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Judge, Jury and Excecution have declared them guilty!
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You Are: A sector admiral of a strained imperium.
- Thread starter Packrat
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
Judge, Jury and Excecution have declared them guilty!
Incidentally, pitchforks are currently at half price!
Rat King
Izutsumi-pilled
'Eh, lads, this 'ere sounds mighty familiar, innit?'
'Sounds like somethin' that Satar bloke might say, swear on me mum'
Halt! The Funnies Patrol is here! You stand accused of stealing funnies, sir, how do you plea?
Not guilty by ignorance
Great minds think alike?
'Eh, lads, this 'ere sounds mighty familiar, innit?'
'Sounds like somethin' that Satar bloke might say, swear on me mum'
Halt! The Funnies Patrol is here! You stand accused of stealing funnies, sir, how do you plea?
Oh and you two too, I guess.
Reinhard captured or destroyed 3% of the NASP military in six months. They lost 6 capital ships and 14 warships. The NASP reinforcement fleet is going to be weaker than the NASP sector fleet that was across the border at the start of the quest. Reinhard turned Chuang Mu, one of their most important worlds, into another Imhotep. Where Imhotep is hurting the finances of one sector, Chuang Mu will hurt the finances of NASP and hurt their political unity. In NASP, heads will roll for whoever can be blamed for the two attacks on Imhotep.
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The viscountess calling us an Arril puppet gives me reason to believe some Houses will make that same mistake. Some blame will be laid on House Arril by other nobles and House Arril might try to exploit the alleged connection for their own political benefit. Any noble house that doesn't like House Arslan will be happy at their heiress being disgraced and killed. We"ll still have to make friends with the local Imperial dynasty and House Wison. House Arslan is going to hate us to an unknown degree. House Arril isn't happy for cracking down on their smuggling and House Jamoor feels the same but their relationship can be improved. Making Ranca prize captain will be a step towards making amends with House Arril for Ranca and Reinhard.
Capturing three Strike Cruisers would have been enough to get the attention of the Imperial Court. Capturing three, destroying two and capturing a sector flagship was enough to put us on the news across the Imperium. This? It is a total strategic victory for the Imperium. Over the year we've been Commodore of the Imperium we have changed the strategic balance between two galactic powers after starting with a badly under strength fleet. We've made enemies with House Arslan, but we can try to become friends with House Arril or House Jamoor, the Imperial dynasty, House Wison and Imperial Intelligence.
297 or more Wealth. Buy a Share, invest 100, leave 97 as discretionary spending like a spy network and to support our Lifestyle. 100 left as discretionary spending is enough. Anything else should go towards investment because that lets us support our Lifestyle, a spy network and private fleet.
252 or more Political Capital. We have two light cruisers mothballed and one in semi-mothball or inactive to give us a tiny sector deficit. We can spend 70 Political Capital to fully crew and support those three light cruisers or we can sell them all at 70 to 105 PC. Then use that to requisition a battleship or battlecruiser and spend another 100 or 110 to support it in our sector budget. The third option is to get more patrol cutters. With the way the mechanics work we either want more capital ships for combat, more warships to promote officers and build political connections or more patrol cutters to cut down on smuggling. Earlier we agreed to hold back on anti-smuggling operations so it doesn't make sense to get more patrol cutters if they're going to dry up the well of PC and W that comes from smuggling and piracy. We're not in as a bad place as we are before so we should save 130 Political Capital for the benefits that come from +5 diplomacy and loyalty.
Packrat said it will take 30 PC for the two remaining officers. It might decrease when we buy a Share.
That isn't true. Making him a captain grants him greater power that can be used for our ends. The better position our loyal officers are, the better position they"ll put Reinhard in.
Which is why I'm in favor of doing it after our three years are up.
I second the threadmarking @Packrat
With how the mechanics work, four heavy cruisers are equal to one battleship or battlecruiser. 220 W for a heavy cruiser squadron versus 100 or 110 for a battleship or battle cruiser. For the cost of four heavy cruisers they can buy two battle cruisers that would destroy the HC squadron. Both have militaries made to fight peer powers in a war. With the bonuses capital ships get against capital ships and the penalties warships get against capital ships, a Battleship fighting a Heavy Cruiser has 20 Firepower and 20 Durability versus 5 Firepower and 5 Durability.
Yes, and speed only matters for boarding or escaping.
Comfortably, not Expected. If we buy a capital ship we should get a high enough investment level to afford maintaining it so we don't have to worry about going into debt or selling it in the future.
We're Reinhard and living up to the namesake.
His name is Reinhard, not Reinhardt.
Not this universe. Packrat was quick to point out the bombing of infrastructure was going to result in limited casualties because of their planning and advanced surviving infrastructure. The damage is going to be the economic cost, not the cost in lives. Since this planet bordered the Imperium and they were militant, it makes sense they created contingencies. Underground shelters, redundant infrastructure, localized infrastructure, and emergency stockpiles can be done today.
World War 1 and 2 would have had casualties in the billions if they fought at the scale we are and if it was a war between planets instead of countries. History has had massacres and casualties that are proportionally worse than what we did from World War 2 and earlier. There are less casualties since the end of World War 2 because of nuclear weapons. The Imperium and NASP don't have the threat of mutually assured destruction. World War 2 countries and countries today are willing to do worse than we have in this quest to serve their ends. Including western democracies.
That is an unfair characterization but I'm tired of arguing over the same past actions over and over.
Don't get depressed. This is a game and we're here to have fun. Why get depressed over the actions of a fictional character in a fictional setting against fictional space people? I am getting tired of all this morality discussion trying to suck out the fun of anyone who wants to play a character with ambition. Players inserting their 21st century western civilian morality has been done and is being done to death on Sufficient Velocity. Even in 40k quests I can't escape that. Everyone and their grandma wants to take a setting like Warhammer 40,000 and turn it into another generic contemporary science fiction setting while ignoring the distinctiveness of the setting is what makes it stand out. Keep a healthy line between fiction and reality. You can get invested without getting depressed over or judging other players morality for how a character is played. Someone who plays a character with foreign or objectively evil morals don't automatically have those morals.
I know you came in this quest late, but for an idea of what players were thinking at the time read this post You Are: A sector admiral of a strained imperium. - Original - Sci-Fi | Page 20 None of it is so black and white. Packrat is the kind of QM to offer unambiguously bad choices. He will write in choices that come with their own benefits and price. What he won't do is write an unambiguously good choice.
We're playing a military officer in a setting closer to the 19th century than the 21st century. Don't think of this as a science fiction setting where the people think like us or are more enlightened. Think of this as medieval or age of sail fantasy. Getting depressed about killing enemy combatants trying to kill us and our people or enemy civilians who support those enemy combatants shouldn't happen because it is a game. They're not real. We should become Space Napoleon or die trying. Playing a loyalist in my opinion is boring because it squanders the potential of our character and isn't ambitious enough.
I am all in favor of our character having a sense of patriotism and identifying with the Imperium. But the dynasty and all the roleplaying nobles who created this unjust, backwards feudalistic cyberpunk dystopia? Put their heads on pikes if we have to because what they're capable of doing and have done is worse. Reinhard can become Emperor and reform the Empire into something more fair and efficient without turning it into another New Australia.
I don't care that Reinhard isn't played as a rigid player insert like in every other quest because being the "good guy" is as easy as copy pasting a line of text unlike reality where being a saint isn't so simple. I'm still going to root for Reinhard and you should too. The last time we had an argument about the price of handling "privateers" to Imperial Intelligence to deter privateers and for increased relations with them and a ducal house, it was because we took a one time penalty to ships surrendering. A few players had talked about how they didn't like Reinhard and were eager to see Reinhard get his comeuppance for being a bad person who had to be punished.
NASP is not a mirror of western countries, and the Imperium is not the worst country to exist in history. Plenty of planets within NASP are described as being Space North Korea and Space Cambodia. Am I saying you specifically want to play a player insert? No. I'm tired of the unwritten rule that every quest has to be like that and the arguments I've had in this quest over it are similar to it.
Reinhard is a commoner and will soon be an upjumped noble. There is no way for him to become Emperor without tearing the whole thing down. After that he can make a better Imperium.
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- Location
- canada
meh, in my eyes his personality is similar to that of one German knight so I get the two mixed up.
When I think of Reinhard I think of our namesake.
Hairstyle Meme - Reinhard Von Lohengramm
...More appropriately,
This.
Hairstyle Meme - Reinhard Von Lohengramm
...More appropriately,
This.
ThatGuyWithIdeas
Treize died for our sins
- Location
- Romania
Ok then... does the thread agree to change the battlecruiser's name from Sword of Democracy to Brunhilde, in order to honour the fact that our character is an expy of Reinhard von Lohengramm?
What I noticed about that video clip was that at 0:16 you see the captain thrown forward to the deck with a chunk of shrapnel between his shoulderblades, Reinhard runs over and rolls him over so he's laying on his back. So the captain's weight is resting on the shrapnel shard, driving it deeper into his body and worsening his injuries, and nobody seems to notice. Reinhard has pulled off a literal backstab of the captain of his ship in front of all the bridge officers, and nobody seems to notice.
Now that is how to take command of a warship in the middle of a battle!
Now that is how to take command of a warship in the middle of a battle!
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I don't think the animators realized that at the time.
I posted it because our character is so similar. Both come from a lowly origins in a corrupt, decadent empire and both are military geniuses.I don't think the animators realized that at the time.
I know what you mean, Gunman, but I couldn't help commenting on it
Seriously, I could see our character doing exactly the same thing as a young officer, possibly in the early days of the war against NASP, although there probably would have been more nobles talking down to him and it's less likely that they would have accepted the captain ordering him to take command. But the point is definitely made.
We thought she would have been quite willing if we had a higher Diplomacy at the time. We voted to arrest or refuse because you left us little choice when you said this
Before that the vote was in favor of accepting and demanding more. In the quest, any kind of socialization we voted on came with a diplomacy roll. The time we personally returned to Imhotep to give our side of the story we weren't given a bonus to our roll. From how the quest went and how you phrased your answer, anything but accepting her proposal with no conditions would have been a likely failure.
To clarify, with phone typing, you would certainly not have gotten everything you asked for or had her agree to non genocide tactics without a very successful Diplomacy roll. A moderate failure asking for the five shares and agreeing to genocide would have been fine though that was how much she was expecting to have to bribe you.
She was just hoping you would be cheaper than that.
She was just hoping you would be cheaper than that.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
So we'd have had to roll a more than simply Successful Diplomacy check to get her not to be a total moron. Honestly, this just makes me happier that she's dead.
We didn't know that and your answer led us to believe we didn't have a reasonable chance. In the future, please consider your answers more carefully during a vote. I appreciate you making us better informed by participating in the discussion. I love your quest and how you've challenged us. I like that your posts in the middle of voting will add fuel to the fire and encourage discussion. Just make sure the answers are balanced to not influence the vote too much one way if the vote is close and there is no chance of us misinterpreting what you say.
Yes, but he was arguing we would have treated her better and accepted her proposal if she was a man, not worse and then try to arrest her.
Right after we talked about the possibility of marrying a higher ranked noble than Ranca and the benefits of it we found out the heiress to the most powerful ducal house was on the way, and considering that they wanted the Imperial throne there was a non zero chance of marriage being on the table after she hinted we could become a Prince. The reaction towards Arslan had nothing to do with her being construed as "bossy" or "uppity" as @George implied. It had to do with her putting us on the spot to betray the damn Imperium after she disobeyed our order. She was being blatantly disrespectful because she looked down on us as a "peasant" as she called us. In quests, players are actually more likely to be unreasonably forgiving to females because of the chance of making them a waifu or adding them to a harem than they are to act like what George is accusing the players of.
I don't want to estrange his marriage. However I am in favor of socializing with our friends more. I am willing for Reinhard to take ruthless actions to further our goals but when it comes to our subordinates and especially family or friends he can be selfess. After this we need to have a long talk with Sones about our plans and what happened. He has the political acumen to guide us with his 14 Diplomacy and 15 Subterfuge.
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Satar
Xetares, Third Redeemer; World Drinker
- Location
- Sesh
@Packrat can we commission custom ships at extra cost? I figure that if we're to make a name for ourselves as a strategist, we need to be able to fine-tune units to our needs. Specifically, I'm wondering if we can create a Capital Ship- Class vessel:
Ranca-Class Carrier
Speed: 9, Firepower 5, Durability 6, Marines 15
A modified battle-cruiser which has had sizeable sections of its weapons ports and armor ripped out and refitted with troop quarters, boarding torpedoes and more engines. Hapless at range and comparatively fragile for a Capital-Class ship, the Carrier plays two critical roles in modern space combat. If adequately protected by a Battleship screen, these ships can prove their worth in close range by rushing a capital ship (or two!) and disgorging a truly enormous number of Marines. Otherwise it offers excellent planetary occupation options, given its enlarged troop component.
Invented by then-Commodore Reinhard Strauss after the Second Battle of Chaung Ma, the Carrier would represent a strategic doubling-down on the twin edges that the Imperium consistently held over the NASP: (1) superior tactical leadership in ship-to-ship boarding and (2) superior boarding troops. Typically deployed in a 5-to-1 ratio of Battleships/Battlecruiser to Carriers.
Ranca-Class Carrier
Speed: 9, Firepower 5, Durability 6, Marines 15
A modified battle-cruiser which has had sizeable sections of its weapons ports and armor ripped out and refitted with troop quarters, boarding torpedoes and more engines. Hapless at range and comparatively fragile for a Capital-Class ship, the Carrier plays two critical roles in modern space combat. If adequately protected by a Battleship screen, these ships can prove their worth in close range by rushing a capital ship (or two!) and disgorging a truly enormous number of Marines. Otherwise it offers excellent planetary occupation options, given its enlarged troop component.
Invented by then-Commodore Reinhard Strauss after the Second Battle of Chaung Ma, the Carrier would represent a strategic doubling-down on the twin edges that the Imperium consistently held over the NASP: (1) superior tactical leadership in ship-to-ship boarding and (2) superior boarding troops. Typically deployed in a 5-to-1 ratio of Battleships/Battlecruiser to Carriers.
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- Location
- Belgrade, Serbia
I wonder if our pirate/smuggler income is going to drop sharply after this. We were extremely effective at suppressing them before this and after this battle I wouldn't be surprised if pirates take a look at the list of our accomplishments and track record and decide to leave for greener pastures elsewhere.
It is very important we do not vote crack down on pirates for now because of this.
- Location
- Somewhere in the stacks
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Pirates might move into the area around Chuang Mu, actually. No military, no defenses worth speaking of. Any shipping there is ripe for the picking.
If NASP protects Chuang Mu then it will weaken their presence in the rest of their sector. Either choice NASP makes ends in increased piracy on their side of the border.
Kufufu
Adequate at best
- Location
- What's it to ya?
If we strike them quickly when we get back we could get atleast on last good haul off of them. We may be fine though, the Pirates were never the smartest folk in the first place.