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[Madman198237]

Svanire: (3) NUKE9.13, Jerick, Madman

First invisibility, then explosives, then special operations deployments. Then the inevitable countermeasures war when the enemy decides to start trying Detect Magic or some ripoff thereof.

[helmacon]

Small suggestion,

Instead of adding a whole element to replicate light and all, why not just leave the spell open directly on the eyes?

Sure, our eyes will be visible, but if that's the only thing then it would just disappear into the background.

[Madman198237]

Small suggestion,

Instead of adding a whole element to replicate light and all, why not just leave the spell open directly on the eyes?

Sure, our eyes will be visible, but if that's the only thing then it would just disappear into the background.

I would agree with this.

[NUKE9.13]

I was vacillating between the two options. Two people supporting one is enough for me to change it.

E: Oh, also, should we requisition some shells?

[helmacon]

Yea. Let's requisition some mortar shells.

[Madman198237]

What's the highest possible explosive-content-by-mass item we could get? HE hand grenades seem most likely to work, and we could throw them at very high velocities using Gauntlets of Force, for instance.

[NUKE9.13]

What's the highest possible explosive-content-by-mass item we could get? HE hand grenades seem most likely to work, and we could throw them at very high velocities using Gauntlets of Force, for instance.

Well, shells are designed with aerodynamics in mind. They're also designed with withstanding incredible acceleration in mind, however, which we probably can't replicate. Grenades are designed to be thrown, but have the downside of having pesky things like fuses, rather than impact detonation (at least, I'm pretty sure the only impact-detonated grenades in WWI were toilets). There's also the question of cost, of course- Kolubaria is getting their shells for a mere 1 supply, which is specifically cited as being due to their mass-produced nature for artillery. Grenades may have a worse bang/buck ratio. I'd go with artillery shells, of a similar nature to those deployed by Kolubaria.

[Madman198237]

Grenades should not be worse bang/buck, they're just as common as, if not more common than, artillery shells. Arty shells ARE the largest conceivable piece of explosive equipment we can readily acquire, I bet. A nice substitute for, say, T4, I'd think. Speaking of which, T4 should have impact detonation options.

We do in fact have almost twice their throwing power from our Gauntlets. Deploying them would allow us to launch mid-caliber artillery shells (4-5 kilograms) the better part of a kilometer (1 km for 4kg, not quite so much for 5kg).

Sneakedit:
Also, a revision proposal:

Gauntlet Flechettes
Basically nothing more than a bunch of mostly-aerodynamic elongated steel bullets [pointier than a normal one for better aerodynamic qualities], modified forms of our rifle bullet (Since those aren't treason to modify) and weighing the same ~10 grams, carried in a pouch, these spikes can be used by any mage with Gauntlets of Force. The mage simply grabs a spike, focuses on it, and using the Gauntlets to accelerate it (or several spikes in a single burst) towards a target. Hypothetically a mage capable of maintaining both control and acceleration could achieve a maximum velocity of 1400 m/s, or Mach 4, in the fifteen meter range of the Gauntlets of Force, but this is, for obvious reasons, not necessary for the darts to be incredibly lethal. Alternative uses include accelerating the dart over the entire 30-meter back-to-front range of the gauntlets, for maximum killing power at Mach 5.75.

[NUKE9.13]

(Note that the 1km is a best-case situation; actual max range liable to be less than that. Still, it's impressive.)
Gonna need a citation on grenades being as common as artillery shells. I thought artillery shells compromised the majority of ammunition expended in WWI by a significant margin.

[Madman198237]

Yeah, but every soldier needed a grenade or two, IIRC. WWI's not my specialty, but they only started really expending artillery ammo later. It becomes a HUGE focus because it's easy to shell an entire section of trenches to hell, not so easy to order a bunch of guys to go over and take it. So right now I'd expect grenades to not be SUPER expensive, though yes MAYBE we could get more bang for our buck with arty shells even taking into account the greater explosives per unit mass of grenades (right? I think? maybe?)

[NUKE9.13]

So, some (very) rough estimates suggest that the Allies threw ~100 million grenades during WWI, and fired ~500 million shells. Which is closer than I thought, but definitely shows artillery shells were more common. Especially by weight, given that your average grenade weighs less than a kilo, and your average shell weighs several.
There's also the issue that early in the war, many nations underestimated the use of grenades, so if eS is taking that sort of thing into account, it may be harder to get our hands on a decent grenade.
And, again, fuses. If we're chucking things several hundred meters, almost all grenade fuses are gonna run out before impact. There were impact-detonated grenades, but they were, as I thought, mostly unreliable.

[Madman198237]

Darn. Ah well, guess we'll be throwing larger bombs shorter distances, then.

How about flechettes and Gauntlets?

[NUKE9.13]

I remain sceptical that using Gauntlets to throw flechettes will be significantly more effective than a pistol, given the difficulty of controlling an object accelerating that fast (whilst simultaneously being accurate enough to hit someone at a respectable range). I mean, it's not what the Gauntlets were designed for. If you look at the description of their Telekinesis, it's pretty clear they used a revision to make it capable of throwing shells ("Linear Telekinetic Precision allows the user to hurl oblong objects with surprising accuracy at respectable speeds."), and whilst our Gauntlets presumably have better control baked in, I'd still assume that that control is 'only' good enough to chuck shells, and would require further refinement to be able to throw darts at supersonic speeds.

Anyway, I added a shell requisition to the votebox. Please to be voting for it.

New Projects:
Svanire: (3) NUKE9.13, Jerick, Madman

Dice to spend:
Three: (3) NUKE9.13, Jerick, Madman

Requisition:
2.5"-3" artillery shells, like what Kolubaria has (HE, percussion fuse): (1) NUKE9.13
Nothing:

[Jerick]

New Projects:
Svanire: (3) NUKE9.13, Jerick, Madman

Dice to spend:
Three: (3) NUKE9.13, Jerick, Madman

Requisition:
2.5"-3" artillery shells, like what Kolubaria has (HE, percussion fuse): (2) NUKE9.13, Jerick
Nothing:

[Madman198237]

New Projects:
Svanire: (3) NUKE9.13, Jerick, Madman

Dice to spend:
Three: (3) NUKE9.13, Jerick, Madman

Requisition:
2.5"-3" artillery shells, like what Kolubaria has (HE, percussion fuse): (3) NUKE9.13, Jerick, Madman
Nothing:

Well the trick to the flechettes lies in assuming that a user can, starting from no velocity, provide a constant "push", without varying where on the object he's "pushing". i.e., we have the ability to use perfect/near-perfect linear acceleration NOW due to our much-superior control. Attempting to spin this thing around in a circle at Mach 5 would definitely be beyond us, but managing throws at double or even triple average bullet velocity is WELL within our reach assuming we can pull this off. And if we can't, then it's either a redesign of the Gauntlets to make it possible to apply that linear force, or the use of a focus of some kind, etc. Obviously we should be wary of doing this unless either eS will confirm or deny our ability to do such things, or if we find that we have a spare revision lying around.