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What Nation are you fighting for?

Sothweg
- 11 (44%)
Nemorland
- 7 (28%)
I'm actually from Shirohon/Pren Gwyn/Schwarzes Holz/ect and am here on vacation.
- 7 (28%)

Total Members Voted: 25


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Author Topic: Refit and Repair  (Read 3513 times)

piratejoe

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Refit and Repair
« on: July 14, 2019, 01:38:35 am »

Refit and Repair
An arms race of the waves

Welcome to the Evandron Archipelago. A group of fine islands split between Sothweg and Nemorland. The former a Kingdom, the latter a republic. Things have...as of late gone a bit south in terms of relations between the two, and many overlapping claims to the entire archipelago along with practically every attempt at settling things peacefully leading to both sides doing a faux pas at best has led to the nations simply preparing for what is at this point likely an inevitable war, really its not even a question if it will happen, only when at this point. Still, despite this, the islands are great this time of year! Thats a positive!

What Is This?

This is an arms race where you will be controlling the naval forces of Sothweg or Nemorland and designing the ships, guns, fire control, ect that they use. The rules are somewhat based on They Who Dare, though, there are quite a few major differences. The key differences, however, from other Arms Races games are as such:

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly Your nations will have a few traits that the players will chose, these traits can be good or bad and will cost or give some points dedicated to these perks and cons. The perks in question chosen will have effects on the game, and should lead to some interesting differences in terms of how the sides use their forces and also the characteristics of their nation, not only adding a bit of a interesting dynamic and difference between the two sides outside of name and equipment, but also potentially making the game a bit more asymmetrical. There is a limit however, to how many perks and cons a nation can have, that being 5, and at minimum, a nation must have 2. These will be selected at the start of the game, and potentially can change over the course of the game depending on the perk.

Abstraction in Production This game’s only resource is production points, which represent industrial production. The budget of PP fluctuates from turn to turn, dependent on national traits, how long the war has gone on, and finally the success and size of the navy. PP is spent on progressing projects as well as building and maintaining ships, along with any separate equipment. In the beginning of the game, neither side has its economy on a proper war footing, and PP budgets will increase to represent greater spending on defense. As both sides progress toward total war, the rate of increase will slow, and there will be increased competition from the army for your budget.

One does not 'hold' sea like they do land The map doesn't have a front line, however it does have regions of sea where ships will go. Of course, one side could theoretically send a cruiser force to raid convoys right in the enemies backyard, so long as they have cruisers with enough range, but going further away from friendly controlled ports has its risks. A ship hit by a torpedo a few hours from a friendly port is much more likely to survive than one hit by a torpedo months away from a friendly port in waters enemy ships commonly transit through. Its important to mention that unless enemy ships sail there, sea zones behind the main areas of fighting are under your control, and that ships can be intercepted before they reach sea zones as they cross others.

Land for Landlubbers Battles on the ground are done over bases that exist on the map, and fights over said bases are represented with a cross of swords, however should the base flip over to the other side, the battle might still continue as the last pockets of defense stubbornly hold onto their last bastions on the island, or as the enemy army remains not too far from the base they just lost control over. Needless to say, docking at a base currently being fought over is generally a unwise idea, though you can still use it should it be in your control while in combat, and this might be more useful later on should the game reach certain years.

Companies are useful, you know. Should the game reach a point where aircraft are a useful addition to the navy, you will be able to request a type of aircraft and a few general characteristics you'd like from it. After a turn or two, three companies will present offers of aircraft for you to take, all with their pro's and cons. These stats are naturally rolled, which means some are obviously better than others at times. However companies tend to have a trend in a few things they are good at.

The Roma wasn't built in a day. Ships that are under construction take time to make, the amount of time to make a ship decreases as time goes on and on perks. Ships that are damaged usually take less time to repair than building a new one from scratch and so too is refitting a ship. Finally ship designs are limited by the size of the dry docks you have, which can be expanded for production points in order to make bigger ships, though this will take a year to do.




The Nations:

Nemorland. With no real fancy additions to its name controls the islands of the northern half of Evandron. Its heartland is full of fields, rolling hills, and a few mountains here and there. Its commonly know for having a lot of yellow pimpernel and rainy weather. Its form of government is a Federal Republic

The Kingdom of Sothweg. Commonly simply called Sothweg controls the islands of the southern half of Evandron. Its heartland is cold and mountainous with many conifer forests. Its more northern lands are still filled with plenty of forests, but the terrain is much more smooth and many more plains exist there. Its form of government is an Absolute Monarchy






The Sequence of Play:

There are 4 turns per year, with each turn split into the Design, Revision and Refit, Production/Deployment, and the Battle phases.

During the Design Phase, you can propose Projects and Ship Designs, along with progressing existing ones. Projects can be anything from guns to weight saving techniques, while Ship Designs are purely for ships. Each team has 6 dice to spend on rolls every turn, and can bank up to 4 dice to the next turn. To start a project takes 3 dice: one to roll time estimate, one to roll initial progress, and one to roll project expense. Additional dice may be added to ‘double-roll’ any of the projects dice rolls. After the initial rolls are made, the design rolls 3 main dice for Effectiveness, Cost and Bugs. These will be the final rolls for the project if no revisions are made.

Each die of progress rolled has a corresponding cost in Production Points (PP) that must be paid. For every such ‘paid’ die, you can choose to rush the project, which adds an extra die worth of progress (not subtracted from the 5) but has a 50% chance of adding a bug to the project or worsening an existing bug.

Ship designs meanwhile use 4 dice, however unlike projects they don't have the initial three dice rolls and instead just have the final three rolls instead along with a single d4 to determine how many seasons it takes to finish the design, with a minus or plus depending on the size, class, and complexity of the design in question. The time required for the ship to actually be completed in the shipyards is determined by me based on the size of the ship, its complexity, and quite simply any national bonuses or cons in effect on top of it. Additionally, for it to progress, 1 PP must be dedicated to it per season. A few example of a project and ship design is:

2 Pounder Pine Gun | 12/15 progress | 2 PP per die | Rushed 0 times | 6 PP invested

Ragnar Class | 2/3 Seasons to Completion | Armored Cruiser | 6/2 PP cost | 7 Season Construction Time

During the Revision & Refit Phase, you can spend one die on making a Revision. Examples of revisions are fixing a flaw that causes your 14 inch guns to explode violently when firing. Meanwhile, Refits are spent on things like modifying your oldest Battlecruiser with the newly developed fire control and anti aircraft guns. It should be noted that it is possible to lower Cost through a revision, but it will result in either bugs or a reduction in effectiveness except on high rolls. Of course, you can turn this to your advantage by specifying exactly which aspects of the existing design should be traded-off for a reduction in cost. Revisions that fix bugs will be applied for free to all deployed equipment, however refits will be used to fix bugs on finished, constructed ships. Retrofits that add capabilities or fix bugs with finished ship designs will only be applied to newly produced ships and ships that stay at home port getting refit.

There are technically speaking, no diminishing returns for multiple revisions to improve a ship design beyond original specifications, but obviously, in practice its hull will be outdated and its machinery likely as well with time. While the latter can be replaced, it tends to take significant time to do so, additionally, adding too much without doing things that reduce the ships weight can cause it to become overweight.

During the Production & Deployment Phase, each team spends Production Points on producing new ships and equipment, and on maintaining existing ships. Unspent PP will not be banked to the next turn. Ship's cost a certain amount of PP each turn when being built, and not spending their PP cost on them will result in construction being paused. If a ship has a cost of 3/1, that means that producing a new ship of the class costs 3 PP per turn until its finished, while maintaining that ship costs 1 PP a turn. When a ship is under Refit, it is treated similarly to a ship being built, however it generally costs much less and takes much less time, with an exception being if its a major conversion, like turning it into an aircraft carrier, or replacing all of its machinery. Additionally ships under construction when a revision has been done to the design can, depending on the state of construction, take a delay in order to apply the new addition. It also should be noted that sometimes, ships might have a delay in construction, or be ahead of schedule, and this applies to ships being Refit as well.

A very important aspect of the game is suggesting Deployments or Operations for the ships produced. Examples of deployments would be for a battleship escorted by two cruisers and four destroyers to bombard a particular coastal town to assist in a landing, or for a cruiser to raid enemy shipping by itself. Note that suggesting deployments of multiple ships together is important, a battle cruiser on its lonesome is, while less likely to be spotted, much more vulnerable should it come to face a fleet of other ships or be spotted by submarines than a battle cruiser with a proper escort.

Finally, in the Battle Phase, you simply wait for the other side to finish or for me to write how things are going on the high seas. There is nothing to be done during this phase.



Ships

The main unit of your Navy is a ship, who'd guess? They always represent one specific vessel of their class and they all have a special little card made by me with general specifications on them. Despite this a quick short description of any ship will also be provided. An example of a ship is as such:


Each ship also has a level of both crew and captain experience, which in this case is “Regular” and "Elite" respectively. Experience is tracked from 0 to 100, but in- game you will only get to see the experience levels. These levels are, in ascending order: Poor(<10), Greenhorn(11-24), Trained(25-44), Regular(45-70), Veteran(71-90), Elite (90>). Those of poor skill have basically just completed the most basic of training and haven't been given time to have any working up, while those of Elite are master sailors and strategists who run with almost clockwork efficiency.

Experience of a crew determines how accurate the ship is, how good its damage control is, how likely it is not to break down, and generally just preforming its job better. Captains meanwhile determine how well it maneuvers in combat and how likely it is for the right calls to be made. Captains also have a nature, being either Aggressive, Cautious, or Balanced. An aggressive captain is more likely to order his ship to risk getting closer to try and unleash a well aimed torpedo spread that can be devastating to an enemy battleship at the risk of his own light cruiser, while a cautious captain may elect to try and leave battle and not risk the ship if it takes too much damage.

When a ship is finished it will enter a state of Working up for two seasons, in which the crew will get to a Greenhorn status, however they can be ordered to go out into the fight before this if so desired. Over time, should a ship not engage in combat, its crew will slowly gain experience as they properly man the ship, however if they are engaged in combat missions and get into gunfights with other ships often, experience increases faster, proportional to the intensity of the combat. Experience also can decrease to represent losses in combat should they suffer enough yet not sink.

Every ship that is more than a fishing boat that was confiscated by the navy and had a gun slapped on it has a captain. It also should be mentioned that the captain in the biggest, newest, most important ship in a fleet will generally be put in command of said fleet. If there are multiple ships of that description, I'll pick the most experienced captain of the bunch.



Marines and other misc things.

Both sides have Marines and they have their own equipment that is designed by the navy. This equipment can be designed using revisions or designs, but regardless they aren't the focus of this game. They still exist, and you'll probably be hearing a lot about them if you decide to try an amphibious invasion of an island, likely about their success as they land or their failure as their transports are sunk. But their equipment can make a difference, especially if things at sea are mostly even.

Should the game start in or get to a point where naval aviation is a thing, each turn you can tender a proposal for aircraft, with a primary and secondary focus on the craft. Three aircraft will be rolled up in a season or two and you will then pick one of these aircraft for use. Squadrons based on either carriers or land will have their own experience, and you can have things like flying boats and floatplanes for scouting. They use the same experience levels as crews, and each squadron would cost a small amount of maintenance.

Should either side make Submarines, they will be able to be ordered like a normal ship, but they won't have a special unit card made for them...Mostly because the thing I use for ships is for surface ships, not submarines. Regardless, should you create a submarine, you can also set up a general doctrine telling them to use prize rules, simply go and do as the Jerries did and go unrestricted. Both have their pro's and cons. Related to that, you can make Auxilery cruisers...Pinguin fans rejoice.

Land fortifications and installations are a thing, however, for the Navy they are mainly defensive guns, docks, and if we start or get late enough, airfields. Defensive guns are quite cheep, and useful should your navy be on the other side of the archipelago...or below the waves. It should be noted you have a home dock where your ships are made, it has a displacement limit on what it can make, and you can expand it for some PP, which takes 4 turns to complete. Additionally, you can make Repair, Replenishment (Specifically the at sea kind), and Troop Transport ships if you desire to have them armed and protected, otherwise you get merchant ships that are just civilian ships in military use, which has the benefit of being free, but the drawback of having no defense. ...And for submarine captains out there, do not sink Hospital ships...DONT

After the initial date is settled upon for the games start, you will have 4 turns to design a legacy fleet, followed by a single prewar turn as a set up.



Spoiler: The Rules of Conduct (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Random questions (click to show/hide)


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« Last Edit: August 25, 2019, 05:13:39 am by piratejoe »
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Battleships Hurl insults from behind thick walls, Destroyers beat up small children, Carriers stay back in the kitchen, and Cruisers are a bunch of tryhards who pretend to be loners.

Shadowclaw777

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2019, 01:44:17 am »

Nemorland.
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dgr11897

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #2 on: July 14, 2019, 01:49:26 am »

Kingdom of Sothweg
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My Power armor arms race

Aseaheru

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #3 on: July 14, 2019, 02:16:47 am »

 Did you name that captain?

 Also, Nemorland
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TheRedwolf

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #4 on: July 14, 2019, 02:28:27 am »

Sothweg
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piratejoe

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #5 on: July 14, 2019, 02:43:48 am »

Did you name that captain?
Aye what of it?
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Battleships Hurl insults from behind thick walls, Destroyers beat up small children, Carriers stay back in the kitchen, and Cruisers are a bunch of tryhards who pretend to be loners.

TheRedwolf

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #6 on: July 14, 2019, 02:56:35 am »

What game did you use?
After all, I like BOATS
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piratejoe

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #7 on: July 14, 2019, 03:00:00 am »

For the example picture I made? Rule the waves 2 with a mod for more graphical stuff for it, like smoke, and rigging.
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Battleships Hurl insults from behind thick walls, Destroyers beat up small children, Carriers stay back in the kitchen, and Cruisers are a bunch of tryhards who pretend to be loners.

Madman198237

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #8 on: July 14, 2019, 12:20:30 pm »

Alrighty, so I'm thinking Nemorland, and I'm thinking an earlyish start---perhaps in the 1880s or even the 1870s. First I need to go dig up my Battleships book, because it's a good book and also because I want to refresh myself on when the rise of all-steel warships began and how it progressed.
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piratejoe

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #9 on: July 14, 2019, 01:36:49 pm »

Considering there was a total of 11 votes on the poll, and how over 72% of them were 1890 or 1900, I remade the poll to have the two dates. If people want me to revert back to the old votes, let me know, otherwise this will be for the tie breaker, after which I will make the nations threads.
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Battleships Hurl insults from behind thick walls, Destroyers beat up small children, Carriers stay back in the kitchen, and Cruisers are a bunch of tryhards who pretend to be loners.

Madman198237

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #10 on: July 14, 2019, 01:44:57 pm »

Heh I didn't even see the poll.
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Rockeater

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #11 on: July 14, 2019, 02:18:49 pm »

Did it started yet?
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Taricus

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #12 on: July 15, 2019, 12:18:09 am »

Joining Sothweg
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TricMagic

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #13 on: July 16, 2019, 05:55:38 pm »

Apparently I'm a Remora. Blame being sleepy and checking out their thread.
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Maxim_inc

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Re: Refit and Repair
« Reply #14 on: July 18, 2019, 10:13:40 pm »

Sothweg.

Also, I love Rule the Waves 2.
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