I agree with your assessments of both. But I also feel that the Psionic Amplifier at the end of the Detector tree is potentially more valuable given that from what I gather most Psychic's lack of raw power is one of the major limitation on the discipline as a whole, and the amplifier could be a way around that problem.
Beyond that I feel that the ability to recruit, vet, and then empower a relatively small number of psychics (I want psychic ninjas)is more useful to our goals in the short to medium turn, as it gives us a potentially major advantage that we alone control.
Furthermore the detector tree allows us to keep the truly valuable advances quite while selling the less useful ones for profit (the detector for example) as needed with minimal risk of one of our better resourced siblings trying to poach our discoveries from us. So the detector tree could get us both more money and more useful assets.
Beyond that I think focusing on tech that only we understand and in which only a few people will be involved in is less vulnerable to industrial espionage then trying to expand the number of psychics (which is what the energy tree seems to be about) as we can keep it quieter and fewer people will be involved than in setting up a campus.
Additionally as I imagine large scale human/animal testing and a psychic campus would require more resources than the R&D costs from the detector tree I think the Energy tree would have more expensive start up and maintenance costs due to the scale that a dedicated campus implies. Which given the tight funds you already mentioned makes me feel that the Energy tree is best saved for later. This also ties into the point about my fears about industrial espionage as I worry that if a sibling were able to get their hands on the Energy Tree they could use their superior resources to steal a march on us by setting up their own larger rival campuses, so the advantage of the energy tree in getting us more psychics could be voided as other people could have it as well.
I'm not convinced that lack of raw power is the issue that psionics has as opposed to a lack of knowledge. Don't forget that Lelouch was "in the top 20%" of recorded psychics despite having 8-10 piety (depending how you treat his revealed psionic trait which gave him +2) and rolling a 54. Despite this relatively small amount of piety he has been able to do incredible things with the memories of the orb.
It seems more likley that Britannian science simply hasn't got the widescale detectors for psionic talent, and because most things in the field are seen as parlour tricks (most recorded can't lift a paper clip or fool a single sense even with intense concentration) there has been a relative lack of investment in the field, with most tales of higher effects being seen as rumors and superstition. This is bourne out by how eager the tester was to have any sort of access to a ttest subject at all.
We possess a relative advantage in gaining this knowledge, both with the orb memories and access to the Shinozaki clan. But with a substantially improved detector (with aoe) available research into the area will increase. Amongst academics and unviersities but also by less scruplious individuals. Even Lelouch considered mass human experimentation on slum dwellers. Someone less scruplous, like our wonderful neighbours, with access to an instant area of effect psionic detector and thousands of unwilling "test subjects" they don't care about might get substantially further than you might think.
If we went psy detector and released it for any reason, are we prepared for Lulu to be outed as a psker? I think the first thing that would happen is Charles ordering all his children to be tested.
Well, looks like the +4 Piety became an upgrade to the Alchemist Trait (from 1/6 of our Piety added to Stewardship to 1/3 of our Piety added to Stewardship, bringing our Stewardship from 21 to 23 and making Kaguya not be as good of a Stewardship advisor candidate because we preferably want our advisors to have better stats than us)
It is kind of funny we are doing legendary feats with TK, and only have a 13 in our piety score. Though that might reflect more on how little effort is put into psionics in general.
Considering we lifted 100lb blocks when making our workshop; I was thinking of pushes, eye pokes (That much force could easily ruin an eye), smacking someone upside the head, stealing grenade pins, etc.
When the government thinks lifting a 10lb object is enough to permanently classify you as being armed, what we can do should be way more practically dangerous. If we can apply force internally we can stop harts and mess up brains.
Who else saw this and went "Well, I guess we have to just conquer it and everything between it and us."? And then I remembered that we have a "mad scientist sociologist" as a neighbor, who specializes in the theory and methods of quelling a population's rebellious intent, and then assimilating them into the greater whole of an another culture.
So, who wants to get their hands and morals dirty by first waging a war, and then by quelling the natives with unethically developed sociological methods, all for the knowledge about ancient cosmic powers?
The main problem is probably aim. Telekinesis without weird extra-body kinesthetic sense shenanigans would be freakishly hard to pull off. You would need to know precisely where something is and be able to precisely visualize how you want the force to be applied, and do so in real time.
If you want to apply ten pounds of force to somebody's brainstem, okay, sure. First let us say that you can see them. Do you have good enough depth perception that you are applying force to their brainstem and not the empty air an inch in front of or behind their head? A gunman has a little wiggle room with distance, just needing to focus on linear alignment, and even they just focus on center of mass and a hell of a lot of prayer.
A hundred pounds... better. You can afford to do more than lethal blind fingerpokes. Or possibly your fingerpokes, properly focused, would go right through people. But it still has many of the same issues. You are having to juggle alternative spatial recognition routines in your brain while people are already probably shooting at you. So... more cheating, I guess?
Nominally yes, you don't have much specific training for it, but... there isn't much training available, either, so consider your martial score not only tactics/strategy, but also physical combat, just from being able to throw shit like that.
This shit does require focus, though, so trying situations might give modifier penalties.
Isn't our piety score currently lower than it should be? Like, we should be above 13 due to hidden bonii but we need to test ourselves again to reveal what our score/the bonus actually is?
I was thinking this because of this bit from the piety workshop segment.
You... should perhaps schedule some time soon to test the limits of your powers, seeing as how whatever their original boundaries were, they have now been far exceeded.
So I've just finished reading this and while I really enjoyed it there are just a few issues that I need to get off my chest.
First, is that while I do really like the explanations given for most of the background politics and history stuff the whole thing of Mexico and Brazil having Emperors and Hawaii having a King makes absolutely no sense to me, because it strikes me as the exact kind of thing that Britannia wouldn't allow since it would be near treasonous to have the a Emperor not be the Emperor
Secondly, I'm not really sure what the plan is with New Caledonia, how important is it to the story? For example if as the story progresses Lelouch succeeds in moving up the ladder is it going to somehow remain relevant despite the fact that it's an island in the middle of nowhere or is it just going to be one of a larger collection of territories?
Finally, I'm honestly a little wary of the whole psionics thing since it feels kinda like as the story progresses it's going to subsume more and more of the plot and I already found it's inclusion kind of strange since the setting already has a weird mental superpower without s new one being shoehorned in
I don't mean any of this to come across as me not liking the story cos I do but it's just so,e things that bothered me as I read that I wanted to get out there
EDIT: I'm also really confused about the deal with Sumeragi since I don't see how helping the Japanese crack how build Knightmares helps Britannia in the slightest, especially since it just makes it more likely that information will leak to the EU, nor how it benefits us it just seems like a shit deal to me
EDIT: I'm also really confused about the deal with Sumeragi since I don't see how helping the Japanese crack how build Knightmares helps Britannia in the slightest, especially since it just makes it more likely that information will leak to the EU, nor how it benefits us it just seems like a shit deal to me
Nominally, Japan is a friendly neutral nation and something of a highly valuable trading partner due to their Sakuradite mining. At the time of the exchange, the EU had already created its own Knightmare knockoff, to poor reception, and certainly had recovered Brittanian Knightmare wreckage.
Absent Japan deliberately selling the designs further afield, the actual risk of the EU or china getting more information on how to build Knightmares right is minimal, since they would need to infiltrate or subvert a top-level classified design and production project in Japan to get at it from that angle. And, in doing so, get more data than they can recover from battlefield wreckage and their own design projects. Without, hopefully, alienating the shit out of Japan and having to deal with being slapped with trade restrictions or other penalties.
On the other hand, giving up something that is already becoming no longer exclusive to Brittania in exchange for immense leverage over Japan, possible research sharing or third-party oversight of Japan's design leading to new insights in Brittanian design styles, and other secondary benefits is a fairly cheap price to pay. It's not like Japan is capable of building up an army capable of seriously threatening Brittania, either.
First, is that while I do really like the explanations given for most of the background politics and history stuff the whole thing of Mexico and Brazil having Emperors and Hawaii having a King makes absolutely no sense to me, because it strikes me as the exact kind of thing that Britannia wouldn't allow since it would be near treasonous to have the a Emperor not be the Emperor
Mexico & Brazil both historically had emperors. The deal is that Mexico was absorbed into the Britannian empire back before there was a 'let's conquer the world' plan. They kind of assumed that they'd expand the empire to a certain extent, but... Mexico has a very different culture. Britannia didn't really want it inside the empire, but also didn't want it doing it's own thing after they went to the trouble of invading and taking it over, so they put Maximilian on the throne as a puppet and kind of grandfathered him into the system.
On the other hand, Brazil's emperor at the time was actually a Portuguese royal. By the time Britannia was looking at Brazil, they'd already absorbed the Caribbean and the rest of Central America as well as a few pieces of South America. They basically looked at the Emperor of Brazil and told him 'you're joining the empire, easy way or hard way?' The Emperor of Brazil argued that the puppet-emperor of Mexico got to keep his title so, even if he was a subordinate throne, he should to. The emperor of Britannia decided a war wasn't worth the title since they'd have to take out the Emperor of Mexico as well to justify it and... why rock the boat at this point?
Besides, this way, the monarch of Britannia gets to style himself/herself as an "Emperor of Emperors" which is pretty sweet.
Secondly, I'm not really sure what the plan is with New Caledonia, how important is it to the story? For example if as the story progresses Lelouch succeeds in moving up the ladder is it going to somehow remain relevant despite the fact that it's an island in the middle of nowhere or is it just going to be one of a larger collection of territories?
It's going to take a very long time to get Australia settled going down that road. Lelouch needs a base in the region as a jumping-off point, plain and simple. Long-term, New Caledonia probably isn't going to be terribly important once the pirate threat is dealt with, but it can still be a major port and/or supply line for colonization materials from Britannia once developed, as well as a source of income from tourism.
Finally, I'm honestly a little wary of the whole psionics thing since it feels kinda like as the story progresses it's going to subsume more and more of the plot and I already found it's inclusion kind of strange since the setting already has a weird mental superpower without s new one being shoehorned in
I don't mean any of this to come across as me not liking the story cos I do but it's just so,e things that bothered me as I read that I wanted to get out there
The counterpoint from this perspective is the fact that Geass, Codes, and immortals make very little sense as the only supernatural power of the setting.
I can't really get into how psionic tie into the later-game story without dropping huge spoilers, but... it's not meant to subsume the story, though it is inextricably woven into the lore of the game and setting and giving Lelouch a good reason to develop certain technology and beliefs beyond what he would normally be able to do. Also, refer back to the flashbacks and information you guys have been getting. It's important, but won't allow you to dominate the game without properly exploring other options.
...most importantly, though, as it's been implemented in this game so far, I can't very well extricate the concept from the larger narrative without restarting the game.
EDIT: I'm also really confused about the deal with Sumeragi since I don't see how helping the Japanese crack how build Knightmares helps Britannia in the slightest, especially since it just makes it more likely that information will leak to the EU, nor how it benefits us it just seems like a shit deal to me
The thrust of it is that there are a lot of juicy targets instead of Japan that Britannia would be better off invading for a lot of good reasons, and Britannia knows it.
Arkitedes touches on other points as well in the post above this one.
When the government thinks lifting a 10lb object is enough to permanently classify you as being armed, what we can do should be way more practically dangerous. If we can apply force internally we can stop harts and mess up brains.
We've already been told that psionics need line of sight, so squishing brains that way is out of the question. Could probably still squeeze the skull at the weak point on the side, behind the eye if you really want to squish brains though.
At this point, the question isn't how much force can we generate, it's how quickly can we focus. Apparently, it takes concentration, depending on how long it takes to form and use the power, it may be impractical to use in battlefield conditions.
We've already been told that psionics need line of sight, so squishing brains that way is out of the question. Could probably still squeeze the skull at the weak point on the side, behind the eye if you really want to squish brains though.
At this point, the question isn't how much force can we generate, it's how quickly can we focus. Apparently, it takes concentration, depending on how long it takes to form and use the power, it may be impractical to use in battlefield conditions.
You already said going through the eyes. But we could also go through the navel. Though that'd be messy, and very disturbing. Wouldn't recommend.
I think just applying blunt for to the outside is more than enough, especially if it's sustained. It should be just as effective at that level of force.
It's going to take a very long time to get Australia settled going down that road. Lelouch needs a base in the region as a jumping-off point, plain and simple. Long-term, New Caledonia probably isn't going to be terribly important once the pirate threat is dealt with, but it can still be a major port and/or supply line for colonization materials from Britannia once developed, as well as a source of income from tourism.
We also need somewhere to have as a base right now. While we might conquer Australia a ways down the road, we still need somewhere to hole up and do stuff until we do. We also have the option of staying low key and focusing on R&D and setting up our power base in peace.
The counterpoint from this perspective is the fact that Geass, Codes, and immortals make very little sense as the only supernatural power of the setting.
I can't really get into how psionic tie into the later-game story without dropping huge spoilers, but... it's not meant to subsume the story, though it is inextricably woven into the lore of the game and setting and giving Lelouch a good reason to develop certain technology and beliefs beyond what he would normally be able to do. Also, refer back to the flashbacks and information you guys have been getting. It's important, but won't allow you to dominate the game without properly exploring other options.
Kind of validating that guys concern right there. You all but told us Psionics is going to be essential for the endgame. While not the end all and be all we will still need to do it. I happen to like psionics though.
...most importantly, though, as it's been implemented in this game so far, I can't very well extricate the concept from the larger narrative without restarting the game.
Kind of validating that guys concern right there. You all but told us Psionics is going to be essential for the endgame. While not the end all and be all we will still need to do it. I happen to like psionics though.
This group is on the lightest end of the legal spectrum. They are an officially-registered PMC which operates on a good reputation out of Britannian ports while riding the thin political line of also raiding third-party vessels. By and large, their paymasters are the two dukes of Tasmania and the three dukes of New Zealand as well as the Governor of Area Eight. Despite the well-known nature of their political and financial ties, little of it is actually provable in any courts of law. More importantly, when this group does choose to attack a given target unlawfully, they generally choose individuals or groups whose ill-fortune meets wide-ranging public approval. In this manner, they have been afforded a degree of unilateral self-direction uncommon to all but the highest military units of landed nobility or royalty. In many ways, they answer to no one on internal matters and run the two settlements they control as a combination of corporate towns and the dominions of warlords.
While these 'pirates' are nominally loyal to Britannian interests and would never stake a pitched battle with the imperial navy, they have been known to harass the interests of nobles who try to open up the area to new trading groups or industries not controlled by 'their' dukes or allied political factions. It is unlikely that they would go so far as to attack a royal directly, however it's entirely plausible for them to be paid to raid your supply lines or disrupt your military operations indirectly. Given that they're often equipped with an eclectic mix of Chinese Federation, Europa United, and Britannian Imperial weaponry, it's difficult to prove conclusively that they are behind any given attack. As pirates are well known for being lying scum, most reputable courts will throw their testimony out should any captured personnel be brought as witnesses. Even should an appeal be granted, most captured individuals willing to testify don't survive prison long enough to properly speak out.
Militarily, they are strictly 'middle-of-the-road' in strength. Strong enough to best any of the lesser pirate forces they come across, but weak enough to be unable to contest a proper imperial naval battle group. For the most part they are a strategically important occupational force keeping other pirate groups who might take their ports and harass Britannian shipping more aggressively. It is recommend that, if you wish to remove this group, you do so last. Without the other pirate groups, the absence of the Crowns will not be felt as strongly and likely protested less that should other groups come to fill in their vacuum after their destruction.
One traditional pirate activity is smuggling, and this group of pirates embodies that activity to a degree and, frankly, zeal that you've never considered possible before. One of the primary reasons they've been tolerated so close to Britannian territorial waters is due to the fact that this faction conducts little to no actual piracy in the usual sense. Instead, they serve as the 'fence' for many other factions, especially the Crowns, the Calico Cats, and the Sons of Teach. They serve as suppliers of numerous varieties of illegal goods and financial launderers for both the aforementioned list of pirates as well as (or as rumor has it) a number of outside groups. Area Eight nobility, Indonesian Confederation tax dodgers, corrupt EU politicians, and even possibly some of the High Eunuchs themselves.
Their holdings are primarily defensive city-states built to withstand siege from other factions and protect their harbors which service their lightly-armed and highly mobile flotillas. It is extremely likely that they are using the proceeds from their vast smuggling empire in order to buy off any party interested in attacking them as well... or, should it come to it, paying off another pirate group to attack anyone hostile to them. Tellingly, altercations between them, the Crowns, and the Calico Cats are vanishingly rare and usually confined to personal disputes between captains who accuse each other of 'poaching' given clients.
In addition to providing smuggled goods, La Cosa Nostra also operates a lucrative trade in illegal services, particularly blackmail, murder, extortion, and kidnapping. Operatives of their organization have been implicated in a number of crimes throughout the world, with at least incidental proof of their involvement. If you decide to target this group for destruction, it is highly recommended that you alpha-strike both port-towns in as short a duration as possible, preferably with the element of surprise. While they may not be able to survive a straight up fight with a superior military force, it is likely that their retaliation would be swift and crippling.
Stats Focus: Antonio (Intrigue) & Marco (Diplomacy)
Following the trend of pirates who have adapted to a heavier and heavier Britannian naval presence in the area over the past decades, the Calico Cats are distinctly odd, even accounting for their neighbors. Half of their military power is well-kept last-generation military technology bought from various military powers. The other half is made up of age-of-sail wooden vessels armed with antique canon. Their 'defense fleet' runs a tight series of patrols around their single holding, keeping anyone who might take advantage of an empty port wary. It is the older vessels which venture out to target the yachts and cruise lines of the rich and famous to abduct and rob tourists in order to provide them with an authentic pirate experience.
Or so their brochure says.
Because of course they have brochures. Supposedly run by a family of direct descendants to Jack Rackam, Anne Bonnie, and Mary Reed, it was an obvious decision to cash in on their ancestor's 'brand.' Pirates in name only, this faction is dedicated to offering unique tourist activities in the 'authentic' pirate port-town of New Tortuga. Known as the 'South Pacific's Sodom,' the town, city really, is a vivacious settlement catering to sin and decadence of the best and worst kinds. Catered to by La Cosa Nostra, the Calico Cats are well known for being able to provide any luxury, for a price. Given that their city is, in fact, completely lawless, those luxuries can be of many flavors indeed. With a number of private military contractors offering their services for tourists as guides and protectors, it is highly suggested to see to your own safety in as aggressive a manner as possible.
Sufficed to say, the primary problem with this faction's removal is political, not military. Important people from all over the world come here to indulge in the worst excesses. From cannibalism to pedophilia to the latest in designer drugs, the Calico Cats of New Tortuga offer everything, and people pay top dollar for it. In order to target this organization, it is recommended to make their clientele feel unsafe to continue patronizing the city. Should that happen, nature will take its course and the institutions will dry up.
The Sons of Teach are remarkable, if only for the fact that they aren't. They raid foreign ports, hold up ship traffic, extort traders and merchants... all in a very professional and adroit manner. They are, simply put, very good at being very bad. They are also, as part of the secret of their success, low profile. While their actions in general do not characterize them much, it is what these pirates deliberately avoid that makes them interesting. They do not take hostages, ever. They do not target convoys or shipments known to belong to nobility or high-profile corporate magnates. Their activity almost exclusively targets the smaller companies with only marginal wealth.
Moreover, because they have never expressed interest in hostage-taking, they are free to sell everything and everyone whom they capture to the highest bidder on the black market. This includes even the ships themselves, often repainted and renamed before being put back into service of the buyer. Their settlement of Roanapur is a well-defended port city with large emplacements to compliment their moderate fleet size. It is the conclusion of your organization that they have survived to this point simply by avoiding the top spot on any other group's list of problems.
Much like the Cosa Nostra, this group uses lighter and faster craft which focus on avoiding detection and sneak attacks. From the very few attacks of theirs which have been successfully fought off, most vessels do not know they are under siege until it is too late. The group's MO also aligns with several vessels which have been reported 'lost at sea' only for suspiciously similar ships to turn up later, leading many to speculate that they like to attack vessels during storms or unruly weather to further camouflage their activities. Fortunately, this group is probably the easiest to remove through conventional means, though it is likely that they have a few surprises in store, particularly a few larger ships pledged to the defense of their home port.
While they have a good merchant history with the Cosa Nostra and the Calico Cats, otherwise they keep to themselves and do not entangle themselves in the affairs of other groups. Beyond the aforementioned two, they also have a history of coming to blows (never to the point of outright war) with various groups, particularly their neighbors to the north, The Blood of L'Olonnais. Rumor has it that various pirate vessels and crews have been taken by them as well on a number of occasions, making them no friends.
One of the 'Big Three' pirate groups with a storied history to match. The two settlements which make up their organization were originally a colonization effort by Europa United during the mid/late-eighteen hundreds. While initially successful, shifts in the EU's political climate and the Great War lead the EU to largely pull out their support for the project and leave what colonists had already arrived to their own devices. The fact that this move was also aimed at convincing Britannia of the area's low importance to the EU is somewhat overlooked by the individuals living in the area. Instead, there is a strong resentment against Britannian forces which, in the last few decades, has led them to attack ships they deemed 'hostile' to their way of life.
Given the fact that the EU formally backed this colony for several decades and that it received a large amount of immigration from the continent, they had more than enough expertise to build ships of war and cause to do so. Bordering, as they are, the New Heaven Under Tian Wang and the Sons of Teach both groups have a history of attacking and raiding their populous; a fact which has left them unable to expand past defensible port-cities. Roughly analogous to the Crowns of south-east Australia, the Blood of L'Olonnais receives indirect support and technological aide from Europa United and benefits from a genial trading relationship with the Indonesian Confederation.
Militarily, they are a large threat. This faction supports three full fleets, admittedly stretching their financial and industrial capacity to its limits. Their saving grace is the fact that they are weak in terms of intelligence gathering and slow to provoke to anger. Short of actively attacking them or entering their waters it is likely they will ignore your presence until you present an active threat. Their ruling council does understand exactly what killing a member of the royal family would do to them, even if much of their populous would prefer to attack New Caledonia if they knew a royal had taken it as his base.
Due to the relatively large civilian population, it is likely that this group will need to be conquered, not destroyed. Given their independent mentality this will likely require overwhelming force or the devil's own tongue to bargain them into surrender. The best outcome would likely involve guaranteeing them some form of self-governance in exchange for disarmament, though you would have to convince them of the worth of your word. Expect a professional and dedicated mindset in their armed forces, likely coupled with a belief in their own sovereignty.
During the 1820s Hong Xiuquan, a moderately wealthy rural Chinese man born under the old Chinese Dynastic system, proclaimed that he was the brother of Jesus of Nazarath and undertook gathering people for a grand pilgrimage out of the corruption and moral degradation which he saw all around him. Hundreds of thousands flocked to his cause and began a march to the southern sea where they would cross through the Indonesian straits and eventually land on the northern coast of Australia where they would build their new colony and aspire to live a life according to the order of heaven. Following a theocratic monarch with a constitution derived from the Taiping Bible, Hong Xiuquan's personal translation of the text. Although a large minority of the original group died on the march south and the crossing, enough members were left to settle and begin populating the area.
Believing the words of their leader who ascribed the worship of other religions and mythological figures to trickery by demons, many within the sect denounced the wider world as needing to be purged by fire and forcibly converted. Their particular brand of militant Christianity demanded complete separation of women and men save for during periods of conception, gender equality, communal ownership of goods and services, as well as other radical ideas. Hong Xiuquan himself, as the younger brother of Jesus and, therefore, also a son of god, was allowed concubines to continue his divine bloodline. One of his great-grandchildren sits on the Throne of Heaven today in the city of Zheng He, named for the famed explorer who was retroactively sainted in the new religion.
With a total population across all three cities in the low millions, the New Heaven Under Tian Wang is considered a major threat. Although technologically backwards and under-equipped, the faction maintained four fleets until very recently, when one was destroyed by your faction. It is, truly, anyone's guess as to why they considered this a reasonable strategic move, but the whole of the Southern Pacific and Indian Ocean community, especially other pirate groups, consider it entirely in-character for them. Likely, their leaders believe (or have been paid handsomely to believe) that Lelouch vi Britannia is some sort of demon himself. If this is the case, they will consider it a moral imperative to destroy your faction.
On the positive side, though, other groups in the area will likely actively aide you in their destruction. If not, you can at least expect other factions to step away from the conflict, if not attack the Heavenly Kingdom in moments of weakness. They are near-universally considered a rogue state among rogue states for their unilateral attacks on anyone who catches their eye. If there is one group which might force the Blood of L'Olonnais to ally with a Britannian prince, it would be this group. Typically, larger offensives by the Heavenly Kingdom are met by an alliance of the other powers in the region due to both their numbers as well as the zeal with which their soldiers and seamen fight. In the abstract, conquering them may not be difficult after a certain level of martial power is attained, it is the latter occupation which will be truly testing.
The last of the 'Big Three' pirate powers, the Children of Ching Shih are something between pirates, a private military company, and an independent city state. Culturally diverse, technologically-advanced for the region, and well-funded, this group is a major threat to Chinese Federation shipping. Specifically Chinese Federation shipping. Although they do pick targets of opportunity from Indian and Indonesian shipping, they generally avoid Britannian shipping for reasons no one is quite sure of. In large part, this has allowed Britannian intelligence agencies to see them as a useful tool, if one with possibly dangerous political motivations.
Compounding the Chinese's difficult in dealing with them is the fact that, on many levels, their technology seems to be at least on part with the Federation's military standard, if not more advanced in some areas. Fielding three full naval fleets and a well-armed contingent of marines in addition to a small airforce, this group is perhaps the most strategically well-equipped to fight external threats. Additionally, they seem very professionally organized and well lead. This combination has allowed them to operate on par with what are technically larger factions such as the The New Heaven Under Tian Wang and the Blood of L'Olonnais on the rare occasion in which they decide to work against the other factions.
Within the greater whole of pirate politics, Children of Ching Shih remain steadfastly neutral in most affairs. They do trade with the other factions on occasion, particularly with La Cosa Nostra in order to acquire both intelligence and arms and munitions from what are largely suspected to be third-party Britannian resellers. In terms of military threat, this faction is arguably the largest given both their technological edge as well as the strategically and logistically close physical location of their bases in contrast with other the other powers. Given the likelihood of their motivations indeed being political, it is recommended you pursue intelligence-based sabotage, diplomatic fracturing, and other tactics not necessarily involving military action until they are suitably weakened.
While the Children of Ching Shih look to be truly politically motivated towards injuring, embarrassing, or simply stealing wealth from the Chinese Federation, the Blades of Saladin appear to simply be propping up an ideology for use in legitimizing their crimes. Claiming to hold fast to the Islamic code of religious law, they nevertheless partake in numerous activities forbidden to practicing Muslims on a regular basis. Their most frequent customers and targets are groups from the Ethiopian Empire and the Middel Eastern Federation, as well as a few powerful Islamic-leaning blocks within the Indian Zone of Military Control. Utilizing their espoused ideological leanings, they play different parties off each other with an admitted political adroitness that sees them well-funded despite their relatively small size.
In recent years, the group has taken a number of contracts on raiding Britannian shipping. Taxed as the empire has been by focusing on the war in the NAL they have been loathe to properly press the issue. An increase in patrol fleets after Princess Cornelia's drive through the Red Sea and the subsequent entry of the MEF into the war has changed the political situation, though. It is likely that, should the Blades of Saladin continue their raiding of Britannian war supplies, they will be the subject of a retaliatory strike by the Imperial navy. The Ethiopian empire, to compound their bad fortune, has disavowed all knowledge and connections with the pirate group, all but stating that any group openly hostile towards Britannia will see no favor in their court.
Regardless of the lack of funding coming through Ethiopia or the MEF at this point, though, the Blades of Saladin have expanded to field a second flotilla in addition to their main battle fleet. It is likely that some other faction, possibly India or even the East African Union, has used this opportunity to gain a foothold in the complex political situation of the Australian piracy problem. Militarily speaking, the Blades of Saladin are vulnerable at this point, having stretched their operations rather thin in their expansion. If one could mount a dedicated assault while the majority of their ships are out at sea, it's likely they would be able to overcome the defenses and conquer the port-city without any major problems. While the vocal minority of true Islamic extremists within the faction could be a problem in long-term administration, it is likely that they could be culled by a dedicated intelligence sweep without much issue.
If one were to encapsulate this group as simply as one could, it would be thus: similar to the Sons of Teach, but less professional. This 'faction' is less a cohesive group and more of an alliance of smaller groups which have banded together to survive against factions like the Heavenly Kingdom or the Children of Ching Shih. Any given group within this faction could have vastly different aims or goals from any other and be working at cross-purposes at any given time. Few, if any, of the crews are professional military and they tend to choose the weakest targets among the shipping lanes or take contracts from whoever is willing to pay.
This faction is likely not a threat to anyone with any skill at intelligence gathering or diplomacy. Simply convincing one part of the organization to make a power grab over the others would be enough to destabilize the entire mess and leave them ripe for conquest. Mostly, the young faction has survived as a result of their extreme usefulness in deniable agents and their willingness to turn on each other viciously when one part oversteps their bounds. All of that said, they are good at the specific type of raiding they do and have turned their low-risk raiding into a profitable venture with targets primarily focusing on non-noble Britannian shipping and East African Union vessels, although given their strikes of opportunity, any ship without escort could be a viable target.
Among the other factions, they have the most altercations with the Crowns, the Children of Ching Shih, and the Blades of Saladin. The former because they target Britannian shipping, the middle because of their chaotic nature of tendency towards indiscriminate attacks on other groups, and the last because of their mutual competition for the same class of vessels. All three factions would prefer to see the Raiders gone, but none of them are truly willing to work together or amass the kind of force it would take to remove them and leave their own holdings vulnerable. As a result, the Raiders persist until they cannot be overlooked as a problem.
On th psionics story-focus, I have to say that some of it seems to be because the dice have decided that something like almost every other psionic-focused action has to be a super-crit, which has probably brought them to focus more earlier and with more importance than the QM planned at the start.
On that note, I'm intrigued about the enhanced synergy we were promised for the future Learning/Piety -actions after that latest crit for acquiring minions, henchmen and one certain person who can potentially be upgraded to a Piety Advisor in the future. Between Jaeger, Aleister, Lelouch and the orb, our endgame being a psionic/Intrigue -victory seems like a pretty solid goal to aim towards.
EDIT: Sneaky sneaky updates dropping while I'm writing on a phone.
Pffft, I find La Cosa Nostra's leader pictures incredibly ironic. Given Antonio and Marco picture come from 91 days as a mob boss and a spy in his familia looking to backstab him especially with the line thicker than water,
I propose we either alpha strike La Cosa Nostra or fold them as first priority, we need our edge in intelligence to muddy the water of this blasted land. I wasn't expecting million of population in Aussie of all places, green tech and desalination OP yo.
No. This has to be done piecemeal. And the Calico cats are not the group to eliminate first. Take out the bigger players like the new heaven first. Then work on the small fry.
And here I thought that if elements from Gundam Wing were to be used, they would be used mostly to make Europe a stronger opponent against Britannia, not as part of a pirate group (granted, they used to be an European colony... also, for anyone who doesn't understand why I'm talking about Gundam Wing now, well... Dreizehn's faceclaim just so happens to be Treize Khushrenada).
