Sterbelicht - One Sacrifice At A Time Against The Galaxy (40K)

What should your focus for the rest of the Quest be?

  • Mercy (Diplomacy and Expansion)

    Votes: 201 74.7%

  • Ruthlessness (Kick the Duchy in the Balls)

    Votes: 65 24.2%

  • Thule (Yeeni Handholding and Piscarian Cuddling)

    Votes: 102 37.9%
  • Total voters
    269
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BigBadBob7070 said:
Do they? I had the understanding that they damage the hull directly. And while yes, Torpedoes can be intercepted, that's why it's meant to be paired with a pair Crux Frigates who will also start taxing enemy ships with their own torpedoes and missiles. Plus I also think having some boarding craft for the first time would be nice
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Boarding craft I think will require the Heavy Cruiser to really pop, I think. You can't send enough dudes to take over a ship in one group.

Torpedoes bypass Shields--that's their major selling points. They do a lot of damage too, but Armor still works on that damage. A Lance doesn't bypass shields, but largely ignores armor to do direct Hull damage, which is why you want to use your Lance weapons after the shields have been depleted, because their base damage isn't especially high for their power output, so losing 30% of the final output against Shields might take you from a critical hit to just piercing through nonessential decks. Macrocannons are solid all around but not exceptional in any one field, save for repeated fire, which is why almost every faction uses some variety of Macrocannon for their standard filler gun.

Then of course, you get the High Tech, High Impact shit like Laser based Macrocannons and shit goes into looney tunes land. "Yeah, my macrocannons deal more damage than solid shells, and have higher base range than most Lance weapons, the only price I pay for this is that they're more expensive and require more power than said Lance weapons to operate."

Why yes Sunsear Laser Weapons, I am Looking right at you you smug, unbalanced abomination.

While FFG Rogue Trader may be very fun, and full of some good Lore, it's also pretty scuffed in a lot of ways, like how the intent is "Macrobatteries are good at depleting shields but are subject to armor, while Lances get absorbed by Shields but ignore armor", but what you get is "The damage from multiple Macrocannon hits adds up faster than even the best Lance weapon does, so even if it's reduced by Armor, you still get vastly more damage out of a full Macrocannon setup than the intended 'Use the right weapon for the right situation' setup. Because Armor only applies once to the entire salvo, but a Macrocannon Broadside can get anywhere from 6-8 hits per weapon slot depending on how much you stacked the deck in your favor."
 
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Huh, Neon's non-reaction to our raid/conquest makes me wonder if there's Alpha Legion fuckery going on/Chaos has gotten into Neon's astropath supply as well, and none of this information is getting where it needs to go.
 
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Yeah, give them their space, we'll come out swinging for them when they decide, one way or the other. They're our bros, fellow survivors of the Station.

I will say though, that I am profoundly against using them to score Political Points. That'll push so many trauma buttons.
 
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Profilozof said:
The Prophet is with us!
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As I said, I am extremely hostile to the idea that we use the Lamenters to score Political Points.

That's the Smart Move.

But we haven't gotten this far by doing the "Smart" thing in a universe where not being an asshole is punished by the very metaphysics.

I don't know if that was missed or just glossed over, but it's part of the plan that includes the Lamenter vote, and I'd just like to point out that trying to weaponize that is such a bad idea when they're Having a Think.

I don't consider the Faith action necessary, though I wouldn't call it folly either, just maybe not the best timed. But using the Lamenter action to try and palm a "Use them for political points" move in? That is what I'll fight tooth and nail against.

They're having a Think, give them their space. They're grown dudes and we've never failed to take the High Road whenever it's within our power, and while we haven't done it every time, we've given them boosts Above and Beyond what's merely necessary from time to time. I don't think they're an inch away from abandoning us at this juncture. And if they are... Well, I'm not sure what we could have done to massage things further that wouldn't have come at some horrible cost elsewhere.
 
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I just don't think the time's right for it while we're still grappling with Neon. I'd rather get a Big Stick ready to go when we need it, and Heavy Cruisers are very big Sticks, and we're not going to be converting that to being a One Round Project until the War's likely over.

We need a counter to NOVACANNON that isn't just "Try to kill it before it kills too many of us." The Leo can be that counter, by way of getting in its face and bombarding it with aggressive sums of firepower. It's a giant external mount, disrupting that with a boarding operation should not be insanely difficult. Not to mention it's rocking the equivalent of 6 Heavy Macrocannon batteries worth of firepower, which will make it by far the highest DPS ship in the fleet except potentially a Scorpio once those get rolled out.

Plus, we'd get to loot NOVACANNON, and unlock its secrets for ourselves. The power of NOVACANNON can potentially be put to use for the sake of the Star Child! And isn't that worth the effort?

EDIT: Plus, it lets the Yeeni get a shot at showing their stuff, it does actually have Yeeni Engineers as part of the design, shouldn't they get a chance to participate in this campaign before it's over?
 
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I hear what you're saying about the Lamenters, but I still think helping them now will demonstrate that we mean to continue supporting them.

To avoid the appearance of playing politics with them:

[] Plan: Beseech the Chapter
-[] [General] Develop The Federations'...
--[] Medical Services V
-[] [Chapter] Recoup the Losses (1/2)

Though if we don't help the Chapter, I would prefer to build up the fleet instead of do the Psykana action. Or do one of the 3 research actions crying out for attention (Sanctification, bombers, destructive investigation). There's just so much ground to make up to have a competitive navy.
 
Also, look at the map. The battle at Valhidem doesn't seem to be going too well. Neon is throwing more forces into it- stripping everywhere else except for just two other places. In the previous turn they had a couple of weak fleets laying around (I remember one being at Kanzura) but now Neon only has three noted fleets- the stack at Valhidem, the fleet at Gathin, and the last fleet at the Forge. They seem to have stripped all the non-SDF forces from elsewhere and fed it into Valhidem.

We may need to build up our fleet more and get a new bomber design since we may end up having to rush through Gathin and into Valhidem to throw back the Chaos forces if Neon ends up failing in their grand offensive.
 
aceraptor said:
Also, look at the map. The battle at Valhidem doesn't seem to be going too well. Neon is throwing more forces into it- stripping everywhere else except for just two other places. In the previous turn they had a couple of weak fleets laying around (I remember one being at Kanzura) but now Neon only has three noted fleets- the stack at Valhidem, the fleet at Gathin, and the last fleet at the Forge. They seem to have stripped all the non-SDF forces from elsewhere and fed it into Valhidem.

We may need to build up our fleet more and get a new bomber design since we may end up having to rush through Gathin and into Valhidem to throw back the Chaos forces if Neon ends up failing in their grand offensive.
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Plan if my idea works is to finish the Leo prototype, design new Bombers, and go for seizing as much Neon Clay as we can digest, depending on what happens next. If that's not in the cards, we can start some colonization in our hinterlands.
 
The Laurent said:
That WOULD be a third alternative, actually. Doing Bomber research instead so that our Strikecraft Doctrine hits hard...
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Our Strikecraft Doctrine is already crazy, and let us sweep a fairly hefty defense fleet with basically zero losses thanks to the fighters being able to run interference and suppress PD. Bombers are on the list, but I want us to have a Heavy Cruiser ready to go before we start the final battles, since having a fleet centerpiece might be the difference between another pyrrhic victory and a decisive one.

Got some serious WW2 USN memes going on the Leo, between having the crew skill bonus, Advanced Alloys, and the Yeeni engineers, on top of the absurd amount of dakka it can spit out. Should be fun, and with a decent escort, I can see this really going to town thanks to that.
 
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The Laurent said:
I will also note that we haven't taken a Psykana option at all since 350...
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Psykana is directly competing with so much of our stuff, and we're entering the endgame of the Neon campaign apparently, given how they've evidently conceded the entirety of their hinterlands to us with only token resistance. I want a spearhead that can make sure we finish cleanly, ready when we need it, and the build time on a Heavy Cruiser is 20 years, we'll probably need to start now if we want it to be ready in time for the final stretch of the War while still being in a position to check Chaos.
 
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Alectai said:
I just don't think the time's right for it while we're still grappling with Neon. I'd rather get a Big Stick ready to go when we need it, and Heavy Cruisers are very big Sticks, and we're not going to be converting that to being a One Round Project until the War's likely over.

We need a counter to NOVACANNON that isn't just "Try to kill it before it kills too many of us." The Leo can be that counter, by way of getting in its face and bombarding it with aggressive sums of firepower. It's a giant external mount, disrupting that with a boarding operation should not be insanely difficult. Not to mention it's rocking the equivalent of 6 Heavy Macrocannon batteries worth of firepower, which will make it by far the highest DPS ship in the fleet except potentially a Scorpio once those get rolled out.

Plus, we'd get to loot NOVACANNON, and unlock its secrets for ourselves. The power of NOVACANNON can potentially be put to use for the sake of the Star Child! And isn't that worth the effort?

EDIT: Plus, it lets the Yeeni get a shot at showing their stuff, it does actually have Yeeni Engineers as part of the design, shouldn't they get a chance to participate in this campaign before it's over?
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While I understand that I think that a newsflash that Neon's separation from the Imperium was enough for them to consider surrender, I think that it is also likely that they started some former of new psykana, and I personally think that it would be prudent to deal with that now, during the liberation of the system named after the devil than to wait for it and lose a potential upgrade to the choirs, not to mention that foreign psykana was waiting as an option for the last 160 years and I am paranoid when it involves the warp and waiting.

While the big ticking bomb in the form of uncontrolled religious orders was hopefully diffused, I still think that letting an action just sit there for so long is a bad idea.
 
Profilozof said:
While I understand that I think that a newsflash that Neon's separation from the Imperium was enough for them to consider surrender, I think that it is also likely that they started some former of new psykana, and I personally think that it would be prudent to deal with that now, during the liberation of the system named after the devil than to wait for it and lose a potential upgrade to the choirs, not to mention that foreign psykana was waiting as an option for the last 160 years and I am paranoid when it involves the warp and waiting.

While the big ticking bomb in the form of uncontrolled religious orders was hopefully diffused, I still think that letting an action just sit there for so long is a bad idea.
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Except that's not what Outsider Psykana seems to do? Outsider Psykana is "How do we treat Psykers that aren't trained by us?"
 
Alectai said:
Except that's not what Outsider Psykana seems to do? Outsider Psykana is "How do we treat Psykers that aren't trained by us?"
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Admittedly, English is not my first language, am sick and it is 4 am for me, but it seems to me that deciding how to treat psykers not trained by us would be involved a possibility of learning from them and/or integrating them into choirs if possible, as a different "voice range" or as an "instrument in the background"
 
Profilozof said:
Admittedly, English is not my first language, am sick and it is 4 am for me, but it seems to me that deciding how to treat psykers not trained by us would be involved a possibility of learning from them and/or integrating them into choirs if possible, as a different "voice range" or as an "instrument in the background"
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I mean, I guess? But that doesn't quite help us right now?

The Laurent said:
...actually that feels like it'd be pretty vital if we're going to be conquering Neon in the immediate future.
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Yeah, but do we need to do it this instant is the question.

We will likely need better force concentration when it comes time to push into Neon's heartlands. We Might find it useful to have Outsider Psykana locked down before we begin, despite the fact that Neon is Imperial Fundamentalist and their policy is "If the Psyker can't be sanctioned, blam them because Psykers are fundamentally guilty of the Capital Crime of Being a Psyker, which can only be commuted by Sanctioning--and even then, the sentence is only suspended, not discharged."

The fact they had to bend over backwards to clone successful Astropaths as their workaround, instead of just training Psykers locally, sort of suggests that "No, Neon doesn't actually have a Psyker tradition worth a damn."

And our policy for Psykers born in our territory is... To train them? Which doesn't require the new doctrine?
 
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[X]Plan: after 160 years of waiting
-[X] [General] Develop The Federations'...
--[X] Medical Services V
-[X] [Faith] Psykana Of The Outside And Unknown
 
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