Then I think we want to hold an action open, to see who bites now that we've started to inch things along.
first action of day two would be best. it shows who is particularly invested in meeting us as soon as possible, and let's us bring anything learned in that session into later ones. otherwise we should meet with Iyanden and A
It's a solid block so far, but there's more to do. I think broadly, we want to feel out the vibes of the Asuryani block as a whole and soothe some rumpled feathers, and get a private meeting with Iyanden to see if we can get them to run herd on Biel-Tan for now, so they don't fuck shit up.
I think Saim-han is planning to deliver there accusations during the moot proper and we'd be wise not to preempt them in this less they feel undermined. they want to catch their adversaries flat-footed and we'd do well not to spoil the surprise.
instead, talk about the soul stones, and the possibility of producing them or developing some manner of substitute.
I broadly agree with the reconciliation plan for the Asuryani, and we definitely want identifu the fringe elements who are
Aerellian took a calculated risk, but the problem with those is when you start with garbage numbers you get garbage calculations. After all, most of the people he was planning on bullying are minors or smalls, and "well they're not going to get best use out of it anyway" combined with, between losing any Special Things and any damage from Biel-Tan convincing them to hand it over, well, if they have something unfortunate happen after that it's not like it's Biel-tan's fault, and isn't it lucky they grabbed the Special Thing before it could be lost?
Of course, then this happens, and he has to reeeealy hope that none of the people he was trying to extort keep it to themselves (they aren't.)
I do love that we just made them a social pariah. Iyanden is going to insist on a representative on every ship bigger than a frigate and any fleet contigent with more than a handful of escorts.
Yeah, I'd only consider trading Starcrystal/Psy-Scope production secrets for a similarly priceless asset that can't be acquired for any amount of mere resources. Completed products? Maybe, but creating a new Fateforge or Crystal Farm is a large overlay in our expertise and production, and shouldn't be done for something as nebulous as a mere 'Favor'
Starcrystals are definitely something we should only consider trading to Iyanden as a "Join our faction. It's not like we are against relative Aeldari dominance, even if we aren't sold on renewed imperialism" package with the rest of our tech.
psyscope we can trade however, probably to the Asuryani major craft world. they don't have the same raw destructive potential as Starcrystals.
- Starcrystals (+800/turn): 23,555
- Fatebender Psy-scopes (+120/turn): 1789
and given the disparity in production, maybe even more EP intensive to create, which means they won't be fielding them as mainstay weapons anytime soon, but for a race which just lost most of it's defenses, the possibility of eventually use defense arrays based on the technology is huge. it would be a massive step towards letting bygones be bygones, and mitigate any moderate resentment on their part of us taking a political force stave to their factions face.
I say we grab Saim-Hann, Ulthwe, the exodites, the harlequins, etc. At the very least the information needs to get to Cegorach so he can safeguard it and spread the good news.
these are the people who will already be close allies post fall, and we should let the Harlequin's come to us if they want to, rather than go to them.
A Revanchist faction with no Biel-Tan, if Iyanden can pull together enough for it, would be a possible political counterweight to the Asuryani in a way we currently can't be.
Now, we don't particularly like either faction more than the other, but we've got entirely personal beef with Alaitoc who are the leadership of the Asuryani, so we'd prefer a counterweight to them exist so Alaitoc can't use their political power to put the squeeze on us.
the Asuryani are about to detonate as we blow a hole in there entire strategy, resulting in a lot of craft worlds forcing themselves to Asuryani lifestyle to drop it, and probably throw there weight behind the engineer soul stone method until we have something concrete for them.
Revanchist are about to take a major hit as well from Beil-tan's actions. if we play this smart, we might be able to convince Iyanden post moot that their best bet is to join the adaptionists and use the credit for having a part in either the soul stone engineering or whatever we come up with to leverage into a new Revanchist faction in the distant future.
A new Sloop would be best done as a torpedo boat I think, put Heavy Torpedo Launchers in the heavy battery and a decent ranged weapon, and they could do a solid shoot-and-scoot build to herd enemies into our killboxes.
I see what you're getting at, I'm just a little worried that they'll go full stick without a carrot and get Iyanden all hyper-defensive.
Asuryani and a free action I feel are absolutely required however. If we do decide to go that way, it might be wise to keep consolidating our block with the Adaptionists.
I'm thinking a fatecaster Defense array in one of the regular batteries. there primary obstacle to overcome is point defense arrays and fighters afterall. removing one of those as a major threat is a good move, and it shouldn't be expensive given the size of the ship.
we don't need to consolidate the Adaptionist block. they'll flock to us post reveal already with the ground work we've laid.
meeting with Iyanden would be wisest to wow them with our tech and exotics to nudge them into a mindset that they really want to be allied with us or figure out something they can offer us for one or more of those. it would make them more open minded to ditching Beil-Tan for inexplicably prominent and part of a swelling faction Vau-Vulkesh.
failing that, meeting with independents and figuring out what they can bring to our alliance and convincing them to join up would be better.
