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[10ebbor10]

He are they going to counter it? With a PLACE of their own? With a portable shroud?

In the first case we are a little better than even, unless they have enough imagination to use a trim crystal for transport.

In the second case, shrouds don't block heat.

They have already countered it.

Bolts and gauntlet fire cut into the Wreth defenders as their ambush suddenly turned against them. Men with cutlasses crawl out from the walls to hack at legs, while Kasgyrite marksmen fire and reload from their cubbies by virtue of crank. The PLACE itself is very nearly lost when a Kasgyrite officer with a cutlass hacks apart her gunner, but overwhelming gauntlet fire is able to at least win a retreat. Man men end up with burned arms, but it's only through the gauntlet's ability to rapidly and decisively respond to threats that the Kasgyrite counter-ambush doesn't result in a fatal rout.

Apparently, the PLACE is too slow to reorient to another firing position, so they can easily flank it.

[Tack]

Hmm. "Hustle back, Hustle up" tactic revision?
Back up the PLACE, wait for them to jump out of the holes, give them the business, set a new forward position, repeat?

No Design: 10ebbor10, NUKE9.13, Jilladilla, Tack

Frankly I'm kind of annoyed these guys climbing through the holes in the walls haven't had mass deaths from spiders.

[NUKE9.13]

Frankly I'm kind of annoyed these guys climbing through the holes in the walls haven't had mass deaths from spiders.

I wondered about that myself. Have we managed to exterminate (most of) the spiders in the Three Captains with a handful of soldiers and a single PLACE?

Provided that we haven't, I suggest that we deliberately pull back this turn, before Kasgyr even attacks, making a section of the spire unclaimed. Let Kasgyr try their new ambush tactic against spiders. It has been established that officers are single-minded fools, who will use the tactic assigned to them no matter how suicidal.
Draignean, can this be possible? Pretty please?

[Draignean]

This can be possible, but you're guaranteed to lose a section of territory unless you kill everyone.

[NUKE9.13]

This can be possible, but you're guaranteed to lose a section of territory unless you kill everyone.

Yeah, that's the idea. Since we're probably going to lose ground regardless, what with those -presumably well armed- reinforcements coming.

So, would people be on board with this? Do you want to see Kasgyr crawling into holes full of spiders, or would you rather see our depleted forces fight to the last man, hopelessly outclassed?

[andrea]

we want to keep our forces and the place alive as long as possible, if nothing else just to keep an eye on the situation. It will take a while before we can reinforce.

[Tack]

Yeah, fighting retreat, let's do that.

[Draignean]

No Design: 10ebbor10, NUKE9.13, Jilladilla, Tack

Alright, I'll roll up your lack of design after Kasgyre finishes having an opinion.

[10ebbor10]

On a side note, we lost 2 transports because they didn't have their shields active thanks to the enemies ambush tactics.

Maybe we can replicated that, by implementing our own ambush tactic.

The Skiffs spot their targets before the the Kasgyrites spot them, but not by enough to fully capitalize on it with existing maneuvers.

It's clear the enemy has no effective scouting tactics, and their small ships are both being eliminated and inferior in quality. With an ambush, even a skiff can seriously damage their big craft.

[NUKE9.13]

we want to keep our forces and the place alive as long as possible, if nothing else just to keep an eye on the situation. It will take a while before we can reinforce.

Right... so you're in favour of pulling back and letting spiders serve as our meat-shields?

Yeah, fighting retreat, let's do that.

No, let's not. What on earth in the sky do we gain by a fighting retreat? We aren't going to deal enough casualties to make up for our own losses. I mean, we were this close to a complete rout this turn- and they're getting reinforcements, and we've suffered losses. A "Fighting Retreat" in this case is another way of saying "Throwing Away Troops".
...and another thing. If they capture the PLACE, not only have we lost an expensive (and currently irreplaceable) piece of equipment, but they have also gained one. They might be able to reverse-engineer it to gain a bonus to designing their own.
No. A thousand times no.

[Draignean]

The engineers, in their momentary respite, have fun designing papier-mache replicas of the Kasgyrite 'spider-queen'. They paint them with all sorts of horrible features, fill them with candy, and distribute them to local children to destroy with sticks.


Spire Wreth's production stands at
13/y Crystal, 50/65 Banked
17/y Ore, 38/85 banked
19/y Wood, 78/95 banked
10/y Silk, 33/50 banked

It is the now the revision phase. You have 5 dice left to spend.

Spoiler: Projects (click to show/hide)

PLACE: 8/15 | 1 Ore, + 2 from Silk OR Ore OR Crystal | Rushed 0 Times | 2 ore, 4 silk invested | Prototype Deployed
Windrider Corvette: 8/16 | 6 wood + 3 Ore | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

The Calm: The calm is a region of the aerosphere with almost no wind beyond fleeting turbulence, and absolutely no aetheric currents. It's frigidly cold, and filled with fine red 'snow' that barely moves. Traversing it with a conventional vessel is impossible due to the lack of energy to fuel the lift and trim crystals.
The Everstorm: As the name suggests, the everstorm is a region of the aerosphere dominated by an enormous and eternal thunderstorm. It's a chaotic region of raging winds and surging aetheric energy that manifests in terrible bursts of prismatic flame. No conventional vessel could hope to survive the nightmarish storm conditions.

Wreth Territory

Haze-Maze
Marine Presence: K 0/8 |  W 1/8
--->Marines
---> Squad G (No Equip)
Territory: 0/4 | 4/4
Resources: 1C, 3O, 1W, 2S
Conditions: Deadly Gas Pockets, significant vertical shafts and steep tunnels.

Miner's Folly
Marine Presence: K 0/18 |  W 1/18
--->Marines
---> Squad G (No Equip)
Territory: 0/4 | 4/4
Resources: 1C, 6O, 0W, 1S
Conditions: Toxic Stone, Massive Caverns, pitch-black

The Verdant Vista
Marine Presence: K 0/18 |  W 0/18
Territory: 0/4 | 4/4
Resources: 1C, 0O, 8W, 2S
Conditions: Mostly earth and soil, Unstable pocket caves


The Belt

Three Captains
Marine Presence: K ?/20 |  W 4/20
--->Marines
---> Squad D (Pincushion, Fireteam | Cutlass, All) [50%]
---> Squad 2A (Gauntlets, all | Cutlass, all | Silk Vests,Commander | 1 PLACE  [50%]
---> Squad 2B (Gauntlets, all | Cutlass, all | Silk Vests,Commander
Territory: 1/4 | 3/4
Resources: 1C, 6O, 2W, 6S
Conditions: Kinetoluminescent Ores, Heavily Infested

Wrackspire
Marine Presence: K ?/12 |  W 0/12
Territory: ?/4 | 0/4
Resources: 3C, 4O, 4W, 2S
Conditions: Unstable Aetheric Phenomena, Broken Spire

Burned Mountain
Marine Presence: K ?/24 |  W 0/24
Territory: ?/4 | 0/4
Resources: 1C, 10O, 1W, 0S
Conditions: Inexplicably Molten Core, Hundreds of narrow tunnels and small galleries.

The Unfinished
Marine Presence: K ?/45 |  W 0/45
Territory: ?/4 | 0/4
Resources: 8C, 0O, 6W, 2S
Conditions: Unfinished infrastructure, Massive open rooms and halls.

Spoiler: Ships (click to show/hide)

Skiffs With No Name - Skyskiff Class (x2)
Loadout
2 Light Aether Cannons+ (Flanged Heatsinks, Itshana Refinement).
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
4 Trim Crystals+ (Itshana Refinement)
2 reams of webbing
Location: Kasgyrite Leftmost Spire
Status: All papers are in order.

WOSV Herbie - Transport Barge
Loadout
1 Small Core Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
1 Small Basic Lift Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
2 Trim Crystals+ (Itshana Refinement)
1 reams of webbing
Carrying: 0/6
Location: Spire Wreth
Status:  All papers are in order.

Skiffs With No Name - Skyskiff Class (x3)
Loadout
2 Light Aether Cannons+ (Flanged Heatsinks, Itshana Refinement).
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
4 Trim Crystals+ (Itshana Refinement)
2 reams of webbing
Location: Spire Wreth
Status: All papers are in order.

'Vomit Comet' - Skyskiff Class
Loadout
2 Light Aether Cannons+ (Flanged Heatsinks, Itshana Refinement).
1 Very Small Itshana Select Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal+ (Itshana Refinement)
4 Trim Crystals+ (Itshana Refinement)
2 reams of webbing
Location: Spire Wreth
Status: All papers are in order.

Spoiler: Infantry (click to show/hide)

Marines x15

Spoiler: Misc. Goods (click to show/hide)

Ream of Webbing x8

Current Technology

Spoiler: Tech (click to show/hide)

Infantry

Flint-Lock Pistol: Cost: 2 ore to give one of either to every fireteam in a squad, 8 to give to every man. Inaccurate beyond spitting distance, incapable of dealing significant damage against hard armor, and liable to explode when used regularly even when given the most expert maintenance,  the primary advantage of these weapons is that they can punch straight through shrouds like they didn't exist, and they're slowed by aethersilk officer's coats as much as by an ordinary silk shirt.

Flint-Lock Rifle: Cost: 3 ore to give one of either to every fireteam in a squad, 12 to give to every man. Reasonably accurate, but slow to reload and still incapable of dealing significant damage against hard armor or ship hulls. These weapons still require expert maintenance to keep them from being single-use weapons, and sustained use still makes these weapons terrifyingly unreliable as service weapons. Still, an excellent choice for shooting through silk shirts and ignoring shrouds.

Suppressor Repeating Crossbow: Cost: 2 wood+ 1 ore per fireteam, 8 wood + 4 ore to give to every man. | A repeating crossbow with a forty pound lever weight. Field modification allow it to operate has a standard repeating crossbow, or as a light crossbow using a goat's foot lever. The latter is underpowered, the former is inaccurate.

Pincushion Repeating Crossbow: Cost: 3 wood to give one to every fireteam, 12 wood to give to every man. | A lighter and nearly all wood version of the Suppressor. Limited draw weight and not terribly robust, but cheap.

Grappling Gear: Cost: 1 ore to give to every member of a squad. Standard issue ropes and hooks for boarding vessels or climbing the outside of spires. Cumbersome if you're not going to use it.

Aetheric Gauntlet*: Cost: 1 Ore, 1 crystal to give one to every fireteam in a squad, 4 of each to give one to everyone. A gauntlet (usually left handed to keep the right hand free) of copper and leather with a tiny weapons crystal locked into the palm. Capable of firing dozens of low energy blasts of aetheric energy at the user's discretion, but is difficult to aim and the copper cage used to draw heat from the crystal has the unsettling tendency to leave disfiguring gauntlet burns, melt, or set the user on fire if used too frequently.
---> A.G.I: Some small QoL changes have been made to the gauntlet, slightly increasing its sustained rate of fire and giving the user a bit more time before the gauntlet burns their arm.


Bronze Cutlass: Cost: 2 Ore to give to every member of a squad. A simple, heavy blade of bronze attached to a wooden handle. Simple, and brutally effective in close quarters.

Aethersilk Vest: Cost: 1 Silk to give to a squad's ranking officer, 5 silk to provide to ranking officer and team leads, 16 silk to give to every member of a squad. A double layer vest of dense aethersilk, capable of absorbing a considerable amount of Aetheric energy. Can stop multiple point-blank shots from a gauntlet, but doesn't cover the arms, legs, or head. Does nothing against physical weapons or projectiles.
 

Ship Tech

Light Aether Cannon*: 1 Crystal, 1 Ore for one.  A small cannon, capable of being mounted on deck without reinforcement. Fires powerful blasts of aetheric energy, and uses a removable block of copper as a heat-sink. Relatively inaccurate, short ranged, hot, power hungry, and prone to exploding violently if hit directly by enemy fire. Still, it can blow wood into flaming cinders and will melt through light plating in a few shots.
---> The Itshana Process has improved crystal purity, allowing for a slight increase in power.
---> Can be manufactured using Itshana Select crystals, which gives a 175-200% increase in power, at the cost of increasing the ore cost of the component by an amount equal to the base crystal price. WARNING: Cannons have not been modified to compensate for the increased energy output.
---> Improved Dissipation enable it to be fired 25% faster than normal once hot.

Basic Core Crystal+: [VS 3 Crystal | S 6 Crystal]  A massive rough gem, grown in vats and used to transduce aetheric energy into electric current. This particular model is relatively inefficient, both as a transducer and as a storage unit. It can generate a defensive shroud around a vessel, but more than a single shot from a light Aether cannon on the same point will knock a hole in the shroud. Will explode spectacularly if hit directly.
---> The Itshana Process has improved crystal purity, allowing for a slight increase in efficiency.
---> Can be manufactured using Itshana Select crystals, which gives a 175-200% increase in power, at the cost of increasing the ore cost of the component by an amount equal to the base crystal price.

Basic Lift Crystal*: [VS 2 Crystal, 2 ore | S 3 Crystal, 2 ore for one] A chunk of crystal the size of a bathtub, heavily reinforced so that it can be locked into a ship's spine. When fed electricity, it will progressively invert gravity's effect on itself, flying upwards and pulling anything attached up with it. This basic model is incredibly power hungry, produces only enough lift for a small ship and internal flaws mean that extreme maneuvers could easily cause it to crack.
---> The Itshana Process has improved crystal purity, allowing for a slight increase in lift.
---> Can be manufactured using Itshana Select crystals, which gives a 175-200% increase in power, at the cost of increasing the ore cost of the component by an amount equal to the base crystal price.

Basic Trim Crystals*: 1 Crystal for two.  Head sized chunks of crystal, similar to lift crystals, though of greater refinement. These produce directional gravity when powered, allowing a ship to make finer maneuvers. Like the basic lift crystal, these are power hungry and prone to fracture of used for rapid maneuverability.
---> The Itshana Process has improved crystal purity, allowing for a slight increase in maneuverability.
---> Can be manufactured using Itshana Select crystals, which gives a 175-200% increase in power, at the cost of increasing the ore cost of the component by an amount equal to the base crystal price.

Basic Webbing: 2 Silk per ream. Aethersilk webbing, designed to catch hold of aetheric currents and shunt them into a ship's core crystal. Particularly susceptible to fire from aetheric weapons, which will rapidly cause overloads that burn out whole sections of webbing.

Light Copper Ship Plating: 3 ore per section. Nearly pure copper plates, heavy, but with good thermal conductivity. Useful for spreading out the heat generated by an aether blast. Low melting point does mean that repeated impacts will melt the armor and set fire to the wood beneath.

Ship Hulls

Skyskiff 5 wood, 2 ore for one.
At her heart, the Skyskiff is an 18ft long frame of sleek timber and brass reinforcement, built from the ground up to be light on the air and quick to handle. Her basic design is quite old, dating back before the perfection of trim crystals, and she still sports a rudimentary mast that a sail can be run from in addition to the normal spars to run out web. In service, she's typically run by a crew of four. Two gunners who worked crouched in the middle of the ship, a pilot who spends their time practically laying on top of the core crystal in order to manipulate the power control, and the spotter who usually stands at the rear of the ship and calls out directions and threats. Generally, the captain of the vessel is the spotter, due to their superior vantage point and ability to see the entire local theatre.

A notable problem with the Skyskiff is that despite her speed, her web is cumbersome to replace, and without it she's painfully slow. In addition, both her Core Crystal and Her Lift Crystal slots are only designed to fit small crystals. Her small lift crystal means a lot of the burden for vertical maneuvers is still placed on the power hungry trim crystals, which in turn puts more demand on her small core. As a result, her shroud is weak, and a single light cannon blast will knock a hole in it. It still takes two or three more shots before her shroud will buckle entirely, but if another shot comes in the same spot swiftly enough- that's the end of the skiff. Except in the most fortunate of circumstances, a single cannon blast to an unshrouded skiff will destroy it.

She has no usable cargo capacity.
Armament
2 light cannon mounts. One on each side.
Requires:
1 Core Crystal (Up to Very Small in size)
1 Lift Crystal (Up to Very Small in size)
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing

Transport barge 7 wood, 2 ore for one.
In times of peace, this was the vessel most frequently seen going to and from Spires. She's little more than a wooden oval with a few metal bands designed to support the lift crystal. She's got capacity for crew and cargo, but she's quite slow when fully loaded, and her lack of significant trim crystals means that she can't maneuver with any speed. Her only real defense against attack is to dive down into the mist layer and hope that the attacking vessel loses her trail before the mistmaw comes lurking.

She can hold six units of cargo.
Armament
None
Requires:
1 Core Crystal (Up to small size)
1 Lift Crystal (Up to small size)
2 Trim Crystals
1 ream of webbing

Basic Dinghy (Special, used automatically by Marines to embark/disembark transports)
A very small boat, technically capable of transporting eight people as long as they aren't too broad, don't have a fear of heights, and their legs aren't too long. Her core crystal is about the size of a housecat, and kept powered by a fixed ventral web. She's solid wood, unarmed, and has the tendency to tip alarmingly as she doesn't actually use a lift crystal, but makes do entirely on a trio of small trim crystals. It's a slow and terrifying way to travel. Though she's the primary lifeboat of transports, your chances of survival are alarmingly small if you find yourself alone in a dingy .

When used by marines, she's typically crewed by five, with the squad leader acting as an extra member in every set of three boats. When going into a hostile spire, one marine steers, the other four act as spotters or (if one or more has a gauntlet or rifle) shooters. She's such a small vessel that it doesn't take more than a dozen gauntlet shots for her to break apart completely, and a single shot to her ventral web will (at best) cripple her.

Her core crystal is, technically, capable of generating a shroud. However, the limited energy the miniscule core crystal can process limits the crew to picking two of three options: Maintain Altitude control, maintain thrust, raise shroud. For obvious reasons, raising the shroud is something of a last resort. Worse, even when powered, the shroud can be penetrated by sustained gauntlet fire. This is to say nothing of a shot from a light cannon. The shroud will buckle completely after a single shot from a light cannon, though to its credit, that's one more cannon shot than the Dinghy would have survived normally.

Spoiler: Tactics (click to show/hide)

Marines
Massed Fire and Charge: When engaging, Marines will bunch up to focus fire with their ranged weapons until they run out of ammunition or become too hot to use (depending on weapon type), at which point they will charge in with melee weapons.

Crossbow Corridors of Carnage: When engaging, Marines will attempt to find cover, or at least concealment, and fire from behind that. Advancement is a leap-frog between cover, and retreat is a similar series of backward jumps.

Ships
Close Aggressively: Ships will attempt to close distance with enemy vessels and engage at close range, firing all cannons until the enemy is destroyed.

High Vigil: Tells a fleet to maintain a vessel as a high-altitude lookout. The lookout will give a warning shot if they spot an enemy vessel. After raising the alarm, the scout rejoins the fleet and follows the same tactic as her fellow ships.

AGILE: Ships using AGILE will attempt to evade and outmaneuver enemy vessels, focusing on evasive action rather than maximizing damage.

Spoiler: Infrastructure and Production Patterns (click to show/hide)

Small Docks: Relatively simple affairs of wood jutting out into the void, capable of servicing a relatively small number of light craft. These docks are best suited to peace time usage, and are ill-equipped to service or build true warships. Light defensive cannons have been mounted in strategic positions, and will be upgraded automatically when needed.
Provides a single production line that can be used for any small or smaller production pattern.

Marine Academy: The basic and unaugmented marine academy, where men and women are transformed from milksop civilians into hardened marines.
Provides a single production line to be used ONLY on Marine production.

Crude Fuses: Extremely rudimentary fuses. You can make them fail safe, but they're going to fail often.

Production Patterns

Basic Marine Training: [Max: 25 | Rate: 2]
Generates Marine units at the spire. These marines are capable in hand-to-hand combat, but are not provided any initial weapons. You might want to buy them swords, at the very least.

Skyskiff Pattern A: [Max: 10 | Rate: 2]
Creates two Skyskiff units per turn, up to a max of 10.  Each skyskiff is outfitted with
2 Light Aether Cannons.
1 Very Small Basic Core Crystal
1 Very Small Basic Lift Crystal
4 Trim Crystals
2 reams of webbing
Buyback cost: 9 crystal, 6 ore, 5 wood, 4 silk

[Tack]

Spider queen piņata is the best thing I've seen all week thank you.

With this tactic the Marines will use their standard method of bounding back and forth from cover, however once an enemy assault begins they will retreat heavy weapons and any long-range combatants, putting up a token resistance with skirmishers, and then further retreating in order to unleash a fusillade upon any flanking troops. They then repeat the action, with the intention of minimising losses at the expense of lost ground.

With this tactic, light vehicles (having spotted an enemy), will attempt to approach from high in the air, obscured by clouds or backing onto the sun, before diving into an ambush and attempting to destroy enemy transports or other unprepared heavy craft. After the dive is completed, they will avoid further combat and retreat, meeting up with any friendly heavy vehicles which will help to shred light pursuing ships before withdrawing completely from the airspace.

Draignean, will these be compatible with the idiot ball?

[Jilladilla]

Ok, editing the tactic I proposed:

A Most Dangerous Game
Ships following this tactic undergo a risky, but potentially high reward maneuver: Moving so that they're under or over the enemy ship at sufficient distance to avoid the guns of their victim, followed by a rapid ascent or descent straight at the enemy ship, disengaging their shroud before it would collide with theirs, and pulling up next to the ship so that our guns would reside within their shroud, allowing us to fire at their ship with impunity.

Captains following this tactic will be told to only attempt it against enemy ships of sufficiently larger size, as a skiff attempting to get within the shroud of another skiff would be problematic at best.
Once again, suggest edits, better wording, criticism, or just say it's a crazy idea that will cost far too many skiffs to work.

Either way, shall we get to figuring out how to allocate our revisions this turn? For instance: Are we going to double down on the SUCKERPUNCH (Take Two)? Will we try to make our fuses better or just attempt to fix the surge issue on the Windrider? Are we going to revise new tactics or not?

[milo christiansen]

I, for one, think that "A Most Dangerous Game" is an awesome idea. Unless something much better comes up I'm all for it.

I would suggest that it be deployed along with conventional tactics, so the target is distracted...

[10ebbor10]

There's only 1 problem.

Engagement is swift, and the new tactics to outmaneuver the enemy work devastatingly well against the Kasgyrite skyskiffs. When their kettleguns whistle their last, superior Wreth vessels can win the day handily. After their initial rate of fire boost wears off, there appears to be no area were Wreth ships are not superior to the Kasgyrite skyskiffs.

This, sadly, does not seem to be true for the Kasgyrite corvette. Its ability to spin and maneuver completely belies its increased size. The corvette is capable of sudden changes and direction and momentum that would impressive for vessels outfitted with Itshana select trim crystals, and allow it to track even maneuvering skiff's with surprising and devastating accuracy.

Our skyskiffs can't outmaneuver their ships.