Arms race is a game of two teams designing weapons to outgun and obliterate the other side. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they fail hilariously.
Chang Shing Thread:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=158853.0Manonera Thread:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=158854.0BackgroundTwo states has always been there on the island, or small continent of Proigrav.
On the south is the Empire of Chang Shing, who claimed they had supremacy over the continent for 4000 years, and the Manonera republic were intruders. They complain of the Manonerans of draining the land, turning perfectly good rice paddies into wheat fields. They believe that Rice, and by extension rice sheets and noodles, are superior to Wheat.
On the north side is the Manonera Republic. They said they were already there before the Empire of Chang Shing had ever existed, and despite not having their own government for some time, this does not dilute their claim of the whole island. They believe that rice flour cannot be made into proper bread and noodles, and insisted that only wheat be grown on the island. It has been so important that "To right to plant and eat wheat" was one of the main grievances when the Manonera republic declared independence.
For many years, fighting was sparse and mainly consisted of strong worded threats, and the occasional throwing of food anathema to the other side. In the year 1910, however, things has changed. Last year, caches of weapons and personnel are being shipped into both countries. Within a year, both states are now armed to the teeth. War will soon intensify...
The landI'm no artist.
Each M and O (except the name of Manonera of course) stands for 1 Metal and 1 Oil respectively.
Each zone has 3 or 5 parcels (As I don't want to count initiative), and can only provide resources for its owner when fully owned.
The top and the bottom white zones are the capital of each side respectively.
West of them are hills.
East of them are forests.
In the middle, there is swamps in the west, and plains in the east. Most arguments on wheat and rice rises there.
The islands on the corner are small desert islands (that somehow have ludicrously amount of resources).
The islands in the middle are mountainous.
You can only advance from a fully owned zone to adjecent zones.
The capitals are adjacent to the hills and forests.
The hills are adjacent to the swamps and corner islands.
The forests are adjacent to the plains and corner islands.
The corner islands are adjacent to the closest land, and the middle islands.
Exception to the rule: The corner islands can be accessed from the capital on their side. The docks at the capitals provide the necessary infrastructure to transport troops and weapons.
The WeaponsFor reference, the state of the art technology in Europe and the Americas is this:
-Sidearms are semiautomatic pistols, often double action, with quickly changeable magazines.
-Rifles are usually bolt action rather than automatic, with clip-loaded magazines holding several cartridges, and iron sights.
-Shotguns are tube-loading pump action.
-Machine guns are heavy, and belt-fed. They are often water-cooled, and require three or more men to keep in operation, and are used in emplaced positions. Despite being inconvenient, these dominate the battlefield.
-Artillery includes relatively accurate howitzer cannons, mounted on carriages to be pulled by horse or truck.
-Hand grenades are usually on sticks, fragmenting shells are yet-uninvented.
-The notion of a tank on the battlefield is largely nonexistent.
-Warships are steam-powered, burning oil or coal, and built completely of iron and steel. There are still sailing ships at sea, but not in serious naval use.
-The biggest ships displace in excess of 30,000 tons, and most warships displace hundreds of tons.
-Germany has built a handful of submarines.
-Militaries are beginning to experiment with aircraft, which are nearly all made of wood and canvas.
Chang Shing uses these weapons:
Weapons:
Fire Dragon Guns: A traditional weapon, which design dates to at least 400 years. Essentially a matchlock musket. Comes in a variety of sizes, the largest ones has a bore of 30mm. 1 Metal.
Fire Phoenix Guns: A not-so-traditional weapon, which is imported from barbarous wheat-eaters. Essentially a percussion-cap flintlock rifled musket. Comes in standardized sizes. 1 metal, complex.
Crescent Sword: Another traditional weapon, even older than the fire dragon guns. A cutlass in the shape of the crescent moon. 1 Metal.
Lances: Favored by horsemen who need a longer reach weapon for charges. 1 Metal.
Fire Crow: The Chang Shing way to project firepower, which consists of a primitive rocket, wings, and half a kilogram of gunpowder tied together in the shape of a crow. Accuracy is woeful, but the psychological prowess of a crow exploding should never be underestimated. 1 Metal (for the ludicrous amount of gunpowder used), Doubly complex.
Ships:
Rowboats: When everything fails.
Junks: Despite its awkward sail shape, if the direction of the wind is good, its more efficient than other sail vessels. [2 Transport capacity]
Armed Junks: Junks, armed by brave men each holding a crescent sword and a fire dragon gun. 1 Metal.
Land Vehicles:
Horses: A traditional way to move around.
Horse Carts: A traditional way to move more things around [2 Transport capacity].
Technology:
Semaphores and telegraph wires - Perfectly good ways to relay things around.
Black Powder
Rudimentary Rocketry
Steel
Oil
Matchlocks
Rifling
Bombs
Manonera uses these weapons:
Weapons:
Smoothbore Muskets: Standardized enough that every soldier will have one. Flintlocks. 1 metal.
Sabres: Weapons used by Officers and horsemen alike. 1 Metal.
6lb-er cannons: The more civilized way to dump metal around. Solid shot only. 2 metal.
Ships:
Rowboats: When everything fails.
Sloops: Speed is all that matters. A fast and agile vessel which can outrun junks when sailing into the wind. Have a tendency to flutter dangerously when sailing directly downwind, or even a broad reach (i.e. wind is blowing from 45 degrees either side from the aft). [2 Transport capacity]
Armed sloops: Sloops with a 6lber gun in a chaser configuration. 2 metal.
Land Vehicles:
Horses: A civilized way to move around.
Horse Carts: A civilized way to move more things around. [2 Transport capacity]
Technology:
Semaphores and telegraph wires - Perfectly good ways to relay things around.
Black Powder
Cannons
Steel
Oil
Flintlocks
There will be thread for each nation. You should stick to one side and post in one thread only!
Since this game is to be blind as blind chess, I hope players adhere to this rule strictly. In the thread you suggest what the nations will do this turn, and vote on them if needed.
Each turn there will be 3 phases:
- Design phase: You design a brand new product, and I'll throw some dice to decide the outcome, including its ability, specs, and bugs (if any). If it is too ambitious the odds of succeeding will be lower, and more bugs may be introduced. You can of course revise an old weapon to use new technology in this phase.
- Revision phase: You try to iron out bugs, add features, or to make a different version of a same product, like sawing a rifle shorter to make carbines.
- Spying and action phase: New weapons are rolled out and you get to see how good they will perform in the field. In addition, you can ask your spies on a question about the capabilities of the other side. Depend on how the question is asked, the spies may not answer at all, but if a spy answer, the spy will always give a truthful answer something dictates otherwise.
You may sometimes gain a design or revision credit, which is essentially an extra design or revision phase to be used next turn.
Expense: Equipment which you can cover its cost is Common. If you are short by 1 units, its uncommon. 2 units, Expensive. 3-4 units, very expensive. More than 4, its a National Effort. Complex equipment bump the cost by 1 tier. Doubly complex equipment bump the cost by 2 tiers. So on and so forth.
Common equipment means everyone can have access to one.
Uncommon equipment means 1/10.
Expensive equipment means 1/100.
Very expensive equipment means 1/1000.
National effort means there can be only 1 in service at any time. In addition, there can only be 1 National Effort equipment active at any time.
Note that very expensive tanks does not mean 1 tank per 1000 soldiers - but rather the tank produced can only serve the needs of 1 out of 1000 soldiers. Most probably you will have fewer than 1/1000 in absolute numbers.
Resource: Any resource that you completely control and can be transported by your transport capacity (simply the sum of transport capacity in your list) will be utilized. If you have more resources than you can transport you should designate what to transport in your design/revision phases.
However,
grace rules applies here: You will only feel the effect your loss after the battle phase of next turn, unless you are caught in a tie, which you will lose. If tungsten is not available, people will make penetrators from steel, bronze, before not bothering with it at all. Planes will be made with steel if there is no aluminium.
Also, if one side is down to less than 1 metal or oil, they will have the minimum of 1. Think foreign adventurers bringing in metal and oil as investment.
Additional Rules:This is a blind game. Battle reports will only be posted in the respective thread to the perspective of the respective nation. You won't even know what the other side designed except their actual effects on the battlefield. No cheating will be tolerated.
No excessive lawyering. If something turned out bad, you are unlucky. Take it and utilize your future phases.
Make me apologize. That said if you think any sane man will say that I've erred, make your point clearly so I have no choice but to apologize and make remedies, usually in the form of revise or design credits.
They are copycats. In general going ahead of time is harder than making up lost ground. There was no Wikipedia but some copies of the British Encyclopedia should give your designers enough ideas to copy from.
Rules are subject to unannounced changes or retcons if I found a bug.
This is going to be a quick and experimental game. 24 hours per phase, majority rules, first shot breaks ties. Don't be surprised if there is less fluff.
Poll
8 (38.1%)
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Topic: Blind Arms Race Main Thread - 1912 (Read 5938 times)