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[Armok]

Hmm, i sounds like fortification brings a LOT of useful stuff even for offence, we should probably research that.

Also, what would happen if we made a huge-ass mana bomb, which is basically a massively beefed up mana grenade that can't be thrown and such? As for how big, using up exactly one Equipment per bomb might be about right.

[adwarf]

I think the most popular choice for a vehicle is the Thunderhead. See if we can't squeeze another Part out of somewhere, and if we can, make a Paperback. If at all possible, spare that part and don't build LTD's for the Paperback, use four Equipment and mount quad MGs on it instead, firing arcs be damned. The rest of equipment should go to making infantry, I think.

Rotate squads this week. C and D remain in the Shell and train, A and B scout. Have A scout the shorelines along the east coast, starting directly east and moving south. See if there are any Raider landings or anything else of note. B makes a trip to Ironhold (or whatever that village was - you really should add some kind of legend to the map), claiming to be a "regular patrol", and inquires of the state of affairs. Better use just the Elites for this, keeping the soft recruits away from guns that could rip them to chunks in half a round. Elites can at least 'port out of trouble. Alternatively, if construction is instantaneous-instantaneous, give the Thunderhead to squad B, and have them do the same trick with teleporting through the gates. Afterwards, they scout the rest of the northern segment of the continent for raiders, and return home along the West coast, also looking for anything notable.

This

[Pandarsenic]

Hmm, i sounds like fortification brings a LOT of useful stuff even for offence, we should probably research that.

Also, what would happen if we made a huge-ass mana bomb, which is basically a massively beefed up mana grenade that can't be thrown and such? As for how big, using up exactly one Equipment per bomb might be about right.

The mana grenade you're using presently comes off your weapons - its less a device than a firing mode.

The kind you're looking at would basically be a mana battery put to clever use via Doctrine: Espionage, where you'd attach it to a device which (given a signal after a time or receiving a remote command) would force it to consume its mana to create an effect to absorb mana from the environment and generate it with its current reservoir. This would result in it rapidly storing far more amounts than it "should," as well as overloading the minor failsafes in place to be sure it doesn't happen prematurely. That, in turn, would cause basically what the mana grenade did, but everything... bigger.

[RAM]

Or we could beuild a bigger gun, probably requiring multiple operators...

[Sean Mirrsen]

Bump-de-doo.

Any more decisions we need to make?

[Pandarsenic]

... setting the plans for your units (and anything new you want to do with your Labor, and what you want to aim to produce this week) for the week would be useful. And finalizing your use of the 10 Equipment and 15 Vehicle Parts.

Also, happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day, everyone.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Well, the most obvious choice of construction would be a Small Farm. We don't want to be straddling too close to the "zero food surplus" line. Not sure what sort of Labor requirement that'll have. The rest of labor is distributed as usual, if possible. Priority given to Farms, of course, followed by Factories, Foundries, and Salvage.

Our factories work as usual, except they'll have to make one Vehicle Part instead of one Equipment if there isn't enough Labor remaining to get a part through Salvage.

Our current stock of 15 parts gets used thus: 12 into making a new Thunderhead, 3 stockpiled until salvaging/manufacturing brings in another part, at which point make a Paperback.

8 equipment is used to upgrade Squad A and B's Recruits to Infantry. Use 2 Equipment to fit the Thunderhead with a pair of single MG turrets along the spine, that can support broadside firing on either side. Allow the person in the Machinegunner's seat to slave the turrets to his mount so he can fire everything at once, otherwise they're controlled by whoever sits behind the driver in the front of the vehicle. They're two separate turrets so that if the Thunderhead is ever in a crossfire, it can provide support on both sides at once. The downside is that it can never bring both machineguns to bear on the front, but it's got T-Drivers for that.

The plans are probably similar to what I wanted to do earlier. Send the Thaumatank to Ironhold again and inquire on their allegiance/status. Give them a chance to open the gates this time. Don't make a fuss if they decide against joining, just say that we can't allow ourselves the luxury of having a hostile settlement so near to us, and if we are ever attacked again, we will retaliate with lethal force. If they agree, joy and celebration! Or not. Thank them and radio Squad A that once they're done patrolling the coast, they pick up the reserve troops in the Shell and bring themselves and the Thunderhead to Ironhold. Size the place up and see if they even need any help defending themselves.
Squads C and D are to stay in the Shell this week, resting up and training when possible. Squad A gets the Thunderhead, and scouts the East Coast for raider activity and anomalies. Squad B gets to do the same thing, but along the West Coast, and on foot. A begins their scouting somewhat south of Invictus, and follows the coast north until they reach Ironhold. B begins a little south of the Shell and keeps going north until they either run out of land or have come far enough that they need to turn back to make it to the Shell by the end of the week.

If the Paperback is complete before the end of the week, assign it to Squad D and let one of the Experienced Recruits train in piloting it. He'll receive proper gear next week anyway.

There, I think that's everything.

[RAM]

I would prefer to conserve more of our resources. And get a full 6 infantry in a single squad, probably B. But I will support the above plan...

[Pandarsenic]

Problem time~

The Thunderhead has been designed around your finest-yet application of a Magitech reactor to maximize its speed, active and passive Magitech defenses, and (with the leftovers) weapons. Each MG would have a power drain which, while not very big, would be drawing from nonexistent reserves. Each MG would require giving up 2/3 of all Attack values, 2/3 of Defense, or 2/3 Movement. Retooling it to divert from a different power source would require a day's worth of maintenance by a Magitechnician (such as an Elite) or at a city.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Okay, how about regular Magitech Machinegun turrets cut into the roof, like on a Humvee? We've got infantrymen who fire out of their own sitting places, and some seats don't have firing windows. Let those troopers pop up and fire away. Although I suspect we won't get away with just 2 Equipment for this mod...

On second thought, we can live with sacrificing the forward weapon mounts' power for firing the MTMGs (unless you mean the drain is constant), because the thing is usually firing broadsides anyway. Not sure how such a retool could work (or how long it'd take), but simply having a quick-select available to the driver that switches power from T-Drivers to MTMG's depending on combat situation would be fine.

[Pandarsenic]

2/3 of all Attack values

In case it wasn't clear, that includes the Thaumic Driver values.

Cutting open the roof would require a small defense loss and anyone not physically within the field of the Thunderhead (e.g. the gunners' torsos and heads) would run their own defensive values (with the Thunderhead's velocity added).

[Sean Mirrsen]

It HAS no attack values other than the Thaumic Driver values, seeing as before the MTMGs are installed they're the only mounted weapons. If there's no penalty to using the Machineguns, and if the Drivers aren't hampered when the Machineguns aren't in use, everything's fine. Otherwise, what about that selector switch? If we create a physical (well, as physical as possible with magitek) power rerouter that could cut power to the Drivers to activate the Machineguns and vice-versa, there wouldn't be a power loss to any given system since the total power used would remain the same.

We can at least attempt that, and since it'd allow us to have a more versatile and capable vehicle, I say we do it. If we fail, remove the MG turrets and save them for a later project

Also, the power of the Thunderhead's Thaumic Drivers is listed as 9, when by the formula it's 8 (5+Magitek+SRA). Maybe you should just save me and yourself some time and just go over each stat formula again?

[Pandarsenic]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It probably doesn't help that I typically write down those stat blocks... while going to sleep.

I'll go over them all tomorrow.

At the request of one of the soldiers, you design a small selector switch prototype in your lab.

Moments later you stagger out, coughing, with black smoke billowing out from behind you. Rubbing the still-smoldering remnants of your eyebrows, you inform him that while cutting off an active Magitech current isn't something you see being feasible in the near future (going on a "brief" tangent to say that many of the Thaumatank's internal structures make much more sense with that newfound understanding, and that you now see why the Magitech firearms use an incredibly complex format of having one system transfer power to an intermediary and turn off then powering the second system to pull from that intermediary instead of just directly powering the second one) you have some great ideas for Magitech explosives when you get around to designing a Magitech kit for matters related to Espionage.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I really should have added "For SCIENCE!" to the end of my request. Alright then, no machinegun switches. Use the Thunderhead as it is for now, we'll think of something useful later. If we can spare those bits of Equipment, upgrade two reserve Recruits to Infantry and send them off with Squad A.

[Pandarsenic]

Once you advance your Magitech research, you can improve your reactor copies, if you're wondering why the current things are so limited.