Tip of the day: In the event of complete global economic collapse, your GM will only accept payment for turns in the form of printer ink.
Hawk132's HalberdThe cybernetics team purchases a brain scanner and conducts a study over the direct neural control of cybernetic implants. They determine that, with about a month of training, someone could learn to control implants with foreign effects. One test case learns to control a forearm-mounted pistol turret capable of retracting, while the second learns to fly a camera drone, although poorly. The third and fourth make no progress. None of them can do anything without the lab equipment, and nothing has been implanted yet. There is no neural feedback. A brain chip needs to be designed, and then implanted in each person you want to use any other implants.
The undergrad team compares kaiju combat data, looking for weaknesses. Your troops should be more effective.
Project VERT is coming along well. It can now jog at 12 MPH over lightly broken terrain, but must slow to a walk over moderately damaged terrain. It can fire a heavy infantry weapon while moving at full speed, and can fire medium vehicle weaponry while stationary. There is more room for 'standard' speed improvements, but they might require limiting the possible loadout. The lead isn't confident he is skilled enough to make a general mech capable of easily being switched between light, medium, or heavy roles.
Nothing much comes of your survival training.
The pilots think project VERT is cool. One requests Mechwarrior style jumpjets. A second thinks that's unlikely, and would prefer superheavy behemoths capable of actually hurting a kaiju.
Research completed: Neurally controlled implants
Research completed: Kaiju weaknesses study 0.2
Adwarf's Black ForgeXenobiology research halted due to no lab space. Teams reassigned to aid other research.
Ballistics improvement research has no successes, 9 dead-or-maimed undergrads, and several injuries. Paperwork for replacement undergrads is filed. Everyone should be have recovered from their physical wounds in four months. ((The dice do not much care for you at all.))
Project Slipstream goes much better.
Project Sladestorm goes poorly. It needs another month of design time, unless you want a weapon that needs a complete overhaul every time it is fired.
Various injures.
Fast off-road motorcycle design (65CR, 32 engineer months for 25 two-person bikes with 1 light vehicle weapon hardpoint)
Evil Marahadja's NERVNERV buys a pair of modified Chinook helicopters for 50CR each. They're slightly slower than baseline Chinooks, and only have half as much carrying capacity, but each carries a pair of medium machine guns and a rocket pod, and they're fairly agile when unloaded.
Nobody signs up for the suicide squad. There is mild disgruntlement over the true death toll being 55 million people, not 5 million.
Results from Project MIC indicate that anyone who cannot rappel from a helicopter onto a giant turtle isn't qualified to be issued a gun. One undergrad suggest that the US should update their gun licensing laws.
The Spelunky Bombs are ready for manufacture. Tiny explosive charges help a titanium and diamond drill make a deep hole, which is then automatically filled with explosives. It should only take a few seconds to attach the drill, after which the soldier is free to leave.
Ubergun modifies HEAT ammo into APHEAT. They're not particularly reliable, and are slightly weaker than standard HEAT rounds, but exploding after they stop, hopefully somewhere in the kaiju, should let them cause more damage.
The undergrads think the second kaiju was harder to kill because of its shell. They think the brain may not have been in the head. Both had similar levels of regeneration.
New Design: Spelunky Bombs - A drill attaches to the skin of the kaiju. After roughly a minute of drilling, the hole is injected with unstable explosives. (5CR, 5 engineer months)
New Design: Ubergun APHEAT ammo - HEAT ammo modified to penetrate tough material and then explode when the round stops moving. Fired from an anti-tank gun. (2CR, 3 engineer months for around an hour's worth of ammo.)
Wwolin's F.A.F.N.I.R.The bone arrives safely. ((You forgot to pay for it in your sheet.))
The motorcycles are finished.
A prototype anti-kaiju toxin is developed, despite the low level of xenobiology knowledge. The toxin team has hopes that it will be disorienting. It will be more effective if delivered into the bloodstream, but should still have some effect if the dart hits elsewhere. The rat injected with a test sample died violently. Toxin will need to be created by scientists, not engineers.
By the end of the month, Wwolin engineers have created a dart rifle suitable for delivering toxins to kaiju. It is very accurate at medium range, and should be able to penetrate through to an artery with a direct hit.
The new set of body armor is nearly as good as the last set.
The Internet doesn't have much new data on the attack, other than shots from different angles by civilians who were too stupid to evacuate. There is much discussion about what strategies should be used, but little agreement. One of the team's favorite suggestions is to destroy every kaiju with nukes while building colony ships and abandoning Earth. It should be possible with that new reaction-less drive or a nuclear pulse engine. The EPA has better things to do than complain about testing a nuclear pulse engine in the Earth's atmosphere.
F.A.F.N.I.R. platoons study the combat data.
Mark I disorientation toxin developed. (4CR and 6 scientist months for 10 kaiju darts)
Kaiju dart rifle (1CR, 2 engineer months for 10)
IronyOwl's SINCOMWerner Rossum's plasma generator and storage project stalls out after a few days. The team spends most of the month working in circles. They have a minor breakthrough near the end of the month, but don't actually have anything to show other than technobabble and indecipherable calculations.
The undergrads watching the footage, completely without Rossum's supervision, note that the shell seemed to act as a sort of ablative armor. Enough low yield explosions might have been able to get through it, since it didn't regenerate.
SINCOM's new engineering team lead manages to get the team to make surprisingly good camera drones out of scrap. He only gives a manic chuckle when questioned about how he turned scrap into a drone network capable of tracking nearly 25 targets and predicting their paths with optical sensors.
Sarrak's HERALDHERALD scientists studying xenobiology learn stuff that doesn't need to be repeated yet again.
They learn nothing notable from the combat data.
With only one workshop, and no funds allocated to workshop rental, all engineers focus their efforts on swords. They're very nice swords.
Most of the troops going through basic training survive. Two platoons get better at survival. (-2 CR)
The existing survivalist platoon can't find a contract. The elite platoon realizes they can't gain a second trait. Both spend the month guarding the base from penguins, just in case.
A pilot voices a complaint about the repetitive task, but looks like she's afraid of being assigned survival training.
Research Complete: Preliminary Kaiju Bone StudyResearch Complete: Preliminary Kaiju Muscle Study100 great titanium-obsidian short swords made.Two platoons gain survival trait
Furtuka's Timmy Grant and the Kaiju FightersVon Doom's design completely misses the mark. You can now have a team of three people drive a bus by playing Jazz.
The suit team gets the suit costs down by 80%. They're now slightly more comfortable and impressive, but much less protective. It is unlikely to matter against something the size of an apartment building.
Nobody of the xenobiologists break anything this time.
The soldiers are getting a bit better. Given another six months, a few of them may even rival Grant's skills.
The driver remains terrible.
Jazz band vehicle driving system (1CR, 4 engineer months)
Research Completed: Skin and muscle studyA middle-aged man by the username of kaijurule4ever has started posting Youtube videos about kaiju supremacy. He has started to attract a small following due to absurd hamminess.
Population: 7.169 Billion +8M
Current growth rate: 1.00099x per month
Cult status: Hammy Youtuber with a small following
Tokyo
Superior Combat Personnel
349 CR
Gross Income: 500 CR/month
Expenses: 225 CR/month
Net Income: 275 CR/month
Traits:
Poor infantry morale
Buildings:
Small Workshop (175CR to repair)
Large Workshop
General Laboratory
Living Quarters (100/100) + 127 soldiers off-base
Small Airfield (0/6)
Personnel:
15 undergrads
5 general scientists
5 general engineers
1 specialist engineer (explosives)
1 superior engineer
2 infantry platoons
1 special forces platoons
3 pilots
2 general engineers, 2 undergrads undergoing anti-radiation treatment, at doubled pay (-12CR/month)
Research Completed
Preliminary Kaiju Bone Study
Preliminary Kaiju Skin Study
Preliminary Kaiju Heart Study
Designs
Spelunky Bombs - A drill attaches to the skin of the kaiju. After roughly a minute of drilling, the hole is injected with unstable explosives. (5CR, 5 engineer months)
Ubergun APHEAT ammo - HEAT ammo modified to penetrate tough material and then explode when the round stops moving. Fired from an anti-tank gun. (2CR, 3 engineer months for around an hour's worth of ammo.)
Vehicles
Attack modified chinooks (25 transport capacity each, 2x med machine guns, 1x rocket pod, agile when unloaded)
Special Resources
Combat data from first attack
1x Kaiju skin sample
1x Kaiju muscle sample
1x Kaiju bone sample
1x Kaiju heart sample
Antarctic
Superior Combat Personnel
229 CR
Gross Income: 525 CR/month
Expenses: 311 CR/month
Net Income: 214 CR/month
Buildings:
1 General Laboratory
1 Large Workshop
3 Living quarters (173/300)
1 Hospital ward (0/10)
1 Small Airfield (0/3)
Personnel:
30 Undergrads
5 General Scientists
4 Melee Specialist Engineers
10 General Engineers
1 Superior Engineer
1 Special Forces platoons
3 Special Forces platoons (Survival)
1 Special Forces platoons (Survival II)
3 Experienced Pilots (2/mo each)
Designs:
Chainsword (2CR, 2 engineer months each)
Titanium-obsidian short swords (12.5CR, 12.5 engineer months for 50
Completed Research:
Preliminary Kaiju Bone Study
Preliminary Kaiju Muscle Study
Military Resources
100x great titanium-obsidian short swords
Special Resources
Combat data from first attack
1x Kaiju skin sample
1x Kaiju lung sample
San Fransisco
Superior Engineers
415 CR
Gross Income: 525 CR/month
Expenses: 170 CR/month
Net Income: 355 CR/month
Buildings:
2x Small Workshops
One Living Quarters (153/200)
One Ballistic Weapons Research Laboratory +2
Small Airfield (0/3)
Heroes:
GUNINANRUNIN's Date Makanouichi, underwater combat scouting specialist (Soldier)
Personnel:
1 Hero
38 Undergrads
4 General Scientists [3 injured, at 2mo,3mo,4mo recovery times]
2 Ballistics Specialist Scientists [1 injured, at 1mo recovery time]
5 General Engineers
1 Superior Engineer
1 Elite Infantry Platoon (Urban II) (upkeep 25)
1 Special Forces Platoon
2 General Pilots
Research Completed
Preliminary bone research
Conventional Railguns, Exceptional
Designs:
Deliverance Gatling-squad Cannon (5CR, 6 engineer months, 2CR + 1 engineer month per engagement in ammo.)
Fast off-road motorcycle design (65CR, 32 engineer months for 25 two-person bikes with 1 light vehicle weapon hardpoint
Military Goods
2x Bad Quality Deliverance Weapons
Special Resources
Combat data from first attack
1x Kaiju skin sample
1x Kaiju muscle sample
1x Kaiju stomach sample
Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Capitalist Funding
651 CR
Gross Income: 788 CR/month
Expenses: 365 CR/month
Net Income: 423 CR/month
Reputation: Somewhat positive
Buildings:
2 Small Workshops
1 Small Workshop +1
General Laboratory
3 Living Quarters (255/300)
Hospital Ward (0/10)
Large Airfield (0/3)
Personnel:
60x Undergrads
5x LG Specialist Engineers (Body Armor)
10x General Engineers
25x General Scientists
2x Special Forces Platoon
1x Green Mechanized Infantry Platoon(8 vehicles) (40/mo)
5x General Pilots
Vehicles
1 set of motorcycles
Research Completed:
Preliminary Bone Study
Through Kaiju Liver Study
Preliminary Kaiju Muscle Study
Preliminary Behavioral Analysis (F.A.F.N.I.R.)
Designs:
Infantry anti-bullet body armor (25CR, 15 engineer months for a set of 50)
Impressive motorcycle design (60CR, 30 engineer months for 25 two-person bikes)
Mark I disorentation toxin (4CR and 6 scientist months for 10 kaiju darts)
Kaiju dart rifle (1CR, 2 engineer months for 10)
Military Resources
2 Sets of good quality anti-bullet armor
Special Resources
Combat data from first attack
Berlin
Superior Scientists
552 CR
Gross Income: 525 CR/month
Expenses: 235 CR/month
Net Income: 290 CR/month
Buildings:
Large Workshop
Laboratory
2 Living Quarters (73/200)
Small Airfield (0/3)
Heroes
Mephansteras' Raven, **Pilot
Ensorceler's Werner Rossum, LG Scientist, Plasma
Personnel:
2 Heroes
15 Undergrads
5 General Scientists
5 General Engineers
1 X-COM tier Engineer
1 Elite Special Forces Platoon (Survival)
Designs
Cheap Camera Drone (1 engineer months)
Sample Retrieval Drone (3 engineer months, 2 credits)
Completed research
Preliminary kaiju neural study
Preliminary Behavioral Analysis (SINCOM)
Military Resources
1x Great network of 11 cheap camera drones
Special Resources
Combat data from first attack
1x Kaiju skin sample
1x Kaiju bone sample
1x Kaiju muscle sample
Germany
Superior Engineers
277 CR
Gross Income: 540 CR/month
Expenses: 270 CR/month
Net Income: 270 CR/month
Buildings:
Large Workshop
General Laboratory
2x Living Quarters (119/200)
Hospital Ward (0/10)
Large Airfield (2/3)
Personnel:
27 Undergrads
16 General Scientist
1 LG Spec Scientist (Robotics)
16 General Engineers
1 Spec. Engineer (Robotics)
8 General Pilots
2 SF Platoon
Vehicles
2 Chinook transport helicopters (50 transport capacity each)
Research Completed
Neurally controlled implants
Kaiju weaknesses study 0.2
Designs
Project VERT specs: Mech with 2x human height. Speed of 12 MPH over lightly broken terrain, must slow to a walk over moderately damaged terrain. It can fire a heavy infantry weapon while moving at full speed, and can fire medium vehicle weaponry while stationary.
Completed Research
Preliminary Kaiju Spinal Cord Study
Preliminary Kaiju Bone Study
Preliminary Kaiju Skin Study
Special Resources
Combat data from first attack
California
Superior Charisma
701 CR
Gross Income: 525 CR/month
Expenses: 146 CR/month
Net Income: 379 CR/month
Buildings:
Small Workshop
Large Workshop
General Laboratory
Small Airfield (0/3)
Living Quarters (100/100) + 98 soldiers living off-base
Hospital Ward (0/10)
Heroes
Anailater's Elizabeth Shuu, LG specialist scientist, Neurobiology [Biotech]
Personnel:
1 heroes
40 undergrads
2 General Scientists
6 General Engineers
1 LG Specialist Engineers (cars)
1 LG Specialist Engineers (audio electronics)
2 Soldier Platoons
1 Special Forces Platoons
1 Pilot (Safe Crashing [ground])
Vehicles
1 Scrap-armored audio blaster bus
1 bus
Research Completed
Preliminary Kaiju Skin Study
Preliminary Kaiju Muscle Study
Designs
Scrap-armored audio blaster bus (20CR, 15 engineer months)
MkII Rocker Suit (5CR, 5 engineer months)
Kaiju Claw Guitar (3 engineer months, 1/3 of a kaiju claw)
Jazz band vehicle driving system (1CR, 4 engineer months)
Special Resources
Combat data from first attack
Modern Earth tech, as of July 2014
Preliminary kaiju genetic study
200 CR: Small Workshop - Allows 25 engineers to work on small projects, up to the size of a small motorcycle.
350 CR: Large Workshop - Allows 25 engineers to work on projects as large as a medium-sized plane.
Workshops may initially be upgraded up to four times, for a dice bonus. Costs are 100, 200, 400, and 800 extra (1000 for a fully upgraded small workshop). This may be paid later, but work cannot be done inside a building during construction.
250 CR + 10/month: General Laboratory - Allows 25 scientists to work on any one project.
+100 CR: Specialized Laboratory - Provides a bonus to work in one field, with a severe penalty to unrelated fields.
Laboratories may initially be upgraded up to three times, for a dice bonus. Costs are 100, 200, and 400 extra. This may be paid later, but work cannot be done inside a building during construction.
100 CR: Hospital Ward - Allows up to 10 injured personnel to remain safely on-base. Doubles healing speed, and allows those with minor injures to continue light work.
50 CR: Living Quarters - Provides on-base living, recreation, and dining space for 100 personnel. Removes the morale penalty for commutes, required for bases in inhospitable locations.
100 CR: Small Airfield - Space for small aircraft to launch from or land on. Comes with a control tower.
+50 CR: Large Airfield - Allows larger aircraft to use the airfield.
+50 CR: Hangars - Provides maintenance and secure storage space for 3 fighter-sized aircraft or 1 bomber-sized aircraft. May be taken multiple times.
Free: General support personnel - Janitors, secretaries, and the like. Their budgets are included in the hiring costs for other employees.
Scientists
0~1/mo: Undergrad Students - They'll work for food and paperwork, and are better than empty space.
10~5/mo: General scientists - They're decent at most mundane fields, but don't leave them studying fusion unattended.
25~5/mo: Low-grade specialists - They are heavily specialized, and you might not get exactly the specialty you were hoping for.
50~10/mo: Specialists - These have a more broad focus, and research just as fast as lower grade specialists in their specialties.
150~25/mo: Superior Scientists - They are generally good at everything that's not too overly exotic.
500~100/mo: XCOM-tier scientists - Need a small team who can study a dimensional gate, reverse-engineer its access method, and design a manned inter-dimensional vehicle, all within two months?
Engineers
0~1/mo: Undergrad Students - They'll work for food and paperwork, and are better than empty space.
10~5/mo: General engineers - They're decent at most mundane tasks. Precision work is better done by specialists.
25~5/mo: Low-grade specialists - They are heavily specialized, and you might not get exactly the specialty you were hoping for.
50~10/mo: Specialists - These have a more broad focus, and build just as well as lower grade specialists in their specialties.
150~25/mo: Superior engineers - Their creations are generally superior.
500~100/mo: XCOM-tier engineers - Probably overkill.
Soldiers
20~10/mo: General infantry platoon(50)
50~25/mo: Special forces platoon(50)
If you want to hire better trained soldiers, spend more money for random results.
Pilots
4~1/mo: General Pilot. Able to fly or drive anything conventional with minimal practice.
If you want to hire better trained pilots, spend more money for random results.
Turn 7, November 2014. Hiring and purchasing phase start.