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[Cnidaros]

Knights of the Skies: Kingdom of Verusa Thread

If you're looking for the Core Thread: click here!

The year is 1915, and the Great War rages in Europe. After a succession crisis in Verusa and a popular revolution in Kolechia, these two nations have returned to warring for control of the small continent of Aurelia in the South Atlantic. The war in Europe is no longer fought only on land and at sea: in the air, warplanes report valuable information on enemy movements, and duel whenever they encounter each other. After hearing of the success of Allied observation aircraft in turning the German tide at the Battle of the Marne, both nations have scrambled to build up their air forces to control Aurelia.

However, it has been discovered that the general in charge of building the fledgling air force has bought inferior planes from abroad and pocketed the difference for himself. He has been disposed of, and in his place you – a group of engineers – have been brought in to oversee the design of our new air force.

A sleek black automobile with the King’s crest on the bonnet pulls up at the Aerodrome, and you step out to survey it. The Experimental Aerodrome is a cluster of long, low buildings adjoining a mowed field which serves as the runway. As you watch, a biplane wobbles down to an unsteady landing, rolling over with a snapping of wooden wings. The driver sniggers as the bruised pilot clambers out of the wreckage and begins poking around in it to retrieve his sabre.

In the meeting room, the other engineers are gathered around a large table strewn with blueprints. Servants are removing crates of single-malt whiskey from the former general’s office, watched over by bored guards in the purple berets of the regimental police. What do you propose to your fellow engineers?

Spoiler: Starting Equipment (click to show/hide)

Planes:
-‘Rhino’ Biplane: A unarmed, single-seater reconnaissance plane. Very misleadingly named, as its fragile wood-and-canvas frame can’t withstand the slightest collision. On the other hand, it’s about as easy to turn as a charging rhino. At least it gets up to a good speed, powered by a five-cylinder rotary engine. Cost: 3/1
Pilots:
-Daring: For King and Country! Verusan pilots are more aggressive and willing to take risks in combat.
-Uniforms: Blue with purple accents. Pilots are commissioned with a ceremonial sabre, which they bring along for every mission, stored in a sheath in the cockpit.
Technology:
-Basic biplane design
-Basic monoplane design
-Wooden frame construction
-Basic control surfaces: wing warping, elevator and rudder
Resources:
-1 Air Academy: Trains new pilots how to take off. Landing is left as an exercise for the student.
-1 Experimental Aerodrome: Designs new planes and other air-related equipment. Produces five dice worth of progress every turn.
-10 Production Points

Spoiler: Obsolete Equipment (click to show/hide)

Equipment
-Vodak Camera: A film camera the size of a large purse, taking pictures on 120 film to be later developed. A focal length of 3 inches means it’s good for taking cool pictures of aviators posing in their planes, but pilots must fly low to get pictures with sufficient resolution to be of use. Cost 1 PP
-M1905-5.2 Shell: This isn’t a 5.2-inch shell as one might expect, it’s actually a 5.17-inch shell. Questionable calibre decisions aside, the M1905-5.2 is a high-explosive shell with a direct-action fuse, weighing in at 85 pounds. Cost: 1 PP.

[dgr11897]

For verusa! May we seek glory in the skies.
My plan right now is to create a bomber or a fighter, and then create the VOR system or actually the VORTAC system.

[Jerick]

You know what I'm not part of enough arms race games and this one looks interesting. Glory and Honor for Verusa! The skies shall be ours!

[dgr11897]

OK so I have actually flown a glider before, and I know about a few effects we can use, along with a unique piece of tech to give us an edge in navigation.
And this side is probably now closed to anyone else until the other side gains a few people.

[dgr11897]

Hmm, does our side have mortars? And by that I mean stokes mortars, the little mobile tube things.

[Jerick]

VOR was invented in the late 1940s and this game is set in 1915 so I think it's a bit too ambitious. It might be better to start with a LFR but even that will be reaching. We're at the very beginning of flight so a complex nav system isn't something we'll need. Specially since it'll take some development before we'll have any range worth noting, no need for expensive nav equipment when your operating range isn't that far. As for fighters and bombers, I think we'd be better served by developing weapons and bombs for our planes than making new planes immediately. We currently have nothing to equip them with.

Hmm, does our side have mortars? And by that I mean stokes mortars, the little mobile tube things.

Mortars have been around a long time. The strokes style mortars were invented in 1915 so we might have access to them or might not. I'm assuming the idea is to have our pilots drop the mortar munitions out of the side of the plane onto enemy positions? That should be very easy to do.

OK so I have actually flown a glider before, and I know about a few effects we can use

Yes! We'll be starting with planes that are little better than gilders so some experience there should be useful.

And this side is probably now closed to anyone else until the other side gains a few people.

Looks like Nuke is on the other side now.

[dgr11897]

OK, the reason I was asking about mortars was to mount one to the bottom of an aircraft, slightly more precision than just dropping bombs, then I realized how you load a mortar, through the top, that was stupid. But a bottom mounted grenade launcher Might work. Something else I wanted to say was that we should make a combat glider, not for dogfighting but more as just a cheap way to drop loads of bombs and munitions on the enemy. Since gliders don't have engines, and thus have slightly lower maintenance and production costs, which means more PP for munitions. Also, should we start training paratroopers? But overall I agree, weapons and bombs first. On that note, what about a hydrogen fuel air bomb? Light, deadly, and hopefully doable.

[frostgiant]

Honestly, The rhino is not really something to mount a weapon on.
Actually, Since our victory isn't only determined by Victory in combat but glory, Getting camera equipment to enhance the rhinos usefulness as a recon plane might be good, That was one of the uses of early planes that cemented them for use.
If not, We should work on a new biplane, The rhino will not be viable for very long for any purpose.

[Jerick]

OK, the reason I was asking about mortars was to mount one to the bottom of an aircraft, slightly more precision than just dropping bombs, then I realized how you load a mortar, through the top, that was stupid. But a bottom mounted grenade launcher Might work. Something else I wanted to say was that we should make a combat glider, not for dogfighting but more as just a cheap way to drop loads of bombs and munitions on the enemy. Since gliders don't have engines, and thus have slightly lower maintenance and production costs, which means more PP for munitions. Also, should we start training paratroopers? But overall I agree, weapons and bombs first. On that note, what about a hydrogen fuel air bomb? Light, deadly, and hopefully doable.

Dgr remember this is early WW1 aviation. We're very primitive to start with, we're working with wooden frames covered in fabric, some controls that pull on wires that physically move the control surfaces. We've got no electronics. Starter motors? What are those? We need guys to walk up to the props of our aircraft and spin the props by hand to get the engine turning over. Grenade launchers haven't been invented (ok basic, big, unwieldy, extremely unreliable ones existed but never saw much use). Combat gliders could work but we'd need some way to easily get them into the air. Paratroopers are a straight no. We've got a single seater recon plane it'll be a rather long time before we can make anything that can carry enough people and equipment to make paratroopers worth it. Also we need to develop parachutes as seeing as we're just trying the whole air combat thing for the first time we don't appear to have any. And finally the therombaric bomb. FAEs were first developed and used in the Vietnam war. If you can write a proposal that can explain how we in 1915 can reliably and cheaply make these devices I'll happily vote for it. But most of what you've been suggesting is rather too ambitious, at least for the time being. I'm sure as the game moves on the tech will grow absurd and far from the tech level of the time as they often do in these games. But right now it'd be best not to try and reach too far in one go.

Honestly, The rhino is not really something to mount a weapon on.
Actually, Since our victory isn't only determined by Victory in combat but glory, Getting camera equipment to enhance the rhinos usefulness as a recon plane might be good, That was one of the uses of early planes that cemented them for use.
If not, We should work on a new biplane, The rhino will not be viable for very long for any purpose.

Good points. I hadn't considered a camera, I'm too used to arms races were success is measured in enemy casualties. A prestige design might be very good. And yes the Rhino isn't something to mount weapons on thus;

Our recon planes could be enhanced greatly by having ways to strike at the enemy. To this end I propose requisition some additional equipment for our pilots; for single seater craft the pilot will be some form of easy to use pistol and a large number of the stick grenades used by our infantry. In two seater planes the pilot will receive a pistol where as the copilot will receive a shotgun and a large number of grenades.  In order to use the grenades the pilots will need to fly low and drop them from the aircraft onto enemy positions.

Hrrmm you know what on thinking about it this is probably revision tier. Might save for the revision section.

Also this link might prove very helpful to us. It's got lots of technical details for WW1 aircraft.

[dgr11897]

Challenge accepted. 

After hearing about an incident at a flour mill, and in need of some new form of bomb. The incident in question was someone putting explosives inside a bag of flour as a prank, the explosives were only meant to, and should only have been powerful enough to, disperse the flour into the air. What actually happened was a large fireball. After a bit of study a new kind of bomb was developed, consisting of a container of fine grain flour with two charges inside, one to disperse the flour, the other to ignite it. This in effect causes the area the flour was dispersed in to explode in a large fireball.
While the design is primitive and not too terribly good at destroying armor, it is the first step towards a new kind of explosive.

I have a different design that uses gasoline and a gunpowder charge, but I figured doing a flour based bomb first would be a good first step. Since doing a gasoline bomb seems like a more advanced design.

[Cnidaros]

Design Phase, Summer 1915

There are no events yet. Begin designing!

Spoiler: Squadrons (click to show/hide)

Squadron 1 | Rhino Biplane | No Equipment | Aerial Reconnaissance | Neophyte | No Aces | Maintenance Cost 1
Currently assigned to observe enemy frontline along the Derboise-Jawanin Road

Squadron 2 | Rhino Biplane | No Equipment | Aerial Reconnaissance | Neophyte | No Aces | Maintenance Cost 1
Currently assigned to observe enemy frontline along the Demisonne-Dreidansk Road

Spoiler: Statistics (click to show/hide)

Prestige: Extremely Little “Flying men? Don’t be ridiculous!”
Status: Auxiliary Service
Army Relations: Neutral “Those planes might be useful.”
Navy Relations: Neutral “Flying? You mean, like an albatross?”

Production Points: 10
Total Maintenance: 2

To answer your various questions: yes you can make gliders. In fact, you can make absolutely anything at all, although if you waste all your dice on making edible field rations, the top brass won't be too pleased.

The army has some mortars, but not Stokes mortars. In general, the tech level of the army is about 2-3 years behind that currently deployed in Europe. If you want them, you have to put in a Requisition for them to the army.

Also, you might want to rename your squadrons something other than Squadron 1/Squadron 2.

[dgr11897]

OK, we should rename our air force to be the royal sky knights.
for a symbol, what about a winged sword with a red circle behind it?
For designs, how about we start work on a better engine or better materials. A bomber of some kind might also be a good idea.

[frostgiant]

Voyeur Recon equipment:
The rhino is a poor combat platform, But it is a unique existence right now. The ability to see the enemies movements and plans with the eye of god enable unparallel levels of intelligence for Generals and planners on the ground. Any general knows the importance of intelligence, and the ability to provide that intelligence in a form that is currently uncontested is very important.
The recon kit consists of A set of maps, A camera, Binoculars, A notebook and a set of pencils.

Really basic write up for a recon kit.

[Jerick]

OK, we should rename our air force to be the royal sky knights.
for a symbol, what about a winged sword with a red circle behind it?
For designs, how about we start work on a better engine or better materials. A bomber of some kind might also be a good idea.

I decided to see if I could make a decent version of a symbol.

Spoiler: Red Winged Sword (click to show/hide)

Here's a version with purple since it's the colours of our uniform

Spoiler: Purple Winged Sword (click to show/hide)

Challenge accepted. 

After hearing about an incident at a flour mill, and in need of some new form of bomb. The incident in question was someone putting explosives inside a bag of flour as a prank, the explosives were only meant to, and should only have been powerful enough to, disperse the flour into the air. What actually happened was a large fireball. After a bit of study a new kind of bomb was developed, consisting of a container of fine grain flour with two charges inside, one to disperse the flour, the other to ignite it. This in effect causes the area the flour was dispersed in to explode in a large fireball.
While the design is primitive and not too terribly good at destroying armor, it is the first step towards a new kind of explosive.

I have a different design that uses gasoline and a gunpowder charge, but I figured doing a flour based bomb first would be a good first step. Since doing a gasoline bomb seems like a more advanced design.

Ah yes! Effective? Quite possibly yes. Manufacturable? Absolutely! In fact it seems like we'd be able to make those inordinately cheap which makes them surprisingly attractive. I worry about weight though, we'd need a good amount of flour to make these effective and flour weighs more than you might expect. A few things need to be addressed though; how is this device mounted to the aircraft? How is it released from the plane? How is the fuse ignited? Still it's definitely a good design I think it'd work best with barrel sized bombs but we need better planes before we can do that.

Voyeur Recon equipment:
The rhino is a poor combat platform, But it is a unique existence right now. The ability to see the enemies movements and plans with the eye of god enable unparallel levels of intelligence for Generals and planners on the ground. Any general knows the importance of intelligence, and the ability to provide that intelligence in a form that is currently uncontested is very important.
The recon kit consists of A set of maps, A camera, Binoculars, A notebook and a set of pencils.

Really basic write up for a recon kit.

Giving our pilots this stuff seems like something we can get away with using a simple revision on to me. But it's certainly something we need.

[dgr11897]

Well, while it would make them temperamental, we could use a bit of nitroglycerin in the tip of the bomb, so when it hits the ground it starts a chain reaction with the gunpowder. As for how it is released from the plane, I was thinking either we could do an under the wing design (bad idea if we use nitroglycerin) or have it in the center of the body, with the aircraft basically built around it, then when you need to drop it you pull a lever or pull-string that detaches a bottom plate on the aircraft, then pull another one to release the bomb.
I also like how the winged sword design turned out.