This is the kind of thing that leads to them crumbling and then them getting lambasted for not doing a better job.
We really don't want them to crumble. They do and NOD gets to crack open a nice, shiny tech piñata. If for nothing else then to protect us from NOD getting the tech we should spend some of our massive military investment their way.
I'm not saying we should completely ignore them.
I'm saying that we shouldn't treat "Mastodon does not get developed within specifically the next six months" either as proof that we
ARE ignoring them, or as proof that a disaster will result from our having "ignored" them.
If we make cuts to service next turn we can fit in admin assistance and we are limited in the number of dice we can put into mil so shifting off to bureau will help get another project out
I think we need to shift a bit back from the mindset of needing to maximize the number of military projects we do at all costs. Building up and protecting the civilian economy matters too, and one part of that is not letting Nod infiltrate and sabotage the civilian economy.
The military's confidence levels are not a fluke; we're in a good position. Nod may pull out a superweapon and fuck over the Air Force here or there on the tactical/operational level, and the Navy is too overstretched to provide good support for amphibious offensives, but
overall, worldwide, we're doing good.
The continued strain to pour 13-14-15 dice into the Military category every turn may well cause us more trouble in the long run. The
entire point of recruiting General Jackson and doing the war factory refits is that we now have enough Military dice that we can sustain a major military buildup, a "trying to take over the world" buildup,
on baseline dice alone. We no longer live in the regime from the early quest where our military was outgunned or neglected
as a whole.
Whereas we
do still live in the regime where shortages of Energy and Capital Goods are constantly acting like a choke chain on our economy. We need to pace ourselves and not shovel everything into the war effort right away. We've
been shoveling nearly everything we could shovel into the war effort for years, after all. On which note...
HI 5/5+2 free 140R +28
-[] Continuous Cycle Fusion Plant (Phase 4) 76/300 4 dice 80R 72%
-[] Nuuk Heavy Robotics Foundry (Phase 1) 0/160 3 dice 60R 97%
Agri 4/4 40R +23
-[] Wadmalaw Kudzu Plantations (Phase 2) 0/300 3 dice 30R 13%
-[] Strategic Food Stockpile Construction (Phase 2) 38/150 1 die 10R 27%
...I don't like how the "Proto Plan" forces us to spend extra-many dice on fusion plants in a hurry because trying to build three Apollo factories at once eats up almost all the surplus from the current round of plants. The Air Force needs more Apollos, but
we are not being defeated in the air. Nod will take time to gradually distribute Barghest-B fighters to its many warlords, production will take time, and we already have plenty of Apollos in the air as it is. The factory expansions are necessary, but they are not an immediate crash program to prevent disaster, and should be balanced against the Energy needs of the rest of the Plan.
I am likewise not happy with the 'need' to stay away from
Freeze Dried Food Plants, an option that will really help us reach our stored food target and that will take some time to reach full effect even after it's completed because it will have to make more freeze-dried food to occupy the stockpiles over time and replace other, less shelf-stable food.
Military 8/8+5 free+1 admin 245R +25
-[] Advanced Laser System Development 0/60 1 die 30R 86%
-[] Prototype Plasma Weapons Development 35/60 1 die 25R 91%
-[] Stealth Disruptor Development 0/40 1 die 15R 100%
-[] Super MARV Fleet Yellow Zone 6a 184/210 1 die 20R 100%
-[] Wingman Drone Development 0/40 1 die 15R 100%
-[] Tactical Airborne Laser Development 0/40 1 die 20R 100%
-[] Apollo Fighter Factories 0/80 1 die 15R 61% x3 (3 dice 45R)
-[] Orbital Strike Regimental Combat Team Stations (Phase 2) 136/195 1 die 20R 88%
-[] GD-3 Rifle Development 0/30 1 die 10R 100%
-[] Hallucinogen Countermeasures Development (New) 0/40 1 die 15R 100%
-[] Escort Carrier Development 0/40 1 die 15R 100%
-[] Shark Class Frigate Development 0/40 1 die 15R 100%
I think there is significant misallocation here.
Administrative Assistance isn't inherently a bad idea, but Bureaucracy is overdue for its own review- there's a reason I was willing to spend a Free die on Bureaucracy to let that
and the Services review happen, something I rarely do.
Administrative Assistance is something you do when Bureaucracy dice are of so little use in their own category that it's worth converting them into another category's dice even at a two-to-less-than-one ratio. That isn't the case right now.
I think the GD-3 program is a mistake right now. The rifle is, and
@Ithillid has explicitly told us this,
not a major upgrade for purposes of our infantry trying to fight hardened opponents like cyborgs, biomonsters, and cyborg biomonsters. Furthermore, we will have to manufacture
millions of them given that we're planning to issue one to (at least!) every rear area soldier GDI has. Now, rifles are simple to manufacture, effectively a "light industry" product... So expect a deployment program with a high dice cost and low Resource cost, which is exactly the kind of thing we do
NOT need and will be tempted to leave sitting around in the corner, much like
Ferro-Aluminum Armor. It is a waste of dice to do this project right now. If it led to a laser rifle or dramatically deadlier anti-biomonster rifle I'd be for it, but it doesn't.
I think the
Shark-class development program is a mistake right now. Realistically, we can only allocate so many dice to Navy shipyard construction in the near future, and I don't think diversion of effort from the escort carrier program is worth it
even from the Navy's perspective. Yes, the
Sharks would enable anti-submarine warfare options, but so would the escort carriers, and the escort carriers are much more urgently needed because at first, every one we build
immediately frees up a fleet carrier for full scale battle. Battles such as the ones we anticipate fighting in the Indian Ocean either
now (too soon to have escort carriers, alas) or
next year (we might have some by then). The first wave of escort carriers we build
effectively increases our Navy's striking arm of offensive fleet carriers at a 1:1 ratio, and I want the benefit of that as soon as possible.
Is this true?
I've been going under the assumption that if they are developed the same turn, they don't include the other projects.
If they do include other stuff developed the same turn then we should absolutely do escort carriers now.
Good synergistic pairings include
Advanced Lasers/Airborne Lasers and
Wingman Drones/Escort Carriers. However, while we desire both pairings, I don't think it's realistic to include
both in the coming 2060Q1 Plan, because at that point we're running so many military dice on developments that it becomes hard to do other things, especially when you factor in quasi-mandatory "finish what you started" and "too good to leave behind" options like
Hallucinogen Countermeasures and finishing the Savannah MARV fleet.
Beyond
@Simon_Jester's suggestions, I also swapped Hallucinogen Development for Domestic Animals, and used the extra 5R to promote a Shell Plant die to Escort Carrier Development.
Didn't we already do
Domestic Animals this turn?
Unless some new cheap Services projects appear, we may just have to drop the whole idea. Or we could do
Sports, but the -1 Health associated with that is a bit unattractive on the eve of war.
