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[Kashyyk]

Production
Two units of swords

Deployment
Transport loads up two squads of marines equipped with swords, and three comms officers
Transport plus one skyskiff at Kasgyre move to TC
All Skyskiffs at Blackstone await transport then join as additional escorts to TC
Other skyskiff at Kasgyre move to Glowcove
Deploy marines at TC as reinforcements to replace casualties in front-line squads
----------------------------------------------------
Tactics
Marines
All marines at Three Captains employ Bait and Strike

Ships
Two skyskiffs at TC employ Scouting
One skyskiff at glowcove employ Scouting
All other ships employ AAM

[Jerick]

Someone add me to a plan where we don't push into enemy territory. Our advantage lies in ambushes. Whenever we engage in a direct fight, either during a blockade or an encounter in-transit or something else we do significantly worse. Move everything to the TC that we can and prepare ambush tactics. Bring some comms officers for the vipers.

Ambushes are only ambushes when the enemy isn't expecting you. That said I might be convinced not to go with a plan that pushes forward, on reflection engaging around one of their spires may give them more of an advantage than I'm comfortable with. But I'd still want to move some skiffs to the unfinished that way we'd have scouts at every access to the entire belt and get warned if they try to come into our territory. Remember combat stops movement so having some ships at the Unfinished makes it impossible for them to move a fleet with a loaded transport from their right demi spire to our right demi spire in a turn and gives us time to counter any such attack.

Two units of swords

No swords. They seem to have equipped their troops with gauntlets as standard and they have that field gun. All our marine tactics revolve around mobility and ranged engagement. Equipping two squads with nothing but swords is not a smart way to go. I would rather one squad of witch hunters. It's one less squad but they don't need to get right up to the enemy to be effective so in my opinion we'll be far less likely to lose them.

[Kashyyk]

I chose swords over naked as reinforcements so that the marines could do something beyond picking up a dead guys gear and taking his place in another squad.

[Jerick]

Well my point is we have enough ore and wood for a marine unit using witchhunters. Why not go with that? With the way things are one unit with witchhunters will easily out preform two with swords.

[Taricus]

Jerick, they're just there to provide the manpower to keep our fully equipped units at full strength. The swords are just to give them some measure of protection should Wreth pull cheeky buggers. Either way we're going to need more men there.

Hold the line: (2) Kashyyk, Taricus

[Jerick]

Alright that's a point but I still want to move some skiffs to the Unfinished

[Draignean]

Turn soon, fellow stalkers. Finalize whilst you can.

[helmacon]

Add me to hold the line. Give the guys just a few gauntlets at least though. It's only humane.

[Draignean]

Three Captains

There a small amount of excitement about the three captains before the transport arrives. A single Wreth ship, likely sent just to gather information, is spotted on approach by an aerial scout. A quick signal shot later and the Vipers are able to drive it into the mist, but they're not fast enough on the approach to kill it or even wound it.

Whatever information it gleaned will surely see its way into Wreth's hands.

The transport, however, arrives safely. The reinforcements it pushes into the Spire are minimally equipped, but should serve well in order to replace men lost to further attacks.

Inside the Spire

Not the many men are lost this year. Aside from a single death due to a lucky Place shot, the majority of injuries taken are insubstantial in the long term. Unfortunately, about the same has been inflicted on Wreth.

The problem is that the Wreth have completely stopped advancing. They've set down barricades in order to prevent the kasgyrite marines from advancing, but they don't attempt to give chance to any feint or even react much at all to experimental raids on their fortifications. It's a rather frustrating stand off. The Wreth won't budge, and the Kasgyrite officers can't seem to tempt them into any ambushes.

All in all, neither said is able to do much.

Confirmed Kills: None
Losses: None

Neither Side has gained or lost ground at the Three Captains


Glowcove

The additional reinforcing skiff arrives without incident. All is well at the Glowcove.


Spire Kasgyre

The marine production line is currently full, but one additional skiff has been constructed. The production line for the dock is now full.


It is the beginning of 361 AR.

Spire Kasgyre's production stands at,
13/y Crystal, 20/65 Banked
17/y Ore, 21/85 banked
19/y Wood, 48/95 banked
10/y Silk, 36/50 banked

It is now the design and project maintenance phase. You have 6 dice to spend.

Spoiler: Projects (click to show/hide)

Viper Production Line: 1/45 | 7C + 5O + 5W + 2S, +15 From any combination of any resource | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Vanguard Cannon: 9/18 | 2 Ore, 2 Crystal | Rushed 1 Times | 4 Ore, 4 Crystal Invested
Signal Flashers: 8/10 | 2 from Any combination of COWS | Rushed 0 times | 2w, 2s
Aether Grenades: 5/11 | 1 Ore + 2 Crystals + 2 from Any combination of Crystal and Ore | Rushed 0 times | 9o, 6c invested

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

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 Belt

Three Captains
Marine Presence: K 5/20 |  W ?/20
--->Marine unit 1:  Bronze armour (Squad Officer), Aethersilk vest (Team Leaders), Crossbows (full squad), Aether Gauntlet (1 per fireteam) [75% Strength]
--->Marine unit 1b:  Bronze armour (Squad Officer), Aethersilk vest (Team Leaders), Crossbows (full squad), Aether Gauntlet (1 per fireteam)
--->Marine unit 2b:  Aethersilk vest (Squad Officer), Crossbows (full squad), Aether Gauntlet (1 per fireteam)
--->Marine unit 1c: Bronze Cutlass (full squad)
--->Marine unit 2c:  Bronze 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 Mountain
Marine 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 Unfinished
Marine Presence: K 0/45 |  W ?/45
Territory: 0/4 | ?/4
Resources: 8C, 0O, 6W, 2S
Conditions: Unfinished infrastructure, Massive open rooms and halls.

Spoiler: Ships (click to show/hide)

Skiffs With No Name - Skyskiff Class (x4)
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
Loadout
10 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun)
2 Sections Light Copper Armor
1 Medium Core Crystal 
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal
12 Trim Webs
6 reams of webbing
Location: Three Captains
Status:  Shipshape

RKNV Pythonidae - Viper Class
Loadout
10 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun)
2 Sections Light Copper Armor
1 Medium Core Crystal 
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal
12 Trim Webs
6 reams of webbing
Location: Three Captains
Status: Shipshape

Skiffs With No Name - Skyskiff Class (x5)
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: Three Captains
Status: Shipshape

RKNV Ophidian - Viper Class
Loadout
7 Light Aether Cannons+ (Kettlegun) [2 Front, 1 Rear Missing]
2 Sections Light Copper Armor
1 Medium Core Crystal 
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal
12 Trim Webs
6 reams of webbing
Location: Three Captains
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 (x1)
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

Spoiler: Goods Stockpile (click to show/hide)

6 Trim Crystals

Mothballed Anguis Hull [6 Reams of Silk]

Spoiler: Infantry (click to show/hide)

Marines x21
4x Communications Officers

Current Technology

Spoiler: Tech (click to show/hide)

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.
---> Medium core crystals now come with a suite of tools designed to monitor its state and resynchronize it in the event something goes wrong. However, the monitoring tools are so effective that an engineer who is familiar with the 'heartbeat' of the core he or she works with can virtually eliminate any chance of desynchronization.

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.

Spoiler: Tactics (click to show/hide)

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.

Ambush+Stealth: Currently an abysmal failure of a strategic plan, as soldiers usually blow the ambush much to early and engage on first contact.

Flanking Tactics: Up to four squads of marines can be selected to work together and perform a flanking maneuver. One to three squads will attempt to engage the enemy, while the remaining squads will attempt to find a different venue of attack. The number of squads involved could be increased at a later date.

Fighting Retreat: Infantry will retreat, prioritizing their own lives, but will also take every opening provided by an advancing enemy to nettle them and inflict casualties. Tactical excellence also allows our captains to extend retreat actions, giving a small but significant chance to not lose ground even when in retreat.

Bait and Strike: Similar to a fighting retreat, except with less retreat and a lot more fight. Extremely good at holding territory against an enemy who has numbers but few other advantages, and is capable of inflicting dire casualties. Still, this is fundamentally based in false-retreats, and is largely ineffective at actually gaining ground.

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.

Blockade: Orders ships to form up around a spire, out of range of enemy emplaced guns, and attempt to prevent vessels from coming or going. However, a strong kasgyrite sense of honor all put prevents them from firing on unarmed civilian vessels.

Scouting: Orders a ship or ships to find an overwatch position, either to defend a fleet or to scope out a particular location. Currently uses cannon fire signals, but will switch to more efficacious methods when able. Quite effective.

Spoiler: Infrastructure and Production Patterns (click to show/hide)

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

Skyskiff Pattern B: [Max: 7 | Rate: 1]
Creates one Skyskiff units per turn, up to a max of 7.  Each skyskiff is outfitted with
2 Light Aether Cannons.
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal
4 Trim Webs
2 reams of webbing
Buyback cost: 9 crystal, 8 ore, 11 wood, 4 silk

[helmacon]

hrmm....

it's quite...
too quiet...

Design: Dart class fighter
The Dart is built from the ground up to be a single piece of equipment. instead of using weapon mounts with the guns placed on top, the frame is built around and to support a single vanguard cannon, though cutouts and ballast can be used to fill in space to support a single LAC (though suboptimally) should vanguards not be available for any reason. The vanguard is orientated towards the front of the ship, the front of which is flattened off to expose just the ends of the three vanguard barrels. The craft is otherwise shaped roughly like an arrowhead, being slightly thicker at the back end. Inside, a single gunner operates the vanguard, firing the cannon and exchanging water canisters. glass coverings between the vanguard barrels provide him limited forward vision, but for the most part he relies on orders of when to fire and when not to. Being built into the frame, the gun cannot rotate. Directly above the gunners compartment sits the core crystal. The pilot sits in a harness on top of the core crystal in the prone position. This puts him directly above the body of the craft, where he is surrounded by a glass canopy. Small sections of mirrored glass provide him with rear vision without having to turn around. (A difficult task when in the harness) Small markings are painted onto the glass in correlation with the vanguard cannon to provide accurate sighting. The pilot calls to the gunner to fire or cease fire when necessary. 
The frame of the craft is mostly wood, with bronze reinforcements across the structure as necessary. The frame is built with internal notches for trim web crystals. The webbing for the ship is made to sit in areas of low airflow to prevent unnecessary drag. Though the craft relies on high density trim webs for most of its power, it also makes use of two small airfoils for assistance in rapid maneuvering, located on the back of the proto "wings". The lift crystal is, rather controversially, laid crossways across the front of the ship. This allows the nose to be reorientated extremely quickly to help aim the vanguard. Flipping the rather streamlined ship vertical in this same manner can also be used to quickly decelerate, though with some notable risk to the craft. 

The Dart is designed to fill a fighter roll. Highly maneuverable and with notable firepower, it is made to outpace the enemy. The craft is meant to be built as a single piece of equipment. While this makes it compact and easier to produce, it may experience some trouble modifying itself to future designs and equipment. It is designed to use vs core and lift crystals and trim webs. It is intended to eventually replace the skiffs in the production line, hopefully small and cheap enough to produce more, faster.


Crude artist's rendering done on a laptop with no mouse for reference.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

3 dice Dart: 1: helmacon
2 dice Aether grenades: 1: helmacon
bank 1 dice: 1: helmacon 

[Jerick]

Tis a good design but we'll need something to launch them from unless you expect the pilot to sit in them for the entire year. Though even then they'd still be a good defensive craft if launched from a Spire. Also I'd rather clear some of our backlog of projects first (while hopefully saving a dice or two to fix anything wrong with the Aether grenades).

New projects
3 dice Dart: [1]: helmacon

Ongoing Projects
2 dice Aether grenades: [2]: helmacon, Jerick
1 dice Signal Flashers: [1]: Jerick
1 dice Vanguard: [1]: Jerick

Banking
bank 2 dice: [1]: Jerick
bank 1 dice: [1]: helmacon 

[VoidSlayer]

The speed of our ships has been a major issue, why not fix that first?

Link Trim Web

This redesign of the trim crystals uses three crystals larger the trim web types along with several smaller peripheral crystals.  The larger crystals provide most of the output while the smaller crystals link every trim crystal on the ship into a single network.  This allows the strain of faster speeds to be spread over the entire network, allowing both much faster acceleration and turning due to more efficiency and more power capacity. 

The smaller crystal sizes allow more care to be taken in the growth so that they are more stable and focused in general.  In addition, the larger number of trim crystal space on the vipers allow even greater networks with exponential growth of speed.

[Kashyyk]

If you don't mind, I'm going to restyle the vote box so we're voting for plans rather than individual items. That way we don't end up with two half plans that don't synergise well.

Plans:
[1] Design "Dart" (3 dice) + Aether Grenades (2 dice, 4o, 6c) + bank 1 die : helmacon
[2] Aether Grenades (2 dice, 4o, 6c) + Signal Flashers (1 die, 1w, 1s) + Vanguard (1 die, 2o, 2c) + bank 2 dice : Jerick, Kashyyk

New projects:
Dart
Link Trim Web

[Taricus]

Wasting dice on the vanguard is a bad move at this stage, we need ships that can carry it first.

Vertical Envelopment
Based off our existing ground combat tactics, this radical doctrine shift trains our troops to fight and manoeuvre in three dimensions rather than two By inherently bypassing enemy strongpoints by going over or under them, we can more easily achieve envelopment and encirclement of enemy forces. While the concept is simple, the amount of training and though that needs to be applied means a much wider scope of development.

Plans:
[1] Design "Dart" (3 dice) + Aether Grenades (2 dice, 4o, 6c) + bank 1 die : helmacon
[2] Aether Grenades (2 dice, 4o, 6c) + Signal Flashers (1 die, 1w, 1s) + Vanguard (1 die, 2o, 2c) + bank 2 dice : Jerick, Kashyyk
[1] Aether Grenades (2 dice, 4o, 6c) + Signal Flashers (1 die, 1w, 1s) + Design 'Vertical Envelopment: Taricus

New projects:
Dart
Link Trim Web
Vertical Envelopment

[Kashyyk]

We've got so many tactics now that I think it'd be best to develop better officer training. That way they can cope with handling more tactics at once, before we start giving ourselves even more options to pick from.