As for your other questions;
The Eddies of the Warp roll happened because this was the first time-critical deployment you had. Wouldn't do to miss the enemy fleet by a day while they are en-route to your system, now would it?
The fact that, despite throwing everything but the kitchen sink at them, the Duchy ships still manage to hold out so well while outnumbered 2-to-1 may,
possibly, have to do with the fact that they have the Phalanx Doctrine. You know, the one where they link the shields of dozens to hundreds of ships together? Which means that any damage not Bomber, Torpedo, or Ramming needs to destroy the cumulative shields of dozens of ships before firing upon hulls. Haaa...if only you had a weapon that no-sold shields. Alas, such a thing does not exist.
Yah, I guess we never needed those short windows before and now we do it comes into account. And yah that would have sucked.
Is that the reason? its more with how much firepower and strikecraft we're throwing at them its more I'm surprised that didn't pop the shields sooner. it hasn't been this odds before and they still lasted long enough to do that damage is what I meant. I guess we need to invest in those weapons types to bypass shields then. Do we even have any that isn't strikecraft, Torpedo, or Ramming? time to research and invent!
The funny thing is, I'm pretty sure they still don't know we're majority human. Or even "any" human at all.
Oh, right..... whoops. I doubt it would change much in the short term but I really do think we should do that, remember when Neon Fractured we had one planet and the SDF detect to us and other more accepting of joining us because we were humans mostly, with the Kil'drabi the only other Xenos at the time. And that was early on.
So I do think its worth getting out we are humans, for later on in the Sector if the Dutchy breaks apart we have an easier time with the Sub-Sector.
The downside of not leaving any survivors to tell the tale.
Indeed. We'll try to do it next time or we could crib off of the CIS from star wars. Illegal pirate broadcasts. Build ships capable of broadcasting and are stealthy and fast while sending them out into systems to get the information out.
...why is that saying "sensors"?
No. Seriously? That should be "systems" not "sensors!"
Gah! Fixed!
Wait, seriously? that was a mistake? I thought it was legit or made some amount of sense. the Radiation disrupts sensors and can't penetrate the hull fast and easy enough to kill the ship since 40k Ships are big. This does made the Rad-Lance much more viable now that its systems.
No. But you know they can produce about ~2-30 Destroyers and ~5-10 Frigates per Turn here if required.
okay thats... about half I think of what was at Voxx Primus? or at all three planets of Primus, Secundus, and Echish. so reasonable to assume a full battlefleet done in two turns about.
Nope. It shields everyone who has a shield, and if you pull away from formation, fall back, or do something stupid that breaks ranks/makes you lose your shield then you aren't shielded by the Phalanx anymore.
Hence why the ships out of formation going too fast too far out are dropped or if we focus fire them and pop the shields. at that point its done.
and I guess the Shield Phalanx might be worth getting then, I just didn't want to do it since it seems good for light ships and low focus fleet doctrine. It makes it better and viable but if that let them stand up to us for that long and helps no sell Lances and Macro-cannons until the shield pops it might be worth it for elements of the fleet to have.
I mean, we could still try talking to them and trying to ally with them against the Croaf and try subverting them over time through the power of Missionaries and Luxury Goods.
eh, its more the centralization happened without us and we didn't have any influence in it. I think the Black Ash Clan is approaching the point where we will need to absorb them by force, we can still try but fuck no trying to help them against the Croaf while we are still dealing with the Dutchy.
Just use Religion and luxury goods as you said. try to soft power them in ten turns or so.
8 - Eyes Set Upon A War Without Bloody Souls
8 - Let there be blood. Let There Be Blood!
.... which one was eight agi- I realize I am dumb. I saw blood and the desire of spilling blood. Fucking Corn. So rolling his number during a warp travel..... either a Krone fleet just dropped on us as we finished and want to fight or we are getting a demonic incursion during that warp travel so great another fight or damage and losses in route.
The Choir aboard the Chamleon within Vluas sang its warning, the Choirs of Echish delivered the message to those seeing the fleets within Kaig delivered from star to star; and High Admiral Huntress ordered a return to Echish at once the second the last of the Duchy ships fell silent.
.... or corruption via him to get the other Dutchy fleet to attack? it works either way and we are away from there..... leaving only a Defense station for the planet. Fuck, see is why taking the entire force was stupid. Like, not a single SBG to stay there? yes it would have meant higher loses then we took in Kaig but this shit is why you leave a force in place. At least we got warning of this instead of it being a complete surprise.
Warp Drives began to pool power, Gellar Fields hummed their mighty bulwarks, and rifts within the fabric of the Veil opened in the hundreds as ships Federation and Lamenter breached into the Warp, their forms gently embraced by the howling laughter of thirsting gods and the bloody rain of a billion billion souls marching to drumbeats unto the anvil of eternal unrelenting all-consuming war.
They left behind floating wrecks, scattered Duchy survivors slowly being gathered by shuttles sent by the local planet, and the taste of blood within the mouths of all who would leave in this direction for the next eighty-eight years.
Well time to make doomslayer proud! I wonder if the choice to kill rather then save played any influence here or not?
HOLD UP. "Taste of Blood within the mouths of all who would leave in this direction for eighty-eight years" did this just leaked chaos taint of the Khrone flavor to Kaig? Shit, I think we just kickstarted the chaos subversion of the Dutchy in there and one they won't be looking at deeply in the aftermath.
No response from the fleet?" Commodore Lista-34.a asked once more, their clockwork eyes clicking within the silent thrum of the bridge, though they knew the answer already as the ships had whispered no new signals to them within the system.
+++NEGATIVE+++ Lista-34.b replied, the twin to the Commodore and the leader of the local Choirs assigned here by dint of providence and, now, a sick sense of humor. +++CHANCE FOR INTERCEPTION DIMINISHING BY THE MINUTE+++
They knew this. They had calculated the odds themselves the second the Duchy Fleet had warped into the system and had begun to burn toward Voxx Secundus. And yet, what were they supposed to do with twenty-four Destroyers, one of which was an ancient Cobra, against nearly ninety, eight of them Light Cruisers? What indeed, if the price for inaction wasn't the deaths of hundreds of billions.
Oh... really? just that? I was expecting it be more... khrone. Like doing something more then just holding up the fleet in the warp. I don't know, it just seems weird that's the approach gone with. Still it does enough considering that was our ENTIRE MOBILE FLEET.
wait Voxx Secundus? did they just bypass Echish?.... right with no SDF made yet and with the SBG's pulled it would mean if they stayed our of lance range they could just move past it. we were auto-producing destroyers so we have them but our entire doctrine is strikecraft based and we don't even have the defense stations of Echish or Sigritta where we could have at least a few thousand strike craft to help with it. Dammnit, food production is going to be burnt.
I will say its not as bad as it could be since we can do the mobilization thing the QM said our people could do. even the Emergency power thing is scrapping the surface. If need be we can pull a 'all hands on deck, all vacation days cancelled, back to back shift, etc.' and if this happens I think we can do a action or project that boosts food production from all our worlds to get the food to ship to Voxx Primus or we talk with the Iritta and tell them about what happened. If anyone can help stop a famine, it'd be them.
Now that is to say losing Secundus is going to be a big blow and one we want to avoid but I want to bring up we have options and everyone doesn't doom post. Its not the end, its just a painful loss.
After all, the Chamleon had sent notice that Exterminatus-Grade Weaponry had been delivered to the fleet two days before their departure.
...... Oh they legit have Exterminatus Grade-Weaponry. right most of the ships are torpedo spam so they lack the weapon to even just do a bombard of the world to ruin them. and seriously the amount of time we were gone is when this happens. This is why read the update and a few comments, I thought it was understood to leave behind an SBG. At least then we could have use that to focus on those damn Light Cruisers, damn the losses just blow up every Light Cruiser they have and we would have had good chance of getting rid of them.
+++...THIS WILL END IN YOUR DEATH+++ Silence reigned between the two. Lista-34.a wondered, not for the last time, what thoughts burned behind their twins' mechanical face, their lives so different after they had found the Gift within them and Duty took one for the Celestial Choirs...and the other to the Star Force. Even if they preferred the name Classem Lucis Aeternae. It just had that much more weight behind the duty they now had.
"This would always end in my death. One does not raise the sword and not make peace with the knowledge that they, too, shall meet their end by the sword." Several more seconds passed before Lista-34.a found a hand upon their shoulder, the appendage belonging to their twin grasping the body part with more force than strictly necessary. "I know the promise we made when you left. I consider breaking it for the chance to see billions still live a fair price."
ouch, that sucks for the twins but this is very 40k in the situation and how people would be during this. really sad, almost as much as that one thrule who died, one of the very few we lost in that battle but of course she just happened to one of those losses.
again little snipe at the bland name we choose, lol.
+++RETURN TO ME. USE THE LIFE PODS FOR WHAT THEY WERE MADE. FATHER AND I WILL NOT FACE THE WALL OF THE LOST WITH NOTHING BUT YOUR NAME TO GRIEVE BY+++
"I cannot promise this."
+++THEN LIE+++
Silence paused, the memory of those moments when nothing had to be done more oppressive than the need to fill in the humm and whirr of mechanics and augments.
"I will do what I must and what I can."
It was not enough for Lista-34.b. Not even remotely. But it was all that could be given as they had to depart the ship.
seriously, good job on the and the last part QM. you do well with making these characters and selling the 40k vibe and feel in them.
I mean 'I cannot promise this' 'then lie' that was great and does a good job at showing our forces and some culture/society of ours via that small snippet. A force of 24 destroyers.... oh boy she is gonna need luck for this.
And with them:
(6-Hour Moratorium)
[] All Non-Volunteer Crew
(Task Force Alpha will seek out the Vluas Fleet, charging their plasma reactors and setting course into their hearts to kill as many as possible. There is an [Extreme] chance this tactic will kill the volunteers and a [High] chance this will gut the Vluas Fleet enough for rush-deployed Kil'drabi, Civilian Security Ships, and Monitors in Voxx Secundus and Primus to stand against them and win if they press on.)
[] All Non-Essential Crew (Write-In Strategy)
(Task Force Alpha will seek to fight against the Vluas Fleet and gain valuable time conventionally. You do not know the outcome. It is likely to be insufficient.)
ahhhhh fucking damn it. we have little chance of doing anything in the All Non-essential crew options, its just 24 destroyers against the ninety dutchy force that have damn shield Phalanx and torpedo spam. I don't really see any option in here that lets us buy time unless we go with All-Non-Volunteer Crew and try to gut the Dutchy Fleet. I'd focus on killing all the light cruisers so we don't have to worry about them capable of deploying the Exterminatus weapon.
I just don't need we have any other option here. if we had station defenses with the hangars we could have tried to just kill the light cruisers and then keep on fighting a stalling battle before dipping.
By 3. And that is the problem with timing-dependent strategies. Sometimes a paraplegic mf'er gets angry at no blood-juice and throws a tantrum. (After rolling an eight twice on a d10.)
indeed, I didn't realize this would happen with time windows as we never needed to worry about it before. didn't expect Krhone to be the one doing it though and in this style, I would have thought he'd drop a chaos raiding group and we have the option of fighting them and delaying returning, them making an thing to go further into the dutchy and giving us the option of pursing and stopping them or leaving, or something like that.
Oh well, so it does turn out that defenses are entirely useless and the enemy can just fly past.
As I said.
Oh Hell no. Don't you even start. You don't see any value in stations and any reason is reason enough for you to shit on them. Do you send Tanks by themselves to take cities in the urban Combat? Do you send Titans to deal with a planet wide insurgency on their own with no other forces at all with no ability to hold ground? Do you send the Space Marines to act as fucking garrisons for planets when you only have a few and the planet is non-critically important?
No, you don't because that is not the role they have. The Stations are anchor points and help defend the planet and make it harder. Normally you can't just bypass it because they would have a Fleet there, either SDF or an SBG or two sitting there. If you tried to bypass it, you'd be intercepted by the fleet at anchor there and get pulled into a fight there and then have them dogging you the entire way as they follow you. If it was the SDF, then not much they can do but did damage, if it was an SBG, they will follow through the warp.
This shit was why I was baffled and fearful that we took EVERYTHING with us to fight the fleet a Kaig. Like what the fuck, I thought it was common sense to leave a SBG or two there to show there was some presence there and to act as a deterrent. the SBG's could act as mobile defense to the Stations static defense and if they tried to bypass them, then the SBG would pounce on it. Recall as well when the damn scouts came in and found us the first time the defense stations poured out what was it again? four thousand strike craft? six thousand? compared to the two and half thousand the SBG's carried? I'm pretty sure an SBG intercepting the Battlefleets and giving those station bound Strikecraft the chance to launch and strike would help out immensely.
They aren't, for the purpose of keeping the planet safe. You didn't account for them completely ignoring everything and gunning past your line right as your fleet is kept away by Khorne.
This would not have happened if the Eddies hadn't double-rolled eights.
Yup, at least in Star wars there are Hyper-space routes that are predictable and only have a general area of the system you can come in from on a fast and direct hyper-space jump. its why the blockade of Naboo and Ryloth is the ships were grouped there because that's where the hyper-lane spits you out at.
Here though, its not anything like that. it could spit you out across the entire system and the fleet needs to group up again or just be on the other end of the system and now you need to backtrack. makes more sense and easier to defend the places of importance. Having a Fleet here gives the option to stop from trying to bypass as they can get in range to engage and punish you if you try it.
I mean, that was the exact objection I had against all the plans that aimed to build way too many space stations. That the enemy could just gun past them without ever coming into range.
Still, we only spent a single action on it, so it's not like there is that much to be gained.
you say two is too much, the others that had four or more were jokes. and like I said, its meant to be paired with a fleet, SDF or SBG. I don't think it'd be like this if we left behind one or two SBG to help act as deterrent or run interception long enough to kill the light cruisers or do enough damage, they were stronger then two SBG's but as shown that doesn't mean they wouldn't suffer decent losses and it would slow them down.
You would have arrived basically seconds after you left Echish and been able to repair, re-arm, and get into position.
yah, that checks out and would have been the best case for us to do.
That's the Eddies of the Warp and Khorne, alongside the weaponry getting delivered to both but getting held back as they got notice that you smashed/are fighting the other fleet.
This is them rushing out to take advantage of a perceived hole in your defenses.
So it was mostly Khorne keeping us away with the weaponry getting delivered with no influence from chaos. Oh that other fleet was suppose to get Exterminatus grade weaponry too? damn, well it was better to get rid of one of them at least. still makes sense for them to gamble since we were fighting that other fleet and tried to get there before we got back. We just lost that race due to third party interference.
Also, Thread Freak/Depression Spiral #5 Due To Enemy Action Commences nicely I see.
well yes, but here it is justified I think. not much we can do with most of our SBG's caught in the warp. and what can we say? it is tradition.
Yes, the Light Cruisers. Three of them specifically.
And, tbf, they are fighting against Orks and Drukhari on their other fronts after they exterminated a soul-eating xenos species. None of the "unknown attackers" they had were of the "death is not the better option" for their people. And if you take Chaos into account, they may, rationally, assume that hundreds of billions of souls would be better sent to the Emperor than Chaos Rituals.
Okay so we know which three Light Cruisers to target and make sure we kill... but best make sure we can kill all Light Cruisers just to make sure they can't use it.
yahhhh, we never did what we did with the Neon Protectorate and broadcast we were humans allied with Xenos and such. So they assume we're worst then the enemies they are fighting, maybe they would think that of us because we are humans allied with Xenos. And yah, it is a reasonable response to try to deny Chaos any chance at sacrifices for the rituals, we did the same thing in 621, just not planet killing measures. I think they would try to reclaim and go for a more slow grinding approach if they knew we were just heretical humans for allying with Xenos and wrong religion rather then Chaos or worst. Still worthy of death but something they can reuse or something.
It is a star system. They are titanically, mindboggingly, vast. You plopped an Action's worth of stations down to defend what is worth attacking/defending, not fifty, so you simply don't have the reach to deny an entire system.
Space is big and you can't fill it with stations and minefields. You put stations around what is worth defending or contesting, if they were chokepoints or approaches for certain warp routes, then that would be it but this doesn't function like Mass Effect or the like. Hence why SBG's/fleet do the patrol and let the Stations defend the important places and reinforce them with fleets when there is danger or a threat. also includes baiting the enemy fleet into what they think is safe distance, not knowing the lances have close to triple range.
We also have Choirs that were specifically put on the Defense Stations back when we had the mistaken impression that the enemy can't just trivially ignore and bypass them as long as they're not specifically trying to take the planet.
We were more worried about them contesting and destroyed the SBG's and Defense stations we had there. We thought they smash our SBG's and defense, drop an invasion force and leave some ships around before moving on. I highly doubted the Dutchy would stick around long enough for the invasion to complete. just long enough to drop troops and supplies.
Get SDFs running in your systems (you get like...~1 SBG worth with your Void Industry Dev Level right now), get higher on the Warp Tech and Psytech Trees to get Interdiction Arrays placed, and have free-floating patrol fleets to come in at a moments notice.
And yes, this is generally a background part of 40k where the attackers have most of the advantage in where battles happen. And this happened because of poor rolls leading to a Chaos intervention.
And normally that would have happened and been fine. Except we were two turns away from pacifying Phantom and trusting them with SDF ships and the like, Free Floating patrols would have been available if left any SBG for defense, we were already building and using any SBG we had for fighting and such.
They have Interdiction Arrays? okay that's something to work for and once gotten shows points where we can build stations and make gate-way systems/paths where there is no choice but to assault planet.
Logistics and your own fleets able to harry them with the help of local SDFs.
that too, not good against Chaos due to their logistics being non-existence for the most part because they just do rituals and sacrifice and suddenly the reinforcements are all there. Same thing to a degree with the Tyranids and Necrons, everyone else though and most of who we are fighting? hell yah that matters and SDF able to raid and intercept supply groups moving in system and can then huddle behind Defense Stations where they have to direct a large amount of ships to keep them contained or try to break through.
Unfortunately it looks like they're willing to go in and die to accomplish the mission.
Yes, they can. Also, fyi, your Choirs are pretty much the closest you can get to Fanatically Loyal without veering into a Stupid Fantic Trope. If you tell them to take a shot, they will. Conveniently, the dice decided to give you the Psychic Foci that enables them to merely have a few years of recovery and arm/leg replacements instead of getting turned into organic charcoal when they use The Sun!
Nice and it does make sense given the Star Child helps stop a lot of the shit that normally happens to Psykers and its about belief in the Star Child sooo yah. Didn't realize it was to that point they will follow the order without question.... I mean IF we can pull it off and trade... fuck there are Eight Light Cruisers... I'm not sure how the Exterminatus weapons are like and if they can just walk into the melted hull of a ship, pick it up, and transfer it ready to fire on the other light cruiser. At the very least we'll mission kill those three cruisers for three choirs crippled for a few years, so its not as if we're killing them with this anymore. So its doable since we aren't killing or losing choirs for decades at a point.
Just a Question of if we do use the choirs can our destroyers get in close enough to do it and get out?
I think this is normally what SDFs are for. If you try to penetrate to the backline you take attritional damage & delays from SDFs all the way through, unless you're sneaky enough to sneak by. Then the main fleet catches you and you're damaged, far from supply and get taken apart in their territory. There's a reason that defense stations don't carry void warfare.
Indeed, that's why a lot of times the fleets stay to make sure the threat is gone or contained before moving on.
46x Cobra Destroyers, 11x Falchion Frigates, 12x Shatterpoint Heavy Frigates, 7x Dauntless Light Cruisers (3x Exterminatus Weapons), 2x Lancer Light Cruisers.
isn't that 9 not 8 light Cruisers? eh fog of war but yah... I'm worried about the destroyers even getting close enough to use the choirs.
I TOLD YOU WE SHOULD HAVE KEPT AN SBG HERE! I warned all of you that you can't trust 5/5 Dogmatics not to pull any batshit crazy moves like this!
But NOOOOOOO, we had to throw fucking everything at one place while leaving our flank inadequately defended!
Well, one thing we can do is have actual fucking reserve fleets instead of committing everything to one battle as standard. Y'know, basic strategy
I completely agreed with you which is why I was baffled and worried after we took everything with us. I thought it was common sense to take maybe another SBG then what the Boxes shown on the maps and leave any thing else behind to man the defenses. Now I will check the placement of the SBG's and like to double check. Problem is any 'reserves' we have will be shuffled or shoved into this front. So even if we did, we would have just taken them as well. I was thinking making a patrol groups for free floating patrols but at what point are they just SBG's?
The horrible horrible vicious torments of... let me check my notes... child care, public education, and having a weekend off.
Truly we are the most insidious evil this galaxy has ever seen.
lol, indeed we are evil. Just love the assumptions of what we are compared to what we actually are. problem is it really is that unbelievable they think its a front for something else.
"Lord High Admiral Frances Van Helsingborg XXXVII! We just found out who the White Void really are!"
"Well what is it? Chaos Cultists? Genocidal Xenos that seek to purge all other life from the galaxy? Mind-Controlling Parasites? An Empire of Cannibalistic Slavers? Abominable Intelligences? Come on boy, spit it out!"
"Worse than all of that combined my Lord. They're Socialists. Progressive Republican Socialists…"
"BY THE GOD-EMPEROR'S ROTTEN BALLS!!! DEPLOY ALL THE CYCLONIC TORPEDOES AT ONCE!!!"
PFFFFT HAHAHA, ahhh even in the far flung future there exists 'better dead then red' plus think of what it means for the High Lords and other nobility. its against the social order! wouldn't doubt if they did fire Cyclonic torpedo's for that alone.
Its doubly funni because you are Theocratic Council Federalists just like some sects/creeds of the Ministorum. Just, ya know, dedicated to a deity that has "help people" as one of its aspects.
We really love making new government types and mashing worlds together and actually helping and caring for our people.
