War with Morgan

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
The other factions could, reasonably, be denied it since they don't have the same inactivity problems.

It all depends on context.

[Modo44]

Originally posted by Snoddasmannen
But Modo, we might have decided to abort the attack but then attempt to pull of this elaborate hoax for whatever reason. We know there is no reason, no conspiracy, but they can't.

They will know as soon as they open the turn. With any kind of good relations, they will know as soon as other factions open the turn.

[Snoddasmannen]

Originally posted by Modo44

They will know as soon as they open the turn.

Yes, of course

[Maniac]

If we're gonna give the Colonel rank a promotion to Brigadier (General), I'd suggest changing the unit names. On Googlie's suggestion units are currently assumed to be "brigades". This won't work when there are Brigadiers. After all they command more than one unit.

Since the commander of a unit is currently generally assumed to be of the rank of Captain, I'd therefore suggest to follow the US system (link). There a Captain is CO of a "Company" (and "troop" for rovers and "battery" for artillery, allowing for some variation in name giving). A company being around 200 soldiers also fits more with the estimated size of units on Chiron IIRC. A third advantage is that there would be more names we can give to groups of units (Battalion, (Regiment,) Brigade, Division), while now there only is "Division" (as the name "Corps" is already used for seperate functional entities such as the Engineering Corps). As our army is undergoing a major expansion, I assume this may be useful in the future.

Btw, how about we revive Colonel Santiago in roleplay terms? I guess this could be fun. Also since she's no longer the highest ranking officer, she wouldn't be in absolute command of the Federation, allowing us to continue roleplaying as a Junta government without RP problems.

[vishniac]

Originally posted by Maniac
Also since she's no longer the highest ranking officer, she wouldn't be in absolute command of the Federation

You mean: like Colonel Gaddhafi?

[Kassiopeia]

I wonder if Santiago would be a tad pissed off that we decide to resuscitate her AFTER our little provisional government outranks her.

[Googlie]

Of course we can always change her title in-game to Generalissimo, Field Marshall, Chair of the Junta, Chief of Staff, Beloved leader - whatever we want to - whatever seems suitable in our RP world

She is going to be a figurehead - resuscitated but really somewhat impotent - after all, the troops have had 60 mission years to develop a loyalty to their current commanders

Bit as we're modeling a "Federation of City States" then her role would be as our 'elected spokesperson for the Federation' - not our commanding officer per se, but more of a Prime Minister than a President.

[Googlie]

Re Phase II of the Sparta-Morgan war:

Now that we have air power, and prolly 4 noodles next turn, we need to think our strategy carefully.

I suggest we consider a raid, capture and hold exercise, for which we'd need a Mercury-class trannie, 2 missile rovers, 2 crypteia, the GeneralTacticus for covering the Mercury, and all 4 noodles.

And the target should be Polymers and the HGP. (We could use its benefit ourselves!!)

If we can shadow with a second wave (maybe synthsentineks and crypteia), we could then take and hold Vander Eudaimonics en-route, and carry on to Scorpu Ski resort afterwards (home of the PEG and their energy banks network)

That'll take a bit of logistics planning, to co-ordinate the builds, and to assemble the task force

And that entrypoint would be off our west coast

Alternatively we could go for lesser targets off Morgan's west coast (we'd then start from Arcadia's east coast) and go for the likes of ZZT, Mussels, etc. Not quite so crippling to Morgan, but prolly easier for us. It'd still need significant co-ordination, though.

Any volunteers for Task Force Commander?

Any other thoughts?

[Modo44]

Well, since this invasion is obviously expected to last (i.e. turn into an occupation), we might as well take a few more turns and prepare for overkill. I mean by at least moving two Transport ships full of units in the first wave, with a third following as soon as possible. And, of course, go for the big targets.

In the mean time, our planes can make them suffer by long-range bombardment, and help the troops secure the perimeter against Hive.

Or do you think, that Morgan can make it to planes fast enough, and we need to hurry because of this?

[Googlie]

I'm reckoning that he'll either buy, trade for, or steal Doc Air from Lal

they didn;t get the choice this turn (as Maniac predicted) so chose Neural Grafting - fast tracking for MMI (with lal's Doc Air) or, more probably, Bio-Engineering for the clean reactors it gives

But if I were in their shoes, I'd tag team 2- or even 3 - probefoils and just steal Doc Air from Sparta. they can afford the replacement costs of a couple of new 'Gators easily enough

So our window is maybe ten turns at max (that's when Lal gets Doc Air)

[Snoddasmannen]

Hmmm, we could grab Polymers without capturing Red Fungus resort I guess (via the river), but would 2 Crypteia be enough to hold against Morgan probes? Maybe... But the noodles wouldn't be able to strike until year 2 in the strike, since they'd use up all their MPs to get to Polymers. If they manage to probe polymers we'd loose those noodles

If they beef up enough plasma units it could be difficult even with two elite missile rovers to capture the base without air support in the first year.

From Gythium it's a three year trip to Red Fungus. If we build a transport there within a couple of years, and ship it out immediately (we'd need to rush ground troops also) we could enjoy a few years in Morgania with total air superiority.

[Modo44]

Any chances on coming in from two sides with two Transports - simultaneously? If that would be doable, we would have to worry less about reinforcements. One group would be there to take and hold a base, while the other would come in from the other side, killing everything in its path, and making its way to the claimed city.

[Zeiter]

The needlejets would be the perfect offense against Yang. It would completely bypass the perimeter defenses. AI's are already so easy to take on. Why don't we gobble up all of that production capacity?

If we do decide to go against Morgan, I would argue for a longer build up and a more complete invasion instead of another limited strike. Once it becomes obvious that the Morganites are going down and we are gobbling up their territory, it will be a 3 vs. 1 situation. And capturing and holding those 2 other SP's is definitely something we want to aim for. The biggest problem will be supplying enough probe teams for our invasion force and occupation.

[sentry33]

If we do decide to go against Morgan, I would argue for a longer build up and a more complete invasion instead of another limited strike.

It would be perfect, except that each passing turn brings closer the discovery of Doc Air by someone else

Once it becomes obvious that the Morganites are going down and we are gobbling up their territory, it will be a 3 vs. 1 situation.

I would expect 3v1 situation to be there already, just quiet. Capturing some of Hive's bases won't help here either

And capturing and holding those 2 other SP's is definitely something we want to aim for. The biggest problem will be supplying enough probe teams for our invasion force and occupation.

We can try to find other means - sufficient number needlejets can completely shut down their access to our bases and attack forces (by forming blockades, escorts and beating down their advance forces)

Another loose idea to consider - perhaps we can adopt fast and dirty conquest strategy where we secure 1-3 staging bases, obliterate pretty much every other base (so we do not have to worry for securing them) and finally capture his SP bases. There's of course risk of Morgan destroying them on their own just to deny us access to them.

[Snoddasmannen]

This is a tough call, I think, but I would still prefer not to go after Yang right now. Yang is actually in a very exposed position, and if we take that land we might find it is more trouble than it's worth, and we will have given Morgan time to fester and bloat.

As I see it, capturing Yang gives us some valuable territory, but it will be difficult to defend against a triple-entant of baddies.

Raiding/capturing Morgan will be more difficult, largely due to their high-salaried lawyers. But if we secure Morgania, we will still have a blue buffer between us and the other two teams (Hive or ocean, take your pick ).

And besides, for every Morgan unit we kill, we damage our number one competitor in this game. So frankly, I think such a campaign will bring us closer to the victory. We should do a raid now, using noodles before they get any up in the air. Hopefully it will be cheaper than the PTS raid.

Later on, we'll have plenty of time to do a full invasion.

These are just preliminary ramblings of course