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Subject: "OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"     Previous Topic | Next Topic
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Gryphonadmin
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Jul-12-15, 01:31 AM (EST)
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"OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
 
   LAST EDITED ON Jul-12-15 AT 01:38 AM (EDT)
 
Cribbing from the What's New! page:

We don't have anything for either of the regular Serial Experiments this week, so instead, here is a serial experiment experiment. This is the first part of an Our Witches at War special episode. However, it won't be serialized as individual episodes like OWaW or The Federation Lives Forever! Instead, the file will be updated with new segments as they're completed; when it's all finished, it'll be a single story, like Lensmen: The Brave and the Bold Presents "New Tricks". (An audio version will be released upon completion.)

So if you'd rather wait until it's all finished, you have that option! If all goes according - or even mostly according - to plan, it should run to four or five updates. If you'd prefer to jump in now, here it is: Our Witches at War Presents "Our Fighting Fleet"!

I'll drop an update here when new segments are added; probably also on What's New. Yes, I am aware that a serial experiment experiment verges perilously near to an infinite regress, but hey, it's my party and I'll confuse the issue if I wanna.

Speaking of confusing the issue, for those who do not pay obsessive attention to the date stamps, you should be aware that this story begins in the middle of the week following OWaW 16, "Operation Hammer". There'll be a setup hook for it early in episode 17, so don't be alarmed when that episode opens and G and Shizuka haven't left Saint-Ulrich yet. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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  Subject     Author     Message Date     ID  
OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet [View All] Gryphonadmin Jul-12-15 TOP
  RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet TsukaiStarburst Jul-12-15 1
     RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Gryphonadmin Jul-12-15 2
  RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Bakuryu_Hitsuri Jul-12-15 3
     RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Gryphonadmin Jul-12-15 4
     RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet SpottedKitty Jul-13-15 21
  RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Matrix Dragon Jul-12-15 5
     RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Nova Floresca Jul-12-15 6
  RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Nova Floresca Jul-12-15 7
     RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Nathan Jul-12-15 8
     RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Gryphonadmin Jul-12-15 9
         RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Nova Floresca Jul-12-15 10
             RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Gryphonadmin Jul-12-15 11
                 RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Nova Floresca Jul-12-15 12
                     RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Gryphonadmin Jul-12-15 13
                         RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Nova Floresca Jul-12-15 14
                             RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Verbena Jul-12-15 15
                             RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Gryphonadmin Jul-12-15 16
                             RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Gryphonadmin Jul-12-15 17
                                 RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Nova Floresca Jul-12-15 19
                         RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet CdrMike Jul-12-15 18
  RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Matrix Dragon Jul-12-15 20
     RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet SpottedKitty Jul-13-15 22
         RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Gryphonadmin Jul-13-15 23
             RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet Matrix Dragon Jul-13-15 24

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TsukaiStarburst
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Jul-12-15, 01:35 AM (EST)
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1. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #0
 
   Link seems to be a 404?


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Gryphonadmin
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Jul-12-15, 01:39 AM (EST)
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2. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #1
 
   >Link seems to be a 404?

Oops, typo in it. Only here, though.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Bakuryu_Hitsuri
Member since Feb-2-15
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Jul-12-15, 02:24 AM (EST)
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3. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #0
 
   LAST EDITED ON Jul-12-15 AT 02:25 AM (EDT)
 
*shakes fist angrily* Damn you people and your excellent story telling.
Now I have MORE great(side) stories to wait for eagerly, You make it so I'm afraid to be away from any device with an internet connection for more than a day or 2 in fear of missing an update. *continues shaking fist*

*edit* I literally check the "What's New" page more often than I check youtube.

See Comment.


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Gryphonadmin
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Jul-12-15, 02:27 AM (EST)
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4. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #3
 
   >Now I have MORE great(side) stories to wait for eagerly,

Hey, you think that's a hassle, try getting anything done when all these tangents keep wandering into your head.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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SpottedKitty
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Jul-13-15, 00:58 AM (EST)
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21. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #3
 
   <points up> What he said.

Looking forward to the next episode.

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.


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Matrix Dragon
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Jul-12-15, 08:06 AM (EST)
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5. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #0
 
   First order of business, yay for Hattori! She's more then earned it, in OWaW alone, along with the original show (Which I will watch one day, dammit).

Secondly, I'm now very curious as to the story is with Megami/Mogami/'Mamoru'. I've got practically no idea what the deal is with her source material, even with the threads over in source, and I have a suspicion that it might not entirely follow that material anyway. If nothing else, the Strike Witches world just got that little bit more interesting... It's also nice to see that yes, people are noticing that there is something very odd going on over at the 501st and the man called Gryphon.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter


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Nova Floresca
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Jul-12-15, 11:38 AM (EST)
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6. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #5
 
   >Secondly, I'm now very curious as to the story is with
>Megami/Mogami/'Mamoru'. I've got practically no idea what the deal is
>with her source material, even with the threads over in source, and I
>have a suspicion that it might not entirely follow that material
>anyway.

The nice, or maybe not-nice thing about Kantai Collection is the official materials say absolutely nothing about what the deal is. Your introduction is literally "So uh, there's these monsters smashing up the world, and here are some girls who are also battleships. Go and play."

>It's also nice to see that yes, people are
>noticing that there is something very odd going on over at the 501st
>and the man called Gryphon.

Nice to see from a storytelling perspective, but somewhere on the sliding scale between "annoying" and "apocalyptic" for the characters themselves.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."


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Nova Floresca
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Jul-12-15, 11:50 AM (EST)
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7. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #0
 
   Very fun, though I'm insanely curious now as to the exact details of Ms. Mogami's survival/transformaion- is she simply incredibly lucky, and so the spirit of the ship decided to follow her home, or did the ship actually create a familiar (for lack of a better word) when it was constructed? I'm sure the answers will come eventually, but I'm also sure my F5 key is going to get smashed to pieces in the meantime.

Considering how the story went, I think I can see why Mogami works a lot better than the two other poll contestants- I doubt Yuudachi would be able to maintain cover for very long, and losing a capital asset like Mutsu and then having something weird and magic-y crop up in the aftermath probably would have caused more of a stir at HQ, by which I mean "you could hear the screaming clear in Saint-Ulrich".

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."


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Nathan
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Jul-12-15, 11:57 AM (EST)
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8. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #7
 
   Also, pre-sinking Human-Mutsu would find maintaining cover as a man to present certain considerable physical challenges...

-----

"V, did you do something foolish?"

"Yes, and it was glorious."


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Gryphonadmin
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Jul-12-15, 02:20 PM (EST)
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9. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #7
 
   >Considering how the story went, I think I can see why Mogami works a
>lot better than the two other poll contestants

Kongō is sad you forgot about her. She's standing outside your bedroom window, holding a boombox above her head, playing "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds at a volume level that will probably annoy your neighbors slightly at this time of night, while bitter tears of regret and loneliness cascade down her perfect, British-built cheeks. I hope you're proud of yourself. You monster.

(On the other hand, this is Hiei's big chance, so you'll probably get a nice card from her later. :)

>I doubt Yuudachi would
>be able to maintain cover for very long

Heh, yeah, it's hard for me to picture Poi even attempting such a strategy. For one thing, it would be way too much work. Particularly before her second remodel, I don't think Yūdachi is diligent enough to really work as a normal sailor, quite apart from the difficulties she'd have had fooling the recruiting officer, the doctors (although how did that work, anyway?), everybody in Basic...

>and losing a capital asset
>like Mutsu and then having something weird and magic-y crop up in the
>aftermath probably would have caused more of a stir at HQ, by which I
>mean "you could hear the screaming clear in Saint-Ulrich".

In fairness, Mogami was a heavy cruiser, which, while not a capital ship per se, is hardly a trivial loss. On the other hand, the IFN wouldn't have sent a battleship on such a mission anyway. Mogami was probably the flagship of the escort flotilla.

Nathan added:
>Also, pre-sinking Human-Mutsu would find maintaining cover as a man to
>present certain considerable physical challenges...

Yes, much like Yūdachi, she wouldn't have fit (erm, as it were) into this plot construct at all; a different introduction vector would've been required. And that would certainly have been possible, but in the end, the shorts simply won. :)

This is as good a place as any to note: In determining the disposition of the Fusō fleet, I'm assuming that, though losses to enemy action are obviously very different in this war, the Japanese ships that were lost for non-combat reasons during WWII have still been lost in this setting. Unfortunately, that means the battleship Mutsu sank in June 1943 as a result of sabotage by a disgruntled crewman; so she wouldn't have worked for this particular intro scenario in a couple of different ways. Interestingly, though, Mogami was one of the ships that rescued her survivors.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Nova Floresca
Member since Sep-13-13
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Jul-12-15, 02:55 PM (EST)
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10. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #9
 
   LAST EDITED ON Jul-12-15 AT 02:59 PM (EDT)
 
>>Considering how the story went, I think I can see why Mogami works a
>>lot better than the two other poll contestants
>
>Kongō is sad you forgot about her. She's standing outside your
>bedroom window, holding a boombox above her head, playing
>Don't You (Forget About
>Me)" by Simple Minds at a volume level that will probably annoy your
>neighbors slightly at this time of night, while bitter tears of regret
>and loneliness cascade down her perfect, British-built cheeks. I hope
>you're proud of yourself. You monster.
>
>(On the other hand, this is Hiei's big chance, so you'll probably get
>a nice card from her later. :)

I really should have gone back to check on that . . . oops. Though I'd think Kongou (the girl) might have had an easier time sneaking aboard, assuming that engineers from Vickers were tending to Kongou (the ship) since they built her.

>>I doubt Yuudachi would
>>be able to maintain cover for very long
>
>Heh, yeah, it's hard for me to picture Poi even attempting such
>a strategy . . . quite apart from
>the difficulties she'd have had fooling the recruiting officer, the
>doctors (although how did that work, anyway?)

By harnessing the power of bureaucracy, I'd guess- something like "oh, I'm being transferred, I'll get that done at the next station" followed by "oh I got that done at the last station, they must've lost the paperwork"?

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."


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Gryphonadmin
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Jul-12-15, 03:21 PM (EST)
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11. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #10
 
   LAST EDITED ON Jul-12-15 AT 03:23 PM (EDT)
 
>Though I'd
>think Kongou (the girl) might have had an easier time sneaking aboard,
>assuming that engineers from Vickers were tending to Kongou (the ship)
>since they built her.

That was quite a long time ago by 1946, but in a setting where Fusō and Britannia are still allies (to the point where the former has a major naval base on the latter's shores), it's plausible that the IFN might have consulted with the original manufacturers on some technical matter or another. Possibly a modernization, as her most recent one would have been in 1935, 11 years ago at that point.

I did think fairly hard about Kongō's English connection when "casting" for this, since it seemed like such an obvious alignment, but in the end, I couldn't quite get it to fit together. I think that might be in part because she wouldn't be content to be part of a one-shot and would end up following "the Admiral" home, despite the fact that a) he currently lives well inland and b) that would probably cause the IFN, if not the Fusō government, to Want a Word or Two With Him. :)

(Irritatingly, casting Kongō in the "main" UF universe is even thornier. In virtually every other case of overlap I can think of offhand, one or the other of the Arpeggio and KanColle versions of a given character is clearly ahead of the other in my estimation, and deciding which to include is therefore not difficult. The KanColle version of Haruna, for instance, wins handily, as does the Arpeggio version of Takao (largely since the KanColle one doesn't have a particularly strong characterization in the first place). Kongō, though... that's a hard call. :)

>>doctors (although how did that work, anyway?)
>
>By harnessing the power of bureaucracy, I'd guess- something like "oh,
>I'm being transferred, I'll get that done at the next station"
>followed by "oh I got that done at the last station, they must've lost
>the paperwork"?

Yeah, that seems likely. I'll get into it a little more in the next bit; although the brass and the bureaucracy were fooled right up to the point where the ship sank, the same cannot be said of everybody aboard.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Nova Floresca
Member since Sep-13-13
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Jul-12-15, 04:30 PM (EST)
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12. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #11
 
   >>Though I'd
>>think Kongou (the girl) might have had an easier time sneaking aboard,
>>assuming that engineers from Vickers were tending to Kongou (the ship)
>>since they built her.
>
>That was quite a long time ago by 1946, but in a setting where Fusō
>and Britannia are still allies (to the point where the former has a
>major naval base on the latter's shores), it's plausible that the IFN
>might have consulted with the original manufacturers on some technical
>matter or another. Possibly a modernization, as her most recent one
>would have been in 1935, 11 years ago at that point.

I was thinking more the other way around- Kongou has two "cousin classes", the Queen Elizabeth and Revenge Battlecruisers, all designed by George Thurston, who I'd imagine would be quite keen on having as much data from all his "girls" as possible, in order to fix anything that might crop up between the designs. Of course, with 14 ships between the 3 classes, that'd probably be a never-ending conga line through the dry docks as the engineers kept tinkering with the plans.

>(Irritatingly, casting Kongō in the "main" UF universe is even
>thornier. In virtually every other case of overlap I can think of
>offhand, one or the other of the Arpeggio and KanColle
>versions of a given character is clearly ahead of the other in my
>estimation, and deciding which to include is therefore not difficult.
>The KanColle version of Haruna, for instance, wins handily, as
>does the Arpeggio version of Takao (largely since the
>KanColle one doesn't have a particularly strong
>characterization in the first place). Kongō, though... that's a
>hard call. :)

I still think it would be amusing (and very cool) to fuse them together, i.e. Fog Kongou cracks under the strain and ends up acting something like KanColle Kongou as she learns to live with the rest of the world (or is using it as an elaborate disguise, like Hyuuga has been accused of doing).

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."


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Gryphonadmin
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Jul-12-15, 04:58 PM (EST)
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13. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #12
 
   >I was thinking more the other way around- Kongou has two
>"cousin classes", the Queen Elizabeth and Revenge
>Battlecruisers, all designed by George Thurston, who I'd imagine would
>be quite keen on having as much data from all his "girls" as possible,
>in order to fix anything that might crop up between the designs. Of
>course, with 14 ships between the 3 classes, that'd probably be a
>never-ending conga line through the dry docks as the engineers kept
>tinkering with the plans.

Naval architecture in general has presumably taken some interesting turns in that setting, given how different military aviation is. For instance, although the Fusō navy has full-size fleet carriers (configured to support both conventional aircraft and Striker-equipped witches), the much smaller footprint, VSTOL capability, and lack of a need to store large quantities of volatile aviation fuel means that - like a great many ships in the WWII era had facilities for a small seaplane or two - virtually any ship can be configured to support at least one or two witches. That's more or less what I had in mind when I mentioned that the convoy Mogami was part of had a witch component, though in that particular battle's case they were stymied by the weather.

What that means is that the aviation cruiser and aviation battleship, concepts that never really worked in the real world - warships with heavily armed gun turrets forward of the superstructure and a miniature flight deck aft, like the Ise class - suddenly become not only viable, but potentially really significant weapons. They never really worked in real life because they either had to carry float planes, which can't compete with anything that has retractable gear in aerial combat, or else could only launch their normal aircraft, not recover them. They were a classic example of a Swiss army knife with too many blades.

Replace those bulky, cumbersome, unrecoverable aircraft with Striker Units, though, and you have a ship that actually can function as a battleship and a full-service carrier. They could station the equivalent of an entire JFW aboard such a vessel easily, which is a big stick indeed in a world where conventional naval firepower is virtually useless by itself. (They never did anything much with the obvious possibility of naval gunfire supporting witch operations, unfortunately. In the anime, with only one exception I can think of, whenever warships appear, it's just to blunder around and accomplish fuckall until the witches show up and do all the actual work. Combined arms isn't really something the writers were interested in exploring, I guess. :)

Unfortunately, the European war is not one in which naval aviation plays a terribly big part - not for nothing was the Pacific Theater the one where all the carrier glory days happened in the real war - so there's not really a lot of point to this other than as an interesting thought experiment, but it seems to me that given the above, the IFN wouldn't have abandoned the BBV/CAV concept as readily as the Japanese did.

None of which has anything at all to do with the Kongō class, although it's likely that they do have provision aboard for a Striker or two. (In one ep of the TV series, we saw that Yamato does, and the real Kongō class could carry a couple of float planes for recon.) We didn't see any of them stationed at HMNB Folkestone as yet, but Shizuka did say that some of the fleet was out.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Nova Floresca
Member since Sep-13-13
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Jul-12-15, 05:12 PM (EST)
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14. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #13
 
   >Naval architecture in general has presumably taken some interesting
>turns in that setting, given how different military aviation is. For
>instance, although the Fusō navy has full-size fleet carriers
>(configured to support both conventional aircraft and Striker-equipped
>witches), the much smaller footprint, VSTOL capability, and lack of a
>need to store large quantities of volatile aviation fuel means that -
>like a great many ships in the WWII era had facilities for a small
>seaplane or two - virtually any ship can be configured to support at
>least one or two witches. That's more or less what I had in mind when
>I mentioned that the convoy Mogami was part of had a witch
>component, though in that particular battle's case they were stymied
>by the weather.

When the poll first went up, I thought about suggesting Jun'you as a write-in despite the "carriers won't work well" notation- she was converted to an aircraft carrier from a cruise liner, which in the world of Strike Witches would require little more than repainting the shuffleboard court with spotting marks for Striker Units.

>None of which has anything at all to do with the Kongō
>class, although it's likely that they do have provision aboard for a
>Striker or two. (In one ep of the TV series, we saw that
>Yamato does, and the real Kongō class could carry a
>couple of float planes for recon.) We didn't see any of them
>stationed at HMNB Folkestone as yet, but Shizuka did say that some of
>the fleet was out.

Other than the trouble of elevating the main guns high enough, is there anything that prevents a battleship from blowing holes in a Neuroi? I didn't pay close enough attention to tell if the problem was simply needing magical augmentation to hit hard enough (which major naval artillery should overcome), or actual "you need like to neutralize like" magic.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."


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Verbena
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Jul-12-15, 05:35 PM (EST)
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15. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #14
 
   LAST EDITED ON Jul-12-15 AT 05:37 PM (EDT)
 
>Other than the trouble of elevating the main guns high enough, is
>there anything that prevents a battleship from blowing holes in a
>Neuroi? I didn't pay close enough attention to tell if the problem was
>simply needing magical augmentation to hit hard enough (which major
>naval artillery should overcome), or actual "you need like to
>neutralize like" magic.

I must first caution that I have only seen a few eps of Strike Witches, but my understanding is the offense isn't the problem. It's the defense. There's no way a naval vessel can stand off from a Neuroi for any real length of time, given the speed of aircraft versus naval vessels, and once within plasma range a naval vessel is a sitting duck. The real value of the witches, therefore, is in dodging and shield generation.

I think you're right, though, that naval artillery can't aim high enough all the time, and accuracy at close to maximum range (which is what they'd need to keep out of plasma fire) isn't good enough to hit a target, even a large target, at aircraft speeds. Sure, one hit -would- flatten a Neuroi body (and the core if they're lucky) but it wouldn't be easy...

Well, maybe the problem is offense AND defense. XD

(edit) Also, for the like to neutralize like idea, I was pretty well convinced Neuroi craft were nanomolecular in nature. Certainly technological. I don't see any indication that they use magic at all.

------
Fearless creatures, we all learn to fight the Reaper
Can't defeat Her, so instead I'll have to be Her


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Gryphonadmin
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Jul-12-15, 05:37 PM (EST)
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16. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #14
 
   >Other than the trouble of elevating the main guns high enough, is
>there anything that prevents a battleship from blowing holes in a
>Neuroi? I didn't pay close enough attention to tell if the problem was
>simply needing magical augmentation to hit hard enough (which major
>naval artillery should overcome), or actual "you need like to
>neutralize like" magic.

There are several occasions during the TV series where naval gunfire inflicts considerable damage on a particularly-slow-flying Neuroi; the problem, as presented, is that they cannot both penetrate the hull and destroy the core in a single volley, and the Neuroi regenerate hull damage faster than naval rifles can be readied to fire again. Net effect, even from Yamato's 18-inchers loaded with Type 3 shrapnel shells: bupkis. They eventually had to run away and leave a witch to be (they assumed at the time) killed covering their escape, which Captain Sugita at least had the decency to be ashamed of. I'll say this for him, he's mensch enough that if said witch hadn't been rescued by another one at the last second, he would probably have committed suicide once they got back to port. Fortunately on both counts, it's not that kind of show.

(The real reason, of course, is that the futility of trying to fight the Neuroi with anything but witches is part of the show's premise, and none may contravene it.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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Gryphonadmin
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Jul-12-15, 06:19 PM (EST)
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17. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #14
 
   LAST EDITED ON Jul-12-15 AT 06:19 PM (EDT)
 
Oh yeah, got distracted by the "naval gunfire" part and forgot to follow this up.

>When the poll first went up, I thought about suggesting Jun'you
>as a write-in despite the "carriers won't work well" notation- she was
>converted to an aircraft carrier from a cruise liner, which in the
>world of Strike Witches would require little more than repainting the
>shuffleboard court with spotting marks for Striker Units.

As a ship, that would work fine, but a KanColle-style fleet girl would have scale problems serving as a platform for air witches. The mechanism by which the carriers in KanColle are shown to be doing their thing doesn't lend itself to the OWaW setting very well, and doubly so if you replace the tiny fairy-operated airplanes with normal-size girls. That's why I had the "carriers probably won't work for Reasons" caveat on there. Otherwise it would've been the simplest casting choice in the world: Kaga! Done. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Nova Floresca
Member since Sep-13-13
335 posts
Jul-12-15, 07:45 PM (EST)
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19. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #17
 
   >Oh yeah, got distracted by the "naval gunfire" part and forgot to
>follow this up.
>
>>When the poll first went up, I thought about suggesting Jun'you
>>as a write-in despite the "carriers won't work well" notation- she was
>>converted to an aircraft carrier from a cruise liner, which in the
>>world of Strike Witches would require little more than repainting the
>>shuffleboard court with spotting marks for Striker Units.
>
>As a ship, that would work fine, but a KanColle-style
>fleet girl would have scale problems serving as a platform for air
>witches. The mechanism by which the carriers in KanColle are
>shown to be doing their thing doesn't lend itself to the OWaW setting
>very well, and doubly so if you replace the tiny fairy-operated
>airplanes with normal-size girls. That's why I had the "carriers
>probably won't work for Reasons" caveat on there. Otherwise it
>would've been the simplest casting choice in the world: Kaga! Done.
>:)

If it's not too much of a bother for me to launch into a bit of a gedankenexperiment with the setting, I think the "shikinami" carriers, the ones who use paper seals to summon planes, could still work well with the Witches. No, they wouldn't be able to carry a whole Witch around (well, they could, i.e. Lucchini on her back, but it wouldn't be of any practical use), but they could use their shikinami abilities to summon duplicates of the Witches involved in the combat, so that the Neuroi in question gets to play a short round of "Which Mio's the Real One?" before getting chopped to bits.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."


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CdrMike
Member since Feb-20-05
643 posts
Jul-12-15, 06:59 PM (EST)
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18. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #13
 
   >What that means is that the aviation cruiser and aviation battleship,
>concepts that never really worked in the real world - warships with
>heavily armed gun turrets forward of the superstructure and a
>miniature flight deck aft, like the Ise class - suddenly become
>not only viable, but potentially really significant weapons. They
>never really worked in real life because they either had to carry
>float planes, which can't compete with anything that has retractable
>gear in aerial combat, or else could only launch their normal
>aircraft, not recover them. They were a classic example of a Swiss
>army knife with too many blades.
>
>Replace those bulky, cumbersome, unrecoverable aircraft with Striker
>Units, though, and you have a ship that actually can function
>as a battleship and a full-service carrier. They could station the
>equivalent of an entire JFW aboard such a vessel easily, which is a
>big stick indeed in a world where conventional naval firepower is
>virtually useless by itself. (They never did anything much with the
>obvious possibility of naval gunfire supporting witch operations,
>unfortunately. In the anime, with only one exception I can think of,
>whenever warships appear, it's just to blunder around and accomplish
>fuckall until the witches show up and do all the actual work.
>Combined arms isn't really something the writers were interested in
>exploring, I guess. :)

Thing is, I imagine that just as in the real world, such designs would be a case of wartime expedience (getting more witches in the existing fleet) than a long-term plan. If striker units are given to the same sort of size growth that their real world counterparts were, then even the Yamato will eventually have space issues. To give you some idea of what I mean, I present Cpt. Patricia "Patty" Mitchell (Callsign: "Maverick") in her F-14D striker unit.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

"You know, the world could always use more heroes." - Tracer, Overwatch


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Matrix Dragon
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1663 posts
Jul-12-15, 11:16 PM (EST)
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20. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #0
 
   LAST EDITED ON Jul-12-15 AT 11:16 PM (EDT)
 
While rereading the conversation between Shizuka and the Admiral, it occurred to me that we now need a scene where she runs into one of her old classmates. Either the old fashioned sort that don't see battlefield commissions as real officers, or for added comedy, the discovery that Shizuka has picked up her own fandom back home :)

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter


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SpottedKitty
Member since Jun-15-04
441 posts
Jul-13-15, 10:21 AM (EST)
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22. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #20
 
   >or for added comedy, the
>discovery that Shizuka has picked up her own fandom back home :)

Comedy potential indeed — am I right in remembering Shizuka was introduced in canon as a sort of Yoshika fangirl (military type)? And she thought her brain hurt before... ;)

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.


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Gryphonadmin
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Jul-13-15, 12:55 PM (EST)
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23. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #22
 
   >>or for added comedy, the
>>discovery that Shizuka has picked up her own fandom back home :)
>
>Comedy potential indeed — am I right in remembering Shizuka was
>introduced in canon as a sort of Yoshika fangirl (military type)? And
>she thought her brain hurt before... ;)

That is true, yes. It's implied that she thought Yoshika was kind of a Sakamoto figure; she spends much of the movie grappling with her disappointment upon finally meeting her idol and discovering that she is actually a weirdo, then kind of comes to terms with it upon learning that she's a different kind of awesome. (She is also presumably unaware at that point of how crazy Mio really is. Fusō witches didn't only get that reputation in Europe from Yoshika. :)

With that promising foundation to work with, one of the subthreads in OWaW has been bringing Shizuka gradually out of the aftermath of that and into a new comfort zone, because a Sam the Eagle-type character really only has one note to play.

Also, one of the fun thing for me about bringing her on this expedition is the opening to revisit one of my favorite lines from "Operation Grass-Snake" as a running gag. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Matrix Dragon
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Jul-13-15, 05:19 PM (EST)
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24. "RE: OWaW Presents: Our Fighting Fleet"
In response to message #23
 
   >(She is also
>presumably unaware at that point of how crazy Mio really is.
>Fusō witches didn't only get that reputation in Europe from
>Yoshika. :)

And then she rammed a Zeppelin with a jetpack and a time traveller. I think we can safely say she's started doing her part for the reputation :)

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter


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