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[Chiefwaffles]

Combat Report (Spring) 1961

Loaning of prototype military technology for civilian (propaganda and) entertainment uses has led to a burgeoning film industry in Mereth. The Aratamiam government has publically considered a ban after a single showing of a Merethan film caused a riot. Exact reasons for the riot are unclear, but Aratamiam officials are quick to comment that it's clearly Merethan subversive propaganda.

The limited deployment of Goldeneye-enhanced police officers meets mixed feedback from Aratamiam citizens. People walking the streets where Goldeneye police officers are stationed always feel like they're being very intimately watched.


New Designs
A fearsome new sight amongst the mountains is the Aratamiam "Halberd" ECCB-60 Battletank, which uses a coilgun as a devastating main cannon. Though it and its cannon are both very limited by the tank's two SynthOil batteries. While its main cannon is devastating, its only means of anti-infantry is an unpowered Osprey rifle modified to be mounted and auto-loaded.

Mereth, meanwhile, has introduced the ME-LRMA-60 "Blizzard". A rather unique aircraft, with four wings in an "X" configuration and two ICE-based ramjet engines. It's faster than the Lightning Streak and is equipped with 4 ICE missiles and 1 tonne of bombs, but has an unfortunately short range.
Also new is the Merethan UT-60 "Excavator", which can go deeper than the Burrower and uses an improved Earth Ear system which can now detect the movement of reasonably large forces on the surface. These just so coincidentally happen to be side-effects of the completely-civilian-intended embassy design Mereth created.



The Mountains
While Aratam's Halberd battletank certainly makes an impression, its impact in the field is surprisingly small. As destructive as its main coilcannon is, it doesn't have a particular niche. The tanks' crews find it very difficult to track infantry with it and Mereth still has no combat-oriented vehicles that necessitate the coilgun's destructive power. The secondary gun - the mounted Osprey - works against infantry but as it is unable to fire coilgun-assisted shots like its unmounted brethren, Merethans equipped in Bear armor are very tough opponents. Its Very Expensive nature means it's not too often seen, and its moderate armor and ineffectiveness against Merethan infantry means that when it is seen it's not too effective before it goes down.
Bear troopers are often found to be its main weakness as neither gun works well against them. ICE missiles are a favorite of the Merethan military, as the Halberd has no precautions against being frozen to inoperation via ICE.

Meanwhile, Mereth's new Blizzard is able to very successfully harass Aratamian positions. Even when completely unescorted by Lightning Streaks, it's more than capable of defending itself against anything Aratam's air force can throw at it. Its ICE missiles and bombs, when they hit, are fairly effective against Aratam ground forces. It too, though, is Very Expensive, meaning that as useful as it is its bomber role isn't immensely useful in the field.
The UT-60 Burrower still isn't great in ambushing (the upgraded Earth Ear isn't completely reliable at detecting enemy camps and fortifications, and just general navigation still is fairly difficult) but finds itself in a reconnaissance role, hiding underground and radioing in any detected Aratamiam troop movements. It can also go deep-enough underground to completely avoid any possible detection by Aratam though its sensors aren't quite as effective that far down.

Ultimately, neither side can advance in the mountains. The Halberd just isn't too useful against infantry (especially Bear infantry) which is all that the Halberd faces; the Blizzard, while useful, isn't particularly great as a Very Expensive bomber at land. Mereth stops the coming advance largely via copious amounts of SARUKH-fired ICE missiles.
Mereth comes out a bit more ahead than predicted, but it's not enough to begin advancing. But the combined advantage of both the Earth Ear and Blizzard means that Mereth only needs a tiny amount of further effort in the mountains before they can start gaining land.
No side advances in the Mountains.
[M: 1/4; A: 3/4]



The Sea
Nothing changes at sea, where Mereth's new aircraft is unable to fly and where tanks happen to not be that useful. Aratam's fleet continues as it did last year.

Aratamiam transports finally find a relatively secure beachhead to land at, allowing forays into the Mereth-controlled plains next year.
Aratam advances in the Sea.
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4]



Event: New Imports
Sitting comfortably (the Cannalans more-so than the Forenians) in the quarters of their new embassies, the ambassadors from Forenia and Cannala inform their allied nations that they're authorizing the importing of one more design to cover some rather embarrassing gaps in both sides' militaries.

In the revision phase of 1960, both Mereth and Aratam will be able to choose another design from their ally to import for use in 1961.

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

[M: 2/2; A: 0/2] Mereth: The majority of Mereth's population live in this area in the Tundra, surrounded by a plethora of natural resources making the climate much easier to bear.
2 Ore 1 Oil
[M: 4/4; A: 0/4] Tundra: A frozen landscape with few features. The more northern land starts to be more populated with features facilitating human life, allowing the development of a bustling civilization.
[M: 4/4; A: 0/4] Taiga: A large snowy forest. Cold, but full of life.
[M: 4/4; A: 0/4] Plains: Largely flat terrain full of grass and the occasional hill.
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Sea: Relatively shallow water with beaches next to the Plains and Swamp perfect for ports. Control over this region allows ship-based support (not cargo or troop landing) to be rendered to your forces everywhere but the Taiga and Desert.
1 Oil
[M: 1/4; A: 3/4] Mountains: Treacherous (and often narrow) mountain paths with extreme height differences, the coldest weather on the continent, and only the rare passage viable for anything above small-scale movements.
1 Ore
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Desert: Desert terrain facing little rain and fairly hot temperatures.
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Swamp: A swamp, filled with large stretches of shallow still water, lots of bugs, and lots of swamp-y plants and fauna.
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Jungle: A hot and humid jungle (and rainforest) filled with trees obscuring the sky from the ground. The northern land begins seeing a few clearings, perfect for human habitation.
[M: 0/2; A: 2/2] Aratam: Cities surrounded by jungle with plenty of natural resources and conditions fit for relatively comfortable living.
2 Ore 1 Oil

[Blood_Librarian]

how the hell did the bad guys figure out hwo to build a excavator from a embassy design, Wow.

[Maximum Spin]

how the hell did the bad guys figure out hwo to build a excavator from a embassy design, Wow.

We heard you guys got a brewery.

I'm sure that has all kinds of military applications, right?

[Blood_Librarian]

LIke getting trashed in some sick parties. We didn't make a military vehicle with our mismanaged slush funds, we just kept them and made alcohol.

[Chiefwaffles]

Combat Report Summer 1961

With the new chemical STABIL-ICE, the ice cream industry in Mereth booms. Soon, children from across the globe will recognize that signature Merethan ice cream and how it makes their stomachs cold. Health regulators are, to put in mildly, concerned about the impact of putting in a refrigerating-chemical in ice cream, but the Mereth military ensures the public that it does not mess around in ice cream safety.

The administration staff of a museum in Cannala have complained about the Aratamian military's imports draining their supply of "Privateer" trucks, which was the first truck ever developed by Cannala. A spokesman from Aratam simply stated that Aratam is not apologetic for saving money, and that the routine break-downs are just a "part of the experience" for Aratam's soldiers.


New Designs
The "Hydra" EMFT-61 comes into play around this time, boasting a four-barrel anti-air mundane autocannon and basic radar targeting assistance system. The Hydra is also designed with anti-infantry in mind, but the fact that the gunner sits in a mostly-open cage on top of the chassis (where the rest of the crew sits) makes it not exactly perfect for front-line combat.
Also done by Aratam is the Macaw Strike Craft, a variant of the Parrot but now equipped with a turboprop engine and foregoing its normal guns for two 500lb missile/bomb mounts. This would go with the MAGIC Mk. 2 Hellfire missile imported by Aratam, but the missile's expense leaves it only being fit in Aratam's Spearhead-B jets.

Mereth, however, without anything like the Hellfire to import from Forenia, develops their own missile: the ME-GVM-61 "Penguin", a G2G tactical missile that fits either an ICE or HE warhead and is guided remotely via operators from the launch truck looking at a feed from the Penguin's integrated TV camera. It has a range of 50km and a lethal radius of 50m.
STABIL-ICE revolutionizes Mereth's ice cream industry and also has the side effect of improving the jet engines in the Blizzard. STABIL-ICE only reacts at specific temperatures, allowing for Mereth to forego the giant diluted ICE tanks in the Blizzard for a much smaller STABIL-ICE tank. This increases the Blizzard's range to the point where it can reach Long range - long enough for it to have some impact at sea, even when launched from land.
Being imported from Forenia is the M3 Sorraia GPMG, which finds its use in emplacements and being casually held by soldiers in Bear Armor. Though power armored soldiers have a bit more trouble with reloading and aiming the thing. It isn't exactly designed with power armor in mind,m after all.


The Mountains

Aratamian soldiers dread the sight of a Penguin missile coming in the distance, which often means they only have moments to spare.
Even though more often than not Penguin missiles end up detonating off the mountain passes and on peaks in the mountain due to the difficulty its operators find in guiding the missile into the narrow passes, the site of a detonated Penguin is a frightful one. Aratam's reinforcements often end up passing by these impact sites, and see the lifeless frozen remnants of former Aratam soldiers. One can see soldiers frozen in mid-step, attempting to run from the missile. Bits of shattered Hydras and Halberds scatter the ground, falling apart after hit by a stray stone falling from the mountains above or even just wind.
Occasionally, Goldeneye soldiers successfully prevent successful Penguin impacts, moving everyone and everything they can away from the impact site before the missile hits the ground. But only a few Goldeneye soldiers boast awareness high enough to have any impact on the Penguin's effectiveness. The Penguin simply moves too fast for the regular enhanced awareness of most Goldeneye soldiers to have enough of an impact. The few that do predict impacts are hailed as heroes and often put at the front of Aratam's most critical force movements.

But ultimately, despite the terrifying renown it holds towards Aratamian troops, the Penguin isn't too effective. Its accuracy and agility, while not awful, ends up in most missiles just hitting the side of a mountain. Yet with this being said, the Penguins most certainly have an impact. Just not as big an impact as Mereth's military would like.


Flying over the mountains the battle in the air rages on. Spearhead-B pilots are a bit better off thanks to their new Hellfire missiles, yet a Hellfire hitting a Merethan Blizzard is a rare sight. The Hellfire had enough trouble hitting Lightning Streaks in the Forenian-Cannalan war; the faster, more agile Blizzards are even worse targets. Without any clumsy slow bombers to target, the Hellfire isn't a particularly impactful weapon. Mereth's air force continues to reign supreme, but have continued trouble in impacting the ground as their only ground-support craft is the Very Expensive Blizzard. While rare and not the most accurate of things, AA fire from Hydras protecting tactically important sites means Merethan aircraft can no longer bomb with impunity too. Aratamian soldiers on land usually don't find themselves worrying about enemy aircraft.
Rarely, a Macaw or Spearhead can have their screen of sacrificial Parrots hold long enough to drop a few bombs on the ground, but the sheer rarity of this happening means these occurrences hold no substantial impact on ground.


The worsening lack of relevance held by the air theatre towards the ground leaves the battle on ground largely unimpacted by either side's aircraft. The Hydra tank, when making a rare appearance in the front lines, can easily dispatch even Bear-armored soldiers (even if they aren't as reliably killed). Until its gunner is inevitably shot out of the turret, that is. Especially when nearly every soldier in Bear Armor is holding a HMG capable of spraying enough bullets in the general area until one goes in the general direction of the turret and kills the gunner. Though while Bear soldiers learn to appreciate the M3 Sorraia, many cases of broken wrists and worse eventually teach the infantry a collective lesson to be very cautious (often to the point of foregoing  entirely) if trying to use the MG completely unmounted, thanks to their unarmored hands.
The Halberd remains largely ineffective, with its poor anti-infantry capabilities proving to be its downfall.


The summer of 1961 sees Merethan troopers clad in power armor advancing through frozen graveyards and wielding heavy machine guns. Their advantage isn't particularly great, but it's more than enough to ensure Mereth gains territory.
Mereth advances in the Mountains.
[M: 2/4; A: 2/4]



The Sea/The Plains

Aratam's advance onto the shores of the plains is an immensely troubled advance.

Their lack of any official lander, while not crippling, severely hurts them. Blizzards, now with enough range to begin hitting sea targets, are a menace to Aratam's navy as they attempt to protect their landing forces. Again, Blizzards are rare, and they face (still-very-lackluster) competition from Aratam's naval aircraft and naval anti-aircraft weaponry. But they're enough to sink a few vessels.
Penguin missiles find a use here, as well. Mereth command's patented method of "just throw enough missiles at the enemy until something hits something" manages to also sink a few unlucky ships, though the vast majority of missiles uselessly splash into the sea.
Despite this, Aratam's navy still finds itself beating Mereth's. The Merethan airforce is at a lesser disadvantage but the occasional Blizzard sortie out onto sea from land with little to even guide the planes isn't enough to do much more than harassment; whereas Aratam's carriers still allow for full aerial assaults against hostile ships.

The Aratamian forces that do make it to land fight a more balanced battle than that in the mountains. The vast open plains restore Aratam's armor to relevance. Halberds can shoot out emplacements and clustered troops in the distance and have plenty of time for their main cannon and accompanying infantry to eliminate power-armored troops before they get close enough to ICE tanks. The Hydra finds a use in eliminating infantry at medium range. Occasionally a lucky RPG shot disables or destroys a tank, but they have a much better survival rate here on the plains than back in the cluttered tight mountain passes.
Aratam's infantry mostly slowly advances behind the few tanks their nation fields. Their rifles are about as good as Mereth's at range thanks to the powered shots' improved accuracy, but machine gun fire from the Sorraia is a scary thing that oftentimes forces troops into trenches or directly behind tanks waiting for emplacements to be shot out. When the infantry of both nations do find a chance to directly clash, Aratam usually comes up on top thanks to their magnetic-assisted rifles and enhanced soldiers, but oftentimes this doesn't happen.
A tactic favored by Mereth is burrowing behind Aratam's trenches. They can't breach the surface directly near any hostile forces - they'd be swarmed immediately and Goldeneyes can notice a nearby Burrower if it gets to close to the surface - but they can open up passages far behind enemy lines where Mereth can begin a two-side attack on the same Aratam position from. Soldiers and Goldeneyes find themselves frequently assigned to patrol the land Aratam manages to hold in order to locate Burrower tunnels, but a decent number of tunnels stay secure long enough to assist in major offensives.

The battle here is a slow one. Merethan infantry sits in trenches, with Bear-armored soldiers ICE-ing any Aratamian soldiers or vehicles unlucky enough to be the ones advancing over or into trenches and occasionally popping up to attempt to RPG Aratam's vehicles or lay down suppressing fire. Aratam's forces also largely sit in trenches and hastily-constructed bunkers, relying on slow methodical advances with plenty of armor support.

Penguin missiles find a better use here as well, being able to soften up distant Aratamian fortifications too far away for Sarukh ICE rockets to be effective at as well as assisting defenses of important beaches. They even see some use in completely stopping Aratamian armored advances, though Mereth command is cautious about the potential of the missiles hitting friendly positions when used in the front-line.


Overall, Aratam's forces find a small advantage on land but their troublesome landing prevents them from gaining ground, and Mereth's navy is just below the point where it could have taken advantage of this opportunity to advance at sea.
Neither side advances. Fall of 1961 will see another beach landing by Aratam.
Neither side advances in the Sea or Plains.
Sea: [M: 0/4; A: 4/4]; Plains: [M: 4/4; A: 0/4]



Event: Financial Aid
During one of the Cannalan embassy's many alcohol-fueled parties, the ambassador from Cannala informs Aratam government officials that Cannala has deemed it worthy to ramp up funding of Aratam's war efforts. He doesn't remember saying anything about "funding" the next morning, but a call to Cannala and eventually El Presidente confirms that yes, additional resources will be sent.
Aratam will be able to choose +1 Ore or +1 Oil to import from Cannala starting next turn. Imports will take up a TC unit.

Meanwhile, deep underground in the Forenian embassy, a more serious conversation is taking place. Forenia remains vested in the Merethan war effort, but feels that they need additional evidence that Mereth is worth providing additional aid to. After some discussion, a possible deal is brought up: if Mereth agrees to be the recipient of a fairly notable amount of Arstotzkan and Moskurg rebels (who still plague Forenia) being relocated here permanently, then Forenia will authorize additional resources being sent.
If Mereth agrees to the deal, they will be able to choose +1 Ore or +1 Oil to import from Forenia starting next turn. Imports will take up a TC unit.

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

[M: 2/2; A: 0/2] Mereth: The majority of Mereth's population live in this area in the Tundra, surrounded by a plethora of natural resources making the climate much easier to bear.
2 Ore 1 Oil
[M: 4/4; A: 0/4] Tundra: A frozen landscape with few features. The more northern land starts to be more populated with features facilitating human life, allowing the development of a bustling civilization.
[M: 4/4; A: 0/4] Taiga: A large snowy forest. Cold, but full of life.
[M: 4/4; A: 0/4] Plains: Largely flat terrain full of grass and the occasional hill.
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Sea: Relatively shallow water with beaches next to the Plains and Swamp perfect for ports. Control over this region allows ship-based support (not cargo or troop landing) to be rendered to your forces everywhere but the Taiga and Desert.
1 Oil
[M: 2/4; A: 2/4] Mountains: Treacherous (and often narrow) mountain paths with extreme height differences, the coldest weather on the continent, and only the rare passage viable for anything above small-scale movements.
1 Ore
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Desert: Desert terrain facing little rain and fairly hot temperatures.
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Swamp: A swamp, filled with large stretches of shallow still water, lots of bugs, and lots of swamp-y plants and fauna.
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Jungle: A hot and humid jungle (and rainforest) filled with trees obscuring the sky from the ground. The northern land begins seeing a few clearings, perfect for human habitation.
[M: 0/2; A: 2/2] Aratam: Cities surrounded by jungle with plenty of natural resources and conditions fit for relatively comfortable living.
2 Ore 1 Oil

[Chiefwaffles]

Mereth Designs

Spoiler: Mereth Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 1
Resources: 3 Ore, 1 Oil

Weapons

• "Stalwart" Rifle: A semi-automatic rifle with mediocre accuracy at Long range and good accuracy at Medium (and useless accuracy further).
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Heartstopper" Pistol: A 2-round semiautomatic pistol semi-accurate up to Short range. Has enormous stopping power. Pride of the Merethan army.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• UF-AC-41 Velociraptor: This autocannon is a revision of AC18, with several improvements. The gun is a little more tolerant of different ammo weights and the shells have been modified so that mixed ammo belts are possible. The use of more advanced materials has allowed some parts to become lighter, while a heavier bolt and stronger spring allows a rate of fire of 750 RPM, with a final gun weight of 48kg. In infantry use, it has noticeably more recoil, but this is less of a concern on vehicles.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore
  
  • AS-AC18: An advanced primer ignition autocannon, which ignites cartridge primers before the round is fully chambered. It fires the new, large, 20x100mm round, fed from a top-mounted 25 round C-shaped magazine with a powerful spring, usually armor piercing, about 600 times per minute. The weapon is quite large with a simple action but heavy barrel, weighing over 40 kilograms, and it requires being mounted to a carriage, foundation, or vehicle to fire with accuracy, although recoil is reduced by the nature of its action. It is dependent on a careful balance between the force of the shell and the force of the action, which means that different ammo types cannot be interchanged without recalibrating the gun. It has a terrifying ability to punch through armor and emplacements.
    [Cheap] 3 Ore
• UF-MRL-40 'SARUKH': The Sarukh is a multiple rocket launcher, which fires rockets one meter long to deliver 6kg warheads at a maximum range of 12000 meters. The rockets have impressive destructive power, compared to shells they do not need thick metal casings, so most of the weight of the rocket is either warhead or propellant. The rockets are launched electrically off of rails, and the rails are in a 4x2 array. The rockets can be fired all at once, but it takes about four minutes to reload the whole launcher, so the sustained rate of fire is not better than regular artillery. However, a rocket array is extremely light compared to a cannon, and can move very quickly, firing all at once and retreating before fire is returned from the enemy. Accuracy is poor compared to shells; to reliably hit a single target with a volley they should be used within 8km. Currently available as a truck trailer.
  [Expensive] 1 Ore, 3 Oil
  
  • ICE Rocket: A rocket for the Sarukh equipped with an ICE non-explosive warhead. Instant lethalities within 5m, very high fatalities within 10m, serious injuries (and occasional fatality) along with (usually temporary) vehicle non-operation to 50m. The cold dissipates quickly outdoors.
• ICE Thrower: A 20m-ranged pressurized ICE thrower that can rapidly cool an area in front of the operator to (eventually) lethal levels or outright kill/severely harm those directly hit by ICE. The ICE doesn't naturally react until roughly 10m out from the barrel, though it can hit other things in its way and react with whatever it hits. Prolonged use is discouraged, due to close proximity with ICE and ICE-affected areas being very dangerous even with the extensive insulation operators wear.
  [Expensive] 2 Ore, 3 Oil
• AS-RPG28 A: A rocket-propelled grenade, fired out of a launch tube. The grenade itself consists of a conical shape with a narrow tube of propellent out the back, and twisted fins in the middle of the tube. The launch tube is 3cm wide, a meter long and the rocket fits in up to the fins, and is just a metal tube with a handle. To ignite the propellant, soldiers remove a pin, on the rocket, which is first clipped by a short chain to a trigger on the handle. The tube itself and each grenade each weigh 3kg. It is accurate enough to hit a tank out to almost 100 meters, after which it drops quickly. Rockets are available with warheads based on each type of grenade, including a HEAT conical shaped charge.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 1 Oil
• ME-GVM-61 "Penguin": A 33cm diameter 3.5m long black and white missile with long and stubby wings. Controlled remotely via an embedded television camera, and contains basic onboard transistor-based guidance allowing for a relatively straight course when jammed. Two missiles are carried in basic launcher trucks. Has a range of 50 km and a lethal radius of 50m; it can fit an ICE warhead or a HE warhead.
  [Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
• M3 Sorraia GPMG: A 7.62mm machine gun fed from a belt. 50-round belts can be strung together for extended fire or stored in a belt box attached to the Sorraia, which for practical purposes is similar to a magazine. It uses a recoil action, and is configured to fire around 800 rounds per minute, achieved with the help of a muzzle booster (which looks like a flared end on the barrel). Weighs 22 pounds. Comes with a bipod, or tripod for emplacements. It uses copper heat sinks, which are now shrouded. It has a changeable barrel, which is necessary for emplacement use. It is effective to about 800 yards when mounted.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore

Armor

• Standard Uniform: A plain blue featureless uniform. The blue's mild enough that it doesn't really stick out.
• Tiger Infantry Armor: Infantry armor made of a forged manganese steel alloy. All of the armor plates are relatively thick for infantry, and the full suit weighs in at 36 pounds. The helmet is particularly thick, and fits round and close around the head, low over the eyes and down to the neck. It can be attached with a face mask, which allows a wide but very narrow viewing slit, while covering the neck. The breastplate is curved outwards for optimal armor angle. The backplate is thick, but flat. At the waist these plates end and there are flat curved single-piece taces to protect upper legs, below the knee the armor has no coverage. Pauldrons allow comfortable shoulder motion, and upper arms are covered by round fitted plates to the outside of the arm. While lower arms and legs, and sometimes gaps around the shoulders are exposed, most parts of the armor will stop a pistol bullet at point blank. The breastplate and taces will stop rifle bullets at all but very close range. The armor is tiring and cumbersome, troops cannot effectively crawl and kneeling is difficult, as is aiming down rifle sights while using the mask.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore
• ME-PA-59 'Bear Armour: "Infantry" armor based off of the Tiger suit. Boasts full (barring hands) body coverage, albeit with fairly frequent gaps in the joints; armor toughness is identical to Tiger Armor, with insulating fur inner lining. Armor plating is semi-manually removed from the outside through a series of switches to enter/exit/perform maintenance, and the suit must have its Electrogel very routinely replaced to maintain full charge. Lasts 16 hours of consistent high-power use, but use is carefully rationed due to no tracking of the charge. Embarking/disembarking from the outside takes about 30 seconds, and disembarking without assistance takes a few minutes. It stands at [~7 ft/~2m] tall, and uses a smallish bulletproof glass visor for limited visibility. Pilots boast slightly increased speed and slightly decreased agility (but same strength) over regular unarmored individuals while in the Armour, twice the strength of average soldiers, and have their skin dyed blue from the Electrogel. Has mounts for a WALK-TALK and larger ICE Thrower tank, and a velcro strip for maximum pilot comfort.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 2 Oil

Underground Vehicles

• UT-60 Excavator: A tracked medium-sized heavily-modified tunnel boring machine, most notably using GOFAST-fuel. Can go down to Moderate and Shallow depths, moves at Very Slow speeds while underground and at Moderate speeds aboveground. Possesses limited (but notable) agility underground. Contains space for 6 soldiers and small amounts of equipment of the equivalent amount of cargo in the back, in addition to the 2 crew in its cockpit. Light armor. Equipped with the ME-SM-57 'Earth Ear' for basic subterranean navigation.
  [Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil; Provides 1 Ore.
  
  • ME-CM-56 'Instant Roads': A very fast-acting sprayable concrete mixture very useful for reinforcing tunnels when sprayed by trailers hooked to a Burrower. Has to be re-applied occasionally to maintain integrity. Allows for use of Burrower tunnels for force movement and logistics.
    Provides 1 TC.

Air Vehicles

• UFAF-F-41 Lightning Streak: A single-engine jet fighter, with a large aT-J20 jet taking up most of the fuselage. The aT-J20 is a low-bypass turbofan; some of the air taken in by the compressor blades passes around the engine core and is not combusted; the bypass system provides useful cooling. The Lightning Streak has a relatively fat fuselage, which widens out in the middle after the intake and narrows again at the exhaust, there there is a rudder and two tail wings directly on the fuselage. With the round glass canopy (using 15mm of heavy laminated glass) the aircraft has sort of an egg shape, with thin swept wings. The wings have no bomb mounts and are as light as possible for speed and maneuverability, it is armed solely with three AC41 Velociraptor cannons in the nose above the intake, with somewhat limited ammo. It also includes airbrakes on the body near the tail, and hydraulic controls. Since it was designed as an absolutely dedicated fighter the speed and maneuverability are remarkable.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• ME-LRMA-60 "Blizzard": A two-engine jet "Long-Range Multi-Role-Aircraft" based off of the Lightning Streak that uses a 4 "X"-shaped wing configuration via the "Tereshkova Effect" for slightly increased aerodynamics, improved redundancy, and greatly improved coolness. Its two aT-J60gi ICE "freezing stovepipe" ramjet engines allows it to be a fair bit faster than the Lightning Streak. Has one large GOFAST tank and a small STABIL-ICE tank allowing for Long range. Equipped with 4x Velociraptor autocannons, 4 ICE missiles, and 1 tonne of bombs.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Navy

• UFN-CA-41 Catraphract: The Cataphract is a cruiser built to rival Cannala's ships. It is armed with 3x3 150mm gun turrets, each using a fully electrified loading system based on the moderately-performing Overcompensator, except that the 60kg shells are moved in one piece. Each gun can fire 8 times a minute. It has an armored citadel with 300mm of nickel-steel armor (Heavy), and a torpedo belt as well. The deck is also heavily armored, at 120mm (Light) to defend against plunging fire, plus an extra splinter deck. The turrets are similarly armored. There is a central director in the con tower which controls all the electrically-driven turrets, though there is no advanced firing calculator. Additionally there are three turrets with two bumblebees on each side of the ship, capable of firing on aircraft or ships, and miscellaneous autocannons wherever there is room. It is powered by oil-burning steam turbines, and there are a lot of them though with its considerable armor it only musters moderate speed.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Other

• GOFAST-Fuel: A special type of more energy-dense and stable fuel. Greatly increases fuel efficiency of anything it's in, doesn't require an oxidizer, and can rarely leak out of compromised containers.
  Adds 1 Oil to cost.
• MXETE: Discrete transistor digital mainframe computer - 2 MHz CPU, 4 Mb of magnetic drum long-term memory, and an operating memory of 1200*32 bits. Takes up an entire (very big) floor on the Design Division and creating another one is immensely impractical. Punch card input, with a tightly-packed light matrix called a "screen" for output.
• WALK-TALK: The Wireless Audio Local Kommunicator-Transistor Assistance Lowers Kost Radio. A small hand-held two-way transistor radio. Production is hampered by the ever-persistant Union of Electronics Workers, making it Complex.
  [Expensive] 1 Ore, Complex
• Electrogel: A very thick blue gel that creates and transmits electrical current corresponding to the amount of pressure applied to it. Comes with the "Electrogel Motor" - a very small motor with embedded Electrogel that works with power corresponding to Electrogel pressure. A patch of Electrogel can last roughly 8 hours when powering its corresponding motor nonstop at max power.
• UF-SM-57 'Earth Ear': A set of small attachments to be put on all available sides of a subterranean vehicle. Vibration pings allow it to present a map of "where stuff is" and "where stuff isn't" via a very basic 3D projection in a small gas-filled glass cube. Only useful at recognizing the terrain and notable landmarks, and has a range of 10km in every direction from the device. An increased resolution and the ability to detect movement between scans allows it to detect the movement of reasonably large forces (allied or hostile) and flash relevant sectors red in the display.
• ICE (Intense Chemical Endotherm): A chemical that very quickly reacts with the air to massively reduce heat in the surrounding area, often to the point where nearby things are frozen (ones in the epicenter frozen brittle), vehicles disabled or destroyed, and people killed.
  
  • STABIL-ICE: A variant of ICE that relies on an added catalyst to only react when it's above a target temperature, specified during synthesization of the STABIL-ICE. Useful for ice cream and also maybe cooling of machinery and the like. Tends to slowly decay over time in storage, making it unsuitable for anything that can't expect routine maintenance.

Infrastructure

• Division of Unusual Chemistry: A fully funded department & lab under the Design Division specializing in more unusual chemistry.

• Embassy "Vast Underground Forenian Embassy": An extensive and mildly luxurious underground Forenian embassy dug underneath around the center of Mereth using improvements in excavation technology designed 100% solely for civilian use and definitely nothing else.

Aratam Designs

Spoiler: Aratam Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 1
Resources: 3 Ore, 2 Oil, 2 Rare Chemicals

Weapons

• "Pursuit" Rifle: An 20-round magazine automatic rifle with mediocre accuracy at Medium range (and useless accuracy further).
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Machete" Pistol: A 6-round semiautomatic pistol semi-accurate up to Short range. Reliable.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Jumper" EMA Grenade Launcher: The Electromagnetically Assisted Grenade Launcher "Jumper" is roughly the shape of a very noticeably thicker bazooka-like assembly. It uses inefficient brick-sized SynthOil batteries that provide enough charge for one shot per battery. Once a battery is inserted, the Jumper has to "charge" for roughly thirty seconds before being able to fire, and can fire 1.5 inch specially-made grenades with "average" radii and okay accuracy, silently. It's fairly bulky. The manufacturing of the coilgun adds severe complexity.
  [Expensive] 2 Ore, 1 Oil, Complex
• HMKR-59 'Osprey': Hybrid Magnetic Kinetic Rifle; a variant of the Pursuit rifle that houses coilgun components to increase the velocity of bullets after conventional firing. Has a slot in the back for a single SynthOil battery, which has enough charge for 10 powered shots (soldiers carry 2 batteries total). Powered shots are accurate to Medium range (unpowered shots to Short range) and have increased lethality and armor piercing capabilities.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 1 Oil
• M1942 Missile, Auto-Guided, Infrared Camera (MAGIC) Mk.2 "Hellfire": The Hellfire Missile is an improvement over the original MAGIC Mk.1 in a few ways. The basic technology behind it as a rocket has improved, a specialized propellant is much more compact and powerful than the one adapted from infantry RPGs, so the rocket is lighter and faster. The structure has gotten lighter as well. The Hellfire includes an entirely new guidance system in the nose, and two sets of fins. Four rear fins are fixed stabilizers, and four fins close to the nose are controlled by servos, rather than solenoids, which gives them the ability to make partial turns. The sensor head consists of 13 individual sensors under a single lens in a diamond shape. There is a rotating circular shroud on top of the sensors, so that only a single "line" of sensors, including the center one and three or four others, can "see" at a time. A "tone generator" makes a noise in the cockpit to alert the pilot when one or more of the missiles on his plane has a target somewhere in his field of view, but doesn't alter based on how well-centered he is or other information. The missile's guidance is more accurate and reliable than the Mk.1, but the rotating shroud means that it might take a second to adjust to a chance in its target's direction, and it tends to slightly spiral around its intended course, a marked improvement from the Mk.1's violent zig-zags. It has a maximum flight time of about 25 seconds, and a maximum range of four miles in that time, and the seeker head can find a target from two to three miles on a good day. It has a 25lb warhead and the entire missile is 500lb.
  [Very Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil, Complex

Land Vehicles

• M3T1A1 Raider: The Raider is a Diesel-Electric tracked APC designed to serve as a base platform for many roles. It has light RHA armor with a sloped front, plus slats. It holds ten passengers and three crew, making it look like a large metal box. It has an interchangeable turret, which is very wide and flat with medium armor. Default armament is a Can shredder, plus 6 external Thumper barrels for smoke grenades and an RPG, these can only be reloaded from the outside. It's also chemical warfare protected, and last but not least, amphibious, with a trim vane and two electric powered propellers. Exits are on large rear hatch and one small top hatch, only latter can be used while afloat.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore 2 Oil
• Privateer 1 1/2 Ton Truck: Cannala's first truck, it's a cabover on an antiquated 3-cylinder, the transmission only has a forward and reverse setting. It's still better than horses, though.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil, Provides 1 TC
• "Halberd"-Electromagnetic Coil Cannon Battletank ECCB-60: A large silent tank armed with a 120mm coilgun and a coaxially-mounted unpowered auto-loading Osprey. Has a respectable speed for its size, and the Coilgun turret is powered but manually aimed. Powered by two SynthOil batteries - one provides enough power for six Coilgun shots, the other provides enough power for four hours of full throttle movement and ten hours of less-fast "travel" movement.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• "Hydra" Electric-Motor Flak Tank EMFT-61: A "tank" where the turret is an unarmored cage on top of the squat chassis where the gunner sits; four self-loading automatic cannons fire automatically consecutively flak shells to shoot down aircraft and infantry. The turret can be angled downwards effectively to shoot at infantry; limited ammo supply means the gunner has to be somewhat conservative with his firing patterns and can't just fill the sky with flak. Electric computer & radar guidance overlays a digital crosshair on a small sheet of "glass" in front of the gunner that is overlaid on top of the physical crosshair to maximize accuracy, allowing for decent accuracy as long as the aircraft isn't too fast or evasive. The commander and driver reside in the cramped interior and exit/enter largely via a door to the side, with the front of the tank being heavily angled downward for firing angle reasons. The turret is an open-air cage making the gunner vulnerable. Can travel for 10 hours on a full SynthOil battery, and the gun doesn't require power to operate.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Air Vehicles

• M1938 A-3 'Parrot': The Parrot is a low-cost air superiority fighter, designed to counter the Yellowjacket. It looks very similar to the Falcon, but without the complicated prop system and reduced to a 10-cyclinder, normally aspirated power plant. It too is fully aluminum, and contains most of the little features like retractable gear, an oxygen system, and a reflex sight. It is actually quite heavily armed with two Muerte heavy machine guns and two Can Perforators, though the perforators don't have a lot of ammo.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 2 Oil
  
  • Macaw Strike Craft: A variant of the Parrot with a turboprop engine hastily retrofitted in. Has a Short range and is faster+more agile than the Parrot but still significantly more sluggish than the Spearhead or any other jet aircraft. Equipped with five 100lb bomb/missile mounts but has no other weapons.
• M1942 A-5B 'Spearhead-B' Air Superiority Fighter: Following Forenia's Thunderbird design, the Spearhead is an aluminum-built fighter with two turbojet engines. It features a rounded canopy, swept wings, pointy nose, and the engines are under each wing, but hug the body closely; the inlets are flush with the fuselage. A heavy Can Shredder sits in the nose. Two Morei turbojets burn kerosene and take some advantage of experiences of the Bull tank's turboshaft, it includes a water-cooling system (the shared radiator creates a third intake under the body). Despite carrying more weight, it's very nearly as fast as the Thunderbird, but it does have trouble recovering from stalls. On the other hand, when it's keeping good speed it can make impressive turns thanks to its hydraulic control system; the pilot can pull the relatively large control surfaces with ease. The Can Shredder can do serious damage to bombers from a safe distance. A hardpoint for 500lb bombs or missiles has been added under each wing.
  [Very Expensive] 4 Ore, 4 Oil

Navy

• Corsair Destroyer: The Corsair is a moderate sized ship with light (for a ship) steel hull armor. It has a light cannon armament of two hydraulic-equipped Nightwind cannons and four Can Shredders. However, its main armament is its Shark Torpedo launchers (it has a couple on each side) and newly-invented Seahorse mines, which use the same warheads as Shark torpedoes but rest on the sea surface, detonating on cpntact with ships. It is powered by steam turbines and easily outpaces battleships like the Kalmar, Kraken and Kurokami.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 3 Oil
• Santos-Class Naval Aircraft Support Vessel: The Santos is a large aircraft carrier. It is about the size of the Khorne but not armored. It's powered by four oil-burning steam turbines, which are more powerful than coal ones. The hangar deck stores two dozen fighters, moved to the flight deck by a hydraulic lift. On deck is an Eagle Eye Radar system, con tower, a few Firecracker AA guns and a miscellaneous autocannons wherever there's spare room. It also has a decent sized flight deck, with an arrester cable for landing aircraft, and two overlapping runways with room for ready aircraft on deck. It also has a steam catapult, which allows it to launch some planes which could not normally take off from its short runway. [5 Ore, 4 Oil]
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Chemicals & Drugs

• Spice: An extremely potent manufactured drug resulting in extreme schizophrenia, delusions of power, frequent seizures, and eventually death. Extremely addictive. Those who undergo the week-long "Goldeneye" treatment in a CryoStat tank become accustomed (and permanently addicted) to low dosages of Spice, enabling very high awareness of surroundings and mildly increased reaction and thinking speeds when under the influence of the drug.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Rare Chemicals, Complex.
• Combat Drug 'Fury': A Spice-based drug that massively decreases reaction time, and lasts for ~2 hours. Also incites rage, decreasing soldier effectiveness at range and chances of occasional friendly fire. Mild hallucinations are common, preventing users from being effective at recon/espionage/etc. roles. Makes veins much more apparent and red. Addictive, and takes effect >5 minutes after injection.
  [Expensive] 3 Rare Chemicals
• Metal Recominators: A special mixture that separates pure metal from ore, obsoleting a large part of Aratam's refining industry. A variant can also be used to fuse metal with (likely) any other matter.
  Provides 1 Ore.

Other

• Standard Uniform: A plain red featureless uniform. The red's mild enough that it doesn't really stick out.
• CryoStat Tank: A large three-meter tall "coffin" with a small glass vertical slit inside showing a tank. Dozens of tubes connect it to the other machinery required for operation, taking up ~36 square meters of space total. Trained technicians monitor and operate it and prepare subjects for submerging. Subjects are put into "stasis" via a numbing solution they're submersed in, and medical drugs are constantly pumped into their body via dozens of injection sites prepared pre-submerging. Once taken out, subjects are put into a machine to recover from the effects of the tank. A day stabilizes minor life-threatening wounds, and a week stabilizes near all wounds. A month starts completely healing scars and generally brings up health status to pristine, and a year can restore lost limbs. Also used for life-extending "rejuvenation" processes by important people.
  [Very Expensive] 4 Rare Chemicals, Complex
• SynthOil: SMRO-58 "SynthOil" is an advanced form of oil - it's made using a combination of oil and other chemicals, making a much more stable and energy-dense solution. Has a peculiar property - with the right tools, it can directly produce electricity.
  Provides 1 Oil

Infrastructure

• The Refinery: An extremely secretive facility hidden under the canopy in a remote part of the rainforest, identifiable only by its smoke. Contains large liquid storage tanks and refineries for the production of chemicals, well-equipped laboratories, cells for test subjects, a steady supply of test subjects from Aratam's prisoners, and more. Useful as a base for chemical research.
  Provides 1 Rare Chemical
• Division of Biological Manipulation: An abandoned set of rooms on top of the Refinery; originally intended for biological manipulation research but was never finished due to a sudden test subject escape.

• Embassy "The Brewery": An embassy for Cannalan diplomats that doubles as a highly advanced brewery of Aratam's signature drink, Arachaca. The Cannalans can see the brewing process below through their glass flooring and taps straight form the brewery are available for Arachaca straight from the source. Uses basic electronic systems for very limited automation in conjunction with its general advanced brewing systems.

[The Just Writer]

*pokes GM with a stick*

What's taking so long?

[Chiefwaffles]

Combat Report: Fall 1961

Merethan Activity
Merethan children prepare for some paper-y beaches to go with their ICEcream as the ME-DDG-61 "Chillwind" sails out to sea. The first guided missile destroyer in the area, it's unfortunately not exactly all that intimidating. It's equipped with an arsenal of 40 Penguin missiles and a "mostly vertical" launch system. Its trademark feature is the Pykrete armor layer - essentially mashed up Aratamite newspapers frozen along with water. It's kept cool by STABIL-ICE piping, but that doesn't last long and ultimately the paper finds its way on Mereth's beaches before the Chillwind sees battle. The ship isn't particularly fast, and equipment/manpower limitations restricts it to only firing a few missiles at a time.

For their revision, Mereth made some improvements to Bear Armour, armoring the hands and including recoil/shock-dampeners to allow for wielding of heavy weaponry such as the AS-AC18, an old-yet-effective autocannon from the Arstotzka-Moskurg War and the Forenia-Cannala War. Bear Troopers can also now wield metal slabs metal shields roughly the size of riot shields along with a one-hand weapon (for a Bear Trooper) for improved protection.

Spoiler: Merethan Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 1
Resources: 3 Ore, 1 Oil

Weapons

• "Stalwart" Rifle: A semi-automatic rifle with mediocre accuracy at Long range and good accuracy at Medium (and useless accuracy further).
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Heartstopper" Pistol: A 2-round semiautomatic pistol semi-accurate up to Short range. Has enormous stopping power. Pride of the Merethan army.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• UF-AC-41 Velociraptor: This autocannon is a revision of AC18, with several improvements. The gun is a little more tolerant of different ammo weights and the shells have been modified so that mixed ammo belts are possible. The use of more advanced materials has allowed some parts to become lighter, while a heavier bolt and stronger spring allows a rate of fire of 750 RPM, with a final gun weight of 48kg. In infantry use, it has noticeably more recoil, but this is less of a concern on vehicles.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore
  
  • AS-AC18: An advanced primer ignition autocannon, which ignites cartridge primers before the round is fully chambered. It fires the new, large, 20x100mm round, fed from a top-mounted 25 round C-shaped magazine with a powerful spring, usually armor piercing, about 600 times per minute. The weapon is quite large with a simple action but heavy barrel, weighing over 40 kilograms, and it requires being mounted to a carriage, foundation, or vehicle to fire with accuracy, although recoil is reduced by the nature of its action. It is dependent on a careful balance between the force of the shell and the force of the action, which means that different ammo types cannot be interchanged without recalibrating the gun. It has a terrifying ability to punch through armor and emplacements. Lighter materials have slightly decreased the weight from the previous 40kg.
    [Cheap] 3 Ore
• UF-MRL-40 'SARUKH': The Sarukh is a multiple rocket launcher, which fires rockets one meter long to deliver 6kg warheads at a maximum range of 12000 meters. The rockets have impressive destructive power, compared to shells they do not need thick metal casings, so most of the weight of the rocket is either warhead or propellant. The rockets are launched electrically off of rails, and the rails are in a 4x2 array. The rockets can be fired all at once, but it takes about four minutes to reload the whole launcher, so the sustained rate of fire is not better than regular artillery. However, a rocket array is extremely light compared to a cannon, and can move very quickly, firing all at once and retreating before fire is returned from the enemy. Accuracy is poor compared to shells; to reliably hit a single target with a volley they should be used within 8km. Currently available as a truck trailer.
  [Expensive] 1 Ore, 3 Oil
  
  • ICE Rocket: A rocket for the Sarukh equipped with an ICE non-explosive warhead. Instant lethalities within 5m, very high fatalities within 10m, serious injuries (and occasional fatality) along with (usually temporary) vehicle non-operation to 50m. The cold dissipates quickly outdoors.
• ICE Thrower: A 20m-ranged pressurized ICE thrower that can rapidly cool an area in front of the operator to (eventually) lethal levels or outright kill/severely harm those directly hit by ICE. The ICE doesn't naturally react until roughly 10m out from the barrel, though it can hit other things in its way and react with whatever it hits. Prolonged use is discouraged, due to close proximity with ICE and ICE-affected areas being very dangerous even with the extensive insulation operators wear.
  [Expensive] 2 Ore, 3 Oil
• AS-RPG28 A: A rocket-propelled grenade, fired out of a launch tube. The grenade itself consists of a conical shape with a narrow tube of propellent out the back, and twisted fins in the middle of the tube. The launch tube is 3cm wide, a meter long and the rocket fits in up to the fins, and is just a metal tube with a handle. To ignite the propellant, soldiers remove a pin, on the rocket, which is first clipped by a short chain to a trigger on the handle. The tube itself and each grenade each weigh 3kg. It is accurate enough to hit a tank out to almost 100 meters, after which it drops quickly. Rockets are available with warheads based on each type of grenade, including a HEAT conical shaped charge.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 1 Oil
• ME-GVM-61 "Penguin": A 33cm diameter 3.5m long black and white missile with long and stubby wings. Controlled remotely via an embedded television camera, and contains basic onboard transistor-based guidance allowing for a relatively straight course when jammed. Two missiles are carried in basic launcher trucks. Has a range of 50 km and a lethal radius of 50m; it can fit an ICE warhead or a HE warhead.
  [Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
• M3 Sorraia GPMG: A 7.62mm machine gun fed from a belt. 50-round belts can be strung together for extended fire or stored in a belt box attached to the Sorraia, which for practical purposes is similar to a magazine. It uses a recoil action, and is configured to fire around 800 rounds per minute, achieved with the help of a muzzle booster (which looks like a flared end on the barrel). Weighs 22 pounds. Comes with a bipod, or tripod for emplacements. It uses copper heat sinks, which are now shrouded. It has a changeable barrel, which is necessary for emplacement use. It is effective to about 800 yards when mounted.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore

Armor

• Standard Uniform: A plain blue featureless uniform. The blue's mild enough that it doesn't really stick out.
• Tiger Infantry Armor: Infantry armor made of a forged manganese steel alloy. All of the armor plates are relatively thick for infantry, and the full suit weighs in at 36 pounds. The helmet is particularly thick, and fits round and close around the head, low over the eyes and down to the neck. It can be attached with a face mask, which allows a wide but very narrow viewing slit, while covering the neck. The breastplate is curved outwards for optimal armor angle. The backplate is thick, but flat. At the waist these plates end and there are flat curved single-piece taces to protect upper legs, below the knee the armor has no coverage. Pauldrons allow comfortable shoulder motion, and upper arms are covered by round fitted plates to the outside of the arm. While lower arms and legs, and sometimes gaps around the shoulders are exposed, most parts of the armor will stop a pistol bullet at point blank. The breastplate and taces will stop rifle bullets at all but very close range. The armor is tiring and cumbersome, troops cannot effectively crawl and kneeling is difficult, as is aiming down rifle sights while using the mask.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore
• ME-PA-59 'Bear Armour: "Infantry" armor based off of the Tiger suit. Boasts full body coverage, albeit with fairly frequent gaps in the joints; armor toughness is identical to Tiger Armor, with insulating fur inner lining. Armor plating is semi-manually removed from the outside through a series of switches to enter/exit/perform maintenance, and the suit must have its Electrogel very routinely replaced to maintain full charge. Lasts 16 hours of consistent high-power use, but use is carefully rationed due to no tracking of the charge. Embarking/disembarking from the outside takes about 30 seconds, and disembarking without assistance takes a few minutes. It stands at [~7 ft/~2m] tall, and uses a smallish bulletproof glass visor for limited visibility. Pilots boast slightly increased speed and slightly decreased agility (but same strength) over regular unarmored individuals while in the Armour, twice the strength of average soldiers, and have their skin dyed blue from the Electrogel. Has mounts for a WALK-TALK and larger ICE Thrower tank, and a velcro strip in the helmet for maximum pilot comfort. Contains advanced shock/recoil-dampening capabilities in gauntlets.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 2 Oil
• Bear Armour Shield: A slab of metal shield roughly the size of a riot shield, made completely out of fairly thick metal, for wielding in one hand of a Bear trooper. Limits visibility and two-hand operations' effectiveness (such as reloading), but doesn't significantly restrict mobility and can be used with weapons such as the Stalwart easily.

Underground Vehicles

• UT-60 Excavator: A tracked medium-sized heavily-modified tunnel boring machine, most notably using GOFAST-fuel. Can go down to Moderate and Shallow depths, moves at Very Slow speeds while underground and at Moderate speeds aboveground. Possesses limited (but notable) agility underground. Contains space for 6 soldiers and small amounts of equipment of the equivalent amount of cargo in the back, in addition to the 2 crew in its cockpit. Light armor. Equipped with the ME-SM-57 'Earth Ear' for basic subterranean navigation.
  [Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil; Provides 1 Ore.
  
  • ME-CM-56 'Instant Roads': A very fast-acting sprayable concrete mixture very useful for reinforcing tunnels when sprayed by trailers hooked to a Burrower. Has to be re-applied occasionally to maintain integrity. Allows for use of Burrower tunnels for force movement and logistics.
    Provides 1 TC.

Air Vehicles

• UFAF-F-41 Lightning Streak: A single-engine jet fighter, with a large aT-J20 jet taking up most of the fuselage. The aT-J20 is a low-bypass turbofan; some of the air taken in by the compressor blades passes around the engine core and is not combusted; the bypass system provides useful cooling. The Lightning Streak has a relatively fat fuselage, which widens out in the middle after the intake and narrows again at the exhaust, there there is a rudder and two tail wings directly on the fuselage. With the round glass canopy (using 15mm of heavy laminated glass) the aircraft has sort of an egg shape, with thin swept wings. The wings have no bomb mounts and are as light as possible for speed and maneuverability, it is armed solely with three AC41 Velociraptor cannons in the nose above the intake, with somewhat limited ammo. It also includes airbrakes on the body near the tail, and hydraulic controls. Since it was designed as an absolutely dedicated fighter the speed and maneuverability are remarkable.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• ME-LRMA-60 "Blizzard": A two-engine jet "Long-Range Multi-Role-Aircraft" based off of the Lightning Streak that uses a 4 "X"-shaped wing configuration via the "Tereshkova Effect" for slightly increased aerodynamics, improved redundancy, and greatly improved coolness. Its two aT-J60gi ICE "freezing stovepipe" ramjet engines allows it to be a fair bit faster than the Lightning Streak. Has one large GOFAST tank and a small STABIL-ICE tank allowing for Long range. Equipped with 4x Velociraptor autocannons, 4 ICE missiles, and 1 tonne of bombs.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Navy

• UFN-CA-41 Catraphract: The Cataphract is a cruiser built to rival Cannala's ships. It is armed with 3x3 150mm gun turrets, each using a fully electrified loading system based on the moderately-performing Overcompensator, except that the 60kg shells are moved in one piece. Each gun can fire 8 times a minute. It has an armored citadel with 300mm of nickel-steel armor (Heavy), and a torpedo belt as well. The deck is also heavily armored, at 120mm (Light) to defend against plunging fire, plus an extra splinter deck. The turrets are similarly armored. There is a central director in the con tower which controls all the electrically-driven turrets, though there is no advanced firing calculator. Additionally there are three turrets with two bumblebees on each side of the ship, capable of firing on aircraft or ships, and miscellaneous autocannons wherever there is room. It is powered by oil-burning steam turbines, and there are a lot of them though with its considerable armor it only musters moderate speed.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• ME-DDG-61 "Chillwind": A Guided Missile Destroyer equipped with a 2x-Bumblebee turret, eight Velociraptors divided amongst both sides of the hulls, all slaved to a 150km aircraft/30km ships radar system. Uses a Mostly Vertical Launch system to house 40 Penguin missile launch tubes - 20 each side - angled 30 degrees down vertically. Crew and equipment requirements mean that only four missiles can be launched and guided at a time. Has a very thin metal hull covered by Pykrete and crisscrossing pipes of STABIL-ICE to keep the Pykrete layer cool and supposedly repair any damage, though it proves ineffective at damage repair and the STABIL-ICE often runs out quickly enough such that a Chillwind's first engagement is usually without any Pykrete armor still intact.
  [Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil

Other

• GOFAST-Fuel: A special type of more energy-dense and stable fuel. Greatly increases fuel efficiency of anything it's in, doesn't require an oxidizer, and can rarely leak out of compromised containers.
  Adds 1 Oil to cost.
• MXETE: Discrete transistor digital mainframe computer - 2 MHz CPU, 4 Mb of magnetic drum long-term memory, and an operating memory of 1200*32 bits. Takes up an entire (very big) floor on the Design Division and creating another one is immensely impractical. Punch card input, with a tightly-packed light matrix called a "screen" for output.
• WALK-TALK: The Wireless Audio Local Kommunicator-Transistor Assistance Lowers Kost Radio. A small hand-held two-way transistor radio. Production is hampered by the ever-persistant Union of Electronics Workers, making it Complex.
  [Expensive] 1 Ore, Complex
• Electrogel: A very thick blue gel that creates and transmits electrical current corresponding to the amount of pressure applied to it. Comes with the "Electrogel Motor" - a very small motor with embedded Electrogel that works with power corresponding to Electrogel pressure. A patch of Electrogel can last roughly 8 hours when powering its corresponding motor nonstop at max power.
• UF-SM-57 'Earth Ear': A set of small attachments to be put on all available sides of a subterranean vehicle. Vibration pings allow it to present a map of "where stuff is" and "where stuff isn't" via a very basic 3D projection in a small gas-filled glass cube. Only useful at recognizing the terrain and notable landmarks, and has a range of 10km in every direction from the device. An increased resolution and the ability to detect movement between scans allows it to detect the movement of reasonably large forces (allied or hostile) and flash relevant sectors red in the display.
• ICE (Intense Chemical Endotherm): A chemical that very quickly reacts with the air to massively reduce heat in the surrounding area, often to the point where nearby things are frozen (ones in the epicenter frozen brittle), vehicles disabled or destroyed, and people killed.
  
  • STABIL-ICE: A variant of ICE that relies on an added catalyst to only react when it's above a target temperature, specified during synthesization of the STABIL-ICE. Useful for ice cream and also maybe cooling of machinery and the like. Tends to slowly decay over time in storage, making it unsuitable for anything that can't expect routine maintenance.

Infrastructure

• Division of Unusual Chemistry: A fully funded department & lab under the Design Division specializing in more unusual chemistry.

• Embassy "Vast Underground Forenian Embassy": An extensive and mildly luxurious underground Forenian embassy dug underneath around the center of Mereth using improvements in excavation technology designed 100% solely for civilian use and definitely nothing else.

Aratamite Activity
Determined to not be outdone by Mereth, Aratam develops their own guided missile. Based on the old imported Hellfire missile from Cannala, the "Storm" GMRL-ECP-61S incorporates active radar guidance , decreased weight, and Aratam's answer to ICE: the ARC warhead. ARC-equipped Storm missiles explode in a burst of arcing electricity, melting and frying everything in its path with devastating chain effects.
But with that being said, the Storm has a short range and blast radius and its radar guidance means it's not particularly effective at hitting anything that's not a big aircraft or naval vessel.

Alongside the Storm missile, Aratam is deploying the SLS-61 Magpie, an entirely new lander revised from scratch. It was extremely ambitious and fell short of expectations, but it technically works. It can transport troops and some armor onto beaches, but its inefficient SynthOil engine means it has to spend most of its intended transport space on fuel storage to make full trips without running out of fuel.

Spoiler: Aratamite Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 1
Resources: 3 Ore, 2 Oil, 2 Rare Chemicals

Weapons

• "Pursuit" Rifle: An 20-round magazine automatic rifle with mediocre accuracy at Medium range (and useless accuracy further).
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Machete" Pistol: A 6-round semiautomatic pistol semi-accurate up to Short range. Reliable.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Jumper" EMA Grenade Launcher: The Electromagnetically Assisted Grenade Launcher "Jumper" is roughly the shape of a very noticeably thicker bazooka-like assembly. It uses inefficient brick-sized SynthOil batteries that provide enough charge for one shot per battery. Once a battery is inserted, the Jumper has to "charge" for roughly thirty seconds before being able to fire, and can fire 1.5 inch specially-made grenades with "average" radii and okay accuracy, silently. It's fairly bulky. The manufacturing of the coilgun adds severe complexity.
  [Expensive] 2 Ore, 1 Oil, Complex
• HMKR-59 'Osprey': Hybrid Magnetic Kinetic Rifle; a variant of the Pursuit rifle that houses coilgun components to increase the velocity of bullets after conventional firing. Has a slot in the back for a single SynthOil battery, which has enough charge for 10 powered shots (soldiers carry 2 batteries total). Powered shots are accurate to Medium range (unpowered shots to Short range) and have increased lethality and armor piercing capabilities.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 1 Oil
• M1942 Missile, Auto-Guided, Infrared Camera (MAGIC) Mk.2 "Hellfire": The Hellfire Missile is an improvement over the original MAGIC Mk.1 in a few ways. The basic technology behind it as a rocket has improved, a specialized propellant is much more compact and powerful than the one adapted from infantry RPGs, so the rocket is lighter and faster. The structure has gotten lighter as well. The Hellfire includes an entirely new guidance system in the nose, and two sets of fins. Four rear fins are fixed stabilizers, and four fins close to the nose are controlled by servos, rather than solenoids, which gives them the ability to make partial turns. The sensor head consists of 13 individual sensors under a single lens in a diamond shape. There is a rotating circular shroud on top of the sensors, so that only a single "line" of sensors, including the center one and three or four others, can "see" at a time. A "tone generator" makes a noise in the cockpit to alert the pilot when one or more of the missiles on his plane has a target somewhere in his field of view, but doesn't alter based on how well-centered he is or other information. The missile's guidance is more accurate and reliable than the Mk.1, but the rotating shroud means that it might take a second to adjust to a chance in its target's direction, and it tends to slightly spiral around its intended course, a marked improvement from the Mk.1's violent zig-zags. It has a maximum flight time of about 25 seconds, and a maximum range of four miles in that time, and the seeker head can find a target from two to three miles on a good day. It has a 25lb warhead and the entire missile is 500lb.
  [Very Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil, Complex
• "Storm" GMRL-ECP-61S: A 250lb active radar homing missile with a 6km range and 5m effective blast radius. Fired from 4-rail trucks (with radar) and aircraft mounts. It has a poor resolution, greatly decreasing the reliability of locking onto non-huge aerial targets and making locking onto surface targets next-to-impossible, though large ships prove easy targets. Equipped with an HE or ARC warhead, with the ARC warhead using a chain SynthOil reaction to generate arcing electricity frying electronics and melting metal as it jumps from conductor to conductor.
  [EXPENSIVE] 3 Ore, 4 Oil

Land Vehicles

• M3T1A1 Raider: The Raider is a Diesel-Electric tracked APC designed to serve as a base platform for many roles. It has light RHA armor with a sloped front, plus slats. It holds ten passengers and three crew, making it look like a large metal box. It has an interchangeable turret, which is very wide and flat with medium armor. Default armament is a Can shredder, plus 6 external Thumper barrels for smoke grenades and an RPG, these can only be reloaded from the outside. It's also chemical warfare protected, and last but not least, amphibious, with a trim vane and two electric powered propellers. Exits are on large rear hatch and one small top hatch, only latter can be used while afloat.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore 2 Oil
• Privateer 1 1/2 Ton Truck: Cannala's first truck, it's a cabover on an antiquated 3-cylinder, the transmission only has a forward and reverse setting. It's still better than horses, though.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil, Provides 1 TC
• "Halberd"-Electromagnetic Coil Cannon Battletank ECCB-60: A large silent tank armed with a 120mm coilgun and a coaxially-mounted unpowered auto-loading Osprey. Has a respectable speed for its size, and the Coilgun turret is powered but manually aimed. Powered by two SynthOil batteries - one provides enough power for six Coilgun shots, the other provides enough power for four hours of full throttle movement and ten hours of less-fast "travel" movement.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• "Hydra" Electric-Motor Flak Tank EMFT-61: A "tank" where the turret is an unarmored cage on top of the squat chassis where the gunner sits; four self-loading automatic cannons fire automatically consecutively flak shells to shoot down aircraft and infantry. The turret can be angled downwards effectively to shoot at infantry; limited ammo supply means the gunner has to be somewhat conservative with his firing patterns and can't just fill the sky with flak. Electric computer & radar guidance overlays a digital crosshair on a small sheet of "glass" in front of the gunner that is overlaid on top of the physical crosshair to maximize accuracy, allowing for decent accuracy as long as the aircraft isn't too fast or evasive. The commander and driver reside in the cramped interior and exit/enter largely via a door to the side, with the front of the tank being heavily angled downward for firing angle reasons. The turret is an open-air cage making the gunner vulnerable. Can travel for 10 hours on a full SynthOil battery, and the gun doesn't require power to operate.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Air Vehicles

• M1938 A-3 'Parrot': The Parrot is a low-cost air superiority fighter, designed to counter the Yellowjacket. It looks very similar to the Falcon, but without the complicated prop system and reduced to a 10-cyclinder, normally aspirated power plant. It too is fully aluminum, and contains most of the little features like retractable gear, an oxygen system, and a reflex sight. It is actually quite heavily armed with two Muerte heavy machine guns and two Can Perforators, though the perforators don't have a lot of ammo.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 2 Oil
  
  • Macaw Strike Craft: A variant of the Parrot with a turboprop engine hastily retrofitted in. Has a Short range and is faster+more agile than the Parrot but still significantly more sluggish than the Spearhead or any other jet aircraft. Equipped with five 100lb bomb/missile mounts but has no other weapons.
• M1942 A-5B 'Spearhead-B' Air Superiority Fighter: Following Forenia's Thunderbird design, the Spearhead is an aluminum-built fighter with two turbojet engines. It features a rounded canopy, swept wings, pointy nose, and the engines are under each wing, but hug the body closely; the inlets are flush with the fuselage. A heavy Can Shredder sits in the nose. Two Morei turbojets burn kerosene and take some advantage of experiences of the Bull tank's turboshaft, it includes a water-cooling system (the shared radiator creates a third intake under the body). Despite carrying more weight, it's very nearly as fast as the Thunderbird, but it does have trouble recovering from stalls. On the other hand, when it's keeping good speed it can make impressive turns thanks to its hydraulic control system; the pilot can pull the relatively large control surfaces with ease. The Can Shredder can do serious damage to bombers from a safe distance. A hardpoint for 500lb bombs or missiles has been added under each wing.
  [Very Expensive] 4 Ore, 4 Oil

Navy

• Corsair Destroyer: The Corsair is a moderate sized ship with light (for a ship) steel hull armor. It has a light cannon armament of two hydraulic-equipped Nightwind cannons and four Can Shredders. However, its main armament is its Shark Torpedo launchers (it has a couple on each side) and newly-invented Seahorse mines, which use the same warheads as Shark torpedoes but rest on the sea surface, detonating on cpntact with ships. It is powered by steam turbines and easily outpaces battleships like the Kalmar, Kraken and Kurokami.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 3 Oil
• Santos-Class Naval Aircraft Support Vessel: The Santos is a large aircraft carrier. It is about the size of the Khorne but not armored. It's powered by four oil-burning steam turbines, which are more powerful than coal ones. The hangar deck stores two dozen fighters, moved to the flight deck by a hydraulic lift. On deck is an Eagle Eye Radar system, con tower, a few Firecracker AA guns and a miscellaneous autocannons wherever there's spare room. It also has a decent sized flight deck, with an arrester cable for landing aircraft, and two overlapping runways with room for ready aircraft on deck. It also has a steam catapult, which allows it to launch some planes which could not normally take off from its short runway. [5 Ore, 4 Oil]
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• SLS-61 Magpie: The Shore-Landing Ship is a basic landing ship with a bow able to open up with a ramp to allow vehicles and troops onto the shore, and has extremely basic treads to de-beach itself. Has Thin armor and a few mounts for infantry rifles on the top to provide basic covering fire. Powered by Generation 1 SynthOil engines, which requires it to use the majority of its cargo space to hold enough SynthOil to make it across the sea without running out of fuel. Normally has a modest capacity for soldiers (and capable of holding a few moderate-sized vehicles), but the fuel requirement limits it to only a small amount of soldiers and/or perhaps one tank at best.
  [Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil

Chemicals & Drugs

• Spice: An extremely potent manufactured drug resulting in extreme schizophrenia, delusions of power, frequent seizures, and eventually death. Extremely addictive. Those who undergo the week-long "Goldeneye" treatment in a CryoStat tank become accustomed (and permanently addicted) to low dosages of Spice, enabling very high awareness of surroundings and mildly increased reaction and thinking speeds when under the influence of the drug.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Rare Chemicals, Complex.
• Combat Drug 'Fury': A Spice-based drug that massively decreases reaction time, and lasts for ~2 hours. Also incites rage, decreasing soldier effectiveness at range and chances of occasional friendly fire. Mild hallucinations are common, preventing users from being effective at recon/espionage/etc. roles. Makes veins much more apparent and red. Addictive, and takes effect >5 minutes after injection.
  [Expensive] 3 Rare Chemicals
• Metal Recominators: A special mixture that separates pure metal from ore, obsoleting a large part of Aratam's refining industry. A variant can also be used to fuse metal with (likely) any other matter.
  Provides 1 Ore.

Other

• Standard Uniform: A plain red featureless uniform. The red's mild enough that it doesn't really stick out.
• CryoStat Tank: A large three-meter tall "coffin" with a small glass vertical slit inside showing a tank. Dozens of tubes connect it to the other machinery required for operation, taking up ~36 square meters of space total. Trained technicians monitor and operate it and prepare subjects for submerging. Subjects are put into "stasis" via a numbing solution they're submersed in, and medical drugs are constantly pumped into their body via dozens of injection sites prepared pre-submerging. Once taken out, subjects are put into a machine to recover from the effects of the tank. A day stabilizes minor life-threatening wounds, and a week stabilizes near all wounds. A month starts completely healing scars and generally brings up health status to pristine, and a year can restore lost limbs. Also used for life-extending "rejuvenation" processes by important people.
  [Very Expensive] 4 Rare Chemicals, Complex
• SynthOil: SMRO-58 "SynthOil" is an advanced form of oil - it's made using a combination of oil and other chemicals, making a much more stable and energy-dense solution. Has a peculiar property - with the right tools, it can directly produce electricity.
  Provides 1 Oil

Infrastructure

• The Refinery: An extremely secretive facility hidden under the canopy in a remote part of the rainforest, identifiable only by its smoke. Contains large liquid storage tanks and refineries for the production of chemicals, well-equipped laboratories, cells for test subjects, a steady supply of test subjects from Aratam's prisoners, and more. Useful as a base for chemical research.
  Provides 1 Rare Chemical
• Division of Biological Manipulation: An abandoned set of rooms on top of the Refinery; originally intended for biological manipulation research but was never finished due to a sudden test subject escape.

• Embassy "The Brewery": An embassy for Cannalan diplomats that doubles as a highly advanced brewery of Aratam's signature drink, Arachaca. The Cannalans can see the brewing process below through their glass flooring and taps straight form the brewery are available for Arachaca straight from the source. Uses basic electronic systems for very limited automation in conjunction with its general advanced brewing systems.

[Chiefwaffles]

Combat Report Fall 1961

Mereth's "boys in blue" go on local tours across the nation's cities this season. Legions of Bear Troopers shake the streets as they march in unison forward. It's quite a patriotic display, and the Merethan populace finds propaganda involving the distinctive Bear Armour becoming commonplace. A popular television spot showcases a Bear Trooper, shield in one hand and ICE thrower in the other, bravely marching through a frozen graveyard of Mereth's enemies.
Elsewhere, an ICE refinery accident results in an entire small town being completely frozen. The military quarantines the area and claims it was due to a terror attack by Aratam, but civilians aren't entirely convinced.

In Aratam, SynthOil-powered cars slowly leak into the civilian market as a luxury for the upper class. Constant refueling is no easy task, but any Aratamite can spot a SynthOil car just by their signature sound; or, rather, their signature lack of sound. Aratamite civilians also begin to notice that their politicians have seemingly not aged at all for numerous years. And that their politicans haven't really moved in position for the same number of years. In fact, the entire upper section of Aratam's government is nearly identical to what it was during the invention of the CryoStat tank.
An underground clinic briefly opens with a stolen CryoStat tank, but is found and neutralized by Goldeneye Aratam operatives.



The Mountains

Air combat over the mountains experiences a notable shift compared to Summer. Despite its relative lack of effectiveness against the Blizzard, Aratam's Storm missiles allow for Aratam's aircraft to exhibit something resembling self-defense. The new missiles are lighter, more agile, cheaper, and just better. They very frequently fail to acquire a lock against Merethan jets, but when they do acquire a lock they have an actual chance of hitting, and the amount of Storm missiles being deployed means that a miss doesn't represent a sixth of Aratam's missiles going down the drain.
One on one, a Blizzard still wins more often than not against Aratam's Spearhead-B. But every now and again, a Storm missile hits and destroys the Blizzard. It's a terrifying experience for the pilot, being hit by an ARC missile. Electronics are fried, the engines are melted to non-functionality, and the wings usually don't resemble "wings" anymore. Worse yet, Blizzard cockpits have a nasty tendency to be melted shut after being hit by missiles, forcing the usually-wounded-yet-alive pilot to watch as their aircraft falls to the ground like a piece of scrap metal.
Ultimately, Mereth still has the edge in air. It's nothing like it used to be and they no longer hold undisputed aerial control, but it's a definite Merethan advantage. Mereth soldiers start fearing occasional air-to-ground ARC missile strikes - usually from Macaw strike craft - but still have confidence in their aerial comrades.


On the ground, the advantage is unquestioned. Bear Troopers lead the advance. Their shields, while essentially slabs of metal, are remarkably effective at reducing the effectiveness of Osprey coilgun-assisted shots. A powered Osprey bullet can most often still pierce the shield but loses enough power doing so that it doesn't pierce the armor itself. Sure, the shields reduce visibility and offensive effectiveness (Bear Troopers can one-hand Stalwart rifles, but aren't as good at reloading and the like; their favorite one-hand weapon is the ICE thrower) but they restore Bear Troopers to walking tanks.

Aratamite forces often rely on the rare Hydra backed with immense infantry support to deal with Bear Troopers now, but the unarmored turret gunner nearly always dies to AS-AC18 gunfire before doing any notable amount of damage, and if a single Bear Trooper armed with an ICE-thrower gets close to the Hydra, they can disable or destroy the entire vehicle.
When the Hydra's deployed, it makes a difference. But the difference, especially compounded with how rarely it's deployed, just isn't enough to prevent the onslaught of Bear Troopers.

The rest is similar to Summer. Frozen graveyards and Penguin missiles are common. Sarukh-fired and Blizzard-fired ICE rockets wreck havoc on Aratam's forces. Aratam's newfound actual participation in aerial combat means they can worry less about airborne rocket and bomb strikes, but the rarity of Blizzards meant that was never a huge factor. Their Macaw and Spearhead-fired Storm missiles can kind of work as ground-attack weapons, but the small blast radius compounded with the few windows of opportunity where Mereth's air cover is cleared means Storm missiles don't make a huge impact on ground here.

Fury troopers become a rarer sight, as their recklessness and aggression does not go well when the enemy has power armor and ICE throwers and all they have is their uniform and Osprey rifle. Not that Fury soldiers actually use the "gun" part of their guns. They prefer bashing their enemies to death with the butt of their Ospreys. When they get to sufficient close-quarters without dying, that is.
Goldeneye troopers continue to be a large boon, but largely in just reducing the threat of Excavator and Penguin attacks. Ambushes aren't frequently seen by Aratamites when Merethan forces can just charge head-on with little casualties.


So Mereth continues to advance. More confidently than last season too, though it's still not easy in any way.
Mereth advances in the Mountains.
[M: 3/4; A: 1/4]



The Sea/The Plains
At sea, both sides see substantial new weapons.
Mereth's Chillwind begins seeing combat, but the Storm finds itself where it works best - against large naval targets.


And, much to the chagrin of Merethan officers and glee of Aratamite officers, Storm missiles are remarkably effective at sea. They're only launched by aircraft, but that's not a problem for Aratam. They're still uncontested over air, after all. The Bumblebee anti-air present on the Chillwind and Cataphract do help to some degree against aerial attacks. But, when Aratam has hordes of Macaws (and a few Spearhead-Bs) to attack their ships with missiles of 6km range, a decent number of Storm missiles are bound to get through. Storm Missiles are also remarkably effective against ships, as they can actually reliable acquire ship-based targets. Better yet for Aratam, sea water conducts electricity. Near misses can still be devastating.
Occasionally a Blizzard launched from the shores can intercept a few Spearhead-Bs and/or Macaws, but eventually the Blizzard either has to return to shore for refueling and reloading or is shot down.

The Chillwind tries to help. It really does. But a single successful missile hit can often have catastrophic results when impacting the Chillwind's largely-unarmored hull. Penguin missiles can be launched far before aircraft get into range, but it's more often than not pure trial and error when only a few missiles can be launched at a time while still holding very poor accuracy against naval targets. Some Aratam ships are sunk, some big ones too, but Chillwind crews know that when they enter in battle it's only a matter of  time before a Storm missile hits.


Nearly all Aratam's landing craft make it to the beach without a single scratch. But it's here where their problems begin.
Penguin missiles find a use again. Bear Troopers become relevant. Excavators have to be dealt with. Mereth's airforce properly comes into play. Aratam landers don't actually transport much.

Aratamite offensives often don't make it past the landing due to ICE rockets and Bear charges. But Aratam learns to rely on the handful of Halberd (and Hydra) tanks that it brings with it to landings. Just like last season, Hydras and Halberds are significantly more-relevant on the plains. Halberds can blow up emplacements and entrenchments with their main coilguns. Hydras can shoot at infantry at ranges where their gunners die a bit less quickly.

But, it's not enough. Infantry assaults are quickly vanquished before the improved Bear Troopers. Armored vehicles have to stay quite a while away from enemy positions, and even then their crews worry about ICE Thrower-and-shield-and-AC18 Bear charges. Penguin missiles can destroy vehicles and landers. And their vehicles are already Very Expensive.
The outcome of the battle is remarkably similar to how it was in Summer. Aratam may have brought a (poor) lander and some (poor at ground-attack) missiles, but Mereth's Bear Armour improvements are nothing to laugh at. As it stands, the only real weapons against shield-wielding Bear Troopers that Aratam has are luck, the Hydra, and the Halberd. Luck is unreliable, the Hydra's gunner is perhaps the most vulnerable position in the Aratamite military, and the Halberd's main cannon isn't really great at shooting infantry with.


Yet again, neither side advances. Aratam dominates at sea still, but their limited armor support can't carry them through the plains.
Neither side advances in the Sea or Plains.
Sea: [M: 0/4; A: 4/4]; Plains: [M: 4/4; A: 0/4]
Aratam gains +1 Oil from continued control of the sea. They are now using all of their TC.
Aratam now has 3 Ore, 3 Oil, 2 Rare Chemicals. TC: 1/1 (1/1 Oil Imported)



Event Completion: Financial Aid
Shipments of alcohol and Oil originating from Cannala are well-received by Aratam.
Aratam gains +1 Oil from Cannalan imports. They are unable to make full use of this +1 Oil, as their TC is already fully used elsewhere.
Aratam now has 3 Ore, 3 Oil, 2 Rare Chemicals. TC: 1/2 (1/2 Oil Imported)

Arstotzkan and Moskurg rebels are grudgingly resettled amongst Mereth. Care is taken to avoid placing them next to each other, but government officials aren't confident that the rebels will just suddenly stop fighting now that they're relocated. They recommend keeping an eye on the newly-acquired rebels.
But, the rebels arrive with shipments of Oil from Forenia. So it's arguably worth it.
Mereth gains +1 Oil from Forenian imports. They are now using all of their TC.
Aratam now has 3 Ore, 2 Oil. TC: 1/1 (1/1 Oil Imported)

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

[M: 2/2; A: 0/2] Mereth: The majority of Mereth's population live in this area in the Tundra, surrounded by a plethora of natural resources making the climate much easier to bear.
2 Ore 1 Oil
[M: 4/4; A: 0/4] Tundra: A frozen landscape with few features. The more northern land starts to be more populated with features facilitating human life, allowing the development of a bustling civilization.
[M: 4/4; A: 0/4] Taiga: A large snowy forest. Cold, but full of life.
[M: 4/4; A: 0/4] Plains: Largely flat terrain full of grass and the occasional hill.
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Sea: Relatively shallow water with beaches next to the Plains and Swamp perfect for ports. Control over this region allows ship-based support (not cargo or troop landing) to be rendered to your forces everywhere but the Taiga and Desert.
1 Oil
[M: 3/4; A: 1/4] Mountains: Treacherous (and often narrow) mountain paths with extreme height differences, the coldest weather on the continent, and only the rare passage viable for anything above small-scale movements.
1 Ore
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Desert: Desert terrain facing little rain and fairly hot temperatures.
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Swamp: A swamp, filled with large stretches of shallow still water, lots of bugs, and lots of swamp-y plants and fauna.
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Jungle: A hot and humid jungle (and rainforest) filled with trees obscuring the sky from the ground. The northern land begins seeing a few clearings, perfect for human habitation.
[M: 0/2; A: 2/2] Aratam: Cities surrounded by jungle with plenty of natural resources and conditions fit for relatively comfortable living.
2 Ore 1 Oil

[Blood_Librarian]

Our Necropoliticians rule.

[Chiefwaffles]

Combat Report: Winter 1961

Merethan Activity
A very distinctive new landmark finds its way onto the Merethan tundras. MAGMA - a really really big hole in the ground - serves as both a national ego-boost and additional supply of ore for its host nation. Miners in Bear armor with jury-rigged STABIL-ICE coolant systems do most of the work, assisted by Excavators also running STABIL-ICE cooling.
Offiicially, the Merethan government calls it a "borehole", but it's really more of an extremely deep quarry. Thanks to the fact that basically everything Mereth has made helped with their excavation, MAGMA breaks many records and some predict that it'll remain a record-breaker for a very long time.

With their spare time during the excavation, Merethan engineers also created a modified Earth Ear system to succesfully detect oil. Unfortunately, regulations stemming from some nasty sinkholes it tends to create bars the new "GASOLINE" system from being used anywhere near civilized portions of Mereth.
As a consequence, oil found using GASOLINE is far enough away that it has to be imported in, and Mereth doesn't have the infrastructure for that. For now, the oil just sits smugly in its deposits. For now.

The only military-affecting portion of the Mereth Design Division's activity during Fall is Bear Armour becoming Cheap due to MAGMA-sourced ore. Other than that, their arsenal remains the same.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 2/1 (1/2 Oil Imported)
Resources: 4 Ore, 2 Oil

Weapons

• "Stalwart" Rifle: A semi-automatic rifle with mediocre accuracy at Long range and good accuracy at Medium (and useless accuracy further).
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Heartstopper" Pistol: A 2-round semiautomatic pistol semi-accurate up to Short range. Has enormous stopping power. Pride of the Merethan army.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• UF-AC-41 Velociraptor: This autocannon is a revision of AC18, with several improvements. The gun is a little more tolerant of different ammo weights and the shells have been modified so that mixed ammo belts are possible. The use of more advanced materials has allowed some parts to become lighter, while a heavier bolt and stronger spring allows a rate of fire of 750 RPM, with a final gun weight of 48kg. In infantry use, it has noticeably more recoil, but this is less of a concern on vehicles.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore
  
  • AS-AC18: An advanced primer ignition autocannon, which ignites cartridge primers before the round is fully chambered. It fires the new, large, 20x100mm round, fed from a top-mounted 25 round C-shaped magazine with a powerful spring, usually armor piercing, about 600 times per minute. The weapon is quite large with a simple action but heavy barrel, weighing over 40 kilograms, and it requires being mounted to a carriage, foundation, or vehicle to fire with accuracy, although recoil is reduced by the nature of its action. It is dependent on a careful balance between the force of the shell and the force of the action, which means that different ammo types cannot be interchanged without recalibrating the gun. It has a terrifying ability to punch through armor and emplacements. Lighter materials have slightly decreased the weight from the previous 40kg.
    [Cheap] 3 Ore
• UF-MRL-40 'SARUKH': The Sarukh is a multiple rocket launcher, which fires rockets one meter long to deliver 6kg warheads at a maximum range of 12000 meters. The rockets have impressive destructive power, compared to shells they do not need thick metal casings, so most of the weight of the rocket is either warhead or propellant. The rockets are launched electrically off of rails, and the rails are in a 4x2 array. The rockets can be fired all at once, but it takes about four minutes to reload the whole launcher, so the sustained rate of fire is not better than regular artillery. However, a rocket array is extremely light compared to a cannon, and can move very quickly, firing all at once and retreating before fire is returned from the enemy. Accuracy is poor compared to shells; to reliably hit a single target with a volley they should be used within 8km. Currently available as a truck trailer.
  [Expensive] 1 Ore, 3 Oil
  
  • ICE Rocket: A rocket for the Sarukh equipped with an ICE non-explosive warhead. Instant lethalities within 5m, very high fatalities within 10m, serious injuries (and occasional fatality) along with (usually temporary) vehicle non-operation to 50m. The cold dissipates quickly outdoors.
• ICE Thrower: A 20m-ranged pressurized ICE thrower that can rapidly cool an area in front of the operator to (eventually) lethal levels or outright kill/severely harm those directly hit by ICE. The ICE doesn't naturally react until roughly 10m out from the barrel, though it can hit other things in its way and react with whatever it hits. Prolonged use is discouraged, due to close proximity with ICE and ICE-affected areas being very dangerous even with the extensive insulation operators wear.
  [Expensive] 2 Ore, 3 Oil
• AS-RPG28 A: A rocket-propelled grenade, fired out of a launch tube. The grenade itself consists of a conical shape with a narrow tube of propellent out the back, and twisted fins in the middle of the tube. The launch tube is 3cm wide, a meter long and the rocket fits in up to the fins, and is just a metal tube with a handle. To ignite the propellant, soldiers remove a pin, on the rocket, which is first clipped by a short chain to a trigger on the handle. The tube itself and each grenade each weigh 3kg. It is accurate enough to hit a tank out to almost 100 meters, after which it drops quickly. Rockets are available with warheads based on each type of grenade, including a HEAT conical shaped charge.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 1 Oil
• ME-GVM-61 "Penguin": A 33cm diameter 3.5m long black and white missile with long and stubby wings. Controlled remotely via an embedded television camera, and contains basic onboard transistor-based guidance allowing for a relatively straight course when jammed. Two missiles are carried in basic launcher trucks. Has a range of 50 km and a lethal radius of 50m; it can fit an ICE warhead or a HE warhead.
  [Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
• M3 Sorraia GPMG: A 7.62mm machine gun fed from a belt. 50-round belts can be strung together for extended fire or stored in a belt box attached to the Sorraia, which for practical purposes is similar to a magazine. It uses a recoil action, and is configured to fire around 800 rounds per minute, achieved with the help of a muzzle booster (which looks like a flared end on the barrel). Weighs 22 pounds. Comes with a bipod, or tripod for emplacements. It uses copper heat sinks, which are now shrouded. It has a changeable barrel, which is necessary for emplacement use. It is effective to about 800 yards when mounted.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore

Armor

• Standard Uniform: A plain blue featureless uniform. The blue's mild enough that it doesn't really stick out.
• Tiger Infantry Armor: Infantry armor made of a forged manganese steel alloy. All of the armor plates are relatively thick for infantry, and the full suit weighs in at 36 pounds. The helmet is particularly thick, and fits round and close around the head, low over the eyes and down to the neck. It can be attached with a face mask, which allows a wide but very narrow viewing slit, while covering the neck. The breastplate is curved outwards for optimal armor angle. The backplate is thick, but flat. At the waist these plates end and there are flat curved single-piece taces to protect upper legs, below the knee the armor has no coverage. Pauldrons allow comfortable shoulder motion, and upper arms are covered by round fitted plates to the outside of the arm. While lower arms and legs, and sometimes gaps around the shoulders are exposed, most parts of the armor will stop a pistol bullet at point blank. The breastplate and taces will stop rifle bullets at all but very close range. The armor is tiring and cumbersome, troops cannot effectively crawl and kneeling is difficult, as is aiming down rifle sights while using the mask.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore
• ME-PA-59 'Bear Armour: "Infantry" armor based off of the Tiger suit. Boasts full body coverage, albeit with fairly frequent gaps in the joints; armor toughness is identical to Tiger Armor, with insulating fur inner lining. Armor plating is semi-manually removed from the outside through a series of switches to enter/exit/perform maintenance, and the suit must have its Electrogel very routinely replaced to maintain full charge. Lasts 16 hours of consistent high-power use, but use is carefully rationed due to no tracking of the charge. Embarking/disembarking from the outside takes about 30 seconds, and disembarking without assistance takes a few minutes. It stands at [~7 ft/~2m] tall, and uses a smallish bulletproof glass visor for limited visibility. Pilots boast slightly increased speed and slightly decreased agility (but same strength) over regular unarmored individuals while in the Armour, twice the strength of average soldiers, and have their skin dyed blue from the Electrogel. Has mounts for a WALK-TALK and larger ICE Thrower tank, and a velcro strip in the helmet for maximum pilot comfort. Contains advanced shock/recoil-dampening capabilities in gauntlets.
  [Cheap] 4 Ore, 2 Oil
• Bear Armour Shield: A slab of metal shield roughly the size of a riot shield, made completely out of fairly thick metal, for wielding in one hand of a Bear trooper. Limits visibility and two-hand operations' effectiveness (such as reloading), but doesn't significantly restrict mobility and can be used with weapons such as the Stalwart easily.

Underground Vehicles

• UT-60 Excavator: A tracked medium-sized heavily-modified tunnel boring machine, most notably using GOFAST-fuel. Can go down to Moderate and Shallow depths, moves at Very Slow speeds while underground and at Moderate speeds aboveground. Possesses limited (but notable) agility underground. Contains space for 6 soldiers and small amounts of equipment of the equivalent amount of cargo in the back, in addition to the 2 crew in its cockpit. Light armor. Equipped with the ME-SM-57 'Earth Ear' for basic subterranean navigation.
  [Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil; Provides 1 Ore.
  
  • ME-CM-56 'Instant Roads': A very fast-acting sprayable concrete mixture very useful for reinforcing tunnels when sprayed by trailers hooked to a Burrower. Has to be re-applied occasionally to maintain integrity. Allows for use of Burrower tunnels for force movement and logistics.
    Provides 1 TC.

Air Vehicles

• UFAF-F-41 Lightning Streak: A single-engine jet fighter, with a large aT-J20 jet taking up most of the fuselage. The aT-J20 is a low-bypass turbofan; some of the air taken in by the compressor blades passes around the engine core and is not combusted; the bypass system provides useful cooling. The Lightning Streak has a relatively fat fuselage, which widens out in the middle after the intake and narrows again at the exhaust, there there is a rudder and two tail wings directly on the fuselage. With the round glass canopy (using 15mm of heavy laminated glass) the aircraft has sort of an egg shape, with thin swept wings. The wings have no bomb mounts and are as light as possible for speed and maneuverability, it is armed solely with three AC41 Velociraptor cannons in the nose above the intake, with somewhat limited ammo. It also includes airbrakes on the body near the tail, and hydraulic controls. Since it was designed as an absolutely dedicated fighter the speed and maneuverability are remarkable.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• ME-LRMA-60 "Blizzard": A two-engine jet "Long-Range Multi-Role-Aircraft" based off of the Lightning Streak that uses a 4 "X"-shaped wing configuration via the "Tereshkova Effect" for slightly increased aerodynamics, improved redundancy, and greatly improved coolness. Its two aT-J60gi ICE "freezing stovepipe" ramjet engines allows it to be a fair bit faster than the Lightning Streak. Has one large GOFAST tank and a small STABIL-ICE tank allowing for Long range. Equipped with 4x Velociraptor autocannons, 4 ICE missiles, and 1 tonne of bombs.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Navy

• UFN-CA-41 Catraphract: The Cataphract is a cruiser built to rival Cannala's ships. It is armed with 3x3 150mm gun turrets, each using a fully electrified loading system based on the moderately-performing Overcompensator, except that the 60kg shells are moved in one piece. Each gun can fire 8 times a minute. It has an armored citadel with 300mm of nickel-steel armor (Heavy), and a torpedo belt as well. The deck is also heavily armored, at 120mm (Light) to defend against plunging fire, plus an extra splinter deck. The turrets are similarly armored. There is a central director in the con tower which controls all the electrically-driven turrets, though there is no advanced firing calculator. Additionally there are three turrets with two bumblebees on each side of the ship, capable of firing on aircraft or ships, and miscellaneous autocannons wherever there is room. It is powered by oil-burning steam turbines, and there are a lot of them though with its considerable armor it only musters moderate speed.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• ME-DDG-61 "Chillwind": A Guided Missile Destroyer equipped with a 2x-Bumblebee turret, eight Velociraptors divided amongst both sides of the hulls, all slaved to a 150km aircraft/30km ships radar system. Uses a Mostly Vertical Launch system to house 40 Penguin missile launch tubes - 20 each side - angled 30 degrees down vertically. Crew and equipment requirements mean that only four missiles can be launched and guided at a time. Has a very thin metal hull covered by Pykrete and crisscrossing pipes of STABIL-ICE to keep the Pykrete layer cool and supposedly repair any damage, though it proves ineffective at damage repair and the STABIL-ICE often runs out quickly enough such that a Chillwind's first engagement is usually without any Pykrete armor still intact.
  [Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil

Other

• GOFAST-Fuel: A special type of more energy-dense and stable fuel. Greatly increases fuel efficiency of anything it's in, doesn't require an oxidizer, and can rarely leak out of compromised containers.
  Adds 1 Oil to cost.
• MXETE: Discrete transistor digital mainframe computer - 2 MHz CPU, 4 Mb of magnetic drum long-term memory, and an operating memory of 1200*32 bits. Takes up an entire (very big) floor on the Design Division and creating another one is immensely impractical. Punch card input, with a tightly-packed light matrix called a "screen" for output.
• WALK-TALK: The Wireless Audio Local Kommunicator-Transistor Assistance Lowers Kost Radio. A small hand-held two-way transistor radio. Production is hampered by the ever-persistant Union of Electronics Workers, making it Complex.
  [Expensive] 1 Ore, Complex
• Electrogel: A very thick blue gel that creates and transmits electrical current corresponding to the amount of pressure applied to it. Comes with the "Electrogel Motor" - a very small motor with embedded Electrogel that works with power corresponding to Electrogel pressure. A patch of Electrogel can last roughly 8 hours when powering its corresponding motor nonstop at max power.
• UF-SM-57 'Earth Ear': A set of small attachments to be put on all available sides of a subterranean vehicle. Vibration pings allow it to present a map of "where stuff is" and "where stuff isn't" via a very basic 3D projection in a small gas-filled glass cube. Only useful at recognizing the terrain and notable landmarks, and has a range of 10km in every direction from the device. An increased resolution and the ability to detect movement between scans allows it to detect the movement of reasonably large forces (allied or hostile) and flash relevant sectors red in the display.
  
  • GASOLINE: The Great Acoustic/Seismic Oil Location Initiative and Extraction device, which fits onto an Earth Ear systems allowing for relative easy surveying of underground oil deposits. Merethan regulation forbids surveying underneath Mereth for alleged safety reasons, meaning oil found as a result of GASOLINE has to be imported using our transport capacity.
    Provides 1 Oil (Import)
• ICE (Intense Chemical Endotherm): A chemical that very quickly reacts with the air to massively reduce heat in the surrounding area, often to the point where nearby things are frozen (ones in the epicenter frozen brittle), vehicles disabled or destroyed, and people killed.
  
  • STABIL-ICE: A variant of ICE that relies on an added catalyst to only react when it's above a target temperature, specified during synthesization of the STABIL-ICE. Useful for ice cream and also maybe cooling of machinery and the like. Tends to slowly decay over time in storage, making it unsuitable for anything that can't expect routine maintenance.

Infrastructure

• Division of Unusual Chemistry: A fully funded department & lab under the Design Division specializing in more unusual chemistry.
• M.A.G.M.A.: A giant borehole made and maintained using Excavators, Bear Armour, Earth Ears, and many more instances of our tech. Uses ad-hoc STABIL-ICE cooling systems fitted onto Bear Armour and excavators to maintain suitable temperatures. The deepest borehole in the world, and brings up notable amounts of ore from existing land.
  Provides +1 Ore

• Embassy "Vast Underground Forenian Embassy": An extensive and mildly luxurious underground Forenian embassy dug underneath around the center of Mereth using improvements in excavation technology designed 100% solely for civilian use and definitely nothing else.

Aratamite Activity
The aptly-named "Tesla Rifle" from Aratam is fairly self-explanatory. It shoots lightning (though Aratamite scientists claim that it's not really lightning in all the required ways) fairly accurately to Medium range. It'd be great against a theoretical Merethan vehicle, but for now the Aratamite military will have to do with using it against Bear soldiers.
It charges gradually, and is able to shoot at any level of charge - deemed Levels 1 through 4 by engineers. Level 1 and 2 shots are underwhelming and aren't recommended for use, but a Level 3 discharge is able to have reliable lethality with a modest yet respectable area-of-effect against anything conductive. Charging to Level 4 is notably more lethal and "explosive", but also has a chance to backfire. So it's not recommended. Charging to Level 3 takes about a minute and while charging can be paused, the Tesla Rifle can't hold a charge for too long. So soldiers tend to charge on demand. The backpack SynthOil tank accompanying the weapon has enough juice for 5 Level 3 shots.
Its ore and oil costs are easily handled by Aratam, but it's Complex enough to be Expensive.

Aratamite engineers also did the ol' "turn our biggest ship into a cargo ship" strategy, creating the Atlas-class Cargo Ship for a smooth 2 TC. As a result, the Storm missile is Cheap, the Halberd and Hydra tanks are Expensive, and the Santos-class is Expensive as well. Also as a result of imports Aratam already had the TC for, the Magpie is Cheap and the Spearhead-B Expensive.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 2/3 (2/2 Oil Imported)
Resources: 3 Ore, 4 Oil, 2 Rare Chemicals

Weapons

• "Pursuit" Rifle: An 20-round magazine automatic rifle with mediocre accuracy at Medium range (and useless accuracy further).
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Machete" Pistol: A 6-round semiautomatic pistol semi-accurate up to Short range. Reliable.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Jumper" EMA Grenade Launcher: The Electromagnetically Assisted Grenade Launcher "Jumper" is roughly the shape of a very noticeably thicker bazooka-like assembly. It uses inefficient brick-sized SynthOil batteries that provide enough charge for one shot per battery. Once a battery is inserted, the Jumper has to "charge" for roughly thirty seconds before being able to fire, and can fire 1.5 inch specially-made grenades with "average" radii and okay accuracy, silently. It's fairly bulky. The manufacturing of the coilgun adds severe complexity.
  [Expensive] 2 Ore, 1 Oil, Complex
• HMKR-59 'Osprey': Hybrid Magnetic Kinetic Rifle; a variant of the Pursuit rifle that houses coilgun components to increase the velocity of bullets after conventional firing. Has a slot in the back for a single SynthOil battery, which has enough charge for 10 powered shots (soldiers carry 2 batteries total). Powered shots are accurate to Medium range (unpowered shots to Short range) and have increased lethality and armor piercing capabilities.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 1 Oil
• Tesla Rifle: A "rifle" that fires bolts of ARC lightning at Medium range. Using an inner "Lightning Rod" chamber, it gradually charges from a backpack SynthOil battery - it has four levels of charge, with Level 3 being the optimum Medium range + good lethality and Level 4 being overkill with a chance of explosive backfiring. It takes about a minute to charge to Level 3 (charging can be paused but the charge decays over time), and the battery has enough juice for 5 Lvl3 shots. Extremely lethal against anything conductive, and has a modest area-of-effect as the electricity arcs to other conductors in close proximity. Can be hooked up to external SynthOil batteries as well.
  [Expensive] 2 Ore, 2 Oil, Complex
• M1942 Missile, Auto-Guided, Infrared Camera (MAGIC) Mk.2 "Hellfire": The Hellfire Missile is an improvement over the original MAGIC Mk.1 in a few ways. The basic technology behind it as a rocket has improved, a specialized propellant is much more compact and powerful than the one adapted from infantry RPGs, so the rocket is lighter and faster. The structure has gotten lighter as well. The Hellfire includes an entirely new guidance system in the nose, and two sets of fins. Four rear fins are fixed stabilizers, and four fins close to the nose are controlled by servos, rather than solenoids, which gives them the ability to make partial turns. The sensor head consists of 13 individual sensors under a single lens in a diamond shape. There is a rotating circular shroud on top of the sensors, so that only a single "line" of sensors, including the center one and three or four others, can "see" at a time. A "tone generator" makes a noise in the cockpit to alert the pilot when one or more of the missiles on his plane has a target somewhere in his field of view, but doesn't alter based on how well-centered he is or other information. The missile's guidance is more accurate and reliable than the Mk.1, but the rotating shroud means that it might take a second to adjust to a chance in its target's direction, and it tends to slightly spiral around its intended course, a marked improvement from the Mk.1's violent zig-zags. It has a maximum flight time of about 25 seconds, and a maximum range of four miles in that time, and the seeker head can find a target from two to three miles on a good day. It has a 25lb warhead and the entire missile is 500lb.
  [Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil, Complex
• "Storm" GMRL-ECP-61S: A 250lb active radar homing missile with a 6km range and 5m effective blast radius. Fired from 4-rail trucks (with radar) and aircraft mounts. It has a poor resolution, greatly decreasing the reliability of locking onto non-huge aerial targets and making locking onto surface targets next-to-impossible, though large ships prove easy targets. Equipped with an HE or ARC warhead, with the ARC warhead using a chain SynthOil reaction to generate arcing electricity frying electronics and melting metal as it jumps from conductor to conductor.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 4 Oil

Land Vehicles

• M3T1A1 Raider: The Raider is a Diesel-Electric tracked APC designed to serve as a base platform for many roles. It has light RHA armor with a sloped front, plus slats. It holds ten passengers and three crew, making it look like a large metal box. It has an interchangeable turret, which is very wide and flat with medium armor. Default armament is a Can shredder, plus 6 external Thumper barrels for smoke grenades and an RPG, these can only be reloaded from the outside. It's also chemical warfare protected, and last but not least, amphibious, with a trim vane and two electric powered propellers. Exits are on large rear hatch and one small top hatch, only latter can be used while afloat.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore 2 Oil
• Privateer 1 1/2 Ton Truck: Cannala's first truck, it's a cabover on an antiquated 3-cylinder, the transmission only has a forward and reverse setting. It's still better than horses, though.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil, Provides 1 TC
• "Halberd"-Electromagnetic Coil Cannon Battletank ECCB-60: A large silent tank armed with a 120mm coilgun and a coaxially-mounted unpowered auto-loading Osprey. Has a respectable speed for its size, and the Coilgun turret is powered but manually aimed. Powered by two SynthOil batteries - one provides enough power for six Coilgun shots, the other provides enough power for four hours of full throttle movement and ten hours of less-fast "travel" movement.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• "Hydra" Electric-Motor Flak Tank EMFT-61: A "tank" where the turret is an unarmored cage on top of the squat chassis where the gunner sits; four self-loading automatic cannons fire automatically consecutively flak shells to shoot down aircraft and infantry. The turret can be angled downwards effectively to shoot at infantry; limited ammo supply means the gunner has to be somewhat conservative with his firing patterns and can't just fill the sky with flak. Electric computer & radar guidance overlays a digital crosshair on a small sheet of "glass" in front of the gunner that is overlaid on top of the physical crosshair to maximize accuracy, allowing for decent accuracy as long as the aircraft isn't too fast or evasive. The commander and driver reside in the cramped interior and exit/enter largely via a door to the side, with the front of the tank being heavily angled downward for firing angle reasons. The turret is an open-air cage making the gunner vulnerable. Can travel for 10 hours on a full SynthOil battery, and the gun doesn't require power to operate.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Air Vehicles

• M1938 A-3 'Parrot': The Parrot is a low-cost air superiority fighter, designed to counter the Yellowjacket. It looks very similar to the Falcon, but without the complicated prop system and reduced to a 10-cyclinder, normally aspirated power plant. It too is fully aluminum, and contains most of the little features like retractable gear, an oxygen system, and a reflex sight. It is actually quite heavily armed with two Muerte heavy machine guns and two Can Perforators, though the perforators don't have a lot of ammo.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 2 Oil
  
  • Macaw Strike Craft: A variant of the Parrot with a turboprop engine hastily retrofitted in. Has a Short range and is faster+more agile than the Parrot but still significantly more sluggish than the Spearhead or any other jet aircraft. Equipped with five 100lb bomb/missile mounts but has no other weapons.
• M1942 A-5B 'Spearhead-B' Air Superiority Fighter: Following Forenia's Thunderbird design, the Spearhead is an aluminum-built fighter with two turbojet engines. It features a rounded canopy, swept wings, pointy nose, and the engines are under each wing, but hug the body closely; the inlets are flush with the fuselage. A heavy Can Shredder sits in the nose. Two Morei turbojets burn kerosene and take some advantage of experiences of the Bull tank's turboshaft, it includes a water-cooling system (the shared radiator creates a third intake under the body). Despite carrying more weight, it's very nearly as fast as the Thunderbird, but it does have trouble recovering from stalls. On the other hand, when it's keeping good speed it can make impressive turns thanks to its hydraulic control system; the pilot can pull the relatively large control surfaces with ease. The Can Shredder can do serious damage to bombers from a safe distance. A hardpoint for 500lb bombs or missiles has been added under each wing.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 4 Oil

Navy

• Corsair Destroyer: The Corsair is a moderate sized ship with light (for a ship) steel hull armor. It has a light cannon armament of two hydraulic-equipped Nightwind cannons and four Can Shredders. However, its main armament is its Shark Torpedo launchers (it has a couple on each side) and newly-invented Seahorse mines, which use the same warheads as Shark torpedoes but rest on the sea surface, detonating on cpntact with ships. It is powered by steam turbines and easily outpaces battleships like the Kalmar, Kraken and Kurokami.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 3 Oil
• Santos-Class Naval Aircraft Support Vessel: The Santos is a large aircraft carrier. It is about the size of the Khorne but not armored. It's powered by four oil-burning steam turbines, which are more powerful than coal ones. The hangar deck stores two dozen fighters, moved to the flight deck by a hydraulic lift. On deck is an Eagle Eye Radar system, con tower, a few Firecracker AA guns and a miscellaneous autocannons wherever there's spare room. It also has a decent sized flight deck, with an arrester cable for landing aircraft, and two overlapping runways with room for ready aircraft on deck. It also has a steam catapult, which allows it to launch some planes which could not normally take off from its short runway. [5 Ore, 4 Oil]
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• SLS-61 Magpie: The Shore-Landing Ship is a basic landing ship with a bow able to open up with a ramp to allow vehicles and troops onto the shore, and has extremely basic treads to de-beach itself. Has Thin armor and a few mounts for infantry rifles on the top to provide basic covering fire. Powered by Generation 1 SynthOil engines, which requires it to use the majority of its cargo space to hold enough SynthOil to make it across the sea without running out of fuel. Normally has a modest capacity for soldiers (and capable of holding a few moderate-sized vehicles), but the fuel requirement limits it to only a small amount of soldiers and/or perhaps one tank at best.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
• Atlas-class Cargo Ship: A Santos-class with the weaponry and aircraft equipment and just about everything else stripped off. Utilizes SynthOil batteries for general powering of ship, though oil-burning steam turbines from the Santos still power most of it. Uses a system derived from Cryostats to cryogenically freeze perishable cargo as well as people for maximum storage efficiency.
  Provides 2 TC

Chemicals & Drugs

• Spice: An extremely potent manufactured drug resulting in extreme schizophrenia, delusions of power, frequent seizures, and eventually death. Extremely addictive. Those who undergo the week-long "Goldeneye" treatment in a CryoStat tank become accustomed (and permanently addicted) to low dosages of Spice, enabling very high awareness of surroundings and mildly increased reaction and thinking speeds when under the influence of the drug.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Rare Chemicals, Complex.
• Combat Drug 'Fury': A Spice-based drug that massively decreases reaction time, and lasts for ~2 hours. Also incites rage, decreasing soldier effectiveness at range and chances of occasional friendly fire. Mild hallucinations are common, preventing users from being effective at recon/espionage/etc. roles. Makes veins much more apparent and red. Addictive, and takes effect >5 minutes after injection.
  [Expensive] 3 Rare Chemicals
• Metal Recominators: A special mixture that separates pure metal from ore, obsoleting a large part of Aratam's refining industry. A variant can also be used to fuse metal with (likely) any other matter.
  Provides 1 Ore.

Other

• Standard Uniform: A plain red featureless uniform. The red's mild enough that it doesn't really stick out.
• CryoStat Tank: A large three-meter tall "coffin" with a small glass vertical slit inside showing a tank. Dozens of tubes connect it to the other machinery required for operation, taking up ~36 square meters of space total. Trained technicians monitor and operate it and prepare subjects for submerging. Subjects are put into "stasis" via a numbing solution they're submersed in, and medical drugs are constantly pumped into their body via dozens of injection sites prepared pre-submerging. Once taken out, subjects are put into a machine to recover from the effects of the tank. A day stabilizes minor life-threatening wounds, and a week stabilizes near all wounds. A month starts completely healing scars and generally brings up health status to pristine, and a year can restore lost limbs. Also used for life-extending "rejuvenation" processes by important people.
  [Very Expensive] 4 Rare Chemicals, Complex
• SynthOil: SMRO-58 "SynthOil" is an advanced form of oil - it's made using a combination of oil and other chemicals, making a much more stable and energy-dense solution. Has a peculiar property - with the right tools, it can directly produce electricity.
  Provides 1 Oil

Infrastructure

• The Refinery: An extremely secretive facility hidden under the canopy in a remote part of the rainforest, identifiable only by its smoke. Contains large liquid storage tanks and refineries for the production of chemicals, well-equipped laboratories, cells for test subjects, a steady supply of test subjects from Aratam's prisoners, and more. Useful as a base for chemical research.
  Provides 1 Rare Chemical
• Division of Biological Manipulation: An abandoned set of rooms on top of the Refinery; originally intended for biological manipulation research but was never finished due to a sudden test subject escape.

• Embassy "The Brewery": An embassy for Cannalan diplomats that doubles as a highly advanced brewery of Aratam's signature drink, Arachaca. The Cannalans can see the brewing process below through their glass flooring and taps straight form the brewery are available for Arachaca straight from the source. Uses basic electronic systems for very limited automation in conjunction with its general advanced brewing systems.

[Chiefwaffles]

Combat Report Winter 1961

MAGMA has become something of a hot new residential destination and is already considered the second-largest "city" in Mereth, under Mereth itself. Homes and businesses line the superdeep quarry, with rather perilous skywalks crisscrossing to connect the sides in addition to the roads and paths carved into MAGMA's sides. At just the right depth, the ambient heat is enough to counteract the natural cold of Mereth's tundras for a very comfortable room-ish temperature. Water can be easily heated just by piping it a relatively small length below then back up, and there's just some kind of charm to living in the side of the world's deepest quarry.
Cheaper real estate (legal or otherwise) can be found beneath these homes, where a thriving criminal element (in addition to a substantial mostly-law-abiding lower class) houses itself. Given MAGMA's immense size and depth in combination with the fact that anyone with some tools can hollow out a home. Lots of small hand-carved holes in the rock with a handmade plank balcony covered by some cloth. Organized crime prospers the most, where they can hollow out gigantic yet subtle complexes to house their criminal observations and hunt down anyone that dares to compete.

Due to its increasing cheapness, Bear Armour has also found its way into Mereth's commercial sectors. Plenty of businesses have at least one suit lying around for especially heavy shipments and goods. The difficult and time-consuming recharging process means that only particularly wealthy enterprises can afford to consistently operate a "fleet" of Bear Armour for their needs.


In Aratam, "necropolitican" becomes an immensely popular term for its government and parts of its upper class especially involved in governance. Use of the CryoStat tanks allow these individuals to effectively stay the same age and remain healthy from all known ailments. Rumblings of change in government begins to grow, as necropoliticians begin vying for influence among themselves. Rumors spread of Goldeneye special-ops being used to eliminate political opponents, though the entire Aratam government denies everything about this.

The Bureau of Enhanced Operations is founded to direct and control all "Enhanced" (read: chemically-addicted) individuals not operating as foot soldiers in the conflict with Mereth. This includes Goldeneye-enhanced and Fury-wielding police officers as well as special ops terms using chemicals to aid their performance, both in domestic and foreign operations. While the presence of the BEO quickly and visibly increases the competence of enhanced police officers, rumors still spread that the necropoliticians fight among each other for control of portions of the Bureau. Despite this, the Bureau quickly rises to become Aratam's number one intelligence agency.


The Mountains
In air over the mountains, Mereth finally loses its dominance.

While the Blizzard is still unquestionably superior to the Spearhead-B, the Spearhead-B is now Expensive. Furthermore, Storm missiles are Cheap. Blizzards are still competent enough to keep Aratam from having substantial control of the air, even when outnumbered by Spearheads, but the small number of Blizzards can no longer spend any substantial amount of time preventing Aratamite aerial bombardment of Merethan ground forces.


The harsh Winter in the Mountains is a painful reality to every soldier here, but a bit less-so to the Merethan Bear troopers. Their armor already has design considerations to work with the ICE Thrower. While it's not amazing, it does allow for Bear soldiers to live a bit more comfortably. It's also not constant, given Bear soldiers have to frequently dismount for lengthy recharging of the suit and have to generally march without it to preserve power. But compared to Aratam's nothing, it's something.

Luckily for Mereth, Aratam's newly-Expensive tanks still aren't terribly useful in the mountains. Meaning the Bear Armour given to every soldier has a substantial advantage here. Aratamite infantry occasionally field the Tesla Rifle with devastating effectiveness, but it's unsurprisingly easy to track where the giant horizontal arc of lightning came from and the Tesla Rifle has a low rate of fire and is Expensive. The Osprey is mostly relied upon to deal with Mereth's all-Bear-trooper forces here in the mountains, but it can only occasionally get a lucky shot past a shield to disable or kill a Bear trooper.
Tanks and vehicles do have a presence, but their constricted movement and the winding mountain paths mean it's all to easy for an ICE Thrower-based ambush to stop a convoy dead in its tracks.


Mereth's army, clad entirely in Bear Armour, begins to look over the desert after finally passing through the harsh mountain passes.
Mereth advances in the Mountains. Next turn will be fought on the borders of the Mountain and the Desert.
[M: 4/4; A: 0/4]
Mereth will gain +1 Ore if they continue to hold the Mountains for another turn.


The Sea/The Plains
Merethans crewing their vessels at sea go to sleep fearing of an Aratamite attack.

As soon as the alarms begin going off, they know that their time is limited. Every Aratamite plane is equipped with a Storm missile. Every plane. Just a few need to at least hit near their target to cripple if not sink it. Anti-air battery fire can sometimes shoot down some planes before they fire a missile, but most missiles are fired before Bumblebee AA is practical enough to give their ships a serious chance at survival.

Not every air raid ends in disaster for Mereth, but most do. With their only weapon against aircraft still being Bumblebee AA, there's not much they can do. Blizzards patrol parts of the sea near to the coast (which, arguably lucky for Mereth, is most of where they're fighting at sea) and fly succesful interceptions, but there's not enough Blizzards and not enough fuel for the Blizzards to consistently prevent aerial attacks; a Blizzard has to already be in the air close to the battle group to have any chance of helping during aerial raids. Occasionally a nearby Chillwind gets lucky and sinks Aratamite vessels before the Storm-equipped airplanes begin targeting it, but Penguin missiles still aren't terribly effective at sea.

Aratamite transports move to the coast as their escorts easily dispatch Merethan resistance.


At the coast, Cheap Magpies just barely manage to land a substantial number of Aratam's now-Expensive tanks. A decent amount of infantry comes along too, but the Aratamite invasion force largely continues forward while larger ships more slowly deploy the rest of Aratam's infantry.
With the greater cheapness of tanks, Aratam can now reliably base their coastal assault around them. There's still not a tremendous amount of tanks, but Mereth has no armor of its own and their only anti-tank solution that works at anything other than close range is the AS-RPG28 A.

Hydra and Halberds lay constant waste to Mereth's defensive lines. A Halberd shell still annihilates anything standing in its way though aiming it in the first place is a difficult task, and a Hydra's turret can easily eliminate shield-wielding Bear troopers. A Bear soldier with their shield raised may be able to survive a few shots before being taken out of commission, but the rate of fire of the Hydra means that a Bear soldier should really avoid being caught out of cover by a Hydra.
Taking cover behind the tanks as they advance, soldiers wielding the somewhat-bulky Tesla Rifle ensure that any enemy not taken out by the tanks gets zapped instead. Tesla Rifles may not be terribly common and have - quite frankly - awful fire rates, but their lethality combined with area of effect radius means that they work with Aratam armor quite well.

Mereth may have Cheap Bear armour now, but when Aratam tanks are more than an extreme rarity and Aratamite infantry has a weapon that can reliably kill (even multiple at once) Bear troopers regardless of shields and even sometimes cover, it's not enough to make up. ICE Throwers being used to take out tanks is no longer nearly as common. Bear troopers just can't get close enough to tanks.

In the trenches, Aratam has a harder time. Their tanks can no longer directly eliminate Merethans and using a Tesla Rifle in CQC is really the worst idea to possibly have. Yet the Halberd's ability to just bombard trenches combined with the decreased usefulness of the shield against the Osprey at close-quarters means they pull through. Fury-using soldiers are now significantly less useful as bashing Bear troopers with rifle butts is commonly seen as a bad idea and the rest of Aratam decided to not let Fury soldiers use the Tesla Rifle. Goldeneyes still help in general and against Excavators, though.

Aratam would have an easy victory if it wasn't for the Sarukh. As they advance through the plains they still have to deal with fairly frequent ICE-missile bombardment constantly taking its toll. But even as Aratam forces brave the bombardments, they can rely on the fact that they no longer have to worry about the air as their Spearheads keep Mereth Blizzards distracted.


Even if it wasn't easy, the outcome is obvious. Aratam finally establishes a beachhead on the Plains.
Aratam advances in the Plains.
Sea: [M: 0/4; A: 4/4]; Plains: [M: 3/4; A: 1/4]



Event: Domestic Issues
Merethan politicans become a bit nervous of the Forenian rebels making their homes in MAGMA's slums. They've only become emboldened in their fighting, thanks to widely-available Bear Armour. For a while, parts of the slums experience all-out combat between Arstotzkan and Moskurg rebels as they fight on the skywalks, indoors, and in the carved roads. Even shipments of ore to the surface start to become disrupted as the threat of rebel hijacking or just collateral damage becomes too great.
Ultimately, Mereth imposes a heavy set of regulations on the use of Bear Armour and requires a fairly-hard-to-get license for its legal operation and sale. They also begin to fully outfit the police force in Bear Armour in order to counteract criminal elements that get the occasional black market suit or continue to operate their suits bought pre-regulation.
It takes some considerable resources and opportunity costs to do this, but it's offset by the booming Bear-aided industry.


Aratam's Bureau of Enhanced Operations reports its first major foreign success, managing to take advantage of the already-extremely-volatile Forenian rebel situation in the Merethan slums of MAGMA to change the destination of some resource shipments. Officially, it's all thanks to the stunning work of the Goldeneye-operatives working under the new agency, but unofficially the operation's success is almost entirely thanks to the Forenian rebels preventing the shipments in the first place. Just some tactical bribes and arm sales to both sides and they let a few Aratamite shipments out.
Aratam has gained a Resource Credit.

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

[M: 2/2; A: 0/2] Mereth: The majority of Mereth's population live in this area in the Tundra, surrounded by a plethora of natural resources making the climate much easier to bear.
2 Ore 1 Oil
[M: 4/4; A: 0/4] Tundra: A frozen landscape with few features. The more northern land starts to be more populated with features facilitating human life, allowing the development of a bustling civilization.
[M: 4/4; A: 0/4] Taiga: A large snowy forest. Cold, but full of life.
[M: 3/4; A: 1/4] Plains: Largely flat terrain full of grass and the occasional hill.
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Sea: Relatively shallow water with beaches next to the Plains and Swamp perfect for ports. Control over this region allows ship-based support (not cargo or troop landing) to be rendered to your forces everywhere but the Taiga and Desert.
1 Oil
[M: 4/4; A: 0/4] Mountains: Treacherous (and often narrow) mountain paths with extreme height differences, the coldest weather on the continent, and only the rare passage viable for anything above small-scale movements.
1 Ore
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Desert: Desert terrain facing little rain and fairly hot temperatures.
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Swamp: A swamp, filled with large stretches of shallow still water, lots of bugs, and lots of swamp-y plants and fauna.
[M: 0/4; A: 4/4] Jungle: A hot and humid jungle (and rainforest) filled with trees obscuring the sky from the ground. The northern land begins seeing a few clearings, perfect for human habitation.
[M: 0/2; A: 2/2] Aratam: Cities surrounded by jungle with plenty of natural resources and conditions fit for relatively comfortable living.
2 Ore 1 Oil

[Rockeater]

ptw

[Rockeater]

Who need their politician to change positions

[Chiefwaffles]

Combat Report: Spring 1962

Merethan Activity
Few words emerge from the underground Merethan workshops and laboratories regarding where most of this season's effort went., other than "world-destroying" and "MegaICE" and "global ice age". But that's literally always a rumor around Merethan R&D.

However, a """new""" boat is spotted in Merethan armors. Specifically, the ME-MV-61 "Makeshift is a Cataphract with pretty much everything taken out for cargo space. Aratamite Necropoliticians accuse Merethans of "copying", and Merethan engineers publically counter this by stating officially that a makeshift cargo boat wasn't exactly an Aratamite invention either.
The Makeshift offers 2 TC, which allows for another TC-worth of Oil to be shipped to Mereth's refineries and factories.

The Sarukh, ICE Thrower, Penguin missile, Chillwind, and Excavator have all been made Cheap by the new oil. The Blizzard and Cataphract are now Expensive. Reports of maniacal laughter coming from the Merethan Design Division once the logistics report came in are completely unsubstantiated, claims Mereth.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 2/3 (2/2 Oil Imported)
Resources: 4 Ore, 3 Oil

Weapons

• "Stalwart" Rifle: A semi-automatic rifle with mediocre accuracy at Long range and good accuracy at Medium (and useless accuracy further).
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Heartstopper" Pistol: A 2-round semiautomatic pistol semi-accurate up to Short range. Has enormous stopping power. Pride of the Merethan army.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• UF-AC-41 Velociraptor: This autocannon is a revision of AC18, with several improvements. The gun is a little more tolerant of different ammo weights and the shells have been modified so that mixed ammo belts are possible. The use of more advanced materials has allowed some parts to become lighter, while a heavier bolt and stronger spring allows a rate of fire of 750 RPM, with a final gun weight of 48kg. In infantry use, it has noticeably more recoil, but this is less of a concern on vehicles.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore
  
  • AS-AC18: An advanced primer ignition autocannon, which ignites cartridge primers before the round is fully chambered. It fires the new, large, 20x100mm round, fed from a top-mounted 25 round C-shaped magazine with a powerful spring, usually armor piercing, about 600 times per minute. The weapon is quite large with a simple action but heavy barrel, weighing over 40 kilograms, and it requires being mounted to a carriage, foundation, or vehicle to fire with accuracy, although recoil is reduced by the nature of its action. It is dependent on a careful balance between the force of the shell and the force of the action, which means that different ammo types cannot be interchanged without recalibrating the gun. It has a terrifying ability to punch through armor and emplacements. Lighter materials have slightly decreased the weight from the previous 40kg.
    [Cheap] 3 Ore
• UF-MRL-40 'SARUKH': The Sarukh is a multiple rocket launcher, which fires rockets one meter long to deliver 6kg warheads at a maximum range of 12000 meters. The rockets have impressive destructive power, compared to shells they do not need thick metal casings, so most of the weight of the rocket is either warhead or propellant. The rockets are launched electrically off of rails, and the rails are in a 4x2 array. The rockets can be fired all at once, but it takes about four minutes to reload the whole launcher, so the sustained rate of fire is not better than regular artillery. However, a rocket array is extremely light compared to a cannon, and can move very quickly, firing all at once and retreating before fire is returned from the enemy. Accuracy is poor compared to shells; to reliably hit a single target with a volley they should be used within 8km. Currently available as a truck trailer.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 3 Oil
  
  • ICE Rocket: A rocket for the Sarukh equipped with an ICE non-explosive warhead. Instant lethalities within 5m, very high fatalities within 10m, serious injuries (and occasional fatality) along with (usually temporary) vehicle non-operation to 50m. The cold dissipates quickly outdoors.
• ICE Thrower: A 20m-ranged pressurized ICE thrower that can rapidly cool an area in front of the operator to (eventually) lethal levels or outright kill/severely harm those directly hit by ICE. The ICE doesn't naturally react until roughly 10m out from the barrel, though it can hit other things in its way and react with whatever it hits. Prolonged use is discouraged, due to close proximity with ICE and ICE-affected areas being very dangerous even with the extensive insulation operators wear.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 3 Oil
• AS-RPG28 A: A rocket-propelled grenade, fired out of a launch tube. The grenade itself consists of a conical shape with a narrow tube of propellent out the back, and twisted fins in the middle of the tube. The launch tube is 3cm wide, a meter long and the rocket fits in up to the fins, and is just a metal tube with a handle. To ignite the propellant, soldiers remove a pin, on the rocket, which is first clipped by a short chain to a trigger on the handle. The tube itself and each grenade each weigh 3kg. It is accurate enough to hit a tank out to almost 100 meters, after which it drops quickly. Rockets are available with warheads based on each type of grenade, including a HEAT conical shaped charge.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 1 Oil
• ME-GVM-61 "Penguin": A 33cm diameter 3.5m long black and white missile with long and stubby wings. Controlled remotely via an embedded television camera, and contains basic onboard transistor-based guidance allowing for a relatively straight course when jammed. Two missiles are carried in basic launcher trucks. Has a range of 50 km and a lethal radius of 50m; it can fit an ICE warhead or a HE warhead.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
• M3 Sorraia GPMG: A 7.62mm machine gun fed from a belt. 50-round belts can be strung together for extended fire or stored in a belt box attached to the Sorraia, which for practical purposes is similar to a magazine. It uses a recoil action, and is configured to fire around 800 rounds per minute, achieved with the help of a muzzle booster (which looks like a flared end on the barrel). Weighs 22 pounds. Comes with a bipod, or tripod for emplacements. It uses copper heat sinks, which are now shrouded. It has a changeable barrel, which is necessary for emplacement use. It is effective to about 800 yards when mounted.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore

Armor

• Standard Uniform: A plain blue featureless uniform. The blue's mild enough that it doesn't really stick out.
• Tiger Infantry Armor: Infantry armor made of a forged manganese steel alloy. All of the armor plates are relatively thick for infantry, and the full suit weighs in at 36 pounds. The helmet is particularly thick, and fits round and close around the head, low over the eyes and down to the neck. It can be attached with a face mask, which allows a wide but very narrow viewing slit, while covering the neck. The breastplate is curved outwards for optimal armor angle. The backplate is thick, but flat. At the waist these plates end and there are flat curved single-piece taces to protect upper legs, below the knee the armor has no coverage. Pauldrons allow comfortable shoulder motion, and upper arms are covered by round fitted plates to the outside of the arm. While lower arms and legs, and sometimes gaps around the shoulders are exposed, most parts of the armor will stop a pistol bullet at point blank. The breastplate and taces will stop rifle bullets at all but very close range. The armor is tiring and cumbersome, troops cannot effectively crawl and kneeling is difficult, as is aiming down rifle sights while using the mask.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore
• ME-PA-59 'Bear Armour: "Infantry" armor based off of the Tiger suit. Boasts full body coverage, albeit with fairly frequent gaps in the joints; armor toughness is identical to Tiger Armor, with insulating fur inner lining. Armor plating is semi-manually removed from the outside through a series of switches to enter/exit/perform maintenance, and the suit must have its Electrogel very routinely replaced to maintain full charge. Lasts 16 hours of consistent high-power use, but use is carefully rationed due to no tracking of the charge. Embarking/disembarking from the outside takes about 30 seconds, and disembarking without assistance takes a few minutes. It stands at [~7 ft/~2m] tall, and uses a smallish bulletproof glass visor for limited visibility. Pilots boast slightly increased speed and slightly decreased agility (but same strength) over regular unarmored individuals while in the Armour, twice the strength of average soldiers, and have their skin dyed blue from the Electrogel. Has mounts for a WALK-TALK and larger ICE Thrower tank, and a velcro strip in the helmet for maximum pilot comfort. Contains advanced shock/recoil-dampening capabilities in gauntlets.
  [Cheap] 4 Ore, 2 Oil
• Bear Armour Shield: A slab of metal shield roughly the size of a riot shield, made completely out of fairly thick metal, for wielding in one hand of a Bear trooper. Limits visibility and two-hand operations' effectiveness (such as reloading), but doesn't significantly restrict mobility and can be used with weapons such as the Stalwart easily.

Underground Vehicles

• UT-60 Excavator: A tracked medium-sized heavily-modified tunnel boring machine, most notably using GOFAST-fuel. Can go down to Moderate and Shallow depths, moves at Very Slow speeds while underground and at Moderate speeds aboveground. Possesses limited (but notable) agility underground. Contains space for 6 soldiers and small amounts of equipment of the equivalent amount of cargo in the back, in addition to the 2 crew in its cockpit. Light armor. Equipped with the ME-SM-57 'Earth Ear' for basic subterranean navigation.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil; Provides 1 Ore.
  
  • ME-CM-56 'Instant Roads': A very fast-acting sprayable concrete mixture very useful for reinforcing tunnels when sprayed by trailers hooked to a Burrower. Has to be re-applied occasionally to maintain integrity. Allows for use of Burrower tunnels for force movement and logistics.
    Provides 1 TC.

Air Vehicles

• ME-LRMA-60 "Blizzard": A two-engine jet "Long-Range Multi-Role-Aircraft" based off of the Lightning Streak that uses a 4 "X"-shaped wing configuration via the "Tereshkova Effect" for slightly increased aerodynamics, improved redundancy, and greatly improved coolness. Its two aT-J60gi ICE "freezing stovepipe" ramjet engines allows it to be a fair bit faster than the Lightning Streak. Has one large GOFAST tank and a small STABIL-ICE tank allowing for Long range. Equipped with 4x Velociraptor autocannons, 4 ICE missiles, and 1 tonne of bombs.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Navy

• UFN-CA-41 Catraphract: The Cataphract is a cruiser built to rival Cannala's ships. It is armed with 3x3 150mm gun turrets, each using a fully electrified loading system based on the moderately-performing Overcompensator, except that the 60kg shells are moved in one piece. Each gun can fire 8 times a minute. It has an armored citadel with 300mm of nickel-steel armor (Heavy), and a torpedo belt as well. The deck is also heavily armored, at 120mm (Light) to defend against plunging fire, plus an extra splinter deck. The turrets are similarly armored. There is a central director in the con tower which controls all the electrically-driven turrets, though there is no advanced firing calculator. Additionally there are three turrets with two bumblebees on each side of the ship, capable of firing on aircraft or ships, and miscellaneous autocannons wherever there is room. It is powered by oil-burning steam turbines, and there are a lot of them though with its considerable armor it only musters moderate speed.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
  
  • ME-MV-61 "Makeshift": A modification of the Cataphract with shooty-bits and unnecessary "crew livability" components removed.
    Provides 2 TC
• ME-DDG-61 "Chillwind": A Guided Missile Destroyer equipped with a 2x-Bumblebee turret, eight Velociraptors divided amongst both sides of the hulls, all slaved to a 150km aircraft/30km ships radar system. Uses a Mostly Vertical Launch system to house 40 Penguin missile launch tubes - 20 each side - angled 30 degrees down vertically. Crew and equipment requirements mean that only four missiles can be launched and guided at a time. Has a very thin metal hull covered by Pykrete and crisscrossing pipes of STABIL-ICE to keep the Pykrete layer cool and supposedly repair any damage, though it proves ineffective at damage repair and the STABIL-ICE often runs out quickly enough such that a Chillwind's first engagement is usually without any Pykrete armor still intact.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil

Other

• GOFAST-Fuel: A special type of more energy-dense and stable fuel. Greatly increases fuel efficiency of anything it's in, doesn't require an oxidizer, and can rarely leak out of compromised containers.
  Adds 1 Oil to cost.
• MXETE: Discrete transistor digital mainframe computer - 2 MHz CPU, 4 Mb of magnetic drum long-term memory, and an operating memory of 1200*32 bits. Takes up an entire (very big) floor on the Design Division and creating another one is immensely impractical. Punch card input, with a tightly-packed light matrix called a "screen" for output.
• WALK-TALK: The Wireless Audio Local Kommunicator-Transistor Assistance Lowers Kost Radio. A small hand-held two-way transistor radio. Production is hampered by the ever-persistant Union of Electronics Workers, making it Complex.
  [Expensive] 1 Ore, Complex
• Electrogel: A very thick blue gel that creates and transmits electrical current corresponding to the amount of pressure applied to it. Comes with the "Electrogel Motor" - a very small motor with embedded Electrogel that works with power corresponding to Electrogel pressure. A patch of Electrogel can last roughly 8 hours when powering its corresponding motor nonstop at max power.
• UF-SM-57 'Earth Ear': A set of small attachments to be put on all available sides of a subterranean vehicle. Vibration pings allow it to present a map of "where stuff is" and "where stuff isn't" via a very basic 3D projection in a small gas-filled glass cube. Only useful at recognizing the terrain and notable landmarks, and has a range of 10km in every direction from the device. An increased resolution and the ability to detect movement between scans allows it to detect the movement of reasonably large forces (allied or hostile) and flash relevant sectors red in the display.
  
  • GASOLINE: The Great Acoustic/Seismic Oil Location Initiative and Extraction device, which fits onto an Earth Ear systems allowing for relative easy surveying of underground oil deposits. Merethan regulation forbids surveying underneath Mereth for alleged safety reasons, meaning oil found as a result of GASOLINE has to be imported using our transport capacity.
    Provides 1 Oil (Import)
• ICE (Intense Chemical Endotherm): A chemical that very quickly reacts with the air to massively reduce heat in the surrounding area, often to the point where nearby things are frozen (ones in the epicenter frozen brittle), vehicles disabled or destroyed, and people killed.
  
  • STABIL-ICE: A variant of ICE that relies on an added catalyst to only react when it's above a target temperature, specified during synthesization of the STABIL-ICE. Useful for ice cream and also maybe cooling of machinery and the like. Tends to slowly decay over time in storage, making it unsuitable for anything that can't expect routine maintenance.

Infrastructure

• Division of Unusual Chemistry: A fully funded department & lab under the Design Division specializing in more unusual chemistry.
• M.A.G.M.A.: A giant borehole made and maintained using Excavators, Bear Armour, Earth Ears, and many more instances of our tech. Uses ad-hoc STABIL-ICE cooling systems fitted onto Bear Armour and excavators to maintain suitable temperatures. The deepest borehole in the world, and brings up notable amounts of ore from existing land.
  Provides +1 Ore

• Embassy "Vast Underground Forenian Embassy": An extensive and mildly luxurious underground Forenian embassy dug underneath around the center of Mereth using improvements in excavation technology designed 100% solely for civilian use and definitely nothing else.

Aratamite Activity
Aratam develops the Gel-Matrix Bio-Paste Reactor, called a "Nuclear-ish" reactor by many engineers in more informal settings. It works by using gamma radiation to precisely break SynthOil bonds, and specialized equipment to more efficiently harness the released energy.
Unfortunately for Aratam, while the GMBP Reactor is perhaps the most efficient and power-generating power source for something anywhere near its size, it's still fairly large with a 1m radius and has radiation leakage issues. It was too big to fit onto Aratamite vehicles without significant (out-of-scope) modifications, and has a nasty tendency to seriously and/or lethally injure anyone who spends a non-negligible amount of time within proximity of the reactor.

For their revision, Aratam did some secretive things.

Aratam also made their Spearhead-B Cheap using their Resource Credit for a temporary TC's supply of ore.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 2/3 (2/2 Oil Imported)
Resources: 3 Ore, 4 Oil, 2 Rare Chemicals

Weapons

• "Pursuit" Rifle: An 20-round magazine automatic rifle with mediocre accuracy at Medium range (and useless accuracy further).
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Machete" Pistol: A 6-round semiautomatic pistol semi-accurate up to Short range. Reliable.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• "Jumper" EMA Grenade Launcher: The Electromagnetically Assisted Grenade Launcher "Jumper" is roughly the shape of a very noticeably thicker bazooka-like assembly. It uses inefficient brick-sized SynthOil batteries that provide enough charge for one shot per battery. Once a battery is inserted, the Jumper has to "charge" for roughly thirty seconds before being able to fire, and can fire 1.5 inch specially-made grenades with "average" radii and okay accuracy, silently. It's fairly bulky. The manufacturing of the coilgun adds severe complexity.
  [Expensive] 2 Ore, 1 Oil, Complex
• HMKR-59 'Osprey': Hybrid Magnetic Kinetic Rifle; a variant of the Pursuit rifle that houses coilgun components to increase the velocity of bullets after conventional firing. Has a slot in the back for a single SynthOil battery, which has enough charge for 10 powered shots (soldiers carry 2 batteries total). Powered shots are accurate to Medium range (unpowered shots to Short range) and have increased lethality and armor piercing capabilities.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore, 1 Oil
• Tesla Rifle: A "rifle" that fires bolts of ARC lightning at Medium range. Using an inner "Lightning Rod" chamber, it gradually charges from a backpack SynthOil battery - it has four levels of charge, with Level 3 being the optimum Medium range + good lethality and Level 4 being overkill with a chance of explosive backfiring. It takes about a minute to charge to Level 3 (charging can be paused but the charge decays over time), and the battery has enough juice for 5 Lvl3 shots. Extremely lethal against anything conductive, and has a modest area-of-effect as the electricity arcs to other conductors in close proximity. Can be hooked up to external SynthOil batteries as well.
  [Expensive] 2 Ore, 2 Oil, Complex
• M1942 Missile, Auto-Guided, Infrared Camera (MAGIC) Mk.2 "Hellfire": The Hellfire Missile is an improvement over the original MAGIC Mk.1 in a few ways. The basic technology behind it as a rocket has improved, a specialized propellant is much more compact and powerful than the one adapted from infantry RPGs, so the rocket is lighter and faster. The structure has gotten lighter as well. The Hellfire includes an entirely new guidance system in the nose, and two sets of fins. Four rear fins are fixed stabilizers, and four fins close to the nose are controlled by servos, rather than solenoids, which gives them the ability to make partial turns. The sensor head consists of 13 individual sensors under a single lens in a diamond shape. There is a rotating circular shroud on top of the sensors, so that only a single "line" of sensors, including the center one and three or four others, can "see" at a time. A "tone generator" makes a noise in the cockpit to alert the pilot when one or more of the missiles on his plane has a target somewhere in his field of view, but doesn't alter based on how well-centered he is or other information. The missile's guidance is more accurate and reliable than the Mk.1, but the rotating shroud means that it might take a second to adjust to a chance in its target's direction, and it tends to slightly spiral around its intended course, a marked improvement from the Mk.1's violent zig-zags. It has a maximum flight time of about 25 seconds, and a maximum range of four miles in that time, and the seeker head can find a target from two to three miles on a good day. It has a 25lb warhead and the entire missile is 500lb.
  [Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil, Complex
• "Storm" GMRL-ECP-61S: A 250lb active radar homing missile with a 6km range and 5m effective blast radius. Fired from 4-rail trucks (with radar) and aircraft mounts. It has a poor resolution, greatly decreasing the reliability of locking onto non-huge aerial targets and making locking onto surface targets next-to-impossible, though large ships prove easy targets. Equipped with an HE or ARC warhead, with the ARC warhead using a chain SynthOil reaction to generate arcing electricity frying electronics and melting metal as it jumps from conductor to conductor.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 4 Oil

Land Vehicles

• M3T1A1 Raider: The Raider is a Diesel-Electric tracked APC designed to serve as a base platform for many roles. It has light RHA armor with a sloped front, plus slats. It holds ten passengers and three crew, making it look like a large metal box. It has an interchangeable turret, which is very wide and flat with medium armor. Default armament is a Can shredder, plus 6 external Thumper barrels for smoke grenades and an RPG, these can only be reloaded from the outside. It's also chemical warfare protected, and last but not least, amphibious, with a trim vane and two electric powered propellers. Exits are on large rear hatch and one small top hatch, only latter can be used while afloat.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore 2 Oil
• Privateer 1 1/2 Ton Truck: Cannala's first truck, it's a cabover on an antiquated 3-cylinder, the transmission only has a forward and reverse setting. It's still better than horses, though.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil, Provides 1 TC
• "Halberd"-Electromagnetic Coil Cannon Battletank ECCB-60: A large silent tank armed with a 120mm coilgun and a coaxially-mounted unpowered auto-loading Osprey. Has a respectable speed for its size, and the Coilgun turret is powered but manually aimed. Powered by two SynthOil batteries - one provides enough power for six Coilgun shots, the other provides enough power for four hours of full throttle movement and ten hours of less-fast "travel" movement.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• "Hydra" Electric-Motor Flak Tank EMFT-61: A "tank" where the turret is an unarmored cage on top of the squat chassis where the gunner sits; four self-loading automatic cannons fire automatically consecutively flak shells to shoot down aircraft and infantry. The turret can be angled downwards effectively to shoot at infantry; limited ammo supply means the gunner has to be somewhat conservative with his firing patterns and can't just fill the sky with flak. Electric computer & radar guidance overlays a digital crosshair on a small sheet of "glass" in front of the gunner that is overlaid on top of the physical crosshair to maximize accuracy, allowing for decent accuracy as long as the aircraft isn't too fast or evasive. The commander and driver reside in the cramped interior and exit/enter largely via a door to the side, with the front of the tank being heavily angled downward for firing angle reasons. The turret is an open-air cage making the gunner vulnerable. Can travel for 10 hours on a full SynthOil battery, and the gun doesn't require power to operate.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil

Air Vehicles

• M1938 A-3 'Parrot': The Parrot is a low-cost air superiority fighter, designed to counter the Yellowjacket. It looks very similar to the Falcon, but without the complicated prop system and reduced to a 10-cyclinder, normally aspirated power plant. It too is fully aluminum, and contains most of the little features like retractable gear, an oxygen system, and a reflex sight. It is actually quite heavily armed with two Muerte heavy machine guns and two Can Perforators, though the perforators don't have a lot of ammo.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 2 Oil
  
  • Macaw Strike Craft: A variant of the Parrot with a turboprop engine hastily retrofitted in. Has a Short range and is faster+more agile than the Parrot but still significantly more sluggish than the Spearhead or any other jet aircraft. Equipped with five 100lb bomb/missile mounts but has no other weapons.
• M1942 A-5B 'Spearhead-B' Air Superiority Fighter: Following Forenia's Thunderbird design, the Spearhead is an aluminum-built fighter with two turbojet engines. It features a rounded canopy, swept wings, pointy nose, and the engines are under each wing, but hug the body closely; the inlets are flush with the fuselage. A heavy Can Shredder sits in the nose. Two Morei turbojets burn kerosene and take some advantage of experiences of the Bull tank's turboshaft, it includes a water-cooling system (the shared radiator creates a third intake under the body). Despite carrying more weight, it's very nearly as fast as the Thunderbird, but it does have trouble recovering from stalls. On the other hand, when it's keeping good speed it can make impressive turns thanks to its hydraulic control system; the pilot can pull the relatively large control surfaces with ease. The Can Shredder can do serious damage to bombers from a safe distance. A hardpoint for 500lb bombs or missiles has been added under each wing.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 4 Oil

Navy

• Corsair Destroyer: The Corsair is a moderate sized ship with light (for a ship) steel hull armor. It has a light cannon armament of two hydraulic-equipped Nightwind cannons and four Can Shredders. However, its main armament is its Shark Torpedo launchers (it has a couple on each side) and newly-invented Seahorse mines, which use the same warheads as Shark torpedoes but rest on the sea surface, detonating on cpntact with ships. It is powered by steam turbines and easily outpaces battleships like the Kalmar, Kraken and Kurokami.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 3 Oil
• Santos-Class Naval Aircraft Support Vessel: The Santos is a large aircraft carrier. It is about the size of the Khorne but not armored. It's powered by four oil-burning steam turbines, which are more powerful than coal ones. The hangar deck stores two dozen fighters, moved to the flight deck by a hydraulic lift. On deck is an Eagle Eye Radar system, con tower, a few Firecracker AA guns and a miscellaneous autocannons wherever there's spare room. It also has a decent sized flight deck, with an arrester cable for landing aircraft, and two overlapping runways with room for ready aircraft on deck. It also has a steam catapult, which allows it to launch some planes which could not normally take off from its short runway. [5 Ore, 4 Oil]
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• SLS-61 Magpie: The Shore-Landing Ship is a basic landing ship with a bow able to open up with a ramp to allow vehicles and troops onto the shore, and has extremely basic treads to de-beach itself. Has Thin armor and a few mounts for infantry rifles on the top to provide basic covering fire. Powered by Generation 1 SynthOil engines, which requires it to use the majority of its cargo space to hold enough SynthOil to make it across the sea without running out of fuel. Normally has a modest capacity for soldiers (and capable of holding a few moderate-sized vehicles), but the fuel requirement limits it to only a small amount of soldiers and/or perhaps one tank at best.
  [Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
• Atlas-class Cargo Ship: A Santos-class with the weaponry and aircraft equipment and just about everything else stripped off. Utilizes SynthOil batteries for general powering of ship, though oil-burning steam turbines from the Santos still power most of it. Uses a system derived from Cryostats to cryogenically freeze perishable cargo as well as people for maximum storage efficiency.
  Provides 2 TC

Chemicals & Drugs

• Spice: An extremely potent manufactured drug resulting in extreme schizophrenia, delusions of power, frequent seizures, and eventually death. Extremely addictive. Those who undergo the week-long "Goldeneye" treatment in a CryoStat tank become accustomed (and permanently addicted) to low dosages of Spice, enabling very high awareness of surroundings and mildly increased reaction and thinking speeds when under the influence of the drug.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Rare Chemicals, Complex.
• Combat Drug 'Fury': A Spice-based drug that massively decreases reaction time, and lasts for ~2 hours. Also incites rage, decreasing soldier effectiveness at range and chances of occasional friendly fire. Mild hallucinations are common, preventing users from being effective at recon/espionage/etc. roles. Makes veins much more apparent and red. Addictive, and takes effect >5 minutes after injection.
  [Expensive] 3 Rare Chemicals
• Metal Recominators: A special mixture that separates pure metal from ore, obsoleting a large part of Aratam's refining industry. A variant can also be used to fuse metal with (likely) any other matter.
  Provides 1 Ore.

Other

• Standard Uniform: A plain red featureless uniform. The red's mild enough that it doesn't really stick out.
• CryoStat Tank: A large three-meter tall "coffin" with a small glass vertical slit inside showing a tank. Dozens of tubes connect it to the other machinery required for operation, taking up ~36 square meters of space total. Trained technicians monitor and operate it and prepare subjects for submerging. Subjects are put into "stasis" via a numbing solution they're submersed in, and medical drugs are constantly pumped into their body via dozens of injection sites prepared pre-submerging. Once taken out, subjects are put into a machine to recover from the effects of the tank. A day stabilizes minor life-threatening wounds, and a week stabilizes near all wounds. A month starts completely healing scars and generally brings up health status to pristine, and a year can restore lost limbs. Also used for life-extending "rejuvenation" processes by important people.
  [Very Expensive] 4 Rare Chemicals, Complex
• SynthOil: SMRO-58 "SynthOil" is an advanced form of oil - it's made using a combination of oil and other chemicals, making a much more stable and energy-dense solution. Has a peculiar property - with the right tools, it can directly produce electricity.
  Provides 1 Oil
• Gel-Matrix Bio-Paste Reactor: A 1m-radius spherical "nuclear-ish" reactor that uses gamma radiation to break down SynthOil into electrical energy. Rather efficient and good at making energy, especially compared with anything else in the world comparable in size/expense, but hard to miniaturize and has a notable radiation poisoning issue with anyone spending a notable amount of time in proximity.

Infrastructure

• The Refinery: An extremely secretive facility hidden under the canopy in a remote part of the rainforest, identifiable only by its smoke. Contains large liquid storage tanks and refineries for the production of chemicals, well-equipped laboratories, cells for test subjects, a steady supply of test subjects from Aratam's prisoners, and more. Useful as a base for chemical research.
  Provides 1 Rare Chemical
• Division of Biological Manipulation: An abandoned set of rooms on top of the Refinery; originally intended for biological manipulation research but was never finished due to a sudden test subject escape.

• Embassy "The Brewery": An embassy for Cannalan diplomats that doubles as a highly advanced brewery of Aratam's signature drink, Arachaca. The Cannalans can see the brewing process below through their glass flooring and taps straight form the brewery are available for Arachaca straight from the source. Uses basic electronic systems for very limited automation in conjunction with its general advanced brewing systems.