Fleet Expansion Authority

Over the first 6 months of WATC activity, the Fleet Expansion Authority Group has put resources together to establish and expand the WATC's and FI Navy's fleets in an organized and expedited manner. FEA Group was established to pursue this expansion under one umbrella rather than distributing responsibility through our existing agencies. Hopefully this makes us more able to expedite and maximize manufacture.

We established that the WATC had no major disasters in its first six months, succeeded in building 100 ships, and contributed to Naval construction. However, this was at the beginning of a gaming session, so we played instead of hashing out details.

Just from the division of WATC profits, based on 1sp/cubic foot of WATC shippng per day, the WATC retains enough to buy the required hulls, and with the Church of Eru's investment, to put helms on everything(75% minor helms - we'd rather do better, but viable on its own). It also creates funding for the Navy's expansion. (Totals 16.5Mgp for the WATC and 5.5Mgp for the Navy).

Eltán had assigned Dame Gerdie and Lady Malinde to organize and orchestrate the production, and created the FEA Group to give them authority to requisition resources, make purchases, etc.

Helms must be purchased through our Arcane Quartermaster, but we have several options for hull production:

• Built by carpenters and Bigby's Construction Crew: guided by a shipwright, 5 carpenters produce 1 SJ ton of shipping each day.
• Fabricated (5th level mage spell) - instant, together the ladies can fabricate a 60,000gp Hammership in 3 days.
• Fabricate trade goods to pay for purchasing. This produces value of 1-8Mgp/day, and the WATC is a perfect tool to realize value from manufacturing, spreading products over many markets.

The first option is fine, and non-contradictory with the others. The potential of the third option is orders of magnitude above the second, but the second is a good fallback position if for whatever reasons trade goods do not sell quickly enough to provide funding.

With Rary's Aptitude Appropriator, to borrow NWPs from experts, just Eltán's magewives on their own can produce just over a spelljammer cargo ton (100 cu. yds., or 2700 cu. ft.) of work done with the skill of the best makers who will work with them -in 15 minutes-.

Consider a single morning making longbows with just their fifth level spells, 15 minutes of their time, including the skill borrowing. Say a longbow fits in a rectangle 2“x2”x6'. That gives 6 bows per cubic foot. 6 x 2700 is 16,200 longbows. And while there are lots of directions to share the profit, the PH lists a longbow at 75gp. So that 15 minutes of work created 1,215,000 gp worth of value. I get market flooding and price of longbows, just an example. But… wow. And the WATC will keep going to more trading posts every week, so market flooding gets harder and harder to cause.

That would pay for 3 Hammerships with major helms and more, and it's just two casters. With the WATC to sell manufactured goods to distant markets… We aren't going to fill the fleet with products, but it's another major potential source of income.

80 gp silk jackets or 1 gp chapsticks or salves are slightly higher in profit density. Perfume, from the PH 5gp basic, is close to five million gp / ton, but expensive raw ingredients for all of these. Writing ink is 8gp/vial, even more than perfume. Glass bottles are 10gp on their own. Cloth, in fine or rich grades is high value. Carpets aren't listed, but are a traditional high value good when made expertly. Carpets and fabrics finished with highlights of glowing fibers/threads could be enormously valuable.

Your winner, from the PH, is paper, at 2gp/sheet. 100 sheets being an inch thick is good paper. So 1600 pages/sq', is 4,320,000 pages per ton, for 8,640,000gp worth of paper my ladies could make in a morning, or 10x that for the whole Order Magika cabal. And raw materials are cheap fiber pulp!

Books are also of potentially spectacular value. Thought is needed as to what books we want to sell!

With lenses and quality locks, fabricate produces 1/27th as much volume because it is mineral not vegtable material, but the value is high enough to pretty much make up for it. Magnifying glasses are 100gp, spyglasses are 1000gp, and good locks are 100gp. Metal mirrors are 10gp, and flat; they stack well. Fish hooks are worth 1sp ea, and might be more valuable by volume than anything else. Sewing needles, not listed in the PH, probably have similarly absurd value density.

With a Continual Light Spellcaster Item (Build: Statue of Elbereth) enchanting an item each round with Continual Light, several even higher value products become easy. To hold the spell, the statue must have a value of 10,000 gp, and after the 8th level Spellcaster has been cast on it, it must not be moved or the spell will need renewed. Raising civic works for these purposes is of double value, and this statue production and enchantment should be magically expedited as an early priority to enable production.

Products not seen on Arda since the Elves left more than 10,000 years ago, affordable enough that a minor glowing whatsit is actually attainable for a sizable minority of people. Glowing glass gems, jewelry, glazes for ceramics, figurines. Glowing metallic threads to finish garments and carpets. Glowing paint. Glowing ink. Disco balls! Glow stones set in bodies as lanterns and flashlights. Glowing arrows are a fairly high value item. Glowing knives would sell like hotcakes. Glow-gem lanterns with painted paper screens for projection…

If we set the market such that an average glow item sells for no more than lenses by volume we still create an entirely new commodity family, previously unseen, and for the moment we are the exclusive Arda supplier. Not only will we sell lots and lots, it will bring attention and customers to our trading posts.

The items could still be manufactured by the pallet, but then apprentices or invisible servants would need to set them one at a time on the continual light statue, remove them after a round, and repackage them. Velvet pouches or cases for delicate pieces will raise their apparent value.

With all of these production runs, borrowing artistic proficiency skill along with the base making skills, will result in higher value product. The Peacekeepers and her neighbors in Duchy Eltán have a wide variety of skills, and profit sharing will attract other experts. Duchy Eltán will undertake to maintain supply of raw materials and expert crafters as requested in a timely manner.

Trade goods manufacture is far and away the highest value of our mages time, and on the same day Eltán's magewives make 1 SJ Ton of goods for 1-8+Mgp gross value, their 108 invisible construction workers put in 12 hour shifts on ship building. The cash value of their production, however, will take time to return through WATC sales of their goods.

The ladies can also directly manufacture hulls. Their neighbor, Sir Anadall Greywind, is a shipwright of considerable skill. Whether the new drydocks are erected in Greywind Harbor, or behind walls in Bywater (Dolornost Arnĕn), or… Production of drydocks will be subject to the same techniques as Ship building, and is an excellent starting job for the invisible construction crew.

The 'value' of this direct ship manufacture via casting Fabricate is several orders of magnitude lower than trade goods manufacture, but in about 3 days they can make a Hammership(60,000gp), or a Swanship(16,000gp) in less than 2. Interestingly, the speed of the 108 invisible carpenters is about the same (Directed by a shipwright, 5 carpenters produce 1 ton of shipping per day; 108 make 21 tons of shipping.): together, witches and carpenters could Fabricate and build 2 Hammerships and 2 Swanships in a five day workweek . Other mortal carpenters can certainly be put to work as well, and there is at least one more shipwright in the Duchy that I know of, teaching in the orphanage school. Of course they cannot make helms. Despite being less profitable, this production has the advantage of immediate availability.

The funding produced by the first 6 month buildup (inc. CofE cut, reinvested for partial ship owner profits) is 16.5Mgp. This is produced from dividing profits of 1sp/cubic foot/day of WATC shipping, moving goods from supply to demand. We have no competition for rapid shipment, and increasingly as the trade network (and Signal Company) grows, peerless updating of market information. At times ships certainly make a lot more than 1sp/cubic foot with these advantages, but this is intended to be such a conservative underestimate that anything less than catastrophic events are taken in the estimate's stride. Goods lost or buyers welched or bad weather… setbacks are part of merchanting, so we want a big pillow in the math.

On its own, the 16.5Mgp purchases a sufficient fleet, helms and hulls, in schedule with growth to 100 hulls in 6 months. However 75% are minor helms on Swanships.

Numbers:

• 25 major helms @ 250,000gp = 6.25m
• 75 minor helms @ 100,000gp = 7.5m
• tot: 13,750,000gp
• 25 Hammerships @60,000gp = 1.5m
• 75 Swanships @16,000gp=1.2m
• tot: 16,450,000gp

If we spend time on hulls instead of trade goods, we could magically manufacture the hulls, but it is much more profitable to sell trade goods and buy hulls, if the goods sell quickly enough.

Obviously we would rather have all of our ships equipped with Major Helms, not Minor. That on its own is another 17Mgp.

We'd probably like more Hammerships in the mix, at 44,000gp up from Swanships, although with a Major Helm, some Swanships in the fleet gives us advantages. They can land on land or water, are more maneuverable, better groundling PR, and could pull 3 20 ton cargo barges to the Hammerships' 2. So say ideal is half and half, another 44,000×25 ships = 1,100,000gp.

Speaking of which, unpowered 20 ton cargo barges are apparently a cheap Spelljammer staple and can probably dramatically expand how many cubic feet of cargo we're profiting on from each run. We can release them if we need to maneuver. It lists them as 25,000 each, which is higher than unpowered Swanships, but if they actually handle being towed in and out of gravity well, being uncoupled and not plummeting, that's a pretty spiffy thing. Gnomes have a similar smaller chain of cargo cars gig for asteroid hopping, so I guess the idea works.

Another desirable investment is ship's boats. The Realmspace supplement says that the Arcane sometimes have an abundance of Rudders of Propulsion, which can't escape planets' gravity, but propel a craft between .5 and 2 tons at SR6: 102MPH. That's awesome.

Most of our fleet wont be that fast until we get higher level pilots; these have the potential to fly escort and scout for our merchant ships, in addition to loading and unloading. The Locust ships that the Wa use with the Rudders are apparently not exported, and sort of suck anyway.

I recommend hiring engineers to design us a 2 ton craft: by definition it is only a 2 day job. I recommend doing that job to the highest specs via multiple redundancy; these will serve as fighters as well as ship's boats. The basic characteristics should be that it is narrow enough to fit through a 10' gate, easy to load and unload, and can mount one forward and one aft weapon. With 5 crew and one weapon it should carry a SJ Ton of goods. With no weapons or cargo it should carry at least 20 men. A 2 ton ship represents an 18.35' cube of space.

If the Arcane have them available, I recommend we start with -at least- (and if we can 5x that):

100 Rudder of Propulsion @ 3000 gp = 300,000gp and 100 of whatever 2 ton boat our engineers design. Prices in that class of craft vary from 250gp for a rock crawling skiff to 6000gp for a Goblin Blade. These rudders may also work on Flitters we grow, although they have only been tested on light wood craft. I would suggest that this new pattern would not have to work hard to be a better fighter craft than either the Wa Locust or the EIN Flitter.

Sails of Maneuverability MC+3 @ 40,000 & Rudders of Speed SR+3 @ 40,000

Are desirable for every ship in the fleet. Other Maneuverability gear for ships also exists: Wheels of Maneuverability and Rudders of Maneuverability. When our fleet fights, these will be great investments. If +3 supply is limited, lower bonuses are cheaper and still very desirable.

There are also 8500gp un-shearable mast mounts, which would be desirable on every mast in the navy.

In addition, fire fighting equipment, boarding pikes, ladder, ropes, belaying pins, and many more small purchases or productions are necessary.

With the above factors in mind, here is the 6 month plan:

Over the three weeks between the return from Earth and Mica²'s departure, the orders to start the WATC were in place, the first Hammership was assigned, and military vessels were available. Still, we can assume that it took some time for resources to assemble and coordinate.

Let's figure prep work of assigning merchants and guards and crew and laborers happened, routes got planned and maybe prepped with tease deliveries and purchasing negotiations. Trading posts get started at major in-empire locations and reliable allies.

The magewives get three mornings' production of mixed samples done, and 3 drydocks each to build Hammerships and Swanships in ready. Also three for the two ton ship's boats.

The engineers are hired, design ship's boats in two days, build in 2 days, shakedown cruises for 2 weeks. Ready to go into production on those too.

We get some unpowered 20 ton cargo barges, either from the Arcane or our own harborcraft.

Begin at week one of the six months.

The first ships (GS Fishing trip, military loaners) begin their first one week trade routes.

The magewives will begin fabrication of Hammerships in case profits on trading goods manufacture are slow. The first week, they spend three days making a Hammership, and four making more assorted tradegoods.

First weeks sales are known: from here, if sales are good, they make more of the trade goods that do sell, with whatever refinements and additions, and as long as this pays for the fleet spending they let Bigby's Construction Crew workers with Sir Anadall Greywind (shipwright) work on actually building the fleet. They can also manufacture artillery, which is already patterned (and under manufacture) by the Field Engineering Corps and artistically enhanced by the Art in Works Department.

The Art in Works and Field Engineering Corps will be keeping skilled liasons working with the Magewives. This provides skills to borrow and designs to enhance production. It also provides people to document new prototypes and design work for future mass production. They're doing this sort of thing with fortresses already, and have some experience and developed procedures.

More cities get traded with, more trading posts get built, the WATC and Navy hopefully keep getting more fleet.

If the tradegoods aren't profitable, or aren't profitable quickly enough, the magewives can build all the hulls and use the savings from that to do some comparatively minimal fleet augmentation purchasing.

If they are profitable, and sell quickly, let's look at that case. Say the average SJ Ton (100 cu. yds.) of goods that Eltán's witches make is worth 2Mgp (calculations show some viable production has value over 8Mgp/SJ Ton).

Using the authority of the FEA Group for organization and book keeping, Eltán will arrange that for this emergency 6 month push, all the production value goes into fleet production, and that profit sharing is handled through shares of ownership of the produced shipping, which will continue to pay an owner's % on every voyage as long as it sails. So the witches, the skilled makers, Duchy Eltán, the Order Magica, and the captains and crews that deliver and sell the goods all end up owning a share of these newly produced WATC ships, which keeps paying dividends. And then lots more people want to be involved.

We don't have to worry about the details of that split beyond making it a great opportunity for all involved. They are operating in the heart of Duchy Eltán: the Duchy could certainly pay (or command) extra local Carpenters and Shipwrights to join in, but if joining in or contributing is a special investment opportunity, then we can pick and choose from many eagerly offered resources.

So, average of 2Mgp of trade goods manufactured per day.

If the volume they can make, tuned to popular items, keeps selling… their output doesn't change. This is only 1/30 of 1 Hammership's cargo per day. If everything they make keeps selling, demand goes up as market grows, because supply is fixed. Maybe other wizards join in to fund the Navy's fleet. Otherwise, high demand is good, eventually prices get raised, and sales stay rapid. Middlemen start buying you out to mark up your stuff.

So put the magewives to work 5 days a week for six months. 24 weeks x 5 days x 2Mgp = 240Mgp. Plus the original 16.5Mgp budget.

256Mgp Budget.

That builds your 100 ships right, equips them well, pays signing bonuses for covert recruitment of Hadozee and Giff to help train our infant crews, and for contract helmsmen and captains, if we're allowed to recruit casters and officers.

It builds a big chunk of Navy too, and puts a big start on our planetary defenses / shipping hubs.

256Mgp Budget.

The rest of this article is an effort to make best organization of purchasing in this case. Obviously the DM can say that goods don't sell, or any other number of things go wrong. But let's say this works, and take a hard look at how to build our fleets properly.

Similarly, for any of the below purchases, the DM can of course say that it isn't available right now, but funding is allocated when we (or the Arcane) find supply.

100 Major Helms x 250,000gp = 25Mgp.

Tons of shipping: (Hammerships)50 x 60 + (Swanships)50x 32 + (Boats)100×2 = 4800 tons.

If each ship can tow 2 or 3 unpowered barges, let's get 250 of those, x 20 tons, for 5000 tons.

108 invisible carpenters make 21 tons a day; lets join 92 regular carpenters under the two shipwrights, for 40 tons a day. 200 tons in a 5 day week, 4800 tons in 24 weeks. So we'll build the ships and boats, and buy the barges.

Let's add another 400 Ship's boats, since they double as fighters and scouts. Say the unit cost is 6k each, top of the line for class.

• 250 barges x 25,000 gp = 6,250,000 gp
• 500 rudders of Propulsion x 3000gp = 1,500,000gp
• 400 boats x 6,000 = 2,400,000gp

(Total so far: 35,150,000gp)

Add standard rigging to 50 Swanships, +1MC, -3tons, +3 crew: 3200gp x 50 ships = 160,000gp.

• +1 MC Sails for 50 Swanships = 500,000gp
• +3 Rudders of Speed for 100 ships = 4Mgp
• +3 MC Sails for 50 Hammerships = 2Mgp

Nets of Fishing: 2ea for 100 ships + 1ea for 500 boats: 700 nets x 4000 gp = 2,800,000gp

These 120'x160' magical nets catch up to 1000lb of fish between 2' and 100', and reduce the weight by 100x for bringing the catch in. Invaluable for feeding crews, and gives the option of fresh fish sales on any trip with extra space available.

(total:44,410,000gp so far)

Mastheads of Durability: 8500gp x 100 ships = 850,000gp.

Astrolabe: 8500 x 100 ships = 850,000gp

Holds of Holding are door knockers which when attached to a ships door, knocked correctly and issued the correct password, open on an interdimensional cargo hold. Not only sneaky, they are a wonderful way to unload with a small boat, or even a parachutist, and can be carried on one's person through a gate when we want to export to other spheres without being followed.

• 100 5 ton holds of holding: 150,000gp x 100 holds = 15Mgp
• 10 20 ton holds of holding: 500,000gp x 10 = 5Mgp

(total 66,110,000 gp)

Let's similarly equip the FI Navy, and get them 100 Major Helms and 50 Hammerships

• +3 SR Rudders, +3MC Sails, Masthead & Astrolabe for:
• existing FIN 21 vessels + 40 Giff Great Bombards: 61 x 97000 = 5,917,000gp

(total 72,027,000gp so far.)

100 Major Helms & + 3SR Rudders & +3 MC Sails & Mastheads & Astrolabes for new Navy ships: Unit(250,000 + 40,000 + 40,000 + 8,500 + 8,500 = 347,000gp) * 100 = 34,700,000gp

(Total 106,727,000gp so far)

50 Heavy Hammerships @ 75,000 each = 3,750,000gp

(Total 110,477,000gp so far)

To maintain security, recruitment will be done anonymously, applicants must be heavily screened, and sign on for prepaid five year contracts before they ever hear of ArdaSpace. Jobs will be presented as “For good aligned employers working in trade fleet and planetary defense.”

To make this more attractive, we will pay double normal rates, or more for highly skilled positions(marked with an !), and pay the full contract in advance. Such hirelings, except in special cases, will not engage in profit sharing unless they enlist on that basis after their five year contract. This will make them popular with their crewmates, who get a bigger share, and encourage the hirelings to stay and become citizens after their 5 year hitch.

Through Hadozee Houses which coordinate the community in any city with space travel, via the good recommendation of Girgle Servig, Captain Tatharandar Windsong's longtime butler, we should have little difficulty recruiting at least some Hadozee. They generally sign contracts in family group crews of 20-30, and all efforts will be made to accommodate this. They prefer working for elves, and their number includes clerics (nominally to 7th level).

We will have 200 new ships, plus fighters/ships boats. I would like to hire a family for each, as available without security breaches. This will make our new ships competent and train our crews.

Monthly Wages, average family crew:

• 5 skilled crew 6gp x2 = 12 gp x15 = 60gp
• 10 skilled crew each with heavy weapon expert, loading expert or sail expert 12gp x3! = 36gpx10 = 360gp
• 7 marines 4gp x3! = 12gp x7 = 84gp
• 2 NCOs 25 x3! x2 = 150gp
• 2nd Level Cleric = 200 x3! = 600gp

Family month total:1,254 gp

x200 families x 60 months = 15,048,000 gp

We already have Giff contracts aplenty. I would like to add a Giff Weapons Engineer Officer to each new ship.

Engineer @ 150gp x2 = 300gp x 60 months = 18,000gp x 200 ships = 3,600,000 gp

I would further like 10,000 extra Giff Marines, Handgunners, and Heavy Infantry for WATC security.

• 4000 Marines @ 4gp x2 = 32000gp
• 3000 Handgunners @ 6gp x2 = 36000gp
• 2500 Heavy Infantry @ 2gp x2 = 10000gp
• 400 NCOs @ 10gp x2 = 8000gp
• 70 LT @ 50GP x2 = 7000gp
• 20 Capt @ 100 gp x 2 = 4000gp
• 9 Major @ 250 gp x2 = 4500gp
• 1 Colonel @ 600 gp x 2 = 1200gp

Unit Monthly Total = 102,700 gp x 60 months = 6,162,000gp

If our academicians like Jon Architect can exploit their scholastic networks to get us 10 Engineers capable of ship design, who would accept five year contracts, we'd happily hire them.

Spelljammer Engineer @150gp x3! = 450 gp x 10 Engineers = 4500gp x 60 months = 270,000gp

Like the Hadozee, there are places where Dwarves gather that Elves are unlikely to hear rumors, and we have dwarves to vouch for us. The whole dwarf spacer culture has a 'hunt for the original homeland' mania, so we do have to be careful what is said till contracts are signed and Hirelings are on Arda. These will probably trickle in in singles, small groups, and small clans.

However, almost all our dwarves are from groundling cultures, so we need instructors and magitechnologists. And extra security never hurts.

• 20 Dwarven Spelljammer Engineers @ 150gp x3! = 450gp x 20 Engineers = 9000gp x 60 months = 540,000gp
• 1000 Skilled Dwarf Crew w/expert in weapons, loading, sails, forging, etc. @ 6gp base x2 = 12gp x 1000 dwarves = 12,000gp x 60 months = 720,000gp
• 1000 Dwarven Stonemasons @ 4gp base x2 = 8gp x 1000 dwarves = 8000gp x 60 months = 480,000gp
• 1500 Heavy Crossbowmen @ 3gp base x 2 = 6gp x 1500 Dwarves = 9000gp x 60 months = 540,000 gp
• 1500 Marines @ 3gp base x 2 = 6gp x 1500 Dwarves = 9000gp x 60 months = 540,000 gp
• 1500 Heavy Footmen @ 2gp base x 2 = 4gp x 1500 Dwarves = 6000gp x 60 months = 360,000 gp
• 1500 Artillerists @ 4gp base x 2 = 8gp x 1500 Dwarves = 12000gp x 60 months = 720,000 gp
• 600 NCOs @ 10gp base x 2 = 20gp x 600 NCO's = 12,000 gp x 60 months = 720,000
• 60 Lts @ 25 gp base x2 = 50gp x 60 Lts = 3000gp x 60 months = 180,000gp
• 12 Captains @ 50 gp base x 2 = 100gp x 12 Capts = 1200gp x 60 months = 72,000gp
• 4 Majors @ 100 gp base x 2 = 200gp x 4 Majors = 800 gp x 60 months = 48,000gp
• 1 Colonel @ 600 gp base x2 = 1200gp x 60 months = 72,000gp

Dwarves total 4,992,000gp

(4,992,000 + 28,080,000gp + 110,477,000gp = Total 143,549,000gp so far)

10 Million gp should be set aside against the opportunity to hire significant magical talents. For people on that level money will only be part of the situation that they are looking for, but there are great opportunities on Arda. If the opportunity arises to hire appropriately aligned high level Mage talent, the WATC has budget set by.

1,351,000 gp will be set aside to hire expert Crafters and Artists in a variety of skills we are short on. They will train our people, make goods for sale, and allow our mages to borrow skills for manufacturing. They must, of course, be of appropriate alignment and temperment, hirable secretly, and agreeable to a five year contract.

(Total so Far 155,000,000gp)

10Mgp will be invested in trading posts. Construction will be done via Duchy Eltán’s Field Engineering Corps, by now tested methods costing little more than raw materials, but this will expedite land purchases from local governments to build on, and fund hurry up jobs to open sooner.

We can produce these things ourselves but we are taking a staggering volumetric step forward and much of our production is engaged. Ordinary equipment must again be purchased without leaving a trail to us, but our holds of holding will help if the Arcane have insufficient supply available or we want to start surreptitious multi-sphere trade.

• Anchors: (15,000gp)
  • 2 ton @ 2gp ea x 1000 = 2000gp
  • 20 ton @ 8gp ea x 500 = 4000gp
  • 32 ton @ 10 gp ea x 150 = 1500gp
  • 60 ton @ 24 gp ea x 150 = 3600gp
  • 62 ton @ 26 gp ea x 150 = 3900gp
• Dual Mounted Ballistae: (1,360,000gp)
  • Light @ 800gp ea x 1000 = 800,000gp
  • Med @ 1200gp ea x 200 = 240,000gp
  • Hvy @ 1600gp ea x 200 = 320,000gp
• Belaying Pins @ 1sp/12 x 24,000 = 2000gp
• Ship bells @ 12sp ea x 1000 = 1200gp
• 5'x30' boarding planks @ 3gp ea x 1000 = 3000gp
• Sail Booms @ 40 gp ea x 1000 = 40,000gp
• Canvas @ 4sp / sq yd x 100,000yds = 40,000gp
• Crows Nests @30gp ea x 1000 = 30,000gp
• Grappling Hooks @ 8sp ea x 5000 = 4000gp
• Speaking Horn Tubes @ 1000gp ea x 200 = 200,000gp
• Ladder @ 5cp/10' x 50,000' = 250gp
• Life Preserver @4sp ea x 10,000 = 4,000gp
• Mooring bits @2gp ea x 5000 = 10,000gp
• Ship's Netting 3gp/ship's ton (& spare, full fleet) x 20,000 = 60,000gp
• Hawser: (250,000gp)
  • 2“ @ 15gp /100' x 500,000' = 70,000gp
  • 3” @ 30gp /100' x 200,000' = 60,000gp
  • 4“ @ 60gp /100' x 200,000' = 120,000gp
• Rope: (390,000gp)
  • ¼” @ 4sp /100' x 10M' = 40,000gp
  • ½“ @ 1gp /100' x 5M' = 50,000gp
  • ¾” @ 2gp /100' x 5M' = 100,000gp
  • 1“ @ 4gp /100' x 5M' = 200,000gp
• Silk Rope: (820,000gp)
  • ⅛” @ 6gp /100' x 2M' = 120,000gp
  • ¼“ @ 10gp /100' x 1M' = 100,000gp
  • ½” @ 20gp /100' x 1M' = 200,000gp
  • ¾“ @ 40gp /100' x 1M' = 400,000gp
• Sextant, Spelljamming @ 100gp ea x 1000 = 100,000gp
• Ship's Wheel, linkage, @ 250gp x 1000 = 250,000gp
• Firefighting Equipment, possibly including Affect Normal Fires scrolls or wands (Price not available)

A couple more magic items for full Jammer Fleet, both WATC and Navy, if available:

• Figurehead of Protection (Smiling +3 reaction, Armored +3AR) @ 34,000gp x 250 = 8,500,000 gp
• Greater Anchor of Staying @ 5000 x 750 = 3,750,000 gp

(15,819,450 naval sundries total) (180,819,450 Total so far)

Having this much fleet, we need to start preparing our network of ArdaSpace stations, starting with a hidden greenhouse for growing Starfly Ships in the elven manner. To grow full sized carrier trees, the hangar/greenhouse needs to be more than 1000' long.

We would also like spotting, repair, and defense stations in low orbit, and probably eventually further out. Some of these ships/engines/parts may be hard to get; as in other sections, the funds are there as they become available.

Our Skycastle treeforts can potentially make wonderful stations, capable of moving 3mph or 6mph if enchanted by a Kirin. They make their own fresh air. But we haven't yet found any of Middle Earth's really magical tree species, and trees in space will be a high priority target for invaders. Still, I recommend a dozen 1 mile square Alder groves. These should only cost us a 1,000 gp couch each, and as Harvey was actively building during this 6 months, should move 6mph. 4 will be positioned on the equator, 3 on each 45° line, and 2 at the poles. These should by nearly immediately available, and early starfly ships could be grown under treecover and blinds here.

12 fancy couches - 12,000gp

Longer term, we need an orbital fortress with a hidden jumbo hangar/greenhouse. Either of these shiptypes would work here:

The WATC would like to gift the Free Imperia's dwarves with asteroid Citadels(300-700 ton) to hold for the Emperor. This style of fortress famously holds out against siege for a long time. We can buy forge helms and tow in asteroids, but as our dwarves have never been to space, if the Giff can deliver working Citadels all the better.

• Citadel @ 100,000gp-600,000gp: avg. 350,000gp
• Forge Helm @ 500,000gp (yearly cost more than balanced by production)

850,000gp x 12 ships = 10,200,000gp

Not quite as large(200 ton), and in need of simple fortifications, but more multipurpose, is the Zoocraft. Fortified and defended by Giff, it is still a significant fortress, and designed to produce lots of air.

• Zoocraft (gardenship, ark) @ 400,000gp
• Series Major Helm x2 @ 650,000gp

1,050,000 x12 ships = 12,300,000gp

My recommendation is that we cluster the first several available of these planetoid stations as AS Fleet Base 1, or something similarly prosaic, and build the hidden mega greenhouse hangar amongst them.

Whatever we have in orbit is a target, but the EIN is less likely to demand an inspection of a Giff/Dwarf mega-fort (with humans and elves) unless they are ready to assault it.

Add another 10,000,000gp to build the greenhouse, light it through hidden mirror paths, and provide it with everything needful to grow lots of awesome ships soonest; expedite production now.

This can include it's own Major Series of Helms.

180,819,450gp + 32,512,000gp = 213,331,450gp total investment so far. 42,668,550gp remaining.

42,668,550gp remaining.

The navy has 50 heavy Hammerships with gear and gizmos, and their own 6 month budget (5.5Mgp) to further trick them out. They have 100 major helms, the extra for their first 50 Warhawks, with gear pre-purchased for them when they're grown, which should be achievable in the 6 month window or shortly thereafter. All existing naval ships also received gear and gizmos to improve SR, MC, AR, etc.

The WATC has 50 Swan Ships, 50 Hammerships, 100 major helms, 250 unpowered barges, 500 flying custom Patrol Boats on Rudders of Propulsion.

We have a good if simple start at a local space awareness/repair/defense station network.

From this start, I suggest that we get a couple more series of major helms for whatever carrier sized Starfly trees the Navy can grow, and in case we find mallorn trees or children of Telperion or sisters of Irda that should be grown with helms. Sooner or later the WATC needs a real Headquarters.

Meanwhile we can warehouse with more of the Fey Cherry Moat Tankers. See if we can't have half a dozen of those, of the 6mph variety, by the end of the six months. Using them as distribution hubs will tremendously enhance efficiency of serving the market as the volume shipped and area served keep growing.

We need to see if the ECN will contract us more Ship Growth technicians and Bioship Design Magi-engineers. Or Hotshot Pilots / Captains, or… they are the only foreign elves we can recruit from right now.

Maybe we send a couple of Patrol Boats through a gate to Toril to look for invisible ships on the Sea of Fallen Stars, trade the mage responsible a Patrol Boat for the spell, and offer him a job. With a diviner and a magic fishing net this has a reasonable chance of working.

We invest in infrastructure and training, build the ship yards bigger and add more drydocks. Teach more Shipwrights. I know we could steal a few here and there, from Odin's Folk and Gilthanas, but the more Shipwrights and drydocks we have, the more hulls regular carpenters can build. And teach engineers! 1st level engineers with good stats are surprisingly OK at their job.

We keep growing the Navy and WATC fleets to proportion, and design some capital ships that rival Tsunamis if we can't annex Wa. Maybe the Navy wants its own fighter designs.

We try like hell to 'rescue' Wa's helm engineers who designed the Ki Helm (It's an extraction, Shadowrun style!). General Tokugawa can help.

We scout the rest of the planet Arda, and put in our best guesses for first best trading posts on other continents, where we pay scribes and listeners and data analysts way too much, and learn all we can before building many more. We keep adding posts on Endorë, the continent we're on.

We send first ships to the various planets and moons in our system to see if anyone is there. We start sending occasional ships in and out of the sphere because no crew can advance to 'skilled' or 'crack' competence until they've seen phlogistan. We try to learn about portal occurrence frequency in ArdaSpace's shell while we're at it.

And we have that liquidity still in the project to take decisive advantage of 40 million gp of opportunities in raw materials, casters, pilots, insane trading investments, etc. And use it for any of these above projects that run over cost or demand expansion.