Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Madman198237]

I have read the OP, several times. It mentions MARINE tactics, but not ship tactics (There's not even any info on basic ship tactics, I think.).

Anyway, right now our best bet is going to be 5/5 and see how the enemy distributes vessels. That is effectively SIX vessels in each location, as our crystals are 20%-30% better than basic ones.
 
Keep transports going to the same place. We need to get sources of ore ASAP, of course, meaning that this turn we drop off marines at the Belt End Spires, next turn transports reload, turn after the transports reinforce the Belt Spires, transports return, move back to Belt Spires, before taking the marines to the central spires. In the meantime, a method to cross the...Calm, on our side, I think? Would be very, very nice if we could do transport runs to the central spires in TWO turns rather than FOUR.

[milo christiansen]

For the calm we need battery crystals to keep lift going, and glide sails to help with lift and add forward motion. Climb high, glide forward. We need at least some lift crystals, as wooden hulls are far too heavy to keep up on wings alone.

[Jilladilla]

In the meantime, a method to cross the...Calm, on our side, I think? Would be very, very nice if we could do transport runs to the central spires in TWO turns rather than FOUR.

The Everstorm is on our side guys! Being able to cross the Calm would let us strike directly at their home territory from the belt though.

So, brainstorm ideas for how to survive crossing a superstorm guys!

[NUKE9.13]

I have read the OP, several times. It mentions MARINE tactics, but not ship tactics (There's not even any info on basic ship tactics, I think.).

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.

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.

[Tack]

A battleship could probably do it and come out the other side limping and understaffed.
Either that or a literal "shroudship" which can block lightning, but of course any that reached the webbing will probably kill a mast.

Re: ship tactics, before deciding to push hard for communist dystopia (which I still am! Eugenics project only a matter of time!) I had the thought of having privateer fleets, which could alter their tactics on their own merits. It could also keep ship costs down and/or provide a new line as the captains "loan" the ships off us and then pay them off using their spoils.
But that's a filthy capitalist idea, and thus I now shun it.

[milo christiansen]

Bigger, better crystals, and lightning rods. Better shroud. Battery crystals so we can pull the webs in.

[Tack]

I think core crystals can retain a decent charge, you just want webbing out to power things like shroud and cannons which are super hungry. More, or more bigger power crystals would be just as good (although new and smaller battery crystals could be substantialky cheaper)
Draig would know better

[milo christiansen]

Also flying higher where the air is thin may reduce the storms power.

[Madman198237]

The Itshana crystals are probably more efficient (Double power with no increase in webbing needs) than regular crystals, meaning that we could likely get away with limping through the Everstorm with internal webbing only. That said, we'd also need to first protect our crews for Aether-madness, so our ships could go a bit higher and thus gain more energy from the reefed-in webbing. Also, it's an Aether-driven storm. We probably will want to protect our guys.

This is not an immediate suggestion, but let's tag it as a possibility, shall we?

Aethersilk Jumpsuit Aethersuit
Because a vest isn't cool enough, this full-body enclosed suit uses the minimum of silk required to protect a person from high levels of ambient Aether energy, by funneling it around them.

Aethergun
This powerful device, mounted on a stock with sights for aiming, draws its power from the Aethersuit's webbing, which is funneled into the crystal, which fires its bursts from within the protection of one of our powerful copper heatsinks, specially restructured to draw heat away fast enough to let what is effectively a smaller Light Aether Cannon fire at the cold-fire rate for much longer, until the user must take temporary cover to let the heat dissipate entirely.

Interestingly enough, my recurring thought has been "Could we increase efficiency by making dedicated Core and Shroud crystals?" Meaning, could we be more efficient if we made a core crystal that ONLY provides electricity, and a shroud crystal that ONLY created a shroud. And I think it's fairly obvious that we can, if only in vessels that use only the core crystal. Taking out the shroud "function" should be advantageous in some way.

[Tack]

Remember that Heights which cause aether madness also result in oxygen deprivation, so yoy're better off going just headmask and breathing apparatus which would save costs too.

Also longrifles already exist. They were the example for Revisions.

Also (this one I'm unsure) but webbing specifically energised by a core crystal seems to be what charges a core crystal. Little pre-charged ones are strapped in a gaintlet (I think)
I'm not sure if you could energise a tunic (I don't see why not) but then an aethercannon shot hitting it would cause unoleaseant results.

[Draignean]

Also longrifles already exist. They were the example for Revisions.

You're wrong here (thank heaven, long rifles were actually in an earlier tech revision that never got posted, so you had me scared), Long Rifles are present in the books, but not as a starting tech in this game.

The revision example was how you couldn't use a revision to get a rifle out of a cannon.

Also (this one I'm unsure) but webbing specifically energised by a core crystal seems to be what charges a core crystal. Little pre-charged ones are strapped in a gaintlet (I think)
I'm not sure if you could energise a tunic (I don't see why not) but then an aethercannon shot hitting it would cause unoleaseant results.

So, this question is actually not clarified in the books, and I feel it needs to be. A small amount of the explanation will breach Jim Butcher's cannon, but, well, he never explains how exactly the mechanics of aetheric weapons work. Because that would be a waste of space in a story that isn't fundamentally about naval warfare.

So, gauntlets, comprised of three major parts, the cage, the power system, and the actual emitter.

The cage is primarily made from copper, it wraps across the wrist and forearm and provides structure. Copper links join the hand and forearm pieces in order to allow mobility.

The power system is mounted into the forearm, and is basically a couple inches of aethersilk and a core crystal the size of your thumb hidden under an armored clasp to prevent jarring.

The emitter is a slightly canted piece of bronze and copper mounted into the palm, the angling allowing a soldier to fire straight without actually needing to bend his wrist 90 degrees upward. The weapons crystal fitted within is tiny, but effective at fort short range anti-infantry use.

[Madman198237]

Bronze, copper, AND a miniature weapon crystal in the palm, correct?

[Draignean]

Bronze, copper, AND a miniature weapon crystal in the palm, correct?

Yes, sorry, I was distracted by having to fix the map images and didn't finish it.

[Madman198237]

Just double-checking my lore (Having never read the books, I'm kinda trying to visualize how this works and how to exploit everything make things work best)

[Draignean]

I can (but won't) support a 6/4 skiff split, but never both transports to the same spire.

Plan Rush Belt Spires + claim local ones: (4) Jilladilla, NUKE9.13, Tack, Milo
-The above plan but a different allocation of Skyskiffs (#/# Unfinished/3 Captains):

I removed the aether silk vote, because aether silk for officers is actually written into the main plan, and we cannot afford aether silk for normal marines.

Alright. Your build order will be locked in shortly unless there are major complaints.

Deployment should follow readily after that, since the discussion has been concurrent for both teams.

Canceled, pending developments from the Kasgyrian scum. Feel free to taunt them in the core thread.