Economic Overview and 5 Year PlanEarth
Population: 584.45m
(+84.45m)Naval Shipyard Capacity: 8,000 tons
(+7,000 tons)Commercial Shipyard Capacity: 50,000 tons
(+40,000 tons)Maintenance Capacity: 31,250 tons
(+26,250 tons)Research Facility: 9
(+1)Ground Force Construction Complex: 1
Conventional Industry: 800
Maintenance Facility: 25
(+20)Deep Space Tracking Station: 1
Military Academy: 1
Naval Headquarters: 1
Spaceport: 1
The Kingdom has seen a great deal of growth over the last six years, with a burgeoning population growing quickly as their standard of living reached that of the Ancients of the past. A great deal of work has gone into expanding the shipyards and creating the necessary support facilities for the Kingdom’s small navy.
This hasn’t been without its own pain - the Kingdom experienced a financial crash as the breakneck pace of spending on research, ground unit construction, shipbuilding and shipyard expansions outpaced its income. While the Kingdom has since recovered, it was a sobering reminder that it couldn’t afford to finance everything it wanted at the same time.
However, Trans-Newtonian technology promised to radically change that. Converting the Kingdom’s existing economy to use TN technology promised to double the output across all sectors of the economy. This will be a decades-long process, but it promises to more than double the Kingdom’s production capability even before expanding its industrial base.
While plans were laid down to start the process, the King demanded that a second naval shipyard be added to Selune, which would slow the conversion process significantly. The shipyard is slated to be completed in 458, at which point more resources can be turned to the Kingdom’s TN conversion.
Research GoalsOnce the breadth of possibilities opened up by the TN revolution became known, the Magi nearly engaged in physical brawls over whose research projects had priority. Eventually the Crown stepped in and stunned them all by canceling all current research projects and making each scientist submit their proposal. With 9 research facilities, the Kingdom couldn’t research everything desired at the same time, and eventually the King and the Admiralty submitted a set of requirements to focus towards.
Specifically, one of the near-term challenges that the Kingdom faced was that the Earth did not have endless amounts of resources available - enough for the next few decades, but then new sources of Trans-Newtonian materials would need to be secured.
Therefore, research needed to be focused on producing an effective survey ship to find more sources of TN minerals in the Solar system. As a secondary goal, researching which beam technologies are available with an eye towards combat and point defense systems, and a method of internalizing (and better protecting) a ship’s missile armament.
Within the 5 year plan, the following technologies are slated to be researched:
PP - Maximum Engine Size - 40, followed by Radioisotope Thermal Generator
SC - Auxiliary Control, followed by Geological Survey Sensors
DS - Duranium Armor
EW - 15cm Plasma Cannon, followed by Infrared Laser and 10cm Laser Focal Size
MK - Magazine Neutralization System - 70% chance
MK - 10cm Railgun, followed by Railgun Launch Velocity 10,000
LG - Fuel Storage - Very Large
GC - Troop Transport Bay - Standard
CP - Research Rate 240 RP
The last two are longer term projects that fall outside the 5 year plan.
Military BuildupUnit BreakdownThe Kingdom’s armed forces consists of 3 regiments, one each of Royal (House Pendragon), Army and House units.
IRGT Royal Life Guards
IRGT 1st Lanval House Guard
MRCT 1st Medium Regimental Combat Team
A Construction Regiment is being trained for the Royal Army.
Currently the Army is waiting on results of the Trans Newtonian research programs - they believe that the Duranium armor and plasma weapons entering research will require a massive overhaul of the Kingdom’s military forces, but believes that they will be key to producing Armiger on par with the Ancients.
The General Staff were lobbying for another GFCC, but lost the battle with the Navy over the priority of the naval shipyard.
Naval StrategyNaval OrganizationRoyal Navy
- Sol Fleet
- - 1st Fleet
- - - Task Force 2
- - - - Bomber Squadron #1 (8x B-1/B ‘Catfish’)
- - - - Bomber Squadron #2 (8x B-1/C ‘Catfish’)
- - - - Gunship Squadron #1 (4x
Arnica-class Gunships - Arnica, Scoparius, Datura, Pulsatilla)
- - 3rd Fleet
- - - Task Force 1
Somewhat grandly named and organized, the Royal Navy consists of three squadrons, two of bombers and one of Gunships, organized under 1st Fleet.
The 2nd Fleet currently does not exist, but will concentrate on the Kingdom’s survey efforts.
3rd Fleet is the training fleet, and ships in workup and newly built construction will belong to this fleet before being passed on when ready.
The Aleph shipyards are currently busy with an ambitious 5,000t expansion plan for their two slipways. Once complete, the Admiralty wants to lay down a second series of larger missile combatants that make full use of the TN technology currently being developed. The second shipyard will focus on a geological survey ship that is currently in the planning stages. The Admiralty also hopes to win the King’s favor for a third shipyard to focus on building further light combatants to supplement the
Arnica-class Gunships.
September 26, 454 - Research is completed into Duranium Armor and a Sorium-fueled Radioisotope Thermal Generator.
February 1, 455 - Research into plasma weaponry is completed, and a raft of new Armiger designs taking advantage of plasma weaponry and Duranium armor are released. As promised, they at least come close to matching the formerly peerless designs of the Ancients.
While half of the Armiger designers won with their upgraded models, a number were replaced with new designs Specifically the Icarus, Kyudo and Wasp designs lost against newly founded Armiger companies.
The Icarus was replaced by the ugly but effective QSM-3D Quasimodo, which was instantly recognizable by the ugly cluster of plasma cannons on its shoulder that provided a withering hail of burning plasma.
The Kyudo was replaced by the solid SHD-2H Shadow Hawk design whose mix of armaments for all ranges made it a solid workhorse design.
Finally the Wasp lost out against the better armed and harder hitting COM-2D Commando design.
November 8, 456 - Magos Drystan de Hattes completes his ground-breaking work in producing the first Trans-Newtonian Aether engine. Based on his work on Nuclear Radioisotope reactors, it promises massive improvements in the speed of the Navy’s vessels.
The new Duranium armor and Nuclear Radioisotope engines were a boon to the Navy’s strike craft program. A new and far sleeker design then the B-1 ‘Catfish’ was designed. Designated the ‘Black Ghost’, the B-2/A design was more or less similar to the B-1/C model, retaining the four racks with two on each wing, though it took advantage of the Duranium hull’s weight savings to once again increase the size of the engine. The far more powerful FTR-2800 Starfire I engine required an increase in fuel and maintenance supplies to allow the new bomber model to retain a 3 day strike range.
B-2/A 'Black Ghost' class Bomber (P) 498 tons 2 Crew 32.3 BP TCS 10 TH 28 EM 0
2811 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 2 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 2.4
Maint Life 4.27 Years MSP 14 AFR 20% IFR 0.3% 1YR 1 5YR 19 Max Repair 14.00 MSP
Magazine 16
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days Morale Check Required
Couci Turbines FTR-2800 Starfire I (1) Power 28.0 Fuel Use 133.63% Signature 28.00 Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 3,000 Litres Range 0.8 billion km (3 days at full power)
Type IV External Rack (4) Missile Size: 4 Hangar Reload 100 minutes MF Reload 16 hours
RN/FGM-6 Missile Fire Control System (1) Range 4.9m km Resolution 80
RN/FGA-7 80/4.9M Gravitational Sensor (1) GPS 32 Range 3.4m km Resolution 80
More than 5 times as fast as the ‘Catfish’, the Navy immediately put its engine into research with an eye towards reequipping the Bomber squadrons with it.
The new missile and torpedo designs were also impressively faster than their conventional counterparts, though the anti-torpedo missile was embarrassingly slower than its target - the main issue being that the 1MT warhead cost half of the missile’s space. Improvements in warhead yield would do much to improve the Navy’s interceptor.
Missile Name | Speed (km/s | Yield |
FUM-5A ‘Flyssa’ Heavy Missile | 6,200 | 3 MT |
MIM-7A ‘Tekko’ Anti-Torpedo Missile | 4,800 | 1 MT |
SGT-6A ‘Mughal’ Light Torpedo | 5,833 | 4 MT |
September 8, 457 - The second military shipyard is constructed, and immediately goes to work on expanding its slipway. With the possibility of building an exploration ship now close to becoming a reality, the Admiralty settles down to design an appropriate survey ship.
Its requirements were fairly simple - it would need to be a reliable, robust design that could handle up to 2 years in space away from Earth. The designers opted to only give it enough fuel for one year of travel with the expectation that much of its time would be spent in orbit of the planetary bodies as it searched for signs of Trans-Newtonian materials.
The first revision of the design was nearly 4,000 tons in displacement, but after a few rounds of redesign, the Naval Board managed to trim 1,100t from the design while retaining nearly the same capacity.
Temple class Survey Craft (P) 2,850 tons 59 Crew 361 BP TCS 57 TH 86 EM 0
1500 km/s Armour 1-17 Shields 0-0 HTK 23 Sensors 5/5/0/2 DCR 1 PPV 0
Maint Life 5.51 Years MSP 308 AFR 65% IFR 0.9% 1YR 17 5YR 256 Max Repair 100 MSP
Commander Control Rating 2 BRG AUX
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Morale Check Required
Louet-Addinell Engines Limited NRE-9 Aether Engine (2) Power 85.5 Fuel Use 92.72% Signature 42.75 Explosion 9%
Fuel Capacity 728,000 Litres Range 48.3 billion km (378 days at full power)
RN/MGA-3 80/10.8M Gravitational Sensor (1) GPS 320 Range 10.9m km Resolution 80
RN/CTR-1 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
RN/CER-2 EM Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
RN/MOA-8 Geological Survey Sensor (2) 2 Survey Points Per Hour
The Engines were an interesting point - LAE Limited managed to wring nearly the same fuel efficiency from the 450t engines than the initial 600t engine prototype offered, though at the cost of a minor performance penalty. For a design with no combat applications, this was seen as an acceptable tradeoff. Project TEMPLE otherwise carried the same sensor suite as the
Arnica-class with the addition of two dedicated geosurvey sensors.
With the necessary upgrade to the Bet shipyard already underway, the first ship of Project TEMPLE could be laid down in August, 459.
October 8, 457 - Research is completed on Active Grav Sensor Strength 10 technology, significantly improving on the performance of the conventional sensor technology currently in use. While reviewing sensor systems for replacement, they discovered that the
Arnica-class is in fact unable to acquire missiles in time to launch counter missiles reasonably, as its sole active sensor system is optimized to track other 4,000t vessels and larger.
While embarrassing, it adds impetus to an overhauled model of the
Arnica-class before construction begins on a larger model. The Aleph shipyard will be done expanding September, 458 at which point a refit of the Gunships can take place.
Meanwhile, construction on the B-2 ‘Black Ghost’ is temporarily canceled while an updated model with improved electronics is produced. As the first model had not yet left the production lines, the delay is acceptable.
September 30, 458 - Work is complete on the Selene Aleph yards, increasing their capacity to 9,000 tons. While the Admiralty is itching to create a new and larger combatant, the technology simply isn’t ready yet. The Magi promise results by the end of next year or the start of the year after in a variety of fields, and the Admiralty is reluctantly forced to wait. Instead they turn their focus to the required improvements for the
Arnica-class.
The
Arnica-B-class Gunship is a radical refit of its progenitor. After some debate, it was decided given the modeled poor performance of the ATMs that it was better to remove them entirely from the design rather than try to fit an extra sensor package into the design. Instead, they leaned into the combat capability of the design.
A complete stripdown of the hull and rearmoring with Duranium, alongside removal of the ATMs freed up space to add an auxiliary bridge and two extra light torpedo racks. The sensors were upgraded to new models, and the original engine block was removed entirely and replaced with three NRE-9 engines from Project TEMPLE, saving on research costs. These are fed by much larger fuel tanks, increasing the design’s range markedly.
Unfortunately, each refit will take 5 months and 60% of the cost of the original Gunship. The Admiralty eventually approves it as the refits will be done or nearly done in time for retooling the ways for the new design to come.
Arnica-B class Gunship 4,000 tons 49 Crew 314.3 BP TCS 80 TH 128 EM 0
1603 km/s Armour 2-22 Shields 0-0 HTK 20 Sensors 5/5/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 28.8
Maint Life 4.32 Years MSP 149 AFR 128% IFR 1.8% 1YR 13 5YR 192 Max Repair 20.30625 MSP
Magazine 192
Commander Control Rating 2 BRG AUX
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Morale Check Required
Louet-Addinell Engines Limited NRE-9 Aether Engine (3) Power 128.2 Fuel Use 92.72% Signature 42.75 Explosion 9%
Fuel Capacity 238,000 Litres Range 11.5 billion km (83 days at full power)
Type VI External Rack (32) Missile Size: 6 Hangar Reload 122 minutes MF Reload 20 hours
RN/MGM-4 80/10.9M Torpedo Fire Control System (1) Range 10.9m km Resolution 80
SGT-6A 'Mughal' Light Torpedo (32) Speed: 5,833 km/s End: 32.1m Range: 11.2m km WH: 4 Size: 6 TH: 19/11/5
RN/MGA-9 80/17.2M Gravitational Sensor (1) GPS 800 Range 17.2m km Resolution 80
RN/CER-2 EM Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
RN/CTR-1 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
Unfortunately, the Kingdom was on the cusp of another financial crisis.
The Kingdom earned 354.7 MCr per month, but was spending 414.1 MCr. The largest expenditures by a large margin was the research and construction programs, which while vital, consumed over 270 MCr alone per month together.
After some consideration, the Kingdom suspended the warhead production program as the Royal Council expected that shortly newer models would need to be created as research was nearly complete on improved engine performance.
This would only cover the shortfall temporarily as once the new missiles went into production, the issue would only return. Plans were made to create new dedicated financial centers, but with the resources that could be dedicated to the project, they were projected to be complete in 484.
Cutting down on the Kingdom’s research program was also unpalatable - there was simply so much technology that was immediately necessary and useful.
The eventual decision is to temporarily halt research on one project for two months, focus research towards improving the Kingdom’s financial methods once the current research programs are completed, and cut the B-2 program short at one squadron, to be completed in December
August 9, 459 - The financial crisis is weathered for the moment, and the first of the
Emerald-class Survey Craft has entered construction. The reconstruction of the HMS Pulsatilla and HMS Scoparius will be completed in December, allowing the Aleph shipyard to retool for the forthcoming TN design.
Project STRONGHOLD had the following design goals: To produce a ship of up to 9000 tons of displacement that was faster, longer ranged and better defended than the
Arnica-class. It should have a deployment time of at least six months and be able to deliver a similar level of firepower.
The final design wasn’t entirely satisfactory - they had also wanted to include a beam turret for handling the threat of a fighter, but lacked the space while being able to deliver the desired missile broadside. The armor belt was also lighter than desired, though supplemented by the newly designed shield generator.
To its credit, the design was 25% faster than the gunship with twice the operational range and deployment time. The destroyer design could deliver six volleys of six light torpedoes, and was defended against counterfire by a trio of 10cm railguns.
To the designers' frustration, they couldn’t round the design’s weight satisfactorily on paper.
Stronghold class Destroyer (P) 8,999 tons 213 Crew 657.8 BP TCS 180 TH 360 EM 300
2000 km/s Armour 2-38 Shields 10-300 HTK 52 Sensors 5/5/0/0 DCR 5 PPV 30.6
Maint Life 3.46 Years MSP 328 AFR 130% IFR 1.8% 1YR 42 5YR 628 Max Repair 60.00 MSP
Magazine 216
Commander Control Rating 2 BRG AUX
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months Morale Check Required
Moron-Moyaux M/120NRE Aether Engine (3) Power 360.0 Fuel Use 64.55% Signature 120.00 Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 733,000 Litres Range 22.7 billion km (131 days at full power)
Piquiri Defence Industries Alpha S10 / R300 Shields (1) Recharge Time 300 seconds (0 per second)
Piquiri Defence Industries 10cm Railgun V10/C1 (3x4) Range 10,000km TS: 2,000 km/s Power 3-1 RM 10,000 km ROF 15
RN/MGB-12 Point Defense Fire Control (1) Max Range: 20,000 km TS: 2,000 km/s 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
de Bailleul Turbines Radioisotope Thermal Generator R3 (1) Total Power Output 3.1 Exp 5%
Erquemboure Armaments Mark I Light Torpedo Tube (6) Missile Size: 6.00 Rate of Fire 370
RN/MGM-13 80/18.8M Torpedo Fire Control System (1) Range 18.8m km Resolution 80
SGT-6A 'Mughal' Light Torpedo (36) Speed: 5,833 km/s End: 32.1m Range: 11.2m km WH: 4 Size: 6 TH: 19/11/5
RN/MGA-9 80/17.2M Gravitational Sensor (1) GPS 800 Range 17.2m km Resolution 80
RN/MGP-14 1/359K Torpedo Defense Sensor (1) GPS 10 Range 4m km MCR 359k km Resolution 1
RN/CTR-1 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
RN/CER-2 EM Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 17.7m km
Alongside Project STRONGHOLD, the designers made use of some of the technology developed for the project to produce a space superiority design, the F-3/A ‘Heron’. The design is as fast as the B-2 design and carries a single 10cm railgun with a rate of fire of one round every 5 seconds
F-3/A 'Heron' class Fighter (P) 500 tons 5 Crew 35.9 BP TCS 10 TH 34 EM 0
3379 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 2 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 0.98
Maint Life 5.15 Years MSP 24 AFR 20% IFR 0.3% 1YR 2 5YR 23 Max Repair 16.875 MSP
Lieutenant Commander Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days Morale Check Required
Couci Turbines FTR-3375 Starfire II (1) Power 33.8 Fuel Use 237.73% Signature 33.75 Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 7,000 Litres Range 1.1 billion km (3 days at full power)
Piquiri Defence Industries 10cm Railgun V10/C1/S1 (1) Range 10,000km TS: 3,379 km/s Power 0.75-1 RM 10,000 km ROF 5
RN/FGB-15 Fighter Railgun FCS (1) Max Range: 20,000 km TS: 3,500 km/s 44 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
du Bailleul Turbines Radioisotope Thermal Generator R1 (1) Total Power Output 1 Exp 5%
RN/FGP-16 1/227K Fighter Point Defense Sensor (1) GPS 4 Range 2.5m km MCR 227.1k km Resolution 1
And so 459 came to a close, with a raft of technologies in research to turn Project STRONGHOLD into a reality.