The Long Night Part One: Embers in the Dusk: A Planetary Governor Quest (43k) Complete Sequel Up

[tryrar]

[X] Plan Enjou T87

 

[Elder Haman]

Right, I misread the time requirements.
In that case the Quartok propaganda with DD for Y4 sounds good, letting us get it out of the way in 1 full turn. Otherwise the success chance is too low at 20% without the current war-boost.

Click to shrink...

I'd like to hear more people's opinions on this trade off.

Also, do people feel mentoring Gammas is more important, or is it better to get Wards on SAMs? With the open expedite we can actually do the SAM one in one turn so it's a straight trade off.

Note that even if we get a perfect roll on the Gamas it will add +4% chance to each of them (plus whatever we get for a crit), which is weaker than a single Those in the Shadows... on the other hand it will effect 11 Gammas.

I want to know who is conquering Garkill's domain and whether they will contest the planets we are trying to conquer.

Click to shrink...

Ah I see. Well, considering how quickly we got that invasion off that actually seems like a lower threat to me. Going to stick with the Old One Battle Stations.

I would suggest taking the Cure Curse at least once or twice (using 2 actions that year so we get the +20) each turn while the option is still available. We won´t be able to completely remove the curse (unless we get a crit), but if we can at least cure Master Julius from his seizures, the Whole trust will get an invaluable asset.

Click to shrink...

Well... the chance is so low that I'm leaning towards the other options first...

Does having Klovis Ultan do propaganda on our own planet even fall under his job description? @Durin, are those actions valid for Diplomacy?

Click to shrink...

I think so, since when I asked Durin said they were Diplomatic actions.

I think this should wait until next turn - the results of the current campaign will factor in greatly on people's thoughts on this.

Also, the approach to an occupied Valinor populace is not in question - every last one of them is an Abomination cultist, tainted through multiple generations. There won't be any occupied populations. We're not even going to occupy their cities because that's too dangerous with all the Abomination symbols and taint in the area forming a memetic hazard. We're just going to destroy their cities and kill every last cultist.

Click to shrink...

That's one of the reasons I put it in the last year. At that point the outcome should be clear.

Why do this? We've already done year 1 of the Berserk Fungus investigation, so why not do the second and third tier ones, which will only take 5 years total?

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Isn't there a 4th level that takes time to complete?

Shouldn't we have an option to do something about the 'Flying Fortress', now that we have the design?

Click to shrink...

We do have an option and have for a long time. It's "Another" under the Mechanicus options.

Elder Haman had good ideas here, but I'm not going to Sound Out on attacking Valinor just yet - people's opinions on that will vary depending on the results of the campaign in Garkill's Domain, so asking now seems like a waste of a slot. (also he missed that Re-Investigate on a planet takes two years)

Click to shrink...

Thanks for catching that. Since your plan is close to my orough draft I think I'll post an alternative that goes for some of the other options, that way people can vote for whichever they prefer.

 

[Shard]

[X] Plan Enjou T87

 

[Shard]

Also, do people feel mentoring Gammas is more important, or is it better to get Wards on SAMs? With the open expedite we can actually do the SAM one in one turn so it's a straight trade off.

Note that even if we get a perfect roll on the Gamas it will add +4% chance to each of them (plus whatever we get for a crit), which is weaker than a single Those in the Shadows... on the other hand it will effect 11 Gammas.

Click to shrink...

Betas >>> Gammas

And we have 4 Betas.

I'm uncertain between Wards and Betas, of course.

 

[Enjou]

Isn't there a 4th level that takes time to complete?

Click to shrink...

No. It's three actions, taking a total of six years. I don't really know why @Durin made the condensed action take seven since the extra year disincentivizes us from using it.

 

[10ebbor10]

We do have an option and have for a long time. It's "Another" under the Mechanicus options.

Click to shrink...

We also should have the option to design variants based on it. I don't know what happened to that.

Flying Fortress: Design Part One- General Drago has proposed creating a military variant of the Large Mobile Research Facility, a proposal that Fabricator-General Britton supports. This will take quite some time but should give the Imperial Trust access to a near unique type of military force.

Time: 3 years.
Chance of Success: 20%

Cost: 28,400,000 Thrones, 2,840,000 Material, 710,000 Metal, 284,000 Promethium, 860 Advanced Material, 9.6 Exotic Material.
Reward: Design for a military variant of the Large Mobile Research Facility

Complete
d100=20+17(learning)+60(buildings)+25(other)=122: Critical Success

Fabricator-General Scott has recently finishes designing the general purpose Flying Fortress, which is one of the most impressive designs yet created by Avernus. She tells you that as well as being equipped with a battery of Escort Grade Macrocannons, hundreds of Turbolasers and countless lesser weapons the flying Fortress has hangers able to carry fifty wings of aircraft and enough cargo space to carry fifty regiments of infantry, which can either be landed using the hangers or using a set of ramps when the Flying Fortress lands. On the defensive side a Flying Fortress has thick enough armour to shrug off anything short of a Heavy Titan Weapon and Void Shields as strong as a normal Escort, which are more then sufficient against most group based weapons.

Click to shrink...

This action is what is being referred too.

We should still be able to design other variants (carrier, resupply, dropship IIRC)

 

[10ebbor10]

I'm going to make my own little variant plan.

[X] Plan Flying Fortress

Munitorum
SLOT A - Year 3
-Y3: Recruit

Unchanged

Void Command
SLOT A - Year 1
-Y1-Y4: Bombardment

Unchanged

Administratum
SLOT A - Year 1
-Y1: Rebuild
--EXPEDITE YEAR 1

Unchanged

Diplomacy
SLOT A - Year 1
-Y1: Propaganda about the current campaign
-- Collect information and video about the different forces involved in the Trust campaign in Garkill's domain. Create "episodes" about various units, force types, making sure to include representatives for each system in the Trust. Include an episode about psykers (emphasizing their careful training and loyalty). Include an episode about the Quartok Death Harbingers (emphasizing their loyalty). Make the series available to all the planetary systems in the Trust that would like them to use as they see fit.
-Y2: Persons of Interest
-Y3: Re-Investigate (Midgard)
SLOT B - Year 1
-Y1: Pysker Propaganda
-- A propaganda campaign encouraging family and friends to report any children showing psyker abilities to the Unseen University. Emphasis on how properly trained psykers are an asset to the Trust, and a way to honorably serve the Emperor. Include documentation of how they aided in defending against Garkill and their service in the current campaign. Offer the propaganda material to General Aelfric in case he would like to run a similar campaign on Midgard.
-Y2: Persons of Interest
-Y3: Sound Out (Colonization of Captured Ork Planets)
-Y4: Ear to the Ground

Unchanged

Arbites
SLOT A - Year 3
-Y3: Psyker Hunting
-Y4: Oakheart's School of Swordsmanship

Unchanged

AdMech
SLOT A - Year 1 (Biologis)
-Y1: Detailed Survey (Berserk Fungus)
--REPEAT IF FAILED
-Y3: In Depth Exampination (Berserk Fungus)
SLOT B - Year 2 (Free)
-Y2: Another – Large Mobile Research Facility (Military Pattern)

We designed this thing in Turn 86 as a massive, state of the art, flying base. And now we happen to have the best possible situation to use. Own territory, no enemy air support, and we need to bring large amount of forces to take out fortified enemies. It is as if this design was made perfectly for it.

Ministorum
SLOT A - Year 1
-Y1-Y4: Those In The Shadows
SLOT B - Year 1
-Y1: Keeping the Faith (Midgard)
-Y2: Keeping the Faith (Midgard)
-Y3: Keeping the Faith (Vanaheim)
-Y4: IF Midgard or Vanaheim are not yet at morale 10, use Keeping the Faith on one of them w/ priority on Midgard, ELSE Those In The Shadows

No Changes

Astra Telepathica
SLOT A - Year 1
-Y1: Divination (Old One Battle Stations)
-- DOUBLE DOWN YEAR 1
-Y3: Mentoring: Beta
-Y4: Divination: Attacks

No changes

Personal
SLOT A - Year 1
Y1 Ork Infestation: Containment Measures
Y2 Ork Infestation: Assault (Everglades to the west of Okefenokee)
-- Double Down Year 2
Y3 Ork Infestation: Containment Measures
Y4: Ork Infestation: Containment Measures

SLOT B - Year 1
-Y1: Ork Infestation: Assault (Duat)
-Y2: Lessons Learned: Siege
-Y3: Ork Infestation: Assault (Aridia: north of Silver Lake, east of Beirut, central)
-- DOUBLE DOWN YEAR 3
-Y4: Ork Infestation: Assault (Aridia west of Hollin, Malea, Lindon)
-- DOUBLE DOWN YEAR 4
SLOT C - Year 1
-Y1: Speak To The People
-Y2: Spend Time With (Jane)
-Y3: Spend Time With (Klovis-Ultan)
-Y4: Spend Time With (Edvin Dieuwer)
SLOT D - Year 2
-Y2: Thaddeus Expertise: Upgrade Defenses: (Casarrondo, Malea, Yphax, Beirut)
-- EXPEDITE YEAR 2

Threw in an extra assault action to make maximum use of double downs.

 

[Valkur]

[X] Plan Enjou T87

 

[Elder Haman]

[X] Plan Elder Haman T87

Munitorum
SLOT A - Year 3
-Y3: Recruit

Cost: 741,500,000 Thrones, 67,020,000 Material, 27,790,000 Promethium, 7,000,000 Advanced Material, 5,654 Exotic Material.

Void Command
SLOT A - Year 1
-Y1-Y4: Bombardment

Cost: 160,000,000 Thrones, 80,000,000 Material, 8,000,000 Promethium, 33,200 Advanced Material

Administratum
SLOT A - Year 1
-Y1: Rebuild
--EXPEDITE YEAR 1

Cost: 1,091,200,000 Thrones, 992,000,000 Material, 158,560,000 Promethium, 278,800 Advanced Material, 12,620 Exotic

Diplomacy
SLOT A - Year 1
-Y1: Propaganda about the current campaign
-- Collect information and video about the different forces involved in the Trust campaign in Garkill's domain. Create "episodes" about various units, force types, making sure to include representatives for each system in the Trust. Include an episode about psykers (emphasizing their careful training and loyalty). Include an episode about the Quartok Death Harbingers (emphasizing their loyalty). Make the series available to all the planetary systems in the Trust that would like them to use as they see fit.
-Y2: Persons of Interest
-Y3: Re-Investigate (Midgard)
SLOT B - Year 1
-Y1: Pysker Propaganda
-- A propaganda campaign encouraging family and friends to report any children showing psyker abilities to the Unseen University. Emphasis on how properly trained psykers are an asset to the Trust, and a way to honorably serve the Emperor. Include documentation of how they aided in defending against Garkill and their service in the current campaign. Offer the propaganda material to General Aelfric in case he would like to run a similar campaign on Midgard.
-Y2: Persons of Interest
-Y3: Sound Out (Colonization of Captured Ork Planets)
-Y4: Ear to the Ground

Cost: 16,262,000 Thrones + cost of propaganda campaigns

Arbites
SLOT A - Year 3
-Y3: Psyker Hunting
-Y4: Propaganda about Quartok: (Vanaheim)
-- DOUBLE DOWN YEAR 4

AdMech
SLOT A - Year 1 (Explorator)
-Y1: Old Ones Battlestations
-- DOUBLE DOWN YEAR 1
SLOT B - Year 1 (Biologis)
-Y1: Detailed Survey (Berserk Fungus)
--REPEAT IF FAILED
-Y3: In Depth Examination (Berserk Fungus)
SLOT C - Year 2 (Free)
-Y2: Another Flying Fortress (Military Version)
-- EXPEDITE YEAR 2
SLOT D - Year 1 (Bonus Survey)
-Y1-Y4: Detailed Survey: Ork Hulk Wreckage

Ministorum
SLOT A - Year 1
-Y1-Y4: Those In The Shadows
SLOT B - Year 1
-Y1: Keeping the Faith (Midgard)
-Y2: Keeping the Faith (Midgard)
-Y3: Keeping the Faith (Vanaheim)
-Y4: IF Midgard or Vanaheim are not yet at morale 10, use Keeping the Faith on one of them w/ priority on Midgard, ELSE Those In The Shadows

Cost: 183,000 Thrones to 244,000 Thrones

Astra Telepathica
SLOT A - Year 1
-Y1: Mentoring: Beta
-Y2: Divination (Old One Battle Stations)
-- DOUBLE DOWN YEAR 2
-Y4: Divination: Attacks

Cost: 8,000,000 Thrones

Personal
SLOT A - Year 1
-Y1-Y4: Ork Infestation: Containment Measures
SLOT B - Year 1
-Y1: Ork Infestation: Assault (Duat)
-Y2: Lessons Learned: Siege
-Y3: Ork Infestation: Assault (Aridia: north of Silver Lake, east of Beirut, central)
-- DOUBLE DOWN YEAR 3
-Y4: Ork Infestation: Assault (Aridia west of Hollin)
SLOT C - Year 1
-Y1: Speak To The People
-Y2: Spend Time With (Jane)
-Y3: Spend Time With (Klovis-Ultan)
-Y4: Spend Time With (Edvin Dieuwer)
SLOT D - Year 2
-Y2: Spend Time With (Fabricator Scott)
-Y3: Thaddeus Expertise: Upgrade Defenses: (Casarrondo, Malea, Yphax, Beirut)
-- EXPEDITE YEAR 3

Cost: 3,204,003,600 Thrones, 2,960,000,000 Material, 1,900,000,000 Metal, 1,288,020,000 Promethium, 3,478,100 Advanced Material, 22,800 Exotic Material.

------------------------------------

Main difference is that I attempt a Quartok Propaganda since at this time we get a bonus due to the Quartok being involved in the fighting. That means using a double down there, which should give us over 112% chance of success: 20% (base) + 32% (Jane's Intrigue bonus) + 20% (Double Down) + 40% (Spy Network) + bonus due to war effort.

Also building the Flying Fortress (Military Version) so that we can use it for assaulting Ork Forts.

If per a turn we ought to be slightly positive in Exotics, we are going to use up 1/3 of our Advanced Material reserves (Repair and Recruit are very costly).

EDIT: My concerns about promethium were wrong, I read our reserves as billion when it's actually trillions (centered justification threw off my view on it). Looks like we are okay on Promethium after all.

 

[buli-buli]

[] Plan Enjou T87

 

[Doomed Wombat]

[X] Plan Elder Haman T87

I want that propaganda

 

[Elder Haman]

@Durin

1: Can we expedite the Re-Investigation (in Diplomatic Actions)?

2: Can we expedite the Quartok Propaganda action?

3: Is there any negative bonus to Quartok Propaganda in Vanaheim due to the previous fiasco?

4: Is the Net Income per a year or per a turn?

@Enjou

You ought to expedite the Swordsmanship school

No. It's three actions, taking a total of six years. I don't really know why @Durin made the condensed action take seven since the extra year disincentivizes us from using it.

Click to shrink...

Huh, strange, anyway I switched to your Biologos approach.

-Y2: Another – Large Mobile Research Facility (Military Pattern)

We designed this thing in Turn 86 as a massive, state of the art, flying base. And now we happen to have the best possible situation to use. Own territory, no enemy air support, and we need to bring large amount of forces to take out fortified enemies. It is as if this design was made perfectly for it.

Click to shrink...

That's a good point. And we could probably expedite it... @Enjou what do you think?

 

[Briefvoice]

SLOT A - Year 1
-Y1: Divination (Old One Battle Stations)
-- DOUBLE DOWN YEAR 1

Click to shrink...

Everybody seems to have this in their plan, but I think it's a waste of time and a waste of a double-down. There's a high probability that the chance of success is 0% and will remain 0% even with a double-down. The Old One Battle Stations are completely beyond us, and we're not going to get anywhere wasting resources on them.

I mean, what is the ideal case here? What are we hoping to gain?

 

[buli-buli]

[X] Plan Flying Fortress

 

[Reynal]

Omakes for the omake god! Posts for the thread Throne!

Tranth's Troubles

Unsurprisingly, the battle stations that had avoided detection until they absolutely annihilated Garkill's fleet were very difficult to detect or gather much in the way of useful information about. Unsurprisingly to Archmagos Explorator Tranth at least, and while he figured it would be obvious to everyone else, he had also long since given up on predicting the new and original stupidities people would convince themselves of. He was a genius at machines, not at people. Privately, he figured that even those who were actually geniuses at people couldn't reliably figure that sort of thing out from first principles. There was a reason that engineers like Fabricator-General Scott, whose mindsets tended to fixing things and designing them to be tolerant to a certain level of imperfection, did better in leadership positions within the Mechanicus than scientists like himself, whose approaches tended to be far more focused on how things worked in theory. He suspected that the issue got even worse outside of the Mechanicus, but again, that was mainly a theoretical prediction than a data-based observation on his part.


Fortunately, he had been given more or less unlimited resources and authority to try to figure out what he could about them. Naturally, the first thing he had done was insist that every single piece of data from anything that could so much as produce diagnostic reports, let alone dedicated sensors, be gathered and collated. The Mechanicus was already stirred up like a kicked anthill, so it wasn't like they were going to do anything else productive. Plus, while he did have some hope that he'd be able to figure out a way to detect the stations when they weren't active, he was willing to bet a very sizable chunk of his current lab assets and research budget that further recordings of the defense stations while they were active would be exceedingly rare. Missing even the tiniest fragment of data from them could very well set back their understanding of the stations by centuries. And it wasn't like their facilities lacked the cognitators upon which to store and analyze the data, even if it would take an absurd amount of time to run a free-form correlative regression model on a database of that size...


At least there were some places that he could also get some real data more or less for sure from the recordings. While he had little hope that the sensors pointed at the defense stations themselves would be able to get much of a read through their active scrambling, the sensors pointed at the Orkish fleet should be able to pick up high-quality data about the effects of their weapons, including useful tidbits like the excitation spectrum of the armor caused by the hits and a good reading on any backwash radiation. Such data would be invaluable for determining what principles the weapons worked upon, or at least ruling out certain energy types and exotic particles. It should also set a reasonable bottom line for just how powerful the defense stations were, although that was much more the military's job than his.


Plus, while he was reasonably sure that the jamming, stealth, and scrambling effects the defense stations had would largely prevent gathering useful data about the function of the defense stations themselves, it should provide quite a bit of data about the specific jamming, stealth, and scrambling functions said stations have. While not particularly useful in and of itself, such data would be invaluable for determining what sorts of sensors would and would not have a chance of piercing them to any degree. With luck, it might be possible to tune or construct a sensor or sensor net capable of detecting the stations in whatever stealth mode they rested in, or of being able to at least partially pierce the jamming or scrambling effects if and when they activated in the future. Of course, the latter would require said stations to enter active mode, and Tranth had no real desire to try to instigate or otherwise hurry that day up, even if it came with very good data.


Also, if he could use the ship and orbital sensor data to identify where the defense stations rested spatially when inactive, he could also construct a laboratory with very high-grade and fine-grade sensors there. While the advanced orbital sensors had manifestly failed at being able to detect them in inactive mode, even the highest-gain and finest-grain of those sensors were many orders of magnitude less sensitive than laboratory devices at point-blank range. Of course, it would depend on said defense stations being willing to stay still and let him examine them, something that was relatively rare in inactive human ruins, and he doubted it would be much better with active Old One defense stations. Just a hunch, really.


On that note, he really ought to see if his authority and resources to get to the bottom of this actually applied outside of the Mechanicus. While Ridcully being surprised by it was proof positive that it was warded to hell and back against Divination, now that he actually knew where to look it was possible he'd manage to pull off another miracle and provide enough insight to crack the issue wide open. Or avoid it exploding him due to poking the wrong bit—he wasn't picky. Frankly, the more he thought about it the better getting Astra Telepathica assistance sounded. Old One tech was notoriously Warp-based, at least to the extent that it was notoriously anything other than advanced and complicated, and at least one of the local psykers had been compared favorably to himself when it came to brilliance and a solid theoretical understanding of her field. Frankly, at this point he would welcome almost any help in getting an understanding of these defense stations—while piecing together the fragmented bits of information they had on the stations would certainly be fascinating, he had no doubts that he would need quite a bit of luck, help, and further information to get more than the barest of outlines of the full picture. Hopefully everyone else was aware of the sheer magnitude of the task he'd been assigned and weren't expecting him to pull another Miracle of the Omnissiah or five out of his ass. He doubted they would, but humans were prone to distressingly erratic behavior...


Poor Tranth. Good at machines, bad at people. And now they're telling him to examine a Xenotech techno-sorcerous orbital fortress that's so much more advanced than the stuff he has that they weren't even able to detect it before it decided to fuck up an entire Orkish war fleet. In fifteen minutes.

 

[Reynal]

So, a few things about plans.

I'm avoiding discussion about our Ork-fighting stuff and am generally trusting the competence of everyone else to work out what works well. Please don't let me down.

One thing to remember is that Expedite is ONLY for construction actions. I don't have full knowledge about what Durin classifies as construction, but I'm fairly certain that things like the propaganda don't count. And I'm not sure that we can actually use it for the Warding actions either.

For the defensive upgrades on our 'major cities' (aka our smallest cities), I'd like to remind people that said upgrades leave the cities more vulnerable initially, which could be a problem if any of them are close to Orkish strongholds. Not a major concern, really, but something to think about.

For Mechanicus, I'd really like to get started with upgrading some of our surface forge cities and having Tranth do the design work for the forward operating base or whatever next turn. It takes fucking forever to upgrade and expand them, but we NEED them upgraded and expanded before we can really push further acceptance of the reformations in the Mechanicus. Plus, boosting our AM production is really important given the rate at which we spend it.

 

[Enjou]

-Y4: Propaganda about Quartok: (Vanaheim)
-- DOUBLE DOWN YEAR 4
-- EXPEDITE YEAR 4

Click to shrink...

You sure you want to try this on Vanaheim of all places, given last time? Maybe try Svartalfheim instead?

Also, I don't think you can expedite this because expedite is supposed to only be for construction.

 

[HanEmpire]

[X] Plan Elder Haman T87

This plan has the Quartok Propaganda that I want.

@Elder Haman
On that note though I'd like to second Enjou's concerns about sending propaganda vids to Vanaheim. There's too much bad blood there when it comes to Avernus and Quartok, I think we'll face significant backlash if we do this.
Why not direct the propaganda towards Avernites instead? Despite putting up with the Quartok I get the impression that our citizens are only doing it out of loyalty to the Governor. For instance Schwarz despises the Quartok for being xeno, nothing else.

 

[Doomed Wombat]

For Mechanicus, I'd really like to get started with upgrading some of our surface forge cities and having Tranth do the design work for the forward operating base or whatever next turn. It takes fucking forever to upgrade and expand them, but we NEED them upgraded and expanded before we can really push further acceptance of the reformations in the Mechanicus. Plus, boosting our AM production is really important given the rate at which we spend it.

Click to shrink...

Well we are actually doing one of them ATM (its Nechan I think) which is the last orbital one.

After that then we've got the three surface ones (Dorthonion, Belegost and Silver Lake) which actually take one year less than luna ones .

Still I believe our main bottle neck on the reforms is Scott's Young trait which removes in... 4 or so turns I think.

Then we can start on things like Sanctus and the Plasma reactors.

 

[Shard]

Didn't the Quartok Propaganda, like, blow up in our face the last time we did it?

 

[Doomed Wombat]

Didn't the Quartok Propaganda, like, blow up in our face the last time we did it?

Click to shrink...

That was due to bad luck admit ably, which is something we simply cannot control.

Any roll has a chance of being a nat 1

 

[HanEmpire]

Didn't the Quartok Propaganda, like, blow up in our face the last time we did it?

Click to shrink...

Double Nat1s can do that.

 

[random_npc]

either way, we should probably not try it again, since getting caught twice would be a lot worse. It's also likely they upped their security after that, any further efforts to advocate for the Quartok should be done above board I think.

edit: misread it, this time it is above board. still might want to start on a different planet though.

 

[HanEmpire]

@Durin:
1) Is there an "Avernite view of the Quartok" stat?
2) If so, where are we sitting at right now?

 

[godofsmallthings]

[X] Plan Elder Haman T87