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Strategic Arms, Beasts, Operations, and Tactics Quest
- Thread starter 7734
- Start date
Contest 2: Anti-Walker Weapons, Step 2: Writing a Request for Information
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
The anti-walker project got to work rather quickly as you assembled the board and began the requirements. Despite clearing the project board of all political appointees of the previous moves, you quickly found a large, ugly deadlock in the middle of affairs. The worst part was, you really should have seen this coming.
Jurien, appointed by the Belgians, had been sent with the very specific goal to prevent Clanker influence inasmuch as possible, with his position being that any ending system needed to be, if not based in a war-beast, than at least be integrated with such creatures as to continue to force Dutch units to accept joining the Army Reorganization Initiative so they could be stripped down for spare formations, receive a token element of Belgian troops, and then be put under Joint Command.
Lasoon, a crony of the Fortification Office and therefore as deep in the Dutch pocket as was physically possible, had the opinion that any system that was adopted needed to minimize fabricated beasts in order to minimize stand down costs during interwar periods. A major problem with fabricated beasts was that one couldn't just spin up the factory: you fought a war with what you had.
It was a problematic fact that the largest part of any wartime production would be spent trying to shore up formations that had been completely decimated. Information gleaned from the French had revealed that despite producing nearly ten thousand porcine warbeasts over the course of the two years of war, only four thousand of them had actually been deployed due to the time to grow them to a non-juvenile stage where they had completed their bone development and were trained and bonded with handlers to an acceptable margin.
As that fight raged in the background, you started working with the rest of the board, attempting to figure out what needed doing.
Fyn was a pragmatic man, not much given to grand gestures. In his experience, there were three main concerns when it came to killing a walker. First, there was the concern of hitting it; not exactly easy when the only time one held still was to shoot you with the main gun. The second main concern was hitting it with something powerful enough to actually do some reliable damage. Serving on the French torpedo-boat destroyer Cyclone, his experience has mostly devolved to having the 47mm Hotchkiss engage the problem, as the ships' two 75mm guns couldn't track the targets well enough, and this was more than capable of knocking the things down. The 37mm guns could also semi-reliably score kills, but they had issues. Fyn's guess was that there was too much energy loss, as most of the kills had been at short ranges in surprise situations. The final concern was not dying when it inevitably started shooting at you: most walkers were, in his experience, armed with between one and three machine guns, and all of them would be desperately trying to shoot an attacker.
Vandievoet was unusually quiet, until he started explaining his understanding of the situation. The previous anti-walker system- the minelaying dogs and Thermite Hounds- had been horribly ineffective. Unless you were willing to attempt to develop something as good as or better at close combat and resistant to shell-firing guns, Vandievot actually recommended a dual-operator system, something like one of the Greater Warwolves that had been phased out in the '90s armed with one operator of a technological weapon and one handler. There was no substitute for a proper beast for mobility, and to be frank whatever your dedicated company came up with, it would also need transport.
Vroom didn't have a lot of initial ideas. This was not a good sign. Under pressure, he admitted that for directly disabling a walker, the best plan was to be a large-caliber shell with either a high impact energy or high explosive effect. Kinetic or explosive energy would be the order of the day. To this end, his primary concept was to either develop a high-power rifle based off a stopping gun, or a barrage rocket to ensure that one projectile hit the damn walker.
Once you got Jurien on his own, his specifications were a bit more clear. He wanted some, any fabricated beast integration, and was willing to compromise to get it. The existing anti-walker beast production, however, was in tatters- but the trainers were intact. His wealth of wartime experience was quite appreciated, as he briefed you on the Before Times.
Previously, there were two types of anti-armor fabricated beast. The first were minelaying dogs, designed to operate a simple weapon; a high explosive mine on a travois. The dogs would be released, move in to about fifty meters or when the pack started taking casualties, and then drop their travois in a loose line abreast about four deep, spreading an (ideal) sixty mines in four columns armed and ready. The mines would either detonate when stepped on, or when a long reed was snapped, pulling a detonation cord. Effectiveness was low, and mine-clearing was hazardous if the attack was poorly planned. The second were Thermite Hounds, which used the far more expedient measure of running up under cover, jamming a thermite grenade into the joints of the machine, and pulling the fuze as it left. While more casualty-prone, the Thermite Hounds were also far more effective.
Lasoon, however, had no real opinions or even two spare brain cells to rub together. His plan was entirely based around securing an improved one-pounder machine gun, installing it in bunkers large and small, and calling it a day. Worse, his nasal voice was grating and his manners were atrocious. Still, you learned some about the Fortified Military Zone.
In order to defend against another German assault, everything within eight kilometers of the border was part of the Initial Military Zone. In case of a war, this was assumed to be lost territory; however it was territory you did have expertly surveyed. At the end of this were the first round of small outpost bunkers and fortified positions, designed to let local militia rally and hold out as long as possible. This was also expected to be expended valiantly, but more importantly also served as the first serious resistance and a place to start shelling embattled enemies. The main line of resistance was about twelve kilometers into the country, and was both where professional troops were stationed, and where most of the artillery park was prepositioned. In this six kilometer deep defensive belt, riddled with blockhouses, bunkers, underground fortifications, overland fortifications, and more artillery than you could shake a stick at.
With all this information, you got to work. There would need to be a Request for Quotes soon, but you needed to hash out a preliminary set of requirements to see what, exactly, you could work with. A Request for Information, if you will.
-----
VOTES
Choose 3; top 3 will be included in next update. No plan vote, it messes up the counter.
Request for Domestic Products
[]: Request for Fabricated Animals (covering all genetically modified creatures)
[]: Request for Traditional Arms (covering all guns and artillery)
[]: Request for Bespoke Weapons (covering all unique items and cranks in sheds)
Request a country for Foreign Material (covering that country's specialty: Clankers produce tech, Darwinists produce beasts)
[] Germany
[] France
[] Austria-Hungary
[] United Kingdom
[] America
[] Russia
[] The Ottoman State
[] Other (write-in, tag me in so I can clarify if this is a Darwinist or Clanker country)
Jurien, appointed by the Belgians, had been sent with the very specific goal to prevent Clanker influence inasmuch as possible, with his position being that any ending system needed to be, if not based in a war-beast, than at least be integrated with such creatures as to continue to force Dutch units to accept joining the Army Reorganization Initiative so they could be stripped down for spare formations, receive a token element of Belgian troops, and then be put under Joint Command.
Lasoon, a crony of the Fortification Office and therefore as deep in the Dutch pocket as was physically possible, had the opinion that any system that was adopted needed to minimize fabricated beasts in order to minimize stand down costs during interwar periods. A major problem with fabricated beasts was that one couldn't just spin up the factory: you fought a war with what you had.
It was a problematic fact that the largest part of any wartime production would be spent trying to shore up formations that had been completely decimated. Information gleaned from the French had revealed that despite producing nearly ten thousand porcine warbeasts over the course of the two years of war, only four thousand of them had actually been deployed due to the time to grow them to a non-juvenile stage where they had completed their bone development and were trained and bonded with handlers to an acceptable margin.
As that fight raged in the background, you started working with the rest of the board, attempting to figure out what needed doing.
Fyn was a pragmatic man, not much given to grand gestures. In his experience, there were three main concerns when it came to killing a walker. First, there was the concern of hitting it; not exactly easy when the only time one held still was to shoot you with the main gun. The second main concern was hitting it with something powerful enough to actually do some reliable damage. Serving on the French torpedo-boat destroyer Cyclone, his experience has mostly devolved to having the 47mm Hotchkiss engage the problem, as the ships' two 75mm guns couldn't track the targets well enough, and this was more than capable of knocking the things down. The 37mm guns could also semi-reliably score kills, but they had issues. Fyn's guess was that there was too much energy loss, as most of the kills had been at short ranges in surprise situations. The final concern was not dying when it inevitably started shooting at you: most walkers were, in his experience, armed with between one and three machine guns, and all of them would be desperately trying to shoot an attacker.
Vandievoet was unusually quiet, until he started explaining his understanding of the situation. The previous anti-walker system- the minelaying dogs and Thermite Hounds- had been horribly ineffective. Unless you were willing to attempt to develop something as good as or better at close combat and resistant to shell-firing guns, Vandievot actually recommended a dual-operator system, something like one of the Greater Warwolves that had been phased out in the '90s armed with one operator of a technological weapon and one handler. There was no substitute for a proper beast for mobility, and to be frank whatever your dedicated company came up with, it would also need transport.
Vroom didn't have a lot of initial ideas. This was not a good sign. Under pressure, he admitted that for directly disabling a walker, the best plan was to be a large-caliber shell with either a high impact energy or high explosive effect. Kinetic or explosive energy would be the order of the day. To this end, his primary concept was to either develop a high-power rifle based off a stopping gun, or a barrage rocket to ensure that one projectile hit the damn walker.
Once you got Jurien on his own, his specifications were a bit more clear. He wanted some, any fabricated beast integration, and was willing to compromise to get it. The existing anti-walker beast production, however, was in tatters- but the trainers were intact. His wealth of wartime experience was quite appreciated, as he briefed you on the Before Times.
Previously, there were two types of anti-armor fabricated beast. The first were minelaying dogs, designed to operate a simple weapon; a high explosive mine on a travois. The dogs would be released, move in to about fifty meters or when the pack started taking casualties, and then drop their travois in a loose line abreast about four deep, spreading an (ideal) sixty mines in four columns armed and ready. The mines would either detonate when stepped on, or when a long reed was snapped, pulling a detonation cord. Effectiveness was low, and mine-clearing was hazardous if the attack was poorly planned. The second were Thermite Hounds, which used the far more expedient measure of running up under cover, jamming a thermite grenade into the joints of the machine, and pulling the fuze as it left. While more casualty-prone, the Thermite Hounds were also far more effective.
Lasoon, however, had no real opinions or even two spare brain cells to rub together. His plan was entirely based around securing an improved one-pounder machine gun, installing it in bunkers large and small, and calling it a day. Worse, his nasal voice was grating and his manners were atrocious. Still, you learned some about the Fortified Military Zone.
In order to defend against another German assault, everything within eight kilometers of the border was part of the Initial Military Zone. In case of a war, this was assumed to be lost territory; however it was territory you did have expertly surveyed. At the end of this were the first round of small outpost bunkers and fortified positions, designed to let local militia rally and hold out as long as possible. This was also expected to be expended valiantly, but more importantly also served as the first serious resistance and a place to start shelling embattled enemies. The main line of resistance was about twelve kilometers into the country, and was both where professional troops were stationed, and where most of the artillery park was prepositioned. In this six kilometer deep defensive belt, riddled with blockhouses, bunkers, underground fortifications, overland fortifications, and more artillery than you could shake a stick at.
With all this information, you got to work. There would need to be a Request for Quotes soon, but you needed to hash out a preliminary set of requirements to see what, exactly, you could work with. A Request for Information, if you will.
-----
VOTES
Choose 3; top 3 will be included in next update. No plan vote, it messes up the counter.
Request for Domestic Products
[]: Request for Fabricated Animals (covering all genetically modified creatures)
[]: Request for Traditional Arms (covering all guns and artillery)
[]: Request for Bespoke Weapons (covering all unique items and cranks in sheds)
Request a country for Foreign Material (covering that country's specialty: Clankers produce tech, Darwinists produce beasts)
[] Germany
[] France
[] Austria-Hungary
[] United Kingdom
[] America
[] Russia
[] The Ottoman State
[] Other (write-in, tag me in so I can clarify if this is a Darwinist or Clanker country)
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
What's the status of foreign relations/alliance blocs here? As historical (in which case is the new kingdom a Belgian successor state and thus party to Belgian neutrality?) Or are things much more in flux?
Tentatively,
[X] America
At least in OTL, American artillery, and the American fire direction system far surpasses anybody else's. We don't have much space or manpower to give up, so there are worse things than building an institution capable of obliterating grid squares on command.
Tentatively,
[X] America
At least in OTL, American artillery, and the American fire direction system far surpasses anybody else's. We don't have much space or manpower to give up, so there are worse things than building an institution capable of obliterating grid squares on command.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[x] : Request for Traditional Arms (covering all guns and artillery)
[x] America
[x] The Ottoman State
[x] America
[x] The Ottoman State
- Location
- British Columbia, Canada
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X]: Request for Fabricated Animals (covering all genetically modified creatures)
[X]: Request for Traditional Arms (covering all guns and artillery)
I am sticking with the idea of a heavy anti walker cavalry, any beast we pick should be able to mesh well with our logistics divisions so we don't have to deal with low population numbers in the outbreak of war.
[X]: Request for Traditional Arms (covering all guns and artillery)
I am sticking with the idea of a heavy anti walker cavalry, any beast we pick should be able to mesh well with our logistics divisions so we don't have to deal with low population numbers in the outbreak of war.
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
Reminder guys, you can choose three places to request information from. There's no reward for only grabbing two.
(And for anyone wondering, Vroom is garunteed to send in at least one entry to the competition, possibly two depending on his backstage roll)
(And for anyone wondering, Vroom is garunteed to send in at least one entry to the competition, possibly two depending on his backstage roll)
Happerry
Bat out of Hell
- Location
- Kanto
Makes sense to me. I don't have any clue which nation can offer what though. Anyone got some advice for that? Or should we just call out the mad scientists?
[X]: Request for Fabricated Animals (covering all genetically modified creatures)
[X]: Request for Traditional Arms (covering all guns and artillery)
Last edited:
- Location
- Minnesota
[X]: Request for Fabricated Animals (covering all genetically modified creatures)
[X]: Request for Traditional Arms (covering all guns and artillery)
[X] America
[X]: Request for Traditional Arms (covering all guns and artillery)
[X] America
- Location
- USA
[X]: Request for Fabricated Animals (covering all genetically modified creatures)
[X]: Request for Traditional Arms (covering all guns and artillery)
[X] America
[X]: Request for Traditional Arms (covering all guns and artillery)
[X] America
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
[X]: Request for Fabricated Animals (covering all genetically modified creatures)
[X] America
[X] United Kingdom
[X] America
[X] United Kingdom
Exterminatus
Tsukumogami User
- Location
- Southern California
[X]: Request for Fabricated Animals (covering all genetically modified creatures)
[X]: Request for Traditional Arms (covering all guns and artillery)
[X] America
[X]: Request for Traditional Arms (covering all guns and artillery)
[X] America