Reconstruction: 1902 - 1904Game has been switched to the 1.9.4 version.1902In March, the United States completes its industrial transformation. The USA now has 120 of both factories and mines.
May brought German finances back to black, as had Austrian finances done a month earlier. France and Iberia were on the red but making steady progress to get to surplus. Russia and Italy were still deep in debt. Japan was teetering on knife's edge as was the Rim Pact. Only the United States and Great Britain had remained wealthy, though both had steadily drained their reserves. Italians were too busy celebrating the opening of their shipyard to worry too much about debt. Contarini Industries would first build a group of assault transports first while Italian scientists worked hard to improve their corvette design. The disaster of 1901 had shown them that rushing ahead was not a good plan and they had time on their side since the Martians seemed content to stay on the defensive.
The British got their first Deep Space Tracking System online in the same month, build around the Royal Greenwich Observatory. They could confirm what the French had told everyone, that the ships of the Menace were back to peaceful slumber in Martian orbit. Worryingly, they also confirmed that there were additional 2 sources of active sensor emissions, that had not moved. Their exact nature remained unknown. London was investing heavily in sensors, deciding that heading blind towards an unknown enemy was not a habit for the Royal Navy to adopt.
In June, the Regia Marina accepted the revised Cavour design:
Cavour class Corvette (P) 1,902 tons 54 Crew 119.7 BP TCS 38 TH 19 EM 0
493 km/s Armour 2-13 Shields 0-0 HTK 13 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 6
Maint Life 2.55 Years MSP 19 AFR 58% IFR 0.8% 1YR 4 5YR 61 Max Repair 30 MSP
Capitano di Corvetta Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Morale Check Required
Buffon-Caruso Conventional Engine EP6.25 (3) Power 18.8 Fuel Use 222.35% Signature 6.25 Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 2.1 billion km (49 days at full power)
Lazzari Kinetics 10cm C1 Infrared Laser (2) Range 30,000km TS: 1,250 km/s Power 3-1 RM 10,000 km ROF 15
Basso Beam Fire Control R30-TS625 (1) Max Range: 30,000 km TS: 625 km/s 10 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Molinari Turbines Pressurised Water Reactor R2-PB10 (1) Total Power Output 2 Exp 7%
Bellini-Bettini Active Search Sensor AS27-R60 (1) GPS 1800 Range 27.1m km Resolution 60
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Crew comforts had been increased as the deployment time was doubled, though it was still meant for lightning strikes between Earth and Mars. Advances in power & propulsion had allowed the Italians to create a slightly more powerful engine and they decided to put three of them in to make Cavour faster than any other human ship. Similarly, its firepower had doubled as the nimble vessel sported two 10cm IR lasers.
July gave Russians two Kirov-class transports and in August the Italians received their first Littorio-class transport, doubling that number in October with the launch of
Napellus. December doubled Kirovs, bringing the total to four.
1903
Kaiserliche Raummarine got two Bluchers in January, bringing the total to five. Nobody in Berlin was satisfied with the design. Debate raged on what the right remedy would be, whether increasing armour or speed or firepower would do the trick. Konteradmiral Opitz made the final choice: Kaiserin Augusta class.
Kaiserin Augusta class Corvette 1,623 tons 49 Crew 74.1 BP TCS 32 TH 26 EM 0
808 km/s Armour 1-12 Shields 0-0 HTK 10 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 3
Maint Life 1.34 Years MSP 7 AFR 84% IFR 1.2% 1YR 4 5YR 62 Max Repair 20 MSP
Oberleutnant zur Raum Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 15 days Morale Check Required
Humbold-Still Conventional Engine EP8.75 (3) Power 26.2 Fuel Use 187.92% Signature 8.75 Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres Range 0.6 billion km (8 days at full power)
Krupp 10cm C2 Infrared Laser (1) Range 30,000km TS: 1,250 km/s Power 3-2 RM 10,000 km ROF 10
Thyssen Beam Fire Control R40-TS625 (1) Max Range: 40,000 km TS: 625 km/s 12 8 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Siemens Pressurised Water Reactor R2 (1) Total Power Output 2 Exp 5%
Altemann Active Search Sensor AS14-R50 (1) GPS 500 Range 14.7m km Resolution 50
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposesSacrificing its armour and half of its deployment time while adding two more engines, allowed it to be twice as fast as the Bluchers. Now the hope was that a flotilla of Augustas could cross the envelope of Martian fire superiority quickly enough to survive to attack them in turn.
By mid-month, Japan concluded the upgrade of its industry as the last conventional bits were turned into mines. Japan now had 60 factories and 40 mines.
In February, Italians got their first DSTS up and running.
In March, the Japanese scientists made an important breakthrough. They managed to mate duranium with steel and thus create armour out of duranium. Count Yamagata Aritomo decided that this invention would not be shared with the Westerners. Instead, it would allow Japan to field ships far more heavily armoured than the other countries, perhaps giving them the edge needed to fight the Martian Menace.
Later in the same month, Germany finished constructing its 11th research lab and its second naval shipyard. Schleigher Designs would build the assault transports required to move the German Heer to the Red Planet.
April saw one more Littorio transport joining the Regia Marina whereas in May two more Kirovs joined the CMF as did two Kaiserin Augusta-class corvettes the Raummarine. Florit Navy Yard finally opened in June. It was not going to build any ships immediately as the French, like most other nations, were re-evaluating their ship designs.
July brought to completion the long British road of industrial transformation to the T-N standards. They now had 250 factories and 250 mines.
- 3902 BP - Deutsches Kaiserreich
- 3013 BP - British Empire
- 2200 BP - République francaise
- 1431 BP - Rossiyskaya Imperiya
- 1273 BP - United States of America
- 1056 BP - Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
- 859 BP - Regno d'Italia
- 706 BP - Dai Nippon Teikoku
- 437 BP - Iberian Union
- 120 BP - The Rim Pact
July also the welcoming of
Aesculus, the fifth Littorio-class assault transport. It was to be the last of its class as the Littorio had half the capacity of the transports of other powers. It would suffice to deliver the vanguard of Italy to Mars but a bigger design would be needed.
In August, two more corvettes rolled off the German shipyard. In September, German engineers replaced the 10cm IR laser with a 12cm IR laser. this would cost the ship a little bit of its velocity, 26 km/s, but thanks to the Siemens PWR the fire rate would remain the same while the destructive potential increased. Hankel would not even need to re-tool its slipways as the change was small enough.
October revealed a scandal in the British space vessel procurement system. Due to a combination of human errors and policy failures, the shipyard had not actually received any instructions from London and had remained idle for over a year. Red-faced ministers and bureaucrats dodged journalists for weeks. Thanks to its 3 slipways, the yard could build one of the three Tribal variants at the same time.
(I used SM mode to give Royal Navy one of each variant as the delay was a ridiculous oversight on my part)December saw
SMS Eismöwe and
SMS Elster joining the Raummarine as the last members of the Kaiserine Augusta "10" model. Further construction would all be the "12" model.
1904In March, Regia Marina celebrated as
Achille Papa floated away from their shipyard. At 1,902 tons the Cavour-class was the largest corvette built by humans but it would not hold that record for long as the updated French Dunkerque-class, under construction, was going to hit 2,156 tons.
German scientists made an important breakthrough in June when they unveiled what they called the Kampfanzug - a battle-suit powered by a Sorium battery with Duranium interlaced with cloth threads and steel plates. It would protect its wearer from bullets and shrapnel as well as allow increased mobility on the battlefield, as well as limited operating capability outside human environments, like in space. It would allow the creation of a new type of soldier, the Sturmmann. Armed with the heavy Mauser 13.2mm T-Gewehr bolt-action rifle, these troopers were expected to finally be able to take on Martian combat drones at equal footing. While the other nations were impressed, they considered that Germany was putting the cart before the horse and their focus was on improving their ships. Only Americans were interested enough to immediately start research on their own version - the Power Armor.
July gave Austro-Hungarians their first naval shipyard. The government's initial focus on mining had backfired and the A-H was lagging far behind most other powers. It had given Austrian engineers chance to revise their plans for the Vienna-class corvette.
At the end of the year, the fleets of the powers had been reconstructed and surpassed.
Germany:
2x AT Scharnhorst: SMS Abalone, SMS Agate
6x CT Kaiserin Augusta "12": SMS Eschwege, SMS Falke, SMS Frettchen, SMS Fuchs, SMS Geier, SMS Gepard
6x CT Kaiserin Augusta "10": SMS Bussard, SMS Dachs, SMS Dommel, SMS Duderstadt, SMS Eismöwe, SMS Elster
5x CT Blucher: SMS Albatros, SMS Alk, SMS Alsfeld, SMS Bad Bramstadt, SMS Bayreuth
Britain:
8x AT Victory: HMS Albion, HMS Anzio, HMS Attacker, HMS Avenger, HMS Bachaquero, HMS Battler, HMS Ben Lomond, HMS Ben Nevis
4x CT Tribal 25: HMS Ailsa Craig, HMS Amber, HMS Angle, HMS Aquamarine
4x CT Tribal 20: HMS Agate, HMS Alouette, HMS Amethyst, HMS Anticosti
4x CT Tribal 15: HMS Acacia, HMS Almond, HMS Ambrose Pare, HMS Annet
Russia:
6x AT Kirov: Kirov 001, Kirov 002, Kirov 003, Kirov 004, Kirov 005, Kirov 006
6x CT Azov: Ambarchik, Arkhangelsk, Ashkhabad, Astrakhan, Baku, Balkhash
4x CT Krivak: Akmolinsk, Aleksandrovsk, Allaykha, Anadyr
Italy:
5x AT Littorio: Aesculus, Napellus, Precatorious, Spicata, Vernalis
1x CT Cavour: Achille Papa
All in all, humanity could put 34 corvettes against 10 ships of the Martian Menace. Would it be enough?
