Gagarin Station - 3/10
Enterprise Orbital Assembler - 9/80 IP Craterscope Imaging Sensor 120/120 IP
Craterscope Atmospheric Analyzer 50/50IP
Craterscope Structure 246/400
G-Drive Improvement (+Pathfinder Test) - 296/400 Ore Electrolysis Smelter - 201/200
Atmospheric Containment Shimmer Shield - 373/400 Tick Tank Dig Experiments - 207/150
Asteroid Belt Detector - 277/200
Tiberium Detector - 154/125
Moon Detector - 221/125
Particle Collection - 81 vs 65DC
We have all the detectors for the Craterscope. Now we just have to build them.
And most of our development list got wiped out.
We collected enough Eezo to do some proper science with.
Gagarin Station (Stage 4)(Updated) 2+1= 3/10 Gagarin Station Parts
Enterprise Orbital Assembler (Phase 3 of 4)(Updated) 0+5 = 5/80 Craterscope Structure (Phase 1) 15+15 = 30/30(Phase 2) 0+90+9+94+53 = 246/400 Craterscope Imaging Sensor 46+74 = 120/120
Build Craterscope Atmospheric Analyzer 0+50 = 50/50 G-Drive Improvement Program 198+37+31+Edit 2: 30 = 296/400 Ore Electrolysis Smelter Development 164+7+30 = 201/200 Atmospheric Containment Shimmer Optimization 147+25+Edit:96+15+90 = 373/400 Tick Tank Dig Experiments 137+40+30 = 207/150
Craterscope Asteroid Belt Detector 184+63+30 = 277/200
Craterscope Tiberium Detector 55+69+30 = 154/125
Craterscope Moon Detector 110+81+30 = 221/125
Mission: Surface Exploration (Charon)
Mission: Surface Exploration (Pluto)
Mission: Orbital Scan (Oberon)
Mission: Orbital Scan (Titania)
Mars particle collection mission 3+1 = 4/6 max attempts DC65 81 PASS
It's 11 PM here so see you guys in the morning for the edit to the Shimmer Optimization. Edit: The rolls are here and I edited in the results for the Shimmer Optimization.
Edit 2: G-Drive improvement program only gets one Die bonus as per this post.
I think you added the development bonus of +30 twice for this. I think the Pathfinder Drive Test only adds the result of the dice without the bonus, but I could be wrong.
So simplifying what I am understanding here is it will function like an DC Electric arc furnace where the current going through the charge is pulling double duty heating the metal oxides while separating the Oxygen from the charge. This is being done in the absence of carbon to readily collect the oxygen, even though we could feasibly ship several tons of carbon from Earth; so as to reduce logistical strain on our space shipping, and avoid over stressing our lunar facilities atmospheric systems with CO2 and other possible pollutants.
Basically, yes. The problem with importing carbon is that you need (on paper) minimally 150-ish kg of carbon to turn 1 ton of raw lunar ore into 600kg of metal and 550 kg of carbon dioxide, the CO2 part is then not even being immediately useful to you and needs to be stored and recycled. Shipping up from earth is also expensive, so why not try to minimize the dependence of the lunar metallurgic industry on earth by just yeeting more electricity at the problem. As a replacement for the graphite electrodes we could use tungsten, which has a similarly high melting point and due to Tib we also have a relatively easy source of it, so its not too expensive and the free oxygen created from the refining process guarantees Luna infrastructure never runs out of air to breathe .
Yeah. Well hopefully one thing we can do right on Venus is to set up a stabilizer constellation first (to discourage tiberium from mutating in response to what we do), then start setting up containment protocols.
This is made all the more logical and convenient given that it's a hell of a lot easier for us to deploy a satellite constellation in Venus orbit than to do... basically anything whatsoever... on the Venusian surface.
For practical purposes, Venus doesn't have a useful 'geosynchronous' orbit because the planetary day length is around 240 Earth days. By the time you put something high enough above Venus that it takes a full planetary day to orbit the planet (thus keeping it above a fixed point on the surface), you're a long, long, long way above the planet- something like a million miles up.
Also, we wound up having to launch a LOT of stabilizer satellites for the Earth, more than could plausibly be explained if the satellite constellation was only a few high-orbit nodes. I see no reason to assume that Venus will be different.
Eh. we have a lot of other projects that need doing. Earth's stabilizer constellation probably requires a lot of continuous maintenance, so if nothing else we'd need a respectable orbital infrastructure of monitoring and maintenance bases in Venus orbit. And remember, delivering and sustaining the stabilizer constellation will take ships (either fusion for long-haul, gravitic for short-haul, or both), and we built both shipyards. So we may have indirectly made that project easier in other ways; there's more to it than just building the satellites themselves.
I think you added the development bonus of +30 twice for this. I think the Pathfinder Drive Test only adds the result of the dice without the bonus, but I could be wrong.
It says it adds another Die to the research. It says nothing about it being a Die without the bonuses. So unless @sunrise or @BOTcommander say so, I'm calculating with the bonus.
It says it adds another Die to the research. It says nothing about it being a Die without the bonuses. So unless @sunrise or @BOTcommander say so, I'm calculating with the bonus.
Finally getting around to posting the GDI Development Issues "blog article." I ended up excising part of it out as a bit too much TV drama-esque (involved trying to scapegoat BGen Solomon for leaks via NJP, he refuses and requests trial by court martial, trial is a fiasco for the brass) and instead having public discovery of the walker program causing more fuel for the media fire of the mess. That whole court martial mess also kinda works against the idea that it was largely a perfect storm from the chaos of the time frame and how everyone was trying to adapt to the changing situations regarding tiberium spread, so it makes sense. Also, I think it stayed in this long because my brain was going "Band of Brothers!" and I really enjoyed that particular scene from the series.
If this feels familiar with any contract award/procurement scandal/ethical misconduct (civilian or military), or just about any military vehicle development program of the last half century, then I think I did well. Also shades of McNamara era DoD programs with analysts making decisions based on paper numbers and not enough real world experience in the area.
Over the course of the decade since the Third Tiberium War ended, it had been asked periodically why research, development, and procurement for GDI's military forces are how they are. Currently, the Treasury's authority covers funding any research and development of new technology or vehicles for the military, while the military covers control over procurement once the factories have been built by the Treasury. Many can point to the old member states of GDI and how their R&D was set up in comparison, and question why GDI is set up "wrong." One answer would be that it actually used to be worse, and it only shifted into the current system in the 2020s following the HoverTech corruption scandal. This doesn't answer how it got that way in the first place. The answer regarding the military's procurement problems lie in the years between the First and Second Tiberium Wars, as the UN and GDI started transitioning towards the current system.
How It Happened
As the 2010s rolled on, Tiberium began spreading further and faster than before. The health effects of Tiberium exposure were becoming quite apparent, and efforts to contain the spread proved less than capable. As a result, populations began either fleeing or being evacuated from areas where Tiberium was found. This resulted in political upheavals and stresses on civil services. The United Nations acted to provide aid and financial support to countries to help them deal with these issues, but required GDI oversight to prevent improper use of the funds. The more programs and aid a country received, the more oversight was present. In the worst case, the country would essentially be a GDI Administered Region, particularly if the government actually collapsed in the process.
The GDI was not really equipped to handle this type of work, particularly when it ended up essentially running countries. To deal with the task, they formed various bureaus to deal with the work. One such bureau was the Treasury, which took up much of GDI's financial groups. As it became better established, many of those groups "separated" back into their initial Bureau forms within the Treasury. In the chaos, it was forgotten to move the research and development aspects back to a relevant bureau.
As the number of "GDI Administered Regions" began increasing due to developing countries being unable to handle the upheaval and stress of Tiberium spread, the United Nations became concerned that GDI was essentially becoming a country while technically under the UN but having a number of UN representatives from their Regions. As a result, they temporarily suspended all representatives from GDI Administered Regions until such time as the country took over governing itself once more. In addition, they split some parts of GDI off to be directly under UN control, including the Treasury. The Treasury becoming an independent organization resulted in them absorbing a number of existing UN financial organizations, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
When the Treasury was spun off, the GDI bureaus under it were "returned" to the military, but under the impression that the military would have sorted everything out already, no efforts were made to make sure everything was properly sorted first. This resulted in the Treasury having full control over research and development programs and projects for GDI, and was noticed when GDI went to begin its Next Generation Orca program in the late 2010s. Neither the Treasury nor the UN were in favor of returning that authority to GDI, thinking of the wasteful military programs of numerous countries in the past that never provided any results.
Next Generation Combat Vehicles and HoverTech
As GDI took over a region, they also temporarily (or, as time showed, not so temporarily) took over the military forces within. In an effort to ease logistics, they worked to standardize the vehicles to the newest models. Part of this effort was coming up with a designation system unique to GDI to better sort their vehicle fleets. MBT-1, MBT-2, LBT-3, and LBN-1 became a catch-all for all tanks they received, though they rapidly phased out the oldest designs and used letters and numbers at the end to designate which tank it was. Similar designations were set up for recon vehicles (RN-1, RT-1), APCs/IFVs (CN-1, CT-1), tube artillery (GAN-1, GAT-1), and missile artillery (MAN-1, MAT-1). The main lesson GDI learned from dealing with the issue repeatedly was that it would be better to simply have a GDI specific vehicle and not bother absorbing the military inventories.
Thus in 2018, GDI notified the Treasury and the UN Defense Initiative Oversight Commission (DIOC) that it was issuing a Request for Proposals regarding a family of combat vehicles to become the GDI standard over the next decade. Proposals that came in could be sorted into two categories - Conventional and Unconventional. GDI would rule out the conventional proposals on the grounds that they felt the proposals were too merely iterative and lacked sufficient protection against Tiberium exposure and contamination. Out of the unconventional proposals, only two would stand out as options.
One proposal was based off of the X-0 Powersuit and related developments. The X-0 first came into existence right around the end of the First Tiberium War, and had been the first in a series of technological testbeds exploring the limits of combat walkers. The proposal put forth an anti-infantry walker not much larger than the original X-0 for the recon role. They estimated that a walker three times taller than that design would provide a stable, balanced platform for mounting a 120 to 152mm gun and serve as the battle tank. It was expected that an artillery platform could be made off the same chassis as the tank. An odd exception to the Walker proposal was the APC, which was a conventional design with wheels designed to allow it to move through water at a decent clip without need of a water jet system, though a water jet system was included to substantially increase its water speed. It was stated that the design was conventional because they could not determine a walker design that was stable, capable of keeping up with other walkers, kept the troops protected from enemy fire, and allowed speedy embarking and deployment of troops. The proposal also provided for a SPAA based on the recon or APC chassis, or potentially a heavier set-up on the battle tank chassis.
The other proposal was from a relative newcomer, HoverTech. Prior to this, they were largely known for commercial hovercraft and providing power plants for the Next Generation Orca program. As one could assume, their proposal was everything being a hovercraft. They put forth two tank designs - main difference being the amount of armor each carried -, an APC design, a tube artillery design, and a missile artillery design. SPAA variants were considered quite possible, perhaps even making use of the Hover MLRS itself with some modification. Positives of the proposal was that they would be deployable from ship to shore without need of a transport in sea states up to 3, that terrain would become less relevant to where vehicles could go, and would reduce Tiberium contamination issues due to being held off the ground on an air cushion. The systems to be used were considered of such power that a "skirt" was not needed to maintain the air cushion.
Unable to decide between the two options, GDI filed its finding on all of the proposals with the Treasury and requested a competition between the two it liked. The Treasury instead decided to award the development contract to HoverTech with the approval of the DIOC, despite the protests of Ground Forces and also the current Chief Commander, General Sheppard. In response to this and the decision to retire conventional aircraft for an all Orca fleet, General Sheppard resigned in protest in mid 2019. His replacement would be General M.O. Morelli, previously head of the GDI Air Force and major proponent of the Universal Orca program (formerly Next Generation Orca program). General Morelli and the Treasury announced the awarding of the contract to HoverTech.
In mid-2020, the HoverTech prototypes arrived at Aberdeen Proving Grounds for GDI testing. Five models were available, though one was merely there to show why they gave up on it in favor of the MLRS prototype. The XMAH-2 Hover MLRS, as the lightest design, handled all tests with ease and showed substantial mobility and speed, making Ground Forces put it under consideration as a recon unit instead of just a MLRS system. The XCH-1 Hover APC was not far behind. Issues started showing with the two hover tanks. Being the heaviest designs, they already required more of the power plant's output be devoted to the vehicle's air cushion, but speed dropped even more as they needed to increase height to deal with obstacles. Other issues included the fuel efficiency of the power plants as a result of the air cushion system, and water crossing capabilities.
The problems with the hover tanks would come to a head in early 2021, when GDI decided to test the water crossing ability for amphibious operations (having tested river crossings on local rivers) with a series of tests on the Chesapeake Bay. The first test – and as it turned out, only test that day – was to cross from the Proving Grounds to a location near White Crystal Beach, around 7 kilometers to the east. At the time the testing started, conditions were only sea state 1, well below the promised sea state 3 capability. The XMRH-1 MLRS and XCH-1 APC both rapidly crossed the Bay without issue.
As the XHBH-2 "Heavy" Hover Tank began its trip, the wind picked up, bringing sea conditions up to 2. The vehicle covered 3.25 kilometers when it "wobbled" and then sank slightly in the air, though after stabilizing at the lower height it did pick up speed. Wind gusts began breaking 8 knots and the hover tank adjusted course as if to pass closer to Turkey Point or to land there. Not long after, pursuit boats noticed that it appeared that a wave had hit the underside of the vehicle on one side, inducing another wobble of the hover tank. At this point, the crew decided to head for shore and began to turn, but the wobble returned and dropped one side of the tank just enough for a wave to catch the underside.
The air cushion system on one side became partially flooded and the remaining system strained to keep the whole vehicle aloft, but the effort lowered it too close as well, and not long after waves flooded both systems and the vehicle rapidly sank. A MV-25 Orca Heavy Lift was brought in from nearby Phillips Air Field and, with the aid of divers, was hooked to the tank and slowly lifted it out of the water as it moved in closer to shore. The vehicle exited the water about 500 meters east of the Turkey Point Lighthouse and, after the water mostly drained from the air cushion systems and the crew exited the tank, was airlifted back to Aberdeen. The remaining tank did not attempt the crossing and performed some tests off Sandy Point while the APC and MLRS made a return trip with no issues.
The investigation revealed that the power plant for the hover tank was underpowered for the weight it was having to lift, and that as sea states increased, more power was required for the cushion to break the waves. Insufficient strength would cause the vehicle to bob on the waves like a ship, which is both an issue for the crew's stomachs and a threat to the air cushion system's exhausts. In an effort to increase speed back towards its on land levels, the crew lowered the air cushion height in order to maintain strength while using less of the power plant for that purpose, resulting in the initial wobble. As the wind speeds increased, the crew became concerned that they might not have the height to avoid waves any more and changed course towards land. A wave did manage to hit the vehicle, tilting the craft and causing the onboard systems to automatically adjust output power to avoid potentially rolling the tank. This caused a failure in wave breaking capability just as the tank turned for shore and the crew attempted to override the computer, and a subsequent wave flooded that system.
Modifications were ordered to ensure the other three prototypes had the capability for the crew to egress from a sunken vehicle in shallow waters with minimal chance of drowning, but the already overweight heavy tank was left alone, as Ground Forces did not consider it acceptable and refused to further test or develop it. The surviving Hover Tank design would get re-tuned engines to provide more power, and would successfully complete the crossing in sea state 1 conditions with some speed loss, and more speed loss on the return trip in sea state 2 conditions.
The investigation also resulted in concerns about the APC, as it had not yet done any testing at its combat load while having already had additional weight added. Ballasting out the APC to represent its combat load of troops, the APC showed results on par with the tank, being nearly the same weight. Increasing the ballast to account for the new infantry armor systems pushed it past the tank's weight and raised acceptability concerns.
Suggestions were made to add a deployable/retractable skirt for use when the heavier vehicles crossed larger bodies of water, and tests with the hover tank and hover APC using permanently deployed skirts showed significant improvement. Some suggested simply adding a more durable skirt that wouldn't be damaged or contaminated by tiberium. Instead, development of a deployable/retractable skirt system was started while debate continued on the topic, as part of the reason the original proposal looked attractive was a complete lack of skirt needed for that capability. As it turned out, the system was never finished or tested as external events spiraled.
HoverTech Scandal
In 2022, the Bay incident and investigation report was leaked to the media. Companies that had put forth conventional proposals a few years earlier began raising complaints over the program and why there had been no competition for the contract. General Morelli issued a statement praising the progress of the technology and that an incident like that one was to an extent an expected occurrence when developing cutting edge new systems. A joint statement by the Treasury and General Morelli soon after claimed that a thorough discussion had been done of all proposals, and the best option was apparent without need for a budget wasting competition. The initial report to the Treasury requesting a run-off competition between the Walker proposal and the Hover proposal was leaked to the media soon after. Investigations to discover the source of the leaks was slow to find any possible suspects, but retired General Sheppard would appear on the news for interviews, revealing that the "leak" of the competition report was simply making a request for information for that report, as he had done after retiring due to the Treasury choosing not to classify the report.
Public discovery of a walker program pushing the capabilities of the concept, with the fairly ready XRW-1 Wolverine doing well on all testing programs on which it was compatible, just added fuel to the media fire late in 2022. After all, how could it be harder to get hover vehicles on air cushions - a fairly well known and developed technology - than it is to have a combat capable bipedal walker running around the countryside?
In 2023, General Morelli would quietly step down as Chief Commander, with her replacement being General Adam Locke. He would – in the very press conference announcing his becoming the Chief Commander – lead off his tenure by requesting the exit clauses for the HoverTech tanks and APC contracts be exercised due to lack of acceptable results and apparently lack of desire by HoverTech to take the necessary steps to correct the problems to GDI's satisfaction, as well as the exit clauses for the HoverTech tube artillery vehicle, which HoverTech itself had abandoned work on for valid reasons before GDI even began testing and thus shouldn't even still been providing funding for the last nearly 3 years. He topped it off by questioning the Treasury and DIOC's decision to overrule Ground Forces' desire for a competition and unilaterally awarding a generous contract to HoverTech.
The only real bright spot in the HoverTech program was the Hover MLRS system, which compensated for weight growth over the program with re-tuned, higher powered engines, and would enter service in 2024 as the MRH-1 Hover MLRS. Software improvements during development enabled the MLRS to also engage air targets, allowing the Hover MLRS to also serve as Self-Propelled Anti-Air. This dual purpose use of missiles would later show up with its spiritual successor, the ERN-2 Pitbull. The MRH-1 was used to phase out all legacy artillery vehicles and, alongside the RW-1 Wolverine, the legacy recon vehicles.
The wheels were already turning, even as the media began to dig into the allegations and a response was being formed by the Treasury and parts of DIOC. GDI's investigations service in cooperation with various law enforcement agencies began a wave of arrests on corruption, bribery, fraud, and other charges, and GDI filed suit against HoverTech on issues ranging from false claims and overbilling to breach of contract and conspiracy, not only regarding the Ground Forces programs but also regarding their contributions to the various Orca programs. A number of Treasury employees would also face jail time and fines, and while never charged with anything, the Treasury Director would step down in late 2023. The replacement Treasury Director approved executing the exit clauses, and also approved funding for expanding the Walker development program to replace the failed HoverTech initiative.
Five members of the Defense Initiative Oversight Commission would end up embroiled as well. Two were found to have close family members well placed in HoverTech that would benefit substantially from the contracts. Three were discovered to have taken bribes and/or other undeclared compensation from HoverTech prior to and after awarding the contract. The last member turned out to have actually been part of HoverTech's board and never revealed that information in session or abstained due to conflict of interest. The military was not immune either, in both Ground and Air Forces, with a number of officers having their careers ended, though all managed to avoid prison time.
Aftermath
The hidden development time of the Walker program bore fruit, and the RW-1 Wolverine would be on the battlefield by 2023 and, alongside the Hover MLRS, finished phasing out the RN/RT-1 by the end of the decade. The rest of the program would take more time, but the MBW-1 Titan would phase out the tank collection by the start of the Second Tiberium War in 2030. The Tiberium contamination concerns and advances in Walker technology were such that the planned upgrade of the First Tiberium War HBT-4 Mammoth tank was transformed into the cutting edge four-legged HBW-2 Mammoth Mk II walker that would be undergoing trials and entering service in 2030. The last design of the program would end up being one of the original designs proposed, with the GAW-1 Juggernaut entering service in 2031.
HoverTech had started significant expansion to handle the lucrative Ground Forces contracts even before the contract was officially awarded, and the scandal ruined the company. Between fines, exit clauses, repayment demands for false claims, and more, HoverTech would declare bankruptcy and suffer substantial downsizing by 2028, and would close the following year. As part of reclaiming costs from the company, GDI acquired all of their military related IP, patents, and factories. Further development on the systems for air cushion use was carried out by the Steel Talons in the early 2030s, resulting in the much improved systems used on the GAH-2 Slingshot and SAH-3 Shatterer. The ultimate culmination of the systems can be found in the SH-3 ZEMEV and the SAH-4A Pacifier MAV of the late 2050s, which make use of an ultralight, very durable alloy skirt to prevent tears or caught tiberium pieces.
The decision to go with the HoverTech proposal meant there was no need to design a new LCAC to deploy from amphibious assault ships, and all in service hovercraft had been retired in the early 2020s. The failure of the program and the switch to the Walker program necessitated a new transport to carry them. The MV-25 Orca Heavy Lift would be insufficient for the weight requirements of the main walkers and its replacement would enter service in the late 2020s alongside the MBW-1 Titan as the V-30 Carryall. The Second Tiberium War and subsequent Nod Reunification conflicts would push home the weaknesses of purely air transport for assaults, and the LCC-1 Ship to Shore Connector would enter service in 2040. The LCC-1 would - with use of an air cushion skirt - be capable of carrying an HBT-5 Mammoth Mk III.
General Locke would not remain Chief Commander for long, though he would ensure the Air Force was fully modernized and that the infantry armors would evolve greatly, most notably by beginning studies of Deep Industrial Design. The results of the studies the following year would decrease friendly fire by 85%. He would retire in 2026, with Head of Ground Forces General Solomon taking up the position. General Solomon would push forward with rapid orbital deployment to trouble zones and more flexible command capabilities, with infantry drop pods and V-31 dropships being well established by the end of 2029. The V-32 Orca Command Vehicle would turn out less well received from a cost perspective and only see limited production.
The discovery that the military had essentially no say in what they were given if the Treasury thought it knew better outraged the public over the thought that some desk jockey could force substandard equipment on the military without recourse, especially when the civilians also didn't really have a say due to UN control. In 2024, parts of the procurement authority were returned to the military, restricting the Treasury to simply approving or refusing funding for research or development requests from the military, and allowing the DIOC to overrule a refusal if the Treasury's reasoning was unsatisfactory to them. It was felt this change struck a balance between the military being able to have control over its development decisions while preventing boondoggle projects that fail to provide results while wasting substantial money. Following the merging of the UN (and associated agencies/organizations) and GDI, the process for overruling a Treasury refusal was slightly modified, but remains the same in spirit.
The former Treasury Director would have a peaceful retirement for many years, before being drawn back into work as an adviser and consultant to Redmond Boyle in the 2040s. His last act before returning to retirement was attending a conference on the GDSS Philadelphia, and was on board when the station was destroyed. Two of the DIOC members that faced trial received prison time and were out by 2033. They stayed out of politics until the early 2050s, when they managed re-election as part of the Hawks during the rebuilding of the government after the Third Tiberium War. The following election would see them out of office, and they would fade into the more backroom side of party work, and left with Initiative First when the Hawks party split. The last DIOC member to face trial would die in prison in 2034 when central Australia was turned into a Red Zone due to a liquid Tiberium detonation.
Following the Second Tiberium War, the military would attempt to recover other parts of its procurement authority without much success, such as regarding consumables development and production construction. It would not be until the mid to late 2050s, with budgets increasing without having to ask for a larger percentage and a Treasury not always remembering needed lead time for production, that serious consideration began again regarding reclaiming more of its procurement authority.
Personal Notes
Despite all the stuff we're missing here and now compared to a few decades ago, I'm glad I wasn't alive for the first few decades of this century. Governments collapsing, humanitarian crises globally, GDI rapidly expanding in ways it wasn't planned, the UN struggling to adapt to the deteriorating situation…. It all leads to problems you'd never expect normally. Why would a UN commission member for military oversight need to worry about ethical misconduct in the handling of their duties when it comes to military procurement of all things? Why would the Treasury have any authority over military procurement either? Sheer happenstance created a perfect storm for a major scandal.
The chaos of those first few decades led to errors that resulted in a colossal mess that, amusingly, cemented GDI in the public consciousness and relegated the UN into irrelevance for the general public. The various missteps the UN would take in addition to the HoverTech Scandal would cause greater unrest from the public at "lack" of representation and GDI being hamstrung by an increasingly out-of-touch organization, and eventually lead to the UN and its agencies "merging" with GDI. This would leave GDI as essentially the world government on top of its military duties, though some UN member states wouldn't fully vanish into GDI for up to a decade or more.
Guessing that those are the light carriers, not the conversion carriers; they're big but they're not that much bigger than the Governors. I could be wrong.
Guessing that those are the light carriers, not the conversion carriers; they're big but they're not that much bigger than the Governors. I could be wrong.
The Strategic Implications of Tiberium Expansion and the Rise of MARV Hubs as a Tool of Power Projection Opening Historically, MARV hubs have been seen as a net negative on GDI military strength. Though the hubs themselves are formidable fortresses, and the fleets of Mammoth Reclamation Vehicles they support have immense combat power, to the point that Nod rarely dared challenge them directly, this was far more than counterbalanced by their position hundreds or even thousands of kilometers deep in enemy territory. The hubs generally existed at the end of a long and tenuous supply line through Nod-controlled territory, exposed to continual raids and harassment. Preventing the hubs from being cut off entirely was a constant struggle, and far outweighed the ability of the hub to dominate the territory around it.
With the advance of the Red Zones in the wake of the Third Tiberium War, this has changed. The vast reduction of the Yellow zones has cost Nod one of its key strategic strengths: defensive depth. Nod has been confined, in many cases, to long, narrow strips of land trapped between the resilient front line of the Blue and Green Zones on one side and the uninhabitable wastes on the other. Under these conditions, the zone of control projected by a MARV fleet can easily stretch all the way to secure territory. Under such conditions, Nod cannot effectively base out of the region without threat of destruction from prowling MARVS or fast-moving armored spearheads performing "shuttle runs" to or from the MARV hub. The ability of the hubs to provide a deeply advanced airbase further complicates the situation for Nod. Under these conditions, a strategically located hub can effectively cut a warlord's territory in half, or isolate them from Nod's global supply network.
Nowhere has this been rendered more clear than in North America, where the completion of the RZ-7 North/South and YZ-10 hubs were in large part responsible for the widespread fragmentation of Nod forces on the continent. Three MARV hubs, placed at strategic choke points, were sufficient to enable offensive action that resulted in the effective dissolution of a first-tier Nod warlord. It stands to reason that this success could be repeated.
Operational Opportunities
In general, there are two theaters where such an application of force could have great strategic impact. The first is in the West African/Southern European theater (Operation: AVALANCHE). The second is an attempt to open a new front in Western Australia (Operation: MULLBERRY). Conveniently, both of these operations strike at Nod's more prominent naval assets, thus letting the GDI convert its ground-based military strength into naval results, thus freeing up fleet-based assets in preparation for the attack on Karachi and the relief of BZ-18. Operation: AVALANCHE
The more straightforward of the two operations, AVALANCHE would consist of the construction of the YZ-13 hubs, south to north, along with YZ-15 in Southern Europe, preferably simultaneously. The immediate operational objectives would be to destroy or cripple the Ten Rings ability to operate as a naval power, to seize control of the Pillars of Hercules to allow for the exploitation of the Mediterranean Red Zones, and to completely cut off the Southern European Nod cells from resupply and reinforcement. The grand strategic objectives are, ultimately, the elimination of Nod's ability to maintain conventional military resistance in Southern Europe as a whole and the conversion of the West Africa theater to a pocket on a grand scale.
PROS:
Likely to cripple Nod ability to project naval power into the Atlantic, further rendering it an Initiative lake.
Allows for large-scale resource extraction projects in the Mediterranean
Likely to put direct pressure on Kane
CONS:
Highly provocative, high risk of an operational nuclear exchange
Targets Mehrehtu and Reynaldo, likely to provoke a large-scale terror campaign while InOps is still overstressed.
Likely to put direct pressure on Kane
PREREQUISITES:
Completion of multiple phases of Strategic Air Defense Network
Early and aggressive funding of InOps. Operation: MULLBERRY
MULLBERRY offers a somewhat more subtle approach than the brazen assault of AVALANCHE, though one with somewhat lesser long-term gains if successful. The operation is planned to start with the construction of hub RZ-8 South, ostensibly for simple mitigation purposes. However, rather than conducting traditional semicircular abatement efforts, they will instead attempt to chew out an invasion corridor into western Australia. Once a breakthrough is achieved, this would then be followed up by YZ-6 to cement GDI control, and then finally RZ-8 North to serve as a forward bulwark against naval incursion. The immediate operational objectives are the complete elimination of Nod bases in the deep southern Pacific, the opening of a South Africa-to-Australia convoy route, and providing flank security for the Karachi operation The strategic objectives are to open up the west Australian Red Zone for additional abatement efforts and the propaganda victory of rendering an entire continent effectively Nod-free.
PROS:
Does not threaten a warlord's core territory, achieved by unrepeatable coup de main, fighting removed from GDI-controlled territories: low chance of nuclear exchange.
Enables the GDI to effectively contest transit of the southern exits from the Malay barrier, rendering naval operations in the Indian ocean difficult for Bintang and securing Karachi's flank.
Relatively likely to achieve strategic surprise.
CONS:
Relatively limited strategic possibilities
Extended time frame likely to pose a strain on the military administration.
Could collapse in opening stages if Bintang chooses to take aggressive naval action
REQUIREMENTS:
Orbital Defense Laser Systems to prevent Bintang from effectively prosecuting a major naval engagement in response. Conclusion
It is strongly advised that, if the Treasury wishes to support large-scale offensive actions beyond Karachi, that it commit to at least three phases of MARV hubs during re-allocation.
AP - As construction continues on yellow zone fortress towns across multiple theaters, often on territory only recently captured from the Brotherhood of Nod, Global Defense Initiative health care systems have received a sudden, though not entirely unexpected shock. As millions of refugees abandon their substandard living areas in the hopes of securing a better life in blue, green or even GDI-controlled yellow zones, the systems responsible for screening immigrants have ground to a halt as capacity is suddenly outmatched by demand. Additionally, GDI has been forced to redirect military and police forces to provide security for personnel working at screening centers, both to protect against direct Brotherhood of Nod sabotage and protests against yellow zone resident admission by Initiative First members.
"We need to use the resources being diverted to these yellow zone leeches to crush the Brotherhood and take care of business in the blue zones! All these doctors working here should be working on patching up GDI soldiers!" were the comments made by one of the IF protestors, who refused to identify himself and wore a face mask. When asked about what should be done about all the refugees fleeing Nod-held territories, the reply given was - "I don't care, let them rot. We've got our own problems here."
Mecit Bozdemir, a representative of the United Yellow List, meanwhile complained of the slow pace of refugee admission - "We have tens of thousands of people sitting in camps outside these screening centers, waiting and vulnerable to Brotherhood attacks. They need help and additional resources immediately."
Dr. Margaret Fawcett, one of the volunteers leading operations at the screening centers, had this to say in response to the IF complaints about the existence of the process and to United Yellow List complaints that the process is moving too slowly - "We are currently focused on making sure that those attempting to enter the blue zones have a clean bill of health. Simply letting people enter the blue zones indiscriminately will result in greater use of medical and other resources due to the transmission of Tiberium and non-Tiberium related infections. Meanwhile, kicking them out is simply unconscionable."
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So since I'm not in this thread as a lot as I used to be: How many of these models and at what quality do you have to do before you get to roll a gacha Die? And which gacha are you rolling in?
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