The WrackspireThe skiff ordered to move from the belt to reinforce the push at the Three Captains fails to report in, and is assumed lost to Kasgyrite attack.
Presumed Losses: 1 Skyskiff
Three CaptainsThe Wrethan fleet arrives under a clouded sky, the Spire's flag flying proud from the Windrider and the Mongoose and echoed in smaller form on the skiffs. Two Windriders, seven skiffs, and the Herbie fly towards the Three Captains, and into the largest battle of the War.
Except, that isn't what it seems to be. On approach, the scout only identifies a single ship around the spire, a transport that appears to be coming to disgorge troops.
The Wreth captains advance at good speed, but with a reserve of caution. It would be a considerable victory to kill a transport cleanly, but there's a gut feeling, a captain's instinct, that all is not well here.
That feeling is validated when skiff on high vigil begins signaling desperately with cannon fire and the Kasgyrite vessels begin diving in from above and slicing up from below in two groups. Three vipers and five skiffs and five skiffs all told. Yet this isn't some ambush against an unprepared foe- the Wreth vessels were ready for this fight and already have shroud raised. Even so, The encounter raises series questions as to how Kasgyre not only spotted the incoming fleet first, but was able to signal its ships to get into ambush position without raising an alert.
The initial pass favors Kasgyre, as barrages from their Vipers light up sections of sky, making up for inaccuracy by volume of immediate fire. Interestingly, one of their Vipers appears to lack a full gun complement, firing only six forward shots in the place of the usual eight. It's a keen observation to make in the middle of the firefight, and speaks well of the Officer's Wrethan character that he was able to notice the discrepancy while being actively fired upon. A pair of skiffs are lost in the initial exchange, and there's considerable fire spread out against the other vessels, but upwards fire from the Windriders is able to annihilate one Wreth skyskiff and hole the shrouds on several more.
After that initial dive, the battle is truly joined, and the furball begins. The Vipers now universally features armored 'heads' and their maneuverability has been matched to that of the fastest ship previously encountered. They spin and swipe with considerable speed, striking with repeated heavy frontal strikes with their eightfold (or in one case, sixfold) cannon barrage. The Kasgyrite skiffs are still outmaneuvered and outclassed in every regard by Kasgyrite skiffs, but they do a fine job of distracting fire from the larger vessels, and they do occasionally manage to get a few shots in- they just can't ever give as good as they get.
Sheer volume of fire favors the enemy during the early engagement. The Windrider's SUCKERPUNCH cannons hit much harder, and the broadside configuration is imminently useful when engaging multiple targets, but their firing speed still pales in the long haul when compared to the Kasgyrite guns, and the effect is only exacerbated when it comes to the skiffs. Due to the tactics employed by the Windriders (and the Vomit Comet), the majority of that firing time is still absorbed by the skiffs that hang around and dance. Under the combined fire of the Vipers and enemy Skyskiffs, many small Wreth vessels burn.
Yet their deaths mean opportunities gained for the larger vessels. The Mongoose bides its time to unleash the Dragun, waiting for a solid target. The opportunity comes during a pass from below, coming up at shallow angle to rake one of the stronger vipers. The Dragun fires, adding a brief orange star to the flashing aetherlight of the battle- but the Viper turns at the last moment. The shot hits the side of its armored head, deflecting through (and burning) the web rather than striking the wooden hull. The Mongoose ends up briefly dancing with the enemy Viper, taking only a few shots to its shroud. The Select trims give the large vessel an absurd degree of maneuverability for her size, to the point where it seems that the primarily limitation to her function is the crew.
Minutes pass as the Dragun crew struggles to reload under conditions that could be best described as 'hectic'. Members of the gun crew are thrown against their safety lines more than once as the Windrider changes direction after a dive or climbs at full speed. There's nothing quite like trying to load a bag of sapshot while the effective weight of the bag keeps changing and inertia slews you in every direction. Skiffs ablate and the battle rages as the gunnery crews desperately just try to load in a second shot.
The Vomit comet is performing as only it can, zipping around and evading enemy fire like the world's most irritating mosquito. It is pretty much single-handedly responsible for whittling down the remaining Kasgyrite skyskiffs, putting the fight on a field with only the three Vipers, one remaining friendly skyskiff, the Windriders, and itself. The Windriders are just beginning to rotate shrouds to avoid holes, and the Vipers are starting to be a bit more careful about getting their noses burned. The battle is just beginning to hit the five minute mark, and already things have been filtered down to a core of combatants. All remaining Wrethan vessels are doing quite well, all things considered. Weakness, however, is showing on the other side. One of the fully equipped Vipers has a shroud that's noticeably less bright than the others, a consequence of a section of its web being badly burned by the earlier sapshot.
The Dragun is finally reloaded, and a second shot is made during a dive against the Viper with the weaker cannon complement. Again, the angle is wrong and the shot deflects completely against the frontal armor. Bad luck strikes the Vomit Comet in the meantime, as one of the Viper's succeeds at getting in the right place on the right time to hit during a climb with it's frontal attack. The resulting impacts render the skiff dead in the air as its shroud buckles and its web disappears into so much drifting ash. The rest of the skiff joins the ashes of the web following an impact from a Viper's tailgun.
The lowered maneuverability of the Viper with the burned web proves to be its undoing. It's easily singled out by the Windriders, and its shroud buckles fully before the Dragun even gets reloaded again. It's still tricky to land a decisive barrage on, despite its lack of shroud and reduced maneuverability, due to the pair of other vipers, but the fire that gets through is still devastating. It's frontal armor ends up severely compromised by a pair of SUCKERPUNCH impacts, and a shot to its core annihilate's most of its remaining web, slowing it to a crawl. Unluckily it's parting gift is a set of wide shots that rip through much of the exposed shrouding on the Windrider.
The shredded Shroud significantly reduces the Windrider's maneuverability, suddenly cutting her to the point where she can no longer outrun the pair of healthy vipers. Dozens of impacts strike her shroud over the course of a few minutes, overloading first one shroud and then the other. She, like the Crippled viper, does not go gentle into the night. She focuses fire on her crippled pair, cutting the unshrouded viper in half and detonating her core in a spray of light. Her own armor, meanwhile is tested heavily as the crew begins running our new shroud. Multiple impacts slag copper, filling the storage and crew areas with smoke. Worse are the shots that strike at near deck level. Both of her forward cannons vanish as an LAC shot dissolves their weapons crystals, spraying molten copper and splinters across the top deck. Another shot gets partial penetration near the keel, and the ship groans horrifically when the web finally gets run out and the captain puts on emergency speed to get out of the fight.
The Mongoose gets its Dragun reloaded for a third time. The shot gets a direct impact on the armor plate, and the shot clearly embeds partially in the copper, but it appears to make it no farther than that, only raising a small flaming scar on the armor. The remaining Vipers take the easier target, chasing the wounded Windrider and pummeling it from behind- the angle where most of the ship's webbing is concentrated. Despite the best efforts of the Mongoose, there's very little the captain can do to prevent the vipers from chewing through the back end of the Windrider, eventually crippling the esoteric power system enough that the lift crystal shorts out, sending the Original Windrider down to the surface trailing smoke.
Which puts the Mongoose two on one with the Vipers. Well, along with one absurdly lucky skiff. His shrouds both damaged, but functional, and his vessel superior in terms of maneuverability, armor, and theoretical firepower, he sticks to the fight. The Vipers circle and fire as he climbs and dives, taking high and low angle shots before zipping out of range for another pass. She still takes hits, but with both broadsides and a bit of careful positioning, she's nearly capable of matching the pair of vipers in terms of raw power.
The Mongoose manages to score a hole in the spine of the lesser Viper's shroud, but that victory is short lived when one her shrouds buckles suddenly, leaving her vulnerable to a barrage from the enemy vipers- but none comes. It targets the remaining skyskiff instead and reduces the diminutive vessel to cinders. The ten second window came and went while they were still cooling their guns for the next barrage shot. The gun crew finishes reloading the Dragun, and it's going to be the final shot either way. The Mongoose can't afford to stay in this battle for long enough to fire it again.
The Dragun fires, and, finally, it hits something other than armor. The shot pierces behind the Viper's head, burrowing a fist sized flaming hole into the enemy corvette. It's a relatively minor wound, and the Captain begins to wonder what the hell all the fuss over this damn gun was for. He stays long enough to try and bring another salvo or two on the Viper with the more heavily weakened shroud, but prepares to run.
His first parting salvo neatly reverses the situation. Of the four shots fired by the broadside, three hit. Two bite shroud, but the third shoots the gap and nails the viper near the tail, consuming its rear cannon, suddenly causing it to tilt at a very odd angle. The other viper, instead of moving to press, begins retreating, copious amounts of black smoke boiling out of the hole the Dragun put in its hole. Instead of pressing his luck with literally the last ship in the Armada, the Captain allows their retreat into the mist.
Meanwhile, far from where the battle roved, two transports dock at the spire and disgorge troops.
Inside the SpireReinforcements arrive, nearly doubling the amount of soldiers present to hold the line against the Kasgyrites. Additional construction supplies allow barricades to be reinforced, and the added soldiers are a great boon to allow men to actually sleep at night with more than a skeleton crew. The two PLACEs are upgraded without incident, the new modifications allowing them to hover and fire, although they require significant pushing after their first shot, and a second shot usually means you need to actually disconnect the weapons crystal and wait a few minutes.
The men are well rested, armed, and bright eyed when the attack hits. Kasgyrite marines blitz both flanks, running the barricades with a ferocity not seen since their first failed run. The flank with the PLACE is able to dispatch a dozen men in seconds, losing only a scant few individuals to long range crossbow shots and lucky gauntlet bolts fired by running marines.
It would appear the Kasgyre reinforced as well, as a new and distinctive squad of soldiers is seen charging the lines, clad to a man in the breastplate and helmet that seemed previously reserved for their officers. It does little to stop the envomened bolts that strike their exposed arms and legs, and even less to stop PLACE blasts, but it does mean that Wreth marksman have to pick their shots a bit more carefully, and it lets a good number of the Kasgyrite soldiers to get within effective gauntlet range.
Oddly, they then begin throwing things. Metal spheres, slightly larger than a fist. The soldiers nearest look at them with a brief moment of confusion, before the soldiers basically disappear. Each sphere detonates in flash of aetherlight, thermal shock turning the stone beneath them into deadly shrapnel, and some quirk of the device itself spraying shards of white-hot iron and molten copper in all directions. Barricades turn into bonfires as the Kasgyrites continue to lob the spheres. Each one seems to be around a third as powerful as the PLACE, but they can throw them a lot faster than the PLACE can fire, and the heat is still horrific. The heat, in all honesty is the only thing that keeps the Kasgyrites from completely blitzing over the Wreth forces. Grenades obliterate cover, and the sudden crumpling of the flank without a place lets the enemy soldiers breach and throw a device directly under the PLACE set to guard the opposite side. Yet the men are still able to retreat as the Kasgyrites are forced to shy back from the semi-molten hellscape they created with their new weapons.
There aren't a lot of survivors left, but they pool what they have together. They were able to salvage the remaining PLACE cannon during their retreat, and they've got a BLOCK team left over.
Confirmed Kills: Five Kasgyrite Skyskiffs, 1 Kasgyrite Viper, at least two squads of Kasgyrites.
Damaged Enemy Vessels: 1 Viper with internal fire damage, extent unknown. 1 Viper with crippled tail section, likely heavy damage to trims and rear guns.
Losses: Six Skyskiffs, the Vomit Comet, The WOSV Windrider. Squads 2A, 2B, 4A, 4C, and 50% of squad 4B
Wreth has lost ground at the Three Captains
The UnfinishedThe report that should have come in from the Skiff hiding out at the Unfinished has not arrived, and officials fear the worst.
Spire WrethTwo additional Skyskiffs have been constructed and are ready for immediate service.
With Flying Colors: Event Loss!
The Wrethan flag, though impressive and detailed when flying from major pennants within the Spire, is somewhat less inspiring to our aeronauts and marines, largely because they keep losing it on the horizon. It's difficult to put your faith and hopes on a blue flag running from a far off ship that you can barely make out against the blue sky- and it has caused no end of troubles for our transports as well. There have twice now nearly been disastrous incidents where Spire guns almost fired on ships that ran no flag, when in fact that flag was merely difficult to see.
From a standpoint of composition, the flag is generally well liked. Simplified forms for field use frequently transform the scrolls into diagonal slashes, and the quill into an inverted slash, but the full silk version flying from the new geological institute is a sight to behold- sadly, not one that's allowed to inspire our soldiers all that often. The other complain is the writing which, viewed from any significant distance, merely appears as a scribble. In fact, many minimalist versions of the flag simply use a jagged line to indicate the text.
It's a good flag, just not terribly suitable for flying from ships, which is a problem.
It is the beginning of the year 363 AR.
Spire Wreth's production stands at
13/y Crystal, 26/65 Banked
17/y Ore, 17/85 banked
19/y Wood, 61/95 banked
10/y Silk, 45/50 banked
It is now the design and project maintenance stage. You have 5 dice to spend.
Dragun Cannon: 14/16 | 2 Ore + 2 Wood + 1 of Either Ore or Wood | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
+Sapshot
+Specialized Mounting
Khipha Mining Techniques: 15/25 | 2 each from COWS, + 4 from any combination of COWS | 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.
Wreth TerritoryHaze-Maze Marine Presence: K 0/8 | W 1/8
--->
Marines---> Squad G (No Equip)
Territory: 0/4 | 4/4
Resources: 1C, 3O, 1W, 2S
Conditions: Deadly Gas Pockets, significant vertical shafts and steep tunnels.
Miner's Folly Marine Presence: K 0/18 | W 1/18
--->
Marines---> Squad G (No Equip)
Territory: 0/4 | 4/4
Resources: 1C, 6O, 0W, 1S
Conditions: Toxic Stone, Massive Caverns, pitch-black
The Verdant Vista Marine Presence: K 0/18 | W 0/18
Territory: 0/4 | 4/4
Resources: 1C, 0O, 8W, 2S
Conditions: Mostly earth and soil, Unstable pocket caves
The BeltThree Captains Marine Presence: K ?/20 | W 2/20
--->
Marines---> Squad 3E (Pincushion, Full Squad | Envenomed Bolts | Cutlass, Full Squad | Silk Vest, Commander |PLACE | BLOCK, distributed)
---> Squad 4B (Pincushion, Full Squad | gauntlets, squad | Envenomed Bolts | Cutlass, Full Squad | Silk Vest, Commander ) [50%]
Territory: 2/4 | 2/4
Resources: 1C, 6O, 2W, 6S
Conditions: Kinetoluminescent Ores, Heavily Infested
Wrackspire Marine Presence: K ?/12 | W 0/12
Territory: ?/4 | 0/4
Resources: 3C, 4O, 4W, 2S
Conditions: Unstable Aetheric Phenomena, Broken Spire
Burned MountainMarine Presence: K ?/24 | W 0/24
Territory: ?/4 | 0/4
Resources: 1C, 10O, 1W, 0S
Conditions: Inexplicably Molten Core, Hundreds of narrow tunnels and small galleries.
The UnfinishedMarine Presence: K ?/45 | W 0/45
Territory: ?/4 | 0/4
Resources: 8C, 0O, 6W, 2S
Conditions: Unfinished infrastructure, Massive open rooms and halls.
WOSV Mongoose - Windrider Class
Loadout
8 SUCKERPUNCH Light Aether Cannons+ (Flanged Heatsinks, Itshana Select) [4 unit Broadsides]
1 Dragun Cannon+ (Sapshot) [Specialized Dragun Bow Mount]
2 Small Itshana Select Core Crystals
2 Small Basic Lift Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
12 Itshana Select Trim Crystals
4 Itshana Trim Crystals+ (Itshana Refinement)
8 reams of webbing
Armored Skin
2 Unit of Armor
Location: Three Captains
Status: All papers are in order.
WOSV Herbie - Transport Barge
Loadout
1 Small Core Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
2 Trim Crystals+ (Itshana Refinement)
1 reams of webbing
Carrying: 0/6
Location: Three Captains
Status: All papers are in order.
[spoiler=Infantry]
Marines x21
1 Squad's worth of envenomed bolts.
Current Technology
Infantry
Flint-Lock 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.
Flint-Lock 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.
Suppressor Repeating Crossbow: Cost: 2 wood+ 1 ore per fireteam, 8 wood + 4 ore to give to every man. | A repeating crossbow with a forty pound lever weight. Field modification allow it to operate has a standard repeating crossbow, or as a light crossbow using a goat's foot lever. The latter is underpowered, the former is inaccurate.
Pincushion Repeating Crossbow: Cost: 3 wood to give one to every fireteam, 12 wood to give to every man. | A lighter and nearly all wood version of the Suppressor. Limited draw weight and not terribly robust, but cheap.
Envenomed Bolts (Pain): Cost: 2 Wood, 1 Silk for a squad | A cripplingly painful toxin, derived from surface monsters, smeared on bolt-heads and then dried. Little additional lethality, but a small injury can take a Marine completely out of action.
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.
---> A.G.I: Some small QoL changes have been made to the gauntlet, slightly increasing its sustained rate of fire and giving the user a bit more time before the gauntlet burns their arm.
Portable Light Aether Cannon Emplacement (P.L.A.C.E): Cost: 3 Ore, 2 Crystal, 1 Silk | Fireteam can have a max of 1 | Weights 1 Cargo unit | A potent defensive weapon consisting of a 75% scale LAC hooked up to a cat sized core crystal and a reduced trim crystal, mounted on a folding tripod. When not in use, it can be set to hover, allowing it's weight to be comfortable pushed or pulled by a single man. When in use, it is deployed on the tripod and the trim is disconnected so as to let the cannon's weapon crystal monopolize the core crystal's (admittedly minor) power generation. It's shots are devastatingly powerful, but in enclosed spaces will rapidly bring the air to a burning heat. A blast shield is pre-packed that helps keep the backblast from directly hitting the gunners, but it's a delaying tactic at best.
BLOCK: 4 Wood, if not carried by a squad it counts as 16 light items (half a TU). Provides a single fireteam with enough wood and building materials to put up very light fortifications, block off tunnels, and build very (very) simple structures in the field. Encumbers one fireteam heavily, or can be spread out to slightly slow down an entire squad.
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.
BOX: 3 Wood for a Fireteam's worth. Four military issue boxes. Each box can carry an eighth of a TU, (two small items) in addition to whatever the soldier is carrying.
Ship Tech
Light Aether Cannon*: 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.
---> The Itshana Process has improved crystal purity, allowing for a slight increase in power.
---> Can be manufactured using Itshana Select crystals, which gives a 75-100% increase in power, at the cost of increasing the ore cost of the component by an amount equal to the base crystal price.
---> Improved Dissipation enables it to be fired 25% faster than normal once hot.
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.
---> The Itshana Process has improved crystal purity, allowing for a slight increase in efficiency.
---> Can be manufactured using Itshana Select crystals, which gives a 75-100% increase in power, at the cost of increasing the ore cost of the component by an amount equal to the base crystal price.
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.
---> The Itshana Process has improved crystal purity, allowing for a slight increase in lift.
---> Can be manufactured using Itshana Select crystals, which gives a 75-100% increase in power, at the cost of increasing the ore cost of the component by an amount equal to the base crystal price.
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.
---> The Itshana Process has improved crystal purity, allowing for a slight increase in maneuverability.
---> Can be manufactured using Itshana Select crystals, which gives a 75-100% increase in power, at the cost of increasing the ore cost of the component by an amount equal to the base crystal price.
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
Windrider Corvette 9 wood, 5 ore for one.
The Windrider is the spiritual successor to the Cloudrunner, which is the last official reference to the Cloudrunner project that remains in public records. She's roughly three times the length of a skiff, sports a lightly armored hull, and redundant power systems. As a corvette she's readily maneuverable, but the weight of her armor and the additional infrastucture needed to run her dual core configurations makes her a bit more heavy than originally intended.
She's fast, durable vessel with excellent coverage on her ten guns- and efficient production practices make her hull easy to produce. She's just a bit pricy to outfit, and requires select crystals in order to function properly.
She has no usable cargo capacity.
Armor
Light Copper skin (Built-in)
Mounting for 2 Armor Sections
Armament
10 light cannon mounts. four on each broadside and two bow guns.
Requires:
2 Core Crystal (Must be Select Small, can fit up to Small)
2 Lift Crystals (Must be Small, can fit up to Small)
4-16 Trim Crystals [4/8/16 Poor/avg/excellent maneuvering]
8 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
--->Skyskiff Refit(Conventional Cannon) 3 Wood and 2 ore to refit from the basic Skyskiff
A change of the skyskiff hull to (mostly) accommodate a single small conventional cannon. The mating isn't perfect, however, and firing the cannon will cause damage to her structure and will disrupt flight maneuvers. She also explodes at the drop of a hat.
She has no usable cargo capacity.
Armament
1 central conventional cannon mount
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.
Crossbow Corridors of Carnage: When engaging, Marines will attempt to find cover, or at least concealment, and fire from behind that. Advancement is a leap-frog between cover, and retreat is a similar series of backward jumps.
Anti-Flanking: A squad or squads will maintain a strong flank and rear for the other squads, repulsing assaults within their weight range and providing warning in case of larger attacks. If the squad carries a BLOCK system with them, this tactic synergizes by design.
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.
High Vigil: Tells a fleet to maintain a vessel as a high-altitude lookout. The lookout will give a warning shot if they spot an enemy vessel. After raising the alarm, the scout rejoins the fleet and follows the same tactic as her fellow ships.
AGILE: Ships using AGILE will attempt to evade and outmaneuver enemy vessels, focusing on evasive action rather than maximizing damage.
AMDG: Currently better known as AMES, this tactic attempts to get captains to bring their small vessels within the shroud of larger vessels before firing. Ambitions, and currently rubbish due to multiple lacking components and complete lack of buy-in from the brass.
Double Ambush: Splits a fleet up into two groups. One group attacks from ambush initially, boom and zoom style, then the second group moves into attack whatever slow or crippled ships do not pursue the first ambush group.
Boom and Zoom: Ships attack in a series of fast dives, attempting to climb into a new dive as soon as they finish with one. Works OK, assuming they ships using this have a speed and/or climb advantage over the enemy vessels.
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.
Crude Fuses: Extremely rudimentary fuses. You can make them fail safe, but they're going to fail often.
Itshana Crystals: Aetheric resonators inside vattery tanks, as well as more specialized chemical baths, improve the overall quality of all crystals. This also enables the creation of Select Crystals, which are slightly less than twice as powerful as unaugmented crystals, but cost ore equal to their base crystal cost.
--->Thermovariable Processes: When operating in bulk, I.E, when the ore cost of a batch of Itshana select crystals is higher than 10, a 20% discount is applied- though this discount cannot bring the ore cost below 10.
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 Wreth (Read 159688 times)