Valkyria Chronicles: Drums of War

Hazard said:

It might be better to double down on one of them at a time when requesting partnerships, to increase the chances of a good offer and avoid loading up more commitments than we can handle.

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I think we're gonna need both of them operational within 2 turns to have a comfortable munitions margin to complete our goals, which is why I want to try to get both as partnerships this turn, if there's a chance one of them might be a 2-3 dice project that can be done next turn we need to hop on that. 138-(6x11)=72, so we'd need 5 turns worth of production from NVMC+3 Turns worth from Edystone to get 74 munitions, or 4+4 turns to get exactly 72 munitions, or 5 turns of Edystone and 4 turns of NVMC for 80 munitions. I don't think a partnership of this size would be a commitment that has to complete within six months (our timespans have been leniant) and we are kind of in a hurry to get this done. Double-pumping one project to get an ideal contract only to put a single die on the other one the next turn doesn't feel like it's really getting the most bang for our buck, but if it makes you happy, go on ahead.

Here's a plan that focuses heavily on trying to hit our plan goals for the army above all else.

With Infrastructure we are nearing the point where we can call our promise for electrification complete, so I'd like to try to lower our overall spending by gambling on the low odds of completion and use the spare dice on starting work on the cheaper project of road expansions. The state of our roads are pretty dire, though I would like to take a detour for railroad amenities later after the first phase of roads are finished.

Light and Chemical Industry focuses solely on trying to reach our munitions target. Get the torpedo factory online right now and look for partnerships for the munitions complex and shell plant, hopefully we get offers that we can complete one after the other.

Heavy Industry also focuses solely on trying to reach our artillery target. Simply finishing stage 2 of the Model 1897 Artillery Procurement right now gets us a very good way towards being able to hit it, if Cold Springs manages to finish as well then we can comfortably hit our artillery goal without a single extra dice spent on it for the rest of the plan. If it doesn't then we should still be able to hit it with just Cold Springs being finished next turn, otherwise we'll need to do stage 3 of the Model 1897.

Raw Materials & Exploitation simply finishes the Coulerouge partnership and keeps working on the last part of Thebacha. We're a good deal of the way towards being able to afford all our current dice activation with only a 40 resource deficit with this plan, so I'm comfortable with working on finishing Thebacha instead of starting work on Dettah for the smaller income boosts.

Finally bureaucracy simply works on getting a sectional administrator and more dice. I could be convinced to change to delaying the administrator for a bit in order to double down on getting more dice, but for now I've opted to just do both.

[X] Plan Army Stockpiling Woes
-[X] Infrastructure +5 (4 Dice, 55R)
--[X] Post Road Expansions (Phase 1) (0/400): 1d, 10R
--[X] Electrification
---[X] Daylit (Stage 1) (86/250): 2d, 30R [11.28%]
---[X] Old Vins (Stage 3) (154/250): 1d, 15R [10%]
-[X] Light and Chemical Industry +0 (4 dice, 60R)
--[X] National Torpedo Factory Mississauga: 2d, 60R
--[X] Naugatuck Valley Munitions Complex
---[X] Request Bids for Partnerships: 1d
--[X] Eddystone Shell Plant
---[X] Request Bids for Partnerships: 1d
-[X] Heavy Industry +15 (9 dice, 205R)
--[X] Dockyard Expansion
---[X] Level 3
----[X] Hunter's Point Shipyard (191/400):
-----[X] Ongoing Contract: Verreault Navigation 1d40, 5R
----[X] Shikaakwa (Progress 134/400)
-----[X] Ongoing Contract: Shikaakwa Shipbuilding Company, 3d60, 20R
---[X] Level 5
----[X] New Amsterdam (401/1600)
-----[X] Ongoing Contract: Charles & Tredegar, 3d30, 20R
-----[X] Ongoing Contract: Federated Shipyards, 3d40, 25R
--[X] Cold Springs Artillery Foundry (174/350): 2d, 30R [15.4%]
--[X] Model 1897 Field Artillery Procurement (Stage 2): 7d, 105R
-[X] Raw Materials and Exploitation +0 (6 dice, 75R)
--[X] Coulerouge Ragnite Mines (Phase 3): 3d, 45R
--[X] Thebacha Ragnite Mines (Phase 3) (55/400): 3d, 30R
-[X] Bureaucracy +0 (2 dice, 0R)
--[X] Bureaucratic Reorganization
----[X] Appoint Section Administrators
-----[X] Bureaucracy: 1d
----[X] Recruit Sectional Experts
-----[X] Bureaucracy: 1d
Resources: 355 per turn, 185 in reserve, 540 total
Spending: 395/540, 145 leftover + 20? income

Upon review, I've found errors in one of our shipyard results, but I think that Fireiry has hit the nose on the head for what we need to do.

[X] Plan Army Stockpiling Woes

I'll have my own plan up shortly with 'some actual dockyard investment' in Heavy Industry if seven dice slammed into a single partnership makes you nervous.

[X] Plan Praying For Munitions
-[X] Infrastructure (4/4 Dice, +5 bonus, 55 R)
--[X] Post Road Expansions (Phase 1) (0/400) (1 die, 10R)
--[X] Electrification - Daylit (Stage 1) (86/250) (2 dice, 30 R) (11% chance)
--[X] Electrification - Old Vins (Stage 3) (154/250) (1 dice, 15 R) (10% chance)
-[X] Light Industry (4/4 Dice, +0 bonus, 45 R)
--[X] National Torpedo Factory Mississauga (2 dice, 60 R) (Fullfilled)
--[X] Naugatuck Valley Munitions Complex-Request Bids for Partnership (1 die)
--[X] Eddystone Shell Plant-Request Bids for Partnership (1 die)
-[X] Heavy Industry (9/9 Dice, +10 bonus, 215 R)
--[X] Model 1897 Field Artillery Procurement (4 dice, 60 R) (4/7 dice to Fullfill)
--[X] Shikaakwa Shipyard (Level 3) (134/400) (0 dice, 0 + 20 R)
---[X] Contract Shikaakwa Shipbuilding Company (20 R)
--[X] New Amsterdam Shipyard (Level 5) (381?/1600) (2 dice, 40 + 45 R)
---[X] Contract Charles and Tredegar (20 R)
---[X] Contract Federated Shipyards (25 R)
--[X] Hunter's Point Shipyard (Level 3) (191/400) (0 dice, 0 + 5 R)
---[X] Contract Verrault Navigation (5 R)
--[X] Cold Springs Artillery Foundry (174/350) (3 dice, 45 R) (65% chance)
-[X] Raw Materials (6/6 Dice, +0 bonus, 75 R)
--[X] Coulerouge Ragnite Mines (Phase 3) (3 dice, 45 R) (fulfilled)
--[X] Thebacha Ragnite Mines (Phase 3) (55/400) (3 dice, 30 R)
-[X] Bureaucracy (2/2 Dice, +0 bonus, 0 R)
--[X] Recruit Sectional Experts- Bureaucracy 2 dice

390/355 resources, so -35 from our Reserves, bringing them down to 150 total.

Alright here is my plan for this turn it is apparently only different from @Fireiy's plan for a single Bureaucracy option so I will be approval voting for that plan:

[X] Plan hit it again, it'll work better:
-[X] Infrastructure (4 Dice, +5 Bonus) 55 R:
--[X] Post Road Expansions (Phase 1) (Updated) 0/400 10 RpD 1 Die 10 R 1/8 Median DC N/A
--[X] Electrification (Updated) Daylit (Stage 1) 86/250 15 RpD 2 Die 30 R 11% ADC 77
--[X] Electrification (Updated) Old Vins (Stage 3) 154/250 15 RpD 1 Die 15 R 10% DC 91
-[X] Light and Chemical Industry (4 dice) 60 R:
--[X] National Torpedo Factory Mississauga (Updated) Partnership: McCowell Watchmakers & Fine Instruments (2 dice, 30 resources per die, 35 percent ownership share, 12 months) 60 R
--[X] Naugatuck Valley Munitions Complex (New) 0/400 Request Bids for Partnerships 1 Die
--[X] Eddystone Shell Plant (New) 0/350 Request Bids for Partnership. 1 Die
-[X] Heavy Industry (9 dice, +15 bonus) Head: Thomas Goldfeather 205 R:
--[X] Dockyard Expansion Level 3 Hunter's Point Shipyard (191/400) (Ongoing Contract: Verreault Navigation, (5 Resources per Turn, 1d40 Progress)) 5 R
--[X] Dockyard Expansion Level 3 Shikaakwa (Progress 134/400) (Ongoing Contract: Shikaakwa Shipbuilding Company, 20 resources per turn, 3d60 progress) 20 R
--[X] Dockyard Expansion Level 5 New Amsterdam (401/1600) (Ongoing Contracts: Charles and Tredegar (20 Resources per Turn, 3d30 Progress), Federated Shipyards (25 Resources per Turn, 3d40 Progress)) 45 R
--[X] Cold Springs Artillery Foundry 174/350 15 RpD 2 Die = 30 R 15% ADC 73
--[X] Model 1897 Field Artillery Procurement (Stage 2) (Updated) (Partnership: San Etienne Arsenal, (7 dice, 15 resources per die) (-1 Capital Goods) (15 percent ownership) (2 years) (+18 Artillery) 105 R
-[X] Raw Materials and Exploitation (6 dice, +?? bonus) Head: Fiona Harris 75 R:
--[X] Coulerouge Ragnite Mines (Phase 3)(Updated) Partnership: Ute Minerals Group (3 die, 15 Resources per Die, 30 percent stake)(12 months)(+2 Ragnite) 45 R
--[X] Thebacha Ragnite Mines (Phase 3) (Updated) 55/400 10 RpD 3 Dice = 30 R 3/7 Median ADC N/A
-[X] Bureaucracy 2 dice 0 R:
--[X] Food Safety Office (New) Poison Squad 0/? 2d12 per turn 1 Die
--[X] Bureaucratic Reorganization (Updated) Appoint Section Administrators Bureaucracy 1 Die
-[X] 55+60+205+75 = 395/540 R = 355+185 185-40 = 145 R

[X] Plan Army Stockpiling Woes

Edit: Oh yeah @Ithillid does Fiona Harris give us any Dice bonuses on Raw Materials and Exploitation?

Edit 2:

Ithillid said:

pushed a minor edit to New Amsterdam, fixing progress indicator.

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Adjusted the New Amsterdam progress indicator.

gamer50018 said:

We need to fix the Bureaucracy department, it's where we can make the biggest impact and we have a grand total of two fucking dice. I'd honestly prefer to take both actions to improve it, but we also need to put out the actively burning Californian wildfire that is the food industry.

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We just expended a die to make that happen, permanently. I think one turn to put our stuff back in order is justified. We'll be a lot more effective at solving crises if we have the administrative wherewithal to do so, rather than throwing an undersized department 24/7 into solving a problem without recruiting enough staff to tackle it.

Remember, too, that we still have many duties that aren't the FSO. Such as designing warships and cannons and guns for the military.

Light Industry; Armour is a fucking necessity, the less likely our soldiers are to die the better. I want that factory built yesterday. I'd build the carbine plant next, our small arms supply is dire.

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I'd reverse that. Our munitions supply is dire, and given that body armor doesn't make men genuinely bulletproof in this era (especially against full-sized rifle rounds at short to medium range) our soldiers are far more likely to die because they were sent to charge machine gun nests screened by barbed wire after inadequate artillery preparation than they are to die because we're not using the new hotness in body armor as distinct from the old hotness. Meanwhile, our small arms supply is nearly adequate to the standards of what we promised to accomplish- we're on track to nearly hit the Small Arms target as-is.

I say munitions plants first, then either body armor or the carbine plant, both of which formally scratch the same itch.

Heavy Industry is the only place we actually have a good number of dice to spread around, but it might be better to concentrate our efforts for now. We need to finish off Cold Springs, but the rest of our efforts should go into the dockyards - we're concerningly far behind on our hoped for goals there.

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I actually don't think we're 'behind' on the shipyards. We still have more than enough dice to finish the projects. One shipyard will finish from just the contractor pounding on it, one will finish with the investment of about 2-3 dice on our part. Only New Amsterdam remains as a major commitment, and given the sheer size of that yard it really isn't anything to be embarrassed about if it takes until some time in 1904 to finish.

Raw Materials; Ragnite, Ragnite, Ragnite. That shit's a wonder substance par excellance, the more we have the better. We can't neglect other areas though - Especially the Military Readiness Program. Given the abomination that is our food industry, we absolutely can't trust anyone else to have been doing their jobs right now.

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gamer50018 said:

Aye, but I'm worried some of the rats might escape if we take too long at the same time. Perhaps Recruit Experts combined with the PSI would be a good start?

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The rats "escaping" would still involve them cleaning up their food production capabilities. Which I know isn't ideal, but still counts as a major victory, because they've been forced to stop committing whatever crimes they are committing.

With 1/3 of our staff for this kind of work already forced into the FSO, we're looking at a task which may be mountainously more difficult than we're prepared to handle with the staff we have left. We cannot turn ourselves into "the Food and Drug Administration that happens to run war factories too as a sideline," because of the relative scale of the projects involved. One more turn working with a weak base of workers to do the job with is not going to help us nearly as much as being properly prepared to start.

I want to emphasize this point harder: we will be unable to hit our artillery goal without doing a stage 3 of Model 1897 procurement if we do not finish stage 2 right now and Cold Springs either this turn or next turn. If we chose to do stage 3 in that case, then it would also make it that much harder to finish our shipyard goal from the amount of dice it would divert away.

[X] Plan Army Stockpiling Woes

Fireiy said:

I want to emphasize this point harder: we will be unable to hit our artillery goal without doing a stage 3 of Model 1897 procurement if we do not finish stage 2 right now and Cold Springs either this turn or next turn. If we chose to do stage 3 in that case, then it would also make it that much harder to finish our shipyard goal from the amount of dice it would divert away.

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Oh yeah. I was actually working on the side on a plan earlier and I came around to the same idea you did about going all-in on artillery projects in Heavy Industry.

Though quite frankly, if we miss the target on Cold Springs and wind up in late 1904 with, say, 146/150 on Artillery or whatever, I'll still count it as "eh, close enough" and not feel too bad.

Fireiy said:

Here's a plan that focuses heavily on trying to hit our plan goals for the army above all else.

With Infrastructure we are nearing the point where we can call our promise for electrification complete, so I'd like to try to lower our overall spending by gambling on the low odds of completion and use the spare dice on starting work on the cheaper project of road expansions. The state of our roads are pretty dire, though I would like to take a detour for railroad amenities later after the first phase of roads are finished.

Light and Chemical Industry focuses solely on trying to reach our munitions target. Get the torpedo factory online right now and look for partnerships for the munitions complex and shell plant, hopefully we get offers that we can complete one after the other.

Heavy Industry also focuses solely on trying to reach our artillery target. Simply finishing stage 2 of the Model 1897 Artillery Procurement right now gets us a very good way towards being able to hit it, if Cold Springs manages to finish as well then we can comfortably hit our artillery goal without a single extra dice spent on it for the rest of the plan. If it doesn't then we should still be able to hit it with just Cold Springs being finished next turn, otherwise we'll need to do stage 3 of the Model 1897.

Raw Materials & Exploitation simply finishes the Coulerouge partnership and keeps working on the last part of Thebacha. We're a good deal of the way towards being able to afford all our current dice activation with only a 40 resource deficit with this plan, so I'm comfortable with working on finishing Thebacha instead of starting work on Dettah for the smaller income boosts.

Finally bureaucracy simply works on getting a sectional administrator and more dice. I could be convinced to change to delaying the administrator for a bit in order to double down on getting more dice, but for now I've opted to just do both.

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Army Stockpiling Woes is effectively identical to the plan I'd been drafting on the side, so I'm certainly willing to back it. The only difference in my own plan draft was that I did, as you say, double down on one project. Since sectional administrators do generally come with more dice, I chose the administrator.

[X] Plan Army Stockpiling Woes

[X] Attempting To Churn Out 75s
-[X] Infrastructure (4/4 Dice, +5 bonus, 55 R)
--[X] Electrification - Old Vins (Stage 3) (154/250) (1 die, 15 R) (10% chance)
--[X] Electrification - Daylit (Stage 1) (86/250) (2 dice, 30 R) (11% chance)
--[X] Post Road Expansions (Phase 1) (0/400) (1 die, 10 R) (1/7 median)
-[X] Light Industry (4/4 Dice, +0 bonus, 60 R)
--[X] National Torpedo Factory Mississauga (2 dice, 60 R) (complete partnership)
--[X] Naugatuck Valley Munitions Complex - Request Bids For Partnership (1 die, 0 R)
--[X] Eddystone Shell Plant - Request Bids for Partnership (1 die, 0 R)
-[X] Heavy Industry (9/9 Dice, +10 bonus, 205 R)
--[X] Cold Springs Artillery Foundry (174/350) (2 dice, 30 R) (10% chance)
--[X] Model 1897 Field Artillery Procurement (Stage 2) (7 dice, 105 R) (complete partnership)
--[X] Shikaakwa Shipyard (Level 3) (134/400) (0 dice, 0 + 20 R) (~3 turns remaining)
---[X] Contract Shikaakwa Shipbuilding Company (20 R)
--[X] Hunter's Point Shipyard (Level 3) (191/400) (0 dice, 5 R) (~11 turns remaining)
---[X] Contract Verrault Navigation (5 R)
--[X] New Amsterdam Shipyard (Level 5) (421/1600) (0 dice, 45 R) (~11.5 turns remaining)
---[X] Contract Charles and Tredegar (20 R)
---[X] Contract Federated Shipyards (25 R)
-[X] Raw Materials (6/6 Dice, +0 bonus, 80 R)
--[X] Coulerouge Ragnite Mines (Phase 3) (3 dice, 45 R) (complete partnership)
--[X] Thebacha Ragnite Mines (Phase 3) (55/400) (3 dice, 30 R) (3/6.5 median)
-[X] Bureaucracy (2/2 Dice, +0 bonus, 0 R)
--[X] Appoint Section Administrators - Bureaucracy (2 dice)

Under Heavy Industry, note that these are "turns remaining" for the contractors alone to finish. Hunter's Point would take Verrault until about 1907 to finish alone, but we could probably put them in line to finish with just three dice some time in the future. New Amsterdam is tougher since it's about 20 dice short of completion, but the contractors should average about 105 Progress per turn, so we absolutely can choose to avoid further dice investment in the project for all of 1902 and still complete it in 1903-4.

Fireiy said:

I want to emphasize this point harder: we will be unable to hit our artillery goal without doing a stage 3 of Model 1897 procurement if we do not finish stage 2 right now and Cold Springs either this turn or next turn. If we chose to do stage 3 in that case, then it would also make it that much harder to finish our shipyard goal from the amount of dice it would divert away.

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According to my math (which we hashed out on Discord has an extra turn) we are not yet at the absolute crisis point our munitions goal is for artillery, though Next Turn it gets pretty dire. That's why I go for Cold Springs and give the 75s some time to build that fuck-huge factory.

MATH EXPLAINATION: Stuff that is finished goes into the turn results of the turn it's done, so our numbers would look something like this

gamer50018 said:

Aye, but I'm worried some of the rats might escape if we take too long at the same time. Perhaps Recruit Experts combined with the PSI would be a good start?

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They're not going to.

The instigating project behind the whole FSO mess basically had the federal government look at procurement contracts and grabbed the hammer to smash the idiots responsible. Then the public found out and members of congress have been burned in effigy and quite possibly might still be getting burned in effigy about this.

At most the rats are looking at the way the wind is blowing and are cleaning up their act in preparation, because that got caught in the first wave are already getting sentenced to decades long sentences. The government is pissed and not being subtle or restrained about expressing its displeasure.

[X] Attempting To Churn Out 75s

[X] Plan Army Stockpiling Woes

[X] Attempting To Churn Out 75s

[X] Plan Army Stockpiling Woes



[X] Plan Praying For Munitions

pushed a minor edit to New Amsterdam, fixing progress indicator.

[X] Plan Army Stockpiling Woes

[X] Plan Army Stockpiling Woes

[X] Attempting To Churn Out 75s

[X] Plan hit it again, it'll work better:

[X] Plan hit it again, it'll work better:

Dmol8 said:

Oh yeah @Ithillid does Fiona Harris give us any Dice bonuses on Raw Materials and Exploitation?

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She gives us a +10 bonus to all agriculture projects, so not the entire category of Raw Materials and Exploitation. The two new projects there about agricultural research centers and national forest centralization are the obvious ones where it'd apply to, not sure if it would for water safety and other rural/environmental projects that are somewhat adjacent to agriculture.

[X] Plan Praying For Munitions
I'm voting for this just because of Recruit Sectional Experts- Bureaucracy 2 dice as opposed to just 1

Post Road Expansions (Phase 1) (0+71+5=76/400)
Electrification Daylit (Stage 1) (86+81+10=177/250)
Electrification Old Vins (Stage 3) (154+62+5=221/250)

National Torpedo Factory Mississauga: 2d, 60R (Concluded)
Naugatuck Valley Munitions Complex Request Bids for Partnerships 1-89
Eddystone Shell Plant Request Bids for Partnerships 3-81, 40, 95,

Dockyard Expansion Level 3 Hunter's Point Shipyard (191+37=228/400)
Dockyard Expansion Level 3 Shikaakwa (Progress 134+30=164/400)
Dockyard Expansion Level 5 New Amsterdam (401+36+51=488/1600)
Cold Springs Artillery Foundry (174+28+30=232/350)
Model 1897 Field Artillery Procurement (Stage 2): 7d, 105R (Concluded)

Coulerouge Ragnite Mines (Phase 3): 3d, 45R (Concluded)
Thebacha Ragnite Mines (Phase 3) (55+80=135/400) (CRIT FAIL)

Appoint Section Administrators 56, 66, 50
Recruit Sectional Experts 88

...Another advantage of partnerships is that they don't crit-fail.

Okay, so the infrastructure projects are chugging along- having either of them complete this turn was a long shot but I didn't want to overspend dice. Next turn's move is probably one die on each of the two electrification projects and two dice on roads, which are well begun by a pretty good roll this turn.

In light industry we got excellent results for the partnerships, better than I could reasonably have hoped. I think we'll want to try to pick whatever costs us four or less dice to activate, in hopes of slamming out one of the projects in one turn and the other in the next. If we can't get a four-die partnership, well... disappointing. Still, the future's looking fairly bright in our ability to reach or at least closely approach our +Munitions target.

Verrault amply made up for their underwhelming rolls in the last turn or two at Hunter's Point with a very good roll this time. Shikaakwa's results were very disappointing but we're still on track to finish that without having to spend our own dice. Progress on New Amsterdam chugs along, slower than expected (we got 87 points instead of 105) but still at a respectable rate.

@Vehrec , I think you overestimated our numbers on Cold Springs, in that we rolled 28 Progress on the dice and +20, not +30, from bonuses. Assuming the 174 number is correct (I don't trust my own instincts), we are now at 222/350, which is a very poor result, sadly. Still, we have a reasonable chance of finishing Cold Springs next turn with even three dice, let alone four, and I think that's good enough to get us to our +Artillery target.

The critfail on Thebacha is not something I'm looking forward to, though we were bound to roll one sooner or later. Hopefully it takes the form of something we can just hunker down and work out, like "lose all progress on the mine project" or "the mine project gets harder to do" or even something like "your people actually overestimated the productivity of Thebacha" which can be powered through by prospecting for more ragnite.

Simon_Jester said:

@Vehrec , I think you overestimated our numbers on Cold Springs, in that we rolled 28 Progress on the dice and +20, not +30, from bonuses. Assuming the 174 number is correct (I don't trust my own instincts), we are now at 222/350, which is a very poor result, sadly. Still, we have a reasonable chance of finishing Cold Springs next turn with even three dice, let alone four, and I think that's good enough to get us to our +Artillery target.

The critfail on Thebacha is not something I'm looking forward to, though we were bound to roll one sooner or later. Hopefully it takes the form of something we can just hunker down and work out, like "lose all progress on the mine project" or "the mine project gets harder to do" or even something like "your people actually overestimated the productivity of Thebacha" which can be powered through by prospecting for more ragnite.

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We have a +15 on Heavy Industry, but yes that was a very poor result.

Justina Rosniak is preparing to read out the date March 13th 1902 in this episode of Yup There's Your Problem.

Something went very badly wrong in Thebacha.

Midling administrators, but a very good recruitment drive for bureaucrats.