Blood, Sweat, and Tears (WH40k Design Bureau)
- Thread starter DaLintyGuy
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
There's going to be a sequel.
Granted it's going to be very different (controlling an individual rather than a nation), but if I lean on my contacts some it should end up alright.
I may also throw up a Star Wars quest that is... Not that similar to be honest but still could be fun.
Happerry
Bat out of Hell
- Location
- Kanto
As I said, I want a Plasma Lance. And I'm not too into the multi-role craft now that we should be able to just use normal imperial navy craft, so...
[X] Plan: Plasma Lances for victory.
-[X] Plasma Lance; In the face of increasingly heavy armored enemies, efforts have been made to upgrade lances into plasma lances. With Calavan lances already being particle lances, this was more a change in ammo then a complete redesign, though much of the lance was also redesigned admittedly. Just less so then if it was based on, say, a laser lance. Such a plasma lance is expected to go through heavily armored enemy ships like a blowtorch goes through metal, melting great hulls and doing lots of damage.
-[X] Purpose made escort scale carrier hull; The image of the Calavan strikecraft swarming out of a Strife class carrier is prominent among the propaganda vids of the Crusade. However, while the Strifes are fearsome carriers they are highly valuable and expensive to produce. As the Hegemon's Crusade entered into a consolidation phase the Strifes were seen as inefficient to be used in patrol and garrison duties. An escort scale carrier hull was needed to utilize the hard earned lessons in strikecraft at a affordable price in a wider deployment than was able by the Strifes. This need was answered by the Auceps-class Light Carrier Hull: Although the Cove-pattern hangar can be fitted into most weapon mounts, it tends to be cramped and awkwardly laid out, since the needs of hangar bays are rather different from most weapons. The Auceps-class hull does not have this problem. Its large dorsal landing bay connects neatly to its spacious hangar deck, which easily feeds into the launch rails on either side of the hull. Naturally, this space is then packed to the gills with strike craft, making it just as cramped as any Cove-pattern hangar, but with far more capacity. [1W (broadside, hangar only, increased capacity), 1W, 2D (one armor, one shields), 1U, 1E]
-[X] Shelter Armor Improvement Project; despite the name the improvement project does not focus upon improving the capability of the Shelter armor. Instead it seems to improve its ability to be used in a wider scale than previously possible. It achieves this by improving the design of the armor to reduce the amount of maintenance necessary for optimal function. A lesser importance is placed on streamlining of the production of the armor. With the improvements in general technology it is hoped that the Shelter armor would see wider use in the Hegemon's crusade instead of in ship defense or the few specialist units.
-[X] Disruptor Lance; Based on experience in developing Lance weapons starting from the Thunderclap lance, the Disruptor largely uses the same systems, but in a different matter. Instead of being a particle lance, it is an ionized particle lance, not just damaging targets with the impact of the particles but also dumping huge amounts of charge into whatever target the lance shoots at. This ionic/energy overload... well, overloads equipment around wherever the lances hits, causing cascading malfunctions around the impact zone. Granted, against a well designed, well maintained target this weapon will not cause all too much disruption, but against the likes of the ill designed and maintained ships of the Orks and the degenerate traitors it will cause significant systems disruption on top of the damage of the lance itself.
-[X] Landship; The success of the Cataphract super heavy tank buoyed the spirits and the careers of the designers and techpriests responsible for the weapon of war. With it came rising ambition to improve upon the superheavy tank and produce a near titan scale combatant. Dubbed the Landship, the crawler design was massive, traversing the land on massive tracks. The most numerous variant of the Landship is designed for a support role. Dubbed the Command Carrier, having a multitude of super-heavy artillery batteries the Landship can provide on-demand support across the battlefront as well as a battery of guided missiles. However its true value is in its extensive command and control capability utilizing a vast array of vox casters and other equipment, with which a commanding general can expertly command his entire army from the safety of the craft. The Landship is protected by a exceedingly thick armored hull as well as numerous secondary batteries of weapons that provide heavy anti-infantry and anti-vehicle capacity as well as the ability to defend itself against aerial threats. A notable variant of the Landship is the Bulwalk, a crawler the same size as the Landship/Command Carrier but focused on one thing: contending with and destroying Orkish Gargants and other comparable threats. The Bulwalk is equipped with Titan scale weaponry, though not as powerful or as sophisticated as the holy weapons on the God Machines, they are adequate for the task. It is protected by even thicker armor than the standard landship and has additional suites of close in defensive weapons to protect against lesser foes.
-[X] Military Academy; The demand of the Hegemon's Crusade has seen the PDF and SDF drained of capable officers and crew over the decades of unceasing military expansion. The training infrastructure of the Hegemon's military was overstretched and was not up to the task of preparing the men and women of the Crusade for the harsher, more dangerous battles yet to come. As a solution the Hegemon, in his wisdom, commissioned the design and planning for a school of war which will prepare the men and women and future leaders of the Hegemon's Crusade, both on the ground and among the stars.
[X] Plan: Plasma Lances for victory.
-[X] Plasma Lance; In the face of increasingly heavy armored enemies, efforts have been made to upgrade lances into plasma lances. With Calavan lances already being particle lances, this was more a change in ammo then a complete redesign, though much of the lance was also redesigned admittedly. Just less so then if it was based on, say, a laser lance. Such a plasma lance is expected to go through heavily armored enemy ships like a blowtorch goes through metal, melting great hulls and doing lots of damage.
-[X] Purpose made escort scale carrier hull; The image of the Calavan strikecraft swarming out of a Strife class carrier is prominent among the propaganda vids of the Crusade. However, while the Strifes are fearsome carriers they are highly valuable and expensive to produce. As the Hegemon's Crusade entered into a consolidation phase the Strifes were seen as inefficient to be used in patrol and garrison duties. An escort scale carrier hull was needed to utilize the hard earned lessons in strikecraft at a affordable price in a wider deployment than was able by the Strifes. This need was answered by the Auceps-class Light Carrier Hull: Although the Cove-pattern hangar can be fitted into most weapon mounts, it tends to be cramped and awkwardly laid out, since the needs of hangar bays are rather different from most weapons. The Auceps-class hull does not have this problem. Its large dorsal landing bay connects neatly to its spacious hangar deck, which easily feeds into the launch rails on either side of the hull. Naturally, this space is then packed to the gills with strike craft, making it just as cramped as any Cove-pattern hangar, but with far more capacity. [1W (broadside, hangar only, increased capacity), 1W, 2D (one armor, one shields), 1U, 1E]
-[X] Shelter Armor Improvement Project; despite the name the improvement project does not focus upon improving the capability of the Shelter armor. Instead it seems to improve its ability to be used in a wider scale than previously possible. It achieves this by improving the design of the armor to reduce the amount of maintenance necessary for optimal function. A lesser importance is placed on streamlining of the production of the armor. With the improvements in general technology it is hoped that the Shelter armor would see wider use in the Hegemon's crusade instead of in ship defense or the few specialist units.
-[X] Disruptor Lance; Based on experience in developing Lance weapons starting from the Thunderclap lance, the Disruptor largely uses the same systems, but in a different matter. Instead of being a particle lance, it is an ionized particle lance, not just damaging targets with the impact of the particles but also dumping huge amounts of charge into whatever target the lance shoots at. This ionic/energy overload... well, overloads equipment around wherever the lances hits, causing cascading malfunctions around the impact zone. Granted, against a well designed, well maintained target this weapon will not cause all too much disruption, but against the likes of the ill designed and maintained ships of the Orks and the degenerate traitors it will cause significant systems disruption on top of the damage of the lance itself.
-[X] Landship; The success of the Cataphract super heavy tank buoyed the spirits and the careers of the designers and techpriests responsible for the weapon of war. With it came rising ambition to improve upon the superheavy tank and produce a near titan scale combatant. Dubbed the Landship, the crawler design was massive, traversing the land on massive tracks. The most numerous variant of the Landship is designed for a support role. Dubbed the Command Carrier, having a multitude of super-heavy artillery batteries the Landship can provide on-demand support across the battlefront as well as a battery of guided missiles. However its true value is in its extensive command and control capability utilizing a vast array of vox casters and other equipment, with which a commanding general can expertly command his entire army from the safety of the craft. The Landship is protected by a exceedingly thick armored hull as well as numerous secondary batteries of weapons that provide heavy anti-infantry and anti-vehicle capacity as well as the ability to defend itself against aerial threats. A notable variant of the Landship is the Bulwalk, a crawler the same size as the Landship/Command Carrier but focused on one thing: contending with and destroying Orkish Gargants and other comparable threats. The Bulwalk is equipped with Titan scale weaponry, though not as powerful or as sophisticated as the holy weapons on the God Machines, they are adequate for the task. It is protected by even thicker armor than the standard landship and has additional suites of close in defensive weapons to protect against lesser foes.
-[X] Military Academy; The demand of the Hegemon's Crusade has seen the PDF and SDF drained of capable officers and crew over the decades of unceasing military expansion. The training infrastructure of the Hegemon's military was overstretched and was not up to the task of preparing the men and women of the Crusade for the harsher, more dangerous battles yet to come. As a solution the Hegemon, in his wisdom, commissioned the design and planning for a school of war which will prepare the men and women and future leaders of the Hegemon's Crusade, both on the ground and among the stars.
@DaLintyGuy Question, how effective would the next multirole strikecraft be?
Also, what would the plasma lance look like with the automatic average success?
Also, what would the plasma lance look like with the automatic average success?
Probably something like 3/3 at Medium range. It's a multirole that is designed to work in atmosphere as well as in space, so there are some unavoidable tradeoffs. Still, while losing out in effectiveness to the Fury or Starhawk it can do either role after a bit of rejiggering in the hangar making it a useful tool for the small hulls you have available.
And a Short range weapon that either deals a great deal of surface damage against heavily armored targets (good for things you can't pierce anyway or want to try and degrade sensor effectiveness) and would do a large amount of crew and internal damage against lighter assets. So, as long as you are okay at getting in close with an Ork ship, it would do a great deal of damage due to their low reliability. Would probably also be an acceptable "first strike" weapon to burn out the first few layers of Space Hulks for landing operations actually given it's subsequent ineffectiveness against armor after the original impact.
Both sounds like quite a nifty stuff.
I think I prefer the multirole though. 3/3 is a pretty good statline for a fighter-bomber. And makes sense for the small carriers we'll have. Also Starhawks are expensive.
Closing Turn, Design Phase Results: Legacy of a Crusade
Plan: Legacy and Landships Version Two
-Improved Multirole Strikecraft
With the Solar Hawks slowly rotating through the shipyards for patches and rearming from something that wasn't a blasted wreck the Fallen Subsector had increased the rate at which it vomited up detachments of overly confident Ork raiders. Packets of scrapships were a near certainty to find while moving a Bulk Hauler and its cargo, let alone the occasional convoy of tramp freighters to make up the difference for the concentrated nature of the larger ships. Groups like this one, for instance: an Onslaught pushing a half dozen of its under built cousins ahead of it.
"Tell the Hounds that their objective is to slow and disable the corvettes." The commander of the Fifth Patrol Squadron ordered calmly, setting the lower decks of the bridge to chattering as ensigns began relaying orders to those who needed to hear them and in the necessary manner.
The teardrop shaped fighters were not the original Saviors that even now were growing to be a favorite of Yttreum privateers, PDFs, and Incleon raiders alike. Instead they were a refined and improved descendant: the Liberator. In light of their roles they possessed a number of mission bays that could be changed out with a small amount of work by the hangar crew. Either a battery of lascannon or the insets to hold a quartet of light anti ship missiles would fit onto the bare structure of the strikecraft in order to rapidly flip between being a capable fighter and bomber. Other loadouts existed, of course, but they were usually used planetside.
The news of the strike's successful attack on the Orks engines made an excellent counterpoint to lunch, several hours later.
[S-3 Liberator: The much more agreeable successor to the Interloper, the Liberator was the first to fully explore the modular weapon packs that would come to dominate Calavan aerospace frames. (3 Fighter/3 Bomber, Medium Range, Medium Speed. Changing stats requires hangar time.)(3M per Squadron)]
-Purpose made escort scale carrier hull
Upon making contact with the first Imperial long range patrol to skim past Gunbreaka territory it was already apparent that Calavan ship designers were going to baffle their Imperial and Mechanicus counterparts with their decisions. The pair of Light Cruisers and their command staff simply didn't understand what the point of the Auceps Patrol Carrier was. For that, one had to realize the circumstances that led to its inception.
The Orks of the Fallen Subsector, following the death of the Warlord that had brought the region to its knees, were technologically regressed compared to even their fellow Greenskins. What this meant in practice was that their ships were even more poorly made, and tended to be even smaller, than the average Escort on the other side of Gunbreaka or the patch of Chaos infestation usually referred to as the Hylian Stretch. In light of that being able to exploit flaws in the enemy hull to destroy vital components or even the ship itself through secondary detonations was more important than the staying power of their host ship.
In light of this the Auceps was most similar to the Imperial Cobra Destroyer. It shared the prow tubes, albeit on the flanks of the prow rather than the center and somewhat smaller and shorter, and desultory defense turret. Even so not even those unfamiliar with warships of the void would confuse one with the other for the Auceps moved the turret forward and had a bulbous hunchback just in front of and below the bridge for craft to reenter the hangar and be worked on before being slid down into the cellular storage racks next to the two launch rails.
These craft drew fame for their constant patrol work, ensuring that supplies and troops moved throughout Calavar's sphere of influence to feed the demands of protecting the small bastion of civilization.
They would also go on to serve with distinction in the reclamation offensives nearly twenty years later- But that, is a story for another time...
-Exoskeleton Proliferation
The Shelter Exoskeleton was not just a local variety of carapace armor but a true set of powered armor. Primitive, certainly, compared to what the Brotherhood of Mars provided the Adepta Sororitas and the Adeptus Astartes. But it was closer in scale to a Sentinel than plates on a form fitting frame. The trade off, of course, was maintenance. The demands of moving nearly a thousand kilograms of armor, wearer, and assorted systems faster than an unaugmented soldier necessitated precisely machined parts that were not readily available in theater. Thus, when a suit was damaged as was often the case when deployed into the thickest, most pressing fighting on a front, it had to be taken off the line to be repaired with spares brought by the fleet and the damaged components looked over by experienced Mechanicus members to see what could be salvaged. Deploying the Shelter in any great numbers was therefore impossible lest the enemy come while they were being serviced.
To solve this, some changes and indeed sacrifices were needed. After only a little wheedling to Lexicalum the Mechanicus outpost begrudgingly dug up the recipes for electroreactive muscle fibers similar in function to the destroyed examples within the abandoned suit of Astartes armor. The subsequent downgrade of the power plant from a compact plasma reactor to a less compact universal combustion engine allowed for suits to be repaired in the field as even if a limb was hacked off the muscle fibers could be braided back together (with a bit of spare or salvaged strands depending on the attack in question).
This second series of armor, Barrier, was manufactured concurrently with the previous Shelter exoskeletons as they filled different roles. The Shelters were higher performance, being stronger and faster, and so were used in the same manner as infantry whereas the Barriers noticeably encumbered the wearer and so were more similar to Sentinel walkers. The Shelter was a Superheavy shock infantry platform, where a Barrier was fire support and while better in close combat than a regular soldier, preferred to stay at range.
[Barrier Exoskeleton: A trimmed down version of the Shelter, the Barrier was specifically made to be deployed en masse. Full army deploymemts were theoretically possible, and they found a great deal of success in second line roles such as combat engineers and industrial labor.]
-Disruptor Lance
The use of some means to disable enemy equipment was hardly a new one. What made disruptor weapons rare was the difficulty in doing so to the hardened systems of a void going vessel. After all, charged ions were a common occurrence for voidships, be it a solar flare or when crossing a planet's magnetic field. Even so, there are ways.
The Thunderhead Disruptor, in both Battery and Lance form, energized the hull of the target in rapid pulses that commonly resulted in lightning discharging within its halls. On a Human ship this would not be much of a concern due to contiguous design and uniform materials, resulting in the largest effect being to sensitive surface electronics such as sensors. On an Ork ship, however, these fluctuations tended to occur near something volatile. Be it exposed ordnance, a metal fire spreading, or the plasma core fueling the ship having its containment fail and flood the corridors, deadly results were just as common as electrocuting exposed weapons and crews.
The Imperial Navy crews were unused to something that was not made to destroy the enemy, but the Thunderhead would be of great interest to the Forge Worlds of the Subsector who would, in time, refine the primitive Calavar design into a pure electron beam of far greater power and accuracy. Both became a favorite of those who wanted to take their prizes somewhat intact or attempt to blind a larger vessel.
[Thunderhead Disruptor: Commonly seen on Rogue Trader and privateer vessels, the Thunderhead was developed after the end of the Crusade by picking up the work of a cabal of industrialists. Coming in Battery and Lance forms depending on the desired result on the target, the Thunderhead affects the targets accuracy, can temporarily reduce the effectiveness and/or reliability of enemy Modules, and on particularly ill built vessels the charge it deposits can cause catastrophic failures within the target. (Battery 1, Disruptor, Short Range, 5M OR Lance 1, Disruptor, Medium Range, 6M. Battery is better at disrupting sensors and surface features while Lance is better for seeking internal criticals.)]
-Landship
Despite the work done in building a Navy from scratch the most commonly known and envied achievement of the Crusade was the development of Titan scale combatants. While the unimaginatively titled "Landships" were not actual God Machines they were in the same class: a step above even the somewhat rare Baneblade family and their might.
The Landships were built to take a multitude of roles, from mobile factories to linebreaker to direct fire anti-Titan to anti-orbital to command/control. Even with multiple sets of tracks keeping their bulk off of the ground minor to moderate obstacles tended to be ground under and apart instead of surmounted.
The development of Titan grade machines garnered a great deal of attention from the Mechanicus. While a backyard do-it-yourself project compared to the grand and terrible technology present in a true God Machine of a Titan Legion, it was still an unusual development that would eventually be recreated by the Forge Worlds in lieu of having the political connections to be able to build the typical Titans.
[Landship: The first Titans seen in the Subsector. Crude, ungainly, and inelegant, Calavar looted the Ork rejoinder "it doesn't matter what it looks like if it kills you" while finishing the design. Typically driving on four pairs of independent heavy tracks, the Landships fulfill a multitude of roles. (As a Core, the Landship Flotilla costs 60M,6A and is most suited for direct support of friendly assets via fire support and small theater shields. As an attachment a Landship costs 10M,1A and provides vastly increased command and control capabilities and some degree of indirect support such as strategic artillery and limited manufacturing. Naming each Landship is encouraged, taking into account possible model changes from Attachments.)
-Military Academy
Before and after the stated end of the Hegemon's Crusade it was known that a great deal of fighting was yet to come. Billions, perhaps trillions of Orks and Orkoids lounged and squabbled amongst the ruins of their betters while other Xenos and Traitors waited in the wings for a chance to strike. The lessons of the past could not be left forgotten for the next generation of officers and ship crews.
The Aorm Finishing Academy was built as a great plate in orbit above the continent of the same name. Housing and instructional infrastructure were naturally present in abundance to fill the needs of its hundreds of thousands of students and instructors, but it was also a functional defense platform with the training guns and systems. Several servicing slips were built along the edges to receive the Guardian monitors that prowled the system. Minor repairs and resupplying was done as crews were changed for new classes who had yet to taste the Void.
[Aorm Finishing Academy: An edifice to the needs of the wars to come, ship crews and ground officers are taught the lessons of the past here. The Academy also serves as another part of the defensive grid above Calavar itself in light of its live training segments and monitor berths.]
GM Note: Political results and choices to come tomorrow, I think. Possibly including the Bagalog raid on Incleon, possibly it may be it's own thing.
-Improved Multirole Strikecraft
With the Solar Hawks slowly rotating through the shipyards for patches and rearming from something that wasn't a blasted wreck the Fallen Subsector had increased the rate at which it vomited up detachments of overly confident Ork raiders. Packets of scrapships were a near certainty to find while moving a Bulk Hauler and its cargo, let alone the occasional convoy of tramp freighters to make up the difference for the concentrated nature of the larger ships. Groups like this one, for instance: an Onslaught pushing a half dozen of its under built cousins ahead of it.
"Tell the Hounds that their objective is to slow and disable the corvettes." The commander of the Fifth Patrol Squadron ordered calmly, setting the lower decks of the bridge to chattering as ensigns began relaying orders to those who needed to hear them and in the necessary manner.
The teardrop shaped fighters were not the original Saviors that even now were growing to be a favorite of Yttreum privateers, PDFs, and Incleon raiders alike. Instead they were a refined and improved descendant: the Liberator. In light of their roles they possessed a number of mission bays that could be changed out with a small amount of work by the hangar crew. Either a battery of lascannon or the insets to hold a quartet of light anti ship missiles would fit onto the bare structure of the strikecraft in order to rapidly flip between being a capable fighter and bomber. Other loadouts existed, of course, but they were usually used planetside.
The news of the strike's successful attack on the Orks engines made an excellent counterpoint to lunch, several hours later.
[S-3 Liberator: The much more agreeable successor to the Interloper, the Liberator was the first to fully explore the modular weapon packs that would come to dominate Calavan aerospace frames. (3 Fighter/3 Bomber, Medium Range, Medium Speed. Changing stats requires hangar time.)(3M per Squadron)]
-Purpose made escort scale carrier hull
Upon making contact with the first Imperial long range patrol to skim past Gunbreaka territory it was already apparent that Calavan ship designers were going to baffle their Imperial and Mechanicus counterparts with their decisions. The pair of Light Cruisers and their command staff simply didn't understand what the point of the Auceps Patrol Carrier was. For that, one had to realize the circumstances that led to its inception.
The Orks of the Fallen Subsector, following the death of the Warlord that had brought the region to its knees, were technologically regressed compared to even their fellow Greenskins. What this meant in practice was that their ships were even more poorly made, and tended to be even smaller, than the average Escort on the other side of Gunbreaka or the patch of Chaos infestation usually referred to as the Hylian Stretch. In light of that being able to exploit flaws in the enemy hull to destroy vital components or even the ship itself through secondary detonations was more important than the staying power of their host ship.
In light of this the Auceps was most similar to the Imperial Cobra Destroyer. It shared the prow tubes, albeit on the flanks of the prow rather than the center and somewhat smaller and shorter, and desultory defense turret. Even so not even those unfamiliar with warships of the void would confuse one with the other for the Auceps moved the turret forward and had a bulbous hunchback just in front of and below the bridge for craft to reenter the hangar and be worked on before being slid down into the cellular storage racks next to the two launch rails.
These craft drew fame for their constant patrol work, ensuring that supplies and troops moved throughout Calavar's sphere of influence to feed the demands of protecting the small bastion of civilization.
They would also go on to serve with distinction in the reclamation offensives nearly twenty years later- But that, is a story for another time...
-Exoskeleton Proliferation
The Shelter Exoskeleton was not just a local variety of carapace armor but a true set of powered armor. Primitive, certainly, compared to what the Brotherhood of Mars provided the Adepta Sororitas and the Adeptus Astartes. But it was closer in scale to a Sentinel than plates on a form fitting frame. The trade off, of course, was maintenance. The demands of moving nearly a thousand kilograms of armor, wearer, and assorted systems faster than an unaugmented soldier necessitated precisely machined parts that were not readily available in theater. Thus, when a suit was damaged as was often the case when deployed into the thickest, most pressing fighting on a front, it had to be taken off the line to be repaired with spares brought by the fleet and the damaged components looked over by experienced Mechanicus members to see what could be salvaged. Deploying the Shelter in any great numbers was therefore impossible lest the enemy come while they were being serviced.
To solve this, some changes and indeed sacrifices were needed. After only a little wheedling to Lexicalum the Mechanicus outpost begrudgingly dug up the recipes for electroreactive muscle fibers similar in function to the destroyed examples within the abandoned suit of Astartes armor. The subsequent downgrade of the power plant from a compact plasma reactor to a less compact universal combustion engine allowed for suits to be repaired in the field as even if a limb was hacked off the muscle fibers could be braided back together (with a bit of spare or salvaged strands depending on the attack in question).
This second series of armor, Barrier, was manufactured concurrently with the previous Shelter exoskeletons as they filled different roles. The Shelters were higher performance, being stronger and faster, and so were used in the same manner as infantry whereas the Barriers noticeably encumbered the wearer and so were more similar to Sentinel walkers. The Shelter was a Superheavy shock infantry platform, where a Barrier was fire support and while better in close combat than a regular soldier, preferred to stay at range.
[Barrier Exoskeleton: A trimmed down version of the Shelter, the Barrier was specifically made to be deployed en masse. Full army deploymemts were theoretically possible, and they found a great deal of success in second line roles such as combat engineers and industrial labor.]
-Disruptor Lance
The use of some means to disable enemy equipment was hardly a new one. What made disruptor weapons rare was the difficulty in doing so to the hardened systems of a void going vessel. After all, charged ions were a common occurrence for voidships, be it a solar flare or when crossing a planet's magnetic field. Even so, there are ways.
The Thunderhead Disruptor, in both Battery and Lance form, energized the hull of the target in rapid pulses that commonly resulted in lightning discharging within its halls. On a Human ship this would not be much of a concern due to contiguous design and uniform materials, resulting in the largest effect being to sensitive surface electronics such as sensors. On an Ork ship, however, these fluctuations tended to occur near something volatile. Be it exposed ordnance, a metal fire spreading, or the plasma core fueling the ship having its containment fail and flood the corridors, deadly results were just as common as electrocuting exposed weapons and crews.
The Imperial Navy crews were unused to something that was not made to destroy the enemy, but the Thunderhead would be of great interest to the Forge Worlds of the Subsector who would, in time, refine the primitive Calavar design into a pure electron beam of far greater power and accuracy. Both became a favorite of those who wanted to take their prizes somewhat intact or attempt to blind a larger vessel.
[Thunderhead Disruptor: Commonly seen on Rogue Trader and privateer vessels, the Thunderhead was developed after the end of the Crusade by picking up the work of a cabal of industrialists. Coming in Battery and Lance forms depending on the desired result on the target, the Thunderhead affects the targets accuracy, can temporarily reduce the effectiveness and/or reliability of enemy Modules, and on particularly ill built vessels the charge it deposits can cause catastrophic failures within the target. (Battery 1, Disruptor, Short Range, 5M OR Lance 1, Disruptor, Medium Range, 6M. Battery is better at disrupting sensors and surface features while Lance is better for seeking internal criticals.)]
-Landship
Despite the work done in building a Navy from scratch the most commonly known and envied achievement of the Crusade was the development of Titan scale combatants. While the unimaginatively titled "Landships" were not actual God Machines they were in the same class: a step above even the somewhat rare Baneblade family and their might.
The Landships were built to take a multitude of roles, from mobile factories to linebreaker to direct fire anti-Titan to anti-orbital to command/control. Even with multiple sets of tracks keeping their bulk off of the ground minor to moderate obstacles tended to be ground under and apart instead of surmounted.
The development of Titan grade machines garnered a great deal of attention from the Mechanicus. While a backyard do-it-yourself project compared to the grand and terrible technology present in a true God Machine of a Titan Legion, it was still an unusual development that would eventually be recreated by the Forge Worlds in lieu of having the political connections to be able to build the typical Titans.
[Landship: The first Titans seen in the Subsector. Crude, ungainly, and inelegant, Calavar looted the Ork rejoinder "it doesn't matter what it looks like if it kills you" while finishing the design. Typically driving on four pairs of independent heavy tracks, the Landships fulfill a multitude of roles. (As a Core, the Landship Flotilla costs 60M,6A and is most suited for direct support of friendly assets via fire support and small theater shields. As an attachment a Landship costs 10M,1A and provides vastly increased command and control capabilities and some degree of indirect support such as strategic artillery and limited manufacturing. Naming each Landship is encouraged, taking into account possible model changes from Attachments.)
-Military Academy
Before and after the stated end of the Hegemon's Crusade it was known that a great deal of fighting was yet to come. Billions, perhaps trillions of Orks and Orkoids lounged and squabbled amongst the ruins of their betters while other Xenos and Traitors waited in the wings for a chance to strike. The lessons of the past could not be left forgotten for the next generation of officers and ship crews.
The Aorm Finishing Academy was built as a great plate in orbit above the continent of the same name. Housing and instructional infrastructure were naturally present in abundance to fill the needs of its hundreds of thousands of students and instructors, but it was also a functional defense platform with the training guns and systems. Several servicing slips were built along the edges to receive the Guardian monitors that prowled the system. Minor repairs and resupplying was done as crews were changed for new classes who had yet to taste the Void.
[Aorm Finishing Academy: An edifice to the needs of the wars to come, ship crews and ground officers are taught the lessons of the past here. The Academy also serves as another part of the defensive grid above Calavar itself in light of its live training segments and monitor berths.]
GM Note: Political results and choices to come tomorrow, I think. Possibly including the Bagalog raid on Incleon, possibly it may be it's own thing.
Very nice.
Also, given the mention of Incleon raiders having Saviors, I'm guessing I was right about the bastards copying the design from the data they stole during their raid.
Honestly, for what it started with, the achievements are honestly not bad. Not bad at all for such a backwater.
Pretty interesting that the Landship design was refined and proliferated among the Forgeworlds.
The crusade's designs are probably pretty baffling for the Imperial Navy proper. Especially with Calavar's reliance on strikecraft.
Also, given the mention of Incleon raiders having Saviors, I'm guessing I was right about the bastards copying the design from the data they stole during their raid.
Honestly, for what it started with, the achievements are honestly not bad. Not bad at all for such a backwater.
Pretty interesting that the Landship design was refined and proliferated among the Forgeworlds.
The crusade's designs are probably pretty baffling for the Imperial Navy proper. Especially with Calavar's reliance on strikecraft.
Given that this is the Imperial Navy they'll probably scoff and say that that only worked because Calavars enemies were largely limited to escort- or sub-escort ships. A proper Cruiser Line or a Battleship would not fall to strikecraft nearly as easily.
And to be fair, they would probably not be wrong.
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
Well, you can definitely see the influences of our actions on the designs and the crusade itself. The improved multirole strikecraft fix the flaw in their predecessor, and represents our need for better strikecraft capability that can fend off the original model which is spreading far and wide due to just how useful they are, whilst later on during the same voyage firing off an anti-shipping strike against a bunch of Ork raiders.
The Auceps and Barrier are both taking one of our strongpoints and ensuring that they're always present and don't break the bank in doing so.
The Disruptor Lance is... It shows that one of our biggest threats were poorly built Ork ships. And whilst even a poorly built Ork ship might take a while to blast through it's hull and render non-functional... It tends to take a lot less effort causing their own poor design to kill the ship for us, and if in the mean time it makes them operate even worse than normal, causing less damage? Even better as that means less resources devoted towards repairs which can go to purging recaptured worlds, building up defences against any serious attack and buildign up forces for when the true reconquest happens.
The Finishing Academy just shows the fact we'd lost all major recruitment and training facilities in the Sector whilst also seriously needing them. And so we solved that problem in a manner that is all about 'ensure that problem doesn't happen again, and make it so we do better with less whilst you are at it' like a lot of other decisions. With less attention paid to 'is this strictly speaking traditional?'
Finally we have the Landship which is uh. Well it shows that we were definitely planning for things to go horribly wrong again and how to stop it cheaply. Whilst also not caring about whether or not tradition favours the course of action we're taking. But it none-the-less is a very useful idea that gets others thinking. Aka, this is one of the most politically interesting choices we've made. So that's going to be fun to deal with, but if we do it right we might be only lightly slapped for some of our other less traditional decisions.
That said, we can't just give the Mechanicus the designs without ensuring that the Imperial Guard keep access to them. Because they are a relatively low-tech (and thus easily made across the Imperium) design that means you have options when you encounter enemy God-Machines that aren't 'Die Horribly', 'Hope Astartes choose to deal with it for you and pray they succeed', 'Hope the Mechanicus arrive with their own before they kill you all' and 'Thank the Emperor you were one of the rare Imperial Guard forces with access to the very rare and powerful high-tech Super-Heavy designs that can fight Titans'. The fact that one of the major designs is also the ultimate HQ vehicle, whilst having protection that is on the same scale as a Titan makes it even worse because so many of the more in-favour and/or wealthy and/or pompous Generals would want one of their own...
The Auceps and Barrier are both taking one of our strongpoints and ensuring that they're always present and don't break the bank in doing so.
The Disruptor Lance is... It shows that one of our biggest threats were poorly built Ork ships. And whilst even a poorly built Ork ship might take a while to blast through it's hull and render non-functional... It tends to take a lot less effort causing their own poor design to kill the ship for us, and if in the mean time it makes them operate even worse than normal, causing less damage? Even better as that means less resources devoted towards repairs which can go to purging recaptured worlds, building up defences against any serious attack and buildign up forces for when the true reconquest happens.
The Finishing Academy just shows the fact we'd lost all major recruitment and training facilities in the Sector whilst also seriously needing them. And so we solved that problem in a manner that is all about 'ensure that problem doesn't happen again, and make it so we do better with less whilst you are at it' like a lot of other decisions. With less attention paid to 'is this strictly speaking traditional?'
Finally we have the Landship which is uh. Well it shows that we were definitely planning for things to go horribly wrong again and how to stop it cheaply. Whilst also not caring about whether or not tradition favours the course of action we're taking. But it none-the-less is a very useful idea that gets others thinking. Aka, this is one of the most politically interesting choices we've made. So that's going to be fun to deal with, but if we do it right we might be only lightly slapped for some of our other less traditional decisions.
That said, we can't just give the Mechanicus the designs without ensuring that the Imperial Guard keep access to them. Because they are a relatively low-tech (and thus easily made across the Imperium) design that means you have options when you encounter enemy God-Machines that aren't 'Die Horribly', 'Hope Astartes choose to deal with it for you and pray they succeed', 'Hope the Mechanicus arrive with their own before they kill you all' and 'Thank the Emperor you were one of the rare Imperial Guard forces with access to the very rare and powerful high-tech Super-Heavy designs that can fight Titans'. The fact that one of the major designs is also the ultimate HQ vehicle, whilst having protection that is on the same scale as a Titan makes it even worse because so many of the more in-favour and/or wealthy and/or pompous Generals would want one of their own...
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- Location
- Canada
Its to late now but an attempt to make our basic missiles/atomics a bit better could have had a big impact overall.
That is the most basic missile option we got. I am sure we could do better now. For almost as cheap I bet.
We got one attachment as an omake bonus. I don't think we made any others.
- Location
- Florida
Pity we didn't go for the Battleship legacy project. We could have auto completed all the naval techs on our list (and more besides) if we had done so. Sad that we settled for a light cruiser of all things.
That is true. Where Calavar's fleet would shine in the wider Imperium is securing the rear line and defending against attacks on the supply lines. Our overgunned escorts that are fuel efficient are suitable for long range patrols and convoy escorts and the flexibility of our strikecraft heavy fleet would allow them to respond to all manner of threats to the convoys.
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
Basically, the various Lord Admirals will be happy with them, since it means the Imperial Navy's perpetual problem of being overextended is alleviated, but the actual Admirals and Captains won't like them because they're not suitable for heroic charges into enemy formations that net you a big pile of medals.
Since we're on the topic of the Imperium's attitudes towards Calavar forces and war machines, @DaLintyGuy what do the Imperial Guard think about the Cataphract?
It's a gimmick vehicle reliant on breakable Stuff (it's cogitator, fire control, and sensors) and needs specialist ammo to fulfill it's main role. On the default and tank destroyer variants the ammunition will generally be replaced by atomics rather than the unavailable plasma shells made on Calavar. The endurance of the laser heavy secondary armament is appreciated however.
Makes sense. Thats the tradeoff for us not having proper superheavy weaponry to fit superheavy combatants.
If we had plasma cannons or something that could fit into the Cataphract it would have been a lot better. But alas we used what we had at the time.
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
It's still an Earthshaker cannon in that turret, 's not all that much worse than the main gun on an actual Baneblade. And the base model of the Cataphract is capable of counterbattery fire, anti-air with flak munitions, and being the mother of all assault guns.
Sure, it needs special munitions to be effective at hunting enemy Titans, but that's rather more simplistic a logistics problem than needing an entirely different vehicle to do that job, one which has a waiting list the length of an Emperor-class Battleship on the few Forge Worlds that can make them.
Closing Turn, Political Events
Nothing ever exists in a vacuum. The Hegemon's Crusade was no different for it would define the political landscape of the Subsector for centuries to come. Those the Crusade saved would owe a great deal to their liberators, forming a locally formidable alliance behind the ascendant polity. Those that they didn't... Were not around to complain in most cases.
[You achieved the Isolation Victory by removing everything focused on your destruction. Imperial assets are NOT common in the Subsector, neither is contact with the greater Sector regular, but by the same token everything you do is your own achievement.]
[You saved Bailafax from multiple Chaos invasions, firmly absorbing them into your power base. Feudal refugees were then settled there, creating an Interesting culture for my future use.]
[You did NOT attack the Dark Star Alignment, leaving their heresy to gestate until a Reclamation campaign is called on them by the Ecclesiarchy to remove those groups that would not recant their dangerous beliefs.]
[You eventually worked with Bagalog, partitioning the Subsector between the two of you. They received a great deal of latitude with regards to independent trade and a few promised worlds while Calavar had it's own cut of the Subsector with the direct rule of it's liberated zones.]
[The Shrine World of Lativa stands by your efforts, though the failure to cleanly relieve them casts shades of doubt upon the illustrious Crusade.]
[Oprechna was not relieved, leaving it to be devoured from within by Chaos until the Crusade purged the growing den of iniquity. Bailafax Warrens now slowly stretch across it's blighted surface, withstanding occasional Daemonic attacks from within their subterranean settlements.]
[Contact with the Forge Worlds of the Fallen Subsector was left infrequent. Without those expeditions the existence of the Astarte and Eldar flotillas was unknown, and no rewards or concessions were earned from delivering in their period of need.]
[The Hive Worlds of Uniary was eventually cleansed and what was left of it's original inhabitants restored to their proper place. Subsequent invasions and minimal reinforcement have left Orks and Beastmen to rule the wastes, looking up in gleeful envy or baleful reproach respectively at the mostly empty arcologies that dot it's surface.]
[Of the cults to the Ruinous Powers in the West, many still remain even as many were purged by the efforts of the Crusade and, incidentally, the chaotic Orks. Reclamation campaigns will be underway against them in time.]
[Of the dueling realms of Yttreum and Gehault, Calavar sided with Yttreum by repairing destroyed infrastructure and providing a measure of war material. Without Calavar's claims the deserters of Gehault faced Imperial justice and their ships returned to service outside the Subsector in disgrace.]
[You did NOT attack the Locroft, leaving them a great danger to the Subsector that will be targeted by Reclamation campaigns in the future.]
[Similarly, the Hashim were spared your attention by fighting hardscrabble campaigns against Gunbreaka, leaving them to prepare until the Reclamation period. Further, the Crusade did not make use of any their technologies principles: a boon and a missed opportunity.]
Yet actions and words are not the only way to curry favor for the Crusade came into possession of what was considered an Archaeotech vessel. Named the Sacred Legacy, the frigate was the equal of two Firestorms, could run with fewer crew, and carried many systems of wondrous power. Such an object worthy of veneration could not be left in the hands of the uninitiated and so the Crusade turned it to their advantage by approaching the Forge Worlds of Grudan and Laskin first. A work of the Ancients to study, to hold, was worth a great deal to the Cult Mechanicus. Prestige was the most likely reward from such a gift as other Forge Worlds would give a great deal in order to send their own experts to examine the vessel yet there was the chance that long lost Knowledge could be gleaned from it's mostly intact hull.
And that small chance was worth grand sums and inconvenient acts.
[] The Sacred Legacy would be traded to increase the presence of the Mechanicus in the Crusade.
-[] Establish Lexicalum as a full Forge World rather than a vassal outpost. Such a thing would take a great deal of time to fully pay off and lack a great deal of the rewards but their leadership has already been befriended and their ideology influenced towards that of Calavar.
-[] Ask a Forge World to found an Enclave on Calavar proper. This will come with a portion of their (more accessible) databases in time, as well as placing Mechanicus assets on Calavar itself for defense and production/refinement of domestic technologies. Complications may strain future relations with the Imperium as commerce is done with the reclusive Brotherhood of Mars as well as giving the Forge World in question insight and influence within the Crusade.
--[] Grudan: Older and more knowledgeable.
--[] Laskin: Younger but more flexible.
[] The Sacred Legacy would be sold to Grudan (as the senior Forge) for access, discounts and rights of first refusal to the products of the Forge Worlds.
[] The Sacred Legacy would be sold to Laskin for a fleet, to be delivered after their orbitals are reclaimed and rebuilt.
(Whatever option is taken it is guaranteed that Mechanicus representatives will be looking through your domestic designs to ensure that no tech-heresy or Chaos taint had slipped in to products that could be in use for millennia, certifying them for use among the rest of the Imperium for when such a thing occurs.)
Further, there was the matter of the Solar Hawks and their abandoned wargear that Calavar had come into the possession of. Dropped off on a fleet anchorage in order to make room in the bays and repair schedule for more useful things such as airframes, salvageable equipment, and consumables for the war ahead of them, the 3rd Company was interested in reclaiming their cast offs. None were Relics or of especial use but the repair and resupply of their vessels incurred a debt that was only heightened by the return of their property.
[] The Solar Hawks 3rd Company swore friendship with the Crusade, opening the way for others of their Chapter to deploy in the Reclamation campaigns. (Astartes may be encountered in the sequel)
[] Upon the insistence of the Calavan Admiralty a subset of the Solar Hawk 3rd Company was left in Lativa to coordinate with the Crusade. (Astartes can be encountered in the sequel, improved strategic results)
[] Instead of direct force, the Solar Hawks share what is applicable to power armored infantry tactics and equipment. (makes armored infantry more Astartes-lite, for good and bad)
[You achieved the Isolation Victory by removing everything focused on your destruction. Imperial assets are NOT common in the Subsector, neither is contact with the greater Sector regular, but by the same token everything you do is your own achievement.]
[You saved Bailafax from multiple Chaos invasions, firmly absorbing them into your power base. Feudal refugees were then settled there, creating an Interesting culture for my future use.]
[You did NOT attack the Dark Star Alignment, leaving their heresy to gestate until a Reclamation campaign is called on them by the Ecclesiarchy to remove those groups that would not recant their dangerous beliefs.]
[You eventually worked with Bagalog, partitioning the Subsector between the two of you. They received a great deal of latitude with regards to independent trade and a few promised worlds while Calavar had it's own cut of the Subsector with the direct rule of it's liberated zones.]
[The Shrine World of Lativa stands by your efforts, though the failure to cleanly relieve them casts shades of doubt upon the illustrious Crusade.]
[Oprechna was not relieved, leaving it to be devoured from within by Chaos until the Crusade purged the growing den of iniquity. Bailafax Warrens now slowly stretch across it's blighted surface, withstanding occasional Daemonic attacks from within their subterranean settlements.]
[Contact with the Forge Worlds of the Fallen Subsector was left infrequent. Without those expeditions the existence of the Astarte and Eldar flotillas was unknown, and no rewards or concessions were earned from delivering in their period of need.]
[The Hive Worlds of Uniary was eventually cleansed and what was left of it's original inhabitants restored to their proper place. Subsequent invasions and minimal reinforcement have left Orks and Beastmen to rule the wastes, looking up in gleeful envy or baleful reproach respectively at the mostly empty arcologies that dot it's surface.]
[Of the cults to the Ruinous Powers in the West, many still remain even as many were purged by the efforts of the Crusade and, incidentally, the chaotic Orks. Reclamation campaigns will be underway against them in time.]
[Of the dueling realms of Yttreum and Gehault, Calavar sided with Yttreum by repairing destroyed infrastructure and providing a measure of war material. Without Calavar's claims the deserters of Gehault faced Imperial justice and their ships returned to service outside the Subsector in disgrace.]
[You did NOT attack the Locroft, leaving them a great danger to the Subsector that will be targeted by Reclamation campaigns in the future.]
[Similarly, the Hashim were spared your attention by fighting hardscrabble campaigns against Gunbreaka, leaving them to prepare until the Reclamation period. Further, the Crusade did not make use of any their technologies principles: a boon and a missed opportunity.]
Yet actions and words are not the only way to curry favor for the Crusade came into possession of what was considered an Archaeotech vessel. Named the Sacred Legacy, the frigate was the equal of two Firestorms, could run with fewer crew, and carried many systems of wondrous power. Such an object worthy of veneration could not be left in the hands of the uninitiated and so the Crusade turned it to their advantage by approaching the Forge Worlds of Grudan and Laskin first. A work of the Ancients to study, to hold, was worth a great deal to the Cult Mechanicus. Prestige was the most likely reward from such a gift as other Forge Worlds would give a great deal in order to send their own experts to examine the vessel yet there was the chance that long lost Knowledge could be gleaned from it's mostly intact hull.
And that small chance was worth grand sums and inconvenient acts.
[] The Sacred Legacy would be traded to increase the presence of the Mechanicus in the Crusade.
-[] Establish Lexicalum as a full Forge World rather than a vassal outpost. Such a thing would take a great deal of time to fully pay off and lack a great deal of the rewards but their leadership has already been befriended and their ideology influenced towards that of Calavar.
-[] Ask a Forge World to found an Enclave on Calavar proper. This will come with a portion of their (more accessible) databases in time, as well as placing Mechanicus assets on Calavar itself for defense and production/refinement of domestic technologies. Complications may strain future relations with the Imperium as commerce is done with the reclusive Brotherhood of Mars as well as giving the Forge World in question insight and influence within the Crusade.
--[] Grudan: Older and more knowledgeable.
--[] Laskin: Younger but more flexible.
[] The Sacred Legacy would be sold to Grudan (as the senior Forge) for access, discounts and rights of first refusal to the products of the Forge Worlds.
[] The Sacred Legacy would be sold to Laskin for a fleet, to be delivered after their orbitals are reclaimed and rebuilt.
(Whatever option is taken it is guaranteed that Mechanicus representatives will be looking through your domestic designs to ensure that no tech-heresy or Chaos taint had slipped in to products that could be in use for millennia, certifying them for use among the rest of the Imperium for when such a thing occurs.)
Further, there was the matter of the Solar Hawks and their abandoned wargear that Calavar had come into the possession of. Dropped off on a fleet anchorage in order to make room in the bays and repair schedule for more useful things such as airframes, salvageable equipment, and consumables for the war ahead of them, the 3rd Company was interested in reclaiming their cast offs. None were Relics or of especial use but the repair and resupply of their vessels incurred a debt that was only heightened by the return of their property.
[] The Solar Hawks 3rd Company swore friendship with the Crusade, opening the way for others of their Chapter to deploy in the Reclamation campaigns. (Astartes may be encountered in the sequel)
[] Upon the insistence of the Calavan Admiralty a subset of the Solar Hawk 3rd Company was left in Lativa to coordinate with the Crusade. (Astartes can be encountered in the sequel, improved strategic results)
[] Instead of direct force, the Solar Hawks share what is applicable to power armored infantry tactics and equipment. (makes armored infantry more Astartes-lite, for good and bad)
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Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
Any moratorium on voting?