Situation Foxtrot (SAO/Foxhole) [COMPLETE]

With the blizzard having finally ended, you found yourself at windershins. Expansion was still on your mind, but the question of how still rang out like a tolling bell. More people were obviously important, but more people didn't make a good unit. As it was, you'd yet to draw anyone willing to take real risks in: everyone you'd gotten was out of the Logistics Union as more and more teamsters realized that either they were in one of the component guilds, or they were getting screwed over.

And no- you wouldn't call those regiments, you called them guilds. They were nearly as exploitive as the Logistics Union, and practically worthless for anything other than the holy trinity of supplies: shirts, rifles, and 7.62 ammo. Now that there were three models of rifle floating around, they couldn't even be assed to do that right either.

Still, scraping ten warm bodies out of the Logistics Union wasn't hard- you literally put up a sign with your radio frequency on it, and got people to call in to join up from a scroop field the Union 'owned' and in reality underserviced miserably. They'd hired a few toughs, but few things got people to reconsider their mentality on the question when you had a team of scroopers behind you with Loughcasters and a willingness to use them.

The base, though, wasn't doing so good. Another three-by-one pattern, dedicated entirely to being a bunkhouse, was not enough beds for everyone, and the hot-bunking was intensifying something awful. Even with people pulling extra shifts at the scroop yard, you only barely got your hands on a flatbed by trading techmats to 46 Sustainment- and you got your first serious conversation with someone else who seemed reasonably professional.

It was about a half hour after you'd showed up with a gun to get the Logistics Union bully-boys to fuck off that 46 Sustainment rolled in with a pair of flatbeds and a crane. While your scrubs were scrooping, what appeared to be a leader came up to you with a smile. Tall, dark-skinned, and about the approximate size of a fridge, the man sat down next to you on the scroop pile you'd found a good tire to plonk yourself on.

"So you're the Uhlans we keep hearing about," he said, tapping his fingers against his knee. "I'm Agil, with the 46th."

"Colonel Orr Melanie, 15 Uhlans- unless you're hearing about some other unit?"
"29 Uhlans don't use a saber and strap for livery, and 163 Uhlans operate out of Moors. Might want to add a bit to it, by the way: you have earned battle honors."

"That mess in the blizzard is hardly worth battle honors," you protested. "We ran forward, half-assed digging in, and mostly got killed."

"Nah."

"Nah?"

"So, you're not War Bureau, so you don't know this yet and I didn't tell you this, but the Colonials have their own prototype weapons in the field. 11 Infantry captured a few when the training cadre broke ranks and charged. When we recovered the trucks that went after you, we found more of them."

"So they got some prototype rifles-"

"They're not rifles."

Now you were paying attention. "Well, they didn't try and smoke us."

"That's because their new weapon is a tripod-class gun. Thirty millimeter high-ex shell, and it'll crack open rifle garrisons or pillboxes without asking questions. Not so good at trench lines, but that implies you have people in the trench lines."

"Okay, so they've got a bunker-buster and we don't. Tell me something else bad so we can get it over with."

"We don't have a bunker-buster-"

"We have Mammons"

"-that isn't suicidal."

You grumbled. "Point. Night attacks?"

"Bunker searchlights exist."

"Under suppressive fire?"

"We don't have anything to provide suppressive fire. We would have smoke grenades, but the tech teams weren't set up to get rando techmats and every one of the idiots wanted Blakerows."

"Artillery-"

"-doesn't exist yet."

"Motherfucker," you muttered. "That's going to make pushing expensive."

"You're telling me. We captured about ten of the Colonial prototype Daucus guns, and the current plan is to put them under the command of a second-line regiment so we can be sure they don't get captured in case shit goes south."

"Good luck with that."

"Thanks. We'll need it- the War Bureau really needs more members."

"I didn't think it was undermanned," you said, scratching your chin. "You've got what, five regiments?"

"Eight: 1 Infantry, 11 Infantry, 163 Uhlans, 45 Infantry, 46 Sustainment, 52 Sustainment, 99 Engineering, and 32 Research."

"They seriously call the techmaids a Research unit?"

"Yeah, they get a kick out of it."

Sighing, you just sat down and looked at the scrap. "This whole, everything. It's too much for one person to comprehend."

"That is why there's a war bureau, yes."

You snorted. "Sure, when I get a builder worth a damn."

Agil smirked at you, before picking up his radio. "Where's your base?"

"Just north of the Lost Orphans intersection."

"99 Engineering has a team in the King to fix up the 11's training company base at Sweetholt. I'll put in a request to give your base a once-over."

And that was that. It took the better part of a week, but you got yourselves access to a real builder- and one who took a quick look at your base and started screaming. Apparently, whoever you had doing the base architecture had built in blind spots the size of Dunnes, and the angles of fire on the garrisons were cancerously bad. Fortunately, Frederick was out on a scroop run, so he couldn't bitch.

When you explained what you needed in broken French, though, the builder nodded. AT tech was a long way away, unfortunately, and you had no plans to concrete this base any time in the foreseeable future.

What this ended up getting you, though, was a large, proud ring of single-unit rifle and machine gun garrisons, a stern talking-to for Frederick about using the right god-damn patterns when he got back, and a massive pile of snarling trenchways that lead to octagons for you to put AT emplacements or MG nests. For now, though, the octagons were kill zones: if the enemy got in, any one of three trenches out would have clear and good shots on every angle of the figure.

While the build team was doing what build teams did, you also happened to learn something- the Logistics Union, in cooperation with a handful of independent regiments, was preparing for an offensive into the Nevish Line. You wished the poor bastards the best of luck: there was a relic base they'd have to bash their heads through either way to get to Scrying Belt, and if they wanted to invest it for a siege they'd need to push down to Blackcoat Way and set up a fortification there.

Really, the more you looked over your map of the Nevish Line, the worse the idea looked. It would be a slog in, Scrying Belt had a refinery and factories so they'd be a bitch to starve out, and there were a lot of ways for reinforcements to get back into the fight at any one of their likely points of frontage. Really, you'd rather push into Stonecradle: the terrain was equally shit, but it would be possible to seize The Dias from Callum's, and then start pushing in from The Moors. It would be a tighter, bloodier frontage- but that would be to your advantage, since it also meant bases only really needed to defend from one angle of attack. Just a creeping wall of bunker bases, all the way down to Buckler Sound where they put the boots to the small, secondary town, and then pivoted south to wipe Fading Lights and The Cord before moving on.
Then you could punch in and raid Oarbreaker, cut the logistics to Nevish, and then only worry about the refinery/factory pair in Scrying Belt as the grinding advance pushed their shit in. That, or a push into maybe Morgen's Crossing: it would be a lot easier to cut off, you could do water logistics in super-easily if someone took Quietus, and hey: just as much logistics value without nearly as much bullshit!

If you ever decided to talk to the War Bureau, they might appreciate some planning on that. Without good bunker-busters, you'd have to plan any advances carefully, making sure you had combat engineers and a constant supply of shirts and Mammons for the inevitably bloody charges and saps. Any advance now would be in mud, blood, and tears- the sort of fights that would make Passendale look simple. You'd be buying meters of ground with corpses- but this was Foxhole. You could walk it off, if you were good enough.

The question was, well, if.

///
Votes


BUNKER
(Choose One)
[] Expand your bunker base with additional infrastructure to sustain larger troop numbers.
(Base is currently set to auto-expand by 1x Small Pattern/turn)
[] Expand your bunker base with Defensive Patterns (Requires techniques, vote to begin development)
-[] With small patterns
-[] With medium patterns
-[] With heavy patterns
-[] With artillery firing positions
-[] With infantry fighting positions.
[] Develop a new bunker base in a better location
-[] Write in hex and town/Relic, as well as distance to front line or intended purpose.
[] Get your builders to stop expanding the base for now.

PERSONNEL
(Choose One Two!)
[] Go and recruit more personnel
-[] Mass recruitment: whatever you can get, get more of it! (Recruits 3d10 White personnel)
-[] Selective recruitment: Look for people who aren't clueless. The Logistics Union has a lot of folks. (Recruits 2d10 Green personnel)
-[] Picky recruitment: Get people who are at least as skilled as you are! (Recruits 1d10 Yellow personnel)
-[] Frontline recruitment: Go to the front and snag some blueberries! (Recruits 1d10 Orange personnel)
-[] Elite recruitment: Go find a group of lunatics, and shanghai them. (Recruits 1d10 Red personnel)
(This will help your goal of joining the Bureau of War)
(You cannot recruit units of higher rating than yourself.)
[] Commit training!
-[] Vehicle training: Teach everyone drive good. Car goes on right hand side of road, revolutionary concept. Might as well also learn to drive a flatbed, or your Drummond if you're feeling nice.
-[] Rifle training: Everyone will spend time practicing the fine art of "bullet go plink"
-[] Administration Training: At some point, you're going to figure out the fine art of delegation. Some point.
[] Extra work shifts
-[] More Scroop: Get everyone to do more rounds of scrooping at the scrap fields. You do your part, and more importantly, can use the B-mats to get useful stuff like more trucks or dedicated equipment.
-[] More Mines: Get everyone to do more rounds on the component mines and oil wells. Components mean R-mats, R-mats mean flatbeds. God, you want a flatbed.
-[] More Building: Put everyone to work on getting your bunker upgrades planned. If you don't have some planned, the bunker will get what the troops think it needs.
-[] More Logistics: Put everyone to work on hauling more truckloads of stuff from point A to point B. Whoever's manning the bunker base at the border to Weathered Expanse will be very happy to get more gear for the inevitable offensive.
[] Begin operational planning for Something Big
-[] Write-in Something Big. May generate Billets.

UPGRADES
(Choose One)
[] Go out and get yourself a lieutenant! (You may have one per twenty Regiment members, minimum one)
-[] Teach them the way of the builder, as much as you know how that works. (Adds one action to Bunker)
-[] Teach them the way of the talker, so you don't have to do that crap! (Adds one action to Personnel)
-[] Teach them the way of the organizer, so you have more time to put out more fires (Adds one action to Upgrades)
(You are at Officer Cap)
[] Find some actually good builders, and get a copy of their playbook. You don't want your bunker base to turn into a nightmare, anymore than it already is. (Unlocks Better Defensive Patterns)
(All currently developed Bunker Patterns at this tech level unlocked)
[] Find a, uh, techmaid, and get some prototype kits by hook or by crook.
-[] Angle for Cascadier 873 Kits (A standard 8mm Machine Pistol; the definition of "good enough" and handy in a storm)
-[] Angle for Cometa T2-9 Kits (A magnum revolver; allows ammunition to stack for many non-stacking uniforms)
-[] Angle for Dunne Landrunner 12c (A halftrack logistics vehicle that does exceptionally well off-road in exchange for poor speed on-road)
-[] Angle for Dunne Caravaner 2f (A personnel transport bus, seats twelve in reasonable comfort. Unarmored.)
[] Get in touch with the War Bureau to join up.
[] Get in touch with another regiment that does something you need (Discovers and improves relations with one random regiment inside the search group)
-[] Logistics
-[] Production
-[] Frontline Combat
-[] QRF
-[] Water Logistics
-[] Techmaids
-[] Partisans
[] Find a way to get your guys some quality of life upgrades so things suck less out here.

(AN: added billets to the Big Sheet)