Battle for Aljadid (An Arms Race game)
Who fired first? Does it matter? Perhaps the more pertinent question is, who will fire
last?
The colonies of Ertex and Quillus, both in the Aljadid system, are at war, since a few months ago. Nominally, the war is over mining/habitation rights on the as-yet unnamed planet designated 'D'. However, hostility has been brewing between the two ever since the settling fleet split in half over whether to settle the 67% water-covered Ertex, or the 71% water-covered Quillus.
Neither colony has what you might call an 'effective' military. Yet both have a secret weapon the other does not know about: five years ago, they defrosted a cadre of 'engineers', people with a tenuous grasp on reality, but possessed of an inhuman passion for designing new and inventive ways of killing people. (Nobody has questioned the convenience of this, or asked why their hibernation pods were hidden behind a double wall and covered with warning signs.) Both colonies have placed their hopes in these engineers, providing them with the resources needed to see their ideas brought forth into reality, without stopping to question the viability of what they are doing.
You are one such engineer. Your burning passion to see [COLONY] to victory drives you onwards. Acquaint yourself with the basic rules, announce your affiliation in this thread, then report to the relevant design bureau and get to work.
Ertex thread here:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=168247.0Quillus thread here:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=168248.0Discord here:
https://discord.gg/XxzvM5rNote: use of Discord is not required to join the game.
The aim of the game is to defeat the other side by developing better weapons and deploying them more effectively. Each turn consists of four phases:
Design Phase: During which entirely new weapons are proposed, voted on, and finally rolled up.
Revision Phase: During which existing weapons are fixed/modified, using the same process as the Design Phase.
Tactics Phase: During which it is decided where to deploy troops and ships, and which weapons to give them.
Battle Phase: In which I describe the outcome of the battles happening that turn. Following this, a new turn begins with a new Design Phase.
Also falling under basic rules is this critical commandment: Don't be (too) salty! Not towards the people on your own team, not towards people on the other team, and not towards me. Light jabs are acceptable. Outright hostility is not.
The mainstay of any Arms Race are Designs and Revisions. Suggestions are posted in the thread, and the most popular one is rolled up.
Unlike your common or garden Arms Race, I will not be using a d6. Instead, I'll be using a 2d4. This means rolls will fall betweeen 2 and 8, with the extremes being less likely.
For a design of Normal difficulty, the results are thus:
Roll (probability): Result
2 (1/16): Utter failure. You get nothing except the knowledge of what not to do.
3 (1/8): Buggy mess. Whilst you managed to make something, it isn't really usable.
4 (3/16): Below average. It works. Not especially well, but it works.
5 (1/4): Average. You get what you asked for, more or less.
6 (3/16): Above average. It works, and somewhat better than might be expected. Not a lot better, mind.
7 (1/8): Superior craftsmanship. It does its job and it does it perfectly. Its performance is exceptional and it is as reliable as clockwork.
8 (1/16): Unexpected boon. Not only does it work, but it does things you never even expected it to. If no 'bonus features' make sense, then you just get experience with some related field.
Designs of other difficulties modify the roll value like so: Trivial (+2), Easy (+1), Normal (+0), Hard (-1), Very Hard (-2), Ludicrous (-3). Designs harder than Ludicrous are Impossible, and will never yield a successful product, and will only grant experience on a 6 or higher*. Similarly, if the result of your roll would be less than 2 after modifiers, you get no experience.
Also note that the results above are guidelines. Results may not exactly match, but the 'value' will be the same, roughly.
*Said experience may or may not make the design possible. I'll let you know at the time.
What can be designed
You can design pretty much anything. The difficulty will depend on how much, if any, new tech is involved, and how much engineering work is required to put the tech together.
You can design infantry equipment- weapons, armour, misc items (radios, binoculars, sunglasses). You can design vehicles- trucks, tanks, planes, bipedal mechs, whatever. You can design spaceships- battleships, transports, fighters. You can design supporting infrastructure- dockyards, fortifications, training facilities. Pretty much anything. If in doubt, ask. I will tell you if a design is totally outside the scope of the game, though I generally won't comment on its viability otherwise.
Note that you don't have to design literally everything your colony comes up with- independent civilian engineers will gradually integrate new technology into the colony. They might even come up with new, entirely peaceful things, which you can then take and pervert into something designed to kill thousands of enemy soldiers!
What can be revised
Revisions are a lot more limited than designs. A revision must be based on an existing piece of equipment (although it does not have to be a piece of equipment listed in your equipment list. For example, you could revise a better uniform even if no uniform was listed, because you can assume your soldiers are not naked. If in doubt, ask me). You can fix bugs, make modifications, or even make 'new' equipment as a variety of the old. Difficulty again depends on the amount of new tech and engineering work required.
Most things you design will have a cost level. This determines how many can be deployed.
Cheap equipment can be distributed as widely as makes sense. A gun for every soldier, a vehicle for every squad, a ship for every company of sailors.
More expensive items will have a cost level expressed as a number followed by a letter, either S or G. S stands for Ship, G stands for Ground. You have a limited amount of Ship and Ground Production Points, which you dedicate towards the construction and upkeep of ships and equipment. For example, the ITC costs 2. Given your starting Ship PP of 16, this means you could field 8 ITCs. You might not want to do that, however, since that would tie up all your potential ship production until you decommisioned some of the fielded ships.
If a ship/equipment is destroyed, it will still take up PP for a turn. Thereafter it may either be rebuilt, or decommisioned. Ships/equipment may also be decommisioned by moving them to the homeworld. You may choose to scuttle ships/destroy equipment in the field (if, for example, you had equipment on a blockaded planet that could not be delivered back home, but wanted to free up PP).
Capturing a planet will grant extra Production Points. See map for quantities.
Your colony has limited manpower, represented as Units. Each unit represents ~1000 soldiers. Units must be given equipment, and transported to a planet in order to contest it.
Each colony starts with 5 units. This number can be increased, though not easily.
If a Unit suffers too many losses, or is overrun by the enemy, it will be destroyed. In this case, a new Unit will be generated on your homeworld, though this takes a full turn (Unit destroyed on turn 1, regenerates on turn 2, is available for duty on turn 3)
Units and equipment take up space. You can't just cram ten thousand men into a tiny shuttle.
Your starting transports have a Transport Capacity (TC) of 4. A full Unit takes up 2 TC. Larger pieces of equipment (vehicles&etc.) may also take up TC. Equipment can be moved unequipped, and delivered to Units in the field.
A Unit can carry as much equipment as you like, but it will only use a sensible amount. You could equip a single unit with four different types of tank, and it won't use more tanks in total than if they only had the one, though it will use the optimum mix of types for different situations.
Planets consist of 6 zones each. An uncontested Unit on a planet wil capture 2 zones per turn. Once all 6 zones are captured, the planet is yours- its resources may be extracted, and defensive facilities constructed in orbit.
If both teams have Units present on the same world, combat occurs. The winner will advance by 1-2 zones, depending on their margin of victory (and type of victory- winning trench warfare makes slower progress than blitzkrieg). This progress will be taken out of any remaining neutral zones before enemy zones.
You will receive a combat report which tells you how the battles went, what effect any new tech had, and what the new situation is. Combat reports will in most cases be symmetrical- the exception being if a piece of tech is explicitly designed to be non-obvious.
Ships may be moved across the map following the indicated lanes (don't ask why they can't go off the lanes. It's a game abstraction). They can travel as far as you like in a turn, though if they pass an enemy ship, there is a chance that they will meet (the larger the two fleets, the higher the chance. Stealth/detection tech also impacts this. Don't say there's no stealth in space, it's a game), in which case a fight will break out, and both fleets will move no further.
Ship captains are possessed of a measure of intelligence, meaning they will attempt to flee if outmatched. If successful, combat ends, though no further movement will take place. If both sides can't or won't flee, battle occurs.
Ship combat is not abstracted as much as ground combat. You will receive reports that may include the performance of individual ships.
Ships may suffer damage in battle that affects their performance. This damage may be repaired by ending a turn at the homeworld. Field repairs are not possible with starting tech.
Victory is acheived once all enemy ships have fled or been destroyed. In orbit, if there is no or very little enemy presence remaining, the orbit is considered Controlled, and your transports will be able to land/retrieve units and equipment without risk, whilst you are free to conduct orbital bombardment in support of ground troops (provided there are bombardment-capable ships present). The enemy will be utterly incapable of doing either, and will have a very hard time moving past the orbit. If a substantial enemy force remains, the orbit is Contested- your transports may risk interdiction, and your ability to perform orbital bombardment will be restricted, as will the enemy's. Both sides will have a hard time moving through a Contested orbit.
Units on a blockaded planet will suffer, causing their performance to deteriorate as supplies run out.
In addition to ships and units, there are Satellites and Installations. These cost SPP and GPP respectively, but are cheaper than their mobile equivalents.
To construct a satellite requires total control of the planet it is to orbit. Don't ask why.
To construct ground installations requires 50% control of the planet.
Any satellites/installations you have obtained will be constructed for free around/on your homeworld (in reasonable numbers).
So, okay. I am not a rocket scientist. Nor am I an expert in theoretical weapons. Or non-theoretical weapons, for that matter.
In other words, don't expect perfect accuracy.
In fact, expect things that couldn't possibly work IRL to work in-game. Not straight-up magic, but your standard sci-fi nonsense is acceptable, so long as it has some sort of justification (that isn't just meaningless technobabble).
Anyway, if you see something that you think is complete bullshit, you are free to bring this to my attention once. I will consider your arguments, do more research, and come to a final decision. After that point, any remaining inaccuracies should be chalked up to "It's a game, some inaccuracies will happen".
With regards to bias, well, I will endeavour at all times to be as unbiased as humanly possible. If you believe that I am being biased, think again; put yourself in my shoes and imagine the scenario from my perspective. If you still think I am biased, you may bring it up once. If, following this, you still think I am being biased, then please direct your attention to yonder door.
This is not hard sci-fi. Not only will certain things be possible that in reality probably aren't, but things that are possible in reality will be nerfed for balance's sake.
I appreciate that soft-ish sci-fi is, to some tastes, overdone. However, I think it can be fun, and frankly a hard sci-fi arms race seems like it would become very monotonous, on account of there being one 'right' answer to everything.
I feel like I've forgotten something... well, I've definitely covered all you need to know in order to get started.
Don't even worry about this looking nothing like a solar system. Its, uh, optimal transfers or something. Look, it's dumb, but what do you want from me?
Key:
A: A volcanic world. Constant eruptions and earthquakes result in a thoroughly unpleasant environment. 4SPP, 2GPP
B&F: Rocky worlds. (Almost) no atmosphere, no major tectonic activity, these planets are... boring. The most notable terrain features are the craters that litter the surface. 2SPP, 2GPP
C: An ocean world. Covered in 94% water, with a breathable atmosphere, and a few inhabitable islands. Prepare for lots of island-hopping. 2SPP, 4GPP
D: An earthlike world. Covered in 69% water, with a breathable atmosphere, most of the surface being inhabitable. Terrain varies wildly, from open plains to thick jungles- and of course vast seas. 5SPP, 5GPP
E: A frozen world. Almost entirely covered in ice, with an atmosphere too thin to breathe. Ice sheets make for treacherous terrain, with snow-covered mountains being not much better. 2SPP, 4GPP
G: A desert world. With a few salty 'seas' covering a mere 12% of the surface, the majority of this planet is dry as a bone. Vast sandscapes dominate, punctured by low, rocky hills, and the ocassional oasis. The atmosphere is breathable. 2SPP, 4GPP.
Ertex&Quillus: Earthlike worlds. Capturing the enemy homeworld results in victory. Yield no Production Points. I mean, they do, but those are already accounted for in your basic industry.
PS: Some of this is
ripped off from inspired by ChiefWaffle's Planetary Arms Race (died several months ago). Also, every other Arms Race ever, to a lesser degree.
Also, I ain't gonna change things once we're well into the game, but I might change a few rules here and there near the start.
Author
Topic: Battle for Aljadid (An Arms Race Game) - Core Thread - Battle Report SY107 (!!) (Read 10026 times)