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[NAV]

Royal Topaz: Definitely buy everything.
Buy the medium core. We can make a second Royal Viper.
Buy the small core. We can give it to a transport for twice the shroud.
Buy the vs core. We should use it for a royal mobile cover.
Buy the gauntlets. Topaz gauntlets are still superior to vanilla pistols.
That leaves us 6 crystal.

Now might actually be a good turn to invest in some hanging gardens. 6 COWS buys us 3 gardens for a permanent +3 crystal production.
Or we could spend those COWS on finishing the new transport to get marines to burned mountain as soon as possible. Or finishing a new viper if we want aerial dominance.



Revision analysis:
Aether Pistol: Good! Should mostly replace the aether gauntlet in our army. We should still buy the topaz versions of both, and keep the gauntlet design around in case we ever run low on wood (not likely soon).

Mini Vanguard: Garbage! Might be worth buying topaz versions but only because it replaces a vanilla kettlegun. ...Might actually be worth swapping onto our Natalie pattern if we can still make 1 per turn with the extra 2c 4o cost, that would make our Natalies the notably superior skiff.

[Kashyyk]

Because we are currently drowning in wood and I expect we will for at last a few more years, I'd like to officially shelve the Gauntlet design.

I'll be back for strategies in a bit.

[NAV]

I am mildly opposed to shelving the gauntlet. Partly so in the future we can buy gauntlets the turn we need to instead of the turn after. Partly so we can still get topaz gauntlets, which are still more effective than the vanilla pistols they replace. I think doubling the amount of topaz infantry weapons we can give our marines is worth very slightly lowering the chance of other topaz things. Skews our topaz production and marines more offensive.

[Doomblade187]

I do suggest buying a new transport, but just one. We need to upgrade them, but getting boots on the ground in the center spires is far more urgent.

[helmacon]

I do suggest buying a new transport, but just one. We need to upgrade them, but getting boots on the ground in the center spires is far more urgent.

uh, no. We still have to take either TC or the unfinished. If they own a side belt spire and get cannons reinforced to it then we can't move to the middle belt spires safely. They just park thier fleets at the side belt spires and engage us next to their shipyards. They would have a massive advantage during fleet engagements, and could pick apart middle belt spires at their leisure. We already have literally tons of crystal production, so we have to take TC. They took it back once after we had the whole spire. We can do the same to them. Taking the middle belt spires without a connected route is literally the worst thing we can do.

The other option is to drop tons of dice into designs that would let us cross the calm, but that is also a terrible idea. The only real option we have is to take the TC. I know you guys don't want to, (for some reason) but is literally the only target that makes strategic sense.

We have the air superiority now. We can (and have to) take this spire.

[Talion]

It is unfortunate then that we cannot take TC. It seems we should have prioritised escorting the transports as that was the battle we could not afford to lose. It would be useful catalog just how much ore we have wasted getting all our men killed.

Realistically we must now rebuild our ground forces from scratch. As our ability to equip our troops is being outpaced by the enemy, we can't expect to win if they are able to keep reinforcing. Fortunately we can currently win in the air, so we have some hope we can blockade it at the moment. As is the nature of arms races, our opponents will keep evolving, so we cannot expect to stay ahead in the air indefinitely. So in this window of air advantage we need to build up enough ground power to actually threaten what they have at TC. I would guess that is in the region of 4-7 squads if they all make it. As that is going to take multiple turns, during which we must maintain the blockade; we have a problem. Every fight creates damage and that means retreating damaged ships to be repaired and replacing them in order to keep the blockade going. That has the ability to further impact and delay our build up of ground forces.

In other news we have no defenders in the home sector, so if they actually succeeded in landing troops there we would be contemplating losing the race out right.

As things stand our best option to solve the resource shortage is an ore project equivalent to our crystal project. The last attempt at that failed but it is no more or less viable than ironwood in that sense.

Finally there is the issue of the unfinished, we know basically nothing about it. For all we know we could send an unguarded transport full of troops and take it. This is a failure of scouting, but our target fixation on TC makes it too risky to pursue. Finding out what is going on there will probably get things killed, which we can't afford.

[NAV]

Wreth has a resource advantage because they equip their marines with cheap wooden crossbows. That allows them to equip more marines and use their ore elsewhere.

They are holding TC with anywhere up to 4 cannons and 7 squads in defensive positions. When we held TC we had barely more than 1 squad BTW. There is no way in hell we are making a successful landing with just 1 transport. Our mobile covers and grenades would be a solid counter to their cannons if our marines weren't hopelessly outnumbered. Maybe if we get a tactic to secretly reinforce behind enemy lines and tactics for either vertical mobility or proper mobile cover use we would stand a chance.

Our next transport will for certain have a topaz core, and maybe topaz trims. It will be twice as shielded and maybe twice as agile as our previous transports. That's a big upgrade. Still vulnerable to focused fire and incredibly vulnerable to flaming spitballs.

You know what might not be a bad idea? A cheap escort viper. No guns, ordinary trim crystals, no armour, just shroud. It would cost 27 crystal, 7 ore, 12 wood, and 12 silk. Main attraction is the low ore cost. Basically an ablative shield ship for meatshielding. Might even be able to transport a bit itself with the empty gun decks and empty bunks. We would need to invest more in hanging gardens for this to really be a viable concept with that crystal cost though.

We can take Burned Mountain pretty easily, and as long as they don't control both the unfinished and TC we will get the ore. Maybe we can also take Wrackspire at the same time. We can use that extra ore to snowball and take TC. I admit it is high risk because if they gain aerial control of TC they get the TC resources, and if they get control of both TC and Unfinished we lose Burned Mountain.

Ore seems to be the one resource that isn't easy to expand production of; we can't grow it like crystal wood or silk. Maybe more efficient mining or smelting techniques would work. Or we could finish the Mist Dissipator special project and use that to set up less suicidal surface mining operations, or less suicidal surface caravans to the belt spires.

We should definitely invest in designs and revisions that make better use of wood and silk and stop designing anything that uses more ore. Ironwood 2 is by far the best choice because it is still just as important as last time and we have a more experience now so it will be easier and better than last time. We should call it Bronzewood because bronze is actually usable in most situations unlike iron. Then we revise a witch-hunter variant with bronzewood arms but let the design team lacquer it and carve it and make it fancier so they don't throw a fit. We should also try again at leather armour either as a revision or very small design.

Sorry for rambling.

[Kashyyk]

Another option that synergises well with our quality > quantity approach is enhanced marine training. We're overflowing with marines, and the resource costs to equip them and ship them out is crippling, so it would be tactically efficient to produce less, more skilled marines.

We have 17 squads of them, and reinforce at a rate of 2 per turn. Dropping that down to one per turn and reducing our cap to make them better will make them more resource efficient to equip. (If we can double our squads' base effectiveness, we need only produce half the number and half the gear for the same effect).

[Doomblade187]

We also need better naval officer training. Draig has been dropping hints that we need to step up our training program quality for a bit, I feel. I also support the burnt spire capture. I do want to investigate the unfinished, but don't know if it's worth right now.

[Kashyyk]

Production
Topaz M Core x1
Trim web (Pair) x3
Kettlegun x8
Copper Plating x2

Cost: 29c, 17o, 9w

Fit the Viper Hull with the following and name it "Boidae":
Kettlegun x10
Topaz Medium Core
Topaz Small Lift
Topaz Trim Pair x3
Trim Webs (Pair) x3
Webbing x6
Copper Playing x2

Deployment
One eyed Will and Canary are set to Scout.
All other ships at TC use coordinated fire.
Blockade TC.

Natalie at Kasgyre scout out the Unfinished.

[NAV]

Production:
Buy the topaz medium core for a viper. (18c)
Buy the topaz small core for a transport. (6c)
Buy the topaz VS core for a mobile cover. (3c)
Buy the topaz gauntlets. (1c 1o)

Buy transport hull (2o 7w)
Buy small lift (3c 2o)
Buy 1 silk ream (2s)
Train 3 comm officers (1c 1o 1squad)

Total cost: 32c 6o 7w 2s

Name the new transport hull Dionysus and equip it.
-Topaz small core
-Small lift
-Topaz trim pair
-Silk ream
-Comm Officer
It is our first Royal Transport.

Name our viper hull in storage "Viperidae". (Viperidae should have been our prototype viper's name since ship classes are named after the first ship in that class. But we haven't used it yet so let's use it now.)
-Topaz medium core
-Topaz small lift
-2 topaz trim pairs
-6 silk reams
-2 kettleguns
-1 comm officer
It still needs 8 guns, 4 trim pairs, and armour to be complete. But it can at least fly now.

Assign a comm officer to Natalie IV.

Deployment:
One-Eyed Will and Canary act as scouts and fire coordinators as usual.
The rest of the ships will hunt the damaged Wreth fleet with ambush + coordinated fire, then defend the spire with the same tactics.

Sent Natalie IV to scout at The Unfinished.

Next turn we should have 25c 28o 95w 21s to spend.

[helmacon]

I disagree with your assertion that ambushing is ineffective. It had been recently because we have been tethered to the transports. In fleet on fleet engagements coordinated ambushing is clearly superior.

[NAV]

It has been stated in combat reports that ambushing isn't very effective when we are defending a known location and Wreth arrives looking for a fight. Wreth has very good ambush avoidance tactics with their high altutude flying and overwatch. An ambush won't accomplish anything in this case so lets sacrifice ambushing for better coordination. Ambush isn't the best answer to every situation. Lets use it when we are actually catching Wreth off guard where they don't expect us to be.

[helmacon]

We are hunting a wounded wreath fleet. They aren't looking for a fight, they are trying to get away. I agree that Ambush isn't the best answer to every situation, but is the best answer to this specific situation. This is literally the situation it was made for.

[Doomblade187]

We are hunting a wounded wreath fleet. They aren't looking for a fight, they are trying to get away. I agree that Ambush isn't the best answer to every situation, but is the best answer to this specific situation. This is literally the situation it was made for.

I also support ambush, if we are attacking. If we are simply blockading, I prefer a mixed tactic.