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[somemildmanneredidiot]

  Maybe it autosaved?

Brainstorming: What can we ask our military and espionage corps besides,"What do you need, want, or would like improved?" What areas on the battlefield do you have concerns about and why? Are there any difficulties with weaponry in the field, and in what conditions do those happen? What are some difficulties you have when attempting to get information and why?

I'm trying to think of specific questions but all I'm really getting is general ones.

[VoidSlayer]

Is X weapon really effective in the field?  What we mostly have is how awesome a bunch of engineers think something is.

[Aseaheru]

Wow, Notepad++ is really nice, it autosaved everything. Huzzuh!

[Aseaheru]

 808 battle report!
 So, in this year we see the introduction of a number of new weapons and vehicles from both sides, as the Monarchists come out with their first naval vessel, the under-armed Z-Class, which weighs in at 800 ton but carries less armaments than the significantly smaller Swordfish. Speaking of which, a new type of Swordfish has been seen sailing about, with its main gun turret having been redesigned to mount one of the deadly Republican field guns.
 In combat, the Swordfish has the clear advantage in anything up to the worst the sea can throw at them, with clear speed and maneuverability advantages(although it takes a lucky hit fom a 37mm cannon to do much damage to the Z-class). The new type of Swordfish is actually less capable in this regard, as its new turret is unable to keep on target as the ships make their wild maneuvers to avoid the guns of the Z-Class. After a long drawn out engagement between nearly the entire naval forces on both side(which mostly consisted of the two Z-Class ships built trying to lure the school of Swordfish into range of shore batteries and the Swordfish using their small speed advantage to keep from being targeted) resulted in the loss of one Z-Class and the near loss of her sister, to three casualties on the Republican side, which consisted of the loss of two-thirds of the new ships(unable to use their maneuverability as much due to their slower turning turrets) and one of the older craft that was hit by a lucky shot. Likewise, most of the damage done to the two Monarchist vessels was from the 75mm cannon or from torpedoes, with the lighter guns on the swordfish not doing much besides make the (exposed) bridge crews take cover.
 In the trenches, the war has also taken a turn for the worse on both sides, as the Monarchists rush heavy guns to the front and the Republicans use their new 80mm mortars (which are light enough to be carried by infantry on the attack) to better hit enemy trenches. Fighting also now occurs at night, as the Republican forces have developed illumination rounds which, coupled with efforts to bring troops as close to the enemy's trench before they assault have resulted in the Monarchists loosing much of their first rank trench system. Not even the rapid deployment of men and guns have been able to retake their losses.

 With the war heating up further, word has come that each sides allies and vassals have been readying for war with new vehicles and weapons. Some of these have been made available for refinement and use by the two main powers, and may indicate that new fronts may be opened soon. The new equipment has received mixed responses, as in many cases it does not match up with what generals where told to expect. However, this new equipment has come far too late to affect this years combat, and will not be discussed here.

[Aseaheru]

 Right, before I can finish the turn, theres some stuff I need to ask: Namely, what sorta thing you guys want for those uniforms? I cant find anything on actual specifics in this turns talk. Also, for the training program, is that just throw dudes together to see if they can get trained, or is that try to teach people something specific?


 Also, I just noticed again that you guys are only building Swordfish Bs. Eh... that should be fun.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

Wow, Notepad++ is really nice, it autosaved everything. Huzzuh!

Huzzah!

@Naval Engagments: 
It went almost exactly as we expected except for the whole "No, that turning speed was actually important, you've taken some loses now" bit. In response, I want to make 3 x 300 tonne Drydock positions, fix the turning, upgrade our current ships to the latest model which includes the turning improvements if such is practicle and can be done in at least a 2:1 production ratio (2 upgraded ships for every 1 ship that would have otherwise been made), and then just keep churning out more Ratios until they cannot compete.

Really, what I want to do is use a full design turn to throw us ahead ship wise, making more drydocks, upgrading engines and propulsion in general, improving torpedoes and their launchers, providing heavier armor, fixing and enhancing the turning beyond what it was before, get the 40mm autocannons up and running, and push radio further so that our ships can use them effectively. I want to push them so far back into the water that they give up on that front and try to solve trench warfare.

Unfortunately, the immediate above is going to be impractical, so the one above that is what is more seriously suggested. We'll more likely spend an entire design turn on increasing our production in general before we're able to spend an entire turn on ships.

Our torpedoes use compressed hot air to move and wet gun cotton to explode. They need a redesign- no, a new design is needed altogether.

@Aseaheru: Do we have specific designs for our steam engines, turbines, and boilers?

Give me a few minutes and I will try to answer those questions.

[Aseaheru]

 At the moment, no. Mostly because I expect that you will swap out what form of engines you use and dident want to go and, while working on a update, suddenly go "Hey, you need more guys on this, this is something like 10 designs, not one!".

 Though, if you do keep on using these forms of engines in different hulls, I will be slapping down some "you need guys to work on this sort of engine specifically" notice.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

At the moment, no. Mostly because I expect that you will swap out what form of engines you use and dident want to go and, while working on a update, suddenly go "Hey, you need more guys on this, this is something like 10 designs, not one!".

 Though, if you do keep on using these forms of engines in different hulls, I will be slapping down some "you need guys to work on this sort of engine specifically" notice.

Entirely reasonable. I ask about the turbines in specific because they have long lasting applications and I wanted to know where we currently are with them so that we can try to take them further.

A quick checking of dates and it turns out that you weren't that far off in your assessment of the next turn being done by the end of July, and considering that you lost quite a lot of your work, I'm going to say bravo and well done on the recovery.
____


Aaaand we never specified what the camo was. I'll work out a specific design proposal within the next some minutes of rushed googling.

For the Training Program, what we actually meant to specify is putting work into creating an engineering academy so as a secondary effect, newbies and other engineers are attracted to our state sponsored design team, and as a primary effect, we get better results when we do have engineers sit down for a year to study up to either become generally better or to specialize in an area, with an emphasis on the primary effect being the goal and the secondary effect being something that hopefully happens. Which is why we put 5 engineers on it in comparison to other projects that turn I believe.

I messaged Pi about it in case there was specific ideas or imagery that they may have had in mind.

[Amperzand]

My original idea for the camo was basically an earth-toned plaid with an extremely asymmetrical, coarse pattern.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

Through sampling colors from the battlefield, this uniform augmentation of the greatcloak and breeches uses disruptive coloration and limited countershading to help our troops blend into their environment somewhat and break up a soldier's shape within and between trench lines, with little use to no use on other fronts.

About the best I could come up with in about 30 minutes. The design aim was to specify the method of camouflage and what would actually change about the uniforms with specific coloration and textile methods being left a bit more up in the air due to my lack of knowledge. The trench specificness was to provide an achievable goal as universal camouflage is rather impossible with our current means. Italy was apparently using camo since 1929 with Abbot Handerson Thayer writing and campaigning about disruptive coloration and countershading for military use since 1892.

Edit:

Land warfare has gone delightfully well in comparison to naval engagements. The night assault strategies probably aren't going to succeed nearly as well as that initial push, but the progress made is quite nice. I'd like to hear more details about their heavy guns they're rushing around (like, what are they? Infantry rifles? New artillery pieces? Old artillery pieces? New machine guns?), but that can wait as we might just have gotten our hands on some of their weaponry now that we've taken over some of their lines. It'll be quite nice to be able to compare equipment and see if they've snuck something through without anyone reporting it to us.

[3_14159]

I messaged Pi about it in case there was specific ideas or imagery that they may have had in mind.

I'm here, I'm here!

Going back to the original design, we'd have this from page 8:

M2 Battleweave

A fairly simple woven wool fabric intended for use in military uniforms, both warp and weft are made with an irregular pattern of dull-colored yarns. Serves well both to keep the soldier comfortable, and to break up his outline in a variety of environments.

A new uniform is designed to take advantage of this innovation. It features a comfortable shirt, three types of trousers (short, normal and winter) and a winter coat.

The difference to the Pattern 808 Trench Camouflage, as far as I can see it, is that the M2 Battleweave is featuring a single, dull colour versus the disruptive colourization of the Trench Camouflage. I agree that the latter should be more effective - the only question is whether the (probably) additional cost and complexity is worth it right now.

I'll post more on the battle report later.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

On one hand, we have two engineers working on the project, neither of them particularly experienced. On the other hand, we probably aren't going to get anything groundbreaking anyway and starting work on a superior focused project will lay the groundwork down for better success. Plus once we have the basic formula down, we should be able to recolor or repattern it for everything from other environments to artillery to ships to fliers.

[Aseaheru]

 The camo also includes uniforms, unless you guys are just going after patterned cloth for smocks or something. Which, I see that Pi noted on page... 3.

-on other stuff-

 Their heavy guns are more and more of their arty. As in, several guns aimed at one foot of battlefield levels.

[3_14159]

On the Battle Turn:

First of all, a big thanks to Aseaheru; it's good to see this back :-)

Now, for a bit of analysis:
1. Our Swordfish is still superior, but less so. We also have an issue: On the one hand, the 75mm Swordfish is far more vulnerable to enemy boats - but, on the other hand, the 37mm-only Swordfish has large difficulties actually killing the enemy. Two solutions spring to mind: Upgrading the turret rotation speed of the big Swordfish (and mounting the radio set for better coordination), and designing a more modern 40mm gun to mount as secondary weapons.
2. In the trenches, we've basically just invented infiltration tactics/stormtroopers, and done so effectively. It will not last (they'll rush illumination shells themselves next turn), but it did give us some gains. The infantry mortar seems nice, too. Introducing our trucks next turn should increase our ability to actually implement breakthroughs. A tank (which could also mount the 40mm gun above) using our engine would also help extremely.

On one hand, we have two engineers working on the project, neither of them particularly experienced. On the other hand, we probably aren't going to get anything groundbreaking anyway and starting work on a superior focused project will lay the groundwork down for better success. Plus once we have the basic formula down, we should be able to recolor or repattern it for everything from other environments to artillery to ships to fliers.

I wasn't only talking about difficulty to design, but also cost to produce. If we can produce five single-colour uniforms for every multi-colour one, it'll definitely help us. That's why I think I'll prefer the cheaper, easier version.

Their heavy guns are more and more of their arty. As in, several guns aimed at one foot of battlefield levels.

They're going for the approach I personally prefer too: One shell per enemy soldier.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

Hmmm. We could skip over the turning it into a uniform part to focus more on the actual pattern and fabric. Once we have the pattern down we can adjust and adapt the design for wherever we need to use it.

You make the good point of production value on that point. The Battleweave has my vote then.

______

So it sounds like they used their production to resolve their artillery numbers problem and churn out the two Z-Classes, plus whatever maintaince production they decided to keep up if any. The night attack let us keep ground, but that's probably not going to hold for long.

Damn. We're probably going to need to spend a turn doing minimal design/redesign work and just churn out a bunch of production infrastructure. At least if we want to be able to keep up with producing the arms we want as well as match or overcome their artillery numbers. Before it was more a question of if, but I think now it's become a when. At least until the resource rules are implemented.

Once we're able to match or surpass them production wise, we can spend turns doing targeted designs, bringing specific areas to a much higher quality and then having our production ability retool the old equipment to account for new tech.

I'm thinking of a future turn progression along the lines of Production>Navy>Air>Land, shifting Land forward if needed. The most important thing the Night Advance bought us was some time. Depending on how long they're able to hold, the Monarchy may try to divide their engineer use about evenly between production, navy, and land, allowing us to take some focused measures. Of course, they might also decide to focus their designs and production as well to make the push back, but hopefully our Production ability will provide us the means to hold them off until we can start churning out new designs to counter and push the battle into different fronts.