Some of you have expressed concern regarding the fact that special ore nodes are not as useful as generic ore nodes, a fact which I am aware of and, while I'm not totally satisfied with it either, I settled on it a while ago and didn't get any suggestions during the commentary period before the game started. Without going into the pros and cons of various different ways of handling it (which I HAVE considered at great length), I'll simply say I'm not changing it now and potentially triggering a mass upset of the game in regards to unit pricing. I also am and have been aware that this makes the northern landmass considerably more valuable in terms of resources. Again without going too deep into the separate issue of game balance, I predicted that placing very valuable resources on the small islands would allow Cannala to steamroll into Forenia in the Early game. I'm reasonably happy with how the game has been balanced so far; Cannala is arguably in the lead in terms of territory as it is, and both sides have traded the advantage back and forth on the northern landmass, so it's not a steamroll for one side or the other. Forenia has access to better resources but their lack of TC may force them to give Cannala the lead soon, which remains to be seen.
Anyway, as we are exiting the early game, we may be coming upon the point where your alliances may start to give resources as aid, or even allow advances in geological understanding which reveal more resources in existing locations. Just know that, believe it or not, I actually have planned much of this ahead of time.
This turn, the Forenians have just gone straight ahead and spend the whole turn on a jet aircraft. The
is a dedicated fighter which is Very Expensive, but significantly outperforms existing fighters. Each of its two engines is more powerful than that in the Haast (but keep in mind the Haast is still less than the pinnacle of piston engines from this era, partly because it burns 87 octane fuel). The Thunderbird reaches the best speeds and altitudes of any aircraft in Forenia, but it lacks endurance, is relatively lightly armed with two cannons and two machine guns, and doesn't like to fly slow- which prevents it from taking off from carriers, or doing much to harass ground targets.
Cannala also decided to make a turbine motor this turn, but they decided to would be safest to put it on the ground. This lead to the development of the
, which is a heavy tank powered by a turboshaft engine (like a turbojet, but optimized to give power across a physical shaft instead of thrust directly from the exhaust). It uses the existing Daybreaker gun, with heavy armor on the front and turret. After a revision, the motor is water-cooled and relatively cheap to produce, but it still has the notable quirk of venting dangerous amounts of hot exhaust behind the tank, so that soldiers cannot actually stand behind it.
UF Weapons:
-AS-SP30: [L] General infantry sidearm. An Arstotzka-made semi-automatic pistol, firing 9mm. It has a 10-round magazine and can fire quickly with moderate accuracy, at short range. Moderate stopping power. It is pretty reliable, and has a threaded barrel and can be fitted with a suppressor.
-AS-AR34: [L] The AR34 is an assault rifle chambered in new 7.62L ammunition, an intermediate powered cartridge. It is fed at the bottom from a wide 24-round magazine, or a 40-round drum, and ejects cartridges to the right side. It has a tactical rail an adjustable iron sights on top. It is select-fire, with a sliding knob for either single-shot or automatic. The knob is very stiff and requires soldiers to take their left hand off the weapon and force it. It has aluminum furniture, and a vertical pistol grip and foregrip. It weighs under 6kg. It has good stopping power and accuracy out to medium range, and is relatively easy for users to control even on automatic fire. It's about as long as the AS-F14, which means it is usable in close quarters but not ideal. Costs 2 ore (1 Al).
-Sawed-off Shotgun: [L]General infantry sidearm. Fires twice before breech loading, very effective at short range, ineffective otherwise. Poor armor penetration. Uses 12 gauge shells.
-AS-MC16A: A stands for Andres! A 9mm close-bolt SMG, with 20cm barrel and a 15cm action extending behind the trigger. The stock is redesigned entirely for a pistol grip and foregrip, and made of lightweight aluminium, the butt is an open frame. The weapon handles considerably better with this new arrangement. There is a 30-round drum magazine, and a 54-round magazine which consists of two drums feeding together into one magazine insert. It gets in the way of the shooter's view a bit, but MC16's are often fired from the hip anyway. Oh yeah, and it looks like a pair of, well, you know. Soldiers have some creative nicknames for the gun already. [1 Ore (1 Al)]
-M3 Sorraia GPMG: [L] A 7.62mm machine gun fed from a belt. 50-round belts can be strung together for extended fire or stored in a belt box attached to the Sorraia, which for practical purposes is similar to a magazine. It uses a recoil action, and is configured to fire around 800 rounds per minute, achieved with the help of a muzzle booster (which looks like a flared end on the barrel). Weighs 22 pounds. Comes with a bipod, or tripod for emplacements. It uses copper heat sinks, which are now shrouded. It has a changeable barrel, which is necessary for emplacement use. It is effective to about 800 yards when mounted. Costs 2 ore.
-AS-F14A: [L] A 7.62mm, semi-automatic rifle. It is an open bolt blowback action, and uses a 12-round box magazine with a small charge handle on the side. It has adjustable iron sights. The weight of the moving action makes the gun difficult to control, but this is mitigated by a heavy barrel. The blowback action is fairly reliable despite being open bolt. Also available as a carbine.
-M2 Osprey: [L] The Osprey is a bolt-action rifle, chambered in 7.62mm, intended for snipers and marksmen. It is bolt-action, and has a 10 round magazine. It has a wooden stock, and the magazine protrudes a few inches beneath the rifle. It features a heavy barrel, and with its bolt action mechanism, has excellent grouping at long range. On top of the gun is a set of adjustable iron sights with a fine crosshair, and a rail for a telescopic sight.
-Eagle Sight MkII: [L] [Expensive] A refractive telescopic sight designed with the Osprey rifle in mind. It is available in two types with variable magnification from 4x to 7x (long-range type), or from 1.5x to 4x (short-range type). Has a large objective lens which creates a bright picture, but short eye relief and a narrow field of view. They are [Complex], and they must be custom fitted to weapons which do not have rails.
-Scimitar: [L] [Expensive] Officer sidearm. Elite soldiers receive a scimitar, a deadly curved sword which can be used on foot or horseback. Even in 1938, an officer's uniform is incomplete without his sword.
-Incinerator Flamethrower: [L] A heavy weapon, consists of two tanks on a soldier's back (one of harmless nitrogen as a propellant, and one of flamethrower fuel) and a nozzle with a pilot light. Shoots a jet of burning liquid about 25 feet. Includes an emergency cutoff valve. Costs 2 ore, 2 oil.
-AS-1911 8cm Mortar: [L] A light mortar tube with rocket-propelled explosive shells, which fire after being dropped into the tube and striking the bottom.
-AS-AC18: An advanced primer ignition autocannon, which ignites cartridge primers before the round is fully chambered. It fires the new, large, 20x100mm round, fed from a top-mounted 25 round C-shaped magazine with a powerful spring, usually armor piercing, about 600 times per minute. The weapon is quite large with a simple action but heavy barrel, weighing over 40 kilograms, and it requires being mounted to a carriage, foundation, or vehicle to fire with accuracy, although recoil is reduced by the nature of its action. It is dependent on a careful balance between the force of the shell and the force of the action, which means that different ammo types cannot be interchanged without recalibrating the gun. It has a terrifying ability to punch through armor and emplacements. Costs 3 ore due to its size and the size of its ammo.
-AS-RPG28 A: [L] A rocket-propelled grenade, fired out of a launch tube. The grenade itself consists of a conical shape with a narrow tube of propellent out the back, and twisted fins in the middle of the tube. The launch tube is 3cm wide, a meter long and the rocket fits in up to the fins, and is just a metal tube with a handle. To ignite the propellant, soldiers remove a pin, on the rocket, which is first clipped by a short chain to a trigger on the handle. The tube itself and each grenade each weigh 3kg. It is accurate enough to hit a tank out to almost 100 meters, after which it drops quickly. Rockets are available with warheads based on each type of grenade, including a HEAT conical shaped charge. Requires 2 ore, 1 oil.
-AS-G27: [L] The basic AS-G27 grenade is an oblong ball that fits comfortably in the hand, with a four second fuze started by pulling a ring. The casing breaks into fragments when it explodes. The AS-G27I is incendiary, the AS-G27S deploys smoke. The AS-G27AT is a cylinder shaped, magnetic shaped charge for tanks. A soldier can penetrate medium armor with it, but they have to run right up to a tank to stick one on. Costs 2 oil.
-AS-LM20: [L] A landmine! Consists of an explosive, metal shell and button. Armed by removing a key. The mines are cheap and simple, and reliably kill or dismember infantry who step on them.
-M34 Viper Landmine: [L] A multipurpose landmine, but mainly used for tanks. It's a disc shaped box full of explosives, with a trigger on top. The mines are specially designed to be stacked, their triggers ignite eachother simultaneously. The trigger is locked with a removable pin. The mines weigh 2.5 kilos each. Two or three are effective against vehicles, but a bit taller and heavier than a single mine would be with the same explosive content. Be extremely careful when stacking the mines! Costs 2 oil.
-AS-1912 Artillery A [L]: A field gun firing 80mm shells, loaded through a sliding bolt. The action is not dissimilar to a bolt action rifle, where the old casing is ejected when the bolt is opened. Must be towed by a truck. It can fire about 12 times a minute, and the barrel rests on shocks which keep it on target after firing. Aims between 0 and 90 degrees vertical. It has several kilometers of range. Costs 3 ore.
-B2 Destroyer: [L] A big, long piece of artillery with firing 100mm rounds. The barrel is nearly 3 meters long, for maximum muzzle velocity and accuracy. Its barrel sits on a hydro suspension mechanism, and lurches back each time the gun fires. It weighs more than a ton and can fire at great distance around 10 times a minute, when hand loaded in its locking screw breech. These rounds can be placed with pretty good consistency, for their range. Must be towed by a truck. Costs 4 ore.
-Bumblebee AT/AA: [L] A 90mm gun. It can be aimed down close to the ground, or up at the sky. It is aimed by a gunner who sits in a seat which inclines and declines with the gun itself, and has an iron two-ringed "spiderweb" sight. The gun is aimed with two traversal wheels. Fires fuzed flak rounds, which have an adjustable timer set by a dial on the gun itself. There is also a mechanical targeting calculator, which has a dial for target range, and rate of change of range, which can set the fuze time for shells accurately as the target moves. Additionally given an altitude and angle, the sight will automatically offset so that the gunner need merely keep the crosshair over the target. It is pretty effective, and also cheap and reliable. However, adjusting targeting calculator takes too long to aim at dive bombers and close, low-altitude planes. Fires about 15 times a minute. Costs 2 ore.
UF-MRL-40 'SARUKH': The Sarukh is a multiple rocket launcher, which fires rockets one meter long to deliver 6kg warheads at a maximum range of 12000 meters. The rockets have impressive destructive power, compared to shells they do not need thick metal casings, so most of the weight of the rocket is either warhead or propellant. The rockets are launched electrically off of rails, and the rails are in a 4x2 array. The rockets can be fired all at once, but it takes about four minutes to reload the whole launcher, so the sustained rate of fire is not better than regular artillery. However, a rocket array is extremely light compared to a cannon, and can move very quickly, firing all at once and retreating before fire is returned from the enemy. Accuracy is poor compared to shells; to reliably hit a single target with a volley they should be used within 8km. Currently available as a truck trailer. [1 Ore 3 Oil]
-M1 Stallion: This is a belt-fed machine gun using the enormous, thundering .60 caliber round. It is a cumbersome weapon, with a large box for the mechanism, and a narrow water-cooled barrel with copper heat sinks. The gun only fires about 180 times a minute. The gun hits in very tight groups for a machinegun, but it is heavy and can only be pivoted slowly, meaning only very skilled gunners can be accurate at long range. It can be moved on a cart, or by a team of four men who will also crew it when it is in place. Costs 2 ore.
UF Other Equipment:
General Tereshkova: The Forenian army is led by General Tereshkov, an expert pilot. With experience spanning back to the days of the terrifying AS-19 aircraft which pilots believed to be haunting, he trains Forenian pilots to quick witted and always on guard, and out-fly their enemies.
-Uniform AS-GU40: [L] The Forenian uniforms are both intimidating and fashion-forward, rivaling the iconic Nazi German ones. They come with various camouflage colors on the outside, and parade colors on the inside so they can be turned inside-out. Warm weather uniforms are cotton and cold weather ones are wool, and all come with harnesses made of sturdy nylon straps, and all the pockets, pouches and bandoliers a soldier might need, plus one pocket on the elbow which nobody knows the purpose of, but it's there as a matter of tradition. It also comes with manganese-steel chest plate, back plate and helmet. But most of all, there's cool sunglasses. Costs 2 ore.
-AS-P32: [L] Parachute rigging. The parachute itself is large and round, and various straps, clips and buckles allow a soldier to carry a light primary weapon, their ammo and a grenade. Alternatively, a paratrooper could also bring a mortar or LMG and a few rounds, but only their sidearm with it. Radios need to be dropped separately.
-Tiger Infantry Armor: [L] Infantry armor made of a forged manganese steel alloy. All of the armor plates are relatively thick for infantry, and the full suit weighs in at 36 pounds. The helmet is particularly thick, and fits round and close around the head, low over the eyes and down to the neck with a little outward slope. It can be attached with a face mask, which when worn allows a wide but very narrow viewing slit between the mask and helmet, while even covering the neck. The breastplate is curved outwards for optimal armor angle, with appearance of a ridge down the middle. The backplate is thick, but flat. At the waist these plates end and there are flat curved single-piece taces to protect the upper legs, below the knee the armor has no coverage. The pauldrons allow comfortable shoulder motion, being made of three layered plates, and the upper arms are covered by rerebraces, which are round fitted plates to the outside of the arm. While the lower arms, lower legs, and sometimes gaps around the shoulders are exposed, most parts of the armor will stop a pistol bullet at point blank. The breastplate and taces will stop rifle bullets at all but very close range. AP Horsekillers easily penetrate at medium range. The armor is tiring and cumbersome, troops cannot effectively crawl and kneeling is difficult, as is aiming down rifle sights while using the mask. Costs 3 ore.
-Tiger's Whisper: [L] This radio device, instead of being used to transmit speech, issues and receives 26 discreet amplitudes on a given frequency. The amplitude broadcast is selected with a dial, and the amplitude received is is used to indicate a letter, using a fully circular meter which reads amplitude and is labeled with letters. When the dial, or meter, falls to zero after displaying a letter, it moves the paper indicator by an amount based on its highest position, like a rotary telephone dial. This means that the messages are bit more complex than a simple substitution. A communications officer must jot down each letter as he reads it. The letter indicators both on the dial and meter are pieces of card paper which can be changed, so that new substitutions can be issued to communications officers regularly in case a radio communicator falls into enemy hands.
-AS-DC29: [L] An Arstotzkan device design to solve Moskurg's cipher. It is basically a Tiger's Whisper, with its own code card with the numbers 1 through 26. It uses a typewriter mechanism to stamp each number onto a ticker tape. The numbers on the ticker tape are the simple cipher version of the Moskurg message, which is relatively easy to solve by hand. In addition it includes a counter for each letter, displaying the frequency in which letters occur which helps solve ciphers faster. An average Arstotzkan officer is clever enough to use this to crack a Moskurg message in five to ten minutes. With a stolen code card, it can also act exactly as a Tiger's Whisper would, where communications officers must write down each letter as it appears. It is [Complex] and fits into a very heavy backpack.
-The Death Ball: [L] [Very Expensive] [A 30-foot boulder, on two equally large steel wheels, which themselves are lined with rockets to propel it. The boulder is hewn smooth and round, and hollowed by stoneworkers (in 1935!) to support a stabilizing gyroscope. It can reliably roll in something resembling a straight line thanks to its gyroscope, although large moguls or divots will send it wildly off course. For the ten seconds or so it keeps to speed, it can crush a tank hull. In fact the most difficult thing about its use is moving it around before firing it. It, or the boulder from which it is constructed, is too large to move around on a truck, so it is instead dragged on a sled by several trucks, in a modern mechanized method which resembles the way in which ancient people moved stone megaliths. Once hewn into shape and given their gyro, chassis and rockets, they are generally not moved, but kept in place and rotated to aim. Costs 6 ore, 2 oil, and can only be deployed in areas with flat land access to a stone quarry. The Gyro system renders it [Complex].
RDN-39-2 "DEADLIER RAY" [Expensive] The "Deadlier Ray" is a more sophisticated radar than the old Death Ray, using an array of antennae on a rotating swivel, a single unit can get the direction and range of enemy aircraft to about 150km, and ships to within about 30km. It's huge though, and requires a building or an entire dedicated CV-22 ship to manage all the equipment. The operator can see contacts on a CRT display with a circular progression, it looks really cool and goes beep. [Complex]
UF-R4-39 'Tigers Roar': This dramatically named radio is very similar to the Model 3, but fits in a single backpack and supports voice or morse over FM. When communicating in morse code, it can be attached to a separate Tiger's Whisper machine for coded messages.
Binoculars: Cheap binoculars are available to all soldiers.
Flashlights: The UF standard flashlight uses leak-resistant zinc-carbon batteries, in an aluminum frame. It fits on weapon rail mounts, or on helmets. It's rather heavy though, so soldiers prefer to hold them by hand when they can, possibly with a pistol in the other hand. Also includes colored lenses for signalling.
UF Ground Vehicles:
-L-1 Tiger: [L] The Tiger is, despite its fierce name, a truck. It has a long, narrow nose in front of the cab containing a twelve cylinder engine, and the steering wheels are next to it under round cowls. It has a bed where a hopper, tanker, seats, trailer hitches or other things can easily be attached. There are six rear drive wheels, on independent suspension. Costs 3 ore, 2 oil. Provides +1 Transport Capacity.
-AS-M17A: [L] A motorcycle which seats one passenger, and a second in a sidecar. The petrol motor is Arstotzka's first, with three in-line cylinders. On its own, the bike is capable of more than 80 kilometers per hour, cross country, and 110 on a road. The sidecar is available with a machine gun, sometimes on a pintle mount to aim at aircraft. 2 Ore, 1 Oil.
-AS-MV21-AL: [L] [This is an armoured car, designed to be maneuverable in tight quarters and offroad. The frame, armor and engine block are all built from aluminium for reduced weight. It sits on four big tires, the rear ones shrouded by armor, on hydro suspension. The V-6 motor gets it up to 70 KPH. Its shape is tight and rectangular around the crew cabin, which holds only a driver and gunner, to minimize the quantity of armor needed. The engine is in the rear, and includes the lightest (thin) armor in the slats over the radiator. The front armor is medium and most of the armor is light. A belt-fed AS-AC18 gun fires from the top of car, with the gunner's hatch open. The gunner hatch provides the gunner a small amount of cover. 4 Ore (2 Al), 2 Oil
-T2 Breaker: [L] [Expensive] A tank. It is medium armored throughout with RHA, with a slanted front but mostly square. The turret is specially cast as a rounded dome and rotates with electrical motors. Includes a 1.6 inch rifled Breaker cannon, with a long barrel, suspension and muzzle brake. The Breaker cannon can fire about 24 times a minute, it is single loaded by hand. It also has a coaxially mounted M3 Sorraia. The exit hatch is towards rear with another MG. The tank is a heavy, it sits on wide cowled treads and is powered by a big 12-cylinder diesel engine, and can get up to about 35 kph. Crewed by a driver, loader, gunner, and commander. Now with extra slat armor. Costs 5 Ore, 2 Oil.
-AS-MAT26-50 [L]: A light tracked platform for the 50mm DT25 gun originally designed for the AS-T25 tank. Moves on a simply 8-cylinder motor and treads. It has thin RHA armor in the front only, with the rest open to the air. The DT-25 gun has an extended barrel with a muzzle brake, and is mounted on a front-facing armature with good side-to-side and vertical angling, for direct fire. It includes an M3 Sorraia for good measure against aircraft. Costs 4 ore, 2 oil.
-AS-T33: [L] [Expensive] A tank similar to the AS-T25, with Heavy frontal armor, a radio as a standard feature. The shape is basically the same, a wedge with a cylindrical turret towards the back. It is powered by a turbocharged and fuel injected diesel engine, with twelve cylinders, which allows the tank to reach 45 kph. It is also armed with a new, enormous DT33 75mm cannon, which loads with a screw breech and can be fired about 12 times a minute, which happily penetrates medium armor at long range with HEAT rounds, and has similar accuracy but better range than the DT25. It includes one M3 Sorraia coaxially in the turret and one for a commander/spotter to use on a pintle. The turret is now operated by an electric motor on the horizontal traverse, and the tank has light spaced armor skirts around the turret, and on the sides down to the treads which help defend against HEAT rounds. A bit prone to running short on ammunition. Costs 6 ore, 3 oil.
-SPAT: [L] A self-propelled gun vehicle consisting of a petrol engine, caterpillar tracks, and a forward-facing Bombardier howitzer with just enough armor plating to hide the crew behind. Rolls on treads with 4 driving wheels. They are prone to coming loose from the wheels from time to time. The armor is light, with a gap in the middle for the gun to rotate, raise and lower. Ammunition sits in racks behind the armor. The vehicle has a top speed of about 8 mph. The gun is just a 90mm Bombardier howitzer, fixed to the SPAT on a frame which pitches and yaws on a pair of hand cranks. The SPAT has a set of jacks to use when firing, which improve accuracy considerably by preventing the vehicle from shaking. Costs 3 ore, 2 oil.
UF-39-APC "Salamander" Pattern B: [Expensive] The Salamander is a large amphibious APC, with a wide body to keep itself stable on the water. It is covered in medium armor, and the body is in a "hexagonal cross-section" shape, which means that any point on its sides or front is either sloping up or down, with the front being long and narrow while the sides are flatter. It has 8 large wheels, the front and rear axles both drive and steer, while the middle two axles are dummies. Water propulsion is from two small propellers. This was a necessary compromise to keep transmission weight down, but land performance isn't amazing. It holds about fourteen soldiers, or a few less if they're bringing heavy weapons and Tiger Armor. Soldiers exit double file through a watertight rear door/ramp and there's a top front crew hatch. It is armed with an AS-AC18 turret and coaxial Sorraia. [5 Ore 3 Oil]
UF Air Force:
-Model 4 Yellowjacket: [L] A fighter aircraft, built fully of aluminium. It has flat low wings on a relatively long, narrow fuselage which holds its V12 motor. The motor is fuel injected, and cooled by a water radiator. It has six exhaust pipes poking out under the wing on each side, and a canopy-covered pilot seat close to the tail. It is relatively sturdy and maneuverable, it is fast and makes tight maneuvers but is "temperamental", prone to going into out-of-control rolls and requiring a tight grip on the joystick. The canopy includes a tubular gun sight. The six Sorraia guns in the wings provide ample firepower, but the six guns and their ammo are somewhat heavy. Moves faster and maneuvers better than the Wasp, as well as having a higher altitude ceiling. [2 Ore (2Al), 3 Oil]
-AS-DB-HF-23: [L] An airplane built entirely from aluminium. This lighter, sturdier frame allows the plane be reasonably fast with a 9-cylinder radial engine and make aggressive dives and recoveries for bombing, with half a ton of bombs. The radial engine is designed entirely around an AS-AC18 which fires through the prop shaft, necessitating a relatively heavy and thick prop shaft. It has decent maneuverability, with its metal design allowing for strong forces on the wings and tail, and large control surfaces, but it is best at dogfighting while not carrying a bomb load. [2 Ore (2Al), 2 Oil]
-AS-1931-HAFB: [L] [Expensive] A three-engine bomber with a shoulder wing. It is constructed of a geodetic aluminium frame with resin-treated fabric skin. The pilot sits in a cockpit on the front of the plane with a pyramidal canopy, and between the two wings is an AC18 gunner, on top of the plane, with a 360 degree rotation under a trapezoidal canopy. Has 3 turbocharged and injected engines, one in the nose and under each wing. Despite its size, this enables it to almost keep pace with AS-HF-24s and gives it a high altitude ceiling. These engines burn a lot of fuel, limiting range. It carries a two-ton payload of bombs, and a bomber with a sight which can be adjusted based on a written table for airspeed and altitude. At full altitude, these bombs are incapable of hitting precise targets, and especially moving targets. The plane also has fixed landing gear. [5 Ore (1 Al), 4 Oil]
-AS-HF-32b "Stinger": [L] [Expensive] An aluminum built fighter with a mid wing, which has been revised with retractable landing gear and an oxygen system. It has a long narrow fuselage with a water cooled, turbo charged and fuel injected V10 motor. It has a square-ish closed canopy. It is armed with 2 AC-18s in the wings and 2 M3 Sorraias in the nose, on an interrupter gear. Not often, but sometimes, the landing gear breaks off in an extreme maneuver, forcing pilots to land the craft on its belly. It also includes two bomb mounts (up to 200 kg of bombs), which can be fitted with extra fuel tanks (+1 oil when in use). Comes with a compressed oxygen system, but it's painfully cold and if the manual valve is opened too quickly, can cause serious injury including instant frostbite of the lungs. [3 Ore (2Al), 3 Oil]
-AS-ARAC-35: [L] [National Effort] The ARAC is a mobile runway, carried by coal train on more than 30 consecutive train cars, which unfold their top armor into a runway long and wide enough for a HAFB to land, be drawn back by a winch and cable (as it cannot taxi), then take off after being refueled and rearmed. The runway panels are supported by jacks on either side and take about a day to setup or pack away. The process of landing and takeoff takes about forty minutes, limiting the amount of traffic that can use the runway. The train also requires a sufficiently flat and straight railway to be useful as a runway. This often constitutes making a special track, but is easier than building a runway. There is a good section of track in the central desert, east desert, and plains. There is currently no system to move aircraft from the runway to the ground and back. The runways can land a few planes and take them off in order, which park on the ends of the runway, but far less than a normal runway could store. Costs 10 ore.
TPD 'DOLPHIN' 38b: This is an aerial torpedo, weighing in a bit more than half a ton. It is powered by a wet heater motor, and stabilized by a gyroscope. The revised 'b' version includes a magnetic detonator to explode beneath ships, and can be dropped from considerable height and speed without failure. [2 Ore, 1 Oil]
UFS-BL-38-A 'Firecracker': This bunch of letters followed by a word denotes a 2.5kg finned bomblet, with a either a HEAT+Fragment warhead, or an incendiary warhead. These come in pods of 100 which fit on standard bomb mounts, and release their bomblets at an experimentally-determined altitude which causes them to cover a 50 meter square with roughly one bomb every 5 meters- enough to hit a group of armor, or more forgiving of error than a single 250kg bomb when trying to hit a single target.
UFAF-MTA-38 'Reckless Effect': [Expensive] The MT stands for Military Transport Aircraft, but nobody is sure what 'Reckless Effect' is supposed to mean other than sounding cool. This is a large cargo aircraft with four V12 engines, normally aspirated with an eye towards fuel efficiency. It has a broad wingspan with a high wing, ample cargo space, and adequate power to take off from a long runway with a four ton load, just don't expect much in the way of evasive maneuvers. Befitting its role as a dedicated cargo craft, the body terminates is a large cargo door/ramp at the rear. The frame is largely aluminium for weight. Even an L-1 Tiger truck or AS-MV-21-AL just barely fit within the size and weight limits! The door can also be opened in flight for paratroopers, or for an emergency cargo jettison. It's remarkably durable, and can keep flying even through two engine failures. [4 Ore (1 Al), 4 Oil]
UFAF-F39-W 'Haast': [Expensive] The Haast is a single-engine heavy fighter. It has a single supercharged, fuel-injected V12 petrol motor with a notably bigger displacement than those on the Falcon or Stinger. It's about at the limits of what V12 is capable of without more elaborate induction, different fuel or more cylinders. It is very heavily armed with two M3 Sorraia nose guns, and four wing-mounted AC-18's. The cabin is armored with a manganese-alloy "bathtub". It has deep ellipse wings to create the lift necessary for its considerable weight, plus that of bomb mounts- it can wrangle 1000kg of bombs on three mounts, potentially holding two Dolphin torpedoes. It doesn't outmaneuver existing fighters, and it's relatively slow. It has a large wingspan, but can fit on Wasp Nest carriers thanks to folding wings, and the large control surfaces are easier to control thanks to servo tabs. It also includes some other new features: foam-lined fuel tanks act to self seal in the event of leaks, and a new Oxygen Regulator which safely controls the pilot's oxygen supply. It can't take off of a Wasp Nest with bombs, the runway is just a little too short. [5 Ore (1Al, 1Mn), 4 Oil]
UFAF-F-40 "Thunderbird": [Very Expensive] This is a jet aircraft, powered by two of Forenia's first functional turbojet engines. It is a relatively small fighter, the pilot sits in a round glass cockpit with two AS-AC18 cannons and a Sorraia in the nose. The wings are as narrow as possible, low-mounted and swept back, and have small wing fences to prevent sweep-related instability. The tail is relatively high-mounted to put it outside the jet wash from the wings. It also features air brakes. The Thunderbird's aT-J03 engines are relatively small, axial-flow turbojets, and they are somewhat crude in nature. The interior of the turbojet becomes extremely hot, necessitating high-temperature alloys, and they burn lean using excess air for cooling. The two engines burn kerosene, and lots of it, and they sit in nacelles under the wings- each generates almost as much power as a Haast engine. Overall the aircraft has a speed a significantly faster than the Stinger (though much less than what these new turbojets are theorized to be capable of), and its jet engines have a higher altitude ceiling. The air brakes are a good choice, because the jet engines must maintain a lot of thrust at their minimum speed to avoid a flame out, so landings and slower combat engagements benefit from them. Requires a long runway for takeoff. Right now, the engines are [Complex] and require frequent maintenance. [4 Ore (1 Ti), 4 Oil]
UF Navy:
-AS-CV22: [L] A steam-powered ship, worthy of sea travel. Uses two AS-51 S steam engines, which each power one screw. The vessel is around 60 meters long, and carries cargo enough to provide +1 Transport Capacity. It mounts an AC-18 on the bow for air defense, and an AS-1910 on top of the con tower. Costs 3 ore.
UFS-DD-38 Pattern E 'Archer': The Archer is Forenia's first combat ship. It is relatively small, and made of steel but unarmored, with two 90mm Bumblebee guns, complete with targeting system, in covered turrets on either side of a center con tower. There are also two more Bumblebees not in covered turrets, as the ones in the turrets were supposed to be larger originally. It is powered by two steam turbines, and it is relatively fast. Auxiliary weapons include an AS-AC18 on each side, and some Sorraia machineguns on railing mounts. There are also four Dolphin torpedo in launchers on deck: These are basically wooden chutes which can be aimed on a swivel, before the torpedo is released by untying a knot. [3 Ore, 2 Oil]
UFS-CV 'Wasp Nest' 38, Pattern A: Forenia's first aircraft carrier, and their biggest ship by far compared to the CV22 cargo ship and Archer. Its hull contains four of the turbines used to power the Archer, and is unarmored except for a torpedo belt. ABout a dozen planes stored belowdecks are lifted by a single hydraulic lift. The command center is below-decks, so that the wooden flight deck almost completely covers the ship, giving it a low, flat appearance. There are two Bumblebee AA guns on each side, one deck below on exposed platforms, plus several AC18's for point defense. The last important feature is a set of arresting cables on deck allowing planes to land safely, these catch hooks on the planes themselves, and are lowered out of the way for takeoff. [4 Ore, 2 Oil]
UF Design Doctrines:
Vehicle Radios: Most vehicles are equipped with a Model 3 Radio set, in a configuration suitable to the size and power source of the vehicle.
Retractable Landing Gear: Unless noted otherwise, aircraft are fitted with retractable landing gear.
Oxygen Regulators: Aircraft are equipped with oxygen systems which are self-regulating and allow the crew to operate at a significant altitude.
Fuel Tank Liners: Unarmored combat vehicles have foam fuel tank liners which can stop or slow leaks if the tank is punctured.
Warheads: Missiles, shells and bombs of various sizes can have various types of warhead attached, such as high-explosive, HEAT, incendiary, and so on. Developing a new warhead type means it will be available in other applications where it could easily apply, and new sizes of shells or bombs are available with various warheads.
Pintle Mounts: Following old Arstotzkan design doctrine, machine guns are placed on pintle mounts where possible, to give them a good verticle aiming range capable of hitting ground and air targets.
UF Resources:
Transport Capacity: 1 by land, 1 by sea, 1 by air
(note: consider re-instating trains to arms list if ground transport becomes a concern)
4 Ore, using 1 TC by air
3 Oil, using 1 TC by seam +1 Oil which lacks a TC
1 Aluminum
1 Manganese
Poll
17 (16%)
Author
Topic: Intercontinental Arms Race: Finale (Read 603636 times)