- Location
- USA
[x] Grenade Projector System
Strategic Arms, Beasts, Operations, and Tactics Quest
- Thread starter 7734
- Start date
Contest 2: Anti-Walker Weapons, Step 1: Gathering Technical Experts
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
As much as you approved of the war otter system, the fact of the matter was you were not qualified to deal with warbeasts on a personal level. More importantly, the grenade projector filled a vital role in the force structure. After you filed your paperwork out, the grenade projector was accepted as new standard issue equipment. Afterwords, you went back to your office, and went to standby.
And standby you did, as the months passed and the rollout started. While there were few snags with production, things were going swimmingly until the Joint Army Reorganization Office decided that the standard infantry platoon needed to be modified heavily. Instead of the previous fifty-plus man platoon, the platoon was getting reduced down to three eight-man fire teams comprised of a Madsen gun, grenade projector or rifle grenadier, two ammobearers, three riflemen, and a sergeant; as well as a four-man leadership section consisting of the lieutenant, a pair of runners, and a radio/telephone signalman. With this redesign underway, demand exploded, and the units that were being formed in the JARO test brigade enjoyed your grenade projector.
Between this and the fact the Test Brigade was hoovering up officers left and right, you were promoted to Major for your hard work. Incidentally, this also let Klaes get promoted and transferred into the Rail Service, leaving you as de-facto head of the SABOT board. This was both good, since you weren't going to buck the work down to a junior captain, and bad, since you were now expected to keep track of a number of the pressing issues of the new and reunified Kingdom of Burgundy, since that seemed to be the preferred going title for the united Beneloux.
About a month of work continued apace, in which time about a half-dozen Usual and Sundry Items crossed through the SABOT board's area of responsibility. While putting your support next to obvious decisions (adopting the mg15nA, standardizing the NCO corps on the Bergman 1910, universal issue of a new helmet) and downplaying the more ridiculous concepts to come about (adoption of the Anglo-American Flame Bayonet, issuing white phosphorus rounds as general purpose smoke munitions, buying Bofors 2pdr copies for general issue) you managed to accrue a decent stock of political capitol.
That's when The Request hit your desk. The JARO had done another round of experiments and wargames, and the current crux of the matter of defense was anti-walker weapons. German landships were an undeniable danger to the burgeoning federation, but currently the Koninklijke Luchtmacht, or Royal Dutch Air Force, claimed to have a means to defeat the behemoths with their Fokker bombers carrying a standoff munition controlled through a command cable. It was the smaller beasts, unfortunately, that the JARO was worried about.
To be fair, this was a legitimate concern. In the War, sturmpanzer regiments handily overran most of the border region, and in the subsequent fighting had continually been a great danger for all involved parties in the region for their ability to quickly force a fracture point in battle.
Your request, shortly put, was broken down into two parts, to be completed consecutively. First, you had to develop an anti-walker weapon to be assigned to an anti-walker company, which would be distributed to the battalion level units and likely broken down into two oversized platoons to assist the line companies. Second, building off your anti-walker company, you were to design a supporting system to develop an anti-walker battalion, which would then be assigned on the divisional level and contain the aforementioned companies as well as an additional operational arm for engaging threats above and beyond local battalion response.
You were starting to see why Klaes had fled this job so readily.
First things first, however, was sweeping the previous SABOT board under the rug. Political machinations were not going to get the weapons you needed developed, and if anyone complained about poor oversight then the devil take the hindmost. You were fairly confident you could assemble a team of actual experts and still compose the constituent members of the Kingdom at this time.
Then came assembly of the new board. In exchange for the shovelling of the last staff into the void of JARO, your new, slimmed-down five man board had one slot preemptively filled by Captain Jacob Jurien, a member of the Belgian Army and one of the previous anti-walker specialists from before the War. He'd aged reasonably well, was only short one eye, and as typical for most Belgian specialists, still had part of his menagerie with him at all times instead of a sidearm. In his case, a large dog with a harness holding several thermite grenades and a slow match in a jawlock. Fortunately, the match was not kept lit at the office. The man was quiet, reasonably personable, and tended to keep to himself in the office. Interestingly enough, he shied away from drink, instead preferring to smoke cigars in secluded corners. His only real interaction of note was to warn you the Belgian Headquarters was getting twitchy on the increased mechanization of the Joint Army Reorganization Office, and if you could help balance things out they would be willing to move you a few bennies.
Of the advisors you could choose from, there were many. While you theoretically had run of the JARO building, practically you needed to be conscious of both rank and general availability. That said, off the bat there were several names that stood out to you.
Captain Ernest Vroom was currently available to tap, the designer of your previous adoption, the Grenade Projector. Prior to this, he had spent the intervening month working on professional development, learning French and developing new contacts in the Bergman factories.
Captain Martin Vandievoet was also available, recently released from assisting in teaching a class of animal handlers for the Garde Sanitaire. He was a qualified animal handler and teacher, and more importantly had finished familiarizing himself with the current standing stock of the Belgian Army's fabricated animal corps.
A civilian expert, Dr. Robert Montragard, had been contacted by Jurien for his assistance in developing new-model warbeasts. With a doctorate in Natural Philosophy from the Institut national des sciences appliquées de Lyon and four years as a developer for the French Cavalry branch, Dr. Montragard's resume was very well developed. As a civilian, his inclusion would be less than ideal to the Dutch, but they couldn't complain overmuch at the minute.
R Eng. Gellert Istvan was another board option. A registered engineer from Hungary, he had spent most of the war working on design and development of new cavalryman weapons. What had drawn him to the board's attention, however, was his work in developing the pre-war Steyr Elefantjaeger rifle in a custom 11x95mm cartridge, based loosely on the .450 Nitro Express round. As the gun itself had come highly recommended by German attaches in the Dutch army, he was a natural inclusion in the board while he was available (as currently he was fighting a patent infringement lawsuit in England over said rifle)
Lieutenant de vaisseau Matis Fyn, a sendover from the Joint Naval Integration Office, was also made available to your team for this operation. Fluent in English, French, Dutch, and German, his multilingual nature was extremely useful even if his wartime experience had been more in terms of working with the unterseepanzer prevention teams. Still, his experience in operating anti-walker weapons effectively was enough to get him recommended to your board quite strongly.
Last, but certainly not least, was Captain Dirck Lasoon from the Fortification Office. While he was a bit bland in most regards, with no applicable war experience or technical skills, he did bring with him the favor of the Fortification Office, to be expressed through the medium of lots of money; enough that you could probably work through two straight weeks of testing. The fact this would also increase the ability of your passive fortifications was nice, you supposed, but wasn't really part of your wheelhouse.
Either way, with the requirements set up and your potential staff laid out on the slab in front of you, it was time to get to work.
-/-/-/-/-/
VOTES
Choose four; no plan voting. Four highest will be selected.
[] Captain Ernest Vroom
[] Captain Martin Vandievoet
[] Dr. Robert Montragard
[] R Eng. Gellert Istvan
[] Lieutenant de vaisseau Matis Fyn
[] Captain Dirck Lasoon
And standby you did, as the months passed and the rollout started. While there were few snags with production, things were going swimmingly until the Joint Army Reorganization Office decided that the standard infantry platoon needed to be modified heavily. Instead of the previous fifty-plus man platoon, the platoon was getting reduced down to three eight-man fire teams comprised of a Madsen gun, grenade projector or rifle grenadier, two ammobearers, three riflemen, and a sergeant; as well as a four-man leadership section consisting of the lieutenant, a pair of runners, and a radio/telephone signalman. With this redesign underway, demand exploded, and the units that were being formed in the JARO test brigade enjoyed your grenade projector.
Between this and the fact the Test Brigade was hoovering up officers left and right, you were promoted to Major for your hard work. Incidentally, this also let Klaes get promoted and transferred into the Rail Service, leaving you as de-facto head of the SABOT board. This was both good, since you weren't going to buck the work down to a junior captain, and bad, since you were now expected to keep track of a number of the pressing issues of the new and reunified Kingdom of Burgundy, since that seemed to be the preferred going title for the united Beneloux.
About a month of work continued apace, in which time about a half-dozen Usual and Sundry Items crossed through the SABOT board's area of responsibility. While putting your support next to obvious decisions (adopting the mg15nA, standardizing the NCO corps on the Bergman 1910, universal issue of a new helmet) and downplaying the more ridiculous concepts to come about (adoption of the Anglo-American Flame Bayonet, issuing white phosphorus rounds as general purpose smoke munitions, buying Bofors 2pdr copies for general issue) you managed to accrue a decent stock of political capitol.
That's when The Request hit your desk. The JARO had done another round of experiments and wargames, and the current crux of the matter of defense was anti-walker weapons. German landships were an undeniable danger to the burgeoning federation, but currently the Koninklijke Luchtmacht, or Royal Dutch Air Force, claimed to have a means to defeat the behemoths with their Fokker bombers carrying a standoff munition controlled through a command cable. It was the smaller beasts, unfortunately, that the JARO was worried about.
To be fair, this was a legitimate concern. In the War, sturmpanzer regiments handily overran most of the border region, and in the subsequent fighting had continually been a great danger for all involved parties in the region for their ability to quickly force a fracture point in battle.
Your request, shortly put, was broken down into two parts, to be completed consecutively. First, you had to develop an anti-walker weapon to be assigned to an anti-walker company, which would be distributed to the battalion level units and likely broken down into two oversized platoons to assist the line companies. Second, building off your anti-walker company, you were to design a supporting system to develop an anti-walker battalion, which would then be assigned on the divisional level and contain the aforementioned companies as well as an additional operational arm for engaging threats above and beyond local battalion response.
You were starting to see why Klaes had fled this job so readily.
First things first, however, was sweeping the previous SABOT board under the rug. Political machinations were not going to get the weapons you needed developed, and if anyone complained about poor oversight then the devil take the hindmost. You were fairly confident you could assemble a team of actual experts and still compose the constituent members of the Kingdom at this time.
Then came assembly of the new board. In exchange for the shovelling of the last staff into the void of JARO, your new, slimmed-down five man board had one slot preemptively filled by Captain Jacob Jurien, a member of the Belgian Army and one of the previous anti-walker specialists from before the War. He'd aged reasonably well, was only short one eye, and as typical for most Belgian specialists, still had part of his menagerie with him at all times instead of a sidearm. In his case, a large dog with a harness holding several thermite grenades and a slow match in a jawlock. Fortunately, the match was not kept lit at the office. The man was quiet, reasonably personable, and tended to keep to himself in the office. Interestingly enough, he shied away from drink, instead preferring to smoke cigars in secluded corners. His only real interaction of note was to warn you the Belgian Headquarters was getting twitchy on the increased mechanization of the Joint Army Reorganization Office, and if you could help balance things out they would be willing to move you a few bennies.
Of the advisors you could choose from, there were many. While you theoretically had run of the JARO building, practically you needed to be conscious of both rank and general availability. That said, off the bat there were several names that stood out to you.
Captain Ernest Vroom was currently available to tap, the designer of your previous adoption, the Grenade Projector. Prior to this, he had spent the intervening month working on professional development, learning French and developing new contacts in the Bergman factories.
Captain Martin Vandievoet was also available, recently released from assisting in teaching a class of animal handlers for the Garde Sanitaire. He was a qualified animal handler and teacher, and more importantly had finished familiarizing himself with the current standing stock of the Belgian Army's fabricated animal corps.
A civilian expert, Dr. Robert Montragard, had been contacted by Jurien for his assistance in developing new-model warbeasts. With a doctorate in Natural Philosophy from the Institut national des sciences appliquées de Lyon and four years as a developer for the French Cavalry branch, Dr. Montragard's resume was very well developed. As a civilian, his inclusion would be less than ideal to the Dutch, but they couldn't complain overmuch at the minute.
R Eng. Gellert Istvan was another board option. A registered engineer from Hungary, he had spent most of the war working on design and development of new cavalryman weapons. What had drawn him to the board's attention, however, was his work in developing the pre-war Steyr Elefantjaeger rifle in a custom 11x95mm cartridge, based loosely on the .450 Nitro Express round. As the gun itself had come highly recommended by German attaches in the Dutch army, he was a natural inclusion in the board while he was available (as currently he was fighting a patent infringement lawsuit in England over said rifle)
Lieutenant de vaisseau Matis Fyn, a sendover from the Joint Naval Integration Office, was also made available to your team for this operation. Fluent in English, French, Dutch, and German, his multilingual nature was extremely useful even if his wartime experience had been more in terms of working with the unterseepanzer prevention teams. Still, his experience in operating anti-walker weapons effectively was enough to get him recommended to your board quite strongly.
Last, but certainly not least, was Captain Dirck Lasoon from the Fortification Office. While he was a bit bland in most regards, with no applicable war experience or technical skills, he did bring with him the favor of the Fortification Office, to be expressed through the medium of lots of money; enough that you could probably work through two straight weeks of testing. The fact this would also increase the ability of your passive fortifications was nice, you supposed, but wasn't really part of your wheelhouse.
Either way, with the requirements set up and your potential staff laid out on the slab in front of you, it was time to get to work.
-/-/-/-/-/
VOTES
Choose four; no plan voting. Four highest will be selected.
[] Captain Ernest Vroom
[] Captain Martin Vandievoet
[] Dr. Robert Montragard
[] R Eng. Gellert Istvan
[] Lieutenant de vaisseau Matis Fyn
[] Captain Dirck Lasoon
Happerry
Bat out of Hell
- Location
- Kanto
[X] Captain Dirck Lasoon
MONEY. Being able to actually test shit is important.
[X] Lieutenant de vaisseau Matis Fyn
Able to talk to anyone and seemingly the only option with active experience shooting enemy walkers. Looks like a good choice to me..
[X] Captain Martin Vandievoet
We need at least one animal expert, and I'd prefer the one in the military over the civilian if only because the civilian is the one that is noted to annoy people if you choose him.
[X] Captain Ernest Vroom
We also need a not-Animal Expert, and this is the one that isn't going to be distracted and out of the country half the time.
MONEY. Being able to actually test shit is important.
[X] Lieutenant de vaisseau Matis Fyn
Able to talk to anyone and seemingly the only option with active experience shooting enemy walkers. Looks like a good choice to me..
[X] Captain Martin Vandievoet
We need at least one animal expert, and I'd prefer the one in the military over the civilian if only because the civilian is the one that is noted to annoy people if you choose him.
[X] Captain Ernest Vroom
We also need a not-Animal Expert, and this is the one that isn't going to be distracted and out of the country half the time.
Easter
Laziest lazier
- Location
- Bed
[X] Captain Ernest Vroom
[X] Captain Martin Vandievoet
[X] Lieutenant de vaisseau Matis Fyn
[X] Captain Dirck Lasoon
I agree with the previous vote pretty much.
As for Anti-walker items that I can think of I'm thinking either a auto cannon, early RPG, or a weasel like creature that can dodge its way to the walker climb up and then sneak through one of the windows or hatches
[X] Captain Martin Vandievoet
[X] Lieutenant de vaisseau Matis Fyn
[X] Captain Dirck Lasoon
I agree with the previous vote pretty much.
As for Anti-walker items that I can think of I'm thinking either a auto cannon, early RPG, or a weasel like creature that can dodge its way to the walker climb up and then sneak through one of the windows or hatches
- Location
- Minnesota
[X] Captain Ernest Vroom
[X] Captain Martin Vandievoet
[X] Lieutenant de vaisseau Matis Fyn
[X] Captain Dirck Lasoon
[X] Captain Martin Vandievoet
[X] Lieutenant de vaisseau Matis Fyn
[X] Captain Dirck Lasoon
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Captain Ernest Vroom
[X] Captain Martin Vandievoet
[X] Lieutenant de vaisseau Matis Fyn
[X] Captain Dirck Lasoon
[X] Captain Martin Vandievoet
[X] Lieutenant de vaisseau Matis Fyn
[X] Captain Dirck Lasoon
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
Between two and eight, generally trending towards the lower end. Ironically, the Germans trend towards less armored vehicles, and the most common threat this thing's going to have to face are machinegewehrwalken or light (37-75mm) artillery platforms. However, there's the very real threat they're going to actually pull out the sturmpanzerwalken, and, well, this has to have some reliability against that too.
And boy howdy, those things are in fact tough bastards. However, most of what you're going to be dealing with is closer to this.
Ironically, war weasels are one of the principle creatures that the English used in the trenches to serve as an anti-sapper weapon. Most of the order Rodentia have served in some capacity with great distinction.
Easter
Laziest lazier
- Location
- Bed
I forgot just how cool the walkers look like in this universe, I always loved that they actually look like an actual warmachine rather than a giant human robot like alot of other mech universes.Between two and eight, generally trending towards the lower end. Ironically, the Germans trend towards less armored vehicles, and the most common threat this thing's going to have to face are machinegewehrwalken or light (37-75mm) artillery platforms. However, there's the very real threat they're going to actually pull out the sturmpanzerwalken, and, well, this has to have some reliability against that too.
And boy howdy, those things are in fact tough bastards. However, most of what you're going to be dealing with is closer to this.
Ironically, war weasels are one of the principle creatures that the English used in the trenches to serve as an anti-sapper weapon. Most of the order Rodentia have served in some capacity with great distinction.
Also good to know, it does make sense that rodents would be a go to for warbeasts.
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
yeah, rodents get so much milage it's not even funny. I have in the notes somewhere that beavers are a massive part of the logistics effort, because beaver construction teams are that freaking good. It's where most of the good trenches and bunkers come from that the Entente manages to put together. Also, for a scale model for the war ferrets
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Like that. Except trying to kill you.
That's basically what Jurien's dog is: the dog is trained to position a slow match, haul out a thermite grenade, run up to a walker, light the grenade, and jam it in the ground by a foot before running. It (kind of) worked, too, provided the walker was stationary.
Easter
Laziest lazier
- Location
- Bed
Speaking of logistics Bio-machines has anyone used bee's for it? I would imagine that bee's using concrete or a stronger version of wax would be pretty great for construction, though probably not so great for trenches compared to beavers.yeah, rodents get so much milage it's not even funny. I have in the notes somewhere that beavers are a massive part of the logistics effort, because beaver construction teams are that freaking good. It's where most of the good trenches and bunkers come from that the Entente manages to put together. Also, for a scale model for the war ferrets
Like that. Except trying to kill you.
That's basically what Jurien's dog is: the dog is trained to position a slow match, haul out a thermite grenade, run up to a walker, light the grenade, and jam it in the ground by a foot before running. It (kind of) worked, too, provided the walker was stationary.
Warmach1ne32
Machine of War and Quests
- Location
- Indonesia
An Animal version of Red Alert's Terror Drone is also a likely solution that can also fill a similar role to the War Otters.
[X] Captain Ernest Vroom
[X] Captain Martin Vandievoet
[X] Lieutenant de vaisseau Matis Fyn
[X] Captain Dirck Lasoon
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
Bees are actually generally used in food production and as part of the support network for forage and feedstock beasts. It takes a lot of work to get a meat cow up to size, especially when you have less than a year to get that thing from born to twenty-nine stone for slaughtering.
Remember, training animals is hard and handlers do get attached. The less survivable your animals, the more likely bad shit will happen. This really bit the English in the ass, since they used a lot of expendable rodents, which, well, were not always expended. There's a reason the zone rouge is still very, very restricted access and remediation efforts haven't been started.
Easter
Laziest lazier
- Location
- Bed
Killing the crew would work aswell, so something like a beast that could get into the walker cabin and at the crew or a concentrated gas weapon might work depending on how secure the cabins are.
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
Explosions work better.
Computing is either ahead of or behind OTL depending on who you're looking at. The Austrians have some basic electromechanical computers, the British are still chugging along on Babbage Analytical engines. Marchant calculators are, for those in German-speaking areas, not uncommon, and if need be you could probably get a computational device commissioned for a specific task that is highly repeatable. The question is cost; your budget is not unlimited.
Easter
Laziest lazier
- Location
- Bed
Ahh true, with how, comparably, cheap electronics are today I forgot how expensive they were back then. Definitely not a cheap option for a while at least, though it would of been an interesting thing to look into if we were focusing on the type of stuff like landships or airships.
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
You don't know. The big land ships you do know, it's literally imposible to do that to.
You can try, but that will be... well... good luck.
Yeah it's hella difficult to get computational power for most things. If you did have a set of calculators or something, it would put you head and shoulders of most of the other parts of JARO.