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Author Topic: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Warm Seasons 1947  (Read 12978 times)

andrea

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Design Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #75 on: January 31, 2023, 05:56:18 pm »

Double posting for a contest entry.

Our thing is democracy, right? that implies voting, campaigning, assemblies, etc.
So, why not revive some good old ars oratoria? our conviction can be presented in debates and speeches in our halls of assembly and governance, which tanks to modern technologies can be shared to all the electors in our nations.

Spoiler: Contest entry (click to show/hide)

Man of Paper

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CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #76 on: February 01, 2023, 12:21:39 am »

Design Phase


Proposal: "Gutenberg" Ruggedized Mimeograph and Typewriter
Difficulty: Easy
Result: (2+1)+1=4, Poor

A mimeograph and a typewriter in one convenient footlocker-shaped package. It works as you expect it to. The machines turn out to be easy to produce (since the world has been doing it for a while now), but it's their effective use that proves to be the stumbling block.

Gutenbergs are delivered to those willing and able to produce and reproduce various leaflets, documents, and other printed media carrying strong pro-UNSA sentiment. Or whatever they want, really. That's freedom of the press, baby! These documents are then delivered in some way or another to the places and people making up the target audience. The majority of this amateur propaganda is passed around domestically, working to slightly boost public perception of UNSA and counter potential (obvious) SFS infiltration (See Something, Say Something is a phrase that kicks off at this time).

Unfortunately, getting messages over the wall is near-impossible in any meaningful scale. An entire footlocker is not an easy thing to smuggle when no such network exists and no eyes in the Federation are providing names of people sympathetic to the UNSA democratic cause. An occasional stack of papers could end up on the other side of the wall, but there's no guarantee it isn't intercepted by SFS military or police. At the moment there shouldn't be much expectation for "Gutenberg" seeing success in turning hearts and minds across the Wall towards UNSA.

The "Gutenberg" Ruggedized Mimeograph and Typewriter costs 5 Ore and 3 Wood, making it (EXPENSIVE).


Proposal: PC-46 Private Aircraft 'Firefly' v4 (Levisteel version) (Advantage Credit)
Difficulty: Easy
Result: (3+2) (6+5)+1=12, Unexpected Boon

Let's cover Levisteel first. This curious alloy, stumbled upon seemingly by accident based on just how much got blended into a material we know very little about at its base level, has the astounding ability to sustain a "film" of countergravitational force around itself. Objects made of Levisteel find themselves succumbing to the whims of Earth's gravitational pull at a small percentage of what they would otherwise, weighing a fraction of what would be expected to and halving (or more) an objects rate of acceleration and terminal velocity in freefall. Things (such as people or fuel) within a cavity inside a levisteel object act as though gravity is affecting them normally. When shaped this effect can loosely influence the direction gravity moves across the surface. Levisteel can be used in lieu of standard metals, potentially discounting ore cost but definitely adding somewhat significant caelium costs for an increase in expense compared to "vanilla" ore-using designs.

The Firefly is a civilian aircraft with a body made entirely out of Levisteel. Otherwise it is a simple three-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made for civilian use, although the very high costs prohibit wide-spread usage. A four-cylinder engine provides enough power to pull the aircraft at nearly 260km per hour, aided immensely by the "Gravitic Effect" created by the wings' lightly bowed airfoil. The engine is specced to run at low power, increasing fuel efficiency and range (nearly 1800km roundtrip, with significant emergency reserve left over) as a result.

In the event of an emergency, parachutes are on-board for a swift exit from the side door.

Firefly owners are also made aware of the thermite "property protection device" installed within the airframe. In the event of an aircraft potentially falling into the hands of less-than-friendly nations the device can be set to detonate with enough time for the pilot and passengers to make a hasty exit before the entire aircraft is slagged. They are ensured that there is no chance of an unintentional detonation.

The Firefly is a sign of prestige and success, and the cost to build reflects that. At 4 Ore, 2 Oil, and 5 Caelium, the PC-46 Private Aircraft 'Firefly' is (VERY EXPENSIVE).



----------------


It is now the Revision Phase. You have two actions with which you can modify your existing armory.

Spoiler: UNSA Armory (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Resources (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Resource Nodes (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Harren PoIs (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Credits (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: World Map (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Islands Map (click to show/hide)
TURNTURNTURN
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Quarque

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #77 on: February 01, 2023, 10:24:13 am »

A broadly applicable design to help our spies infiltrate in higher circles. It should be of particular help in getting access to the most valuable enemy PoI: the law firm. It would synergize with the briefcases (allowing access to the people you'd want to bribe) and give us generally the beginnings of a spy network on enemy terrain.

Quote from: Forged papers and exclusive club membership cards
Our best agents receive a wallet with a set of membership cards, in addition to their fake ID documents. It gives them access to a range of exclusive clubs on the other side of the wall, where the political and economical elite of the SFS dine and entertain themselves.

Just because they call themselves communists doesn't mean they're actually equal, after all.

When possible, the membership cards are purchased (through a payment scheme that is difficult to trace). In cases where simply paying isn't possible, the membership cards are forged.

We should probably fully focus our revisions on espionage, but there is a case to be made for doing the handgrenade now. It would build up more experience in working with Levisteel and while doing so produce a weapon that could remain a useful staple for the rest of the game. It's one of the few things we can already do with Levisteel that is likely to come out Cheap, or at least become Cheap soon.
Quote from: Homerun Handgrenade v2 (Levisteel version)
This is a revision of the M1 Hand Grenade.

Where the M1 casing is made out of steel, the M2 is partially made out of Levisteel. The shape of the Levisteel part is optimized to allow soldiers to throw them an amazing distance, so much so that it is jokingly named the Homerun.
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ConscriptFive

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #78 on: February 01, 2023, 02:44:31 pm »

So that credit really saved our ass this turn, so clearly we need to go hard on the not-pre-game...

Quote from: Revision: "Abignale" Federation Banks Traveler's Cheque Mimeograph Templates

To put it layman terms, commerce in the international city of Harren is a bit of a mess.  Phasing out of wartime currency is an ongoing process, and even then, most merchants will gladly take payment in either dollars or rubles.  Still in recovery from the invasion, no currency is particularly stable, and any merchant who wants to stay in business must adjust prices daily against exchange rates posted in the newspaper or radio.

While the residents of Harren soon master how to haggle and barter for groceries in multiple currencies, the captains of finance and industry have their own system.  Now no international businessman would travel to Harren with a briefcase of cash.  (That would be absurd.)  Instead, they arrange through the bank for several Traveler's Cheque.  Using a dual signature system (the user signs them once when they buy them, and is then required to do a matching signature upon selling them), they provide a means to move large quantities of money across borders while mitigating risks of theft.  Hotels, airlines, and department stores readily accept them, good as cash.

Which is good.  If some pinko Southerner industrialist wants to drop thousands on Northern casino "showgirls," then bring home a pearl necklace & mink stole for the wife, that's a win-win situation.  ...but you know what would be better?  If they were using our financial institutions instead.

As you would expect from Red institutions, Federation banks traveler cheques aren't the most sophisticated of documents.  With Gutenberg systems and the right "Abignale" templates, our security services should be able to mass produce counterfeit Federation traveler cheques from several of their financial institutions.  (These counterfeits will be far from perfect, but as you'll see, that's actually a feature.)  Our agents, false flagged as Southern civilians, will spend them around North Harren.  Of course, this fraud will prove evident when the accountant goes to deposit them, or an extra vigilant cashier gets his manager to make an international phonecall.  Some of our agents will surely be apprehended in this scheme, but international bank fraud is clearly a matter of our jurisdiction (vs. local police), and our incognito agents will be rendered back to our custody.

The end result is to destroy faith in Federation cheques, and thus their financial institutions.  Savvy merchants will insist on calling in every Federation cheque, and likely charge an fee for the expensive international phonecall.  Being a free market, some merchants may even decide to stop accepting Federation cheques altogether.  ...and our financial institutions will fill that demand.  The Abbera Central Allied Banking is right there in Harren after all, and ready accommodate well meaning Southerners whose Red financial institutions have failed them so badly.

Again, gotta chase those Harren PoI's and ours is a bank.  Pretty unconventional, but if we're still getting difficulty checks, I'm comfortable floating it.  We have enough relevant designs & revisions that state-sponsored check fraud for the purposes of discrediting their banks and driving business to ours should be doable.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2023, 03:07:52 pm by ConscriptFive »
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m1895

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #79 on: February 01, 2023, 04:26:55 pm »

Briefcase full of Contraband
Turns out briefcases can carry more than just money.
While cigars, liqueurs, and nose candy can be worth more than money to the right mark, we believe medicine is better to bring people onside long term. By working with pharmaceutical companies across UNSA territory, we can supply agents with a wide variety of Antibiotics, Analgesics, and the nitrogen mustard based cancer treatment we had under development during the war (we had originally planned to release the formula publically after the war but we can keep this a secret for now hehe.) With this set of medicines our agents should be able to nab more than a few informants over the wall.
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Man of Paper

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #80 on: February 01, 2023, 05:20:41 pm »

Forged papers + membership cards, and indeed I think a bit of the team’s mindset in general, struggles somewhat with the cart and the horse (and defining what is which). Until you have agents working within the SFS either as part of some design or, you know, sending them over to mess with the enemy, or otherwise gain sympathetic folk across the wall (which the mimeograph failed to do because of the roll), forging papers and membership cards beyond the basic fabricated papers will be difficult - you’re essentially forging a signature in the dark and you don’t know the proper spelling of the name. As a result this is Very Hard, pushing Theoretical depending on which side of the bed I wake up on.

Homerun is Simple. It’s hard to get easier than “make this ball out of another metal”.

Abignale is a good solid Theoretical, since it suffers from the same general issues as the forgery stuff above, with the caveat that they’re not meant to be good capable of dropping difficulty were it not for trying to sell the story of “these guys are totally not our agents send them back to us so we can punish them for crimes in your territory” and “this is totally not an obvious operation meant to destabilize your financial institutions” during one of the most paranoia-filled time periods you can find. This project could still see limited success on low rolls, but world tension isn’t going to like it.

Briefcase full of contraband is invalid because you’re trying to cure cancer in a revision.
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ConscriptFive

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #81 on: February 01, 2023, 10:44:47 pm »

Quote from: Revision: Eve-Class Coast Guard Cutter
With peace in our time, our navy (or what remains of it) seems to be a bit on an anachronism.  The Eve-Class "Coast Guard Cutter" is a revision of our Herring-class Destroyer into a more relevant vessel, better suited for civil-military operations.

For ease of construction, the 115m destroyer hull and its armor is largely unmodified.  However, the silhouette is radically different.  Only the fore of the three twin 120mm turrets has been retained.  Although now additional rafts and firefighting gear have been tied down in place of the second turret for search and rescue duties, the foredeck is now much more open with a single turret and legacy triple torpedo mounts.  The aft deck is notable completely clear, to make room for future rotary or VTOL aircraft.  The conning tower has a bevy new antennas, which all but the savviest of enthusiasts would be able to fully identify.

Below deck, the loss of two gunnery turrets and their magazine leaves plenty of room for activities.  The aft magazine has been replaced with aviation fuel and supplies.  The mid magazine has been converted to an electronic eavesdropping station: ostensibly using high powered directional antennas to scan for maritime distress signals, but happily intercepting foreign communications in the interim.  (Given the coastal nature of the Eve's duties, land based communications are frequently intercepted as well.)

Overall, the Eve retains enough armament of the Herring to conduct maritime counter-smuggler operations and while expanding into greater search & rescue operations, and previously under-explored electronic eavesdropping mission sets.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2023, 11:54:41 am by ConscriptFive »
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Man of Paper

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #82 on: February 01, 2023, 11:20:56 pm »

Eve's Normal, it's mostly just uninstalling big parts and adding a few tiny ones.

It is really tempting to tick that up a notch with the whole vtol/rotary carrier role prep when you have no experience with either let alone actually having any, but I won't punish you just because you want to make a boat carry some extra fuel it can't use (difficulty-wide, anyways). Just don't make a habit out of going "well we know (x) is the future in the real world so we should just make a thing for (x) now even though we're a couple steps away from it and logically there'd be no reason to right now" (there's a term for using information from outside of the game to inform decisions). Aircraft carriers come after aircraft, cart, horse, etc. And if there's complaints about the lack of helicopter development in this timeline, blame the players in the previous two games. It's definitely their fault and not related to bad rolls doing any aircraft or a massive storm that prevented air things. Anyway, Eve's possible.

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Kashyyk

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #83 on: February 02, 2023, 04:15:26 pm »

People expressed interest in this idea on Discord, so here it is.

Quote from: Worker Passes
This is a revision of Visas and Permits.

Our businesses and industries now protect themselves in a similar way to our great nation. Companies have now started issuing identification of their own, to ensure only authorised personnel are permitted access.

These passes vary substantially based on the business they are for, both in form and effectiveness. Some are little more than a name badge, whilst others include a business license, photographic ID and a personal punch card. Naturally the locations most critical to our national security trend to the latter.

Also, have my submission to the ""Art"" contest.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Man of Paper

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #84 on: February 02, 2023, 04:37:06 pm »

Worker Passes is a solid Trivial, being yet another step in something you’ve been working on and, likely, the end of the road for this tech line (unless the sfs starts doing fucky things that require additional security on top of this additional security. Making all businesses adhere to some sort of id policy isn’t too difficult when you’re not trying to make a uniform change across all industries and businesses and instead giving them some of that good ol’ capitalist freedom.
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Quarque

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #85 on: February 02, 2023, 05:12:00 pm »

These two revisions are a good bet I feel, although it would certainly be nice to have additional ideas.
Eve seems a fun thing to spend the credit on; we are definitely going to get a new one next turn and you can't stack these, so I say let's spend them like a good consumer.

Feel free to add more things to the votebox of course.

Quote from: votebox within the parenthesis that MoP never closed
Eve-Class Coast Guard Cutter: (1) Quarque
  Use Research Credit?
    Yes: (1) Quarque
    No:
Worker Passes: (1) Quarque
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ConscriptFive

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #86 on: February 03, 2023, 01:47:39 am »

Agree that the Eve is a good choice, but none of the other revisions seem like a good idea for this turn.

So...

Quote from: Revision: PC-46 "Firefly SPIE"
Alas, Harren has been divided by a nigh impenetrable wall... buts it's also surrounded by a coastline.  With the right modifications, the newly fielded PC-46 Firefly provide a means to covertly insert and extract men and material via those coastlines.

Should you ever receive the clearance and need to know to see one, the first thing you notice about a PC-46 Firefly SeaPlane for Insertion and Extraction (SPIE, aptly pronounced "spy") is the camouflage livery.  Vaguely similar to a leopard shark, the civilian airframe has been repainted in grey dabbled night camouflage, with a lighter counter-shaded belly.  You'll then be embarrassed you didn't first notice that the landing gear have been replaced with oblong seaplane pontoons.  If you're either a pilot of aeronautical engineer, you then might notice the trailing edge wing flaps have been customized to accommodate lower airspeed cruising.  Inside the cockpit, instruments have been modified for night flying, including a red cabin light and various iridium painted luminous dials.

The mission-set of the Firefly SPIE is to fly at low altitudes over the seas at night, blending in with the horizon.  The new flaps allow the pilot to cut the engine, quietly gliding by aerodynamic & "gravitic effect" when approaching suspected enemy observers.  Touching down near enemy shores, it can insert or extract up to two particularly adventurous agents and their gear before taking off from the sea to return to base.

Quarque

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #87 on: February 03, 2023, 03:44:07 am »

Trying to turn a small airplane into "also a smuggling boat" is original and stylish, maybe the GM will reward that idk. But it also sounds like a really hard way to achieve something that you could do much more easily and effective with a plain trading vessel?

I would prefer to just add a good camera and maybe a radio receiver / recorder to make it better at the thing it is already good at: gathering intelligence on the other side of the wall without arousing suspicion.

Quote from: firefly but secretly a spyplane
The firefly is equipped with two copies of the best camera that currently exists. They are built into the front and the back of the frame, so that the only part exposed to the outside is a lens. The lenses are protected and hidden away with valves when the plane lands.
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Kashyyk

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #88 on: February 03, 2023, 09:30:40 am »

I'd rather not push to close to this clairvoyance thing MoP referenced. However, with the Floating Firefly as a revision, I'd be very happy to support a floatplane tender version of the Eve.

Quote from: )votebox now outside the parenthesis that MoP never closed
Eve-Class Coast Guard Cutter: (1) Quarque
  Use Research Credit?
    Yes: (1) Quarque
    No:
Worker Passes: (1) Quarque
PC-46 "Firefly SPIE": (1) Kashyyk
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Quarque

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Re: CWAR: UNSA Thread // Revision Phase // Summer 1946
« Reply #89 on: February 03, 2023, 09:48:30 am »

alright, let's get things moving

edit: changed the revision below so that it can carry exactly one plane

Quote from: Revision: Eve-Class Coast Guard Cutter v2 (Firefly deck version)
With peace in our time, our navy (or what remains of it) seems to be a bit of an anachronism.  The Eve-Class "Coast Guard Cutter" is a revision of our Herring-class Destroyer into a more relevant vessel, better suited for civil-military operations.

For ease of construction, the 115m destroyer hull and its armor is largely unmodified.  However, the silhouette is radically different.  Only the fore of the three twin 120mm turrets has been retained.  Although now additional rafts and firefighting gear have been tied down in place of the second turret for search and rescue duties, the foredeck is now much more open with a single turret and legacy triple torpedo mounts. The aft deck is notably clear; this space can be used to park one of the newly designed "firefly SPIE" seaplanes. It can be heaved on board with a crane designed for the purpose. The conning tower has a bevy new antennas, which only the savviest of enthusiasts would be able to fully identify.

Below deck, the loss of two gunnery turrets and their magazine leaves plenty of room for activities.  The aft magazine has been replaced with aviation fuel and supplies.  The mid magazine has been converted to an electronic eavesdropping station: ostensibly using high powered directional antennas to scan for maritime distress signals, but happily intercepting foreign communications in the interim.  (Given the coastal nature of the Eve's duties, land based communications are frequently intercepted as well.)

Overall, the Eve retains enough armament of the Herring to conduct maritime counter-smuggler operations and while expanding into greater search & rescue operations, and previously under-explored electronic eavesdropping mission sets.

Quote from: votebox now outside the parenthesis that MoP never closed
Eve-Class Coast Guard Cutter: (0)
Eve-Class Coast Guard Cutter v2 (Firefly deck version): (1) Quarque
Worker Passes: (0)
PC-46 "Firefly SPIE": (2) Kashyyk, Quarque
« Last Edit: February 03, 2023, 12:41:23 pm by Quarque »
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