I'm most excited that this heralds 1.13 coming Soon™, but sure, I'll enjoy the actual AAR too.
Legio Astra: Ground Elements
1x Legio Astra HQ Cohort
2x Heavy Armour Cohort
4x Heavy Infantry Cohort
1x Artillery Cohort
2x Planetary Defence Cohort
6x Praetorian Assault Century
4x Anti-Armour Century
4x Auxilia Light Infantry
1x Auxilia Construction
1x Auxilia Geosurvey
1x Auxilia Xenoarchaeology
...
snip snip
In the last campaign, Steve went huge on the ships. In this campaign, Steve goes huge on the ground forces. I look forward to the next campaign in which Steve somehow manages to over-complicate the scientific establishment.
Active defences were more problematic. There was little interest in either missile warfare or fast-tracking turreted weapons due to the lack of application in ground combat. Given those limitations, the best that the Empire’s naval architects could produce was the Remus Kinetics RK-10 Railgun; a point-blank weapon intended for missile defence that used volume of fire to overcome its limited tracking speed. The Lancea class Escort mounted twelve RK-10s and represented the only line of defence against hostile missiles.
With only nuclear pulse technology to start I anticipate some serious struggles particularly against the spoiler races.
Another consequence of the imbalance in research investment was the lack of progress in engine capabilities. Beyond the need to transport the ground forces of the Empire at a reasonable speed, there had been little historical appetite for propulsion research, which meant the best available technology was nuclear pulse.
I always like seeing a campaign that starts with engine techs lower than Ion Drives, just because it's something different from the standard start that everyone else does (myself included).
The Emperor, Titus Aurelius Antoninus, had also recently instructed his senior military commanders to begin the exploration of interstellar space, in order to locate any alien races that might one day threaten Terra, which meant research into jump point theory was now a priority.
And no jump point theory to start off with, quite a change from past campaigns. It will be interesting to see what this leads to, on one hand you'll get a slower start with more time to build up but on the other hand it will take longer to get to the serious combat bits. In the interim time I of course expect some digressions into the inner workings of the Roman mineral stock market of course!
To sum it all up, a very interesting and unique setup, I look forward to seeing how this goes. Glancing at the starting minerals I detect potential for both corundium and gallicite shortages on Terra, potentially a big double whammy if you don't get some good rolls in the inner system and asteroid belt.