Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[evictedSaint]

Wait, were they using their anti magic while riding the carpets?

No.

Then why weren't we shooting the enemy mages out of the sky with fireballs?  I just honestly want to know because it makes a huge difference in how we combat them.

Because shooting a fireball straight up will really hurt if it misses, and they have approximately the same range as a longbow.  Explosive bomb arrows were more effective, so I decided not to write "your mages kill their own troops when they miss".

[Andres]

Frost towers are basically a passive debuff to their army. That won't work - we need to actually actively directly counter their stuff. Just increasing a passive debuff won't remove the fact that they have fire bombers.

You CONTINUE to ignore that at cold enough temperatures, the Moskurgs don't just get debuffed, they start dying. How many times do I need to point how they alone wiped out all meaningful resistance in the Mountains? The frost towers as they are are just a debuff to their army (at least on the Plains and Jungle), which is why I'm arguing to make them better. If we make them better, they won't just be a passive debuff to their army, they will eradicate their armies, at the very least on the Plains.

Glory to Arstotzka.

EDIT: And just to make it perfectly clear, their bombers will also start dying once we make the climate they fly in cold enough.

[10ebbor10]

Considering they spent a Design to make it, a Revision to make it stop killing their mages, an expense credit to make it cheap, and they don't have enough wizards to man both all their ballistas and their carpets, AND they had the appropriate modifiers on their roll, yes.

We spend a design and a revision on our plants.

We got the ability to make a modest shubbery over the course of 24 hours.

Moskurg spends a design and a revision, they get Magic Blackhawk Helicopters.

The results of designs are simply not in proportion.

And what are you talking about rolling a -3?  Your effectiveness was rolled with no penalties, a -2 for expense for being made out of your most expensive tech, and a -1 for bugs for being larger than anything you've ever made.

[6+1-1, 5+1-3, 4+2-3]

Those are -3's.

Massive penalties for minor improvements to existing technology.

It's the most long-range, powerful, lethal cannon in the world that Moskurg can't even hope to compare with without redesigning their ballista, it can fire 4 times a minute, is lacking ammo types and spotters

Yes, but we already had an awesome cannons before that. There is clear progression there. Compared to the previous cannon, the new one is no enormous improvement.

The old cannons had the same fire rate, same destructive power, and they did not have all the issues the new cannons have.

Moskurg had nothing that flies. Nothing at all. And now they get everything.

and you're upset that Moskurg made flying carpets?  You've already got arrows that by default explode when they're close to an enemy mage.  You are overstating the disparity between you guys, all because you were caught off-guard by their new invention.

I'm upset because when we try something new, we get hit by massive penalties. -3 penalties are not unusual.

Hell, when we tried to simply turn our fireball into a wall of fire, we got hit with penalties.

Meanwhile, Moskurg bullshits you in giving them levitation and you give them bonuses for the attempt.

Think about it, Moskurg has no spells that should give them bonuses to give them flight. Wind is air related, but it's not levitation and it is not flight, which is what their carpets clearly are. All their wind spells do is let them move air around, nothing more. If it where a wind powered carpet, it would need huge sails to catch the wind (obviously), or some other obvious wind related effect.

But they get a small, compact, silent carpet.

Technologically, Moskurg's flight spell is a big an improvement, if not bigger, as the steam engine, and should be treated exactly the same. Several designs, several revisions, before it ever becomes truly effective.

[evictedSaint]

Ebbor, I'm tired of having this discussion with you every single turn.  They did nothing you couldn't do in a single design, especially with your available tech.  I have read your petition and considered it fully.  I have decided that their advancement is appropriate and makes sense based on their preceeding techs, roll, revion, and expense credit.  Your HA1 likewise received the appropriate bonuses and penalties, all of which I took pains to detail in the design report so you would have a greater understanding of what your limiting factors are and how I decide those modifiers.

I understand your frustration, but I will not be changing the results of this past turn.

[10ebbor10]

Design :

develop our own air force, lest we lag behind in this ever-changing war

I'm not filling it in, because if we did we'd get slapped with a -3 penalty for chosing the wrong answer.

[Roboson]

Ok, so we got problems, and they aren't going to change. So let's stop whining and think of solutions.

I hate to say it, but we need something new. We need something to get us out of this hole we're in. No more science, no more more technology, no more cannons, no more engines. Just magic.

What we need now, in my opinion, is directional antimagic. An anti-divination jammer would do the trick.

[10ebbor10]

Divination is barely used anymore. Moskurgians abandonned it to go after paestries.

But anyway, all Moskurgian forces rely on their Wind Magic. Air , Navy, Archers, Ground forces Let's kill that.

Reapers Breeze

An anti magic Crystal of significant size, engraved with gold cooling etchings. This enormous crystal is finely attuned to Wind spells, and will sap their strength over an entire battlefield. In effect, it brings up the expense rating of all wind spells by at least 1 tier.

Now, you may say, isn't that overpowered. Nay, I answer, it's the Moskurgians own fault for focusing all their magic on one type of spell.

[Andres]

Improved Frost Towers. Double the intensity and double the range of our minor frost towers. In other words, increase the range to 160 km (100 miles) and make it so the coldness produced within that area is twice as much as what's produced within the range of our current towers. Use our new magic circuits to decrease the effort needed to maintain the enchantment.

I will iterate again. With our current frost towers, we negated the heat penalty our troops were operating under, we gave Moskurg a severe penalty in the Plains, and we eradicated them in the Mountains. Their ballistas, their horses, their flying carpets...all worthless in the face of our frost towers.

By doubling the intensity of our frost towers, we increase the severity of the effects up one stage. That means:
Jungle: Moskurgs get a severe penalty
Plains: Moskurgs are ERADICATED
Mountains: Moskurgs stay ERADICATED
Desert: Our troops no longer have a penalty

By doubling the range, we no longer have to take them inside a region for the effects to take place. They become offensive tools as well as defensive. They will not only be impermeable defences, but unstoppable attacks.

1 - Improved Frost Towers: Andres

Glory to Arstotzka.

[10ebbor10]

2 - Improved Frost Towers: Andres, 10ebbor10

[RAM]

Query to the G.M.: What was the interaction between flying carpets and fire wasps?

[10ebbor10]

My prediction, none because of Wind.

[andrea]

an hot air balloon would help with spotting and probably the carpets too, especially if combined with a flare/light revision.

But how many designs will it take to make an hot air balloon that can carry anything useful (like an apprentice and an archer)?
The commander at sea keeps asking for a new bigger boat... but considering how the expense penalty was last time for this, I don't see it happening at less than national effort without at the very least 2 designs and 2 revisions.

so, eh, whatever.
freeze the world, let everyone die. If somebody survives, it will probably be us.

3 - Improved Frost Towers: Andres, 10ebbor10, Andrea

[10ebbor10]

But how many designs will it take to make an hot air balloon that can carry anything useful (like an apprentice and an archer)?

Balloon + Wind spell = No more balloon.

[Roboson]

There's no way they can use strong wind magic on top of those things. They'd blow themselves out of the air and all over the place.

[Light forger]

Dragon Micro-Cannons
A pint size cannon currently being called a micro-cannon by the famously bland nature of Arstotzka wordsmiths. The cannon is roughly 4 feet long and comes with a wooden stick to stab into the ground to rest it on when firing. The weapons uses new rounds just thick enough to mount a small quartz crystal which is the firing means of the cannon. The quartz crystal are designed to hold a decent amount of magic and when shattered release it in a powerful but, short lived jet of fire to propel the round. In order to shatter it the cannon is equipped spring powered 'striker' connected to a bar trigger on the stock of the cannon. After ramming the crystal down the front of the cannon the user just needs to pull back a small lever and active the trigger to fire the weapon. It's operated by a two man crew one carrying the weapon and the other handling the ammo and reloading. Uniquely the quartz crystal don't need a mage to look after them after creation letting our non-magical soldiers use the weapon. Further more the weapons are made using our crystal boring technique to increase the number made and overall quality.

I think it's time to bring the venerable sport of Moskurg-skeet shooting to the masses and get our first musket. Also magic storage which also very important and, if we don't fail horribly we can make faux HE rounds for our cannons.