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[10ebbor10]

Heh, will you look at that.

Someone actually designed the concept I thought too silly to work. Like I knew what Sabre was, but I didn't know that they went even further (and in 1960) they build an engine that actively liquified the incoming air.

[NUKE9.13]

Oh, you should add the following line to the bottom of both revisions:
"Whilst we're at it, we've also made a version of the Blizzard with a reduced fuel capacity (whilst retaining the blueprints for the longer-ranged version). Combined with the new engine, this should reduce the cost to VE."

Isn't that both defeating the point of the design and making 2 different revisions at once?

Yes, and sort of.
The whole point of the Blizzard was having a long range so it can fight out at sea... but unless the FS engine also reduces the Oil cost, the result will still be a National Effort. Which will have basically no effect on either front, whereas a VE medium-range craft will at least help in the mountains.
It is a revision doing two things, but one of those things should be fairly trivial.

That being said, if we don't mind losing on both fronts this turn, we could do just the engines, and use next turn's revision to improve our Oil production. (With the faint hope that the FS rolls really well and reduces both Ore and Oil costs)

[10ebbor10]

Okay, but I'm not entirely comfortable with introducing that change when everyone has already voted.

[NUKE9.13]

Yeah, don't edit the proposal if there's any doubt that everyone is into it.

...eh, let's stick with just the engines. It'll be fine. Probably.

[andrea]

The goal of the redesign is to increase engine efficiency. That means reducing fuel need. Lets just add a line that says "fuel tank are reduced according to the gained efficiency". That should still decrease oil cost on a successful revision, while preserving range.

[Chiefwaffles]

Freezing Stovepipe

The freezing stovepipe is a unique hybrid of a ramjet and rocket engine. Utilizing not only GoFast, but also ICE, it attains fuel efficiency so great it's consider a violation of the laws of physics.

Nonetheless, the principle is very simple. Air enters the a high speed, slamming into the spike inlet. A very precise dripple feed of ICE ensures that the air temperature remains near freezing, despite the tremendous compressive heating. This high density air then flows through to the combustion chamber, where it is heated by a Gofast flame. Heat results in expansion, providing thrust. Unlike conventional ramjets, the fact that Gofast can burn independent of airflow ensures that the engine doesn't have a minimum operating speed.

Revision: Freezing Stovepipe
Normal: (1+3) = 4: Below Average

Our new aT-J60gi engines work off of new principles that are surprisingly not too complicated for our engineers to work well with. Unfortuantely, the aT-J60gi hasn't quite reached the level where we want it at.

In principle, it works fine: it's less complex, smaller, and generally better than the previous aT-J60g turbojet engine. But we've encountered a problem with the ICE used to keep the air temperature near freezing temperature. ICE wasn't designed for function like this. It's most useful when relatively large quantities of it are used to very quickly send an area into extremely cold temperatures.
It's not designed to be used for this level of precision cooling. We had to create a "watered down" variant of ICE in order to not freeze the entire engine, but the continuous need for additional ICE means we need a lot of the weaker ICE variant.

The Blizzard has been retrofit with two aT-J60gi engines, and an ICE tank replacing one of the GOFAST tanks. Its range has been drastically reduced to a notably short range; the ICE is used up much faster than GOFAST and if we increased the amount of ICE than it'd start costing us. It is more efficienct with GOFAST, but that's shadowed by the ICE problem. The engines are purposely configured to favor efficiency over power - the Blizzard is now a fair bit faster than the Lightning Streak (which isn't that remarkable given the Lightning Streak is 20 years old) but once we're ready to deal with the fuel requirements we can very easily increase the power up a decent amount.
The increased simplicity of the engines has decreased the ore cost to 5 Ore, and we just barely managed to reduce the oil cost to 4 Oil as ICE is cheaper than GOFAST. The Blizzard is now just at the Very Expensive threshold.

Spoiler: 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 (Intense Chemical Endotherm) Rocket: A rocket for the Sarukh equipped with an ICE non-explosive warhead that induces extreme cold. 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

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 ramjet engines allows it to be a fair bit faster than the Lightning Streak, but require very large amounts of a "watered down" ICE variant in order to operate. Has one large GOFAST tank and one large ICE tank allowing for a short range, capped by ICE usage. 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.

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.

The Combat Phase of 1960 has begun.

[10ebbor10]

Blegh.

So much for the long range fighter.

[Chiefwaffles]

Combat Phase 1961
Link to Combat Report (Core Thread)

The Mountains
We managed to halt the Aratamiam advance in the mountains, but largely due to Aratam's lack of preparation and not our own actions.

The Blizzard is a nice craft, but it's just not equipped enough as a bomber to make a noticeable impact on the ground when it's Very Expensive. Though our troops report higher morale when seeing the distinctive X-winged Blizzard fly through the air.


The Sea
The loss at sea was completely expected.

It's a shame the Blizzard now has such a short range; it could have been useful at sea if it was longer. But both the admirals and other engineers in the Design Division are fairly confident that the range of the Blizzard can be easily extended some way or another.

Spoiler: 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 (Intense Chemical Endotherm) Rocket: A rocket for the Sarukh equipped with an ICE non-explosive warhead that induces extreme cold. 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

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 ramjet engines allows it to be a fair bit faster than the Lightning Streak, but require very large amounts of a "watered down" ICE variant in order to operate. Has one large GOFAST tank and one large ICE tank allowing for a short range, capped by ICE usage. 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.

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.

Spoiler: Known 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

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

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
• 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

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 Design Phase of 1961 has begun.

[10ebbor10]

Okay, we're in a bit of a pickle here, aren't we.

We're holding in the Mountains, losing at Sea and we're behind in resources.

[NUKE9.13]

We're not in the best of spots, no.

But we must press forwards. We can still reclaim the seas. We can do better in the mountains.

A Pykrete destroyer and another Blizzard engine revision, perhaps?

[10ebbor10]

I believe it may be too late for that, given that Aratham is attacking the plains right now.

Aratamiam transports finally find a relatively secure beachhead to land at, allowing forays into the Mereth-controlled plains next year.

Uhm. GM. Aratam doesn't have any transports.

Anyway, here are a few of my proposals.

US-61 Submersible  The US-61 is the culmination of much of our technological expertise. At it's core, it's modified UT-60's excavator, given the ability to float and dive through the ocean. Powered by goFast fuel, the submersible is capable of reaching tremendous velocities underwater. It's weaponry consists out of several ICE torpedoes. These torpedoes explode underneath or near a target ship, quickly forming a submerged iceberg which then pops out of the water with suprising force. A direct hit will lift up the ship and crack in two, while a near miss and the subsequent collision can easily tear open the hull of a ship. Even wide misses tend to generate icesheets that jam, shatter or block ships screws.

[andrea]

is that, like, reserve depth charges?

[10ebbor10]

They're fitted on a torpedo, which means that we don't need to get too close to the enemy. But yeah, it functions similar to a depth charge.

Here's a solution for our ICE problem.

ICE-T

The original ICE was not meant for precision control, despite the many benefits that this could have. Our new version resolves those issues. Using a carefully controlled production process, we have created a variant of ice which is Temperature controlled. The ICE molecules only destabilize once they reach a certain temperature, and then stop destabilizing when the temperature drops back to the expected levels. Exact temperature control depends on the concentration of certain additives.

This is expected to have a great many benefits, being applicable not only to the "Blizzard", but also to the ICE Thrower and ICE Rocket.  With these latter two, the adjusted solutions can be used to exchange excessive lethality for range and duration of effect. Civilian industry is also interested.

[Chiefwaffles]

Both sides have abstracted basic sea troop transports.
Nothing fancy, however. They move slowly from point A to point B. No landers, no extra features, etc.. It’s possible to upgrade them if you want, but otherwise they’re abstracted.

And if you win the plains battle on land, you’ll get an opportunity to gain “land” at sea because you’re fighting on the beaches - the border between the regions.

[10ebbor10]

So, will boats fight in the next attack?