Three CaptainsThe report from the Three Captains airspace is not good, but it is a report. Of the four skiffs sent, only the scout survives, which is expected. The Wreth force initially defending the Three Captains is limited to the large vessel that survived the last fight and a pair of skiffs on lookout. Had the other Kasgyrite vessels not been there to engage, and die, the scout would surely have been spotted while getting into position- but the Wrethan lookouts appear to disengage after spotting the enemy in order to join the fray, providing the window of opportunity to get into a watchful position.
After the three combat skiffs are eviscerated by the Wrethan forced, the Scout sits and waits, recording and running silent.
Some time later, the second Wrethan force arrives, six ships strong. Three skiffs, slightly different from their usual model, and (more importantly)
three transports. The transports dock and unload marines, remaining outside the spire with their new escorts.
Final count, 1 superskiff, 2 skiffs, 3 new model skiffs, 3 transports.
Inside the SpireNumbers threaten to suffocate the Kasgyrite marines. Though traps are laid of every sort, every opportunity is taken to snipe from darkness before the enemy can react, and the cavern terrain is exploited and remodeled wherever possible, the only way to survive is to lose ground. It's a terror campaign, to strike the Wreth dogs and make them bleed and whine, to make them fear the tunnels, but there's simply no way that the Kasgyrite officers can see to turn this into a victory.
Counts vary, but there's between six and eight squads of Wrethan infantry, armed with a mix of crossbows and gauntlets. Forward groups appear to be utilizing a different type of crossbow, not automatic, but still lever operated and with slightly better range. Still not a patch on the Witch Hunter, but it's something to not. Worse are the cannons. Much worse. There's four of them now, distributed so that two are always advancing while two keep watch on the flanks.
Making raids on their camps when they stop is as suicidal as making raids on their convoy when their moving, thanks to even more of the portable barricades they used before.
The officer on the ground has high praise for his men, but unless he's reinforced, he sees no path to win this fight. He doesn't have the men or the firepower to do anything but pull back and keep the enemy scared.
Confirmed Kills: At least three quarters of an enemy squad.
Losses: Three Skyskiffs
Kasgyre has lost ground at Three Captains
BlackstoneSpire Blackstone is mercifully quiet, allowing the Mercury to pick up additional soldiers and move on without any issue.
Spire KasgyreThe Ophidian is repaired at Spire Kasgyre, and refitted to a higher standard than before. Her lower deck forward guns are upgraded and merged to a Vanguard mounting, and the new cannon is installed.
The Anguis is likewise pulled out of the mothballs and refitted for service once more, receiving her upgraded core and partial armaments.
Two additional skiffs are constructed and stand ready for service at Spire Kasgyre.
Event: The Late SavantDuring recent renovations to a manor once owned by one of the greatest scientific minds in Kasgyre's history, a secret vault was uncovered by craftsmen. Such a chamber had been rumored to exist, as the scientist was known to be rather... unstable, despite their prodigious intellect and unparalleled ability- but such rumors had never been substantiated before now. Within the chamber were private laboratories, half-finished designs, and stacks upon stacks of notes detailing secret and ambitious designs.
Secret and ambitious military designs.
Careful collations of such notes reveal that, although their paranoia and internal demons likely prevented them realizing their vision, the scientist was on the cusp of several major breakthroughs. Despite the age of the documents, there may be much to gain from a careful analysis of the late savant's notes...
Rules:For this event you'll be creating up to three (3) designs. Each design is one of the Scientist's unfinished inventions, and thus is made from a pre-war state of mind. This is not to say that such designs cannot intrinsically utilize more advanced technology than existed in his/her day, (think of some of Nikola Tesla's more... theoretical design ideas) but you can make no mention of specific technology invented after the start of the game. The designs you put forward may be highly theoretical in nature, and you should not feel limited by the scope of the start of game technology. This challenge is about imagination, creativity, and fluff. Your three designs will be paired off in order against the three designs from the opposing nation, and in each pairing I will decide which is the 'better' theoretical mad-science design*. For each pairing you 'win' you get an extra die to spend next turn. The team that wins the majority also gets the ability to roll a prototype at advantage.
This is a competition about science, not politics. Phrases such as 'For the glory of [BLANK]' or 'Shall be the bane of the [BLANK] scum' are not allowed. Your designs should be about the science of the design, and mentioning the enemy empire, your own empire, or any combination thereof, is frowned upon heavily.
1. You may create up to 3 designs for this Event.
2. These designs may make no reference to technologies created after the war.
3. These designs should be as divorced from politics as possible- science, not propaganda.
4. Designs will be judged based on a superior 'mad-science' quotient.
5. Each 'win' nets a team an extra die.
6. The team with the majority of 'wins' gains the ability to roll a prototype at advantage.
*The product should be notionally possible and well described, not just insane cool sounding blithering.
It is the beginning of the year 366 AR.
Spire Kasgyre's production stands at,
13(+10)/y Crystal, 26/115 Banked
17/y Ore, 36/85 banked
19/y Wood, 93/95 banked
10/y Silk, 24/50 banked
It is now the design and project maintenance phase. You have 5 dice to spend.
Viper Production Line: 1/45 | 7C + 5O + 5W + 2S, +15 From any combination of any resource | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Vertical Envelopment 2/13 | 3 from each of COWS + 4 from Any combination of COWS | Rushed 0 times | Nothing Invested
Thaddeus Class Crystal Design: 19/20 | 2 Crystal, 1 ore + 2 from ANY COWS | Rushed 0 Times | Royal Funding + 6 Crystal, 3 Ore, 6 Wood Invested
The Calm: The calm is a region of the aerosphere with almost no wind beyond fleeting turbulence, and absolutely no aetheric currents. It's frigidly cold, and filled with fine red 'snow' that barely moves. Traversing it with a conventional vessel is impossible due to the lack of energy to fuel the lift and trim crystals.
The Everstorm: As the name suggests, the everstorm is a region of the aerosphere dominated by an enormous and eternal thunderstorm. It's a chaotic region of raging winds and surging aetheric energy that manifests in terrible bursts of prismatic flame. No conventional vessel could hope to survive the nightmarish storm conditions.
Kasgyre Territory Blackstone Marine Presence: K 0/14 | W 0/14
Territory: 4/4 | 0/4
Resources: 1C, 5O, 2W, 0S
Conditions: Rocky, large caverns, very dark
The Hive Marine Presence: K 0/10 | W 0/10
Territory: 4/4 | 0/4
Resources: 1C, 2O, 1W, 4S
Conditions: Spider Nursery, narrow and twisting tunnels
Glowcove Marine Presence: K 0/20 | W 0/20
Territory: 4/4 | 0/4
Resources: 1C, 2O, 6W, 1S
Conditions: Verdant galleries, significant bio-luminescence
The BeltThree Captains Marine Presence: K 2/20 | W ?/20
Territory: 3/4 | 1/4
--->Marine unit 1: Bronze armour (Squad Officer), Aethersilk vest (Team Leaders), Crossbows (full squad), [25% Strength]
--->Marine unit 1b: Bronze armour (Squad Officer), Aethersilk vest (Team Leaders), Crossbows (full squad), [50%]
--->Marine unit Heavies: Bronze armour (every man), Aethersilk vest (Team Leaders), Aether Gauntlet (every man except 2), bronze cutlass (every man), grenades (1 squad ) [50%]
Resources: 1C, 6O, 2W, 6S
Conditions: Kinetoluminescent Ores, Heavily Infested
Wrackspire Marine Presence: K 0/12 | W ?/12
Territory: 0/4 | ?/4
Resources: 3C, 4O, 4W, 2S
Conditions: Unstable Aetheric Phenomena, Broken Spire
Burned MountainMarine Presence: K 0/24 | W ?/24
Territory: 0/4 | ?/4
Resources: 1C, 10O, 1W, 0S
Conditions: Inexplicably Molten Core, Hundreds of narrow tunnels and small galleries.
The UnfinishedMarine Presence: K 0/45 | W ?/45
Territory: 0/4 | ?/4
Resources: 8C, 0O, 6W, 2S
Conditions: Unfinished infrastructure, Massive open rooms and halls.
Skiffs With No Name - Skyskiff Class (x1)
Loadout
2 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun).
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Location: Three Captains
Status: Very Afraid
RKNV Ophidian - Viper Class
Loadout
1 Communications Officer
1 Vanguard Cannon (forward Mount)
6 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun) [4 front, 2 rear]
2 Sections Light Copper Armor
1 Medium Core Crystal
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal
6 Trim Webs
6 Trim Crystals
6 reams of webbing
Location: Spire Kasgyre
Status: Shipshape
RKNV Anguis - Viper Class
Loadout
3 Light Topaz Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun) [3 front. 5 front open, 2 rear open]
2 Sections Light Copper Armor
1 Medium Topaz Core Crystal
1 Small Topaz Lift Crystal
4 Topaz Trim Webs
4 Topaz Trim Crystals
6 reams of webbing
Location: Spire Kasgyre
Status: Shipshape
Mercury - Transport Barge
Loadout
1 Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal
2 Trim Crystals
1 reams of webbing
Carrying: 4/6
--->Marine unit 3: Proto. Bronze armour (Squad Officer), Aethersilk vest (Team Leaders), Crossbows (1 per team), Cutlass (full squad)
---> Marine unit 6: Proto. Bronze armour (Squad Officer), Aethersilk vest (Team Leaders), Aether Gauntlet (1 per team), Cutlass (full squad)
Location: Blackstone
Status: Shipshape
Skiffs With No Name - Skyskiff Class (x4)
Loadout
2 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun).
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Location: Blackstone
Status: Shipshape
Skiffs With No Name - Skyskiff Class (x2)
Loadout
2 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun).
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Location: Spire Kasgyre
Status: Shipshape
Viper Hull
Transport Hull
Silk Vests (x32)
Webbing x7
Topaz Grenades x2 (Squad)
Topaz Gauntlet x1 (Fireteam)
VS Topaz Lift
Current Technology
Infantry
Flintlock Pistol: Cost: 2 ore to give one of either to every fireteam in a squad, 8 to give to every man. Inaccurate beyond spitting distance, incapable of dealing significant damage against hard armor, and liable to explode when used regularly even when given the most expert maintenance, the primary advantage of these weapons is that they can punch straight through shrouds like they didn't exist, and they're slowed by aethersilk officer's coats as much as by an ordinary silk shirt.
Flintlock Rifle: Cost: 3 ore to give one of either to every fireteam in a squad, 12 to give to every man. Reasonably accurate, but slow to reload and still incapable of dealing significant damage against hard armor or ship hulls. These weapons still require expert maintenance to keep them from being single-use weapons, and sustained use still makes these weapons terrifyingly unreliable as service weapons. Still, an excellent choice for shooting through silk shirts and ignoring shrouds.
Grappling Gear: Cost: 1 ore to give to every member of a squad. Standard issue ropes and hooks for boarding vessels or climbing the outside of spires. Cumbersome if you're not going to use it.
Aetheric Gauntlet: Cost: 1 Ore, 1 crystal to give one to every fireteam in a squad, 4 of each to give one to everyone. A gauntlet (usually left handed to keep the right hand free) of copper and leather with a tiny weapons crystal locked into the palm. Capable of firing dozens of low energy blasts of aetheric energy at the user's discretion, but is difficult to aim and the copper cage used to draw heat from the crystal has the unsettling tendency to leave disfiguring gauntlet burns, melt, or set the user on fire if used too frequently.
Bronze Cutlass: Cost: 2 Ore to give to every member of a squad. A simple, heavy blade of bronze attached to a wooden handle. Simple, and brutally effective in close quarters.
Aethersilk Vest: Cost: 1 Silk to give to a squad's ranking officer, 5 silk to provide to ranking officer and team leads, 16 silk to give to every member of a squad. A double layer vest of dense aethersilk, capable of absorbing a considerable amount of Aetheric energy. Can stop multiple point-blank shots from a gauntlet, but doesn't cover the arms, legs, or head. Does nothing against physical weapons or projectiles.
Witch Hunter Crossbow: Cost: 2 wood 2 ore to give one to every fireteam, 8 wood 8 ore for every man.The cranequin mechanism is much swifter than many similar designs (though that isn't saying much), and is integrated directly into the weapon in order to avoid a cumbersome stage of attaching and reattaching. A trained infantryman operating the weapon can crank back that 175 pound arms and fire in approximately 45 seconds. The bolts themselves are typically made with a bronze broadhead point to better shred infantry, and have passed every performance test asked of them- and engineers are confident that they could go through light infantry armor if modified with a chisel point. Includes an escessive amount of brass ornamentation, as well as an ornate identification plate for Division markings.
Aetheric Grenades: Cost: 1 Crystal, 1 ore to give one to every man in a squad, or four to every member of a fireteam. | Fist sized grenades carrying tiny precharged weapon and core crystals, capable of exploding after a delay of 5-ish seconds. Cheap assembly means that the soldier is never sure where in the realm of 5-ish that delay is. Roughly a quarter as powerful as an LAC blast, and operates primarily on the initial blast of plasma and burning metal. An ordinary marine can currently (safely) carry up to four grenades. Each round, every man in a fireteam has a 75% chance to use a grenade. This is evaluated per fireteam, not per man.
Bronze Breastplate and Helm: Cost: 1 ore for the officer, 3 ore for squad leaders, 10 ore for every man. Whilst a little on the heavy side, all of that weight is put into protection rather than ornamentation. The new design is thick over the vitals, well sculpted around the arms to allow freedom of motion, and flared at the sides to rest on the hips and keep the weight off the soldier's shoulders. Tests against pistols have shown that the armor has an excellent chance of absorbing shots from beyond point-blank range. Witch Hunter Crossbows penetrate much more readily. Comes with a pair of rip-buckles for quick removal, useful when the armour overheats from repeated aetheric blast strikes.
Ship Tech
Signal Flashers: Costs One squad of marines, 1 crystal, 1 ore, per set of 3 communications officers. Each ship needs only a single communications officer | A trained aeronaut with a handheld lightgun, capable of transmitting a considerable amount of information over long distance via military shorthand flashsign signals. Of course, to be understood, the reciever also needs to have a comms officer. All spires, by default, are considered to have comms officers on watch.
Light Aether Cannon+ (Kettle Gun): 1 Crystal, 1 Ore for one. A small cannon, capable of being mounted on deck without reinforcement. Fires powerful blasts of aetheric energy, and uses a removable block of copper as a heat-sink. Relatively inaccurate, short ranged, hot, power hungry, and prone to exploding violently if hit directly by enemy fire. Still, it can blow wood into flaming cinders and will melt through light plating in a few shots.
---> Kasgyrian modifications to use water based heat sinks for the cooling block and additional pipes for the barrel have reduced cannon weight and increased the initial volley the cannon can make before becoming dangerously hot. Causes the cannon to make a distinctive whistle during the first volley, akin to that of a kettle.
---> Further Modifications allow the cannon's water reserve to be refilled during combat. Still, this is a delicate operation that requires a degree of platform stability, provides at best one additional reload in a combat situation, and cannot be done at all on skiffs.
---> Lucky improvements allow higher energy projectiles from topaz weapons crystals to be channeled without loss of operation efficacy.
Vanguard Cannon (Medium-Small Cannon) 5 Ore, 3 Crystal, Requires a Medium Mount | A triple barreled, water cooled monster. Her only significant issue is a slight issue with water leakage that impacts overall ROF slightly, but aside from that she can fire a full power LAC shot every two seconds, and can sustain that rate of fire nearly indefinitely.
Basic Core Crystal: [VS 3 Crystal | S 6 Crystal] A massive rough gem, grown in vats and used to transduce aetheric energy into electric current. This particular model is relatively inefficient, both as a transducer and as a storage unit. It can generate a defensive shroud around a vessel, but more than a single shot from a light Aether cannon on the same point will knock a hole in the shroud. Will explode spectacularly if hit directly.
Medium Core Crystal: [18 Crystal] Three small core crystals, fused together in a propietary process. While it shares the inefficiencies of its smaller cousins, she's approximately four times more powerful. Under stress, there is a chance that the core crystal will desynchronize, greatly reducing its power output. A desynchronized core can only be fixed by a refit action at the home spire.
---> Medium core crystals now come with a suite of tools designed to monitor its state and resynchronize it in the event something goes wrong. However, the monitoring tools are so effective that an engineer who is familiar with the 'heartbeat' of the core he or she works with can virtually eliminate any chance of desynchronization.
Basic Lift Crystal: [VS 2 Crystal, 2 ore | S 3 Crystal, 2 ore for one] A chunk of crystal the size of a bathtub, heavily reinforced so that it can be locked into a ship's spine. When fed electricity, it will progressively invert gravity's effect on itself, flying upwards and pulling anything attached up with it. This basic model is incredibly power hungry, produces only enough lift for a small ship and internal flaws mean that extreme maneuvers could easily cause it to crack.
Basic Trim Crystals: 1 Crystal for two. Head sized chunks of crystal, similar to lift crystals, though of greater refinement. These produce directional gravity when powered, allowing a ship to make finer maneuvers. Like the basic lift crystal, these are power hungry and prone to fracture of used for rapid maneuverability.
Trim Web: Cost 1 Crystal, 1 ore, 3 wood to substitute for 2 trim crystals. A trim web essentially spreads out the power of a single trim crystal throughout a dozen or more smaller crystals networked together. While this network is of essentially equal power to a single trim crystal, it's ability to spread force out over a larger area allows for much higher acceleration without cracking the crystal. Sadly, it currently needs extensive and custom refit procedures relative to standard trim crystals.
Basic Webbing: 2 Silk per ream. Aethersilk webbing, designed to catch hold of aetheric currents and shunt them into a ship's core crystal. Particularly susceptible to fire from aetheric weapons, which will rapidly cause overloads that burn out whole sections of webbing.
Light Copper Ship Plating: 3 ore per section. Nearly pure copper plates, heavy, but with good thermal conductivity. Useful for spreading out the heat generated by an aether blast. Low melting point does mean that repeated impacts will melt the armor and set fire to the wood beneath.
Ship Hulls
Viper Corvette:12 wood, 5 ore for one.
A fifty foot long frame of wood and bronze reinforcement, her unusual structure reminiscent of the head of a pit viper. She's designed with forward firepower and incredible speed in mind, featuring eight bow mounts and two aft mounts, all of which integrate the mechanical hand-crank system to aim the cannons. She has a notable ability to keep up a good fight even when all of the webbing outside her shroud has been disabled.
She has no usable cargo capacity.
Armament
10 light cannon mounts | 8 in the bow 2 aft.
Armor
None intrinsic
Can mount two sections of armor on the head.
Requires:
1 Core Crystal (At least small, up to medium)
1 Lift Crystal (At least small, up to medium)
4/8/12 Trim Crystals for poor/avg/good performace
6 reams of webbing
Skyskiff 5 wood, 2 ore for one.
At her heart, the Skyskiff is an 18ft long frame of sleek timber and brass reinforcement, built from the ground up to be light on the air and quick to handle. Her basic design is quite old, dating back before the perfection of trim crystals, and she still sports a rudimentary mast that a sail can be run from in addition to the normal spars to run out web. In service, she's typically run by a crew of four. Two gunners who worked crouched in the middle of the ship, a pilot who spends their time practically laying on top of the core crystal in order to manipulate the power control, and the spotter who usually stands at the rear of the ship and calls out directions and threats. Generally, the captain of the vessel is the spotter, due to their superior vantage point and ability to see the entire local theatre.
A notable problem with the Skyskiff is that despite her speed, her web is cumbersome to replace, and without it she's painfully slow. In addition, both her Core Crystal and Her Lift Crystal slots are only designed to fit small crystals. Her small lift crystal means a lot of the burden for vertical maneuvers is still placed on the power hungry trim crystals, which in turn puts more demand on her small core. As a result, her shroud is weak, and a single light cannon blast will knock a hole in it. It still takes two or three more shots before her shroud will buckle entirely, but if another shot comes in the same spot swiftly enough- that's the end of the skiff. Except in the most fortunate of circumstances, a single cannon blast to an unshrouded skiff will destroy it.
She has no usable cargo capacity.
Armament
2 light cannon mounts. One on each side.
Requires:
1 Core Crystal (Up to Very Small in size)
1 Lift Crystal (Up to Very Small in size)
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Transport barge 7 wood, 2 ore for one.
In times of peace, this was the vessel most frequently seen going to and from Spires. She's little more than a wooden oval with a few metal bands designed to support the lift crystal. She's got capacity for crew and cargo, but she's quite slow when fully loaded, and her lack of significant trim crystals means that she can't maneuver with any speed. Her only real defense against attack is to dive down into the mist layer and hope that the attacking vessel loses her trail before the mistmaw comes lurking.
She can hold six units of cargo.
Armament
None
Requires:
1 Core Crystal (Up to small size)
1 Lift Crystal (Up to small size)
2 Trim Crystals
1 ream of webbing
Basic Dinghy (Special, used automatically by Marines to embark/disembark transports)
A very small boat, technically capable of transporting eight people as long as they aren't too broad, don't have a fear of heights, and their legs aren't too long. Her core crystal is about the size of a housecat, and kept powered by a fixed ventral web. She's solid wood, unarmed, and has the tendency to tip alarmingly as she doesn't actually use a lift crystal, but makes do entirely on a trio of small trim crystals. It's a slow and terrifying way to travel. Though she's the primary lifeboat of transports, your chances of survival are alarmingly small if you find yourself alone in a dingy .
When used by marines, she's typically crewed by five, with the squad leader acting as an extra member in every set of three boats. When going into a hostile spire, one marine steers, the other four act as spotters or (if one or more has a gauntlet or rifle) shooters. She's such a small vessel that it doesn't take more than a dozen gauntlet shots for her to break apart completely, and a single shot to her ventral web will (at best) cripple her.
Her core crystal is, technically, capable of generating a shroud. However, the limited energy the miniscule core crystal can process limits the crew to picking two of three options: Maintain Altitude control, maintain thrust, raise shroud. For obvious reasons, raising the shroud is something of a last resort. Worse, even when powered, the shroud can be penetrated by sustained gauntlet fire. This is to say nothing of a shot from a light cannon. The shroud will buckle completely after a single shot from a light cannon, though to its credit, that's one more cannon shot than the Dinghy would have survived normally.
Other Tech
Hanging Crystal Gardens: 2 Crystal, 2 Ore, 2 Wood, 2 Silk for one. Government subsidies and buyback programs for the common populace to launch portable vatteries from spire edge properties, gaining a net increase in crystal revenue. Each vattery increases a Spire's crystal production by one. Each spire can fly 5 of these or up to its normal crystal production limit, whichever is higher.
Marines
Massed Fire and Charge: When engaging, Marines will bunch up to focus fire with their ranged weapons until they run out of ammunition or become too hot to use (depending on weapon type), at which point they will charge in with melee weapons.
Defensive Fire: Instead of firing until charging, Marines will look for defensive positions, take cover, and then fire when able from behind said defensive positions. Includes methods for both staggered retreats and staggered advances.
Ambush+Stealth: Currently an abysmal failure of a strategic plan, as soldiers usually blow the ambush much to early and engage on first contact.
Flanking Tactics: Up to four squads of marines can be selected to work together and perform a flanking maneuver. One to three squads will attempt to engage the enemy, while the remaining squads will attempt to find a different venue of attack. The number of squads involved could be increased at a later date.
Fighting Retreat: Infantry will retreat, prioritizing their own lives, but will also take every opening provided by an advancing enemy to nettle them and inflict casualties. Tactical excellence also allows our captains to extend retreat actions, giving a small but significant chance to not lose ground even when in retreat.
Bait and Strike: Similar to a fighting retreat, except with less retreat and a lot more fight. Extremely good at holding territory against an enemy who has numbers but few other advantages, and is capable of inflicting dire casualties. Still, this is fundamentally based in false-retreats, and is largely ineffective at actually gaining ground.
--> Marines will also do their damnedest too use their spare time (if any) to reinforce and lay traps and slow future enemy advances. They're devilishly clever at it, but do much better when well supplied with materials and options.
Ships
Close Aggressively: Ships will attempt to close distance with enemy vessels and engage at close range, firing all cannons until the enemy is destroyed.
Hit and Run: Ships will attempt to ambush enemy vessels from either high above or far below. Instead of remaining in engagement distance after the first volley, the vessel will retain speed and attempt to disengage before turning for another pass.
Airborne Ambush Maneuvers: Similar to hit and run, except with slightly more refined tactics. The fleet using this maneuver will attempt to form a simultaneous two pronged attack from both above and below, and will remain to engage the enemy after the initial onslaught.
Blockade: Orders ships to form up around a spire, out of range of enemy emplaced guns, and attempt to prevent vessels from coming or going. However, a strong kasgyrite sense of honor all put prevents them from firing on unarmed civilian vessels.
Scouting: Orders a ship or ships to find an overwatch position, either to defend a fleet or to scope out a particular location. Currently uses cannon fire signals, but will switch to more efficacious methods when able. Quite effective.
Coordinated Fire: Ships will attempt to remember weak points on enemy ships, focusing fire on weaker sections of larger vessels, and using spread fire to attempt to overcome the evasion of small vessels. When paired with a scouting vessel, fire coordination can be down at a fleet level as long as all vessels also have communications officers. However, lack of fleet command experience and a simplistic chain of command make fleet fire control less effective than it could be.
Gun Swivels: Rudimentary swivel mounts operated by hand cranks. These represent a first effort in the field, and are scarcely more effective than manual movement for light guns, except when trying to aim for a very precise point when still, but they can carry a decent amount of weight and serve as a reasonable proof of concept.
Small Vanguard Mount Conversion: 2 'adjacent' small mounts, 3 ore, 3 wood. Converts over a pair of small mounts to be able to mount a Vanguard cannon. However, this mounting is, strictly speaking, too small. It's a bitch of an environment for the gunner, and the gun itself is incapable of moving from its fixed position.
Small Docks: Relatively simple affairs of wood jutting out into the void, capable of servicing a relatively small number of light craft. These docks are best suited to peace time usage, and are ill-equipped to service or build true warships. Light defensive cannons have been mounted in strategic positions, and will be upgraded automatically when needed.
Provides a single production line that can be used for any small or smaller production pattern.
Marine Academy: The basic and unaugmented marine academy, where men and women are transformed from milksop civilians into hardened marines.
Provides a single production line to be used ONLY on Marine production.
Imperial Topaz: Special Cost | Glorious crystal of deep amber hue, Imperial Topaz is the nickname for crystal grown by the princess herself in the Garden of Glass. Whatever the technique used by the princess, these creations are of peerless quality, effectively twice as good as a standard crystal. The princess, however, is no vatterer, and does not answer directly to... anyone. As such, production is eccentric. Every round, the princess will have 2d6+1 random crystal items that she can make. These items have normal cost, but are only available in the amounts specified.
--> With Imperial Funding, the princess always produces an additional 1d4 items.
Production Patterns
Basic Marine Training: [Max: 25 | Rate: 2]
Generates Marine units at the spire. These marines are capable in hand-to-hand combat, but are not provided any initial weapons. You might want to buy them swords, at the very least.
Skyskiff Pattern A: [Max: 10 | Rate: 2]
Creates two Skyskiff units per turn, up to a max of 10. Each skyskiff is outfitted with
2 Light Aether Cannons.
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Buyback cost: 9 crystal, 6 ore, 5 wood, 4 silk
Skyskiff Pattern B: [Max: 7 | Rate: 1]
Creates one Skyskiff units per turn, up to a max of 7. Each skyskiff is outfitted with
2 Light Aether Cannons.
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal
4 Trim Webs
2 reams of webbing
Buyback cost: 9 crystal, 8 ore, 11 wood, 4 silk
Skyskiff Pattern 'Natalie': [Max: 7 | Rate: 1]
Creates one Skyskiff units per turn, up to a max of 7. When this pattern is active, the princess' topaz production is cut to 1d4-2. Each skyskiff is outfitted with
2 Light Topaz Aether Cannons.
1 Very Small Topaz Core Crystal
1 Very Small Topaz Lift Crystal
4 Topaz Trim Webs
2 reams of webbing
Buyback cost: 9 crystal, 8 ore, 11 wood, 4 silk
Author
Topic: Arms Race: War of the Cinder Spires | Spire Kasgyr (Read 139439 times)