Re: Outers vs. Inners vs. Amazons on Vanguard and my accompanying speculation on how I think each scenario may play out.
This is something I waffled a bit on when coming up with Operation Silver Lily. On the one hand, any one of these groups would probably make a good vanguard and could fill the strike team roll admirably. The Amazons are likely already blooded against Youma and I don't expect them to be in too much "actual" danger no matter what role they're put in, Cendrellion is going to be expecting the Inners
somewhere so having them up front puts them right in focus, and I'm pretty sure Uranus and Neptune were spotted with Endymion when they found the base, so they're going to be expected too. It comes down to how do we logically expect Cendrellion to respond to each group.
Keep in mind that this operation is going to be something of a reversal of the attack we just stopped at MCAT HQ. Cendrellion doesn't have to kill us (though that would certainly be a bonus for her). She just has to delay us long enough for her to finish her ritual and GTFO.
As I speculated in my vote post, I'm expecting Cendrellion to be "sipping off the top" to juice herself up a bit, and to probably have at least a few guards she's been allowing to do the same to a lesser extent to function as her elites. I'm expecting prowess' ~similar to the operation in London, or maybe slightly lower unless Cendrellion is dangerously over-consuming LE.
- Amazon Vanguard: Scenario A) Cendrellion doesn't know our plans: lighter response by Cendrellion sending out a bunch of "Fodder" youma to bog them down while keeping her Elites entirely in reserve as an honor guard for anything that slips through that the Strike Team would have to handle. Scenario B) She has spys and discovered our plans: Still sends fodder forces to bog us down, but splits her Elites to try and crush the vanguard quickly.
-- Inners on Reinforcement: Scenario A) Cendrellion has to send more if not all of her elites to hold us off, leaving a token guard for the strike team to handle, but probably still keeping the strongest of them in reserve to handle anything that gets through. There is a possibility that our combined forces of Amazons and Inners could smash through to reinforce the Strike Team, but more likely we'll get bogged down in a protracted battle outside like what happened in London. Scenario B) The same as Scenario A, but Cendrellion sends her Elites out right away and we have to intervene sooner, more than likely resulting in a protracted battle due to the better coordination their expecting us would grant. Either way, her personal guard is likely to be lighter in number but stronger individually for the Strike Team when they reach her.
-- Outers on Reinforcement: Options A) Cendrellion sends just a couple of her Elites, possibly her strongest, to reinforce the fodder guard and hold them off, leaving a larger but potentially individually less powerful honor guard for herself that the Strike Team would need to deal with. Scenario B) The same as Scenario A, but she sends them out right away and we have to reinforce sooner due to the better coordinated defense.
- Inners on Vanguard: Scenario C) Cendrellion is caught by surprise and sends nearly everything she has at us to bog us down in a protracted fight outside, leaving only a few of her best as a personal honor guard to try and stop anything that slips through. The Strike Team will have to deal with what would likely be the weakest potential honor guard of all scenarios. Scenario D) The same as Scenario C, except she's expecting us and the defense is more coordinated right from the beginning.
-- Amazons as Reinforcement: Scenario C & D) The Amazons help us deal with the lesser youma while we deal with the heavy hitters Cendrellion sends to delay us, similar to what happened in London while the strike team infiltrates and has to deal with Cendrellion's reduced guard.
-- Outers as Reinforcement: Scenario C & D) Full Send on the assault means the entire battle turns into a brawl with any given Senshi having to respond to either an Elite or multiple lesser youma at any given time. Great for a distraction for the Strike Team, but the chances of breaking through to reinforce them is probably the lowest of any configuration.
- Outers on Vanguard: Scenario E) Cendrellion is caught by surprise, but "it's only two Senshi", so she sends a good chunk of her lesser youma and probably her strongest Elite guards to deal with them quickly, but not everything she has. This leaves a more substantial force around her initially, but would draw more away once our Reinforcements come into play. Scenario F) Cendrellion knows we're coming so she sends a larger force to match us accordingly, similar to Scenarios Outers-B or D depending on if it's the Amazons or Inners we have waiting as our reinforcements.
-- Amazons as Reinforcement: Scenario E) The Amazon come in and smash the initial force sent to stop the Vanguard from the side while the Strike Team engages the guard left inside. Stands a high chance of the Vanguard and Reinforcements breaking through to assist the Strike Team, forcing Cendrellion to decide if she wants to split her forces more to hold off the assault force and leave herself vulnerable to the Strike Team, or if she wants to draw everyone in and fight all of us at once. Scenario F) See Scenario Outers-B.
-- Inners as Reinforcement: Scenario E) As Cendrellion would be unaware of our plans, this would potentially put the Senshi against the weakest scenario of first line defenders we could face and probably stands the highest chance of all scenarios of the assault force breaking through to assist the Strike Team before Cendrellion can decide to commit more forces to defending the outer perimeter. On the other hand it also leaves the Strike Team facing the strongest potential group of interior guards of any scenario. Scenario F) Cendrellion is expecting us. See Scenario Outers-D
Will we get to learn how the attack on MCAT is reported on?
Someone just launched a terrorist attack on MCAT are they going to focus on a triumphant defense or is the fact it even happened going to be spun as a governmental failure?
Unless we get an interlude mid-turn, I expect the answer to this to come in the "News This Week" update.
