Imperial Remnant PlanQuest

[Themarineguy]

Star Wars Total War: Imperial Warlords​

In this game, while different factions have different advantages and disadvantages shaping their faction. Doctrines sometimes play a bigger role in how they play. The doctrines are the foundation of how a factions armed forces fights, an influences the tools at your disposal. Each doctrine offers units and buildings to the faction, and some may have faction specific unites tied to certain doctrines. Choosing which doctrine to go for is really important, for they have their strenghts and weaknesses, on top of being built for situations that may not align with what you have at your disposal.
Old Republic Space Doctrine
The doctrine is inspired by the Clone wars. Built around the idea of essentially staking claim on a planet and basically telling everyone else to kriff off or die. And well, people tend to listen as they are REALLY GOOD at any sort of planetary invasion, regardless of being on the defense or offense they can usually back up the claim. They typically field versatile big ships, though they very much have a very notable edge in any planetary assault operations against other doctrines. Though their ships tend to be on the expensive side making them somewhat harder to maintain. But, if caught in deep space, their specialty can cause some real trouble.

Clone Ground Doctrine
This doctrine is built around the infantry. Well equipped, decently trained, and with a vast toolbox to call upon, they are a very versatile force that under a competent commander, can take most planets ESPECIALLY when backed by a Old Republic Space Doctrine fleet. The force is one of the most flexible, albeit lacking in less combat-intensive methods.

Rebel Space and Ground Doctrine
Both doctrines are poorly suited to holding ground in a conventional fashion, which is fitting considering the inspiration are insurrectionists. While not that capable in a direct fight, they are nasty when given an opportunity to do their thing, you will quickly find just how quickly things can go to blip as they wreck havoc in enemy territory, exploiting mobility, enemy unrest, and abilities to keep the enemy from being able to reliably respond.

Droid Space and Ground Doctrine
Rather unique, in that the infrastructure to produce is quite costly. But once built, they can produce units that while weak, are so cheap it hardly matters. They are pretty much the ultimate spammer doctrines, as they are one of the few that could probably respond to a total loss, by simply tossing another force in the general direction. While very inflexible and with limited options, there are very few faction-doctrine combos, other than fellow droid Doctrines that can out-attrition them.

New Republic Space and Ground Doctrine
In both the Ground and space, the Doctrines field a variety of specialized units that work best with full communications, and absolutely nightmarish in defense. These Doctrines are very heavy on the defenses, for if there isn't enough to deter even massive assaults, then clearly there needs to be more. On the attack, their forces tend to be lacking, but on the defense, any force, no matter the doctrine is going to be in for a hard time if they were able to dig in. The sheer level can even be enough to contest a old republic doctrine in their element!

Tarkin Doctrine
This doctrine is built around psychological warfare. Both Ground and Space is built around trying to destroy the enemy's morale, whenever it is oneshotting an enemy capital ship with a superlaser, through Big armor, or just well-placed bribes and-or emergency relief efforts, contrary to what one may assume from how Tarkin operated. They aren't built to end a fight by conventionally destroy a force, but rather by destroying the will to fight, going so far as to consider reputation as an important weapon. Although, Terror, for all of it's flaws is the easiest part to use. It tends to either works great, or not however.

Imperial Space Doctrine
Their answer to everything is usually more guns. Rather basic but it tends to work. Their ships are a bit expensive, but the sheer firepower and respectable durability means they can really hammer those it fights against. It is nice and simple, not really using much in the way of tricks and fancy tactics because bringing enough guns works pretty well.

Veers ground Doctrine
With heavy armor and a large force of infantry, they typically try hammer and anvil tactics on enemies, with armor being the hammer and infantry being the anvil. In general, they use their very numerous assets to try and smash their enemies while ideally limiting their casualties. Though their focus on size without costing quality makes them rather expensive, and they don't exactly have any advantage in replacing their losses. However, clever use of their armor can be devastating.

Chrhod doctrine
In both ground and space it is built on the idea of making a force the best it could be. Ending with a whole army of special forces, they can hit much harder than you may expect, which is good considering not being outnumbered against a peer while using this doctrine means something went horribly wrong for your opponent. While powerful, they take a long time to train, meaning losses will be felt for a long time, making attrition warfare very bad for this doctrine short of insanely lopsided K/D ratios.


A/N: Well, was inspired to try and write an omake about a hypothetical video game based on the quest. Though the tidbits on doctrine may not be that accurate.

 

[Hazard]

Star Wars Total War: Imperial Warlords Reforged Mod

An overhaul mod for Imperial Warlords years in the making, it has finally gotten to what the developers call version 1.0. The biggest difference is that you are no longer required to pick from a dozen different factions, each of which have their own, set starting points. That is not to say they don't, or can't, exist, at least a few will. No, what finally allowed the mod to come out of beta is the completion of the Remnant Builder system.


The first part of the Remnant Builder system is the start location selector. Strictly speaking every planet is a possible starting location, but they can be abstracted into 3 distinct areas for which the planetary traits are mostly true. These Regions are the Core, the Rim and the Unknown. Starting places in the Core Region tend to have a large population base suitable for recruiting, large economies that get a lot stronger with more trade lanes, planetary modifiers that improve unit production and large starting units. The bad thing about this is that these planets are extremely valuable to everybody, which means that other Imperial Remnants as well as the Alliance to Restore the Republic/the New Republic will be working very hard to get you off that planet, and until you get those trade lanes to your starting world, that economy isn't working that well. Starting places in the Rim Region tend to involve modest populations and can be harder to recruit from and their baseline economy is a lot more modest. They tend to have resource deposits that improve trade lane effectiveness, and while that is absolutely a necessity when starting out and setting up trade lanes to nearby planets, the effect of bringing a trade lane into the Core is sizable for all planets along the route. As the Rim is not as valuable in the direct sense as the Core, attention is lower until who is the boss of the Core Region is settled, but starting military assets are also much smaller.

And then we get to the Unknown Regions. While the Rim is advised as the starting position for new players to get used to the new mechanics without immediately getting doom stacked by the AI and the Core is for those who want an exciting start, the Unknown Regions are a very difficult start. This is mostly because while a start here has a lot of cash in the bank, your biggest problems are the size of the economy and the size of your recruiting pool. You start with basically nothing at all, for both. Your first turns will be focused on disbanding as many of your forces as possible to get an economy going, and you will need to aggressively expand your population base to grow your economy. On the other hand, you get to play with some of the most insane units in the game, as the planetary modifiers to some unique options.


The second part of the Remnant Builder is the Advantage system, most of which interact with the Campaign Doctrines or one another. You can pick up to two modifiers to improve your Remnant's traits at game start, although you are not required to do so, you can pick none for the extra challenge, the mod tracks an achievement for that. What follows is a non-exhaustive list.
Additional Star Destroyer Fleet: Gives you extra Imperator-I ISDs at the game start. That's it. Given what utter beasts these ships are in the early game, that's all that's needed, although it trades the potential for a long term improvement for immediate advantage.
Imperial Clone Research Program: The generic clone techs in the game give access to buildings that increase the output of certain resources at the cost of unrest and poor quality but cheap infantry. Not so with these experts on hand, which not only offer a wider range of more effective buildings improving the economy, but also new units and improved stats and traits depending on doctrine.
Imperial Droid Development Program: Like the generic clone techs, the generic droid techs offer buildings that increase the output of certain resources at the cost of unrest and poor quality but cheap infantry, if different ones. And likewise does the Development Program offer a wider range of more effective buildings and new units depending on doctrine. While they generally occupy a similar space and you can't quite leverage the top level developments of either to best effect, the economy buildings stack where applicable and some of the hybrid units are quite potent with the right doctrine.
Advanced TIE RnD Division: The Empire has been looking for more effective starfighters since before its founding, and these are the leading edge. The generic TIEs work but tend to depend on numbers more than anything else. While the early game TIEs will still not be brilliant starfighters, Remnants with the RnD Division get early access to improved TIE variants, as well as some unique smallcraft.
Vehicle Testing Group: The Empire may not walk everywhere, but most of its vehicles are some variant of walker. Not being fools, it has this group to constantly tweak and test improvements, and any Remnant with them will have better vehicles, earlier, along with some uniques.
Novator Mobile Industry Station: Novators are normally a mid to late game unit that makes the production and repair of space buildings and units cheaper and faster at where they are. You start with one.
Imperial Commando and Spy Teams: You start with a handful of experienced Agents that can spy for you or cause trouble.
Supply Depots: Start with extra resources.
Hidden Caches: There are 2 worlds near your starting position that, when conquered or aligned with you, give you a substantial resource reward.

There's a number of other Advantages, but most of them are either 'have some free units of a specific type at game start' or 'have a baseline stat increase for a unit type'. Not necessarily particularly interesting in and of themselves, but it is foolish to underestimate the effect of the Ace Program when combined with the Advanced TIE RnD Division, especially when tied to a doctrine specializing in starfighters.


The third part of the Remnant Builder is the Warlord Generator. The system is rather simple, you select 3 traits, but the list of traits is very, very long indeed. Long enough that it needs its own post to do it justice. None of the traits are inherently useless, but some just make you scratch your head.

 

[Oshha]

The Adventures of Mara Jade​

While she would never be so crass as to lose her cool, Mara Jade, Hand of the Emperor, could not help, but find Imperial Intelligence to be so annoying. It didn't help that their hunt for her is of zero benefit to the Galactic Empire. Both the Emperor and Darth Vader are dead while the rebels are now calling themselves the New Republic and at the current rate of progress, it is increasingly looking like that claim might someday have some merit to it.

So what did Imperial Intelligence do at the direction of Director Isard? Waste precious resources attempting to hunt her down instead of doing something to impede the rebel march on the Imperial Centre. Coruscant if one is feeling unpatriotic, a phenomena that Mara is finding to be increasingly common.

You will kill Luke Skywalker.

The command still echoes in her head, even after a year has passed. Her master's bidding will be done and Mara will kill that Jedi murderer to avenge the Emperor. Unfortunately, it will need to wait until her pursuers are no longer looking for her as even the Hand of the Emperor cannot both evade the grasping hand of Imperial Intelligence and hunt down the most infamous rebel war hero at the same time.

As the redhead pops a blaster bolt into the chest of the agent pursuing her, Mara feels a pang of regret that her time as Ashkae Wyndar has come to an end. While the Hand of the Emperor wouldn't want to spend the rest of her life as the barmaid, it had been relatively peaceful and relaxing. Fending off the leers and hands of drunks had been pitifully easy compared to her usual jobs and it had given Mara time to think on the Final Order.

The Emperor hadn't told her much about his final contingency, his grand plan, but Mara knew enough about her master's magnum opus. The Galactic Empire was powerful, strong and mighty, but it was ultimately flawed. It was forged out of a corrupt Republic and it showed. Abuse of power and corruption was rife amongst every level of the Empire despite the efforts of the Emperor and his loyal servants like Darth Vader and Mara herself. Its fragmentation upon the Emperor's death and the consistent victories of the rebels are a testament to that.

So to replace it, the Emperor had come up with the Final Order. It would be something new, something fresh, something built purely to fulfil the Emperor's vision for the galaxy. And Mara would join them in their honoured duties when she either found them or they found her. But for now, the Hand of the Emperor has more pursuers to shake or slay..

***​

Coruscant had fallen to the rebels and that news was a mixed blessing to Mara Jade, Hand of the Emperor. On the one hand, its fall means that what's left of Imperial Intelligence has ceased their hunt for her, allowing her to go about her business in relative peace. On the other hand, it was a major victory for the rebels and it made bringing about their downfall harder.

You will kill Luke Skywalker.

At least she could focus on carrying out the last command of her master. Luke Skywalker has easily proven himself to be her hardest target, but Mara has yet to fail the Emperor and has no intention of doing so now, even if he has been dead for over a year.

To the Hand of the Emperor, the only question is whether Mara should kill Luke Skywalker first or if she should seek out the Final Order to gain their aid in slaying the Jedi Knight. She leans towards the former because the Emperor commanded her and not the Final Order to kill the rebel, but at the same time, Mara can't avoid wondering if she is only picking that path because she doesn't know where to find the Final Order.

Exogol and the Sith Eternal. Those are her clues, overheard from her master. An order of the Emperor's most loyal and devout followers, giving their lives to serve him at Exogol as they prepare the Final Order to bring peace and order to the galaxy. Mara sometimes wishes that she was included amongst their ranks, but as the Hand of the Emperor, she serves a different but equally important role to their mutual master.

Still, she has been looking for it. The location of Exogol, the routes that the Sith Eternal took to find it, the secret hyperlanes used to transport materials and equipment to the hidden world. Her priority is still the death of Luke Skywalker of course, but finding the last contingency of her master is a side project of hers.

"Spending all of my time focusing on Skywalker would just burn me out," Mara tells herself as she tries to relax in her bed.

But she cannot because she hates that man, the mere thought of the Jedi Knight making rage bubble up inside her. He killed her master, destroyed her life of luxury, privilege and purpose and now he goes about trying to undo everything that the Emperor did for the ungrateful galaxy.

These days Mara doesn't know what is worse, the rebels calling themselves the New Republic and proclaiming themselves to be the galaxy saviours or the Imperial warlords who shattered the once great Galactic Empire to fuel their petty ambitions. This so-called New Republic could have been crushed in its infancy, but these warlords couldn't put aside their differences to deal with a threat to the Empire. Instead they tore apart the Empire they were supposed to serve and turned their forces upon each other rather than the rebels.

She needs to calm down, but the Hand of the Emperor cannot as she tosses and turns under her blanket. The sooner she kills Luke Skywalker the better. Or she finds Exogol and the Final Order. Either one will do.

***​

Mara Jade, Hand of the Emperor, dislikes playing the pretty ditz, but she has the body and acting skills for it and in situations like this, it serves her well. So she lowers her dignity and plays the attractive fool to deceive her lessers into thinking that they are her betters. And it will be worth it because Luke Skywalker is in the same room as her.

You will kill Luke Skywalker.

"Countess Minesta, you are as charming as you are beautiful," says the CEO that Mara is currently dancing with.

"Why thank you, Baron Zombolli," replies Mara, flashing the man a brainless smile, which gets him smiling in satisfaction.

The man won't be sleeping with her tonight, of course, Mara has standards, but she is perfectly content to lead him on. After all, she only needs him long enough to get close to Skywalker. Once the Jedi has been dealt with, Mara will no longer require the services of the pumped up CEO.

"I am always happy to please a lady like yourself," says the man as his smile turns into a confident smirk and Mara decides to put things into motion.

"My dear baron," says Mara as she glances over to Luke Skywalker, "Do you know who that is? He looks so familiar. I am just so sure I have seen him before, but I can't place him."

"Hmm," mumbles the man as he follows her gaze, "Ah, that is General Skywalker, hero of the Rebellion and the last of the Jedi. I doubt you have met him before, but it is no wonder he looks familiar to you. He has spent some time now as the most wanted man in the galaxy and is responsible for personally killing both the late Emperor Palpatine and his right hand, Darth Vader. Ah, I hope it doesn't offend any Imperial sensibilities to have him here, my darling Countess."

"Not at all," replies Mara as she pushes her body closer to the man, "After all, we are no longer on an Imperial world."

"No, I suppose we are not," agrees the CEO, "Not after the surrender last month. Would you like to meet him? I would certainly be happy to introduce you."

Excellent, she doesn't even need to bring up that idea herself.

"I would be delighted to," answers the Hand of the Emperor as she begins to mentally prepare herself to finally carry out the final command of her master.

Then it all goes wrong. As Baron Zombolli leads Mara to her target, a series of concussion missiles slam into the exterior wall of the ball room. Huge gaps are blown into the wall that expose it to the elements while the shockwaves and explosions injure several members of the hall's crowd and send the rest into panic.

Baron Zombolli is one of the latter and Mara is one of the former, the man fleeing the room as a chunk of the wall slams into the Hand of the Emperor. The redhead is thrown to the ground in pain while stormtroopers repel into the room, their blasters blazing at Skywalker and anyone unfortunate enough to be too close to the Jedi.

You will kill Luke Skywalker.

Wincing in pain as she gets to her feet, Mara narrows her eyes as she glares at Skywalker as he fends off the stormtroopers with his lightsaber, the gleaming green blade deflecting red blaster bolts back into the stormtroopers. She draws her blaster to shoot Skywalker in the back, but then things go wrong once again.

Spotting her with her blaster, some of the stormtroopers begin shooting at her, not realising that they and the Hand of the Emperor share the same goal on this day. Mara throws herself behind a table, letting the blaster bolts rip chunks from its wooden frame instead of her fleshy body.

Sensing where Skywalker is with the Force, Mara pops up and aims her blaster, but before she can get that fatal shot off, the redhead is shot herself. A stormtrooper shoots her in the shoulder, the blaster bolt easily piercing the fabric of her dress. A second blaster bolt strikes her blaster and Mara curses as a quick inspection reveals that it has been damaged beyond use.

Why does this group of stormtroopers have to be one of the few competent ones?

Tossing the now useless weapon aside, Mara makes the reluctant decision to call it a day as with an injury, no weapon and no element of surprise, the odds of her killing Skywalker today are increasingly vanishing. She makes a run for the door, cursing her bad luck as blaster bolts chase after her.

You will kill Luke Skywalker.

***​

So here is an omake. The subject matter has been discussed with the QM and approved by them.

 

[Oshha]

A Day in the Cloning Labs​

"The boss wants to want?" exclaims Dina Nizhon, a junior member of the Exogol Imperial Clone Research Program as her immediate superior delivers their latest assignment.

"Now that the clone cylinders are finally set up, Admiral Chrhod wants us to start producing clones in them," repeats Edgard Fellix, a senior member of the same program, "And the genetic template is supposed to be herself."

"Seriously, she has that much of an ego?" scoffs Alavno Holwolf, Dina's partner and fellow junior scientist.

"The ego of our ultimate superior is irrelevant," says Edgard as he glares at Alavno, "We have our orders and we will carry them out to the best of our ability. Is that clear, Mister Holwolf?"

"Yes, sir," answers Alavno before deciding to press his luck, "Just why the kriff aren't we using the Jango Fett genetic samples we got? They're a well-proven template and the whole reason that we got a pure sample is so we can use it to make new clones."

"As I said, it is the orders of Admiral Chrhod," answers Fellix, "Ours is to do, not to question."

"But seriously, if we need more stormtroopers, then we should just make some Fett clones," continues Alavno, causing Dina to internally wince at the growing glower on Fellix's face, "They have a proven record as infantry, as stormtroopers even. Not to mention that they fit existing stormtrooper armour."

"Holwolf," says Fellix warningly, but the junior scientist goes on regardless of his superior's warning and growing displeasure.

"Have you seen the size of those tits the Admiral tries to hide under that uniform," Holfwolf continues, vulgarly holding his hands in front of his chest to demonstrate, "While I appreciate them as much as any red-blooded man, they're too big for our current chest pieces. We'll have to rework entire sets of armour just to-"

"Enough, Holwolf," snaps Fellix, interrupting the younger man as he really starts to get going, "Shut your Force-forsaken pie-hole before you get into trouble. You might want Fett clones for stormtroopers, but Admiral Chrhod wants clones of herself for reasons only known to her. I can make a guess and that is that we don't just need people for stormtroopers right now. And since she is the one calling the shots around here, shut up and do your damn job before I have to report you."

Technically speaking, Fellix should already be reporting Alavno for his insubordination and remarks about the Admiral, but everyone in the room knows that won't be happening. Alavno has an uncle or something in the mining oligarchs that have sprung up in the last year so any minor report against him is more likely to result in action against Fellix rather than Alavno. Short of something major that can't be covered up, any investigation would see Fellix getting punished for unjustly reporting and slandering a loyal and hardworking servant of the Empire.

Nonetheless, Alavno knows not to press his luck, especially when Admiral Chrhod is involved, no matter how tangentially, and shuts up.

***​

"Egotastic bitch," grumbles Alavno as he and Nina get to work, "Wants almost two hundred thousand clones of herself. Let me guess, she is going to start calling herself a Moff. or Grand Admiral. Or Grand Moff. No, wait, I got it. She will call herself Grand Admiral Moff."

"Please stop talking treason," pleads Nina as she glares at her work, "At least while I am still in the room."

"But my dear Nina, who would I have to say it to?" Alavno mockingly asks, "We both know you don't have the guts to report me and even if you didn't nobody would take your word over mine."

"Kriff you too," retorts Nina and Alavno just laughs at her.

"At least there is one upside to this whole mess," says Alavno, "It is that we'll have a bunch of eye candy in three years' time. Don't get me wrong, the Admiral is a brown Rimmer, but her skin is light enough to be attractive and her face is decent enough. No real beauty, but still pleasing on the eyes. Her tush is a bit flat, but I suppose that her tits make up for her buttocks. Nothing that couldn't be fixed with some proper physical training.. And her hair, her hair is as nice as her bust. Thick brown black that is the sort of wavy that ends in curls. Don't you agree, Nina?"

"Oh my Sith, just shut up, Alavno," snaps Nina, "And don't drag me into this. Just let me get on with my work. Kriff, I don't care if you don't do your own work, just keep your perverted fantasies about the Admiral to yourself."

"Hey, they aren't about the Admiral," laughs Alavno, "Just her lookalike clones who will be of age and legal in a few years time. Unlike Admiral Chrhod, the clones won't be too old or too out of my reach."

"Don't you already have a girlfriend?" asks Nina in disgust.

"For now," answers Alavno, "Yeah, so about our work, do we really need all these credits?"

"Just what are you suggesting?" asks Nina with some dread, not sure if this change in subject is going to be better than the old one.

"Look, we don't have any training engrams for flash-training the clones while they grow," says Alavno, "Yet we are starting up the clones to be capable of receiving flash-training that doesn't exist. Practically wasted credits."

"If you are suggesting that we sabotage the project, forget it," hisses Nina as she stares at the arsehole, "Did you forget that the Admiral is personally involved in this project?"

"Now, now, my dear Nina, just because Admiral Chrhod has ordered us to use her as the genetic template doesn't mean that she is taking a personal hand in this whole affair," replies Alavno with a smirk, "No, our Admiral is delegating the whole project, letting some subordinates handle it while she distracts herself with pointless stuff like giving water to the common people. You would have thought that for someone as supposedly smart as her, she would have given up on that wasteful endeavour as soon as it started hitting the setbacks."

"Whatever you do, just leave me out of it," mutters Nina, glaring at the smug and arrogant man before getting on with her work, just hoping that when Alavno's corruption backfires on him, it doesn't spill over on her.

Provided that someone ever does something about him. One thing that Nina has noticed while serving the Galactic Empire is that for all its talk about law and order, corrupt dirtbags have a common tendency to get away with their misdeeds.

***​

Here have another QM-approved omake, this time regarding the Chrhod clones and some of the scientists in charge of making them happen.

 

[Oshha]

Oshha's Plan-Making Guide​

At the request of our QM, @BOTcommander, I have created a guide to making plans for this quest.

Dice Calculator

First thing I find to be most important is this dice calculator: AnyDice. Created by @Derpmind, this calculator is invaluable to calculating the odds of success for each action. Using it, you can figure out how likely a project is to complete with the dice you have assigned to it or how likely you are to pass the DC. It is also useful for figuring out how many dice you are likely going to spend on a project so you can judge how long it may take or if it is worth starting right now.

One thing I will say about the dice calculator is that I don't count possible omake bonuses in my chances of success. They are too limited in supply for me to count on so I calculate the odds without them and if one applies, well, I just consider it a plesant surprise.

Spending Stats

In terms of other stuff, I think spending is the next important thing to cover. Voters might not understand the narrative implications of the projects you chose, but they can understand numbers going up or down. As a general rule, I try to choose projects that will keep our stats above 0 or 1. It isn't instant death to go below zero, but I like to keep a margin of error and so do other voters who are adverse to unnecessary risks.

I'm being a bit overcautious when I do this, but when I follow the above advice, I count up the negative stat changes of projects with a double-digit chance of success and the positive stat changes of projects with a 100% chance of success. As I said, I'm being overly cautious and you could get away with being a bit riskier, but I try to minimise unpleasant surprises.

Spending Resources

The last bit about spending is Resources. I'm afraid our position means there is no single rule to follow. Early in the quest, we had to be very resource conservative due to a lack of income and limited reserves. Now, we have rebuilt our reserve of stockpiled resources from Fondor and we have a decently large income to off-set some of our spending. At the moment, I try to not spend more than twice our income at around 400 Resources. With our income offsetting some of that cost, that gives us substantial room to rebuild our stockpiled reserves before we run out of resources.

Corruption

Okay, let's talk about corruption. Corruption is bad, but it isn't the end of the world and we have to have some of it to a degree. We have a couple of options to lower it, but they have their costs. Purge Corruption reduces our dice bonuses even if successful while Fight Corruption costs us Imperial Support, which I will cover the importance of next.

Corruption is primarily gained via Subordinate actions, where we can complete a project in a single turn without spending any dice in exchange for increased corruption and inefficient spending of Resources. If we need to get a project done quickly and/or right now, using a Subordinate action can be invaluable provided we can afford the cost in Resources and Corruption. For example, we got most of our current income via using Subordinate action. That said, I try to avoid projects that have more than a minor rise in corruption. Corruption is unavoidable, but that doesn't mean we should embrace it.

Imperial Support

I mentioned Imperial Support whilst talking about Corruption. It takes the place of Political Support in most quests, but it is more than just that. Not only do we need to spend it to do politically unpopular projects, but we need to keep it high to avoid getting couped or assassinated. We have to be careful about spending Imperial Support and in the past, we have done multiple projects that raise Imperial Support just so we can spend it on other projects.

Projects that give Imperial Support are invaluable should be taken if we can afford to do so. As for spending it, I try to avoid that unless needed because there will be projects or options that we need to take, but cost us Imperial Support. At the moment, I'm planning to spend our spare Imperial Support on getting the BRT project finished, where I estimate we will need to spend about 24 to 27 Imperial Support in total to finish off the rest of it.

Unrest

Unrest is our last stat to cover and if Imperial Support is the approval of the Imperial elite, Unrest is the discontent of the common masses. Due to being an Imperial die-hard, we have no way to directly measure what raises or lowers unrest or how high unrest needs to get for bad stuff to start happening.

That said, as players, we can roughly guess what will improve or worsen Unrest. Fulfilling the needs of our people and keeping them happy lowers unrest whilst making them unhappy or adding to their hardships raises unrest. Unfortunately, most Imperial elites see keeping the masses happy as unnecessary and a waste of resources so lowering unrest usually costs us Imperial Support.

Projects

Now let's move onto Projects. I'm going to assume you know how these work so I'll talk about what projects you should prioritise in a plan you want to win. As a general rule, people favour projects with immediate results. Voters want things that give them stuff in a turn or two, not something they need to wait four or five turns working on first. Some long-term projects are necessary, but you wouldn't overly focus on them as there is no immediate payoff to draw in voters.

Voters like to take low-hanging fruit. They like a project that only costs 100 or 150 Progres over one that has 400 Progress. That isn't to say that we should do the 400 progress projects, but they should be done between the more quickly done projects.

Another thing to talk about is how many dice you should assign to a project. As a general rule, unless you need a project done urgently, slowing walking it is a good idea, especially once you start having a chance to complete in a turn. For example, a project that has a 50% chance to complete with one dice and a 90% chance to complete with two dice should usually be done with one die over two turns.

While rushing it is valid, taking it slow can save invaluable Dice and Resources. For example, if it completes with one die, then you have freed up a die and its cost in Resources to spend on something else. And if it doesn't complete, you are back to just spending a second die on it at the cost of having to wait another turn before it is done.

In terms of what projects to pick, I find there are two approaches. The first is to cover your basics to ensure your stats are in the positives and then see what else you can afford to do. The second is to pick one or two projects as priorities and build your plan around that, making sure you can afford and justify doing those priority projects.

Commitments

Another thing to consider when choosing projects is remembering our commitments. These will change with time, but as a general rule, I advise doing them sooner than later. The quicker you get them done, the sooner you don't need to worry about them. While delaying them can be doable, it runs the risk that something else might pop up between now and then, forcing you to choose between fulfilling the commitments you procrastinated on or dealing with the latest crisis.

Explanation

I strongly recommend giving an explanation for the choices within your plan. A lot of voters don't have the time to go through all of the options and often trust the planmaker to know what they are doing. You can make things easier for them by explaining why you made the choices you did, so they can know if they want to vote for your plan or not. Personally, I write a sentence or two to explain each of my choices as well as justifying spending as many or as little Resources as I have.

Vision

The last thing is your vision, your dreams and your ambition. A good planquest is more than just meeting your immediate needs, it is about meeting immediate needs so you can afford to do the things you want.

As the result of our choices so far, we are building a secret elite military in the Unknown Regions. We aren't self-sufficient and obscurity is our greatest defence. We are past the point where we are trying to make ends meet to survive and have reached the point where we can begin to invest in luxury projects to upgrade our military or get nice things.

This is my personal vision for the next couple of in-universe years (6 Turns per IC year). The gist of it is to build up our forces until the New Republic prevents an opportunity to exploit. Beyond basic keeping ourselves alive and not getting couped, the main long-term projects I have are the following:

Finish BRT = We want to do this for the Dice Bonus and because the QM has hinted in the past we might get something big for finishing all of its stages.
Upgrade Military = I want to go for a small, but elite military where we automated our warships to be less manpower-hogs and reverse engineer Exegol's advanced wargear so we can make more and turn it into our standard issue.
Cloning Program = I want to get the cloning program fully off the ground. Make legions of clones to crew our Star Destroyers, pilot our TIEs and march into battle as our Stormtroopers. Ideally, the Kaminoan Clones will be our elites and officers while the Spaarti will be our more easily replaced expendables.
Industry = I want to get all of the core industry going and hopefully get to the point where we have our own shipyards so we can replace losses rather than rely on pre-existing Imperial ships and other forces.
Spy Network = I want to get a vast and wide-ranging spy network. Prioritising Imperial Remnants that are the next likely target of the Rebels, we'll want to infiltrate so we can loot as much of them as possible. Ideally, we will get at least one or two stages of infiltration in every polity so we know what is going on and be able to plan our return for maximum effect.

All in all, this leads to building up an elite secret force that is self-sufficient and has eyes and ears across the galaxy. I plan to either use this to support Thrawn if he shows up or use it ourselves if the New Republic finds itself in a position of weakness. Personally I preferred the idea of Grand Admiral Thrawn showing up and we just appear from the Unknown Regions with an elite secret army to help him crush the New Republic. That is all long term. At no point in the next two years do I see us going after the New Republic. Those two years will be prep time as we build our elite secret military.

Plan Template

[X] Plan [INSERT NAME]
Infrastructure ( /3 Dice, 0R)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
Industry ( /3 Dice, 0R)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
Food Industry ( /3 Dice, 0R)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
Intelligence and Subversion ( 0/4 Dice, 0R)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
Services ( /4 Dice, 0R)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
Military ( /5 Dice, 0R)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
Bureaucracy ( /3 Dice, 0R)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
-[X] [INSERT PROJECT NAME], ? Dice, (??R & ?.??%)
Total Cost: ???/[INSERT STOCKPILED RESOURCES]+[INSERT INCOME] Resources

 

[10ebbor10]

No Time For Regrets​

She turned the ring over and over in her hand as she waited. Feeling the ridges, running her fingers over the edges so painstakingly carved into the metal, all to capture a fraction of the majesty of it's inspiration. But all she saw now when she closed her eyes and thought of home, was that same ring enshrouded in flame, star destroyers tumbling from it's bays as the cracks sprouted across it's surface. The end of a glorious legacy, as visible in the destruction in the sky as it was inherent in the betrayal that had preceded it.

Her fist closed around the ring, hard enough to make the metal relief bite into her flesh. The pain was a blessing. Kuat lived, so she had heard, but for what? A hollow planet ruled by families that had betrayed their legacy, had sold themselves to rabble and aliens for a handful of credits. Bad enough that she had to give up her mother's name when her father betrayed, joining the rebellion, now every family was as tainted as hers, even her late husband's had joined the rebellion.

"Chrhod is finishing her current appointment." the reassuring voice of CA-510 resounded in her head. She put the ring away, straightened her clothes -an officers uniform, her mother would have conniptions if she knew she signed up, offering up Kuati engineering directly instead of merely selling- and walked towards the doors.

"Uhm, ma'am", the guard started. "Moff Chrhod will see you when she calls upon you. Please retake -"

"Her excellence is expecting me now", Lira cut him off.

At that moment, the door opened, and the previous guest hurried outside. Being put behind some lowly officer in charge of plants rankled, but if what she's been served yesterday was any indication, then perhaps the expedience was deserved. Paying the guard no further mind, she entered the office.

Moff Chrhod's private quarters were a bit unusual, for a Moff. Of course, you had the typical luxuries, the artworks, the treasures, the lavish decor. But it was all buried and set aside. The middle of the room was dominated by a big holoprojector, the walls with a variety of boards on which important reports had been arranged. Two assistants worked in the background, putting away the latest files and presumably gathering the dataslates for her meeting.

"Ah, special commander Lira. " Chrhod started " A congratulations on your promotion". A empty gesture, as if Chrhod had not just invented the whole rank for her.
"Have you had time to evaluate the designs?"

"Yes" Lirra her words cautious and measured. "I have certain remarks".

"I'd be very interested to hear them. Commander Halvik assured me his engineers were almost finished with the automation project. " She tapped against the table, and an assistant hurried over, plugging in a dataslate.
An ISD emerged, hovering in the center of the room.

Lirra relaxed. So Chrhod hadn't worked on this project herself. That would make the next thing earlier.

"If I may speak freely-" Chrhod nodded.

"The whole thing has got to go."

Chrhod raised an eyebrow, but did not interrupt.

"On paper, this is an automated warship. But whomever made this, lacked understanding, lacked vision. Lacked skill, really."
"They took out every human and replaced them with a droid, and assumed this meant they did a good job."
"I can illustrate".

Lirra approached the holotable controls, the assistant who'd been manning it hastily stepping back to avoid being pushed away. In her mind, CA-510, spoke, analyzing the unfamiliar controls and telling her what buttons to push

The display shimmered and shifted, red lines appearing on the blueprint.

"The fire control systems" Chrhod remarked.

"Indeed. In standard outfit, all the batteries are coordinated by the dorsal fire control, but the rebels have learned to target it." Lirra continued.

"Which is why the Navy insisted on local control back-ups, and why we do firing drills." Chrhod answered.

"An essential practice, but one of which your engineers apparently were not aware. They replaced all the local gunners with droids, and to keep accuracy ratings up, they wired the droids into main firing control."

"Meaning that if we lose main firing control", Chrhod sighed " we're down to unassisted labor droids firing in the wild ". She gestured to the plans. "How long for you to fix it."

"I'm afraid this is far from the only problem. But the biggest problem is thus"
Lirra stood by the controls, inserting another dataship. The ISD on the screen was displaced with another ship, almost, but not entirely similar. It's bridge structure was different, the shield generators outfitted with more armor plating. Additional batteries were mounted on it's deck and sides, and a host of other minor differences scrolled by rapid fire on the sides of the projection.

"You were working from the wrong plans. " Lirra smiled .
"These are the originals, before the families made their cuts in the name of efficiency, before the army insisted on additional lodging and stormtrooper carrying capacity."
"We'll have to make some adjustements, automate what can be automated, but properly this time. But I do believe we can build her. "
"Victory as she was meant to be."

Spoiler: Note

See, I did the not-smart thing of not coordinating with the QM regarding to canocity, writing about the same thing the turn would be about, and also writing slow.

TBH, I almost didn't finish this. Bot does a much better job at Lira's character and behavior, and more efficiently too. More show, less tell.

Vague details :
- Old Legends canon suggest Lirra has cybernetic implants to calculate better, but I found that somewhat not Star Wars-y enough. So I just gave her a short range transmitter to her own personnal droid, which does the calculating if she needs it.

- Old Legends canon also states the Kuati society to be matriarchal but then appears to have male-line name inheritance, so I messed with that a little bit. Her father took her mother's name, then tainted it with rebellion, so that's why she used her husbands.

Originally I also planned to have her complain about hte TIE defender, but I couldn't fit that in.

 

[Themarineguy]

The Rotten Foundation
Excerpt from a meeting between Agent Dedra Meero and an Analyst.
Dedra:"You said you have some important insight for us to consider?"
Analyst:"Yes. Systems must adapt or die, the old empire paid the price, and our own efforts are doomed if we fail to address the weakness that took it down."
Dedra:"The ISB were able to hold things together even with the death of both the Emperor and Vader."
Analyst:"And their hold was fraying even before the rebels seized the capital. The Empires fate was sealed by Aldani, the question wasn't if, but when the system would collapse. Because, the only answer was rock the boat and completely restructure the old, flawed system."
Dedra:"Aldani? What would you say would have worked."
Analyst:"Certainly not PORD, which was likely EXACTLY what the rebels would have wanted. Cracking down on any activity not directly sanctioned, mass life sentences for the lightest of offenses, stretching manpower even thinner for mass garrison deployments. The Empire responded with the only tool it understood, and all it did, was provide the perfect breeding ground for every rebel organizer to find hundreds of malcontents willing to spit in the empire's face, and then gain momentum. The internal rivalries, the competing Moffs, promoted by skill not at their jobs, but in climbing the ladder, distractions to keep them too busy to launch a coup, and governors relying on force and intimidation, disregarding the idea of giving them less reason to rebel actually lessening the rebel threat. All of these parts only further exacerbated the fundamental miscalculation, brought by a desire to avoid change."
Dedra:"Your speaking of changing the very foundation of the empire."
Analyst:"Exactly. The very Republic this 'New Republic' seeks to emulate, was brought low by the same corruption that crippled the Empire. The Imperial senate was marginalized till it was outright disbanded, and the military took over governorship. But, ultimately, not much really changed, outside of insulating the power structure from their charges even further."
Dedra:"The ISB existed specifically to keep them in check."
Analyst:"You were a part of said organization, can you honestly tell me that the ISB wasn't itself incorporated into the very system it was supposed to keep in check?"
*Silence settles in the room for a few minutes.*
Analyst:"Even now, the greatest obstacle in uniting the empire is the other warlords. While the system of competition has collapsed, nearly every warlord is a product of the same system, and very few would be willing to subordinate themselves. Even more, to survive the 'New Republic', we will need to forge a sense of Unity that hasn't truely existed since Rusaan. After all, it was Palpatine's leadership that saw us through the clone wars prior to his reorganization."
Dedra:"Doing so could very well destroy what little is left."
Analyst:"That fear could very well be what destroyed the old empire. Turning to the only tool accessible without running into the flawed foundations. Remember the reaction to the recent hospital proposal? The fact that simply supplying excess bacta to commoner hospitals is that controversial makes it very clear that there are problems. How many good governors lost their positions for failing to act as they were expected to, how many proposals that could have stymied rebel recruitment were ignored because they were falsely deemed to support those very same rebels?"

A/N:Tried a little something. Honestly, the Empire Remnants need to reform to survive, given the flawed foundational system. But, it's also gonna HURT.

 

[10ebbor10]

"Force-Kriffing dammit". Teckla's curse echoed through the storeroom, cutting clear through the background of whining fans and bleeping machinery?.

"Everything okay back there?" Magent tinny voice came in over the cheap commbead, the tone expressing less concern and more faint bemusement at whatever setback had befallen.

"I'm fine." Teckla answered. "But Freezer Five is kriffed. We got a hundred rations worth of crab almost ready to jus wake up and walk away."

"I thought we agreed to do the freezer inspections after we finished distribution?" Magent answered, annoyed and confused. "Daro's not on shift this morning, and I don't know any of the other techs on staff. Oh, and Corporal Jeela doesn't like crab, she's going to want a steak -"

"I said" Tekla interrupted "that Freezer 5 is kriffed. Completely broken. I think it blew a motivator or something."

"Oh, for real?" Magent answered, understanding dawning. "Think you can fix it. "

Tekla gave a half hearted kick to the machine, then pushed the restart button. For a second, the lights on the display blinked black on, before a flash of light and acrid smoke erupted from the control pannel.
"Don't think so, no. Properly kriffed. "

"So much for dinner then.", Magent lamented "Anyway, as long as it's not going to catch fire this moment, you should get your ass back over here. We're opening in five, and the TK-158 is reporting that the crowd's getting rowdy. It's going to be bad enough telling them we've got nothing but basic rations, we don't want to forment a riot because we opened 5 minutes late and they thought the food ran out."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." Tekla answered, making sure to unplug Freezer 5 and close the door on her way out. Maybe the rations would keep until the tech got here.
Who was she kidding. The things were lukewarm already.

---

Being an Imperial Supply Clerk (first grade) was an important position, one that required an impeccable commitment to duty, untarnishable honor, and perfect dedication.

That is, to say, that you sat behind a desk and next to a droid. The droid was there to verify ration chips, to account for supply discrepancies and to prevent unauthorized supply disbursement. As clerk, you made sure no one punched the droid. And if they tried to punch you, well, that was what the stormtroopers in the room were for.

Teckla thought she was a good clerk, and a good, loyal imperial citizen, and that everyone else was too. They just needed someone to explain it to them.

"I'm sorry, sir" she said, her tone measured "but the ration chits are expired. I can't do anything with them."

The man opposite to her, dressed in a rough and oft patched worksman's uniform, the dust and grime of the subsurface mines still on him, was getting quite irrate. "I saved 3 months for this. My wife's anniversary, and all I want to suprise her is a steak dinner, and now you tell me she can't have it, because some bedraggled bunch of cowards rolled in and get all our food while not having lifted a single finger for it.

"Any problems, Supply-1" the inquiry came in on her combead, and on the other end of the room she could see the stormtroopers getting up and moving towards her.

"No problems" she answered huriedly.
"Then keep the line moving." the command came back, leaving little doubt to how much patience she had left.

"Look" she said, almost pleading. "I can't get you clonemeat. But I can get you crab. Full portion even. Best I can do." She glanced at the stormtroopers, still slowly approaching, and the man followed her gaze.

With an angry grunt, he put the chits down on the table, leaving her to go fetch the rations. A week's worth of grain, and two of the coldest crabs she cpuld scavenge from freezer 5.

---

Corporal Jeela was not a happy woman. She had to respond to two near riots, running halfway across the station each time, and now the most recent object of her ire was wasting her time blubbering and stammering when really, she had only one simple task.

"Look, Civilian Supply Officer Magent, you have only one job. That is, as your title says, to supply me with my steak dinner. Failure to do so would be a dereliction of your duty, would it not."

"But, the other freezer failed. We can't gave two failures in a day. People would get suspicious" Magent stammered.

"I don't care that, in addition to your dereliction of duty, you also admit to sabotaging of your critical equipment. Your supervisor will have to concern them with that. In fact, let me contact him", she raised her hand to her comm bead, and Teckla did something that she'd tought got drilled out of her in basic education.

She interrupted a superior officer.

"Wait", she said, her brain still catching up with her tongue's betrayal. "I got another way". She plonked the stack of chits on the table, the one she got for trading of defrosted crab for expired chits. "We can use these. Officer's chits don't expired, and we have enough for all of us".

Jeela grunted. "Acceptable. With one condition. I get all the chits. Using my id to buy meals for others would be most suspicious, and we don't want to attract attention, don't we".