Announcement

**Googlie** · February 18, 2005, 22:18

Commander Modo gave the helm over to Lt Commander ManOWar2.

“Easy does it,” he muttered unnecessarily.

“Ahead five,” the Lt Commander breathed into the wrist commlink.

Slowly the juggernaut that was the GeneralTacticus edged forward, gaining momentum, until, she slid through the fungus at five klicks per hour.

“What’s the target acquisition range for these babies?” asked the Commander

“90 klicks max” came the reply from his gunnery officer who went by the nickname ‘Hannibal’. “We’ve tested the IR signature acquisition rangefinders on the Mercury, so we’re pretty confident that we can pick out the Morgan vessel before she sees us. Command is calling them Mk. 12(t) 'Sabre' missiles – dunno why 12, though.”

“Fire rate?” asked Commander Modo

“6 per” came the typically laconic reply from the gunnery officer.

“Burst or stagger?” asked Modo

“Either setting,” replied Hannibal. Burst if we get a good paint, as we can bracket the target that way, otherwise stagger to account for evasive movement………… hang on ……………….. we’re pinging them now, Sir. It’s a solid one, range 77 klicks. I suggest we fire a burst “

“Agreed,” replied Commander Modo – it’s your call”

Hannibal nodded, and bent to the task, muttering into his wrist commlink.

“Change heading to eleven degrees northwest, Captain, - we’ll present less of a profile that way.”

Obediently Lt Commander ManOWar2 gave the command and the GeneralTacticus veered to present its bow to the distant Morgan vessel.

“Permission to fire, Sir” asked Hannibal as per Standard Operating Procedures.

“Fire at will, Officer,” replied Modo tersely, then braced himself for the inevitable.

The noise was deafening as the salvo of six sabre missiles erupted from the GeneralTacticus’ twin missile turrets, and the early dawn was overlaid by a blinding flash that illuminated the fungus for several kilometers around the cruiser as the missiles disappeared into the mist.

“How long ‘till impact?” asked the Commander

“Well, at mach 2.2 it’ll take them just over 4 minutes to travel the 75 klicks,” replied the gunnery officer. “Almost due, I reckon.”

They saw the explosion a few seconds before they heard it, the noise muffled by the deadening effect of the fungus.

“Full ahead” barked the captain. Commander Modo looked at Lt Commander ManOWar2: “In a hurry to get there. Are we?” he asked with a grin

“No, Sir. But I reckon that if they had any warning at all they’ll have tracked our trajectory and will be throwing something back at us, and I want to be as far away from where we were as possible”

As if on cue, there were shouts from the stern.

The officers looked back. The rear one-third of the GeneralTacticus glowed an eerie green, and suddenly she felt sluggish in the water, coasting to a stop.

“Damage control?” growled ManOWar2. “Come in. What’s the status?”

“Minimal. Sir,” came the reply. “Diode laser, but weak at that due to the distance – maybe 10% loss of power and a little bit of interference with our steering. Still functional though.”

ManOWar2 grunted. Worse than he’d hoped for but better than he’d feared. But the GeneralTacticus was still shipworthy and battleworthy. He looked over to Commander Modo. “Set to go, sir. We’re stalled for the moment, but there’s nothing in the way of the Mercury now.”

Commander Modo nodded, then activated his commlink, to look at the face of Colonel Maniac. ………….. “All clear, Sir. Good luck”

He deactivated the link and settled down to wait.

**Googlie** · February 18, 2005, 23:03

Colonel Maniac held a final briefing with his officers.

“Andi – your brigade is first off – your objective is to remove the threat that the Morgan Mussels’ garrison poses. After that, relax and wait for re-inforcements.

“Krys. Andi will have cleared the way for you to spearthrust right into the Morgan Industries suburbs to take out the probe team defenses they have there. Our simulations show that you’ll take about 30% damage, so enter the base once its empty and scrounge out repairs.

“Snod – you’ll follow right behind Krys. You’re loaded with demolitions, so try not to engage in any skirmishing on the way. Your objective is the disbandment of the Network Node for whatever we can get for it, then the demolition of the base itself. Remember to commlink us when you are in possession of the PTS itself, so that I can give the go-ahead to Captain vishniac at the ironholm site.

“Kassi – you’re our reserve. Initially just to cover Andi, who’ll be damaged by the Mussels defenders – but if you have enough mobility – and our sims say that you will have, then enter Mussels (that’ll cause the citizens to flee for their lives, effectively shutting down the port) then rejoin Andi for protection from the Morgan probes.

“Everyone clear?”

Captain Snodassmannen spoke up: “Sir. The sims indicate that both Krys and I will have some mobility left after destroying the base. Do we sit tight, look for targets of opportunity such as crawlers of formers, or move upriver together into the suburbs of Polymers?”

The Colonel thought for a moment.

“If there are crawlers that can be taken out – without you separating – then do so, otherwise try to secure a spot on the river where an attack on Polymers will be easy”

“Roger that,” came the measured reply.

The intercom interrupted them:

Officers – landfall in ten minutes – muster with your vehicles.”

They looked out. Through the swaying fungus tendrils they could now make out the port of Morgan Mussels, with small boats scuttling out of their way as the Mercury headed inexorably for the main quay. Behind the port rose the forested hills, and in the distance to the east could be seen the towers and the impressive skyline of Morgan Industries itself, their targeted destination.

Supressing – but not quite – a grin of satisfaction, the Colonel raised an arm. “Let’s go,” he said, and they followed him down to the vehicle decks.

**Googlie** · February 18, 2005, 23:59

The Mercury sailed past the open quay, and entered the shallow waters of the bay to the northwest of the port itself.

“Full astern” mouthed Lt Commander ManOWar2 into his speaker as the huge engines reversed thrust and the Mercury slowly bled momentum, coasting to the shore.

“Deploy bow ramps”

The roll-on/roll-off ramps in the bow of the mercury thudded to the shingle on the shore even as the command rover with Captain Andemagne standing tall in the command turret roared off, instantly followed by the vehicles of the Chiron Knights Brigade.

They strung out to the north of the port, rampaging through the flat and moist farms, following the road to Argi Narnia as best they could, but getting stymied at the Morgan Industries crossroads by the Mussels defensive garrison who had hurriedly taken up position there.

Andi looked at his small command screen, which displayed the latest CRYPTEIA information:

odds in favor of the Federation 7:3
Impact Rover 4 * 1.5 for elite = 6
Scout defensive 2 *-12% (green) +25% (base defense) + 25% (nearby sensor) = 2.73

“Engage”

The battle was short, but the defenders were tenacious. Captain Andemagne reckoned that his brigade suffered around 30% casualties, but the defensive squads were destroyed, along with the probe defenders who were just so much collateral damage, contributing little in the way of defense against Impact weapons.

“Road secured” he commlinked to the Colonel, directing operations from the Mercury’s bridge.

“Krys, you’re up,” the Colonel shouted over the din of the Rovers fission engines’ whining. Captain KrysiasKrusader raised an arm in acknowledgement, and the Warwag Brigade followed him off the ship, heading east at high speed through the farmlands towards Morgan Industries.

They climbed through the 1,000 meter level and then the 1500 meter level, riding the wide road that ran through the Eastern Terrapeso Forest, with the objective always ahead, always above. Morgan Industries. Jewel of the Corporation.

Like Captain Andemagne before him, Captain KrysiasKrusader consulted the small monitor displaying the latest information Colonel Googlie had fed to the invasion force:

odds in favor of the Federation 12:5
Impact Rover 4 * 1.5 for elite = 6
Synthmetal defense attorney 2 + 0 (Disciplined) +25% (base defense) = 2.50

Better odds. He’d seen some simulation versions where a bonus had been granted the attackers for attacking along roads, with bonuses and penalties for attacking downhill or uphill. Idly he wondered what difference to the odds these variations might have made.

No matter, the battle was soon joined, and just as soon over. He was surprised that weaponless defenders could have done so much damage, reckoning that he’d lost about 20% of the Warwag Brigade.

He entered the base, and ran the Federation flag up the flagpole of the old headquarters building, now about to do duty as a Command Center.

He got a pleasant surprise when he entered the evacuated Energy Bank Building and fired up the banks of computers only to see Colonel Googlie’s face appear on them, suppressing a grin..

“Well done, Captain. And how do you like our agents’ work – we’ve hooked up their Banking network at Industries to our Maritime Control Center network – you effectively have a naval yard right there inland!! Not that it’ll survive, though. Captain Snoddasmannen is already on his way with the demolitions.”

Right on schedule, the Captain could hear the commotion as the Castor Horsemen Brigade entered the base, raucous as ever. He went out to meet his counterpart.

“We’ll start with the Network Node – salvage what we can and try to sell what we can to the population. Then we’ll plant the demolitions and sit tight. Have you commlinked Command yet?”

“Not yet.” Captain Snoddasmannen replied.

“But they know by now – I had Colonel Googlie on the ‘net gloating at how clever his Crypteia were in using the old Energy Bank to simulate a Naval Yard. You’d better do it formally for Colonel Maniac, though.”

Snoddasmannen nodded, and activated his commlink: “Colonel, Snodd here. The PTS is ours.”

He switched off.

Both Brigades were busy with the dismantling of the Network Node and the laying of the demolition charges, and when they gathered that evening to exchange notes they saw that the simulations had been dead accurate. The Node’s dismantling had resulted in 40 energy credits equivalency being transferred to the Federation.

“We’re ready anytime,” said Captain KrysiasKrusader. We can take out that crawler to the east after we demolish the base – that’ll hurt them production-wise as well as energy wise. I wonder how the others are doing?”

Lt Colonel Kassiopeia and his Shinsengumi Brigade were the last to roll off the Mercury, stopping to exchange pleasantries with the Chiron Knights’ crewmen.

Kassiopeia looked over at his friend, Captain Andemagne – “The Colonel says for you to have the honour of entering Mussels first and frightening away the women and the chickens. I’ll follow you in. That way you’ll be able to scrounge some repairs for the Brigade. We’ll stay there for the time being until we’re all back at full health.”

Andemagne nodded agreement, then raised his arm as his Brigade followed him into the rapidly emptying base, the Lt Colonel and the Shinsengumi Brigade at their rear.

Colonel maniac settled back in his command chair on the Mercury bridge, and looked at Colonel Googlie’s face on the large commlink screen.

“By Corazon we did it, Allardyce,” he said to the screen. Googlie nodded. “Indeed, Pedro, we did. Now comes the hard part, though. Authorizing the deaths of ten thousand innocent Morganites.”

“We’ve been through that, and discussed it ad nauseum in the Junta,” Colonel Maniac replied. Let’s get it over with.”

Colonel Googlie nodded, and depressed the key at Sparta Command.

Simultaneously, Colonel Maniac depressed the key on the Mercury command console, and with heavy hearts they watched the report coming in.

Attached Files

**Zeiter** · February 19, 2005, 02:15

Captain Zeiter hushed his jovial officers who were having a riotous game of 5-card Ironholdem and strained his ears to listening pick up the audio transmission that was barely coming in.

"This blasted wind and rain...the signal won't come through..."

"These southern oceans sure do have some wicked storm systems." Chimed the Pegasus's chief meteorologist, who stood looking out of the window at the monstrous waves which were lashing the side of the ship. "You see, cold ocean currents originate south of here and move north along the western Gaian coast. We happen to be right in the area where the cold ocean currents meet the warm, moist air masses coming out of southern Yangland. What happens is you have the col-"

"Yes, yes, I am familiar with our current meteorlogical conditions." Zeiter interjected. He tried the transmitter again. Still static. As he listened, Zeiter also looked out of the cabin window, and it seemed to him that the waves were reaching up out of the very depths of the ocean like great tentacles slamming wildly around.

"These waves are...unusually fierce. Johnson, check the lower decks."

"Aye, Captain!"

The meteorologist gave a slight grin and spoke in a hushed voice, "Yes, I know what you are thinking. It does seem like that sometimes. We haven't encountered anything like what you are imagining yet, but it's entirely possible. The native ocean life, when agitated, is capable of inflicting great damage against human vessels, especially an unarmed one such as the Pegasus."

"Do you think having the Battle Ogre onboard will have any effect?" Zeiter inquired.

"Well, I'm not a native life biologist, but I've heard rumors that there are some connections between the Ogre articfacts and the native life. And, of course, there's the ongoing expansion of the human presence on this planet. It is very difficult to read the planetmind, although some recent transmissions seem to hint that we may soon possess control of some device that may help us to better understand the native life. But there's reason to believe that the planet is becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the industrial exploitation of its natural resources and the destruction of the fungal habitats. Apparently, from what I've heard, the native life is particularly hostile to the Morganite presence."

"Ah, yes, which brings us to something very much on my mind. Have you heard any news regarding the situation with the Morganites?"

"No, the storms have been preventing clear transmission for close to a week now."

Presently one of the officers called over to Captain Zeiter.
"Hey, Captain, I think I hear something."

"Excellent. Let me have it."

Zeiter focused all of his attention on the faint static and barely perceptible murmurings now coming from the audio commlink, unconsciously squinting his eyes in concentration. His gaze suddenly grew harder and more resolute.

"Wait, I'm hearing something...operation...is a...Operation PTS is a go, it's a go." Zeiter slowly looked up at the faces of his men, now crowded around the commlink receiver. "Gentlemen, our comrades will soon embark upon Morganite lands, nobly defending our homeland from unrestrained Morganite aggression. May the glory of Sparta carry them to victory." Zeiter's face was grave and solemn. "Now, I know that many of you are thinking the same thoughts as I. You wish that you could be one of those honored warriors to undertake that historic mission. But we must realize that our unit, the R-112, also has duties that need to be performed. They may not be as glorious as those of Operation PTS, but they are integral to the security of Sparta nonetheless. We must remain especially vigilant in these times ahead. Who knows, one day soon we may also find ourselves called upon to fight and die for our glorious Spartan Federation."

**sentry33** · February 19, 2005, 03:19

Great stories!

**Snoddasmannen** · February 19, 2005, 05:35

Yes indeed

Let's hope that Googlie's prophecies come true

**Zeiter** · February 19, 2005, 21:58

Partial logs of the Morgan invasion live chat:

Edit: Huh. For some reason the names won't show up when I post this. Wierd.

---

Ie: the third attack form the
rover on the pegasus
ah welcome :-)
> hey
Just for the record, it's the SNC Mercury
Oh, sorry

> I just put forward a proposal on the forum that
could save us a little more $$$
Pegasus is at the Gaian coast IIRC
> We could either disband or upgrade R-112 to
something else before doing the main upgrade
> Then we'd only need 320 ECs
so 100 credits extra, but a much higher
chance of success...
We're thinking about Gatling
Let me check the odds on
that former attack too
> Ah, gatling, that's a good idea

Btw, I'll need to go in a couple of
minutes. Will be back later in the night though
So what was the strength of
the defender in MI?
[Sat Feb 19 17:12:34 GMT-06:00 2005] Googlie
the IIIrd
err
I had three Snoddasmen
once too.
2,5 IIRC
> That's all?
The chance to attack that
sucker and be left with 7 or more MP goes up to
...
so 7,5 against 2,5
8 + 16 + 19 + 16
= 69?
59
?
So we need to be
successful in either a 73.3% or a 59% (thanks)

Some 80-90% chance for the whole
raid then, no?
The odds of neither of that
happening is 26.7%*41% =
Yup, 90%
But I remind you, this is all
assuming my contraption is actually working
That's paying 100c extra for reducing
the chance of failure by three
Sorry, I need to recalculate
these figures, I forgot to use the HP vs HP
algorithm. Should be about the same tho
Everyone else is so silent?
Too many math?

> How are the chances of a continued attack on
the HGP looking right now?
> in the next few turns
We'll be very lucky if we still have any of
our rovers next turn
IIRC
The numbers turned out to
differ by less than 1%
(quite amazing)

I think the extra 100 are
definately worth it

We could afford it, no?
after selling the Fort Soup hab complex
yes
> why haven't we sold that hab complex already?
> I doubt we will use it anytime soon
> Yeah, let's sell it
err, because no one mentioned it

> Eh, it happens
Maniac, have you ever
experienced that the first rover is too damaged
from combat to use its 3rd mp?
> okay, so let's analyze what the end result will be:
With impact, yeah
> Morgan will be greatly damaged - no PTS, no
HQ, drone riots, loss of some units
> We will have lost our main fighting force
I gotta go now. i'll perhaps see you later
tonight :-)
> see ya
bye
Bye
> the others will be firmly opposed to us
Doesn't that sound nice
Zeiter?

> Hmmm, the killing of the Morgans sounds nice
> But can we be sure that this will cripple them for
good?
> They would still have the HGP
> They could still have the necessary drone
control with some heavy psych allocations
> Meanwhile we'll have sanctions
> and diplomatic troubles, I'm sure
Well, maybe some
But we will have those
anyway right?
> and we will have lost our main fighting force in
which we had invested 250+ ECs.
> So, basically we're spending 250 ECs to destroy
Morgan's PTS and HQ, no?
We may be able to save
one rover, but yes, the loss of three of them
seems inevitable
[Sat Feb 19 17:27:09 GMT-06:00 2005] Googlie
Yep
I agree basically with that
sheesh - that was crappy
what's up
Maniac gone?
> Hmmm, I just wonder, if we can do this much
damage this ill-prepared, surely the Morganites
wouldn't be able to withstand much more
Yeah
He might be back later tho
did we decide it's a go?
upgrade to Gatling?
> Would it not be better to hold the force and
combine it with another force from the east
several turns from now?
I lost contact when the odds were
being calculated
> Or go now?
I'd say that if the odds are better than
even that we can destroy the PTS this turn,
then we do so
I don't know Zeiter, I
suspect they'll have a massive force up soon
> hmmmm, are we upon the point of no return?
They'll have missile plasma units
before we know what's what
Preliminary number was
about 90% success, but I think it's a bit
optimistic, I'm doing a thorough calculation now
With gatling that is.
I'll run the sim with gatling and see
what happens
We prolly should sell the Fort Soup hab
complex in any event - we'll shrink from 6 to 5
next turn thru hunger
> But would it not be possible to ally with the
others against the yellow menace?
> If Morgan was to get that big and secure?
I don't know Zeiter, he'll get
really really big
His economy is twice as
large as us
> I just have the feeling that we're setting
ourselves up for a catastrophic diplomatic
backlash
Maniac calculated a while
back
> Which will harm us more in the long run than
having Morgan grow
Why do you think the other
humans will resent us so for this attack?
> Because:
> 1. It will show our penchant for aggression
> 2. It will present us as the human superpower
(although Morgan won't be nearly crippled
enough to be out of the picture
> It would be different if we could take out the HGP
and PEG too, because then we could be fairly
confident of mopping up Morgan before being
forced to deal with the others
> But as it is now, Morgan will be just crippled
enough to make us seem the superpower, but
for Morgan to stil be a potent threat
Well I don't know 1. It will
come as no surprise to them that this is how
we are going to win this game
And they will still see that
Morgan is very powerful
> Perhaps it will all work out
> like you say
> Hmmmm, if we upgrade the rovers to
amphibious gatling, R-112, coupled with the
Ogre, will make a nice rapid strike force
I just don't think we have the
option of leaving Morgan to grow unhindered
> We could use that as a bit of a "stick" if the
Gaians get too uppity
Yeah

Or we could shove
it in Yangs face
> Well, we are growing too
> We'll soon have the manifold nexus
> We could easily turn towards Yang and gobble
up some niiiiice territory there
Fair enough, but I just think
Morgan is so much better at growing than we
are
> Once we get intellectual integ, we can upgrade
our hoplites to police infantry, letting our cities
grow
> But we can grow through our military
> yes, conventionally, we could not grow better
than Morgan
> But with our military...in fact, that
> that's just what we did with the University
> We used our military to grow and expand, and in
that time we've caught up to and surpassed
Morgan in the powercharts
> What if we now turned against Yang with all of
our force, including this strike force near
Morgania now?
> We could take that entire jungle continent, no?
Well I don't know, Yang has
a heck of a lot of troops
And perimeters
> yeah, but the AI is so stupid,
lol granted

> if we act cleverly, we could steamroll Yang
It's possible
> All it would take is 5 probe teams, our pegasus
team, our two missle rovers (the 6-1-2 and the
6-2-2), our Morgan strike force, and maybe a
few elite 6-1-1s
> Of course, I mean our Morgan strike force
upgraded, as is the plan now
> Yang would fold within 10 years
10 years? I doubt that ...
We would have to be brutally effecient with our
troops
> Meanwhile, Morgan is paranoia as $hit and
building support-costing military units like crazy
> and those troops are of no threat to us, as
Morgan has no naval capability that we can't
handle
[Sat Feb 19 17:44:15 GMT-06:00 2005] Googlie IV
> And we don't have any sanctions
> and the others have no immediate reason to
jump on us
Gatling works a charm
There's enough power in the first
strike, from the Mercury, to take out the probe,
the synthrover and MM's plasma defender
second takes out the crawler as well
as MI's synthrover
third takes out the 2 formers
Ok Zeiter, we'll get back to
taht

> yeah, sure
> I'm just throwing out some ideas
4th enters MI, wreaks havoc, and still
has enough to form a triple stack as well as
take out that second former sitting on the
energy special
> I'll follow whatever the group decides
Whoa, a triple stack? How
many times did you pull that off?
> Wow, that is excellent, Googlie!
I say we strike
> Wow, if you feel confident about that level of
success, then I say go for it!
we deny Morgan the PTS for the rest
of the game, causing drone riots in all size 3
bases
as well as ruining their expansion
plans
we deny them around 90 ec's this
turn thru loss of energy bonuses
> And we'll still have all 4 rovers intact?
they'll have to build a HQ
somewhere else to avoid inefficiencies
> That means we could then strike against the
HGP
Yes - 1 in the Mercury and 3 stacked
just outside the old MI
> Awesome!
How damaged are those
rovers?
Hmm - 1 is undamaged, one at 30
and one at 40, IIRC
> That's not bad at all
I wonder if the Morgans
have more stuff to throw at us

> Still plenty of movement points left
Many of those 6
soon-to-be-built plasma units won't get built
> Do they have any offensive units listed in their
security nexus?
and they'll be well within range of
Polymers and its HGP next turn, so i don't think
attack will be first and foremost on their minds
no offensive units at all

> hehehehe
but you can bet they'll rush missile
units
> Too late, though
> and where are they going to get the $$$?
So let's just hope there's no
extra unit hiding with the crawler ... Maniac
tested and indeed an extra unit would not show.
one byproduct of this approach,
though, is that it leaves Mussels intact (as we
attack from the ship, it isn't destroyed, just
emptied)
> I don't think that's too much of a detriment
wwe can prolly account for every unit
if we put our minds to it
Even the formers?
naw - that's the problem - and they
have a few of them too
> You know what would really suck?
> If they had a plasma defender under that crawler
> in the forest
now those we can account for
> that would be baaaaaad
I think a former would be
bad enough though
Or do we have an mp to
know one of those out?
I say we go for it - sell the Hab
complex, upgrade to gatling, and proceed
> I say we go for it too
I agree
and maniac did too, earlier
> I'd say, all the formers that they had around, they
garrisoned inside MI
Kassi? Modo? Vishniac?
Who else did I forget?
> otherwise, if they had stacked the formers with
the crawlers, they would have had to worry
about collateral damage taking them out
sentry33 has been quite active
recently
Let's do it
Loading the turn now
> Yeah, let's go for it!
Fine with me

/me starts Spartan anthem
/me figures its past
midnight and turns the music down
> But if ANYTHING goes not according to plan, we
need to stop immediately and re-evaluate
before going further
we have some failsafe points as well
if that first gatling rover doesn't take
out all 3 defenders
we can abort
Yep
> Well, we can consider aborting
How many times did you
test in the sim Googlie?
> We'll see what the situation is
or change objectives just to
destroying everything within amphi range
> That's an option
We should probably abort
and await consultation in such a case
> Kind of my "Operation Viking" that I detailed
earlier
So let's make sure not to
fail

hab complex sold - reserves now
stand at 313
> Excellent
> that's a good decision regardless of our battle
plan
Amphibious gatling Rover now
prototyped
5 Impact rovers now AmphiGats
Godspeed AmphiGats
OK - Chiron Knights took out the
Synthrover and the MM plasma defender - used
all iy=ts MPs with those 2
took 70% damage in so doing, but is
safe still aboard the mercury
> Hmmm, okay, but we're still in good shape, no?
Was that according to
plan? What about the synth-defender?
> We'll just have to leave one stranded, right?
next one - should it land and take out
the crawler and the probe, or take out the probe
first than land and look to the crawler?
Land first, I think
probe and crawler destroyed - this'll
be tight
Are we down to over rover
taking a defender and a former?
(my heart's in my throat -)
No - we still have 2 rovers in the ship
- one can take the MI syntharmor and a former,
while the other takes a former and the PTS
> We should be alright
I think I'll sdave here and test it on
the sim
No hidden formers under
the crawler tho?
nope
Yes, save and test
> We'll have to leave 1 rover stranded and
disband it, and we'll end up with one stack of 2
> and the one still in the Mercury
But we still need a rover to
take both a syntharmor and a former
that's high risk
> No, I think the sytharmor will be a piece of cake
> And then the former is non-combat and very
green
> I don't see how our rover can be destroyed
We need 7 hit points left
after the attack on the synthie
or we loose mps
We can only afford to lose 3
> I think we'll accomplish that easily
> I think
[Sat Feb 19 18:06:16 GMT-06:00 2005]
Snoddasmannen 3
> No, wait, I think we can afford to lose 4, no?
> Doesn't it have to get down to 50% to lose a
movement point?
Darn, can somebody save
the log of the attack for me?
Not if it's elite
> Ah
[Sat Feb 19 18:07:11 GMT-06:00 2005] Googlie IV
According to my combat
simulator program, we have about 60% chance
of doing that.
Successfully
> hmmmm
well, it worked with me
> BTW, I saved the log
In the sim or in the game?

Great Zeiter
but had just 2/3rds of a point left
when it entered MI
> as much as I've been here for
That's just enough Googlie

> yep
How many times did you try
Googlie?
just once so far
I'll do some tests too, in that
ol SMAC-sim you made
> We have a 7.5 strength unit vs. a 2.5 strength
unit
> Usually such a match-up is a rout

**Zeiter** · February 19, 2005, 21:59

More logs...

---

[Sat Feb 19 18:12:24 GMT-06:00 2005] Googlie
I'll proceed - but we may want to
disband the units immediately afterwards, to
avoid just gifting them to Morgan
> All of them?
> I would advise against disbanding any stacked
ones
> If it can be helped
3 of them
this last sim I was left with the 3 all
strung out
> Ah, not good
> Well, hmmm...
> We've come this far
Well, I'd say that the attack
succeeds in about 4 of 5 tests
[Sat Feb 19 18:15:24 GMT-06:00 2005] Googlie
> Very well, we'll have to disband them, then
THE PTS IS OURS !!!!!
YES!!!!
> Woohoooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
VICTORY!!!!
GREAT JOB!
ah - but with the triple bombardment
(rover and 2 formers) therev isn;t any facilities
to cash in

> Whew, against seemingly insurmountable odds,
we've managed to do it!
[Sat Feb 19 18:16:51 GMT-06:00 2005] Cap
Vishniac
Just in time Captain!
I'm back!
> the Morganites thought they could thwart us
> but they were WRONG!
Ironholm founded (size 3 base)
Yoohooh!
They threw everything they
had at us
It means....the PTS raid is
successful?!?!?
> And we threw everything we had at them
Yes Vishniac

WOW!!!
> Now's the time for the rather gruesome part...
Let us savour this moment
first

their net income drops to 364, with the
loss of the base and ensuing drone riots
> yes, and DON'T accidentally move the rover or
anything! LOL!
Googlie, save a screenie so
we can taunt the Morganites

> Yes!
Num lock on

> yeah
How many units do we lose?
Ah and he's gone again
We will loose 3, probably
We will have to disband
them so the Morgans don't steal them...
Do we still have two units
stacked on enemy ground?
Unfortunately no...
We have one damaged
rover still on the ship
The Castor Horsemen, as it
were. My unit ...
What a disgrace for them to
abandon their friends.
So it ended a kamikaze attack...
> and a glorious one at that
Yes, I think so ... Unless we
hear other news from Googlie.
> The Castor Horsemen did their duty,
Snoddasmannen
> Let us salute them!
> Now they shall sail for where?
> Yangland? Hehehe
Thank you.
To join R-112 perhaps, in
glorious combat.
> Yes, may we one day draw swords together!
(trivia: what movie is this line from?)
> actually, it's a book
Ben hur?

> no, Lord of the Rings
> nice guess
Ah really? Who said it?
> I think Aragorn says it to Eomer
> I don't know if the line made it into the movie
I read the books a couple of
times
But wow, what a night.

**Zeiter** · February 19, 2005, 22:01

More logs...(although I'm missing some of it from the end of the last section to the beginning of this section).

---

this way we take out a Morgan crawler
and deny him 24 energies at Polymers
yup
> I assume they can....ha...ha...ha.., I hope so
(at least in the scenario test they could)
> okay, yeah, it should be fine then
> So why don't we try stacking first, and then if
that fails, we self-destruct?
> Could we kill the crawler that way?
Q: will self-destruct damage our
transport?
crawler destroyed - time for ritual
kamikazis
> We don't have to self-destruct that one. We can
just disband it
> And we can still move our transport away one tile
Warwag, Shinsengumi and Castor
Horsemen, fare thee well
ah yes
So I guess self-destructing
wouldn't have destroyed the crawler?

yup - just disband
No wait, didn't the Castor
Horsemen survive?

no - I tied that earlier in the sim - jist
gave it 10% damage
Ok
> ah, okay
but that was impact - gatling might
have been 20%
sorry Snoddasmannen, we've got to tell
you something...
doh!
But I have the chat logs to
prove it!
the crews all made it safely back to the
Mercury
No wait I don't, Zeiter has

> Hehehehe, this has been a high suspense
evening all around
it was a staged disbanding - furthest
first, while the others covered
> No, I'm waaaaay off in the southern oceans
The Morgans won't
understand how we pulled this off ...
But you have the logs of the
invasion right? I was disconnected then.
They'll see our trannie only has one
rover
Will they see it's amph?
> Will they see our trannie at all, though, since it's
in the fungus?
> I think not
It's in base radius ...
> Ah, right
****!!
Isn't there a sensor under Argi Narnia
IIRC?
Don't do that Googlie!
> They're going to know that it was us anyways,
right?
They might suspect

I used the activate self distruct with the
last rover intending to take out the Morgan
Mussels base and it destroyed the Mercury and
the Chiron Knights
> No, it's okay if they see us.
Now they can't see us at
least.

> Oh...well, yeah, there are upsides
were you following? We've lost the
mercury and the 4th rover on board
> yeah, that's not good
Yeah ... Well what are we
gonna do about that?

reload?
> but for some reason I can't bring myself to be
sad right now
It's a mistake after all?
stupid me - why did I think that i might
destroy a base thias time when I never did in
the sims
Would it be legal to reload?
> Hmmm, this was a non-combat error
> Somewhat like a former movement error
> or a crawler movement error
I don't think sio - it's not as though I hit
the wrong key by mistake - it was my intent to
try and destroy the base with the self destruct
Googlie, you commanded
this attack, you don't get to walk away from this
feeling stupid.
why didn't you ask before? :-(
kust didn't think it'd destroy the ship
and cargo in the bay
oh well whatever
> I see. Well, we will just have to deal with it
> Hey, theoretically....
> we could totally deny that we did it! LOL
we;ll - we talked about using self
destruct to get that crawler, but that was poor
odds of succeeding
I thought getting a base might be easier
I do have a save till just before the base
obliteration
> We could make up a story about how we had
drone riots, and we had to nerve staple
> And in actuality, it was Zak who did it...LOL
we could use the old Pirates "not
following orders" defense
hmmm
> Now what? Mount a campaign against Yang?
> Or follow this up with an invasion proper of
Morgania?
when Makihluha played the turn and the
others were all pissed off that she had some
units ion automatic - i authorized a replay of that
one
Maniac - is your turn clean?
Err, yeah
Somehow, I don't think this
qualifies as AI diplomacy

Do we want to overrule me - i can hang
the latest midturn (after the zonquwestm befire
the obliteration if we want to go the 3 rovers
f=disbanding route
> The rover was 70% damaged
LOL - after the conquest but before the
obliteration
Would you honor such a
replay if you were modding this Googlie?
Testing former orders and
AI diplomacy (without accepting any deal) is
allowed. For anything else, check with Drogue
before hand.
But it was intentional - my druthers is to
leave it as a lesson learned
> doesn't sound like this qualifies
> Well, those units wouldn't have seen any action
for a while
> They were costing us support too, were they
not?
> And now we have no presence visible to
Morgania whatsoever
Good point Zeiter, let's blow
up all our units

> hehehe, it's not a very good rationalization, but it
helps
It's not the end of the world.
It's a ship and a rover
> Yeah, we've been far luckier with pod pops
We can build more. Poor
Morgan lost much more today
They can't rebuild the PTS
> Just think of all of the free rovers and crawlers
and Ogres we've gotten from pod pops,
sometimes almost to the point of feeling guilty
> yeah, Morgan definitely got the short end of the
stick
ok
> And what's really nice is they have no idea how
much we paid for it
[Sat Feb 19 19:08:16 GMT-06:00 2005] Googlie
Unless there's some legal
precedent for overruling people who make
mistakes we don't have to do anything about
this
Problem at Ironholm
> Drones?
with the destruction of the PTS we
have 2 drones there
> That figures
Right
May I suggest we rebuild a trannie
though, fill it with a combat unit and some
probes and send it to the Angels? In case they
back out of their deal?
I suggest a nervestaple, as we are in
sanctions anyway (would that then be 20, or do
different atrocities run concurrently?)
plan was to build a hoplite there, and
make one worker a doctor
> that would be 20 years
sounds good too

Would it starve to 2 if we
used specialists?
if we went nervestapling, we could also
free up the Steppenwolfs at 2NS.
We have a trannie near the Angels -
has an amphigatling, an Ogre and a Unity Rover
- need more carrying capacity, however - I
suggest again that we send the Heimdall there
Aren't our hands already full with
war with Morgan and Yang?
> Won't our powerchart go down too? Except
Morgan's will go down permanently. Our will go
down because of loss of units
> That may help the diplomatic situation a bit
we're still comfortably the second
faction
re ironholm - we can take FS's crawler
and pass thru Ironholm, rehoming it, and go to a
niut tile
wouldn't FS starve then?
it was on minerals - and I think w'e'll
lose a FS pop next turn anyway
Oh, why's that?
Sorry for being clueless, but
do we have the Manifold Nexus now?
> No, that pod is set to deploy next turn
we might have to throw some energy at
Psych, to help Ironholm as well as to get those
2 FS talents back working the fields
> Is it worth it to divert energy to psych
faction-wide, just for those two bases?
[Sat Feb 19 19:17:10 GMT-06:00 2005] TehManiac
test
TehManiac in the house
I've had enough of this for
tonight
Time to get some sleep!
> see ya Snoddasmannen!
G: won't FS have enough nuts if it
produces another crawler
see ya!
Yep, cya guys. Somebody
log this from here on?

**Kassiopeia** · February 19, 2005, 23:20

The names do not show up, because the forum software parses the stuff between the >'s and <'s as code meant to modify the text, not the text itself.

**Kassiopeia** · February 19, 2005, 23:21

Oh and awesome work guys

I take it I'll release our article in Special Edition #4 the moment you post the save in the turn tracking thread?

**Googlie** · February 19, 2005, 23:59

Colonel Googlie sat back with a heavy heart.

The objective gained, but at what a cost. All lost. Even his dear friend, Colonel Maniac, lost aboard the Mercury, when it went down with the First Armored Brigade. Either dead, or perhaps worse, survived and captured.

Was it worth it?

He made the mental tally:

The Federation losses:

1 Mercury class cruiser transport
4 impact rovers
300 energy credits spent on upgrading them to gatling amphibious units

The Corporation losses:

Its Headquarters base, together with the Planetary Transit System
2 Formers
2 crawlers
2 syntharmored rovers
1 plasma defensive rover
1 syntharmored defense attorney
1 plasma hoverfoil

By that reckoning, a very successful raid, not least of which would be the long term effects on Morgan’s growth strategy and drone control without the PTS

But to lose a friend and colleague like the Colonel …………..

Just then the commlink beeped, and wearily Colonel Googlie looked up at the screen then leapt to his feet

“Pedro. By Corazon, it’s really you. I thought you’d gone down with the mercury”

“No, my friend – I was spared. Fortuitously I had transferred to the GeneralTacticus while the unloading was taking place, figuring that communications would be more secure from there. I thus missed the conflagration when the Shinsengumi’s self destruct program ran haywire. Those untested gatling weapons were quite the sight, when their neodymium-glass discharges went off. It was like an old 4th July parade, the energy beams flailing away and ammunition of all kinds cooking. Set off the energy storage casings in the Chiron Knights vehicles as well – that’s what brought down the Mercury. But most of the crews survived – they made it to the quay and the beaches, and the GeneralTacticus has sent a flotilla of small boats to pick them up.”

“That’s wonderful news,” replied Googlie. I’ll work on a press release and send it to you and to the Lt Colonel for approval. A special edition of the Phalanx is surely called for.”

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Just before dawn, amphibious elements and Marines of the 1st Army conducted a daring raid into the Corporation’s heartland.

Although surprised at being expected, our brave troops fought overwhelming odds and reached their objective – Morgan Industries itself.

The Base was captured, then the Planetary Transit System – that hated symbol of Morgan’s degenerative growth and of their tireless pursuit of wealth at all costs – was rigged with explosives and destroyed, unfortunately taking the base with it. We regret the loss of so many civilians, but in the context of the greater good of Chiron’s masses, the stellar sacrifice of those few will not go unremembered.

Their mission accomplished, our stalwart troops withdrew, suffering minor inconsequential losses to materiel and equipment, but the experienced officers and crewmen reaching the safety of our waiting navy offshore.

The Junta remains at all times willing to discuss peace terms with the Directors of the Corporation. After their senseless mind-controlling of the Hunter we said that our memories - and our reach - were long. How long, they have just found out.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

**Snoddasmannen** · February 20, 2005, 03:40

My version of the log looks somewhat more complete:

http://www2.onyx.nu/pb/chatter/chatter.php

If anybody can find stuff in Zeiters log which is not in mine, please let me know. And yeah, good work guys

**Googlie** · February 20, 2005, 03:52

Some points for concern - or maybe opportunities?

With my stupidity re: the Mercury, the GeneralTacticus is vulnerable to probe action. I suggest we hitail it for the nearest port and get a second escort to it asap. Morgan has 2 'Gator boats out and about and a third building

Morgan has a Transport and a rover probe team unaccounted for (homed to Mussels, heading west) I bet they're en-route to Arcadia to try and get thru our probe defenses. I think we need to be vigilant and get a Crypteia in every base, not just our coastal ones

Morgan has a plasma hoverboat heading south from Choke - let's be careful we don't sail our valuable Ogre and Amphigat into their arms

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