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[10ebbor10]

Okay, questions?

How can the Moskurgians hold the Northern Sea, seeing as we cut them of in both the West and the Eastern Sea. They can not supply their ships.

Oh, and given that they need to use mages for every shot now, their amount of fire did decrease considerably, right?

[evictedSaint]

Okay, questions?

How can the Moskurgians hold the Northern Sea, seeing as we cut them of in both the West and the Eastern Sea. They can not supply their ships.

They are cut off.  Unless they can push you out of the eastern sea, they will not be able to hold the northern sea.

Oh, and given that they need to use mages for every shot now, their amount of fire did decrease considerably, right?

If you mean for their artillery, no.  Each one is manned by a mage, same as yours.  The only difference is you now have a surplus of apprentices, so your higher-level wizards can maintain your towers of frost.

[10ebbor10]

But you noted that we were short on apprentices earlier, as it left us unable to cast other spells. The Moskurgians, with just half the amount of worse trained apprentices (unless they build their own school),  should have far bigger issues.

The fact that our mages are almost uniformly restricted to this one use is also frustrating, even though they wouldn't do very much otherwise due to Moskurg Anti-Magic

[Chiefwaffles]

Thanks for the answers, evicted.

SO, new plan:
THIS PHASE
1.) Design: HA1. This is the best option for both sea + land; we need an advantage over their new long-ranged (HOW) ballistae. Best outcome here is being able to fit HA1's on all our ships.
2a.) Rev: Lighter steam engine. Same power, but lighter. Makes our Fog-O-Wars less delicate. Or...
2b.) Rev: Cheaper Fog-O-Wars. We could field more of them but they're still delicate, which is a problem. Or...
2c.) Rev: Crystal reinforcement. Reinforcing the hull of our ships with crystal. Just straight-up "make crystal armor" is super simple but prone to anti-magic, which could work since last I checked enemy anti-magic is Medium range and hopefully with the HA1 our boats would be fighting at Extreme range. Or we could go with the same idea I used for my Crystal Plate suggestion - "crystallizing" the hull to make it stronger and/or lighter, but not actually crystal so it won't be dispelled.
NEXT PHASE:
3.) Design: Anti-magic/Anti-divination shells. Would eliminate a ton of the enemy advantage at land, but not that useful at sea (If we get a direct cannon hit on an enemy ship they're going down regardless) so I pushed it to up here.
4.) Revision: Probably cheapen something. If the HA1 is Very Expensive, maybe do it here? Alternatively, make the HA2, a version of the HA1 which relies less on magic and thus would free up our apprentices. Maybe do this as a design later, or it may take multiple revisions. Also has the benefit of making our artillery effectively invulnerable to enemy anti-magic.
NEXT NEXT PHASE:
5.) Design: SBP2 - A faster, stronger, and lighter version of the Fog-O-War. Biggest priority is making a large ship capable of housing adequate steam engines and numerous cannons without being super delicate.


Thoughts? Of course, it isn't a concrete thing and it's just my ideal plan, but I think it serves as a good priority list.

Fun fact: If we were to completely armor our Fog-O-Wars in crystal, we'd have the equivalent of Ironclads. Which could historically survive cannon shots of the variety found in the 19th century. They were also very cool.

[Light forger]

Flameshrieker Shells
So named for their distinctive noise this conical rounds designed to be fired by both the HC-1 and HC-E and, have a small infused quartz gemstone placed in the back of the round. Once exposed to enough heat(like that of our cannons firing) the gemstone is enchanted to produce a long lasting powerful jet of flame. The jet of flame help to propel the shell granting it significantly increased range. After the shell hits something the gemstone will shatter and release all of it's remaining magical energy in a single blast. This explosion, provided the shell didn't travel too far is more then able to incinerate a man wholesale if he is within a few feet of the round. As added befit the shell with also send burning hot iron fragments everywhere and causing multiple fires or igniting Moskurg's greek fire jars. The gems are made by a mage enchanting a gemstone with a prestored spell(in this cause an extremely modified fire wall spell) and then infusing it with magic roughly equal to a dozen for so casings of fireball.

Ok, quick Q&A about my design choices.
A new cannon would probably work better as a pure artillery piece but, wouldn't open up other design avenues. Doing this gives us the ability to create combat usable prestored magic which is a great boon for us. It also opens up the way for making magical muskets by using a heavy altered version of this gemstone. The extra range should solve a lot of our artillery issues and the fire will make it extremely deadly if it lands next to one of their camps. Their lucky strike is a problem but, I know two things is doesn't matter how 'lucky' your are if your outranged and their mages can't use it while on fire. Also it keeps our revision open should we need to fix anything. On that note here is my early idea for our revision if we go with this and get decent rolls.

Orbeck's Chiller(revision)
So named for the lead mathemagic researcher in it's design this spell is based partly on our mist spell and partly on our frost spells. Usable by nearly anyone with any magical talent this simple spell draws water vapor out of the air to form freezing cold chucks of ice. In the hands of a skilled magic users it can create an area incredible cold able to put out Moskurg's greek fire. As an added befit it can be used not only to chill liquor but, also provide fresh water at sea for our steam cannon and engine to use.

[10ebbor10]

Expense Credit:  After some debate (and a careful analysis about the benefits of just seizing his ship) we decide to make amends with T’ung-K’ao.  After all, we did endanger his livelihood when we sold him a crate of disappearing axes.  To make things up to him we offer a more thorough instruction in the arts of magic.  This includes a brief stay at the Academy for some formal magical instruction.  We teach him the secrets of Dogwood wands, and his seething fury gives way to childlike wonder as he grows plants with little more than a carved twig.  We give him enough dogwood seeds so that he may start his own orchard when he goes back to his homeland, and we train him in how to summon and maintain crystal weaponry.  He struggles with this as his magical prowess isn't as potent as one of our full-time wizards, but he can manage a few odd shapes here and there.  By the time he and his men are ready to leave we also send along Roboson, our best and brightest designer.  We tell him that the Mathemagicians will suffer without his keen knowledge and insight, but that we understand he must go to maintain relations.  We reluctantly decline his offer to stay and gently push him on the boat and tell him to write us a postcard.  We also send along another crate of crystal axes, only this time we also send along an apprentice to help maintain them.  By the time T’ung-K’ao sails out of our harbor he's smiling once more, our earlier scandal seemingly forgotten.  Our relationship with the trader has been repaired

So, did we get the Expense credit, as planned?

1.) Design: HA1. This is the best option for both sea + land; we need an advantage over their new long-ranged (HOW) ballistae. Best outcome here is being able to fit HA1's on all our ships.

They cast wind spells on them. I have no idea how they have enough mages to do that.

[Chiefwaffles]

I'm almost certain we did not get an Expense credit.
I'm also assuming the trader probably went to Moskurg too, though I'm not sure. It's only reasonable balance-wise but if one trader does that all it seems a bit unreasonable. But regardless, if the trader went to Moskurg and they didn't piss him off like we did, could they be getting an expense credit right now?

I do wonder about the Roboson thing, though. I'm assuming Roboson's doing a little side-quest thing via PM with Evicted, but it could be just that we sacrificed Roboson for him to not be pissed. Ideally, we have the chance to actually get exclusive benefits from this whole interaction, but there's a decent chance all it means is that when the trader comes back (which is probably planned) we'll get another chance to actually get an expense credit.

[10ebbor10]

esign: HA1 "Onslaught"
Hybrid Artillery 1  "Onslaught"
Development of the HCx series recently grinded to a halt. With every single new idea and concept being implemented leading to failure and requests for the budget to improve things such as expense denied, the lead Mathemagician of the Hybrid Cannon project decided to turn to a new direction. He'd re-invent the Hybrid Cannon. The HC2 was an unfortunate failure, and salvaging it is frankly useless. The HC1 is reliable, but simply won't fare as the battlefield changes. The HC1-E variant has gone as far as it can. Revisions don't last forever, and sometimes you just need to consolidate your improvements into one design and include some breakthroughs.
The HA1 uses the lessons learned from the SBP1-A in fixing the problems inherent to the HC2, along with the advantages of the HCx-E variants. This is all very simple stuff and normally could be left to a revision, but that's not all.
"Cannons" are the way of the past. Using a name the lead Mathemagician heard being discussed nonchalantly in the hallway - "artillery", he has came up with a new series name - the HA. Hbrid Artillery. "Extreme range" was a name given to the capabilities of the HC1-E by awe-struck field commanders, but it doesn't give you a true insight into the capabilities of the HC1-E. Really, the project lead explained, it's best described still as "long range". But this - this new technology - will finally be deserving of the "extreme" label thrown around so carelessly in the past.
The HA1 utilizes the longest barrel we've crafted. Using simple gears, the barrel can be easily rotated like the stubby HC1-E. A larger and improved pressurization compartment combined with the aforementioned longer barrel increases the range of the projectile to true extreme ranges far beyond that of the HCx-E variants. The rate of fire and reliability improvements from the HC2 are also implemented in the design along with the lessons of the SPB1-A (and to a lesser degree, the frost towers) to actually get these improvements to reliably function. The new barrel can even field larger shells that should be able to reliably do more damage to the filthy Moskurgians!
The HA1 utilizes advanced manufacturing techniques to be able to be produced at a rate rivalling the HC1. Standardized equipment used for measures and things such as casting and pouring given to workers significantly reduce the amount of time to craft individual parts. Hiring many laborers and teaching them how to only work at one part of a time then having them work together in a line of assembly greatly reduces cost and the need for individual trained craftsmen. The Project Lead has taken to calling the places where the manufacturing would occur "factories".

I disagree with this design. It has the same general idea as I had, but the wrong priorities. Extra range is not use usefull without a rapid communication means to target the cannons.

Field Artillery "Metal Storm"

This design includes all previous improvements of our previous cannon designs, integrating them into one, efficient design. The steam recycler and auto-cooling barrel are revisited, helping the design to get a vastly increased fire rate and much improved reliability. This will help us enormously at Sea and land, where we will be able to overpower the enemy though volume of fire. A single important improvement is the inclusion of a chain firing mode, allowing 1 apprentice to control multiple cannons simultanously, by casting the spell through all of them.

Oh, and another thing to consider. We want to force the Moskurgians to use as much magic as possible, so as to cause their artillery to fall short of manpower. With what orders can we accomplish that?

[andrea]

I have one main concern about artillery: designing an expensive one would be hard without holding the mountains and we will get that benefit only starting next turn. If i am not mistaken, territory gives expense bonuses only to newly designed things.

divination jammer to shoot at us so accurately, either they or their spells must divine our position and movement in some way. Since the spell is cast far away, our antimagic can't help. However, what we can do is disturb their signal. This charm, based on our antimagic charms, continuously absorbs ambient magic and reemits it at low power in random frequencies across the magical spectrum. This effect is not enough to disrupt a spell cast nearby, but any attempt to magically determine something will be disrupted, resulting in a loss of accuracy.

[Chiefwaffles]

Dressing apprentices to look like Myark and put them on flammable rafts, and tell them to say "OH, WHAT A SHAME IT'D BE IF AN ENEMY USED MAGIC ON ME!" repeatedly as the rafts start to float near enemy boats. For results on land, make the person hold a torch, a shield, and stand at roughly medium to long range from enemy ranged troops.
...Actually, decoys (that don't use our mages/troops) wouldn't be a horrible idea. Maybe we could make a design in the future for "mist form" - using mist to replicate the look of a human being? Would help in skirmish and in distracting enemy units at all stages - ranged, melee, routing, and more.

And Ebbor, the idea behind the extra range is twofold:
1.) Future-proofing: Doing it now in a design means that all we have to do in the future to actually improve range is make a sighting spell/communication method. This is the main focus. Otherwise, we have to spend at least 2 revisions or a design and a revision to increase range.
2.) Fortified Positions: Enemy castles, towns, harbors, and to a lesser degree, artillery emplacements, can all be shelled at extreme-long range since they don't tend to move and their positions could conceivably be communicated to the artillery before something about that target changes. If they have a castle, town, or harbor, all we need to do is note the position once, then begin shelling at super-extreme ranges.
The range isn't the actual priority, but given the difficulty of everything else I think it's overall beneficial to do so. It's not a huge deal, but I still want Arstotzka to be the first to have reliable super-extreme range and not have to focus more actions on doing it when we can just do it now.

And just to be clear, the only different between Metal Storm and Onslaught is that Onslaught has a planned longer range, right?
-----
Andrea does have a point, though.
I think the biggest priority is holding the mountains and advancing at sea. If we can make a design that accomplishes that, a new artillery design can be delayed to next round and be much easier with the metal back. I guess we could do the SO1-AM or SO1-AD variants now? The problem there though is that they don't really help at sea, but we could use our revision to make our boats lighter/armored/etc.

[10ebbor10]

Anyway, a bit of mage math.

Things we know

Wizards:  The game assumes that your nation can field a large number of apprentices, a handful of skilled wizards (the survivors) and a select few masters. An apprentice can fire off several normal spells and maybe one expensive spell in a fight, skilled wizards might pull off a single very expensive spell and only a master could hope to reliably pull off a National Effort.  At the start of the game, it is assumed that you can put out one wizard (probably an apprentice) per five squads, so spells will take effect accordingly.  Depending on wizard training, that amount could increase or decrease.

Please forgive me, I'm just going off of the game mechanics I was given.  From what I can tell, Apprentices can only use Cheap spells, and Wizards use Expensive and Very Expensive.  Furthermore, they were only being used in skirmishes - I thought giving them Expensive spells after a month or two in the academy might be too powerful, so I allowed them to be used in melee's as well

So, assuming Moskurg does not have an equivalent to our Academy, the only mages that can aid their artillery are their experienced and master mages. They have only 1 Master Wizard (Al-mutton) and just a handfull of experienced mages.

Those experienced mages will also be responsible for all their anti-magic, all their wind spells, all their mindreading, and so on.

So, hence my proposed order.

Remind our anti-mage forces that they are anti-mage forces. Use them as a quick flanking force to attack enemy artillery. They're to harras the enemy with fireballs (cheap, so our apprentices can do it while they need a real wizard to counter), anti-magic arrows(prepared, while they need a wizard to counter) and while carrying weapons painted to look like crystal from a distance (our cost : nothing, theirs : experienced mages)

Even if my assumptions are incorrect, this should still damage their forces severely. Because fireballs +stored fire = death

[10ebbor10]

And just to be clear, the only different between Metal Storm and Onslaught is that Onslaught has a planned longer range, right?

No, Metal Storm aims at rapid fire rate instead of extra range.

Edit : Whoops, you also included extra fire rate.

I added my chain firing mode, allowing us to yse more cannons per apprentice.

[Chiefwaffles]

Right, that's included in Onslaught but I suppose isn't as focused on. I still think Onslaught is a better idea for the future but I completely understand Metal Storm. _{Its real name better be HA1 "Metal Storm" or FA1 "Metal Storm"}

And regarding the order: I'd +1 it, but you should probably repost it after the Revision phase.

[VoidSlayer]

I like our cannons, but I feel like improving them should be a revision action while we make something new.

That is why I wanted the frost wands to directly counter their fire.

[Chiefwaffles]

I think lucky strike is a bigger problem than fire. It's why they're so accurate with the fire shots and everything else. Anti-magic shells could significantly help counter it.