxpayers over twice their combined salaries based on an external analysis from neutral analysts and auditors. The complaints about violating the back-end ratios set in previous legislation are equally deceptive. The individuals who this supposedly apply to primarily work as front-line employees in precisely the capacities that they were hired for, but have secondary training permitting them to cover for back-line employees during vacations, illnesses, and other absences. They receive no additional pay for receiving this secondary training. External audits show that these supposedly ‘excess bureaucrats’ perform back-end human resources functions less than 1% of the time. The complaints about expense accounts are equally specious. To read the proponents of this legislation's speeches you would think that the civil service employees are enjoying constant champagne lunches with the rarest caviars and most expensive entrees. The truth of the matter is that over 80% of the expense account claims in any given year are for travel expenses. While the Civil Service makes use of military transport assets for travel, by law we are required to account for the costs of such travel using equivalent civil rates for equivalent services. In effect, 80% of the ‘expense account’ expenses cited are paid by the Civil Service to other parts of the Imperial government and thus exist primarily for accounting purposes.	-5 Support Chamber of Delegates Imperial Senate

The second piece of legislation is the Health Services Act of 3053. This bill would increase subsidies for the construction of hospitals and clinics throughout the Empire, especially in the poorest regions. It would also fund scholarships for medical students who commit to spending at least 20 years working at said clinics after graduation. Finally it would establish a dedicated Hospital Ship Service to supplement current disaster relief capabilities within the Empire as well as provide additional roving medical facilities for the newest colonies in the Empire.

[]	Action	Arguments	Effects
[]	Support the Health Services Act of 3053	We already have a world class healthcare system… in the Core worlds and our fully established colonies. Many frontier worlds are limited to only one or two medical facilities on the planet for years, resulting in an unfortunate degradation of care. Many times the only medical facilities are located at militia bases and on board naval ships in the various systems rather than actual hospitals or clinics. The mechanism already exists to solve this issue. The existing Healthcare Subsidy has been highly successful in attracting skilled medical professionals to work in frontier medicine and has sped up the establishment of proper medical facilities across the Empire. It has been a great success. However the current funding level was set over a century ago, when the Empire existed only on a single world. The sheer scale of the Empire means that the current model is inadequate to the needs of our rapidly expanding frontiers. This legislation does nothing more than update the funding level to match current requirements to allow what is already a very successful system to thrive into the future.	Increase Healthcare level to 2 +1 Politics +1 Influence Chamber of Delegates Imperial Senate
[]	Oppose the Health Services Act of 3053	<No opposing arguments have been filed for this legislation>	-1 Approval -1 Approval Change -1 Politics

LordSunhawk · Dec 22, 2022

Turn 123 - Rag Doll

The latest, and largest, NRI warship has now been deployed to help patrol your eastern border against the recent uptick in pirate activity. While it is only a light cruiser, that is still a significant increase in tonnage and capability for the NRI’s navy. It continues the NRI’s obsession with gauss weaponry, mounting massive batteries of the heavy but lethal weapon. The new ship has already been blooded in a minor engagement with several pirate Jolly Rogers in the Nuova Fortezza system.

A small convoy of merchant jumpships escorted by Crimson Storm warships arrives from their space, carrying trade goods and valuable materials. The Crimson Storm informs you that they’ve established themselves and will be regularly escorting such convoys to your space, creating a new, very long distance, trade route that they have committed to keeping secure from Black Steel attacks.

Unfortunately, they do inform you that the Black Steel forces you’ve been facing are not the only ones about, that they too are facing significant Black Steel activity despite how far away from you they are. According to them, the Black Steel are behaving in a fairly decentralized manner, with quasi-independent bands doing their own thing. All of them are extremely violent and aggressive, but no two bands are identical in terms of their doctrine, strategy, or tactics. The ones they are facing, for example, are obsessed with carrier operations and primarily employ titanic swarms of ASFs backed up by dropships, while keeping their warships well away from the battle.

That is fairly disturbing in that it is very unlikely you’ll be able to eradicate the Black Steel threat in anything resembling a reasonable time frame. The only silver lining is that according to the Crimson Storm the various Black Steel sub groups fight each other nowadays as much as they fight everybody else, so unless a particularly capable or charismatic leader shows up for the Black Steel they won’t be uniting anytime soon.

There has been some discussion about forming a new March, as the Steel March is now growing extremely bloated. Nothing has been decided yet, however, as many of the new worlds in the Steel March are very recently colonized.

And now it is budget time. You still enjoy budget time, no matter how long you’ve been on the throne there’s just something about actually making impactful decisions that appeals to you.

Amaunet is up first as always, the giant cat purring softly as she waits for the others to settle down.

“Padrone, our naval reconstruction efforts are going well, the Aerospace Force is conducting an in-depth audit of the performance of various platforms as various R&D efforts continue in preparation for taking advantage of their fruits, as is the Army, our production capacities are ramping up quite nicely. I’ll let the various chief’s give you their reports and recommendations, General?”

General Bradley takes the podium. “Service life programs continue to be the primary focus for the Army at the moment, Your Majesty, as well as basic preparatory work using data from our friends in R&D about the upcoming advanced 5cm extended range lasers. We are gradually ramping down procurement of militia and garrison units, primarily to avoid any economic consequences of abruptly ending procurement. The Army is very much in a holding pattern, but we are ready if needed.”

She brings up a display showing procurement requests for the year, and it is quite short.

Imperial Griffon Army
- Procurement
  - Garrison
    - 25 Garrison Divisions
    - 25 Militia Divisions

General Perkins is up next, and based on how many aides he’s brought you suspect that the normally laconic Air Force commander has a more hefty presentation than usual.

“Your Majesty, we’ve assembled a group of combat veterans, maintainers, operational planners, and logistics personnel to perform a thorough internal audit of the performance of our various platforms, both to prepare for the imminent new equipment as well as review our design standards and practices.” He begins.

“They were instructed to be as objective as possible, and we managed to have pilots who’d been assigned to every current and several now obsolete ASF platforms on the team. They are still in the process of compiling their reports and we hope to be able to complete the process by the time we start procurement of the new weapon system.”

He then brings up a display. “However, we do have some results to begin with that are concerning. There are two in particular that are concerning. First, that the command variant of the Sparrowhawk interceptor, the so-called ‘Sniper’ configuration, is almost universally disliked by pilots and maintainers due to the complexity of the electronics suite combined with the complete lack of secondary weapons to support the 8cm extended range laser carried by the variant as the sole armament. The Sniper concept had been to provide interceptor formations with the ability to begin attriting enemy formations at extreme range, but in practice this has proven of questionable utility. In the short term, we intend to retire that configuration completely, converting existing Snipers to standard Sparrowhawks. In the longer term, this will tie into the other issue. The Peregrine design is basically a slightly slower, more heavily armed interceptor, with a maximum acceleration of 7.5g compared to the Sparrowhawk’s 8.5g. In engagements against the Rouges Noir and pirates the Peregrine has proven effective, however against the Black Steel even the slight drop in performance has been detrimental, with Peregrine losses against the Black Steel’s drones being noticeably higher than the Sparrowhawks. We are planning on addressing this once the new weapons come out, using the electronics suite from the Sniper variant Sparrowhawk in the roomier chassis of the Peregrine while matching the faster fighters armament layout rather than attempting to get cute with an 8cm laser.”

He then switches to the more usual production and procurement display. “That being said, this is for the future, in the present we need to continue expanding our production facilities and, as I explained last year, building up our garrison wings.” He smiles briefly. “So our actual budget requests are rather simple, as usual.”

Imperial Griffon Aerospace Force
- Production
  - ASF Factories
    - Glorreich
    - Shin Tōkyō
    - Kurortas
    - Raj
    - Pustina
- Procurement
  - 100 CAP Wings
  - 25 Carrier Wings
  - 10 Garrison Wings

Admiral Sims is handling the Navy briefing this year, Admiral Fisher is currently at the new Fleet Base in the Nuova Lombardia system. “Your Majesty, the rate of increase of our production capacity continues to be a major priority for the Navy. That being said, we continue to have concerns about escort production levels. The more of the small boys we can get into service the better. Moreover, several of our most useful logistics vessels are produced in escort yards.” She checks her notes. “On a happy note, with Shin Tōkyō and Iskra now being Core worlds we can use them to expand our heavier warship yards as well.”

She then brings up the rather extensive budget request display.

Imperial Griffon Navy
- Production
  - Orbital Shipyards
    - Expand All Orbital Shipyards
  - Refit & Repair Yards
    - Construct Refit & Repair Yard
      - Nueva Chiapas
    - Expand All Refit & Repair Yards
  - Escort Yards
    - Neubayern
    - Neuhessen
    - Nouvelle Bourgogne
    - Nuova Lombardia
    - Nuova Puglia
    - Nuovo Abruzzo
    - Nyū Shikoku
    - Stenen Tuin
    - New Libertalia
    - Nuova Tripoli
    - Catachan
    - Feurstern
    - Neuthüringen
    - Nowe Mazowsze
    - Nox
    - Platzregensburg
    - New Algiers
    - New Clew Bay
    - Nubifragio
    - Bellaterra
    - Bohren
    - Landprettig
    - Porto Milano
    - Hot Mess
    - New Narnia
    - The Hub
    - Baddorando
    - Sturmland
  - Small Warship Yards
    - New Castor
    - New Port Royal
    - Nowa Warszawa
    - Nowy Slask
    - Chuma
    - Awha
    - Kaiyo
    - Shin Tōkyō
    - Iskra
  - Medium Warship Yards
    - Griffon
    - Calliope
    - Okusawa
    - Pieklo
    - Bari
  - Large Warship Yards
    - Glorreich
    - New Phoenix
    - New Pollux
    - Nowy Wrocław
- Procurement
  - Standard Dropships
    - 300 Artemis flotillas
    - 130 Wright Dockable ASF Platforms
    - 107 Colt Defense Blisters
  - Large Dropships
    - 30 Saipan Parasite Carriers
    - 255 Mikasa Parasite Battleships
  - Jumpships
    - 2 Windjammer-class Jumpships
  - Escorts
    - 130 Battle-class Destroyers
    - 10 Skjold-class Missile Corvettes
    - 10 Constellation-class Corvettes
    - 50 Tarantul-class Missile Raiders
    - 50 Asheville-class Raiders
  - Small Warships
    - 40 Belfast-class Light Cruisers
    - 40 De Grasse-class Light Cruisers
    - 6 Hosho-class Light Carriers
  - Medium Warships
    - 20 Prinz Eugen II-class Heavy Cruisers
    - 10 Algerie-class Heavy Cruisers
  - Large Warships
    - 10 Kaiserin-class Battleships
    - 10 Saratoga-class Fleet Carriers
- Fortress Command
  - Black Towers
    - Nuova Puglia
    - Nuovo Abruzzo
    - Nuova Lombardia
    - Stenen Tuin
    - Nouvelle Bourgogne

Amaunet simply nods, chuffing slightly, as Sims takes her seat. Elizabeth Lee then takes over the podium.

“Your Majesty, in consultation with the Navy we propose to survey only to the Galactic southwest this year, to hopefully avoid stumbling into a major Black Steel base before we are ready to deal with it. We’ve also limited ourselves to the four most promising systems, although one is likely to be another waypoint system rather than a colonizable one. Those are still very useful for trade, however, since they tend to feature rather fast recharge times.” She grins slightly as she brings up the survey display.

Survey
- GX-Q19
  - A Red Supergiant with no evidence of any remaining orbital bodies, this star is accompanied by a white dwarf companion star, leading to rather complicated orbital mechanics.
- GX-Q17
  - An Orange star in the main sequence, astronomers have detected both rocky and gas giant worlds in this system.
- GX-Q15
  - A rather unassuming red dwarf system, there is evidence of rocky planets here, including one Super Earth class body.
- GX-P14
  - Another red dwarf star, there is evidence of an extensive planetary system here

“Keeping DoME from being too idle is a constant theme of my briefings, Your Majesty.” You chuckle at that, as it is nothing but the truth. “And we have five DoME teams that need gainful employment before they do anything crazy. So we’re recommending the following.”

DoME
- Planetary Optimization
  - Nox
- Terraforming
  - Porto Milano
  - Nuova Fortezza
  - Neuthüringen
  - New Algiers

“And finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for.” She grins a little, you laugh as you had trained as an economist back in school so the economic bits are the most interesting to you. “The Economic focus and investment report.”

Economic Focus, Investment & Infrastructure Zones
- Economic Focus
  - Core
    - Griffon
  - Periphery
    - Catachan
- Major Investment
  - Core
    - Iskra
  - Periphery
    - Raj
- Investment
  - Novolar

Doctor Severino is up next.

“Your Majesty, the Foreign Ministry has nothing pressing at this time, we are in talks with the Ikea system regarding whether or not they mind us expanding our territory around them, they’ve indicated that so long as we don’t interfere with trade they won’t object at all. Considering that currently they only have customers because of our assistance that is likely a moot point. Other than that, we really don’t have any pressing priorities for you, Your Majesty. While it would be nice to have some cultural programming, it is hardly necessary at this time.”

Since it’s Tiberius’ turn next you turn to look at him then blink, as you could have sworn he’d been there earlier, but now there’s just a cardboard cutout of him with a sign duct taped to it reading ‘Civil Service Wants More Money’. It takes you a moment and you spot him hiding among the staffers looking like the cat who ate the canary, slurped down all the cream, knocked all the knicknacks off the shelves, and successfully blamed the dog for it all.

The meeting is consequently interrupted briefly for an impromptu ceremonial tossing of a certain Political Advisor through the Tyler Lee Memorial Window of Defenestration.

Grace then takes the podium once everybody returns to the meeting room, including a dripping Political Advisor who’s still grinning. “Your Majesty, we have three R&D teams available this year.” She begins. “We recommend the following projects for them to pursue.”

Research & Development
- Improved Germanium Refining Lvl 5
  - A long term project, best to get it started now so that we don’t get caught out on our Core production levels
- Industrial Mechs Lvl 10
  - Helpful for terraforming projects at the very least
- Multi-Missile Launchers
  - Missile systems that allow both long and short range missiles to be fired would permit a great deal of additional flexibility to missile-armed units. However they are rather more bulky than dedicated launchers and may have issues with the more advanced munitions we’ve been using lately.

General Messerschmidt is absent, he’d sent you a memo detailing various projects that are ongoing, but none require any additional budgetary support at the moment.

Martina is last up. “Your Majesty, as we didn’t do it last year we really need to get cracking on the rationalization of legal codes this year.”

Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)

Das BOOT (literally)