Battle Report 13: Summer 1941Deck of Cards:I have been toying with the idea of, instead of choosing your design results based on dice, making a virtual "deck of cards" with die results. You would draw from this deck to get results, and shuffle it when you've gone through. The main advantage of this would be that you would, through the course of the game, receive all the same results as the other faction, so it's more fair while still being random. You could also do some degree of card counting, which might or might not be good depending on how you look at it. If I wanted, I could even distribute the results so that, say, 1's and 6's are less common than other numbers. A potential downside is that you could be relatively hurt by getting your best draws on revision actions. Let me know what you think of it- I probably won't implement this unless people are totally, overwhelmingly in favor, since that's a big change to do in the middle of a game, but it's maybe an idea to think about for other/future games.
The Secret War:As most of you are now aware, there are some hidden groups influencing the game. Some of them may seek to hinder your nation's cause, and for this reason, the Secret Police works day and night to bring traitorous conspirators to justice. Whether you are Forenian or Cannalan, each turn your secret police may investigate one, and only one, player who may be conspiring against you. Just PM me with the name of the person who you want to investigate. The most-voted person will be placed under arrest: Players under arrest can still contribute designs to the game, but if they were working with a secret group, they will no longer be able to contribute. Players under arrest also cannot vote for who they want to be investigated next by the secret police. If the player who is arrested is in fact a conspirator, you might (but not for certain) learn a tidbit about the group they are working with. Reports between the previous battle report and this one have been put on hold, as the Secret Police has needed time to re-organize. There will be certain exceptions and additions to these rules as the game goes on.
Currently only one player is under arrest: Sheb, from Forenia.
Design Doctrines:Compartmentalization for large ships has been added to Cannala's design doctrines.
Island Names:Hopefully by the time I post this, I will have remembered to update the map.
Legacy Equipment Moved:For now, I am moving legacy equipment into a post near the OP. The weapon lists have gotten too long for Bay12's character limit on forum posts. While this means that if you want a complete view of a nation's equipment you'll be wanting to have multiple browser tabs open, and it will complicate price adjustments, this still seems like the least-inconvenient option.
New Equipment:This turn, the Forenians have designed the
UF-HAT-41 "Ice Giant" B: A huge transport plane, powered by six small turboprop engines based on the aT-J04b. Its structure uses wood to make the manufacturing cheaper, and it can carry an entire Salamander, as well as providing 2 TC. It's clumsy and slow, not really meant for combat, but it does the job it needs to as a transport. For their revision, Forenia developed the
UF-RTS-41 "Long Shot": A radar aiming system for their electrically-driven Overcompensator shore guns. It's very imprecise to the point that hitting targets still requires manual calculations, but it can automatically move the gun somewhere near the angle needed to hit a radar contact.
Next turn, Forenia's additional shipping capacity from the Ice Giant will come into effect, they should gain Mutriq's oil.
Cannala has spent the entire season developing the
H1 "Twinblade" Combat Synchrocopter. Cannala's first helicopter is driven by a pair of turboshaft engines, each independently controlling one of the two intermeshing rotors. It doesn't require a tail rotor, but it has a tail like an airplane to give it more maneuverability at speed. It's armed with two 250kg bomb mounts, and a swiveling Can perforator on the bottom operated by a gunner with a limited arc in front of the helicopter. It can even carry up to four passengers. However, its performance in general is very poor, the rotors are relatively inefficient and even after a revision targeted at improving the maneuverability, it is sluggish to turn and largely incapable of any serious combat maneuvers.
Cannala has finally gained the ore from the western jungle island. It's a significant windfall for the Cannalans: The Kraken, Corsair, Walrus, Type 36 Tank Destroyer, and little-used Dragonfly have all become Cheap. The Khorne and Santos have been reduced from Very Expensive to Expensive. In the capitol city, it seems like a large ship is christened every week. This is good for Cannala since their expense credit on the Victoria ends this turn.
The Cannalan army currently has the following equipment:
CANNALAN WEAPONS:
4" MSLAAC "Daybreaker": The Mechanical Self-Loading Anti Armor Cannon is an application of a complicated mechanical system to quickly load rounds. Most of the system sits in the tank turret. Rounds are stored in a carousel in the body of the tank before being lifted up to the turret. An electric motor drives the system which rotates the carousel, lifts a new shells into the turret while ejecting the old casing out a flap on the top of the tank, then rams the new shell into the gun- even with 30° inclination or 10° declination, as the shell slides along a set of inter-meshing rails. Turrets containing the autoloader are smaller, longer and much flatter than normal ones, though the 4" cannon and autoloading equipment still isn't lightweight. The system fires 10 times per minute, which is slower than a very skilled crew but still impressive. Replacing the 18-round carousel takes almost a minute, and the carousel can be stopped if a special round needs to be used (such as switching from anti-tank to anti-infantry) which takes about twice as long as a normal load. [+1 Ore if retrofitted to vehicles with a smaller gun]
M1939 "La Sierra" GPMG: The La Sierra is gas-operated open bolt machine gun for the BRC1913 rifle cartridge. It fires from 50-round belts, which can be strung together. It has mounts for a bipod, standard tripod/pintle mounts, or an optical sight, but it's normally used with iron sights. It's relatively light at 21 pounds. [2 Ore 1 Oil]
CANNALAN NAVY:
Santos-Class Naval Aircraft Support Vessel: [Expensive] The Santos is a large aircraft carrier. It is about the size of the Khorne but not armored. It's powered by four oil-burning steam turbines, which are more powerful than coal ones. The hangar deck stores two dozen fighters, moved to the flight deck by a hydraulic lift. On deck is an Eagle Eye Radar system, con tower, a few Firecracker AA guns and a miscellaneous autocannons wherever there's spare room. It also has a decent sized flight deck, with an arrester cable for landing aircraft, and two overlapping runways with room for ready aircraft on deck. It also has a steam catapult, which allows it to launch some planes which could not normally take off from its short runway. [5 Ore, 4 Oil]
Victoria-Class Battlecruiser: [Very Expensive] The Victoria is built to carry her three gun turrets, each of which mounts two 12" cannons, a vast increase in size over the Nightstorm guns. Each gun (for now called a Victoria Cannon) fires shells weighing about 800 pounds out of a built-up barrel nearly 50 feet long, to a distance much greater than the Nighstorm (though moderate for guns of this class). Shells and powder charges are rammed in separately by a complicated hydraulic lift system, the guns can fire once about every 25 seconds. Each gun is controlled by a more advanced version of the fire director from the Khorne: Various information is fed by spotters on deck to the fire control room, where mechanical calculators aid a team to form a firing solution, which they feed back to the guns, and the system also helps to fire the guns when the ship is exactly level. This is necessary to effectively aim at the ranges the guns are capable of. There is a heavily armored citadel, a torpedo belt with empty compartments, and large diesel-electric engines. They are the first diesel engines of this size in Cannala, and are less powerful than steam turbines but easier to fit within the safety of the citadel armor, the Victoria is a slow and lumbering beast. Extra armaments include six Firecracker-style AA turrets, on a separate director system, about a dozen Can Shredders, and a few Type 45 Torpedo launchers on deck where there was room. It has a radar system as well; the deck is crowded between the turrets, armaments and other features. [7 Ore, 4 Oil]
CANNALAN LAND VEHICLES:
M3T1A1 Raider: [Cheap] Daybreaker Variant: [Expensive] The Raider is a Diesel-Electric tracked APC designed to serve as a base platform for many roles. It has light RHA armor with a sloped front, plus slats. It holds ten passengers and three crew, making it look like a large metal box. It has an interchangeable turret, which is very wide and flat with medium armor. Default armament is a Can shredder, plus 6 external Thumper barrels for smoke grenades and an RPG, these can only be reloaded from the outside. It's also chemical warfare protected, and last but not least, amphibious, with a trim vane and two electric powered propellers. Exits are on large rear hatch and one small top hatch, only latter can be used while afloat. [3 Ore 2 Oil] Daybreaker Variant: [4 Ore 2 Oil]
M3T3A1 SPAAG "Firecracker": [Expensive] The Self-Propelled AA Gun is placed on a Raider chassis, although it was found far easier to operate with the entire roof of the Raider removed and some of the passenger space taken up by the weapon than fitting in the existing turret place. It relies on a specially modified Daybreaker system, the section which lifts rounds out of the carousel is curved to match the gun's movement range. It has a fuze system for air-burst rounds, where the gunner sets the altitude on a dial and the actual fuze time is determined based on that and the angle of the gun. [4 Ore 2 Oil]
MXA1 "Bull": [Very Expensive] The bull is a main battletank powered by a novel turboshaft engine. It carries a Daybreaker in a heavy-armored turret with heavy front armor, and medium armor over the rest of the tank. Secondary armaments include a coaxial MG and pintle MG, and 14 smoke grenade launchers (6 on the turret 8 on the body), arguably a result of interference from contractor Al's Fireworks and Parlor Tricks. The bull's kerosene-fueled turboshaft engine is the first example of a self-compressing gas turbine motor in Cannala, and relies on high-temperature alloys to allow the turbine blades to function downstream of the combustor, and it's watercooled to keep it from getting too hot. The turboshaft is small, mainly because only a small design was found to be reliable, but it it allows the tank a relatively low profile and generates as much power as a Blackhawk engine. It sucks in air through small scoops on top of the rear tank body, and exhausts through vents on the back, which cause a fairly large weak spot in the armor. It's also dangerous to stand behind, the exhaust can cause first degree burns in just a few seconds. It's uncomfortable hot inside the tank as well. [6 Ore (1 Ti), 4 Oil]
CANNALAN AIR FORCE:
M1938 A-3 'Parrot': The Parrot is a low-cost air superiority fighter, designed to counter the Yellowjacket. It looks very similar to the Falcon, but without the complicated prop system and reduced to a 10-cyclinder, normally aspirated power plant. It too is fully aluminum, and contains most of the little features like retractable gear, an oxygen system, and a reflex sight. It is actually quite heavily armed with two Muerte heavy machine guns and two Can Perforators, though the perforators don't have a lot of ammo. [3 Ore (2Al), 2 Oil]
M1940 A-5 'Spearhead' Air Superiority Fighter: [Expensive] Following Forenia's Thunderbird design, the Spearhead is an aluminum-built fighter with two turbojet engines. It features a rounded canopy, swept wings, pointy nose, and the engines are under each wing, but hug the body closely; the inlets are flush with the fuselage. It's also fairly heavily armed: Each wing has a double-barrel Can Perforator, and a heavy Can Shredder sits in the nose, so the whole thing is built a bit beefier than the Thunderbird. The two Morei turbojets burn kerosene and take some advantage of experiences of the Bull tank's turboshaft, it includes a water-cooling system (the shared radiator creates a third intake under the body). They use the same easier manufacturing process too, and the performance of the plane is only slightly worse for the added weight of the cooler. Despite carrying more weight, it's very nearly as fast as the Thunderbird, but it does have trouble recovering from stalls. On the other hand, when it's keeping good speed it can make impressive turns thanks to its hydraulic control system; the pilot can pull the relatively large control surfaces with ease. It has good killing power too: The smaller cannons are good for dogfighting and the Can Shredder can do serious damage to bombers from a safe distance. It has very little ammo, but also needs very little: pilots must simply be careful not to waste it all on a quick burst. [4 Ore (1 Ti, 1 Al), 4 Oil]
H-1 "Twinblade" Combat Synchrocopter: [Expensive] The Twinblade is a synchropter (I checked the spelling twice), which is a helicopter with two closely intermeshing rotors, each with two blades, separated on the roll axis. Each one is powered by a turboshaft, on either side of the fuselage. Adjusting the pitch and relative torque of these rotors allows the Twinblade to pitch and yaw, and additional control is provided by control surfaces on the tail, it has a rudder and elevator like an airplane. It is operated by two crewmembers who sit in the centerline, in the higher rear part is the pilot and the lower front part is the gunner, who controls a can-perforator on a turret below him. The turret gun is controlled by a hydraulic joystick and also move a gun sight to show where the gun is aiming, it has about a 120 degree lateral range and 60 degree declination/15 degree inclination. There are also two winglets which support 250lb bomb mounts. It has a relatively large body which provides room for up to four passengers. The Twinblade can't really perform combat maneuvers, it is not very fast or agile and the turboshafts provide a lot of power but the rotors are not very efficient and give mediocre lift. The Twinblade can irrecoverably "capsize" if it is pitched or rolled too aggressively. [5 Ore (1 Ti, 1 Al), 4 Oil]
CANNALAN COMMUNICATIONS AND OTHER:
General Cortez: General Cortez is a storied pirate sailor, and under him the Cannalan Navy has an inherent advantage in battle.
M1938 HEAT: These shells contain a shaped charge, like with the antitank RPG warheads. At 100mm, they are effective against heavy armor. These are still fairly basic, like Forenian rounds.
M1938 APDS: A long and narrow kinetic penetrator fired from cannons in a sabot. Unlike HEAT, they're good against spaced armor but poor against sloped armor. Currently accuracy is poorer than conventional rounds. Made from hardened steel, they're cheaper than existing full sized hardened steel rounds.
Drunken Pirate Encryption: The Cannalans have adopted a slightly modified One-Time-Pad encryption system. Paper sheets with a unique encryption key are distributed by courier before important orders are read aloud but in code over radio. There are a couple other simple steps to obscure the message, and decoy couriers are also sent with fake pads, but it still has the inherent drawbacks of OTP. There is a delay in sending pads and confirming they have arrived safely, and then since the pads are only used once, encryption is reserved for important and long-term orders.
Eagle Eye RADAR: [Expensive] The Eagle Eye is a relatively advanced radar system which can identify an aircraft at significant range, showing the range, direction, and approximate altitude. This is accomplished with an array of antennae in a metal frame, which rotates on a turntable. It has a CRT display with a rotating refresh line which the operator can read. It can be mounted on ships, where it takes up about a turret's worth of space including the magazine below deck, or in a temporary installation of four trucks, which takes a few hours to set up. There is also a separate version which looks identical, but can only identify sea-surface contacts. [Complex]
'Immortal' Armor: This alternative armor set replaces the chest and back piece two back plates, and four chest plates of thin molybdenum steel alloy. The splitting of chest and back coverage into multiple plates gives soldiers the ability to crouch, crawl and maneuver in relative comfort. The plates are in a "carrier vest", allowing them to be easily removed and replaced. However the important feature is that soldiers in immobile positions, such as aircraft crews, some tank crew members, and machine gunners can double-layer the chest and back armor. [3 Ore]
CANNALAN DESIGN DOCTRINES:
Vehicle Radios: Most vehicles come standard with a Bureaucrat's Wife radio system, with broadcast range appropriate to the size of the vehicle and its power source.
Slat Armor: Ground armored vehicles are retrofitted with slat armor over their normal armor, to help defeat HEAT warheads.
Retractable Landing Gear: Unless otherwise specified, aircraft have retractable wheeled landing gear.
Oxygen Systems: Aircraft come with an oxygen system for the crew.
Filters: Enclosed armored vehicles come with the necessary equipment to seal themselves and filter the crew's air in case of a gas attack.
Warheads: Missiles, shells and bombs of various sizes can have various types of warhead attached, such as high-explosive, HEAT, incendiary, and so on. Developing a new warhead type means it will be available in other applications where it could easily apply, and new sizes of shells or bombs are available with various warheads.
Compartmentalization: Large ships are separated into many compartments which can be sealed individually if one begins flooding, to prevent the flooding from spreading to the rest of the ship.
CANNALAN RESOURCES:
Transport Capacity: 1 by land, 3 by sea, 1 by air.
2 Wood
4 Ore, using 1 TC by sea
3 Oil, using 1 TC by sea
2 Aluminum, Using 1 TC by sea
1 Magnesium
The War This Turn:Forenia is attacking to regain the plains, and again attempting landfall on the Tundra. Cannala is attempting to regain the Jungle, as well as push on to Mt Konstantin in the south.
The Battle at SeaThe hot summer sun beats down on deck.
Cannala's Victoria battlecruisers are their flagships and pride of the navy, but the backbone is made up of Khorne Battleships and Santos carriers. A combination of good gun batteries and air power helps to quickly and efficiently destroy enemy ships, and the Victorias are few in number but can cause chaos to an enemy fleet before most ships are in range. The Kraken and Corsair can, in numbers, absolutely mop up Forenian Archers and destroy carriers if they're allowed to get close.
The large numbers of Santos carriers are enough to negate Forenia's normal air advantage. Despite the fact that Forenian aircraft and torpedoes are still very effective at doing their jobs, too many of them get shot down by Cannalan aircraft to eliminate Cannalan fleets by themselves. Cannala's domination of the sea is complete and total, Forenian naval victories are few, brief, and far between.
Cannala has a
Massive Naval Advantage this season.
The Battle for the Jungle:Attacking: Cannala
Cannala begins their shore assault having totally pushed away the Forenian navy. Forenia's new Overcompensator aiming system proves to be very little benefit against the oncoming Cannalan horde, and with their significant number of carrier aircraft Cannala manages to destroy some Overcompensator emplacements by air. The vast majority of Cannala's landing forces is deployed by Walruses, which are very vulnerable to shore gun fire and aircraft, so Raiders are often sent in ahead to try and secure a beachhead. Many walruses are lost, but more come to fill their place. With some offshore shelling, Cannala punches through the Forenian shore positions and takes ground. It remains to be seen if they can keep it up further from shore, or indeed if they can avoid being pushed back, but the value of disrupting Forenia's ore supply even for a short time is incalculable.
Cannala gains ground. [ Cannala 1/4, Forenia 3/4]The Battle for the Plains:Attacking: Forenia
Forenia's naval forces are just far too few in number to make a foothold, after repeated attacks by Cannalan forces at sea.
[Cannala 3/3]The Battle for the Tundra:Attacking: Forenia
Much like the assault on the plains, Forenia doesn't stand a chance.
[Cannala 4/4]Forenia does not gain a foothold. [Cannala 4/4, Forenia 0/4]
The battle for Mt. Konstantin:Attacking: Cannala
Ultimately, Cannala's overwhelming naval advantage makes a victory here inevitable as Forenians are blockaded from their supply lines, only sporadically receiving ammunition and reinforcements. Shore bombardment can access a large portion of the island. It is an interesting demonstration of the new Twinblade Synchropter though, as it is conceptually well-suited to transporting and supporting soldiers in the mountains. In practice, while a dozen soldiers moved by a Twinblade group can be valuable, their transport capacity and armament are both rather lackluster. At low altitude it is vulnerable to even rifle-caliber machinegun fire, it does not take much damage to the rotor mechanism to cause serious instability or a control failure. The gunner's elaborate hydraulic turret looks cool, but the sight which rotates with the gun isn't very easy to use as the gunner must keep moving his head to have a clear sight picture. There are a few scenarios where the ability to have what is effectively a cannon emplacement with a bird's eye view has proven very valuable, but it's offset by the fact that the Twinblade is extremely vulnerable. It is also a sitting duck in fights against aircraft, the gun is almost impossible to use against fighters which usually attack from a higher altitude. Ultimately the Twinblade isn't very valuable to the fighting here but it shows that the helicopter concept is promising. Once Forenians (with their ubiquitous machinegun pintle mounts) are no longer surprised by Twinblade attacks, it somewhat falls out of use. Ironically, the more Twinblades are out of the service on the front lines, the more are available to be lent to Cannalan movie studios: The Twinblade appears prominently in Cannalan films and appears to be an extremely valuable weapon in the public eye.
Forenia' Ice Giant transports are used to ferry paratroopers. They can hold a lot, but their lack of speed and wooden frame make them vulnerable enough that the Reckless Effect is usually a better option. Of course, it sees lots of use for general transport duty where Forenia is cut off from supplies by sea. Ice Giants carrying troops and supplies fly under heavy escort.
Cannala gains ground. [Cannala 1/2, Forenia 1/2]Events outside the War:
The Outside World:1941 begins. Nazi Germany begins the mass execution by gas of citizens of Germany and Poland deemed physically or mentally disabled. In a less horrifying event that also demonstrates Germany's totalitarianism,
all blackletter typefaces are required by decree to be replaced with the Antiqua font. Australian and English troops push back Italian forces in Libya. All persons born in Puerto Rico are declared US citizens by birth, under US federal law. Joseph Grew, a US ambassador to Japan, reports that he has overheard a rumor about Japan planning a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Erwin Rommel is appointed the leader of Germany's Afrika Korps, after a loss in Benghazi. Winston Churchill asks the US to send arms to the British- "Give us tools, and we will finish the job." The United States passes the lend-lease act, effectively ending their pretense of being neutral in the war.
Alliances:Cannala receives a
Research Credit for sharing their turbojet technology with the allies. Forenia does not receive one as Hitler is reluctant to share research; he considers Forenia's political motives to be suspect.
Local Events:In Forenia, paranoia has begun to grip the public. Rumors of a secret faction of Arstotzkan rebels have been sensationalized throughout the press, and people suspect their very neighbors. In Parliament, ministers choose their words carefully for fear that something they say might be misconstrued as a desire to break up United Forenia. Minister Zaman Salhoub urges his constituents not to begrudge their Arstotzkan neighbors without cause: "I know things have gone missing and some people have been hurt or even killed by Arstotzkan violence. But even so, we still see more deaths to tiger related incidents in Moskurg every year, and tigers are relatively friendly." The Arstotzkan Nationalist party seems internally split on whether to scold or encourage the Arstotzkan Rebels, though every member will state and reiterate that they are not rebels themselves, just onlookers.In Cannala, the Red Rot has continued to plague sugar crops, and citizens are getting fed up. "Good rum, or no rum!" chant rioters, who have stormed into a rum distillery recently purchased by Eduardo Charpes himself. Massive barrels of rum have been smashed and poured into the streets in protest. Indeed, using rot-affected sugarcane has been absolutely necessary to meet demand for rum, but the flavor is foul, and it gives you cramps. Eduardo calls a private meeting with the engineers: He has received a letter from an anonymous person who claims to be a Juraki living outside of Cannala. This person says that they have developed a cure for the Red Rot; they will share it in exchange for amnesty and a startlingly large sum of money with which they will live abroad.
You must decide whether to accept the offer.Turn 14, Commence!You may now begin voting for your design phase!