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Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition

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Enhanced Security services is a TRAP option. 10 PS for a +5 bonus on a d100 roll? That's not actually gonna tilt the outcomes of many assassinations in our favor, and there's not a lot of advantages left to stack here-we are literally pulling in COMMANDOS from their other jobs to protect our scientists. Even members of Parliment aren't so well protected-which is why it costs PS.
 
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[X] Enhanced Security Services
[X] Graduates
-[X] Infrastructure
-[X] Orbital
[X] Brigadier General Tali Jackson
[X] Arya Gulati
[X] Sarang Mikoyan
 
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Vehrec said:
Enhanced Security services is a TRAP option. 10 PS for a +5 bonus on a d100 roll? That's not actually gonna tilt the outcomes of many assassinations in our favor, and there's not a lot of advantages left to stack here-we are literally pulling in COMMANDOS from their other jobs to protect our scientists. Even members of Parliment aren't so well protected-
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It's actually a great option.

It isn't a d100 roll. It is a versus d100 roll where we already have a soft bonus (i.e. they need to beat the roll by a larger number for more well protected people such as Seo).

It significantly reduces the chances that a NOD assassination attempt will succeed, and increases the chances that we'll hit better breakpoints. Keep in mind that a successful assassination permanently removes one of our bonuses, reduces GDI morale and cohesion, increases NOD morale and cohesion, and increases the influence and power of the warlord that ordered the assassination.
 
Vehrec said:
Enhanced Security services is a TRAP option. 10 PS for a +5 bonus on a d100 roll? That's not actually gonna tilt the outcomes of many assassinations in our favor, and there's not a lot of advantages left to stack here-we are literally pulling in COMMANDOS from their other jobs to protect our scientists. Even members of Parliment aren't so well protected-which is why it costs PS.
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Not quite. So that d100 roll has a couple of features hidden inside it. For one thing, it is not Security rolls higher than Assassins Security wins, Assassins roll higher than Security Assassins win. The Assassins have to beat a multiple of the defense roll in order to produce killed characters, and not either disruptions to their work, or wounded characters. So a +5, can be as much as a +20 to a +25 against dying.
 
[X] Graduates
-[X] Tiberium
-[X] Orbital
[X] Michael O'Brian
[X] Brigadier General Tali Jackson
[X] Arya Gulati

Yeah I view the bit of a bonus against assassinations as less useful than bumping up the dice pool.
 
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[X] Michael O'Brian
[X] Brigadier General Tali Jackson
[X] Arya Gulati
[X] Logistical Efficiency Initiatives
[X] Graduates
[X] Sarang Mikoyan
 
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[X] Sarang Mikoyan

Um. Why is no one voting for Sarang? She's giving us one of the strongest traits possible! Doubling our crits is huge. Crits can give long term bonuses that change the face of entire sectors of projects, or unique benefits we'd otherwise never be able to get otherwise. And Sarang was one of our strongest candidates for secretary. The only "downside" is giving her the office... in up to twelve years! That three entire Plans from now.

She's absolutely the strongest recruitment candidate on the list and I'm completely astounded that she hasn't had even a single vote so far. What the heck do y'all have against her?!?

[X] Graduates
-[X] Orbital
-[X] Tiberium
 
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[X] Enhanced Security Services
[X] Michael O'Brian
[X] Brigadier General Tali Jackson
[X] Arya Gulati

This works for me and I really want Jackson both because of the mil bonus and the promise we'd have to make to steel talon to get her.
 
[X] Graduates
-[X] Tiberium
-[X] Orbital
[X] Arya Gulati
[X] Brigadier General Tali Jackson
[X] Hideo Daishi

Getting our orbital die from Graduates rather than O'Brian is the better deal on an orbital die tbh, +2 free progress on Orbital dice at best still only generates like 20% of the progress that an entire extra die in another sector does. Plus the graduates add a die to the sector that then stays in the sector pretty much no matter what, NOD might be able to kill one dude that a whole research institute revolves around next turn but they can't kill thousands of lower level paperpushers. I put the extra die in Tib so that we can make sure we hit the income/abatement targets even if we want to shift our focus off Tib, but I could be convinced to put it in Infrastructure instead.

Especially since I also want Gulati, +10 to Infra is a really big bonus in a sector that we're going to be forced to spend a bunch in no matter what. The worst case is she about breaks even in ~5-6 years and is all gravy past that, assuming you consider Karachi to be 100% wasted points that we wouldn't have otherwise done a single point of, and she breaks even sometime later this FYP depending on how generous you want to be wrt what portion of Karachi we would have done without her.

Jackson is of course a necessity for the Military dice, +2 Mil dice is very needed and if we've got an opportunity to kiss and make up with the Talons on top of the dice, then all the better. She's the one I definitely don't want to budget on.

The real sleeper hit I haven't seen people talk much about is Hideo Daishi IMO. His explicit bonus is pretty boring and not that great but cheaper power plants is still helpful. GDI hasn't totally achieved total post-scarcity in terms of industrial inputs but Tiberium seriously reduces scarcity of material inputs. Energy is the input we're still most limited on. Getting more power for less dice over the next decade or so (assuming Daishi stays on and doesn't die or quit) should seriously add up. Beyond that though the fact that he's Hideo Ozawa's son is an absolute golden opportunity. Get Daishi working in the Treasury hanging out with Treasury people all day for long enough and he's a lot more likely to get convinced than he is to do much convincing. Yeah he puts his foot in his mouth but -1d4 PS per year is trivial for Seo to keep up with, and he could turn into a VERY useful ally (or pawn) in future politics. A solid discount on power plants is already decent enough, and I'd bet all my imaginary internet points that he could come into play down the line for political maneuvering.
 
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[X] Graduates
--[X] Tiberium
--[X] Orbital
[X] Arya Gulati
[X] Brigadier General Tali Jackson
[X] Hideo Daishi
[X] Enhanced Security Services
 
[X] Enhanced Security Services
[X] Michael O'Brian
[X] Graduates
-[X] Heavy Industry
-[X] Tiberium
[X] Brigadier General Tali Jackson

All useful and necessary. Arya on the other hand is simply too expensive for me, at least compared to more dices where they're needed.

Edit: I am also legitimately surprised people are voting that hard for Arya while ignoring Graduates and getting more dices to use.
 
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Ithillid said:
Ground Forces
Operations for the Ground Forces have remained generally stable. While there have been a number of engagements between GDI patrols and Brotherhood forces this quarter, they have been primarily low intensity long ranged skirmishes. When it comes to the infusion of funding that they have received, it has primarily gone towards providing more supplies, although there is still a lack of capacity for many key supply areas, most notably shells and ablative armor.
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Yeah yeah, we'll work on it, jeez. :p

Navy
Three battleships, bringing the total fleet to 36, have launched from the remaining battleship yards. Along with six newly built Governor class cruisers, these ships have been assigned to the south pacific, where their task is to begin interdicting the strait of Malacca, attempting to try and cut one of a series of critical nodes. While it will be a risky assignment, especially for the battleships still lacking effective point defense, interdicting the strait should provide both improved operational security for convoys across the South Pacific, and hopefully force Bintang to use her remaining heavy warships so that they can be brought to battle and destroyed.
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Ballsy of the Navy to do that. Hope it works out for them. Also hoping the battleships' lack of point defense doesn't screw us over too badly.

Air Force
The Air Force has begun seriously grinding down the Brotherhood's capacity to deploy air forces. In every operational zone, Brotherhood air presence has begun to hit a death spiral, with fewer experienced pilots and fewer aircraft every day. While this is unlikely to last, it does suggest that the Brotherhood is pulling back many of their experienced pilots, either as training cadres, or to reserve them for a significant strike at some point. The A-15 has found ever increasing freedom to operate, and some have been bold enough to carry out strike operations without escort, although as much as possible one is provided. Similarly, Firehawk flights have been reducing the number of fighter configured aircraft in exchange for greater bomb payloads, increasing their effect against Brotherhood formations.
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The Super Orca will definitely have a field day in this new tactical environment, then.

At this time, the Air Force believes that there are three critical areas that need attention. First, the proliferation of Zone Armor to the Ground Forces. As discovered in operations with ZOCOM, Zone Armor allows the Air Force significantly expanded freedom of operation, and redefines danger close to levels that would be suicidal for any conventional infantry or combined arms force. Second, the development of enhanced capabilities, such as the Wingman Drone system. Third and finally, the Air Force is ready to begin looking to expand its capabilities, most notably with orbital strike in conjunction with the Space Force, but also with bomber variants of the Apollo and other systems to improve Air Force effectiveness against hard targets.
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Nngh. Hard to squeeze any of that in on top of the massive amount of stuff we face.

ZOCOM
The Zone Operations Command, even with the allocation of additional resources, is feeling increasingly stretched thin. With Red Zone operations across the planet, alongside major protection details such as Mecca, Chicago, and others, the expanding requirements are a significant problem. The Command, due to its equipment for fighting effectively in the most hostile regions of the planet, are also used for dozens of high value protection positions where smaller units in Zone Armor can provide many times their number in effective force. However, with the Initiative ever more invested into the Red Zones, that situation cannot be allowed to continue. Zone Armor for the Initiative Ground Forces has become a significant priority for the Zone Operations Command.
At the same time, Headquarters for the command has shifted from New York to Duqm, a significant shift due to the increasing importance of the Jeddah planned city's Tiberium Processing plant, and the number of operations planned for the region.
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Hmmmm. Yeah, I see the problem. ZOCOM needs the relief of us at least starting to provide power-armored Ground Force units, even if realistically we cannot hope to finish the overall program. But we just don't have the dice... hm, about that.

Let's see. No change from Ground Force and the Talons' perspective. I think we should at least try to field one of the Ground Force power armor factories, even if we realistically can't complete the whole set. Each of those factories is built to 2-3 times the scale of the ones we build for ZOCOM, which strongly suggests that even 1-2 of them being finished would mean Ground Forces can do a lot of the "not actually in a Red Zone" operations currently handled by ZOCOM.

Brotherhood of Nod
This quarter, technological proliferation has seemed to be the order of the day. In areas like the Chinese front, where technological progression has been significantly behind the others, laser rifles, and Centurion battle mechs have begun appearing alongside Barghests. Gideon's Shield of Faith has been cropping up as far afield as Australia and the Russian steppe, providing mobile protection for Nod forces to protect them from incoming fire, although it is less than effective against indirect artillery. Similarly, the guided artillery systems developed by Krukov and Stahl have been discovered across Africa, with some warlords fielding both systems, to some apparent confusion.
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Top-attack missile ammunition programmed to fly around the Shield of Faith should be helpful, but more generally we'll just need to push the artillery like we already knew we would.

Additionally, a new Nod submarine class, looking to be between five and seven thousand tons has been spotted operating around the South Pacific. Likely this is the work of Bintang, and it is almost certainly something that other Brotherhood operatives can and will use.
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Hngh. Definitely something we need more ASW capability to fight against. Pushes up the priority of the escort carriers a notch.

The first phase of the railway campaign has been primarily providing direct links between port cities and the battle fronts. Much of the work has been done by all in one land train tracklayers, using a heavily stripped down version of the MARV base.
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MAKE WAY FOR THE CHOO CHOO MARV!!!

:)

In the front is the leveller, a large trench digging tool that carves through the land. Behind it is the filler, which provides a maximally flat path for the rail line. In a separate vehicle, there is the tracklayer, which is similar in two parts, dropping a series of concrete ties, and then laying and nailing down the track. Both are extremely slow, making about 750 meters an hour. However, that is still an impressive pace of laying down track across ground that had not been previously prepared.
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[grunts] Sounds like someone's angling to beat the Central Pacific Railroad's land speed record, or at least outflank it by not having already pre-graded the terrain before setting the single-day tracklaying record.

Working in shifts, these vehicles can be operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and have been for the past three months.
Even more important has been substantial investment in cargo handling facilities. One of the bigger bottlenecks in the entire system is the port handling facilities to move cargo containers from ships to trains and trucks. While port handling facilities are still limited, their ability to move materials onto trains have been expanded, with more cranes and vehicles being assigned to ports around the world.
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Yeah, that's suggestive of needing the Integrated Cargo System. I consider it a quasi-mandatory megaproject for this Plan even if we can't do it just yet because we need Logistics now to meet needs now...

With the middle east increasingly stabilized and secure, the port of Safga was selected for deep penetration operations into the Egyptian Red Zone. This is the first of four targets, with others aimed at the Sinai, the former areas of Jordan and Israel, and finally Eritrea. These will likely consume the vast majority of the processing facilities located in Jeddah, and be a major security risk, requiring massive forces to ensure that Kane or some warlord is unable to deny GDI those desperately needed resources. Beyond that, plans are somewhat fuzzy, with proposals ranging from the Congo River, to beginning operations across the Australian Outback as part of attempting to turn the area into a secure GDI territory. In any case, these are increasingly distant plans, rather than immediate goals.
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Sounds like four glacier mine phases, but we're gonna need to set up MARVs and shit to cover those glacier mines at this rate.

Having established an interior perimeter, they did not have to reach particularly far to encounter their first glaciers, with the first outcroppings being only some forty kilometers inland, a far stretch from the one hundred and forty required to reach the rich glaciers of the Nile.
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[shivers at the sense of global loss]

These are typical deployments, leading to a command that is rapidly nearing the end of its rope, especially because it takes years to train an effective soldier for the command. They are the best available, and then require substantial training in the repair and upkeep of their power armor and an array of other advanced and often specialist weapons and devices. Only then, once they can keep the armor in the field, can they actually begin combat training. And combat training for the Command is unlike any other. Not only moving on the bounce, using jetpacks, and learning to use targeting systems built into the armor, there is also quite a bit of targeting knowledge required. While a standard railgun can penetrate a buggy from any angle at all but the most extreme ranges,. tThe same is not true of, for example, a Scorpion tank, which can only be penetrated from a bare handful of weak points across the frontal aspect, or the Avatar and Purifier platforms which require precision fire from all angles in order to penetrate.
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Yeah. No wonder ZOCOM's feeling the pressure. Would really help if we could get even some Ground Force units into power armor to help them concentrate their forces.

There, in the dusty halls of Nabawi Mosque that once hosted a million of the faithful, the sole caretaker who took on the duties of relaying the prayer times was a single Forgotten, Ahmad Khashoggi. For nearly two decades, he kept his vigil, oftentimes being the sole person to pray within the mosque. For nearly two decades, the only visitors would be fellow Forgotten dropping supplies and doing rudimentary repairs.
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Let's hear it for extremely devoted Muslim tiberium-mutant buddy!

In the public celebrations, a number of gifts "for the people of the four cities" and other such public displays were made by representatives of both the Initiative and the Brotherhood. While the cities themselves were a clear note of GDI's power and ability, the Brotherhood warlords had to play catch up, pledging units, supplies, and guards along trade routes across the region, and other grand gifts of state. However, more privately, the warlords sent over a small token of their own genuine appreciation, samples, technical specifications, and datasheets for the production of Brotherhood lightweight armor composites.
A combination of thin layers of foamed aluminium with woven sheets of iron fiber it offers astounding single impact resistance for its weight, but degrades rapidly when struck repeatedly even by lesser blows. These sheets also tend to collapse in on themselves in greater than 30-45mm thicknesses. While it is possible to layer this material much thicker than Nod generally uses it, or to hang multiple thinner panels behind each other on the same framework, after action reports and battle damage assessments of previous engagements of Nod units equipped with composites in this manner indicate relatively poor performance over more traditional armour systems. Its uses in GDI service are somewhat limited, but still present. Ranging from aircraft to power armor and light vehicles, it is a somewhat marginal upgrade, usually a few grams of weight reduction, or a few extra cubic centimeters of armor coverage, however it does have a pair of advantages. First it is noticeably cheaper than existing GDI designs for the thicknesses of armor that would be relevant. Second, it is easier to fabricate in the field. While the polycrystalline ferrous fiber weave is somewhat difficult, the foamed metals are much easier, and both are easier than the standard GDI laminated composite arrangements.
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Mm. Nice. And it sounds like we didn't even have to roll for this one, so that's an item off the Nod Tech checklist. :)

In that potential war, GDI has enough supplies and strongpoints in the region to win nearly any conflict barring absolute worst case scenarios. While the broken peace will likely torpedo the work of the Caravanserai and generally collapse the concord that has been brokered so expensively, it will leave significant parts of the region in GDI hands, offering leverage in any potential winning of the peace.
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So, yeah, expect this to be a huge front if Kane goes full Tib War Four, but the warlords will be hard pressed to threaten it even if they all work together. And if Kane doesn't act fast, we may be able to further entrench our position in the region to where not even he can crack it easily.

[ ] Zone Emergency Medical Evacuation Vehicle Deployment
ZOCOM believes it needs two facilities, on nearly opposite sides of the world, to serve its general needs, and to supply the Forgotten. While even combined they won't be quite enough to serve all of the Command's medical evacuation needs, they will be enough to make a significant dent in them.
-[ ] Portland (Progress 81/80: 10 resources per die) (-1 Labor, -1 Energy) (Must be completed before End of 2058)

The Portland Maine facility has taken the entire quarter...
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Heh. Portland, Maine? Somehow, thought it'd be Portland, Oregon. For all I know that's a Yellow Zone these days.

Now, hmm...

[ ] Graduates (Pick 2 areas) (+1 die per area, -2 bonus for two years)
[ ] Sarang Mikoyan (Critical Positives on 99 and 100) (Possible minor space boost maybe)
[ ] Michael O'Brian (+1 Orbital Die, +2 to Orbital)
[ ] Enhanced Security Services (+5 to defense rolls for assassinations) (-10 Political Support)
[ ] Logistical Efficiency Initiatives (reduces progress needed for Logistics projects by 5 percent)
[ ] Arya Gulati (Political Enemies: -5 PS) (+10 to Infrastructure Dice) (Must complete Karachi Phase 4)
[ ] Brigadier General Tali Jackson (+2 Military Dice) (All Steel Talons Development, and at least one factory for each one)
[ ] Hideo Daishi (30 point discount on power plants) (-1d4 Political Support per year)

General Jackson strikes me as being worth it- +2 Military dice is hot diggity territory, and we can easily fulfill the Talons commitments. She's like Major Stavrakas, only arguably better.

Given how many of our bonuses come from specific individuals, I think we really do want Enhanced Security Services, though arguably just stacking up more hero units is good enough as an alternative, so that even if we lose one we're still coming out ahead.

O'Brian's an uncomplicated positive.

Graduates is a good one.

...

Mikoyan is... eh. I think she might actually be good, but it's unclear how much benefit we'd get. Having twice as many critical successes as critical failures would be really nice (statistically we could expect one 99 or 100 per turn, roughly, but a natural 1 only about once every two turns).

Logistical Efficiency sounds nice, and it's an uncomplicated boost, but it's also a small boost in the scheme of things.

Gulati's a toughie. +10 to all Infrastructure dice means +750 or +900 Progress for the Plan (900 if we take Graduates on Infra) over the course of the plan... but we lose that by having to take 1125 Progress worth of planned city. On the other hand, we might have done most of that anyway. If we were going to do as far as Karachi Phase 3 anyway, then Gulati becomes a straightforward positive even over this Plan, let alone the next one.

I don't think Daishi's worth it- he'll cost us nearly 40 PS before the Plan is over and we're only gonna build so many power plant phases. I doubt he'll save us more than 2-3 dice.
 
I think people are underestimating graduates. It's two free dice split between two areas, with only a minor (-2) penalty that goes away after two years. If anything, graduates are better than Michael O'Brien. O'Brien only gives 1 die and a minor (+2) bonus.

[X] Graduates
-[X] Orbital
-[X] Tiberium
[X] Brigadier General Tali Jackson
[X] Arya Gulati
[X] Sarang Mikoyan
 
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VOTE
[X] Sarang Mikoyan
[] Michael O'Brian
[X] Arya Gulati
[X] Brigadier General Tali Jackson


Sarang Mikoyan doubles our critical range for the next 12 years.
Every 99 we roll now counts as a critical success.
That is Huge.

Michael O'Brian gives us an extra Orbital dice and +2 to Orbital.
Boring, but useful, given our Orbital plans.
In my opinion the weakest choice of the four I'm picking.

Arya Gulati
Assuming that we use all our Industrial dice this Plan, that means she gives us 750 extra points of Progress over 15 turns.
That reduces the net cost of 4x Phases of Karachi to 425 points, which is ~9 dice for 12 Logistics and 8 Housing.
And she keeps applying for the rest of Seo's term or beyond.

Tali Jackson gives 2 Military Dice in return for taking 3 ST projects.
Of the three, we already planned to do Havok this year, and the others seem relatively cheap.
Well worth the price,

EDIT
Vote changed subsequently and O'Brien dropped in favor of Graduates.
 
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While I don't think she has my vote, Mikoyan is potentially the best pick in that list. I think it's safe to assume that she will get oppotunities for traits, much like Seo did during his brief tenure as vice secretary. If we assume a rate of one trait per year, she could gain up to twelve(!) traits before she gets the big chair. At least some of those traits would probably carry an effect while she remains vice secretary as well. Of course, there is no guarantee that she would get good traits or avoid picking up outright negative ones.
 
Derpmind said:
Um. Why is no one voting for Sarang? She's giving us one of the strongest traits possible!
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I don't like the idea of her being the next Treasurer. I'm not a fan of her political apathy, but what really gets me is her words in this update have a sour taste. The ways she is very dismissive of having ideals in politics and claims that Litvinov cannot be an idealist because she wants to make things better just rubs me the wrong way and not someone I want to have running the Treasury even if she has a shiny trait.

She might be mechanically nice, but her words in the latest update are full of narrative red flags. I also don't like how she is forcing our hand on making her the next Treasurer.
 
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