[OOC] These Dark Stars - IC is open -

[Polybius]

@Drunken ConquistadorThis good?



On another note @Polybius are you controlling all the pretenders or can we hijack some second cousin of the emperor?

@Isotope

I'm just playing as what I detailed in my sheet.

[GreivousKhan]

@Polybius Any thoughts on the gene-lock tech?

[Isotope]

@SigmaDid... Did you mark anything?

[GreivousKhan]

@Isotope he did... granted it took me 30 mins to find. But a single light blue dot, fourth one down that is located near the top of the map between Oz and flagg.

[Sigma]

Sorry, should've pointed it out :P

But yeah, as Khan says, it's the light blue dot in between Oz and Flagg.

[Isotope]

@SigmaHere you go

https://i.imgur.com/dFjSndd.jpg

[Sigma]

@Isotope Awesome, thanks! :)

[Flagg]

@Isotope

Could I be really annoying and also pls snag the system directly to the left of my northernmost system, connected to it by the longish curved trail?

[Sigma]

Alright, some in-universe fluff talk is in order! :P

Any of you got ideas on military styles and themes? Mine of course, while a work in progress, is blue, blue and more blue :P Plus Robots, Cyborgs, and elite-ish(mediocre for some) old guard type units.

[Drunken Conquistador]

Alright, some in-universe fluff talk is in order! :P

Any of you got ideas on military styles and themes? Mine of course, while a work in progress, is blue, blue and more blue :P Plus Robots, Cyborgs, and elite-ish(mediocre for some) old guard type units.

@Sigma

Well, this is what I had thought so far for the Rankovs/Virezhir

My Hider

The Virezhir military is composed of the Exarchate forces (a mix of Imperial Authority Tagmas and hosts raised and paid for by the Exarchate's government) and the noble levies (any house controlling at least a system has the right to maintain "auxiliary forces", which is essentially an excuse for them to maintain private armies, and fleets depending on how wealthy they are).

The Rankovs control a few of the older and more powerful ships through the Exarchate Fleet, but not that many and certainly not as part of their own private forces. Furthermore, in their drive to make themselves less dependent on outside support, they've endeavored to develop a native military industrial complex. And while they're still dependent on outside suppliers for some of the more high end materials and industry, they can field a fleet with a reliable core of flexible ships.

On the ground, both the official army and the Imperial Tagmas rely on a combined arms approach. Mechanized infantry cooperating with armor, artillery and air support. Boring, I know :p, but the reasoning it's that this kind of boring works well in most cases. There's a cadre of special forces and specialized divisions for things like desert or jungle warfare. Noble militias are also used in these cases, as many of them like to field elite specialized regiments for prestige reasons.

The militias themselves vary in organization and quality. Depending entirely on the resources available to the house that raised and maintains them. I'm taking inspiration in the Imperial Guard from 40k for this, with specialized regiments dependent entirely on the means of the planet that raised them.

Also, genetic engineering is big in Virezhir. In both civilian and military spheres. For the troops, this means that most noble houses are able to pay for at least some minor treatments for their retainers. Slightly stronger soldier, slightly faster reaction time, that kind of thing. The rich ones can field greatly enhanced troops and genetically modified combat beasts. The Exarchate Army fields the best of them as their elite of the elite. Used sparingly and carefully because though very effective, they're also very expensive. The combat beasts, however, are relatively easy and cheap to produce, making their use more wide spread.

[Flagg]

Alright, some in-universe fluff talk is in order! :P

Any of you got ideas on military styles and themes? Mine of course, while a work in progress, is blue, blue and more blue :P Plus Robots, Cyborgs, and elite-ish(mediocre for some) old guard type units.

@Sigma

Heavy walkers from the Age of Conquest supported by mercenaries, conscripts and most importantly xenos auxiliaries and sellswords of various species. Similar story in the navy- powerful archeo-tech ships of the line supported by pirates, xenos and profiteers.

My idea is that tech from Age of Conquest was designed by AI and vacare working in unison and is of still-unmatched or barely matched quality, because- since the demise of AI- weapon systems of that power cannot be easily recreated, which means the Kesselbrood's antique military forces are powerful but irreplaceable, so they depend heavily on mercs and xenos to do most of the work. In addition, their possession of archeo-tech weaponry has let them neglect their military industrial base.

[Sigma]

@Drunken Conquistador Ahh, I see, although I'm sure we'll differ enough to tell the difference, should be fun to see :)

@Flagg Just like the Derelict War :) Love it.

To go into detail. The Regis household guard has gone through a major overhaul in that 99% of it's military forces are automatic, robotic infantry, vehicles, aircraft, although the starships still need living crews, since of course they were there before Regis formed its pact with the Concordat(Let me know if any of this is good with you @Ozerath ).

The holdovers of pre-overhaul are the Militia, the mainline soldiers and part-time military police that maintained order in the system, however, with the overhaul, many more elite elements of the Militia had been conscripted into the newly organized Centurion Corps, the best of the best equipped with power armor. I still need to figure out on how to integrate the Vacare though.

[GreivousKhan]

Alright, some in-universe fluff talk is in order! :P

Any of you got ideas on military styles and themes? Mine of course, while a work in progress, is blue, blue and more blue :P Plus Robots, Cyborgs, and elite-ish(mediocre for some) old guard type units.

@Sigma

I was hoping to know the extent of gene-lock tech first. But I had a pretty cool idea in mind regarding an exemplary war engine created by the Empire fairly early on in its creation. These war engines are called Cataphracts, a cross between a mech and a walker with a single noble pilot.

These imperial Cataphracts are behemoths of the battlefield, giant walkers with the kind of firepower that could sunder entire regiments. Each is piloted by a noble or lord, everyone sworn to oaths of fealty to the emperor and driven by chivalric honor.

Basically, I had the idea every noble house was given a few of these bad boys, one for themselves and a one for key vessels. The Cataphract itself is gene-locked to that family lineage and thus only that house can use that Cataphract, with the war engine being passed down the ages kind of the same vein as a knight might have passed down his armor and sword to his son. With Cataphracts being painted in the heraldry of said family/house.

That's my basic idea, anyway, could make for interesting interactions if we go that route.

Even then I do wonder the exact technology level in terms of weaponry and protection. I think we get to delve a little into that by right, I'm proud of the fact the first bits of things he hashed out were all civilian sector. Now I wonder if we have energy weaponry at all and how widespread it is, or if we fell more toward gauss or mass drivers. I'll go with whatever is most wide spread.

[Drunken Conquistador]

@GreivousKhan the Idea sounds fone to me

@Sigma wouldn't that be against the AI ban or skirt close to it? Or are you using the brain in jars thing to bypass that?

[GreivousKhan]

<Snipped quote by Sigma>

Heavy walkers from the Age of Conquest supported by mercenaries, conscripts and most importantly xenos auxiliaries and sellswords of various species. Similar story in the navy- powerful archeo-tech ships of the line supported by pirates, xenos and profiteers.

@Flagg

Son of a bitch this is my Cataphracts idea exactly, what with them being walkers created at the height of imperial technology and being so advanced they can just be handed down with few upgrades needed.

GET OUT OF MY HEEAAD!

OOOUUUT!

[Sigma]

@GreivousKhan Like the sound of it too.

@Drunken Conquistador There is? Now I feel silly, my fault really for not reading clearly. But not a problem, I can easily revamp the military to take out the robot elements. Although brain jars bit sounds interesting.

Edit: Actually, the Brain in jar thing is perfect for the more elite cyborg units.

[Flagg]

@Drunken Conquistador There is? Now I feel silly, my fault really for not reading clearly. But not a problem, I can easily revamp the military to take out the robot elements. Although brain jars bit sounds interesting.

@Sigma

I think you can have robots- they would just not have true AI...they'd be robots in the literal sense.

[Sigma]

@Flagg Cool, thanks for letting me know :)

[GreivousKhan]

@GreivousKhan Like the sound of it too.

@Drunken Conquistador There is? Now I feel silly, my fault really for not reading clearly. But not a problem, I can easily revamp the military to take out the robot elements. Although brain jars bit sounds interesting.

Edit: Actually, the Brain in jar thing is perfect for the more elite cyborg units.

@Sigma

You could also just have V.I you know--machines that have really basic programming, unable to learn and are little more than advanced drones since they would lack true sentience.

[Flagg]

<Snipped quote by Flagg>

Son of a bitch this is my Cataphracts idea exactly, what with them being walkers created at the height of imperial technology and being so advanced they can just be handed down with few upgrades needed.

GET OUT OF MY HEEAAD!

OOOUUUT!

@GreivousKhan

Well great minds etc.

The Kesselbrood's whole shtick is that they are arch-conservatives and seperatists, which (perhaps ironically) means they are the most/one of the most xenos-friendly factions in the game. They are pro-aristocracy and pro-enlightened despotism, but anti-monohumanist totalitarian, since back in the day humans/the centralized govt didnt have the power or option to exterminate aliens willy-nilly and developed working relationships with many xenos peoples, and the Kesselbroods are all about bringing us back to back in the day. Point is: the Kesselbroods have been preserving their shit for a long, long time, and would have a much higher than average number of archeo-tech stuff (perhaps gene-coded to their family). BUT the downside is they've relied on their ancient weapons for so long they never bothered to develope any mass mobilization or serious industrial capacity outside of facilities to maintain their treasured artifacts, so they are forced to rely on semi-reliable xenos and mercs for the vast, vast majority of their manpower.