Bay 12 Games Forum

Barring any unexpected dice trades via the War Council, we're set to get four revisions this phase.  Let's hear 'em!

Here's a quick way to take another crack at those destroyers...

Revision: JTT Penetrator Aerial Munition *NEW NAME 500 lb Stroke of Fury*
In cleaning out the desk of a engineer who had just been committed to the Royal Sanitarium for chronic perversion, his fellow VSC engineers made a startling discovery.  Amidst his collection of "Basselton Bible" pornographic comic strips, was a surprisingly brilliant design idea scrawled in the margins...
"We got our Barracuda, and it's fuckin' huge am I right?  Something to really be proud of.  But our birds won't even take it.  Too big they say.  Them Navy boys are eggin' us on, so we gotta do it!  So how 'bout this.  Just the tip.  Just slip that in there, and it'll get the job done.  Gotta see how it feels, am I right?"
The "JTT Penetrator Aerial Munition" is the 300 lb warhead and impact fuse "tip" of the Cloud Killi, re-encased into an aerial munition shell.  The additional weight of the casing and fins should place the total munition weight at 500lb (edit), just enough to fit on a Great Emu.  In the hands of a skilled bombardier, the encased 300 lb warhead should penetrate the deck armor of a destroyer, and could be used to destroy other hardened structures such as dry docks, rail terminals, and bridges.

Also I'm wondering if we should encourage more strategic bombing operations, given that the central plains are really defined by crossing points at the Koldan River.  True penetrating munitions tend to have heavier casings, but 60% (3 to 5) HE to total weight is spot on for a WW2 general purpose bomb.  (Modern HE is more powerful, so today it's about 40% warhead weight in a general purpose dumb bomb.)  That should be just enough casing to punch through a destroyer anyways.  It's going to be a tricky shot trying to level-bomb with one munition, but it'll sure as hell be DARING.  It should help that they probably don't have serious AA guns yet.  Also, who knew Basselton was so cutting edge in adult humor? ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tijuana_bible )

Here's a quick way to improve our aerial gunnery...

Revision: Bull's Eye Aerial Gunnery Ring Sight
Current narrow machine gun sights aren't really intended for moving targets.  In fast-moving aerial gun fights, this results in our Emu gunners often "guesstimating" deflection for their targets and barely using the sights at all.  By replacing our rear sights our on guns with a large bull's eye like iron ring, our Emu gunners can be trained to lead targets by measuring deflection with the diameter of the sight.  This inexpensive solution should be applied standard to our machine guns.

Not as fancy as the KPAF reflector sights, but should be free and comparatively effective.  Here's the voice of Loony Toons explaining how to use a ring sight on the waist of a B-17: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqoUdd9Ge4E (skip to about 6:30 if you're impatient)  Less fun training manual version: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/AirGunnery/SIGHTS.html

Speaking of the air defense truck, I've been sitting on a project proposal for next turn.  The "Ox Slayer" .60 cal air-cooled heavy machine gun.  Tanks aren't a thing yet, so it'll be years before we could requisition anything like it.  We could pitch that as part of our bartering package for both the army and navy.  "And as our first act as an autonomous corps, we shall develop a state-of-the-art heavy machine gun.  This deadly weapon system will be available for our army and navy brothers."

Because regardless of us gaining land, we still have to block two D-days at Vlanlados and our mainland.  Now is not the time to let them dominate the seas again.

...only the VVF getting cheaper?  Suck it Wolfram Q. Gottfried.

It's more that you need enough standoff so the winch/power cable doesn't tangle on anything else, especially fragile commo and sensor dishes/antennas.  In high winds that cable might go horizontal.

Per critiques, added some more features to the DDG.  Keep in mind that a 650 mm magnetic torpedo hits just as hard for relatively dirt cheap compared to the Saltseeker.  The Israeli classify the shit out of all their stuff, but that's probably a 300+ kg warhead.  Detonated under the keel, that's similar to the one shot kill capability of the Saltseeker.

Good idea with the balloon RADAR BTW.  As an added bonus, we could probably revise that as an anti-HARM decoy.

(1) UFS-DDG-45 'Onegin' Guided Missile Destroyer: ConscriptFive
(1) UFS-CG-45 'Bogdanov' Guided Missile Cruiser : Cnidaros
(0) UFN-SS-45 Archer II:

Pretty much what I was going to write as I see no good reason to do anything else.

(4) Operation Middle Finger: pirateJoe, eS, Sensei, ConscriptFive

But the phase isn't over yet.   Let's not forget we can save big on project development with a winning write-up for the recruitment ad event.

Here's a nerdy one I'm really proud of:

Revision: Ethylene Glycol Antifreeze
If we really want to get the most out of our V12's, we need better cooling systems.  Pure water is adequate, but what if we could make it more freeze resistant and have a higher boiling point?  Our engines could be pushed to higher performance with the added benefit of better cold starts in the winter.  Any secondary school chemist would point out that freezing point depression and boiling point elevation is a simple matter of adding another compound, such as salt, to the water.  While likely effective, a less corrosive "solution" would be preferred.  Going through our old textbooks, the experimental hydrocarbon ethylene glycol (CH2OH)2 shows promise.  By obtaining or otherwise synthesizing it from common ethylene, we should be able to create a high performance dilution for our cooling systems, improving their performance.

Ethylene glycol kinda has a funny story.  It was invented waaaay back in 1859, but nobody could find a use for it.  Then WWI industry started mass producing it as a precursor for nitroglycerin.  Then in 1923, the automotive industry started using it as coolant.  100 years later, it's still the green shit you pour into your car.  Fun fact, it's dyed green to help deter kids from drinking the sugary tasting fluid.  But yeah, this strikes me a nice nerdy way to improve our V12 engines.