Well I can work with that.
In large part because a ICE 250 is bloody close to the ICE 240 and oh boy does that engine allow for a lot of solid tank options or developing new stuff
The worry I have is the technical knowledge of our actual engineers. They can run a vedette factory, sure, but we don't even have introtech on our battlemechs. If we try to upgrade the vedette factory to build something else, whats the chance we break it.
The easiest way to handle getting more out of the factory is IDing what the bottle neck is. If it's chassis we could divert spare engines to other projects. If it's engines we might be able to build a production line for another engine size to make something with those spare chassis
(This assumes it doesn't cut into spare part production)
We will want to look at our AC5 production and see how much slack we have. If we have enough slack we can make feild guns for our infantry.
The worry I have is the technical knowledge of our actual engineers. They can run a vedette factory, sure, but we don't even have introtech on our battlemechs. If we try to upgrade the vedette factory to build something else, whats the chance we break it.
[X] Plan: Don't Jump the Ship
-[X] Reach out to Andiron and Baltazar to organize a meeting discussing the recent expansion of the Circinus Federation
-[X] "William, you need to speak out about this before they do." She raised her hands to stall any objections, "I know, they're still going to try to rake your name through the mud. But our voters are smart, they'll know that you aren't the monster they're trying to paint you as." (DC: 9, ~28% Chance of Success. Failure: -1 Stability)
-[X] Purchase the Manor (-200 from Treasury. Reroll the first 1 in any diplomatic talks with the Lyran Commonwealth, once per Quarter.)
-[X] Request favorable trade terms for Shouldersian Merchants (~17% Chance of Economy Increasing by 1 at the start of each Year, until Quarter 1 of 3006.)
-[X] Station a Unit on Kahakai Kuna
--[X] Create a New Unit using the Vedettes in your Reserves
-[X] Expand Economic ties with Kahakai Kuna (+30 to Base Income. The next change in Economy on Kahakai Kuna will be replicated on Giant's Shoulders, good or bad.)
The Lexington, reprising its role as a diplomatic vessel, traveled to Andiron and Balthazar to deliver the Foreign Ministry's request for a security conference between the three nations.
Although Andiron was initially hesitant, the diplomats aboard the Lexington eventually convinced them to agree to a meeting. In order to accomplish this, they first had to agree to a number of conditions put forward by Andiron's planetary administration.
(Select Three)
[ ] The Attendance of the President
- In order to prove that they were serious about this meeting, Andiron demanded that the President herself attend it.
[ ] The Attendance of Balthazar's Director
- To agree to the meeting, they requested you convince the Balthazarian ruler to attend as well. While it would normally be quite difficult to do so, it would prove a much simpler task if the President did so as well. (DC: 9/7, Failure: Andiron does not attend the Security Conference)
[ ] Meeting on Neutral Ground
- Rather than risking their own territory by allowing foreign security teams to land, or risking their diplomats being taken hostage on Shouldersian or Balthazarian lands, Andiron instead suggested they meet on Althastan under the supervision of the Lyran Commonwealth's Armed Forces. (Cannot be chosen with 'The Presence of Andironian Troops as Bodyguards)
[ ] The Presence of Andironian Troops as Bodyguards
- Not wishing to be taken off guard, they insisted that Andiron be allowed to bring their own forces to serve as security for all attending parties. (Cannot be chosen with 'Meeting on Neutral Ground')
[ ] Total Confidentiality
- The Shouldersian government must agree to keep this meeting a secret from anybody not directly involved until an agreement is signed. This may provoke some outrage in Parliament as they object to their exclusion from negotiations and the lack of opportunity to make any demands of their own. (~28% Chance of Stability dropping by 1 after Agreement is signed. Cannot be chosen with Complete Transparency.)
[ ] Complete Transparency
- The three nations must announce this meeting to all, and have it be shown as a sign of mutual friendship and cooperation. However, such a clear sign of cooperation would also be an indication to the Circinus Federation that they must accelerate their plans... (Circinus Federation begins preparations for the invasion of Giant's Shoulders, Andiron, or Balthazar. Cannot be chosen with Total Confidentiality.)
Giant's Eye News with Timothy Trevors
Timothy glanced at the timer on the other side of the stage, his heart pounding in his chest. He was only moments away from starting the biggest interview of the year, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of trepidation. There was a lot riding on this interview, and depending on how things went it could make or break his career.
He jumped a bit as the buzzer went off, though he quickly composed himself and began reading from the autocue. "Our main story tonight covers the alleged corruption of one William Lancashire. Many of you know him as a leading figure in the Global Prosperity and Unity Party, but to others he is but a corrupt remnant of the old guard."
He turned in his chair to face the screen to his right. "Well, he's here today to tell his side of the story. We'll be taking calls afterwards to see if if viewers opinions have changed after hearing Lancashire's side of the story."
Glancing at the autocue one last time, Timothy focused his attention on his interviewee. "Mr. Lancashire, thank you for joining us today. What is your response to the allegations that have been made against you?"
William Lancashire shifted in his seat, trying not to grimace at the question. "I think they are preposterous, especially considering that no all money was put back in place by the end."
Timothy nodded at his response. "Yes, we have pointed that out to our viewers. Whether they object to your actions or not, they do have to acknowledge that you didn't steal anything."
William gave a firm nod of his own in return, "That is exactly what I've been trying to tell my allies in Parliament. However, they've already had some members of the opposition start whispering falsehoods into their ears to turn them against me!"
Timothy chuckled. "Yes, I do believe there have been some rumors going around that you spent those funds on a mistress? Quite the accusation, considering your expressed lack of interest in the fairer sex."
"Yes, there have been some rather odd claims about me floating around in the halls of Parliament." William sighed. "However, I have managed to convince my closest allies of my innocence, and my voters have also expressed their faith in my integrity!"
The rest of the interview went quite well, with Timothy managing to humanize William after he'd had his name dragged through the mud by so many media outlets. It did lead to a small dip in GPUP's overall popularity, but it was far less impactful than their political opponents had hoped for.
Rolling in C-Bills
DC: 10
- Results: 11 (2d6: 5, 6), Success!
The arrival of technical experts from Landung's industrial district heralded the entry of Shouldersian commercial interests into the economy of New St. Andrews. Dozens of merchants and representatives from larger companies had already arrived to begin scouting out the local market, wishing to take advantage of all the benefits their government had negotiated for them.
The combination of subsidies and a complete lack of tariffs meant that the flow of C-Bills into the Shouldersian economy had increased by nearly a fifth in only a few months!
Not all of this came from Shouldersian exports though, at least not directly. The increased economic ties with Kahakai Kuna lead many of their local firms to start 'exporting' to Giant's Shoulders, only to have entirely unrelated merchants take those goods and sell them to New St. Andrews without having to pay a single tariff.
Of course, this meant that the government's coffers were stuffed nearly to the brim. Many in parliament had already begun making suggestions on how to spend those funds, with some groups even suggested an across-the-board tax cut be implemented to 'lessen the burden on job creators'.
[ ] Implement a Tax Cut (Economy drops by 1, ~58% Chance of Stability increasing by 1)
[ ] Do not Implement a Tax Cut
Drafting Legislation
Samantha took a deep breath as she prepared herself to address Parliament, "Representatives of the people, I come to you today to discuss last November's incursion into Shouldersian space. We know now that there are those out there who have begun to view us as a target, one without fangs to defend itself from assault."
She grinned, "We showed them that they were wrong, but we cannot count on always managing to turn them away at the door. Should they land on Shouldersian territory, we must be willing and able to defend ourselves!"
Standing silent for a moment, she sighed. "I've come to speak of something that is not popular anywhere it is spoken of. Should the enemy break down the door and land in our cities, there must be a reserve of men and women willing to take up arms and fight against them!"
"What we need is-
[ ] to implement a system of selective service." (32% Chance of Stability decreasing by 1.)
- An Infantry Battalion can be called forth in any settlement during wartime.
[ ] to establish the framework for a draft." (58% Chance of Stability decreasing by 1.)
- An Infantry Regiment can be called forth in any settlement during wartime. The longer this Regiment is called to serve, the higher chance there is of Stability decreasing.
[ ] to form a new regiment for the defense of our planet!"
- A new Infantry Regiment is created in exchange for 240 Currency over the next two quarters.
[ ] to form three new regiments for the defense of our planet!"
- Three new Infantry Regiments are created in exchange for 720 Currency over the next two quarters.
Looking good so far, no major disasters this round.
[X] Plan military build up.
-[X] The Attendance of the President
-[X] The Attendance of Balthazar's Director
-[X] Meeting on Neutral Ground
-[X] Do not Implement a Tax Cut
-[X] to form three new regiments for the defense of our planet!"
We just bought a nobels villa in the Commonwealth, let's use it for the meeting?
Gonna need the money to prep for Operation: Counter Confederation Invasion.
3 New regiments! New Jobs! Explore the stars! Protect your homes! Join up now!
[] convert our native mech battlion into a three Battlion Combat Teams. Over the next three years each mech company will have 2 companies of vedette tanks and a regiment of motor infantry raised and permently attached to them.
Looking good so far, no major disasters this round.
[X] Plan military build up.
-[X] Meeting on Neutral Ground
-[X] Do not Implement a Tax Cut
-[X] to form three new regiments for the defense of our planet!"
We just bought a nobels villa in the Commonwealth, let's use it for the meeting?
Gonna need the money to prep for Operation: Counter Confederation Invasion.
3 New regiments! New Jobs! Explore the stars! Protect your homes! Join up now!
[] convert our native mech battlion into a three Battlion Combat Teams. Over the next three years each mech company will have 2 companies of vedette tanks and a regiment of motor infantry raised and permently attached to them.
That could work as well, though you'd still have to pay about 720 Currency over the next Two Quarters. Also remember than some of your Vedette Factory output is currently being dedicated to building up a unit on Kahakai Kuna.
Thank you for reading! Just wanted to point out, you need to pick three terms for the Security Meeting.
That could work as well, though you'd still have to pay about 720 Currency over the next Two Quarters. Also remember than some of your Vedette Factory output is currently being dedicated to building up a unit on Kahakai Kuna.
I suppose that would depend on if you want to stop things at a Battalion on Kahakai Kuna, or if you want to go for the full Regiment. If you just do a Battalion, then starting in Quarter 3 of this year you'd be able to start directing the factory's output elsewhere.
[X] Plan military build up with extra large fries
-[X] Meeting on Neutral Ground
-[X] The Attendance of the President
-[X] The Attendance of Balthazar's Director
-[X] Do not Implement a Tax Cut
-[X] To augment our native mech battlion into three Mech Combat teams with the possibility of further augmenting them as we see the results from our efforts. (Raise three regiments of motor infantry and attach them to each of the mech companies for 720 Currency over the next two quarters.)
[ ] to implement a system of selective service." (32% Chance of Stability decreasing by 1.)
- An Infantry Battalion can be called forth in any settlement during wartime.
I like this idea given the most because it will give us a larger pool of talent to draw from in the long run. But I would prefer to modify it toward something like the Swiss model of reserve service where all men do their service take their rifles home and then do refresher training until they age out of military utility.
[ ] to implement a system of selective service." (32% Chance of Stability decreasing by 1.)
- An Infantry Battalion can be called forth in any settlement during wartime.
[ ] to establish the framework for a draft." (58% Chance of Stability decreasing by 1.)
-An Infantry Regiment can be called forth in any settlement during wartime. The longer this Regiment is called to serve, the higher chance there is of Stability decreasing.
What exactly is the difference between these two besides the odds of stability decreasing?
[ ] to implement a system of selective service." (32% Chance of Stability decreasing by 1.)
- An Infantry Battalion can be called forth in any settlement during wartime.
[ ] to establish the framework for a draft." (58% Chance of Stability decreasing by 1.)
-An Infantry Regiment can be called forth in any settlement during wartime. The longer this Regiment is called to serve, the higher chance there is of Stability decreasing.
What exactly is the difference between these two besides the odds of stability decreasing?
[ ] to form three new regiments for the defense of our planet!"
- Three new Infantry Regiments are created in exchange for 720 Currency over the next two quarters.
If the former, we currently don't have enough money for 3 Infantry Regiments. If it's payment via installments over 2 turns, then we should be able to afford it with 412 currency left in the treasury.
Hey guys about my battlion combat team scheme if we make the BCT infantry moterized and give them AC5 feild guns then that's 51 to 105 AC5s worth of fire power backing up each of our mech companies once the BCTs are at full strength.
[] Plan: Matters of Stability
-[] The Attendance of the President
-[] The Attendance of Balthazar's Director
-[] Complete Transparency
-[] Implement a Tax Cut (Economy drops by 1, ~58% Chance of Stability increasing by 1)
-[] to form three new regiments for the defense of our planet!"
The tax cut is painful since it brings us back to Economy 3/5, but we absolutely need that extra stability since our stability buff from police funding is about to expire in 3 turns. War is at our doorstep, and those typically have major effects on stability, so if we want to win and keep our head before the Circinus Federation or angry locals overthrow us, we'll need to raise our Stability as high as possible so we can take the inevitable stability drops if we ever lose a major battle.
That means no draft since that has a chance to hurt our stability further. We'll have to spend to expand our military as much as possible, very much worth it since we'll be going to war.
As for the alliance itself, complete transparency is absolutely required to build support for the war. We need our populace behind us otherwise, the alliance won't live long. Similarly, the President and the Director must be present to further sell the alliance's legitimacy and seriousness against the Federation. We seem to use a 2d6 for this quest, so a DC of 7 and 9 would be 58% and 28% chance of success respectively.
Hey guys about my battlion combat team scheme if we make the BCT infantry moterized and give them AC5 feild guns then that's 51 to 105 AC5s worth of fire power backing up each of our mech companies once the BCTs are at full strength.
I'm actually not sure if we can produce AC5 Field Guns. Our Infantry Regiments don't seem to have any at least. Similarly, the Vedette factories only produce 6 Vedettes per Quarter. How many Quarters would it take to equip the BCT with 2 Companies of Vedettes? We won't have much time before the Federation attacks, so the BCT may not be ready by the time the war starts.
[X] Plan: Matters of Stability
-[X] The Attendance of the President
-[X] The Attendance of Balthazar's Director
-[X] Complete Transparency
-[X] Implement a Tax Cut (Economy drops by 1, ~58% Chance of Stability increasing by 1)
-[X] to form three new regiments for the defense of our planet!"
The tax cut is painful since it brings us back to Economy 3/5, but we absolutely need that extra stability since our stability buff from police funding is about to expire in 3 turns. War is at our doorstep, and those typically have major effects on stability, so if we want to win and keep our head before the Circinus Federation or angry locals overthrow us, we'll need to raise our Stability as high as possible so we can take the inevitable stability drops if we ever lose a major battle.
That means no draft since that has a chance to hurt our stability further. We'll have to spend to expand our military as much as possible, very much worth it since we'll be going to war.
As for the alliance itself, complete transparency is absolutely required to build support for the war. We need our populace behind us otherwise, the alliance won't live long. Similarly, the President and the Director must be present to further sell the alliance's legitimacy and seriousness against the Federation. We seem to use a 2d6 for this quest, so a DC of 7 and 9 would be 58% and 28% chance of success respectively.
I'm actually not sure if we can produce AC5 Field Guns. Our Infantry Regiments don't seem to have any at least. Similarly, the Vedette factories only produce 6 Vedettes per Quarter. How many Quarters would it take to equip the BCT with 2 Companies of Vedettes? We won't have much time before the Federation attacks, so the BCT may not be ready by the time the war starts.
3 years of dedicated production. I don't expect to have them fully stood up before the invasion but each mech company having a 1000 or so infantrymen that are used to working with them will help them punch above their weight class even without the tanks.
3 years of dedicated production. I don't expect to have them fully stood up before the invasion but each mech company having a 1000 or so infantrymen that are used to working with them will help them punch above their weight class even without the tanks.
I'm fine with integrating motorized/mechanized infantry into our Mech formations, though since our factory is occupied at the moment, I'd rather we omit the Vedettes from the plan entirely.
On a slightly related note, is the name Battalion Combat Team something we saw in canon or is it something you made up for the quest? Mainly asking since "Team" sounds too small for such a big formation of mechs and infantry.
The tax cut is painful since it brings us back to Economy 3/5, but we absolutely need that extra stability since our stability buff from police funding is about to expire in 3 turns.
I'm fine with integrating motorized/mechanized infantry into our Mech formations, though since our factory is occupied at the moment, I'd rather we omit the Vedettes from the plan entirely.
On a slightly related note, is the name Battalion Combat Team something we saw in canon or is it something you made up for the quest? Mainly asking since "Team" sounds too small for such a big formation of mechs and infantry.
I'm going to borrow that part of your vote for my own. Edited the wording, but it should still be the same.
[X] Plan: Matters of Stability
-[X] The Attendance of the President
-[X] The Attendance of Balthazar's Director
-[X] Complete Transparency
-[X] Implement a Tax Cut (Economy drops by 1, ~58% Chance of Stability increasing by 1)
-[X] to augment the 1st National Guard's Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Companies with three Motorized Infantry Regiments!" (3 Motorized Infantry Regiments are raised and attached to the 1st National Guard in exchange for 720 Currency over the next two quarters)
To augment our native mech battlion into three Mech Combat teams with the possibility of further augmenting them as we see the results from our efforts. (Raise three regiments of motor infantry and attach them to each of the mech companies for 720 Currency over the next two quarters.)
Quick question Fullyautomagic, but would the price of the infantry regiments we're attaching to the mech companies go up if we choose to make it fully mechanized instead of motorized? The former having some form of light vehicle support instead of just transports does sound attractive.
