Well, it will certainly have uses in operational ground support. And one of the previews of NOD activity makes me want to send it on naval strike missions. Some juicy targets have appeared near South America.
Attempting to Fulfill the Plan: GDI Edition
Is the Aurora even carrier-compatible?
Q2 2059 Battles
- Location
- The Underdark
The Americas Front: A Play-By-Play Overview of Battles Throughout 2059; Or: The Difference between the Major Americas Warlords
[FOR PARLIAMENT] [NON-INTERNAL] [REVISED]
[FOR PARLIAMENT] [NON-INTERNAL] [REVISED]
Authors: Brigadier General Yusuf Escoffier and Senior Analyst Attur Saliach
Editor: Head of Consumption Mary Rolvsdottir
Editor: Head of Consumption Mary Rolvsdottir
Contextual Background
It has become apparent to even a large swathe of the media outlets and correspondents all around the world that the Northern Campaign in Russia was a precursor to a longer period of high intensity warfare. It's clear to all that internal Brotherhood political maneuvering is spilling over into military decision making, with major warlords launching major military operations to improve their domestic political position. While this has been known for quite some time, it is apparently entering a new phase, with success against GDI being a key element in winning political power among the Brotherhood.
This is raising fears among the general population that its a prelude to a Fourth Tiberium War even as reconstruction is in some ways still ongoing, although in other ways, GDI hasadvanced over its prior form. While significant efforts have been made to assuage this irrationality, it's not an entirely baseless scenario.
Instead, one should turn to what good tidings can be found in these times, and in this, look towards the battles in America as an extension to GDI's capacity to wage wars, its limitations, and how the shape of the adversaries would look like in the coming years.
[Nod] Operation "Talon Clip" / [GDI] Battle of Puerto Madryn
In Puerto Madryn, one of the more northerly cities in GDI controlled South America, there is a fairly substantial pre war industrial park, previously operated by a group of private companies and now operated by GDI. This quarter, Stahl chose it as a demonstration of his capabilities and his missile technology.
The battle was defined by a series of geographic and technological limitations, both for GDI and the Brotherhood of Nod. While Stahl was certainly better adapted to the region's particular environment, neither side had a decisive locational advantage. Instead, it was more of a complicating factor.
For the Initiative, the problem was in fact the initiative. While Stahl is commonly defensive, he is good at it, and routinely plays shell games with units, pushing many forward but in most cases he plays tricks to bulk out his forces, ranging from relatively simple ones like running Reckoner transports forward empty, to random missile bombardments and operating large swarms of target drones mocked up as Brotherhood vehicles. This constant maneuver makes it nearly impossible to tell when an offensive is in the offing, or where the weak points in the line are, as they are constantly shifting.
For the Brotherhood of Nod, operations in the central South American region are anchored by four rear line cities. Buenos Aires, Rosario, Córdoba, and Santiago. These four support roving patrols, especially of Stahl's mobile missile launcher systems. Hundreds of kilometers forward of these keystone cities lay the Brotherhood's front line, a deep array of forward operating bases, hubs, and defensive sites spread in a gentle arc, from Constitución, to the Mar del Plata. Between this and the edge of the Green Zone is a vast no man's land, covered on one side by missile batteries and on the other by GDI artillery. Shadow teams flit across, often at night, while zone troopers and mechanized patrols clash with the Brotherhood to limited effect.
The first stages of Stahl's offensive went off generally unnoticed, slipping in among the normal shuffling as he concentrated his missile trucks at the Mar Del Plata. Ahead of the coming of winter, on May 19, Stahl's offensive began moving south, hitting the leading edge of the Green Zone near dusk. As he moved, he faced minimal opposition, with GDI forces scattering ahead of the offensive.
The column, led by a formation of Avatars, and a pair of Redeemers bulled its way through the first of GDI's positions, a fortress town called Oriente. Having had its civilians evacuated back to the Blue Zone, Oriente had not yet received a set of the new rifled 152mm cannons, and was fairly low on ammunition. Instead of trying to hold, all but the gun crews began loading up as soon as the Brotherhood made its presence known. The moment the column was within range of the guns, they opened fire, raining shells as quickly as they could be loaded. In minutes hundreds of shells were falling downrange. While actual effectiveness was low, they kept firing, raining shellfire down on the approaching column, using the heads of the Redeemers as targeting guides. The first guns to run dry were a quartet of 203mm rifles. Soon after, Brotherhood shells begin raining down on the base. Batteries of Specter artillery had been shadowing the column, and began laying down fire. Gun bunker after gun bunker erupted in fire as the ready ammunition stockpiles exploded from direct hits. But they had done their job. With the column delayed, they had bought enough time for Initiative airbases to scramble strike groups. Out in the Atlantic, an Atlantis class aircraft carrier had already begun launching its fighter complement, as the two Governors serving as escort began preparations to unleash a ballistic missile barrage. As the surviving fire control sites fed them targeting information, sixteen missiles rained down on the column, one, by luck and good judgement slamming directly into a Redeemer.
Rather than trying to fight it out in the face of the surge of Initiative power, Stahl ordered an immediate launch of his cruise missile batteries, flinging a hundred and twenty missiles towards Puerto Madryn, to be guided in by beacons planted there. At the barest edge of his missiles' range, they leapt off the launch rails, and soared towards the city.
Over the Gulf of San Matias, the missiles ran out of fuel. Kept aloft by velocity and their lifting bodies, the missiles continued on. However, they found themselves in much the same situation that the V-1 missiles launched at Britain found themselves in. High and flying in a straight line, to conserve as much energy as possible for terminal guidance, they were sitting ducks. Firehawks and Apollos reaped their toll as the missiles were unable to maneuver. As they passed by the Punto Quiroga, an anti aircraft battery opened fire, downing more. Still others suffered technical failures as gyros failed and computer systems lost power. Finally, as they approached the city, autocannons and air defense railguns lashed out, streams of orange red tracers and blue white fire reaching out to touch the missiles as they glided towards the city.
At the same time, Stahl has begun his retreat. Pulling vital units like his remaining Redeemer back, he managed to break immediate contact within an hour, as GDI ground forces reversed out of retreat and began looking for a fight as they smelled blood. The garrison forces turned around to retake their position as soon as they could, while other GDI units, including the 13th Armored Division, attempted to cut him off, pushing into the yellow zone as they did so. However, with much of the air power available tied up either striking at Stahl's main column or chasing cruise missiles over the Atlantic, it was done, for the most part, with limited air support . While some Orcas were available, without a Firehawk or Apollo escort they were horrifically vulnerable, and could not protect the marching forces from Stahl's own air force.
At Tres Arroyos, they came under attack from multiple squadrons of Vertigo bombers, which had been held back from the main battle, rather than thrown into the fight to the south. Even as Slingshots poured fire into the sky, and missiles began finding their marks, Predator laser turrets opened fire on incoming bombs. All too few were intercepted, and many more found their marks among the ranks of the GDI force. As the 13th recovered from the first strike, it continued forward, finding suitable ground near the ruins of Energia, which Stahl had passed through on his way towards Oriente. As they deployed to take position Nod forces caught up to them, Stahl had made better time than they expected, and the 13th was caught in the open. Hammering into each other in converging desperate frontal attacks, the columns both placed the vast majority of their air defense in their rear, attempting to protect themselves from air strikes from the other side's rear line bases.
At Energia, the battle was defined by the Redeemer. Blasting through GDI forces with abandon, it carved a bloody path through the 13th's center regiment, as infantry and Predators fell with equal certainty. Behind it strode the Avatars and Purifiers of Stahl's front line wading in among GDI soldiers as they reaped their toll.
Rather than trying to destroy the 13th Division, Stahl's army stayed a close packed column, punching through GDI lines and racing for the open country and the protection of his own squadrons of Barghests, while pursued by every asset GDI had in the area and a pair of cruisers closing to naval gunfire range, . In the air above them, GDI's fliers found themselves facing a new and dangerous enemy, the Barghest-Bis, with a new weapon. Faster than the older model, it also carries a pair of air to air missiles. Even the QAAMs that the Air Force has standardized around cannot reliably generate hits in the same way that they could with the older model. With pilots unused to dodging missiles from Barghests, the first flight to meet the new enemy salvoed off their racks of QAAMs, and then began to close for the gunfight, but lost two aircraft to counterfires as the QAAMs slammed home.
After Stahl punched through, it became time to pick through the rubble. While he had inflicted damage and handed GDI a battlefield defeat, and his bombardment did manage to land sixteen missiles through the city's air defense network, it was of limited effect at best. The missiles fell well short of the industrial park that he was attempting to destroy, and most did not manage to hit anything at all, falling short of the city proper. Beyond that, the 13th, while damaged, was not destroyed, and can be rebuilt in coming quarters.
For Stahl, it has gone from battlefield generalship to a matter of politics. Although this could be problematic for GDI if he manages to convert what is a legitimately effective battlefield command to overall control over the Brotherhood of Nod, analysis of Brotherhood politics in the last half century shows that this is unlikely, as he is not a particularly charismatic leader, and his choice of discretion, although in the highest tradition of Initiative generalship, will count against him in the eyes of the Brotherhood.
Battle of the MARV Hubs
Hub Savannah
Gideon had been preparing for a strike against the MARV hubs for months. While the Mobile Bay hub was deep in the Red Zone, the Savannah one is far from it.
Red Zone Operations are always a challenge for the Brotherhood of Nod. While it is quite possible for them to do it, and in some ways it is easier for them than for the Initiative, it is still an expensive process. In general, any vehicle deployed must be considered lost. Beyond that, it is hard on the troops and most units are ineffective for some time unless given a chance to rest and recover. Additionally, it is logistically difficult. As the troops have to carry nearly everything they need with them, it is more of a series of dives into the Red Zone than a campaign.
With the Initiative surging resources to the region, and the Savannah MARV hub being both a significantly more modern as well as the more threatening location, Gideon decided to split his forces. Calling banners to him from across his territory, Gideon marched to the Savannah hub as he sent General Ambrose Patton after the one at Mobile Bay. Patton is a lesser but rising figure among Gideon's ranks. A confident general, Intelligence believes him to be a popular general, and one with political ambitions on top of his military ones. However, he is also seen as being overly aggressive, although that is likely to be a mistake with his actions in this battle.
The Battle at Savannah was relatively simple. Having rallied his troops among the ruins of Atlanta, using the remaining towers and structures along with a vast number of disruptors to hide his true strength, on May 22, he began the march towards Savannah. Leaving the militants, and much of his lighter forces behind to guard his rear, and ordering them deployed in a long arc across South Carolina, he began to move. In a fully mechanized column marching over the ruins of the I-75 to Macon, and then turning east along the I-16 to Savannah. A vanguard wedge of Scorpion tanks with dozer blades pushed aside wreck and ruin alike as they made good time along the 370 kilometer route. Knowing that he had to destroy the hub, not with a siege but with main force, his army was comparatively small, but strong. A hundred and twenty Specter artillery pieces, sixty Purifiers, and over two hundred modern Centurions left him with a force that could make the final dive from Macon to Savannah quickly. With him were dozens of Reckoner transports, stuffed to the gills with Alfancs to carry out the final assault.
The battle space was defined by three key features. The river to the north, the islands to the east, and the ruins of the city of Savannah in the west. The urban core had significantly decayed, and with GDI both accepting of refugees and not particularly far to the north, many had decamped towards GDI held territory, or been herded away by Gideon's enforcers.
The MARV hub itself is situated at the conflux of the Savannah River and the Little Black River, on a peninsula created by the Wilmington River. About two kilometers long on its landbound front, and about eight and a quarter square kilometers in area, it is a bustling hub of construction as ships make landfall to unload the masses of components for the gargantuan landships taking form inside. A thoroughly modern fortress, its defenses consist primarily of 203mm guns, with six batteries aimed towards the ruins of the old city, and a further nine along the other three sides. Beyond that, there is the forward defensive line, a series of bunkers and antitank emplacements in a half kilometer deep network of defenses, all that could be built in time for Gideon's attack, prepared to hold the line until relieved or destroyed.
General Arnold Burke, commander of the installation, chose to deploy his forces aggressively. Knowing that an attack was soon to come, his relatively small force prepared a defense in depth, laying over ten thousand mines across the ruins of Savannah, and prepared to turn it into a meat grinder for advancing brotherhood forces. Taking his two companies of Zone Troopers (all that could be spared for the hub with the Zone Operations Command increasingly stretched) he sent them, and his sniper teams, into the city proper, preparing to use their spotting capabilities to rain precision fire on the oncoming foe at twenty kilometers. However, that is less than half of the effective range of the guns, and so he put rapid spotter crews as far out as Pembroke, mounted in his Pitbulls. Additional fire support would be provided by batteries of mobile artillery positioned at Hunter Army Airfield, and blocking forces to the north, with their own batteries of artillery.
While inside a Green Zone, GDI had systematically positioned forces to ensure that it was one of the more inviting targets. A Superheavy regiment had been positioned to the south, in Brunswick, at the edge of the Green Zone. At the same time, larger formations had been placed along the Savannah river, and backed by air power. Charleston was one of the larger air bases available for GDI in the region, a mere 150 kilometers away, close enough that an aircraft could fly south, make a strike, and return well within an hour. While rearming and servicing would take longer, an absolute drumbeat of fire could be rained down upon the advancing Brotherhood army.
Gideon's force met GDI patrols three hours before dawn on the twenty fourth, having conducted a night march in order to strike GDI at the changing of the guard. Rather than be deterred by encountering a pair of Pitbulls west of Pembroke, Gideon ordered a full speed assault forward, rushing down the I-16, as flashes from battery after battery of artillery marred the skyline. With Gideon moving at high speed, and with only a brief panicked radio call by the spotters to warn GDI artillery batteries, fire was sporadic and inaccurate, especially with nobody left on station to call the fall of shot. However, as the column reached the edge of the city, fire became rapidly more precise, as the forward deployed spotters began picking off individual targets and clusters for demolition. However, as Gideon's army hit the city, it proved to be more than a slaughter, as Specter artillery dropped their cloaks and unleashed their own withering hailstorm of fire. The batteries at Hunter AFB were forced back as counterbattery shelling rained down upon them. The still standing ruins were blasted into rubble and then into craters as the Zone Troopers scampered from suburban shell to suburban shell.
As GDI forces retreated, Gideon's losses began to mount. Lances of Centurions vanished in salvoes of 203mm shells, and Purifiers detonated as railgun rounds penetrated their fuel tanks. Initiative air power was a constant thunder in the skies as Orca attack craft reaped a deadly toll. So close to Initiative airbases, the Barghest could not operate in ground attack roles, especially with high flying combat air patrols of Apollos circling above the battlefield, ready to pounce on any Brotherhood fliers like the golden eagles emblazoned on their hulls. As round after round of attacks struck home, Gideon persisted, driving deep into the ruins of the city. Half an hour after dawn, the great bulk of the MARV hub bracketed against the rising sun, Gideon's leading forces impacted the defensive line in the same way that a sentence impacts a full stop. Unleashing his Gana, the biomonsters ran headlong into rapid fire railguns, light autocannon, and heavy machine guns alongside blasts of beehive rounds and storms of shrapnel, the 152 and 203mm guns firing over open sights towards the Afancs, wiping out entire Reckoner's worth at a time. With the initial assault failing cataclysmically, the Gana falling in droves, Gideon made the decision to save his forces and fall back. Pulling out by section, Gideon retreated back towards Macon, and then took a dog leg north. While losses to Initiative harrying were substantial, they were primarily in material, rather than manpower.
Hub Mobile Bay
While Savannah had retained much of its pre Tiberium form, Mobile Bay had not. Taking his eight thousand men, Patton rallied in Tallahassee, bringing together multiple disparate forces that would be his complement for the assault. It was a heavy force, largely mechs, with one hundred and twelve Centurions for his land complement, plus a large proportion of Gideon's air forces. Armageddon bombers, broken out of the storage that they had been placed in due to the everpresent threat of the Apollo, over a hundred Vertigos, plus swarms of Barghests, and Venoms. It was a formidable force, there was no chance that GDI could defeat them conventionally.
Initiative forces in the region were relatively bare. While a carrier group had been on station the week before, the spotting of a Falak in the South Atlantic had drawn it away to conduct antisubmarine warfare operations. Similarly, air forces in the area had been drawn north, fighting Gideon's main thrust against the MARV hub in Savannah. Fortunately for GDI, it would not be a particularly conventional battle. With such a large formation it was impossible to keep it all hidden, and by the 22nd it was clear that battle was in the offing. Rather than waiting for Patton to make his move, Colonel Katherine Manley made the first move. Taking all sixteen available MARVs, she moved east, out of the Red Zone operational area, and towards Tallahassee. These landships had been substantially upgraded, loaded down with Thunderbolt 20s for surface to surface and surface to air work, and with a pair of laser point defense mounts, rendering most incoming fire less effective. In addition, they had been slathered in every gram of ablative plating that could be spared. While not enough by any means, it did substantially add to their survivability.
As for the supporting forces, Colonel Manley had little to hand. Two companies of Predator Tanks and a company of Pacifiers, plus a handful of Slingshot Antiaircraft Vehicles were all she had that could make the journey to Tallahassee. All were green formations, raised after the war, with no battlefield experience. While she took them with her, they would play little role in the battle to come compared to the massive supertanks that were the core of her forces.
Sixteen titanic landships moving cross country were a significant shock to the Brotherhood forces, especially with their morale already shaken by Gideon's earlier defeat at Savannah, and his ongoing retreat back into the Deep Yellow Zones, what few remained in the American South. Additionally, supplies had been few and late, with the retreating Brotherhood forces disrupting traffic during their escape. Despite the work of Confessors and Gideons own inquisitors to silence the word, it had spread quickly.
With little in the way of artillery, and a very limited ground force, Patton chose to instead prepare an evacuation, pushing his secondary forces back into reserve positions, and sending forth only relatively expendable units. Looking at previous battles, it is not hard to see Patton's logic, with Stahl having sent a Redeemer, and an overall much heavier force at a MARV hub previously, and seen it destroyed, Patton had little chance of securing a victory here, and he apparently knew that all too well.
However, he would not go down without a fight. Sending forward every available Armageddon bomber, he split his forces between the Hub and the advancing fleet. The strike on the Hub proved the air defenses worked. While the bombers were able to get close enough to deliver their bomb loads, flying high and fast, they were unable to turn fast enough to get out of the line of fire, and while the bombs fell towards the Hub, missiles and ribbons of fire streaked past them, heading towards the bombers. In singletons and pairs bombers fell from the sky, often wreathed in flames as their fuel stores ignited and remaining munitions detonated. However, the hub was rocked by detonations. While the bombs were in many cases too light to crack open the fortified bunkers, many of the surface installations were ruined, and the base pockmarked by craters. Casualties were light, with much of the Initiative garrison having taken shelter against the incoming firestorm in the reinforced MARV bays and other well protected hardpoints.
The MARVs themselves received a much smaller force, delivering much lighter bombs. Rather than attempting to crack the hulls, the rain of submunitions would damage the guns, the hardpoints, the tracks and the tiberium intakes. As they crossed into Florida, near what was once Pensacola, the Armageddons assigned to them hit, unleashing full bomb loads, and escaping virtually unscathed. While the MARVs did fire back, unleashing salvoes of T20Es towards their attackers, few hit, and fewer still managed to do damage. The Armageddons however did little in return, as the missiles disrupted their formation, and many of their FASCAM bombs were intercepted, even when dropped only a few hundred meters short of their targets. However, they did manage to damage track pods on three of the MARVs, immobilizing the Diplomatic Solution's charlie track pod, and the Omlette's and Big Stick's alpha pods.
While the damage slowed the onrushing glacier of metal, it did not stop it, and while it bought Patton time, it did not buy enough. On the evening of the 24th, as dusk fell, the MARVs came within sight of Tallahassee, and Patton knew that he had to make a stand. Taking his Centurions into the hills northwest of the city, he began fighting a mobile delaying action, firing a shot or two and falling back while another lance opened fire. The Centurions bought precious hours as they repeatedly forced the MARVs to form a laager in order to protect themselves and prevent individual MARVs from being swarmed. However, in doing so they took heavy losses, as Thunderbolt missiles slammed into armored hulls, delivering HEAT and EFP warheads as they did so. Sonic cannons boomed out, shattering the hillsides as the MARVs pushed ever forward. Even slowed by repeated air strikes, they slogged through.
The final breakthrough occurred in the early hours of the 25th, as the MARVs blasted into the core of the city, wrecking all before them as Patton's expended formations finally broke north, disengaging from Manley's armored fist.
The end result is that the MARV hub and fleet were notably damaged, but at the same time, there were no destroyed MARVs and the hub is likely to be completely repaired by the end of next quarter, the MARVs sooner.
In total, Gideon's assaults did little damage to the Initiative, and expended or scattered much of his heavy force. The war in the American South may not be over, but it is likely entering a new phase, one where the growing Blue Zone will cut the Brotherhood off from support, and leave them to wither on the vine in all likelihood. However, in terms of Brotherhood politics, it is likely that Gideon will weather this failure like he has his other losses. The coming loss of the American South is likely to be more problematic for him, giving leave for another warlord to take significant parts of the disconnected territory, and potentially topple both into a second tier of warlords, neither placed well to contest overall leadership.
In terms of all the economic '____ Plan' quests that have sprung up recently, I enjoy this one the most because there is enough of an antagonistic force split across internal politics, tiberium, and NOD to make every decision seem impactful as well as creating a more vibrant world instead of a vacuum.
@Vehrec I take it these are the targets you mentioned?
I believe this is our first time seeing Redeemers. No sign of the Rage Generator, though.
Makes me wonder if the cruise missile barrage was intended as a diversion. The missiles themselves seemed terribly engineered, and an action like that would be par for the course for Stahl.
Pretty significant losses here. Perhaps the Mastodon could prevent an incident like this from happening (that is, if the mainline Ground Forces adopt it)?
I feel like Tactical Airborne Lasers could be an effective weapon against upgraded Barghests.
Stahl has strategic talent but not charisma, whereas Gideon has the opposite combination. I'm not sure if either of them will lead, especially if Gideon's recklessness gets him killed.
Until now, I've been imagining the Reclamator Hubs as the buildings from C&C 3.
Beautiful.
I just want to point out how powerful the Apollo is. Consistently able to shoot down entire squadrons of Venoms and even Barghests with minimal losses, and only barely being matched now by Stahl's Barghest-Bis.
Did the MARVs actually scare Patton into not deploying most of his aerial assets?
MARVs are proper landships. They're huge and heavily armed. And have names. Very fitting ones, at that.
They're also able to wipe out most of an armor column very quickly. Might be worth building wherever we face significant threats from conventional units.
Fun.
- Location
- Most likely California
git rekt, Gideon. 
It'll be interesting to see how this changes the North America scene. Chances are the American South was one of the primary source of industry and recruits for the NA Brotherhood of Nod, and thus the primary battleground between GDI and NOD. It's loss may mean that focus will shift to another region, and possibly a new local warlord that may challenge Gideon for influence. Looking at the map, I think the most likely regions are either Ontario, or North Mexico.
It'll be interesting to see how this changes the North America scene. Chances are the American South was one of the primary source of industry and recruits for the NA Brotherhood of Nod, and thus the primary battleground between GDI and NOD. It's loss may mean that focus will shift to another region, and possibly a new local warlord that may challenge Gideon for influence. Looking at the map, I think the most likely regions are either Ontario, or North Mexico.
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Wow, omelettes are such a game changer that the military is naming MARVs after them.
Either this is typical military humor on regards to names, or it's an honored name for how much eggs and cheese have turned the tide of the war.
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I predict the airforce will want lasers and more stages of Universal Rockets to counter NOD's newest fighters.
A point in favour of developing upgraded Recon vehicles - to allow for closer, more aggressive scouting.
The first time we saw Redeemers in action was back in 2056.
I'd recommend checking out the spinoffs as well: SCEDQuest in this thread, about GDI's space exploration agency, and GDI Platoon Commander in its own, which is similar to the Command & Conquer games themselves. This is a very good setting, far better than the canonical continuation, which is so bad most of the C&C fanbase has resorted to ignoring its existence.
I wonder if Scrin hovertech, perhaps in combination with our own, could help with this. There was a development project for a "Bulldog" ARV with a railgun, but it was removed in Q2 2058.
For some reason I thought the battle of YZ-5a occurred at the Chicago Planned City.
That was...pretty unimpressive?
Strategic momentum has shifted to GDI. Yellow Zone outreach means that more and more of the planet's population is living under the Initiative, and steady economic growth means that GDI has more resources to devote to military spending. Time is not on Nod's side.
Stahl launched a well planned and well executed offensive that inflicted major casualties on one GDI armored division. It was a tactical victory with no meaningful strategic impact, and it doesn't seem to be giving Stahl the political boost he needs to make himself First Warlord. He remains a capable general without the political support needed to make himself into a greater threat.
Gideon, on the other hand, has political ability without military competence. His attack on Savannah seemed entirely pointless, as he pushed into a fortified position under constant artillery and air strikes. This is not what an insurgent should be doing. If he had preserved his forces like Stahl, then GDI would have been forced to operate much more cautiously. By launching a failed offensive, he has wasted his resources and accelerated the loss of the American South.
The bigger picture appears exceptionally positive. GDI controls the skies, and GDI has more firepower in a stand-up fight. Nod is going to lose territory, and more importantly people, to the expanding Green Zones. Stahl's successful offensive did nothing to halt our momentum, while Gideon's defeat puts Nod on the back foot in the former United States.
Strategic momentum has shifted to GDI. Yellow Zone outreach means that more and more of the planet's population is living under the Initiative, and steady economic growth means that GDI has more resources to devote to military spending. Time is not on Nod's side.
Stahl launched a well planned and well executed offensive that inflicted major casualties on one GDI armored division. It was a tactical victory with no meaningful strategic impact, and it doesn't seem to be giving Stahl the political boost he needs to make himself First Warlord. He remains a capable general without the political support needed to make himself into a greater threat.
Gideon, on the other hand, has political ability without military competence. His attack on Savannah seemed entirely pointless, as he pushed into a fortified position under constant artillery and air strikes. This is not what an insurgent should be doing. If he had preserved his forces like Stahl, then GDI would have been forced to operate much more cautiously. By launching a failed offensive, he has wasted his resources and accelerated the loss of the American South.
The bigger picture appears exceptionally positive. GDI controls the skies, and GDI has more firepower in a stand-up fight. Nod is going to lose territory, and more importantly people, to the expanding Green Zones. Stahl's successful offensive did nothing to halt our momentum, while Gideon's defeat puts Nod on the back foot in the former United States.
Sailor_Skarro
The Lurker
The joke was about the MARV being very good at breaking eggs, like the expression.
It wasn't. Rather, Stahl pushed in to launch those missiles, but the intended launch point was substantially closer than where he ended up launching them from. If it wasn't for the fact that they were shot at absurdly long range they would've been substantially more capable weapons.
But, well, he ran into the defenses and air assets moved to punish him for it. Better to take the shot even under very bad circumstances than not take the shot.
No, no it's not. Artillery engaging enemy forces over open sights means that said enemy forces are within a couple of kilometers at most. That is bad. Really, really bad.
Not really. From a purely military standpoint the MARVs are actually kinda useless. Not bad as a weapons platform, mind you, but not as cost effective as paying the same amount of money for more conventional forces. But a massed force like this, especially in the Red Zones these things are meant to thrive in? Well, Patton could've won if it was just the Hub.
MARVs are tanks, or at least tank like enough that command handles naming them like really big tanks.
Tanks are named by their crew. It was probably some wit that came up with that name.
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We have to not get completely clobbered to worry about that, so, eh.
Tactical Airborne Lasers...or Wingman Drones to flood the skies with airframes. Choices, choices.
I smell a hint to get the Super Orcas out already. They'll still be vulnerable to Banshee-bis but at least they can defend themselves.
- Location
- The Underdark
One thing to note is that these are tactical range cruise missiles that were intended to launch from Monte Hermoso, about 525 klicks from target. The actual launch point was 585 kilometers. Missiles were designed with a range of approximately 500.
I must have overlooked that, or thought it was referencing the Reclamator Hub's defense cannons. In hindsight, it reinforces the need for either better recon vehicles or, perhaps, the Aurora, so, in a defensive battle, Nod assets can be destroyed before getting that close to our position. I recall the Space Force also wanting some kind of orbital artillery as OSRCT support.
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Auroras are strategic bombers--and not, like, a big dumb bomb truck like the B-52, it's more of a stealthy penetrator. Not really useful in CAS.
And ortillery still needs spotters on the ground due to bullshit stealth. So better recce it is.
Technically speaking, they're not mutually exclusive. And I, for one, am in favor of turning the sky into an anti-Nod rave.
The Spectres, which have stealth, did drive some of our batteries back, so that would make sense.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Mmm.
Sorry. When I think of strategic bombers being used for CAS, I'm imagining a B-52 loaded up with laser-guided bombs, lazily orbiting the area of operation for hours at a sortie, plinking targets as called by spotters.
The Aurora doesn't quite fit into that model. It's got more payload than the Apollo, if we're going by the FB-22 model, but not that much more and with the loiter time to match.
For military purposes, certainly.
It's important to remember that MARVs? They're tib abatement machines first and foremost. They're armed and armoured because a mobile front line refinery is a tempting target for Nod.
Speedy penetrators actually.
An Aurora's response to air defenses is 'I am too fast'.
You. I like you.
Let us give Nod the party it deserves.
If Nod decides to Leroy Jenkins into a heavily fortified position with zero regard for casualties, they're probably going to get pretty close. This is not "really, really bad". It is really, really good.
Like Krukov, Gideon launched a major offensive for political reasons. Unlike Krukov, Gideon has no symbolic victory to justify his losses. He didn't destroy or even really damage the MARV hub, and GDI casualties were minimal.
Gideon kept pushing in the face of constant air strikes and wasted his biomonsters in a banzai attack against massed firepower. This was a disaster for Nod, and it may knock Gideon out of the running for First Warlord.
I believe the Apollo is intended to be this from C&C 3. No idea about the Aurora, but I think it's a derivative.
- Location
- Washington DC
I love this line. This is very evocative writing, and it's great. Kudos!
That said...where the hell were the ion cannons? We've got this great big constellation of orbital death rays, we knew where the enemy was in at least one and arguably two of these engagements, so why didn't we flash fry them from the sky?