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Traveller, The Rise of Empire: A Naval Design, Procurement and Command Quest

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[X] Plan: We only need the weapons

I am a little worried that the Lydians (knowing that Menorb has our prisoners) will expect us to come to Menorb and ambush us there, and that two ICs and an MMS won't be enough to hold them off. Other than that this plan looks good.
 
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What do Aslan ritual combats look like? If we can do a mock war that doesn't risk lives or valuable ships then that seems fine to me.

Otherwise, this plan seems fine.

[X] Plan: We only need the weapons

The Daughters seem fine, but we still don't really know what they want. Iirc they are a messianic cult and we have never met their Messiah or got any clear idea of their motives or objectives.
 
I really don't understand why people are so opposed to having anything at all to do with the Daughters. They very clearly have a lot of popular support which would be extremely useful for overthrowing the Citizens Council and for pursuing this war. All they want in return is to give us nurses and preachers, which would be a great way to learn more about them. We have tried to directly learn more about them through the intelligence corps and its clear that they know how to evade that, which means that if we want to get a better idea of their motives and objectives it has to be from them opening up to us.

What we do know of them is that they have been primarily engaged in humanitarian pursuits with the distribution of aid to the people of several planets including Home. This is also what we know of their goals from the initial info we had of them, which seems rather compatible with our own goals of an expanding empire.
4WheelSword said:
They promise a new, more glorious age for Home, a recovery from the plagues of the past and a better future with the systems influence spreading beyond its own boundaries and into distant and disparate empires.
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Just an FYI, @Boss Tweed, @Draz, @Paladin_508, @Rat King, I've edited my plan to allow Daugher nurses and chaplains aboard our R&R stations, but not warships, and with requirements that they follow our rules and offer equal and secular medical services to all our servicemembers; I'm letting you know in case you object to that & want to change your vote.
 
Fireiy said:
I really don't understand why people are so opposed to having anything at all to do with the Daughters. They very clearly have a lot of popular support which would be extremely useful for overthrowing the Citizens Council and for pursuing this war.
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In my understanding the Daughters are the third political group competing (more or less) for power over Home. First is of course the Citizen Council, the plutocrates - corporates and landowners. They are the legislative branch currently and are on the top of things. It is not clear what is their view of the political competition - do they really perceive it as a serious competition?
The second is the "hereditary bureucracy based on the ship-ranks, descendants from the old crew of the generation ships", who basically are the 90% of the executive. HSWS is probably most powerful branch of this group, but the group is diffuse and not united. To be fair, while we grab every bit of more and more political/bureucratic power, we do not have some defined political goals and do not try to achieve them beyond the said power-growth.
And the third are the Daughters.

With the thread being routinely exasperated every time the CItizen Council are trying to issue any orders to HSWS - well, I just do not expect that new ruling body consisting of Daughters would be less inclined to give orders to the HSWS.
So, basically, with giving more leverage and influence inside the HSWS to Daughters, we do want to achieve what? Change our current Big Bosses for better ones?

And if we want to "take over ourselves", then subordinating the HSWS to Daughters is doing this wrong.
 
Yeah, I explicitly tried to make it clear in my write-in that the Daughters are only in non-combat areas and that we are in charge, but at the same time, it's worth throwing a bone to the religious members of the HSWS; I'd be in favour of granting other religions (and, hey, throwing an agnostic counsellor/psychologist in there wouldn't be a problem either) the same allowances if it comes up.
 
I'm fine with us having the daughters come into the story more. I'd rather we not go all-in on them, but that's a mild preference.

I don't really care if the daughters overthrow the council or not. I'm fine with the council giving us unreasonable or reasonable demands. It is more fun to be working within some constraints
 
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13-3: The Bag Of winds, Opened? New
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    • Adhoc vote count started by 4WheelSword on Oct 28, 2024 at 7:54 AM, finished with 29 posts and 14 votes.
    • [X] Plan: We only need the weapons
      -[X] Provide a counter-offer to the Aslan - we are willing to provide the defensive installation they request following the conclusion of our current war, provided it is under joint HSWS command, in exchange for just the weapons and excluding the drive and powerplant technologies.
      -[X] The above should be sold to the Citizen's Council by suggesting the possible trade opportunities presented by a permanent Home presence in orbit above the Aslan's population centres.
      -[X] Give the go-ahead for both operations
      -[X] Both options, although insist that they only be placed on stations and warships providing rest and recuperation (as opposed to combat warships), that nurses provide equal and secular services to all HSWS personnel, they are subject to HSWS regulations, and that the HSWS can insist upon the removal of specific personnel.
      [X] Plan: Mercenaries for Tech
      -[X] We should discuss the idea of a war-for-technology with Aslan diplomats.
      -[X] Give the go-ahead for both operations
      -[X] As much as the daughters are useful to us, we cannot be alligned with them.
      [X] OPLAN: Waltz
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    How does the HSWS respond? Provide a counter-offer to the Aslan.
    The HSWS has the final say on these operations. What of them?     Give the go-ahead for both operations
    Which of the above seems appropriate:     Both options, although insist that they only be placed on stations and warships providing rest and recuperation

    Available Budget: 882.1375MCr
    Current Dockyard Usage: 12,000/21,500Dtons + 7,400Dtons in civilian yards
    Current Pilot Usage: 85/100


    The Daughters of the People
    The first inductee's to the HSWS' medical services who openly identify themselves as members of the Daughters do not come from outside the service. Instead, there is a sudden boom in the number of serving personnel openly wearing insignia and other items that identify themselves as followers of the faith. Other service members see this as a signal that they can also more openly identify their faith, and there is a short-term boom in the appearance of off-regulation items that identify a persons' faith. The HSWS responds by reiterating the oath every service member took to protect Home and her greater environs, and there is an overall positive response. Morale is boosted across the force and despite the ongoing and oddly-stilted conflict, reports from across the board are positive.

    Over the course of several months, the representatives of the Daughters become an almost common sight aboard HSWS facilities and rear-line ships. They do not proselytize, they do not preach to the unconverted, and their services are quiet and held out of the way wherever possible. Captains report a little over forty percent of their crews attending or signalling an intention to attend these services, which are, above everything else, focused on creating strong bonds between those service members in attendance. At least one senior officer attests that it cannot be long before a wedding is held under thrust.


    The Cruisers in the Yards
    While the main hulls of the three CFA's currently in the yards have been completed and the first elements of their drives and plants are being built into the internals, it is not too late to conduct major modifications of the three ships. Each of them - the Gurzil, the Sopdu and the Wepwawet - will have their plans modified dramatically and thus flight II of the CFA is stillborn. Reborn as the flight III variants of the same design, these three ships will be enhanced with automated systems, virtual crew, repair drones and massively enhanced sensor systems to try to combat the daunting threat of stealthed enemies.
    ​

    Their core design will not change, but the capability of each platform will be greatly enhanced. The cost is not small, however - enhanced systems mean these 'in construction' redesigns will cost 253Mcr. per platform and a total of 759Mcr.

    Available Budget: 123.1375MCr


    Scout Flotilla
    With only two weeks of recuperation and shore leave in the wake of Vice-Marshall Adabayo's return with his task force, he reassembles his group to head North again with new orders - to find out where the stealth ships are coming from or, failing that, to find out where they are not coming from.

    Operation Red deploys a force of four ships to scout around the 'Western' side of Lydian space. They halt in Sector '-02,-02' to refuel before continuing on without the FSS. A long duration reconnaissance mission in '-02,-03' detects the presence of several systems previously only vaguely mapped though orders to not penetrate unknown systems leads to the commander of the HSWS Agni to return a little earlier than expected. Operation Red ends with the forces return to Deeper Hope in 19y11m02w.

    Operation Yellow transits to the East rather than to the West, passing through the long-untouched prison system. It has been twelve years since the last HSWS ship entered this system, and in that time much has changed. This time, the experience of transiting through the system is markedly different. The moon that orbits a planet ever so close to the star is not silent - automated transmitters still attempt and fail to break through HSWS cyber-security protocols - but there are also a number of ships present in the system. Notably, they are not just the previously identified stealth ships, but also a pair of small cargo vessels that have similar but less effective stealth coatings as their compatriots. The commander of the HSWS Pushan chooses to quietly move past without signalling any enemy vessel, trusting in the hundreds of thousands of kilometres separating them to keep both forces apart.

    Instead, Force Yellow continues on with sensors unfurled and observatories watching widely. The mission proper ends with a month spent in Sector '02,-05' with the detection of new systems and a cluster of them to the North-East. The latter has the potential to demonstrate itself to be another polity, though it might be an extension of what we now consider Lydian space. The return trip is even quiety than out, more of a mad dash back towards the rendezvous with the recovered data. Operation Yellow ends with the forces return to Deeper Hope in 20y00m00w.

    Operation Orange, personally lead by Vice-Marshall Adabayo from about the HSWS Henshen, is also the shortest of the combined operations. Seven weeks are spent, two of them in Menorb and in negotiations, before the Henshen and her escorts return with several diplomats, a handful of exhausted and wounded prisoners of war and a message: the Lydians are willing to consider this matter closed as long as there are no further attempted penetrations of Lydian space.

    Operation Orange ends with the forces return to Deeper Hope in 19y10m03w.

    The force as a whole, reassembled and carrying information and freed prisoners, returns to Home proper a week after Navy day and the celebration of the turning of the year. Maps are updated as follows:

    ​
    Given this new information, what is the HSWS position on the prison break operation?
    [ ] We should still go ahead with it
    [ ] Cancel it. We have an opportunity to end this conflict.


    Aslan Negotiations
    The Aslan are perfectly willing to negotiate down. Home only wants weapon technology? Then a treaty can be drawn up that only provisions the distribution of weapons technology and in return, the Aslan would only ask for Significant Annual Payments and a combined defence treaty. After all, weapons are perhaps the most closely guarded secrets a state might have. If the Aslan are not careful with how they sell their secrets, they might have to compete with Home soon. That wouldn't do, would it?

    What does the HSWS make of this new offer?
    [ ] Accept it. We will make do.
    [ ] Refuse and issue a challenge for the tecnology.
    [ ] Refuse and walk away.
    [ ] Other, write in.


    Construction
    With a new year comes a new budget, and with a new budget comes a great amount of potential construction.

    Available Budget: 5,100MCr
    Current Dockyard Usage: 12,000/21,500Dtons + 7,400Dtons in civilian yards

    What will the HSWS lay down?
    [ ] Write in up to 9,500Dtons of ships without exceeding the available budget.

    Please present votes as plans. Voting closes at
     
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    • I lean towards accepting. Better friends than enemies, after all. If our relationship ever degrades, Id call that a major fuckup.
     
    Since they didn't agree to the defence station, I'm inclined to negotiate a small ritual conflict while pausing the Lydian conflict. It's clearly not over - they intruded first and will be a future threat - but a temporary pause while we reconnoiter them is fine.

    As for new construction, I think now is the time to prepare our next build program. I'd like to build more defense monitors and logistics assets, keep the CFA production going, build another carrier, and maybe look into stations that can help spur our long term growth.

    For the first half of the year, I think that it'd be good to lay down the first of our new ships, then try and squeeze in a carrier and a modified version of the jump tug that uses virtual crew. If we have spare tonnage I'd put it towards more defense monitors and minelayers.
     
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    Idea for the Aslan Negotiations
    Challenge the Aslan to a game of FUSSBALL/SOCCER. We win, we get the tech. They win, they players get land under the usual provisions on Home. should be valuable enough for the Aslan if all the players are alphas.
    edit: changed foosball to fussball.
     
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