Attempting to Subvert the Plan: Dominion Edition

[The Laurent]

One thing to keep in mind is that this the "Subvert the Plan" quest. We don't actually want the Dominion to succeed.
So what options do we have for sticking our thumb in Mengsk's eye?

• Infrastructure
  • Fringe Worlds: Supply Bunker Construction (Phase 1)
    • +5 paranoia but it makes people harder to conscript or conquer. Not great but no other good options in this category
• Heavy Industry
  • Nada
• Light and Chemical Industry (4 dice, -3 per die)
  • Nada
• Environmental (4 dice, -8 per die)
  • Nada
• Services (4 dice, -8 per die)
  • Mass Literacy Movement (Phase 1)
    • +10 Paranoia (total) to have educated citizens (and thus more likely to rebel)
  • Re-Establish the Universal News Network [Reconstruction]
    • +5 Paranoia to occasionally have accurate news mixed in with propaganda, the lesser evil of the 2 news options
• Research (4 dice, -8 per die)
  • Korhal: Broken Mesa Xenobiology Institute
    • I'm not sure why Mengsk is willing to give us -10 Paranoia to set up a research institute that can discover he was responsible for many of the Zerg attacks through Psi-Emitter usage, but I'll sure take it.
  • Tyrador IX: Imperial Science University
    • +5 Paranoia to establish higher education. Not clear from the text why Mengsk doesn't like this, but hopefully the same logic as from Mass Literacy Movement applies.
• Bureaucracy (4 dice, -3 per die)
  • Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Utilitarian/Idealistic)
    • Emptying the prisons is an objective good, so either of these would be nice. Personally, I lean towards the Utilitarian option. While the Idealistic option seems more moral, it could be very useful to have a large population of individuals with known and increasingly good reasons to want to see the Dominion torn down and Mengsk, personally, dead. Hopefully we can get some options to funnel recruits from the prisons to Raynor by "killing" them on paper and then sending them on to a new resistance movement. Until then, Mengsk is happy with us.
• Personal (4 dice, -13 per die)
  • [] Send a Letter "Home"
    You've always prided yourself on your family-mindedness. It's been a year or so since you've heard from young Matt, now that he's off "wandering the sector." Maybe it's time to get back in touch, possibly through a helpful dead-drop you know is frequented by a trustworthy Raider sympathizer.
    (Unlocks Raynor's Raiders Personal projects) (DC 40 to avoid +10 Paranoia)
    • Must take! The sooner we take this the sooner we can set about doing something good.
  • Deadman's Rock: Authorize Arendt's Working Vacation
  • Nephor II: Contact the Industrial Workers' Trust
  • Korhal: Go Drinking with Colonel de Santo

To the extent we improve infrastructure, we want to keep it as decentralized as possible. Build things in multiple locations, force Mengsk's goons to spread out.

Click to shrink...

Idealistic is less portrayed as definitely stifling all dissent and disagreement and more as letting out "known troublemakers" (IE, people who care about human rights and still will even under Mengsk) out, as long as they aren't out and out terrorists/freedom fighters (those we'll have to free after Mengsk is in the ground, lol.)

 

[Etranger]

I'm not sure why Mengsk is willing to give us -10 Paranoia to set up a research institute that can discover he was responsible for many of the Zerg attacks through Psi-Emitter usage, but I'll sure take it.

Click to shrink...

Most of Dominion high command is aware of/complicit in the Psi Emitter deployments on Antiga Prime and Tarsonis (including Horner). Broken Mesa will be a closed installation under the direct supervision of Warfield and the Imperial Guard, so it poses much less risk than, say, Jim Raynor pirating a video feed. Building the Institute shows that You're All On The Same Page and With The Program re: weaponizing Zerg biology, which makes Mengsk a happy despot.

 

[MrRageQuit]

So the main issue I have here with your plan Laurent is that I don't think we should be jumping on Nephor II planetary reconstruction. Instead, move the free dice to Fort Horner or New Model Weaponry, because we really need the Paranoia mitigation going right now. And Fort Horner still fits with the Nephor theme and bonuses.

 

[The Laurent]

So the main issue I have here with your plan Laurent is that I don't think we should be jumping on Nephor II planetary reconstruction. Instead, move the free dice to Fort Horner or New Model Weaponry, because we really need the Paranoia mitigation going right now. And Fort Horner still fits with the Nephor theme and bonuses.

Click to shrink...

Maybe? Nephor Reconstruction is going to be a pretty major deal, I'm not sure why we'd want to slow-walk it when it's a major part of Reconstruction? Though the point about the Fort Horner facility is felt, I guess, since it *would* get that +10. The problem is, we're going to have limited dice we can spend in Military next turn, whereas we're basically always going to want more dice in things like Infrastructure.

My perspective right now is that next turn we could just... toss some Military dice at Fort Horner once we can afford to do so, but we're going to be constantly pushing up against our limit in terms of Infrastructure, HI, and LCI dice.

Hmm.

 

[Kelenas]

[] Plan Boring But Practical 385/425R
-[] Infrastructure 5/5 65R
--[] Korhal: Capital City Augustgrad (Phase 1) [MANDATORY] 2 dice, 20R 0%
--[] Brontes: Orbital Cleanup (Phase 1) [Reconstruction] 3 dice 45R 61%
-[] Heavy Industry 4/4 +1 70R
--[] Vardona: Ardonin Heavy Vehicle Factory (Phase 1) 4 dice 60R 77%
--[] Nephor II: TerraUnion Tool and Die Works (Phase 1) [NEW] 1 free die 10R 0%
-[] Light and Chemical Industry 4/4 +3 70R
--[] Tyrador IX: Refugee Workshops (Phase 1) [Reconstruction] 4 dice 40R 85%
--[] Nephor II: Phoros Neotextile Fabrication Plant (Phase 1) 3 free dice 30R 84%
-[] Environmental 4/4 40R
--[] Tyrador IX: Establish Farmsteads (Phase 1) [Reconstruction] 4 dice 40R 75%
-[] Services 4/4 40R
--[] The Dominion Health Service (Phase 1) 2 dice 20R 15%
--[] Re-Establish the Universal News Network [Reconstruction] 2 dice 20R 36%
-[] Military 2/5 50R
--[] Tyrador IX: Military Recruitment Offices 2 dice 20R 60%
--[] Nephor II: Fort Horner Marine Training Camp 3 dice 30R 30%
-[] Research 1/4 20R
--[] Korhal: Broken Mesa Xenobiology Institute 1 die 20R 0%
-[] Bureaucracy 4/4 30R
--[] Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Idealistic) 1 dice 10R 0%
--[] Conduct a Dominion-Wide Census [Reconstruction] 3 dice 30R 0%
-[] Personal 4/4 30F
--[] Hire Advisors 2 dice 10F 90%/79%
--[] Private Investments 2 dice 20F 85%/72%/55%


I see some already want to start more actively subverting and acting against Mensk, and I understand that, but in my opinion right now our best bet is to start building up our foundations for the rest of the plan, by completing or progressing as many options that increase Resource income, decrease Resource cost, and reduce Progress requirements, as possible, while also keeping all -or at least most- of our dice in play.
I can fully understand if people think it's boring, because - let's be honest - it kind of is, due to foregoing pretty much any sort of story-development in favor of focusing primarily on "Numbers go up!". But, well, we kinda do need those numbers if we want to keep going full-tilt with the use of our dice.

Reasoning:
- Augustgrad because it's mandatory, though tbh I'd prefer to shift one die from it to Brontes
- Brontes because we might get R or other shinies from it, and it will unlock Brontes reconstruction

- Vardona to reduce Progress-cost on a variety of projects; currently no information on which, specifically
- TerraUnion T&D; same as above, without the Paranoia-cost. some sunk-cost fallacy in that it might be better to fully focus on this over Vardona, but we've already invested a fair amount in Vardona so might as well finish a phase there, if only to gain more information

- Refugee Workshops for the R-income, plus the improvement to people's lives, and fulfillment of our [Reconstruction] mandate
- Neotextile factory for the reduction in R-cost; unsure how much it'll be or how further phases will work, so this is partially also for information-gathering

- Farmsteads; fulfilling multiple goals with one project; shouldn't really require much explanation, and I think pretty much everyone agrees on this

- Health Service and UNN; some progress towards making people's lives better and setting up some small checks to Mengsk's power. keeping progress somewhat moderate to avoid gaining too much Paranoia right now.

- Recruitment Office and Training Camp; for the Paranoia-reduction, while also being fairly cheap. since there's no follow-up phases, I'm trying to avoid over-committing dice here.

- Broken Mesa; because it's a promise we made, so it should look good to make some progress, though I tried to keep it limited due to cost

-T&R; needs to get done in order to build up resistance against Mengsk, though @LLSix makes a point in that it might not be a bad idea to wait until we've contacted Raynor to actually complete it
-Census; was promised, and will provide us with more information about the state of the Dominion

-Advisers; because we still need improvements to our dice. especially in the Personal category
-Private Investments; right now our Funds are fine, but that's partially due to carry-over from the previous turn, and partially because we haven't really gotten involved too much in any truly subversive stuff, yet. I fully expect that to change once we actually contact anti-Mengsk factions, so getting started on building up our war-chest is a logical choice to me

 

[Etranger]

Voters, watchers, quest-followers, I'm here to pose a question to you:

In the first Starcraft game, the Terran main character is a Confederate Magistrate from Mar Sara who gets swept up in the anti-Confederate rebellion. In this quest, our main character is an ex-Marine who retired to Mar Sara and then got swept up in the anti-Confederate rebellion. Would it make sense for these two characters to be the same person? This will require minimal retroactive editing on my part, and could very well improve the flow of the narrative.

Please make your feelings known in the thread poll, which will be up for the next 48 hours, or until I see a decisive result.

EDIT: For my fellow lore nerds, this would mean that canon diverges sometime during Terran Mission 10 (though tbh it isn't explicit about your PC's fate) and The Magistrate elects to stay behind rather than go with Raynor.

 

[Kornet]

Voters, watchers, quest-followers, I'm here to pose a question to you:

In the first Starcraft game, the Terran main character is a Confederate Magistrate from Mar Sara who gets swept up in the anti-Confederate rebellion. In this quest, our main character is an ex-Marine who retired to Mar Sara and then got swept up in the anti-Confederate rebellion. Would it make sense for these two characters to be the same person? This will require minimal retroactive editing on my part, and could very well improve the flow of the narrative.

Please make your feelings known in the thread poll, which will be up for the next 48 hours, or until I see a decisive result.

EDIT: For my fellow lore nerds, this would mean that canon diverges sometime during Terran Mission 10 (though tbh it isn't explicit about your PC's fate) and The Magistrate elects to stay behind rather than go with Raynor.

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure how to reconcile it with the Magistrate canonically defecting along with Raynor.

 

[Mechasaurian]

A Magistrate who chose to stay with Mengsk and the Dominion?

Could be interesting. It means we will have some history with James Raynor if we ever run into him.

(My headcanon Magistrate went off to join the Umojan Protectorate, but this kinda works.)

 

[SegaCD]

I think it would make more sense for Horner to be helping them from the other side.

 

[AlexScribler]

I can fully understand if people think it's boring, because - let's be honest - it kind of is, due to foregoing pretty much any sort of story-development in favor of focusing primarily on "Numbers go up!". But, well, we kinda do need those numbers if we want to keep going full-tilt with the use of our dice.

Click to shrink...

That's my point though. This is not one of the traditional "Numbers go up!" quests. We're working for the baddies. Ideally we'd like to see "Numbers go down!" Or at most, sideways.

 

[grimely]

I'm not sure how to reconcile it with the Magistrate canonically defecting along with Raynor.

Click to shrink...

Eh, it's not like they anything with that fact in BW. Hell, in Queen of Blades the Magistrate canonically quits Raynor's Raiders and is never heard from again.

Horner being the Magistrate makes sense, honestly.

 

[Dain24601]

Voters, watchers, quest-followers, I'm here to pose a question to you:

In the first Starcraft game, the Terran main character is a Confederate Magistrate from Mar Sara who gets swept up in the anti-Confederate rebellion. In this quest, our main character is an ex-Marine who retired to Mar Sara and then got swept up in the anti-Confederate rebellion. Would it make sense for these two characters to be the same person? This will require minimal retroactive editing on my part, and could very well improve the flow of the narrative.

Please make your feelings known in the thread poll, which will be up for the next 48 hours, or until I see a decisive result.

EDIT: For my fellow lore nerds, this would mean that canon diverges sometime during Terran Mission 10 (though tbh it isn't explicit about your PC's fate) and The Magistrate elects to stay behind rather than go with Raynor.

Click to shrink...

If you think you can make it work I'm all for it!

 

[Kelenas]

That's my point though. This is not one of the traditional "Numbers go up!" quests. We're working for the baddies. Ideally we'd like to see "Numbers go down!" Or at most, sideways.

Click to shrink...

Except it's not that easy, because if we simply make "Numbers go down!", we'll be quickly booted out and replaced by someone who'll be on board with Mengsk's vision.
There's also the fact that "Numbers go up!" will in many cases help people of the Dominion, and the people opposing Mengsk, which is in our interest. Because if the Dominion continues to be a shithole, there's a good chance we'll simply replace Mengsk with some other populist demagogue intent on becoming a tyrant.

Also, keep in mind that the Brood Wars are upcoming, and if the Dominion is too weak because we didn't do anything to strengthen it, it might very well end up with countless people killed by the Zerg - and no guarantee Mengsk would be amongst them.

 

[Oledoms]

What was the original Timeline for the Brood War? I tried the Wiki at it only says around 2500 which does not say any specific date. Will it be 5 Years? 10 Years?

 

[grimely]

The canon Brood War lasted like a week and started in 2505, we're already diverging.

 

[AlexScribler]

Except it's not that easy, because if we simply make "Numbers go down!", we'll be quickly booted out and replaced by someone who'll be on board with Mengsk's vision.
There's also the fact that "Numbers go up!" will in many cases help people of the Dominion, and the people opposing Mengsk, which is in our interest. Because if the Dominion continues to be a shithole, there's a good chance we'll simply replace Mengsk with some other populist demagogue intent on becoming a tyrant.

Also, keep in mind that the Brood Wars are upcoming, and if the Dominion is too weak because we didn't do anything to strengthen it, it might very well end up with countless people killed by the Zerg - and no guarantee Mengsk would be amongst them.

Click to shrink...

That's true. We want to balance making the Paranoia number go down too.

 

[Simon_Jester]

...

360 R, and this is EVEN WITH leaving off 3 Military dice to go fallow. I'm kinda tempted to just drop Research except for a dice towards the Broken Mesa facility, tbh. That'd get us down to 330 R, because we can't afford to bleed this heavily UNTIL we actually get some more income.

That'd look like this:

[] Plan: Nephor Lives? (Pinching Pennies)
-[] Korhal: Capital City Augustgrad (Phase 1) [MANDATORY] (2 dice, 20 R)
-[] Brontes: Orbital Cleanup (Phase 1) [Reconstruction] (2 dice, 30 R)
-[] Nephor II: Planetary Reconstruction (Phase 1) [Reconstruction] (1 dice, 2 Free dice, 30 R)
-[] Vardona: Ardonin Heavy Vehicle Factory (Phase 1) (2 dice, 30 R)
-[] Nephor II: TerraUnion Tool and Die Works (Phase 1) [NEW] (1 dice, 10 R)
-[] Nephor II: Nephor Industrial Megacomplex (Phase 1) [Reconstruction] (1 dice, 1 Free dice, 20 R)
-[] Tyrador IX: Refugee Workshops (Phase 1) [Reconstruction] (3 dice, 30 R)
-[] Nephor II: Phoros Neotextile Fabrication Plant (Phase 1) [NEW] (1 dice, 10 R)
-[] Tyrador IX: Establish Farmsteads (Phase 1) [Reconstruction] (4 dice, 40 R)
-[] The Dominion Health Service (Phase 1) (3 dice, 30 R)
-[] Re-Establish the Universal News Network [Reconstruction] (1 dice, 10 R)
-[] Tyrador IX: Military Recruitment Offices (2 dice, 20 R)
-[] Korhal: Broken Mesa Xenobiology Institute (1 dice, 20 R)
-[] Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Idealistic) (4 dice, 20 R)
-[] Conduct a Dominion-Wide Census [Reconstruction] (1 free dice, 10 R)
- [] Hire Advisors (2 dice, 10 F)
- [] Nephor II: Contact the Industrial Workers' Trust [NEW] (2 dice, 20 F)

330 R, which would only be 25 above the limit, and hopefully we can build up some more income later.

Click to shrink...

Hmm. I think it would be better to consolidate dice, and take the die from the tool and die plant and put it on either the SCV plant (which will almost certainly need it, but costs 5 R more) or the general megacomplex reconstruction project (which costs the same). One die on the tool and die plant won't get us far enough along to matter, and without three dice, the SCV plant only has about a 10-12% or so chance of completing next turn.

Part of me wants to hold off on contacting that labor union until we have three dice to put on it, because we do have a real chance of failing the DC of 40 if we roll two d100-13's.

 

[The Laurent]

Hmm. I think it would be better to consolidate dice, and take the die from the tool and die plant and put it on either the SCV plant (which will almost certainly need it, but costs 5 R more) or the general megacomplex reconstruction project (which costs the same). One die on the tool and die plant won't get us far enough along to matter, and without three dice, the SCV plant only has about a 10-12% or so chance of completing next turn.

Part of me wants to hold off on contacting that labor union until we have three dice to put on it, because we do have a real chance of failing the DC of 40 if we roll two d100-13's.

Click to shrink...

Two things. One, you're looking at an older version, and the SCV costs too much to use.

Second, we DO have Omakes to help us out there, a +5 and two +15s, one of them of my own creation.

 

[ABalloonyChaos]

For the general plan when are we going to do [] Send a Letter "Home". I already feel we have been pushing it off for a while. The more we put it off the more I feel we may be missing out on some allies or plan info.

On the topic of the two characters, I haven't felt that Charles "Chuck" Horner could exactly fit into RTS protagonists role. He's too personally connected to story characters to have the background of heroic military general. Like how has Mengsk not controlled the competent leader who lead the force that defeated the Zerg Cer

 

[Dain24601]

Resources: 120 stockpile + 330 incoming - 25 personal = 425 available
Paranoia: 40/100
Free Dice: 4

[] Plan All In
Infrastructure (5 dice, -3 per die)
-[X] Korhal: Capital City Augustgrad (Phase 1) [MANDATORY]
The Emperor's vision for the throne world begins with its capital: Augustgrad. Named after Mengsk's illustrious grandfather, Augustgrad is intended to be a planned metropolis that will become the beating heart of the entire Terran Dominion. Projected to include an enormous Imperial Palace, vast housing and commercial districts, and multiple rings of defensive walls and emplacements, it will far exceed anything Old Tarsonis had to offer... someday.
(Progress 93/300, -10R per die, -10 Paranoia)
5 dice 50R

Heavy Industry (4 dice, -3 per die)
-[X] Korhal: Keresh Mining Complex (Phase 2)
With the initial open-pit mine complete over the main deposit, the Keresh complex can begin expanding toward secondary deposits with smaller, less manpower-intensive shaft mining. Subterranean mining with hand tools carries its own specific dangers, but the secondary deposits are expected to include several rare elements like crystallized xenon, promising greater resource yields in the process.
(Progress 14/300, -10R per die, Resource income, cost reduction to all Augustgrad phases)
4 dice 40R

Light and Chemical Industry (4 dice, -3 per die)
-[X] Tyrador IX: Refugee Workshops (Phase 1) [Reconstruction]
The refugees of Tyrador suffer from deprivation and inadequate shelter, but they also lack gainful employment. Dependent entirely on limited relief aid, they are unable to improve their lot or engage in meaningful work. By building small factories across the continent of Velocis, each one tailored to produce artificial fabrics, plastic goods, and home appliances, we can restore the flow of consumer goods to Dominion households and employ millions.
(Progress 271/400, -10R per die, Resource income)
4 dice 40R

Environmental (4 dice, -8 per die)
-[X] Tyrador IX: Establish Farmsteads (Phase 1) [Reconstruction]
The secondary continent of Velocis is flat and uninteresting, with vast expanses of deep-soil grassland, which makes it suboptimal from a tourism perspective but excellent for large-scale farming. Building farms for the refugees to work will accomplish housing, employment, and food production goals all at the same time. Who doesn't love killing three Scourge with one AA rocket?
(Progress 269/400, -10R per die)
4 dice 40R

Services (4 dice, -8 per die)
-[X] The Dominion Health Service (Phase 1)
One of the Emperor's many promises to his people was that they would be cared for, from cradle to grave. Private healthcare under the Confederacy was widely considered a bad joke, with massive piles of medical debt and long lines into emergency departments. While the Emperor has shown no interest in actually solving this problem now that he's in power, he did make the promise. As such, a number of new hospitals and clinics must be constructed to ease the burden on the groaning healthcare system, particularly in and around refugee settlements.
(Progress 170/300, -10R per die, +5 Paranoia)
2 dice 20R

-[X] Re-Establish the Universal News Network [Reconstruction]
The Universal News Network, or UNN, was a major pillar of Confederate propaganda during its heyday. However, as its employees began developing things like "ethics," and when no official denial could cover up losing multiple planets, the Confed government shut it down and jailed its reporters. By reopening the news service, we can broadcast the Dominion's successes across the sector... if occasionally also its failures.
(Progress 0/100, -10R per die, +5 Paranoia)
2 dice 20R

Military (5 dice, -3 per die)
-[X] Nephor II: Fort Horner Marine Training Camp
One of the most punishing experiences in the Great War was urban combat, as power-suited Marines struggled to make their way through tight corridors, debris-strewn streets, and piles of destroyed vehicles. In order to ensure that the next generation of jarheads is fit for purpose, the Defense Ministry has called for the construction of a military training camp in a stretch of the Nephor megacity that was particularly harrowing during reclamation operations.
(Progress 0/200, -10R per die, -5 Paranoia)
4 dice 40R

-[X] Tyrador IX: Military Recruitment Offices
While the plan is to engage in mass conscription to refill the ranks of the army, it's always preferable to secure willing volunteers over resentful voluntolds. A series of recruitment offices across Tyrador IX's refugee-swollen second continent will offer an escape route for those capable individuals prepared to risk their lives in service to the Dominion.
(Progress 115/200, -10R per die, -5 Paranoia)
1 dice 10R

Research (4 dice, -8 per die)
-[X] Korhal: Broken Mesa Xenobiology Institute
The Security Ministry has selected the Broken Mesa region of Korhal for the construction of a special research site, which from the plans appears to be something more akin to an entire small city, walls and all. The proposed defenses are elaborate, multi-layered, and as focused inward as outward. I'm sure you can guess what that means.
(Progress 0/200, -20R per die, -10 Paranoia)
4 dice 80R

Bureaucracy (4 dice, -3 per die)
-[X] Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Idealistic)
Many of the political prisoners in those cells are just as much a danger to Mengsk's autocracy as they were to the Confederacy's oligarchy. You're unlikely to be able to free the actual terrorists (at least not the ones who weren't in the Sons), but you could definitely put your thumb on the scale and selectively increase the percentage of dissidents and protestors released, albeit at a cost.
(Progress 24/200, -5R per die, +5 Paranoia)
4 dice 20R

Personal (4 dice, -13 per die) + 4 Free Dice
Discretionary Funds (F): 25 initial + 25 incoming = 50 total
-[X] Private Investments
One of the most basic things you can do with money is use it to make more money. Arendt is more than happy to shuffle a portion of your discretionary budget through a number of shell companies and dummy corporations, then begin investing in those concerns which will see the most growth in the coming years. "Insider trading" is a nasty turn of phrase... but an accurate one in this case.
(DC 30/50/70, -10F per die, +5F/quarter per DC passed, failure incurs +5 Paranoia)
4 dice 40F

-[X] Send a Letter "Home"
You've always prided yourself on your family-mindedness. It's been a year or so since you've heard from young Matt, now that he's off "wandering the sector." Maybe it's time to get back in touch, possibly through a helpful dead-drop you know is frequented by a trustworthy Raider sympathizer.
(Unlocks Raynor's Raiders Personal projects) (DC 40 to avoid +10 Paranoia)
4 dice 0F

Consolidates dice on as few projects as possible to maximize chances of passing. There's a chance of blitzing Augustgrad this turn which would free us to pursue something else for the remainder of the year.

 

[Simon_Jester]

One thing to keep in mind is that this the "Subvert the Plan" quest. We don't actually want the Dominion to succeed.
So what options do we have for sticking our thumb in Mengsk's eye?

Click to shrink...

Remember, we want Mengsk to fail, but the Dominion to succeed. If the Dominion becomes a failed state, the UED sweeps in and conquers us all during a more muscular version of the Terran campaign in Brood War, or the Zerg eat us all in the events of Brood War. We need the Dominion to have the economic and military strength to ensure that humans even survive in the Koprulu Sector in a quasi-independent manner, while also ensuring that Mengsk's seat on his throne doesn't become too secure.

So the main issue I have here with your plan Laurent is that I don't think we should be jumping on Nephor II planetary reconstruction. Instead, move the free dice to Fort Horner or New Model Weaponry, because we really need the Paranoia mitigation going right now. And Fort Horner still fits with the Nephor theme and bonuses.

Click to shrink...

Remember, if we don't reconstruct Nephor II, then the workforce on Nephor II (our primary industrial hub) are living in bombed-out buildings with dysfunctional infrastructure. Factories are probably suffering from unreliable transportation and iffy power grids and so on. It's really bad for our economy as a whole.

Maybe? Nephor Reconstruction is going to be a pretty major deal, I'm not sure why we'd want to slow-walk it when it's a major part of Reconstruction? Though the point about the Fort Horner facility is felt, I guess, since it *would* get that +10. The problem is, we're going to have limited dice we can spend in Military next turn, whereas we're basically always going to want more dice in things like Infrastructure.

My perspective right now is that next turn we could just... toss some Military dice at Fort Horner once we can afford to do so, but we're going to be constantly pushing up against our limit in terms of Infrastructure, HI, and LCI dice.

Hmm.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, this. We can't afford to activate all our dice anymore, not until we do a lot to rev up the Dominion economy. We're going to have to economize on Military projects, because if we divert too much R to them, we won't have enough to rev up the economy.

I agree with you strongly here.

Two things. One, you're looking at an older version...

Click to shrink...

I looked at the newer version and it looked like you were still splitting your Heavy Industry dice across three projects.

..and the SCV costs too much to use.

Click to shrink...

Could you expand on that? Do you mean "more than I care to spend" or "more than I CAN spend," or are you making a broader point about the economic context of the SCV in the reconstruction effort as a whole?

Anyway, my main thing is just that given how damn big most of our projects are, it's almost never a good idea to be doing more than two projects in the same category at a time unless at least one of them [MANDATORY] like Augustgrad. At most, we should be trying to finish off Project X and start Project X+1 in the same turn. Trying to start two projects, neither of which could come even close to finishing, just isn't that good compared to trying to start one project and invest in it more heavily.

Second, we DO have Omakes to help us out there, a +5 and two +15s, one of them of my own creation.

Click to shrink...

Okay, yeah, you're right. I wasn't thinking of those in the context of the Personal actions.

Voters, watchers, quest-followers, I'm here to pose a question to you:

In the first Starcraft game, the Terran main character is a Confederate Magistrate from Mar Sara who gets swept up in the anti-Confederate rebellion. In this quest, our main character is an ex-Marine who retired to Mar Sara and then got swept up in the anti-Confederate rebellion. Would it make sense for these two characters to be the same person? This will require minimal retroactive editing on my part, and could very well improve the flow of the narrative.

Please make your feelings known in the thread poll, which will be up for the next 48 hours, or until I see a decisive result.

EDIT: For my fellow lore nerds, this would mean that canon diverges sometime during Terran Mission 10 (though tbh it isn't explicit about your PC's fate) and The Magistrate elects to stay behind rather than go with Raynor.

Click to shrink...

Observation:

Chuck Horner would likely never have been a "magistrate" under the Confederacy. The role of "magistrate" implies legal authority, which Horner would have struggled to handle even on a colony world. And knowing a bit about non-military bureaucracy, which Horner... does not. Also, the Magistrate gets swept up into the Sons of Korhal quite late into the Sons of Korhal's history as an organization, which kind of doesn't sit well with

What would make sense was if, say, Chuck Horner was a Sons of Korhal cell leader on Mar Sara who had quietly gotten into a leadership position in the Mar Sara militia and was the actual military brains behind "the Magistrate's" victories.

 

[Etranger]

I'm just going to say that, given the caliber of personnel in the late Confederacy, a veteran officer with an incomplete high school education serving as colonial magistrate for a fringe world probably wouldn't have even begun to approach the top 10 most unqualified appointees. The campaign strongly implies that the Adjutant and the locals basically expect their new boss to know absolutely nothing and need a lot of babysitting.

The actual sequence of events that leads to Chuck being appointed magistrate is necessarily a little murky, but the concept seems plausible enough to me. My only question is whether it's one the voters want to see in action. The functional consequence of saying "Yes" is basically just slightly different dialogue and me being able to neatly tie up a plot hole.

 

[Ebanu8]

I'm just going to say that, given the caliber of personnel in the late Confederacy, a veteran officer with an incomplete high school education serving as colonial magistrate for a fringe world probably wouldn't have even begun to approach the top 10 most unqualified appointees. The campaign strongly implies that the Adjutant and the locals basically expect their new boss to know absolutely nothing and need a lot of babysitting.

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Then that means it's up to us to babysit him until he grows strong and experienced enough that he won't need as much coddling. Anyone change his diapers?

 

[Hunter531]

- [] Nephor II: Contact the Industrial Workers' Trust [NEW] (2 dice, 20 F)

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Shouldn't we contact Raynor's Raiders first? Their projects seem more likely to have the most negative effects on Mengsk's rule?

 

[AlexScribler]

[] Raynor! 355/425R
-[] Infrastructure 5/5 65R
--[] Korhal: Capital City Augustgrad (Phase 1) [MANDATORY] 2 dice, 20R 0%
--[] Brontes: Orbital Cleanup (Phase 1) [Reconstruction] 3 dice 45R 61%
-[] Heavy Industry 4/4 60R
--[] Vardona: Ardonin Heavy Vehicle Factory (Phase 1) 4 dice 60R 77%
-[] Light and Chemical Industry 4/4 40R
--[] Tyrador IX: Refugee Workshops (Phase 1) [Reconstruction] 4 dice 40R 85%
-[] Environmental 4/4 40R
--[] Tyrador IX: Establish Farmsteads (Phase 1) [Reconstruction] 4 dice 40R 75%
-[] Services 4/4 50R
--[] Mass Literacy Movement (Phase 1) 4 dice + 1 free dice 50R 57%
-[] Military 2/5 20R
--[] Tyrador IX: Military Recruitment Offices 2 dice 20R 60%
-[] Research 4/4 70R
--[] Korhal: Broken Mesa Xenobiology Institute 3 dice 60R 7%
--[]New Model Weaponry (Phase 1) (Tech) 1 dice 10R
-[] Bureaucracy 1/4 10R
--[] Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Idealistic) 1 dice 10R 0%
-[] Personal 4/4 30F
--[] Send a Letter "Home" 3 dice 97% (contact Raynor without Paranoia cost)
--[] Hire Advisors 1 dice +1 free dice 10F 90%/79%
--[] Private Investments 2 free dice dice 20F 85%/72%/55%

It's time to talk with Raynor.

The majority of our dice are devoted to personal actions, since those are the ones we actually want to do. Also they're cheap. I think we should try to spend the majority of our free dice here every turn. Remember, we're not running this government. In fact we're fairly sure it's going to try to execute us at some point. We shouldn't make it any stronger than we have to.

Reasoning:
- Augustgrad because it's mandatory
- Brontes because we might get R or other shinies from it
- Vardona to reduce Progress-cost on a variety of projects; and in the hope we'll be able to send Raynor the blue prints.
- Refugee Workshops for the R-income, plus the improvement to people's lives, and fulfillment of our [Reconstruction] mandate
- Farmsteads; fulfilling multiple goals with one project; shouldn't really require much explanation, and I think pretty much everyone agrees on this
- Mass Literacy Movement because educated workers are more productive workers, also, it weakens Megsk's grip and that's what the quest is about, finding ways to improve things from the inside of Mengsk's rotten edifice
- Recruitment for the Paranoia-reduction, while also being fairly cheap. Also we've already invested some here so may as well finish the least bad military action
- Broken Mesa; because it's a promise we made, let's make progress towards getting it off the books so we don't have to scrable later
-T&R; needs to get done in order to build up resistance against Mengsk, but I want to contact the resistance before finishing it so only a token effort. Likewise holding off on doing the Census until after we have resistance contacts and can work to keep them out of it.

-Advisers; because we still need improvements to our dice. especially in the Personal category
-Private Investments; right now our Funds are fine, but that's partially due to carry-over from the previous turn, and partially because we haven't really gotten involved too much in any truly subversive stuff, yet. I fully expect that to change once we actually contact anti-Mengsk factions, so getting started on building up our war-chest is a logical choice to me