(NOTE BE NEW READERS: read the thread. There's a lot that's good and doesn't get threadmarked...
Strategic Arms Quest 3/2: Armor Edition
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Contest 1: Team Creation
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
(NOTE BE NEW READERS: read the thread. There's a lot that's good and doesn't get threadmarked because there's not enough information to get a threadmark)
Your name is Hauptmann Otto von Rabe, late of the 2/5 Saxe-Gotha artillery regiment of the Irmionic Empire, and you've gotten the most annoying call of your life. After someone had been calling around for veterans of the current fracas (you could hardly imagine calling the continent-wide disaster that had pitted the Werser Crowns against literally everyone except you a "fracas" except in the lightest terms) they'd found you. With a grand total of four years in the artillery and a year in the pioneers with friends in the Logistics Department, you looked like a great opportunity, especially after Oberst Mikhail von Waldersee II recommended you for your great experience in fighting the new and rather deadly war-wagons of Balkichivian.
The fact these weapons were stolen wholesale in a stunning breakthrough by some barely armed men thrown out the ass end of an airplane is beyond your pay grade though, and your artillery battery just happened to be well-supplied enough to batter the everliving snot out of them when they tried to break through the front in your sector.
Either way, you were in the hospital with a bad leg that kept you out of field command for a few months, and a large pile of money that von Walersee V owed to you in some rather cutthroat games of poker. Now his grandfather had been called in to clean the slate up and get you out of everyone's hair by sending you back to Luneburg, for your new role as head of the testing commission on developing your own breakthrough vehicles to get out of the damn stalemate fronts. There's still some fluid parts of the front off in the northeast where the Balkhs got stuck between the Irmiones and the Werser Crowns, but most of the lines were locking up into thick trench forests and mud.
While you were recovering, it was time to assemble your advisorial team. According to dispatches from Generalleutnant Siger, your new head of command chain, you were under Major Gieschalft who had been even more seriously injured than you (landmines, damn them) and was probably going to be less than useful. Still, you had six advisorial slots to choose from, before the Major finally got off his laundnum and read the paperwork you sent him to sign.
CHOOSE YOUR TEAM
[] Pyotr Falkenovichs: A Balkchivian national who emigrated after a scandal in the Werser crowns after his exile from home, this man is rumored to be an intelligence expert.
[] Magnus von Eberhart: An infantry officer from 3/7 Luneberg, Magnus has experience in assaulting trenches and holding positions.
[] Thomas Wanderer: A mechanic and motors expert, Thomas knows engines and transmissions like nobody's business.
[] Karl Adler: A weapons designer and structural engineer borrowed from Skoda Werke, Karl has been working so far on trains and train repair systems.
[] Leopold Benz: An older gentleman in the aviation industry, Leopold has untold amounts of experience in making sure things don't fall apart when they shouldn't.
[] Conrad Fenrus: A cavalry commander with the 1/4 "Schlangenesser" regiment, this officer is incredibly familiar what little exists of breakthrough tactics in this day and age on the open plains of the West Irromedes.
[] Halbricht Udst: A Seebatalion officer injured during the Raid at Dervonport, Udst has been involved in some of the thickest fighting in the war, including a short stint "volunteering" with the Weser Crown Seebatalions.
[] Mosten Gotha: A representative from Thryssen, Gotha is an industrial expert and is most likely be the person most likely to know how much of what you can build
[] Fdwbl. Arnold Schwarzenegger: A Wesser Crowns breakthrough vehicle commander, Schwarzenegger claims to be familiar with the AV-3 (the production Werser breakthrough vehicle) in all respects and matters.
[] Anne-Maria Todbringer: A wealthy socialite and widow of the late industrialist Karl Todbringer, Anne-Maria has a wealth of contacts and friends in high society.
Your name is Hauptmann Otto von Rabe, late of the 2/5 Saxe-Gotha artillery regiment of the Irmionic Empire, and you've gotten the most annoying call of your life. After someone had been calling around for veterans of the current fracas (you could hardly imagine calling the continent-wide disaster that had pitted the Werser Crowns against literally everyone except you a "fracas" except in the lightest terms) they'd found you. With a grand total of four years in the artillery and a year in the pioneers with friends in the Logistics Department, you looked like a great opportunity, especially after Oberst Mikhail von Waldersee II recommended you for your great experience in fighting the new and rather deadly war-wagons of Balkichivian.
The fact these weapons were stolen wholesale in a stunning breakthrough by some barely armed men thrown out the ass end of an airplane is beyond your pay grade though, and your artillery battery just happened to be well-supplied enough to batter the everliving snot out of them when they tried to break through the front in your sector.
Either way, you were in the hospital with a bad leg that kept you out of field command for a few months, and a large pile of money that von Walersee V owed to you in some rather cutthroat games of poker. Now his grandfather had been called in to clean the slate up and get you out of everyone's hair by sending you back to Luneburg, for your new role as head of the testing commission on developing your own breakthrough vehicles to get out of the damn stalemate fronts. There's still some fluid parts of the front off in the northeast where the Balkhs got stuck between the Irmiones and the Werser Crowns, but most of the lines were locking up into thick trench forests and mud.
While you were recovering, it was time to assemble your advisorial team. According to dispatches from Generalleutnant Siger, your new head of command chain, you were under Major Gieschalft who had been even more seriously injured than you (landmines, damn them) and was probably going to be less than useful. Still, you had six advisorial slots to choose from, before the Major finally got off his laundnum and read the paperwork you sent him to sign.
CHOOSE YOUR TEAM
[] Pyotr Falkenovichs: A Balkchivian national who emigrated after a scandal in the Werser crowns after his exile from home, this man is rumored to be an intelligence expert.
[] Magnus von Eberhart: An infantry officer from 3/7 Luneberg, Magnus has experience in assaulting trenches and holding positions.
[] Thomas Wanderer: A mechanic and motors expert, Thomas knows engines and transmissions like nobody's business.
[] Karl Adler: A weapons designer and structural engineer borrowed from Skoda Werke, Karl has been working so far on trains and train repair systems.
[] Leopold Benz: An older gentleman in the aviation industry, Leopold has untold amounts of experience in making sure things don't fall apart when they shouldn't.
[] Conrad Fenrus: A cavalry commander with the 1/4 "Schlangenesser" regiment, this officer is incredibly familiar what little exists of breakthrough tactics in this day and age on the open plains of the West Irromedes.
[] Halbricht Udst: A Seebatalion officer injured during the Raid at Dervonport, Udst has been involved in some of the thickest fighting in the war, including a short stint "volunteering" with the Weser Crown Seebatalions.
[] Mosten Gotha: A representative from Thryssen, Gotha is an industrial expert and is most likely be the person most likely to know how much of what you can build
[] Fdwbl. Arnold Schwarzenegger: A Wesser Crowns breakthrough vehicle commander, Schwarzenegger claims to be familiar with the AV-3 (the production Werser breakthrough vehicle) in all respects and matters.
[] Anne-Maria Todbringer: A wealthy socialite and widow of the late industrialist Karl Todbringer, Anne-Maria has a wealth of contacts and friends in high society.
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- Location
- Somewhere
Tentative plan:
[] Thomas Wanderer: A mechanic and motors expert, Thomas knows engines and transmissions like nobody's business.
[] Karl Adler: A weapons designer and structural engineer borrowed from Skoda Werke, Karl has been working so far on trains and train repair systems.
[] Leopold Benz: An older gentleman in the aviation industry, Leopold has untold amounts of experience in making sure things don't fall apart when they shouldn't.
[] Conrad Fenrus: A cavalry commander with the 1/4 "Schlangenesser" regiment, this officer is incredibly familiar what little exists of breakthrough tactics in this day and age on the open plains of the West Irromedes.
[] Mosten Gotha: A representative from Thryssen, Gotha is an industrial expert and is most likely be the person most likely to know how much of what you can build.
Missing fifth member, will update In Half an hour with justifications. Am open to suggestions for number six.
[] Thomas Wanderer: A mechanic and motors expert, Thomas knows engines and transmissions like nobody's business.
[] Karl Adler: A weapons designer and structural engineer borrowed from Skoda Werke, Karl has been working so far on trains and train repair systems.
[] Leopold Benz: An older gentleman in the aviation industry, Leopold has untold amounts of experience in making sure things don't fall apart when they shouldn't.
[] Conrad Fenrus: A cavalry commander with the 1/4 "Schlangenesser" regiment, this officer is incredibly familiar what little exists of breakthrough tactics in this day and age on the open plains of the West Irromedes.
[] Mosten Gotha: A representative from Thryssen, Gotha is an industrial expert and is most likely be the person most likely to know how much of what you can build.
Missing fifth member, will update In Half an hour with justifications. Am open to suggestions for number six.
globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
[x] plan We'll be back
[x] Magnus von Eberhart: An infantry officer from 3/7 Luneberg, Magnus has experience in assaulting trenches and holding positions.
[x] Thomas Wanderer: A mechanic and motors expert, Thomas knows engines and transmissions like nobody's business.
[x] Karl Adler: A weapons designer and structural engineer borrowed from Skoda Werke, Karl has been working so far on trains and train repair systems.
[x] Leopold Benz: An older gentleman in the aviation industry, Leopold has untold amounts of experience in making sure things don't fall apart when they shouldn't.
[x] Mosten Gotha: A representative from Thryssen, Gotha is an industrial expert and is most likely be the person most likely to know how much of what you can build
[x] Fdwbl. Arnold Schwarzenegger: A Wesser Crowns breakthrough vehicle commander, Schwarzenegger claims to be familiar with the AV-3 in all respects and matters.
[x] Magnus von Eberhart: An infantry officer from 3/7 Luneberg, Magnus has experience in assaulting trenches and holding positions.
[x] Thomas Wanderer: A mechanic and motors expert, Thomas knows engines and transmissions like nobody's business.
[x] Karl Adler: A weapons designer and structural engineer borrowed from Skoda Werke, Karl has been working so far on trains and train repair systems.
[x] Leopold Benz: An older gentleman in the aviation industry, Leopold has untold amounts of experience in making sure things don't fall apart when they shouldn't.
[x] Mosten Gotha: A representative from Thryssen, Gotha is an industrial expert and is most likely be the person most likely to know how much of what you can build
[x] Fdwbl. Arnold Schwarzenegger: A Wesser Crowns breakthrough vehicle commander, Schwarzenegger claims to be familiar with the AV-3 in all respects and matters.
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NothingNow
Corpse Wrangler
- Location
- Tampa
[x] Plan Insert Pun Here.
[x] Thomas Wanderer: A mechanic and motors expert, Thomas knows engines and transmissions like nobody's business.
[x] Conrad Fenrus: A cavalry commander with the 1/4 "Schlangenesser" regiment, this officer is incredibly familiar what little exists of breakthrough tactics in this day and age on the open plains of the West Irromedes.
[x] Karl Adler: A weapons designer and structural engineer borrowed from Skoda Werke, Karl has been working so far on trains and train repair systems.
[x] Mosten Gotha: A representative from Thryssen, Gotha is an industrial expert and is most likely be the person most likely to know how much of what you can build.
[x] Halbricht Udst: A Seebatalion officer injured during the Raid at Dervonport, Udst has been involved in some of the thickest fighting in the war, including a short stint "volunteering" with the Weser Crown Seebatalions.
[x] Fdwbl. Arnold Schwarzenegger: A Wesser Crowns breakthrough vehicle commander, Schwarzenegger claims to be familiar with the AV-3 (the production Werser breakthrough vehicle) in all respects and matters.
[x] Conrad Fenrus: A cavalry commander with the 1/4 "Schlangenesser" regiment, this officer is incredibly familiar what little exists of breakthrough tactics in this day and age on the open plains of the West Irromedes.
[x] Karl Adler: A weapons designer and structural engineer borrowed from Skoda Werke, Karl has been working so far on trains and train repair systems.
[x] Mosten Gotha: A representative from Thryssen, Gotha is an industrial expert and is most likely be the person most likely to know how much of what you can build.
[x] Halbricht Udst: A Seebatalion officer injured during the Raid at Dervonport, Udst has been involved in some of the thickest fighting in the war, including a short stint "volunteering" with the Weser Crown Seebatalions.
[x] Fdwbl. Arnold Schwarzenegger: A Wesser Crowns breakthrough vehicle commander, Schwarzenegger claims to be familiar with the AV-3 (the production Werser breakthrough vehicle) in all respects and matters.
- Location
- Somewhere
[x] plan We'll be back
Exterminatus
Tsukumogami User
- Location
- Southern California
[x] Plan I think I know how this works.
[x] Thomas Wanderer: A mechanic and motors expert, Thomas knows engines and transmissions like nobody's business.
[x] Karl Adler: A weapons designer and structural engineer borrowed from Skoda Werke, Karl has been working so far on trains and train repair systems.
[x] Conrad Fenrus: A cavalry commander with the 1/4 "Schlangenesser" regiment, this officer is incredibly familiar what little exists of breakthrough tactics in this day and age on the open plains of the West Irromedes.
[x] Mosten Gotha: A representative from Thryssen, Gotha is an industrial expert and is most likely be the person most likely to know how much of what you can build
[x] Fdwbl. Arnold Schwarzenegger: A Wesser Crowns breakthrough vehicle commander, Schwarzenegger claims to be familiar with the AV-3 (the production Werser breakthrough vehicle) in all respects and matters.
[x] Anne-Maria Todbringer: A wealthy socialite and widow of the late industrialist Karl Todbringer, Anne-Maria has a wealth of contacts and friends in high society.
[x] Thomas Wanderer: A mechanic and motors expert, Thomas knows engines and transmissions like nobody's business.
[x] Karl Adler: A weapons designer and structural engineer borrowed from Skoda Werke, Karl has been working so far on trains and train repair systems.
[x] Conrad Fenrus: A cavalry commander with the 1/4 "Schlangenesser" regiment, this officer is incredibly familiar what little exists of breakthrough tactics in this day and age on the open plains of the West Irromedes.
[x] Mosten Gotha: A representative from Thryssen, Gotha is an industrial expert and is most likely be the person most likely to know how much of what you can build
[x] Fdwbl. Arnold Schwarzenegger: A Wesser Crowns breakthrough vehicle commander, Schwarzenegger claims to be familiar with the AV-3 (the production Werser breakthrough vehicle) in all respects and matters.
[x] Anne-Maria Todbringer: A wealthy socialite and widow of the late industrialist Karl Todbringer, Anne-Maria has a wealth of contacts and friends in high society.
Zeroth Jupi
Sporadic Writer and Haver of Ideas
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
[x] Plan Insert Pun Here.
- Location
- City of Magnificent Intentions
[X] Plan Breakthrough and Industry
[X] Thomas Wanderer: A mechanic and motors expert, Thomas knows engines and transmissions like nobody's business.
[X] Karl Adler: A weapons designer and structural engineer borrowed from Skoda Werke, Karl has been working so far on trains and train repair systems.
[X] Leopold Benz: An older gentleman in the aviation industry, Leopold has untold amounts of experience in making sure things don't fall apart when they shouldn't.
[X] Conrad Fenrus: A cavalry commander with the 1/4 "Schlangenesser" regiment, this officer is incredibly familiar what little exists of breakthrough tactics in this day and age on the open plains of the West Irromedes.
[X] Mosten Gotha: A representative from Thryssen, Gotha is an industrial expert and is most likely be the person most likely to know how much of what you can build
[X] Fdwbl. Arnold Schwarzenegger: A Wesser Crowns breakthrough vehicle commander, Schwarzenegger claims to be familiar with the AV-3 (the production Werser breakthrough vehicle) in all respects and matters.
[X] Thomas Wanderer: A mechanic and motors expert, Thomas knows engines and transmissions like nobody's business.
[X] Karl Adler: A weapons designer and structural engineer borrowed from Skoda Werke, Karl has been working so far on trains and train repair systems.
[X] Leopold Benz: An older gentleman in the aviation industry, Leopold has untold amounts of experience in making sure things don't fall apart when they shouldn't.
[X] Conrad Fenrus: A cavalry commander with the 1/4 "Schlangenesser" regiment, this officer is incredibly familiar what little exists of breakthrough tactics in this day and age on the open plains of the West Irromedes.
[X] Mosten Gotha: A representative from Thryssen, Gotha is an industrial expert and is most likely be the person most likely to know how much of what you can build
[X] Fdwbl. Arnold Schwarzenegger: A Wesser Crowns breakthrough vehicle commander, Schwarzenegger claims to be familiar with the AV-3 (the production Werser breakthrough vehicle) in all respects and matters.
- Location
- Somewhere
Guys, plan "insert pun here" lacks Mr. Benz. This is very bad because given our limited production capacity, it is imperative that we make our tanks as reliable as possible. By by voting for "we'll be back" you will be voting for superior reliability in engineering and fewer breakdowns.
- Location
- City of Magnificent Intentions
My plan also includes Mr. Benz, but also includes Mr. Fenrus, who I think we will find possesses more relevant expertise for our purposes than Mr. Eberhart. We are supposed to be designing a breakthrough vehicle, so it seems prudent to have assistance experienced in breakthrough operations, rather than infantry tactics. Including Mr. Eberhart seems as though it would naturally lead to the potentially dangerous supposition that the purpose of this vehicle is to support the infantry, when it is clear that the infantry will not be (and cannot practically be) the source of the breakthroughs our vehicle is required to produce.
- Location
- Somewhere
True, but that might be something that we'll have to compromise on -- the only way we'd get enough votes would be to band together with the "we'll be back" group. I wanted to do a plan like yours, titled "if it bleeds, we can kill it", but globalwarmth beat me to the punch and got something started before me.
Besides, as of right now the only things we would really be able to do "breakthrough" antics with would be lotsa Poor Bloody Infantry with a few tanks sprinkled in for flavor. What WWII showed us was that tanks were of more use killing the other guy's tanks, which was the direction that most tank warfare ended up going in, but as of right now our most probable threat is enemy infantry, because there aren't enough tanks in circulation to be a major factor yet. In that sense, we'd most likely be working with infantry or leading the charge anyways.
- Location
- City of Magnificent Intentions
I'd actually say at this point, that its neither killing infantry nor tanks which should be the primary goal of our tanks, but rather getting into the enemy rear, destroying artillery and logistical infrastructure, forcing the enemy to react to them (potentially to their disadvantage elsewhere), and generally causing chaos; these are all things which are traditionally the purview of the cavalry. I see killing enemy line troops is important only in as much as it allows our tanks to more easily get to grips with these targets.
As far as winning the vote goes, I think we are at this stage best served by voting and arguing for what we believe to be the best plan, not merely the most successful acceptable plan. If an even less preferable plan is still winning later, then I'd consider changing my vote then, but I'd prefer to at least have a go at what I think will be the best outcome.
- Location
- Somewhere
Prelim tally here:
[X] Plan Breakthrough and Industry
[X] Plan Breakthrough and Industry
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Tactics 1
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
Current breakthrough doctrine is to suppress the everloving shit out of known MG nests, start dropping a barrage on their heads, and walk the barrage forward while you try to squat in the enemy trench lines long enough to reload and steal anything not nailed down before advancing or retreating. According to heresay, the Balkhs have been fortifying in deapth up to five or six hundred yards back from the front so if everything goes absolutely tits-up they can use volley fire to create beaten zones while the artillery gets involved.
That's what the rumor mill says, though. The hospital you're in doesn't get a lot of turnover, though.
What information you've gotten from your (very few) friends from the Academy that are in the cavalry is alternatively cheering or disheartening. Not many of the units involved on either side can keep a strong supply line going in the plains regions, so most units are dispersed around water sources and trying desperately to find where the enemy's supply routes are to raid them. Command has a rough plan to use this area to make an end-run flank on the enemy, but so far the results aren't prromising since they can't breach each other's actually defended strong points regularly.
The current armored cars (Raeder 9, has a HMG on it) can't really reliably get across No Man's Land, but in mobile fronts less restricted geographically they tend to do well until they run into a force with rifle grenades or a good heavy machine gun section, wherin the spalling eventually kills the engine and therfore the car.
- Location
- Somewhere
[x] plan We'll be back
I liked the ideas behind having a cavalry guy with us, but getting the rest of the ticket through takes priority.
I liked the ideas behind having a cavalry guy with us, but getting the rest of the ticket through takes priority.
Rat King
Viera
I sincerely doubt we'll be able to get a tank that's operationally mobile, in any case. They'll probably have to be rail-headed to the front and probably won't be much faster than the infantry, anyway. They'll be more of mobile pillboxes than anything else.
At least at first.
Strictly speaking we lack the logistical capability to support a fast breakthrough tank, anyway.
At least at first.
Strictly speaking we lack the logistical capability to support a fast breakthrough tank, anyway.
- Location
- City of Magnificent Intentions
[x] plan We'll be back
- Location
- Somewhere
Yep. That's why I end up having to manage several different iterations of the same vote when I tally.
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
I actually don't mind non-plan votes for the Staff Select rounds because I know how to make the vote counter tell me what I need to know.
Contest 1: RFQ
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
After developing the ability to stump around on your cane from room to room in the hospital, the dossiers caught up with you. The letters you'd sent out to your 'design team' who would help you put this all together had come back positive across the board. Now you had to deal with the mail. Christ, the mail.
First on the list, von Eberhart. He'd been in one of the Lunesburg regiments, which had generally fared okay in the war. Not a lot of big advances, but they'd been at the Saar, so they had gotten beat up by the Balkhs before. After finding your reading glasses for the cramped handwriting, the results were pretty clear: von Eberhart didn't really care what you came up with as long as it was rifle-proof. Saar had proved that machine guns that were dug in could shred the everloving shit out of infantry on the advance (his words) and more importantly that trying to advance machine guns was really hard. As long as the breakthrough vehicle could sit there and soak up fire while the infantry dragged up their MG.52s to actually hold their ground with, von Eberhart would call it good.
Wanderer was another matter entirely. After one letter fairly exploded into a list of schematics and diagrams in what you weren't quite sure wasn't a murder attempt, you got to the meat of it. Fortunately, what Wanderer doesn't know he knows he doesn't know- and what he knows are transmissions and engines. Right of the bat, the main recommendation is to avoid a wheeled vehicle and go for continuous track to handle rough conditions, and go for something with double clutches independent of each other and a main clutch, one engine (he was very insistent about this) and for maneuvering some disk… brake… things… that honestly you didn't understand and really didn't want to. The end result was you had an excellent bullshit detector, at least.
That got you down to the letters headed with the Skoda Werke symbol, and a whole nother batch of headaches that had you going for the wine. Adler might not have been as energetic as Wanderer, but he certainly had a lot of experience working on armored trains, and was uncomfortably blunt with what you could expect to get. Anything more than ten milimeters of armor in a plate was probably a scam, and whatever armor that you used would be best used on the bow, because if this wasn't an artillery target then Adler would give you his granddaughter for a week. Gun-armed sponsons would probably be where most of the firepower would be, but they'd increase weight hideously. Most importantly, Adler sent you the dimensions for standard Landwere flatbed cars, so whatever you bought could be rail transported, him being very doubtful of those newfangled internal combustion engines and suggesting going back to a hot-bulb for reliabilities sakes.
You'd finally gotten out of the hospital when Benz got up to you. While he might have been an aviator by trade, he knew quite a lot of projects and systems to get and keep an internal combustion engine running. Unfortunately, that's where his useful experience ended, which made you more than a little annoyed. At least you got lunch out of it. After handing him a business card from Wanderer, you limped back home to your new, and painfully sterile, apartment for the night.
Gotha was another set of letters and telegrams, unfortunately. While you could extract blood from a stone, it would be easier than getting this man to commit to hard numbers for a request for information prior to a contract. Numbers flexed all over the map, from engines to steel sheeting to guns to transmissions. You barely got him to cough up an amount of track they could spit out, and Thryssen corporate dodged every attempt you had to nail them down. If you had your battery with you, things would be a good bit different, but shelling an office building was frowned upon heavily in wartime.
Your meeting with Fdwbl. Schwarzenegger went much better, thankfully. The man was loud, brash, and had the worst Weser accent you'd heard in years, but his experiences were fairly valid for the purposes of gathering information. The AV-3 was a cantankerous beast, requiring a crew of nine for the two 5cm guns and four Frankengastch light machine guns to be operated. It was cramped, stank, and yelling was the only means of communication outside of battle. What little armor there was topped out at a centimeter and a half, and the machines would experience failures at the drop of a hat or shell casing. Once the guns started firing, the only reliable way to communicate was a butchered set of Morse signals to be beaten on one's shoulder, and crews lived and died in leather and chainmail armor to protect them from the vehicle itself. Practically you could only expect the vehicles to make it a few dozen meters before breaking down, at which point they would most likely be hosed with fire until dead. By the time you were done, your notepad was full of whiskey stains and scrawling, you'd exchanged addresses for future mail, and parted ways amicably.
With the meat of your advice received, it was time to write your requests for quotation. Your testing budget had a few hundred Kroner in it, thankfully, so you could get started with any ancillary research independent of Headquarters if you needed more information.
(Since this is your RFQ, voting is BY PLAN ONLY. If you need information that wouldn't be regularly available {ex: how many hours is our 8-cylinder engine good for?} you get ONE voting line to research this in from your budget. QM can invalidate any research project or autofinish it because it would be accessible knowledge.)
First on the list, von Eberhart. He'd been in one of the Lunesburg regiments, which had generally fared okay in the war. Not a lot of big advances, but they'd been at the Saar, so they had gotten beat up by the Balkhs before. After finding your reading glasses for the cramped handwriting, the results were pretty clear: von Eberhart didn't really care what you came up with as long as it was rifle-proof. Saar had proved that machine guns that were dug in could shred the everloving shit out of infantry on the advance (his words) and more importantly that trying to advance machine guns was really hard. As long as the breakthrough vehicle could sit there and soak up fire while the infantry dragged up their MG.52s to actually hold their ground with, von Eberhart would call it good.
Wanderer was another matter entirely. After one letter fairly exploded into a list of schematics and diagrams in what you weren't quite sure wasn't a murder attempt, you got to the meat of it. Fortunately, what Wanderer doesn't know he knows he doesn't know- and what he knows are transmissions and engines. Right of the bat, the main recommendation is to avoid a wheeled vehicle and go for continuous track to handle rough conditions, and go for something with double clutches independent of each other and a main clutch, one engine (he was very insistent about this) and for maneuvering some disk… brake… things… that honestly you didn't understand and really didn't want to. The end result was you had an excellent bullshit detector, at least.
That got you down to the letters headed with the Skoda Werke symbol, and a whole nother batch of headaches that had you going for the wine. Adler might not have been as energetic as Wanderer, but he certainly had a lot of experience working on armored trains, and was uncomfortably blunt with what you could expect to get. Anything more than ten milimeters of armor in a plate was probably a scam, and whatever armor that you used would be best used on the bow, because if this wasn't an artillery target then Adler would give you his granddaughter for a week. Gun-armed sponsons would probably be where most of the firepower would be, but they'd increase weight hideously. Most importantly, Adler sent you the dimensions for standard Landwere flatbed cars, so whatever you bought could be rail transported, him being very doubtful of those newfangled internal combustion engines and suggesting going back to a hot-bulb for reliabilities sakes.
You'd finally gotten out of the hospital when Benz got up to you. While he might have been an aviator by trade, he knew quite a lot of projects and systems to get and keep an internal combustion engine running. Unfortunately, that's where his useful experience ended, which made you more than a little annoyed. At least you got lunch out of it. After handing him a business card from Wanderer, you limped back home to your new, and painfully sterile, apartment for the night.
Gotha was another set of letters and telegrams, unfortunately. While you could extract blood from a stone, it would be easier than getting this man to commit to hard numbers for a request for information prior to a contract. Numbers flexed all over the map, from engines to steel sheeting to guns to transmissions. You barely got him to cough up an amount of track they could spit out, and Thryssen corporate dodged every attempt you had to nail them down. If you had your battery with you, things would be a good bit different, but shelling an office building was frowned upon heavily in wartime.
Your meeting with Fdwbl. Schwarzenegger went much better, thankfully. The man was loud, brash, and had the worst Weser accent you'd heard in years, but his experiences were fairly valid for the purposes of gathering information. The AV-3 was a cantankerous beast, requiring a crew of nine for the two 5cm guns and four Frankengastch light machine guns to be operated. It was cramped, stank, and yelling was the only means of communication outside of battle. What little armor there was topped out at a centimeter and a half, and the machines would experience failures at the drop of a hat or shell casing. Once the guns started firing, the only reliable way to communicate was a butchered set of Morse signals to be beaten on one's shoulder, and crews lived and died in leather and chainmail armor to protect them from the vehicle itself. Practically you could only expect the vehicles to make it a few dozen meters before breaking down, at which point they would most likely be hosed with fire until dead. By the time you were done, your notepad was full of whiskey stains and scrawling, you'd exchanged addresses for future mail, and parted ways amicably.
With the meat of your advice received, it was time to write your requests for quotation. Your testing budget had a few hundred Kroner in it, thankfully, so you could get started with any ancillary research independent of Headquarters if you needed more information.
(Since this is your RFQ, voting is BY PLAN ONLY. If you need information that wouldn't be regularly available {ex: how many hours is our 8-cylinder engine good for?} you get ONE voting line to research this in from your budget. QM can invalidate any research project or autofinish it because it would be accessible knowledge.)