Valkyria Chronicles: Drums of War

1900 Part 1


"Ká:nien, now that we have our marching orders, I have some messages for you to deliver."

"Of course, sir." replies Ká:nien, finding a nearby bench and pulling out his pen and pad of paper. "Ready to receive dictation."

"To the Secretary of the Army: The Development Bureau will, in the coming months, likely be putting out tenders for new carbines, machine guns, armor, and other supplies. We would like the highest priorities posthaste. Put all the usual pleasantries around that."

"'Sincerely, Chester Adams, etc, etc.' got it."



Plan Goals
(Bring army readiness to mediocre)
(Bring at least 20 points of ragnite onto the market)
(Complete at least 5 Electrification Stages)
(Expand at least two docks to Level 3, and at least 1 dock to level 5)


Tracked Statistics

Civil Morale: Very High
Taxes are low, butter is flowing, and for the average citizen, conflict is a distant affair. While there is substantial unrest from labor organizing, exploitation of the workforce, the temperance movement has cut down apple orchards across a couple of states, and there are a hundred other minor fires, right now, things are, on average, getting better. People feel like there is more money in their pockets than there was this time last year, and the year before that.

Political Support: Medium
At this point, you are an experiment, and are being rushed into service. Most of your staff is pillaged from other government offices, the machinery is pulled from spares, and the mandates are loose, to say the least. So right now, you need to hit the ground running with a program, the more aggressive the better.

Status of Factions
Status of Factions is less parties in power, and more factions within those parties. There are strong bonds between the parties at this point in history, and oftentimes a faction is heavily regionally associated. For example, the Progressives are strong in the northeastern cities, while the Agrarianists are strong in the southern plantation belt. However, Progressives and Agrarians are part of the same Federalist Party.

Federalist Party
Progressives: Strong Support
The progressive party is a relatively elitist and reformist party. While not strictly motivated by noblesse oblige, the core of the progressive movement is middle and upper class old money that sees the conditions of sweatshops and factories and of lower class life in general and feels a desire to help, rather than drawing from the lower class themselves.

Agrarianists: Weak Support
The Agrarianists or the Grange as they refer to themselves, are reformist smallholders for the most part. Their agenda favors a lax monetary policy to ease debt burdens, federal intervention in agriculture to make it more financially sustainable, creation of farming cooperatives, and other means for small farmers to maintain crop prices at a living wage.

Proletarians: Weak Support
Proletarians are a bottom up group, largely in favor of workers rights, unionization, regulations on business and a host of other issues largely relating to workers' power. You are likely to do little to address many of their issues, aside from producing large numbers of well paying government jobs, which is reflected in their limited support.


Democratic Party
Jacksonians: Weak Opposition
Jacksonians, as they term themselves, largely build their position on opposition to the federal government. While building army and naval strength is, as they see it, within your remit, they feel other activities should rightfully be left to the states.

Fiscalists: Ambivalent
The Fiscalists are, more than anything else, budget hawks. While happy to spend money on pet projects, they usually tie these projects to tax increases, particularly tariffs intended to protect their businesses.

N/B: These are the most prominent groups right now, there are others, but in the interest of time they are not being mentioned right now.

Readiness of Forces
(Readiness of forces is on a 5 point scale, Low, Mediocre, Medium, High, Very High, measuring how confident that force is in prosecuting its expected duties. A Very High readiness military that expects to only defend its home nation would likely falter if sent abroad, while a Mediocre military that is meant to go on expeditions may prove quite hardy fighting close to their own bases.)

Army: Low
Vinland's army is far more of a pro-forma force than an actual military. Only a few tens of thousands strong, and the vast majority of them dotted in penny packets around the periphery, mostly manning various naval fortresses, the Army lacks in nearly all aspects of modern warfighting, with rifles, uniforms, fixed artillery (mostly Dahlgren pattern naval rifles in casemates) and little else. It cannot be relied upon to do anything other than fight a war on Vinland's shores, and even that it expects to do poorly.

Navy: Medium
Vinland's navy is a solid, professional force. At its core is an oversized fleet of battleships of a relatively modern class and type, displacing just over ten thousand tons, and carrying 13 inch naval rifles, with an array of different calibers of secondary and tertiary armament. Beyond that, much of the navy is of an older pattern, steel hulled hybrid rigged ships, slow and cumbersome under sail, and underpowered under steam.

Current‌ ‌Economic‌ ‌Issues:‌ ‌
Energy:‌ ‌Limited Infrastructure

• Electrical Infrastructure: 3/21 Stages completed
• Coal: +6
• Oil: +4
• Ragnite: +2

Logistics:‌ Plentiful

• Rail: +7
• Naval: +2
• Road: +1

Food:‌

• Quantity: Plentiful
• Quality: Low to Mixed

Health: Mixed, Plentiful in some areas, poor in others.
Capital‌ ‌Goods‌: +6
Consumer‌ ‌Goods:‌ Plentiful and highly varied
Labor:‌ ‌+4, +1 per turn


Resources :250 resources per turn 0 in reserve


Infrastructure (4 Dice, +5 Bonus)

[ ] Post Road Expansions (Phase 1)
Vinland's road network is not awful. However, it is deeply sectionalized. Major cities and their immediate surroundings are quite modern, with metalled, cobbled, or macadamized roads, modern signalling, and assorted other advantages. However, there are large stretches of the country where roads are, at best, dirt tracks. If they exist at all.
(Progess 0/400: 10 resources per die) (+5 Road Logistics)
(Progress 0/500: 10 resources per die) (+4 Road logistics)
(Progress 0/600: 10 resources per die) (+3 Road Logistics)
-[ ] Request Bids for Contracting

[ ] Railroad Amenities Improvements
Vinland has a substantial rail network, especially connecting major cities. However, the quality of that rail is a very mixed bag, especially in the south and west of the country. Launching government-funded programs to improve signalling, encourage best practices, improve stations, replace timber trestles with more capable and less maintenance heavy construction, and otherwise upgrade facilities will increase both safety and throughput for many of the nation's growing rail routes.
(Progress 0/250: 10 resources per die)
-[ ] Request Bids for Contracting

[ ] Electrification
Build and expand the electrical grid in the seven regions of Vinland, constructing power plants, switches, transformers, power poles and everything else needed to bring electrical energy to the people.
-[ ] Dawnbreak (Stage 3)
While major cities and transport corridors are increasingly electrified, there are substantial areas, including a number of major towns, that have not yet received electricity. For the most part, this is a process of building or contracting to build power lines, rather than power plants, although they will need substantial work as well.
(Progress 0/150: 10 resources per die)
--[ ] Request Bids for Contracting
Daylit (Stage 1)
While the Daylit region has a number of local power plants in areas like Shikaakwa, the overall region is still very much in the dark. While the region is ripe for wind power, it would have to be a secondary supply, with cities and heavy industry relying more on thermal power projects.
(Progress 0/250: 15 resources per die)
(Progress 0/250: 20 resources per die)
(Progress 0/200: 10 resources per die)
--[ ] Request Bids for Contracting

-[ ] Dusk March (Stage 1)
The Dusk March sees vast inequality, and great poverty in many cases. While historically one of the wealthier parts of the nation, its economy, powered by luxury goods, has suffered greatly in recent decades as demand and export markets have shifted. The need to put down the cavaliers that ruled the region has caused further disruption.
(Progress 0/350: 15 resources per die)
(Progress 0/450: 15 resources per die)
(Progress 0/250: 15 resources per die)
--[ ] Request Bids for Contracting

-[ ] Still Reaches (Stage 1)
The Still Reaches are in some ways still very much a frontier. While the region's mountains are wonderful for hydroelectric power, much of the skill and labor will have to be imported, making it a noticeably more expensive project.
(Progress 0/200: 20 resources per die)
(Progress 0/300: 25 resources per die)
(Progress 0/200: 20 resources per die)
--[ ] Request Bids for Contracting
-[ ] Old Vins (Stage 2)
Old Vins is extensively urbanized, and many of those urban centers are extensively electrified. Electrification projects would be primarily focused on joining those centers together into a regional network, and working on a number of hydroelectric power stations from local waterfalls and other hydraulic features of the region.
(Progress 0/150: 10 resources per die)
(Progress 0/250: 15 resources per die)
--[ ] Request Bids for Contracting
-[ ] Valkyrian Aegis (Stage 1)
The Aegis is largely less settled, with a substantial number of nomadic and seminomadic tribes ranging the region. While electrification is not going to be cheap, the region also does not demand much in the way of power.
(Progress 0/200: 10 resources per die)
(Progress 0/300: 10 resources per die)
(Progress 0/400: 15 resources per die)
--[ ] Request Bids for Contracting
-[ ] Deep Reaches (Stage 1)
The deep reaches are not fully explored, and are the far frontier. While settlement is extremely light, each settlement will need localized power generation, dramatically increasing costs, especially given that those power generators will need to be shipped in from the industrialized east.
(Progress 0/275: 15 resources per die)
(Progress 0/350: 15 resources per die)
(Progress 0/450: 20 resources per die)
--[ ] Request Bids for Contracting


Light and Chemical Industry (4 dice)

[ ] Guncotton Plants
Guncotton, or nitrocellulose, is the basis of modern smokeless powders, made by the treatment of organic fibers with nitric acid. It is used as a mining explosive and in most modern munitions, everywhere from the smallest pistol rounds to the largest of shells.
(Progress 0/250: 15 resources per die)
-[ ] Request Bids for Contracting

[ ] New Salem Armory Upgrades
The New Salem Armory is one of the larger government owned and operated armories in the United States of Vinland. Unfortunately, it is also deeply outdated, with the last major order given to it being the later model trapdoor rifles.
(Progress 0/150: 15 resources per die)
-[ ] Request Bids for Contracting

Heavy Industry (4 dice, +10 bonus)

[ ] Dockyard Expansion
Ships and boats of all stripes are absolutely critical to the economy, and the war effort. Investing in the dockyards will enable Vinland to expand, build, and maintain, the merchant marine, the fisheries, and the navy. Upgraded dockyards increase the maximum size of ships they are capable of producing as well as their total production capacity.
-[ ] Level 1
Level one dockyards are small, designed to construct small boats, fishing vessels, and assorted lightweight craft. While important for coastal trade, the coast guard, and sporting and similar, these yards are best suited for building a new skill base, rather than practical production of shipping with major economic impact. (Progress 0/100: 15 resources per die)
--[ ] Casborough
---[ ] Request Bids for Contracting
--[ ] Palmetto
---[ ] Request Bids for Contracting
-[ ] Level 2
Level 2 shipyards are the home of midsized shipbuilding, up to about two and a half thousand tons of displacement. (Progress 0/200: 15 resources per die)
--[ ] Shikaakwa
---[ ] Request Bids for Contracting
-[ ] Level 3
Level 3 shipyards are serious shipyards, capable of building all but the largest ships afloat. While throughput limited, these are best suited to building naval cruisers, and large merchant vessels. (Progress 0/400: 20 resources per die)
--[ ] Hunter's Point Shipyard
---[ ] Request Bids for Contracting
-[ ] Level 4
Level 4 shipyards are substantially larger and more capable. Designed to be able to build anything currently afloat, these shipyards are designed for limited throughput, but can build battleships, great ocean liners, and some of the largest bulk carriers, such as the haulers that carry Vinland's grain to Valois and Edinburgh. (Progress 0/800: 20 resources per die) (-1 Capital Goods)
--[ ] Charlestown
---[ ] Request Bids for Contracting
--[ ] Providence
---[ ] Request Bids for Contracting
-[ ] Level 5
A level 5 shipyard is a modern wonder of mass production, designed to put ships in the water at a rapid pace, and built with modernization in mind, as ships continue to grow. Machine shops, massive cranes, and the capacity to fabricate nearly anything from raw materials makes these an all in one stop for truly modern shipbuilding. (Progress 0/1600: 20 resources per die) (-2 Capital Goods)
--[ ] New Amsterdam
---[ ] Request Bids for Contracting
--[ ] Portsmouth
---[ ] Request Bids for Contracting

[ ] Cold Springs Artillery Foundry
One of the larger artillery foundries operated by the United States, the Cold Springs facility is woefully out of date, with large portions of it still designed around older cast iron modes of production rather than modern steel. Upgrading and refitting it to modern standards will be a substantial project, but it will be useful for whatever modern guns are adopted by the military.
(Progress 0/350: 15 resources per die)
--[ ] Request Bids for Contracting


[ ] Roosevelt Naval Gun Factory Expansion
While Roosevelt's naval gun factory is substantial and relatively modern, it is not large enough. With demand for naval rifles expected to double, if not triple, in the coming years and decades, a major investment now will create capacity for future naval shipbuilding efforts, and potentially expansion of the naval fort system.
(Progress 0/250: 15 resources per die)
--[ ] Request Bids for Contracting


Raw Materials and Exploitation 4 dice

[ ] Ragnite Prospecting Expeditions
Sending prospectors into the reaches, where there are vast tracts of federal land awaiting exploitation, is going to be a substantial project, with no certain payoff. (5 resources per die)

[ ] Metals Prospecting Expeditions
Similar to ragnite, but with somewhat different tools and methods, metals prospecting, especially for high quality ores, is an uncertain process, but one that could seriously enrich the United States if pursued boldly. (5 resources per die)

[ ] National Refinery Program
While Vinland is one of the world's major suppliers of oil and oil products, refining is a bit more of a mixed bag, with significant amounts being refined in particularly wasteful ways, with a sizable fraction of the crude left over as unprofitable or inconvenient to refine waste to be burned, or dumped into local waterways. Building a number of high tech refineries, either for the government, or in partnership with existing major oil companies, will noticeably enhance the yield of useful products from the refined crude while producing less waste.
(Progress 0/350: 20 resources per die)
--[ ] Request Bids for Contracting
--[ ] Request Bids for Partnerships

[ ] Military Readiness Programs
Public health is military health, and Vinland has seen noticeable declines due to a number of factors in the recent decades.
-[ ] Vaccination Campaigns
While the health of the people is under threat from multiple directions, one of the major factors is infectious disease. Treatments exist, but an ounce of prevention is often far more effective than even a pound of cure, and vaccines are an excellent method of prevention. (20 resources per die)
-[ ] Malnutrition Treatment Protocols
Malnutrition, and especially childhood malnutrition, are a major cause of the decline of healthy young men available for military service. Nothing cures it like a proper diet can, and a broad approach to encourage doctors to prescribe nutritious foods, ensure children eat at least one healthy and filling meal at school during lunch, and government funded food programs to supplement the diets of the poor will do much. (5 resources per die)
-[ ] Standardized Housing Projects
Crowded housing, poor temperature controls, and more, all contribute to poor health. Establish minimum construction and maintenance standards for housing in the various regions and states of Vinland and enforce them. (10 resources per die)
-[ ] Water Safety Standards
Contaminated water is a major vector of all sorts of diseases. While most major urban areas have access to water treatment facilities, many rural communities draw their water from wells or open bodies of flowing or stagnant water. Increase the availability of clean, potable water. (15 resources per die)


Bureaucracy 3 dice
[ ] Army Machine Gun Trials
While the navy has adopted the Palmcrantz machine gun, it is too large and heavy for infantry or cavalry use. Serious machine gun trials, with the full intent to adopt something suitable, would be a good starting point for Vinland's army.

[ ] Field Artillery Trials
Between guncotton, breech loading, and ragnite, modern field artillery has become an entirely different beast from what it was a generation ago. With significant portions of the military using either pneumatic dynamite guns or old style cannon for their field artillery needs, something modern is very much desired, especially if it is planned to fight in the fields of Valois.

[ ] Carbine Trials
While the Blackfeather carbine is a fairly impressive gun, with a long history of use, it is still a black powder lever action weapon. It has been surpassed by modern weapons in foreign use, and needs replacement with a weapon that is capable of handling modern propellants. A modern carbine would be of great help to not only the cavalry, but also artillery, engineers, and assorted other units that need a weapon smaller and handier than a full length military rifle.

[ ] Munition Armor Trials
Advances in metallurgy in the past thirty years have begun a true revolution in armor design, at least in Europa. Treated armor steel, aluminum protection, and other experimental concepts must be assessed for full scale military deployment, though this is a fairly mature field with few true surprises in design. It remains an open question which units will adopt added protection, and how much they wish to add.



Mechanics Partnerships, Contracting, and Trials

From a purely mechanical perspective, all three work in basically similar ways. You look for bids, I generate two to four, and then you get to pick which one or ones you want to invest in. From there, however, you get different projects. These projects are started by throwing a die at the problem, this represents the bureaucratic overhead of starting in on looking for people/getting the word out that you want submissions for a new item.

In a partnership, you now have a limited amount of time to put dice and resources into a joint project between you and an industrial company. There is a time pressure, typically 1-3 turns, but the net cost is going to be cheaper than doing the project entirely by yourself.

In a contract, you are going to be paying more than if you did the work internally, but you can spend just resources over time, and save all of your dice for other projects.

Finally, in a Trial, you pick a winner (or in some potential outside cases where you have a particularly broad trial, winners) and then have to move on to building capacity to produce said equipment.

Partnership Example
National Widget factory
-[ ] Request Bid for Partnership

On results post

[ ] Omni mega corp
3 dice, 60 resources, 1 turn, 30 percent government ownership, 25 resource penalty

[ ] Local Contracting Industries
2 dice, 40 resources, 2 turns, 20 percent government ownership, 15 resource penalty

Contract Example
National Widget Factory
-[ ] Request bid for contract

On results post
[ ] Genericus Industrial Applications
3d30 progress per turn, 20 resources per turn

[ ] Smalltown Construction
5d10 progress per turn, 10 resources per turn

Trials Example
National Widget Trials

On results post

[ ] Expensive Artisan Work
Get a 400 Progress, 30 Resources per Die project for handcrafted widgets that are probably pretty good

[ ]Mass Production Are Us
Get a 300 Progress, 20 Resources per Die project for piles of widgets that are still passable


A/N1: Take a couple hours for discussion, and a couple days for voting. Will do the management through

A/N2: I know times are tough for everyone right now, but the tip jar is at Ko-fi.com/ithillid