Print

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

[milo christiansen]

No new projects. We have projects we need to finish first. That hull was started long ago, it needs to be finished as soon as we can manage.

[10ebbor10]

We're limited in the finishing of current projects by resources, not dice.

[Jilladilla]

We're limited in the finishing of current projects by resources, not dice.

Ok, but here's the thing, even if we effectively 'restart' the Cloudrunner, we would only be able to invest 3 dice into initial progress... And sure, the Cloudrunner did roll a 2 for time, but we would still be taking a gamble in hoping we would get the prototype right away... And besides, the Cloudrunner rolled a 6 on cost, so we aren't going to get anything cheaper to invest in unless we make a slightly smaller boat... (Not to mention, the Cloudrunner only needs one ore per dice)

And finally? I'd rather spend 5 dice to finish a project than to start a new one that's effectively a clone and hope it gets 50% done for a prototype...

[Tack]

I'm feeling rather annoyed at crossbows currently, really.
That was a real waste of dice. And argument.

All being said, I only really want to throw enough in to get a prototype.
If it's a trainwreck we field it.
If it's fixable we fix it
If it's good we finish it.

But also, will we need to turn this into an actual ship, or is the hull going to square us?

[Jilladilla]

I'm feeling rather annoyed at crossbows currently, really.
That was a real waste of dice. And argument.

All being said, I only really want to throw enough in to get a prototype.
If it's a trainwreck we field it.
If it's fixable we fix it
If it's good we finish it.

But also, will we need to turn this into an actual ship, or is the hull going to square us?

The hull will be free. We'll still need to pay for the various crystals and cannons and silk reams and plating I believe. Ore will be the limiting factor, of course. We will have enough ore to get it outfitted and operational next turn, with 3 to spare (Assuming spending 3 dice on advancement passes, and the ore from Miner's Folly having a one turn delay before it kicks in, and that the Cloudrunner gets all of its proposed cannon mounts).

Also for the crossbows... Yeah they were a bit of a mess, a fair number of bad rolls there didn't help. To be fair they were intended to cut down lightly armored humans, not giant monster spiders or whatever the heck those things were in the Unfinished... We might get a bonus out of it if we tried for an arbalest (a ballista is probably pushing it, as much as I want to get a Taser Ballista) though, but for now, the suppressor/pincushion does it's job of being a cheap anti-swarm weapon.

[10ebbor10]

We're limited in the finishing of current projects by resources, not dice.

Ok, but here's the thing, even if we effectively 'restart' the Cloudrunner, we would only be able to invest 3 dice into initial progress... And sure, the Cloudrunner did roll a 2 for time, but we would still be taking a gamble in hoping we would get the prototype right away... And besides, the Cloudrunner rolled a 6 on cost, so we aren't going to get anything cheaper to invest in unless we make a slightly smaller boat... (Not to mention, the Cloudrunner only needs one ore per dice)

And finally? I'd rather spend 5 dice to finish a project than to start a new one that's effectively a clone and hope it gets 50% done for a prototype...

What makes you think I want a clone?

I want to do a new thing now, then finish the Cloudrunner next turn, when we can actually afford to equip it.

[NUKE9.13]

What new thing do you want to do? What could possibly help against a real ship other than another real ship?

[10ebbor10]

What new thing do you want to do? What could possibly help against a real ship other than another real ship?

You're all advocating to do nothing this turn, as we can't actually afford to outfit our ships.

Thus, my proposal only needs to be superior to nothing in order to work.

Have a few ideas.

Semaphore System :

Give our crewmembers a few flags, allowing advanced communication in the field, and hence far more complicated tactics both defensive and offensive.

Improved Webbing :

Basically hoping for an improved like the Ishtani process.

Boarding Launch

All combat occurs on short range. If we can put a squad of marines on the enemy ship, we may even be able to take it.

[NUKE9.13]

Well, no, your proposal also has to be worth at least four dice. Dice are our most precious resource, after all.

Working on the ship this turn lets us make plenty of revisions to it, if necessary- obviously I would not wish to have to use more than two revisions on it, but if the dice fall that way, it is better to use a third revision to get a good ship that will be useful for a long time, than to be forced to deploy an inferior version with two revisions.

As for your ideas.

Semaphore: a good idea for coordination between ships. Not necessary- or possible (not enough crew)- with Skiffs, I feel, and for long range communication we would be better off developing signal rockets (they use coloured rockets in the book). When we reach a point where we are deploying more than three real ships in a fleet, perhaps.

Improved Webbing: also good. But maybe not four dice right at this minute good. I mean, I feel like we might be able to achieve this to some degree with a revision.

Boarding Launch: nope. Airships travel at speeds of over a hundred miles an hour. To catch one with a launch without getting shot out of the sky by aether cannons would require a miracle. If we could force them to a halt, perhaps... I think airships are too fast and manoeuvrable to be boarded before the point at which they are already sitting ducks.

[Tack]

I have many ideas I'd love to put forward; but I'm more invested in putting the dice other places.

[10ebbor10]

Ok fine.

On the other hand, IIRC there's a certain military strategy in the book where they shoot and burn out the webbing on ships. Maybe we need to adopt that, if we want to board ships.

[Tack]

Or stop us from being boarded both.

[NUKE9.13]

On the other hand, IIRC there's a certain military strategy in the book where they shoot and burn out the webbing on ships. Maybe we need to adopt that, if we want to board ships.

There is. And once all the webbing has been burnt off, the ship surrenders. Since the attacker can run rings around them, giving them no chance of survival if they continue. At no point is a ship both vulnerable to boarding and willing to fight on.

Bigger ships, meanwhile, can carry spare webbing, making that a less effective strategy. (note: include some spare webbing on the Cloudrunner, we can afford it. A ream or two will drastically increase survivability.)

That being said, it's not like the book is cover-to-cover ship combat, leaving a lot of possible scenarios unexplored. And even if it was, this world doesn't operate by the exact same rules as the book. There may be some way of developing boarding that makes sense.

[10ebbor10]

Given that our standard stuff includes

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.

I think boarding stuff is intended to be a thing.

Anyway, I think boarding launch can make sense. It would be a fairly expensive one, but it can be done.

See, the ship being boarded would always be larger than boarding launch. It's weighted down by heavy armor It would need to carry and provide power for weaponry.

All that means that it would not be as fast as the boarding launch.

[milo christiansen]

Boarding launches? Don't you mean "lightly modified skyskiffs"? No need to waste a design.