Covert Operations - General (2125 - 2149)

[Googlie]

The only drawback that I can see is that it will let the Gaians and Angels see what techs Morgan doesn't have (4 real and 2 fictitious), and as we haven't yet met the Angels, it's maybe a little too close to the line

But if we buy their commlink from Yang - or trade for it with the Gaians, then ........................................

[Googlie]

--------- For Junta Eyes Only --------

Organziation of Covert Ops Division

Effective Immediately, Covert Operations Divison, the Spartan Federation, is restructured as follows:

Central HQ - Sparta Command, Commanding Officer Major Googlie

Infiltration Division, operating out of Olympus Academy

Navy Seals, operating out of Gythium Harbour

VAS-team (Virus introduction, Assassinations and Sabotage), operating out of Vladivostok.

*************************************************

VAS team has adopted the attached logo:

[KrysiasKrusader]

That's absofrigginlutely funny!!!

[KrysiasKrusader]

Thanks for updating the Gaian, Morganite, and Angel covert threads up to 2140 Googlie!

I notice all the work your putting in here for us (smile)


Edit: I posted here so as not to put in a post in the three other threads...

[Googlie]

A general question on covert operations tactics:

When using longstriders from a trannie, (I rarely do, preferring the Navy Seals, even though more expensive) do you find the continent and then turn the probes loose to wander and stumble around,

or

do you find a coastal base first, then land the first probe adjacent and next step infiltrate, followed by his buddy on the techsteal mission?

and secondly

Do we want to purchase Ethical Calc from Zak for the 100 ec's then infiltrate and techsteal (so that we at least guarantee getting Ethcalc from him before he declares vendetta on us, rather than risk stealing, say, Biogenetics and then finding he Vendettas and we can't get Ethcalc before the trannie returns to pick up the homed probes and sets out again for a repeat probe misison., likely to a different base)

[KrysiasKrusader]

Originally posted by Googlie
When using longstriders from a trannie, (I rarely do, preferring the Navy Seals, even though more expensive) do you find the continent and then turn the probes loose to wander and stumble around,

(never against human opponents) Otherwise... I usually have the probes covered by a rover and/or some other unit. Else they get clobbered/repatriated too easily. If no cover unit is available, I hide in fungus patches, and never enter in the range of a sensor.

Originally posted by Googlie
do you find a coastal base first, then land the first probe adjacent and next step infiltrate, followed by his buddy on the techsteal mission?

Yea. Usually. That way I find out a little more about the adjoining land tiles, and if there are enemy units nearby. I also test how much it would cost to subvert such units, etc., while I'm at it. I even go as far as using all movement except for the last 1/3 if there are roads around.

Originally posted by Googlie
Do we want to purchase Ethical Calc from Zak for the 100 ec's then infiltrate and techsteal (so that we at least guarantee getting Ethcalc from him before he declares vendetta on us, rather than risk stealing, say, Biogenetics and then finding he Vendettas and we can't get Ethcalc before the trannie returns to pick up the homed probes and sets out again for a repeat probe misison., likely to a different base)

Sounds good. Maybe also see if he would give us a "loan" immediately after purchasing EthicalCalc. That would reduce the cost. Once at Vendetta, the loan will be written off.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by KrysiasKrusader
Sounds good. Maybe also see if he would give us a "loan" immediately after purchasing EthicalCalc. That would reduce the cost. Once at Vendetta, the loan will be written off.

It's dicey- and we'd need the full 200 from Morgan to carry it our.

We aleeady have a loan from Zak, so we'd need to repay that (194 credits), then buy Ethcalc for the 100, then borrow again. If he did lend us again it's 1/2 his reserves, and as we don't know what they currently are it's a bit of a gamble. He'd have a minimum of 194 + 100, or 294, so 1/2 would be 147

His reserves must be less than Yang's (who has the wealth lead) and we know Yang's = 295. Say Zak has 294, just for the sake of argument. After we repay the 194 then pay him the 100 he'd have 588, so 1/2 would be 294

Thus we risk repaying 194 and just borrowing back 147. The jackpot woiuld be to repay 194 and borrow back 294, with the true answer lying somewhere in-between (assuming he'd consent to a second loan.

I'd rather not risk those odds

(see screenie below)

[KrysiasKrusader]

Well forget about trying to extract another loan from Zakharov. I didn't realize we already had one from him.

[Googlie]

yeah - Maniac pulled a nice one out of the hat - bought Gene Splicing for 100, (which boosted Zak's reserves) then borrowed 1/2 back

[KrysiasKrusader]

The turn has just been passed to Morgan...

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Googlie
When using longstriders from a trannie, (I rarely do, preferring the Navy Seals, even though more expensive) do you find the continent and then turn the probes loose to wander and stumble around,

or

do you find a coastal base first, then land the first probe adjacent and next step infiltrate, followed by his buddy on the techsteal mission?

I too wait until I find a coastal base to turn loose the probes. However before a base is found, it would be a waste to just let the probes spend their turn on the trannie doing nothing. So what I do is activate the probes on the transport, move them on a land tile and then move them back right on the boat. That way a little bit more terrain is explored.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Maniac
However before a base is found, it would be a waste to just let the probes spend their turn on the trannie doing nothing. So what I do is activate the probes on the transport, move them on a land tile and then move them back right on the boat. That way a little bit more terrain is explored.

Ah - good idea

As a follow up, do you then land the probes before moving the trannie (so that they can walk "along the shore" as it were, as the trannie is sloughing through the swell offshore? (I know it's only 2 mps versus 3, but they would still fall behind)

The only downside otherwise would be if the Trannie did discover a coastal base and had to backtrack to pick up the probes, who'd then use 1 mp re-boarding the trannie, etc etc

But a small downside compared to the extra information obtained (and of course, in PBEMs human players are notorious for building bases just 1 tile inland to avoid coastal probes)

[KrysiasKrusader]

If you move the transport its full 3 movement points, the probe teams can still disembark and do limited exploration. I often do that when I have an IoD with a couple of mindworms/(or other)units on board.

The disembarking units can often land one tile ahead, and one tile behind the transport. So the transport exposes the likely coastal area along the sea, and the land exploring units can then often expose several inland tiles due to their sighting radius.

Kind of tough to cover everything in one post. It is really situational, you know.

[Googlie]

Well, I think I have it figured out (the Gaian mindworm was the key, and it puzzled me - "where did it come from?"

I remember Buster early on, when describing the map, said that to get to another human faction we had to go through Yang. And why does yang have every human player's commlink?

Because he's met us all, that's why.

I believe that every landmass must be linked to the Hive in a sort of star shape (excluding the Uni and the PK's), and my current thinking is set out below (the Uni and the PK's might even be landlinked as well - too early to tell from our exploration there):

[Kassiopeia]

Did we not speculate this from the get-go, though?

at the map, looks like Buster has graciously placed the Uni like a fruit ripe for plucking right on our doorstep.