Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

Turn 41 - Nobody Knows

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Turn 41 - Nobody Knows

With the mass of paperwork you’d had to deal with concerning the embassy a number of things have fallen through the cracks.

The big one is that you’d noticed differences between the ‘production’ Gavin APCs which had accompanied the delegation and the prototypes, and buried in the paperwork you’d not been able to get to is the reason why.

In acceptance testing the prototype's lack of a turret had proven to be a critical weakness for an urban vehicle which would have to face threats from any facing at any moment. Moreover the design made use of an AMS system that had been optimized for vacuum operation and was unique among ground forces. In addition the energy heavy loadouts were overstraining the power amplifiers of the fuel-cell engine and causing excessive maintenance requirements.

Therefore the base chassis and suspension was retained but the drivetrain and body were reworked. A modular turret was mounted, replacing the fixed modular mounts, a fusion engine was substituted for the fuel cell engine, increasing costs but significantly reducing the requirements for external heat sinks and power amplifiers thus simplifying the modular weapon mounts.

In addition the Imperial Guard had bulked up. You’d been aware of this, as Sergeant-Major Ngo had kept you in the loop, but she’d handled most of it for you. You were still nominally the CO of the unit, so you took the time to review it and… were rather terrified just how bulked up ‘a little extra gear’ actually looked like. Sufficient Bear IFVs for all of the power armor troops, a powerful AAA battery of Skysweepers, no doubt in case Thanh got annoyed with all the money going to Nollak, a nearly full battalions worth of surprisingly stealthy StuG G Hetzer self-propelled anti-tank/mech guns… it was almost too much. The Sergeant-Major was making happy noises about getting artillery mechs, but you put your foot down hard on that.

Garrison forces had been streamlined significantly, with a single Heavy Garrison Division covering Griffsport, Castor and Pollux while a Light Garrison Division covered Capricorn and Phoenix. Another Light Garrison Division was currently garrisoning Nowy Gdansk.

And now it’s that time of year again.

Budget time.

Meetings!

Powerpoints!

Bickering Advisors!

BUDGET TIME!

The military is up first, and General Jackson takes the podium. “Your Majesty, we’ve continued to reorganize and streamline our ground forces organization, which is significantly simplifying procurement and expansion. At this time we have three priority requests for ground forces and garrison units.”
  1. Procure 1 Armored Cavalry Regiment
    1. $73,844.04, 16 Endo Steel, 27 Double Heat Sinks
    2. Would be assigned to 1st Armored Division as 1st ACR, 2nd Brigade
  2. Procure 1 Heavy Garrison Division
    1. $71,917.56, no strategic materials
    2. Would be assigned to Nowy Gdansk to garrison the Factory complex
  3. Procure 1 Light Horse Regiment
    1. $48,924, 6 Endo Steel, 9 Ferro-Fibrous, and 27 Double Heat Sinks
    2. Would be assigned to 2nd Armored Division as 1st Light Horse Regiment, 1st Brigade
“While we are not there yet, we are eventually hoping to standardize an Armored Division, perhaps divided into Light Armored and Heavy Armored, with a potential for a third Armored Cavalry Division. These are highly preliminary at this time, as our budgets would not support procuring entire division sets at once outside of garrison formations.”

General Reyes is up next. “Your Majesty, with only 2 Warriors commissioning next year we are in good shape procurement wise, however we will need to staff the Star Fort which will be coming online this year. As such we recommend the following.”

Good lord, she’s been infected with Powerpoint as well…
  1. Procure 1 Star Fort Wing
    1. $34,747, 6 Ferro-Aluminium, 6 Double Heat Sinks
  2. Procure 2 Assault Carrier Squadrons
    1. $23,754.80, 6 Ferro-Aluminium and 6 Double Heat Sinks
Admiral Benjamin makes no move to fire up a Powerpoint, something for which you thank God. “Well, Your Majesty, I’m going to give a bit of unusual advice. After the commissioning of USS Challenger later this year I am going to recommend mothballing the Enterprise production line until later. We’ll have 5 exploration vessels, and we’re currently only using 2 of them for anything useful. Otherwise, I recommend going full bore. I recommend building 2 Defiants, 2 Velociraptors, 2 Microraptors, another duo of Warriors, a pair of Lightnings, and either another Tyrannosaurus or a Megaraptor. I do have some R&D requests as well, for either bigger Aerodynes or bigger Spheroids.”

General Potter is also avoiding the use of the unholy Powerpoint. “Needless to say I do endorse all of the recommendations given by the Chiefs. All I’ll add is that it isn’t a priority, but we might want to also consider building a second Star Fort around Nowy Gdansk, as well as one orbiting Griffin IV to secure the new colony there.”

Bridget is bouncing in her seat. “Your Majesty! We’ve got so much we can do! With your approval of the Parliamentary Plan for colonizing Griffin IV, we here in Interior are all ready to go to establish the initial orbital presence around the planet. Initially it’ll mainly be big dropships sitting in orbit supporting orbital activities and terraforming projects, but that’s just great! Since we’ll have the capacity, I’d also strongly recommend doing a few things that aren’t in the plan with DoME. Specifically, I’d like to do two additional Asteroid Redirect missions starting immediately, one to Nowy Gdansk and one here to Griffin’s Roost. It’ll put some strain on the budget in the short term, but the payoff will be HUGE and by the time the Plan requires the additional DoME capacity in Phase 4 we’ll be ready!”

Isoroku is looking as calm as ever, even after the hyper energy of Bridget. “Your Majesty, the NRI has requested that since we are requesting that they build their embassy in the zoned area that we provide assistance with the project, as, according to the ambassador, they didn’t precisely bring along a construction crew. I’d recommend doing so. In addition, I’d recommend holding a general cultural festival celebrating all of the diverse groups that make up the Empire. This will be more expensive than the usual fair, but would allow us to showcase the best of the Empire, especially towards our new guests.”

Jake laughs. “Well, all I’ve got to do here in Politics land is wait and see, Parliament is behaving, and the only thing on the horizon is advanced planning for Griffin IV. Here’s hoping we’ll avoid any Pollux Man issues there, eh?”

He jinxed it. The bastard jinxed it. You give him a gimlet glare for that.

Mary is prim and prepared as ever. She’s not using something so mundane as Powerpoint, she’s using a custom presentation software package developed for academics. By the same people who make Powerpoint.
  • New Projects Now Available
    • Military
      • Aerodyne Dropships (Super Heavy)
        • Allows for the construction of Aerodyne dropships up to 25,000 tons
      • Spheroid Dropships (Super Heavy)
        • Allows for the construction of Spheroid dropships up to 75,000 tons
      • Supercharger
        • A higher risk alternative to MASC, boosts engine output but at the risk of destroying the engine.
      • VTOL Jet Booster
        • Some of our researchers found an ancient television show called ‘Airwolf’ and were inspired. Please don’t encourage them.
      • Thumper Cannon
        • A shorter barreled direct-fire version of the artillery piece
  • Recommendations
    • Military Projects
      • NARC Beacon
        • Very low cost, cheapest remaining project at this time
      • Thumper Cannon
        • May yield insights into improving ballistic weaponry
    • Non Military Projects
      • Power Transfer (advanced) Tier 1
        • Least expensive of the advanced research projects
      • One of the following
        • Iron Womb
          • The population boost will be highly useful
        • Materials Research (Lvl 5)
          • This may be the last project in this area exclusive of the advanced projects, let’s see if this is the case
“Your Majesty, we may have free labs, but budget priorities, little as I like them, look tight for the near future and I’d rather not be responsible for any bankruptcies.”

Harry is looking peculiar, a mix of excitement and grim determination. “Your Majesty, you’ve heard the phrase ‘beware Greeks bearing gifts’? The Romans historically were Greeks with far more pragmatic militarism. They have Jumpships, we don’t. They seem to have a larger military than us, and initial reports from our agents on Nova Roma appear to indicate that they may have more planets than we expected out of only two systems. We need to get a solid handle on these people fast. I know Isoroku thinks this is madness, but if we have agents embedded with the construction teams we might be able to wire the new embassy for surveillance, and thus be able to keep a tiger’s eye on them.”

Isoroku starts to interrupt but is stopped by Harry’s raised hand. “I know, I know, if they catch us we’ll have a serious diplomatic incident on our hands. I get it, I truly do. But we need this intelligence, Your Majesty. We need it badly.”

Isoroku shakes his head “Your Majesty, ‘diplomatic incident’ is putting it very lightly indeed, wars have started in the past over similar incidents, and can we really afford to make the NRI hostile to us? We can afford to be patient, allow the agents we’ve already sent out with the embassy to do their work, and simply observe the embassy here and interact with them. Maybe even, and I know this will sound shocking to Harry, simply ask the ambassador.”

Harry grimaces. “Perhaps, but if they are secretly hostile, or worse in league with either the Dracs or these New Rasalhaguians, or worse yet whoever that Amaris remnant is? Can we risk that? Sure it might fail and cause us grief, but it might also succeed and either warn us of danger or give us peace of mind.”

General Potter clears his throat “Your Majesty, if they do wind up at war with us, I am not fully confident of the outcome. We already know they have a significantly larger military force, and they have Jumpship capacity. If they ally with the Dracs and attack us, or with the Amaris remnant, or even the Rasalhaguians, we will be in a world of hurt. I cannot judge if the risk is worth the reward in this case, but the threat is real.”

Janet interjects “I know that International Law is most often honored in the breach, but under tradition what Harry is proposing is a violation of the most basic norms of diplomatic relations with a friendly power. If we do this and are discovered we will be shouting to the NRI that we are their enemy, no matter what our actual position is.”

“But we need this information!” Harry slaps one hand on the table. “We need to know if they are friends or foes. Can we take the risk of not knowing and getting stabbed in the back when we least expect it?”
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
Good lord, she’s been infected with Powerpoint as well…

The next thing you know, all general officers will be issued a gold-plated presentation remote instead of a sidearm!

He jinxed it. The bastard jinxed it. You give him a gimlet glare for that.

Mary is prim and prepared as ever. She’s not using something so mundane as Powerpoint, she’s using a custom presentation software package developed for academics. By the same people who make Powerpoint.

Powerpoint PRO, the only thing worse than PowerPoint. Ugh!

“But we need this information!” Harry slaps one hand on the table. “We need to know if they are friends or foes. Can we take the risk of not knowing and getting stabbed in the back when we least expect it?”

Harry seems to be falling into the CIA-logic of defaulting to technical surveillance means. There are other ways, ones that don't pee on the rules of diplomatic hospitality....
 

Jarow

Well-known member
[X] Plan: Diplomacy and Expansion
-[X] Military [$ 882,309.52 ]
--[X] Construct Armed Defense Stations Griffin's Roost* [75]
--[X] Construct Armed Defense Stations Nowy Gdask [->3]
(Gotta protect mini-Hesperus)
--[X] Build Orbital Factory DHS Griffin IV L4 [95]
--[X] Build Orbital Factory DHS Griffin IV L5 [95]
--[X] Build Orbital Factory DHS Griffin IV L1 [95]
--[X] Lay Down Major Unit [Construction - $568,470.06 ]
---[X] Defiant [75]
---[X] Defiant [75]
---[X] Velociraptor [75]
---[X] Velociraptor [75]
---[X] Microraptor [75]
---[X] Microraptor [75]
---[X] Warrior [75]
---[X] Warrior [75]
---[X] Lightning [75]
---[X] Lightning [75]
---[X] Tyrannosaurus [75]
--[X] Purchase New Units [$180944.96]
---[X] 1 Flight Goshawks [70]
(Griffin IV station defense)
---[X] 1 Star Fort Wing [70]
---[X] 2 Assault Carrier Squadrons [70]
---[X] 1 Light Horse Regiment [70]
(Cheaper option of the presented two mech regiments, we don't have the DHS for both)
---[X] 1 Heavy Garrison Division [70]

-[X]Interior [$ 95,600.00 ]
--[X] Focus Development on Griffin's Roost [65]
(We need all the Griffin's Roost budget we can get)
--[X] Build Space Station Griffin IV [85]
--[X] Planetary Resource Survey - Griffin IV [45]
(Both of these are needed as part of phase 1 colonization)
--[X] Build Orbital Factory DHS GIAB 1 [95]
--[X] Build Orbital Factory DHS GIAB 2 [95]
--[X] Build Orbital Factory DHS GIAB 3 [95]
(we need a lot more DHS for current requests, let alone after mini-Hesperus is done)
--[X] Change Factory Production 11 (Enterprise) -> Lightning [auto]

-[X] Diplomatic [$120000]
--[X] Have Exploration Fleet Survey GIAB* [->7]
--[X] Have Exploration Fleet Survey Griffin VI [->3]
--[X] Build Proper Embassy for Novi Romani Imperii [95]
--[X] CULTURE - General Cultural Festival [75]
(Lets start off diplomacy with positive relations, hopefully we can make real friends)

-[X] Political [$0]

-[X] Research [$3510200]
--[X] Standard Core Construction* [->3]
--[X] Standard Core Theory* [->3]
--[X] Standard Core Design* [->3]
--[X] Orbital Survey [110]
(Cheap, and we might find something)
--[X] Medium Subcapital Cannon* [75]
--[X] NARC Beacon [90]
(Cheap, might as well not waste all our research slots)

-[X] Intelligence [$1000]
--[X] Counterintelligence Surveillance [?]
--[X] Interrogate POWs [70]

-[X] Justice [$2000000]
--[X] Colonize - Griffin IV [75]
(Phase 1 of the "colonize the desert" project)

-[X] Miscellaneous [$1000000]
--[X] Nowy Gdansk becomes Hesperus - 1000000


A lot of open space, more than I'd prefer. $175k leftover, but not much to spend on except for DoME action, but the ones we can afford take long enough to get in the way of the ones we want.
EDIT: apparently messed up and we got more income at some point after my last check. Secretly actually 1.5m leftover, see Plan: Diplomacy and Expansion v2 for my attempt to rectify this
 
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ShadowArxxy - Canon Omake - Citations Cites For Citationing Under The Influence Of Citations

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
Omake: The Last Citation

Michelle had found this entire business of academic citations in government paperwork to be obnoxiously pedantic even before they got to the case of duelling citation standards, but it really was the last straw.

To even her own surprise, the historical records backed her up. A similar issue of academic slapfights invading government paperwork had surfaced during your grandfather's reign, and he had responded to it in typically decisive manner: the Royal Staff were directed to write up a new citation standard which would be enforced by law. Not that His Majesty cared one whit for academic picky-points, but if they were going to let their absurd minutiae interfere with his government and force him to intervene, he was going to intervene in a way that decisively shut them up.

Unfortunately, he never got around to signing it into law due to a series of more important crises. This was a great pity, she reflected, because several members of the Royal Staff of the time were academically inclined enough to put serious effort into the the new-and-improved citation standard. It incorporated the best elements of the historical APA and MLA styles with significant modern refinements, and notably had a "canonical" short form so that no one could demand a full bibliography on routine paperwork.

At that point, Michelle got a terrible, awful, evil, and very very satisfying idea. Which is to say, she got Jackie to sign an amended version of the old 'pending' executive order enacting the new citations as the sole standard for all government business and all educational and research efforts funded by the government, and then gleefully crashed an academic conference to officially inaugurate the Griffon Universal Citation Heuristic System.
 

IceWing_mk1

Well-known member
I'm going to have to say that trying to wire up an embassy to spy on them is a HUGE mistake.

They're going to be in that facility for decades, and they WILL find the wiring. This happened with the USSR and our embassy IRL, and we DID find at least some of them over the years.
 

Knowledgeispower

Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
Honestly I'm not too worried about the Neo Romans. To put it simply they almost certainly don't have the numbers required to defend their systems from all the threats out there in local space and attack us especially once our mini Heserpus is done and capable of cracking out quite a force every years
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
[X] Plan: Diplomacy and Expansion

Anybody remember when we were worried about the budget because $2300 upkeep would bury us in five turns?
 

Jarow

Well-known member
Anybody remember when we were worried about the budget because $2300 upkeep would bury us in five turns?

I do remember those days fortunately now long past, when our budget was almost entirely from events and barely staving off complete economic collapse under the weight of our advisors. Glad to have escaped, definitely different budgeting priorities now.

I'm going to have to say that trying to wire up an embassy to spy on them is a HUGE mistake.
Indeed, I very intentionally did not choose that (intelligence) action despite it actually being affordable.
 

Jarow

Well-known member
[X] Plan: Diplomacy and Expansion v2
-[X] Military [$ 882,309.52 ]
--[X] Construct Armed Defense Stations Griffin's Roost* [75]
--[X] Construct Armed Defense Stations Nowy Gdansk [->3]
(Gotta protect mini-Hesperus)
--[X] Build Orbital Factory DHS Griffin IV L4 [95]
--[X] Build Orbital Factory DHS Griffin IV L5 [95]
--[X] Build Orbital Factory DHS Griffin IV L1 [95]
--[X] Lay Down Major Unit [Construction - $568,470.06 ]
---[X] Defiant [75]
---[X] Defiant [75]
---[X] Velociraptor [75]
---[X] Velociraptor [75]
---[X] Microraptor [75]
---[X] Microraptor [75]
---[X] Warrior [75]
---[X] Warrior [75]
---[X] Lightning [75]
---[X] Lightning [75]
---[X] Tyrannosaurus [75]
---[X] Devastation [75]
--[X] Purchase New Units [$180944.96]
---[X] 1 Flight Goshawks [70]
(Griffin IV station defense)
---[X] 1 Star Fort Wing [70]
---[X] 2 Assault Carrier Squadrons [70]
---[X] 1 Light Horse Regiment [70]
(Cheaper option of the presented two mech regiments, we don't have the DHS for both)
---[X] 1 Heavy Garrison Division [70]

-[X]Interior [$ 595,600.00 ]
--[X] Focus Development on Griffin's Roost [65]
(We need all the Griffin's Roost budget we can get)
--[X] Build Space Station Griffin IV [85]
--[X] Planetary Resource Survey - Griffin IV [45]
(Both of these are needed as part of phase 1 colonization)
--[X] Build Orbital Factory DHS GIAB 1 [95]
--[X] Build Orbital Factory DHS GIAB 2 [95]
--[X] Build Orbital Factory DHS GIAB 3 [95]
(we need a lot more DHS for current requests, let alone after mini-Hesperus is done)
--[X] DOME - O'Neill Cylinder at Griffin's Roost [->9]
(Will provide an immediate boost to our GDP to help fund the likely to continue being expensive colonization efforts)
--[X] Change Factory Production 11 (Enterprise) -> Lightning [auto]

-[X] Diplomatic [$120000]
--[X] Have Exploration Fleet Survey GIAB* [->7]
--[X] Have Exploration Fleet Survey Griffin VI [->3]
--[X] Build Proper Embassy for Novi Romani Imperii [95]
--[X] CULTURE - General Cultural Festival [75]
(Lets start off diplomacy with positive relations, hopefully we can make real friends)

-[X] Political [$0]

-[X] Research [$3510200]
--[X] Standard Core Construction* [->3]
--[X] Standard Core Theory* [->3]
--[X] Standard Core Design* [->3]
--[X] Orbital Survey [110]
(Cheap, and we might find something)
--[X] Iron Womb [->1]
(Beneficial for our family and helps us get the population we'll need for our ever-expanding army)
--[X] Medium Subcapital Cannon* [75]
--[X] NARC Beacon [90]
(Cheap, might as well not waste all our research slots)

-[X] Intelligence [$1000]
--[X] Counterintelligence Surveillance [?]
--[X] Interrogate POWs [70]

-[X] Justice [$2000000]
--[X] Colonize - Griffin IV [75]
(Phase 1 of the "colonize the desert" project)

-[X] Miscellaneous [$1000000]
--[X] Nowy Gdansk becomes Hesperus - 1000000

Okay, learned our income changed after my latest check for how much we had, so we get to add in a bit more vs earlier plan. More left over too, but now we use all our civilian research slots and still have money leftover; and our "will not be needed for colonization" DoME slot is now in use

EDIT: added in Devastation which was paid for, but apparently not actually in the plan
 
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Knowledgeispower

Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
[X]Plan: Diplomacy and Expansion V2

Also next turn it's time to start going ham on improving the defenses of Nowy Gdansk Gdansk since it's now the core of military industrial complex and maybe laying down another Devastation if the budget allows it since we'll have a fair bit of funding made available starting on turn 42
 
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