Long distance operations like Amethyst Gardens is dramatically limited by lack of transportation, which prevents us from exploiting other settlements effectively when we're having trouble lugging both gear and loot.
The same also applies to groups who might want to raid us, such as the Imperators. Which, in turn, means that we can afford to wait with the vehicles, or possibly leave them to the Civilian Economy, until we have set up the infrastructure to maintain our scientific knowledge, which is of *FAR* greater importance overall.
This means decomissioning the Solar Plants this turn, then building a dedicated Teaching Facility next turn.
I'm actually looking forward to justifiably taking another settlement(justification: they're bloody cannibals), and clearing it out for our own use, if we can mobilize enough troops.
I'm actually looking forward to justifiably taking another settlement(justification: they're bloody cannibals), and clearing it out for our own use, if we can mobilize enough troops.
Except that there's no urgency involved in that. For one, we already have a second settlement that's barely in use, and we currently have sufficient population to staff all our facilities.
For another, there is no indication that the cannibals won't be there in the future.
No to mention that, as I already said, there's always the chance that the Civilian Economic Action will be used to make more vehicles.
But setting up a school, so we can maintain our technological knowledge as much as possible, is something that we should get up and running as soon as possible. The sooner we are semi-secured in that area, the better. And the sooner we have a school, the sooner we can use the Research-bonus from our facilities on projects to help us improve our capabilities, or figure out how to replicate and maintain our current equipment.
Hence; decomission the solar plans this turn, build the school the next turn.
We have room to build a school at Glenshade, and despite the low manpower there I think it would be the best place to build a new one attrition wise.
Otherwise, I'm in total agreement. We have a bunch of options which just plain require more space- the hospital, the sawmill, the machine shops are all important options. Now that I'm looking at it, if we can move some more artisans to Glanshade we could set up the sawmill there right now.
We could build one at Glenshade, and in the long run probably should, yeah, but the first one should ideally be in Greenshaft where most of our population and military strength it.
Ultimately, though, we'll want to build one school in each settlement.
Though, that kinda reminds me;
@Academia Nut:
Is there any reason why we need to decomission *all* the solar plants? Couldn't it simply be made part of the construction-process for new buildings, that we de-assemble enough solar plants to make space for the new structure?
For example, we decide to build a Teaching Facility, and so 1 of the 12 spaces with solar plants is cleared, and the parts stored?
[X] The Dragonflies won't change if you don't talk to them, so try to open up to them a bit
[X] Integrate the Grave Tenders at Glenshade Manor into your political system, which should also boost the opinion of those in Shattersaw
[X] Train Soldiers - Selecting the better candidates from the militia, train them up to your standards, creating a squad (10) of Soldiers (Light Infantry). Cost: 100C
[X] Train Militia - You have open spots and can train more militia to be called up in case of emergency
[X] Jaeger Program - You've got half your forces trained as woodsmen, so perhaps you should rotate them out for your other half to receive training. Cost: 200C
[X] Vehicles? - You have the one van, but perhaps you could construct more. It's a simple enough design, and having more might let you make reliable contact with Glenshade Manor, overcoming some of your supply difficulties
Private Industry Actions:
- [X] Construct farm at Glenshade Manor - Sending over surplus, expand their hydroponic farm so it is sufficient to feed 1000 people
- [X] Guns! - 300 new militia grade weapons enter the Greengraft Market
Tie!
[] Investigate the Dragonflies - Try to spy on and examine the your new in-laws, learning more about who they really are and what their goals are beyond 'domination'
[QM] Investigate the 504s - Try to spy on and examine the 504s, learning more about who they really are and what they actually want QM adjudication: Diplomacy with Dragonflies, so investigate 504s to maximize efficiency
[X] Teaching
[X] Game with Maxwell - Continue your nightly games
Is there any reason why we need to decomission *all* the solar plants? Couldn't it simply be made part of the construction-process for new buildings, that we de-assemble enough solar plants to make space for the new structure?
For example, we decide to build a Teaching Facility, and so 1 of the 12 spaces with solar plants is cleared, and the parts stored?
For the Solar Plant, you have to decommission it all because you don't understand its systems well enough to do a partial dismantle. It doesn't require anyone to maintain it. Once dismantled you will get a new research project to study its systems, which when complete will allow for partial disassembly and assembly in the future.
Building attrition works like this: when an attrition event happens the population assigned to the building takes that percentage in attrition damage and any vital subsystems have a chance of suffering irreparable damage equal to the damage taken. So if you were to say build a research building outside the curtain walls and a firestorm (10%) happened it would kill 50 labourers and 10 academics, but it contains no irreplaceable systems so that's okay. Also, if a building with attrition preventing effects suffers attrition then its effects for that event are negated. Buildings with capacity also have their capacity lowered by the amount of attrition suffered until repaired (following the example above, dorms would lose 10% housing, farms 10% food production, etc.). You would also have to pay extra for maintenance for that turn for the repairs.
[X] The Dragonflies won't change if you don't talk to them, so try to open up to them a bit
[X] Integrate the Grave Tenders at Glenshade Manor into your political system, which should also boost the opinion of those in Shattersaw
[X] Train Soldiers - Selecting the better candidates from the militia, train them up to your standards, creating a squad (10) of Soldiers (Light Infantry). Cost: 100C
[X] Train Militia - You have open spots and can train more militia to be called up in case of emergency
[X] Jaeger Program - You've got half your forces trained as woodsmen, so perhaps you should rotate them out for your other half to receive training. Cost: 200C
[X] Vehicles? - You have the one van, but perhaps you could construct more. It's a simple enough design, and having more might let you make reliable contact with Glenshade Manor, overcoming some of your supply difficulties
Private Industry Actions:
- [X] Construct farm at Glenshade Manor - Sending over surplus, expand their hydroponic farm so it is sufficient to feed 1000 people
- [X] Guns! - 300 new militia grade weapons enter the Greengraft Market
Tie!
[] Investigate the Dragonflies - Try to spy on and examine the your new in-laws, learning more about who they really are and what their goals are beyond 'domination'
[QM] Investigate the 504s - Try to spy on and examine the 504s, learning more about who they really are and what they actually want QM adjudication: Diplomacy with Dragonflies, so investigate 504s to maximize efficiency
[X] Teaching
[X] Game with Maxwell - Continue your nightly games
This year proceeds at a more sedate pace as you mostly prepare for upcoming conflicts. You want to integrate Glenshade Manor into your overall political system and start making use of its empty spaces more effectively, so not only do you deploy Lemay to begin the final stages of persuasion, but you order your industries to start making new vans. You figure that with a series of battery depots along the way they should be able to make the trip between the two settlements.
You also finally open up official dialogue with the Dragonflies, aided by your growing rapport with Maxwell. They are a bit miffed at it taking so long, but then again they were never ones to approach you on their own anyway, being insular as they are. They are however quite pleased with the birth of your daughters and the securing of the line of succession, although they do note that the position of Administrator had better remain hereditary or the issue will most definitely trigger a succession war with them. The dialogue does reveal some more of their internal politics, their leader obviously already being known to you as Baron David Aetos, but you also make contact with their Chancellor, Marcus Osprey, a man of impeccable noble etiquette, which makes for interesting interactions with the much rougher but naturally charismatic Lemay.
You also find out more about their social order, which is so "lovely" in its euphemistic, orderly hierarchy. At the top is the nobility, which is admittedly something of a top heavy position at the moment, who have divided their settlements up into various properties so that they can all be landowners, leasing out their land to the citizens, who are mostly the skilled labour capable of making enough money to pay their rent. Beneath that are the "indentured servants", who are essentially debt slaves, the people not lucky enough to be able to do a job capable of paying their rent or food. The nobility "graciously buys" their debt in exchange for servitude, with the consequences of failure to serve being blacklisted from food distribution until the person either starves or finds a noble willing to forgive them and take them back in. Their Janissaries are all men who are paired up with women, rarely with the woman's input and not often with the man's, and compelled to have children. So long as they serve the women and children are treated as citizens properly paying their rent and food, but failure to obey orders or retreat results in their families being blacklisted at once. Death in battle results in all debts being paid. A full thirty year service term results in all debts being cleared for the immediate family and a small service pension for the man. The Baron is the largest landholder by far, specifically owning all power production and agricultural facilities and all the Janissaries being part of his "personal staff".
Also, after discussion of the situation out beyond Amethyst Farms, you get an immediately favourable reply. They will join you no matter who else you bring on a subjugation mission, no questions asked or complaints raised, deploying a full company of 300 Janissaries to your cause... on the condition that they be allowed to bring back a percentage of the raiders for "re-education", which essentially means that their participation amounts to a giant slave raid. They couch it in nicer terms, saying that they are only interested in teaching those who have fallen so far as to prey upon their fellow humans how to behave properly, and that any civilians who do not fight will not be taken prisoner, but are free to return if they wish to follow their loved ones, but the message is still clear: their payment for doing this is to be in people.
You really wish that the reports from the 504s painted a better picture, but you learn that they control as many settlements as you feared they did: Lesser Aurorasaw, Canopy Pinnacle, and Garden Terrace, with a population of somewhere between 2500 and 4000 people spread out between them, indicating that they have at least some degree of food autonomy, most likely concentrated in Garden Terrace, which was a middle class suburb similar to Glenshade Manor but with much more open space in the form of parks and gardens that could be converted to farmland. The numbers however indicate that a lot of people died since the bombs fell.
While the 504s don't really talk about it, there are dark rumours that Canopy Pinnacle and Garden Terrace, now renamed Forestry Local 504-2 and -3, respectively, were integrated using a significant amount of violence. Worse yet, the 504s may have engaged in cannibalism as a survival mechanism, although from the sounds of it it was all an internal practice, eating their own dead when they fell rather than going out to raid others. Again, rumours couched in suggestive, euphemistic language, but it sounds like if they did do it they were at least only doing it as an absolute last resort. However, they may have also skewed their selection processes, holding elections over who would be sacrificed for the group that also had the benefit of weeding out those who were least committed to the ideological cause. Maybe. Maybe they just went through a series of ideological purges without eating the people after, although it was less "bullet to the head" and more cutting off food supplies. In any case, their population is quite zealous in their ideology even if their current leaders are pragmatic enough not to force a confrontation in Shattersaw.
Emphasis on "current". The 504s are thoroughly democratic, although their democracy is also subdivided. The lowest level is a "Community Council" of perhaps a hundred or two hundred people, who discuss local issues and elect a councillor, who is both the community leader and a representative in the next tier, which is the local administration for each of their communities. Six of these representatives are then selected by the local councils to sit on the Supreme Council, similar in structure to your own advisers, who then elect a Union President who then organizes the others as political heads of their various Bureaus.
From what your agents have gathered, their opinion of you remains high, but if you don't start adopting at least some democratic positions soon they are going to sour fast.
Rolled 29
No Petition this turn
For the Dragonflies offer...
[] They may take some of the raiders for "reeducation" (No further diplomatic actions needed to bring them along on subjugation)
[] They may not take prisoners like that (Must spend a diplomatic action to get them to come along the turn you launch the subjugation)
[X] They may take some of the raiders for "reeducation" (No further diplomatic actions needed to bring them along on subjugation)
As much as I don't like it, freeing up that Diplomacy action is important. And we can working on them treating their slaves better with the aim of eventually stopping the practice completely.
Says something if both of our neighbors are assholish enough that I want to smash their faces in...really, can't we find an advanced, good society without crazies?
[X] They may not take prisoners like that (Must spend a diplomatic action to get them to come along the turn you launch the subjugation)
Armin's projection for chance for redress next turn: ~25%
Petition for redress effects: Your citizens present you with a completed constitution and you vote it yes or no, with no further input on your part. Voting no means that there is a chance for revolt equal to the petition for redress chance, and if there is not a no vote then the next turn there will be a chance for revolt from the denied faction along with the chance of a new petition for redress from a new faction.
You guys really might not want to put the constitutional convention off much longer.
Says something if both of our neighbors are assholish enough that I want to smash their faces in...really, can't we find an advanced, good society without crazies?
[X] They may not take prisoners like that (Must spend a diplomatic action to get them to come along the turn you launch the subjugation)
Says something if both of our neighbors are assholish enough that I want to smash their faces in...really, can't we find an advanced, good society without crazies?
What amazes me is how quickly most people seem to have descended into outright asshattery.
I mean, there are people who are cannibalistic raiders out of choice! And the nobles all seem to be slaving assholes too! Alongside fanatical democracy dweebs!
At least the Grave Tenders are cool, that honestly surprised me.
Well, I was pushing the constitutional convention this turn, but point. Let's get that done with next turn and hope there's still something left to intervene on the turn after.
Armin's projection for chance for redress next turn: ~25%
Petition for redress effects: Your citizens present you with a completed constitution and you vote it yes or no, with no further input on your part. Voting no means that there is a chance for revolt equal to the petition for redress chance, and if there is not a no vote then the next turn there will be a chance for revolt from the denied faction along with the chance of a new petition for redress from a new faction.
You guys really might not want to put the constitutional convention off much longer.
What amazes me is how quickly most people seem to have descended into outright asshattery.
I mean, there are people who are cannibalistic raiders out of choice! And the nobles all seem to be slaving assholes too! Alongside fanatical democracy dweebs!
At least the Grave Tenders are cool, that honestly surprised me.
The Grave Tenders were Also probably doomed without our intervention.
Simply put, the Age of Strife on a Deathworld that was only inhabitable due to constant supplies? Chances are the only ones who had a fair shot at survival are the most evil and ruthless fuckers of all (And they wouldn't last long term, because you can't build a stable society on who's te biggest babyeater of them all).
The Grave Tenders were Also probably doomed without our intervention.
Simply put, the Age of Strife on a Deathworld that was only inhabitable due to constant supplies? Chances are the only ones who had a fair shot at survival are the most evil and ruthless fuckers of all (And they wouldn't last long term, because you can't build a stable society on who's te biggest babyeater of them all).
The Grave Tenders were Also probably doomed without our intervention.
Simply put, the Age of Strife on a Deathworld that was only inhabitable due to constant supplies? Chances are the only ones who had a fair shot at survival are the most evil and ruthless fuckers of all (And they wouldn't last long term, because you can't build a stable society on who's te biggest babyeater of them all).
What amazes me is how quickly most people seem to have descended into outright asshattery.
I mean, there are people who are cannibalistic raiders out of choice! And the nobles all seem to be slaving assholes too! Alongside fanatical democracy dweebs!
At least the Grave Tenders are cool, that honestly surprised me.
The biggest factor was by far food production. You managed to become food independent immediately (primarily because you had soldiers ready right off the bat so you could head out to Shattersaw immediately), avoiding the worst of the decisions that other groups were pushed to make. The Dragonflies were somewhat similar on that front, but their founders were straight up dicks. The 504s at least try to minimize their own dickery... but for those of you who haven't caught on yet, they're Soviets.
The raiders you haven't had much time to interact with yet, but they are so far from the primary source of food (the Shattersaw farms) that they never had a chance to be anything but dicks. When presented with the choice between watching your friends and family starve and going crazy enough to hunger to start eating them, or go out and kill some stranger so that you and yours can eat, they went with the latter. The Recyclers and Imperators have unfortunately become used to doing that, which means that culturally they no longer view it as a necessary evil but something completely acceptable. The Free Volunteers are a bit different. Once they were radicalized anarchist/libertarians who viewed the prior political order as corrupt and stifling (although the limited resources available made the stifling part inevitable and necessary) and they felt extreme bitterness towards everyone they saw as supporting that order. When the bombs fell, they snapped. They didn't know what to do so they doubled down on their ideologies. They were the only free people left on the planet and it was everyone else's fault that this happened. Anyone who refused to join them, who refused to offer up their resources to them, was a greedy parasite. They're something of a caricature, and on some level even they know that. They don't want to look in the mirror though, lest they acknowledge their own hypocrisy. Better to just blame everyone else.
So that I can make this vote a bit more interesting: if you accept the Dragonflies offer, you can reform your constitution and subjugate the raiders with everyone involved next turn, otherwise you will have to wait another turn to launch the subjugation, risk a revolt, or leave out one of the other two major powers in the region getting up to shenanigans while you are away.
[x] They may take some of the raiders for "reeducation" (No further diplomatic actions needed to bring them along on subjugation)
Okay, I really don't like the slavery concept, but you know what? We can work with the Dragonflies. In fact, we're working with the Dragonflies already, and with our marriage ties to them it's extremely likely that we will continue working with them in the future to good results. The raiders? We are not working with the raiders. We do not have diplomatic relations with them, and we have no current expectation of good relations with them.
That means that any asset which we can move from raider hands to Dragonfly hands is, ultimately, of net benefit to us as long as the Dragonflies don't become so strong from it that they can effectively turn on us. Even if that asset is people.
Frankly, I'd be willing to abscond with some of the raider populace ourselves, because we have food and housing but need people, and they'd be better off under our rule than under theirs anyway. It's better than slaughtering them, occupation is impractical, and leaving them to their own devices undesirable.