Restoring Suez would be driving a 250ish kilometer Red Zone corridor from the vicinity of Eilat to Port Said.
Then maybe grabbing Crete before dropping MARV hubs in Beirut and Istanbul. Its well within our technical capability as long as noone is shooting at us. We did worse to build the Himalayan rail lines.
One thing more to consider on the hypothetical Suez restoration is the Glacier mines we've completed in the area will have already helped start the process. Though I don't think its a good idea to push for it. Threshold-19 alone isn't something I want any portion of our shipping near. Still, I would add the MARV Hubs for YZ-13 North (Algiers), YZ-15 (Valencia), and RZ-1 South (Tripoli) to the RZ-3 MARV Hubs you mentioned as prerequisites to help secure the route through the Mediterranean. I really don't think its a good idea because the Med is Tibeirum and Kane's Sea now.
Thats optimistic. At best.
A significant chunk of his industry and resource collection is along the Central Asian Red Zones. Just to my inexperienced eyes, there exists a lot of room for him to pivot south.
Yes, but I was thinking on the difficulty of moving his supply lines from supporting his offensives west, which have to be well developed at this point with those who know the terrain, have depots set up, and have staging areas for his offensive.
He doesn't have that if he pivots south. Plus, to attack Karachi from his Central Asian territory he would have to go straight by BZ-18. That causes logistical issues in having supply lines potentially broken.
Even if Ibrahim and India were supporting him with supplies, which would require an order from Kane to enforce, there are some critical parts and kit that Krukov wouldn't want to give away to other warlords, that he would want to keep the manufacture of which to himself, and those would still need to be transported past BZ-18.
Also, I just don't think Krukov is capable of bypassing a whole Blue Zone without trying to attack it. Now him doing that might free up forces from India to attack Karachi themselves, but I don't think he is capable of getting all the way to Karachi.
Not particularly.
If you look at the map, GDI Arabia would have been the destination site for a whole bunch of refugees across the rim of the Middle East, from East Africa in the west to Iran and coastal Pakistan in the east. There's almost certainly a lot of people there.
Yeah there are, that doesn't necessarily mean there is a lot of industry there, even if I think there is from the Mecca complex alone.
Also worth noting:
We almost definitely mine the Straits of Malacca regularly. Its cheap to do, it can be done from everything from fishing boats to aircraft, it targets both surface ships and subs, and it is a deterrent to attempts to run the straits at any sort of speed, or to run the straits at all.
Battlefield denial of a route that GDI ships dont really use.
The Straits are the gateway from Bintang's stomping grounds in the South Pacific to the Indian Ocean.
Putting explosive party favors in the waters there makes that a non-viable option for the sort of fast transit into the Indian Ocean that others have suggested.
Point of order:
We havent had as much a problem with Orcas and Hammerheads because we have largely avoided inserting them into areas of significant aerial threat. Thereby not using a large chunk of our aircraft fully for fear of losses.
If we want that to change, we need those drones too.
Thats fair. Though honestly I think the Orca and Hammerhead wingmen are going to be more useful against surface AA than anything else. It is never a good idea to send CAS into an area without air superiority already established. Even when we get their wingmen, I don't think the policy of keeping them away from fighter duels is going to change much. You're right though that if we want to make more extensive use of the Orcas and Hammerheads we need the drones, however, I think it can be delayed until the early portion of the next Plan in favor of the Firehawk drones and shipyards.
Going back through that wish list I posted. We could remove everything not Plan based from that outline except for the drones and shipyards and we could afford both wingmen factories before the end of the Plan (15 Free Dice, -53 Energy, -17 Cap Goods)*. I don't think that is to our advantage as we are going to need ZOCOM for glacier mines in the coming Plan, SADN is something that we really should get to harden our economy, and the MRASP seems like a useful tool in the current conflict.
I agree that the remaining wingmen are needed and we shouldn't leave them hanging, but we also need to ensure the rest of our military doesn't have its own shortfalls.
*Current Outline costs 17 Free Dice, -47 Energy, and -14 Cap Goods for comparison
Not really.
The Firehawk was designed from the ground up to be a heavy strike fighter as well as an air to air combatant, same as the F35.
A multirole conversion would be more slong the lines of the F15 to F15E change.
I doubt we're ever going to see an AtG-optimized Apollo.
It's more that the Firehawk is a last-generation multirole fighter, and not a frontline platform. Like the Mud Hen, it can serve as an effective strike platform or second-string STOVL-stomper, but it really, really isn't up to tango with a first-shell air superiority platform.
Thats fair. Though honestly I think the Orca and Hammerhead wingmen are going to be more useful against surface AA than anything else. It is never a good idea to send CAS into an area without air superiority already established. Even when we get their wingmen, I don't think the policy of keeping them away from fighter duels is going to change much. You're right though that if we want to make more extensive use of the Orcas and Hammerheads we need the drones, however, I think it can be delayed until the early portion of the next Plan in favor
Honestly, I'm not super hyped about the Hammerhead wingman. Those things are transport gunships, so even if the drone saves the pilot, there's still a good chance we'll lose a cargo bay full of troops.
It's more that the Firehawk is a last-generation multirole fighter, and not a frontline platform. Like the Mud Hen, it can serve as an effective strike platform or second-string STOVL-stomper, but it really, really isn't up to tango with a first-shell air superiority platform.
Honestly, I'm not super hyped about the Hammerhead wingman. Those things are transport gunships, so even if the drone saves the pilot, there's still a good chance we'll lose a cargo bay full of troops.
With new technologies for a thorough refit (integrated lasers, plasma missiles for an increased missile loadout, and improved armor/shielding), Firehawks will likely be viable for a few more decades. And the Hammerhead wingmen are mostly for anti-sub patrols, and similar, I think.
With new technologies for a thorough refit (integrated lasers, plasma missiles for an increased missile loadout, and improved armor/shielding), Firehawks will likely be viable for a few more decades. And the Hammerhead wingmen are mostly for anti-sub patrols, and similar, I think.
Decades, I doubt, but something like five more years should be very possible.
This said, I expect us to have to replace them in less than ten years even in best case.
It's more that the Firehawk is a last-generation multirole fighter, and not a frontline platform. Like the Mud Hen, it can serve as an effective strike platform or second-string STOVL-stomper, but it really, really isn't up to tango with a first-shell air superiority platform.
Honestly, I'm not super hyped about the Hammerhead wingman. Those things are transport gunships, so even if the drone saves the pilot, there's still a good chance we'll lose a cargo bay full of troops.
For combat drops the wingman wouldn't be loaded with troops. Their job would be to drop ordinance on anything that poked it's head out and to eat a missile for the transport if needs be
Wingmen drones aren't just about saving pilots, they also mean we can put more air out because we're not restricted by pilot numbers and training speed, only manufacturing speed, so hammerhead drones are still very appealing. Just less so than the ones more in the line of fire.
With new technologies for a thorough refit (integrated lasers, plasma missiles for an increased missile loadout, and improved armor/shielding), Firehawks will likely be viable for a few more decades. And the Hammerhead wingmen are mostly for anti-sub patrols, and similar, I think.
Yes, it's still a very nice upgrade package but it doesn't literally double their capabilities like the other wingmen do. It's not something to leave at the bottom of the priority queue, but I had to choose between it and, say, Tactical Laser Systems? I'm choosing lasers.
Yes, it's still a very nice upgrade package but it doesn't literally double their capabilities like the other wingmen do. It's not something to leave at the bottom of the priority queue, but I had to choose between it and, say, Tactical Laser Systems? I'm choosing lasers.
I was more saying that the upgrade package would allow the basic airframe to be useful for a while longer. Wingman drones are the immediately needed project to upgrade the Air Force's capabilities.
Honestly, I'm not super hyped about the Hammerhead wingman. Those things are transport gunships, so even if the drone saves the pilot, there's still a good chance we'll lose a cargo bay full of troops.
Light lasers would give the Hammerhead longer loitering time. Instead of the autocannon running out of ammo, they can run the lasers off whatever power they have. The tradeoff is slightly worse per shot power, but a possible upside is anti-air capability. 750 gun damage (upgraded w/ AP ammo) vs. 600 laser damage (upgraded with laser capacitor). Those same lasers could also act as point-defense lasers reducing successful missile attacks.
In-game one the of weaknesses of Hammerheads is the inability to handle air units, but this would partially solve the problem. Hammerheads can now defend themselves much better against Venoms and could handle light anti-air. They'd still get eaten alive by Barghests, but if Hammerheads can't mount the Quick Air-to-Air Missile like Orcas do at least they still have a slim chance with a lucky laser hit.
EDIT: I believe the "Light Combat Laser Development" project under the Steel Talons would give capabilities similar to Venom and Raider Buggy lasers. This project likely goes on several vehicles, Hammerheads might be a possible contender for this upgrade.
Sounds like someone took a G-drive, a full-sized fusion reactor, an ion cannon, and lasers, combined them together, and called it a day to rain the pain onto Noddies. Essentially making a space version of a coastal defense ship/monitor.
Sounds like someone took a G-drive, a full-sized fusion reactor, an ion cannon, and lasers, combined them together, and called it a day to rain the pain onto Noddies. Essentially making a space version of a coastal defense ship/monitor.
It's a possible thing, a bit down the road. Ithillid made an idle comment in the Discord, I was bored enough to make up a probably-not-accurate version using MegaMekLab. The Space Force may well propose it as a component of the next-gen orbital bombardment network, since being able to concentrate several of them at once would likely be able to overwhelm an Ion Disruptor.
It has a fusion drive, a whole lot of power generation, large fuel tanks, a fuckton of heat dissipation, and 4 of our new-researched naval-class plasma cannons. (And some close-in weaponry in case NOD actually manages to get something into space.) It doesn't move *very* fast, but it doesn't really need to, since its job is to loiter in low orbit and deliver pain on demand.
Edit:
To clarify, this would be an orbital thing, not a skyship - those would be using the Bogatyr's repulsorplate-derived propulsion.
With the Bogatyr captured, expect the ships currently on the docket to be the last generation of wet navy vessels more or less. Bogatyr sees first generation sky cruisers in operation probably by 2063 or 2064, with second generation by 2068.
There will still be reasons to make use of a wet navy. Most of them have to deal with cost effectiveness.
Yes, wet navy ships are expensive. But they're cheaper than a full on sky navy. Especially so long as we don't have a greater STU income than 1/100 RpT.
With the Bogatyr captured, expect the ships currently on the docket to be the last generation of wet navy vessels more or less. Bogatyr sees first generation sky cruisers in operation probably by 2063 or 2064, with second generation by 2068.
The Navy is probably simultaneously salivating at the ability to go anywhere and less than amused to find out that their entire current fleet is pretty much going to end up obsolescent straight off the slipways. Not obsolete though, not so long as GDI has large numbers of cargo ships in service.
The Navy is probably simultaneously salivating at the ability to go anywhere and less than amused to find out that their entire current fleet is pretty much going to end up obsolescent straight off the slipways.
As a certain game(Rule the Waves) would teach you, welcome to the naval grand strategy.
Where build strategy is naval strategy and whenever you finish building a ship, it's going to immediately be last generation because of something new.
Oh well.
Oddly enough, I can foresee the widespread usage of sky ships leading to a debate about the focus and responsibilities of the Navy should be, and a reorganization of which duties should be assigned between the military branches. Currently the Navy is split between escort duties, and supporting near-coast operations, but the use of sky ships will enable them to provide worldwide air support, which is traditionally the domain of the Airforce, which may result in a struggle of power between the two. Additionally, I can see our Ground Forces getting involved with the jockey of power by asking if they could inherit the now obsolete costal support ships from the Navy.
Basically, if we get sky cruisers who gets to handle the following duties?
Air Support: Traditionally the Air Force, but now the Navy has flying ships.
Near-Coast Support: Currently the Navy, but if they focus on sky ships, the Ground Forces may take this niche for themselves
Escort Shipping Convoys: Obviously the Navy, but a reorganization may result in the creation of a new, purely defensive, coast guard-like branch
I'd kinda expect the Victory littoral "monitor" to still potentially be a thing, if only because surprise SAMs are likely a bit worse in a coastal environment for a skyship than surprise AShMs for a wet navy ship. Same might be true for the Island assault ships, unless they come up with a new generation front lines Carryall for airdropping Mammoths and other heavy metal from the air. Or they restrict themselves to airlifting in Predators/Pred-Replacement via Ox. Right now GDI has a Gen 2? 3? LCAC that can deliver Mammoths to shore, but no air asset that could replace it.
We have 2-3 families of hover tech, it seems like. Air Cushion (Skirted), Air Cushion (Non-Skirted) (possibly instead same family, just different sub groups), and Grav Plate. Under AC(S), we've seen the 4 fan hovercraft in TW1, the 2 fan LCAC might've been used off screen (given that it went into service with the USMC in the late 1980s) around the same time, and a newer generation 2 fan hovercraft in TW3. The Non-skirted category includes the gen 1 Hover MLRS and the gen 2 Slingshot and Shatterer. And of course, we now have the gen 1 hover trucks.
If air cushion is one big family, gen 1 Jeff (A) and LCAC for TW1, gen 2 Hover MLRS for TW2, and gen 3 Singshot, Shatterer, and hovercraft for TW3 (I figure, same tech under the hood, but being able to carry Mammoths to/from the beaches requires skirting the cushion on the hovercraft). It does appear that leading up to TW2, GDI ditched the hovercraft in favor of Orca Carryall for moving vehicles, and the amphib APC for people. Then post-TW2 switched back to hovercraft to at least some extent (V-35 Ox can carry up to a Predator, so lighter vehicles could still get air lifted).
And honestly, I don't necessarily see convoy escort ships going airborne any time soon, unless we completely annihilate Nod's sub forces from existence. The ability for a surface ship to just deploy sonar / towed array as needed really helps and couldn't necessarily be replaced by throwing more sonobuoys and ASW aircraft at the problem.
I would argue that the scale of the sky ship should determine branch. Like, if the ship is large enough to need more than, say, 10-15 crew, it's Navy. Less, it's Air Force. And I would expect the Navy's first skyships to be a BB(X) project or a CV(X) project - essentially, successors/replacements for their biggest ships. Think of it this way: capital ship grade railguns + rail gun munitions, while generally sitting hundreds of meters above what you're shooting at. As for a CV(X) concept? Arsenal Bird from Ace Combat 7. Or maybe the Aigaion from Ace Combat 6.
And you know... if the Navy gets skyships, is it going to try to claim control over combat spaceships of sufficient size too? GDI Navy's gonna have Surface, Sky, and Space (possibly merge Surface/Sky into an Atmospheric branch) branches and Air Force is either going to get related to "small craft" atmospheric operations, or absorb the space branch for itself... if the Navy doesn't do so in the process of claiming things. After all, Navy space ships with on board fighter/bombers would be using Navy air crews instead of AF crews.
Hm. Space Force might get relegated to more civilian operations and stations/outposts/etc, while AF gets fighter/bombers that are based from stations/outposts, and Navy gets fighter/bombers based on space warships. And Ground Forces is going "Hell yeah, we get the OSRCT!" and fistfights break out between them and Space Force.
GDIWife
So it seems there has been a recent influx of massive numbers of refugees trying to get access to the blue zones. This has collapsed the healthcare system, strained housing and logistics, is affecting food supplies and, worse, it seems there has been a sudden wave of sabotage of critical facilities as a result of InOps being overwhelmed. I know some of you will shake your head at me and say "Of course it's just IF complaining about immigration again" but you have to see what's happening.
Representative Hasim Aydin (UYL)
For all long time residents looking to help people settle in look for any welcoming comittees. Working as a group not only let's you reach out to others more effectively, it also provides you with materials and training to better help others navigate the GDI bureaucracy. If you have a strong political affiliation check your preferred party to see if they have one set up, otherwise you can check here for a list of independent and nonpartisan efforts.
FloatingWood
It was to be expected that with war would come a refugee crisis, but I'm surprised by just how underprepared GDI seems to have been. Seriously, it's not as if we haven't had practice you know?
Dr. James Granger
I no longer have any formal access to GDI decisionmaking, but would be completely and utterly unsurprised to find that the problem is less that GDI cannot or will not provide adequate provision for the healthcare system, and more that it is split in too many different ways and is spending heavily on the military and industrial projects that help generate refugees.
ProfCollingsworth
One thing that I have noticed is that whenever a surge of refugees comes in, throughout history, the perception is generally that things are not ready/not working, when the reality is simply that the system is sorting out the inputs and working to deal with the influx, but there is very little visible action at first.
Granted, a lot of times, the system was not ready, and there was a delay in responsiveness, but whether that is the case this time is something we will not be able to determine for some time.
Crucible
I would like to cut through the doom and gloom that has settled over GDIOnline of late. While many might say the situation is overwhelming, I have seen and worked with some of the frontline workers. They have been doing amazing work and should be immensely proud.
There are an unfortunate multitude who feel that the glory of GDI shines greatest in its military power and triumphs. I would argue that the glory of GDI is in the sense of relief a child feels when they can breathe clean air without a mask. When the starving are fed, and the homeless housed.
Things are not perfect, but they don't need to be. They just need to be better than they were. For many, despite the war, the coming months and years will be better.
GDIWife
The biggest problem here is that every dollar the treasury spends on this refugee crisis is a dollar not going towards fixing the SEVERE equipment shortages that some branches of the military are going through. It means fewer forts, fewer planes, fewer ships, even fewer BULLETS that are all desperately needed at the front lines!
FloatingWood
It also means fewer Nod soldiers that need forts, planes, ships and bullets to keep away from those they would mean harm.
#Dr. James Granger, sure, but where are the stockpiles that the government is supposed to keep and maintain to manage surge demands like this? It's been 10 years since the war ended, but I vividly remember there being a lot of refugee infrastructure during those years that is pretty much nowhere to be seen now.
#ProfCollingsworth, if it was just sorting out the inputs and outputs we would be hearing about 'there is a shortage of hospital beds in a few places, but we are moving in personnel and mobile hospitals and moving patients that can be moved to hospitals with spare capacity'. But it isn't. Instead, it's 'our medical system is under incredible strain and there are practically no beds spare'.
MermaidKyoto
#GDIWife, I'm clearly able to see that your qualifications on this matter are as vast as they are on many others. I'm not sure you're aware how much money the treasury has been spending on the military, but the refugee crisis could have been avoided if we'd spent less on guns and more on our medical system. We could literally have robots doing triage instead of nurses on the frontlines right now, if some people hadn't been dragging their feet and assigning production to some big shiny military project. Or if we had some actually decent housing instead of 'fortress town' collective barracks to assign these refugees to. If you had ever spent three months in one of those, I doubt you would be so utterly lacking in sympathy.
Dr. James Granger
#FloatingWood. We tried to rebuild as best we could under my term, but even in a decade, it is a lot of work, and at many times we did not have the luxury of building up vast stockpiles of reserve supplies. And in all honesty, I am fairly certain that actual supplies are not the problem, so much as it is a skilled workforce. And that is a problem that I tried to solve, but almost certainly was unable to do enough to solve.
ProfCollingsworth
#FloatingWood I was referring more to the issues with housing, feeding, and keeping track of refugees. It sounds like the medical issue is definitely an actual problem, not just something that looks like one, and hopefully that will be resolved soon. Of course, I could go on about how much better we have things than in the 19th and 20th centuries, and probably would if certain nosy students weren't reading over my shoulder, even if preventing that sort of digression is probably a good thing. Some things should require a bit of effort to look up, and making sure a trash can or other vomit receptacle is nearby.
GDIWife
#MermaidKyoto Of course, such a great idea there. Why not spend less on the military? It's not like we're under attack! I'm sure if you just tell Nod that you need to spend the money on massive surge healthcare projects, of course they'll be happy to sit back and wait until we're ready. Get a grip, this is exactly the time for massive spending to the BRAVE SOLDIERS who are actually PROTECTING these hospitals. Either that or get used to the healthcare under NOD, I'm sure it's just great.
MermaidKyoto
#GDIWife
You are completely without a grip on the situation. Our healthcare system is still recovering from the last war, and I know for a fact that military spending for the past year or so has been flirting with 'take over the world' levels of expenditure. You may be happy to see other departments cannibalized for staff and funds, but I am not!
FloatingWood
#ProfCollingsworth, I'm kinda worried about the food production numbers, to be honest. I mean, we have a margin, but we don't have that big a margin. And sure, we can survive another lean time, but we can survive that for only so long, and I'd rather not go back to fungus rations. Housing seems mostly covered, if not necessarily luxurious. Plenty of fortified towns in the GZs to park people in until the BZ housing gets built. Or, I suppose, the BZs overtake the towns. We only just got worldwide BZ rated territory back up to pre-TW3 levels, and it seems like a steady expansion there.
GDIWife
#Mermaid Kyoto Maybe you haven't realised this but all that funding has been barely enough! We're doing well in most places only due to the funds given to the GDI Military. Also, you seem to be forgetting that without all of that we'd be having mass deaths in several branches. Even now a lot of forces are overstretched. I for one am glad that they haven't been forced to start conscripting again. We need to spend in order to get metal and we need to spend metal to protect the meat.
MajorMiner
#GDIWife You seem to alternate between believing that GDI has unlimited resources to expend, and severely limited resources. Just in case you are actually unaware of the current situation, the Treasury is in charge of Tiberium Harvesting. That's where the resources come from. Sure, things need to be done to it, including refining, manufacturing, and such, but that's beside the point. There's only so much we can harvest at one time, and we're digging as much as we can out of the ground. Maybe you should shut up and leave things to the people who actually know how things work.
Also, I've been hearing some interesting things through the grapevine. More "novel technologies"?
FloatingWood
#MajorMiner, only the raw metals and stuff. Plenty of other resources GDI has, megatons of grains, vegetables, 'meat', fungus, beans, cloth and so forth and so on.
GDIWife
#MajorMiner I don't and have never believed that GDI has "unlimited resources to expend". I think they're using the LIMITED resources they have poorly. And maybe I would shut up and leave things to the people who know how things work if those people weren't DRIVING THE SYSTEM TO COLLAPSE. For God's sake they start building ships for the navy NOW? NOW! Where were these docks 2-3 YEARS ago when they actually would have BUILT SHIPS!
JetBro
Yeah, sometimes the habit of not selling things you no longer need pays off. Of course, I love situations when there are peppy stories about breakthrough technologies on the news, and you yourself look in a panic at a smoking motherboard, and you understand that if you hadn't forgotten to sell your old PC, then I would now be left without a job, because the processors are on sale NOT AT ALL.
No, of course I understand that it's more difficult for a bunch of people than for me, but the war is there, and I'm here, and it's sad to say the least in a crisis without a job.
#GDIWife
The resources that the government didn't spend on ships, it spent on making the fucking war go beyond the blue zones.
And so that people like me could whine about a burned-out processor, and not sit in the ruins and eat the last mushroom bar ... well, or an unlucky noddy, lol.
GDIWife
#JetBro My POINT (if you're not too busy mourning your computer to get it) is that there is CLEARLY a mismanagement problem in the treasury. They want to allow refugees and don't build what they need for it, they want to win a war and leave our navy with mostly TW3 ships and our pilots falling from the sky, they want to build the economy and have 0 reserves for the most crucial goods.
Akira Oda (Treasury)
The problem for GDI and the Treasury in particular is that the amount of resources we spend will never be enough. The ravenous maw of needed projects are always there since we have goals set by Parliament to complete. While there have been hiccups in some areas in the past, the capacity of our military to prosecute a global war on all fronts has never been higher. Even then we have to acknowledge that the plan we made for what seemed to be another four years of interbellum needs to be adjusted in light of our military's desire to ensure the blue zones won't be attacked as brazenly during the Third Tiberium War. It is still difficult to think about the scale of our operations since even when humanity has been reduced to nearly a sixth of its population our ability to surpass the destruction of our ancestors grows even larger.
#FloatingWood I sympathize with your complaints about the civilian side of the equation. I know the refugee situation has been exceptionally straining to our society. However, even with all the hospitals tending to those most in need we have to acknowledge that more needs to be done and is done for the sake of everyone in this war. One thing I will say is that the situation is being handled and let it not be said that the situation for refugees has not improved when they get here and while healthcare is in a regrettable state right now people are being fed with more regularity and have a roof on their head more luxurious than ever before. While we need to do better because the houses are not to our standard and the food can get bland but not as bad as fungus bars if you all remember that.
#MajorMiner I would like to say all these novel technologies aren't bad, they're expensive on a civilizational scale. I do hope you stay safe out there and can get in an armed harvester soon.
Lastly, great to see you safe and healthy #Dr. James Granger.
AccomplishingProvidence
Perhaps we should all stop and take a deep breath right now. There's a lot of good, genuine concerns here, but it feels more than a bit heated…
campfire_council4
For a bit of good news, something that's not in shortage is Housing. All the Green Zone housing that people were moving out of before the war is still here, and ready to serve. And a lot of it isn't Green anymore, but Blue! It's been a joy to see Terminus City 11-C fill back up again. As crazy hectic as it's been getting folks settled in, it's worth it to give them somewhere to live in where they can walk around outside without masks. Not to mention clean food and water, 'net access, sometimes a way to contact lost family members even. The city's cautious, somewhat shocked, but also lively. There's even been talk of starting up a garden project using spare supplies from the aquaponics buildings.
I know it's not all sunshine and rainbows even here behind the lines, but I'm hopeful there's light at the end of this tunnel for all of us.
Political Support: 72
SCIENCE Meter: 4/4
Free Dice: 7
Tiberium Spread
20.41 Blue Zone
1.80 Green Zone
23.87 Yellow Zone (96 Points of Abatement)
53.92 Red Zone (72 Points of Abatement)
Current Economic Issues:
Housing: +40 (27 population in low quality housing)
Energy: +10 (+4 in reserve)
Logistics: +20 (-10 from raiding) (-7 from military activity)
Food: +22 (+10 in reserve)
Health: -1 (-8 from Wartime Demand) (-5 from Refugees)
Capital Goods: +13 (+37 in reserve) [-10 at End of War ] [+3 in Q1 2061, +2 in Q2 2061 ]
STUs: +13
Consumer Goods: +27 (-22 from demand spike) (+3 from Private Industry)
Labor: +36
Tiberium Processing Capacity (1895/2470)
Labor Per Turn: +4
Taxation Per Turn: +30
Space Mining Per Turn: +35
Green Zone Water: +6
Plan Goals
Capital Goods: 31 Points
Consumer Goods: 16 Points
Food: 18 points in reserve
Income: 90 Points
Stations: 1139 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
Politics
The current politics are primarily not played in the halls of power. Rather, it has taken the form of petition and protest. A groundswell of popular opposition to Yellow Zone refugees and general unrest over the conduct of the war has weakened the ruling coalition. The defeats at sea and in the South American theater are problematic, especially with former Hawk leadership chomping at the bit for greater power and influence. While the Militarist line is holding strong, and the men and women in the field overwhelmingly have fallen towards the Militarists rather than Initiative First, the home front has begun to waver. While none of this has reached a point where it could see mandates for change, or significant problems on the street for that matter, that is a potential risk in the longer term.
While the war is the claimed reason, a more significant reason is likely the overstretched nature of Intelligence Operations, and the ongoing sabotage campaigns in the Blue Zones. VBIEDs, drone strikes, and wrecker operations, all claimed by the Brotherhood of Nod as true faithful striking back against the invaders, have made the situation on the ground significantly more confused and chaotic. While it is estimated that under five percent of Yellow Zone refugees have any knowledge of specific actions, it is more than enough for widespread suspicion and mistrust towards them, and calls for collective responsibility are becoming increasingly strident.
Tiberium Infusions
While still not with the safety margins that the Welfare department would like, the first widespread use of Tiberium Infusions have begun under an Emergency Use Authorization, primarily for the front line combat troops that have pushed to the edges of the Red Zone and had various forms of containment failure. With casualties from these causes higher than at any point in the last twenty years aside from the Scrin invasion, events have given the Welfare department the top cover they needed to begin moving on the topic, and begin putting the new developments into the field. While this does put them on a timer, it is at least a timer far longer than Tiberium would have given them.
Rebuilding
It is only six months into the war that the Brotherhood of Nod has managed to inflict significant economic damages. In response, there are a range of options for the Treasury Secretary, ranging from direct intervention for highly strategic areas, to allocating greater resources, to simply allowing local operations managers and station chiefs to manage the reconstruction efforts out of their own resources and their own recognizance. Each has its own benefits and problems, especially as GDI continues to push forward into Brotherhood heartlands.
Brotherhood of Nod
Of the warlords in the remnants of Mexico, Jose Luis Mondragón is probably the most well known and capable. With Gideon relatively far away, Mondragón has chosen to strike out on his own. While not as politically skilled as Gideon, he has been one of the more technically adept of the warlords, and a source of many of Gideon's walkers. He is just as unlikely to negotiate as, like Gideon, he is heavily influenced by the Black Hand.
With his position trapped between the encroaching Red Zone and the Initiative controlling his coastlines, he is a cornered rat, one that may well lash out if pressured. However, he is not expected to launch into a death or glory attack at this moment, as that seems to have been one of the division points that led to his split with Gideon.
In the great north, there are dozens of minor warlords. While the region is mostly barren and relatively poor in Tiberium, it does have one thing that the Brotherhood of Nod desperately needs. Massive volumes of empty terrain. Jessica Majors, one of the most experienced mining hands in the region, has rallied them to Krukov's banner in the name of better working conditions and greater appreciation for their work.
Majors has vast amounts of tiberium for the amount of population that she has to work with, and is believed to not be particularly interested in continuing the war with GDI. While her record in combat against GDI is relatively good, winning battles across the north-eastern front, they have primarily been against relatively small and lightweight GDI forces during the opening weeks of the Third Tiberium War. Since then, her record has become far spottier and more mixed, losing battles north of Seattle during the reconquest, commanding a major conflict at Calgary in 2048, before linking up with GDI forces during the 2049 war against the Scrin and then turning on them, and failing to protect the northern of the two North American threshold towers.
Captured Technologies
In a raid on Jacksonville, Florida, GDI captured a number of technologies. First is a new model of shield, code named Buckler. Essentially a revision of Gideon's earlier attempts at shielded units, it projects a defensive field across a lightweight mobile frame, somewhat similar to the armored skirts used in previous wars as a means of protecting against anti-tank rifles and shaped charges. While a tank's power pack is not able to provide more than three to five square meters of protection against even light threats, those can be across any covered facing.
Second is a revised version of the Mantis combat drone, including a fully functioning core and support equipment.
Breakthroughs
The Scrin and the Brotherhood of Nod have both used extremely small scale fusion cells, primarily to power their weapons. GDI has now begun an extremely promising version, based heavily on the plasma munitions developed for the Air Force. Using a small amount of Elerium, the problem is that as the reactors grow larger, they become more and more unstable. This instability is a cubic function of the total volume of the reaction, and thus becomes totally ungovernable after only a slight increase in size. Even before that however, gamma radiation spikes leak through the casing, limiting the size further down.
Second is a derivative of the Brotherhood's harvesting claws. While GDI's rakes are quite effective, they only really harvest the first three to five centimeters down, and deeper Tiberium is often left effectively alone. The Brotherhood choses a different method, with a more limited but deeper harvesting, instead of sweeping large amounts of surface Tiberium into the harvester, as has been done since the earliest days of Tiberium harvesting, it digs deeply into the ground, pulling up Tiberium from the roots, and is able to tear through rocks in order to get to the Tiberium.
Blue Zones Reclaimed
Around the world, Blue Zone cities have held small celebrations. While subdued due to the Regency War as well as civil defense measures implemented to prevent the Brotherhood from using large gatherings as cover for sabotage and terrorism, the marking of yet another step towards normality with a return to the old borders has steeled the Initiative's population. While the analysts at the Treasury are even more subdued, it is a landmark step in a new direction, and a vindication of the policies of Secretaries Granger and Seo, as even in the face of escalating security threats and Tiberium beginning to mutate into more abatement resistant forms, they have continued pushing back the green menace, and seem poised to continue this pattern for the foreseeable future.
Shells
With current levels of shell production GDI is rapidly depleting its shell stockpiles. Much of this is expected, as GDI is engaging in rapid, sweeping offensives across huge swathes of the world, and so deploying hundreds of additional batteries of guns at any given time. While the supply of guided shells will be depleted in five to seven months, the supply of standard shells is substantially better, with approximately ten months until depletion. While reductions in the pace and intensity of offensives will slow the rate of depletion, Ground Forces Command does not believe that to be advisable at this time.
Primarily this is a result of the massive expenditures associated with global offensives, and far from a new normal. Under regular circumstances, where the Initiative is not trying to fight on every front and against every foe, current production levels will maintain and rapidly increase the stockpile.
Other consumables are in a similar state. While stocks are being depleted rapidly, they are at a point where significant action can make a substantial difference. Additionally, while not particularly viable at this time, there has been some effort put towards offering up a plan to spin off a section of the military procurement bureau to focus entirely on the various consumables needed by the military.
Military Priorities
Ground Forces
In immediate terms, the key priority is the allocation of more resources towards consumables production to slow the bleeding and provide enough support to maintain the thrusts of Steel Vanguard.
Currently, the allocation of revolutionary technologies, both for infantry and vehicles is a relatively low priority, especially as GDI is currently winning the war on most fronts.
Steel Talons
With only the Mastodon remaining in terms of commitments, the Steel Talons are looking primarily at developing a series of revolutionary technologies, although most will wait until after the war, as they are not yet ready, and there are numerous higher priorities.
Air Force
With technological upgrades ready, the highest priority now is delivery to the field, and preferably in great volume. For the Air Force, the wingman drones are a near requirement as soon as possible in order to maintain air superiority, especially with the rapid intensification of the air war, and the sheer punishment that the Varyag class can take. While current deliveries are helping, and will substantially reduce overall casualties in the long run, further investment in the field will help further increase GDI's capability in the air war.
Navy
Currently, the Navy has substantial problems, between a significant increase in the intensity of the raiding, and the demonstration of Brotherhood capabilities in both surface and submarine warfare. The delivery of new hulls, as soon as possible and in as great a number as possible is considered vital.
Space Force
With the OSRCT serving admirably, particularly with the seizure of the Bogatyr, the concept is proven. At this point, expansions of the teams are unlikely to reach service readiness before the end of the war, even in the case of the longest expected war scenarios. Instead, the Space Force is looking to reorient towards additional supporting arms, providing fire support from orbit not just for the Orbital Strike units, but all Initiative forces.
Zone Operations Command
ZOCOM sees the two primary priorities as suit upgrades and, more importantly, the mass delivery of zone armor to other branches in order to turn over significant swathes of heavy infantry and shallow Red Zone operations to Initiative Ground Forces, Navy, or other branches, and rededicate their efforts to the deep Red Zones.
[ ] 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 250/250: 20 resources per die) (+4 Housing)
(Progress 300/300: 20 resources per die (+4 Housing) [70, 41, 16, 45]
In contrast to the difficulties of the last quarter, as Initiative troops surged ahead, fortress towns emerged behind them quickly and in great numbers. Each of the rapidly constructed towns is little more than walls, bunkers, and a swarm of prefabricated buildings, often flown in and assembled on site with hand tools. A significant part of the pace of construction has been because of the refugee swarms. With the Initiative pushing ever further into core territories of the Brotherhood of Nod, the population have often been defecting in droves, meaning that fortresses have become the first wave of processing centers and holding areas, collecting refugees until they can be brought back in a train not loaded with Tiberium.
At the same time, many of the rear line positions - built in the early days of the Fortress Town concept - have not fired their weapons in anger for months, and in some cases years. Nearly all are actually well inside the blue zones, and some have gone so far as to dismount their old smoothbore 152mm guns. Of these, only a few have received replacements, as the process of upgrading had only begun to reach them before the war began.
Got rotated off active duty due to the cyber-leg, and they put me in charge of the greenhorns and grandpas they have manning one of the new-build fortress towns. Thought we were gonna be pretty lonely, until an entire convoy of Forgotten rolled up, and the brass told us to ride herd on the lot of them until full services are hooked up for the duration of their stay. Which I mean, yikes, I don't want to think about having to fight those Gammas! One of those ladies clutching a couple of kids doesn't look like a mom, she looks like a scorpion-wearing militant hardass. She keeps eyeing my guns, and I'm not sure if she's plotting to steal them and kill me, or trying to figure out how to steal my job.
Owen Higgs, Foreman
[ ] Rail Network Construction Campaigns (Phase 3) (Updated)
Driving Rail lines into and through the newly claimed Green Zones will serve a dual purpose. First, bringing kiloton after kiloton of supplies to the front lines, and second, providing nearby rail heads to begin preparing for intensive red zone harvesting operations during the war.
(Supports Operation Steel Vanguard)
(Progress 300/300: 15 resources per die) (+4 Logistics)
(Progress 128/325: 15 resources per die) (+4 Logistics) [29, 65, 73]
The war has displaced tens of millions, almost entirely in the Yellow Zones. While many have either chosen or been forced to flee before Initiative advances, a tithe has chosen instead to move toward the Initiative lines. While the rails have continued carrying food, fuel, and ammunition forward, in nearly every case on their way back they are loaded to the safe limits (and occasionally beyond) with refugees, especially those on direct routes to a Blue Zone. With every new line, there is more spare capacity to move the refugees efficiently, instead of having to truck or march them up to hundreds of kilometers to a railhead before being able to move people and their belongings the oftentimes thousands of kilometers to core GDI territories.
More militarily, while the Initiative relies heavily on trucks for the last ten kilometers, every single kilometer of rail matters. The most vulnerable point of the entire supply line is the terminus depot, the far end of the rail line. With a train stuck there until it is unloaded, and often with limited storage capacity on-site, being able to directly crossload from the train to an awaiting truck is incredibly valuable, especially due to being able to disperse the supplies into a number of separate caches, rather than keeping it all at one concentrated site.
The dispersed rail network has also rapidly added to capacity. With GDI's train production units working at full speed, there is simply more rail being laid than they can swiftly build cars and engines to fill. These swarms of new trains shall travel across new stations, crossroads, junctions, and most importantly, lines, which have given GDI not just the ability to rapidly move between the points of civilization on a map, but to many places at the uninhabited edges of the Blue Zones.
[ ] Tick Rapid Digger System Development (New)
The Tick Tank, one of the Brotherhood's more creative ideas among a long list of them, used rapid automated diggers to allow it to entrench rapidly, even in an open field. The same technologies are likely to be quite useful in rapid construction efforts, and speed the works of many infrastructure programs.
(Progress 52/40: 20 resources per die) [13]
The Tick tank was a particularly odd piece of Brotherhood hardware from the Second Tiberium War. From the Second World War onward, many tanks had various forms of either drop-down digging blades or attached components to allow themselves to go hull-down in any terrain. However, the Tick's version is fundamentally more complicated and ambitious. Rather than simply covering up the lower glacis, as most other systems attempted, the Tick's design was able to dig the tank into a position where it could fight with only its turret exposed.
To do this, the Tick had a deployable rotating drum cutter between the tracks, using a gearing system to connect that to the tracks. The system has always been a bit finicky, and could be unreliable. However, even when it worked poorly, a partial deployment was enough to cut an entrenchment for the tank to fight in.
The Initiative's version is substantially more reasonable. Rather than trying to dig a tank in, and make the sacrifices in internal space required, it is a set of cutting blades attached to a tractor, designed as a rapid enclosed trench digger, something that can be put into action without nearly as much preparation as other options.
[ ] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plants (Phase 5) (Updated)
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 330/300: 20 resources per Die) (+16 Energy) [2, 38]
The war has done anything but slow fusion power plant assembly. With ever more demands for new fusion complexes, and expansions to existing ones, the push for ever more plants and gigawatt upon gigawatt of energy has rarely been more intensive. Work has continued around the clock, with the slowest thing being the time for fused parts to cool, and for the concrete to cure. Corners have begun to be cut, with only minimal cladding being put on before operations are near ready, and the rest being put on as time and resources allow. While certainly safe enough, especially as the worst thing that can happen is a radioactive steam explosion, it is not making the inspectors particularly happy.
[ ] Nuuk Heavy Robotics Foundry (Phase 3) (Updated)
With the initial production shock labored into existence, further development is predicated on massive investment and expansion of the project, laying massive production lines, and setting them in motion towards one of the largest projects ever envisioned by the Global Defense Initiative.
(Progress 352/600: 20 resources per die) (+16 Capital Goods, -2 Labor, -8 Energy) [87, 89]
Investment in Nuuk has been unfortunately reduced this quarter, as despite the need for a new wing of the facility almost as soon as the core complex was completed, the demands of the war are quite intensive.
The new wing, laid to the south of the core facility, is focused on heavy transport and construction robots. Behemoths, Crabs, and the other multi-terrain, multirole units, useful everywhere from the Himalayas to coastal construction, have not yet begun to roll out of the foundry, but shipload after shipload of myomer bundles have arrived to ensure that when the final stages are completed production can begin immediately.
Similarly, the new Tick series digger robots have had a production line of their own start construction. While initial production will be slow, with maybe a dozen units produced a month, the scalability is high, with up to six hundred a month at maximum production from the south wing of the facility.
Beyond the Nuuk project itself, there is the problem of the port facilities. As Nuuk was one of the destination cities during the evacuations of the 2030s, it has port facilities, and relatively good ones for a city of its size. However they are drastically insufficient for the massive demands about to be placed on them. Work is underway to add a half dozen new loading cranes, able to transfer some fifty containers an hour apiece between the quay and the cargo ships that will come in as part of the great northern route between the North American and European Blue Zones.
Currently, the building is still distinctly incomplete, with masses of equipment - ranging from heavy presses to build the casings, to wire extruders for the hundreds of kilometers of standard-gauge wiring it will consume with every day of operation - still being awaited for installation. While work is slated to continue at a rapid pace, it will need substantially more funding to reach production readiness quickly.
[ ] Isolinear Chip Development (New)
The Scrin-derived isolinear chip is a three-dimensional optical computer, built as a single unit, compacted down into something that can fit in the palm of one's hand. Even early versions make a modern computer look akin to the devices that put men on the moon, leaving the only real questions being scaling up production to effective levels.
(Progress 123/60: 40 resources per die) [89]
The term chip originates with the old English forcippian, "to pare away by cutting." Under this definition, the isolinear computer does not have chips, rather it has integrated, individually constructed optical circuitry. The core element is quartz -or in scientific terms, silicon oxides - deposited in cryptocrystalline layers before being fused into a single block, ready to operate as a complete computer. Acting to distort the light, serving as the millions upon millions of switches, are microimpurities, inserted into the structure as it is built from the bottom up. Current models are extremely crude compared to those in use by the Scrin. The first iteration of isolinear circuitry is 75mm long, 25mm wide, and about 5mm thick, with a further inert "tab" of 10mm on one end. While not yet quite capable of beating out the best the Initiative has to offer in terms of computing technology, it is substantially tougher, and vastly more compact.
One of the first beneficiaries has in fact been Erewhon. With its limited need for support, the first isolinear fabricator has been dedicated to its needs, and has started slowly replacing silicon and germanium with pieces of isolinear quartz. While this has not improved its overall stability, it does seem to have given it marginal improvements in its ability to conduct operations.
[ ] 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 514/640: 20 resources per die) (+4 Capital Goods +2 Energy) (Reduces cost of mech and zone armor projects) [70, 18]
The Reykjavik macrospinner has continued to add production, with a series of geothermally heated grow pools being added. Iceland is one of the best sites in all of GDI for such activities. Open aquifers cycle energy from deep within the earth, erupting forth in a storm of heat and steam. While long tapped, with Icelandic peoples using the heat from volcanoes and geothermal wells to bake rye breads for almost as long as there have been people on Iceland, it was not until the 20th century, that experiments began to generate electricity from this.
However, the water and steam as it first emerges is far too hot for use in the grow pools, the water often near or above 100 degrees celsius. Above about sixty degrees, the water will rapidly and irreversibly denature key proteins. So, instead of directly using the heat, it is a secondary, and sometimes even tertiary cooling loop; with the water first being passed through power plants, and then under roadways, before arriving at the macrospinner for use heating the grow pools, having been brought down to somewhere between thirty and fifty degrees, depending on time of year and a number of other factors. While not quite as reliable as purpose-built and dedicated heating units, it is drastically cheaper in an area that is geothermally active.
[ ] Medical Supplies Factories
Increasing supplies of medicines and more importantly medical supplies like tubing, masks, blood substitutes, liquid bandages and similar are likely to be quite needed during wartime. While GDI currently has enough, demand is expected to spike rapidly, and more supplies will be needed.
(Progress 129/225: 20 resources per die) (+4 Health) (-1 Energy) [10, 19, 28]
It can often be difficult to visualize just how much stuff a medical facility goes through in a day. Broadly speaking, little is practically reusable. A scalpel for example, like any knife, blunts with use, and so, beyond the need to sterilize it, rapidly becomes significantly less useful. Beyond that there are the vast numbers of consumables. In all, a single patient can produce up to between 10 and 13 kilograms of waste per day. While some of that is simply living waste, things like food scraps for example, much of it is things like masks, tubing, scalpels, and mostly, packaging. Nearly every piece of medical equipment comes in single-use packaging, oftentimes sterilized under radiation, leaving vast amounts of waste.
However, this is because of critical safety concerns. While most hospitals operate under various means of ensuring sterility and preventing cross-contamination, ensuring that the implements of healing remain safe is of the utmost priority. And that is what the facilities currently under construction are meant to do. Not to produce drugs, or antibiotics, or for that matter conduct any other form of direct healing, but give people the tools that they need to do the work.
The war has placed great strains on these supplies, with vast demands for critical services near the front, and critical care units mobilized for both refugees and the frontal care. Mobile surgical centers serve in this role, many able to operate while fully buttoned up. It is a testament to both the hostility of the environment and the willingness of warlords to strike at such sites that doctors and nurses see some of the highest per capita casualty rates, only beaten out by the ranks of the officers corps, and field medics. The former for their small number, and the latter due to many warlords preferentially targeting them with the same eagerness they have for hitting the surgical centers.
[ ] Blue Zone Aquaponics Bays (Phase 2)
While the refugee swarm has not yet arrived to GDI's borders, it is only a matter of time, and vast aquaponics arrays are one of the keystone solutions to expected rises in demand.
(Progress 140/140: 10 resources per die) (+6 Food) (-1 Labor)
(Progress 30/140: 10 resources per die) (+6 Food) (-1 Labor) [32, 4 59]
The demand for food has been rapidly increasing. With wave after wave of refugees arriving, demand for food has skyrocketed, leaving the Initiative, even with substantial increases in production, barely treading water in multiple keystone areas, most notably core assets like carbohydrates and vegetable protein sources. With demand expected to increase substantially as core brotherhood territories are raided or conquered, GDI has little choice but to invest substantially in food production to avoid shortages, which will be problematic both politically and economically.
Most of the new bays are primarily devoted to staples, with the largest section being legumes, and other sources of plant proteins. Following that are starches, with all other produce being a distant third at best. With the incoming substantial increase in food production required by adding multiple percentage points to the population under GDI's control, even with maximum effort there is still likely to be belt tightening occurring, as there are limits to how swiftly production can be increased.
[ ] 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 126/200: 20 resources per die) (+5 Food, increases efficiency of stockpile actions, -1 Energy) [29]
Construction of the freeze dried food plants has continued to be slow. While the preparation and packaging sections are complete, making the actual freeze drying units and supplying them in sufficient numbers has been a severe problem. Even with shipping demand high, and temporary spikes in demand occurring across the Initiative, there remains enough surplus capacity to run at full operations. The problem has been demand on the specialized equipment, as other facilities have been making a run and stocking up on spare parts and assemblies that are also needed for these factories.
Politically, the demand for stored food is not particularly easy to avoid. The shadow of the Third Tiberium War and the long lean years following it looms large in the political scene, especially as the organization of the modern political system emerged in that time period. With GDI seeing the potential for a long lasting high intensity conflict, and one where the Brotherhood has little compunction about targeting civilian infrastructure, the political interest in building a strong reserve against potential future shortages has remained high, despite GDI winning on nearly every front. At the same time, Parliament has been, on average, signaling a willingness to put off demands placed during a time of peace, to allow the treasury to focus on a time of war.
[ ] Yellow Zone Tiberium Harvesting (Phase 7) (Updated)
Expanding the offensive, and pushing the Brotherhood back around the world is the future the Initiative not only wants, but needs. Decisive action, driven home with all the vigor the Initiative can muster will buy time and push aside the threat of the Brotherhood, to fight the war against Tiberium. (Supports Steel Vanguard)
(Progress 300/300: 20 resources per die) (small additional income trickle [10 Resources]) (3 points of Yellow Zone Mitigation)
(Progress 302/300: 20 resources per die) (small additional income trickle [10 Resources]) (3 points of Yellow Zone Mitigation) [75, 34, 22, 41, 52]
The Initiative's armies of engineers have followed the proper armies at a close remove, laying down rail and road. Beyond that, they have begun to move from what had once been a borderland between the Initiative and the Brotherhood, into territories that had been Noddist for decades on end. Here, there are hundreds of mining hubs, a key element of Brotherhood approaches to tiberium mining. Each hub is linked to a series of outposts that in turn harvest from one or more outcroppings in the region. While the Brotherhood does use Tiberium spikes widely, they are far less averse to having Tiberium outbreaks in regions very close to human settlement. Local authorities put much less effort into early response, leading to a large number of relatively small Tiberium fields, often only discovered when a patrol runs into it. GDI fields on the other hand are typically either rapidly contained, or have a longer delay as other areas are higher priority for the specialist teams, leading to more highs and lows.
[ ] Intensification of Green Zone Harvesting (Stage 5)
A further wave of Green Zone Tiberium harvesting will both improve the logistical connections across the forward Green Zones and provide greater numbers of forward hardpoints and firebases for Initiative troops.
(Progress 146/100: 15 resources per die) (small additional income trickle [10 Resources]) (1 point of yellow zone mitigation) (1 Stage available) (Supports Steel Vanguard) [44]
Oftentimes far behind the lines, the Treasury's tiberium construction teams have been hard at work. With the last quarter's construction mostly focusing on providing infrastructure rather than developing Tiberium extraction capability, GDI's new wave has flipped that, rapidly containing hundreds of patches of Tiberium, and capping more than a few with Tiberium spikes. The work has been rapid, with little in the way of interference by the Brotherhood. While there have been many stay-behind forces and scattered pockets of resistance bypassed by the advancing GDI forces, the former have tended to blend into the refugee convoys passing back into urban territory, and the latter are typically fairly well contained, although some have managed to break out and run rampant for days or weeks before they either go to ground or are hunted down.
[ ] 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)
-[ ] Dandong (Progress 105/70 : 10 resources per die) (+5 Resources Per Turn) (-2 Energy) [60]
The railgun harvester in combat has not been quite as revolutionary as it could have been hoped. Part of this is a matter of how action has been shifting. When the Brotherhood of Nod breaks through to the harvesters, it is not a small raiding force, or a group of militia taking potshots with rocket launchers or mortars. It is an armored knuckle. Scorpion tanks, Avatars, or their lighter Centurion cousins who have forced a gap in GDI lines, and have seized upon the opportunity to run rampant. While the rapid fire railgun is certainly more than capable of penetrating weak points in the armor, the harvester lacks sufficient armor over critical areas to survive the fire of their harasser. Similarly, the fire of Venoms, Vertigos, or even the occasional Barghest gun run can be blunted, but losses (often significant ones) still occur as fires cross in the skies. In areas without the new harvesters, the fights go in much the same way, with only marginally lighter losses for the Brotherhood of Nod. The keystone protectors of the mines are not the harvesters, but the armored forces of the Initiative.
-[ ] Porto (Progress 44/70: 10 resources per die) (+5 Resources Per Turn) (-2 Energy) [5]
The Porto harvester factory, ordered to better support the invasion of southern Europe, has run into severe problems primarily due to the victories won there. With the logistics lines overwhelmed moving hundreds of thousands of people to the deep Blue Zone, and the shifting of units to begin sieges of the southern Spanish cities that are Reynaldo's heartland, it is not a particularly easy time to arrange substantial construction projects.
Additionally, Reynaldo's guerilla forces have followed the refugees in, and have begun a campaign of terror and sabotage against the worksite, alongside hundreds of others. Mostly this takes the form of various autonomous drone attacks, and deniable wrecker actions, a low intensity approach that minimizes their risk in the broader environment. While InOps does practice a strong panopticon, and some have been caught, it has not done much to slow the rate of sabotage.
[ ] 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 765/765: 20 resources per die) (+2 Capital Goods, +2 Consumer Goods) (1 available Bay)
(Progress 102/1535: 20 resources per die) (+2 Capital Goods, +2 Consumer Goods) (2 available Bays) (10 Political Support) [81, 61, 57, 88]
Rapid work has continued on the Enterprise. While falling behind schedule to complete in the eighteen months remaining in the plan, it is not far behind, and catching up will simply require further infusions of resources.
At the same time, the final shape of the station is beginning to take form. It is an ugly creature, a mass of functional components exposed to the vastness of space, coated in radiators. At both ends, rings covered in mounting points for new industry are still taking shape, with one bay ready to be filled, and two others nearing completion. It is the first and last of its kind, a prototype ugly duckling, built in a tumultuous time as Humanity takes some of its last steps to claim the heavens. Future stations are likely to be sleek, modular designs, built to last and for specific purposes, rather than the general-purpose prototype of the Enterprise.
As for the bays, there are many competing visions, each championed by its own faction.
The Developmentalists see the clear purpose of the station as a prototype, an asset to be leveraged to claim the Solar system as a whole, favoring conversion into a shipyard, building both fusion and gravitic drive ships, but also as a birthing point for large chunks of station components. Enterprise may be the only one of its kind, but, fundamentally, as a station high in Earth's gravity well, it can do things that are difficult or impossible down on Earth.
Their main opposition however is the Militarist party, seeing Enterprise's more immediate uses. Most notably its ability to support further development of the OSRCT concept that has proven its validity repeatedly in the last six months of heavy action. With the current war their immediate focus, they see it as a means of providing GDI with an incredibly rapid means of reinforcement, building orbital support satellites, combat equipment, and advanced equipment that is difficult to manufacture properly on Earth.
[ ] Orbital Cleanup (Stage 9)
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) (20 resources) (Unlocks Low Orbit Support Satellites)
(Progress 85/85: 10 resources per die) (15 resources)
(Progress 32/85: 10 resources per die) (10-15 resources) (Unlocks Orbital Power Stations) [78, 31]
As part of a series of cost saving measures, GDI has run many more clearance operations, harvesting some of the last remaining free floating elements in orbit. Beyond that, the Initiative has started to shift strategy. Rather than simply covering the navigation hazards, it has begun a proactive decommissioning campaign, focusing on items like the early ASAT network, communications units, and other systems that have survived, and are still functioning, but are now in a state of disrepair.
However, with this the low orbits now have vast amounts of real estate available for development. Between decades of communications, sensors, and other satellites in the region, it had been notably congested, with previous constellations often leaving their units in orbit, rather than attempting to plan for end of life demands. This real estate already has been planned for. The Space Force intends to add some 120 new light ion cannons, plus hundreds more support lasers and kinetic impactor launchers. However, the keystone will actually be a new model surveillance system, using low orbit extremely precise cameras, plus a large number of EVAs, to begin to spot the minute distortions created by stealth fields. A standard surveillance satellite has resolutions as low as ten to fifteen centimeters on the ground, still far too coarse to find these distortions. In order to effectively detect them, a resolution of below five centimeters is required, and that is likely to only shrink as the Brotherhood builds improved stealth models.
[ ] Neural-Interfaced Operating Theaters
While much of the funding for this can come from the welfare department, other parts, such as the capital goods required to set up these complex and highly technical rooms, will need to come from the Treasury, and the Services department.
(Progress 122/160: 20 resources per die) (+6 Health, -2 Capital Goods) [6, 62]
While the operating theaters themselves are complete, the system as a whole has run into a number of issues. To begin with, nearly all of the experts in neural interface training and the neural interfaces themselves are either military or (in far smaller numbers) Treasury staff. This has meant that the end users have had to rely on a very small cadre of technicians from the Treasury, especially when it comes to learning how to use the new system, and calibrating the machines. With neural interfaces, each brain is unique, and while it is not something where you need a different neurohelmet for each person, it is something where everyone needs to have their mental imprint and sensor settings on file in the computer, a process that takes a substantial amount of time to complete, as they need to go through every command possible with the system.
At the same time, there are problems on the medical side, specifically in the training allocations. With the medical system increasingly overstressed by waves of wounded and refugees, there are simply not enough practitioner hours to both provide care in an immediate sense and learn an entirely new system, even if that system was faster, cheaper, and substantially more efficient than traditional medical methodology.
[ ] Tactical Airborne Laser Deployment (New)
Lightweight, high efficiency and utterly lethal infernium lasers, capable of fighting at ranges that had been previously exclusive to missiles, and doing severe damage to nearly any asset in the Brotherhood's arsenal. Deployment will be somewhat costly, but should rapidly shift the balance of power in the air.
(Progress 219/210: 20 resources per die) (-2 STUs, -3 Energy) [25, 46, 70]
The TAL factory has begun supplying the first new laser pods to the air force. This has brought both significantly higher loss rates and vastly higher claimed kills among squadrons equipped with the new laser systems, primarily Firehawks.
Current Firehawk doctrine calls for Launch on Contact, firing off dozens of missiles at long to extreme range, rather than trying to close into more effective ranges. Substantial expenditure of missiles, even assuming hit rates of below five percent under some circumstances, is a cheap cost to pay compared to the losses of men and aircraft involved in the relatively close range engagements produced by the TAL. Simply splashing the laser across a section of the hull is not enough to produce instant lethality. It does have a burn time, and holding a point on an incredibly maneuverable fighter is quite difficult, leading to shorter engagement ranges as they hunt for kills.
However, it is a substantial upgrade in lethality on the average. While Barghests make it problematic, they are actually a relatively limited part of most battlefields. Over three quarters of the targets out there are Carryalls and Venoms, both of which suffer badly against the new TAL. Carryalls, especially, have effectively no defense and are not nearly maneuverable enough to avoid taking critical damage. There have been times, such as the battle preceding the assault on Cheyenne Mountain, when a mixed force of Venoms and Carryalls simply absorbed every missile fired on them. Today, that problem is substantially less real; a Firehawk can loiter in the battle space to recharge its laser before making another gun run. While the effectiveness of the Firehawk does substantially decrease after the first missile attack, it is not nearly as useless as it was before.
Looking at longer term combat asset deployment, the Air Force is looking back and reconsidering the Crystal Beam Laser. With current limitations on STU production, it is not viable to try to equip every airframe with Infernium lasers, especially when considering the sheer number of drones that are likely to be the future of the GDI airborne arsenal. While future airframes are likely to carry integral lasers, including refits to the Apollo, Aurora, and Orca lines, these are likely to be short range crystal beam based point defense lasers, intended to reduce losses, rather than more powerful lasers designed to kill enemy aircraft.
[ ] Plasma Warhead Factory (Phase 1) (New)
The T-10E (Plasma) is probably the most expensive missile of its size ever built by the Initiative. Relying on rare stable transuranic elements, it has significant value, both in air to air and air to ground roles, providing massive damage, and a small form factor. However, it does need a dedicated, if small, production line to provide a trickle of missiles to take out specific high value targets.
(Progress 53/90: 10 resources per die) (-1 STU) [27]
The Plasma Warheads have run into further issues, this time in mass production. Part of it is a matter of methodology. Cast explosives, even in complicated patterns, have been produced for nearly two centuries. Nuclear implosion devices, for over a century. The science and art of building an explosive is a place where generations have honed the same skills, and stood on each other's shoulders. The elerium charge device is a fundamentally different system, a simple electronic circuit that just happens to release a sizable amount of energy into the surrounding environment.
This has meant that standard hiring practices simply don't work. While there are plenty of people who know how to build an explosive to Initiative specification, and plenty of people who can do each individual component of the device, the system as designed is not particularly easy to line up with existing skillset classifications and qualifications. Battering through the Initiative's bureaucracy and ensuring the qualifications of the staff will unfortunately take another round of focus and funding.
[ ] Wingman Drone Deployment (High Priority) (New)
With the Wingman drones, GDI has begun to lay out a platform for a future of warfare, primarily built around pilot survivability, and preparing for a series of larger and more intensive aerial campaigns around the world.
- [ ] Apollo Wingmen (Progress 351/210: 20 resources per die) (-4 Energy, -1 Capital Goods) [84, 98, 91]
The Apollo series Wingman drones have so far had a limited effect. While popular with pilots and ground crews, there are far from enough of them yet. While much of initial production can be taken from the spare parts and excess production for the manned version of the Apollo, not everything can be, and those components are a severe bottleneck so far. While this is expected to be resolved in the coming months as production ramps up on a separate supply line, it is not yet ready.
In combat, there are two key problems, one inherent to the design, and the other a flaw that can be remedied. First, it congests the attack space. With every additional airframe, the flight paths to ensure that a gun run is safe, and not backstopped by, for example, a squadron of Firehawks, becomes substantially more complicated. With the Initiative relying on filling airspaces to ensure enough volume of fire in order to kill highly maneuverable Brotherhood fighter craft, battles rapidly become highly complex and tightly choreographed dances in the sky, ones that Wingmen complicate by being typically fairly tight to their paired aircraft.
Second is actually that pilots want significantly more customizability on their control interfaces. As the Apollo was never built with Wingman drones in mind, it lacks many options pilots want, especially when an Apollo and the Wingman are carrying more than a total of three munitions options. It is not a problem that requires more than software rewrites and a patch is coming, but it is a symptom of the extremely rushed schedule to begin bringing the aircraft into service.
"Brothers and Sisters: By order of the High Commander of our order, the <indecipherable> now will use the following guidelines for kill-counts with regard to GDI drones. To the best of our ability, <indecipherable> the drones separately. Kills that cannot be confirmed as either drone or piloted will count as 1/2 of a kill, rounding down to the nearest whole integer. This will slow kill-count inflation, and focus our energies where they belong. Slay the GDI meat, and ignore the distracting metal that attempts to flutter around in your sensors."
-Intercepted transmission, South American Yellow Zone.
[ ] Shark Class Frigate Shipyards (High Priority) (New)
The Shark unfortunately is of a size that GDI cannot simply reuse an existing ship's extra slipways to build the class. Too small for even the older destroyer shipyards, it needs much of its own dedicated space.
-[ ] Quonset Point (Progress 360/300: 20 resources per die) (-6 Energy, -2 Capital Goods) [95, 45, 44, 72]
Quonset Point was at one time a naval base, and then later converted into a civilian airport. Now, it is a shipyard. Chosen due to being relatively far from large scale civilian inhabitation, it could host work around the clock to convert both decayed industrial park and broken down runway into a massive shipbuilding complex, a production line for frigates running east to west starting with subcomponent assembly as much as ten kilometers away, and all concluding at a series of twenty slipways on the coast. This assembly line of ships allows for rapid production, with one ship in the slipway and being assembled, while other components are being built for the next one in line.
Unfortunately, even with every time-saving measure possible using modern technology, it will take months to build each ship, and then months more of fitting out, sea trials, and training before it is ready to be commissioned as a fighting ship. The first squadron is at least a year out, although subsequent waves will rapidly drop as they can start construction long before the slipway itself is cleared.
[ ] Merchantman Carrier Conversions
With the Merchantman conversions, switching a substantial number of ships to carry Hammerheads and Orcas instead of cargo, it is a both politically and practically problematic approach. While certainly theoretically possible, and something that GDI has the design specifications to do. It will be a stop gap measure.
-[ ] High Commitments (Complete all Escort Carrier Shipyards by end of Plan) (Progress 150/200: 20 resources per die) (-10 PS) [39, 59]
A merchantman, fundamentally, is as much of an empty tub as it is possible to build. Every one of these ships has a singular purpose, to haul vast amounts of cargo long distances. While this is problematic for a warship, it is highly useful for a carrier, especially a VTOL carrier in the modern day. However, compromises made during construction to facilitate this purpose make it relatively limited in maneuverability, and without good locations for a number of sensor systems, especially those that require large amounts of flat area high up on the ship.
One feature that all modern carriers share is a contained and armored hangar deck. Rather than expose the aircraft to not only the salt air and spray, but ion storms coming off the land, they are contained within an environmentally sealed hangar deck, a shirt sleeves environment for work.
The armoring is the problem, specifically because it has to be able to move out of the way. While on a standard carrier, this feature would have been designed in from the get go, on the conversions this requires a significant amount of work. The result has been a set of funiculars, with four platforms. One at the bottom, one at the top, able to launch and recover two aircraft at a time. This design was chosen specifically because it allowed for the best seal on the carrier's deck without obstructing flight operations.
In terms of defenses, while they do carry a quartet of T-20e configured antiaircraft launchers and a pair of point defense lasers, they lack the sensor complement or power to make best use of the systems allocated to them, and internally do not have nearly as much protection, leaving any hit as a potentially lethal one.
Politically, while the Navy is severely unhappy about needing them, it does recognize that they are needed, especially with the ongoing losses to raider groups, and more importantly the loss of multiple cruisers and other heavy assets in naval battles this quarter. The necessities of war require such vessels, in order to free up carriers for more dangerous routes. While, for example, the northern Atlantic routes are relatively secure - with most of the danger coming from trans-Arctic submarine attacks which are often suppressed by the ring of GDI airbases and masses of low-flying V-35s doing anti-submarine operations - and can be serviced by the conversions, other routes are far less safe. The riskiest routes are the runs from South America to Australia and New Zealand, followed shortly thereafter by the runs across the Indian Ocean, both to the Middle East and Australia, and will need proper carriers in large numbers to properly protect convoys.
[ ] 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 170/105: 25 resources per die) [87]
As the production lines have finished their refits, the first neural interface systems have begun to hit field units. While so far only a marginal number have been deployed to the field, the units that have gotten the refits, mostly in the deeper Blue Zones, are quite happy with them. For one, they have begun requesting about half again as many units as previous copilots are now able to pilot a mech on their own. This is especially the case for Titan companies, as the integrated system now allows a mech to be adequately fought without a second person assisting. While there are still significant advantages to having a pair of operators, the Talons current thinking is that those best apply to the commanders rather than the rank and file. So, in the proposed system, a squadron of Titans would remain an eight man unit, but with six mechs instead of four, with the Commander and the Second operating in the rumble seat to manage the unit as a whole, while the pilot drives.
The other elements of the Steel Titans have their own praise, with the Havocs offering the most complaints, mostly of hip and knee pains. The Logistics department has noted that units equipped with the new neurohelmets are significantly less likely to require replacement hips and knees.
"Had a guy coming back from a long patrol in a Wolverine decide he was just gonna go to bed after reporting in. So he tried to walk into the CO's office and make his report, forgetting he was still in the Wolverine."
-Anonymous
A/N: This ended up basically done before the battle segments, so I finished it up and pushed it out. Over the next few days I am aiming to finish writing up the battles and get those out to you as well. However, on the 13th and 14th, I am travelling, so there is a lot of other stuff I need to be doing as well.
So despite NOD once again rolling better than us in combats we are still overall winning the war. Yes South America is proving an issue but North America is rapidly clearing out. Some poor rolls also meant we ran into a medical issue but we can fix that next turn fairly easily as the service project will finish with 1 dice and we can dump 2 on the LCI to finish that off. Power remains a major concern. And we have an intriguing support sat option with the surveillance sats by and far NOD biggest asset is stealth, the more we counter that, the bigger we win. For example if we can pick up more of NOD subs while they are en route to hunting grounds we can vector in forces to take them out reducing their ability to raid. It also increases the chance we can find the anchorages they use and either mine or destroy them to reduce the ability to base out of those anchorages.
Edit- My big take away from this is despite panic and some areas where NOD is having good success we are overall in a solid position and with good choices have some very exploitable opportunities.
Edit 2- by panic i am talking about in universe panic, not the questers. which is normal for a war where perception can outweigh reality.
Infra 6/6 105R +34
-[] Yellow Zone Fortress Towns (Phase 6) 0/350 3 die 60R 5%
-[] Rail Network Construction Campaigns (Phase 4) (Upated) 128/325 3 dice 45R 38%
HI 5/5+3 free 150R +29
-[] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plants (Phase 6) 30/300 6 dice 120R 100%
-[] Nuuk Heavy Robotics Foundry (Phase 3) 352/640 1 dice 20R 0%
-[] Crystal Beam Industrial Laser Development (New) 0/80 1 die 10R 70%
LCI 5/5 110R +24
-[] Reykjavik Myomer Macrospinner (Phase 4) 514/640 2 dice 40R 81%
-[] Bergen Superconductor Foundry (Phase 1) 0/95 1 die 30R 45%
-[] Medical Supplies Factories 129/225 2 die 40R 95%
Agri 4/4 60R +24
-[] Tarberry Development 0/40 1 die 20R 100%
-[] Wadmalaw Kudzu Plantations (Phase 2) 0/300 2 dice 20R 0%
-[] Freeze Dried Food Plants 126/200 1 die 20R 28%
Tiberium 7/7 140R +39
-[] Yellow Zone Tiberium Harvesting (Phase 9) 2/325 4 dice 80R 80%
-[] Intensification of Green Zone Harvesting (Stage 6+7) 46/200 2 dice 30R 82%
-[] Harvesting Tendril Development (New) 0/40 1 die 30R 100%
-[] Railgun Harvester Factory (Porto) 44/70 1 admin assistance 10R 90%
Orbital 6/6 120R +26
-[] 6 dice avg 20R per dice on ????
Services 5/5 95R +27
-[] Automatic Medical Assistants 0/300 3 dice 60R 16%
-[] Neural Interfaced Operating Theaters 122/160 1 die 20R 100%
-[] Hallucinogen Development 0/60 1 die 15R 88%
Military 8/8+4 free 230R +26
-[] Firehawk Wingmen Drones 0/450 3 dice 60R 0%
-[] Plasma Warhead Factory (Phase 1) 53/90 1 admin assistance 10R 79%
-[] Shell Plants (Phase 6) 7/150 2 dice 20R 72%
-[] Escort Carrier Shipyards (Battleship Yards) 0/120 2 dice 40R 87%
-[] Merchantman Carrier Conversions 150/200 1 die 20R 92%
-[] Shark Class Frigate Shipyards (Seattle) 0/300 4 dice 80R 64%
Bureau 4/4 +24
-[] Admin Assistance (Railgun Harvester)
-[] Admin Assistance (Plasma Warhead)
Free 7/7
3 HI, 4 Mil
1010/1020
Some early revisions- added in shell plants and moved plasma warhead to a 2nd admin assistance, also upped med dice by 1 in LCI. Tarberry dev for a trickle of energy via agri.
