Attempting to Fulfil The Plan: ISOT Edition
- Thread starter garphield
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- plan quest
Yeahhhhhhh I hate to be the hard man making hard decisions while hard but we don't really have a whole lot of choice, either we do the dirty poisonous working of abusing the shit out of Mother Earth so we can have more steel and coal or we just... don't industrialize, there isn't a perfect way to thread the needle and bootstrap a modern industrial base without poisoning a bunch of rivers and giving a bunch of workers lung cancer. Maybe if Tucson had been an idyllic commune of high-minded idealist permaculture hippies or something, but obviously that was never going to happen, now that we're reduced to a few dozen nerds and a copy of Wikipedia there's only the dirty way available.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
And this is probably overstating how much in the way of technical expertise we have.
I mean the good news is that we are probably doing it as best we can by having people rotate out frequently instead of working then till they drop and tossing their body in the river, but we're very much gonna learn how to actually do all the things in those wikipedia articles The Hard Way as having an article but no actual experience doing it means we're still building up a skill base, were just doing it faster since we already know what works.
Boy howdy is building it up gonna suck for the people doing it though.
Boy howdy is building it up gonna suck for the people doing it though.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The way I think about. We've overall improved the standard of living and give the workers better everything then they had under the Wanax. While we're by no means saints, we've given the people a better life and if we're successful, all the pain we're causing will be worth it long term.
Is better than OTL seriously going to be our motto here? Or at least better than the OTL equivalent.
Cannon Omake: Battle of New Peyson
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
Had an omake idea based on the New Washington defeat fighting the remnants of the 1st New Arizona.
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"New Washington thought we wouldn't fight. More fool them."
-Brody Dixon, First State of New Arizona (former)
"Even a dying wolf still has fangs."
-Tarhundas, Luwian Farmer
Introduction
The Battle of New Peyson was the first major battle of the Broken Coast Warlord Era in the aftermath of the assassination of President Rachel Slusher and the collapse of the First State of New Arizona, where the soldiers of USA(New Washington) fought against the remnants of the New Arizonan military as part of the former's "4th of July Offensive", a campaign aimed at annexing as much territory as possible in the aftermath of its rival's collapse.
Led by General George Hunter, the 1st Infantry Battalion ("Big Red One") of the New Washington Armed Forces marched on the border town of New Peyton, which at the time was held by General Brody Dixon. Though the nation he was formally the military of had collapsed, Dixon still retained the loyalty of a large swathe of New Arizona's soldiers, which he quickly augmented with the conscription of any able-bodied American (and even some Downtimers) who he could put weapons into the hands of.
Even before the 4th of July Offensive, New Peyson was well fortified as a border town that doubled as a major military outpost for New Arizona's military, fortifications that Dixon quickly began ordering be improved once word of the invasion came, with additional barricades constructed and trenches dug before New Washington arrived.
The first lines of shallow trenches were manned not by Americans, but by a small contingent of unfortunate Downtimer conscripts. Given the most primitive weapons possible, generally little more than bows and arrows along with the occasional crossbow or pipe gun, they had been marched to their positions effectively at gunpoint and told to hold their positions, and that attempting to flee or surrender would be met with death. These men were battle fodder, meant to force New Washington to expend men and munitions in the disposing of, thus giving Dixon's men a better idea of what they were facing. The more pessimistic viewed it more as a way to make use of a first line of hastily built and wholly inadequate defenses without risking American lives.
Battle
The battle began on July 14, with an infantry assault augmented by the 1st Battalion's technicals smashing through the Downtimer positions with only a handful of casualties. Those not killed by New Washington were mostly gunned down by the New Arizonians as they attempted to flee. Assaulting New Peyson itself however, proved a far more difficult task.
Similarly to New Washington's forces, most of the town's defenders were armed with at least some Uptime weapons, and the 1st Battalion was taken aback by the sheer amount of opposition they faced, having expected most defenders to flee or surrender with only token resistance. Even a technical was lost as it ventured too close as part of one push, being destroyed by a couple of well-thrown pipe bombs. It was at this point that Dixon's trap was sprung, with his two technicals and a significant contingent of his more well-trained and equipped soldiers striking the New Washington soldiers in a flank attack as they were mired pushing into the town.
The result was a frantic bloodbath of modern weapons in close quarters. Both sides lost a technical as each was raked by machine gun fire from its rivals, but New Washington was on the backfoot, and panic was starting to set in. Realizing the battle was lost, General Hunter staged a breakout, managing to withdraw about half of his men under the covering fire of his two remaining technicals' machine guns. Dixon, having suffered his own losses and not wanting to risk suffering more casualties he couldn't replace, did not pursue.
Aftermath
The Battle of New Peyson was, at its time, the largest battle fought solely (excluding the unfortunate Luwian conscripts) between Americans in the post-Event world, save for the fall of Tucson itself and arguably some of the Emergency Commission's battles in that city. Ever since the collapse of the Commission, most battles between American nations in Anatolia were little more than border skirmishes, with neither side wanting to risk losses of irreplaceable men and material. New Peyson, and the 4th of July Offensive in general, was different. New Washington had anticipated a sweeping campaign to annex vast swathes of New Arizona, only to be taken aback as the remnants of the collapsed nation fought back with everything that could be mustered. As a result, the battle had over a thousand combatants taking part, the majority of whom were armed with Uptime weapons. The casualties were equally tremendous, with over three hundred either killed in the battle itself, or died from wounds inflicted during it in the aftermath.
For New Washington, it was nothing less than a disaster. New Peyson was the worst defeat any American nation had suffered on the open battlefield, save for arguably some of the more disastrous Emergency Commission operations in Tucson. The leading Progressive Party was humiliated by this defeat, and the subsequent loss of Malta as the garrison was drawn down to replace casualties, badly maring a term that had otherwise been seen as relatively successful. While other pushes into New Arizonian territory had not been so catastrophic, few had made any significant progress, with the local population proving unexpectedly hostile to New Washington annexation even in the face of a growing warlord era.
With any ambitions to annex New Arizonian territory beyond the immediate border in tatters for years to come, the land would become known as the Broken Coast, a collection of feuding warlord states and settlements, with General Dixon's faction being one of the most prominent, as the victory caused even more people to flock to his banner.
------
"New Washington thought we wouldn't fight. More fool them."
-Brody Dixon, First State of New Arizona (former)
"Even a dying wolf still has fangs."
-Tarhundas, Luwian Farmer
Introduction
The Battle of New Peyson was the first major battle of the Broken Coast Warlord Era in the aftermath of the assassination of President Rachel Slusher and the collapse of the First State of New Arizona, where the soldiers of USA(New Washington) fought against the remnants of the New Arizonan military as part of the former's "4th of July Offensive", a campaign aimed at annexing as much territory as possible in the aftermath of its rival's collapse.
Led by General George Hunter, the 1st Infantry Battalion ("Big Red One") of the New Washington Armed Forces marched on the border town of New Peyton, which at the time was held by General Brody Dixon. Though the nation he was formally the military of had collapsed, Dixon still retained the loyalty of a large swathe of New Arizona's soldiers, which he quickly augmented with the conscription of any able-bodied American (and even some Downtimers) who he could put weapons into the hands of.
Even before the 4th of July Offensive, New Peyson was well fortified as a border town that doubled as a major military outpost for New Arizona's military, fortifications that Dixon quickly began ordering be improved once word of the invasion came, with additional barricades constructed and trenches dug before New Washington arrived.
The first lines of shallow trenches were manned not by Americans, but by a small contingent of unfortunate Downtimer conscripts. Given the most primitive weapons possible, generally little more than bows and arrows along with the occasional crossbow or pipe gun, they had been marched to their positions effectively at gunpoint and told to hold their positions, and that attempting to flee or surrender would be met with death. These men were battle fodder, meant to force New Washington to expend men and munitions in the disposing of, thus giving Dixon's men a better idea of what they were facing. The more pessimistic viewed it more as a way to make use of a first line of hastily built and wholly inadequate defenses without risking American lives.
Battle
The battle began on July 14, with an infantry assault augmented by the 1st Battalion's technicals smashing through the Downtimer positions with only a handful of casualties. Those not killed by New Washington were mostly gunned down by the New Arizonians as they attempted to flee. Assaulting New Peyson itself however, proved a far more difficult task.
Similarly to New Washington's forces, most of the town's defenders were armed with at least some Uptime weapons, and the 1st Battalion was taken aback by the sheer amount of opposition they faced, having expected most defenders to flee or surrender with only token resistance. Even a technical was lost as it ventured too close as part of one push, being destroyed by a couple of well-thrown pipe bombs. It was at this point that Dixon's trap was sprung, with his two technicals and a significant contingent of his more well-trained and equipped soldiers striking the New Washington soldiers in a flank attack as they were mired pushing into the town.
The result was a frantic bloodbath of modern weapons in close quarters. Both sides lost a technical as each was raked by machine gun fire from its rivals, but New Washington was on the backfoot, and panic was starting to set in. Realizing the battle was lost, General Hunter staged a breakout, managing to withdraw about half of his men under the covering fire of his two remaining technicals' machine guns. Dixon, having suffered his own losses and not wanting to risk suffering more casualties he couldn't replace, did not pursue.
Aftermath
The Battle of New Peyson was, at its time, the largest battle fought solely (excluding the unfortunate Luwian conscripts) between Americans in the post-Event world, save for the fall of Tucson itself and arguably some of the Emergency Commission's battles in that city. Ever since the collapse of the Commission, most battles between American nations in Anatolia were little more than border skirmishes, with neither side wanting to risk losses of irreplaceable men and material. New Peyson, and the 4th of July Offensive in general, was different. New Washington had anticipated a sweeping campaign to annex vast swathes of New Arizona, only to be taken aback as the remnants of the collapsed nation fought back with everything that could be mustered. As a result, the battle had over a thousand combatants taking part, the majority of whom were armed with Uptime weapons. The casualties were equally tremendous, with over three hundred either killed in the battle itself, or died from wounds inflicted during it in the aftermath.
For New Washington, it was nothing less than a disaster. New Peyson was the worst defeat any American nation had suffered on the open battlefield, save for arguably some of the more disastrous Emergency Commission operations in Tucson. The leading Progressive Party was humiliated by this defeat, and the subsequent loss of Malta as the garrison was drawn down to replace casualties, badly maring a term that had otherwise been seen as relatively successful. While other pushes into New Arizonian territory had not been so catastrophic, few had made any significant progress, with the local population proving unexpectedly hostile to New Washington annexation even in the face of a growing warlord era.
With any ambitions to annex New Arizonian territory beyond the immediate border in tatters for years to come, the land would become known as the Broken Coast, a collection of feuding warlord states and settlements, with General Dixon's faction being one of the most prominent, as the victory caused even more people to flock to his banner.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Very cool and yeah this has probably been the largest battle since the Emergency Commission. I can't imagine the Air force risking that many Americans in one battle. New Washington is going to be hurting from this one
Cannon Omake: Three Old Men Shootin' The Shit
- Pronouns
- he/him
cw: mild period accurate sexism
It was a sunny summer's day in Mycenaea, and it was, as usual, scorching. A light breeze flew through the streets of the city past a covered portion of the plaza, where two men sat at opposite sides of the board, thirty two pieces arranged opposite each other, one of them squinting at a tablet to read the instructions for the game aloud. "It says the horse moves in a… it looks like an upside down gamma? That sort of shape." The younger of the two, an old man on the other side of forty winters, turns the clay tablet around and points his opponent to the "L" on the tablet. "Two spaces out and one to the side.
"An 'upside down gamma'! Bah, just call it a bent branch like everyone else; you wouldn't've had to do all this explaining to me if you'd just memorized the rules like a normal person instead of writing it down!" The other man grumbled through his bushy white beard. He'd been skeptical of this new-fangled 'literacy campaign' the Americans put in. He sure never needed to read or write more than the weather or tally marks in his fifty-two winters. Just paid his taxes for the Wanax to go to war and build his city. Now he paid his taxes for the 'council' to make new-fangled guns and new-fangled ditches in the street for shit to go in.
New-fangled just like this American game Arktos was trying to get him to play. So what if he gave Philanthros three good outfits for it? Knucklebones was a good enough game to pass the time, it didn't need nearly as much cloth to make. Or carpentry. Olive and oak wood, just for a game board? Euthros grumbled to himself. Why couldn't they just stick to backgammon?
"Go eat hemlock, Euthros." Arktos rejoined, "If I'd memorized it I would've done just as much explaining with yet again as much nagging for bad memory no matter what I said. At least writing it down is saving my ears, if not my eyes." Arktos squinted again at his poor handwriting, his bushy salt and pepper eyebrows drawing together. "This 'alphabet' really isn't designed for clay."
Euthros snorted, "Writing's for priests and Americans, anyway, we aren't designed for it! How do I know you aren't just making up what it says on that clay?" "Learn to read then." Euthros scoffed, "Let's just start the game." As he said that the third member of their group walked in. "Agapetos! Perfect, tell this whippersnapper off all this writing pandemonium. What's he even need it for as a tailor?" Euthros said cheerfully to Arktos' eye roll. Eythros got leagues out of Arktos joining a literacy class, but unfortunately for him Agapetos didn't reinforce his teasing.
"I dunno…" Agapetos started as he set down the amphora he'd been carrying, it sloshed out a splash of dark red wine. He stood up and regarded the weathered face of Euthros, who eagerly tilted out a cup for himself. "This writing stuff may not be full of manliness, but I have a nephew, Andronikos, who passed the writing test they do with 'flying colors,' they said, a few months ago. They immediately put him to work writing stuff all over the place. Theophany tells me he got put to work gathering up the supplies for the sewers going up."
"Paahh… Ambrosia!" Euthros finishes his cup, "You're nephew's workin' on the shit ditches? Not even diggin' 'em?"
"That's what Theo tells me. Two hot meals a day for sore hands and sore feet instead of a sore back." That got an appreciative snort from the other two. "And the sewers are done, the ditches are for storms and flooding, or something. It's still a living." The two old men settle into pondering.
Arktos moves the piece in front of his wanax forward two places. "I've got a son whose still going insane over the horse he got-"
"Now wait a minute here, aren't those only supposed to go one?" Euthros pointed a boney finger at the piece. Arktos sighs, knowing he'd already explained this twice.
"Not if it's the first time you move it. Now let me talk, sea foam! Now. My son is going insane over one of those American-bred horses. Apparently, it tilled his field in three days, so he's petitioning the Wanax-"
"Council," Agapetos corrects. It was still hard for the old men to break their habit, simple men as they were.
"Council, right, petitioning the council to expand his land so he can farm more. I told him to just go ahead and do it, it's not like the Wanax owns it anymore." In the four years of rule by the council, the 'land to the tiller' policy was one of the few policies that Euthros couldn't directly complain about.
"No, now it's owned by ten people." Not that he didn't try. Euthros cuts in as he moves the piece mirroring Arktos' forward two. "At least they got rid of slavery. Never did think a man should own another."
"Or be lead by a woman…" Agapetos grumbles, though Euthros scoffs and waves him away. Arktos puts his chin in the crook of his thumb, takes a sip of his wine, and stares at the board before gingerly moving one of his horses up behind his first piece.
"Bah, she's American, Americans can't be women, they're taller than you." Agapetos was a tall man, usually half a head above most men, and towering over near every woman. He felt a strange embarrassment at having to look up to the few American women he's seen.
"I was talking to an American about women the other day," Arktos commented, focused more on the game. "They get real weird about them. Talk about their beauty and behavior and they'll nod along, but as soon as you mention marriageability and potential dowries they start acting like a bear'll show up."
"Ah, always about and never to, huh Arktos. Hah! Not like me in my old days." Euthros moved the priest piece up to where it would pin one of Arktos' pieces against his wanax.
"What old days, old man? You can't get it up unless they have a beard, if you can even get it up anymore! Have you even seen a woman with her hair down?" Agapetos replied with humor.
"Alas, since I've grown this," Euthros tugs on his beard, " I've had to settle from men to women that look like boys." He lamented, but then a humorous gleam appeared in his eyes. "To answer your question; your wife invited me into the baths once." Euthros said mischievously. Agapetos, who was sitting on a bench beside watching the game, flushed with anger at the insinuation.
"She What!?" Agapetos shouted indignant offense, to which Euthros started a wheezing cackle.
"Hyeehahaa! She needed me to clean the algae! Hahaha!" He slapped his knee, then winced and muttered 'oh, that's gonna bruise tomorrow' beneath his breath. Agapetos grumbled back down into his seat, still flushed. Arktos moved his horse to take Euthros' first piece, leaving his priest stranded in the battlefield.
"First blood." Arktos announced out of both a need to distract and a small amount of pride. Agapetos cheered in vicarious revenge, downing another gulp of wine.
"Hey now don't get all uppity just 'cause you have beginner's luck-"
"It's a strategy game, sea foam, there's no luck to it." Arktos rebutted, "You're the one who left your soldier out there."
"Aww, fuck you." They sat there in companionable silence as the two players focused on the game for the moment. Euthros moved his wanassa's horse to attack Arktos', which made him move a soldier up to defend it. Euthros smiled and moved his soldier near the wanax to attack the horse. "Hah, either retreat or give up your horse! It's done for."
Arktos' brows drew together again and he hummed. He took a drink and he stared at the board. Agapetos had little idea what was going on, so deigned to continue conversation. "So what do you think of this whole thing the Americans are doing?"
"What do you mean?" Arktos asked evenly, "Americans do many things." before picking up his horse and looking at where it could go. He placed it in each spot, and noticed the square next to the enemy wanax. Arktos didn't know much about them, but he worked more often with the Americans as a craftsman who lived in the city. He'd even made a friend, Martin Schumaker.
"Hey, that's moving it!" Euthros pointed accusingly.
"It's not moving it unless I take my hand off." He countered before turning back to Agapetos.
"I mean the whole 'people's rule' thing they espouse. Ever since my nephew's taken that job he's been talking about getting higher in the 'party' like he'll be on the council himself." Agapetos' face grimaced with worry. "I just wanna know if it would be good for him. He looks up to me, I'm sure he'll stop if I ask. But lately when I talk to him he says 'the people' like he's talking about the Gods. You've talked to Americans way more than me. I'm just a woodsman, and you know how little time I get nowadays." He gestured wildly at the air. "Just, what's your take on it?"
Agapetos trusted Arktos with thinking things like this through. He'd always been the more thoughtful of the three of them, level-headed and listening despite their roughhousing. Or maybe because of it.
Arktos hummed deeply again. "Well, it's mostly a philosophy. From what I've heard told it's written in a book, some sort of stacked scroll, called 'Capital' in the future they're from." He enunciated the foreign words carefully. he didn't know much English, but he wasn't the sort to speak improperly.
"Aaah, it's a written thing! New-fangled Americans can't even keep their philosophy straight in their heads!" Euthros gripped yet again at the written word. He turned and pointed his mottled finger at Agapetos. "You should just tell Andronikos to learn a trade. Blacksmithing is a rising tide, I hear. I have a nephew that's in those iron forges they have set up. He's been living it up, wearing those thick leather shoes they give 'em everywhere." His face turned a bit smug, "Last time I saw him he said it was hurting his lungs, but that he only had to work from morning 'til noon for four days a week."
Of course, Euthros didn't listen to his nephew much when he was telling him about his work, but that stuck out to him. A half-a-day period of work with the rest free? Where was that when he was young enough to do it?
"Hmm, hurting your lungs isn't good, it'll imbalance his humors. And breathing's important for you." Arktos commented. Then he grunted as he looked at the board and moved his wanassa to attack Euthros' wanax. "Check." he announced the English word for attacking the king. "Now you have to defend your wanax. Or move him." He told Euthros for the fourth time. "There's some sort of portion of the air that's what lets you breathe."
"Shit." Euthros swore, looking at the board. He quieted down and stared at the game while Agapetos restarted his lost question.
"This philosophy, it's called capital?" He looked at Arktos with worried captivation.
"No, capital is a different thing. Well, they add 'ism' to the end of their philosophies, so it would be capitalism, which from what I can gather is one person owning big piles of gold and using that gold to trade and somehow get a bigger pile of gold. The American philosophy is called 'socialism' or 'communism.' I don't know the difference, Martin used them like they were the same thing."
"What they didn't teach you that in those fancy word carving lessons?"
"I think they did, but I was there to learn letters and get a hot meal, I didn't pay much attention to much else."
"More fool you, then." Euthros stopped staring at the board looking for moves he could make and just moved his wanax forward out of the wanessa's line of sight.
"Shut up Euthros. So, what's this 'socialism' about anyway?" Agapetos leaned forward earnestly, both to watch the game and listen to Arktos.
Arktos moved up his wanessa next to Euthros' wanax where it was protected by his horse. "Check." He said, then continued through Euthros' dismay. "Basically, the main thing with socialism can be summed up with 'the workers own the tools to make.' If you want a job as a farmer, you get land and a horse and sheep because you use them. As a blacksmith? A forge and tools. A tailor? Needles and thread. If you aren't using something, or someone else can use it when you aren't, someone else gets it. If you own without working and don't give it up you're the ruling class and need to be overthrown."
"Ah!" Euthros nodded in realization and approval. "That's why they took over from that lazy bastard of a Wanax. He couldn't till all the fields he owned. At least our council gave them up."
Arktos nodded in agreement. Euthros, grumbling, moved his wanax forward again, away from the enemy wanessa. "Yeah. And then the workers, or people I suppose in the case of your Andronikos, Agapetos, having gotten rid of the ruling class work together to achieve a… what was the phrase he used? 'A common wealth of toil.' He translated a song for me. it doesn't work in our tongue, but it goes like this.
But we have a glowing dream
Of how fair the world will seem
When each man can live his life secure and free
When the earth is owned by work
And there's joy and peace for all
In the common wealth of toil that is to be."
He moved his horse back and to the left. "Check."
"Agh! Fuck you, you whoreson!" he couldn't move anywhere but one space, so he did.
"So that's it? A man should own his tools, his land and his animals, and we shouldn't have wanaxes?"
"Well, more than just that, it is an entire philosophy after all, but if you're worried about the ideas it'll put in his head it'll probably just be 'people should eat more' and 'people should have better tools.' Which isn't the worst thing." Arktos moved his wanessa back next to Euthros' wanax. "Checkmate." Arktos took great satisfaction at Euthros' face turning an apoplectic shade of purple. Checkmate was a very satisfying word to say.
"What!? How?! You cheating bastard!" Agapetos took great pleasure too, shaking out a belly laugh at his indignation.
"It's a strategy game Euthros. The only way to cheat is to move the pieces wrong. You could've fought me off if you'd moved that soldier instead of your wanax." He pointed to the soldier in front of his unmoved horse. Of course, then he would've sacrificed his horse to save his wanessa and take a tower. But he wouldn't have won. Arktos stood up and stretched his back, groaning, "Ask Andronikos about it if you want more details, he probably already knows more than I ever will. Let me reset the board; you two play and i'll play the winner. If either of you can beat me I'll have my wife make some fried honey batter for you." Both of the old men's eyes widened and Agapetos quickly got into Arktos' vacated seat.
"Alright you lumbering oaf, time for you to weep! You'll be writing poems about this game!"
"You're the one who just lost without killing a single man, sea foam, can't wait to see you keel over when losing makes your heart give out!"
"That was just a warm up! Just you wait and see!"
Arktos smiled slightly at his bickering friends. Life is good.
It was a sunny summer's day in Mycenaea, and it was, as usual, scorching. A light breeze flew through the streets of the city past a covered portion of the plaza, where two men sat at opposite sides of the board, thirty two pieces arranged opposite each other, one of them squinting at a tablet to read the instructions for the game aloud. "It says the horse moves in a… it looks like an upside down gamma? That sort of shape." The younger of the two, an old man on the other side of forty winters, turns the clay tablet around and points his opponent to the "L" on the tablet. "Two spaces out and one to the side.
"An 'upside down gamma'! Bah, just call it a bent branch like everyone else; you wouldn't've had to do all this explaining to me if you'd just memorized the rules like a normal person instead of writing it down!" The other man grumbled through his bushy white beard. He'd been skeptical of this new-fangled 'literacy campaign' the Americans put in. He sure never needed to read or write more than the weather or tally marks in his fifty-two winters. Just paid his taxes for the Wanax to go to war and build his city. Now he paid his taxes for the 'council' to make new-fangled guns and new-fangled ditches in the street for shit to go in.
New-fangled just like this American game Arktos was trying to get him to play. So what if he gave Philanthros three good outfits for it? Knucklebones was a good enough game to pass the time, it didn't need nearly as much cloth to make. Or carpentry. Olive and oak wood, just for a game board? Euthros grumbled to himself. Why couldn't they just stick to backgammon?
"Go eat hemlock, Euthros." Arktos rejoined, "If I'd memorized it I would've done just as much explaining with yet again as much nagging for bad memory no matter what I said. At least writing it down is saving my ears, if not my eyes." Arktos squinted again at his poor handwriting, his bushy salt and pepper eyebrows drawing together. "This 'alphabet' really isn't designed for clay."
Euthros snorted, "Writing's for priests and Americans, anyway, we aren't designed for it! How do I know you aren't just making up what it says on that clay?" "Learn to read then." Euthros scoffed, "Let's just start the game." As he said that the third member of their group walked in. "Agapetos! Perfect, tell this whippersnapper off all this writing pandemonium. What's he even need it for as a tailor?" Euthros said cheerfully to Arktos' eye roll. Eythros got leagues out of Arktos joining a literacy class, but unfortunately for him Agapetos didn't reinforce his teasing.
"I dunno…" Agapetos started as he set down the amphora he'd been carrying, it sloshed out a splash of dark red wine. He stood up and regarded the weathered face of Euthros, who eagerly tilted out a cup for himself. "This writing stuff may not be full of manliness, but I have a nephew, Andronikos, who passed the writing test they do with 'flying colors,' they said, a few months ago. They immediately put him to work writing stuff all over the place. Theophany tells me he got put to work gathering up the supplies for the sewers going up."
"Paahh… Ambrosia!" Euthros finishes his cup, "You're nephew's workin' on the shit ditches? Not even diggin' 'em?"
"That's what Theo tells me. Two hot meals a day for sore hands and sore feet instead of a sore back." That got an appreciative snort from the other two. "And the sewers are done, the ditches are for storms and flooding, or something. It's still a living." The two old men settle into pondering.
Arktos moves the piece in front of his wanax forward two places. "I've got a son whose still going insane over the horse he got-"
"Now wait a minute here, aren't those only supposed to go one?" Euthros pointed a boney finger at the piece. Arktos sighs, knowing he'd already explained this twice.
"Not if it's the first time you move it. Now let me talk, sea foam! Now. My son is going insane over one of those American-bred horses. Apparently, it tilled his field in three days, so he's petitioning the Wanax-"
"Council," Agapetos corrects. It was still hard for the old men to break their habit, simple men as they were.
"Council, right, petitioning the council to expand his land so he can farm more. I told him to just go ahead and do it, it's not like the Wanax owns it anymore." In the four years of rule by the council, the 'land to the tiller' policy was one of the few policies that Euthros couldn't directly complain about.
"No, now it's owned by ten people." Not that he didn't try. Euthros cuts in as he moves the piece mirroring Arktos' forward two. "At least they got rid of slavery. Never did think a man should own another."
"Or be lead by a woman…" Agapetos grumbles, though Euthros scoffs and waves him away. Arktos puts his chin in the crook of his thumb, takes a sip of his wine, and stares at the board before gingerly moving one of his horses up behind his first piece.
"Bah, she's American, Americans can't be women, they're taller than you." Agapetos was a tall man, usually half a head above most men, and towering over near every woman. He felt a strange embarrassment at having to look up to the few American women he's seen.
"I was talking to an American about women the other day," Arktos commented, focused more on the game. "They get real weird about them. Talk about their beauty and behavior and they'll nod along, but as soon as you mention marriageability and potential dowries they start acting like a bear'll show up."
"Ah, always about and never to, huh Arktos. Hah! Not like me in my old days." Euthros moved the priest piece up to where it would pin one of Arktos' pieces against his wanax.
"What old days, old man? You can't get it up unless they have a beard, if you can even get it up anymore! Have you even seen a woman with her hair down?" Agapetos replied with humor.
"Alas, since I've grown this," Euthros tugs on his beard, " I've had to settle from men to women that look like boys." He lamented, but then a humorous gleam appeared in his eyes. "To answer your question; your wife invited me into the baths once." Euthros said mischievously. Agapetos, who was sitting on a bench beside watching the game, flushed with anger at the insinuation.
"She What!?" Agapetos shouted indignant offense, to which Euthros started a wheezing cackle.
"Hyeehahaa! She needed me to clean the algae! Hahaha!" He slapped his knee, then winced and muttered 'oh, that's gonna bruise tomorrow' beneath his breath. Agapetos grumbled back down into his seat, still flushed. Arktos moved his horse to take Euthros' first piece, leaving his priest stranded in the battlefield.
"First blood." Arktos announced out of both a need to distract and a small amount of pride. Agapetos cheered in vicarious revenge, downing another gulp of wine.
"Hey now don't get all uppity just 'cause you have beginner's luck-"
"It's a strategy game, sea foam, there's no luck to it." Arktos rebutted, "You're the one who left your soldier out there."
"Aww, fuck you." They sat there in companionable silence as the two players focused on the game for the moment. Euthros moved his wanassa's horse to attack Arktos', which made him move a soldier up to defend it. Euthros smiled and moved his soldier near the wanax to attack the horse. "Hah, either retreat or give up your horse! It's done for."
Arktos' brows drew together again and he hummed. He took a drink and he stared at the board. Agapetos had little idea what was going on, so deigned to continue conversation. "So what do you think of this whole thing the Americans are doing?"
"What do you mean?" Arktos asked evenly, "Americans do many things." before picking up his horse and looking at where it could go. He placed it in each spot, and noticed the square next to the enemy wanax. Arktos didn't know much about them, but he worked more often with the Americans as a craftsman who lived in the city. He'd even made a friend, Martin Schumaker.
"Hey, that's moving it!" Euthros pointed accusingly.
"It's not moving it unless I take my hand off." He countered before turning back to Agapetos.
"I mean the whole 'people's rule' thing they espouse. Ever since my nephew's taken that job he's been talking about getting higher in the 'party' like he'll be on the council himself." Agapetos' face grimaced with worry. "I just wanna know if it would be good for him. He looks up to me, I'm sure he'll stop if I ask. But lately when I talk to him he says 'the people' like he's talking about the Gods. You've talked to Americans way more than me. I'm just a woodsman, and you know how little time I get nowadays." He gestured wildly at the air. "Just, what's your take on it?"
Agapetos trusted Arktos with thinking things like this through. He'd always been the more thoughtful of the three of them, level-headed and listening despite their roughhousing. Or maybe because of it.
Arktos hummed deeply again. "Well, it's mostly a philosophy. From what I've heard told it's written in a book, some sort of stacked scroll, called 'Capital' in the future they're from." He enunciated the foreign words carefully. he didn't know much English, but he wasn't the sort to speak improperly.
"Aaah, it's a written thing! New-fangled Americans can't even keep their philosophy straight in their heads!" Euthros gripped yet again at the written word. He turned and pointed his mottled finger at Agapetos. "You should just tell Andronikos to learn a trade. Blacksmithing is a rising tide, I hear. I have a nephew that's in those iron forges they have set up. He's been living it up, wearing those thick leather shoes they give 'em everywhere." His face turned a bit smug, "Last time I saw him he said it was hurting his lungs, but that he only had to work from morning 'til noon for four days a week."
Of course, Euthros didn't listen to his nephew much when he was telling him about his work, but that stuck out to him. A half-a-day period of work with the rest free? Where was that when he was young enough to do it?
"Hmm, hurting your lungs isn't good, it'll imbalance his humors. And breathing's important for you." Arktos commented. Then he grunted as he looked at the board and moved his wanassa to attack Euthros' wanax. "Check." he announced the English word for attacking the king. "Now you have to defend your wanax. Or move him." He told Euthros for the fourth time. "There's some sort of portion of the air that's what lets you breathe."
"Shit." Euthros swore, looking at the board. He quieted down and stared at the game while Agapetos restarted his lost question.
"This philosophy, it's called capital?" He looked at Arktos with worried captivation.
"No, capital is a different thing. Well, they add 'ism' to the end of their philosophies, so it would be capitalism, which from what I can gather is one person owning big piles of gold and using that gold to trade and somehow get a bigger pile of gold. The American philosophy is called 'socialism' or 'communism.' I don't know the difference, Martin used them like they were the same thing."
"What they didn't teach you that in those fancy word carving lessons?"
"I think they did, but I was there to learn letters and get a hot meal, I didn't pay much attention to much else."
"More fool you, then." Euthros stopped staring at the board looking for moves he could make and just moved his wanax forward out of the wanessa's line of sight.
"Shut up Euthros. So, what's this 'socialism' about anyway?" Agapetos leaned forward earnestly, both to watch the game and listen to Arktos.
Arktos moved up his wanessa next to Euthros' wanax where it was protected by his horse. "Check." He said, then continued through Euthros' dismay. "Basically, the main thing with socialism can be summed up with 'the workers own the tools to make.' If you want a job as a farmer, you get land and a horse and sheep because you use them. As a blacksmith? A forge and tools. A tailor? Needles and thread. If you aren't using something, or someone else can use it when you aren't, someone else gets it. If you own without working and don't give it up you're the ruling class and need to be overthrown."
"Ah!" Euthros nodded in realization and approval. "That's why they took over from that lazy bastard of a Wanax. He couldn't till all the fields he owned. At least our council gave them up."
Arktos nodded in agreement. Euthros, grumbling, moved his wanax forward again, away from the enemy wanessa. "Yeah. And then the workers, or people I suppose in the case of your Andronikos, Agapetos, having gotten rid of the ruling class work together to achieve a… what was the phrase he used? 'A common wealth of toil.' He translated a song for me. it doesn't work in our tongue, but it goes like this.
But we have a glowing dream
Of how fair the world will seem
When each man can live his life secure and free
When the earth is owned by work
And there's joy and peace for all
In the common wealth of toil that is to be."
He moved his horse back and to the left. "Check."
"Agh! Fuck you, you whoreson!" he couldn't move anywhere but one space, so he did.
"So that's it? A man should own his tools, his land and his animals, and we shouldn't have wanaxes?"
"Well, more than just that, it is an entire philosophy after all, but if you're worried about the ideas it'll put in his head it'll probably just be 'people should eat more' and 'people should have better tools.' Which isn't the worst thing." Arktos moved his wanessa back next to Euthros' wanax. "Checkmate." Arktos took great satisfaction at Euthros' face turning an apoplectic shade of purple. Checkmate was a very satisfying word to say.
"What!? How?! You cheating bastard!" Agapetos took great pleasure too, shaking out a belly laugh at his indignation.
"It's a strategy game Euthros. The only way to cheat is to move the pieces wrong. You could've fought me off if you'd moved that soldier instead of your wanax." He pointed to the soldier in front of his unmoved horse. Of course, then he would've sacrificed his horse to save his wanessa and take a tower. But he wouldn't have won. Arktos stood up and stretched his back, groaning, "Ask Andronikos about it if you want more details, he probably already knows more than I ever will. Let me reset the board; you two play and i'll play the winner. If either of you can beat me I'll have my wife make some fried honey batter for you." Both of the old men's eyes widened and Agapetos quickly got into Arktos' vacated seat.
"Alright you lumbering oaf, time for you to weep! You'll be writing poems about this game!"
"You're the one who just lost without killing a single man, sea foam, can't wait to see you keel over when losing makes your heart give out!"
"That was just a warm up! Just you wait and see!"
Arktos smiled slightly at his bickering friends. Life is good.
with steam engines, we could probably build better ventilation into the buildings and even some positive pressure suits(think old timey diving suits) but the reality of the situation is that the amount of resources required to help those workers have a better life expectancy is probably much much higher than whatever benefits we can bring to selling good cast iron hoes to farmers.
but as we improve the system and roll out better versions, i can absolutely see ventilation being built in as well as active carbon masks and heavy leather suits.they will sweat like pigs and inhale charcoal dust plus this won't stop the exposure, but it should significantly reduce it, add to that the fact that we can rotate out workers once we see their health is degrading too much and we can probably strech that life expectancy to somewhere in the 50's.
but as we improve the system and roll out better versions, i can absolutely see ventilation being built in as well as active carbon masks and heavy leather suits.they will sweat like pigs and inhale charcoal dust plus this won't stop the exposure, but it should significantly reduce it, add to that the fact that we can rotate out workers once we see their health is degrading too much and we can probably strech that life expectancy to somewhere in the 50's.
Turn 3 (10AE Trimester 3): The Womb of Victory
Turn 3 (10AE Third Turn): The Womb of Victory
190 Resources Per Turn, 90 In Storage
51 Political Support
Mycenae, 10 AE
Much progress has been made over the past four months. While work on coal mining could not start immediately due to the harvest taking up all available labor, production of iron, machine tools, firearms, and many other necessary goods has massively increased. With the amount of Americans in the Republic doubling, many more personnel are now available for administrative, technical, and educational assignments. Arguably the most important development were the significant strides made in weapons production. While conflicts over which military district would be the first to receive firearms en masse was a huge impediment to progress, if all military districts can get sufficient firearms, most of the causes of the conflicts would disappear. This could not come at a more opportune time, given the recent developments to the north.
Free Dice to Allocate: 3 Dice
Infrastructure (4 Dice):
[]Derveni-Zapantis Canal: A navigable canal to connect the Gulf of Corinth to the city of Mycenae and the Aegean as a whole will massively decrease the difficulty of transporting goods to our capital. Work has begun on a series of locks, reservoirs, and pumps to enable the movement of small barges between the Derveni and Zapantis rivers, but this requires a vertical climb of close to a hundred meters. However, even with its massive cost, it must be worth it for the Cretans to have built a similar canal. (10 Resources per dice (350/1200), loss of political support if less than 50 progress/turn) (Makes most other projects cheaper) (+25 Political Support on completion)
[]Lock Systems (Stage 2): While carts are an option for transporting goods, river transport is an order of magnitude cheaper. This would build more locks, especially along the Peiros and Asopos rivers, to enable the cheap transport of bulk goods such as grain and timber. (5 resources per dice (0/250) (Stage 2 Dams required for next stage). (Makes many other projects cheaper, +5 Political Support on completion)
[]Port Facilities (Stage 1): While sporadic improvements to ports have been made since the establishment of the Republic, a nationwide effort is badly needed. This would expand and improve ports in all major cities, helping trade and fishing and potentially allowing for the creation of a real navy. (5 Resources per dice (0/150))
[]Mycenae Storm Drains: With a basic network of water and sewage pipes complete, the time has come to build a system of storm drains to prevent flooding. Already mostly complete, after this stage other cities like Tiryns and Dyme will receive similar systems as exist in Mycenae. (10 Resources per dice (85/100))
Heavy Industry (3 Dice):
[]Kópos Coal Mine (Stage 1): With an exploitable deposit of coal being found at last, exploitation must start immediately. While lacking machining capability means that the use of steam engines is restricted, being right next to so much coal means that even extremely inefficient and simple steam engines are still practical for use in pumping out water and bringing up coal from the depths of the mine. (10 Resources per dice (0/125))
[]Thríambos Ironworks (Stage 1): Now that we have working examples of blast, puddling, and cementation furnaces for iron production, we can begin massively scaling up the production of iron and steel. Located just outside the walls of Mycenae due to the availability of nearby ore, labor, water, limestone, wood, and coal, this will be the beating heart of our industrialization from now on. While the blast furnaces will still require charcoal, puddling and cementation furnaces work in such a way that the fuel and charge never actually come into contact, allowing us to use coal for those parts of the process (10 Resources per dice (50/100))
[]Machine Tools: Our machining capability is massively limited, and will be for the foreseeable future. However, we can at least make more tools such as lathes and trip hammers, even if they need constant maintenance and have horrible precision. (15 Resources per dice (58/100)) (+5 Political Support on completion)
[]Experimental Glassworks: While we lack anyone truly skilled in glassworking, a few people did take glassblowing classes before the Event and claim to remember some of it. While we cannot expect any kind of quality, combined with books on glassmaking it may be possible to make some objects. (10 Resources per dice (0/50))
Light Industry (3 Dice):
[]Textile Industry (Stage 1): We have been able to come up with somewhat pracitcal designs for spinning frames and power looms, mostly by stealing from other states. This will free up massive amounts of labor for other tasks, and make everything from clothing to sails far cheaper to produce. (5 Resources per dice (0/150)) (+5 Political Support on completion)
[]Farming Tool Production: Improved ploughs, reapers, and other farming equipment will allow for massive improvements in agriculture. While the limited supply of iron does cause some issues, setting up more workshops will still help a lot. (10 resources per dice (74/100))
[]Hand Tool Production: Setting up workshops additional to make hand tools will be a massive help to work in mining, construction, and many other industries. This includes not only tools such as hammers, picks, and saws, but also measuring instruments such as rulers and calipers. (10 resources per dice (0/50)) (cheapens other options)
[]Mills (Stage 1): Anywhere with a decently sized stream can be home to mills for grinding grain, cutting wood, and more. This will decrease the cost and increase the quality of goods such as flour and lumber, and free up large amounts of labor. (5 resources per dice (32/100))
[]Lime and Brick Kilns: With the coming availability of more coal, we can expand the production of bricks and lime. These would be built in every major town, with extra concentration in Mycenae itself and near the Kopos coal mine. (5 Resources per dice (0/70))
Chemical Industry (2 Dice):
[]Small-Scale Electrolysis: While electricity production is currently massively limited, we do have the ability to make limited amounts of hydroelectricity using waterwheels and modified car alternators. This can be used to make sodium hypochlorite, and therefore chloroform, via the electrolysis of salt water, although this can only be done on a small scale due to electricity constraints. However, even small amounts of disinfectants and anesthetics would be very useful for medical procedures. (15 Resources per dice (0/50))
[]Sulfuric Acid Production: Pyrite will slowly be oxidized to ferrous sulfate in the presence of air and water, which in turn can be heated to decompose it to iron oxide and sulfuric acid. While this is extremely slow and inefficient, sulfuric acid is invaluable for essentially all chemical processes. (5 Resources per dice (32/50))
[]Alternative Feedstock Production Routes: While salt is the main solute in seawater, there are sizeable amounts of magnesium chloride and sodium sulfate present in the bitterns, or the solution left over after it has been evaporated down to produce salt. These can be used to make hydrochloric acid and sodium carbonate, which can be converted to a whole host of other chemicals. Most interesting of these is potassium chlorate, which can be used to make gunpowder and is not limited by the amount of nitrogenous waste we can procure like saltpeter is. However, this has never been done on a large scale before, so it may have unexpected problems. (10 Resources per dice (0/30)
Agriculture (3 Dice):
[]Dams (Stage 2): Many more dams can be built to allow for more irrigation of farmland and more consistent flow of rivers through the season. This will benefit not only agriculture, but also transportation and industry. However, despite being fairly simple to construct, they do require very large amounts of soil and rock to be moved. (5 Resources per dice (0/250))
[]Agricultural Education: Many farmers are still using downtime crops and livestock, and adoption of more modern farming techniques is even more slow. Sending out more education teams will likely help with this, although the purge of the priests has damaged our relationship with them. (5 Resources per dice (5 Resources per dice (92/150))
[]Village Educational Cadre Instruction: Previous literacy programs have been focused almost exclusively in cities. This program would recruit volunteers from rural areas to learn how to read and write, and provide them with paper, writing materials, and a few books on subjects like agriculture and basic medicine before sending them back to their villages with an increased ration of food and clothes for them to teach others how to read and write on a part-time basis. This will come nowhere close to eliminating rural illiteracy, but making sure that at least one person in every village knows how to read is a first step. (5 Resources per dice (0/200)) (+5 Political Support on completion)
Services (3 Dice):
[]Primary Schools (Stage 1): While we have taught thousands of urban citizens how to read and write, we still lack a true education system. This would establish a series of schools in all of our cities, teaching a 4-year program to children whose parents decide to educate them, with free lunches being given to pupils to encourage this. They will graduate with knowledge of reading, writing, basic arithmetic, and some education on the basics of things like germ theory, geography, and how the Republic is surrounded on all sides by reactionary feudalist and capitalist states bent on enslaving us all. (5 Resources per dice (54/150)) (+5 Political Support on completion)
[]Adult Literacy Campaigns (Stage 3): While progress has been made, there are still many urban citizens who are illiterate. This stage will not totally eliminate illiteracy, but will make it so a solid majority of working-age adults will at least be able to write their own names. After this, resources will be shifted to building a more formal education system, as educating people as children will work better than stopgap attempts with adults. (5 Resources per dice (9/250)) (+5 Political Support upon completion)
[]Vocational Education: Several thousand workers already know how to read and write, but more education will increase their productivity further. This consists of both purely practical instruction in areas such as blacksmithing and pottery, as well as teaching more advanced mathematics to people such as carpenters and masons. (5 Resources per dice (21/100) (Nursing Education unlocked upon completion)
[]Libraries: While book production is massively limited by the inability to make wood pulp, we still are able to make enough to set up some public libraries. This will help educate and entertain the population, as well as prevent them from falling back into illiteracy due to lack of practice. (5 Resources per dice (0/50))
Military (4 Dice):
[]Fortification Improvements: While a complete restructuring of the walls of cities like Mycenae and Tiryns is far too expensive to consider right now, we can at least improve them somewhat. Gates will be strengthened, and angular bastions made of brick and rammed earth can reduce the number of dead zones by the walls. (5 Resources per dice (63/200))
[]Crossbow Production (Stage 2): Silent, accurate, and deadly, the crossbow is the ideal weapon for the guerillas that make up the bulk of the People's Army, even if it isn't as good against armor as muskets. They're also useful for protecting livestock and hunting. However, more are needed in order to ensure the defeat of any occupying army, necessitating the construction of more workshops and the training of more bowyers. (5 Resources per dice (0/150))
[]Arquebus Production (Stage 3): While still made of iron pipes, the switch from matchlocks to caplocks has significantly increased the effectiveness of our crude arquebuses. This would more than double the production of firearms of all types, a necessity if the planned mass adoption of arquebusier units is to become a reality. (10 Resources per dice (13/100))
[]Cannon Production (Stage 2): While tin for making bronze is extremely expensive, cannons are still indispensable weapons. We need more foundries to produce them in even larger amounts to ensure the safety of the Republic. (15 Resources per dice (43/50))
[]Melee Weapon Production (Stage 2): With current ranged weapons being quite slow to fire, we need to ensure that our troops can fight at close ranges. Even if they aren't as flashy as guns, more pikes, shields, and swords are critical for our army. (5 Resources per dice (0/50)
[]Armor Production (Stage 1): While it may not stop bullets, all of our enemies rely on large amounts of bows and melee weapons in addition to muskets and remaining Uptime weapons. However, it is still very expensive to produce, at least while iron production is at such a small scale. (10 Resources per dice (0/80))
[]Incendiary Experiments: While perhaps not the most refined weapons, Molotov cocktails and other incendiary weapons have a long and storied history of use. We should see if we can make any similar devices which are practical to use in the battlefield. (5 Resources per dice (0/30))
[]Rifle Trials: Current guns are extremely innacurate, however, it may be possible to produce better ones. With caplocks being more reliable, faster to reload, and mechanically simpler than matchlocks or caplocks, all proposed designs now use percussion caps. Producing a few dozen of these would establish if larger-scale maunfacture is practical at this time. While they probably cannot be issued to every single soldier, they would be invaluable in the hands of more professional units. (5 Resources per dice (0/30))
Bureaucracy (2 Dice):
[]Recruit Americans To Ministry: Almost every single American adult is far more educated than nearly any downtimer, and many have actual experience in areas such as management and accounting. Hundreds of thousands of these people live on the coasts of Anatolia, and many would be more than happy to leave behind a life of subsistence farming to do paperwork. While this will be extremely unpopular, having more educated people in the Ministry can only be a good thing. (5 Resources and -3 Political Support per dice) (Larger effect the more dice are spent) (Increases dice allocation)
[]Recruit Downtimers To Ministry: Even if they don't have much of a formal education, there are thousands of intelligent, motivated, and literate downtimers in the Republic. These people are capable of doing lower-level administrative work, and will learn more with time. Having more of them in our government will also bring us closer to a true people's democracy. However, recruiting them to our own ministry while basic administration and tax collection is still understaffed will be politically unpopular. (5 Resources and -1 Political Support per dice) (Larger effect the more dice are spent) (Increases dice allocation)
[]Recruit Americans To Bureaucracy: Almost every single American adult is far more educated than nearly any downtimer, and many have actual experience in areas such as management and accounting. Hundreds of thousands of these people live on the coasts of Anatolia, and many would be more than happy to leave behind a life of subsistence farming to do paperwork. However, few of these are likely to be politically reliable, and having even more Americans in government won't look great to our citizens. (5 Resources and -2 Political Support per dice) (Larger effect the more dice are spent) (Decreases malus from No Administration)
[]Recruit Downtimers To Bureaucracy: Even if they don't have much of a formal education, there are thousands of intelligent, motivated, and literate downtimers in the Republic. These people are capable of doing lower-level administrative work, and will learn more with time. Having more of them in our government will also bring us closer to a true people's democracy. (5 Resources per dice) (Larger effect the more dice are spent) (Decreases malus from No Administration)
[]Creation of Mobile Units: While the People's Army was created as a collection of guerilla and garrison units meant to bleed any invader enough to force them to withdrawal, this was a temporary measure simply meant to give us some capability to fight back until a more capable force could be fielded. As we now have the capability to produce enough arquebuses, ammunition, bayonets, and other "modern" equipment on a large enough scale to arm thousands of soldiers, and our neighbors to the north have become even more of a threat, the time for change is now. (DC 15, -5 Political Support to attempt, -10 Resources per turn if successful) (Arquebus Production (Stage 3), Cannon Production (Stage 2), and Rifle Trials must be complete within 2 turns of taking) (Massively increases the military capabilities of the Republic in the long term, reorganization takes 2-3 turns)
[]Diplomatic Efforts: We are currently a very isolated nation, with only limited trade with the Republic of Naxos and miscellaneous smugglers. However, it may be possible to work out trade and fishing agreements with some other states in the Aegean and on the coast of Anatolia, and maybe even the Dual Kingdom of Crete and Mycenae. (DC 10 for Lesbos, 30 for Corfu, 50 for Andros and American Republic of Turkey, 60 for Dual Kingdom, 70 for New Washington, 80 for Emergency Government of New America) (-5 Political Support to attempt) (Max 2 dice)
[]Special Services Division: We are currently almost completely blind to the affairs of other states, besides rumors from merchants. Creating a dedicated intelligence agency would allow for us to have a better idea of what our neighbors are planning to do, and maybe even give us the ability to hurt our enemies. (DC 25, -5 Political Support to attempt, -5 resources per turn if successful).
[]Influence Central Committee Appointments: The Constitution of the Popular Republic of Mycenae requires that by the end of 10 AE, either elections must be held or the Central Committee must be expanded to be at least 60% downtimers. Since elections are obviously not going to be held this year, the Central Committee will therefore have to be expanded. It only makes sense to try your best to ensure that these new appointees are as committed to the Revolution as you are. (-5 Political Support) (Max 1 die) (Subvote will be held in Results)
Current Economic Issues:
Transportation: Many bottlenecks
Fuel: Causing deforestation at an unsustainable pace, coal urgently needed
Iron: Production insufficient
Copper: Sufficient
Wood: Sufficient production, but deforestation unsustainable
Construction Materials: Lime and bricks constrained by fuel availability
Food: Sufficient stores left until harvest
Cloth: Production insufficient
Rural labor (varies by season): Effectively infinite after October
Urban labor: Surplus
8 Hour Moratorium
190 Resources Per Turn, 90 In Storage
51 Political Support
Mycenae, 10 AE
Much progress has been made over the past four months. While work on coal mining could not start immediately due to the harvest taking up all available labor, production of iron, machine tools, firearms, and many other necessary goods has massively increased. With the amount of Americans in the Republic doubling, many more personnel are now available for administrative, technical, and educational assignments. Arguably the most important development were the significant strides made in weapons production. While conflicts over which military district would be the first to receive firearms en masse was a huge impediment to progress, if all military districts can get sufficient firearms, most of the causes of the conflicts would disappear. This could not come at a more opportune time, given the recent developments to the north.
Free Dice to Allocate: 3 Dice
Infrastructure (4 Dice):
[]Derveni-Zapantis Canal: A navigable canal to connect the Gulf of Corinth to the city of Mycenae and the Aegean as a whole will massively decrease the difficulty of transporting goods to our capital. Work has begun on a series of locks, reservoirs, and pumps to enable the movement of small barges between the Derveni and Zapantis rivers, but this requires a vertical climb of close to a hundred meters. However, even with its massive cost, it must be worth it for the Cretans to have built a similar canal. (10 Resources per dice (350/1200), loss of political support if less than 50 progress/turn) (Makes most other projects cheaper) (+25 Political Support on completion)
[]Lock Systems (Stage 2): While carts are an option for transporting goods, river transport is an order of magnitude cheaper. This would build more locks, especially along the Peiros and Asopos rivers, to enable the cheap transport of bulk goods such as grain and timber. (5 resources per dice (0/250) (Stage 2 Dams required for next stage). (Makes many other projects cheaper, +5 Political Support on completion)
[]Port Facilities (Stage 1): While sporadic improvements to ports have been made since the establishment of the Republic, a nationwide effort is badly needed. This would expand and improve ports in all major cities, helping trade and fishing and potentially allowing for the creation of a real navy. (5 Resources per dice (0/150))
[]Mycenae Storm Drains: With a basic network of water and sewage pipes complete, the time has come to build a system of storm drains to prevent flooding. Already mostly complete, after this stage other cities like Tiryns and Dyme will receive similar systems as exist in Mycenae. (10 Resources per dice (85/100))
Heavy Industry (3 Dice):
[]Kópos Coal Mine (Stage 1): With an exploitable deposit of coal being found at last, exploitation must start immediately. While lacking machining capability means that the use of steam engines is restricted, being right next to so much coal means that even extremely inefficient and simple steam engines are still practical for use in pumping out water and bringing up coal from the depths of the mine. (10 Resources per dice (0/125))
[]Thríambos Ironworks (Stage 1): Now that we have working examples of blast, puddling, and cementation furnaces for iron production, we can begin massively scaling up the production of iron and steel. Located just outside the walls of Mycenae due to the availability of nearby ore, labor, water, limestone, wood, and coal, this will be the beating heart of our industrialization from now on. While the blast furnaces will still require charcoal, puddling and cementation furnaces work in such a way that the fuel and charge never actually come into contact, allowing us to use coal for those parts of the process (10 Resources per dice (50/100))
[]Machine Tools: Our machining capability is massively limited, and will be for the foreseeable future. However, we can at least make more tools such as lathes and trip hammers, even if they need constant maintenance and have horrible precision. (15 Resources per dice (58/100)) (+5 Political Support on completion)
[]Experimental Glassworks: While we lack anyone truly skilled in glassworking, a few people did take glassblowing classes before the Event and claim to remember some of it. While we cannot expect any kind of quality, combined with books on glassmaking it may be possible to make some objects. (10 Resources per dice (0/50))
Light Industry (3 Dice):
[]Textile Industry (Stage 1): We have been able to come up with somewhat pracitcal designs for spinning frames and power looms, mostly by stealing from other states. This will free up massive amounts of labor for other tasks, and make everything from clothing to sails far cheaper to produce. (5 Resources per dice (0/150)) (+5 Political Support on completion)
[]Farming Tool Production: Improved ploughs, reapers, and other farming equipment will allow for massive improvements in agriculture. While the limited supply of iron does cause some issues, setting up more workshops will still help a lot. (10 resources per dice (74/100))
[]Hand Tool Production: Setting up workshops additional to make hand tools will be a massive help to work in mining, construction, and many other industries. This includes not only tools such as hammers, picks, and saws, but also measuring instruments such as rulers and calipers. (10 resources per dice (0/50)) (cheapens other options)
[]Mills (Stage 1): Anywhere with a decently sized stream can be home to mills for grinding grain, cutting wood, and more. This will decrease the cost and increase the quality of goods such as flour and lumber, and free up large amounts of labor. (5 resources per dice (32/100))
[]Lime and Brick Kilns: With the coming availability of more coal, we can expand the production of bricks and lime. These would be built in every major town, with extra concentration in Mycenae itself and near the Kopos coal mine. (5 Resources per dice (0/70))
Chemical Industry (2 Dice):
[]Small-Scale Electrolysis: While electricity production is currently massively limited, we do have the ability to make limited amounts of hydroelectricity using waterwheels and modified car alternators. This can be used to make sodium hypochlorite, and therefore chloroform, via the electrolysis of salt water, although this can only be done on a small scale due to electricity constraints. However, even small amounts of disinfectants and anesthetics would be very useful for medical procedures. (15 Resources per dice (0/50))
[]Sulfuric Acid Production: Pyrite will slowly be oxidized to ferrous sulfate in the presence of air and water, which in turn can be heated to decompose it to iron oxide and sulfuric acid. While this is extremely slow and inefficient, sulfuric acid is invaluable for essentially all chemical processes. (5 Resources per dice (32/50))
[]Alternative Feedstock Production Routes: While salt is the main solute in seawater, there are sizeable amounts of magnesium chloride and sodium sulfate present in the bitterns, or the solution left over after it has been evaporated down to produce salt. These can be used to make hydrochloric acid and sodium carbonate, which can be converted to a whole host of other chemicals. Most interesting of these is potassium chlorate, which can be used to make gunpowder and is not limited by the amount of nitrogenous waste we can procure like saltpeter is. However, this has never been done on a large scale before, so it may have unexpected problems. (10 Resources per dice (0/30)
Agriculture (3 Dice):
[]Dams (Stage 2): Many more dams can be built to allow for more irrigation of farmland and more consistent flow of rivers through the season. This will benefit not only agriculture, but also transportation and industry. However, despite being fairly simple to construct, they do require very large amounts of soil and rock to be moved. (5 Resources per dice (0/250))
[]Agricultural Education: Many farmers are still using downtime crops and livestock, and adoption of more modern farming techniques is even more slow. Sending out more education teams will likely help with this, although the purge of the priests has damaged our relationship with them. (5 Resources per dice (5 Resources per dice (92/150))
[]Village Educational Cadre Instruction: Previous literacy programs have been focused almost exclusively in cities. This program would recruit volunteers from rural areas to learn how to read and write, and provide them with paper, writing materials, and a few books on subjects like agriculture and basic medicine before sending them back to their villages with an increased ration of food and clothes for them to teach others how to read and write on a part-time basis. This will come nowhere close to eliminating rural illiteracy, but making sure that at least one person in every village knows how to read is a first step. (5 Resources per dice (0/200)) (+5 Political Support on completion)
Services (3 Dice):
[]Primary Schools (Stage 1): While we have taught thousands of urban citizens how to read and write, we still lack a true education system. This would establish a series of schools in all of our cities, teaching a 4-year program to children whose parents decide to educate them, with free lunches being given to pupils to encourage this. They will graduate with knowledge of reading, writing, basic arithmetic, and some education on the basics of things like germ theory, geography, and how the Republic is surrounded on all sides by reactionary feudalist and capitalist states bent on enslaving us all. (5 Resources per dice (54/150)) (+5 Political Support on completion)
[]Adult Literacy Campaigns (Stage 3): While progress has been made, there are still many urban citizens who are illiterate. This stage will not totally eliminate illiteracy, but will make it so a solid majority of working-age adults will at least be able to write their own names. After this, resources will be shifted to building a more formal education system, as educating people as children will work better than stopgap attempts with adults. (5 Resources per dice (9/250)) (+5 Political Support upon completion)
[]Vocational Education: Several thousand workers already know how to read and write, but more education will increase their productivity further. This consists of both purely practical instruction in areas such as blacksmithing and pottery, as well as teaching more advanced mathematics to people such as carpenters and masons. (5 Resources per dice (21/100) (Nursing Education unlocked upon completion)
[]Libraries: While book production is massively limited by the inability to make wood pulp, we still are able to make enough to set up some public libraries. This will help educate and entertain the population, as well as prevent them from falling back into illiteracy due to lack of practice. (5 Resources per dice (0/50))
Military (4 Dice):
[]Fortification Improvements: While a complete restructuring of the walls of cities like Mycenae and Tiryns is far too expensive to consider right now, we can at least improve them somewhat. Gates will be strengthened, and angular bastions made of brick and rammed earth can reduce the number of dead zones by the walls. (5 Resources per dice (63/200))
[]Crossbow Production (Stage 2): Silent, accurate, and deadly, the crossbow is the ideal weapon for the guerillas that make up the bulk of the People's Army, even if it isn't as good against armor as muskets. They're also useful for protecting livestock and hunting. However, more are needed in order to ensure the defeat of any occupying army, necessitating the construction of more workshops and the training of more bowyers. (5 Resources per dice (0/150))
[]Arquebus Production (Stage 3): While still made of iron pipes, the switch from matchlocks to caplocks has significantly increased the effectiveness of our crude arquebuses. This would more than double the production of firearms of all types, a necessity if the planned mass adoption of arquebusier units is to become a reality. (10 Resources per dice (13/100))
[]Cannon Production (Stage 2): While tin for making bronze is extremely expensive, cannons are still indispensable weapons. We need more foundries to produce them in even larger amounts to ensure the safety of the Republic. (15 Resources per dice (43/50))
[]Melee Weapon Production (Stage 2): With current ranged weapons being quite slow to fire, we need to ensure that our troops can fight at close ranges. Even if they aren't as flashy as guns, more pikes, shields, and swords are critical for our army. (5 Resources per dice (0/50)
[]Armor Production (Stage 1): While it may not stop bullets, all of our enemies rely on large amounts of bows and melee weapons in addition to muskets and remaining Uptime weapons. However, it is still very expensive to produce, at least while iron production is at such a small scale. (10 Resources per dice (0/80))
[]Incendiary Experiments: While perhaps not the most refined weapons, Molotov cocktails and other incendiary weapons have a long and storied history of use. We should see if we can make any similar devices which are practical to use in the battlefield. (5 Resources per dice (0/30))
[]Rifle Trials: Current guns are extremely innacurate, however, it may be possible to produce better ones. With caplocks being more reliable, faster to reload, and mechanically simpler than matchlocks or caplocks, all proposed designs now use percussion caps. Producing a few dozen of these would establish if larger-scale maunfacture is practical at this time. While they probably cannot be issued to every single soldier, they would be invaluable in the hands of more professional units. (5 Resources per dice (0/30))
Bureaucracy (2 Dice):
[]Recruit Americans To Ministry: Almost every single American adult is far more educated than nearly any downtimer, and many have actual experience in areas such as management and accounting. Hundreds of thousands of these people live on the coasts of Anatolia, and many would be more than happy to leave behind a life of subsistence farming to do paperwork. While this will be extremely unpopular, having more educated people in the Ministry can only be a good thing. (5 Resources and -3 Political Support per dice) (Larger effect the more dice are spent) (Increases dice allocation)
[]Recruit Downtimers To Ministry: Even if they don't have much of a formal education, there are thousands of intelligent, motivated, and literate downtimers in the Republic. These people are capable of doing lower-level administrative work, and will learn more with time. Having more of them in our government will also bring us closer to a true people's democracy. However, recruiting them to our own ministry while basic administration and tax collection is still understaffed will be politically unpopular. (5 Resources and -1 Political Support per dice) (Larger effect the more dice are spent) (Increases dice allocation)
[]Recruit Americans To Bureaucracy: Almost every single American adult is far more educated than nearly any downtimer, and many have actual experience in areas such as management and accounting. Hundreds of thousands of these people live on the coasts of Anatolia, and many would be more than happy to leave behind a life of subsistence farming to do paperwork. However, few of these are likely to be politically reliable, and having even more Americans in government won't look great to our citizens. (5 Resources and -2 Political Support per dice) (Larger effect the more dice are spent) (Decreases malus from No Administration)
[]Recruit Downtimers To Bureaucracy: Even if they don't have much of a formal education, there are thousands of intelligent, motivated, and literate downtimers in the Republic. These people are capable of doing lower-level administrative work, and will learn more with time. Having more of them in our government will also bring us closer to a true people's democracy. (5 Resources per dice) (Larger effect the more dice are spent) (Decreases malus from No Administration)
[]Creation of Mobile Units: While the People's Army was created as a collection of guerilla and garrison units meant to bleed any invader enough to force them to withdrawal, this was a temporary measure simply meant to give us some capability to fight back until a more capable force could be fielded. As we now have the capability to produce enough arquebuses, ammunition, bayonets, and other "modern" equipment on a large enough scale to arm thousands of soldiers, and our neighbors to the north have become even more of a threat, the time for change is now. (DC 15, -5 Political Support to attempt, -10 Resources per turn if successful) (Arquebus Production (Stage 3), Cannon Production (Stage 2), and Rifle Trials must be complete within 2 turns of taking) (Massively increases the military capabilities of the Republic in the long term, reorganization takes 2-3 turns)
[]Diplomatic Efforts: We are currently a very isolated nation, with only limited trade with the Republic of Naxos and miscellaneous smugglers. However, it may be possible to work out trade and fishing agreements with some other states in the Aegean and on the coast of Anatolia, and maybe even the Dual Kingdom of Crete and Mycenae. (DC 10 for Lesbos, 30 for Corfu, 50 for Andros and American Republic of Turkey, 60 for Dual Kingdom, 70 for New Washington, 80 for Emergency Government of New America) (-5 Political Support to attempt) (Max 2 dice)
[]Special Services Division: We are currently almost completely blind to the affairs of other states, besides rumors from merchants. Creating a dedicated intelligence agency would allow for us to have a better idea of what our neighbors are planning to do, and maybe even give us the ability to hurt our enemies. (DC 25, -5 Political Support to attempt, -5 resources per turn if successful).
[]Influence Central Committee Appointments: The Constitution of the Popular Republic of Mycenae requires that by the end of 10 AE, either elections must be held or the Central Committee must be expanded to be at least 60% downtimers. Since elections are obviously not going to be held this year, the Central Committee will therefore have to be expanded. It only makes sense to try your best to ensure that these new appointees are as committed to the Revolution as you are. (-5 Political Support) (Max 1 die) (Subvote will be held in Results)
Current Economic Issues:
Transportation: Many bottlenecks
Fuel: Causing deforestation at an unsustainable pace, coal urgently needed
Iron: Production insufficient
Copper: Sufficient
Wood: Sufficient production, but deforestation unsustainable
Construction Materials: Lime and bricks constrained by fuel availability
Food: Sufficient stores left until harvest
Cloth: Production insufficient
Rural labor (varies by season): Effectively infinite after October
Urban labor: Surplus
8 Hour Moratorium
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I think the cost per-die is missing on this action
Fixed, thank you for catching that.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
Okay so, this plan draft was made before the changes in Bureaucracy.
So the big question for it is if we want to take Free Dice away from other categories to put them into Bureaucracy.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah we need one Die at least for []Influence Central Committee Appointments.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
[ ] Plan Chimeraguard
Infrastructure, 4 dice
-[ ] Derveni-Zapantis Canal, 2 dice (10 Resources)
-[ ] Port Facilities (Stage 1), 1 die (5 Resources)
-[ ] Mycenae Storm Drains, 1 die (10 Resources)
Heavy Industry, 3 +1 Free = 4 dice
-[ ] Kópos Coal Mine (Stage 1), 3 dice (30 Resources)
-[ ] Machine Tools, 1 die (15 Resources)
Light Industry, 3 +1 Free = 4 dice
-[ ] Farming Tool Production, 1 die (10 Resources)
-[ ] Hand Tool Production, 1 die (10 Resources)
-[ ] Mills (Stage 1), 2 dice (10 Resources)
Chemical Industry, 2 dice
-[ ] Sulfuric Acid Production, 1 die (5 Resources)
-[ ] Alternative Feedstock Production Routes, 1 die (10 Resources)
Agriculture, 3 dice
-[ ] Agricultural Education, 2 dice (10 Resources)
-[ ] Village Educational Cadre Instruction, 1 die (5 Resources)
Services, 3 dice
-[ ] Primary Schools (Stage 1), 1 die (5 Resources)
-[ ] Vocational Education, 2 dice (10 Resources)
Military, 4 dice
-[ ] Fortification Improvements, 1 die (5 Resources)
-[ ] Arquebus Production (Stage 3), 1 die (10 Resources)
-[ ] Cannon Production (Stage 2), 1 die (15 Resources)
-[ ] Rifle Trials, 1 die (5 Resources)
Bureaucracy, 2 +1 Free = 3 dice
-[ ] Recruit Downtimers To Bureaucracy, 2 dice (10 Resources)
-[ ] Influence Central Committee Appointments, 1 die
Resources Available: 280
Resources Used: 195
Resources Remaining: 85
Taking a die from Services to put on Bureaucracy then.
We could do some of the other projects. I think the others can wait a turn though (to help grind our Political Support up), and I think we're still gonna want Free Dice on Bureau next turn. We could try for doing Mobile Units now though if people feel strongly about that, and I'm certainly tempted, but I'd need to yoink away another free die fromsomewhere else.
Infrastructure, 4 dice
-[ ] Derveni-Zapantis Canal, 2 dice (10 Resources)
-[ ] Port Facilities (Stage 1), 1 die (5 Resources)
-[ ] Mycenae Storm Drains, 1 die (10 Resources)
Heavy Industry, 3 +1 Free = 4 dice
-[ ] Kópos Coal Mine (Stage 1), 3 dice (30 Resources)
-[ ] Machine Tools, 1 die (15 Resources)
Light Industry, 3 +1 Free = 4 dice
-[ ] Farming Tool Production, 1 die (10 Resources)
-[ ] Hand Tool Production, 1 die (10 Resources)
-[ ] Mills (Stage 1), 2 dice (10 Resources)
Chemical Industry, 2 dice
-[ ] Sulfuric Acid Production, 1 die (5 Resources)
-[ ] Alternative Feedstock Production Routes, 1 die (10 Resources)
Agriculture, 3 dice
-[ ] Agricultural Education, 2 dice (10 Resources)
-[ ] Village Educational Cadre Instruction, 1 die (5 Resources)
Services, 3 dice
-[ ] Primary Schools (Stage 1), 1 die (5 Resources)
-[ ] Vocational Education, 2 dice (10 Resources)
Military, 4 dice
-[ ] Fortification Improvements, 1 die (5 Resources)
-[ ] Arquebus Production (Stage 3), 1 die (10 Resources)
-[ ] Cannon Production (Stage 2), 1 die (15 Resources)
-[ ] Rifle Trials, 1 die (5 Resources)
Bureaucracy, 2 +1 Free = 3 dice
-[ ] Recruit Downtimers To Bureaucracy, 2 dice (10 Resources)
-[ ] Influence Central Committee Appointments, 1 die
Resources Available: 280
Resources Used: 195
Resources Remaining: 85
Taking a die from Services to put on Bureaucracy then.
We could do some of the other projects. I think the others can wait a turn though (to help grind our Political Support up), and I think we're still gonna want Free Dice on Bureau next turn. We could try for doing Mobile Units now though if people feel strongly about that, and I'm certainly tempted, but I'd need to yoink away another free die fromsomewhere else.
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Caplocks are a big deal, they significantly increase the viability (in my opinion) of an all-firearms military. I want to make sure we don't get screwed over by bad rolls before taking []Creation of Mobile Units, and the Bureau die is probably best spent this turn on influencing the Central Committee anyways, but I want to take it probably next turn if at all possible.
Which then means industrial planning has to be centered around iron and coal production to feed the arms and tooling industries, but we were doing that anyways so my plan doesn't look particularly different from the inter-turn draft. Besides the ironworks and second arquebus die, Ag is focused on education rather than dams because 1) PS and 2) spreading literacy to the countryside is going to take an absurd amount of effort and lead time so I want to start ASAP.
[]Plan Guns, Geology, and Scrolls
-[]Infrastructure (4 dice) 35 Resources
--[]Derveni-Zepantis Canal: 350/1200, 2 dice (20R)
--[]Port Facilities (Stage 1): 0/150, 1 die (5R)
--[]Mycenae Storm Drains: 85/100, 1 die (10R)
-[]Heavy Industry (3 dice + 1 Free) 45 Resources
--[]Kópos Coal Mine (Stage 1): 0/125, 2 dice (20R)
--[]Thríambos Ironworks (Stage 1): 50/100, 1 die (10R)
--[]Machine Tools: 58/100, 1 die (15R)
-[]Light Industry (3 dice + 1 Free) 30 Resources
--[]Farming Tool Production: 74/100, 1 die (10R)
--[]Hand Tool Production: 0/50, 1 die (10R)
--[]Mills (Stage 1): 32/100, 2 dice (10R)
-[]Chemical Industry (2 dice) 15 Resources
--[]Sulfuric Acid Production: 32/50, 1 die (5R)
--[]Alternative Feedstock Production Routes: 0/30, 1 die (10R)
-[]Agriculture (3 dice) 15 Resources
--[]Agricultural Education: 92/150, 1 die (5R)
--[]Village Educational Cadre Instruction: 0/200, 2 dice (10R)
-[]Services (3 dice) 15 Resources
--[]Primary Schools (Stage 1): 54/150, 1 die (5R)
--[]Vocational Education: 21/100, 2 dice (10R)
-[]Military (4 dice) 40 Resources
--[]Arquebus Production (Stage 3): 13/100, 2 dice (20R)
--[]Cannon Production (Stage 2): 43/50, 1 die (15R)
--[]Rifle Trials: 0/30, 1 die (5R)
-[]Bureaucracy (2 dice + 1 Free) 5 Resources, -10 PS
--[]Recruit Downtimers To Bureaucracy, 1 die (5R)
--[]Creation of Mobile Units: DC 15 (-5 PS)
--[]Influence Central Committee Appointments, 1 die (-5PS)
-[]Total Cost: 200/280 Resources, 80R reserved
Which then means industrial planning has to be centered around iron and coal production to feed the arms and tooling industries, but we were doing that anyways so my plan doesn't look particularly different from the inter-turn draft. Besides the ironworks and second arquebus die, Ag is focused on education rather than dams because 1) PS and 2) spreading literacy to the countryside is going to take an absurd amount of effort and lead time so I want to start ASAP.
[]Plan Guns, Geology, and Scrolls
-[]Infrastructure (4 dice) 35 Resources
--[]Derveni-Zepantis Canal: 350/1200, 2 dice (20R)
--[]Port Facilities (Stage 1): 0/150, 1 die (5R)
--[]Mycenae Storm Drains: 85/100, 1 die (10R)
-[]Heavy Industry (3 dice + 1 Free) 45 Resources
--[]Kópos Coal Mine (Stage 1): 0/125, 2 dice (20R)
--[]Thríambos Ironworks (Stage 1): 50/100, 1 die (10R)
--[]Machine Tools: 58/100, 1 die (15R)
-[]Light Industry (3 dice + 1 Free) 30 Resources
--[]Farming Tool Production: 74/100, 1 die (10R)
--[]Hand Tool Production: 0/50, 1 die (10R)
--[]Mills (Stage 1): 32/100, 2 dice (10R)
-[]Chemical Industry (2 dice) 15 Resources
--[]Sulfuric Acid Production: 32/50, 1 die (5R)
--[]Alternative Feedstock Production Routes: 0/30, 1 die (10R)
-[]Agriculture (3 dice) 15 Resources
--[]Agricultural Education: 92/150, 1 die (5R)
--[]Village Educational Cadre Instruction: 0/200, 2 dice (10R)
-[]Services (3 dice) 15 Resources
--[]Primary Schools (Stage 1): 54/150, 1 die (5R)
--[]Vocational Education: 21/100, 2 dice (10R)
-[]Military (4 dice) 40 Resources
--[]Arquebus Production (Stage 3): 13/100, 2 dice (20R)
--[]Cannon Production (Stage 2): 43/50, 1 die (15R)
--[]Rifle Trials: 0/30, 1 die (5R)
-[]Bureaucracy (2 dice + 1 Free) 5 Resources, -10 PS
--[]Recruit Downtimers To Bureaucracy, 1 die (5R)
--[]Creation of Mobile Units: DC 15 (-5 PS)
--[]Influence Central Committee Appointments, 1 die (-5PS)
-[]Total Cost: 200/280 Resources, 80R reserved
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Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
This is 5 dice being used rather than 4, so it either needs to take a die off (Coal Mines are 125 Progress Required rather than 150 BTW), or another Free Die.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Creation of Mobile Units definitely needs to wait until next turn at least. Which sucks considering it will take time to prepare, and so even if we start it first thing next year we'll still be vulnerable for basically All of 11 A.E
Ah, thanks for catching that, took the coal mine down by a die.
I am worried about staying diplomatically isolated. Both of our immediate neighbours are expansionist polities and our army consists on militias. The only saving grace is that New Arizona is currently embroiled in a Civil War.
If not this turn then next turn we should do Diplomatic Efforts. I know that we are not about to get an alliance with anyone but actually repairing trade relations might mean that we have more resources thus enabling a faster modernization of the economy.
If not this turn then next turn we should do Diplomatic Efforts. I know that we are not about to get an alliance with anyone but actually repairing trade relations might mean that we have more resources thus enabling a faster modernization of the economy.
If/when New Arizona does finally invade they're going to do it right before harvest (at the start of the third turn of the year) so that there's lots of food they can forage from your peasants. You also basically can't do any training of soldiers during the second turn of each year since they're all busy farming, so in the event that they invade in 10 AE you'll be significantly better prepared if you start reorganization this turn instead of next.
I could cut hand tools or machine tools to shake another free die loose and put it on Mobile Units this turn, but either of those kinda compromises the industrial complex needed to actually supply these hypothetical units. If you made me choose, I probably cut machine tools, because the hand tools are going to be absolutely necessary for coal mining but I'd really prefer to keep both tooling options. Leaving the CentCom uninfluenced also seems like a bad idea.
Although.... we don't actually need a free die to do Mobile Units, now that I think about it the obvious answer is to take one of the Recruit Downtimers dice. Dealing with the no administration malus that much longer will be slightly annoying but getting jumped while our army is seriously disorganized would suck even more, I think I'll make the switch. We'll be getting low on PS going for both CentCom influence and army reform in the same turn but shouldn't get below 40 unless we get particularly unlucky, and machine tools/education funding should help keep us afloat in the medium term.
Although.... we don't actually need a free die to do Mobile Units, now that I think about it the obvious answer is to take one of the Recruit Downtimers dice. Dealing with the no administration malus that much longer will be slightly annoying but getting jumped while our army is seriously disorganized would suck even more, I think I'll make the switch. We'll be getting low on PS going for both CentCom influence and army reform in the same turn but shouldn't get below 40 unless we get particularly unlucky, and machine tools/education funding should help keep us afloat in the medium term.
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Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
Theoretically we could take a Free Die from Mills, since it still goes on with 1 die.
But uh... we're already under heavy fire there politically, so I really want 2 dice as insurance against another bad roll.
But uh... we're already under heavy fire there politically, so I really want 2 dice as insurance against another bad roll.
Yeah I don't want to skimp on mills either, the economic benefits of them are worth continued aggressive funding all on their own even if we weren't in political trouble. The fact that we are in political trouble over them now makes me definitely set on 2 dice to try and hurry the project along.