Alternately, we could join them (or have them join us). Nagoya has a different philosophy than we do, but they still have a fundamentally positive and idealistic outlook (compared to other groups which are purely mercenary). At the very least, we can work with a group who works to improve the destiny of mankind by hunting Class 3 demons. Conflict and direct competition is possible, but it isn't inevitable.
I'm assuming that Nagoya is running XCom rules and using criminality to gather money. Both of those are going to have severe long-term negative morale maluses. Yes, you're right that they probably don't have zero morale, but given that we were around two for extended periods even without the XCom lifestyle and running a criminal empire I think it would be exceedingly generous to assign them an average Morale of higher than 1.
I would think that an average Morale level of 2 would be obtainable simply because they are a long-term stable group. But beyond that, the morale would be stratified with a slightly higher level for veterans and significantly higher level for elites, and the greens who die to grief spirals would be easily replaced with little impact on the morale of the veterans and elites. It would definitely be a lot harsher system than we have, but the morale wouldn't necessarily be that much lower.
Also I spend like 2/3rds of the time I spend on this quest defending my setting. Half of these issues are issues that people should have had with PMMM canon as well. I mean any issue with why the Incubators don't have a dyson sphere of quadrillions of cloned human girls should still apply to canon.
I don't really understand why I have to defend the setting so much.
I suspect that this problem is endemic to the PMMM fandom in general. The incubators are fascinating antagonists because they claim to be unemotional logical agents who are acting for the good of the universe, yet the effects of their policies are reprehensible. So people either try to argue against them or (failing that) argue that the setting itself is wrong.
It depends what the plan is compared to. As normal humans, we would reject such a high casualty figure, but the magical girls in Tokyo have been dealing with such horrible conditions that this would be an improvement.
Okay, conceded. I trust you know the underlying mechanics of the morale calculation far better than I do; the only part I know is that, in the world outside Hollywood, criminals don't really like being criminals when they don't have to be unless they're psychologically damaged, which strikes me as a condition you want to avoid as a meguca.
This depend entirely on the type of psychological damage. Any damage that inures one to suffering (especially the suffering of others) would be outright beneficial for a magical girl. The implications of this are horrifying for most large groups that we will encounter in the future.
One of the groups Heaven's Chosen has even claimed that Tokyo's destruction is actually a good thing, as it will shift the capital of Japan back to Kyoto where it should be.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't expanding into rural areas be the best thing to do if we want a place Serena can stay long term if we can get her to join us?
We already have (nominal) control over a nomadic area which has a variety of places for Serena to stay. Control over more rural areas might give her more room to move around within our territory (without affecting many people), but she definitely has a place to stay already.
Her power is really hard to predict accurately though, especially to the Incubators because it's so dependent on the person being exposed. She suspects that the theoretical happiest person on Earth could spend a lifetime in her aura without any problems, while someone already terminally depressed could be pushed over the edge in no time at all.
Unfortunately, this means that trying to treat an otherwise fatal grief spiral will probably result in permanent addiction (until we can figure out an addiction recovery program). On the plus side, this means that the girls thus afflicted won't actually die, which is a great improvement.
Option 2: The abandoned village
Benefits: It's cheap - literally you can probably get title to the property for free just as long as you pay taxes, it's even bigger than the getaway house, with the ability for multiple houses, it's remote, no one around
Negative: It's ruined, old, lacks modern conveniences, and will cost significant money to renovate/rebuild and lacks collateral value for a loan. It lacks cable/internet, so you have to spring for satellite connections. You'll have to pay Kyubey to help you a lot with the paperwork and come up with a cover story.
I like this option. It will require work and cubes, but it provides a great area which will allow for future expansion (probably as a rehabilitation area for otherwise fatal grief spirals). Option 1 would work great as a temporary solution until we get the village liveable.
I again have to ask if there is any value to this. @inverted_helix previously stated that PvP training wasn't going to be of much, if any, use against the class 3 demons.
I remember helix saying the opposite. That PvP helped against class 3 demons because they use powers similar to magical girls. But he did say that it was less effective training against class 3 demons than magical girls.
No I haven't. While their powers are somewhat similar, there's significant difference in how they use them. Plus a lot of pvp is dependent on human vs human martial techniques that don't apply to something of completely different body type.
Oh, wait, duh! We're getting hunting assistance this month from the Coalition. That frees up 2 vets for us. Sort of. They won't have the XP bonus, so I'll have to fiddle with the spreadsheet a little.
Edit: They were provided as a pack, so I'll assume I have to use them as such.
Oh crap, I forgot that was a two month project and gave you guys the end results this turn... umm. My original plan was to split out that tech was just behaving rather unpredictably as the first month result, and then the why as the second. But I forgot about that during my long break. Not sure what to do with that. May just say you completed it early.
— Serene Research: Magical Effects on Materials, Secondary Effects, Effect on Technology, Duration Effects, Spell Anchoring, Tandem Casting, other misc research
100x copies, 25 pages, B&W w/ some color pages, color cover, better binding/paper = $300
1000x copies, 25 pages, B&W w/ some color pages, color cover, better binding/paper = $1800
See what we can do on the matter of picking up kevlar vests. Kevlar vests were less problematic than the full clothing sets, right? Need 6 @ $600 each, for $3600 total. Do we need another anonymous PO Box? (was $500 + 1 cube last time, for 3 months)
Yes. Though Nagoya also sells those as one of their services, if you wanted. Same price in money, no cube cost. This would have been included in their list of services if I thought of it when I was writing.
It depends what the plan is compared to. As normal humans, we would reject such a high casualty figure, but the magical girls in Tokyo have been dealing with such horrible conditions that this would be an improvement.
I was meaning more that the first is $3 per copy the second is at $1.8 per copy. Though also not quite sure why ordering 100 copies and 1000 copies, instead of 1100 copies.
It's a home in rural Japan; it's highly unlikely someone will move in, especially not in the ~3-6 months we'll be there while we're renovating the abandoned village.
I was meaning more that the first is $3 per copy the second is at $1.8 per copy. Though also not quite sure why ordering 100 copies and 1000 copies, instead of 1100 copies.
It's a home in rural Japan; it's highly unlikely someone will move in, especially not in the ~3-6 months we'll be there while we're renovating the abandoned village.
It's a home in rural Japan; it's highly unlikely someone will move in, especially not in the ~3-6 months we'll be there while we're renovating the abandoned village.
Because after three months it's cheaper; I'm expecting the village house rebuild to take at least 4-5 months, even if it is "only" $50k. And that's if we can't convince the owner to reimburse us the refurb costs for the Akiya home; legally they should have to, given that we're renters, though they'll probably take their sweet time paying us back, if they agree at all and we don't need to instead sue them for being slumlords.
An amazing impression which is immediately going to fade the second they leave. If that happened to me I'd either assume there's something suspect in the air or that I'm having buyer's remorse.
Serena is not going to be spending all that much of her waking life at the house anyway; it's going to take at least 3-4 months to ensure that Tokyo is totally clear IMO.
Because after three months it's cheaper; I'm expecting the village house rebuild to take at least 4-5 months, even if it is "only" $50k. And that's if we can't convince the owner to reimburse us the refurb costs for the Akiya home; legally they should have to, given that we're renters, though they'll probably take their sweet time paying us back, if they agree at all and we don't need to instead sue them for being slumlords.
??? I thought we offered pairs or packs... oh did you change it to packs? I guess that's okay then, still some extra meguca power (although I calculated 4 cubes per a vet for pairs, though with teleport we still come close to break even)
Haman argues that we'll have Serena's dedicated support more than 5 km away from her, 'doing something else,' and that this is the reason we can't be just outside the range of Serena's aura waiting to swoop in and play counter-reinforcement to the demon clair-porters. I argue that there is nothing else dedicated support should be doing except waiting to support the team they're tied to, especially if whatever they're doing is so trivial they can drop it immediately to go do their jobs.
No... I'm saying that whatever we typically dedicate to support Serena is not sufficient for two scenarios:
1st: The initial assault, where we can expect a large number of teleporting demons to rush in to attack Serena.
2nd: The beholder demon
We can predict the 1st one and so have everyone prepared to jump in. We can't predict the 2nd one, therefor we need to be prepared for an "all hands on deck" call.
Maybe we should do that this month, and have Mami (or representative) make contact with those Elites, tell them about our plan for the Big Cleanse the following month, and make sure they and whatever vets they can gather are ready?
From what helix has said to the times I've asked for contact info like this, is that there just isn't this level of organization. So I think it will be better to drop off the cell phones just before our assault and then let them know what is planned.
Then this is where we differ. I am of the opinion that we cannot and should not attempt to do the diplomacy game until the class 4 is dead, and any first strike should be focused wholly on baiting it out and killing it (or at least a good chunk of the tele-seers).
I think that we already have to deal with a large number of teleporting demons, so if possible we should try to avoid getting the beholder demon at the same time. Divide and conquer.
Furthermore, we can't predict when the beholder demon will show up, so we have to be more flexible. We need to have a plan on what to do if we don't get into a fight with the beholder demon until the end of the month or something.
I really am not sure how you can be so certain that we can bait it, and get it to do what we want.
To me the first strike should be focused on taking out as many of the clairvoyant/teleporting demons as we can, and establishing a large area cleared of demons with and established defensive line so that we can set up a forward base to support Serena more efficiently.
I figure that will probably be Yokohama, and that it may take a whole week to accomplish.
We can dedicate all of our girls on the Tokyo job to full time support standby during that first week. After that I expect that most of the teleporting demons will have been cleared out, and maybe the beholder.
We'll still have one squad on standby for Serena in case she has some problems, others we'll switch over to early diplomacy efforts.
However, we still need to have a plan for all hands on deck in case a new crisis occurs. Especially if the beholder demon is still out there.
For at least the first few days of putting Tokyo to siege, our entire focus should be on supporting Serena's attacks. If we've killed off a good chunk of their teleport clairvoyant patrol demons, then maybe I can acquiesce to a diplomatic mission behind enemy lines, but until the line is broken, I'd rather stay on our side of it, thank you very much.
There's something like forty class 3 demons with a likely 4 (possibly more that we haven't seen). I don't want to wander around behind the lines recruiting while Serena is taking on the risk of getting swarmed, with the possibility that the beholder doesn't show up, making it too risky to teleport out to save her when we could be more than 10 km away. There's even a possibility that we can't escape the class 3's that might drop on the diplomacy team for just that reason, forcing them to fight and get swarmed themselves.
We have one point of force projection. Leaving it behind to make a good impression, putting both forces at risk, is stupid, and falls under that 'pinning your hopes on one die roll' thing that Haman didn't want to do in the first place.
We have 20 kevlar vests and 19 sets of clothing. We could replace the missing set of clothing with hard leather and it would be adequate, though it might look a little out of place.
Max people available would be 5 elites and 16 vets, which would need 21 sets. So 14 vets if we want to be sure everyone is wearing full kevlar, for a consistent impression, or 15 vets if one using heavy leather (5% total instead of 6%) is OK.
Note that that doesn't include Serena's group. Serena certainly doesn't need armor against normal demons, but we may need to provide armor for this run. If that's the case, then we're dropping to 9 or 10 vets with Mami that could be fully suited up.
We may want to see about picking up sufficient spare kevlar vests this month to outfit the remaining vets we have that would just be getting hard leather.
And speaking of which, looking at normal hunting assignments, 4.5 vets would be assigned hard leather armor for safety out there, which means only 4.5 additional vets would have that available in Tokyo.
Considering everything:
Serena + companions: full kevlar (5)
Mami et al (elites): full kevlar (5)
Support vets that may get in the line of fire: full kevlar (9)
Additional support vets: (7) [available: 1 kevlar vest, 4.5 hard leather, 3 leather]
Regular hunters: 4.5 hard leather
6 kevlar vests and 3 hard leather outfits would be adequate. 7 more kevlar clothing sets would be nice, but would be hard to get on short notice.
True, that is part of why I expect the week after they arrive Serena will be spending time getting over jet lag, and getting used to stuff like this, and reading up on our Pack Hunting Tactics, etc.
That reminds me, we need cellphones and shield for Serena's girls. That's... $500 right?
On the diplomacy issue: I don't think we should be doing the full BFD plan until the city is solidly under control. Everything about the plan is explaining how to live after the demons are gone, and if the demons aren't gone, people aren't going to listen.
On the other hand, we can do light diplomatic actions as we sort of sweep behind Serena, in between demon kills. Get everyone aware of us, hand out some basic info, pass out cell phones so we can keep in contact and arrange the more elaborate meetings later, etc.
Basically, Mami should be all about crowd control until the active threat is over, and should be actively waiting to assist with the beholder fight, and on her toes about the possibility of the support group or nearby meguca being attacked by a stealth-spec class 3. She should not be doing full diplomancing until everything is over and safe.
True... I can agree with that I guess. Although maybe at the end of the month we might want to shift to the full BFD. Depends on how fast we clear the demons.
Buy several computers, cameras, mics, and set up video conferencing between all the houses. Figure 2 video setups per house, and 1 setup each for Mami's apartment, and the two apartment blocks we have. Total of 9 video conference setups. Netbooks, camera, mic. Maybe $350 each? (based on $200 for the netbooks alone) $3150 total. Also, upgrade on internet, plus satellite for Serena's place (will go into upkeep).
(For propaganda material, should probably just note Rotating Tactics as an advanced hunting methodology to be applied when they've gotten a handle on all the basics. Don't put details in the basic handout, or people will likely try it and get themselves killed. Also, IRT is proprietary for now.)
Good point on IRT. I think we should include the details on Rotating Tactics, but with notes about the increased dangers and how this should not be attempted until other protection is in place.
See where Seto picked up the hardened leather armor, and have her go get 3 more sets. $350 each? (normal leather is $250) $1050 total
See what we can do on the matter of picking up kevlar vests. Kevlar vests were less problematic than the full clothing sets, right? Need 6 @ $600 each, for $3600 total. Do we need another anonymous PO Box? (was $500 + 1 cube last time, for 3 months)
If we got money from the research sale, we should be OK. If we did not, we could go as low as $25k in the bank after this. However recouping from the courier business expansion should be pretty quick. We pretty much have to hire Tokyo natives on this. If they hadn't been absorbed into our group, we can take a 20% cut (ie: pay them $1200/month) and earn $10k to $20k per month, putting us back in the black in 3 to 6 months. If we do actually get them joined up, we could easily make $50k per month, and we're in a position to get the church in just a few months.
You know, the $30k in renovations really should be the landlord's responsibility: even if they're renting it "as-is" there needs to be basic renovations just to keep a place up to code, otherwise it's not safe to rent in the first place and it opens the landlord up to some pretty severe lawsuits. There's also the issue that they get to keep the upgrades if/when we move out. That said, we're looking to move in fast, so really what we ought to be able to get away with is splitting the bill up front, and getting reimbursed for the remainder when we move out, so long as we keep all the receipts and let either the landlord or property management company inspect the property to ensure that, yes, all the renovations were actually done.
I think the deal is that the state owns the land and is willing to rent it our for a pittance, but the renter has to fix it up,and the state does not reimburse you. Governments often feel they are allowed to do things like that.
No I haven't. While their powers are somewhat similar, there's significant difference in how they use them. Plus a lot of pvp is dependent on human vs human martial techniques that don't apply to something of completely different body type.
We did the first one, but not the second one that researches with more materials. The first secondary effects research was how we discovered duration effects.
I was meaning more that the first is $3 per copy the second is at $1.8 per copy. Though also not quite sure why ordering 100 copies and 1000 copies, instead of 1100 copies.
I got the price quotes from a local publisher in Tennessee. Larger printings always cost less per a booklet. Interestingly enough the difference between 25 pages and 100 pages for a black and white booklet is also negligible.
Ah, hm. I presume that means buying for $30k? That's a little different, and an interesting contrast with Option 1.
I mean, obviously the village is the only long-term solution we can really accept; the question is how long it will take to get it up and running. The other consideration is that the Akiya house will provide comfortable living space for five, and with the existence of teleporters it might make for a decent getaway house for Seto and whoever she's willing to bus into the city, even when we eventually move Serena and her group out to the village. So we might want to get it anyway, just so Seto has a place of her own just like Mami and Kyoko.
Good point on IRT. I think we should include the details on Rotating Tactics, but with notes about the increased dangers and how this should not be attempted until other protection is in place.
Notably, you also need good documentation so you can accurately track DS, otherwise you risk going over DS +10 and risk summoning Class 3s; I think everyone would prefer that not happen again.
I think the deal is that the state owns the land and is willing to rent it our for a pittance, but the renter has to fix it up,and the state does not reimburse you. Governments often feel they are allowed to do things like that.
Yeah, and they get sued, they lose, and life continues. "Government Caught Running Slumlord Business" is a bad headline to have; that's how officials lose their jobs.
You do see this sort of thing happening in 99-year leases for businesses, but that's not what we're talking about here.
If clearing Tokyo really does take several months as expected, then isn't it entirely possible the village will be up and running by the time Serena actually leaves Tokyo to go there?
??? I thought we offered pairs or packs... oh did you change it to packs? I guess that's okay then, still some extra meguca power (although I calculated 4 cubes per a vet for pairs, though with teleport we still come close to break even)
I think the deal is that the state owns the land and is willing to rent it our for a pittance, but the renter has to fix it up,and the state does not reimburse you. Governments often feel they are allowed to do things like that.
Yeah, and they get sued, they lose, and life continues. "Government Caught Running Slumlord Business" is a bad headline to have; that's how officials lose their jobs.
That's really just an American thing to do. Suing in general is less common outside the US, especially so suing the government.
So Japanese property tax rate is 1.4% of the (mostly theoretical because they're so hard to sell) value of the property. So on a fixed up home in the middle of no where you're probably looking at around $100/month after I round off (technically annual cost, but like hell I'm going to remember to assess something every 12 turns). A whole village of mostly ruined homes I'm not sure of, no idea how you'd even look that up. Maybe call it 500/month?
If clearing Tokyo really does take several months as expected, then isn't it entirely possible the village will be up and running by the time Serena actually leaves Tokyo to go there?
Yeah, and they get sued, they lose, and life continues. "Government Caught Running Slumlord Business" is a bad headline to have; that's how officials lose their jobs.
You do see this sort of thing happening in 99-year leases for businesses, but that's not what we're talking about here.
decent getaway house for Seto and whoever she's willing to bus into the city, even when we eventually move Serena and her group out to the village. So we might want to get it anyway, just so Seto has a place of her own just like Mami and Kyoko.
If clearing Tokyo really does take several months as expected, then isn't it entirely possible the village will be up and running by the time Serena actually leaves Tokyo to go there?
Hmm... good question. If we did that we'd have to spring for a hotel. Also... the first week or so we'll have to move Serena back out, since I don't think there will be a cleared space.
There's at least a half adozen things I can see going wrong with that idea, staying with the fact that Serena will never go for a plan where she sleeps in a hyper-dense urban area for weeks on end. How many thousands of people will be made miserable, even driven to suicide, in those three months?
Then there's the expense of paying $100-150 a night for hotel rooms in Tokyo.
Then there's the tactical problems with sleeping in a city with a horde of Class 3 demons still infesting it.
Oh crap, I forgot that was a two month project and gave you guys the end results this turn... umm. My original plan was to split out that tech was just behaving rather unpredictably as the first month result, and then the why as the second. But I forgot about that during my long break. Not sure what to do with that. May just say you completed it early.
Yes. Though Nagoya also sells those as one of their services, if you wanted. Same price in money, no cube cost. This would have been included in their list of services if I thought of it when I was writing.
Yeah, works out to 4.2 cubes per 1.0 vet. We get a tiny profit out of it, but mostly benefit from the better relations, and fewer of our own meguca used.
From what helix has said to the times I've asked for contact info like this, is that there just isn't this level of organization. So I think it will be better to drop off the cell phones just before our assault and then let them know what is planned.
I'm inclined to think that giving them advanced warning is the better call. They may not believe us, but it at least puts the idea in their head of, "I just need to survive til next month", rather than the day-to-day horizon they're currently living under. Possibly improve their odds, if there's a slightly greater tendency towards caution.
On the other hand, knowing that there's some possible hope may make things a bit worse for those who have friends die just before the possibility of rescue.
On the balance, I think offering a small bit of hope to look forward to is the better choice, both for their sake, and the sake of relations with them when trying to diplomance them next month. We then represent the realization of that (tiny) hope, which has value above merely being their rescuers.
New whiteboard, because this is going to be a nightmarish month for planning. Sorry @inverted_helix
[X] Kinematics's Plan
Hunting (1.5 elite, 15.5 vets, 2.0 guests)
Merge 10+17 area with North. Then split 9 from the North to merge with the South, giving us two balanced urban territories (37 each).
North DS: -0.2
South DS: 7.5
Pet Whisperer (0.5 vet, $1000) - Send Nagisa to a training course on pet training, to acquire a basic certification license. Once she has that, she can spend time (next month or later) volunteering at shelters or other venues to gain the experience needed to offer her own services.
Morale (1.5 vets)
Grief Use Tracking/Management (1.5 vets)
Cost: 1 Veteran per 40 Meguca; Reward: Meguca upkeep GCU cost reduced 5% (in our case 1.5 vets to get 3.4 cube savings).
Research ()
Tandem Casting, Fusion: Allows dissimilar abilities to be combined to produce more exotic results.
Cost: 3 Veteran, 3 grief cubes; Chance of Success: 5% +5% per month researched
Month 3
On hold
Production (0.5 elite, 2.5 vet, 1.2 cubes)
Create Charms: (x100 tandem barrier charms): (1.5 vet, 0.6 cubes) Done in the isolated nomadic territory to avoid notice (teleportation support listed in support), have a team produce 100 tandem barrier charms. Keep the charms stored in one of our cryogenic coolers, to be held for use in next month's expedition.
Cost: 0.2 cubes and 0.5 vets (of specific specialty) per 100 normal charms, x3 for tandem charms
Create Charms: (x67 tandem healing charms): (1 vet, 0.4 cubes) Done in the isolated nomadic territory to avoid notice (teleportation support listed in support), have a team produce 67 tandem healer charms. Keep the charms stored in one of our cryogenic coolers, to be held for use in next month's expedition.
Cost: 0.2 cubes and 0.5 vets (of specific specialty) per 100 normal charms, x3 for tandem charms
Create Charms: (x100 elite illusion charms): (0.5 elite, 0.2 cubes) Done in the isolated nomadic territory to avoid notice (teleportation support listed in support), have Kyouko produce 16 elite illusion charms, an explosion of illusionary Kyoukos all acting as distractions., and 84 elite stealth charms. The idea is that they are bug-out charms, with one person creating a distraction for a group that use stealth to get a bit of a lead to escape. Keep the charms stored in one of our cryogenic coolers, to be held for use in next month's expedition.
Cost: 0.2 cubes and 0.5 vets (of specific specialty) per 100 normal charms, x3 for tandem charms
Training (0.5 elite, 6.5 vets, 2 greens, 3 cubes)
General training - With the new recruits, you need some time to get them all up to speed on your procedures and tactics.
Cost: 1 vet, 2 greens. 3 months.
Month 2
Tokyo Prep Training (0.5 elite, 5.5 vets, 3 cubes): With the anticipated difficulty of the expedition to clear out Tokyo, you need to do a lot of work to get people ready to handle the risks involved.
- Have Serena & Co. review Serene Combat training documentation and begin training in it themselves. Guided by video discussions of their lessons, and practical practice in their own group. Focus on Pack Hunting and General Combat.
- Working with transformed/untransformed Serena (max 1 hour exposure for each girl) to get an idea of how their powers will behave inside her aura, and get used to the aura feeling. In particular try to identify ways to keep girls focused and not becoming reckless when dealing with her transformed aura.
- Coordinating as teams:
-- Heavy, concentrated bunker defense teams
-- Light, mobile assault teams
- Running combat ops without reliable teleporter backup.
- Using charms (Kyouko assist, since she's really the only one with experience using them in combat)
- Using the rubber ball trick to do a quick test for the beholder's aura. Primarily for coordinating between the teleporters and the clairvoyants.
- Parkour training with Akeno, for non-teleport escape
- Scenario Training: (Illusionists help with depicting the scenarios, refs to keep score)
-- Scenario 1: Lot's of teleporting clairvoyant demons mobbing Serena as soon as we attack
-- Scenario 2: Mr. Eyeball demon: Teleportation = insta-death. (Have the refs be very strict on this one, plan at least one run through to be rigged so that everyone "dies.")
- Training scanning large areas, and specific navigation through them.
Scouting (1.0 elite, 1.5 vet)
Clairvoyance Scouting of Yokohama and Downtown Tokyo: Get the patterns of Tokyo demon behavior, patrol routes, get a feel for the beholder. Stay well outside the range of any patrolling demons on the outer edge of Tokyo. Try to determine ambush locations/ideas for the beholder, and locations and times to attack that would permit fighting the teleporting demons in a staggered way.
Observation post: Mt. Tanzawa.
1 clairvoyant vet, 1 Taya - Tandem Casting. 0.5 vet for teleporter that can aid tracking down the beholder and its aura range using the ball trick (part-time).
Diplomacy (1.0 Mami, 5.0 vets, $10,500)
Gossipmonger/IntelOps/Tokyo Contact (1.5 vet, $1500)
— Keep up general communication with all neighbors we've opened formal relations with, for light upkeep and general gossip and news. Should generally be keeping up with each other group on a weekly basis.
- Currently covering areas: Coalition, Kofu, 3, 13, 14, 15/16 (Nagoya excluded due to active negotiations)
— Acquire 17 pre-paid cell phones (2 months service) and have them delivered to the elites of Tokyo that need them (last elite count was 32, with half estimated as already having phones). Inform them that we are planning for a major attempt to clear Tokyo next month (tactical details to be provided later), to make them aware of the action, and open the possibility of cooperation in various mission objectives.
Serena (0.5 vets, $9000) - Manage final arrangements for recruiting Serena. Arrange travel for her and her companions to reach Japan. ($8000 abstract cost) We will meet her directly when she arrives at Mitakihara airport. Provide standard welcome package ($1000), and begin the process of welcoming her to the Serenes. (Lots of details provided elsewhere.)
Safe Passage - Area 15/16 (2 vets): Particularly note our intent towards Tokyo next month, as well as Taya's scouting this month. Arrange safe way to deploy Serena without exposing them to her aura. Discuss any aid they might be willing to offer as well. Point out that by staging the attack from their area, they will likely not have to deal with any fleeing class 3 demons.
Trade Offer - Coalition (0 vet): As their hunter training visit comes to a close, give them a copy of our Hunting Manual, and our Serene History booklet. Suggest that if they have a clairvoyant, she could come and work with our dispatch team to gain experience, and we would be willing to pay something reasonable for her time.
Aid/Information - Kofu (no cost): Warn Kofu about the risks of fleeing demons, with the caveat that we expect to have Nagoya cooperating to intercept them. Suggest they pass the word on to other nearby areas. Also, pass along a copy of our Hunting Manual and Serenissima History.
Open Relations - Sendai (0.5 vet): Kyubey/Nagoya gave us their contact information, so make contact and start discussions with them. Try to get a handle on their position vis à vis Tokyo, and probe on the idea potential assistance, or at least guarding against demons fleeing north. We will be doing our best to limit the number of escaped demons.
Open Relations - Niigata (0.5 vet): Kyubey/Nagoya gave us their contact information, so make contact and start discussions with them. Try to get a handle on their position vis à vis Tokyo, and warn them of upcoming plans, and potential fleeing demons. Ask them to notify their own neighbors that may be at risk. We will be doing our best to limit the number of escaped demons.
Negotiations - Nagoya (1 Mami): Present our concerns over the current situation, and discuss our plans for Tokyo with Nagoya. Try to leverage our commitment to this endeavor to get some good deals. See what they counteroffer in terms of research, as well as cash.
— Research available: Duration, Tandem Casting
— Cubes offered: 30
— Social: Mami should acknowledge Nagoya's strengths, and how we need their assistance, but not give the impression that we're mere supplicants, and have substantial strengths of our own to bring to bear in dealing with this.
Trade (+5 cubes, -38 cubes, +$105,000, -$11,500)
Nagoya Trade
— Sell 30 cubes @ $3500 each.
— Let Nagoya know we are going to need a substantial amount of armor (somewhere around 12-24 full kevlar sets, and another half dozen vests on top of that, plus some leather), but the exact numbers depend on the results of our preparations. If they would set some aside, we'll complete the purchase at the end of the month.
15/16 Trade - Buy 2 cubes @ $2000 each.
Coalition Trade - Buy 3 cubes @ $2500 each.
Coalition training payment: 8 cubes
Purchases (1.5 vets, $23,050)
Advertise new delivery service for our restaurant: $1,000
Armor: Additional armor purchases. [Anticipated numbers only. Actual purchase happens at end of month.]
Leather: $250 each, x5 = $1,250
Kevlar vests: $600 x 12 = $9,600
Kevlar clothing: $1000 x 12 = $12,000
Kevlar vests to pair with Hard Leather: $600 x 9 = $5,400 (optional, currently not counted)
Misc
Neon rubber balls. 50 packs of 144 balls (7200 total) @$11 per pack = $550
Setup Serena's new home: (0.5 vets, $16,500)
Acquire and refurbish the akiya house ($30,000, +$400/month upkeep)
Special welcome package for Serena & Co ($500): Mexican staples stocked in the pantry and fridge. Spanish-Japanese dictionary. A copy of the Serene Hunting Handbook, Training Handbook, History Book, and Research Binder translated into Spanish. Games/books. Welcome decorations.
Computers and Video Conferencing Setup ($6000): For Serena's place and our two houses. So 3x $2000 gets us a large flat screen, a nice $200 pan and zoom web cam with good mic/audio, cables, wireless mouse and keyboard, a $600 laptop w/ 1 TB HD, 8 GB RAM, and a cart to stick it all on so we can wheel it from room to room as needed. (Main way to keep price down was to forgo solid state hard drive). Also, -$100 a month for improved internet for our two houses (to support video streaming).
Printing up Serene propaganda (1 vet; $5,000):
Prepare/Organize Propaganda/Manual/Research (1 vet): Produce polished papers, pamphlets, and reports on various aspects of the organization, for use in distribution and trade.
Hunting Manual: Crop Rotation, Rotating Tactics (including risks), Various numbers on Solo/Pairs/Pack safety and efficiency. Armor and other casualty reduction options. Dispatch Team effects, Demon Forecasting.
1000x copies, 25 pages, B&W, color cover = $1500
Training Manual: Demon Finding Training, Dispatch Teams, Pack Tactics, Solo Tactics, General Combat Training, Defending Others, Telepathic Communication, Evacuation Team.
1000x copies, 25 pages, B&W, color cover = $1500
Serene Research: Magical Effects on Materials, Secondary Effects, Effect on Technology, Duration Effects, Spell Anchoring, Tandem Casting, other misc research
50x copies, 50 pages, B&W, 3 ring binder binding (so we can more easily trade just portions of this) = $200
Serene Propaganda: (Whitewashed) History of Serenissima Imperium Magicum Puella. Safety record of the Serene approach. Testimonials of various girls (some who joined as vets, some who joined as greens, Seto, at least two of the Tokyo girls we took in). Essay by Mami on the Importance of an Education, and having a normal life outside Magical Girl work. Information about various Serene businesses. Contact Information.
1000x copies, 25 pages, B&W w/ some (4) color pages, color cover, better binding/paper = $1800
Kyuubey (?? cubes)
Ask Kyuubey for any information he can provide on the potential class 4 demon in Tokyo.
Also, any info on the beholder demon, if that's not the potential class 4.
Ask if he has a count of the number of teleport-capable demons in the Tokyo area.
Mami fluff
Mami has a talk with all of the girls.
Life is moving much faster than expected, and suddenly we're having to make all kinds of rapid-fire decisions to deal with what's in front of us.
Tokyo's situation is not just bad, it's catastrophic. The probes we sent out towards contacting a particular magical girl to help us with that have hugely paid off, but also requires that we go overtime is setting things up for her, because there are restrictions on where she can safely live. Plans for expanding businesses into Tokyo have been delayed, but at the same time, there's huge opportunity for bringing girls into our organization as we help stabilize the city of Tokyo after cleaning it up. Oh, and we have to clean Tokyo up.
And Nagoya? They're not so bad (well, at least Kyouko doesn't think so, so take it with a grain of salt), and we're going to have to work with them to clean up Tokyo without creating more disasters elsewhere.
The hope for Kyouko's church in the next month or two has been shot down, but the opportunities laid out for us in the next few months mean we could get back to it far more quickly than we might ever have expected.
There is huge danger hanging over our heads as we try to resolve the problems ahead of us, but there are also grand opportunities that we never expected to reach so soon. Things might be a little rough, but know that there's a bright future ahead of us. And most importantly, this is our duty and gift as magical girls: to protect people from the great darkness lurking unseen around them.
~ After that, spend time answering questions and helping everyone get a handle on what's on the horizon.
Income: $35,500
Translator: $4500
Courier Business, Mitakihara: $9500
Courier Business, Kasamino: $4500
Restaurant: $9000
Restaurant Delivery: ~$4000
Akeno Delivery: $4000
Expenses: $30,620
$8000 upkeep on house
$5000 upkeep on apartments
$500 upkeep on cable
$1480 upkeep on cellphones (-2% solo hunting, -1% pair hunting)
For hunting, the 2.0 pack vets that are guests are entered in the spreadsheet as 1.818 vets to counter the 1.1 experience multiplier the rest of our units have. The 0.1 cube cost for Seto is based on the normal 2.0 vet entry, though.
Updated the paperpushing to 1.5 vets. Taya will be on scouting, so not included in dispatch.
Shifted courier allocation from 3 vets/6 greens to 4 vets/5 greens, due to the new green upgrading to vet.
No morale action specifically entered for the time being. This is a month of prep work.
Assuming that the tech interaction research is treated as completed, so not including it.
Put the Tokyo Training schedule in with 0.5 elite/5 vet cost.
Producing another 100 tandem charms. Marked as being held for next month, but might use some if we participate in another Nagoya assist this month.
Put 0.5 Mami on the recruiting Serena portion, as it includes that, plus meeting her on arrival, and the general acclimation period. Plus, a bit of a mini-version of her activity last month, to get to know all the girls. We want solid ties with the new girls.
Increased upkeep due to Serena's group additions - stipend, food, cell phones. Did not increase gear cost upkeep yet, as we're paying the cost of buying those directly this month.
@inverted_helix - Would Serena have any cube costs this month? She indicated she'd be able to hunt what she needed before she left, but I'm not sure if that means she's set for a full month ahead of time.
Regarding the technology research, @inverted_helix is the follow up research meant to be actually enchanting technology to work better by working out a mental gestalt that includes the whole object, rather than the object as a collection of parts?
So, for example, if you can consider the full operation of a slingshot, how and why it works, rather than the simple operation of its parts, then if you enchant it with that understanding you can actually make the slingshot more accurate, rather than just naively making the wood malleable and the rubber more stretchy.
