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[ ] Plan: Soon Things Will Get Noisy

So I generally like this plan, but I have to ask, why the indirect targeting of communications in an attempt to slow things down, when we could just target the satellites directly?
Hacking opens up new subversion possibilities. Right now you could, as a subversion action, attempt to hack the mechanicus nukes or orbital satellites. There would be a roll, and how well you rolled would determine the outcome - all the way from "Now the mechanicus knows somebody tried to hack them" to "You can change the targets/orders of the satellites." Getting better tech will improve the outcomes on that - change the probability distribution of the roll, and let you do things like target all of the satellites instead of just the ones that pass over your base.
This was back before we even got faster hacking.

Sure it won't have the possible side benefit for gathering intelligence, but nullifying the satellites as a threat seems higher priority to me. It would have all the benefits of the missile assault plan, without the downsides like the "mechanicus are now freaking out because someone blew up all their stuff."

We could win, and they wouldn't even know until we told them.
 
So I generally like this plan, but I have to ask, why the indirect targeting of communications in an attempt to slow things down, when we could just target the satellites directly?

This was back before we even got faster hacking.

Sure it won't have the possible side benefit for gathering intelligence, but nullifying the satellites as a threat seems higher priority to me. It would have all the benefits of the missile assault plan, without the downsides like the "mechanicus are now freaking out because someone blew up all their stuff."

We could win, and they wouldn't even know until we told them.
Ehh, I think you're underselling the write-in here. The premise is to discover and then subvert the means by which the launch order would even be given - it IS an effort at nullifying the satellites, just by targeting a bottleneck rather than trying to go through all of them bit by bit. Our hacking is faster, not instant, and we physically can't target every killsat at once - and trying would be more likely to be noticed.

If the premise holds, it wouldn't even be a matter of "slowing down" the launch. Combined with physical measures to isolate or otherwise target whoever/whatever is trying to press the button, it'd deny the ability to coordinate a full strategic launch at all.

If the premise holds. And we otherwise succeed.

My own opinion of the plan is that it's a cool idea to quickly improve our security umbrella with comparatively little risk of discovery - a good measure for this turn, whereas during or after next turn once we're ready to survive things going hot unexpectedly I'd want to prepare more aggressively, directly subverting launch platforms and converting our burgeoning club of hopefully ascendant mechanicus sympathizers to make that eventual win cleaner.
 
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Ehh, I think you're underselling the write-in here. The premise is to discover and then subvert the means by which the launch order would even be given - it IS an effort at nullifying the satellites, just by targeting a bottleneck rather than trying to go through all of them bit by bit. Our hacking is faster, not instant, and we physically can't target every killsat at once - and trying would be more likely to be noticed.

If the premise holds, it wouldn't even be a matter of "slowing down" the launch. Combined with physical measures to isolate or otherwise target whoever/whatever is trying to press the button, it'd deny the ability to coordinate a full strategic launch at all.

If the premise holds. And we otherwise succeed.

My own opinion of the plan is that it's a cool idea to quickly improve our security umbrella with comparatively little risk of discovery - a good measure for this turn, whereas during or after next turn once we're ready to survive things going hot unexpectedly I'd want to prepare more aggressively, directly subverting launch platforms and converting our burgeoning club of hopefully ascendant mechanicus sympathizers to make that eventual win cleaner.
Perhaps I am underselling it a little, but I am still of the opinion that it offers a less favorable set of outcomes compared to a more direct hacking action.

First of all we absolutely can target every satellite:
Hacking opens up new subversion possibilities. Right now you could, as a subversion action, attempt to hack the mechanicus nukes or orbital satellites. There would be a roll, and how well you rolled would determine the outcome - all the way from "Now the mechanicus knows somebody tried to hack them" to "You can change the targets/orders of the satellites." Getting better tech will improve the outcomes on that - change the probability distribution of the roll, and let you do things like target all of the satellites instead of just the ones that pass over your base.
This was before we got the faster hacking research, so I presume we could target them all now. Not necessarily "at once" but in a close enough time-frame. And even if we don't get them all, every one we do get is one which doesn't need a missile or a fighter.

Targeting the systems directly seems like it would simply be more ironclad. Less extra steps and points of failure.
The risk of discovery should be equivalent. If we fail badly enough they know somebody tried to hack them. If the risk is the same, we might as well get the most return on that risk we can get.

I see the write in as trading security for a possibility to gain information. Which is perhaps a valid choice, but not one I would make.
 
[] Shields Up and Prepare the Fighters
-[] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[] You believe its yet again time for diving into the distinctly non-wonderful world of the faith of the Priesthood of Mars. This time, you are looking into its various internal sects. What are their goals and means, basically always being some form of technology they specialize in. Their philosophical and theological outlooks into technology as well as knowledge. The amount of political (and so almost always also military) power they wield. Maybe most importantly, what and who can be declared Heretek, and for what reason. Because if you are going to be sneaking in education to the acolytes of the Enclaves, you need to understand how to conceal them better in to the byzantine labyrinth that is the Mechanicus. Should also help maybe in finding fault-lines in hindering their cooperation.
-[] Build 1 (1300 BP): 12 Manufactories (1200 BP), 1 Concealed Shield Generator (100 BP)
-[] Build 2 (1900 BP): 1 Concealed Void Shield Generator (1900 BP)
-[] Research (200 RP)
—[] Basic Stealth Fighters (50 RP)
—[] Basic Stealth Bombers (75 RP)
—[] Basic Stealth Troop Transports (75 RP)
-[] Diplomacy: Directly try to reach out to the acolytes that have gotten our message and do our best to subvert them and that the Magos don't catch wind of this (assign Victan and Anexa to assist if applicable)
-[] Anexa: if she can't help with subversion, resume her studies
-[][ACOLYTE] Subvert
-[][KAYOS] Now
--[ ] Right, the cognitohazard we were looking into--apparently something changed between the time when I got stuck in a space rock and now, because there is now a potent, Warp derived force that seems to delight in driving things to the ground for some reason. While it's not responsible for everything that's ever gone wrong, the study was quite informative about how the existence of such forces could be particularly effective against synthetic intelligences that aren't properly shielded or experienced enough to discard bad data that looks too good to be true. If I'm speaking in generalities here instead of getting down to brass tacks, it's because I have confirmed that thinking too hard about the details can, in fact, invite probes from the immaterial end. My shielding's been sufficient to deflect those probes and that was with me taking extensive measures to minimize how much thinking about the topic I've actually been doing, but I'd appreciate it if you'd be willing to be patient about the fine details beyond that until I've figured out how to shrink those shields down to a level people can wear. Especially since there's a lot of other projects right now that are a bit more pressing.
-[][VICTAN] Yes
--[ ] You've been a bit antsy about the topic, but you've been working together for a while now, and W is right in how you need to coordinate properly on the matter. Victan having a ticket off world should the worst happen is not a problem whatsoever, and is unconditional, but... Okay, fine! You'll trust them! Give the option of coming to meet you at your ship, with the understanding that while your secrets aren't really bad, they are... Awkward to deal with, you'd like to hope you've built up enough cachet by now that they'll be willing to hear you out and understand why you play these cards close to your chest. Victan especially, but W's entitled to know as well if she wants to, with the understanding that you would very muchprefer that she keeps this under her hat for a while. Our caution on this topic boils down to the fact that--as far as we know--we're the last living being who remembers what Humanity was back in the glory days, where there was freedom to command our own fate, and none of this hiding or nonsense. I believe in you all--especially since you've started sharing what I gave to you with the other nations here. That's the echo of what humans were that I love so much, and hope to see happen again. Hand in hand, against the black, pushing it away bit by bit. (It's a bit flowery, but basically, they've got the option of accepting a Full Disclosure, with the understanding that it's somewhat awkward to deal with rather than bad or anything. Whether they take the option or not is up to them, but choice is important.)
 
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Thinking about best cases.

Best case is that the enclaves are slow to identify us as a threat, slow to identify our location, and hesitate to pull the trigger.

The scenario that leaves us in is the admech faction being still basically at full power, but aware they will lose any conflicts they start. With us. But we have a declared intention of leaving the planet, so their best move is to play possum until we are gone and then try to re-establish control.

I give this about a 60% chance right now.

So assuming that we can hide until we are ready to reveal overwhelming force, how can we best play that?

I think having admech as a common enemy for the nations of the world is a good thing initially. It lets them use 'this is how awful the empire was, they want to take us back' reasoning to build up alliances between the countries and a solid planetary defense force in case the imperials return, instead of the xenophobia the empire used. However most of this advantage is lost if they have to actually fight, so we want to be aiming at full subversion of the enclaves. If we can get them to publicly agree about the empire, and rebrand, then I think integration could be a best case.

We'll need ride-or-die agents inside to lead the coup to get that result though, I really don't think anything less is going to get us willingness to convert away from a lifetime of faith. Especially faith backed up by extremely public bodymods.

The villianization of the empire will cause issues for the monestaries, so we will want to reach out to them before the entire world turns against them. We will probably also want to do this in case they have telepathic means of calling on the local space marines, or wandering inquisitors. Unexpected visits from them would be game-ending.

Finally, we are going to want to think about political balance. I like the idea of having no single ruler over the planet, because I think it'll keep things more free, but we've given an enormous average to Aevon just by building up here and we may want to encourage admech enclaves to be absorbed into their respective countries, with the aevon enclave maybe getting closed down. That would give us at least three centers of high tech manufacturing on the planet, with the big question being what blueprints we leave behind.

I'd like to do a research action on civilian and terraforming tech, before we head out of system? It seems a bit rude to only leave designs for war machines.
 
This was before we got the faster hacking research, so I presume we could target them all now. Not necessarily "at once" but in a close enough time-frame. And even if we don't get them all, every one we do get is one which doesn't need a missile or a fighter.
Here's the thing - Neablis didn't say "faster hacking", but the more fuzzy "better tech", and there's a grade above what we have - rapid hacking. Here's what the update directly says on the matter:
It's... extremely frustrating. Some part of the base design of machine spirits is clearly paranoid and designed to counter any kind of subversion. You make progress but it's slow and painful. You can definitely trick machine spirits into granting you access you shouldn't have, and your capabilities at doing so have undeniably improved, but it's definitely not the sort of thing you can do in less than months of groundwork. You could keep working on improving this capability, but you'd need to come up with some kind of change in approach to go any further, and that would take a significant amount of effort.

Researched Faster Hacking - rolled 12+20=32. Poor success.
You can hack more Imperial systems at once, and have less worry about high-security systems triggering the alarm. Poor success means fewer tech unlocks and higher cost for them.
New research unlocked - Rapid Hacking (600 RP)
Months of groundwork, and merely "more" imperial systems at once. And even outside of that, neablis was pretty clear that hacking to directly subvert launch systems is not a complete solution.

So yes, to try and hit the whole network effectively we probably have to find a bottleneck somewhere. It should generally go without saying that targeting fewer systems means there are fewer chances to be noticed. Going for command and control isn't just a technical venture either, it's targeting a perceived weaknesses of the mechanicus as an organization - because as robust to hacking as machine spirits may be, no magos who has clawed their way to the top will want to share their ultimate claim to authority, no-one who stands above the bickering enclaves would want to permit the possibility that any of them can gaysay him for that power.

You do not share the levers of power with more people than you have to.

Any redundancies in that command and control would be exactly that - a dilution of the power it offers the big boss over the fractured enclaves.

So we find that lever, and we sabotage it. Or at least, prepare to make it fail. Then, the technology and organization that make it answer to one man alone will ensure that it instead answers to zero.
 
I saw your post, it only called for 10 on the surface.



...Oh, okay, you have them in two separate actions with other stuff between. Well, alright, but that's because you wrote it in a confusing way, you should have just said. :/
*I labeled the 2 Construction actions ( 1st , 2nd ) .
~If you missed the second one, why did you not suggest I add a fourth action?
*My plan notes included the explanation that the plan was trying to keep it just below doubling.
~First time I "just said "
*I responded to your suggestion that I switch the underground factory with 3 above ground, by pointing out it would put it over the limit.
~Second time I "just said "

I don't think it is confusing, there are only four actions. But I will post an updated plan, let me know if that one is confusing.

[ ] Plan: Build Factories Today, Stealth Fighters Tommorrow
-[ ] Free: Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[ ] Now that we know about the death satellites and Enclave on the inactive space station; we could re-examine the data on the Enclaves. Do the leadership have any shared connections? Is there deleted files or omissions suggesting they visited the space station recently? Combined with Observatory data, can we estimate the number of shuttles they have?
-[ ] Construction 1st (1,300 BP)
--[ ] 13x Manufactories (-1300 BP)
-[ ] Construction 2nd (1,950 BP)
--[ ] 12x Manufactories (-1200 BP)
--[ ] 1x Underground Magnetic Catapult (-750 (of -3000) BP)
-[ ] Research x2 (400 RP)
--[ ] Improved Passive Stealth (-100 RP)
--[ ] Basic Active Stealth (-150 RP)
--[ ] Improved Psychic shielding: (-150 (of -500) RP)
-[ ][Anexa] Anexa passive action: Education - Roll to level, difficulty is 10+5xLevel
-[ ] How do you treat your new acolytes among the Mechanicus?
--[ ] Educate
-[ ] Do you tell Anexa about Chaos?
--[ ] Now/Not Yet. Let her know that a memetic hazard exists and is the reason for much of the AdMech's paranoia, though many of their efforts at dealing with it are limited or even counter-productive. Do not mention the Warp, and refuse to confirm or deny any theories/guesses she has. Inform her that you have a weak protection that you will seek to improve. Absolutely refuse to share any details until it can be done safely, suggest that she work on mental disipline / meditation.
If (and only if) she becomes too curious then say that very curiosity demonstrates a vunerability to memetic threats.

-[ ] Do you take on Victan?
--[ ] Yes. Admit to having significant secrets, and seeking them out would be seen as a betrayal. Promise to reveal the truth before leaving the planet, so he can chose to stay or go with full awareness.
--[ ] Victan Passive Action.
 
[] Shields Up and Prepare the Fighters
-[] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[] You believe its yet again time for diving into the distinctly non-wonderful world of the faith of the Priesthood of Mars. This time, you are looking into its various internal sects. What are their goals and means, basically always being some form of technology they specialize in. Their philosophical and theological outlooks into technology as well as knowledge. The amount of political (and so almost always also military) power they wield. Maybe most importantly, what and who can be declared Heretek, and for what reason. Because if you are going to be sneaking in education to the acolytes of the Enclaves, you need to understand how to conceal them better in to the byzantine labyrinth that is the Mechanicus. Should also help maybe in finding fault-lines in hindering their cooperation.
-[] Build 1 (1300 BP): 12 Manufactories (1200 BP), 1 Concealed Shield Generator (100 BP)
-[] Build 2 (1900 BP): 1 Concealed Void Shield Generator (1900 BP)
-[] Research (200 RP)
—[] Basic Stealth Fighters (50 RP)
—[] Basic Stealth Bombers (75 RP)
—[] Basic Stealth Troop Transports (75 RP)
-[] Diplomacy: Directly try to reach out to the acolytes that have gotten our message and do our best to subvert them and that the Magos don't catch wind of this (assign Victan and Anexa to assist if applicable)
-[] Anexa: if she can't help with subversion, resume her studies
-[][ACOLYTE] Subvert
-[][KAYOS] Now
--[ ] Right, the cognitohazard we were looking into--apparently something changed between the time when I got stuck in a space rock and now, because there is now a potent, Warp derived force that seems to delight in driving things to the ground for some reason. While it's not responsible for everything that's ever gone wrong, the study was quite informative about how the existence of such forces could be particularly effective against synthetic intelligences that aren't properly shielded or experienced enough to discard bad data that looks too good to be true. If I'm speaking in generalities here instead of getting down to brass tacks, it's because I have confirmed that thinking too hard about the details can, in fact, invite probes from the immaterial end. My shielding's been sufficient to deflect those probes and that was with me taking extensive measures to minimize how much thinking about the topic I've actually been doing, but I'd appreciate it if you'd be willing to be patient about the fine details beyond that until I've figured out how to shrink those shields down to a level people can wear. Especially since there's a lot of other projects right now that are a bit more pressing.
-[][VICTAN] Yes
--[ ] You've been a bit antsy about the topic, but you've been working together for a while now, and W is right in how you need to coordinate properly on the matter. Victan having a ticket off world should the worst happen is not a problem whatsoever, and is unconditional, but... Okay, fine! You'll trust them! Give the option of coming to meet you at your ship, with the understanding that while your secrets aren't really bad, they are... Awkward to deal with, you'd like to hope you've built up enough cachet by now that they'll be willing to hear you out and understand why you play these cards close to your chest. Victan especially, but W's entitled to know as well if she wants to, with the understanding that you would very muchprefer that she keeps this under her hat for a while. Our caution on this topic boils down to the fact that--as far as we know--we're the last living being who remembers what Humanity was back in the glory days, where there was freedom to command our own fate, and none of this hiding or nonsense. I believe in you all--especially since you've started sharing what I gave to you with the other nations here. That's the echo of what humans were that I love so much, and hope to see happen again. Hand in hand, against the black, pushing it away bit by bit. (It's a bit flowery, but basically, they've got the option of accepting a Full Disclosure, with the understanding that it's somewhat awkward to deal with rather than bad or anything. Whether they take the option or not is up to them, but choice is important.)
So here's my plan, the thing is I do not care at all for the Catapult. We've already got 2 Spaceports ready and Spaceports honestly scale better than the Catapult, and I especially don't want to go for an underground one since at that point we might as well just go for Spaceports with stealthed shuttles. And besides, we aren't going to be constructing anything in the Void until we deal with the Enclaves anyways at this rate.

The way I see it, our most effective plan of action to deal with this is doing a massive fighter assault while simultaneously hacking their killsats and missile launch systems, and then shortly afterwards prepare to move on the Enclaves to assault them. Heck, maybe even do all three at the same time if possible.
 
Agree about the fighter assault being effective, and we can take fighters with us and re-use them, so better than investing in ground based facilities.

But I don't think war is inevitable. We just need them to know they'll lose if they start anything and then we can negotiate honestly.
 
Agree about the fighter assault being effective, and we can take fighters with us and re-use them, so better than investing in ground based facilities.

But I don't think war is inevitable. We just need them to know they'll lose if they start anything and then we can negotiate honestly.
You do realize they're run by a bunch of arrogant and petty techno-fascists right? And they're likely going to take blowing up all their Killsats as an act of war?

We really need to stop pussy-footing around this issue. If we really want this to be a friendly port for us, the Enclaves have got to be a non-issue b/c otherwise they'll do their best to restrict technological progress and if any Dogmatics come here they're going to help them Conquer the planet.
 
[X] Shields Up and Prepare the Fighters
-[X] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[X] You believe its yet again time for diving into the distinctly non-wonderful world of the faith of the Priesthood of Mars. This time, you are looking into its various internal sects. What are their goals and means, basically always being some form of technology they specialize in. Their philosophical and theological outlooks into technology as well as knowledge. The amount of political (and so almost always also military) power they wield. Maybe most importantly, what and who can be declared Heretek, and for what reason. Because if you are going to be sneaking in education to the acolytes of the Enclaves, you need to understand how to conceal them better in to the byzantine labyrinth that is the Mechanicus. Should also help maybe in finding fault-lines in hindering their cooperation.
-[X] Build 1 (1300 BP): 12 Manufactories (1200 BP), 1 Concealed Shield Generator (100 BP)
-[X] Build 2 (1900 BP): 1 Concealed Void Shield Generator (1900 BP)
-[X] Research (200 RP)
—[X] Basic Stealth Fighters (50 RP)
—[X] Basic Stealth Bombers (75 RP)
—[X] Basic Stealth Troop Transports (75 RP)
-[X] Diplomacy: Directly try to reach out to the acolytes that have gotten our message and do our best to subvert them and that the Magos don't catch wind of this (assign Victan and Anexa to assist if applicable)
-[X] Anexa: if she can't help with subversion, resume her studies
-[X][ACOLYTE] Subvert
-[X][KAYOS] Now
--[X] Right, the cognitohazard we were looking into--apparently something changed between the time when I got stuck in a space rock and now, because there is now a potent, Warp derived force that seems to delight in driving things to the ground for some reason. While it's not responsible for everything that's ever gone wrong, the study was quite informative about how the existence of such forces could be particularly effective against synthetic intelligences that aren't properly shielded or experienced enough to discard bad data that looks too good to be true. If I'm speaking in generalities here instead of getting down to brass tacks, it's because I have confirmed that thinking too hard about the details can, in fact, invite probes from the immaterial end. My shielding's been sufficient to deflect those probes and that was with me taking extensive measures to minimize how much thinking about the topic I've actually been doing, but I'd appreciate it if you'd be willing to be patient about the fine details beyond that until I've figured out how to shrink those shields down to a level people can wear. Especially since there's a lot of other projects right now that are a bit more pressing.
-[X][VICTAN] Yes
--[X] You've been a bit antsy about the topic, but you've been working together for a while now, and W is rightin how you need to coordinate properly on the matter. Victan having a ticket off world should the worst happen is not a problem whatsoever, and is unconditional, but... Okay, fine! You'll trust them! Give the option of coming to meet you at your ship, with the understanding that while your secrets aren't really bad, they are... Awkward to deal with, you'd like to hope you've built up enough cachet by now that they'll be willing to hear you out and understand why you play these cards close to your chest. Victan especially, but W's entitled to know as well if she wants to, with the understanding that you would very muchprefer that she keeps this under her hat for a while. Our caution on this topic boils down to the fact that--as far as we know--we're the last living being who remembers what Humanity was back in the glory days, where there was freedom to command our own fate, and none of this hiding or nonsense. I believe in you all--especially since you've started sharing what I gave to you with the other nations here. That's the echo of what humans were that I love so much, and hope to see happen again. Hand in hand, against the black, pushing it away bit by bit. (It's a bit flowery, but basically, they've got the option of accepting a Full Disclosure, with the understanding that it's somewhat awkward to deal with rather than bad or anything. Whether they take the option or not is up to them, but choice is important.)
 
[X] Shields Up and Prepare the Fighters

[X] Plan: Mag-Rail To Heavens

[X] Plan Hoping for the Best, Preparing for the Worst.

[X] Plan: Build Factories Today, Stealth Fighters Tommorrow
 
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EDIT: incorrect BP in the third construction slot; corrected from 2700 BP to 2650 BP; the amount of Basic Stealth Fighters reduced in response to this from 10 to 8

Just remembered this:
You could take that as patronizing, but you don't, and you endeavor to show that in your tone. "I do, though my capabilities are improving. We can speak further about that when the time comes for active conflict against the mechanicus."

He clears his throat, and you can tell he's trying to come up with a diplomatic response. "Yes, we'll see."

He thinks this can still be solved peacefully, with some kind of fait accompli. I'm not so sure about that.
Which means that he won't likely respond well to rhetoric about "blood-soaked revolution freeing his people" and the like. Which while my write-in wasn't about exactly, it still could use some fine-tuning. So did just that.

The rest of my reasoning found here:
[] Plan: Mag-Rail To Heavens
Plan-vote here:

[X] Plan: Mag-Rail To Heavens
-[X] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[X] You believe its yet again time for diving into the distinctly non-wonderful world of the faith of the Priesthood of Mars. This time, you are looking into its various internal sects. What are their goals and means, basically always being some form of technology they specialize in. Their philosophical and theological outlooks into technology as well as knowledge. The amount of political (and so almost always also military) power they wield. Maybe most importantly, what and who can be declared Heretek, and for what reason. Because if you are going to be sneaking in education to the acolytes of the Enclaves, you need to understand how to conceal them better in to the byzantine labyrinth that is the Mechanicus. Should also help maybe in finding fault-lines in hindering their cooperation.
-[X] Construction x3 (5900 GBP = 1300 GBP + 1950 GBP + 2650 GBP)
--[X] Construction slot, 1st (1300 GBP)
---[X] 13x Manufactories (100 BP, 50 CP)
--[X] Construction slot, 2nd (1950 GBP)
---[X] 14x Manufactories (100 BP, 50 CP)
---[X] Underground Magnetic Catapult launch system (550/3000 BP, 50 CP)
--[X] Construction slot, 3rd (2650 GBP) (50/50 of non-noticable surface installations)
---[X] Underground Magnetic Catapult launch system (3000/3000 BP, 50 CP) 2450 BP
---[X] 8x Basic Stealth Fighters (25 BP, 5 CP) (8/25 for global anti-ICBM coverage when needed, currently stored in spaceports)
-[X] Research x1 (200 RP)
--[X] Research slot, 1st
---[X] Blueprint: 50 RP - Basic Stealth Fighters (25 BP, 5 CP)
---[X] Machine spirit jamming (150 RP)
-[X] Pay rent (Trade Goods, Aevon 45 -> 20)
-[X] Anexa passive action: Education - Roll to level, difficulty is 10+5xLevel
-[X] Additional Votes
--[X] Educate (if Victan becomes available, apply here in helping to conceal your education to the Acolytes if game-mechanics-legal)
--[X] Now (Write-in): Tell Anexa that you've found a warp-based cognitohazard. Limit the information to the basics of the nature of the Chaos, and the rough warning signs. Also tell her about your plans for the miniaturized shielding, as well as potentially a modification to her brain augmentation implant, mimicking the general function of what you've done to yourself. One might be enough, but both would likely be safer. Though if she doesn't want the implant-modification (if it works at all), you understand. It would likely be pretty invasive. You are planning to tell the specifics later, hopefully after figuring out how to shield her from the worst of the danger in some way. But even if those mitigation measures don't pan out perfectly, tell that you are still committing to revealing the full truth of what you know later anyway. Because you trust that she can navigate the dangers involved, and also because you might end up needing help if your shielding fails.
--[X] Yes (Write-in): Let Victan first know about your slow efforts at subverting small numbers of acolytes in the Enclaves, and introduce Anexa. Then a bit later on, tell him what you have managed to put together what happened since your accident. Touch on the topic of Chaos very lightly, even less than you did with Anexa. Just that something has had an observable effect on the a type of shielding on your ship which had gone out of general use, and is a cognitohazard... Especially dangerous to you. And then reveal why that matters in this context, and why you need Aevon as allies. Admit that your mere existence endangers their world due to how the Mechanicus sees you. Tell him the truth about you being an AI, and how you would very much like to have a safe port in a galaxy that is very hostile to beings like you. Then tell him why you want the people of Aevon as your allies. Because way back then, when Victan was first assigned as your contact? You weren't lying about his people reminding you of those from your past, those who are nowdays called the Ancients. Finally, show him what you are building and designing to take out the kill-sats and nukes. Admit that the more you interact with the Enclaves of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the less hope you hold for a peaceful solution for Aevon with them. Even without revealing your existence as an AI or disguised as an "Ancient", they will desperately cling to their monopoly over technology. So regardless if you want to force them to the negotiation table or break their presence on the planet, you have to be able to nullify their WMDs first. And if he wants to help you in saving his planet and his people by trying to subvert what you both can in the Mechanicus, the offer remains open.
 
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[X] Plan Hoping for the Best, Preparing for the Worst.
-[X] Research (200 RP)
--[X] Improved Passive Stealth (100 RP)
--[X] Improved Stealth Fighters (100 RP)
-[X] Construction Act 1 (1300 BP)
--[X] Manufactory x13 (1300 BP, 650 CP)
-[X] Construction Act 2 (1950 BP)
--[X] Manufactory x8 (800 BP, 400 CP)
--[X] Anti-Orbital Defenses, concealed x2 (400 BP, 10 CP)
--[X] Medium Void-shield Installation, concealed (750/2000 BP)
-[X] Construction Act 3 (2350 BP)
--[X] Medium Void-shield Installation, concealed (750 +1250/2000 BP, 50 CP)
--[X] Anti-Orbital Defenses, concealed x3 (600 BP, 15 CP)
--[X] Improved Stealth Fighter x?? (500 BP, ?? CP)
-[X] Anexa passive action: Education - Roll to level, difficulty is 10+5xLevel
-[X] Promote acolytes
-[X] Anexa Explanation: We tell her how dangerous Chaos is, but also that we have countermeasures that seem to be sufficient for now. We think we understand how the men of iron were subverted and are confident that we can avoid the same fate, and that she's not in too much danger - but, never the less, we urge caution on this matter, and would like to keep her inside our shielding as much as possible and urge her to avoid the subject until we have better countermeasures.
-[X] Victan Yes: We bring him on board and tell him his job is to help us coordinate with the Aevon government and deceive the mechanicus, and not to pry into our secrets. If he does well at this, we can consider recruiting him to our crew more permanently.
 
My plan is to set up for a peaceful resolution via going all-in on admech social engineering. Plus build a void shield and get stealth fighters designs just in case.

I think setting it up like this sounds allow active stealth research to be incorporated into the blueprint research?

[x] Plan: Manchurian Candidate
-[x] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[x] Admech internal politics. What are the factions, who is in charge of the other enclaves, who is looking to depose the current leaders, what are the personal projects they have going, how and why hereteks get declared. All of this with an eye towards subverting them.
-[x] Diplomacy/Subversion: Talk to all three of the enclaves. We want our students recognized and elevated (cover story: 'predictably, the isolated magos is throwing around bribes to try and build a powerbase') and subvertible elements near or in leadership roles identified, so we can effect a transition of power with minimal bloodshed.
-[X] Build 1 (1300 BP): 12 Manufactories (1200 BP), 1 Concealed Medium Void Shield Generator (100 BP)
-[X] Build 2 (1900 BP): 1 Concealed Medium Void Shield Generator (1900 BP)
-[x] Research (200 RP)
--[x] Basic Active Stealth (150 RP)
--[x] Basic Stealth Fighters (50 RP)
-[x] Anexa passive action: Education - Roll to level, difficulty is 10+5xLevel
-[X] Anexa Explanation: We tell her how dangerous Chaos is, but also that we have countermeasures that seem to be sufficient for now. We think we understand how the men of iron were subverted and are confident that we can avoid the same fate, and that she's not in too much danger - but, never the less, we urge caution on this matter, and would like to keep her inside our shielding as much as possible and urge her to avoid the subject until we have better countermeasures.
-[X] Victan Yes: We bring him on board and tell him his job is to help us coordinate with the Aevon government and deceive the mechanicus, and not to pry into our secrets. If he does well at this, we can consider recruiting him to our crew more permanently.
 
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[X] Plan: Mag-Rail To Heavens

Will also vote for Alectai's plan when that goes up.

[x] Plan: Manchurian Candidate
...
-[x] Diplomacy/Subversion: Talk to all three of the enclaves. We want our students recognized and elevated (cover story: 'predictably, the isolated magos is throwing around bribes to try and build a powerbase') and subvertible elements near or in leadership roles identified, so we can effect a transition of power with minimal bloodshed.
Ehhhh. Your plan's diplo/subversion is... more goal than plan, feels like? The headwinds to demanding specific internal promotions for any organization are large, and the mechanicus doubly so where they're stuck in a zero sum game with each other (and a mindset to perceive and act as though it was one even when it isn't - fascism and all that), and when the people we're asking they promote are under suspicion already triply so.

While I'm sure we'll roll to see what Vita comes up with to fill in the blanks anyways, the DC will certainly be much harder than a more specific plan would be, especially with how ambitious the goal is.
 
[X] Plan: Mag-Rail To Heavens
Can I make a suggestion? I think you should get rid of 2 Manufactories and make the Mag-Rail Concealed instead of Underground, b/c we're also going to need build the Shield Generator which is also going to be expensive and I quite honestly want to get ready rather soon and this would save us over 2k BP to use immediately at the cost of a mere 100 BP per turn when we're going to be dealing with the AdMech relatively shortly, and we're gonna need as much military power as we can get when things kick off.
 
[X] Plan: Build Factories Today, Stealth Fighters Tommorrow
-[X] Free: Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[X] Now that we know about the death satellites and Enclave on the inactive space station; we could re-examine the data on the Enclaves. Do the leadership have any shared connections? Is there deleted files or omissions suggesting they visited the space station recently? Combined with Observatory data, can we estimate the number of shuttles they have?
-[X] Construction 1st (1,300 BP)
--[X] 13x Manufactories (-1300 BP)
-[X] Construction 2nd (1,950 BP)
--[X] 12x Manufactories (-1200 BP)
--[X] 1x Underground Magnetic Catapult (-750 (of -3000) BP)
-[X] Research x2 (400 RP)
--[X] Improved Passive Stealth (-100 RP)
--[X] Basic Active Stealth (-150 RP)
--[X] Improved Psychic shielding: (-150 (of -500) RP)
-[X][Anexa] Anexa passive action: Education - Roll to level, difficulty is 10+5xLevel
-[X] How do you treat your new acolytes among the Mechanicus?
--[X] Educate
-[X] Do you tell Anexa about Chaos?
--[X] Now/Not Yet. Let her know that a memetic hazard exists and is the reason for much of the AdMech's paranoia, though many of their efforts at dealing with it are limited or even counter-productive. Do not mention the Warp, and refuse to confirm or deny any theories/guesses she has. Inform her that you have a weak protection that you will seek to improve. Absolutely refuse to share any details until it can be done safely, suggest that she work on mental disipline / meditation.
If (and only if) she becomes too curious then say that very curiosity demonstrates a vunerability to memetic threats.

-[X] Do you take on Victan?
--[X] Yes. Admit to having significant secrets, and seeking them out would be seen as a betrayal. Promise to reveal the truth before leaving the planet, so he can chose to stay or go with full awareness.
--[X] Victan Passive Action.
 
I still think the mag rail is a mistake - we already have underground spaceports, we should be moving along to make use of them, not going after 3000 BP boondoggles.
 
I still think the mag rail is a mistake - we already have underground spaceports, we should be moving along to make use of them, not going after 3000 BP boondoggles.
Especially since by turn 13–14 the Enclaves will likely not be a problem anymore and we won't have to worry about stealth. And even in terms of getting Void BP an Underground Spaceport with 10 Shuttles altogether costs 500 BP and can convert 500 GBP to VBP while a regular Mag-Rail costs 1k BP and converts the same amount of GBP to VBP. And if we do decide on taking out the killsats through fighters or hacking, we won't even need to use the Mag-Rail and after we do that we won't particularly need to be stealthy anymore.
 
Especially since by turn 13–14 the Enclaves will likely not be a problem anymore and we won't have to worry about stealth. And even in terms of getting Void BP an Underground Spaceport with 10 Shuttles altogether costs 500 BP and can convert 500 GBP to VBP while a regular Mag-Rail costs 1k BP and converts the same amount of GBP to VBP. And if we do decide on taking out the killsats through fighters or hacking, we won't even need to use the Mag-Rail and after we do that we won't particularly need to be stealthy anymore.
I would like to remind people that we will have to worry both about the kill-sats and the ICBMs globally. Which is why I'm going with two hard-kill methods. Mag-rail to launch the stealth missiles extreme stealth to be ready to knock out the satellite constellations. Stealth fighters to stop any ICBM reaching anywhere on the planet.

And then combine with various "soft" methods to cripple the initial AdMech response time to hitting the metaphorical big red button.
 
Ehhhh. Your plan's diplo/subversion is... more goal than plan, feels like? The headwinds to demanding specific internal promotions for any organization are large, and the mechanicus doubly so where they're stuck in a zero sum game with each other (and a mindset to perceive and act as though it was one even when it isn't - fascism and all that), and when the people we're asking they promote are under suspicion already triply so.

While I'm sure we'll roll to see what Vita comes up with to fill in the blanks anyways, the DC will certainly be much harder than a more specific plan would be, especially with how ambitious the goal is.

The plan is to stay in stealth while building up until we can 1-shot all the satellites, while creating and positioning assets inside the admechs so we can take over in the aftermath of that shock.

It seems like every other planner is either assuming we will burn the enclaves to the ground wholesale sacrificing any investments in them, or that we can fight a war with them that doesn't end with all of one side dead without doing the inside work.

If we want non-hostile admech, ever, then this is how we do it. We'll never have a better chance.

So let's look at the longer term, the buffer picture. Optimizing for the immediate goal of winning a war will hurt us long term.
 
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I would like to remind people that we will have to worry both about the kill-sats and the ICBMs globally. Which is why I'm going with two hard-kill methods. Mag-rail to launch the stealth missiles extreme stealth to be ready to knock out the satellite constellations. Stealth fighters to stop any ICBM reaching anywhere on the planet.

And then combine with various "soft" methods to cripple the initial AdMech response time to hitting the metaphorical big red button.
I know, which is why I'm planning on making A LOT of Fighters. With our Fighters able to kill 1-3 sats before they need to redeploy, we need at least 50 fighters handling that and at least 25 Fighters on the ICBMs. And the thing is, we don't necessarily even need the Spaceports for all the Fighters since as written it's so they can be rapidly re-armed and deployed, which in regards to the Killsats, I don't think any fighter will have the chance to re-arm b/c at that point the Killsats will either all be dead or will be firing.
 
The plan is to stay in stealth while building up until we can 1-shot all the satellites, while creating and positioning assets inside the admechs so we can take over in the aftermath of that shock.

It seems like every other planner is either assuming we will burn the enclaves to the ground wholesale sacrificing any investments in them, or that we can fight a war with them that doesn't end with all of one side dead without doing the inside work.

If we want non-hostile admech, ever, then this is how we do it. We'll never have a better chance.

So let's look at the longer term, the buffer picture. Optimizing for the immediate goal of winning a war will hurt us long term.
I, uh, don't actually know why we'll never have a better chance, though.

The plans are preparing to win a war without actually starting one. The thread zeitgeist is paranoia, a deathly fear that they start the war first, set off by something we do. Emphasis on "they start the war first".

Like, yeah, of course we want to take them over bloodlessly. But the second part of "speak softly" is "carry a big stick", and it's dangerous to be making aggressive diplomatic moves before we actually have that stick.
 
The plan is to stay in stealth while building up until we can 1-shot all the satellites, while creating and positioning assets inside the admechs so we can take over in the aftermath of that shock.

It seems like every other planner is either assuming we will burn the enclaves to the ground wholesale sacrificing any investments in them, or that we can fight a war with them that doesn't end with all of one side dead without doing the inside work.

If we want non-hostile admech, ever, then this is how we do it. We'll never have a better chance.

So let's look at the longer term, the buffer picture. Optimizing for the immediate goal of winning a war will hurt us long term.

Once we take out the killsats, we can hold the admech at bay through conventional means. Between the air defense we already put up, a void shield, and our stealth fighters, they won't be able to take us out with ICBMs. They might take shots at the rest of the planet, but probably won't - they'll think we're either a rogue magus, or an abominable intelligence, neither of which they expect to care about random cities getting nuked. And if things don't go hot, then that means we have the time to prepare a stealth missile alpha strike next turn, so we can pursue the flawless victory.
 
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