I was rather nice on you on that point... Chalk it up to the local commanders loading up a few more troops in expectation of this sort of trick. Plus your fighters breaking enemy formations so the enemy trickled in rather than hitting all at once.
Blood, Sweat, and Tears (WH40k Design Bureau)
- Thread starter DaLintyGuy
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
Looks all right, although I kind of like the Bastion better than the AirGuard. Fewer things that can go wrong, you know?
Also, Narwhal doesn't have an E.
I wonder if we could get some Void Infantry in there too? Seems like we'd be packing far less than a full army's worth, so it'd take far less than a whole utility slot.
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
There was a brief mention when the Preserver Armor was designed that the Arms men on our ships have been outfitted with them + the Shelter suits.
The marines aboard your ships have Void capable armor. Your basic crew do not.
Shelters make up... About two percent of your current security complements and are spread throughout the ship. They help, but would dramatically benefit from even an Addon like the Servitor Bays.
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
That's what I wrote, the Armsmen on our ships have them, and it was written in response to the idea that we could have some Void Infantry units on our ships, less than a full army. I never claimed more security was unnecessary.
A Valiant Defense (Turn Five/Six)
When the deserters from Gehault translated on the edge of the system it was not to a simple mass of hastily armed ships but to the seed of a proper navy. To the best of her knowledge the Calavans had their own reporting names for the Bagalog warships, using small melee weapons to distinguish from their own classes. Of course, such a distinction was important as the Calavans had been extremely aggressive in their warship designs and it was only recently that they had begun backpedaling.
But it seemed to have worked for them as they had only permanently lost a single ship so far. Maybe something was favoring them?
Where the Calavans went for killing power, the ships she had had built had been designed to outlast the majority of foes the Subsector had to offer. Now that decision would be put to the test, fighting the final dregs of the Imperial Navy that had given up on Lativa.
"Milady?" Loree Mulyran, once the prospective heir to the Charter of her line and now both a warlord and industrial magnate, turned to regard the aide with a cool indifference. "You asked for the first analysis?" An otherwise confident approach, let down at the last second.
"Yes." Mulyran answered after a few seconds of inspection. Turning from the false-window that showed the skyline from her ancestral home the warlord motioned for the aide to follow her.
"We have a projected eighty percent accuracy, as the deserters have been forced to desperate measures to keep their vessels operational in the face of their operational tempos and lack of replacement parts." The aide fell in behind her armored superior, a step back and to the side. "The punitive expedition is likely made of four Sword Frigates, five Cobras Destroyers with an unknown number and quality of ordnance loaded, and three Firestorm Frigates. The enemy flagship... Is a Dauntless-class Light Cruiser."
"The Cruiser may be the least of our problems." Mulyran flicked her hand dismissively. She hoped so at least. But Ulshavon had kept every promise that he had made before... "Protecting the construction docks is our top priority. As will be chasing the remaining enemy Escorts." The aide gave her a strange look but managed to hold their tongue.
Void battles were a strange thing. When recounted they seemed fast and furious, slashing volleys of cannonfire exchanged in rapid succession. In practice a volley could take between ten and thirty minutes to load, aim, fire, and impact. And when equivalent vessels could withstand each other's fire reasonably well...
Void battles took time to resolve.
When Mulyran had an early breakfast the deserters from Gehault had just passed the Mandeville Point some hour prior. It was not until the end of the day that the fleet battle began in earnest.
Thirteen ex-Imperial Navy ships crawled towards the formation of defenders. Four Pyellun-class and two Kvit-class (what the Calavans called Hatchet and Knife respectively) formed the vanguard of the defending fleet, calculated sacrifices at best. The Pyelluns were the least useful of the Bagalog armed forces in this match, unable to meaningfully damage Navy ships alone. Matched with their Lance armed fellows however...
Behind this front screen lay the carefully hoarded spoils of the partnership with the Explorator. While the corvettes here were similar to their fellows, with some minor teachings from the ancient Machine Cultist increasing portions of their abilities, they were armed with equipment that had been under the direct ministrations of the Explorator.
As expected the vanguard buckled immediately, folding back into the main mass of the formation in the face of withering firepower. The sharp, actinic flare of nuclear detonations strobed across the battlefield as cannonfire and columns of laser light were exchanged. They traded better than had been expected by the Explorator's combat staff as the ill maintained craft of Gehault showed their accumulated damage.
With the situation developing the second rank of warships were pushed forward and bolts of blue plasma seared across the battlespace.
As the carefully arranged Escort screen of the deserters fell apart in the face of unreasonably capable warships both sides rippled off their torpedoes and subsequently the countermeasures. From the Carrack the Explorator called home a mere pair of weapons issued forth. But these were no mere "production" weapons but those that had been wholly produced under the hands of a true expert. The defense turrets of the Dauntless tracked and spat energy at the incoming weapons whereupon the coherent beams bent away from the touch of the pearly bubbles that protected them. A valiant try but one that had been long prepared for by the Explorator, as Imperial ships and systems were some of the most common in the galaxy...
These paired darts knifed into the hull of the Dauntless, expertly guided by the crew of the Carrack through the use of arcane technology (pulsed gravitic transmissions for faster than light broadcasts without the use of witchery). The impacts of penetrating through armor and hull jarred the torpedoes but the detonation did not come, leaving a handful of crewmen to gawk at the hole and noise.
And then the Magi triggered their warheads after confirming their status. A scream heard with the mind rather than the ears reverberated across the battlespace as two orbs grew within the suddenly stricken Dauntless and devoured all they touched. Looking at them presented strange flickers of motion and color in the memories of those who saw them. A half second pause, and then they collapsed in a shower of molten debris: the remnants of all they had consumed. As if suddenly noticing the tremendous bites in it's structure the Dauntless unbalanced and the frantic bridge crew shut down the engines to prevent damaging the spine before the true extent of the damage was understood.
"Governor Mulyreen." The cloaked figure said in a passable imitation of a human voice. "I am invoking our agreement."
"Name your price." The self styled warlord assented. She had no choice, after all.
"Two Escorts."
Her head tilted slightly in confusion though her expression remained unchanged. "Not the Cruiser?"
"In your hands it represents payment, for future services."
But it seemed to have worked for them as they had only permanently lost a single ship so far. Maybe something was favoring them?
Where the Calavans went for killing power, the ships she had had built had been designed to outlast the majority of foes the Subsector had to offer. Now that decision would be put to the test, fighting the final dregs of the Imperial Navy that had given up on Lativa.
"Milady?" Loree Mulyran, once the prospective heir to the Charter of her line and now both a warlord and industrial magnate, turned to regard the aide with a cool indifference. "You asked for the first analysis?" An otherwise confident approach, let down at the last second.
"Yes." Mulyran answered after a few seconds of inspection. Turning from the false-window that showed the skyline from her ancestral home the warlord motioned for the aide to follow her.
"We have a projected eighty percent accuracy, as the deserters have been forced to desperate measures to keep their vessels operational in the face of their operational tempos and lack of replacement parts." The aide fell in behind her armored superior, a step back and to the side. "The punitive expedition is likely made of four Sword Frigates, five Cobras Destroyers with an unknown number and quality of ordnance loaded, and three Firestorm Frigates. The enemy flagship... Is a Dauntless-class Light Cruiser."
"The Cruiser may be the least of our problems." Mulyran flicked her hand dismissively. She hoped so at least. But Ulshavon had kept every promise that he had made before... "Protecting the construction docks is our top priority. As will be chasing the remaining enemy Escorts." The aide gave her a strange look but managed to hold their tongue.
Void battles were a strange thing. When recounted they seemed fast and furious, slashing volleys of cannonfire exchanged in rapid succession. In practice a volley could take between ten and thirty minutes to load, aim, fire, and impact. And when equivalent vessels could withstand each other's fire reasonably well...
Void battles took time to resolve.
When Mulyran had an early breakfast the deserters from Gehault had just passed the Mandeville Point some hour prior. It was not until the end of the day that the fleet battle began in earnest.
Thirteen ex-Imperial Navy ships crawled towards the formation of defenders. Four Pyellun-class and two Kvit-class (what the Calavans called Hatchet and Knife respectively) formed the vanguard of the defending fleet, calculated sacrifices at best. The Pyelluns were the least useful of the Bagalog armed forces in this match, unable to meaningfully damage Navy ships alone. Matched with their Lance armed fellows however...
Behind this front screen lay the carefully hoarded spoils of the partnership with the Explorator. While the corvettes here were similar to their fellows, with some minor teachings from the ancient Machine Cultist increasing portions of their abilities, they were armed with equipment that had been under the direct ministrations of the Explorator.
As expected the vanguard buckled immediately, folding back into the main mass of the formation in the face of withering firepower. The sharp, actinic flare of nuclear detonations strobed across the battlefield as cannonfire and columns of laser light were exchanged. They traded better than had been expected by the Explorator's combat staff as the ill maintained craft of Gehault showed their accumulated damage.
With the situation developing the second rank of warships were pushed forward and bolts of blue plasma seared across the battlespace.
As the carefully arranged Escort screen of the deserters fell apart in the face of unreasonably capable warships both sides rippled off their torpedoes and subsequently the countermeasures. From the Carrack the Explorator called home a mere pair of weapons issued forth. But these were no mere "production" weapons but those that had been wholly produced under the hands of a true expert. The defense turrets of the Dauntless tracked and spat energy at the incoming weapons whereupon the coherent beams bent away from the touch of the pearly bubbles that protected them. A valiant try but one that had been long prepared for by the Explorator, as Imperial ships and systems were some of the most common in the galaxy...
These paired darts knifed into the hull of the Dauntless, expertly guided by the crew of the Carrack through the use of arcane technology (pulsed gravitic transmissions for faster than light broadcasts without the use of witchery). The impacts of penetrating through armor and hull jarred the torpedoes but the detonation did not come, leaving a handful of crewmen to gawk at the hole and noise.
And then the Magi triggered their warheads after confirming their status. A scream heard with the mind rather than the ears reverberated across the battlespace as two orbs grew within the suddenly stricken Dauntless and devoured all they touched. Looking at them presented strange flickers of motion and color in the memories of those who saw them. A half second pause, and then they collapsed in a shower of molten debris: the remnants of all they had consumed. As if suddenly noticing the tremendous bites in it's structure the Dauntless unbalanced and the frantic bridge crew shut down the engines to prevent damaging the spine before the true extent of the damage was understood.
"Governor Mulyreen." The cloaked figure said in a passable imitation of a human voice. "I am invoking our agreement."
"Name your price." The self styled warlord assented. She had no choice, after all.
"Two Escorts."
Her head tilted slightly in confusion though her expression remained unchanged. "Not the Cruiser?"
"In your hands it represents payment, for future services."
Happerry
Bat out of Hell
- Location
- Kanto
Looking at them again, I think I agree. I swapped Bastion out because it was the part Sir_Travelsalot suggested be swapped out, keeping it would probably work better...
Blame whoever did that write up, it wasn't me.
Also on the subject of more add ons and or utility parts for Exo-Armor and Naval Marines...
(Utility) Armsmen Garrison Deck
By dedicating an utility component's worth of space to housing Naval Armsmen and associated gear, as well as the needed equipment to maintain and repair frame armor such as Shelters, it is possible to maintain a substantial amount of them on board in both the deck itself and across the ship to supplement already existing security stations. This vastly increases both the quantity of trained manpower for shipboard combat operations and the amount of Shelter type Frame Armor available given the continual maintenance and repair issues such assets face. With this increased manpower, a ship so equipped can expect consistently superior results for onboard combat, both defensively or, if paired with an appropriate delivery system, offensively.
Hmm. Alternate plan suggestion.
Potential Plan Shields, Boarding Combat, and a Warp Drive.
(Defence) Haptrix-Alpha Interlock Shields: The Haptrix-pattern shields are a serviceable design, but are fairly expensive, and have proven somewhat unreliable in practice. Perhaps worse, they are projected to scale up poorly both in terms of cost and in ability to stop capital-scale weaponry. This redesigned version uses a smaller number of larger shields to simplify the design and strengthen each pane, and arranges them in two concentric shells with the panes offset like bricks to provide redundant coverage.
(Boarding Craft) Narwhale Breacher Craft: The first dedicated boarding craft developed in the Crusade, the Narwhale outwardly bears a great deal of resemblance to the Harbinger Transport, because it uses the same hull configuration. Internal space has been sacrificed to add additional reinforcement to the superstructure, more powerful engines, and even install a small Void Shield. An array of hull cutters is affixed to the prow to force entry onto an enemy vessel and deliver its cargo of boarding parties.
(Utility) Naval Armsmen Garrison
By dedicating an utility component's worth of space to housing Naval Armsmen and associated gear, as well as the needed equipment to maintain and repair frame armor such as Shelters, it is possible to maintain a substantial amount of them on board in both the deck itself and across the ship to supplement already existing security stations. This vastly increases both the quantity of trained manpower for shipboard combat operations and the amount of Shelter type Frame Armor available given the continual maintenance and repair issues such assets face. With this increased manpower, a ship so equipped can expect consistently superior results for onboard combat, both defensively or, if paired with an appropriate delivery system, offensively.
(Warp drive) 'Longstride' Warp engine. While the typical drive utilized in merchant shipping suffices, the minimal use of technology and advanced components to save costs caused them to have slow charge times, greatly limited speed through the Warp and not being suited for fast/emergency jumps. The Longstride was Calavar's first attempt at improving their engines to something closer to what is utilized on Imperial Navy ships.
My main worry would be that people will push to make boarding combat ships instead of the staple combat ships and transport ships we really need, as well as the hulls we'll need to bribe/influence/get in good with Yttreum, but even with that risk it'd be good to get that stuff done.
And of course the Naval Armsmen Garrison could be replaced by the Combat Servitor Bay if people would prefer that. Long term I think the best boarding ships would probably be a Resolute hull, using the two utility slots they have to hold both an Armsmen Deck and a Servitor Bay for both ample infantry, a good number of power armor knockoffs, and all the Murder-Servitors we might want to lead the charge into an ork or daemon infested ship, but even with that option we probably should only do one of those two designs this turn at most.
Also oh hey, a sidestory!
Edit : Hmm. Still might be dark Mechanicus, still might not be. Whomever it is has the good toys available, but that's not true evidence either way given that Explorators can be very good and are on the mission to find good stuff anyway. And Vortex Torpedoes, which is what those looked to be, are a known thing. Shielding the torpedoes though... probably not normally done because of expensive, but if you really want some to hit...
I kinda wanted to wonder if Ulshavon might be Necron influenced, but I doubt they'd use vortex bombs.
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jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
I'm fine with getting more armsmen, more versitile then the servitors anyway. Though would this be considered an upgrade or replacement to the 'barracks' we currently have? I mean we do need a place for the crew to live after all.
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
Hm. So the Magos Explorator apparently has some Warp-tech munitions. That is... concerning, to say the least.
*waggles hand*
Vortex munitions are a somewhat common mid-high tier Imperial weapon.
Gehault tried to decapitate Bagalog and ran up against a highly skilled senior Mechanicus member who had time to prepare and the resources of a world to direct.
It didn't end well for them.
Happerry
Bat out of Hell
- Location
- Kanto
It's a utility part, not a living quarters part, so it's neither an upgrade or a replacement. The only new living quarters parts that have been suggested so far are the 'Bastion', which is security focused, and the Oasis, which focuses on damage control.
It's closest counterpart is probably the Army Deck, because like the Army Deck it's using a noticeable portion of the ship's component space to carry more troops instead of stuff that directly effects ship stuff. In a pinch we might be able to use the Army Deck to carry boarding troops like we kinda did with the space hulk, but the Armsmen Garrison is specialized in that stuff, while the Army Deck is designed for long term storage and transport, not fighting in, on, and through the decks.
Bagalog, one of the NPC powers, just had it out with Fleet Bastion Gehault, also an NPC power, in retaliation to Bagalog backing Civilized World Yttreum in telling Gehault to F Off.
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Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
Bagalog fought the IN deserters from Gehault. Bagalog won.
- Location
- Kansas
By the Emperor, was that a void torpedo? Bejavis, we just got our frigates up and running and the Gehaults lose their crusier and Bagalog bagged a crusier with void torpedos equipped with DaOT tech.
Damn, we really need to step up our game.
It seems to be IN deserters and Bagalog, with the Bagalog astonishingly trashing the former. It really is a pity for the Gehaultians as if they had just a little bit more of political savy, they could have had gotten a lot of concession from us if they hadn't gone "All or nothing" on us.
Now, why would we join our selves to their sinking ship unless WE got something blatant for it? You cannot play big dog without at least having the good grace of not being weak.
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Happerry
Bat out of Hell
- Location
- Kanto
They're deserters from the Imperial Navy whom chose to stay and fight instead of run away when the navy decided to withdraw from this area. Which would be more admirable if they'd actually, you know, fight back against the alien, the heretic, and... well, no mutant powers yet unless you wrap them into the heretic with how much chaos forces there are around nowadays. Instead they're just doing a delaying option and slowly bleeding out.
I will note that avoiding this kind of 'incident' is why I was willing to send a diplomatic mission at them, because despite being dead meat long term in the short term they could do a lot of damage to us.
Well, less damage now.
Vortex bombs aren't DaOT tech. They're just uncommon. Because no one likes hearing 'oopsies' when some are on board...
There's ammo accidents, and then there's vortex bomb accidents, you know?
The thing is they aren't weak. They're still, even with the damage they took, probably stronger then we are right now.
It's just they're only focused on holding on to what they have (whatever the hell that is considering we've yet to see them fighting anyone but they're still taking damage somehow from somewhere), and won't do any offenses. As the update said, we can't just defend or the orks and chaos will grow enough to eat us. We have to attack.
And they won't attack.
Or at least won't attack chaos or the orks, given they were perfectly willing to go on the offensive when they thought they were just bullying merchants and an independent world's home grown navy...
Well, as long as we can keep them from attacking us, that's basically a win. More would be better but I don't expect to reasonably get anything more from them.
- Location
- Kansas
To be fair, we aren't as powerful as Gehault. Though I do believe the gap between us have only shrunk after this battle.
I still believe they have us beat in tonnage, though.
Edit:First ninja'd on the board
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Happerry
Bat out of Hell
- Location
- Kanto
Also interesting to see that Bagalog has a light cruiser hulk now. Or probably does at least.
I wonder what they're going to rebuild it into?
I wonder what they're going to rebuild it into?
This would sound a lot more likely if they were willing to attack the Xenos and the Heretic.
As they say, it's not the size of a dog but the size of the fight in the dog that matters. There are many things that could be taken away from this fight; That Bagalog is significantly more dangerous then anyone expected. But also that the IN deserters are significantly weaker.
They might have big scary ships but now we have to put into question the people manning them rather then just the people leading them. It's a diplomatic disaster for them I think because now they are starting to look like paper tigers.
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- Location
- Kansas
More referring to the guidance systems seen here
But I can see the confusion. Honestly, I just didn't want to go see how to spell arcane technology to refer to it. What I get for being lazy...
Battle Hymn of the Mechanicus.
Things I've mostly abstracted away, aggressively dealing with Ork and Traitor leakers/pirates/raiders whereas you mostly just scare them away.
After the Cruiser got Oofed by negative space wedgie most of the remaining Escorts outright ran away.
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- Location
- Australia
Oh jolly well done, Gehault, what a brains trust.
To be fair, Bagalog was not exactly broadcasting the amount of Dakka they had amassed over the last decade of work.