Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Carbine

6 (10.2%)

Rocket Grenade

6 (10.2%)

Autorifle

12 (20.3%)

Scoped Rifle

6 (10.2%)

Electron Bomb

4 (6.8%)

Petard

7 (11.9%)

Any Weapon, I Don't Mind

6 (10.2%)

I'm Just Voting to be Cool

12 (20.3%)

Total Members Voted: 29

[Sensei]

I'd like a gunny! Also, update this.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Sorry! I was waiting for more people to sign up, and I kinda lost track of time, and... Working on the update now.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Update 2
OR:
I'm the OP. I can double-post if I want to.

Spoiler: Setup (click to show/hide)

As promised, we'll be assaulting a pirate garrison for this update. We need new weaponry and this is the only way to get it. Well, more or less. I believe that if the odds are stacked against us we can also get upgrade points, but I'm not in the mood to try that yet. Better equipment is definitely needed if we want to succeed.

But enough rambling on my part, you just want to see the big, epic battle don't you?

Here's our deployment list for the battle. I probably went a bit overboard with the number of veterans in the battle, but I wanted all of our crack troops out just in case. Even if our crack troops aren't much better than militia.

In the future I'll probably make things a bit neater, because right now it's hard to tell that I evenly divided my troops between the left and right flanks. Sorry about that. All of the claimed soldiers are on the left flank, to foster a sense of unity and camaraderie. And to make it simpler for me to figure out who deserves all the glory. The basic plan for this battle is basically to flank the enemy from both sides and get them in a withering crossfire. And honestly that's probably the most complicated tactics I'll ever use in this game. You see battles aren't terribly complicated or involved, so deploying advanced tactics doesn't really work. Your troops spawn on one side, the enemies on the other, and you meet in the middle to duke it out. The maps are also rather identical/interchangeable, and they don't really mix up the combat in an interesting way. Except maybe the Urban maps, but I'll show you why when we get there.

Since our weapon selection is limited, most of our troops are equipped like this. A rifle, grenades and some ammo. I could have easily gotten away with less of everything, but hindsight. And it's probably better to err on the side of caution anyways. The only people not armed with this selection were the fusiliers, who I gave pistols to make their reaction fire cost less actions, Ndaba "Darkening Kaos" Emakhosini, who wanted lots of grenades, and the two militiamen. They were the designated medics/spotters and got a pistol, some ammo, and four medkits each. Of course that means that they didn't get a chance to earn promotions, but I can live with that. The game has more than enough pointless battles to create new veterans.

Surprisingly, this battle was the 'capture the flag' mission instead of the usual 'kill everything'. Whether this was due to random chance or the presence of the pirate garrison is hard to say. Though we should find out next update.

With not much else to talk about or do, it's time to steal us a jolly roger destroy the pirate menace in the area.

Spoiler: The Battle (click to show/hide)

Before we start, I'd like to make a complaint about the game. Shocking, I know. My problem is with the game's map.

Or what the game calls a map. You see, it's rather stupid and annoying, since it only tells you the positions of the soldiers, and nothing about the terrain or map features. Both of which could be useful if, you know, you wanted to find out the best positions to place your troops. Or find the quickest way to line up against a shot against an enemy that another soldier discovered.

Thankfully(?) the map does have one other purpose. It's one of two ways that you can pick your soldiers to move them around. I wish I was joking. When you're on the battlefield, you can't just click on a guy and order him around. You either have to cycle through your soldiers until you find the right guy with the next/previous buttons in the lower-left corner of the screen. Or you can go to the map and click on the dot that represents the soldier you want to order around.

But because that would require too little time and effort, you can't just select troops straight from the default map either. You have to zoom in first before they become selectable. And if they aren't on the screen when you zoom in, you have to scroll to find them. Which wastes more time for absolutely no reason.

Anyways, enough complaining for now. It's time for the battle at hand.

Or at least it would be if it wasn't the very first turn. So instead I just move everyone up as far as they can go and end the turn.

The AI does the exact same thing, because their turn goes by in a flash. Which always surprises me, since later turns always take longer than the first. Even if both sides haven't seen each other yet and the AI is largely sending its troops out in formation. It's a bit weird, actually, but I suppose it's a good thing, as it shows that the AI is actually thinking a bit about what it's doing. Or at least for later turns.

The second turn starts the same as the first, with no enemies in sight.

That doesn't last very long though, as Nathi 'monk12' Slaap charges forward and spots a couple of enemy troopers far off into the distance.

Our militiamen also spot some pirates as they charge forward. Unfortunately we can't really deal with the enemies at the moment. They are at the extremes of our soldiers' movement range, and we really don't want to charge forward and miss all of our shots either. Or stand around stupidly with not enough actions. So instead we fall back a bit into cover, to avoid giving the enemy a clear shot at us. Let them waste their actions getting into position, so that we can snipe them on our next turn.

Nathi comes under fire after I end the turn, and several unclaimed soldiers get shot at too. Thankfully the volume of fire they face is rather reduced, as the AI doesn't send all of its troopers forward. Which I believe is due to the fact that it is defending the flag in this battle.

You see, in the capture the flag type battles, a flag spawns near the enemy's side of the map. And all we have to do to win the battle is touch the flag with a soldier. That's it. There's no time limit or number of turns we have to be touching it to win. Nor do we have to bring back to our spawn or anything like that. Just run a soldier over to it and we win. Which means that these types of battles are much easier than clearing the map. Once we get a soldier within 100~ meters of it, he can charge ahead next turn to claim it. Simple as that. So instead of sending its troops to flank or swarm us, I believe that the AI is keeping some riflemen back to nail any charging troopers with reaction fire, just in case.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into things and the AI is as dumb as a bag of bricks. I wouldn't be surprised either way.

Anyways, the militiaman on the right flank is the only person to get hit this turn, despite all of the shots being fired. In fact, he's the only soldier to get wounded at all this battle. I wish that I could put this down to superior battle tactics, but with the AI holding back its troops we simply killed the ones we saw and thus avoided an extended firefight.

Yeah, I'm disappointed too.

Since militia aren't very courageous, Ayize bottled it(?) and fled when our turn rolled around. Which could have been a problem if he wasn't a militia and thus not needed. Or if he wasn't immediately fine afterwards. That's not a joke. His moral fibre was back up to 100 when I checked on him that exact turn. It really does regenerate that quickly.

With a couple soldiers clearly in sight, Nathi inches forward and blasts away with his rifle. You know, I'm really glad I went with the rifles this mission, despite the fact that the visibility is only 100 meters. The reduced accuracy from the pistol wouldn't make up for the increased amount of shots we could fire. It took Nathi three shots to kill his target, and that kill was still far from assured.

Not wanting to risk Nathi with another pirate still in sight, I pull him back into cover to keep him safe. He is our first veteran and it'd be terrible if he dies. Unfortunately nobody else on the left flank can get a clear shot on the spotted enemy, so we have to resort to drastic measures.

Namely having Ndaba switch out for a grenade and send him charging forward, hoping that he'll avoid getting shot or running into another enemy along the way. And of course I ruined any tension with my earlier comments about the battle.

Though that doesn't make grenades any less satisfying to use though.

Our mooks on the right flank prove themselves to be just as competent, and they take down another pirate with massed rifle fire. 3 down, 6 to go.

With the AI being so strangely defense, its turn is very quiet and nobody moves up where we can see them.

Though it probably helps that a couple of the enemy go crazy and start firing wilding in the side of a hill, wasting all of their actions.

Which means that it's our turn again. Since we can't see any troopers to shoot, we start by moving everyone up to find someone to fight.

The mooks on the right flank spot an enemy as they advance, but they are mooks and thus miss their shots.

Luckily, grenades can't miss.

As Nathi suicidally charges forward, wondering where all of the enemies are advances, he spots another pirate sulking about.

So there's nothing left to do but greet him with excessive force.

As Mangosutha rushes forward to put his grenade to good use, he spots the other pirates. Well, most of them. Still, we'll just have to kill the ones in front of us before looking for the last enemy slulking about.

OH COME ON. GODDAMN IT. I know you can't really tell from the screenshot, so let me explain. The grenade flew forward, through the guy's legs, and hit the hill opposite him. Thus missing completely, doing zero damage. And after I said that grenades can't miss too...

At least I prove that I can learn from my mistakes, as the next trooper comes in at a lower angle so that the same problem won't happen again.

To continue the theme of me being smart, I decide that two close-range pistol shots are more than enough to kill someone. Unfortunately, as you can see, it wasn't. But the problem isn't that the shots missed, but the fact that they hit the lucky pirate's legs instead. You see, the damage formula in this game is surprisingly simple. Each weapon does so much damage. If you hit someone's head, they receive maximum damage. If they get hit in the chest, they take half to full damage. If they get hit in the limbs, they only receive a quarter to a half amount of damage. Which doesn't really explain how splash damage works, but whatever.

And to top things off, pistols do 150 damage. So those two shots could have easily killed the pirate despite hitting his legs. Oh well.

Fun Fact: This game has a button to reserve actions for reaction fire. Or stopping you from running too far and not having enough actions to shoot at nearby opponents. Which is definitely a thing that can happen, since the game never tells you how many actions it takes to move from place to place. Or even ask for a confirmation to move in the first place. Yeah, that's definitely a thing.

Fun Fact 2: The reserve actions button doesn't work with grenades. Leading to this situation up there. Fuck this game. If you can't tell, this game can be extremely annoying and frustrating at times.

Somehow I still have enough troops in range to blast the remaining enemies with grenades. Well, except for the lucky militiaman who is right next to one of my guys.

Since I can't deal with the remaining pirates, and I don't want to end the turn and give the enemy free kill(s), I don't have much choice but to rush my remaining man forward to claim the flag.

Thus winning the battle. _{It's that simple. Touch the flag and win. I wasn't lying.}

Spoiler: Aftermath (click to show/hide)

Unsurprisingly, the game counts this as a decisive victory. Though I probably would have called it a total victory myself.

Nathi, Phunga, Ndaba and a handful of unclaimed mooks all earn promotions for this battle. So the next time we send them out to fight they'll be a little bit better. And more expensive. But hey, competence doesn't come cheap.

Next Time on Airship Dragoon: We upgrade our weaponry, and assault another pirate garrison or two! New weapons don't grow on trees after all. Will our soldiers finally meet some resistance worthy of their time, or are they barking up the wrong pirate infested island? Find out next update of, Let's be Imperialistic Bastards: Airship Dragoon LP!

Battles Fought: 10
Battles Shown: 3


Since I am a generous LPer, I'm going to let you guys vote on what weapons and equipment to spend my research points on. Don't worry about the fact that you all have no idea what's good or not. I'm here to give you my biased opinions guide to. The weapons we can currently research are in the spoiler below, but they'll also be up in the OP, with all of the other weapons.

Spoiler: Researchable Weapons (click to show/hide)

Carbine, $15
Damage: 90, Accuracy: +10, Range: 100m
RoF: 12 Actions/2 Shots, Reload: 10 Actions
Magazine: 10 .243 Rounds, Encumbrance: 12
Class: Fusilier. Other classes use base accuracy when firing this weapon.
Description: The Carbine is a bit of an odd weapon, to say the least. It weighs more than the rifle, but its ammo is lighter so it weighs less in the long run. It has a higher DPS than the rifle, but it achieves that by firing off two weaker shots instead of one medium-strength shot, so unless you're close, accurate or lucky, generally it's weaker. It has an accuracy boost over the rifle, but it costs more and has less range. Overall, it just kinda exists. It doesn't overshadow any other gun, nor is it really overshadowed by anything. It's there, and you can use it if you want to, but you don't have to.


Rocket Grenade, $10
Damage: 250/5m Splash, Accuracy: -20, Range: 150m
RoF:  15 Actions/1 Shot, Reload: Single-Shot
Magazine: 1 Rounds, Encumbrance: 4
Class: Grenadier. Other classes use base accuracy when firing this weapon.
Description: Reread the above stats again. They're a bit screwy. You see, the game says that any other class except for the grenadier uses their base accuracy when firing this weapon. But the accuracy modifier for the Rocket Grenades is -20. So that make them more accurate or less accurate when fired by someone who isn't a grenadier? Not that it really matters, since I'll never rarely use this weapon. Our guys are inaccurate enough, and the massive accuracy penalty isn't going to help either. But when everybody is nice and elite, being able to lop a bomb into a group of enemies far away might be worthwhile. Assuming that it manages to hit, of course.


Autorifle, $15
Damage: 120, Accuracy: -10, Range: 300m
RoF: 16 Actions/5 Shots, Reload: 12 Actions
Magazine: 20 .303 Rounds, Encumbrance: 16
Class: Gunny. Other classes use base accuracy when firing this weapon.
Description: The autorifle is the first machinegun we can get. It's heavy, takes a lot of actions to fire/reload, and isn't terribly accurate. But it is definitely worth it. Its range is 300m, so if you see an enemy you can shoot them. And it fires 5 shots for 16 actions. Which means that this weapon dominates at long range firefights, since it just pours out so many bullets at once. So the target will either die, or panic and run away. Or stand and place and give your troops another shot at killing them. Mind you, running out of ammo is definitely a concern with this gun, but you can always scrounge up more from the enemies you kill. Lots of weapons use the .303 round after all.


Scoped Rifle, $15
Damage: 120, Accuracy: +20, Range: 150m
RoF: 15 Actions/1 Shot, Reload: 10 Actions
Magazine: 5 .303 Rounds, Encumbrance: 12
Class: Marksman. Other classes use base accuracy when firing this weapon.
Description: It's the regular rifle, with a large accuracy bonus, more encumbrance and a longer reload time. Completely and utterly useless to anybody who isn't a marksman. But definitely worth getting, since +20 accuracy makes the marksmen we have better shots. It's also the only marksman rifle that can fire off a good number of shots per turn too, the later weapons all take many more actions to reload and shoot.


Electron Bomb, $10
Damage: 200/5m Splash + 20m Stun, Accuracy: +0, Range: User's Strength
RoF: 8 Actions/1 Shot, Reload: 4 Actions to Arm
Magazine: Single Shot, Encumbrance: 4
Class: Recce. Other classes can use this weapon without penalty.
Description: It's a grenade with stun. Which unfortunately makes it rather situational, since you need enemies to bunch up a bit to use it effectively. 200 damage is more than enough to kill anyone in the game, so against single targets it's usually just as deadly as a regular grenade. While being five times as expensive. And to top it off, the stun effect only works against enemies without armour. Admittedly I have no idea how common armour is in the later stages of the game, but it's another reason to not use the Electron bomb.


Petard, $15
Damage: 500/10m Splash, Accuracy: +0, Range: User's Strength
RoF: 8 Actions/1 Shot, Reload: 4 Actions to Arm
Magazine: Single Shot, Encumbrance: 8
Class: Sapper. Other classes can use this weapon without penalty.
Description: The Petard is not useless, but it's not worth using. The only thing that recommends it over the basic grenade is the extra damage, which is largely wasted against all but the most heavily armoured targets. It also costs 7.5 times more than a regular grenade, and has 8 encumbrance. Which is a lot for a single-shot weapon. At least the Electron Bomb has the stun to make it more attractive. The Petard has pretty much nothing.

[Hanzoku]

To answer your weapo's review, the Petard has one advantage - the ability to make terrible petard jokes as you (expensively) blow enemies up!

Good update again. Is it weird that I find the way they hold grenades behind their back cute? It,s like they're trying to hide a surprise for their new buddies...

[monk12]

To answer your weapo's review, the Petard has one advantage - the ability to make terrible petard jokes as you (expensively) blow enemies up!

Good update again. Is it weird that I find the way they hold grenades behind their back cute? It,s like they're trying to hide a surprise for their new buddies...

"OOOOoooh, I sure hope Blackbeard-senpai likes his present!"



Autorifle! It's the only option!

[Darkening Kaos]

Autorifle! It's the only option!

Agreed, but I'm biased.

[TalonisWolf]

AutoRifle= AutoDEATH to our enemies petards!

[Jalak]

I remember seeing this and grabbing the demo, but never got around to actually playing it. I'm sort of glad I didn't just chip out for the full game, like I normally do (and regret).

[Sensei]

Three week old thread, I revive thee!

I say go with the autorifle, since gunnys use it and I called a gunny.

Also, update the thread. I find your dry commentary amusing.

[Aseaheru]

Eight day dead thread, live! LIVE!

[USEC_OFFICER]

Ugh... Sorry for not saying anything earlier guys. I've finished playing the turn, I've just been trying to get motivated enough to write it up. And when I do that'd be the end of the LP because... Well you should be able to figure out why. The game is just far too repetitive and dull for me to enjoy myself, even in LP form like this. So... Sorry about that.

[EuchreJack]

Just show us killing doods with the machinegun autorifle and this LP can die with me happy.

[Parsely]

PTW

[Lukeinator]

I'll take a soldier.