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[NUKE9.13]

Oh, right, I asked eS; we're supposed to do one design at a time. Also, we have two Research Assistance credits, we should use one on both designs.
I'm not clear whether this is the last turn, or whether the intention is for the game to end ASAP but still by one team capturing the other's capital. Either way, we can't let them win at sea, because if the game ends and we're blockaded (and haven't managed to capture their capital), that'd be a loss for us- even if they only make 1 section of progress; if they make more, they invade our capital from the sea.

NAF-SUB-54 "Sneaker" (Using Research Assistance): (2) NUKE9.13, Kashyyk
NAF-MAW-54 "Goliath": (1) Happerry

[Man of Paper]

I spoke to him a few days ago and he did mention wanting to wrap this up within a week or so, so I guess together we have all the right information. Teamwork! Since we've definitely got to do the Sub let's knock that out first. Then we can debate on what the final design will be

NAF-SUB-54 "Sneaker" (Using Research Assistance): (3) NUKE9.13, Kashyyk, MoP
NAF-MAW-54 "Goliath": (1) Happerry

Outside of the Golem, Goliath, and Titan, does anyone else have an idea of what we could use to secure the land?

In regards to an amphibious invasion, unfortunately Toskesh's helicopter tender allows them to launch their assault helicopters. Their hovercraft might see some use, but if I recall they don't do well on the waves, and apparently their turboshafts still burn out in wet weather, which I imagine would spread to sea spray. If we use our resource credit on ore though we cheapen our destroyers, and I imagine we'll need the ore for our in-progress designs, but obviously we gotta wait and see for that.

[NUKE9.13]

Outside of the Golem, Goliath, and Titan, does anyone else have an idea of what we could use to secure the land?

Thing is, right, last time we attacked the Swamps, our walkers were severely hampered by the whole swamp aspect. A bigger walker is going to have similar problems, I feel. Bipedal walkers, even if they don't weigh more, will suffer more due to having more weight per leg.
I've considered radar as our second design. That would make us all but immune to aerial surprise attacks, especially if we mount a long-range radar system on the Condor (which will drop in expense when we spend the resource credit, btw). Except that copters can stick close to the ground far easier than planes, reducing the efficacy of radar considerably.
I've also thought about missiles of various kinds, but unfortunately to design a decent missile in this era would be rather tricky. The guidance systems, without ubiquitous transistors and pre-existing radar knowledge, are just too challenging, I think. We could probably make a ballistic missile, but without nukes, those aren't a lot of use.

I think we definitely want to improve our aerial arsenal with a revision- flying over it is our best way of dealing with the swamp, so being able to mount some bunker-busting weaponry on the Tornado would be good.

I mean, the best weapon for the swamps is a hovercraft. I don't want to design a hovercraft when we could just steal one, but if this is the last turn of the game we might have to- need to get clarification from eS on that.

[Kashyyk]

A hovertank would be very effective in the Swamp and the Fjords. It might suffer in the badlands, but that would be where a walker tank would shine.

[Man of Paper]

I will say, in regards to the 100% correct Swamp analysis, since the last time we attacked the Swamps we winterized our equipment. One of the things mentioned was snow shoes for our mechs, and I imagine they'd ever so slightly help in the swamps, at least conceptually. It's also why the Titan is designed with eight equidistant legs. Even though it's heavy, it's weight should be better distributed than our other walkers.

I'm completely against stealing another Toskesh design on our last turn. Even if we get their hovercraft, it's going to be complex and it's only going to let us field something that's already fielded by our enemies in greater number. For a last turn that's pretty weak.

I would like to see what someone could do with the Condor though. Maybe a Spooky-type gunship? I imagine that'd play hell on the swamps and badlands.

[stabbymcstabstab]

NAF-SUB-54 "Sneaker" (Using Research Assistance): (4) NUKE9.13, Kashyyk, MoP, Stabbs
NAF-MAW-54 "Goliath": (1) Happerry

[evictedSaint]

NAF-SUB-54 "Sneaker": Nogrania... does not rule the waves. But perhaps it could still rule the seas. To this end, we have developed not another ship, but a whole new (for Serouda) class of vessel: a submarine.
The Sneaker is a 250ft long vessel, with a submerged displacement of 1700 tons (1300 surfaced). It has a 'partial double hull', wherein the majority of the vessel has an outer hull and an inner hull (increasing sturdiness), but only a single hull at the ends, to make the torpedo launching apparatus simpler. We have not gotten overambitious with the test depth; a mere 240ft should be more than enough to avoid anything Toskesh can currently muster, or whip up quickly.
The Sneaker has 8 torpedo tubes capable of firing Blindman torpedoes- four bow, four stern- and carries 16 torpedoes. It also has a single Duke cannon on deck.
Two diesel engines charge two large batteries, which power two electrical motors that drive two shafts, giving the Sneaker a top surface speed of 18kn, and a top submerged speed of 9kn. It can stay submerged for at most 36 hours at 3kn. The range is not especially impressive, given that it is not meant to fight internationally, but only patrol the waters around Serouda.
It has a passive sonar system for detecting pursuers whilst submerged, as well as a periscope. Room for more advanced sensor systems exists, but have not been included in this early model.
The Sneaker will be useful as a scout/skirmisher/assassin in fleet battles, but also as a transport interdictor, sinking resource shipments and troop convoys.

Very Hard Difficulty: (2d6 = 1, 6) 6

The NAF-SUB-54 "Sneaker" is our first ship deliberately designed to go under water.

The ship uses our passive sonar system to listen for contacts, allowing it to get a rough bearing on targets.  On calm days, the system is sensitive enough that it might even be possible to differentiate between contacts.  The Sneaker has four torpedo tubes in the nose and four in the rear, allowing it to deploy our Blindman torpedoes against target ships, though the ship must be at periscope depth to fire.  The Sneaker is capable of submersing itself up to 200 ft, which should be more than enough for the shallow waters that surround the fjords.  A Duke cannon is mounted on deck, proofed against submersion and able to act as a last-resort weapon.

The Sneaker is a rather fragile ship, and even minor damage will drastically lower the crushdepth limit.  It's a rather slow ship due to the diesel-electric motor system, but it can run while under water for a limited time.  The double-hull design gives it a much higher top speed while surfaced, which is how the ship will generally operate when not in combat.  It sits at a comfortable 1400 long tons when fully loaded and surfaced.  6 Ore, 3 Oil.

[Man of Paper]

One of our revisions should go to the Sneaker as I've seen one small problem. It's less a design problem and more of a circumstance.

We should replace the duke with something like a quadmount for our NMGs. The enemy has helicopter tenders, and helicopters have this amazing ability to loiter, spot, and hunt subs. Since its mostly retooling our current equipment it'd probably come out to being a normal revision. I'd write up a proper revision and repost my designs, but I'm on my phone and won't be home for another...six hours. Fucking 12 hour day with an hour travel either way sucks.

[evictedSaint]

Ah, I didn't mention it, but there are pintle mounts for a pair of NMG's on the conning tower.

[Happerry]

What I'd like to do with one of our revisions is to make a set of floats we can attach to our helicopters so they can land on the water, thus hopefully giving us some (if limited) naval airpower as well without spending a design on it. Speaking of which, we still have one design right? What should we do with it?

Make an even bigger gun then the enemies new gun and try to mount it on a mobile platform, should we go back to the idea of a Goliath or other giant stompy robot? Or finally make that heavy airship bomber?

[NUKE9.13]

NAF-NAC-54 "1x5.4 Eagle": Sometimes a NMG just doesn't cut it. Not enough range, not enough stopping power. You need the power of a cannon, and the speed of a NMG. You need a Non-AutoCannon. The Eagle is a gas-operated NAC, firing 1x5.4" ammunition from an 80" barrel, with a projected muzzle velocity of 3000ft/s. Like an NMG, it is fired by spinning a crank, and has been locked to a maximum rpm of [the same as the Emu] to prevent jams. Totally not copying off of Toskesh, a pedal-operated version is also available.
Armour-piercing, high-explosive, and tracer rounds are available, provided in various combinations in belts. It is expected to have a considerably longer range than the Emu.
The Eagle can be installed on the Tornado (we deliberately made the front mount larger than it needed to be so we could do this), on our ships/subs, in defensive positions, and possibly (at a low priority) on a modified Hippo instead of the main gun.

So, eS has confirmed that this is not necessarily the last turn of the game; one side still needs to capture the other's capital. So I was thinking, what is Toskesh going to be doing this turn? Fix their aerial disadvantage, obviously. How can we preemptively get said advantage back? A NAC that can take out their copters at much longer ranges much more easily. And a NAC is useful for other things as well. This would be fairly simple, so there'd be no need to spend the Research Assistance on it- we could use it for a revision, or save it for next turn.

What I'd like to do with one of our revisions is to make a set of floats we can attach to our helicopters so they can land on the water, thus hopefully giving us some (if limited) naval airpower as well without spending a design on it.

We already have that.

[Kashyyk]

NAF-AFH-54 Bullfrog: Our first foray into Hovercraft technology, this is a Geneva-abiding light tank. With thin armour all round, as well as a compartmentalized rubber skirt to increase survivability it is armed with a turreted ironcaster and pintle mounted emu. Finally, being powered by a Percheron B should allow the Bullfrog to be the fastest ground vehicle in the war.

[NUKE9.13]

Why would we spend a design figuring out the basics of hovercraft technology when we could just steal one with a revision, and then design a far better one based on that?

[Kashyyk]

 Because our designs are more powerful now than when Tokesh created their hovercraft. Thus we should be able to catch up/surpass them with a single design rather than using a revision to steal and then a design.

[Man of Paper]

Our designs in our fields of focus (namely Walkers) are more powerful. We're not going to do much good trying to bring in unfamiliar tech the enemy already uses. I think we're making a mistake if we don't put a design out for our armor, and this late game, even if it's not the last turn, is not the time for a project that'll eat up our actions. We don't need another light tank.

I feel that since the NAC (glad to see that idea swing back around) falls between our NMGs and cannons very neatly that we can get away with revising it into existence: it can be seen as a scaled down, belt-fed Ironcaster using NMG foundations. I like that idea.

The Golem is the next step in armored warfare. Utilizing all the resources available to our military, we've created our first bipedal walker. Officially classified as a "Mechanized Assault Walker", the Golem uses two squat legs with reversed knee joints and wide feet to provide stability to what is essentially a heavily armed turret up top. The upper part of the mech is capable of rotating 270 degrees, and the two Ironcasters mounted on turrets built into the "shoulders" also allow a significant field of fire vertically. The Ironcasters have also been installed with a basic autoloading system. On the front "torso" of the walker we've mounted two Kiwis remotely controlled by a gunner inside the cockpit in what our engineers have dubbed "Nipple Mounts". In what our engineers have also begun to call the "Fanny turret", a chamber just above the legs on the upper portion of the walker large enough to fit a gunner, we've mounted an Emu to deal with approaching infantry. The cockpit, at the top of the "torso" of the walker, does away with standard armored vehicle configurations, and instead utilizes an in-line cockpit much like our Tornado. The Fanny Turret and Cockpit are separate, but the floor between them is grated to facilitate communication, and has a space to pass objects, such as a cup of tea, through if needed.

The legs and front torso utilize medium armor, with light armor on the sides and thin on the back - ideally the back of the walker will rarely be facing the enemy.

The Goliath is the next step in armored warfare. Utilizing all the resources available to our military, we've created our first bipedal walker. Officially classified as a "Mechanized Assault Walker", the Golem uses two squat legs with reversed knee joints and wide feet to provide stability to what is essentially a heavily armed turret up top. The upper part of the mech is capable of rotating 270 degrees, and four Bartender rocket pods are mounted onto the sides and built into the "shoulders. On the front "torso" of the walker we've mounted two Kiwis remotely controlled by a gunner inside the cockpit in what our engineers have dubbed "Nipple Mounts". In what our engineers have also begun to call the "Fanny turret", a chamber just above the legs on the upper portion of the walker large enough to fit a gunner, we've mounted an Emu to deal with approaching infantry. The cockpit, at the top of the "torso" of the walker, does away with standard armored vehicle configurations, and instead utilizes an in-line cockpit much like our Tornado. The Fanny Turret and Cockpit are mostly separated, but the floor between them is grated to facilitate communication, and has a space to pass objects, such as a cup of tea, through if needed. At the back of the Goliath, near the entry hatch, is a small ladder to allow access from the cockpit to the Fanny Turret, though space is very tight within the machine.

The legs and front torso utilize medium armor, with light armor on the sides and thin on the back - ideally the back of the walker will rarely be facing the enemy.

The Titan is our first foray into developing a true Main Battle Walker. It has eight legs arranged in a circle around the body, though it's capable of remaining standing and somewhat mobile with up to five legs disabled, so long as they're distributed around the Titan. There is almost no discernible front save for the direction the Duke is pointing, and, if someone is perceptive enough, the metal slats in front of the driver's windshield. The body of the Titan is hemispherical in shape with a flat bottom, with the Duke turret mounted on top and four gun ports using Emus at the front, rear, and sides. While the armament isn't impressive (our engineers have noted it's a Red Herring minus Torpedoes), it is clad completely in heavy armor. The seven man crew inside (Driver, Gunner, Loader, 4x NMG Gunners/Mechanics/Back-Up Crew) is fairly cramped, but it was worth it to add a small tea station.

If the Titan becomes disabled in combat, the crew is able to remove the Emus and dismount through the bottom or top hatch to continue the fight. Original designs included only a bottom hatch until an engineer pointed out that a disabled walker could fall in a way to block the hatch. The bottom hatch was kept in to provide the option of dismounting among the legs as cover if possible.

Those are my current designs. I'd also like to propose that air(gun)ship based on the Condor, but I think the NAC would be of great benefit to that, so I'm going to wait to see how that comes out. The NAC would likely bump the Tornado's price by an ore, which makes using that resource credit for ore a little bit tastier.