This reminds me; is there a “bestselling” car this round, like the Knightwick & Hamfa in the past 2? (The Irena? The Serena?) Or is it too close to call?
In the same vein, I’d like to see lists of superlatives - most reliable, cheapest, most comfortable, aso. If there’s interest, I could compile one for round 4, and if you give me the data, for this and subsequent rounds.
Fortunately, those superlatives should already be answered by the spreadsheet released after each round.
Somehow I missed that this was a thing.
Partisan Rally: 7200 Sleeper Special
Summary
Alex Kizutsuita is a solitary figure. She navigates the war-ravaged borderlands in her trusty Centurion: a lifeline, delivering essential supplies with a mix of pragmatic ruthlessness and a hidden desire to do the right thing. With no friends or family to anchor her, Alex’s moral compass, albeit skewed, still points towards acts of reluctant kindness amidst the chaos. Her sharp, calculating eyes are always scanning for threats and opportunities alike, and her hands, calloused from the constant grind, grip the wheel with a mix of determination and indifference. Alex’s reputation is built on her unflinching efficiency and willingness to work for anyone, yet beneath the hardened exterior lies a woman who, in her own enigmatic way, seeks to bring a glimmer of hope to a world mired in darkness.
8 Likes
Sometimes, the countryside can spin
unbelievable tall tales.
And sometimes, they're even true...
unbelievable tall tales.
And sometimes, they're even true...
In the countryside, the war was brutal. It was brutal anywhere, sure. But when you’re far from big cities, aid is harder to get, no matter what catastrophe you face. Roads crumble, bridges are burned, power lines fall, lights go out, water stops being clean, or running at all.
What can you do?
Well, should one see a passing vehicle, perhaps they’d flag it down. A ticket out of here, so to say, even if it means abandoning home, shelter, some semblance of familiarity, just for a warm bed, food and drink, any comfort in a trying time.
But another form of salvation could be had, should those approaching headlights match a certain vehicle, one that would signal back. Even the glow of a lighter was enough; a third amber glow would be visible, and soon a flash of red.
Not all heroes wear capes. Not all heroes are dashing, beautiful figures who shine in the spotlight. Not all heroes can sweep you away and save the day and everyone lives happily ever after. Not every hero is an angel.
But some heroes look similar enough to seem identical. And those heroes went exclusively by Thompson. Dr. Thompson.
At least two were at the helm of the truck at any given time, but as many as four may have made up the team. The truck itself resembled, to some extent, an experimental upfit of the recently introduced Serena Haul. It was an ambulance of sorts, though this one was heavily armored from the warehouse it was found in, and with an engine from its homeland - a big, bulky V6, somewhat outdated but tuned for power. Better still, the keys weren’t just nearby, they were in the ignition, as if it were waiting for its time to shine - not in the spotlight, but as a beacon of hope for those in need.
It may not have saved lives as a traditional ambulance would, but passing descriptions imply it was tall, robust, kitted to handle tough roads, or even a lack thereof, as best such a bulky truck could manage to. Lights were battered, or missing outright, but the shell was tough, the engine ran as best it could, and most importantly, it carried the doctors into the fray with ease.
Food, water, first aid, even firewood, newspapers, and children’s toys were handed out. Quantities were rationed, but again, heroes are not angels - help is not endless, but it’s enough to keep one going. It gives one hope, hope for a life after hardship, a triumph over adversity, and a vision of peace for their family, and generations to come.
And like a wandering spirit, by the sun’s light at dawn…
You wouldn’t be blamed to doubt such a story, perhaps. Who would dare to drive an ambulance though a warzone? How would they come and go so quickly, and never be found? And who the hell is Dr. Thompson? Why are there two, maybe four?
But not all heroes reveal their identities, either. Sometimes, fame is not the motivator for a deed, nor is fortune.
Sometimes, it is a vision of hope, and a burning passion to make things right.
That was close to the deadline. Whew.
They also had a really good mixtape.
4 Likes
REVIEWS PART 5.7
PARTISAN DIVIDE
So, let’s start off with a little housekeeping. There were a couple of assorted questions and comments on the previous round, and I’ve decided that I am going to address those in a dedicated “errata” post at the end, along with a little bit of a look back at the round. So, without further ado… Let’s look at the Partisan entries! I’m not going to take a group photo for a variety of reasons, both IRL and IC. The entries are:
- @AndiD with the Kyrios Nike S2 2.0 Night Courier
- @Edsel with the Partisan-Customized 1966 Bazard BVM8
- @Fayeding_Spray with the Empire 4Drive Concept [Partisan Mod]
- @karhgath with the Phenix Helios Milspec
- @ldub0775 with the Centurion 7200
- @MrdjaNikolen with the Kontir Roxton
- @shibusu with the ACR Seawolf 550SE-S “Fenrir”
- @supersaturn77 with the Thompson Mobile Aid Response Ambulance
- @Vento with the Capable Mover Heavy Duty Van Mobile Hospital
JUST DO IT
Let’s start with a car that’s oriented towards regular, normal driving – the Kyrios Nike S2 2.0 Night Courier. The original-spec Nike S2 lacked in safety and comfort a little, but delivered solid drivability and reliability. Sportiness was a little down and it was surpassed by the amazing Helios, but overall a good package. In a war, though, it’s a great base to work from. Safety and comfort start going out the window when you might have people shooting at you, and drivability and reliability are both great to have. Ironically, however, the Night Courier is a little more comfortable and a little less drivable. The regular Nike used stiff, standard-rate springs and similar dampers and sway bars, making it a tarmac-only vehicle, but the Night Courier adds progressive springs and softens off the suspension to make it possible to leave the road. It’s admittedly a lot less fun to drive than the regular one, but it can still be pushed a lot more than anything actually on the market, and most of the other partisans. Some utility tyres plus a largely unmodified engine keep it easy to service. The only real difficulty is the boxer coming close to the walls of the engine bay, but that’s something I’d expect people to be able to handle given the proliferation of boxers and the way it’s unchanged from stock. Actually, a lot of it is unchanged from stock, but that’s not a bad thing – it had a good base, after all. It does have the lowest offroad stat of all the entries, but it also offers the best drivability – and the only entry that’s sportier than it has some major issues. It’s also got some great fuel economy, largely thanks to the lightweight construction. This is the entry second most likely to slip past checkpoints, the entry second most likely to be ignored – so only having 12.4 offroad is fine.
The Night Courier has a bit of a double-edged sword: the aesthetics are somewhat unchanged too. The Night Courier is just what you want from, well, a courier. It’s unobtrusive, it looks normal, it could theoretically slip past a checkpoint. The only really conspicuous part is that custom wagon shape, but it could easily be passed off or ignored, it looks realistic enough. Those bash bars add to the offroad capability, but are still easily slipped past a checkpoint (or slipped off and stowed in the back). It’s a cheap, easy option that really fits with the character and lore – just do a little bit of a rework on your existing Nikes and you’re all good. For carrying small amounts of goods, it’s a great option. So how is it double-edged? Well, it’s never going to capture any hearts and minds. That same ability to slip past foes allows it to slip past friends too. It’s got a job to do, it’s going to do it, but most people won’t realise it did it.
OCCUPATIONAL BAZARD
From one stock-seeming vehicle to another, and I’m unsure how customised the Bazard BVM8 is. See, the Kyrios Nike was directly based on a car from a previous round, take another car and make some slight tweaks. The BVM8, however, is based on a car that probably existed in a previous round but wasn’t submitted. I’m left to ask what exactly gets counted under that M in the model name. Is the 5-speed 4x4 a factory option from 66, or is it an aftermarket swap from a more modern model? The offroad skidtray and hydraulic power steering are factory, but the chunky offroad tyres? The vented front disks? I don’t know. The bash bar is probably aftermarket, as are the roof-mounted auxiliary lights, but it’s still not very customised.
Like the Night Courier, this is a double-edged sword. There are probably a whole lot of vans just like this one – a little rusty, with a couple of offroad modifications. In terms of stats, it’s hard to compare to the base model – is this one more reliable because of the extra quality and slightly reconfigured engine, or is it mainly due to the old cars being from 4.2 and this being from 4.3? Is the weight slider being all the way to the heavy end for reliability, or is it to simulate some armour? Whatever the case, it’s got the top offroad stat, but I’m not sure how hard I’d push it offroad – the drivability and sportiness are both at the bottom. Economy is similarly lacklustre, thanks to Bazard’s ageing architecture. It’s a car you take if you want to sneak past the checkpoints, hide in plain sight, and get a bunch of goods past someone. And really, that’s pretty good for this use of shipping cargo around – if you have to turn extremely hard, you might damage something fragile. If something pierces the rear, you might damage the cargo that way. But if you just slip by unnoticed, it’s all fine.
NOT GOVERNMENT SPONSORED
So, this Centurion is… a 7200 with a sleeper cab. The top’s painted black, but it’s not like the whole thing has been blacked out, the bottom is still shiny and reflective. Of all the entries, this is the one with the fewest aesthetic modifications – and because it’s a non-car, I can’t look at any engineering. I had hoped for a lore post that would give something interesting about it too, but there’s nothing there. It’s a shame, but what can I really say about this one? There’s just not much here.
4DRIVE 4FREEDOM
Okay, so we have left the realm of cars that look like regular ones, and we have even left the realm of cars remotely related to regular ones, but there’s a good reason to place this car here. The last two entries were couriers, good for transporting goods or people from A to B. The other entries fall into two categories – ambulances and weaponised vehicles. So, this entry goes here.
Of course, this entry is nothing like the others in terms of engineering. In lore, it’s based on a concept car, and the engineering certainly bears that out. Concept cars rarely have fully fleshed-out interiors, the sound insulation and carpets range from bare to non-existent, the gauges aren’t fully complete and the storage is generally just mockups. You don’t have fully adjustable seats yet, you just put something in there… And that’s exactly what the 4Drive has, it’s been engineered with a race interior which is Automation’s most barebones option. Similarly, the safety isn’t fully executed, it needs more testing. That’s fine. It’s a concept car and, as mentioned before, comfort and safety aren’t too important here. The problem is that it also has the reliability of a concept car. The engine uses a prototype lightweight aluminium block, which is constantly threatening to be overwhelmed by the massive amount of boost the turbo is producing. If the block doesn’t go, perhaps the cutting-edge viscous AWD system will – it’s not able to handle all the torque that turbocharged system is putting out. Not only does the Partisan 4Drive have awful reliability, but that reliability comes in the worst way possible. You can deal with a broken radio, a headlight going out, a rattling coming from the suspension. If your transmission blows or your block explodes, you’re in a much, much worse place – especially if you’re being chased.
I’m also somewhat hesitant about the stats. On one hand, it does offer great performance and handling, it’s extremely sporty and quick while not compromising too much on offroad. How does it accomplish this? By using high-performance race tyres, rally ones to be specific. Those tyres are rare and expensive, and need to be frequently replaced to maintain their performance – oh, and they’re staggered too. Add in a porous filter that doesn’t protect the engine that much, and you need to spend ages and ages repairing it even without the risk of catastrophic failure. If you can’t find those race tyres and have to just slap on regular tyres from the shop? Yeah, the car sucks a lot more.
Aesthetically, it looks incredibly concept. The aero elements are, uh, not exactly too refined. The front splitter is just a wing that’s mounted there and wouldn’t work too well. The rear wing is concealed behind a wagon-style extension, which would massively reduce the airflow over the wing. It does look quite nice, done up nicely in purple and with a bunch of slogans all over it.
ARMOURED CAR
From one sporty car to another, we come to the Helios Milspec. The story is theoretically similar to the Nike, but with a lot more differences to the stock version. The Helios Milspec trades a lot of that sportiness for a lot of offroad capability and reliability… But it makes a massive amount of trades and changes. I’m not sure if these changes are something that a partisan could realistically do in a shed, perhaps it’s someone with connections to Phénix using the machinery and parts “after-hours” – Aragan authorities could be persuaded to look the other way, after all. The Milspec brings a long, long list of changes that make it a different car – a new drivetrain, new suspension, a stripped-down interior, a single-cam version of the Turbo’s engine, better rustproofing, the list goes on. That armour on the outside weighs a lot, and that’s been modelled here as well. The world-beating acceleration of the original Helios Turbo isn’t there, thanks heavily to that weight, but you’d be glad to have it when the shooting starts. It’s still pretty dang quick, just a little behind the 4Drive… But the tyres are plain old all-terrain road tyres made for road distances, the filter is able to actually protect the engine when it goes off the road and the engine and gearbox can actually take the torque and power it’s got. In short, the Helios is actually a reliable car you can actually service. It’s a little hard to do so given the way the engine is mounted in the middle under all manner of armour, but it’s nowhere near as bad as the 4Drive.
This is in a new sort of category because, well, look at it. It’s a heavily up-armoured Helios with a roof-mounted turret for the passenger, these modifications are clearly not your regular “I want my car to go offroad a bit” modifications. The top-mounted exhaust is shielded, the bottom is armoured, the whole thing can shrug off a lot of gunfire. It looks like the thing of legend, it looks like a tank or an IFV but it’s still based on a car. It’s incredibly cool and I love it.
GUN IT!
Another militarised entry, but one with a decent amount less in the way of modifications. This Kontir Roxton is, on the outside, a Kontir Roxton with four gun pods on the sides. We are back to the realm of standard vans that you could pull the modifications off of and just pass through without a second glance.
At least there’s a few modifications under the skin. Are these factory or aftermarket? I can’t tell, it could really be either. The engine is bored out a bunch and a few systems are touched up, a 4x4 system with locking diff has been added – these could go either way, really. It’s a bit more expensive than stock, but still within sellable territory.
Ultimately, it falls in the same territory as the Bazard, with just a little more spice. Take the guns off, it’s just a plain old regular van with nothing going for it at all. Does it get past? Yes. Does it actually interest me, as a host? Not really. Like I said, it’s a double-edged sword.
CAPABLE DOCTORS
Well, there’s the militarised vehicles done with, now onto a segment that’s guaranteed to win some hearts and minds – ambulances. Fun fact: This entry is technically illegal. The red cross is technically a trademark and isn’t supposed to be used without authorisation and really, I don’t give a single fuck. Culture is copying, it’s a recognisable symbol, do I really care if the cross is red or green? No. What I do care about is the fact that, well, the worst criticisms of the stock version from way back in ALC3 haven’t really been addressed. For those who don’t want to go back and check, the biggest criticism of the stock Mover was that the overly skinny tyres caused the car to be heavily limited in terms of braking performance. This is running the same 660mm diameter as the pickup version, but they’re now wider, at 175mm… But these are some absolutely craptastic offroad tyres, the very bottom of the barrel. That means that the braking performance is absolutely abysmal. While the previous one was criticised for 58m of stopping distance, this one is over 70m! The brakes still overwhelm the tyres, they’re still very racy pads and they still have a lot of fade. Also retained from ALC3 is the techpool, making for a second way that this is illegal – going too low is fine, but ALC3 had 8 techpool in interior and safety, whereas this round mandates 8.
While an offroad skidtray from the pickup has been added, 4x4 has not been. In fact, it has worse offroad than the stock version, albeit from a different version of the game. Another thing that hasn’t changed is the overall lack of polish, making it rather unreliable. Stats-wise, it’s the worst of the vans. Maybe there’s some special equipment inside, but with no lore post and no interior, it’s really just a van with a cross on the side, and the other vans could possibly work as ambulances.
The aesthetics only have minor modifications. Fuel tanks mounted on the outside, a big red cross and headlights that have somehow been massively extruded from the standard… It’s all a bit of a miss to me, really.
GRAND THEFT AUTO
This entry feels like the most character-driven of all. I normally do the aesthetics last, but they just jumped out at me so much that I have to do them first. The rear was what I saw first, with a “Home Of The Free Market” license plate from Windon covered with duct tape that’s had “VOID” written on it in sharpie. Above that, someone has written “Suck it, boss!” because this is a car that was stolen and defected from Windon. There’s a new plate bolted on the top, maybe not visible enough to be legal but the story lets it past, who’s stopping it? The car is modelled with an interior complete with a stretcher, an IV drip, a rear-facing passenger seat for a medic – it’s a really good, really thorough job. The front looks more normal with just a bull bar, but it’s absolutely oozing charisma all around. This is the best example of tying lore and character into the submission, it’s a really great entry.
As for stats, well, I can’t compare to the regular one any more – because I didn’t get the regular one. The ACR Seawolf wasn’t sold in Araga, and while it has Minex-style headlight covers, no Minex I’ve received has that grille. Really, the Fenrir is saved by having a great story, because it looks like the underlying Seawolf is a luxury car with all that entails. A luxury interior brings with it luxury prices. It also has an early AWD system which brings solid performance and offroad potential but isn’t quite able to handle the big V12 that’s a hard sell with Araga’s displacement tax but works in Windon. That V12 also sits inside a cramped bay and has a complex mechanical injection system, and it wouldn’t pass smog – but I didn’t require it to, and it’s from Windon so it makes sense.
I’ll be honest, the stats aren’t as good as most of the other car-based entries. The drivability is solid – but the Nike and Helios are better. It’s sorta sporty, but the other cars are all sportier. Reliability? A luxury-segment 74, thanks to the luxury interior and trimmings (which doesn’t matter for getting from A to B) and the hydropneumatic suspension (which you could limp home with, I suppose). It doesn’t matter though, really. Where the Fenrir loses in stats, it wins in the story and in how the model matches with that story. It’s incredibly cool.
M... A... R... [Redacted for legal reasons]
From one entry where I can’t compare stats to another – but not from a lack of Serenas this time, no. The Thompson Mobile Aid Response Ambulance is a definite non-car, just like the Serena Haul Cutaway Box. There’s a lot of stuff I can’t judge, but there’s plenty I can – and this car reveals one of the biggest benefits of using this many 3D fixtures. See, the other entries all look relatively new, like they’re from the start of the war. Some of them have a little rust and patina on them, but structurally? They’re fine. That’s not the case for the Thomson. Parts of the frame are bent out of shape. The license plate on the rear is bent too, and the front is all crooked as well. The windows in the driver’s compartment have been armoured with a viewport added on, but that viewport itself is crooked. There’s extra lights on the front, but they’re not aligned identically, they’re off. It’s got a headlight out too, one that’s missing the glass completely. It all feels incredibly rough and ready, it’s got a rough and ready vibe, a “good enough for now” one. It’s improvised, it’s been through a lot. It’s another entry where the car really matches the lore. It matches it so well, in fact, that I didn’t really have any questions when I was writing this and waiting for the post – it’s crystal clear what this is and what it’s trying to do. This entry is cool. This entry has charisma. That’s something that some of the other entries lacked, and that helps it do really well.
12 Likes
REVIEWS PART 5.8
PRO PATRIA MORI
This Photo: An IHI E/F-21 Mk.1 Wildcat III (by @shibusu - the plane) and a Bawron Shipbuilders CRAB (by @Fayeding_Spray - the hovercraft) posed on the ANV Araga (by @Danicoptero - the aircraft carrier). The CRAB has a Direlba-51/77 and a Direlba-51 IHI ADV (by @moroza - the ones on the left) plus an IHI AT6D-P and -T Lynx IFV (by @shibusu - the ones on the right). Not all entries shown due to posing and technical issues.
For practical reasons, I need to contextualise my reviews in a certain way. See, if Araga was only using the vehicles that got sent in, things would be in quite the bad place. The air force is limited to a single plane. Sure, I could call that plane a multirole aircraft and say that it has a bunch of hardpoints that can be switched out to do other roles… But what about the variety of roles for larger aircraft, like transport or AWACS? It’s similar with the Navy, we have a landing craft and a carrier and that’s it. It’s the same elsewhere, so… I’m going to have to invent other designs.
FOREIGN AID
Left: Direlba-51/77. Right: Direlba-51 IHI ADV. Both submitted as solely @moroza entries.
Let’s start on the ground, with the one case where I have multiple designs to choose from – armour. In fact, let’s start with the Direlba, because there’s something I have a slight issue with right off the bat. One of the entries is the Direlba-51 IHI ADV, with IHI standing for Ilaris Heavy Industries… Y’know, Shibusu’s company. So, what did Shibusu do for this? How did the collaborative process work, and how much is shared between the Direlba and the IHI Lynx IFV? I don’t know, because there’s no thread for it. Whatever the process that led to the Direlba 51 IHI ADV was, I can’t tell. Particularly attentive readers may recall that I specifically called out the way that Karhgath had no chance to look over the Superlite Tango in last round’s sports round, mentioned it as a positive. How much of this was done “the right way”? I can’t tell. For now, it’s a warning. In the future, it may well have consequences.
The modelling of the Direlba-51/77 is highly impressive. There are several barely-perceptible features like what I believe is hydropneumatic suspension behind the wheels, something that could be skipped but wasn’t. The turret includes two custom-modelled machine guns, both belt-fed from ammo boxes – and the bullets between the boxes and the guns have even been modelled! Some crew positions are shown on the interior, as has the location of the engine. Earthmoving gear and extra fuel tanks are present on the outside, and many of the armour surfaces have some degree of sloping. The Direlba-51 IHI ADV uses the same hull with a different camo, but the turrets are fundamentally different. The IHI, being a self-propelled anti-air system, replaces the main turret with a rotary gun capable of traversing extreme vertical angles. It replaces the additional top-mounted guns with a radar platform, and adds four anti-air missile tubes. It’s a sensible conversion, but one which is relatively difficult to perform in the field.
The 51/77 is, fundamentally, fills one role, and it seems to do it pretty well. It’s a main battle tank, and little more than this. That presents an interesting question for me – on one hand, I did say that flexibility was the biggest element of Aragan military doctrine. On the other, MBTs were once also known as Universal Tanks for a reason. The core concept of an MBT is to combine the speed and manoeuvrability of a medium tank with the protection and armament of a heavy tank, allowing for assaults on a variety of positions. I’ll give a vehicle like this a bit of a pass given the inherent flexibility of the MBT role. The IHI ADV theoretically allows for it to perform secondary roles in a pinch, as the main gun can be aimed at targets on the ground as well, but the turret is largely a dedicated AA platform. The fact that it’s a complete turret conversion does hamper the flexibility of a shared platform, because you can’t just add a RADAR module and swap out the guns – but that’s something seen in real platforms too, so I won’t knock it too much.
The greatest problem with the Direlba is the lore provided with it, and this is what really stings. By the provided lore, Araga has a limited quantity of them and they’re provided under some rather strict terms. It would be incredibly difficult for Araga to win the war by remaining within its own borders – remember, this is a war between two superpowers, two nations with large armies and large amounts of territory. Araga will not refuse materiel, but will ultimately need to press into Windon – see the American Cash-And-Carry and Lend-Lease programs in WW2 for examples of superpowers accepting arms under conditions. I don’t want to knock you for including lore, so I’m really just going to… ignore this in my estimation of it.
Overall, the Direlba as submitted is a great execution of a basic concept, showing a clear and thorough understanding of the role. It’s largely just held back by “making realistic changes between versions” and “making realistic lore that restricts it” – and the whole issue of IHI’s involvement. I don’t want to knock at all for the first two, because it’s realistic, really.
IHI-FV
Rear: IHI AT6D-T Lynx IFV. Front: AT6D-P by @shibusu
From one armoured platform to another, now we come to the IHI Lynx. It’s available in two configurations, and they’re much more convertible than the two Direlbas. The AT6D-T removes three seats to provide an ATGM storage compartment, and the outside gets extra armour slats welded on, plus a second ATGM launcher. This feels really nice in terms of flexibility, because they’re largely changes you could make outside a dedicated facility. You could easily pull out those rear seats and add the ammo locker, or weld on that extra armour.
The quality of modelling is very high once again. It’s interesting to compare how it was executed on this one to the Direlba – the Direlba repurposes a roughly-correct 3D fixture from the offroader pack for each link in the tracks, while the Lynx uses a simpler primitive and then applies a custom image fixture to it. I’ll admit that neither is perfect, but this is Automation and not Blender. Some hidden details from the Direlba like hydraulic suspension aren’t there on the exterior as far as I can see, but there’s a nicely modelled interior and engine bay – which includes the storage compartment on the AT6D-T. The seats are way more comfortable than I’d expect from an IFV, but again – it’s automation, you used standard seat fixtures, we don’t have realistically basic IFV seats.
The doctrinal perspective on this submission is that it’s, well, a standard IFV that succeeds for the same reasons the IFV did. It’s a flexible, mobile vehicle that can operate in a variety of locations, with reasonable ability against a broad spectrum of opposing forces, while being efficient in terms of resources. It doesn’t do all that much besides “normal IFV things” for flexibility or question/answer doctrine, but IFV things already do – like MBTs.
I'VE BEEN IN THE DANGER ZONE, YEAH!
IHI E/F-21 Mk.1 Wildcat III by @shibusu
Sticking with IHI, we come to the IHI E/F-21 Mk.1 Wildcat III. If anything embodies Aragan military doctrine, it is absolutely the Wildcat. It is an impressive bleeding-edge aircraft that specialises in denial of a wide spectrum of enemy operations.
Let’s start by looking at the real world, and the state of planes as they stood in this era. The USAF had recently been somewhat embarrassed in Vietnam, where their all-missile planes focusing purely on speed and engagement range had been ill suited for the reality they encountered – various factors forced them to get in close and actually manoeuvre, negating the advantages of those long range missiles and making outright speed less important too. Add in a dash of inter-service rivalries and that’s how you saw a change of course to the F-15 – a slower but more nimble aircraft combining missiles and cannons, and all manner of technology.
There was no Vietnam in the world of Araga, but that doesn’t mean that Araga wouldn’t create a plane like the F-15. In fact, I think Araga would rather naturally arrive at something like the F-15. Manoeuvrability is a natural way to diminish the effectiveness of enemy planes, answering their questions. The combination of missiles in several varieties with a cannon is a natural way to ask numerous questions of enemy planes. Variable engine and wing geometries add to this even more.
And here’s where we come back to the Wildcat… Which is a lot like an F-15. I can’t really evaluate the performance characteristics within the transsonic regime, but I can say that it looks like it’d be more or less correct once the wings start swinging back a bit, good enough for me. It carries a massive variety of armaments, enough to deal with any potential threats. While it has little in the ability of ground support, it is amazingly well-suited to ensuring that the air can be used to project power on the ground. For every different target, there is a missile – from small ground-based systems to opposing fighters to large emplacements.
Realistically, anything I could complain about is nitpicking about not being an “everything plane”. It’s not particularly stealthy, it’s not able to engage in certain roles, but what real plane does absolutely everything? The Wildcat is designed to dominate a particular domain, to ask and answer questions in one specific field. It acts as a force multiplier, making the rest of the Aragan airforce better.
I'M ON A BOAT
Scaled-down version of the ANV Araga by @Danicoptero
Well, we have planes, now what about somewhere to put it. It’s difficult for me to give the ANV Araga good marks, because it has substantial issues both in concept and in execution.
Let’s start with the modelling, shall we? No matter which variant I look at – the 1:10 scale version or the full one – it’s filled with issues in fit and finish. The guns extend off their platforms, the radar domes and their support structures aren’t particularly detailed and the hull is a single unbroken surface with nothing capable of propelling the ship – no propellers or intakes of any kind. It has major scale issues too, but that bleeds into the next bit…
See, the ANV Araga is about 650m long, with the overall proportions of a modern American supercarrier… but those are about half that length. It’s twice as long, twice as wide, twice as tall. That makes planes look absolutely tiny on it, and raises serious issues about whether such a large vessel can be practical. Then, we come to the guns. They’re designed and laid out like battleship weapons, lacking much ability to vary in elevation or heading, and they have an inner diameter of about 1.4 meters. Even if we assume that this diameter is diminished slightly by rifling (not modelled, but such a pain that nobody has), that’s still about three times larger than the largest gun ever mounted on a naval vessel. That gun was the Japanese 46 cm/45 Type 94, a gun mounted on the Yamato-class super-heavy battleships. To those familiar with WW2 navies, the Yamato-class was not the most successful, largely due to issues inherent with its size. The ANV Araga is several times larger than the Yamato class.
Even if scaled down, it’s still a supercarrier with battleship weapons. Those don’t exist in reality though. Battleships barely exist, because naval theory has evolved. Those massive guns mounted on large ships are inefficient. Just one battleship was commissioned after the end of WW2, and the US was one of the few to continue running battleships – four battleships, used for fire support, eventually being mothballed and removed from service. The modern navy consists of aircraft carriers and smaller vessels, using missiles for long-range anti-ship purposes and smaller guns (and SAMs) for nullifying enemy air power.
Conceptually, the ANV Araga represents a monumental expenditure of resources, and can easily be disabled temporarily or permanently. I can allow some deviation from real world doctrines, but not this much. There’s just no way it would ever be authorised.
CARCINISATION
Bawron Shipbuilders CRAB by @Fayeding_Spray
Continuing with the naval theme, we come to the Bawron Shipbuilders CRAB – with CRAB standing for CaRgo Air Buffer. Much like a crab, this amphibious landing craft is fine to go from earth to sea – or, more importantly, sea to earth. You can drive it right up onto a beach, then lower the hydraulically-actuated ramp and cruise right off. But what can cruise right off? Well, in terms of space alone, six Direlbas or Lynxes can physically fit. Not sure about weight or force composition working well with six MBTs, but you can do it in theory. It’s a pretty large landing vessel, but not unrealistically so by any stretch. Load it up, drive it onto a beach, you’re all good.
Looking into the modelling, all my complaints with the Roebridge Mobile Crane don’t apply all that much. My only real complaint is the fact that a simple line is the only barrier between the deck and the fan intakes, the “do not cross” line is easy to cross.
In doctrinal terms, it’s a necessarily narrow option. You can’t really use it for that much, it’s just a craft for a single role, but it’s a necessary one. Although Araga and Windon share a land border, the ability to make landings behind enemy lines and manoeuvre from multiple directions is always a valuable one to generate an advantage. You’ll need landing craft like this to do something like that, or to evacuate if you wind up being encircled and have to get away by sea. Not having any defensive armament isn’t great, but that’s really the biggest issue and it’s one that you could probably find a way to solve; while unarmed landing craft exist, they’re usually a little smaller.
THE MISSILES ARE NOT EEPY
Centurion 7200 Military Carrier and K22 Missile Trailer by @ldub0775
In theory, Centurion has provided special cabs for the Aragan military. I’m not entirely sure what the little coil behind the cab on the 7200 Military Carrier is – electrical? Just rope? If you could fill me in, that’d be great, but it’s not a huge change.
Which is why I’m glad that there’s the K22 missile trailer, which is a rather long piece of truck-pulled rocket artillery. It’s modelled with a hydraulic boom that allows the tubes to swivel up and back, resting on a notch over towards the back. It can be anchored down into the ground with numerous supports. It has what I assume to be generators mounted on the front, allowing it to run without a cab. There’s also ports mounted on the outside that look like massively oversized D-Subminature connectors, specifically DA-26 ones – but not quite, they’re rectangular rather than D-shaped and have an 8-7-8 pin count in comparison to the 9-9-8 of DA-26. What are they for? I’m not sure, and I wasn’t given any info. I hope they’re not supplying power with those exposed connectors, maybe they’re air or data or something, I’m not sure. Overall, the modelling is pretty solid, just with lots of black boxes with no labelling and no lore.
As for the use, a platform that uses standard connectors to attach to standard trucks is absolutely desirable. Rocket artillery is the sort of thing which can fulfil numerous different roles, by changing out the rockets themselves. The modern M142 HIMARS can be used to launch a variety of munitions, from lighter missiles with longer ranges to heavier ones with shorter ranges. The M39 missile carries 950 bomblets up to 165 km, while the M39A1 has just 300 but can travel up to 300 km. That flexibility is highly useful and valuable, it has many important strategic uses. That will apply strongly in this conflict too, long-range artillery is always useful and beneficial. There’s not really a lot to judge, it’s just pretty solid.
SATELLITE, I'M WATCHING YOU
ArcSpace SRT-E Araga Reconnisance Satellite Experiment-1 by @lotto77
So, now we come to the last non-car of this round… And, also, a non-car of last round. See, last round, we got the ArcSpace Araga Comms Demo-1, and I said “Now, how much will Araga use the capacities of the ArcSpace? Wait and see for the war, but it’s very effective and very well crafted, realistic and sensible.”
Now, the war is here, and we can see how ArcSpace’s wares are being used… And the answer is “they’re doing great”. See, military theory and doctrine is a fluid, evolving thing, and the 1970s was right in the middle of what is known as the third generation of warfare. By the 70s, warfare was based on mobility and manoeuvring, forcing lower-ranking officers to be granted more autonomy and flexibility. Battlefields evolved more rapidly, situations underwent more sudden changes. Information became one of the biggest currencies on the battlefield, and ways to acquire and distribute that information became more and more valuable. First as radios and telegraphs, before recently moving to newer methods… Such as satellites.
That’s where communications satellites came from, really. From the need to distribute information from the front back to headquarters, then information from headquarters off to the front. Satellite imaging? The easiest way to perform reconnaissance. GPS? Weapons systems needed precise location information. Information is the currency of the modern battlefield, and satellites give you that currency.
So, let’s look at what is different about the next round of ArcSpace brings that the last round didn’t. First, there’s the rocket itself. The top portion, where the payload sits, has had an additional, larger fairing added on. It also has two boosters added to it, allowing it to lift larger payloads or reach higher orbits. They’re not particularly large boosters or large changes really, but they’re sensible upgrades to an existing platform. The really big addition is the actual payload, an imaging satellite with a sensible series of features – there’s reaction wheels for orienting the camera, and a proper rocket to reposition, altering your height and what time you cross various points.
It’s still early technology. Newer satellites would have better cameras, higher data rates and such, but it’s still ultimately solid. It still lets you see enemy movements and buildups, and it still lets you communicate back and forth to headquarters. It changes the flow of war, a whole lot. It’s solid.
SNAP BACK TO UTILITY
It feels like so long ago that I was reviewing utility cars – because it really was. 2 months, oof, not good. I’ll be discussing and consulting about that in my post mortem. But let’s try and look at what the government would have bought, then. There’s a few ways the government could go, a brief shortlist. Let’s look through them.
The Wojsawan is the cheapest heavy duty option and it seems like it was made for the government with that armour. The comfort isn’t great, but that’s not too important to the government, is it? The offroad is attractive, as is the cargo volume and carrying capacity, but it has two shortcomings. First, it’s not particularly reliable. Second, it’s absolutely awful with fuel consumption. The end result is a vehicle that places a lot of stress on logistics and supply, not particularly great.
The Kontir and Bazard BTD8 both look very similar, and they have the same pair of issues – mediocre offroad and poor fuel economy. The army can’t rely on roads, they’ll have to be taking their cars along dirt tracks a lot of the time. These two can’t do too well on them, and they have similar issues to the Wojsawan in terms of fuel economy, not too great.
The Pillar 1500C is just a little off of what the government wants. The offroad isn’t too great, similar to the other options from Kontir and Bazard, but the reliability and economy are both great. I can see this being a backup for urban areas, for built-up areas, for moving materiel through safer areas and the like, but it’s just not there.
Was it ever really going to be anything else? DCMW offers options that are towards the middle and lower end of the budget, at least for the cargo capacity. It offers options with fantastic reliability and wonderful offroad. One of the biggest concerns was the difficulty of getting access to the limited supplies of low-ethanol fuels, but the military has priority in acquiring fuel. DCMW has the lowest impact on logistics, relatively low requirements for getting set up, and just makes the most sense. DCMW is getting the lion’s share of the military purchases, but won’t be an exclusive supplier.
JUST ONE MORE THING
Bomb and “Advanced, Autonomously Propelled Super-Bomb” by @Edsel
I lied, the ARSE wasn’t the last non-car. These are… So how do I review them? The bomb is clearly cartoonish, and Nintendo’s lawyers are very interested in the AAPSB.
Well, I’m going to say that they are from cartoons. Specifically from PSAs for kids on how to survive in a war-zone. You know the American “duck and cover” adverts? Yeah, those are from these, in-universe. They’re ways to safely teach kids what to do without traumatising them too much.
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REVIEWS PART 5.9
WHA HAPPUN?
So, it goes without saying, these reviews took quite a while longer than expected. There are several reasons that this happened, and I want to go into each of them in turn, because… There’s some things to explore, some interesting implications and discussion points for the future of the challenge.
PART ONE: IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME
I’ll hold my hands up and say that I sorta fell flat on my face here. I ran into a variety of health issues - physical and mental - which meant I just had no motivation to do judging and couldn’t make myself do the dang thing I need to. Not great! Truthfully, I don’t think I can guarantee that it won’t happen another time - it’s happened before, after all. I’m improving, but improving means “I kept making progress” and not “it stopped happening”. The question is… Is this acceptable for the community, for all of you as entrants? Are you willing to keep participating when reviews might take the anticipated 1 month or might balloon out and be longer? This is your call as much as my call, how much are people willing to engage on this basis, with this being a distinct possibility?
PART TWO: THE CLUSTERING PROBLEM
I’ve brought this up before, but a lot of other cars had very sameish reviews. I constrained what could be submitted, and that sorta sapped some of the fun from it. Writing the same review a bunch of times just wasn’t that fun, my eyes glazed over and I took shortcuts - but I also just didn’t want to review as much. That will not happen again. I will not restrict submissions again.
PART THREE: TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING
I previously thought that non-cars were a pallette cleanser. Something fun I could do in the middle of stuff.
Then I ran a round that strongly incentivised non-cars and ran out of things to say partway through. Have you ever had too much cake, or ice cream? Gotten to the point where you just don’t enjoy having more? Yeah, that’s where I got to. The palette cleanser overtook the palette and it just sucked.
The signs have been there for a while though, I’ve been running out of things to say for quite some time. If I continue to allow non-cars, it will be limited to just one or two per person - I’m tempted to leave them out entirely. This will be a matter of discussion.
ERRATA, AND THE NEXT STEP
Some of you submitted utility cars to standard. This was technically allowed, but I didn’t give a standard review. So, how do I review those from a standard perspective? What does someone looking for a sedan, hatch or wagon think of these? Not much. I don’t think the market is really there for 2-seater cars during the war. The people who want these for the bed are in the utility segment. The people who just want to go from A to B will value the seats during times of scarcity. I just don’t see it. I took some time to think, and I just… don’t see any value to the standard buyer.
Anyway, here is the plan for the challenge:
- I am going to open things up for discussion, both here and on discord. I want your opinions on whether you want to continue with the possibility of longer times between rounds, I want your opinions on the future of non-cars in the challenge, and so on. This is a purely OOC discussion. Feel free to provide whatever opinions and thoughts you have, in a constructive manner - even if you disagree with others, or if it’s a (constructive) criticism of me and the challenge.
- In the meantime and while I consider things, I have a one-off challenge or two I want to run. That gives some time for this discussion to play out, at least a couple of weeks to decide.
- If we continue with ALC, I have a quick “concept car” interlude round I wanna run, which will also serve to prototype the new lighting regulations. Postwar lobbying will occur concurrently to this.
- At some point in all this, I’ll do a more “zoomed out” look at the impacts and flow of the war, a big old lore dump and some potential market changes.
- Once that finishes, ALC will return with some fun new features like:
– Rules updates and patches.
– A CSVExporter script/extension which will tell you your ADPR, tax, annual fuel costs, range and others.
– Potential tweaks to cargo capacity and other problematic stats.
– Maybe more stuff to spend money on?
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3 February 1979
(Partially recorded telephone call between Major Khamad Dushkar, deputy commander of 3rd Armored Training Battallion of the Sultanic Armed Forces, stationed in Araga, and Shaikha Nisa al-Qiharruni, Dalluhan Minisry of Foreign Affairs.
“…–arently their performance was satisfactory, but there’ve been some strong rumors of an impending official diplomatic complaint.”
“Complaint?”
“Yes, two in fact. One about the air-defense variant, and another about the usage restriction.”
“The restriction? Oh, for hell’s sake! I understand they just got invaded and are fighting for their country’s survival, no time to stop and smell the roses, but when offered powerful tools to aid that fight, you’d think they’d 1. read the fine print, and 2. say something about it? As I mentioned in my letter and the development history it referred to, the Direlba was designed for tiny Dalluha to repulse waves of armor and infantry, not for offensive operations in countries hundreds of times its size. Even so, the restrictions allowed exceptions on an operational level… Major Dushkar, you’ve been the designated SAF representative for the third battallion, yes?”
“Yes, Shaikha, since the battallion arrived two years ago.”
“How many requests for exceptions to the geographical restriction policy have you heard?”
“Not a single one, Shaikha.”
“Well, then. In addition to operational-level exceptions, we in Basara would’ve considered terms for a strategic-level shift in usage policy. But we heard nothing. A little communication would’ve gone a long way, huh?”
“Indeed, Shaikha. If I may add a personal opinion from my time as liaison officer… there’s a curious paradox in this country. On one hand, the military highly values flexibility and inititive. This squares neatly with what I’ve seen of civilian car culture, where grassroots tuning and modification are lauded and thriving. On the other hand, government bureaucracy is surprisingly as pedantic and inefficient an obstacle as it is anywhere. Which brings me to…”
“…that flak tank?”
"Exactly. It was one of my subordinates, Senior Lieutenant Zajjim, who oversaw the conversion from the SAF’s end. I had met with IHI engineers and authorized several Direlba-51 hulls for experimental purposes, but my involvement went no further after Zajjim reported that the official request for collaboration with Ilaris was caught up in red tape. I never found out what the hangup was, but for whatever reason, the government was reluctant to approve the joint effort.
Some weeks later, having forgotten about the whole thing, I get a strongly worded and backdated request from Zajjim to authorize the transfer of an entire division of these flak tanks to Aragan mechanized infantry and armor units. I was bewildered, had no idea we had so many, and that they had already been proven in use.
The request came with some direct quotes from Aragan personnel, who apparently found these things a godsend. Equally emphatic, however, were some… ah… long strings of short words regarding the necessity of sidestepping government protocols. Some rather colorful suggestions of where the pencil-pushers might relocate their pencils."
“Well, what did they expect? Death and destruction from above, something needed done, someone figured out how to do it, and they weren’t about to let some dithering, waffling desk jockey hemming and hawing over procedure stand in the way.”
“And yet, the Aragan military could’ve easily declined them, but they ended up accepting them into service all the same. A quiet admission of error?”
“And quality, and necessity. So they worked? Has their development team been appropriately recognized?”
“Unfortunately, Lieutenant Zajjim was killed when the convoy delivering the last batch was ambushed. Furthermore, he took all his notes with him. I’ve been attempting to track down the Ilaris staff, but in the chaos of the war having just ended-----”
SSKKRKRRRRR -static-
OOC stuff
Health and sanity come first, full stop. Late and good is better than quick and mediocre, and much better than not at all. I don’t mind the wait much, and for the good reasons it has, not at all.
Why not allow a sigificantly larger amount of entries, especially non-car, but reserve the right to ignore any you don’t find sufficiently interesting to comment on?
My submission of a de facto utility vehicle in the standard category was directly inspired by your suggestion of exactly that. I certainly hope it wasn’t taken as a cheeky trolling of the rules, because that wasn’t at all the intent. It’s a Hilux in all but name (and even then…), deployed on the market with the expectation of selling like a Hilux. Incidentally, it does great in Beam, unlike the Neyaarats.
Very pleased to see that the vehicles I didn’t have time to make - military non-combat versions of the Neyaarats - ended up happening anyway. While DCMW itches to return to its root note, the instigation to expand its brand identity is highly appreciated. As are, of course, the results.
Above all, cheers to you for doing this grandiose thing in the first place!
Gonna slightly push back here on the “Not a single request for exceptions” or the “You’d think they’d say something about it” as IC stuff. And the IC-ing on the stuff around this being a collab.
The official request wasn’t caught up in red tape. It flat out did not exist, from an OOC perspective. There is no collaboration thread on the discord. That’s why, incidentally, this wasn’t an IC issue in the review - it was an OOC one, because you made it impossible for me to actually judge how it was handled, how you two worked together, in order to adequately assess things.
In addition, the lore around what Araga did ends up taking it out of my hands and controlling my side of things. It’s like when people say that their car sells super well in a challenge like this - it’s not their side to handle. Araga would complain immediately, and Araga would submit requests through official channels. If you would have wanted a comment on it ahead of posting, that’s fair and I did approve it. If you want a tighter vetting of lore, I can do that. I did approve the post, but I was looking over it more as a “does this massively contradict stuff and leave the realm of possibility, does it have issues OOC?” rather than “would the government have any issues with this, IC?” - these restrictions were entirely plausible, just not desirable for Araga.
Stats are up in the spreadsheet shared before at ALC Public Stats - Google Sheets - spending tokens will come soon.
Also: Araga needs you… r cars.
I needs some .cars, for a specific use. The next round of ALC will be a car show bonus round, which will include designing prototypes of the new standard-sized light units - but we need cars to put them in.
So, here’s where you come in. The new light units will come in three sizes, all based on the default MMDHL geometric units. There’s a 19cm-ish circle, a 14.5cm square and a 34.5x14.5cm-ish rectangle - these are the default MMDHL circle, MMDHL square and MMDHL rectangle. Depth is free, but should be at least 7cm at the shallowest point. The default, unscaled MMDHL units all fulfil this.
What I want is simple: Cars that have no headlights and taillights, and instead have empty versions of these units, ready for people to populate with their own designs. Feel free to head over to the discord and send files in #car-show-base-files and ask questions in #general
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