We dont need to make up the CG from Nuuk...
You're missing the point.
The point is that this is about how long it takes for the savings to be impactful.
For example, suppose we do this, then build Nuuk Phase 3 (Phases 1+2 should be largely done by the time we could even begin Heavy Industry AEVAs).
Nuuk Phase 3 costs about 640 Progress, as I recall, so it's going to take us nine Heavy Industry dice. On average, we save about 27 Progress.
Saving 27 Progress (or rather, pushing ahead 27 Progress farther than would otherwise be possible) on a +16 Capital Goods project does not justify locking down -6 Capital Goods that were
SUPPOSED to be our emergency wartime reserves. It might,
might, accelerate getting that phase of the project done by a turn- there is, maybe, a 10% or 20%-ish chance of that being impactful.
It's not worth the betrayal of public trust that comes from us implicitly saying that we are Doing A Thing for the sake of safety and victory in war and ensuring that industrial civilization does not collapse, and then it turns out that we are actually Doing That Thing for our own passion project about allocating industrial resources more efficiently.
Edit- Nuuk 1 to 3 the +3 would save a dice from that. Going nuuk 4 and 5 is just going to add to the dice savings
Nuuk Phases 3+4+5 cost a total of 4480 Progress, as I recall, which translates into roughly 56 Heavy Industry dice, averaging 50.5+29 Progress per die.
First of all, that means realistically we're looking at a completion date
several years from now, so the full impact of the gains you describe will not materialize on the timescale of the current war.
Second, this project provides all of 56*3 = 168 Progress, or
on average, slightly more than two dice.
Turning the entirety of Nuuk from a 56-die project to a 54-die project isn't going to get us enough benefits that the public is going to be thanking us for taking away a big pile of their Consumer Goods allotment
under explicitly false pretenses.
I like both escorts and frigates. I don't like developing them together, although I understand it may be a compromise necessary to reduce internet arguments. Otherwise I like the Q1 plan.
For the replacement, I'd propose one of (assuming the die cost must be equal or less [15]):
-[] Inferno Gel Development 0/40 1 die 10R 100% [air force, artillery, possibly naval]
-[] Zone Defender Revision 1 die 15R 100% [ground forces/ZOCOM/orbital, possibly airforce]
-[] Ultralight Glide Munitions Development 0/40 1 die 10R 100% [air force, artillery, possibly naval]
-[] Railgun Munitions Development 0/60 1 die 10R 87% [all but air force]
-[] Mastodon Heavy Assault Walker Development 0/30 1 die 10R 100% [steel talons]
I oppose developing the Mastodon until we've done the plasma cannon project which is also for Talons. Otherwise I'm not against any of this, but I DO want to develop the frigate, because I want to get a straight answer from the Navy about what they think they need, and what balance of escort carrier and frigate construction they desire.
I do think that the zone suits are surprisingly viable, now that we might have a much larger cap goods surplus to work with, and we are looking at finishing phase 4 myomers in q2. Do we know if finishing phase 4 myomers will apply the discount on the zone suits on the same turn that it is completed?
I think we need to take some wartime precautions.
We should not specifically be making plans to spend Capital Goods we don't already have in hand as of the time we commit to spending them. It's quite possible that the Q2 turn results will include us taking major industrial hits that mean we
really want to have been running a Capital Goods surplus, so we shouldn't even
tentatively plan around spending Capital Goods that only become available IN the Q2 turn results on a project designed to complete DURING the Q2 turn results. We should take each step separately and then carefully consider what we can afford to spend Capital Goods on
after we already have those goods.
Now, with all of that said, 2060Q2 is a good time for Capital Goods. We can reasonably expect Nuuk Phase 2 to complete for +4 (if it hasn't already completed in Q1). We can also reasonably hope that Reykjavik Phase 4, Enterprise Phase 4, or both will complete for +4 each. With all of that in play we should be in a good position to consider spending Capital Goods on military factories
in 2060Q3 on pretty much whatever scale we want.
But I don't think we should jump the gun by doing it before that time, in case we suffer unexpectedly large industrial damage, or in case we take only moderate damage but a key project fails to complete on time for reasons unrelated to Nod.
I'd note that it's very likely for OSRCT to have a long run-up time for phases when accounting for troops needing drop training then organising them in orbit, building up supply reserves in orbit to support the troops once they're on the ground and even with Enterprise there'll be some lead time needed to get tanks and such organised for dropping.
You're not wrong. On the other hand, the Space Force has been preparing for this for a long time and we have a
LOT of heavy-lift space capacity with all the fusion shuttles we've got.
But if what you're getting at is that maybe we should be rolling out OSRCT at one die per turn instead of two... eh, I can see it either way. By nature, the allocations you saw from me were
rough approximations. If we see evidence after finishing Phase 2 of the OSRCT project that actual deployment capability is lagging behind our construction of stations, then we can slow it down to one die per turn, fine by me as long as Phase 4 gets done by 2061Q4 like we promised.
My main point was just that once you factor in deployment of all the stuff we think is
really important like wingman drones and escort carrier construction, there's not really a ton of Military dice left over to play with for 2060Q2 and Q3. Room to spend a die on things here or there, but not for me to commit to rapid rollout of plasma-armed Mastodons.
I have issues with Zone Armour. Not because it's bad but rather because it buffs the strongest forces we have. It, at least to me, seems like over investment. Our ground forces are extremely confident that they can kick NOD's teeth in so Zone Armour is, currently, unneeded imo
Zone Armor means they still kick ass, but kick ass with fewer dead grunts. Given that we have a limited and graying population, this is a factor worth considering.
With that said, we're
still not contemplating Zone Armor as an immediate 2060Q1 project, I think. So sure, the Ground Forces have super-high confidence
now, but they may feel differently after 2-3 quarters of brutal warfare against Nod in Nod's own territory.
Another thing to remember is that Ground Force Zone Armor will indirectly do a good deal for ZOCOM, because it means ZOCOM can pull back from Yellow Zone deployments and routine deployments as heavy infantry in support of Ground Force operations, and concentrate on
specifically covering Red Zone operations like they're supposed to.
It's really more about letting ZOCOM off the leash, rather than buffing the ground forces. The power armor equipped ground forces would be replacing our spec ops who are currently stuck on guard duty. Right now we have great operability in yellow zones, but the red zones outside of our containment lines/glaciers are going to be almost totally controlled by NOD (thanks tiberium infusions).
Even Nod struggles to operate in the Red Zones, because even if their tiberium-infused
troops can't die of tiberium poisoning, the atmospheric conditions are still hell and any vehicles you send into a Red Zone are likely to wind up turning into big tiberium bricks sooner or later.
But you're not entirely wrong.
So based on what we saw in the update, we need to get farther with GDSS Enterprise and Orbital lift capacity to make the ORCST station able to drop vehicles in along with the infantry?
It'd probably help a lot.
Like, we have fusion lift vehicles that could totally huck a tank into orbit, but transferring very large numbers of heavy armored vehicles into space may be too exorbitant for now.
Historically during times of war people tend to be willing to tighten up the purses to win the war effort. WW2 was a prime example of that. I imagine that this is no different Also these are men and women who have lived through multiple Tiberium wars on both sides. They are no strangers to scarcity, war and tightening their belts. I have full faith that we will have an understanding there.
They'll understand, but they're gonna be pissed if we promise we're using the goods for military security and victory over Nod, and in fact we're basically just using them to advance our pet econ geek project and then they're
not there when we need them after Nod nukes North Boston or something.
