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That's a good argument that we should consider rushing the control centres for the engines and spend 8 AP on them up front.
It's not, as far as I can see, a good argument to chip away at the control centres. From the description of the action, we need to finish it to start training, so a part finished control room doesn't help us.
If we're spending, say, eight AP on engine control rooms and an average of eight AP on two Enhance Industries it either makes sense to do all of one first and then all of the other, it doesn't make sense to do them in parallel.
However, Mechanis has been pretty clear I think that the engines aren't that urgent, so to me it makes more sense to do the Enhance Industry first and then the Engine Control room.
That order gains us at least 2 AP.
Now, if the engines were urgent, that 2+ AP gain wouldn't be worth it. However, I think indications are that they're not.
I'm pretty in favor of getting the Grand Academy going up and for the same reasons. I ran some numbers, and, well, this is what I came up with for blowing both charges of the forge on it. sorry, long post warning.
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Hello everyone! this is my first thread here. I registered to partake here, and hello to other other battletech fans! hope you're doing swell!
I'd like to make an large case for the Grand Academy. I think its going to be
important, even
crucial for our war and curse efforts.
If researching unfamiliar and complex topics take 4-5 AP (plus a turn), then getting this sooner than later becomes imperative.
From the research tree thus far, we can expect that complex and derivative topics will take multiple turns and be seperate projects. (example: meson blaster -> vehicle scale meson blaster -> capital scale meson blasters; the whole missile/torpedo -> advanced torpedo thing.)
So it stands to reason the Method for unraveling curses and the ultimate goal of a garden of Nurgle jailbreak is seperate from the Means to accomplish it. Knowing how means nothing unless you have the boom to accomplish it.
The absolutely last thing we want to do is run out the clock knowing how to do it, but rushing to establish the foundation to get her done.
In short, every turn the grand academy takes to finish is lost production time. We also run the risk of being stretched too thin, and can't work on projects taking more AP than we have: Keep in mind,
nothing in our current reseach is innovative. We are still trapped
recovering old technologies, not
improving them. The work is comparatively easy. Difficulty will go up in the future.
[ ] Grand Academy (6 points initial, 2 points continuous | 5-9 turns)
With the variable construction, we can actually math this out.
If we rush it, things look -substantially- different.
Academy: 1 turn. 05 AP not used, 1 research tree jump lost, 2 ap cost to construct
Academy: 2 turns.10 AP not used, 2 research tree jump lost, 4 ap cost to construct
Academy: 3 turns. 15 AP not used, 3 research tree jump lost, 6 ap cost to construct
Academy: 4 turns. 20 AP not used, 4 research tree jump lost, 8 ap cost to construct
Academy: 5 turns. 25 AP not used, 5 research tree jump lost, 10 ap cost to construct
Academy: 6 turns. 30 AP not used, 6 research tree jump lost, 12 ap cost to construct.
Minimum possible time to construct, providing benefits going forward
Academy: 8 turns. 35 AP not used, 7 research tree jump lost, 14 ap cost to construct
Academy: 9 turns . 40 AP not used, 8 research tree jump lost, 16 ap cost to construct
Maximum possible time to construct.
Academy: 10 turns . 45 AP not used, 9 research tree jump lost, 16 ap cost to construct
If the academy takes the minimum of 6 turns, it will 'pay' for itself in about 2~ish turns, 3 if it takes longer. If its constructed darn near immediately, it pays dividends sooner. BEST case scenario is 'literally next turn', more likely is 2-3 turns, in which case it would look like this:
Rushed Out.
Turn 1: 2 ap construction costs, 5 ap bonus not ready.
Turn 2: Soonest possible w/ lucky rolls. No ongoing construction drain, +5ap, ability to takle projects that cost more than 13 front loaded ap.
Turn 3: +10 ap if it finished on turn 2, +5 on turn 3. About 10 ap saved in ongoing costs.
Turn 4: +15 ap ahead for a turn 1 finish, 10ap for turn 2, 5 for turn 3. Compare to being halfway done with 3-5 more turns to go.
Turn 5: boosted finish time starting from a slow roll. Compare to what it costs for a 9 turn academy: (about 8 ap in costs, about 15 ap in lost research potential from not having it sooner, and this turn it gives +5 ap. this is a far cry from the FULL time price)
This has knock-on effects for getting things rolling off the production line.
For example, I think it'd be a great idea to redesign the bright eagle or get some better small craft, but I also think it would be a little foolish to do so without missiles(or bombs)
This would require: Missile/torpedo tech, the advanced version of missiles, an additional side-grade for payload (ex:melta tech) and probably an advanced one to go up to plasma. Setting aside the AP issue(for a given turn where you don't have enough, you can add +1 turn basically) and focusing on just turn count: you're talking 2 turns before you can even produce and rationalize troops, more if its a partial research or on the backburner(a lot of plans seem focused on gravity tech) (i'm using missiles as an example where its easy to update the ammunition after you've built the launchers)
If you're slugging these out, that is going to be a minimum of three turns before you can get a factory lineup to produce them, and four before a vehicle(assuming its a 2 turn wind up time on factory), meaning its five turns post research before the new guns are deployable in a fight.
The grand academy speeds up
all that just by virtue of putting blueprints on the table earlier as long as you slam out the construction time.
Food for thought: What we've seen from the Aeldmoot is the ruinous powers
will try to defend their curses as a strategic asset, and I predict it will be very bloody. The better armaments we have in advance, the less bad it will be.
Tldr, pull the trigger on the Grand Academy, rush it out asap, and the rest will sort itself out. Particularly in the form of naval designs, which we need a lot more of.
