Remove ads

Victoria Falls: A Post-Collapse American Nation Quest [Down With Victoria!]

Voting is open
Reader mode
Simon_Jester said:
The drawback, of course, is the risk of our gunboats getting hit from the air. So far they've given as good as they've got from air attack, and the enemy air force is pretty chewed up and so may be reluctant to sortie heavily after knowing they've driven our air force out of the picture.

Bear in mind that one of the F-16's weapons of choice is the Maverick antitank missile, and Mavericks are pretty much ideally suited to being used on ground targets in large numbers. If one or two of those actually hit one of our gunboats it'd probably leave the poor thing dead in the water if not sinking.

By now they must be very aware of the gunboats as a threat to them, and while they're probably too politically correct (heh) to say anything about it the Commonwealth Navy is likely picking up boogeyman status in their eyes to some extent. I expect them to make some serious effort to sink our ships every time they get firm information on their whereabouts while having the air assets to do anything about it.

[Unfortunately, Toledo's airports are awkwardly far inland and we may not be able to hit them with gunboat attacks without sailing dangerously close to shore or straight up the Maumee River, at which point we could easily wind up trading shots with enemy tanks at close range. Not so good.]

Yeah. Now we're seeing why that was a -2 CP option at game start.

One thing I hope we're doing, and that our land forces can/should do, is push technical patrols as far south as possible to at least see the Victorians coming if they've already started their march.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I actually thought that I read somewhere that while our naval strength lies in gunboats, we have smaller ships, which was what I was proposing we use. Though I can't find any mention of that right now, so I could be completely wrong here. The worry I have with technicals is that they can't easily cross rivers, which is where the ship scouting becomes advantageous. But yes, we should already be doing that.
 
Last edited:
clockworkchaos said:
I actually thought that I read somewhere that while our naval strength lies in gunboats, we have smaller ships, which was what I was proposing we use. Though I can't find any mention of that right now, so I could be completely wrong here. The worry I have with technicals is that they can't easily cross rivers, which is where the ship scouting becomes advantageous. But yes, we should already be doing that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well, our gunboats can operate on rivers pretty well, and come to think of it they DO carry motorboats with machine guns that can go in places we wouldn't normally send the gunboats.
 
clockworkchaos said:
That was what I was thinking of. Admittedly those probably don't carry much fuel, so not sure how viable this really is.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
For a quick run up a river mouth or something they're surely viable- I imagine that's a big part of what they're for. The problem is, of course, that the gunboat has to hang around while the motor launch is scouting.

I'm wondering if we could make it work as a night operation and try to get the hell out of the waters immediately around the mouths of the Raisin and Huron. On the one hand it might be safer; on the other hand, we wouldn't learn as much since any troops trying to make a crossing would be less active at night.
 
[X] Plan Force Preservation
-[X][AIR] The air force is shattered, its pilots badly burnt out. Stand them down and give them a break. In the unlikely event that you need to piss away four planes at a later date, you can always call them back up again. It's not like their odds of making a dent will meaningfully improve by staying geared up.
-[X][NAVY] Enemy air supremacy and foul weather, in shallow-drafted boats with no deck armor? Yeah, no. Pull your gunships back, and await a better opportunity. Time plays to your advantage with both of these problems. The army can endure, but every ship you lose is precious.
 
[X] Plan Raise Periscope
-[X][AIR] The air force is shattered, its pilots badly burnt out. Stand them down and give them a break. In the unlikely event that you need to piss away four planes at a later date, you can always call them back up again. It's not like their odds of making a dent will meaningfully improve by staying geared up.
-[X][NAVY] Enemy air supremacy and foul weather, in shallow-drafted boats with no deck armor? Yeah, no. Pull your gunships back, and await a better opportunity. Time plays to your advantage with both of these problems. The army can endure, but every ship you lose is precious.
-[X] Write-in: You don't know what the other half of the Victorian army is doing. Make it a priority to get some reconnaissance information on the situation south of the defense lines on the south side of the city, by whatever means seem feasible and not needlessly dangerous. This may include naval action after the weather clears, but not air action with the handful of planes you have left.
 
[X] Plan Raise Periscope
-[X][AIR] The air force is shattered, its pilots badly burnt out. Stand them down and give them a break. In the unlikely event that you need to piss away four planes at a later date, you can always call them back up again. It's not like their odds of making a dent will meaningfully improve by staying geared up.
-[X][NAVY] Enemy air supremacy and foul weather, in shallow-drafted boats with no deck armor? Yeah, no. Pull your gunships back, and await a better opportunity. Time plays to your advantage with both of these problems. The army can endure, but every ship you lose is precious.
-[X] Write-in: You don't know what the other half of the Victorian army is doing. Make it a priority to get some reconnaissance information on the situation south of the defense lines on the south side of the city, by whatever means seem feasible and not needlessly dangerous. This may include naval action after the weather clears, but not air action with the handful of planes you have left.
 
LHB said:
So in other words something like this (red line is the second defensive position, blue box is the Vicks at Leamington):



Where would that put our first line the troops have fallen back to?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Here's my stab as to what the defensive lines they would've fallen back to:



The bulk of the supplies and fortifying would most likely have been around the township of Essex. Besides being big enough to safely disperse supplies for 3rd Division, it also sits on Highway 3 which from Leamington would be a straight shot into Windsor. It's a pretty logical place to build a temporary stronghold since besides the population it's one of the few places with a lot of cover on the peninsula. The only other notable settlement within a 10km range of Essex is Cottam (located on the crossroad of 34 and 27 to the southeast of Essex) which is a small village and thus would get the dubious reward of being fortified to check a (not-so-theoretical anymore) Victorian advance coming from Leamington. The rest of the positions are based around using the various linear settlements and maybe still standing buildings that dot the landscape as defensive works with some trench digging and bunkers built up. All of them can be covered by howitzer batteries based in Essex which should provide enough fire to both interdict troop columns on the march and provide cover for our retreating troops.
 
[X] Plan Raise Periscope
-[X][AIR] The air force is shattered, its pilots badly burnt out. Stand them down and give them a break. In the unlikely event that you need to piss away four planes at a later date, you can always call them back up again. It's not like their odds of making a dent will meaningfully improve by staying geared up.
-[X][NAVY] Enemy air supremacy and foul weather, in shallow-drafted boats with no deck armor? Yeah, no. Pull your gunships back, and await a better opportunity. Time plays to your advantage with both of these problems. The army can endure, but every ship you lose is precious.
-[X] Write-in: You don't know what the other half of the Victorian army is doing. Make it a priority to get some reconnaissance information on the situation south of the defense lines on the south side of the city, by whatever means seem feasible and not needlessly dangerous. This may include naval action after the weather clears, but not air action with the handful of planes you have left.
 
[X] Plan Raise Periscope
-[X][AIR] The air force is shattered, its pilots badly burnt out. Stand them down and give them a break. In the unlikely event that you need to piss away four planes at a later date, you can always call them back up again. It's not like their odds of making a dent will meaningfully improve by staying geared up.
-[X][NAVY] Enemy air supremacy and foul weather, in shallow-drafted boats with no deck armor? Yeah, no. Pull your gunships back, and await a better opportunity. Time plays to your advantage with both of these problems. The army can endure, but every ship you lose is precious.
-[X] Write-in: You don't know what the other half of the Victorian army is doing. Make it a priority to get some reconnaissance information on the situation south of the defense lines on the south side of the city, by whatever means seem feasible and not needlessly dangerous. This may include naval action after the weather clears, but not air action with the handful of planes you have left.
 
Exterminatus said:
Here's my stab as to what the defensive lines they would've fallen back to:



The bulk of the supplies and fortifying would most likely have been around the township of Essex. Besides being big enough to safely disperse supplies for 3rd Division, it also sits on Highway 3 which from Leamington would be a straight shot into Windsor. It's a pretty logical place to build a temporary stronghold since besides the population it's one of the few places with a lot of cover on the peninsula. The only other notable settlement within a 10km range of Essex is Cottam (located on the crossroad of 34 and 27 to the southeast of Essex) which is a small village and thus would get the dubious reward of being fortified to check a (not-so-theoretical anymore) Victorian advance coming from Leamington. The rest of the positions are based around using the various linear settlements and maybe still standing buildings that dot the landscape as defensive works with some trench digging and bunkers built up. All of them can be covered by howitzer batteries based in Essex which should provide enough fire to both interdict troop columns on the march and provide cover for our retreating troops.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This looks promising and I kind of hope it's true, because it means we don't have to fall back all the way to Windsor in a single bound.
 
[X] Plan Raise Periscope
-[X][AIR] The air force is shattered, its pilots badly burnt out. Stand them down and give them a break. In the unlikely event that you need to piss away four planes at a later date, you can always call them back up again. It's not like their odds of making a dent will meaningfully improve by staying geared up.
-[X][NAVY] Enemy air supremacy and foul weather, in shallow-drafted boats with no deck armor? Yeah, no. Pull your gunships back, and await a better opportunity. Time plays to your advantage with both of these problems. The army can endure, but every ship you lose is precious.
-[X] Write-in: You don't know what the other half of the Victorian army is doing. Make it a priority to get some reconnaissance information on the situation south of the defense lines on the south side of the city, by whatever means seem feasible and not needlessly dangerous. This may include naval action after the weather clears, but not air action with the handful of planes you have left.
 
Exterminatus said:
Here's my stab as to what the defensive lines they would've fallen back to:



The bulk of the supplies and fortifying would most likely have been around the township of Essex. Besides being big enough to safely disperse supplies for 3rd Division, it also sits on Highway 3 which from Leamington would be a straight shot into Windsor. It's a pretty logical place to build a temporary stronghold since besides the population it's one of the few places with a lot of cover on the peninsula. The only other notable settlement within a 10km range of Essex is Cottam (located on the crossroad of 34 and 27 to the southeast of Essex) which is a small village and thus would get the dubious reward of being fortified to check a (not-so-theoretical anymore) Victorian advance coming from Leamington. The rest of the positions are based around using the various linear settlements and maybe still standing buildings that dot the landscape as defensive works with some trench digging and bunkers built up. All of them can be covered by howitzer batteries based in Essex which should provide enough fire to both interdict troop columns on the march and provide cover for our retreating troops.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oh, I completely missed the initial question. Yes, the first defensive line centers on Essex and takes advantage of the road nexus there, and it's set up broadly like you say. Of course, the entire defensive effort is not contained within Essex; that would be leaving a lot of room for an encirclement. However, the hard center of the initial defense is based in Essex, given that the terrain in this region is just genuinely awful for defensive battles. The defense is far more fluid at this stage.
 
[X] Plan Raise Periscope
 
PoptartProdigy said:
Oh, I completely missed the initial question. Yes, the first defensive line centers on Essex and takes advantage of the road nexus there, and it's set up broadly like you say. Of course, the entire defensive effort is not contained within Essex; that would be leaving a lot of room for an encirclement. However, the hard center of the initial defense is based in Essex, given that the terrain in this region is just genuinely awful for defensive battles. The defense is far more fluid at this stage.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Thankfully we've crippled their motorized/mechanized assets. So they should be slower than our motorized infantry. But their sheer number is still a big problem.

Poptart are you able to tell us the dice roll modification for the Victorians in terms of their numbers now that they will be attacking our line of defense with both 3rd and 2nd Divisions defending it?
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Voting is open
Remove ads
Back
Top