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Volmarias posted:This does assume that they're willing to care about the opinion of other rocks, since they've just rolled up and thrown nukes as their "or else" previously. ye I was just pointing out that I see no reason that there aren't 4000-5000 ton conversions floating around. Per the nukes thing, the fact is they would very likely need to nuke us to force us into submission swiftly and I don't really think that is toooo likely at this juncture. Their only ship with shields does not have missile tubes per our intel, which means the nukes are either launched from another prewar ship they have that possesses tubes (of which there has been no rumor), or from a missile tube bolted to a freighter or something. And I don't know that the fire control for a nuke tube hackjobed onto a freighter would have the accuracy range to actually hit us anywhere important. And if they come in close I rate it as reasonable our STOs can shredderize them.
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Jul 18, 2021 20:15
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BwenGun posted:
Echoing Asterite34 here as well. While in theory its not the worst idea out there, we are going to have to keep political optics in mind for this operation, using our prospective allies as bait, even if it might be tactically advantageous, is probably a step too far. While on paper, again, not a bad idea I think it might be a little bit of a hard sell to get them to do that. Volmarias posted:Actually, regardless of that, I'm concerned that if we take the bulk of our fleet as well as Agamemnon's, the Achillean league might pounce on the opportunity to wreak havoc while we're away and unable to bloody their noses about it. Volmarias posted:This does assume that they're willing to care about the opinion of other rocks, since they've just rolled up and thrown nukes as their "or else" previously. Not an unreasonable concern, we are keeping a couple of our short ranged combatants back at Hektor so those will be augmenting whatever defense we've got on the rock. That said we're positioned fairly further back along the L4 cluster compared to the League, so them advancing our of their home space to launch a sneak attack on us will take a lot of forces away from their own home turf to go through other areas of space. Considering they're trying to play politics with the various rocks here as well, that tells me they at least care enough about optics to not try an launch a blitzkrieg on us while we off fighting pirates on behalf of a neutral power in the cluster. It would be a pretty naked act of aggression, them sneaking up on us would pretty much signal to the entire cluster their intentions and would probably drive everyone on the fence to side with us. Also too, if they did attack, the bulk of our military power, while away and unable to immediately retaliate, would still be intact and also distant enough from them to be rendered unable to be neutralized by their fleet if its tied up with our home. They do have something capable of launching a nuke, but considering the last time they used it was six years ago for their initial conquest and they haven't used it since to try and roll the rest of the cluster tells me what while they are a militaristic expansionist power, they're not strong enough force the issue on L4, especially since right now they are sending diplomats rather than military vessels. We might be on their shitlist, but if they attack us out of the blue, they'll be vulnerable to a counter attack.
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Jul 18, 2021 20:54
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Consider that if we leave the transports behind, short-range vessels can serve as an escort for them part of the way out. We can hopefully keep the window where they are under threat to a minimum.
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Jul 19, 2021 00:21
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1. quantity over quality 2. Use the big gun Bring everything we got to take out this base and whatever belter that decides to try us. Show em belter that us Trojans mean business.
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Jul 19, 2021 03:25
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Asterite34 posted:The thing to consider here is, we're being evaluated here. Our conduct and capabilities will determine whether Agamemnon wants to ally with us over the "mighty League Navy" as they refer to it. This is a huuuuuge factor in our strategy, as we should favor any plan that makes us look competent, powerful AND good teammates. To that end, my votes are: I agree with this approach.
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Jul 19, 2021 06:09
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As stated above (by Gridlocked) excellent logic summarized by Asterite34. Agreed
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Jul 19, 2021 06:46
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I'm really enjoying this... but it really feels like a good chunk of these Aurora LPs are always people roleplaying, which ends up being more interesting to them than the mechanics of Aurora itself sometimes.
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Jul 19, 2021 08:59
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That's because the mechanics of Aurora are incredibly boring and pretty simple. Or, well, "simple" isn't the right word but very gameable where if you want to min-max for every role there is a mathematically optimal design and mathematically optimal way to use it and abuse the poo poo out of the rules. It started life as a number-crunching aid for a tabletop game to do all the boring grunt work moving counters around so Steve could spend more of his time writing the narrative that goes over the numbers, people continuing to use it as a background number cruncher to write stories over is what it's really built for even if you can have some fun trying to play it as just a standalone game.
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Jul 19, 2021 14:44
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I'm really hoping Steve someday goes on a Patrick O'Brian/CS Forrester binge and is crazy enough to write an alternate game mode for Aurora which replaces standard engines with a "Aethermic wind" and something to allow relatively regular prevailing conditions to break sensor contacts (a la the day and night cycle) purely because a weird hybrid space-based tallship combat simulator would be weirdly compelling. If nothing else the mental image of a pair of cruisers laying alongside one another, exchanging volleys of plasma carronade fire and then closing further to throw exo-suited marines and vac-suited sailors at one another is kinda cool. Needlessly absurd, but cool.
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Jul 19, 2021 15:42
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For what it's worth, I like the idea of no kiting even though I was the one that suggested it. It's effective but boring.Fivemarks posted:I'm really enjoying this... but it really feels like a good chunk of these Aurora LPs are always people roleplaying, which ends up being more interesting to them than the mechanics of Aurora itself sometimes. Crazycryodude posted:That's because the mechanics of Aurora are incredibly boring and pretty simple. Or, well, "simple" isn't the right word but very gameable where if you want to min-max for every role there is a mathematically optimal design and mathematically optimal way to use it and abuse the poo poo out of the rules. It started life as a number-crunching aid for a tabletop game to do all the boring grunt work moving counters around so Steve could spend more of his time writing the narrative that goes over the numbers, people continuing to use it as a background number cruncher to write stories over is what it's really built for even if you can have some fun trying to play it as just a standalone game. Count me as someone else who likes Aurora gameplay but isn't really interested in the crazy roleplaying, which ended up driving me away from the Coldest War at times. Fortunately this thread has been good about it so far. Bremen fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Jul 19, 2021 |
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Jul 19, 2021 17:19
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I'm one of those Aurora players who has a good grasp of the mechanics and then does vigorously suboptimal stuff because RP is fun
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Jul 19, 2021 18:03
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BwenGun posted:I'm really hoping Steve someday goes on a Patrick O'Brian/CS Forrester binge and is crazy enough to write an alternate game mode for Aurora which replaces standard engines with a "Aethermic wind" and something to allow relatively regular prevailing conditions to break sensor contacts (a la the day and night cycle) purely because a weird hybrid space-based tallship combat simulator would be weirdly compelling. If nothing else the mental image of a pair of cruisers laying alongside one another, exchanging volleys of plasma carronade fire and then closing further to throw exo-suited marines and vac-suited sailors at one another is kinda cool. Needlessly absurd, but cool. So...Battlefleet Gothic?
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Jul 20, 2021 00:31
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Fray posted:Like this one time we cracked open an airlock and... Thing was, wasn't anything else in that place. Not an oxygen tank, or a protein bar. Gave us all the shivers, so we took off. Oh yeah, I took some photos of it, gonna spruce up the bunk pod a bit. Check it out? Empty? What do you mean, look at the swirls! Wait, they were just there! Would I ever bullshit you? Come on. Fine, but you know what? I'm gonna find that place again one day. See it all again. With a new mind.
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Jul 20, 2021 03:55
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Bremen posted:Fly like a Butterfly: Bring the Alex, Paralos, and the two Agamemese frigates (18 "points"). Our goal is a fast, mobile force, that can hopefully run away if outgunned. The advantage here is they can almost certainly disengage from the light cruiser. The disadvantage is even just the cruiser would probably be a serious challenge. Hey everyone, sorry it's been slow lately. Got busy with family stuff. So skimming the discussion it looks like a majority favors the Quantity over Quality strategy. So if I understand correctly you're bringing: -All your combat ships but the rockhoppers. -Red Squadron -Boarding shuttle and one landing craft -The Agamemnese frigates and merchants, with Agamemnese troops -I assume your assault battalion You have some troop capacity left over which could fit a militia battalion if you want. You have another day or two before I'm free to run it so go ahead and work on an op plan, assuming you want to do anything more sophisticated than fly everything up to Argentina and light off actives. Sounds like we have agreement to eschew kiting tactics if that impacts anyone's thinking. Volmarias posted:Is there a real limit to how large freighter to warship conversion jobs would be? I would assume that at a certain point the mass works further against you than it helps. In all cases the capabilities have been decreased for everyone. Your colony defense battery consists of a 12cm railgun and a 10cm railgun, both featuring prewar technology. Singlehandedly it could probably stop plenty of regular colonies, but a not-loving-around League Navy could crack it. ^^^ And thanks for that. I always enjoy seeing people contribute stuff like that.
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Jul 21, 2021 02:50
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Chloe watched the Ashes take off, the ship receding into the darkness of space and soon swallowed whole on her rendezvous with the comet. The one that would have many, many more questions than answers. It had been her pride, her joy. That she was a weapon of war was... unfortunate, but a grim reality in the Silent Era. Dr. Chloe Iserjay had come to Hektor two years before the war kicked off. It had been a four year contract, to help get the shipyards techs up to speed and then she'd be back downwell to Earth. Conversations, well, more like letters or one sided rants, to and from her girlfriend back home. Work, always work. But, it paid well, gave her valuable experience, got glowing reviews. She'd have her pick of jobs once she got back. And then the war began. Those first few days were, she would come to realize, the hardest. The faint hope that Clarissa would somehow, against all odds, survive and join her out here. When it fast became apparent that was not going to happen, and that it was everyone for themselves, Chloe just chose to lose herself in the work. She had been aboard the Ninevh, drinking heavily her precious remaining reserve, when the dockworkers took out the American ship. She had with her a bottle meant for her trip home and then, well... she realized she wasn't going home. And so, she found a small part of the Ninevh, a small place that wasn't properly mapped on the schematics, but she knew the class and knew the design and knew the hidey hole. Others had held illicit stills, or illegal gambling. The Ninevh's had been home to a small workshop. She'd never known whose it was, what it had been for. But it was hers now. She placed a picture of Clarissa on the wall, staring at it hazily through tears and alcohol and passed out. When she came to, the fight had been won and a realization hit her like a ton of bricks. The world had to move on. She, she had to move on. And so, she took a laser cutter programmed it to etch a very small heart, with Clarissa within it. She wouldn't forget, but... but she'd move on. Coming to Hektor as a young woman, 26 years old, Chloe, the freshly minted Dr. Iserjay when they had signed her contract, had her future ahead of her. Now, she was an older woman, hair kept short as any good EVA engineer would, the silver long since having overrun the dark brown. She'd put in the work of generations, watched her life's work slip into the void. Thirty six years was a long, long time. But Ninevh was a large, large ship, and there were only so many hands to go around. Somewhere around the fifth year, she returned to that space as she had many a time in need of a private moment. She saw that heart laser etched in the wall and blinked at it, tears threatening briefly, then pushed back in anger at her own grief. Chloe knew that there wasn't a soul aboard this rock who had not lost as she had. Sons and daughters. Parents. Lovers. Husbands. Wives. Family. Friends. And so... she went to the laser cutter and worked out the math. At ten hearts a second, as small and dense as it could muster, she could set it up to sweep that wall with ten billion hearts. They'd be tiny, barely more than a texture to the wall than extremely precise engravings, at the very limit of the lasers precision. And at ten to a second it would take... "Thirty one years, two hundred and fifty one, fifty two, days," Chloe mumbled to herself in that space. She started the program. A part of her knew she might not even see it to completion. Or that the space might end up having to go in refits. Still, she did it. When the Ashes had left, the ten billionth heart had been carved into that wall twenty six days prior. Chloe had not been in that room since she started the program, other than a few times each decade to replace some worn out part. The image of Clarissa posted next to her small monument, a shrine to ... not even all of the departed, a fraction really, who knew how many died in those wretched days decades ago? Ten billion simply had been a number she'd chosen, round, large, a monument to the gigadeaths that weighed on the doctors shoulders. She had not forgotten. But she had moved on.
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Jul 21, 2021 03:45
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Do folks think we want to take the militia batallion along or that we can leave it home? I mean, two batallions of troops (the assault one and the Agamemnon ones) should be able to handle most things sshort of a full on planetary assault. But.. Overkill can be a very useful thing, particularly if the pirates are really well dug in and we just don't want to bombard them and we want to get them to surrender. But I think sending everything but the rockhoppers is the consensus.
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Jul 21, 2021 03:56
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I'd say leave the militia. We'll have the Agamemnese troops in the armed merchants, and IIRC they were described as better than our militia. Plus we don't want to strip our defenses too much just in case the Achilleans get ideas.
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Jul 21, 2021 04:30
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I second leaving behind our militia unit. I don't think it can really effect the outcome much, and might be of value dug in at home
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Jul 21, 2021 05:09
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I think going all in on this is a bad risk.
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Jul 21, 2021 05:11
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I agree, leave the militia.
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Jul 21, 2021 05:39
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Yeah, agreeing on leaving behind the militia. We already have.. Two well equipped batallions and that should be able to at least give a solid fight to anything but the biggest colonies in the area. If the pirates have a colony of multiple millions or a brigade of dug in combat troops, then the intel on the area -really- sucks. That gives us the rockhoppers left at home and the militia. Doubt anyone's going to want to invade and.. Well, I don't even think the Akilieans are going to want to at this point - and if they do we have at least general intel in place so we'd know it in enough time to turn back.
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Jul 21, 2021 07:09
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Torn between filling spare hold with trade goods and leaving it empty for loot.
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Jul 21, 2021 09:45
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Agreed on the Militia. Can always have one of the Aggie combat units ride in the Ashes if they want to commit additional ground forces and don't have the lift capacity. Veloxyll posted:So...Battlefleet Gothic? I mean... yes. Though ideally with some form of weather gauge to make strategic positioning important in tactical combat and help negate range advantages through pre-battle positioning choices. The Transhumanist posted:... This was really rather touching and well written! BwenGun fucked around with this message at 11:40 on Jul 21, 2021 |
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Jul 21, 2021 11:37
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BwenGun posted:I mean... yes. Though ideally with some form of weather gauge to make strategic positioning important in tactical combat and help negate range advantages through pre-battle positioning choices. Sounds like something a pointy-eared Xeno would say.
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Jul 21, 2021 11:56
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habituallyred posted:Torn between filling spare hold with trade goods and leaving it empty for loot. We should pack some amount of trade goods, this isn't primarily a trade mission but since we're going like 80% of the way to Vesta for the first time in.... ever, we should probably at least consider the possibility that we'll pop in to the major trading hub to do a little trading if we feel like it. Or we might get forced to detour to Vesta and buy fuel if we end up burning enough that we can't get home on what's left in the tanks after dealing with the pirates.
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Jul 21, 2021 15:09
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Crazycryodude posted:We should pack some amount of trade goods, this isn't primarily a trade mission but since we're going like 80% of the way to Vesta for the first time in.... ever, we should probably at least consider the possibility that we'll pop in to the major trading hub to do a little trading if we feel like it. Or we might get forced to detour to Vesta and buy fuel if we end up burning enough that we can't get home on what's left in the tanks after dealing with the pirates. An idea occurs to me, if we manage to clear out the pirates it might be worth staking a temporary claim to their rock (perhaps as a joint venture with the Aggies). Depending on how long we're going to be close to that part of the belt having it as a relatively safe refueling point might encourage a significant amount of trade between the belt and ourselves/allies. Might even be a way to make some headway with Teucer if we offer them the ability to sell their fuel directly to belt traders looking to make the trip out to the trojans. BwenGun fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Jul 21, 2021 |
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Jul 21, 2021 15:30
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Crazycryodude posted:We should pack some amount of trade goods, I agree with having some contingency for purchasing fuel if need arises. But this would be best done with high value, low weight goods, so we don't lose too much mileage due to added weight.
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Jul 21, 2021 15:31
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Jesenjin posted:I agree with having some contingency for purchasing fuel if need arises. But this would be best done with high value, low weight goods, so we don't lose too much mileage due to added weight. Some of the meds we got off the Ark, maybe? Bet those fetch a pretty penny in the right circumstances.
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Jul 21, 2021 15:39
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Because of wibbly wobbly space magic a ship in Aurora that is completely empty of cargo has the same range and speed as one full to the brim with the heaviest cargo known to man
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Jul 21, 2021 15:41
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Asterite34 posted:Some of the meds we got off the Ark, maybe? Bet those fetch a pretty penny in the right circumstances. Speaking of! Has there been any progress on decrypting the computer core we got from the comet?
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Jul 21, 2021 22:18
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That one moves at the speed of plot, I suspect.
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Jul 22, 2021 00:01
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Natty Ninefingers posted:That one moves at the speed of plot, I suspect. Plot speed is simultaneously the fastest and slowest of FTL speeds. All dependent on the needs of the universe 
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Jul 22, 2021 03:40
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 30 March 2154 After a a week of planning and preparation, the Hektorite fleet departs.  Rendezvous is made at Agamemnon and the Hekorite ships are refueled. The League ship Delphi thankfully can't see much other than the walls of her berth, and her crew are temporarily kept aboard with a story about a gas leak.  The combined fleet sets off, with the Agamemnese frigates and slow merchants. Command deploys fore and aft pickets and everyone settles in for a weeklong cruise to the belt. For the first time, the people of Hektor voyage beyond their small corner of the system! Such distances will test how well-build your cobbled ships really are!  After many slow days, you cross this great distance and enter the outer regions of the belt. You watch your passive sensors closely for any of the local denizens, but it seems no one has noticed your arrival. You close on your destination - the smallish asteroid 469 Argentina. Your EM sniffers pick up emissions from a colony ahead and you pull in your pickets.  Command calls for a ping from Alexi's active sensor. No contacts are received. Concerned, command closes further within the range of the fleet's lower-resolution sensors.  A second ping, this time from a finer-res sensor, detects two small contacts sitting over the rock. One of them lights of as well, apparently having detected your ping. Although the Red Hands message was beamed from here, no mighty pirate fleet is in evidence. Command transmits a terse communique demanding the identity of the inhabitants and an explanation of the message to Agamemnon. Your transmission is met by a broadcast from the colony, which you quickly calculate to have been emitted mere moments after your own beam arrived. This broadcast is encrypted and non-directional, apparently not meant for you. You continue ahead, and minutes later receive a beam from the colony that you can read. The wall lights up with the face of a bald, middle-aged man. He begins speaking English in a Brazilian accent that, after years of working for Dias, Admiral Kerath picks out instantly. The man is clearly tense, and on the large display Kerath can detect his eyes wavering as if reading from text. To the approaching ships. The… pathetic worm talking to you belongs to Li Ji and her invincible Red Hands. If you want to, uh, trade with these insects, you'll have her permission only if they collect the tribute that she’s owed. And know that wretched though they may be, the merciless Li Ji will punish tenfold any harm done to her peons. Now tell this worthless dog what you want and choose your words carefully. The man looks chagrined for a moment, then turns off the transmission. Simultaneously with the end of the message, another encrypted broadcast emanates from the colony. sebmojo posted:Speaking of! Has there been any progress on decrypting the computer core we got from the comet? A very timely question.  I was just thinking we’d check in on that.
Fray fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Jul 24, 2021 |
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Jul 24, 2021 15:56
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Surrender immediately to the the Red Hands and send them after Achilles.
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Jul 24, 2021 18:58
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Officers, thoughts? I don't think there's any possible way to track down Li Ji's location from that broadcast, what do we think the odds are that the poor peon here actually knows it?
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Jul 24, 2021 19:25
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I suggest a broadcast advertising the services of Li Ji's ancestors in a brothel in Hector. Any and all perversions catered for.
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Jul 24, 2021 19:31
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This seems like a great use for all those troops we brought along.
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Jul 24, 2021 21:04
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Sound like we have a new friend. Anybody know Portuguese so we can beam over offers of rescue?
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Jul 24, 2021 21:05
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The Merciless Ji Li can come and collect the tribute herself, we don't deal with flunkies.
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Jul 24, 2021 22:26
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What do our (hopefully) allies want. At the end of the day, this mission is to bring them into our camp. Doesn't mean we do what they say, but if they end up fearing a reprisal we shouldn't push things. Or if they want to smoke the ships here and capture this ball of rock, I'm down for that. Especially since it'd be nice to either get the encryption key to those transmissions or someone willing to tell us what the unencrypted messages were.
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Jul 24, 2021 23:20
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