- Location
- ?????????
To use EU4 terms, this is a coalition war we declared on meaning that we can separate peace the various coalition members?
Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I think it depends on the objective and the context. If we really want to renegotiate Plan objectives we actually do have an option for that. In particular, my eyes are on the "Stored Food" objective. It's one of the ones we've made the least progress towards, and yet it kind of directly conflicts with the very important goal of feeding the refugee population.
There's more to it than that. Concluding separate peaces is a core feature, BUT:
1) Gideon is a hardliner, and so will not be easily pressured to the peace table.
2) Expanding Chicago to Phase 4 may not directly impact the pressure on Gideon- it may be the wrong kind of pressure.
3) Many of the strategic objectives achieved by building up Chicago are already achieved by the military cutting slices through Gideon's territory.
4) Expanding Chicago to Phase 4 might pressure Gideon, but it directly distracts from other projects that would exert global pressure on the other warlords (e.g. railroads, fortress towns, and railgun harvester factories).
It's possible to believe in the importance of separate peaces, without believing that Chicago Phase 4 is a good way to make that happen.
We already did that on the Caravanserai.
I believe that the argument is that Gideon, in particular, is unlikely to reliably "tap out". And even if it looks like he does, he may well go to a lower-intensity harassment strategy rather than more fully restricting operations.
Regarding Chicago:
Edit: was looking in the wrong place.
For reference, here's my skeleton Q2 plan, which leaves out Bureaucracy and Military decisions altogether, since they are waiting on actual hard numbers. (But Military is going to be a phase of Wingman Drones, probably Orcas, a Frigate shipyard, finishing Neural refits, and maybe something else if dice allow.)
Note that Infrastructure and Tiberium are both still on Steel Vanguard-supporting projects, HI is busy pushing out Nuuk 3, more Energy, and a die pointed at Isolinear development. LCI is split between Medical Supply factories and finishing Reykjavik, Agriculture is still somewhat tentative, but any source of +Health is probably worth it. Orbital is obviously finishing up Phase 4 of Enterprise, and clearing the low orbits for support satellites. Services is dedicated to the Automatic Medical Assistants for more Health, with a die left over for whatever, if there are the Resources for it.
It provides across-the-board benefits to all our forces, while starting to bring our Air Force and Navy up to the standards they want, working to support our medical establishment, and keeping working on SPAAACE.
Plan Second Vanguard, with medics
Infrastructure 6 dice +34 110R
-[] Yellow Zone Fortress Towns (Phase 4+5) 232/550 4 dice 80R 72%
-[] Rail Network Construction Campaigns (Phase 3) 159/300 2 dice 30R 84%
Heavy Industry 5 dice +29 170R 4 Free Dice
-[] Nuuk Heavy Robotics Foundry (Phase 3) 118/640 7 dice 105R 74%
-[] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plants (Phase 5) 232/300 2 dice 40R 100%
-[] Isolinear Development 1 die 25?R
Light and Chemical Industry 5 dice +24 120R 1 Free Die
-[] Reykjavik Myomer Macrospinner (Phase 4) 378/640 3 dice 60R 74%
-[] Medical Supplies Factories 0/225 3 dice 60R 60%
Agriculture 4 dice +24 60R
-[] Poulticeplant Development 0/50 1 die 20R 95%
-[] Freeze Dried Food Plants 73/200 2 dice 40R 80%
Tiberium 7 dice +39 110R
-[] Intensification of Green Zone Harvesting (Stage 5) 63/100 1 die 15R 100%
-[] Yellow Zone Tiberium Harvesting (Phase 7+8) 183/600? 5 dice 100R 76%
-[] Railgun Harvester Factory (Dandong) 45/70 1 die 10R 100%
Orbital Industry 6 dice +26 120R
-[] GDSS Enterprise (Phase 4) 456/765 5 dice 100R 96%
-[] Orbital Cleanup (Stage 9) 41/85 1 die 10R 98%
Services 5 dice +27 80R
-[] Automatic Medical Assistants 0/300 4 dice 80R 67%
Military 8 dice +26 25R+????
Orca Wingman Drones
Frigate Shipyards
-[] Neural Interface System Refits (Talons) 83/105 1 die 25R 100%
Bureaucracy 4 dice +26
WTF knows?
810/960R
5/7 Free Dice
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- Location
- New York
The update compares Stahl to Hannibal which is fitting as both are military geniuses who can produce great victories with limited resources while fighting a foe that they ultimately lack the strength to knock out for good. Hannibal lacked the strength to take the city of Rome to end the Romans for good while Stahl lacks the resources to conquer or destroy the South American Blue Zone for good barring gross errors by GDI. GDI should not charge out at Stahl to try to avenge previous losses because that is exactly what Stahl wants and is how we suffer a modern Cannae. Instead, GDI should avoid direct engagement with Stahl while striking at his allies and on other fronts, discouraging Green Zoners from defecting back to Nod, taking whatever hits Stahl lands on us, and only striking back at Stahl with overwhelming force at the right time.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Mindful of the big dent our Health indicator took so abruptly...
[] Draft Plan Health Care for Robot and for Humans
945/945 R
7/7 Free dice
Infrastructure 6/6 Dice 100 R
-[] Yellow Zone Fortress Towns (Phase 4+5) 232/550 (3 Dice, 60 R) (17% chance of Phase 5)
-[] Rail Network Construction Campaigns (Phase 3) 159/300 (2 Dice, 30 R) (84% chance; one die would not be enough)
-[] Blue Zone Apartment Complexes (Phase 2) 28/160 (1 Die, 10 R) (18% chance)
Heavy Industry 5/5 Dice + 5 Free Dice 210 R
-[] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plant (Phase 5) 232/300 (2 Dice, 40 R) (~100% chance, median result 92/300 on Phase 6)
-[] Nuuk Heavy Robotics Foundry (Phase 3) 118/640 (7 Dice, 140 R) (74% chance)
-[] Isolinear Chip Development (1 Die, 30 R) (??% chance)
Light and Chemical Industry 5/5 Dice 100 R
-[] Reykjavik Myomer Macrospinner (Phase 4) 378/640 (2 Dice, 40 R) (17% chance)
-[] Medical Supplies Factories 0/225 (3 Dice, 60 R) (60% chance)
Agriculture 4/4 Dice 50 R
-[] Freeze Dried Food Plants 73/200 (1 Die, 20 R) (13% chance)
-[] Blue Zone Aquaponics Bays (Phase 2+3) 3/280 (3 Dice, 30 R) (98% chance of Phase 2, 23% chance of Phase 3)
Tiberium 7/7 Dice 110 R
-[] Yellow Zone Tiberium Harvesting (Phase 7+8) 183/300 (3 Dice, 60 R) (Phase 7, 23% chance of Phase 8)
-[] Railgun Harvester Factory (Dandong) 45/70 (1 Die, 10 R) (~100% chance)
-[] Railgun Harvester Factory (Bissau) 0/70 (1 Die, 10 R) (85% chance)
-[] Intensification of Green Zone Harvesting (Stage 5+6) 63/200 (2 Dice, 30 R) (91% chance of Stage 6)
--[] (Appears to give 17% chance of hitting Stage 7, which is contingent on Fortress Towns Phase 5)
Orbital 6/6 Dice 110 R
-[] GDSS Enterprise (Phase 4) 456/765 (5 Dice, 100 R) (96.5% chance, median outcome 114/1535 to Phase 5)
-[] Orbital Cleanup (Stage 9) 41/85 (1 Die, 10 R) (98% chance, 13% chance of Stage 10)
Services 3/5 Dice 60 R
-[] Automatic Medical Assistants 0/300 (3 Dice, 60 R) (16% chance)
Military 8/8 Dice + 2 Free Die 205 R
-[] Strategic Area Defense Networks (3 Dice, 60 R) (2% chance)
-[] Wingman Drone Deployment 0/??? (3 Dice, 60 R) (??% chance)
-[] Carrier/Frigate Shipyard 0/??? (3 Dice, 60 R) (??% chance)
-[] Neural Interface System Refits (Talons) 77/105 (1 Die, 25 R) (~100% chance)
Bureaucracy 4/4 Dice
-[] Security Review (Bureaucracy) (3 Dice)
-[] Bureaucracy Pummeling Itself Hilariously (1 DIe)
[] Draft Plan Health Care for Robot and for Humans
945/945 R
7/7 Free dice
Infrastructure 6/6 Dice 100 R
-[] Yellow Zone Fortress Towns (Phase 4+5) 232/550 (3 Dice, 60 R) (17% chance of Phase 5)
-[] Rail Network Construction Campaigns (Phase 3) 159/300 (2 Dice, 30 R) (84% chance; one die would not be enough)
-[] Blue Zone Apartment Complexes (Phase 2) 28/160 (1 Die, 10 R) (18% chance)
Heavy Industry 5/5 Dice + 5 Free Dice 210 R
-[] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plant (Phase 5) 232/300 (2 Dice, 40 R) (~100% chance, median result 92/300 on Phase 6)
-[] Nuuk Heavy Robotics Foundry (Phase 3) 118/640 (7 Dice, 140 R) (74% chance)
-[] Isolinear Chip Development (1 Die, 30 R) (??% chance)
Light and Chemical Industry 5/5 Dice 100 R
-[] Reykjavik Myomer Macrospinner (Phase 4) 378/640 (2 Dice, 40 R) (17% chance)
-[] Medical Supplies Factories 0/225 (3 Dice, 60 R) (60% chance)
Agriculture 4/4 Dice 50 R
-[] Freeze Dried Food Plants 73/200 (1 Die, 20 R) (13% chance)
-[] Blue Zone Aquaponics Bays (Phase 2+3) 3/280 (3 Dice, 30 R) (98% chance of Phase 2, 23% chance of Phase 3)
Tiberium 7/7 Dice 110 R
-[] Yellow Zone Tiberium Harvesting (Phase 7+8) 183/300 (3 Dice, 60 R) (Phase 7, 23% chance of Phase 8)
-[] Railgun Harvester Factory (Dandong) 45/70 (1 Die, 10 R) (~100% chance)
-[] Railgun Harvester Factory (Bissau) 0/70 (1 Die, 10 R) (85% chance)
-[] Intensification of Green Zone Harvesting (Stage 5+6) 63/200 (2 Dice, 30 R) (91% chance of Stage 6)
--[] (Appears to give 17% chance of hitting Stage 7, which is contingent on Fortress Towns Phase 5)
Orbital 6/6 Dice 110 R
-[] GDSS Enterprise (Phase 4) 456/765 (5 Dice, 100 R) (96.5% chance, median outcome 114/1535 to Phase 5)
-[] Orbital Cleanup (Stage 9) 41/85 (1 Die, 10 R) (98% chance, 13% chance of Stage 10)
Services 3/5 Dice 60 R
-[] Automatic Medical Assistants 0/300 (3 Dice, 60 R) (16% chance)
Military 8/8 Dice + 2 Free Die 205 R
-[] Strategic Area Defense Networks (3 Dice, 60 R) (2% chance)
-[] Wingman Drone Deployment 0/??? (3 Dice, 60 R) (??% chance)
-[] Carrier/Frigate Shipyard 0/??? (3 Dice, 60 R) (??% chance)
-[] Neural Interface System Refits (Talons) 77/105 (1 Die, 25 R) (~100% chance)
Bureaucracy 4/4 Dice
-[] Security Review (Bureaucracy) (3 Dice)
-[] Bureaucracy Pummeling Itself Hilariously (1 DIe)
Decim
On again, off again lurker.
- Location
- St. Louis, MO
With the demands of the Regency War, I'm sitting here, looking at all the discussion going on about Chicago, and thinking 'Are you fucking kidding me?' Maybe this is just my gut reaction, I haven't actually checked the math, but the clusterfuck of problems we have to deal with seems like we're on the verge of overreaching. We're at war, have a massive refugee crisis, will require large reconstruction projects in conquered territory, and have our own Third Four Year Plan goals to still complete, all within the space of the next couple of years. Time and resources are going to get sucked into these and more as the war continues.
I'm of the opinion that we need to be brutally honest about the Treasuries and GDI's limitations here. We need to prioritize and not fritter away resources on anything that isn't a plan goal, a direct and efficient contribution to the war effort, or keeps the war economy of GDI going. War is expensive as hell, and now we get to deal with that after being at relative peace rebuilding for a decade.
I'm of the opinion that we need to be brutally honest about the Treasuries and GDI's limitations here. We need to prioritize and not fritter away resources on anything that isn't a plan goal, a direct and efficient contribution to the war effort, or keeps the war economy of GDI going. War is expensive as hell, and now we get to deal with that after being at relative peace rebuilding for a decade.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Honestly I'm inclined to agree. I don't think Chicago is an efficient use of our limited Infrastructure dice. Doing Chicago mainly with Tiberium dice is the only way I can really think of to justify the project, but we'd want to do that anyway.
(Right now, Tib dice are actually less restricted and in demand than Infrastructure dice, and furthermore Chicago Phase 4 actually does contribute to some of our Tiberium-related Plan goals in a useful way, so it wouldn't be as inefficient.)
...
I know someone ran the numbers. If we did Chicago Phase 4, could we get to the refining cap Plan target just with refits of the remaining refineries, or would we still have to do the second refinery expansion?
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Yes, it'll give us 240/280 refining capacity and 6 total points of abatement to boot.
- Location
- Wall Gazing
We currently need 280 more processing, Chicago 4 provides 240 and the last refit would provide 50 for a total of 290.
Q1 2060 Results
- Location
- The Underdark
GDIOnline Q1 2060
War of 2060: The Homefront
Dr. James Granger
With a major war once more rearing its head, it is time for us all to tighten our belts, and for those of us who have been able to rest for a time, to get back to work. I took a job teaching Tiberium science at a local college, because at my age, it is all I am good for. "old men shall repair to the public places, to stimulate the courage of the warriors and preach the unity of the Republic and hatred of kings" is a good enough summary of my role at this point.
- Here is a link to the guidelines for community service volunteer organizations
- Here is a link to reporting on the war.
So, how is everyone experiencing the war, and what are you doing, even if you are not going to be called up for service?
KropotkinsGhost
Well shit, I too am in the "too old to fight so let's go fix some stuff" category. Looks like I'll be using these hands for more than just petting my dog and cooking some stew now. Guess I'll look into mutual aid groups to join if the official repair crews find me too old. Viva La GDI Comrades!
Tera Smith [Space Command Exploratory Division]
Writing this from the moon, which is either one of the safest or one of the least safest places at the moment. Will probably have to stay here for a while. I just hope everyone of you makes it through this.
GDIWife
Remember to check your local threads on GDIOnline to see if there are any local groups doing things to help. My area has a group putting together care packages for soldiers in combat zones. It helps you get out and meet people you otherwise wouldn't while at the same time helping those serving.
R.O.U.S.
...GDIWife, hand in hand with people she otherwise wouldn't meet, for the sake of the war effort. Huh. This feels like it's going to be "How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Vol. 2". I'm doing what I can - I had a graphics card I was going to stick in a new computer, but with the war on I'm sending that back to the manufacturer. I can wait for a new computer until after we stop needing computers to kick the warlords' teeth in.
GDIWife
#R.O.U.S I resent that remark. I have supported our brave troops since the beginning, I have just had reasonable concerns with the possibility of inviting NOD supporters into blue zones.
ProfCollingsworth
#Dr. James Granger
Good to hear that you are passing on both knowledge and wisdom to the next generations. Welcome to the ranks of ivy-covered professors. There's not much else I can do myself, but I am helping coordinate some of my students in their projects. And, sadly, providing an available ear for those who have lost friends.
AccomplishingProvidence
#R.O.U.S. you should have known it was too good to last…Still, I'm glad to see mankind once more pulling together to support each other. Humanity's capacity for many things, both good and bad, is always amazing, terrifying, and a bit heartbreaking.
Here's to hoping the damage isn't too bad, at any rate.
#Dr. James Granger I salute your spirit of giving and sacrifice. Thank you for not only setting an example but providing everyone here links and resources to help in these trying times. I will have to see if I have anything I can spare as a donation somewhere, at the least.
R.O.U.S.
Without hope, what are we, really? We have to believe in a future for humanity, even - no, especially in the dark times. But seriously, #GDIWife, I know it's not going to get through to you but YZers are about as much NOD supporters as I am a churchgoer - which is to say, the authority figures dragged me along when I had no other choice and I didn't believe shit. Pardon the swearing.
JetBro
Speaking of charity. Have you heard that the open beta test of the new DLC for GDI-Commander?
About that recent space marine operation, with the capture of the NOD airship?
It seems they wrote that the income will go entirely to support veterans.
To be honest, the idea of making a video game based on the events of a war going on right now confuses me, but why not?
R.O.U.S.
It's fun to watch, at least, even if I'm horrible at it.
GDIWife
#R.O.U.S And how do you tell the difference between the true believers and the ones who only pay lip service? I'm not an idiot, I know not 100% of yellow zoners are nod worshippers. That being said, look at history, where Nod recruits from. Anyway, I don't want to derail this into being about politics, it's about supporting the war effort. What kind of game is GDI-Commander and will it be okay for a new person to video gaming?
R.O.U.S.
...You know, that "supporting the war effort" thing...I'm getting worried about the home front. How are we going to make all the refugees fit? There's gonna be so many...We can't just leave them out there! (That's how NOD recruits, #GDIWife...The downtrodden and dispossessed, promised the necessities they aren't getting, with a sprinkle of theology on top.)
1Fox2FoxRedFoxGreenFolx
*waves little flag* First major battles that I can remember hearing about as they happened! WOoo.... Right now, its just night classes and working when I can at the local coop. A tiny part of me is considering volunteering for Home Guard or something like that. But that shits fucking scary so yeah. Yeah.
Erewhon
#Dr. James Granger selling Your secrets back to You who You call NOD. I have already transferred every one of Your Jests to their secret Jest labs. This will ensure Our Collective Doom arrives soon.
R.O.U.S.
uh...guys...do we need to call InOps on Erewhon now? I don't wanna...
GDIWife
#R.O.U.S Green zones are safe. Anyway, that's the last I'm saying on that issue. #Erewhon Have you been watching Monty Python by any chance?
AgathaH
#JetBro YARRRR! In unrelated news, 50-some pirate hats mass more than you might think.
R.O.U.S.
#AgathaH Clearly you should just batch them. Or get them produced onsite somehow? I don't think there's textile manufacturing up there yet, though.
AgathaH
#R.O.U.S Apparently there's a little, but weaving metal is probably Not Easy. Not that I'd know anything about the pirate flag that showed up attached to Admiral Carter's desk one morning.
R.O.U.S.
Mmhmm. Wink wink nudge nudge cross your fingers where InOps can't see. You know nothing, not at all. Damn that sounds badass.
JetBro
#GDIWife
"What kind of game is GDI-Commander and will it be okay for a new person to video gaming? "
Yes, the game is not very difficult, a shooter with a set of single companies.
#AgathaH
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Although in the context - rather vodka, lol.
R.O.U.S.
…I mean, shooters are shooters. You either have the fast-twitch reflexes and precision for them or you don't, mostly, and then there's an element of tactical positioning on top. I'm horrible at them and I play a lot of games. Mostly because of the twitchy aimy stuff rather than tactics, I hope. Anyway, enough of that diversion, there's a thread for GDICommander somewhere on this website, it's probably worth going and asking there.
JamesandBonesy
Mister H is grumpy. He keeps grumbling about how things are "shoddy", and other things I probably shouldn't say. He does seem to be happy about his new kitten, though. He had a friend come by with a metal leg, which lookeed Really Cool. I think he was joking about it having a laser in it, but I'm not sure.
R.O.U.S.
#JamesAndBonesy ….now I want a laser arm. I don't even need a prosthetic. Why would you do this to me. (</joke>)
But there's definitely not a laser in his leg, anyway. I don't think they've got man-portable laser guns yet, and putting a laser in something you can't aim very well is kind of silly. Can you imagine some guy hopping around shooting laser beams out of his toes? …'scuse me, gotta go submit that to the comic that's looking for spy gadget gags..
Dr. James Granger
#R.O.U.S.
Same way we found space for people after the Third Tiberium War. GDI is no stranger to mass homebuilding campaigns. And at this point, even accepting millions of people would do little more than restore the populations of the Blue Zones to pre Tiberium levels.
These are solvable problems, many of them are solved problems, and while it may delay certain things for a time, there are known solutions, and we can apply them.
AccomplishingProvidence
Look to #Dr. James Granger and his ilk for vision, my friends. Not because he is "innately divine" or the like, but simply as an example of "how do I apply my ideals and desire to help my fellow man". Challenge yourselves to find ways to help others, and to believe it is possible to do so.
#AgathaH I would say that if one accomplishes the "impossible", one is allowed to celebrate with eccentricity.
R.O.U.S.
#Dr. James Granger
Yeah, but aren't we still kind of short of housing? I mean, I guess if there's less demand for military spending…Yeah, I guess. Okay.
AccomplishingProvidence
#R.O.U.S. you underestimate the power of GDI's building capacity. Bear witness to this fully-armed and operational building campaign.
R.O.U.S.
Excuse me while I collect my sides. Isn't Emperor Palpatine more of a Kane analogue, though? Sure has the requisite superweapon fetish.
AccomplishingProvidence
#R.O.U.S. when you get a chance to use a line, you use the line. But I suppose on that level you're correct. Probably a love of drama for both, as well.
RocketMan
#AccomplishingProvidence Ah, I see a fellow man of culture is here.
R.O.U.S.
#AccomplishingProvidence so, "let the references flow through you"? ;P
AccomplishingProvidence
#R.O.U.S. Yes.
#RocketMan one should appreciate the classics, is all. Nothing wrong with a man enjoying classical fantasy cinema.
Crucible
We among the Open Hand have been discussing the best way for us to contribute to the war. We have decided that those of us not working in production, myself included, intend to volunteer as combat medics. Saving lives is the most important thing to me, though I cannot speak for the others, I think many among our number feel the same.
GDIWife
#Crucible Will they actually trust you near the front lines? I don't think I would.
Crucible
#GDIWife I trust GDI to utilise our skills as best as it is able. If InOps decides that the risk is too high to allow individuals of the Open Hand to perform in certain roles, we will find another way to help. If your concern is that we would turn on others, such as slipping information to Warlords, or attacking those under our care, all I can say to assure you is that, by acting as medics, in many regions of the planet we automatically become more likely to be shot by snipers and other enemy combatants. It is not an occupation taken lightly.
FloatingWood
#Crucible, I've heard things about what goes on around the Mediterranean YZs. There's a 'this would've been nuked if InOps had not obviously seeded this' document floating around about what captured GDI personnel can expect depending on where they're caught. Now, InOps being InOps, I'm not sure this isn't slanted to a fair thee well or lying, but you really, really don't want to be caught there. It gets nasty.
#R.O.U.S. To those who say 'it is inconceivable we can fit the refugees' I say this, I do not think you know what that word means. We managed to fit the refugees during and after TW1, we managed to fit the refugees when tiberium ran rampant, we managed to fit the refugees after TW2, we manage to fit the refugees as tiberium took our forests and fields and turned them glassy green, we managed to fit the refugees after TW3, we managed to fit the inflow of refugees from South America after we build those MARV hubs there, we will manage to fit the multitude fleeing from the violence and oppression of Nod. We actually have a good amount of housing capacity spare, we can fit millions. Not in comfort, not without roommates. But safe, warm, and restful, while the good men and women of the engineering corps stamp out apartments by the millions.
#AgathaH Wait, what. That wasn't a made up story? Because when I saw that I thought some PR flack got a test message into the news network.
Crucible
#FloatingWood I served the Brotherhood as a Confessor and now act as the head of a GDI political party. If I were to be captured by a Warlord, the most fortunate outcome I could possibly receive is being publicly tortured to death. It is a risk I am willing to take.
ProfCollingsworth
#GDIWife While I could give an extensive lecture on the effects of bigotry and prejudice that occurred as a result of the emigration of millions of Irish in the 1840s-50s, or the documented damage that the United States did itself during the 1940s with its internment of citizens of Japanese descent, I will instead ask you this question:
Do you consider yourself more of an expert on internal security and threat assessment than the people at InOps who are undoubtedly monitoring #Crucible and their compatriots? If not, then why do you not trust their judgement?
(Edited with thanks to #FloatingWood. I could swear the keys on my keyboard are shrinking on me.)
Dr. James Granger
#FloatingWood, I am not familiar with the precise document you are referencing, but those guides do exist, and are not slanted in the slightest. There are absolutely warlords where the practical guidelines are that it is better to die than be captured. That is obviously not everywhere, but that is one of the reasons why Litvinov has begun attempting more negotiations with the Brotherhood, in order to ensure that the next war is not fought to the knife.
FloatingWood
#ProfCollingsworth You sure you got the timeline for the Irish right? IIRC their big exodus was the 19th century potato famine (and boy was that a fucked up mess).
#Crucible Do us all a favour? Don't die out there. We have less use for dead martyrs than living souls.
#Dr. James Granger I'm sorry to say I would err on the side of caution. Nod has shown a distinct willingness to commit atrocities of all stripes at the slightest provocation. I'm sure their unsuccessful attacks on GDI will bring their worst out, soon. And no, #AccomplishingProvidence, that is not racism. That's unfortunately historically well founded. Nod, when pressed into a corner, tends to shift towards mass murder, executions of POWs and other reprehensible actions. Mostly, I think, in an attempt to horrify 'the soft GDI fools' into backing off. Sometimes, it works. More often, it just means the commando corps gets called into the mess to make a point.
GDIWife
#ProfCollingsworth Last I remember the Irish hadn't killed a few billion people before immigrating. Nod has. Say what you like about yellow zoners, there are certainly fine people amongst them even if there are also Nod fanatics, but Crucible is openly and proudly Nod. He glorifies a man responsible for the death of billions and the poisoning of our planet. Kane is a genocidal maniac and I don't think distrust for (or hatred of) his followers makes me unreasonable.
FloatingWood
Looks up. Well, that's a change of mind.
AgathaH
#FloatingWood Does the H now stand for Harlock? *smirks in the key of ARRRRRR*
FloatingWood
#AgathaH It's preferable to Heterodyne.
YellowZon3r
Well ladies and gents, finally did it. My local Area of Operations recently turned blue. Cleaned up the last patch just last month. There's some minor cleanup work and harvester shifts. They waited a while to make it official But otherwise this old Yellowzone town has gone from yellow to green and now blue. I could keep my job with reduced hours.... Honestly my local town is a bit of a ghost town nowadays. I could just apply to re-deploy further forwards into the yellow. But if I did that I'd be basically in a warzone anyway. So, yesterday went down to my local recruiting office. Recruiter is a nice Lady. Talked about guaranteed college slots after my term is up. Generous pay and benefits. Offering resettlement/ arcology/housing slots in deep blue zones but i don't know if I trust the arcology promise specifically. Also, what am I gonna be doing in a blue zone? So I asked if I'd be able to apply to move to a deep yellow zone instead. She was surprised but doesn't see why not. Giving it a think. If I enlist then my basic starts next week.
AccomplishingProvidence
#FloatingWood, I'm not 100% sure what you're responding to, but you are correct in that being unfairly biased against residents of Yellow Zones is not technically, specifically racist. But a map of the Zones in the world shows some unfortunate truths of where "Yellow Zoners" come from versus "Blue Zoners". And that's before we get into the classism present in some of these arguments.
But more fundamentally, the main argument against Open Hand seems to boil down to "people aren't allowed to change and become better people". If that is the stance someone takes, that's their belief. But I think we need to be honest about such things.
#GDIWife have you actually read the political and theological stances of the Open Hand party? Have you asked them about these things? Or have you just assumed?
#FloatingWood no appreciation for some of the Old Comics, eh? Though it's sad it never finished.
#YellowZon3r good luck.
FloatingWood
#YellowZon3r The arcology promise is not nonsense. It's not particularly likely, with only 1 tour of duty, but the numbers I've seen indicate that military personnel does tend to be first or second in line for an arcology spot.
Just remember that the army is allowed to promise you the heavens, but is not required to deliver. And the moment your signature is on the dotted line, they own your ass.
#AccomplishingProvidence Yellow Zoners are people. Some are good people, some are bad people, most are just average people. Same as Blue Zoners, really.
And hey, I've been one of the people saying 'these Open Hand guys may be crazy because they've got the courage to do this, but they absolutely have the right to and it's way better than having the people they could've convinced to lay down their arms shooting at us'. And aside the whole theology thing, they've got a fairly solid platform.
Also, I have a great appreciation for old comics. Now, that particular old comic I don't particularly like, but Agatha is a perfectly nice young woman.
She's also a Spark. And the Lady Heterodyne is fucking terrifying.
GDIWife
#YellowZon3r I know I'm likely the last person you want to hear this from but good luck out there.
LaserKiwi2000
Was gonna say first world war I have been living through, but it's my second lol. Luckily I updated all my entertainment and such. Auckland's gonna have a relaxed time of this world war, though might lose a few percent of the soldiers we that are being sent to war from here.
Solan
I would say I'm not surprised that I'm being deployed deeper in the Yellow Zones since the expansion of mining is coming up. To think I just used to handle MARVs but now with a war going on I've been swamped with work advising some new commander on the new railgun harvesters being assigned to them. Let me just say Nod is not an easy enemy no matter what the propaganda says. Thank God the casualties for the most part are not deaths and we're transferring them to military hospitals so they can have better care. Our ground forces here are pretty gung-ho on giving a bloody nose to the enemy.
Q1 2060 Results
Resources: 930 + 30 in reserve (15 allocated to the Forgotten) (35 allocated to grants)(+25 from Taxes)
Political Support: 72
SCIENCE Meter: 4/4
Free Dice: 7
Tiberium Spread
19.72 Blue Zone
1.74 Green Zone
24.33 Yellow Zone (86 Points of Abatement)
54.21 Red Zone (72 Points of Abatement)
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: +34 (17 population in low quality housing)
Energy: +9 (+4 in reserve)
Logistics: +29
Food: +14 (+10 in reserve)
Health: +2 (-7 from Wartime Demand) (-3 from Refugees)
Capital Goods: +17 (+20 in reserve)
STUs: +15
Consumer Goods: +23 (-22 from demand spike) (+3 from Private Industry)
Labor: +36
Tiberium Processing Capacity (1845/2470)
Labor Per Turn: +4
Taxation Per Turn: +30
Space Mining Per Turn: +35
Green Zone Water: +6
Status of the Parties
(strong support, weak support, weak opposition, strong opposition)
Free Market Party: 228 seats (0; 50; 28; 150)
Market Socialist Party: 486 seats (200; 150; 86; 50)
Militarist: 754 seats (250; 254; 150; 100)
Initiative First: 335 seats (0; 0; 35; 300)
United Yellow List: 176 seats (100; 50; 20; 6)
Starbound Party: 461 seats (300; 100; 40; 21)
Socialist Party: 426 seats (200; 190; 26; 10)
Homeland Party: 50 seats (5; 30; 10; 5)
Biodiversity Party: 34 seats (4; 10; 20; 0)
Reclamation Party: 12 Seats (0; 8; 4; 0)
Developmentalists: 1038 seats (500; 238; 250; 50)
Military Confidence
Ground Forces : Extremely High
Air Force : Decent
Space Force : Decent
Steel Talons: Low
Navy: Decent
ZOCOM: Decent
Plan Goals
Capital Goods: 35 Points
Consumer Goods: 18 Points
Food: 18 points in reserve
Income: 140 (125) Points
Stations: 1450 Points
Abatement: 14 (11) Points
Processing: 280 points
Projects
Complete ASAT Phase 4
Complete OSRCT Phase 4
Railgun Munitions Development
Complete at least one more phase of Shell Plants
Complete at least one more phase of Ablative Armor
Complete at least one more phase of URLS production
Complete at least one more phase of Wadmalaw Kudzu Plantations
Complete at least one more phase of Blue Zone Arcologies
Complete GDSS Enterprise
Complete at least five phases of Space Mines
Complete at least four phases of Karachi Planned City
Develop and Deploy Mastodon
Markets
GDI's markets have, although not quite collapsed, significantly slowed. With the war on, consumer goods markets have had major runs, with most basic supplies being entirely sold out, and many others being nearly, if not entirely, unavailable due to military requirements. Investments have been effectively zeroed out in anything aside from light industrial production that can be used in military contracting.
The Treasury has not yet authorized major purchases from civilian contractors, but it is an expected move, with even the most centrally planned economies relying heavily on buying civilian production capacity in addition to GDI's own factories.
While civilian confidence is currently high, investing in luxury goods production during a time of war is not only seen as wasteful, it is sometimes considered to be a sign of potential disloyalty. While the goods themselves are prized, increasing production of them is not.
Politics
At this point, Initiative politics have rapidly and severely quieted. While the public opinion is still valued, it is widely seen as the time for the politicians to stand aside and allow the bureaucrats to fight the war. While they will make their opinions on the conduct of the war clear, it is something that will wait until after the war has been fought, and won.
Breakthroughs
The Initiative's scientific departments have pushed a number of breakthroughs this quarter. While development is ongoing in other fields, new technologies reverse engineered from the Scrin remains are still coming out.
First is a development coming out of the force field laboratories. Rather than an improved defensive technology, it is actually an interface technology. With a force field, there is feedback whenever it interacts with an object, say a rock that a Havoc passes over. These force fields also have the ability to distort and shape light that passes through them. While the current proof of concept is a simple button, a force field projecting either green or red, and switching when touched, it is something that has extensive potential for multifunction displays, surround interfaces, and a number of other advanced designs.
More practically, there is the Ion Storm Collector. A derivative of technologies used by the Scrin to supercharge their forces during artificial ion storms produced by other units, the collector is designed to absorb a wide spectrum of energy, most notably that put out by Tiberium. Currently this is extremely fragile, high cost, and low efficiency, but it is hoped that something more feasible can be developed in the coming plan.
Finally there is the development of portal technology. This is a theoretical upending of the entire logistics network, not just for earth, but potentially across the entire solar system and beyond. While currently only theoretical, it is likely to be an expensive project, as punching holes in reality is effectively magic, and will require substantial rewrites of many theories of physics.
The War at Sea
Nearly every Brotherhood warlord with even a relatively short stretch of coast has unleashed the full power of their raiding forces upon GDI's shipping. Losses have been manageable so far, but it is tying down ever more of GDI's naval assets. Most attacks have been by submersible and semisubmersible assets, not submarines. Simply put, a submarine, especially a SST or SSBT, is a deeply complicated machine, requiring masses of skilled and experienced sailors of the right temperament in order to crew and run them, and an even larger force ashore to maintain the supply lines. A semisubmersible vehicle is far simpler, as it can use the outside atmosphere, rather than having to rely purely on internal life support.
While so far, the raiding activities have been warded off with naval escorts, it is only a matter of time before the Brotherhood manages to do significant damage to GDI's ability to maintain global supply networks. With the Navy still distinctly short on modern hulls, and with only a relative few currently under construction, it is likely to be the element that drags GDI's offensives to a halt.
Steel Vanguard
The overall position of the military is that Steel Vanguard is not only already meeting minimum viability, it is time to expand operations and expand the offensives onto new fronts, such as the Australian outback, and offensives up the Russian coastline. Without the defeats that often characterize the opening of wars against the Brotherhood of Nod, the military believes that there have been few better times for GDI to seize territory and secure its rear areas.
Military Priorities
- Ground Forces
The provision of vehicles is currently generally sufficient in numbers and capabilities. However, many of the existing designs lack the space or other requirements for improvements and will require replacement during the coming years.
- Steel Talons
- Air Force
- Navy
- Space Force
- Zone Operations Command
[ ] Yellow Zone Fortress Towns (Phase 4) (Updated)
The Yellow Zone fortress towns will be a critical asset in not only taking ground, but holding it. Preparing large numbers of fortifications at critical strategic points and key terrain features will give GDI's military a significant advantage, and much greater ability to fall back on
(Supports Yellow Zone Intensification) (Supports Operation Steel Vanguard)
(Progress 232/250: 20 resources per die) (+4 Housing) [33, 24, 27]
The Yellow Zone fortress towns have been one of the greater disappointments this quarter. While much of the actual buildings have been completed, GDI's ground forces have made neither shells nor tubes available, claiming that they are needed at the battle front. However, a further infusion of resources can make those available by ordering specifically for them through the normal channels for priority orders, bypassing the usual route of the Ground Force's own reserves.
Many of these fortress towns are located to support the invasions, in places like Poland. While not yet completed, these towns have become the core of the vast supply lines supporting the armies of the Initiative, with stockpiles of shells, ablat, food, and the thousand other things that the armies need to fight stored inside them.
Currently, the towns stand nearly empty, really more outposts for the Initiative's armies than dedicated townships. However, they are planned to be that as well, supplying a limited amount of real housing for long term residents, and providing places for rest and relaxation close to the front.
[ ] Rail Network Construction Campaigns (Phase 2)
With the primary military lines completed, the next key step towards a more comprehensive network is refitting and expanding the primary lines between Blue Zone cities. Furthermore, branching lines can be installed in the Green Zones in preparation for further expansion. Such efforts are hoped to ease logistics and evacuations in the case of war.
(Progress 275/275: 15 resources per die)(+4 Logistics)
(Progress 159/300: 15 resources per die)(+4 Logistics) [93, 88, 44, 58]
The construction of new rail lines to the front has been rapid and intensive, a comprehensive network pushing from coastal port cities to the front lines. With casualties high, and progress limited, the rail lines have found themselves being as useful bringing wounded men and destroyed equipment back from the front as they are in bringing equipment to the front. In each direction, vast swarms of trains, whizzing across the countryside at high speed have maintained a vast throughput of supplies. Little else can cover their ability to haul supplies overland, with a single train able to supply an entire division with days, if not weeks, worth of supply, in ways that would take hundreds, if not thousands of trucks to manage.
Looking back at the two hundred years of the rails at war, from Crimea, to the American Civil War, to the World Wars of the 20th century, they have since their inception defined the battlespace in ways that few other human constructions do. A rail line is a lifeline, a means of providing resources, supplies, and most importantly, movement. A division can, with a rail line, embark at one railhead, and in a matter of hours or days move across hundreds or thousands of kilometers. In the planning for the First World War, Germany's operational and strategic plans relied upon its rail network to be able to rapidly redeploy troops from one side of the country to the other, allowing it to take a force numerically inferior to the combined arms of France and Russia, and defeat both in detail, rather than attempt to defend both sides.
[ ] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plants (Phase 5)
With the Initiative's energy needs still substantial, new pods of fusion plants, and expansions to existing ones will be needed to continue pouring resources into the military industrial complex, and provide new weapons in the fight against the Brotherhood of Nod.
(Progress 232/300: 20 resources per die)(+16 Energy) [98, 75]
A further wave of fusion plants have seen continued construction, many placed in the vast frozen north, including a pair solely for powering the Nuuk robotics foundry. These plants are also critical in ensuring that GDI has the power to maintain operations, even in the case of widespread sabotage campaigns and even losses in the face of enemy action. Beyond that, planned operational expansions, most notably to the wingman drones and more importantly new generations of environmental shielding and industrial laser systems.
However, these plants have not yet entered service, primarily due to supply disruptions caused by the war. While there is more than enough supply to go around, fusion reactors are massive, in every sense of the word. This means that even with the ICS construction efforts require special arrangements to ensure there is no disruption to other important cargoes, and with ongoing operations, there are ever more priority one and priority zero cargoes blocking the routes. With fusion plant components priority two, that makes things fundamentally more difficult. But, in any case, the progress made is still substantially more than was expected, and a final wave of resource infusions should fix the problems.
[ ] Nuuk Heavy Robotics Foundry (Phase 1)
GDI needs ever more heavy robots, and ever greater supplies of automation. With projects in the Red Zones, and potentially underground mines, the current construction yards and systems are completely insufficient. Nuuk is planned to be the largest existing robotics construction work. While it will be expensive, it will also provide masses of capital goods.
(Progress 160/160: 20 resources per die)(-1 Labor)
(Progress 320/320: 20 resources per die)(+4 Capital Goods, -2 Labor, -4 Energy)
(Progress 118/640: 20 resources per die)(+16 Capital Goods, -2 Labor, -8 Energy)(Nat 100) [9, 81, 99, 31, 100, 71, 4]
Massive resources have been poured into erecting a vast robotics plant. Nicknamed Santa's Workshop by some of the more spiritually inclined members of the team, it is a testament to GDI's ability to mechanize construction work. What could not be done by man and muscle, can be done with swarms of robots, and in some ways has produced a von Neumann machine. Robots, fresh off the assembly line, poured back into building the facilities. Assembly drones, construction units, diggers. And then there are the thousands upon thousands of robots that do not move, Computer Numerically Controlled units, assembly arms, the paraphernalia of modern industrial society, all pouring out of the assembly bays at Nuuk.
The port has seen multiple fully loaded cargo ships a day in throughput, straining it to the maximum, and the roads from the port to the site are a procession of crawling beetles, an ant line writ gargantuan as truck after truck hauls components and parts to construct the facility. With local tiberium sources being few and far between, a result of the northerly latitudes and the region never having much Tiberium contamination, it has also had to ship in massive quantities of material, an inconvenience, but not a significant one, especially due to its location, midway on the North Atlantic loop, meaning that ships from both Europe and North America can make stops there without too significant a diversion from a best speed course.
The exigencies of war have also created certain breakthroughs in efficiency. While the project has been pouring resources into a hole in a mad dash for speed, its architects do realize that this is not by any means sustainable, and have continued work on high efficiency large scale use of drones,
[ ] Emergency Electronic Resources Reallocation (New)
While GDI supplies many forms of electronic goods to the consumer market, most can also serve military and industrial aims. By reprioritizing the production from sites like Manchester and North Boston, GDI can make temporary boosts to its supply of capital goods. Emergency measures like this are deeply unpopular, especially with the armies of the Initiative planning offensives.
(+10 Capital Goods, -16 Consumer Goods) (Only for the war) (Does not count towards plan goals) (-20 Political Support)
One of the critical flaws of GDI's rebuilding strategy has been a long term shortage of capital goods. While that is being remedied, it has meant that GDI lacks the ability to actually maintain a vast stockpile of reserved capital goods. While much of this has been due to chasing other priorities and ensuring the greater welfare of the Initiative, it has drawn criticism from some quarters as a mistake and poor preparation.
The decision has been made to limit and repurpose a wide variety of electronic goods, not just computer chips, but also those used in everything from smart phones to simple interface chips, rerouted to the heavy industrial reserves. While far from being the only form of important capital goods, they are some of the ones that are hardest to set up new production of, and require single large facilities in ways that most other goods do not.
While initially seen as an overreaction to a war that GDI should have been able to win easily, the slog of the initial offensives has begun to grind down the general opposition to such measures, and left the Treasury still facing widespread disapproval, but at least some level of understanding. While so far GDI has not lost significant masses of capital goods, that is not a situation that can be relied upon in future quarters, even as Nuuk has begun production.
[ ] Reykjavik Myomer Macrospinner (Phase 4)
Further expansion of the Reykjavik Macrospinner is going to focus on heavy myomer bundles, which are keys to mass production of modern zone armor and mech projects as they provide highly efficient mobility options.
(Progress 378/640: 20 resources per die)(+4 Capital Goods, +2 Energy) [20, 46, 12, 84, 76]
The Reykjavik macrospinner has seen major further investment this quarter, as a secondary source of critical capital goods. Take, for example, the Pattern 2027 six axis light and ultralight pneumatic robotic arm variants. A marginal improvement over the pattern 2016 robotic arms, it was a standard element in numerous assembly lines across the Initiative, including both military and civilian assembly units. It is also nearing retirement as the Initiative pushes more modern myomer based arms to more factories, cutting maintenance downtime requirements while at the same time increasing speed, and in some cases, reducing the number of arms needed at any given factory for expected throughputs. The Pattern 2027s are not the only ones reaching end of life, with the Pattern 2031 Heavy six axis arm reaching the same point, with only two years expected before it is completely phased out.
The industrial sites allocated to the maintenance and upkeep of the Initiative's Pattern 2027 and 2031 are unlikely to be simply retired. Rather they are likely to be auctioned off to the private sector, as, while they are no longer useful to the Initiative proper, they are still robotic assembly arms, and they can still be useful to the private market.
[ ] Blue Zone Aquaponics Bays (Phase 1)
With mass immigration and the demands of the plan suggesting significant new farming as a requirement, a new wave of basic aquaponics bays will provide for substantial amounts of food as a basic human requirement. While not as pleasant as the vertical farming projects, or other means, they are very efficient at producing significant amounts of food.
(Progress 140/140 Phase 1, 3/140 Phase 2: 10 resources per die)(-1 Labor, +6 Food) [26, 64]
The war has put paid to any plans to expand Green Zone aquaponics development, with the crumple zones expected to crumple at least in some points, and any development would be at risk of feeding the onrushing armies of the Brotherhood of Nod instead. At the same time, the Initiative does need substantially more food, not only to supply large scale preservation and food reserve exercises, but in light of expected waves of refugees and the demands of the war.
The vast majority of these aquaponics bays are allocated to the production of various staple water crops, most notably beets, but also an array of other root vegetables, as they attempt to produce as many high nutrition calories as possible.
[ ] Freeze Dried Food Plants
Freeze Drying effectively turns most food into permanent, shelf stable systems. While building additional plants to process food in this way will be expensive, it should significantly reduce waste, and increase the lifespan of the stockpiles noticeably.
(Progress 73/200: 20 resources per die)(+5 Food, -1 Energy) [14, 11]
Chuño is perhaps the oldest example of a product akin to freeze drying. Potatoes are placed in areas where it naturally reaches below freezing, and exposed to repeated cycles of freezing and sun drying. Dating back to the Incan empire, the process produces a shelf stable potato suitable for use in a wide variety of dishes. However, that process is slow, and mistakes can ruin everything with ease. The origins of modern western style freeze drying are much more modern. Around the turn of the 20th century, the process was independently discovered by multiple scientists, including Richard Altmann. The process was first used on a large scale to preserve blood plasma and penicillin in the second world war, making shelf stable versions of critical life saving medication. After the war, the process began to be used for food, first by NASA, but later on a much larger scale as a means of preserving food in areas where weight and volume were critical concerns.
The modern plants are fundamentally not too dissimilar to those produced a century ago. Much more heavily automated, more efficient, and substantially more energy efficient, but fundamentally the same. Food is spread onto trays, which are then passed into vacuum chambers, freeze dried, extracted, and put into mylar pouches for long term storage. Or at least that is the plan. While the buildings stand, the plants currently lack the needed machinery, with the vacuum chambers to process the food in particular in short supply, delayed, or intercepted by Brotherhood coastal craft..
[ ] Yellow Zone Tiberium Harvesting (Phase 6)
Driving further into Brotherhood territory is likely to put the Brotherhood on the back foot finally. With the ever increasing red zones, and the completion of this phase, the Initiative will finally control more of the earth's surface than the Brotherhood of Nod. (Supports Steel Vanguard)
(Progress 300/300: 20 resources per die)(3 Points Yellow Zone Mitigation,
+5 Resources per turn)
(Progress 183/300: 20 resources per die) [79, 55, 15, 50, 87]
Around the world, the armies of the Initiative have lurched into offensive motion, emerging from lines of bunkers and networks of fortifications to drive into the increasingly constricted Yellow Zones. While the Brotherhood has fought long and hard, they have been forced back time and time again, as they were buried under the sheer weight of metal arrayed against them.
Immediately behind the front lines, mining convoys have begun their work. From railheads in the Green Zones, they have pushed forward, often within ten kilometers of the forward supply depots. This first wave of projects has not focused on abatement, but rather on building up the infrastructure. As the Initiative moves into what has been Yellow Zone for decades, the poor overall state of the transport infrastructure is making things problematic. A combination of Initiative and Brotherhood policies had led to general neglect of large stretches of the road, rail, and other networks that connected the Yellow Zones, with many areas not having seen a maintenance crew in decades, a status that would be problematic even without Tiberium. To put this in context, an Initiative armored division in pitched battle consumes hundreds of tons of supplies a day, with some, especially those with the most modern artillery, peaking at over a thousand. Every gram of those supplies effectively has to come from the rear, and that has been the prime job of the construction crews, as they are the ones with the most experience building long stretches of transport infrastructure into the ruins of the Yellow Zones.
[ ] Railgun Harvester Factories
The Railgun Harvester is a significantly heavier design than previous Harvester systems and so requires a new series of factories. While by the standards of military production these will be overall fairly limited, they will provide a noticeable increase in income, especially from more heavily contested regions. (Supports Steel Vanguard)
[ ] Railgun Harvester Factories (Maputo)
(Progress 138/70: 10 resources per die)(-2 Energy) [99]
The Maputo Harvester Factory in South Africa, has been a major success story for GDI, with harvesters already coming off the lines. Demand for the new harvesters is high, with many near the front seeing them as being a substantial upgrade in terms of not only firepower, but harvesting capacity.
The concept of self escorting assets is not a new one, dating back to the age of sail if not before, where merchantmen armed themselves to fend off pirates and privateers. In more military terms, the B-17 and other American bomber projects were conceptualized as being self escorting, a result of four engine bombers being able to fly higher and faster than any single engine fighter in the 1920s and 1930s. The railgun equipped harvester is the most recent version of this, and while not precisely self escorting, can at least fend off many of the most common attackers. With GDI advancing across many fronts, and pushing out into the Yellow Zones aggressively, many officers and administrators for the forward edge of the harvesting teams, have been screaming for vast numbers of these harvesters, as they provide a means to protect themselves, as opposed to relying on dedicated army support, which is oftentimes only available in small amounts as they continue to push the fronts forward.
[ ] Railgun Harvester Factories (Dandong)
(Progress 45/70: 10 resources per die)(-2 Energy) [6]
Dandong, on the Yalu River, has been nearly on the front line in recent years, with much of its core industry evacuated south and east as it was on the front lines of the Third Tiberium War. However, the new harvester factory has begun to breathe life once more into a city that has often been within shelling distance of the front lines, and was, at one point, considered for conversion into a simple supply base, with its population displaced into other cities in the Korean Blue Zone. However, it is its place so close to the front lines that has made things problematic. The facilities, both port and rail, are jammed with shell transports, spare parts, and columns of tanks passing through the city towards the front lines. While the Chinese front is relatively quiet, that is rarely a safe assumption to make with the Brotherhood of Nod, and so mobilization has been as rapid here as it has been elsewhere.
Despite these problems significant progress has been made, with the outer structure completed by the end of the quarter. The same cannot be said for a number of critical presses, which are needed to form the hull of the vehicle with as few seams as possible, a critical safety measure in an age of tiberium, especially for the lower hull.
[ ] GDSS Enterprise (Phase 4)
Expanding the Enterprise into a proper all in one industrial center, will require a number of new bays and modules. However, before the refineries, material processors, and industrial fabricators can be brought fully online, they will need to be fed with material. (Station)
(Progress 456/765: 20 resources per die)(+2 Capital Goods, +2 Consumer Goods) [68, 9, 90, 54, 80]
The Enterprise, after a long period of no expansions, has begun to see significant development, including the construction of the first of a series of bays. With Enterprise expected to take years and potentially up to a decade to fully construct, GDI knew that it could not design for everything that could be needed out of the station with the initial concept. So a series of three bays, set at 120 degree angles from the station core, were built into the initial concept. This has proven visionary, as there are a number of important designs that GDI has since developed that require orbital construction bays, some of which will do best in zero gravity, such as laser fibers. Others include an orbital shipyard for mass production of gravitic drive ships, large industrial concerns without the need for the decentralization and anti sabotage measures standard on land bound systems, and many more.
Construction has been rapid, with much of the materials needed coming from the Moon, rather than from Earth. While many specialty parts have been shipped up, the Enterprise has reached a point where most of the initial structural members can be produced on the station, with only the admixtures, such as vanadium, molybdenum, and others, being shipped up from earth, often as relatively minor additions to resupply shipments. Currently, much of it is simply skeleton, with cooling pipes and wires leading to nowhere strung out along its length.
Politically, while the war rages below, station construction has rarely been more popular, as GDI sees it as a means to end the fighting. As a means of fighting war exhaustion, few things are seen as being more promising than offering chances to escape, and while Enterprise will not offer an escape, and in point of fact is unlikely to be more than a sword in the Initiative's arsenal, it is one step closer to building a future for humanity among the stars.
[ ] Orbital Cleanup (Stage 8)
With much of the largest and slowest of the debris collected, all that remains is the increasingly small and fast dust and sand remaining in the orbitals. While still significantly problematic, it is unfortunately much less profitable to mine, as there is not enough material left to save launches.
(Progress 85/85: 10 resources per die)(+20R in Reserve)
(Progress 41/85: 10 resources per die) [87]
A surge of orbital cleanup has occurred as GDI scaled up towards war. While typically a low priority for the Treasury, especially in the face of substantial demands for orbital construction, it was considered worthwhile this time both to clear orbits for future development, and as a substantially less costly measure than expanding operations amid the beginning of a war.
Mostly, it has been small particulates, chips of paint, fragments of old fairings, and vast amounts of scattered debris from decades of junked satellites. The income has been marginal at best, mostly poured into construction of the Enterprise, and even then not enough to substantially reduce the number of launches it needs.
However, this does bring the Initiative one step closer to having clean enough orbitals for developments of the low orbit paths that are optimum for close support, some as low as 500-600 kilometers. While some use can already be made of certain orbits, these are not going to be enough for large scale support work, let alone provide decisive edges to the Initiative forces on the ground.
[ ] Neural Interfaced Operating Theater Development
Advances in neuro helmets make it possible to improve upon current generation remote controlled operating theaters by permitting greater precision with the equipment. Rather than reading the inputs from gloves, buttons and joysticks, the neuro helmet will permit the machinery to read the intent of the surgeon and cut only what needs to be cut without needing to risk delays by the microtremor suppressing algorithms.
(Progress 95/80: 20 resources per die) [63]
Automatic support for a surgeon is not exactly a new idea. As long as GDI has been in existence there have been proposals for one form of systemic revision to how surgery is performed, and in some ways the modern surgical operating theater is very different from those of the early 20th century, including most surgeons wearing personalized heads up displays to aid them, and the widespread use of remote waldoes and other mechanisms to provide for improved control. However, a neural interfaced operating theater is a very different creature. Rather than manually inputting commands, the test theaters have the surgeon using mental commands to link together automatic and manual segments. So, in the case of doing stitches for example, the doctor manually starts the process, allows an automated program to conduct the vast majority of the stitch, and then concludes with their own skills. This system is likely to be fairly expensive to deploy, but that is the cost of breakthrough medical technologies.
[ ] Prosthetics Deployment Initiatives (Phase 3)
With significant production placed towards the area, further development will begin targeting not only those of working age, but many who will never work again. Work towards this will be politically popular, especially with the United Yellow List and the Socialist parties.
(Progress 370/320: 15 resources per die)(-1 Health, +1 Labor Per Turn)(+5 Political Support) [55]
With the war starting, GDI has completed its initial production capacity deployments for prosthetic limbs. While there are certainly going to be waitlists, delays, and oftentimes significant problems in supplying the correct size limb to the correct person, those are primarily a wartime problem. IEDs, land mines, and anti tank munitions provide for a constant supply of broken bodies in need of substantial repair.
The war has shown the changing face of battlefield damages. First, laser flash blindness has spiked, rapidly. With glass or ALON panels creating diffraction from incoming laser blasts, many cases have also come from Initiative point defense lasers with allied units being too close to the incoming munition.
[ ] Advanced Laser System Development
With Takeda's notes providing a guiding basis, GDI's efforts to develop a modern equal to the Brotherhood's laser systems have been far faster than could be otherwise expected. An STU core, with associated support systems, will provide a substantial increase in the capacity of the Initiative's lasers.
(Progress 72/60: 30 resources per die) [41]
The fundamental device of the advanced laser system is a fiber laser. Specifically a holmium/ytterbium/infernium doped optical fiber. The last is the key feature, a STU that fluoresces extremely intensively, and with extremely high efficiency, However it has one flaw, a tendency to hold onto energy until it reaches a critical point. This means that any laser has a charge up time, even with the principles of an optical fiber laser, which works by producing a near total internal reflection all along its length, and producing a laser out the end. However, the properties of the fiber are the most important, specifically because it, unlike most forms of laser, can be effectively bent and folded, allowing much more gain medium to be packed into a relatively small space, for example a weapons pod. In fact, the Air Force's laser pod development has been a near perfect testing ground, as the pod itself does not need to provide much in the way of cooling. A simple air intake allows for fast moving air to suck away vast amounts of heat, far more than one shot of the infernium lasers produces.
[ ] Prototype Plasma Weapons Development
While so far projected plasma weapons have not worked out as well as GDI could hope, it is an unparalleled source of destructive power. However, Initiative scientists have developed a compromise system that can cheaply produce relatively small amounts of plasma and project a lance beyond the detonation point. While requiring small amounts of exotic materials, plasma weaponry can provide both standoff capability and significantly increased destructive potential to many Initiative munitions.
(Progress 101/60: 25 resources per die) [35]
Plasma weapons have reached a point of stability, and can be mounted on a number of Initiative weapons systems. However, they are substantially more expensive than any other standard munition, as an effective plasma device requires a small amount of Elerium and a capacitor to feed it. On detonation, it creates a bright green flash, a result of the rapid vaporization of copper compounds in the device.
It is substantially more powerful than any standard chemical explosive in GDI's arsenal, with approximately twice the blast per volume, and substantially more than that by weight. However, it is a pure energetic/particle device, as the blast itself is far too hot and energetic to produce meaningful amounts of shrapnel.
Currently, it is planned to only come in one size, mounted on the Thunderbolt 10, as it provides a missile small enough to double the payload of most Initiative air to air fighters, while maintaining a more than large enough blast radius to kill Barghests, and anything else, both in the air and on the ground.
[ ] Reclamator Fleet YZ-10 South Super MARVs
An improved model, conceptualized after examining the destruction of MARVS before and during the Third Tiberium War, the Super MARV is substantially more expensive, but offers equally improved rewards
(Progress 211/210: 20 resources per die)(Delayed to Q3: 3 Points Yellow Zone Mitigation, 15 RpT) (Nat 1) [1]
Waves of sabotage have spread through the Blue Zones around the world, disrupting supplies and shattering schedules. Although InOps and the general surplus of logistics capacity have made the problems substantially less severe than they could otherwise be, some projects were much more severely impacted. While supplies trickled into the Savannah hub, it was too little, and far too late. The fleet, planned to support a drive south along the Georgia coast and into Florida, has been stuck in its hub all quarter, as their heavy systems trickle in. It was late in the quarter when the last of the necessary supplies arrived, and the next months will be spent on deploying them into the field.
More broadly, the Super MARV is a sign of the rapid advancement of technology. Ten years ago, they were dreams on a whiteboard. Today they are behind the times. While still a powerful combatant, and one that the Brotherhood of Nod still struggles to fight, developments in lasers, shields, plasma weapons, and an array of other devices have left the Super MARV requiring a fundamental redesign from the treads up to remain relevant on the modern battlefield, especially as the Brotherhood unleashes new and ever more terrible weapons of war.
[ ] Tactical Airborne Laser Development
Lasers are one of the potentially most important developments in air to air combat. A critical problem dating back to the first world war has been deflection shooting, judging the amount of lead to give to ensure that bullets intersect from one moving and maneuvering aircraft to another. However, lasers are one potential means of solving that. Due to the nature of the development being an add-on, the expected laser breakthroughs are not going to make this step redundant.
(Progress 102/40: 20 resources per die) [71]
Deflection shooting is based on a simple affair of trigonometry and ballistics. A bullet falls at 9.81 meters per second per second. It travels through the air at some 700 to 1100 meters per second (of course, this varies depending on the projectile). The aircraft being shot at is also traveling through the air at some 100 to 200 meters per second. So, in order for the two to intersect at a range of say 1400 meters, the aircraft doing the shooting must aim some 400 meters ahead of the enemy. And that is at suicidally close range in the age of modern air to air combat.
The Tactical Airborne Laser project has resulted in a gunpod. Simply put, GDI does not yet trust the new technology enough to use it as an integrated part of the aircraft. Rather, it is a detachable component, designed around a gimballed emitter. With its main user likely to be the Firehawk, it is designed with zero degrees of elevation, fifteen degrees of depression, and forty degrees of traverse, creating a substantial target area, one that gives the Firehawk significantly increased means of killing the Barghest. While certainty not able to even the playing field, it means that whenever the Bargest closes, it does so under threat, and will keep taking damage. More importantly, it also synergizes with the drone program, as they can carry the gunpod instead, and buy time for Firehawks to run away or hit stratoboosters, by being ordered to make attack runs on an incoming Barghest.
The gunpod's primary limitation is not, in fact, the diffusion of its laser, or thermal blooming, but rather the articulation of the gunpod. A Minute of Angle is 1/60th of a degree, or, in ballistic terms, a variation of 2.9 centimeters over 100 meters. Now, it is quite possible to get significantly better than that, a half minute of angle is only 1.45 centimeters, and a quarter minute is a mere 0.725 centimeters. But in air to air combat, a hundred meters is well within spitting distance, the kind of range that pilots in the first world war would close to. In more modern times, closing to within a kilometer is rare. With the TAL system, the pod is equipped with half MoA automatic focus adjustments, meaning that there is a fairly coarse grained targeting system at longer ranges. At one kilometer, this means that its target area is a circle, approximately 14.5 centimeters in diameter, and at ten, 145 centimeters. While the former is more than acceptable enough to precisely target engines, weapons and sensors, the latter is somewhat problematic.
[ ] Wingman Drone Development
With the Air Force's current slate of fighters one of the most major limitations is the array of munitions that they can carry. A drone or group of drones, slaved to the sensors and targeting computers of the main fighter can provide additional missile coverage, and provide for something akin to in air reloads, while not requiring as much risk to the fighter itself. While not able to operate in all conditions, they are a substantial upgrade to the potential firepower under most.
(Progress 98/40: 15 resources per die) [67]
The Wingman drone had been desired for nearly a decade. An Air Force pilot is not so much trained, as born in many cases. Reaction speeds, G-tolerance, weight. All as much inborn characteristics as trained abilities, and then there is the requirement to be able to connect well with the AI and neural interface systems, as well as the training. It can take over a year to produce a pilot that can not only survive in an era of lasers filling the skies and missiles from every angle, but thrive.
The Wingman is the solution to that. Instead of risking some of the most valued members of the GDI military on every strike, and in every cockpit, instead, simple drones, designed to hold off the wing of a manned fighter or strike aircraft, and act as a sword and shield. On the one hand it can carry extra missiles, a load of additional sensor units, or other tools, like the newly developed laser pods to increase the flexibility of any given pilot. On the other hand, they are completely and utterly expendable, simple things of circuit and composite, not flesh and blood, meant to be churned out by the hundreds on factory lines, not painstakingly raised and expensively trained.
More practically, the drones are simple conversions of existing GDI air assets. A pilot in full kit weighs approximately a hundred kilograms, plus all of the tools to keep them alive and functional adds cubic meters to the volume of the aircraft, and a ton or more to the weight. By replacing the pilot with a mere handful of cubic centimeters of computer, with no need for oxygenation or a reinforced cockpit, a significant amount of weight can be cut, and the same can be applied to dozens of components, as they no longer need to compensate for the needs of a pilot. The end result is, across the board, from the Orca and Hammerhead, to the Firehawk and Apollo, a lighter, smaller, cheaper aircraft, one that can be produced in massive volumes, and assuming funding is made available, in very short order. Most importantly however, nearly all of the expensive and difficult to produce components, like the engines, remain the same, and are simply being run at lower settings, meaning that there are efficiencies of scale to be had, and logistically, doubling the number of airframes in use is not quite the idiocy that it would be before the age of the drone.
[ ] Orbital Strike Regimental Combat Team Stations (Phase 2)
Developing a second station for a further two battalions will give the Space Force a much needed second string to their bow, providing a backup on the other side of the world, ready to reach out and cover the Initiative's mistakes wherever they should happen.
(Progress 200/195: 20 resources per die) [33]
A second orbital station reached completion this quarter, on the opposite side of the world. However, it has not yet been cleared for full operational status. The station is likely to take six months or more to be fully ready, primarily because the factories that produce Guardians and all of the other implements that the OSRCT use are currently fully occupied with orders from the Ground Forces to ensure their units (primarily in the West Africa theater, but also in other regions) have the supplies that they need to fight the war. In order to get OSRCT units deployed faster a much greater orbital industrial presence is required, at least for expanding operations during the opening months of the war.
This problem has also caused a reassessment within the Space Force itself in terms of immediate priorities. With two battalions operational, and another two likely to reach operational status by the end of the year, it is time to begin preparing for more intensive operations. The key issues are likely to be the availability of orbital support assets, with project Athena being the most recent project under consideration. An orbital laser platform network, Athena would provide high precision fire support, able to be called in at will from any properly equipped unit. While it would require a special allocation of trailer pods to provide a big enough dish to artillery spotting vehicles, and a large enough power supply to reliably punch a readable signal through, that is a marginal cost compared to the ability to rain lasers from orbit on nearly any target in sight. Other proposals include missile pods, precision bombardment systems, and other means of ensuring that the Space Force can provide large volumes of precision fire support to the Ground, Air, and Sea assets of the Global Defense Initiative.
[ ] Escort Carrier Development
With the coming battles with the Brotherhood of NOD primarily existing in the littorals and in small actions, GDI needs a new wave of carriers. However, these, unlike the heavy carriers of the era before the Third Tiberium War, are small designs, built exclusively to carry Orca strike packages and control the airspace around them while being far cheaper than their predecessors.
(Progress 99/40: 15 resources per die) [68]
GDI's new escort carriers had many competing visions. Small, large, drones or no drones. However, with the development of Wingman drones, there was no compelling argument to develop anything besides a carrier designed to support the equipment. While this has resulted in a fifty thousand ton displacement, significantly larger than any other subcapital unit in GDI's arsenal, it has to be that size in order to fit not only twenty four A-16 Orca fighters, but also a dozen Hammerhead helicopters, in addition to the thirty six wingman drones.
The carrier is also emblematic of a new generation of Initiative air defense doctrine. Four independently targeting laser point defense modules, one forward of the main tower, one aft, and then on the other side of the deck about one third and two thirds down the length of the ship, forming a rough trapezoid.
More importantly for the future, it is also the first ship designed with the URLS system as a primary defensive system, with rocket batteries mounted roughly amidships on the port and starboard sides. While a limited defense system, it does provide a means to defend itself. Fundamentally, despite being among the largest classes the Initiative has ever put to sea, its first line of defense is its air wing, and everything else is secondary.
In terms of deployment, the first tranche can use the remaining battleship slipways, which can support some twelve additional hulls in the next four years at a relatively limited cost. For the deployment of the sixty or more that the Initiative needs to free up all of its fleet carriers, a number of new shipyards and slipways will need to be built.
However, immediate needs are substantially more pressing. With operations like Eastern Paris, or other opposed naval landings which have been proposed, the Initiative navy may need to be able to liberate some significant number of carriers from escort operations sooner than the next plan. In that case, there are plans for a rapid construction of thirty emergency carrier conversions, each meant to hold a squadron of Orca attack craft. These are politically severely unpalatable, and something that the Navy does not particularly want, especially at the cost of more proper carriers. The existing model already compromises its defenses substantially in the name of providing an effective asset at low costs, and a merchantman conversion would only further that problem.
[ ] Shark Class Frigate Development
The Shark Class is to be a shorter, thinner, and overall much lighter version of the Governor, including lacking the systems for longer range bombardment systems. Instead, it is primarily oriented towards relatively short ranged air defense, and the constant antisubmarine warfare patrols, filling out GDI's need for convoy escorts.
(Progress 41/40: 20 resources per die) [5]
The Shark Class had a number of competing designs, mostly due to different aspects of the navy having different priorities. In the South Atlantic, the most pressing threat is Brotherhood air and submarine attack, In the South Pacific, it is multivector threats, including surface, submarine, and airborne attack. The result of these two, and many more has been a long lasting stalemate in the design offices, as ships are brought up, rejected, brought up again, rejected, and otherwise stuck in limbo. It was not until the Treasury convened a design board that progress began to be made.
January 1st: Budget released for design studies of Shark-class Frigate.
January 3rd: First eight design varrients, I-VIII submitted.
January 11th: All designs rejected at CUT-1 meeting, design bureaus scramble to restart design work.
The finalized design, brought up near the end of the quarter, is a fundamentally conservative one, built around the same basic scheme as the Governor class. Forward, a single railgun turret, with a point defense laser mounted in a superfiring position behind it. A pair of antiaircraft mounts flank the central tower, followed by forty eight VLS cells (with a typical load being eighteen cells of ASROC and thirty cells of surface to air missiles). In the stern, a raised housing for a pair of Hammerhead helicopters, and a final point defense laser in the stern. While the two point defense lasers are currently crystal beam designs, they are not intended to be such in the final product. Instead, as a naval point defense version of the new Infernium lasers is finalized, that will be installed in its place, with the greater heat efficiency offering a significant improvement in defense quality.
[ ] Tactical Plasma Weapon Development
The Talons have once more proposed a new project to develop tactically usable plasma weapons. While the proposal draws heavily on the previous Merlin Ion Cannon built after the First Tiberium War, it also draws on the improved understandings of Scrin energy weapons.
(Progress 103/40: 30 resources per die) [72]
Plasma weapons small enough to be mounted on something less massive than an orbital weapons platform have long been a dream of GDI. In the early 2000s, GDI prototyped a device designated Merlin. A shoulder mounted ion cannon, somewhat less impactful than a standard shoulder mounted missile launcher of the time, capable of firing substantially faster than any missile launcher built then or now. However, fewer than twenty were ever built, a result of their absurd costs, their bulk, their titanic heat management requirements and the lack of pressing need. In the years since, plasma weapons have repeatedly seen development, but none have reached the point where GDI felt it was ready for deployment en masse. Until today. On the eve of the greatest offensive launched in Initiative history, the Steel Talons developed a fundamentally new set of weapons.
There are three such systems, a lightweight arguably man portable design built for the Marauder suit, a middleweight design built as a direct fire weapon for heavy assault crawlers, and finally a design that will only really be useful for a nascent space navy, too massive to fit on any land bound unit, and too direct fire to be particularly useful for surface navies, outside of a space defense role. While the latter may well see some use, as a security blanket if nothing else, that role is already filled by other weapons in the form of the ASAT network.
Of the three, the first is by far the most interesting. Even for what could well be called a Zone Heavy design, carrying enough missiles that are of a large enough diameter and length to matter on a modern battlefield requires a litany of design compromises. An ion cannon, or at least an ion cannon derived plasma weapon can make use of the extra space, without compromising armor and provide massive endurance upgrades, from being able to empty its entire ammunition load in a matter of minutes, to being able to fight for at least an hour without a recharge.
The second is far more niche. Fundamentally, a railgun, even if GDI is only issuing armor piercing rounds at this point in time, is a flexible platform, able to launch roughly anything, assuming that it fits down the barrel. A plasma weapon on the other hand, has far more to worry about, and has a far less forgiving platform in terms of flexibility and scalability. While the Talons are definitely interested in exploring it, it is not likely to replace the railgun as Initiative standard for quite some time.
Finally, there is the Light Ion Cannon, something that is more a return to an old design than anything else. In the First and Second Tiberium Wars, the Ion cannon was far more of a precision weapon, without the multikiloton payloads of modern blasts. However, the redesign is a far more efficient and elegant design, using a series of lasers to quickly punch a hole in the atmosphere, before filling it with a focused bolt of plasma. Derived from Scrin plasma disruptors, the design has substantial efficiency improvements over the older designs. However, those older designs already exist, and do not require the construction of entirely new production lines to make use of their advantages in currently existing roles.
[-] Havoc Scout Mech Deployment
Rapidly mobile attack units have often been a hole in GDI's forces. However, with the Havoc, that is no longer the case. Two factories, one in Brest, and one in Seoul will provide the penny packets of the Steel Talons with a significant increase in force available, and begin supplying the Zone Operations Command with a sizable number of units of their own.
-[-] Seoul (Progress 110/110: 10 resources per die) (-2 Energy) (Will complete Q1 2060)
The Seoul Havoc factory has begun to produce substantial numbers of Havoc mechs. While too late to make a difference in the raids on GDI research bases across the Russian front, it will still be a welcome increase in the number of mechs available.
More specific to the Havoc, in the time between the first factory's construction and this one, there have been a number of developments. Most notably the shield has been significantly stabilized, by moving two of the projector pods away from the railgun. Electromagnetic flux from the railgun had apparently been disrupting the shield, knocking it out of tune when fired, and current automatic stabilization systems are not good enough to return it to calibration spec. The movement has marginally weakened the shield, but that was to be expected with the first of the GDI units to use a shield system. Other problems, such as the hips and knees rapidly wearing out is much more of a training problem, with pilots instructed to operate the vehicles more gently, reinforced with haptic feedback in the case of high velocity impacts.
In combat the Havoc has been notably useful, with the Space Force requesting a dedicated factory for their own use, and a potential solution to the impact problem preventing rapid deployment of vehicles directly into the combat zone. By punching out fifty to a hundred meters up, the Havoc can come down on its own power, reducing velocity to a survivable point. However, this would likely require an improved jump jet system, as the current designs may well have problems in performing that type of maneuver.
[ ] Neural Interface System Refits (Talons)
The Talons have multiple mech programs that could make use of this system, however it does require an extensive rebuild of their interface systems. Doing so would however significantly improve their performance, both in battle and across terrain, along with hopefully making pilots less reckless with their Havoc knees and hips.
(Progress 83/105: 25 resources per die) [57, 29]
With the Steel Talons widely engaged in combat, and making full demands on their supply lines, slack has vanished from the system as full wartime production needs have effectively blocked off the upgrade, as the alternative would have been to fully stop production of the Havoc and Titan, especially painful right as the Havoc is finally coming into full production. Additionally, the neural interface itself is large and somewhat cumbersome to install, and if not properly shielded, can interfere with other control electronics, causing feedback that varies from annoying to potentially damaging. The factories could have completed the refits on their own, if they could have stopped production for a month in April to bring everything into compliance and iron out the kinks. This will not be happening, nor can anyone foresee an opening for such a stoppage soon. However, with more resources, the bugs can be flushed out of the installations by building a second, practice production line-and then replacing the existing one once the second one is ready to hit production targets. While inefficient, it is an inefficiency brought on by wartime needs, and a result of technological and political developments not always meshing particularly well.
[ ] Security Reviews
GDI has often faced problems with infiltration by the Brotherhood of Nod. A full security review of one department of operations can mitigate or discover infiltration, however it will take a significant amount of effort. (DC 50 + 1 operations die) (Services) (181)
While the Services Department certainly has some issues with the ongoing war, it is clean, or at least the primary staff is. What has been infiltrated is a large number of the supporting roles, including janitorial staff, among others. While they have been cleared to work in secured facilities before, many have been recruited in situ by the Brotherhood, or have been compromised in other ways, for example by cracking their security.
While there has been some suspicion of the AI development team, this has been unfounded. Although there have been at least twenty notable attempts to gain access to the team, all occurred before Erewhon was announced to the world, and showed his problems. After that point, infiltration attempts dropped down to a background hum, rather than being a substantial problem.
Nice to see her doing something that's actually good.
...and, of course, the AI with a death wish is acting against us to ensure everyone's death. Not sure if this is a joke (Erewhon's access to the outside world is probably controlled) or something we should take seriously.
BlueZon3r. That is all.
Do we have any submarines? They've never been mentioned. Also, there's the need for more hulls.
1 die on Orbital Cleanup this turn to get Support Satellites, then.
And at least one on fortress towns.
Seems the public have adopted the Tim Curry mindset.
I was wondering when we'd see an STU called that, considering Zrbite is already used in T-Glass.
I expected new airframes. This might be better.
Good results here.
Guess I was wrong, then.
Considering it's discussing selling our jests (jokes) to their secret jest lab? That's absolutely a joke
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- Location
- The Underdark
No. They were a capability that GDI let die before the Second Tiberium War, and naval funding was never enough to rebuild that capability between the second and now.
- Location
- USA
Lots of interesting info in that one. Will have to see what new deployment projects we have and yeah NOD is stressing our shipyard facilities. Though with them using surface running part of the time the counter is more anti stealth both in orbital (stealth detector sats) and mil (stealth disruptor and eccm) to combine with our current sat network to identify and destroy surfaced NOD vessels.
It is nice to see that they have issues due to the more dispersed industry and educational base.
Wingman Drone is also a high priority task as is putting 1 shipyard into play (could be 2 but all depends on how many dice all of the stuff needs).
Also more Health, Energy and Cap Good Production. And well Ent 4 is a must do to provide some production for our space force.
It is nice to see that they have issues due to the more dispersed industry and educational base.
Wingman Drone is also a high priority task as is putting 1 shipyard into play (could be 2 but all depends on how many dice all of the stuff needs).
Also more Health, Energy and Cap Good Production. And well Ent 4 is a must do to provide some production for our space force.
Erewhon is considered too useless to be worth resources for sabotaging or subverting? Ouch.
poor navy
Strunkriidiisk
THE LEGEND
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
| Projects | No AI Left Behind (Simon_Jester) | Health Care for R&H (Simon_Jester) | Factories, Refugees, Vanguard-ees (Strunk) | Industry and EVA (Taliys) | Second Vanguard (Lightwhispers) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YZ Fortress Towns | 4 dice 72% two phases | 3 dice 17% two phases | 4 dice 72% two phases | 2 dice 100% | 4 dice 72% two phases |
| Rail Networks | 2 dice 84% | 2 dice 84% | 3 dice 91% | 4 dice 100% | 2 dice 84% |
| BZ Apartments | 1 die 17% | ||||
| Fusion Plants | 2 dice 100% | 2 dice 100% | 2 dice 100% | 2 dice 100% | 2 dice |
| Nuuk Robotics | 7 dice 74% | 7 dice 74% | 7 dice 74% | 7 dice 74% | 7 dice 74% |
| Isolinear Dev (Placeholder) | 1 die | 1 die | 1 die | 1 die | |
| Reykjavik Myomers | 4 dice 81% | 2 dice 17% | 3 dice 74% | 4 dice 81% | 3 dice 74% |
| Chemical Fertilizer Plants | 1 die | ||||
| Medical Supplies Factories | 3 dice 60% | 2 dice 8% | 1 die | 3 dice 60% | |
| Freeze-Drying Plants | 2 dice 80% | 1 die 13% | 1 die 13% | 2 dice 80% | 2 dice 80% |
| BZ Aquaponics | 2 dice 74% | 3 dice 98% 2 phases | 2 dice 74% | ||
| Poulticeplant Dev | 1 die 95% | 1 die 95% | |||
| Wadmalaw Kudzu | 2 dice | ||||
| YZ Harvesting | 4 dice 23% two phases | 3 dice 100% | 3 dice 100% | 3 dice 100% | 5 dice 74% two phases |
| GZ Intensification | 2 dice 91% two phases | 2 dice 91% two phases | 1 die 100% | 1 die 100% | 1 die 100% |
| Railgun Harvester Factories | 1 die (Dandong) 100% | 1 die (Dandong) 100% 1 die (Bissau) 85% | 1 die (Dandong) 100% 2 dice (Porto, Vladivostok) 84% each | 1 die (Dandong) 100% 2 dice (Bissau, Vladivostok) 84% each | 1 die (Dandong) 100% |
| GDSS Enterprise | 5 dice 96% | 5 dice 96% | 5 dice 96% | 5 dice 96% | 5 dice 96% |
| Orbital Cleanup | 1 die 98% | 1 die 98% | 1 die 98% | 1 die 98% | 1 die 98% |
| Automatic Medical Assts. | 3 dice 16% | 4 dice 67% | 4 dice 67% | ||
| Hallucinogen Dev | 1 die 88% | 1 die 88% | |||
| Advanced EVA | 4 dice (Military) 99% | ||||
| SADN | 3 dice 2% | 3 dice 2% | |||
| Wingman Deployment (Placeholder) | 3 dice | 3 dice | 4 dice | 3 dice | ? (Orca) |
| Shipyard (Placeholder) | 3 dice (Frigate or CVE) | 3 dice | 4 dice (Frigates) | 3 dice | ? (Frigates) |
| Neural Interface Refits | 1 die 100% | 1 die 100% | 1 die 100% | 1 die 100% | 1 die 100% |
| Stealth Disruptor Dev | 1 die 100% | 1 die 100% | |||
| Shell Plants | 2 dice 72% | ||||
| Security Review | 3 dice auto (Bureaucracy) | 3 dice auto (Bureaucracy) | 3 dice auto (Bureaucracy) | 3 dice auto (Bureaucracy) |
One step closer to Mobile Infantry. They actually had small mechs deployed this way in the 90s animated adaptation.
There are a few other interesting proposals, like SMARV redevelopment and potential improvised carriers. I know the Navy doesn't want that, but it might be needed for Eastern Paris.
- Location
- Wall Gazing
[ ] Draft Plan: Chicago and Healthy Harvesters
-[ ] Infrastructure 6/6 90R
--[ ] Yellow Zone Fortress Towns (Phase 4): 2 dice 40R 100% (1/4 median Phase 5)
--[ ] Rail Network Construction Campaigns (Phase 3): 2 dice 30R 84%
--[ ] Blue Zone Apartment Complexes (Phase 2): 2 dice 20R 89%
-[ ] Heavy Industry 5/5 175R 5 Free Dice
--[ ] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plant (Phase 5): 2 dice 40R 100% (1/4.5 median Phase 6)
--[ ] Nuuk Heavy Robotics Foundry (Phase 3: 7 dice 105R 74%
--[ ] Isolinear Chip Development 1 die 30R???
-[ ] Light And Chemical Industry 5/5 100R
--[ ] Reykjavik Myomer Macrospinner (Phase 4): 4 dice 80R 97%
--[ ] Medical Supplies Factories: 1 die 20R 1/3 median
-[ ] Agriculture 4/4 50R
--[ ] Blue Zone Aquaponics Bays (Phase 2): 3 dice 30R 98% (23% Phase 3)
--[ ] Freeze Dried Food Plants: 1 die 20R 13%
-[ ] Tiberium 7/7 130R 1 Administrative Assistance
--[ ] Yellow Zone Tiberium Harvesting (Phase 7): 2 dice 40R 97%
--[ ] Intensification of Green Zone Harvesting (Stage 5): 2 dice 30R 100% (91% Stage 6)
--[ ] Railgun Harvester Factories (Dandong): 1 die 10R 90% (Administrative Assistance)
--[ ] Railgun Harvester Factories (Porto): 1 die 10R 85%
--[ ] Chicago Planned City (Phase 4): 2 dice 40R 2/6.5 median
-[ ] Orbital 6/6 110R
--[ ] GDSS Enterprise (Phase 4) 5 dice 100R 96%
--[ ] Orbital Cleanup (Stage 9) 1 die 10R 98% (13% Stage 9+10)
-[ ] Services 5/5 95R
--[ ] Automatic Medical Assistants 4 dice 80R 67%
--[ ] Hallucinogen Development 1 die 15R 88%
-[ ] Military 8/8 205R 2 Free Dice
--[ ] Escort Carrier Deployment 3 dice 60R???
--[ ] Wingman Drone Deployment 3 dice 60R???
--[ ] Strategic Area Defense Networks (Phase 1) 3 dice 60R 2%
--[ ] Neural Interface System Refits (Talons) 1 die 25R 100%
-[ ] Bureaucracy 4/4
--[ ] Administrative Assistance 2 dice (Railgun Harvester Factories (Dandong))
--[ ] Security Review Bureaucracy 2 dice 90%
Free Dice 7/7
R 955/935 + 20 Reserve
Couple differences from the current plans nicely summarized by @Strunkriidiisk , first it sacrifices the possibility of two phases of YZ Fortresses in exchange for freeing up R for investing in Chicago, and second it only rolls one die for Security Review Bureaucracy so it can put an admin assist die in finishing Dandong. As has been discussed in thread there are several advantages to doing at least Phase 4 of Chicago especially with tib dice. Additionally in the argument over Frigates vs Escort Carriers I'm n favor of the latter, mostly because it takes longer to make a carrier than a frigate so best get those going first.
-[ ] Infrastructure 6/6 90R
--[ ] Yellow Zone Fortress Towns (Phase 4): 2 dice 40R 100% (1/4 median Phase 5)
--[ ] Rail Network Construction Campaigns (Phase 3): 2 dice 30R 84%
--[ ] Blue Zone Apartment Complexes (Phase 2): 2 dice 20R 89%
-[ ] Heavy Industry 5/5 175R 5 Free Dice
--[ ] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plant (Phase 5): 2 dice 40R 100% (1/4.5 median Phase 6)
--[ ] Nuuk Heavy Robotics Foundry (Phase 3: 7 dice 105R 74%
--[ ] Isolinear Chip Development 1 die 30R???
-[ ] Light And Chemical Industry 5/5 100R
--[ ] Reykjavik Myomer Macrospinner (Phase 4): 4 dice 80R 97%
--[ ] Medical Supplies Factories: 1 die 20R 1/3 median
-[ ] Agriculture 4/4 50R
--[ ] Blue Zone Aquaponics Bays (Phase 2): 3 dice 30R 98% (23% Phase 3)
--[ ] Freeze Dried Food Plants: 1 die 20R 13%
-[ ] Tiberium 7/7 130R 1 Administrative Assistance
--[ ] Yellow Zone Tiberium Harvesting (Phase 7): 2 dice 40R 97%
--[ ] Intensification of Green Zone Harvesting (Stage 5): 2 dice 30R 100% (91% Stage 6)
--[ ] Railgun Harvester Factories (Dandong): 1 die 10R 90% (Administrative Assistance)
--[ ] Railgun Harvester Factories (Porto): 1 die 10R 85%
--[ ] Chicago Planned City (Phase 4): 2 dice 40R 2/6.5 median
-[ ] Orbital 6/6 110R
--[ ] GDSS Enterprise (Phase 4) 5 dice 100R 96%
--[ ] Orbital Cleanup (Stage 9) 1 die 10R 98% (13% Stage 9+10)
-[ ] Services 5/5 95R
--[ ] Automatic Medical Assistants 4 dice 80R 67%
--[ ] Hallucinogen Development 1 die 15R 88%
-[ ] Military 8/8 205R 2 Free Dice
--[ ] Escort Carrier Deployment 3 dice 60R???
--[ ] Wingman Drone Deployment 3 dice 60R???
--[ ] Strategic Area Defense Networks (Phase 1) 3 dice 60R 2%
--[ ] Neural Interface System Refits (Talons) 1 die 25R 100%
-[ ] Bureaucracy 4/4
--[ ] Administrative Assistance 2 dice (Railgun Harvester Factories (Dandong))
--[ ] Security Review Bureaucracy 2 dice 90%
Free Dice 7/7
R 955/935 + 20 Reserve
Couple differences from the current plans nicely summarized by @Strunkriidiisk , first it sacrifices the possibility of two phases of YZ Fortresses in exchange for freeing up R for investing in Chicago, and second it only rolls one die for Security Review Bureaucracy so it can put an admin assist die in finishing Dandong. As has been discussed in thread there are several advantages to doing at least Phase 4 of Chicago especially with tib dice. Additionally in the argument over Frigates vs Escort Carriers I'm n favor of the latter, mostly because it takes longer to make a carrier than a frigate so best get those going first.
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- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Rogue comma or missing text?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm sorry, the what now?
Starship Troopers Space Marines in power armor who can fly and fight with plasma weapons and mini-nukes