Which matters not at all as far as the in-game consequences of our decision whether or not to get our people killed supporting their suicidally stupid tactics and breakdown in discipline goes. We are in charge, they agreed to it, then they broke ranks without orders. They should be grateful that we don't simply order our troops to shoot through them.
Age of Strife
Which matters not at all as far as the in-game consequences of our decision whether or not to get our people killed supporting their suicidally stupid tactics and breakdown in discipline goes. We are in charge, they agreed to it, then they broke ranks without orders. They should be grateful that we don't simply order our troops to shoot through them.
- Location
- Pilipinas
then make a write-in to do so since I think its allowed... besides we have the opportunity to win immediately here...
Last edited:
- Location
- Cyberspace
[X] Charge! - You need to break those lines and eliminate their launchers
-[X] Move forces left and right to turn the 504s battle line into an arc so we have opportunities to fire with a bit of a flank.
-[X] Have the Dragonflies act as a second line for the 504s (and no friendly casualties, kindly?) and fortify our own groups.
Not optimal, but we *do* have other considerations. Moreover, with the 504s in their face, there's unlikely to be too much launcher fire - and we can be watching for it. Space our troops out a bit to minimize damage from a successful launch, perhaps curve around a bit so we're turning the 504's line into more of an arc and get a bit of a clean shot at the second or third ranks of the Imperators.
-[X] Move forces left and right to turn the 504s battle line into an arc so we have opportunities to fire with a bit of a flank.
-[X] Have the Dragonflies act as a second line for the 504s (and no friendly casualties, kindly?) and fortify our own groups.
Not optimal, but we *do* have other considerations. Moreover, with the 504s in their face, there's unlikely to be too much launcher fire - and we can be watching for it. Space our troops out a bit to minimize damage from a successful launch, perhaps curve around a bit so we're turning the 504's line into more of an arc and get a bit of a clean shot at the second or third ranks of the Imperators.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sometimes I forget that you guys don't have the same continuity of story in your heads as I do. Now I am holding back information, obviously, but I double checked that I did give you enough information to make a stab at this one.
I was going to offer a reward if anyone could figure out an explanation from the information I had presented, I just couldn't figure out what. Would you prefer intell or a minor research boost to a random project?
The 504s have a special mechanic actually.
I was going to offer a reward if anyone could figure out an explanation from the information I had presented, I just couldn't figure out what. Would you prefer intell or a minor research boost to a random project?
The 504s have a special mechanic actually.
Shooting through them, while technically justified, would probably be more expensive than it is worth both militarily and diplomatically. Better to let them get their troops killed breaking the enemy, then leverage their misconduct to extract diplomatic concessions later- not the least of which will be full acknowledgement that we were completely justified in falling back to preserve our troops as long as we were still generously and graciously going to treat the disobedient 504 troops as objects which we should make efforts to avoid perforating.
These are Soviet expies. Shooting their own troops in the back for disobeying orders is kind of their thing. We are not going to suffer diplomatic consequences for letting them face the natural consequences of their own decisions without getting our people killed bailing them out.
-and we can win just fine when the 504 either succeed in breaking the Imperator lines, or die and leave an open line of fire for our troops to cut them down at a safe and comfortable distance.
Last edited:
- Location
- Pilipinas
ok, i don't really see the problem here since its a win-win situation. yes, our troops may die but we have better armor, weapons and training. so unless the dice gods hates us and its a total party kill, I think the losses are acceptable. Besides word of GM states that the 504's operate in a very different mechanic, i think we can exploit this in another joint military venture.
Last edited:
So they're using Grenade fruit or do they have a template for only explosives? It sounds like the latter since nothing about those spheres thrown at us sounded like Death Pineapples.
- Location
- Pilipinas
ok, citation here please since when we trained and fought with them this was never described...
Let's figure it out after the current event is complete. My instinct is to immediately go for the intel, but intel is only as valuable as one's ability and willingness to properly capitalize on it, which is... less than certain when decisions come down to the collective strategic wisdom of a group who neigh-unanimously feel that it is a good idea to ignore their radically asymmetric firearms and charge into melee combat against an unflankable professional and blooded phalanx shield wall in confined and possibly enemy-prepared foreign terrain when our troops' melee weapons amount to "probably not even bayonets" and the opposing force has portable cover allowing point-blank use of their fragmentation grenades.
Assuming that they don't have any reserves or other surprises buried in this section of tram they have had weeks to prepare in advance for use in combat, yes, we would likely win. We will be even more likely to win if we use our troops properly instead of wasting their lives.
-and the GM stated that they have one special mechanic, not that their entire system works on very different rules.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You will have to figure that out for yourself, but both explanations are viable for why their technology would be so disjointed.
It's more that you guys are really good at missing the conspiracies that are there for the ones that aren't and I wanted to make sure you didn't drive yourselves nuts without giving away OOC knowledge.
I would wager that they- or more likely the Recyclers, are growing explosive fruit. Standard explosives would be fairly straightforward to convert into projectile propellant, while we already know that native plants can be difficult to refine. Since the place by far best suited to domesticating local flora is the Recycler base it also explains their recent alliance and the timing of it occurring right after the Imperators learned that they were going to be facing firearms as the strategic value of trade access to the Recyclers' explosives having, well, exploded.
- Location
- Pilipinas
I meant the shooting in the back part and not the Soviet ideology part, since shooting soldiers in the back is not something the Soviets invented and it would have come up during our joint training with them and the Grave Tenders...
-hence why we need to charge to take advantage of the situation
-even if its only one, it's still a useful mechanic hence their name as assault troops
Last edited:
[X] Charge! - You need to break those lines and eliminate their launchers
-[X] Move forces left and right to turn the 504s battle line into an arc so we have opportunities to fire with a bit of a flank.
-[X] Have the Dragonflies act as a second line for the 504s (and no friendly casualties, kindly?) and fortify our own groups.
-[X] Move forces left and right to turn the 504s battle line into an arc so we have opportunities to fire with a bit of a flank.
-[X] Have the Dragonflies act as a second line for the 504s (and no friendly casualties, kindly?) and fortify our own groups.
The Red Army may not have invented barrier troops, but they were the ones most notoriously associated with maintaining discipline by reserving forces which could have otherwise been fighting the enemy for the explicit purpose of gunning down any of their own troops who tried to retreat without orders.
The 504's have demonstrated a willingness to tolerate monstrous casualties, and we see things like their troops wearing armor which several earlier people have clearly been killed in. We are not going to face serious diplomatic consequences for deciding not to get our troops killed to rescue them from their own objectively stupid decisions.
-and why would the need for barrier troops come up during a training exercise? The troops know that even if they lose they are not going to die, so they are much less likely to break and run and hence there is much less call for tenders intimidating them into running towards the enemy.
-or why we should be cautious and fight like a firearm-armed modern military instead of a bronze age rabble. There is nothing to "take advantage of" here. The situation is worse than if the 504 had never charged because we can't just tell our automatic-weapon-armed troops to start throwing lead at the enemy for fear of hitting our allies or withdraw and use our jaeger training to use the forest to slip around them. The advantage will come after the 504 either break the shield wall or die off and give us a clear line of fire on the weakened enemy line. Deciding to run up so that the enemy can drop grenades directly on our heads while we shove against our allies in an attempt to get close enough to start slamming rifle stocks onto the enemy shields while two lines of spears turn the whole front into a meat grinder is not going to "take advantage" of anything.
Awesome- so leave them to do the assaulting. There is no reason to have our ranged troops start trying to shove their way between the power tool and flamethrower-wielding maniacs taken with a blinding berserk fury amidst a smoky, deafening mess of a disorganized and tightly confined battlefield.
Last edited:
Intel please.
A minor tech bonus won't change things much, we'll get it eventually.
Intel can be leveraged in so many ways.
[X] Charge! - You need to break those lines and eliminate their launchers
-[X] eliminate their grenadiers first then take their commander captive if possible
The charge is actually to our advantage here.
They have grenades. A mid range standoff hurts us badly.
They have heavy armor that most of our light weapons don't work well on. This means even more deaths from grenades.
504 has heavy armor shredding melee weapons. This lets them hammer through the enemy negating armor advantage.
Press the fight now and their frontlines will break even if we charged unarmed. 504 needs human weight right now to force their cutters through the front to get the grenadiers. Once the grenadiers are out we can disengage and go shooty
-[X] eliminate their grenadiers first then take their commander captive if possible
The charge is actually to our advantage here.
They have grenades. A mid range standoff hurts us badly.
They have heavy armor that most of our light weapons don't work well on. This means even more deaths from grenades.
504 has heavy armor shredding melee weapons. This lets them hammer through the enemy negating armor advantage.
Press the fight now and their frontlines will break even if we charged unarmed. 504 needs human weight right now to force their cutters through the front to get the grenadiers. Once the grenadiers are out we can disengage and go shooty
What is to our advantage is getting a lot of 504s killed weakening our enemy without getting blamed for it, reasserting our command authority, using our forest mobility to bypass the fortification, and then attacking it from the rear with our heavy weapons while our allies pin their attention to the front with an actually thought-out assault. Charging our ranged units through a tight, disorienting melee in a confined, smoky area with explosives going off all around and which is already packed with renegade flamethrower-wielding madmen consumed with the bloodlust of a blinding berserk rage is just a recipe for distracting the actual assault troops into cutting our own people in half.
The 504s made a stupid decision in the heat of the moment without consulting with anybody despite actually being under our command. That does not commit us to also make stupid decisions in the heat of the moment. We should disengage and play to our strengths. If the 504s decide not to follow our orders to disengage, fuck 'em.
Hell, if they want to play with grenades we have lots of chemical slugthrower ammo and we used a good chunk of high explosive of our own to blow up the armory, not to mention the large amount of incendiary fuel available right outside- we can make some of our own and see how they like having them land on the wrong side of their shields.
Last edited:
[X] Charge! - You need to break those lines and eliminate their launchers
-[X] eliminate their grenadiers first then take their commander captive if possible
The battlefield is a bloody stupid place to play politics. We fight to win, the 504s managed to seize an opportunity, so this is the time to cash in on that.
-[X] eliminate their grenadiers first then take their commander captive if possible
The battlefield is a bloody stupid place to play politics. We fight to win, the 504s managed to seize an opportunity, so this is the time to cash in on that.
What "opportunity"? "Hey, there are an unknown number of enemies over there with an unknown amount of support and reserves who have been preparing for conflict with us for months in this, the location of their choice, with heavy-weapon support in a fortified position with an unknown amount of fallback positions" is not an "opportunity", There is nothing to "cash in" on. They chose to break ranks and make a frontal assault on a veteran unflankable phalanx under grenade fire while blocking their allies from rendering assistance- that is not seizing an opportunity, it is being hotheaded morons who jeopardize the entire campaign in the very first encounter.
The Romans literally decimated their own troops as punishment for this sort of godawful battlefield misconduct. Every single soldier in the entire 504 force is eligible for a drumhead court-martial and field execution after the battle is over even if we are victorious.
-and you want to take captives for interrogation? You want to smash through the enemy force and let these uncontrollable madmen loose behind their lines while simultaneously expecting them to show restraint and take prisoners?
Last edited:
Given that we actually have gotten past their field of fire into a fight that favors us, but not them, we're in a pretty good position actually.
It's not like our non squad guns are any use against their armor UNTIL the 504s get through their armor and shields, while setting up our SAWs without their being bombarded by grenades is more than a little difficult.
It's not like our non squad guns are any use against their armor UNTIL the 504s get through their armor and shields, while setting up our SAWs without their being bombarded by grenades is more than a little difficult.
How does it favor us instead of them? How are we past their field of fire? Are you under the impression that the can't drop grenades on the assault force while using their shields to protect their own troops? They have spent years fighting in close-range melee combat. The have an organized and disciplined phalanx in an unflankable choke point forming a powerful shield wall. Trying to take them with melee turns this into the Battle of Thermopylae, except that this time the Spartans have grenade launchers and potentially an overwhelming amount of reserve forces holding dozens of fallback points right around the corner.
Our standard military rifles are capable of breaking through their shields; the lethality afterward is just not assured. That still leaves the enemy with a damaged shield and targets too far away for them to counterattack. The SAWs just improve that situation. That is assuming that we actually go with a frontal assault instead of using our incredibly skilled military commander with a history of spectacularly successful ruses and flanking maneuvers and our troops trained to navigate through the forest for this exact reason of bypassing enemy strongholds to do something even the slightest bit clever.
Last edited: