Spring and Summer of 1938 With the invasion of our homeland by the foul Brazilians, the New Years party this year was rather grim, and the few that did go discussed how best to destroy Brazilians.
So, moving right along, we reach the design groups. They aren't teams anymore, as it was decided to be better to just assign people to things as needed.
So, first up we have... Lets just call it Group A, who was set to work on developing the so called 'Beachmaster', a light tank built to act as a... ship. Right. Anyways, not to be deterred the groups gets to work on it, and creates the T-SP-M1938
The Tank-Special Purpose-Model of 1938 was designed and built as a light tank within a boat. Well, thats the easiest way to put it. In any event, the designers must have been on something while designing it, because they managed to get it to work. There are three variants of this vehicle, an AT variant, an SPAA variant, and a howitzer armed variant. Stats are listed below.
CHASSIS STATS
Weight: 16t
Length: 6.15m
Width: 3m
Height:
2m hull
Armour:
35mm@60º + 10mm front
25mm@30-45º + 5mm side
15mm + 5mm rear
20mm top and bottom
Engine: 5x SDEM1933 with output of 250hp
Suspension: Christie
Water propulsion: Sail drive
Operational range: 300km
Speed
road: 35km/h (throttled at 50Km/h)
off-road: 15km/h (throttled at 50Km/h)
water:5 Kn (9.2Km/h) (throttled at 10Kn, 18.4Km/h)
Costs 5x SDEM1933 each, 2ton steel each, 1ton al each, 1u electronics each.
Batch size of 15
VARIANT STATS
T-SP-M1938-S
The 'Standard' variant.
Crew of 4 (Driver, Radio operator, loader, commander/gunner)
Armaments:
-1x C-V-45-M1935 cannon
-1x MM1934 coax MG
-1x pintle mount
Turret is .5m in height and has 45mm front armor, 30mm side and rear, and 20mm top.
Costs 1u electronics, 1x C-V-45-M1935, 1x MM1934, 1ton steel and .5ton al each.
Batch size of 20
Adds 2ton weight to vehicle
T-SP-M1938-AA
The Anti-Aircraft variant.
Crew of 4 (driver, radio operator, loader/commander, gunner
Armaments: 1x M1932 40mm cannon
Turret is 1m in height and has 15mm of armor everywhere it has armor, which is the front and part of the sides. There is no fire control system beyond what a gunner can provide.
Costs 1u electronics, 1x M1932 40mm cannon, .5ton steel and .25ton al each.
Batch size of 30
Adds .5 ton weight to vehicle
T-SP-M1938-H
The heavy variant.
Crew of five (Driver, radio operator, loader, gunner, commander)
Armaments:
-1x ATHM1933 (Note: Autoloader)
-1x MM1934 coaxial MG
-1x pintle mount
Turret is .75m in height and has 45mm front armor, 30mm side and rear, and 20mm top.
Costs 1u electronics, 1x ATHM1933, 1x MM1934, 1ton steel and .5 ton al each.
Batch size of 10
Adds 2.5 ton weight to vehicle
After the vehicle was showed to our tank crews they had the following to say:
-Its shit offroad and hates hills with a passion
-Even moderate seas see it nearly tipping (2.5 ft swells)
-The drivetrain is a pain in the ass to maintain
-Theres no hull MG.
-Theres no smoke projection system, which would be lovely
-The Heavy variant is a nasty piece of work. The autoloader is nice, but that thing takes 180 seconds with a gun crew of six. In addittion, its cramped, top heavy, and not safe for the turret crew incase of wrecking
The second group of engineers was put to work designing an engine system apparently intended for the T-SP-M1938 but was turned into an aircraft engine somewhere along the way. Their resulting creation, the SPE-M1938, is a V12 engine with a single stage supercharger that runs off of petrol and outputs 700hp. The engineers also thing they can make a few tweaks to it to make it better.
The Standard Petrol Engine Model of 1938 is a liquid cooled V12 engine with a single stage supercharger that runs off of petrol and outputs 700hp.
Weight: .75 ton
Output: 700hp
Fuel type: High octane petrol
Cost: 1u electronics, 1ton steel, 3ton al per batch
Batch size: 10
Reliable
By tuning parts of the engine the thing is now less likely to need repairs.
Better Batches
Batch size increase
Easy Fixings
Repairs on it are faster and easier, which means less outright replacements are needed.
Sturdy
By carefully locating some parts of the engine it is less likely to fail after taking damage.
Next we have group 3, or C, or whatever. The guys who worked on the Naval-Land Assault Craft, or the NLAC. They where told to work on an armored landing craft that could carry a loaded POAC with a squad of troops and provide them support while doing it.
Naval-Land Assault Craft Model of 1938
Displacement:90 tons
Length:75ft
Width:50ft
Draft:3ft(using pontoons)
Powerplant: 6x SDE1933 turning dual shrouded screws
Top Speed:12 knots (in a millpond)
Crew:9 (2x gunner, 1x helmsman, 2x loaders, 2x engineers, 1x officer, 1x radio operator)
Armament: 2x CA-AAA-M1935 in single mount turrets
Armor:25mm armored loading ramp, 25mm turrets, 6mm elsewhere.
Cost: 6ton steel each, 4ton AL each, 4u electronic parts each, 6x SDE1933 each, 2x CA-AAA-M1935 each
Batch size: 20
And now, team 4/D, the people working on the Assault Landing Craft, which the design specifications state is designed to be slightly smaller and somehow hold twice as much..? Interesting. After some deliberation on the part of the engineers they decide to work to the design and not to the load. The resulting design is unable to hold one of our armored vehicles, and is only slightly smaller than the NLAC due to the armored mortar 'pit'. They have managed to make it slightly faster.
Displacement: 35 tonnes
Length : 13.6 m
Width : 4.27 m
Draft : 1.22 m
Machinery : 200 HP from four SDE M1933 engines
Speed : 9 knots
Crew :
4 engineers, 1 helmsman, 1 radio operator, one officer, 2 machinegunners, 2 loaders, 3 turret crew
Armament : two MM1934 machine guns in single mount turrets, one EAM M1932 automatic mortar in armored turret
Armor:
20mm bulkheads, mortar turret and sides
6mm elsewhere
Cost: 20ton steel each, 4ton al each, 2u electronic parts each, 2x MM1934 each, 1x EAM 1932 each, 4x SDE M1933
Batch size: 30
Here is the head of group E/5, with their report on what they where ordered to design, which is another variant of the POAC, this time using the AATSM1933 'HiLo'.
"At first inspection the design specifications for the POAC-B-HSPAA appear to be near identical to those for the POAC-B-C. However, the requirements for allowing the vehicle to act as a heavy anti-aircraft cannon created many difficulties. After much deliberation it was decided that a number of support legs where to be added to the vehicle. While these are up the cannon is locked into a narrow forward-facing arc, but when they (along with the sides of the gunbay) are deployed the gun is unlocked, allowing it to act as artillery or as a heavy anti-aircraft cannon. This design does have drawbacks: it takes a not insignificant amount of time to deploy or to retract these systems, leaving the vehicle susceptible to counter-battery fire, and it reduces the amphibious abilities of the vehicle.
Also, its not based on the POAC-B but on the POAC-B-C, so thats something."Well, I dont think I am doing THAT again. A POAC-B-C modified with support legs, a AATSM1933 'HiLo' in a mount in the cargo area, and armored bits that fold up to protect the gun and can be lowered down to allow it to act as an anti-aircraft gun or artillery.
Costs 1x POAC-B chassis each, 1x AATSM1933 'HiLo' each, 2u electronic parts per batch of 10, 1ton steel per batch of 10, 1ton al per batch of 10.
Batches of 5.
Finally, we have team Six-F, who was put to work on making our electronics production more efficient. As a result of their work production output of electronics production lines has been quadrupled. Useful.
And now, the Acquisitions, because this is a good time for that, yes?
The proposal to increase immigration was accepted by the bemused council. They then thanked you for your concern, then pointed at the minister of Immigration Increasation (literacy was still low when the post was created). Apparently there is active immigration from both the USSR and Spain, the former being mostly people they don't want and the latter being mostly refugees. The requests for extra equipment for the Nagant revolvers (SM1895) where both denied.
The "Free" actions where reacted to as follows:
The proposal to allow female workers to work in factories and as engineers where preapproved. The Revolution allows no gender inequality! In addition, how else are the bulk of the female population to support the war effort? Its not like most of them can fight in combat...
The remaining stocks of MM1902s and MM1911s are sent to Spain for the war effort there.
The remaining stocks of SM1895 and associated munitions are sent to resistance groups in Brazil.
In local news today the Spanish vessel Cadiz
has arrived from the fighting in Spain, carrying refugees from the horrific atrocities committed by the Nationalist forces. Our hearts and minds go out to our comrades fightin- *static*
But thats not all! Call in the next half hour and get a second pair of orang- *static*
Our apologies, our co-host appears to have gone insane. And now, back to your regularly scheduled broadcast... Well, that was odd. Anyways, onto the lands of construction!
Constructing Group A was put to work on constructing better defenses for our ports. In most cases this equated to the construction of a small base with an artillery piece or three.
Construction Group B was put to work on constructing a four line "naval warfare" factory within the main complex. Whatever that is. Anyways, they got it done and two lines where tooled.
Construction Group C was ordered to construct a new electronics factory of four lines, also within the main complex. They got it built and got three of the four lines tooled.
Construction Group D was sent to construct a Engineering School at the new engineering complex on Ostrov Derev'ya in order to train both engineers and engineering laborers. The resulting structure should be able to train twenty new recruits and specialize five trained individuals during a season.
And finally, Construction Group E was set to work on a Naval academy for, well, the Naval dudes. Should be a few engineers from that source...
And now, the war.
Fighting in Spain has mostly ground to a halt, atleast for PO forces. While many PO forces have been sent back home to fight the Brazilians, others remain, mostly to train the locals.
On the home front, a blockade of Brazilian held areas has largely prevented enemy reinforcements. Some supplies have been airdropped to local forces Kholmistyy Ostrov, typically at night, and some has also been dropped off by various vessels. However, the lack of ability to land large quantities of troops has hampered our efforts. The Brazilians have also been working on an airstrip on the island, which has worried some of our generals.
-Rest of update when I get around to seeing what workers/engineers get updated-
Notes and questions:
Architects are engineers.
Laborers can work on design projects
What the hell is a naval warfare factory?