Meteor Design: SO1-M "Mother" Just putting this out there if anyone's interested.
The SO1-M "Mother" shell is a simple design. It turns out that when enough energy is introduced into the meteor in just the right place, the meteor
violently explodes. It has a destruction radius unlike nothing we've ever seen before.
The shell design is simple. Inside the shell is a set of ~2-3 A-sized (or smaller if needed) Magegems. Upon impact with the ground, these Magegems will shatter, suddenly releasing their magical energy. Crystal conduits inside the shell will direct the energy towards a small meteor fragment. Once the energy is input, the meteor fragment and thus the whole shell create a
huge explosion. The shell is specifically fit for a HA1.
This explosion is unlike anything we've
ever seen. It creates an area of utter devastation, wiping out entire Moskurg units of soldiers and destroying multiple emplacements at once. Of course, these shells take a long time to produce and are made using the sparse meteor, so they're not common occurrences in the battlefield. They're most used by our commanders once a tactically-important Moskurg piece of land is found, and called in using precise flares to prevent error.
TL;DR: Extreme explosive shells. Rare and specifically called in by commanders, but resemble something like extreme tactical bombs (MOAB, anyone?) of today.
Meteor Design: Wand of True LightThose Moskurgers seriously believe their ideology is superior to ours?
How silly, and able to be remedied.
The Wand of True Light does exactly what its named for - it brings light to our enemies. It turns out that the meteor has... effects on people's minds. By itself, it just produces mild irritation and discomfort. But our mathemagicians are no fools. Using their experience of manipulating minds as learned with the Falcon taming spells, they applied it to the meteor. The result is the Wand of True Light. It's rather large but still resembles a wand. At the top, covered by elaborate circuitry, is the meteor fragment. Circuitry here and across the inside and outside of the wand "tunes" the signals emitted by the meteor into something weaponize-able.
It influences one's mind to show them the true light of the war and Arstotzka's righteousness.
When held by a skilled and precise user like Myark, the Wand of True Light can be influenced at varying scales. Against a single person, the wand can completely reach an individual and enlighten them about our cause and the nature of the war, making them more loyal to Arstotzka than most of our soldiers. Against a small group, the wand can make people realize the true reasons for the war and Arstotzkaa's moral righteousness; that it's wrong to be fighting for such an awful nation like Moskurg. Realizing this and with their convictions and beliefs greatly shaken they can desert, surrender, or simply just retreat. Against large amounts of troops at the theatre-scale, the wand can put doubts in Moskurgers' minds - is it really worth it? Could they die? Are they on the right side?
In the scale of theatres, the wand for the most part won't convert anyone not already wracked with indecision, but it will significantly lower their morale. When an uncertain foe is fighting against our loyal and dedicated troops, who's going to win? When an uncertain Moskurger sees their friends die to the shells of our cannons, will they stay and fight or run away?
The wand is a deadly weapon, given to Myark for his use only. It can influence battlefields, turn individuals to our side, and nearly-immediately make smaller groups of Moskurgers abandon and desert.
TL;DR: A mind-influencing weapon. Causes mass decrease in morale on a theatre scale, can cause small groups to desert the battle or surrender, or can completely "brainwash" individuals.
I'm happy to modify the design at anyone's request.
I'll be voting for this wand since I think it's a great design. Not removing my votes for anything else, yet, though.
Meteor Design
1 - Battle Eagle: voidslayer
2 - Spire of Frost: Chiefwaffles, Andres
1 - Tower of Heresy: FallacyofUrist
1 - Staff of Forever Frost: Andres
1 - Wand of True Light: Chiefwaffles
0 - Catgirl Assassins(Hilarious):
0 - Maxim Gun(Improbable):
1 - Aetheric Staff(Practical): FallacyofUrist
1 - Beacon of Magic: helmacon
0 - Demon Wolf From The Dark Heavens:
0 - Crown of Ash:
1 - Gilded Guardian Gilda: RAM
0? - Orb of Divination: Andrea?
0? - Orb of Anti-Divination: Andrea?
0 - Large Ice Lizard With Wings:
0 - Fair-Day Cage:
Also, as a note, I do kind of want to get air manipulation/something resembling "telekinesis" at some point. Since I have some ideas for the HA2/HC3: (Not in any particular order; hard ones colored red.)
1.) Breech loading (Load shells from the back of the artillery piece, not the front. More modern loading method, not that hard to accomplish, and should greatly increase rate of fire. Easily done in a revision.)
2.)
Levitation (We use some kind of spell to cause the artillery piece to lightly "levitate", allowing for extremely easy movement. Can be done with a revision if we have a "Manipulate air" spell or something like that, but may have to be done as part of a design.)
3.) Swivel-mount (Maybe HC3 exclusive - Give it 360 degrees of rotation alongside the ground and try for 90 degrees up and down. Lets our HC3s fire at much more things, like Moskurg carpets. Helps HC3s and maaaybe HA1s on ships)
4.) Powered (Use Magegems to power artillery, allowing mundane troops to operate it with the occasional/rare visit from an apprentice fore recharging.)
5.)
Living (Use an intelligence implanted into a magegem to automatically aim the artillery piece, eliminating human error + making Artillery more reliable, as no squishy humans to die means longer-lasting artillery)
6.)
Self-loading (Create a kind of "magazine" that loads into the HA1/HC3, allowing it to fire at a
much faster rate. Worthy of a design.)
7.) Crystal Shield/Plating (Create a crystal enclosure for the operators and maybe crystal plating for the rest of the artillery, making it
much more durable against Moskurg air units and artillery.)
Also, possible designs using Magegems next turn:
1.) Flarewand (A "wand" powered by an AA magegem inserted in the bottom. Distributed to as many mundanes as possible, it can be used by anyone to summon a flare, allowing for communication without wizards. Since it's a design, we could be more ambitious - anti-AM maybe?)
2.)
Crystalworks. (PLEASE)
3.) Firegem (A grenade. It's an AA-sized magegem coated with magical circuits harnessing the energy into a fireball, and as the fireball doesn't have to have velocity it takes less energy. A "pin" is pulled, starting a circuit-powered timer. The user throws it, and it eventually goes off, unleashing a fireball at its location. Allows for mundane fireballs in melees and skirmishes.)
4.) Fireshell (Above, but fit for a shell. Either #3 or #4 could be a design, and the remaining one can be a revision.)
And other note: We should probably try revising our circuits again next turn. We can get bonuses due to experience from our revision this turn and it has a ton of benefits.
EDIT: Removing my vote for battle-eagles. I'm actually a really big fan of this design so far. And battle-eagles are pretty close to something I want to do eventually anyways