Three CaptainsThe ship captains have a slightly difficult time interpreting ambush tactics while they're essentially on defense duty- since a major factor of the ambush is identifying the enemy first and moving to engage the pincer before they're able to see them coming, and that's difficult to do when you're the one with a predictable location.
This becomes relevant when the Wreth vessels attack in relative force. Five skiffs, their largest deployment since the beginning of the war, come fast out of the east. There's no time for a pincer, no time to climb or dive, there's only time to get the guns ready to engage.
It's immediately relevant that the Wreth captains have changed the overall character of their attack runs. Instead of trying (and failing) to trade blows with the kettleguns in the beginning of the fight, they're pressing their superior mobility advantage to whizz around and focus on evading fire rather than delivering it. Against the friendly skiffs, it's a rather damningly effective tactic. The current kettleguns run dry quickly, and after that happens the Wreth skiffs are superior in every way.
Without the Serpentis, there would be no one left to report.
The friendly skiffs disappear one after the other, engulfed in flames as steady attrition of almost-misses takes away their shrouds, cripples their webs, and eventually consumes their hull.
The trim webs on the Serpentis, powered to full by the medium core crystal, provide her with a shocking amount of rotational acceleration- the kind of in-place maneuvering that would make anyone but a hardened marine lose their lunch. The new turret swivels also prove invaluable in keeping the guns on target despite the sudden shifts and lurches, allowing the gunners to focus on timing rather than wrestling almost a half ton of cannon into position. Combined, she's a deadly force.
Instead of trying to rely on the muscle-powered cannons to be able to track fast enough to hit the quick little Wrethan skyskiffs, the captain the Serpentis utilizes the entire ship's turning ability and a well spaced spread of cannon fire, using the eight front guns to hit an entire area of sky and using the rear guns to harass and drive off skiffs on attack runs from other angles. It's an exhausting tactic, and one that taxes the core crystal into the potential desynchronization zone (it thankfully does not desync), but it pays off. Despite her shroud taking approximately two dozen impacts, the Serpentis is able to destroy two of the Wreth skyskiffs and drive the others back into the mist.
It's a limited victory, and the Serpentis captain feels that his gunners were disproportionately unlucky.
Inside the SpireThe ranking officer within the Three Captains is optimistic about the new infantry tactics, though he does note that they're not a terribly large improvement against spiders, who show a distinct lack of concern for whether a soldier is in cover or not when they attempt climb onto their faces and bite.
Regardless, progress is made at a fair right, with only a few losses to surpising spider attacks, and only one fatality due to a Witch-Hunter being used to remove a spider from another soldier's face- with the end result being a dead spider being permanently affixed to a very dead soldier's head.
The excitement of the report comes when the troops move into a larger gallery at nearly the same time as a Wrethan force. There's a moment of blank confusion where both sides realize that the other side isn't a spider, followed by the twang and roar of mixed crossbow and gauntlet fire.
The first evaluation of the Wreth forces impresses no one. They seem to be equipped with some kind of rapid firing crossbow of all wood construction- the projectiles of which simply bounce off officer armor, though they do cut troops badly when they hit at all. They also appear to have adopted a similar defensive positioning tactic, crouching behind cover while they load new bolts into their crossbows. It's a fight where Kasgyre's more accurate and heavier hitting Witch-Hunter crossbows are lethally effective, impaling whatever portions of men happen to jut out from behind cover.
The Wreth forces begin to withdraw after their lead squad takes heavy casualties. Friendly forces advance to fill the gap, which is when they run into the much better equipped Wreth soldiers behind them. Fully outfitted with gauntlets, they're capable of withering suppressive fire behind cover.
Even with that, however, the officer believes that the superior accuracy at range of the Witch-Hunter would have allowed his men to prevail against the gauntlets- except the Wreth had an additional weapon. He never saw it personally, but he saw the surge of bonewhite light that came out of the tunnel the Wreth were defending. An aetheric cannon shot, in an enclosed space. Friendly cover turned into white-hot exploding shrapnel, and the air itself burned the lungs and eyes of the nearer soldiers. In the face of that weapon, the officer had no choice but to pull his remaining men back to regroup.
Without some way of countering the Wrethan heavy weapon, or at least the pulse of burning air and shrapnel, a defensive advance would require a rare stroke of luck,
No Ground has been gained at the Three Captains Confirmed Kills: Two Wreth Skyskiffs. At least 50% of a lightly armed Wreth unit.
Losses: Two Skyskiffs. Marine Unit 7. 50% of Marine unit 2
The HiveWhile there have been no reports of any attack, numerous civilians report seeing Skyskiffs in the clouds around the Spire. While the most common explanation given is that they are Kasgyre ships out on maneuver, the complete lack of any known friendly skiffs in the area is worrying to the military reps who have to dissuade the fears of the common folk.
Glowcove and BlackstoneTwo skiffs move safely to the Glowcove.
Reconstruction has finally been completed, bringing the settlements back to their pre-war glory- along with a number of pre-war questions. What happens now? When will their families come home from the war? What will be extracted of the Wreth in terms of penance? Has it already been enough?
It all boils down to one, real question. How long will this war go on?
Spire KasgyreThe Hermes and the Mercury return home safely.
Two more skyskiffs are ready for action at Spire Kasgyre, and a new hull for a Viper class warship has been completed.
EVENT: War Never Changes
The original reason for the war, the destruction of the demi-spire colonies, has been repaired. The people are now looking to their leaders to tell them what the new goal of the war is, and (rather importantly) why there's still needs to be a war. Soldiers want to return to their families, and the tax of resources being absorbed for the war effort is certainly not inconsequential.
So, how does your nation justify the continued war effort? This is a culture question, of sorts. What drives you to go to war, to keep throwing wave after wave of men at the enemy, even when the initial damage is repaired?
To count, these justifications MUST be posted in the core thread. The side that generates the 'best' explanation will be awarded with a credit to force any one of the three rolls for a prototype (and thus the eventual tech) to a 6. This must be declared when rolling the initial design, and can be done only once.
It is the beginning of 357 AR.
Spire Kasgyre's production stands at,
13/y Crystal, 38/65 Banked
17/y Ore, 22/85 banked
19/y Wood, 21/95 banked
10/y Silk, 26/50 banked
It is the beginning of the design and project maintenance phase. You have five dice left to spend.
Viper Production Line: 1/45 | 7C + 5O + 5W + 2S, +15 From any combination of any resource | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
The Calm: The calm is a region of the aerosphere with almost no wind beyond fleeting turbulence, and absolutely no aetheric currents. It's frigidly cold, and filled with fine red 'snow' that barely moves. Traversing it with a conventional vessel is impossible due to the lack of energy to fuel the lift and trim crystals.
The Everstorm: As the name suggests, the everstorm is a region of the aerosphere dominated by an enormous and eternal thunderstorm. It's a chaotic region of raging winds and surging aetheric energy that manifests in terrible bursts of prismatic flame. No conventional vessel could hope to survive the nightmarish storm conditions.
Kasgyre Territory Blackstone Marine Presence: K 1/14 | W 0/14
---> Marine unit 6: Proto. Bronze armour (Squad Officer), Aethersilk vest (Team Leaders), Aether Gauntlet (1 per team), Cutlass (full squad)
Territory: 4/4 | 0/4
Resources: 1C, 5O, 2W, 0S
Conditions: Rocky, large caverns, very dark
The Hive Marine Presence: K 0/10 | W 0/10
Territory: 4/4 | 0/4
Resources: 1C, 2O, 1W, 4S
Conditions: Spider Nursery, narrow and twisting tunnels
Glowcove Marine Presence: K 1/20 | W 0/20
--->Marine unit 3: Proto. Bronze armour (Squad Officer), Aethersilk vest (Team Leaders), Crossbows (1 per team), Cutlass (full squad)
Territory: 4/4 | 0/4
Resources: 1C, 2O, 6W, 1S
Conditions: Verdant galleries, significant bio-luminescence
The BeltThree Captains Marine Presence: K 4/20 | W ?/20
--->Marine unit 1: Bronze armour (Squad Officer), Aethersilk vest (Team Leaders), Crossbows (full squad), Aether Gauntlet (1 per fireteam)
--->Marine unit 2: Bronze armour (Squad Officer), Aethersilk vest (Team Leaders), Crossbows (1 per team), Cutlass (full squad) [50%]
---> Marine unit 4: Bronze armour (Squad Officer), Aethersilk vest (Team Leaders), Crossbows (1 per team), Cutlass (full squad)
---> Marine unit 5: Bronze armour (Squad Officer), Aethersilk vest (Team Leaders), Proto. Crossbows (1 per team), Cutlass (full squad)
Territory: 1/4 | ?/4
Resources: 1C, 6O, 2W, 6S
Conditions: Kinetoluminescent Ores, Heavily Infested
Wrackspire Marine Presence: K 0/12 | W ?/12
Territory: 0/4 | ?/4
Resources: 3C, 4O, 4W, 2S
Conditions: Unstable Aetheric Phenomena, Broken Spire
Burned MountainMarine Presence: K 0/24 | W ?/24
Territory: 0/4 | ?/4
Resources: 1C, 10O, 1W, 0S
Conditions: Inexplicably Molten Core, Hundreds of narrow tunnels and small galleries.
The UnfinishedMarine Presence: K 0/45 | W ?/45
Territory: 0/4 | ?/4
Resources: 8C, 0O, 6W, 2S
Conditions: Unfinished infrastructure, Massive open rooms and halls.
Skiffs With No Name - Skyskiff Class (x3)
Loadout
2 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun).
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Location: Glowcove
Status: Shipshape
RKNV Serpintus - Viper Class (x1)
Loadout
10 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun) [OUTDATED].
1 Medium Core Crystal
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal
12 Trim Webs
6 reams of webbing
Location: Three Captains
Status: Shipshape
Hermes - Transport Barge
Loadout
1 Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal
2 Trim Crystals
1 reams of webbing
Carrying: 0/6
Location: Spire Kasgyre
Status: Shipshape
Mercury - Transport Barge
Loadout
1 Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal
2 Trim Crystals
1 reams of webbing
Carrying: 0/6
Location: Spire Kasgyre
Status: Shipshape
Skiffs With No Name - Skyskiff Class (x2)
Loadout
2 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun).
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Location: Spire Kasgyre
Status: Shipshape
Current Technology
Infantry
Flintlock Pistol: Cost: 2 ore to give one of either to every fireteam in a squad, 8 to give to every man. Inaccurate beyond spitting distance, incapable of dealing significant damage against hard armor, and liable to explode when used regularly even when given the most expert maintenance, the primary advantage of these weapons is that they can punch straight through shrouds like they didn't exist, and they're slowed by aethersilk officer's coats as much as by an ordinary silk shirt.
Flintlock Rifle: Cost: 3 ore to give one of either to every fireteam in a squad, 12 to give to every man. Reasonably accurate, but slow to reload and still incapable of dealing significant damage against hard armor or ship hulls. These weapons still require expert maintenance to keep them from being single-use weapons, and sustained use still makes these weapons terrifyingly unreliable as service weapons. Still, an excellent choice for shooting through silk shirts and ignoring shrouds.
Grappling Gear: Cost: 1 ore to give to every member of a squad. Standard issue ropes and hooks for boarding vessels or climbing the outside of spires. Cumbersome if you're not going to use it.
Aetheric Gauntlet: Cost: 1 Ore, 1 crystal to give one to every fireteam in a squad, 4 of each to give one to everyone. A gauntlet (usually left handed to keep the right hand free) of copper and leather with a tiny weapons crystal locked into the palm. Capable of firing dozens of low energy blasts of aetheric energy at the user's discretion, but is difficult to aim and the copper cage used to draw heat from the crystal has the unsettling tendency to leave disfiguring gauntlet burns, melt, or set the user on fire if used too frequently.
Bronze Cutlass: Cost: 2 Ore to give to every member of a squad. A simple, heavy blade of bronze attached to a wooden handle. Simple, and brutally effective in close quarters.
Aethersilk Vest: Cost: 1 Silk to give to a squad's ranking officer, 5 silk to provide to ranking officer and team leads, 16 silk to give to every member of a squad. A double layer vest of dense aethersilk, capable of absorbing a considerable amount of Aetheric energy. Can stop multiple point-blank shots from a gauntlet, but doesn't cover the arms, legs, or head. Does nothing against physical weapons or projectiles.
Witch Hunter Crossbow: Cost: 2 wood 2 ore to give one to every fireteam, 8 wood 8 ore for every man.The cranequin mechanism is much swifter than many similar designs (though that isn't saying much), and is integrated directly into the weapon in order to avoid a cumbersome stage of attaching and reattaching. A trained infantryman operating the weapon can crank back that 175 pound arms and fire in approximately 45 seconds. The bolts themselves are typically made with a bronze broadhead point to better shred infantry, and have passed every performance test asked of them- and engineers are confident that they could go through light infantry armor if modified with a chisel point. Includes an escessive amount of brass ornamentation, as well as an ornate identification plate for Division markings.
Bronze Breastplate and Helm: Cost: 1 ore for the officer, 3 ore for squad leaders, 10 ore for every man. Whilst a little on the heavy side, all of that weight is put into protection rather than ornamentation. The new design is thick over the vitals, well sculpted around the arms to allow freedom of motion, and flared at the sides to rest on the hips and keep the weight off the soldier's shoulders. Tests against pistols have shown that the armor has an excellent chance of absorbing shots from beyond point-blank range. Witch Hunter Crossbows penetrate much more readily. Comes with a pair of rip-buckles for quick removal, useful when the armour overheats from repeated aetheric blast strikes.
Ship Tech
Light Aether Cannon+ (Kettle Gun): 1 Crystal, 1 Ore for one. A small cannon, capable of being mounted on deck without reinforcement. Fires powerful blasts of aetheric energy, and uses a removable block of copper as a heat-sink. Relatively inaccurate, short ranged, hot, power hungry, and prone to exploding violently if hit directly by enemy fire. Still, it can blow wood into flaming cinders and will melt through light plating in a few shots.
---> Kasgyrian modifications to use water based heat sinks for the cooling block and additional pipes for the barrel have reduced cannon weight and increased the initial volley the cannon can make before becoming dangerously hot. Causes the cannon to make a distinctive whistle during the first volley, akin to that of a kettle.
---> Further Modifications allow the cannon's water reserve to be refilled during combat. Still, this is a delicate operation that requires a degree of platform stability, provides at best one additional reload in a combat situation, and cannot be done at all on skiffs.
Basic Core Crystal: [VS 3 Crystal | S 6 Crystal] A massive rough gem, grown in vats and used to transduce aetheric energy into electric current. This particular model is relatively inefficient, both as a transducer and as a storage unit. It can generate a defensive shroud around a vessel, but more than a single shot from a light Aether cannon on the same point will knock a hole in the shroud. Will explode spectacularly if hit directly.
Medium Core Crystal: [18 Crystal] Three small core crystals, fused together in a propietary process. While it shares the inefficiencies of its smaller cousins, she's approximately four times more powerful. Under stress, there is a chance that the core crystal will desynchronize, greatly reducing its power output. A desynchronized core can only be fixed by a refit action at the home spire.
Basic Lift Crystal: [VS 2 Crystal, 2 ore | S 3 Crystal, 2 ore for one] A chunk of crystal the size of a bathtub, heavily reinforced so that it can be locked into a ship's spine. When fed electricity, it will progressively invert gravity's effect on itself, flying upwards and pulling anything attached up with it. This basic model is incredibly power hungry, produces only enough lift for a small ship and internal flaws mean that extreme maneuvers could easily cause it to crack.
Basic Trim Crystals: 1 Crystal for two. Head sized chunks of crystal, similar to lift crystals, though of greater refinement. These produce directional gravity when powered, allowing a ship to make finer maneuvers. Like the basic lift crystal, these are power hungry and prone to fracture of used for rapid maneuverability.
Trim Web: Cost 1 Crystal, 1 ore, 3 wood to substitute for 2 trim crystals. A trim web essentially spreads out the power of a single trim crystal throughout a dozen or more smaller crystals networked together. While this network is of essentially equal power to a single trim crystal, it's ability to spread force out over a larger area allows for much higher acceleration without cracking the crystal. Sadly, it currently needs extensive and custom refit procedures relative to standard trim crystals.
Basic Webbing: 2 Silk per ream. Aethersilk webbing, designed to catch hold of aetheric currents and shunt them into a ship's core crystal. Particularly susceptible to fire from aetheric weapons, which will rapidly cause overloads that burn out whole sections of webbing.
Light Copper Ship Plating: 3 ore per section. Nearly pure copper plates, heavy, but with good thermal conductivity. Useful for spreading out the heat generated by an aether blast. Low melting point does mean that repeated impacts will melt the armor and set fire to the wood beneath.
Ship Hulls
Viper Corvette:12 wood, 5 ore for one.
A fifty foot long frame of wood and bronze reinforcement, her unusual structure reminiscent of the head of a pit viper. She's designed with forward firepower and incredible speed in mind, featuring eight bow mounts and two aft mounts, all of which integrate the mechanical hand-crank system to aim the cannons. She has a notable ability to keep up a good fight even when all of the webbing outside her shroud has been disabled.
She has no usable cargo capacity.
Armament
10 light cannon mounts | 8 in the bow 2 aft.
Armor
None intrinsic
Can mount two sections of armor on the head.
Requires:
1 Core Crystal (At least small, up to medium)
1 Lift Crystal (At least small, up to medium)
4/8/12 Trim Crystals for poor/avg/good performace
6 reams of webbing
Skyskiff 5 wood, 2 ore for one.
At her heart, the Skyskiff is an 18ft long frame of sleek timber and brass reinforcement, built from the ground up to be light on the air and quick to handle. Her basic design is quite old, dating back before the perfection of trim crystals, and she still sports a rudimentary mast that a sail can be run from in addition to the normal spars to run out web. In service, she's typically run by a crew of four. Two gunners who worked crouched in the middle of the ship, a pilot who spends their time practically laying on top of the core crystal in order to manipulate the power control, and the spotter who usually stands at the rear of the ship and calls out directions and threats. Generally, the captain of the vessel is the spotter, due to their superior vantage point and ability to see the entire local theatre.
A notable problem with the Skyskiff is that despite her speed, her web is cumbersome to replace, and without it she's painfully slow. In addition, both her Core Crystal and Her Lift Crystal slots are only designed to fit small crystals. Her small lift crystal means a lot of the burden for vertical maneuvers is still placed on the power hungry trim crystals, which in turn puts more demand on her small core. As a result, her shroud is weak, and a single light cannon blast will knock a hole in it. It still takes two or three more shots before her shroud will buckle entirely, but if another shot comes in the same spot swiftly enough- that's the end of the skiff. Except in the most fortunate of circumstances, a single cannon blast to an unshrouded skiff will destroy it.
She has no usable cargo capacity.
Armament
2 light cannon mounts. One on each side.
Requires:
1 Core Crystal (Up to Very Small in size)
1 Lift Crystal (Up to Very Small in size)
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Transport barge 7 wood, 2 ore for one.
In times of peace, this was the vessel most frequently seen going to and from Spires. She's little more than a wooden oval with a few metal bands designed to support the lift crystal. She's got capacity for crew and cargo, but she's quite slow when fully loaded, and her lack of significant trim crystals means that she can't maneuver with any speed. Her only real defense against attack is to dive down into the mist layer and hope that the attacking vessel loses her trail before the mistmaw comes lurking.
She can hold six units of cargo.
Armament
None
Requires:
1 Core Crystal (Up to small size)
1 Lift Crystal (Up to small size)
2 Trim Crystals
1 ream of webbing
Basic Dinghy (Special, used automatically by Marines to embark/disembark transports)
A very small boat, technically capable of transporting eight people as long as they aren't too broad, don't have a fear of heights, and their legs aren't too long. Her core crystal is about the size of a housecat, and kept powered by a fixed ventral web. She's solid wood, unarmed, and has the tendency to tip alarmingly as she doesn't actually use a lift crystal, but makes do entirely on a trio of small trim crystals. It's a slow and terrifying way to travel. Though she's the primary lifeboat of transports, your chances of survival are alarmingly small if you find yourself alone in a dingy .
When used by marines, she's typically crewed by five, with the squad leader acting as an extra member in every set of three boats. When going into a hostile spire, one marine steers, the other four act as spotters or (if one or more has a gauntlet or rifle) shooters. She's such a small vessel that it doesn't take more than a dozen gauntlet shots for her to break apart completely, and a single shot to her ventral web will (at best) cripple her.
Her core crystal is, technically, capable of generating a shroud. However, the limited energy the miniscule core crystal can process limits the crew to picking two of three options: Maintain Altitude control, maintain thrust, raise shroud. For obvious reasons, raising the shroud is something of a last resort. Worse, even when powered, the shroud can be penetrated by sustained gauntlet fire. This is to say nothing of a shot from a light cannon. The shroud will buckle completely after a single shot from a light cannon, though to its credit, that's one more cannon shot than the Dinghy would have survived normally.
Marines
Massed Fire and Charge: When engaging, Marines will bunch up to focus fire with their ranged weapons until they run out of ammunition or become too hot to use (depending on weapon type), at which point they will charge in with melee weapons.
Defensive Fire: Instead of firing until charging, Marines will look for defensive positions, take cover, and then fire when able from behind said defensive positions. Includes methods for both staggered retreats and staggered advances.
Ships
Close Aggressively: Ships will attempt to close distance with enemy vessels and engage at close range, firing all cannons until the enemy is destroyed.
Hit and Run: Ships will attempt to ambush enemy vessels from either high above or far below. Instead of remaining in engagement distance after the first volley, the vessel will retain speed and attempt to disengage before turning for another pass.
Airborne Ambush Maneuvers: Similar to hit and run, except with slightly more refined tactics. The fleet using this maneuver will attempt to form a simultaneous two pronged attack from both above and below, and will remain to engage the enemy after the initial onslaught.
Gun Swivels: Rudimentary swivel mounts operated by hand cranks. These represent a first effort in the field, and are scarcely more effective than manual movement for light guns, except when trying to aim for a very precise point when still, but they can carry a decent amount of weight and serve as a reasonable proof of concept.
Small Docks: Relatively simple affairs of wood jutting out into the void, capable of servicing a relatively small number of light craft. These docks are best suited to peace time usage, and are ill-equipped to service or build true warships. Light defensive cannons have been mounted in strategic positions, and will be upgraded automatically when needed.
Provides a single production line that can be used for any small or smaller production pattern.
Marine Academy: The basic and unaugmented marine academy, where men and women are transformed from milksop civilians into hardened marines.
Provides a single production line to be used ONLY on Marine production.
Production Patterns
Basic Marine Training: [Max: 25 | Rate: 2]
Generates Marine units at the spire. These marines are capable in hand-to-hand combat, but are not provided any initial weapons. You might want to buy them swords, at the very least.
Skyskiff Pattern A: [Max: 10 | Rate: 2]
Creates two Skyskiff units per turn, up to a max of 10. Each skyskiff is outfitted with
2 Light Aether Cannons.
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Buyback cost: 9 crystal, 6 ore, 5 wood, 4 silk
Author
Topic: Arms Race: War of the Cinder Spires | Spire Kasgyr (Read 153597 times)