Tacit Ronin vs. The World II: KRAUN Jewels

[EvaUnit01]

My only concern for a plan is that I'd like to start expanding into a second city ASAP.

And I probably wouldn't mind hunting down one of those Cat 3s, either.

 

[hYGP]

Honestly, considering the bugs it's got (the lack of stopping is probably less important than the lack of steering and the loss of action economy due to needing resupply between uses), combined with the small scale we're operating on at the moment, I'm not sure we even NEED a Skadi yet. After we get a second city, definitely, but right now? If you can name something it'll add to our forces' abilities RIGHT NOW, I'll consider compromising by swapping out one of my research actions for building one.

Also, I think you're overhunting here. Just a personal opinion, and possibly a controversial one. Plus you're neglecting the automated scanners, which trades one action NOW for a free scan every turn for basically the rest of the game.

Click to shrink...

Essentially? The Skadi lets us immediately deploy Phenom Sable into Kaiju faces at point-blank range on hunts. That's a big something.

And honestly? The Scanning action gives us one extra action for the rest of the game, when we decide to hunt. Getting the Resources to get another city up sooner? That's a big deal.

My only concern for a plan is that I'd like to start expanding into a second city ASAP.

And I probably wouldn't mind hunting down one of those Cat 3s, either.

Click to shrink...

How about getting both to convince other voters for setting up other cities with lots of Resources?

 

[Fyrstorm]

Pretty much. I assumed the Control System would be an Augment/Mod and the Bits/Fangs would be closer to normal equipment we can equip and change as needed, what with all the talk of different models of Fangs for each Jaeger.

By the way, I still want to give Phenom BIG SCARY FLOATING HANDS at some point.

If we can develop the Remote Weapon System without having to research the Control System separately, then I'll change the wording.

Click to shrink...

Honestly? That''s probably how it'd work. As for developing stuff, I'd say you could hypothetically research both the Control System and the Remote Weapons simultaneously-- it's just gonna be a lot more difficult to do, since you're attempting to do two things with the same research group, rather than delegation of tasks between multiple groups.

Also, your mentioning of "big scary floating hands" has reminded me of slightly larger things that would count a "Remote Weapons Systems".

Namely, rocket fists.

Seriously, unless they're an emergency "oh fuck, need to literally shoot my arm off to kill this thing" move, you'll need them to come back, or have some sort of aiming ability, and the RWS is probably the best way to do that (the other way would be having the things be wire-guided).

 

[LostDeviljho]

@Highwind I'd like to finally actually research some blueprints for a Thor tank, if you have a spare con research.

 

[Sir Plusse]

Essentially? The Skadi lets us immediately deploy Phenom Sable into Kaiju faces at point-blank range on hunts. That's a big something.

Click to shrink...

Honestly, I don't consider this a very convincing argument, but it IS a valid use for a Skadi that we can immediately exploit, so, as promised, I'll give building one due consideration. (Not revising my plan just yet, since I'm still not certain it's worth it, but it's at least more likely for me to suggest it in the near future than it was before.)

 

[Fyrstorm]

Fyr art coming really soon, guys!

 

[Fyrstorm]

So. At long last, here's the picture I promised-- and an explanation as well.

Remember this post from 252?

So, one more time, can we please state explicitly which version of the plan we are using, and which direction (if any) our giant robot lady is strolling? Please?

Click to shrink...

Well, I don't know if any of you noticed (mainly because nobody mentioned it), but there was a bit of invisitext as well;

Hm... giant robot lady. Note to self: draw Jagdhund as a Franxx at some point.

Click to shrink...

And it should be pretty obvious by now that yes, I finally drew it. Thus, I give you this extremely non-canonical crossover pic. Enjoy!

Spoiler: Jagdhund in the Franxx

I... I may want to do ones of Tacit and Phenom as well at some point. Just a little.

(Honestly, the torso proportions feel a bit off to me, but other than that I'm... well, I'm pretty darn satisfied with my attempt to translate Jagdhund's design into a Franxx unit, especially considering it was my first time drawing one.)

 

[EvaUnit01]

How about getting both to convince other voters for setting up other cities with lots of Resources?

Click to shrink...

Stuck on mobile until further notice. My ability to keep up with the thread and contribute is highly limited.

 

[Nixeu]

I will say, while I am a little sad that Laidon wasn't able to show off its cool melee abilities, and died the instant you got into melee (seriously, conventional forces are supposed to be auxiliary, stop using them as your main damage dealers!) but it did manage to survive your conventionals for several rounds (barely), do some damage in return, and show off some cool stuff. Plus, it's given me lots of data for the next few kaiju to use... heh heh heh...

Click to shrink...

It's kind of inevitable. Unless the conventionals are utterly ineffective, or very low in number, they're going to have more guns, and thus do more damage, than our Jaegers. Well, I guess our Jaegers could also just do ridiculous amounts of damage. Quantity has a quality all of it's own, as they say.

As Laidon's corpse is cordoned off, Kaiju Science sets to work on their usual examinations-- and it's pretty interesting. While its specialised armour isn't exactly new, and its burrowing ability has been seen before, both of these appear more advanced and thought out in their integration. There's also something that explains its energy weapons, and why-- despite having them-- its radiation levels were low: it's battery powered.

Well, not exactly. But the truth is that the glowing orange fluid in its body tissues (which resulted in high toxicity readings) is some kind of chemical that acts like a high-power battery fluid. This was notably harnessed in its optical ray attack-- the unique structure, chemical reactant, and internal humours of the eyes allowed them to produce a powerful, long-range, and highly efficient ultraviolet laser, practically at will. Readings from the battle suggest that these far outstrip the performance of Neo-Seattle's current Laser Vulcans. Their only downside seems to be the cycling rate of the mechanism-- analysis of the light ray mechanisms shows that they can only fire a four second pulse once every ten seconds or so.

Click to shrink...

Now that's interesting. A completely fluid energy storage medium...hm. We have any idea if this was working like a regular battery, with an anode and a cathode, or if this is just space-magic juice? Because not needing to use a traditional battery structure could be quite useful. Admittedly, I'm not an expert on the topic, but I do have a 'consultant' (read: 'stepfather') who might know more.

With decontamination beginning, and most of the forces back at base, it's time for the NPPDC to get back to work.

Click to shrink...

"So we get to deal with Kaiju Blue and an electrically charged liquid? Christmas has come early, I see. I just know some idiot is going to get themselves zapped..."

--[] Contact KRAUN about the Jagdgewehr's ammo and blueprints again. (Comms)

Click to shrink...

We really should get around to scanning our potential base locations soon. We have to do it sooner or later, and having to rush and blow multiple actions on it would suck.

Everett is far-and-away the one with the most potential, assuming either it's naval facilities or airplane factory is repairable. The next best one is probably Redmond, which had a lot of computer tech companies, including Microsoft and Nintendo (either of which would make excellent command centers), and is fairly intact.

Of the remainder, Olympia had several colleges, which could grant research bonuses (but is the furtherest away, far enough to make support much more difficult), and Tacoma also has several colleges (more than Olympia), an oil refinery, and an joint Army/Air Force base 9 or so miles away. Olympia's probably too much effort, so that leaves Everett, Redmond, and Tacoma.

Naval Station Kitsap is potentially an option, but is likely a much bigger project than any of the other options. It's pretty majorly smashed, and, while some aspects of it's infrastructure are likely to have survived, we'd probably be best off salvaging what we can, and moving it elsewhere. It's likely too wrecked to be worth the time and effort it would take to make it operational again.

Plus, Naval Station Kitsap is huge, taking up quite a lot of acreage. It's basically two bases, one for subs and one for carriers, that are cosidered a single base mostly for administrative purposes, from what I can tell. Securing that much space is going to be difficult. It's also, again, going to cost us a lot of resources to do effectively.

Of course, there is always my idea of turning it into a joint Seattle/KRAUN military base. Between the two of us, we could probably secure that much territory. It would likely strengthen our alliance, to be actively collaborating on something like that, and would make things much cheaper for us. They also have reasons to go sailing across the Pacific, and having a place to build and dry dock really big boats could be appealing for them.

On a completely unrelated note, has anyone considered building more Kaiju Salvage facilities? We have five spare manufacturing slots, and increasing our Resource gains from Kaiju just before going on a hunt could be rather beneficial. Especially since we'll need every last bit we can get.

 

[hYGP]

It's kind of inevitable. Unless the conventionals are utterly ineffective, or very low in number, they're going to have more guns, and thus do more damage, than our Jaegers. Well, I guess our Jaegers could also just do ridiculous amounts of damage. Quantity has a quality all of it's own, as they say.

Now that's interesting. A completely fluid energy storage medium...hm. We have any idea if this was working like a regular battery, with an anode and a cathode, or if this is just space-magic juice? Because not needing to use a traditional battery structure could be quite useful. Admittedly, I'm not an expert on the topic, but I do have a 'consultant' (read: 'stepfather') who might know more.

"So we get to deal with Kaiju Blue and an electrically charged liquid? Christmas has come early, I see. I just know some idiot is going to get themselves zapped..."

We really should get around to scanning our potential base locations soon. We have to do it sooner or later, and having to rush and blow multiple actions on it would suck.

Everett is far-and-away the one with the most potential, assuming either it's naval facilities or airplane factory is repairable. The next best one is probably Redmond, which had a lot of computer tech companies, including Microsoft and Nintendo (either of which would make excellent command centers), and is fairly intact.

Of the remainder, Olympia had several colleges, which could grant research bonuses (but is the furtherest away, far enough to make support much more difficult), and Tacoma also has several colleges (more than Olympia), an oil refinery, and an joint Army/Air Force base 9 or so miles away. Olympia's probably too much effort, so that leaves Everett, Redmond, and Tacoma.

Naval Station Kitsap is potentially an option, but is likely a much bigger project than any of the other options. It's pretty majorly smashed, and, while some aspects of it's infrastructure are likely to have survived, we'd probably be best off salvaging what we can, and moving it elsewhere. It's likely too wrecked to be worth the time and effort it would take to make it operational again.

Plus, Naval Station Kitsap is huge, taking up quite a lot of acreage. It's basically two bases, one for subs and one for carriers, that are cosidered a single base mostly for administrative purposes, from what I can tell. Securing that much space is going to be difficult. It's also, again, going to cost us a lot of resources to do effectively.

Of course, there is always my idea of turning it into a joint Seattle/KRAUN military base. Between the two of us, we could probably secure that much territory. It would likely strengthen our alliance, to be actively collaborating on something like that, and would make things much cheaper for us. They also have reasons to go sailing across the Pacific, and having a place to build and dry dock really big boats could be appealing for them.

On a completely unrelated note, has anyone considered building more Kaiju Salvage facilities? We have five spare manufacturing slots, and increasing our Resource gains from Kaiju just before going on a hunt could be rather beneficial. Especially since we'll need every last bit we can get.

Click to shrink...

Curses, stop making me flip-flop between scanning Everett and Kitsap!

Stuck on mobile until further notice. My ability to keep up with the thread and contribute is highly limited.

Click to shrink...

Okay. High level summary of my plan:

• Hunting both Cat IIIs
• Build (singular) Skadi
• K-Science Lab
• Increase Jaeger firepower
• Scan Everett

Full plan:
[X] Plan Last Hunt Of Winter
-[X] Normal Actions:
--[X] Build a K-Science Lab (-1000R)
--[X] Install the Dolch Gewehr on Jagdhund's shoulder
--[X] Run Rime down
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Run Tara down
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Build a Dolch Gewehr (-3000 R)
--[X] Build a Skadi (-5800R)
-[X] Free Actions
--[X] [Free] [Jaeger] Phenom Tou x20
--[X] [Free] [Jaeger] (suggest something please)
--[X] [Free] [Breach] (someone can suggest something, I have no idea what to do here)
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research Supercomposite Plating for conventionals
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research Plasma Rounds/Missiles
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research reloading One Shot Only weapons
--[X] [Free] [Comms] Scan Everett
--[X] [Free] [Recyc] Recycle hopes and dreams
--[X] [Free] [Manu] x2 Meganeuras, x3 Banshee (someone can suggest a different distribution
--[X] [Free] [Dock] Murasame-RX type
--[X] [Free] [Tacit] Repair Tacit Ronin (-60 Resources)
--[X] [Free] [Clean] Clean up the contamination (-565 Resources)

 

[LostDeviljho]

Honestly, I don't see a reason to contact KRAUN about the Jagdhwehr's blueprints when we can just research the thing if we want it. We could use the comm action to scout out one of the cities we're looking at settling instead.

 

[Fyrstorm]

Now that's interesting. A completely fluid energy storage medium...hm. We have any idea if this was working like a regular battery, with an anode and a cathode, or if this is just space-magic juice? Because not needing to use a traditional battery structure could be quite useful. Admittedly, I'm not an expert on the topic, but I do have a 'consultant' (read: 'stepfather') who might know more.

Click to shrink...

You guys aren't sure yet. Mainly because I'm not sure, either-- I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough on battery cell science to give an answer right now.

 

[LostDeviljho]

--[X] [Free] [Jaeger] (suggest something please)

Click to shrink...

>_>
<_<
J-scale grenade launcher?

--[X] [Free] [Con] Research Plasma Rounds/Missiles

Click to shrink...

Could you change this for researching the plasma heimdal? It'd probably be better on our budget, because iirc plasma con rounds cost resources per shot.

 

[hYGP]

>_>
<_<
J-scale grenade launcher?


Could you change this for researching the plasma heimdal? It'd probably be better on our budget, because iirc plasma con rounds cost resources per shot.

Click to shrink...

Had a kind of batshit insane idea, which upon further thought totally fits:

A J-Scale grappling hook to reel enemies in.

But hey, J-scale grenade launchers probably aren't a terrible idea.

And, hm, yeah, that's probably fair, I'll do that.

[X] Plan Last Hunt Of Winter
-[X] Normal Actions:
--[X] Build a K-Science Lab (-1000R)
--[X] Install the Dolch Gewehr on Jagdhund's shoulder
--[X] Run Rime down
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Run Tara down
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Build a Dolch Gewehr (-3000 R)
--[X] Build a Skadi (-5800R)
-[X] Free Actions
--[X] [Free] [Jaeger] Phenom Tou x20
--[X] [Free] [Jaeger] J-scale grenade launcher
--[X] [Free] [Breach] (someone can suggest something, I have no idea what to do here)
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research Supercomposite Plating for conventionals
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research Plasma Railgun Rounds
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research reloading One Shot Only weapons
--[X] [Free] [Comms] Scan Everett
--[X] [Free] [Recyc] Recycle hopes and dreams
--[X] [Free] [Manu] x2 Meganeuras, x3 Banshee (someone can suggest a different distribution
--[X] [Free] [Dock] Murasame-RX type
--[X] [Free] [Tacit] Repair Tacit Ronin (-60 Resources)
--[X] [Free] [Clean] Clean up the contamination (-565 Resources)

 

[LostDeviljho]

And, hm, yeah, that's probably fair, I'll do that.

Click to shrink...

Ah, to clarify I mean this, from the planning doc:

[] Research: Heimdall improvements

• Plasma launcher-equipped variant (Thor?)

Click to shrink...

which we checked for viability ages ago and just... never followed through on actually researching the thing.

Plasma railgun rounds runs into the same issue as other kinds of plasma rounds.

 

[hYGP]

Ah, to clarify I mean this, from the planning doc:
which we checked for viability ages ago and just... never followed through on actually researching the thing.

Plasma railgun rounds runs into the same issue as other kinds of plasma rounds.

Click to shrink...

Ah. Fair. I'll change it to that, then.

Spoiler: Last Hunt Plan

[X] Plan Last Hunt Of Winter
-[X] Normal Actions:
--[X] Build a K-Science Lab (-1000R)
--[X] Install the Dolch Gewehr on Jagdhund's shoulder
--[X] Run Rime down
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Run Tara down
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Build a Dolch Gewehr (-3000 R)
--[X] Build a Skadi (-5800R)
-[X] Free Actions
--[X] [Free] [Jaeger] Phenom Tou x20
--[X] [Free] [Jaeger] J-scale grenade launcher
--[X] [Free] [Breach] (someone can suggest something, I have no idea what to do here)
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research Supercomposite Plating for conventionals
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research Thor-variant Plasma Superheavy
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research reloading One Shot Only weapons
--[X] [Free] [Comms] Scan Everett
--[X] [Free] [Recyc] Recycle hopes and dreams
--[X] [Free] [Manu] x2 Meganeuras, x3 Banshee (someone can suggest a different distribution)
--[X] [Free] [Dock] Murasame-RX type
--[X] [Free] [Tacit] Repair Tacit Ronin (-60 Resources)
--[X] [Free] [Clean] Clean up the contamination (-565 Resources)

 

[joebob73]

It's kind of inevitable. Unless the conventionals are utterly ineffective, or very low in number, they're going to have more guns, and thus do more damage, than our Jaegers. Well, I guess our Jaegers could also just do ridiculous amounts of damage. Quantity has a quality all of it's own, as they say.

Click to shrink...

Of course, the Kaiju Masters could always send MORE KAIJUS at us. Or Cat 0 swarms. Or even just have enough armor to ignore anything from a conventional barring a superheavy or an elite unit critting.

 

[LostDeviljho]

Hmmm, for breach research could we theoretically use breach gate tech to accelerate a round and keep accelerating it in a loop, ala the Portal games and the two portals directly above and below? Or just stick with that idea of projectiles that teleport straight to the target?

Also Huhyeah, Ijust realized you forgot to install the cutoff on Tacit's soundbreakers, which we should really do before we go hunting unless we aren't bringing Tacit.

 

[Highwind]

Ah. Fair. I'll change it to that, then.

Spoiler: Last Hunt Plan

[X] Plan Last Hunt Of Winter
-[X] Normal Actions:
--[X] Build a K-Science Lab (-1000R)
--[X] Install the Dolch Gewehr on Jagdhund's shoulder
--[X] Run Rime down
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Run Tara down
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Build a Dolch Gewehr (-3000 R)
--[X] Build a Skadi (-5800R)
-[X] Free Actions
--[X] [Free] [Jaeger] Phenom Tou x20
--[X] [Free] [Jaeger] J-scale grenade launcher
--[X] [Free] [Breach] (someone can suggest something, I have no idea what to do here)
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research Supercomposite Plating for conventionals
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research Thor-variant Plasma Superheavy
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research reloading One Shot Only weapons
--[X] [Free] [Comms] Scan Everett
--[X] [Free] [Recyc] Recycle hopes and dreams
--[X] [Free] [Manu] x2 Meganeuras, x3 Banshee (someone can suggest a different distribution)
--[X] [Free] [Dock] Murasame-RX type
--[X] [Free] [Tacit] Repair Tacit Ronin (-60 Resources)
--[X] [Free] [Clean] Clean up the contamination (-565 Resources)

Click to shrink...

For the Breach Research Action, we could try to research a Mark IV Supercell. Alternatively we can try looking into a Barrier-shield enhanced Fusion Reactor again, using one of the J-tech or normal actions.

 

[monomoniker]

i was wondering if it would be possible to use our breach tech to make small breaches at range in order to inflict small attacks on kaiju from our city? seems like a cool defensive aug that might help us with flying units or units that like to stay at range and pick at us

also just binged the whole quest. it is super awsome

 

[hYGP]

Hmmm, for breach research could we theoretically use breach gate tech to accelerate a round and keep accelerating it in a loop, ala the Portal games and the two portals directly above and below? Or just stick with that idea of projectiles that teleport straight to the target?

Also Huhyeah, Ijust realized you forgot to install the cutoff on Tacit's soundbreakers, which we should really do before we go hunting unless we aren't bringing Tacit.

Click to shrink...

I mean, on the one hand, yeah, installing the cutoff on soundbreakers would be great. The problem that I'm looking at is that I'm running dangerously low on Repair Actions; I could cut the Dolch Gewehr completely, which would free up enough actions to have soundbreaker cutoffs and another Repair Action, I could cut the Skadi, or I could cut one of the hunts entirely; all of those would definitely accomplish getting the soundbreakers. I'm not even considering cutting the K-Science because I know that's something you want.

My problem is that, essentially, all of those actions give us something that I'm not sure the soundbreakers are worth; the Dolch Gewehr gives us a marked improvement in Jagdhund's ranged ability (as in, probably straight upgrade across the board), the Skadi, while being the closest item on the list to being worth less than soundbreaker cutoff, is an excellent Phenom Sable delivery tool if need be, and the hunts are pretty much the core of the plan because we need Resources to expand and lots of them.

I think having soundbreaker cutoffs are strictly inferior to having any one of these because fundamentally, I don't think the Sound Breaker's downside is really in play anymore. Our conventionals, for better or worse, have consistently demonstrated the ability to smash Kaiju below IV and even then into paste with their own firepower, so our Jaegers are starting to transition to more of a tank and finisher. In this context, when does Sound Breaker's downside come into play? On the finishing blow, being forced to disengage the dead target isn't much of a concern, and during Jaeger on Kaiju action, for all the one turn it takes before our conventionals deal overwhelming damage to the Kaiju, being forced to disengage gives us the ability to pincer and/or let our conventionals utterly unload on the Kaiju.

Well, unless it turns out that one of the Cat IIIs or the one this week was secretly a V. Then we might have problems.

For the Breach Research Action, we could try to research a Mark IV Supercell. Alternatively we can try looking into a Barrier-shield enhanced Fusion Reactor again, using one of the J-tech or normal actions.

Click to shrink...

Actually, wait I just remembered we did have something: Reducing the cost of the city-scale Supercell plant.

Spoiler: Plan

[X] Plan Last Hunt Of Winter
-[X] Normal Actions:
--[X] Build a K-Science Lab (-1000R)
--[X] Install the Dolch Gewehr on Jagdhund's shoulder
--[X] Run Rime down
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Run Tara down
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Held Action for repairs
--[X] Build a Dolch Gewehr (-3000 R)
--[X] Build a Skadi (-5800R)
-[X] Free Actions
--[X] [Free] [Jaeger] Phenom Tou x20
--[X] [Free] [Jaeger] J-scale grenade launcher
--[X] [Free] [Breach] Reducing cost of the Supercell Quantum Reaction Plant VI-Ub (Mk 3)
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research Supercomposite Plating for conventionals
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research Thor-variant Plasma Superheavy
--[X] [Free] [Con] Research reloading One Shot Only weapons
--[X] [Free] [Comms] Scan Everett
--[X] [Free] [Recyc] Recycle hopes and dreams
--[X] [Free] [Manu] x2 Meganeuras, x3 Banshee (someone can suggest a different distribution)
--[X] [Free] [Dock] Murasame-RX type
--[X] [Free] [Tacit] Repair Tacit Ronin (-60 Resources)
--[X] [Free] [Clean] Clean up the contamination (-565 Resources)

 

[EvaUnit01]

Okay. High level summary of my plan:

• Hunting both Cat IIIs
• Build (singular) Skadi
• K-Science Lab
• Increase Jaeger firepower
• Scan Everett

Click to shrink...

Sold.

[X]HuhYeahGoodPoint

 

[Highwind]

I think having soundbreaker cutoffs are strictly inferior to having any one of these because fundamentally, I don't think the Sound Breaker's downside is really in play anymore. Our conventionals, for better or worse, have consistently demonstrated the ability to smash Kaiju below IV and even then into paste with their own firepower, so our Jaegers are starting to transition to more of a tank and finisher. In this context, when does Sound Breaker's downside come into play? On the finishing blow, being forced to disengage the dead target isn't much of a concern, and during Jaeger on Kaiju action, for all the one turn it takes before our conventionals deal overwhelming damage to the Kaiju, being forced to disengage gives us the ability to pincer and/or let our conventionals utterly unload on the Kaiju.

Click to shrink...

The problem comes when all our units are spread out fighting on multiple fronts or against multiple enemies at once. You know, like against Inko/Umpo/Endo or Grae/Kay/Cat 0s.

The fight against Grae in particular could have gone very poorly had the Heimdal not insta-killed it by pulverizing its pelvis, and we couldn't rely on Cons to soften it up by throwing craploads of dice at it because they were busy killing the equivalent to Kaiju Conventionals.

Sure, in that case Tacit, the one unit with Solid-Fuel Thrusters we have, was up against Kay and did have Conventional support, but the point still stands that we can't rely on Conventional Units all the time. The Jaegers have to be able to go mano-a-mano with Kaiju and come out on top.

Sound Breaker offers a chance of increasing both Charge distance more than Ramming Speed! does as well as the Dodge bonus. One that I would very much like to see upgraded to be more reliable, but let's go step by step.

Also, for the record, a full bonus from Sound Breaker gives us +5 Agi for 5 turns, totalling 10 Agi. The Gyroscopic Stabilizer Feet are also weapons, that hit at 1d10+4 on Tacit and have a total damage bonus of +11. Sure, it's Blunt damage, but that's a Minor Wound at least if it hits. Couple that with the Allegorica doubling our Agi when airborne and the damage bonus from an Aerial descending Charge and... well.

Spoiler

No matter the armor, Tacit has but to kick it.

 

[Nixeu]

You guys aren't sure yet. Mainly because I'm not sure, either-- I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough on battery cell science to give an answer right now.

Click to shrink...

Don't feel like you need to push yourself for an explanation. Unless it's relevant, I don't usually question the properties of fictional chemicals. It has the properties it has. It's up to us to figure out how best to use them.

Had a kind of batshit insane idea, which upon further thought totally fits:

A J-Scale grappling hook to reel enemies in.

Click to shrink...

Given that I've already suggested several methods of doing similar things, Jaeger-Scale harpoon guns include, it's not that out there. Hell, Grae used something similar, the first time we fought him, IIRC.

Of course, the Kaiju Masters could always send MORE KAIJUS at us. Or Cat 0 swarms. Or even just have enough armor to ignore anything from a conventional barring a superheavy or an elite unit critting.

Click to shrink...

Yup. But, given the sheer number of dice the conventional can produce simply by their numbers, they're fairly likely to end up doing the lion's share of the damage.

Hmmm, for breach research could we theoretically use breach gate tech to accelerate a round and keep accelerating it in a loop, ala the Portal games and the two portals directly above and below? Or just stick with that idea of projectiles that teleport straight to the target?

Click to shrink...

We should probably not do that. E=mc2​. At high enough levels of energy, you also start to get increased mass, which leads to Bad ThingsTM​.

I mean, on the one hand, yeah, installing the cutoff on soundbreakers would be great. The problem that I'm looking at is that I'm running dangerously low on Repair Actions; I could cut the Dolch Gewehr completely, which would free up enough actions to have soundbreaker cutoffs and another Repair Action, I could cut the Skadi, or I could cut one of the hunts entirely; all of those would definitely accomplish getting the soundbreakers. I'm not even considering cutting the K-Science because I know that's something you want.

My problem is that, essentially, all of those actions give us something that I'm not sure the soundbreakers are worth; the Dolch Gewehr gives us a marked improvement in Jagdhund's ranged ability (as in, probably straight upgrade across the board), the Skadi, while being the closest item on the list to being worth less than soundbreaker cutoff, is an excellent Phenom Sable delivery tool if need be, and the hunts are pretty much the core of the plan because we need Resources to expand and lots of them.

I think having soundbreaker cutoffs are strictly inferior to having any one of these because fundamentally, I don't think the Sound Breaker's downside is really in play anymore. Our conventionals, for better or worse, have consistently demonstrated the ability to smash Kaiju below IV and even then into paste with their own firepower, so our Jaegers are starting to transition to more of a tank and finisher. In this context, when does Sound Breaker's downside come into play? On the finishing blow, being forced to disengage the dead target isn't much of a concern, and during Jaeger on Kaiju action, for all the one turn it takes before our conventionals deal overwhelming damage to the Kaiju, being forced to disengage gives us the ability to pincer and/or let our conventionals utterly unload on the Kaiju.

Click to shrink...

We can't haul anywhere near the number of conventionals around on hunts, that we have on defense. Jagdhund and Tacit are likely to be our main sources of damage, during a hunt. We're also not necessarily going to get the same opportunity to unload on Kaiju before it closes. If we try to shoot once it's engaged with Tacit, we'll be shooting into melee. Which is something to avoid doing if at all possible.

Also, if you're going to be doing a lot of hunting, maybe you might want to consider increasing your total profits with Kaiju Salvage Facilities, first? If our plan is to hunt every Kaiju in the area, the two Cat IV kills mean they'll pay for themselves in the course of doing so. And, depending on what gets thrown at us during the week, they may pay for themselves even sooner. They'll thus be a net positive in the fairly near future.

 

[hYGP]

The problem comes when all our units are spread out fighting on multiple fronts or against multiple enemies at once. You know, like against Inko/Umpo/Endo or Grae/Kay/Cat 0s.

The fight against Grae in particular could have gone very poorly had the Heimdal not insta-killed it by pulverizing its pelvis, and we couldn't rely on Cons to soften it up by throwing craploads of dice at it because they were busy killing the equivalent to Kaiju Conventionals.

Sure, in that case Tacit, the one unit with Solid-Fuel Thrusters we have, was up against Kay and did have Conventional support, but the point still stands that we can't rely on Conventional Units all the time. The Jaegers have to be able to go mano-a-mano with Kaiju and come out on top.

Sound Breaker offers a chance of increasing both Charge distance more than Ramming Speed! does as well as the Dodge bonus. One that I would very much like to see upgraded to be more reliable, but let's go step by step.

Also, for the record, a full bonus from Sound Breaker gives us +5 Agi for 5 turns, totalling 10 Agi. The Gyroscopic Stabilizer Feet are also weapons, that hit at 1d10+4 on Tacit and have a total damage bonus of +11. Sure, it's Blunt damage, but that's a Minor Wound at least if it hits. Couple that with the Allegorica doubling our Agi when airborne and the damage bonus from an Aerial descending Charge and... well.

Spoiler

No matter the armor, Tacit has but to kick it.

Click to shrink...

But, see, that applies to none of the planned engagements this round; if all goes well and we don't need those Repair Actions, we can totally install Soundbreaker cutoffs, if things go moderately poorly and take two repair actions we can still install those Soundbreaker cutoffs, and if everything goes to shit we have much bigger problems.