Sterbelicht - One Sacrifice At A Time Against The Galaxy (40K)

What should your focus for the rest of the Quest be?

  • Mercy (Diplomacy and Expansion)

    Votes: 172 75.8%

  • Ruthlessness (Kick the Duchy in the Balls)

    Votes: 54 23.8%

  • Thule (Yeeni Handholding and Piscarian Cuddling)

    Votes: 87 38.3%
  • Total voters
    227
Voting is open
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The Laurent said:
I don't think we CAN take Echish. We don't have the SAGs to conquer the planet. I think we should RAID Eschish, with the goal of destroying the fleet built up there and all Ringyard-like structures, etc, so that they have to rebuild or build anything they do there from scratch.
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I'm not saying we take the planet just secure the system so the duchy can't use said system as a rally point with perhaps the fleet performing some orbital bombardments on valid military targets on world so they cant use anything on said world against us.

I'm confident we can at least secure the system with our fleets even if all our SAGs are occupied with Voxx Prime, and I'm sure once Voxx Secundus is secured we can divert some SAGs to taking Echish later. Big thing here I feel is we need a buffer system from the two systems we currently are fighting to take, that way if they push us back somehow they don't immediately retake Voxx Secundus and have a direct route to Voxx Prime again.
 
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[] Accept the Terms of Surrender

It's not an unreasonable ask, if it saves us blood and treasure, I'm willing to play nice.

[] We Fight!
-[ ] Hold our Aries-S Corvettes back to protect our backline, if any Flyssa arrives concentrate all fire on them--the Lover's Dance Lances in concert combined with their impressive speed and our Sagittarius-S classes in the backline should do much to run them down, and they're no longer suited for front line duty.
-[ ] Bomber Strikes are to concentrate on Light Cruisers in the skirmishing phase, especially of models or specific hulls known to carry Null-Nets, ideally weakening them or deploying their superweapons before our battle line closes.
-[ ] Leos are to focus on bullying enemy light craft when possible, spread in such a way so that Null Net attacks are less likely to overtake them, their great armor and high rate of fire should let them reap a grim toll.
-[ ] Sagittarius-S are to prioritize sniping down enemy escorts or capitalizing on openings made by escorts, staggering fire in such a way that there remains at least some reserve to counter any Flyssa interference.

We don't need to neccessarily occupy Echish (Though I don't think it's quite as big an ask as some think, given how it's already been de-escalated and we'll have orbital support). Especially since Secundus capitulated pretty much without a shot. And the importance of forcing the Free Duchy to have to rebuild a defense line from scratch in two places is going to split their focus considerably, making them vulnerable to defeat in detail and delaying their response.
 
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ConfusedCanuck said:
I'm not saying we take the planet just secure the system so the duchy can't use said system as a rally point with perhaps the fleet performing some orbital bombardments on valid military targets on world so they cant use anything on said world against us.

I'm confident we can at least secure the system with our fleets even if all our SAGs are occupied with Voxx Prime, and I'm sure once Voxx Secundus is secured we can divert some SAGs to taking Echish later. Big thing here I feel is we need a buffer system from the two system we currently are fighting to take that way if they push us back somehow they don't immediately retake Voxx Secundus and have a direct route to Voxx Prime again.
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We secure the system... and then have to face enemies attacking us from two directions at once?

The goal would be to... avoid being pushed back?
 
The Laurent said:
We secure the system... and then have to face enemies attacking us from two directions at once?

The goal would be to... avoid being pushed back?
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I mean fortify that system with fleets and defense stations and I doubt even with two directions they'll be taking it from us, and we hit said system we destroy more of there fleet which means they have less to use against us in any counter-attack so I feel it's worth the effort.
 
The Laurent said:
We secure the system... and then have to face enemies attacking us from two directions at once?

The goal would be to... avoid being pushed back?
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Van Zandt does not have infinite manpower or ships, they're fighting three or four wars to the knife at the same time we're showing up from out of nowhere. Exposing two salients is normally not a great idea--but when the other side is already strained, they have to devote that much more force to exploit that opportunity if they don't want to invite defeat in detail. It constrains their options and capacity to go on the offensive if an initial counterattack fails.

It's a lot easier to turn one system into an impassable wall than it is to do the same to two.
 
Thalton said:
Also it keeps the (supposedly?) Dogmatic lunatics from doing something insane like bombarding Voxx Secundus.
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Yep, strategic depth. They haven't reckoned on our ability to functionally turn every world into a small raid battle I suspect, which means even if they do a Funni and send two fleets at us with the intent of one getting sacrificed in the interception so they can burn our backline, that doesn't neccessarily lead to a wipeout of the other.

Again, if they had the mobile reserves capable of crushing us, why weren't they in place here already when a hostile border was confirmed? Why'd they get moved away?

The answer is that "If they had a significant mobile reserve in the face of all their current commitments, they'd have deployed it here. The fact it got de-escalated when an immediate attack didn't happen suggests they're desperately needed as a fire brigade elsewhere." I think they did the Dogmatic Thing and bought more trouble than they could afford, and even opening the Skeleton Closet only gave them a stay of execution while obligating them to make every campaign to the knife--explains why they seem to think Exterminatus attacks are inevitable if that's become their SOP to fuel their giga-lances, leading to response in kind.
 
HeroCooky said:
Van Zandt Navy:
52x Cobra Destroyers
2x Flyssa Destroyers
27x Shatterpoint Heavy Frigates (3x Macro-Cannons)
11x Sword Frigates
14x Falchion Frigates
8x Dauntless Mk1 Light Cruiser
5x Lancer Light Cruiser (1x Prow Lance, 1x Lance Battery, 1x Lance Turret)
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So, one observation here is that nothing the enemy has here has good anti fighter ability, and they have zero actual strike craft of their own.
The only way in which they can stop our strikecraft, is by pushing torpedoes towards us and forcing them on the defensive.

So, I propose that we just hold back all our forces, stay away from the enemy and whitle them down with our long range lances and long range bomber strikes.
If their light cruisers try to close to null ranges, we retreat. We can likely retreat faster than they can advance, so our Leo's should be safe.

Closing the battle line is a disadvantage for us, not an advantage. Sure, we can bring the Leo's main guns in play, but at the cost of constant torpedo barrages and null nets.
 
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Alectai said:
Yep, strategic depth. They haven't reckoned on our ability to functionally turn every world into a small raid battle I suspect, which means even if they do a Funni and send two fleets at us with the intent of one getting sacrificed in the interception so they can burn our backline, that doesn't neccessarily lead to a wipeout of the other.

Again, if they had the mobile reserves capable of crushing us, why weren't they in place here already when a hostile border was confirmed? Why'd they get moved away?

The answer is that "If they had a significant mobile reserve in the face of all their current commitments, they'd have deployed it here. The fact it got de-escalated when an immediate attack didn't happen suggests they're desperately needed as a fire brigade elsewhere." I think they did the Dogmatic Thing and bought more trouble than they could afford, and even opening the Skeleton Closet only gave them a stay of execution while obligating them to make every campaign to the knife--explains why they seem to think Exterminatus attacks are inevitable if that's become their SOP to fuel their giga-lances, leading to response in kind.
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Well the thing is... we are now in fact an existential threat to them. Like, that's actually a sensible set of priorities? If you have an enemy that seems to merely want to keep you from passing through and doesn't intend to attack you... then you cautiously draw down your forces?

There might be an element of desperation, but it also seems like honestly really good sense? Like, if we were in that situation, I might do the same thing if I didn't have any special intelligence about the real scope of the threat.
 
The Laurent said:
Well the thing is... we are now in fact an existential threat to them. Like, that's actually a sensible set of priorities? If you have an enemy that seems to merely want to keep you from passing through and doesn't intend to attack you... then you cautiously draw down your forces?

There might be an element of desperation, but it also seems like honestly really good sense? Like, if we were in that situation, I might do the same thing if I didn't have any special intelligence about the real scope of the threat.
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And so is everything else they're fighting, how does that suddenly mean they decide to deprioritize everything else with a massive grudge against us to swarm us over? Since that's the only way they're shaking loose more than a single large strike group to attack us with.

I'd like to think that we're not playing Strategy Game Rules where the Anti-Player Bias means that NPC factions will dismiss their own interests to fuck with the player just because they're the player (And somehow they don't pay a price for this because the other NPC factions realize that they're diverting forces to bully the player and thus don't punish them for leaving their defenses open)
 
Equipment list :
52x Cobra Destroyers
2x Flyssa Destroyers
27x Shatterpoint Heavy Frigates (3x Macro-Cannons)
11x Sword Frigates
14x Falchion Frigates
8x Dauntless Mk1 Light Cruiser
5x Lancer Light Cruiser (1x Prow Lance, 1x Lance Battery, 1x Lance Turret)

2*Flyssa: special case
52 * Light Torpedo Launcher, 52* Light Macro Turret
27*3*Macro cannons
11*2* Macro canonTurret
14*Torpedo Launcher, 14* Macro cannon
8 * Heavy Prow Lance, 2*Light Macro turret, 2* Light Macro Battery
5* Prow Lance, Lance Battery, Lance Turret

Anyway, I decided to write out the list of what kind of armament the enemy has. I hope it's accurate, but you can see that the enemies armament is ridiculously biased towards macro cannons and torpedos.
If we stay out of either's range, then they can only use the Light cruisers, and the Flyssa's.
 
From Echish there are 3 ways we can go to launch another attack so they have to defend them all or push us back.
And if they do not launch that attack right away we will have time to lay down minefields, replace the lost Leo crews and repair the rest of the fleet
 
[] We Fight!
-[] Aries-S Corvettes are on guard duty for the Libras. They're too fragile for the frontline, but that doesn't mean much with something like the Rhyssa Destroyers.
-[] Sagittarius-S Lancers are likewise going to focus their attention on the Rhyssa Destroyers.
-[] Our own Destroyers, the Lamenters and boarding Craft from the Leos shall focus on the Light Cruisers, preferably the Lancers. We need as many of those Null-Net launchers disabled as possible
-[] All Heavy Cruisers+ are to proceed with caution when it comes to getting close to those Null-Net launchers
 
Alectai said:
everything else they're fighting
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Refresh my memory, what exactly are these "wars to the knife"? What're the other enemies supposedly trying to kill the Duchy?
Alectai said:
I'd like to think that we're not playing Strategy Game Rules where the Anti-Player Bias means that NPC factions will dismiss their own interests to fuck with the player just because they're the player (And somehow they don't pay a price for this because the other NPC factions realize that they're diverting forces to bully the player and thus don't punish them for leaving their defenses open)
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They're already bending the rules of Dogmatic/Heretic alignment very heavily. They already have made technology that previously were only understood by the Old Ones. You really think Van Zandt won't have more Isekai Protagonist/AI buffs in their back pocket?
 
Always Late said:
Refresh my memory, what exactly are these "wars to the knife"? What're the other enemies supposedly trying to kill the Duchy?

They're already bending the rules of Dogmatic/Heretic alignment very heavily. They already have made technology that previously were only understood by the Old Ones. You really think Van Zandt won't have more Isekai Protagonist/AI buffs in their back pocket?
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Orks, Dark Eldar, and at least one apparent unknown xeno race that eats souls.
 
One thing to note is that if they're down the Cobras, they're down a lot of their torpedo power, but that also means that our bombers/ships will have difficulties with finding the time to destroy the Destroyers...
 
The Laurent said:
We secure the system... and then have to face enemies attacking us from two directions at once?

The goal would be to... avoid being pushed back?
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Meaning that the battle would be in Eshish, a system that holds nothing of great value except being a place where we can shit down defenses like crazy to hold a system with 2 stable and 1 unstable routes.
If we don't, then any battles would be in Voxx Secundus.

On a scale from 1 to 10, how much do we NOT want to have to deal with battles where they could hit our Agriworld or the transporters going to the hive world we haven't evacuated yet?
 
We just put them in the position where the clock is ticking towardd a strategic defeat. 80% of manpower resources they used to have are in our hands. They will have to downsize the army at least 3x in the next couple turns, and likely twice that - unless they take Vox back, that is. Downsizing like that means cutting the losses and bunker mode.

So they left with a choice, gamble on other fronts and concentrate on ours in a desperate gamble, or conserve the forces and bunker down. What I mean to say is Duchy going all in on reconquista, up to a point of losing systems on every other front, would not be an unreasonable choice on their side. Desperate, but not unreasonable.
 
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