Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition
Well it was expensive as hell but unfortunately necessary
- Location
- Washington DC
We stand now, triumphantly, victims of our own success. On the one hand: we have successfully launched an amphibious invasion, crushed our way through significant defenses, absorbed both major strategic counterblow and direct tactical engagement, and come through ahead; we have our link to the Himalayan BZ and our new port. On the other hand: we took some pretty heavy hits, we had to burn some pretty significant assets, and we've used up a *lot* of combat power.
Now for the geopolitical hand: we have shown that the GDI can, in fact, kick things off. This wasn't a response, this was a direct assault. We've also shown that we're willing to accept a lot of pain and still push through to victory. We've shown that we're willing to call the nuclear bluff, and, if necessary, eat the hit and go on anyway. And we've shown that we will pick out a particular warlord and just fuck them right up, apropos of nothing. What this is going to do to both NOD internal politics and GDI-NOD relations is an open question; but I can definitely see a lot of the warlords panicking more than a little over this, especially smaller ones, without strategic deterrence. If Kane doesn't rally NOD to collective defense, this single assault *may* be a major morale-breaker for NOD, and may see more of the small fry looking to conclude some kind of separate peace. If all of NOD *does* go hot, though, we may have kicked off way more than we bargained for. Unfortunately, that all hinges on Kane.
Now for the geopolitical hand: we have shown that the GDI can, in fact, kick things off. This wasn't a response, this was a direct assault. We've also shown that we're willing to accept a lot of pain and still push through to victory. We've shown that we're willing to call the nuclear bluff, and, if necessary, eat the hit and go on anyway. And we've shown that we will pick out a particular warlord and just fuck them right up, apropos of nothing. What this is going to do to both NOD internal politics and GDI-NOD relations is an open question; but I can definitely see a lot of the warlords panicking more than a little over this, especially smaller ones, without strategic deterrence. If Kane doesn't rally NOD to collective defense, this single assault *may* be a major morale-breaker for NOD, and may see more of the small fry looking to conclude some kind of separate peace. If all of NOD *does* go hot, though, we may have kicked off way more than we bargained for. Unfortunately, that all hinges on Kane.
Nah, the invasion wasn't necessary in the slightest. With the opportunity costs involved, the operation is likely a net negative for the Initiative as a whole. And definitely a net negative for humanity.
Even if Kane never pulled his deus ex machina and never offered the TCN, the resources and lives expensed here would have been better used on evacuating people to space or combatting Tiberium.
That said, while the operation may have been a net negative, it wasn't wholly useless. It strengthened Seo's political position, temporarily satiated the Initiative First and other elements hungry for war, expanded the amount of dirt the Initiative controlled, expended a large portion of Nod's nuclear arsenal, cripples a Nod warlord, captured millions of Nod civilians, and strengthened the Initiative's logistic chain.
- Location
- Wall Gazing
How much of a net negative it has been is not yet decided, bear in mind its not over yet. There is still Phase 4 and 5 of Karachi to complete, and that likely incorporates a strengthening and expanding of the BZ18 linkage, along with more operations against the Shah of Atom.
The long term balance of power is being shifted, how much is lost on the GDI's end from nuke strikes and damage to our ever stretched navy remains to be seen.
As for NOD, well, the canned sunshine has been opened and there isn't really another way for them to hold the GDI back. The next logical targets of Mondragon and Reynaldo are likely the ones most desperately trying to acquire strategic deterrents. The latter likely already has them (though given the leash Big Daddy Kane put on Reynaldo during the regency war him using them is an open question), the former is probably gonna try to team up with Stahl but the logistics links between them are tenuous even for NOD. Krukov will likely absorb what remains of Al-Isfahani's organization if there is any remaining post Karachi.
The real question is, do the Bannerjees try to strike Karachi and the BZ18 linkage before we secure it or not. This would be the right move militarily for preventing our objectives, but it would break the Pacific Conference Treaty and potentially kick off a second Regency War, this time with us pulling Operation Eastern Paris. The Bannerjees escaped any major fighting last time, they would not this time.
Current progress remaining for Karachi is: 178/390 (Phase 4), 0/780 (Phase 5) total of 178/1170 Progress.
This should cost us ~11 dice on average (assuming 5 Infrastructure and 6 Tiberium). Possible to do in 1 turn, but we will need likely need 2 as a bunch of our dice need to go to repairs (for Infrastructure) and fighting the Tib (for Tiberium). This will narratively also give some time for our supplylines to become more well established. One of the big things emphasize in the recent post was the strain this operation is putting on our logistics, so taking it a bit slower with ~2 Infra and ~3 Tib dice this turn is not nessessarily a bad thing. It will be better in the long run, but in the short term we are burning through stocks.
- Location
- alphen aan den rijn
We need more fleet assets and subs.
Nice too see the overkill on the airforce side of things.
Nice too see the overkill on the airforce side of things.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Me, I'd say maybe 2+4 Infra+Tib, or something. Or just 5 Tib, with Infrastructure focusing on repairing damages.
From GDI's viewpoint it absolutely was necessary to secure Karachi. Nobody knows in universe that Kane's gonna offer to team up.
As for the resources being better spent on going to space, tanks and battleships aren't great for that
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There will be more relevant information in the resultspost - some of the information/analysis is going there.
As regards nuclear defense: aside from the suicide nuclear infiltration, the only attacks where anything got through the not-fully-complete SADN were essentially railgun-fired, rocket-assisted hypersonic nuclear artillery shells. And in the Seattle strike, the network intercepted 9 of 15 shells, despite having a 5-second engagement time from being able to acquire the shell, to it detonating.
Other things of note: even with two Varyag-class air cruisers in play, GDI was able to establish air dominance. Although it did cost a lot of planes, and likely pilots as well. (Looks like the Thunderbolt II generation of missiles may need more range as well as better maneuverability, to be able to engage more reliably at the extreme ranges the Varyag can fire at.)
Naval logistics is ouchy, and needs help. Logistics in general, most likely.
As regards nuclear defense: aside from the suicide nuclear infiltration, the only attacks where anything got through the not-fully-complete SADN were essentially railgun-fired, rocket-assisted hypersonic nuclear artillery shells. And in the Seattle strike, the network intercepted 9 of 15 shells, despite having a 5-second engagement time from being able to acquire the shell, to it detonating.
Other things of note: even with two Varyag-class air cruisers in play, GDI was able to establish air dominance. Although it did cost a lot of planes, and likely pilots as well. (Looks like the Thunderbolt II generation of missiles may need more range as well as better maneuverability, to be able to engage more reliably at the extreme ranges the Varyag can fire at.)
Naval logistics is ouchy, and needs help. Logistics in general, most likely.
I honestly think we need more investments in the military. Particularly the navy and maybe some towards the airforce. The navy especially feels like it could use more work.
We are, according to Ithillid, spending at a scale where if we focus on core military assets (build more platforms, focus on basics rather than shinies), we would be able to conquer the planet before the Doom Clock runs out.
The navy is doing poorly because we spend a lot of time ignoring it, and they are still building hulls to make up for that lack.
- Pronouns
- He/It/Argh!
Pretty tentative impressions at the moment, but other than anti-stealth tech and sensor technology, I can't see much reason to work on SADN while it is still being finalised.
An ASAT upgrade seems useful though as it should allow for more tactical responses to detected threats.
An ASAT upgrade seems useful though as it should allow for more tactical responses to detected threats.
Nod knows who sold out al-Isfahani. It's no secret to them that China, Indonesia and India agreed with 'GDI carves a corridor through former Pakistan'. Al-Isfahani also lost his best allies in the Caravanserai through his own decision to stand aside while Mehretu tried to bring the Caravanserai to heel for treating with GDI while GDI was going 'yeah, so, Mecca? Give us basing rights and guarantees of safety and we will do everything we can to save it from tiberium' and then poured trillions into doing exactly that.
The Bannerjees could try hit the Karachi corridor. They would most certainly make it hurt, quite possibly they could cut it even after GDI's properly solidified its hold and fortified the border. But they most likely don't want to. Al-Isfahani had support because, in Nod's eyes, he was being attacked unprovoked. The Bannerjees or their subordinates making attacks on GDI lines? Brave souls, to be sure, but whatever GDI retaliation follows... it's not likely to be another land grab, so maybe India should not provoke a falcon whose claws have only sharpened for the past decade?
The Bannerjees could try hit the Karachi corridor. They would most certainly make it hurt, quite possibly they could cut it even after GDI's properly solidified its hold and fortified the border. But they most likely don't want to. Al-Isfahani had support because, in Nod's eyes, he was being attacked unprovoked. The Bannerjees or their subordinates making attacks on GDI lines? Brave souls, to be sure, but whatever GDI retaliation follows... it's not likely to be another land grab, so maybe India should not provoke a falcon whose claws have only sharpened for the past decade?
- Location
- USA
I see we are still dooming about needing to evacuate the planet.
Who is doing that, and gdi citizens don't know anything about any tiberium controller so a lot will think that fighting it is to get more resources to get a well thought out Exodus plan instead of a fast and lose one were a lot of people will be left behind.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Without some kind of magical off switch for tiberium, it seems disturbingly likely that we will need to do that. Nobody in GDI knows how to build an off switch for tiberium; we're doing our best but the math shows that it's just not going to be enough unless entirely new and unknown technologies become available.
Of course, Kane has those technologies and plans to share them with us, we have reason to think this is true because of out-of-character information we have from the game Command and Conquer 4. But in-character, we simply do not have reason to expect that, so our citizens are still thinking "shit, we need to evacuate to space."
Some of them may still have hope, since our actions definitely HAVE delayed and pushed back the tiberium 'doom clock' and there's still more we could do to push it further. And it is, after all, precedented for GDI to pull miraculous anti-tiberium techs out of a hat that significantly push tiberium back, both on the surface and to a lesser extent underground. But... it's a slim hope.
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Gana are still a problem for our infantry but with the new guns they can drop some of them before they are on them unlike before they couldn't even stop them. Baring some kinda close ranged PDW that can deal with Gana or another Weapon update I think regular troopers are just going to eat shit when facing them.
Navy logi still makes me cringe, but we are working on it. And considering NOD has literal ACE COMBAT style super railgun subs that might need to be reinforced. Hopefully the bill for fixing stuff isn't terrible. Would hate to have to spend multiple turns on recoup instead of number go up.
Likely there is going to have to a decent amount of rebuilding.
The air war continues to be painful for all people, wingman drones are going to need to be pushed as experienced pilots are now at a premium.
ZONE Gear needs more factories. Pretty self explanatory. Maybe a redesign of the Jetpack for more rugged use?
That airpod link seems to have promise if we can figure out the kinks. A Stealth plane with that pining Varyag's or air defense while perfectly safe too artillery parks sounds sexy, but it seems like there is some teething issue before we can take a honest crack at that.
Yay new humanitarian crisis of our own creation yey.
And new lines are drawn and now we are fully next to NOD Heartlands and their backyard. That's going to make people twitchy.
Time will tell if this was worth.
Navy logi still makes me cringe, but we are working on it. And considering NOD has literal ACE COMBAT style super railgun subs that might need to be reinforced. Hopefully the bill for fixing stuff isn't terrible. Would hate to have to spend multiple turns on recoup instead of number go up.
Likely there is going to have to a decent amount of rebuilding.
The air war continues to be painful for all people, wingman drones are going to need to be pushed as experienced pilots are now at a premium.
ZONE Gear needs more factories. Pretty self explanatory. Maybe a redesign of the Jetpack for more rugged use?
That airpod link seems to have promise if we can figure out the kinks. A Stealth plane with that pining Varyag's or air defense while perfectly safe too artillery parks sounds sexy, but it seems like there is some teething issue before we can take a honest crack at that.
Yay new humanitarian crisis of our own creation yey.
And new lines are drawn and now we are fully next to NOD Heartlands and their backyard. That's going to make people twitchy.
Time will tell if this was worth.
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- Location
- alphen aan den rijn
war is generally bad on logistics. still right now i thing we are giving some of that up for speeding into the other blue zone.
- Location
- MSC
Really hope GDI captured/convinced to defect some of Shah's Nuclear scientists.
Wouldn't hurt to have them, though it's never been stated that Shah was big on research.
Wouldn't hurt to have them, though it's never been stated that Shah was big on research.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Tiberium spikes are a known quantity that have known capabilities; if just building more of them was a realistic solution by itself I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be all this panic.
If that was a valid option, we wouldn't be vein mining tiberium. One could argue that we didn't have the "correct" type of spike at the time, but vein mining is still an option even now.
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I honestly don't see any other Warlords panicking that they might be next. Everyone has known this invasion was coming for years, and they've known why it was coming for years. I half expect the Regency War was meant to kick off as we started our Karachi run so GDI would be focused on one area, particularly with naval assets, when the Warlords kicked off. The only real question was if we'd be hitting the Bannerjees, the Shah, or both with our path. The peace treaty answered that question.
We don't really have a reason to target other Warlords, because there's no reason to do so other than "Nod bad." If we weren't securing a supply route to BZ18, the Shah wouldn't have been targeted in the first place. Current day Nod understands that if they don't provoke GDI, GDI will happily fight tiberium instead by doing crazy shit like invading deep into Red Zones. If they do provoke GDI, they get their face ripped off by an angry bear.
Why would gdi need nuclear scientists.