Situation Foxtrot (SAO/Foxhole) [COMPLETE]

2.3
Sitting down at the radio terminal, you took a copy of the radio frequency book that the kids in 65 Signals had put out, and tabbed over to the interhex radio frequencies, dialing in carefully. The War Bureau had everything from 10,600 to 12,000 Hz pegged out as theirs, and operated a 24/7 "bus station" for incoming calls on 11,650 for anyone that needed to put a call through. Since most everyone else was out in the field working on putting in what your fortification book referred to as "L'Albatros", you had all the time in the world to make this call. Picking up the vintage-styled bakelite telephone, you breathed deeply. Nerves, go away please!

"This is 15 Uhlans Regiment to War Bureau, come in War Bureau."

A moment of crackling silence, before a whirring click-click came through the airwaves and a brief burst of static. "Wazzat? Who the hell's on the bus frequency?"

"This is 15 Uhlans Regiment to War Bureau, come in War Bureau."

"Right shitfuck this is a real person, argh!" the voice said, beating on something in the background. "Sorry, sorry, we're having some trouble securing this frequency, we're repeating for 45 Infantry to 52 Sustainment right now and it's mucking up the upper bands. 15 Uhlans, move to channel frequency 10,800 Hz for call."

"Wilco, changing frequency." you said, hanging up the phone's headset and spinning the control dial down. As the red needle settled over the right frequency, you breathed in, and braced yourself again. "This is 15 Uhlans, come in War Bureau."

"This is 46 Sustainment out of Viper Pit, we read you five by five," a different voice said, crisper and much more professional. "We're with the War Bureau. What do you need?"

"I heard from leadership in 46 Sustainment that you guys need more members, and well, we're not doing too great," you said, letting the weight off your chest. "I'm the 15's colonel after our last one ditched us, and things aren't looking too great right now. We're lost."

"I'd have to get you online with the Colonel, but we've heard of you," the man from the 46 said. "11 Infantry and the rest of the French remember when you cut the lines that time."

"That was one time," you groused.

"That's one more time than the rest of the so-called regiments. Cuttail Station has sixty assorted 'infantry' regiments guarding it, and most of them never leave their bunker bases. If the Colonials ever got parachutists, our backline would fold up faster than laundry."

"Either way," you said, a little flustered by the compliments. "Either way. My bonafides aside, I want in for me and mine."

"Right, now I definitely have to get the colonel. Please hold?"

"Alright."

It was a quarter of a minute before a new voice came on, a pleasant lilt to their voice that the radio tried its damndest to eat alive. "This is Colonel Brava speaking."

"Colonel Brava, I'm Colonel Orr Melanie. I'm interested in my regiment joining the War Bureau."

"Really? Wonderful! We'll need you to come to Kirknel to get you 'on the books' so to speak, and up to speed on the current war plans."

"Would later this week work?"

"Certainly. Just put in a call on this frequency, and stop by our buner base before you get to Kirknell. We're just south of Moltworth, I'll have the staff car warmed up."

///

Thanks to the power of "throw more bodies at a problem", you managed to get your base upgrades with not one, but two Albatross patterns, and most of the upgrades in (you were still a few days off of AT tech) to boot. This finally, finally let you put in a dedicated water closet, an actual bath, and most importantly beds for everyone.

Well, okay, enough beds to go down to two shifts per bed. Still a good upgrade, as far as you were concerned. Additionally, now that it was done and you could organize everything by shift and get all the rotations worked out, a lot of moods cleared up and 'dead time' on a lot of things like meals suddenly nosedived- as well as the amount of times people had to move the heavy weatherproof curtain that helped keep the persistent cold out of the bunker base.

With that all done, though, you could finally sit down with Bathroy, and start working out the shift system, pushing through the dozens of headaches you'd been having. Getting better cooks, better drivers, more reliable rotations and less work for the people willing to go outside the wire, getting more work for people to actually emplace the concertina that had been delivered for you- it all added up, quickly. The best part, though, was the fact you could finally institute an NCO system.

NCOs, alias non-commissioned officers, alias Sergeants or Warrant Officers, had a very important job: they kept people from being dipshits. This might sound like a joke, but in reality it was a critical bit of work: people would forget things without blinking in order to do silly things, and the information falling out of their head was usually quite important. In addition, NCOs also managed a more critical effort of keeping morale up, and fixing the little problems that plagued life in a crowded bunker base that wasn't meant for long-term habitation.

Still, the end of the week came, and with it getting Coatl into the passenger seat of your Drummond and heading off. It was only an hour drive, and the dogleg to avoid the unprotected section of Viper Pit wasn't a difficult one to take. Pulling up, you saw 46 Sustainment already had their own Drummond out- not a proto, you noted- and soon enough you were off and following them.

The meetingplace of the War Bureau was Fort Viper, an imposing stone-and-bunker riddled isle across a near-perpetually frozen lake that sometimes shared water with the Austriaca River that lanced through the hex. As you moved under the guns of nearly a dozen anti-tank bunkers, you suppressed a shiver.

If anything wanted to break Fort Viper, they'd need to bring nuclear weapons, or a siege they'd tell legends of for ages.

As you parked next to Brava's staff car, you blinked. She was tall, broad-shouldered and with a chest you'd swear was padded if you didn't know this was an illusion of the mind. Still, her bold smile was almost enough to warm you as she grabbed your hand and shook it.

"Thanks for coming!" she said, looking over at her own passenger. "Otto, take her man out, get him some garrison supplies from the stockpile. Make sure they're not coming back empty-handed, alright?"

"Certainly."

"We normally get our supplies from the King, but alright," you said, muttering. "Thank you for the generosity."

"Don't thank me, thank the game for making garrison supplies better rations."

"Wait, what?"

Brava's smile turned pointed as she pulled out a cigarette, lighting it off a flint match as she led you towards the relic base in the keep. "Garrison supplies are better food. More vegetables, less cabbage, different meats, better vanity products. Bunker supplies, well, I'm sure you've gotten the whole menu on that."

"Tinned bread does get a little old after a while, yes."

"Exactly. Garrison supplies are better, and more importantly tend to spawn better food in your pantry."

You smiled at Brava as she got the door to the Relic for you. "You know a lot about this."

"I'm the colonel of a Sustainment regiment, babe. This is what I do."

Trying not to flush, you went up to the long table, taking a look over it. The whole thing was covered with maps, but an officer's dirk stood proud in the front of the table, a Warden angel on the pommel. Pulling it out in curiosity, you blinked when it gave you a stat window.

[A Caoivish Reminder]

Well, that was grim. Sliding it into your belt, where a sheathe materialized for it where a bayonet frog would normally go, you settled down at the table- and then, out of the corners of the room, you saw the rest of the occupants start to emerge.

The rest of the governing body of the War Bureau were a spottled, motley bunch. Unit insignia speckled their horizon-blue coats, and as they all settled down with you it was easy to tell who was what- from the black trim with white lace on the Colonel of the Research Regiment, or the plain red piping on Brava and the other Sustainment colonel's rank patches, or the other fellow with the lance-and-pennant in navy-and-silver that shared the designation of 'Uhlan' with you.

Sitting at the front of the table was a proud-looking man, American, and with Infantry tabs. "Alright, welcome everyone. First order of business, I'd like everyone to meet our newest member, Col. Orr Melanie, of the 15 Uhlans. Miss Orr, I'm Colonel Hooker, leader of 1 Infantry."

"Charmed," you said, bowing slightly. "I hope to do the Bureau proud."

"Well, you can't do worse than the mercenaries I've been fishing for," someone said, face pinched. "The Navy did not take the transition to virtual reality kindly: there's three Naval Infantry regiments right now. I secured the services of two of them."

"I take it they're like sailors everywhere?"

"Indeed. Drunk, disorderly, and needing extreme handholding to reach their objectives," the man said, before looking to you. "I would be Colonel Tepes, 45 Infantry, by the way. Still, the Naval Infantry won't be liable to cause issues: Mentha has resumed operational control until Von Claes recovers from his latest injury."

"Drunkenness on the clock?" an unknown asked.

"No, near-terminal lag. I suspect whomever was in charge of transporting him to the long-term care facilities our bodies are in was hit by a semi truck."

"It would be him, wouldn't it?"

"Indeed."

"Either way, we have an operation to plan," Hooker said, tapping the topmost map- a cell of the Morgen's Crossing hex. "Sustainment Units, what's our status on operational supplies?"

"Two hundred crates of 7.62 ammo stored, eighty crates of Loughcasters, mostly pre-stock; forty crates of Sampos, sixty crates of Blakerows. About three hundred crates of Mammons for all fronts, and plenty of vehicles in crates ready to go," Brava said.

"Seconding Brava's counts, my teams have the water logistics side of the operation ready to go. Say the word, and we can get the Naval Infantry what they need."

"Good. Infantry, how are you looking? I know my boys are chomping at the bit."

Two generic "affirmatives" sounded out.

"Finally, we get to you, Colonel Orr."

You smiled a little. "Good, because I am, in a word, lost."

Brava just facepalmed. "Damnit, Hooker."

"Sorry, sorry," he said, waving his hand. "Alright, then: from the top. We're the War Bureau, and we're gonna land the biggest fucking sucker punch in this war, while the Goblins are handling the zerg rush in the west."

Well, glad to see they had just as low of an opinion of the current Logistics Union Push as you did.

"Currently, the plan is as follows," he continued, getting out the map. "There are two major entry paths into Morgen's Crossing. Recon says they've only got them lightly covered at the border, and deeper in there's three main forts: labeled on this map as Alpha, Echo, and India. If we crack these forts, we can move into Quietus. Take Quietus, set up a player port into a bunker base there, and then push through to Bastard's Block and break them there. Once we break Bastard's Block, we can siege down Allsight."

Brava continued. "To do this, we're taking four attack vectors in. The 13 Marin and 27 Marine- excuse me, Naval Infantry- will execute a landing east of Quietus and set up a defensive line to prevent reinforcement from Lividus, and engage Fort Oscar at their convenience. We can't reliably cut Fort Yankee or Fort Uniform, so there's still an excellent chance of enemy reinforcements, though."

Here, Tepes spoke up. "Ideally, my attack on Fort India will be enough to keep reinforcements from Allsight occupied. Best case, we take Eversus and can interdict the road upstream of Fort Yankee, but we plan for the worst here."

"46 Sustainment and 99 Engineering are going to be operating resupply for us on the south flank, and 45 Infantry are getting their logistics through 163 Uhlans," Hooker said, smirking. "If you can, I'd like you to work with 1 Infantry to play sheep-herder. We're relying on auxiliaries to move supplies for our flank of the push, and every truck helps."

"I'll talk to my officers about it," you deflected. "When do we start?"

"When the Logistics Union decides to let the balloon go up." Tepes said, grim. "We're the best in the game, but we need the orcs to be redeploying so they can't shuffle in more bodies across the border."

"In which case, I know those idiots. They may well decide to jump tomorrow," you said, nodding. After that, you smiled. "So, any other big problems to talk about."

"Nah," Tepes grunted, pulling out a flask. "Now that we covered the big stuff, it's time to booze and bitch. Anyone smelled what's coming out of the 27 Naval Infantry barracks lately?"

And with that, it was time to bullshit like your career depended on it.

///
Quest Mechanic: Planning Bonus

In order to simulate the vast, messy world of warfare, planning helps ease the struggles of the world. As such, each turn where War Planning is taken as an action grants +1 to Operational Rolls for the unit or organization for the named operation.

Note: Nonstandard vote this turn to integrate with the War Bureau and because there's a dice roll for the start of the Logistics Union Offensive.


///
VOTE
(Plan vote still plzkthx)

Liveries Addition
(Current unit crest: On blank field, bend sinister in argent with sheathed saber dexter in escutcheon. In compartment, "15" in standard serif script)
[] Dirk, sheathed, in chief
[] Warden Angel Device in field
[] Warden Colors (Argent and Azule, changing field to azule and bend sinister to argent)
[] Lance with pennant in estuchon, crossed with present emblem.
[] Change font of all lettering and numbering to Fraktur font
[] Change font of all lettering and numbering to sans-serif font
[] Write-in (must include item, color, and position)

Offensive Positioning
[] Operate on the South Front: Your trucks can serve as armed logistics, and your non-combat troops can help with engineering tasks. There's going to be a lot of bunker bases that need building, and it'll be a very safe position since they don't have artillery.
[] Operate on the Center Front: You don't trust your people to have the ability to stand a long, grisly war of attrition- even from the back, where the danger is least. A short, sharp deployment will be easier for them to handle.
[] Operate on the North Front: Your people are new, mostly untested, and mostly wanting to stay untested. A little gentle dunk in the war should be enough to get them hardened up; not like most will be doing more than engineering anyway.
[] Operate with the Naval Infantry
(AN: You are not water operations rated, nor water logistics rated.)

Personal Preparation
[] Try and drill your greener recruits up a little so they don't fall to pieces in the inevitable fighting. You might loose a few, but you need guns, not cowards.
[] Build up a good personal equipment stockpile in case of emergency. A shot in the arm of shirts could turn the offensive.
[] Take some time to build up coordination with your front leader. Good planning saves lives and material- and in this game, the two are the same thing.
 
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ISG versus HMG.
The ISGs I believe, there going to get called a lot of stuff except what they are cause Infantry Support Guns don't really exist as a term for most people.

Well, they gonna learn then.



This is an ISG. It is a 30mm gun, firing a high explosive shell, to ranges of end-of-system-assist at 35m. It is a mousehole gun- it removes isolated bunkers, enemy strong points in a trench line, and fends off light vehicles.



This is an HMG. It fires 12.7mm kinetic ammunition, to end-of-system-assist ranges of 30m. It is a suppression gun: it makes the enemy get their head down, it deactivates bunkers so infantry can execute a storm, and it effectively destroys unarmored vehicles and can, with some luck, cause subsystem damage on larger vehicles.

THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE.
 
Someone did the crest!
On blank field, bend sinister in argent with sheathed saber dexter in escutcheon. In compartment, "15" in standard serif script+
-Warden Angel Device in field
-Warden Colors (Argent and Azule, changing field to azule and bend sinister to argent)
So how is this supposed to look? Cause this looks kind of weird.
 
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Operational Mechanics v.1
So, it's time to explain operational mechanics. This is a bit messy, and the author hasn't had time to get the formatting 100% down, so this is what we've got for now.

Bonuses and Maluses

Bonuses and Maluses come in two flavors: operation-wide, and stack. Operation wide maluses affect every unit in the operation, while stack maluses or bonuses only affect units up-stack of them. Below are listed the various bonuses and maluses.

Operation-wide

Bonuses
-Good Planning (+1) (Stacks per turn taken doing planning)
-Talented Officers (+1) (Stacks per Red or greater regiment in the operation)
-Prototype Supplies (+1) (Only applies to Armor, Artillery, or Mechanized regiments)
-Revanchism (+1) (Only applies when retaking territory that has been held for 10 consecutive turns)
-Strategic Artillery Support (+4) (Does not stack, an operation is supported by Storm Cannon fires)
-Wet Concrete Denial (+1) (An operation is attacking wet concrete)

Maluses
-Under-Organized (-1) (Caused by not having enough Logistics Regiments from plan outset)
-Poor Officers (-1) (Stacks per Yellow regiment in a frontline role)
-Incompetent Officers (-2) (Stacks per Green regiment in a frontline role)
-Conscripts (-3) (Stacks per White regiment in the operation)
-Blockaded (-2) (Caused by not having a supply line to a depot area on grand supply network)
-Forlorn Hope (-1) (Unit cannot stage out of bunker or relic base)
-Concrete Breaking (-1) (Unit is attacking a fully operational concreted base)

Stack Effects

Bonuses
-Critical Rollover (+1) (A unit down-stack rolled a 10 or higher, applies to any phase of stack)
-Armor Support (+1) (Stacks, a unit is supported by an armored formation that passed their role)
-Artillery Support (+1) (Stacks, a unit is supported by direct-fire artillery)
-Heavy Artillery Support (+2) (Stacks, a unit is supported by indirect-fire artillery)
-Player Port (+1) (A water logistics unit has built an operation to allow freighter use)
-Vehicle Superiority (+1) (A mechanized infantry unit has more or better vehicles. Does not stack with Prototype Supplies)
-Grenadiers (+1) (A unit has an explicitly large supply of anti-bunker munitions)

Maluses
-Out of Supply (-1) (Stacks with every Logi regiment that failed their supply roll)
-Munitions Shortage (-2) (Does not stack, only effects unit with dedicated logistics that fails)
-Tank Shock (-1) (Unit is combatting enemy armor without dedicated weapons to counter)
-Encircled (-2) (Unit is engaged on multiple fronts)
-Trench-breaking (-1) (Unit is engaged in pushing through prepared enemy positions.)
-Landing Operation (-1) (Unit is establishing a beachhead and is not in position to get local resupply)

Order of Operations

In this system, the target number is 6. Rolls under 6 are failures, and above are successes. The severity of failure or scale of success is determined by the delta from 6:

To determine stack bonuses and maluses, several things must happen. First, QRF must roll in order to protect the supply corps. There can be any number of potential QRF units, but only one unit needs to pass its roll in order to count the supplies as protected. If QRF fails, then all Logistics units take a -1 penalty. Logistics must then make its rolls. Each failed Logistics roll generates one instance of Out of Supply malus to combat arms. In addition, if a unit that requires a dedicated Logistics Regiment has said Logistics Regiment fail, they incur an additional -2 to their rolls from Munitions Shortage.

Once any instances of Out of Supply and Munitions Shortage are calculated, the combat rolls then progress. Rolls will be done as standard clean, without modifiers tied to the roll. This is to prevent typographic errors. Note that rolls will generally be done in reverse stack order: combat arms, then supply, then QRF.

Once rolls are completed and the math is done, results will be posted.

Combat Arms Special Rules

Combat Arms units are the only units that can have roll-over successes, and cannot suffer cascading failures. In addition, several Combat Arms units have inbuilt bonuses, listed below.

Armor: Gives Armor Support to itself and two other regiments, requires a dedicated Logistics Regiment
Light/Direct Fire Artillery: Gives Artillery Support to itself and two other regiments, requires a dedicated Logistics Regiment
Heavy/Indirect Fire Artillery: Gives Heavy Artillery Support to itself and two other regiments, requires a dedicated Logistics Regiment
Mechanized Infantry: Gives itself and two other Regiments access to local anti-tank weapons, preventing Tank Shock, and a role to see if it has Vehicle Superiority.
Pioneers: Gives itself local anti-tank weapons, or the Grenadiers tag otherwise.
Motorized: Can serve as either a Logistics Regiment, or as a Combat Arms Regiment.

Logistics Special Rules

Logistics regiments can each supply two regiments that do not need a dedicated Logi Regiment. In operations with three or less Logistics Regiments, each Logistics Regiment can maintain organic supply for its own vehicles and manpower. However, in operations with more than three Logistics Regiments, an additional Logistics Regiment must be added per two Logistics Regiment (as if Logistics were Combat Arms units) in order to provide supplies to them and additional basing. In addition, at three or less Logistics Regiments, the Out of Supply debuff does not apply to Logistics Regiments.

Logistics regiments cannot have roll-over successes, and can suffer cascading failures. In addition, there is a small number of inbuilt bonuses, as listed below.

Motorized: When serving as a Logistics Regiment, can only supply one Combat Arms regiment, but does not suffer penalties from QRF failure.
Engineering: Provides bonus Bunker Bases, and organically possesses CVs and Cranes for Player Ports and Water Logistics
Water Logistics: Can, if a Port Facility is available, support up to five Logistics Regiments for Large Operations. Player Ports count for this.
Landing Rated Logistics: Can supply one Regiment through a Blockaded area without receiving penalty.
Integrated Supply Chain: Can cue production to supply outside of stockpiled equipment in case of Technology Unlocks
Researchers: Can resupply Prototype Vehicles.

QRF Special Rules

QRF- Quick Response Forces- have one singular, solitary job: to protect logistics. Each and every QRF unit is immune to Out of Supply debuffs, and is not effected by items later in the stack. However, QRF units cannot donate buffs to the rest of the force, and are otherwise isolated from the rest of the engagement. Otherwise, QRF units count as standard Combat Arms units for purposes of supply, and have no special rules.
 
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Operation: Logistics Union into Nevish Line
Logistics Unit Operation into The Nevish Line




Note: rolls are done in reverse order here

Operational Bonuses and Maluses
-Under-organized

QRF stage

LU QRF rolled 7, -1 for under-organized, total 6. QRF sucedes.

Logistics Stage

LU Logi Regiment 1 rolled 5, -1 for under-organized, total 4. Logi 1 fails, 1x stack of Out of Supply incurred.
LU Logi Regiment 2 rolled 4, -1 for under-organized , total 3. Logi 2 fails, 2x stack of Out of Supply incurred.

Total: two stacks of Out of Supply, -2 to all Combat Arms rolls.

Combat Arms Stage

LU Inf. Regiment 1 rolled 10, -1 for under-organized, -2 for Out of Supply, total 7. Success of +1
LU Inf. Regiment 2 rolled 8, -1 for under-organized, -2 for Out of Supply, total 5. Failure of -1
LU Inf. Regiment 3 rolled 5, -1 for under-organized, -2 for Out of Supply, total 2. Failure of -4
LU Inf. Regiment 4 rolled 3, -1 for under-organized, -2 for Out of Supply,, total 0. Failure of -6
LU Inf. Regiment 5 rolled 5, -1 for under-organized, -2 for Out of Supply, total 2. Failure of -4

Operation Conclusion

1/5 regiments achieve goals. Remaining four regiments disposition as follows: 1 regiment supporting successfully, two regimental collapses, one regimental annihilation.

End Result

There is now a narrow Warden salient into The Nevish Line at Unruly, holding the Relic Base against steady enemy pressure.
 
Morgen's Haven Operation pt. 1

[X] Plan The Center Must Hold
-[X] Warden Angel Device in field
-[X] Warden Colors (Argent and Azule, changing field to azule and bend sinister to argent)
-[X] Change font of all lettering and numbering to Fraktur font
-[X] Operate on the Center Front: You don't trust your people to have the ability to stand a long, grisly war of attrition- even from the back, where the danger is least. A short, sharp deployment will be easier for them to handle.
-[X] Take some time to build up coordination with your front leader. Good planning saves lives and material- and in this game, the two are the same thing.


After joining the War Bureau, you had a lot of things to get to work on. Using the liveries system, working out your roll in the upcoming offensive, warming your regiment up to the concept of frontline service, it was a lot of work. Fortunately, or unfortunately, you could still keep in contact with the War Bureau High Command back in Kirknell without too much trouble. This meant coordinating, which in turn meant doing accounting.

So much fucking accounting. You had to figure out average gas use per patrol- 45 liters-, average bullet use, medical supplies use, uniform use, soldier supplies expenditure, bunker and garrison supplies use, what parts of the bunker you used most, what patterns you would need to use most, general other item tracking, and even how many pens and tanks of typewriter ink you needed! The answer to that last one was significantly higher than what you'd started with!

Still, despite this you were making regular calls to Hooker. While you couldn't free up the time to actually go talk to him in person, and had to rely on 65 Signals and the newly-founded 136 Courrier to get the mail moving to him out in The Moors, it wasn't hard to keep him apprised of everything. If it wasn't for your constant need to be a patrol driver loaded to the gills with medical supplies, you'd probably have sealed the deal on some actual training time, or at least a visit.

That didn't happen, though, as you got woken up by your telephone next to your bunk at four in the morning one Saturday.

"Colonel Orr speaking," you growled. "What is it?"

"This is Colonel Hooker."

Oh fuck. "Thought we both worked first shift?"

"We would, but the Logistics Union started their push at midnight. I don't know where they got five regiments of troops, but that's what Border Patrol reported to our outpost in Callum's. Everyone's rallying to Esterwild or The King."

"Need me to do any trucking?"

"No, we've got everything pre-positioned."

"I'll start turning out the troops, then."

It took a solid two minutes to get your uniform on, sliding a loaded pistol into its holder and your dirk where it went. For once, you weren't in a Physician's Jacket, but rather a standard infantry battle dress. Ringing the 'all hands' alarm twice, it was easy to watch the troops rattle out into the bunker core, battle rattle on and guns at port arms.

"Ladies, gentlemen, both, and neither," you began, to a slight chuckle, "we just got the call in. Somehow, the Logistics Union found five regiments worth of desperate idiots to attack the Nevish Line. The Colonials are no doubt shifting resources to respond to the issue. We, therefore, will conduct an offensive against Morgen's Crossing with the rest of the War Bureau in order to secure a far more reasonable logistics hub."

Utter pandemonium reigned, until Coatl and Bathroy managed to bludgeon some sense into everyone. With that done, you continued. "We will be operating out of War Bureau bunker bases, and even the Border Base in Morgen's. I understand most of you are noncombatants, but this is the safest assignment I could get us, and we need to make an aggressive move. For this operation, I'm therefore assigning non-combat personnel as medics and drivers, so that we can free up more fighters for the truck shifts. Considering the close degree of cooperation we enjoy with 46 Sustainment, I have no doubts as to the speed of corpse recovery and respawn for this operation."

That, at least, settled everything out. "In addition, we'll be having four persons stay behind to man the comms. This bunker base is an important backup in the radio command chain, as 11 Infantry's training center doesn't have an inter-hex radio system and it'll be a while before we can build one in Morgen's. Please gather your personnel effects, draw a weapon from the stockpile and standard war load, and mount your vehicles."

It was two hours later you got to Esterwild, before you got your taskings. Most of the partisans you'd need to worry about would actually be in Viper's Pit, or naval raiders hitting the beach where a player port was getting assembled by 46 Sustainment to avoid The King's infamous traffic circle. Then, you waited.

The worst part about the waiting was the lack of calls, as dozens of trucks rolled past you- until they did start coming, pouring in even.

It was hectic- half the time, you were manning the guns as lookouts called in approaching Colonial landing ships, the other half of the time spent building up the temporary bunker base. Most of them never landed, though- instead, choosing drive-by attacks on your own landing ships with sticky bombs. In desperation, you took a team on one, waiting for the sound of another Aquatipper coming out of the mid-morning fog.

"We're destined for the Marines, you sure you want to stay on?" the bargeman yelled over the diesels below.

"Uhlans get shit to the end!" you shot back- before another marine diesel sounded. "All guns, port rail!"

The tipoff was the empty back. Every lander was coming and going with a truck, and as your Sampo started firing, the enemy started peaking up over the bulwark to start returning fire. As a pair of Pitch Guns opened up, you growled as a round cut through your hair. Slamming the operating lever forward, you responded to their full auto fire in kind, heavy rounds slamming into the Aquatipper's guardrails.

"Mihey, grenade!" you yelled, as they drifted closer. A few Argentis were shooting, but a few Argentis didn't scare you as your pilot undertook evasive maneuvers.

"Harpas away!"

Continuing to juke, you watched the pinaple bomb fly through the air, and into the enemy barge. The explosion was worth a chuckle, as the enemy pilot frantically started fleeing. Most of his troops had to be bleeding out: good.

"They'll start bringing Bomastones now," the pilot remarked, glaring at the retreating battle barge.

"We've got a field medic, and you'll be fine."

"I ain't warning me, I'm warning you," he said, as you crossed the hex border. It was a slightly unnerving feeling, and as soon as you were past the line your gun came up, instinctively scanning. Chuckling, the pilot grinned at the nerves of you and yours. "They don't attack us in this hex- the raiders are coming up out of Rime."

"You're certain?"

"That's where they're crossing the boarder. Here, we've got to worry about the coastal gun. If they've got spotters on it, we're in trouble."

This trip, the coastal gun didn't fire- but you saw, as clear as day, a half-dozen transports that hadn't been so lucky. You could protect the supplies, but you couldn't protect the water logistics- and it was water logistics that this operation hinged so heavily upon.

The 27 Naval Infantry beachhead was a crowded place, with a half-dozen shellshocked troops hanging around with guns at high ready and several old, bandaged wounds. Getting out as they swapped the full truck with an empty, you grimaced. It was easy to hear the cracks and scything machine-gun fire in the distance, a cacophony of war in the distance. As you re-boarded your barge, an explosion sounded in the distance- not that anyone cared. It could have been an empty bunker, or it could be twenty bodies in the dirt for construction teams to dig out. It could be Warden, it could be Colonial.

As the barge left, you just watched as the snow began to fall.

///

Back at the beach, the port was still bustling with that calm, steady energy you found so unnerving after watching the carnage of the beach. Topping off your magazine, it wasn't long before you were in the bunker base, accepting a mug of coffee and a bowl of borscht and some elk jerky with a kaiser roll. In the mess, Hooker was sitting with Martel, grimacing at a map.

Sitting down with them, you nodded once, before starting to eat. The jerky was cold, so you just it in the soup; before following with the bread. As you ate, the two other colonels just growled at each other.

"We can't punch through, Hooker," Martel, the colonel of the 11 Infantry, said. "The machine gun bunkers are too tight, and even shitty one-by-threes will work when they're stacked nine deep. Even if we break a bunker, they'll squat in the corpse and the night assaults aren't enough."

"Then I'll send you the ISGs and I'll make do with Mammons- they didn't have the ridgeline fortified nearly heavily enough."

"ISGs won't help, this channel is too damn fortified. The gun teams I already have are getting scythed down!"

Shrugging, you kept eating- right until Martell banged the table. "You, Colonel… Black?"

"Melanie," you corrected. "What is it?"

"The front is too tight to try anything right now," Martel said, grinning, "but Hooker and Tepes have both blown past their goals. Waste of time putting horsemen on the water- what say you give him a little help?"

"By 'A little help', he means having you learn how to mouse-hole out bunkers. They're trying to set up a line of cheap-ass… what did you call that pattern, again?"

"Les Aimants. Magnets."

"Je vous comprend la première fois," you muttered around some beef jerky. "J'parle francais un piu."

You could feel Martel's smile as he looked at you, as Hooker groaned. "Great, well, I don't French, so let's not."

"Right," you grumbled, continuing with your borscht.

"Either way, Fort Yankee is far less of a shitshow than Fort Echo or Alpha, so we want you to go up and down the defensive line they're building between Fort Zulu and Fort Victor and try to do a little slap–and-tickle to keep 'em uncomfortable. Those discount bunker bases won't stand up to much, and as long as you keep them repairing they're not digging a trench line to connect the front."

"We're QRF, not frontline troops."

"And I'm not asking you to run in the front, I'm asking you to just… consider it quick response knockdown duty. We give you a pair of the ISGs, go ham, come home. Two trucks, just have your greenies stay around here helping dig in."

"Or she helps secure the line for Tepes, I know he's worried about someone getting wrapped around the sides."

Hemming and hawing for a moment, you looked at Hooker. "My people will be worried- not many of them are rated for this. They've already got their nerves up."

"It's not safe on the front. They'll toughen up after a few successful thunder runs, and then it won't be an issue," Hooker assured you. "Better than sitting in a base all day."

"I concur," Martel said, grumbling.

"Why aren't you too on the front, anyway?" you asked pointedly.

"I will be in a few minutes," Martel said, poking a cold roll. "I needed to get the mail and status on logistics."

"I needed to touch base, and the Border Base doesn't have a telegraph," Hooker shot back with a bit more heat. "You?"

"I wanted food, and this is my duty station," you grumbled. "Also, the goblins are using battle barges now."

"Fuck." Martel muttered. "They read our wiki."

////
Operation Post to come soon.

GENERAL OPERATION RESULTS: Massive operational gains. Complete victory in the north, Eversus captured, north road blockaded, bunker base being installed to control "Mailman's Cross" intersection. Enemy main lines of resistance formalizing around Fort Zulu south to Bastard's Block, Quietus invested except for small enemy salient at Fort Uniform. Moderate success of Marine Landings at "Inchon", with friendly bunker base being established and lines between Fort Golf and Fort Oscar cut. Fort Echo destroyed in total, Fort Yankee now invested from the north and west, with a bunker base breaking the lines of communication between Yankee and Alpha. General failure to press and hold Fort Alpha, which is still being resupplied through Quietus.

MAP KEY: Blue lines are Warden main lines, blue triangles/pentagons indicate new Bunker Bases on the front line. Pink lines represent Colonial main lines of resistance.


VOTES

[] Stick with Hooker, and start teaching your people how to do mouseholing. Will involve front-line combat. (1d6 troops promote risk grade by 1, 2d6 troops retire from the regiment)
[] Take Martel's advice, and work on lateral security with Tepes' force. Will involve mobile warfare. (1d4 troops promote risk grade by 1, 1d6 troops retire from the regiment)
[] Continue doing local QRF and garrison work.
 
Last edited:
New stuff that isn't in the Wiki yet
Wake up kids, new disaster wagons just dropped.


Current Quest Implementation: Free unlock with the stock Gallagher. It'll be a net debuff relative to the original in terms of everything that isn't armor-defeating, but I'm thinking of tricks to make it not suck absolute balls at handling armor. Increased crit chance, maybe? Something to balance out it's trashier qualities.


Current Quest Implementation: ONTOS ONTOS ONTOS- I mean, it's a Bardiche clone. Very, very good at making fortifications or solo tanks crap their pants, but will have issues unless they're backed up by traditional tanks to cover for when it reloads. Captured ones will go to engineering regiments who will love them until they fall apart into flaming wrecks. Expect someone to give you the Valhen speech.
 
Morgen's Haven Operation 1 Conclusion
[X] Stick with Hooker, and start teaching your people how to do mouseholing. Will involve front-line combat. (1d6 troops promote risk grade by 1, 2d6 troops retire from the regiment)
4 troops promoted, 4 troops retired.



Morgen's Crossing, you decided, would be a much prettier hex when it wasn't covered in light snowfall. It hadn't hit blizzard conditions yet- that storm was aimed to rake down the Basin Sionnach and Great Warden Dam to the Nevish Line- but it was enough to make you profoundly unhappy and for some people to start equipping the Winter Uniforms pre-emptively. You'd stick with your Adrian helmet for now, but the fact was you also had a skullcap under it, warm elk fur saving your ears and hair from the frost. As your trucks drove up to the wire with cases on cases of fresh thirty-mil in the back, it was easy to ram into the bunker core of "Fort Wesson". Taking a clipboard and signing over the material, the poor Dunne nearly screamed as the suspension de-stressed as the cargo transferred over automatically. As you jumped out and a teamster took the truck over to the vehicle park, you moved into the bunker core decisively.

There was no "officer on deck" nonsense as you wrote your name on a slip of paper and voted on the bunker upgrade, and there wasn't time taken to salute by anyone manning the core structure. Considering the continuous crackling of rifle and machine-gun fire, it was quite understandable. It took a minute for you to get into the 'headquarters' section, two patterns off the core, but you didn't regret doing so. Two radio stations were ringing off the hook, a chalkboard was covered in noisy pictograms, and a pair of desks were piled high with papers.

"Colonel Orr, I presume?" a young man at the central table said, pouring over a map of the frontline.

"That would be me," you replied, moving in. "You would be Captain Buckner?"

"Ayep. 15 Hussars, right?"

"Uhlans," you corrected, checking the map. "Where do you want us?"

"Dead center is where the defenses are weakest. They're building out of Fort Yankee, but it's not going to hold. We're already into their lines at night, and the Blakerows are a major advantage in night assaults."

"So, how do we use these guns anyway?"

"We, ah, we don't know," Buckner admitted, pulling up a detail section of the middle of the enemy line. "Well, we know the mechanics, but we don't have doctrine. Fort Echo fell because they built their bunker core into the main trench line like idiots."

"Then I need to make a plan," you muttered. "Four people to a gun should be able to carry everything, right?"

"Yeah. One gunner, one tripod-bearer, two ammo-carriers and security. You're going to want good security."

Your eyebrow went up. "Because?"

"Because they're doing a lot of short rush afternoon and evening attacks. Night attacks start at about twenty-two hundred and run to five hundred, so they like to hit us from seventeen hundred to twenty-one hundred."

"And I'm not having people try this shit in the dark, when your people are in the muster points and getting ready to go over the top…"

"So odds are you'll get jumped at least once, and the tripod guy can carry a Sampo or something for softening them up at range."

You sighed. "This is a custom tailored shitshow."

"You're telling me. Still, you'll be in friendly lines, so corpse recovery will be fast."

"Amen to that," you muttered, pulling out a cigarette to light off a kerosene lamp. As Buckner pulled out one of his own, you sighed. It was start of the midshift changeover in the command center, and that was enough of a cue to leave.

"Before you go-" Buckner said, stopping for a moment, before steeling himself. "-take this." He was holding out a pistol, bulky, with a magazine forward of the frame. Taking it, you pulled it out, seeing familiar 8x25 cartridges. Clearing it mechanically, you reloaded it simply- haul the bolt open, push the magazine up the well, and then watch your fingers as it hungrily snapped shut.

"A Cascadier?" you asked.

"Word came in that unless people sent in hate mail, we weren't making any more. I'll have to carry the revolver soon enough anyway, and you'll need it."

"Thanks," you said, before putting your light out on the timber of the bunker. Sticking it behind your ear, you fixed your helmet and went out. Outside, your newest up-and-coming NCO, Mihay, had managed to get everyone loaded up, and was carrying the gun.

"I see I'm promoted to security," you joked, adjusting your Sampo's strap.

"I actually kinda wanted you to bring binos." Mihay admitted, handing you a set. "I'll shoot, Xhosta has the tripod."

"Then let's go."

It only took a few minutes to get into the trenchline, and as you walked across the corduroy bottom the rest of the team behind you looked nervous. Even as other blue-coated forms ran around- some with cases of guns, others with piles of war loot or a dead body hucked over one shoulder- the shakes were present. This wasn't running around in a truck to the tune of an occasional gunfight, this was war. Corduroy planking soon gave way to mud, sandbag ridges on the top of the trenchline covering you from bullets and shrapnel. Too much of the latter was a constant sight, as the push forward left safety.

It wasn't long before you were in the last bunker to the front- a thin, canvass-topped affair with a firing loupe and sloppy shoring holding up the walls. It smelled of sand, sweat, and the blood of the dead blueberry by the back wall that was getting pulled away by the former occupants. It was a lucky shot, the section leader explained.

As Mihay made sure the gun was emplaced correctly, you started scanning with your binoculars. There were four bunkers in sight, and in the distance you could also see a pair of octagons where your people would be mustering up. It was still day, though, so they weren't there yet.

"Let's start with that little one, dead in front of us," you said, checking your binos carefully. "Range… forty meters."

"Thirty-five is what the sights gradient to," Mihay warned.

"Then set them to thirty-five, and we'll walk it in."

Sure enough, the first shot fell well short of the target bunker. It only took two more trigger pulls to start scoring hits, though, and soon enough there was a steady firing pattern going as shot after shot crashed into the thin-walled structure so similar to your own.

"Fuck," Mihey muttered, rubbing his shoulder. "This thing likes to beat up on you."

"Let me take a try, then," you offered, handing him your Sampo. As the larger NCO-to-be stepped back, you started running the gun. It took a half-turn to open the breech, then slotting in the thirty-mil shell, shoving it in with a few fingers as you cursed the oversized shoulder-pad. After that, it was a simple matter to flip the gun closed, flick the safety off, and line up on the grease pencil line on the gunsight. Zero in, and then push the button trigger-

-and get thrown on your ass from recoil, holy fuck. "I thought that thing was tripod-mounted for a reason!" you complained, standing back up to swing the breech open.

"You can see where my shoulder gets it from," Mihey joked.

"God's wounds, yes!"

Getting back up, you growled, opening the breech and watching the empty casing slam into the front of the shoulder brace. Another shell in, another firing drill down, and another shot went down-range. This time, it didn't knock you off your feet, but it still sucked.

You got off two more before making someone else get on with it, taking a minute to go out behind the bunker to smoke. In a caustic twist of fate, as you dug through your status menu you discovered that smoking did in fact lower pain- in exchange for being a light source, and more importantly being addictive. That was a concern for out of the game you, though, not in-game you. In-game you had to pick up the trench phone and call in for more shells.

The hours passed by, droll, and a handful of Blakerow-armed soldiers started manning the trenches by firing step and barbed wire hedge.

"Get ready, they're going to start coming up in packets now," one of the random blueberries said, voice tight. "Eyes front, MOVEMENT EAST!"

Snapping your rifle up, you jumped into the firing line and started blazing away. It hurt like a bitch, but that packet was getting into grenade range-

-and then you heard an explosion, your vision went white, and you fell back into a chorus of stabbing pains. Grenade shrapnel, you dully realized. Another packet had gotten behind you. That had been a Bomastone.

And now, you supposed, you were dying. As your eyes shut, all you felt was a float of white.

///

Death, you found out in this game, tasted like cloud.

"Hello," a soft, female voice called out. "I am the mental health assistant unit one. You have died. How are you feeling?"

"Like I want to get respawned."

"You will be alerted when respawn is available."

So. You're dead, and aside from tasting like cloud, this was a waiting room. The one good thing, you suppose, was it dressed you up nice at least- white mortuary robes, with all the trimmings. Now that you thought about it, the game was allergic to letting you wear white.

Aside from you, a few dozen Wardens- no, now they were just other people- fuzzed about. Since you'd died well inside friendly territory it shouldn't be long before you got back into it. Still, in the meantime, you could talk to one of the other girls here- wasn't that, ah, what's her name. Asuna?

"Hey," you said genially, sitting down next to her. "It going good?"

Her response was a hot glare. "No. We were supposed to be done by now, and I'm stuck here until corpse recovery gets me."

"What were you doing, then?" You asked, curious. She might be prickly now, but there was probably something more like the pleasant girl you'd seen after the snowstorm.

"War Bureau attache to the 13 Naval Infantry," she explained. "Fort Oscar and Fort Uniform were nearly connected, and my attack team didn't do well at all."

"That's rough, buddy."

"It's getting better," she muttered, "but this was still a mistake. There's no strategic reserve."

"The strategic reserve is called 'you are relieved by the 45 Infantry," you explained. "We blew clean through Eversus, and are re-orienting. Right now the plan is to strangle them and force a salient down to connect to you and cut the Rising Calm road. Then we pressure until they close the pocket."

"I don't like that plan very much," Asuna countered. "After all, I'm still dead."

"Don't worry!" you said, slugging her shoulder. "If nothing else, after this is done I'll lead my boys in and get you home."

"Good. I'm not doing another hitch as an attache," she explained.

"I'm not sure whether or not I'll be going back on the front myself," you muttered. "It's kind of terrifying."

"Oh, absolutely. It just makes going home to Kirknell all the sweeter, though, knowing I helped end this."

"It's still a lofty task."

Asuna looked up at the sky, still white fluff. "Sundowner gave us a way out. I'm not wasting one more day than I have to, letting that sick fuck burn my life away. Let the orcs come- we'll just kill them all, and let hell follow."

You opened your mouth to counterpoint, before a notice came in.

"Orr Melanie," the afterlife manager said. "Respawn is available."

"I accept," you answered, before shaking Asuna's hand. "If you need a place to stay, my bunker base finally has some spare room."

"But who are you?" she asked.

"Colonel Orr, 15 Uhlans-"

And then, in a moment of disconcerting vertigo, you opened your eyes to see the inside of a bunker base. Your shoulder hurt, your back prickled with fire, and an old bullet wound in your chest ached. Mouth coming closed, it was the easiest thing in the world to pick up a helmet and a Warden's overcoat, buttoning it easily.

"Welcome back, Colonel," Mihey said, smiling.

"Good to be back. Let's get busy."

///

Quest Mechanic: War Bureau Mechanics

The War Bureau may issue you a request or a requirement. Requests are optional items you may do in order to acquire additional War Bureau resources, such as manpower, training, or war materiel. Requirements are notices that, in order to continue having good relations with the War Bureau and all rights and privileges thereof, must be completed in a certain time frame. In addition, the War Bureau will ensure to the best of their ability to keep information flowing, and provide status reports on all hexes with a War Bureau presence.

///
Status Reports

Morgen's Crossing: Operation completed, Colonial lines breaking. Local Security Operations will complete encirclement of Quietus. Status green.
Clanshead Valley: Supplies flowing normally, King operating normally.
Viper Pit: Supplies flowing normallly, enemy raiders nominal, Kirknell operating normally.
Callahan's Passage: Naval defenses operating, enemy raiding intensifying. Bunker lines holding.
Nevish Line (SIGINT/OSINT only): Salient is being persecuted aggressively, supply needs high, Callum's Cape and Moors supply not high enough in throughput. Recommend organizing withdrawal or safe water logi route. Status red.
///

VOTES

WAR BUREAU REQUEST: Set up a Bunker Base in Morgen's Crossing to provide domestic QRF tasking.

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
-[] In Morgen's Crossing, near Eversus (This is needed to fulfill War Bureau request)
-[] 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.
[] Gift, Assign, or Abandon a bunker base.
-[] Write-in base by location.
(You only have the one!)

PERSONNEL
(Choose One Two!)

[] Go and recruit more personnel
-[] Mass recruitment: whatever you can get, get more of it! (Recruits 4d10 White personnel)
-[] Selective recruitment: Look for people who aren't clueless. The Logistics Union has a lot of folks. (Recruits 3d10 Green personnel)
-[] Picky recruitment: Get people who are at least as skilled as you are! (Recruits 2d10 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)
(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.
-[] Infantry Training: You've spent some time on the front, it sucks. Get better so it sucks less.
-[] Mobile Warfare Training: You know how to fight out of a truck bed. Now it's time to get good at that.
[] 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.

 
Last edited:
3.1
[X] Plan Paperwork Demon Begone!
-[X] Develop a new bunker base in a better location
--[X] In Morgen's Crossing, near Eversus (This is needed to fulfill War Bureau request)
-[X] Go and recruit more personnel
--[X] Picky recruitment: Get people who are at least as skilled as you are! (Recruits 2d10 Yellow personnel)
-[X] Commit training!
--[X] Administration Training: At some point, you're going to figure out the fine art of delegation. Some point.

Organizing the construction of a new bunker base, you decided, was an exercise in frustration. While creeping advances and the Inevitable Tide of Warden Exceptionalism was getting shit done, this meant everywhere was trashed. More importantly, every square inch of roadside property was already hosting a Knot-pattern or a Pill Case-pattern BB, neither of which was good for you. At this point, the plan was soundly to outsource defenses to patterns, with a few basic garrisons to cover the actual bunker base.

Finally, with a little help from 163 Uhlans, you had a small bunker base pinned out. It took some time to get it spruced up- decay had set in hard- but once that was done, it was almost homey if not for the complete lack of personal hygiene facilities or reasonable bunkrooms. You ended up sleeping in the back of a truck for a couple of nights as the place was getting spruced back into condition, but once it was fixed up you moved in.

Operations were faster and more frantic, now that you were in a heavily contested hex. Probing forces out of Allsight were a constant threat, and you couldn't count how much time you spent running around with a truck full of dudes, responding to calls. More often than not it wasn't penny-packet partisans, but rather entire chunks of an offensive you had to push and shove back until it was contained by the thin defensive lines. Still, the constant push of garrison supplies helped alleviate the issue: good food cured many ails.

More importantly, as things tightened up on Quietus, mercenaries started floating into the tile. Solos, pick-up groups, small squads, it didn't matter. Veterans from the Logistics Union push or just inspired idiots who wanted to get on the gravy train for Quietus, there was blood that didn't bleed War Bureau coming in droves. You managed to scavenge up a pick-up group, but didn't see hide or hair of Asuna: a regrettable fact of life. She was probably busy.

Still, with five more warm bodies on the rolls, things got easier and harder. Easier, since you could now actually get a good shift system rolling, or throw some serious mass of troops onto the line. Harder, since your support staff was getting pretty damn thin next to the number of troops you had. The problem was, ten support staff had problems getting everything done. There was sprucing up the base, scrooping for material, delivering the mail, delivering bunker and garrison supplies… it got bad. Bathroy was constantly wiring you that there were delays and issues keeping the base fully operational, and that Brava had to have her people start doing supply runs for you- a Serious Problem, considering Brava's people were also doing the supply runs for the Quietus encirclement.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, your work on developing administrative prowess figured something out fairly quickly. Aside from such revolutions as "everyone gets a truck" and "spare oil tankers are good", you actually figured that if you could get specialist NCOs attached to your sergeants, then you could create semi-permanent teams for specialist tasks.

Listen, it sounded simple, but when you looked at the amount of utter bullshit that wasn't fighting everyone did, it was kind of revolutionary. Being "on the front lines" sounded like it would be balls to the walls combat, but in reality it was much more. For starters, the infantry regiments ran four shift systems, like you did. One shift "on the line", one shift in the bunker base doing basic stuff for support tasks- cooking, cleaning, radio duty, etcetera. One shift asleep. Finally, one shift doing just taxi-work; which really just turned into a four-hour shift of driving and then bonus sleep time as supply got the vehicle sorted or something.

Even then, six hours on the line wasn't six hours of combat. No, it was six hours of patrolling, entrenching, shoring areas up, moving shells and bullets, carrying soldiers back to medics or corpses back to trucks to move back to base. Combat itself was short, sharp spats: a mammon rush to break a bunker, a 30mm gun duel to support some action, a smoke grenade toss to allow for trench raiders to cross no-man's-land.

For your units, though, eight hours on duty meant eight hours of riding in a truck, waiting for gunfights. Your troops were turning into good shots, slowly but surely, heavy Sampos and lighter Blakerows becoming familiar in hands as cover was shredded with rifle rounds time and time again. The difference, in going from cold-to-hot, was far sharper, and more stressful. That meant making the time off from duty less stressful was important- and the more Greens you had to handle that, the better rested your patrols were and the more willing they were to push aggressively- something that actually saved lives in the long run.

///

It was the better part of two weeks later that Quietus fell, not with a bang or screaming grenadiers, but with a whimper. The town hall had been demolished by concentrated Mammon advances, teams getting three or five grenades off, before settling into the ruins to continue laying down fire to suppress the capture point. The remaining fortifications went down shortly after, cut off from the seaport to take supplies from as the town became permeable and flooded with blueberries.

Once a construction vehicle rolled in, it became official. Quietus had fallen, and been captured. The operation was a success.

Then your workload exploded. Every logistics unit in the tile was now running material through the player port in Quietus, screaming and howling and ramming Ironships at all hours of the day. Hour-long truck queues became commonplace, and a special quay needed to be set up just to get garrison and bunker supplies to the safe house and town hall. There was a serious discussion, among the mercenary regiments and the War Bureau, that a dedicated logistics regiment might be needed to handle the player port until the voting pool managed to get the Actual Port online.

It was a headache and a half, as the lines started slowly walking its way through Bastard's Block, and your tasks slowly fell to the backline. Partisans weren't leaking through, and the War Bureau was doing well. Too well. Things were getting sleepy- right until Asuna came into your office, bedraggled and dead tired.

"I need help."

"You look like a cat dragged you in, yes," you said. "Come on, sit down, get a cup of tea."

As you poured from the samovar, Asuna shuddered. "I am never serving anywhere near the Naval Infantry again."

"It can't have been that bad?"

"They spoke exclusively English with the most horrifying accents, could not cook, could not clean, and had the most atrocious habits. Their bunker base was piss-stained, covered in excrement, and subsided entirely off of tinned beans, vienna sausages, and hot sauce. I waded through tides of brass, and the stench of cordite was so thick their drinks turned yellow."

"Alright, so it was that bad."

"Quite."

As you sat there drinking tea, you waited for Asuna to finally fess up what her problem was.

"I need a place to hide for a bit," she admitted.

"Why?"

"27 Naval Infantry may have a grudge against me."

"What did you do?"

"So, they challenged me to a shooting contest," Asuna explained, fidgeting. "It was really more a duel. I won, and they got mad. So, I did it again. Several times."

"They want to start shit?"

"They want to win. They'll be challenging me for weeks, and I'll never hear the end of it."

You nodded. "I'll talk to Bathroy about it- in the meantime, I'm sure we can loan you a cot."

"Thank you."

///
VOTES

UNIQUE
[] Let Asuna hide out with your regiment for an indeterminate amount of time while the Naval Infantry calm down
[] Try and get things worked out with the Naval Infantry so this dumbassery ends
[] Apoligize, and offer Asuna a good truck and a way to bunk up with the 163 Uhlans or another unit that won't deal with the Naval Infantry.

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.
[] Gift, Assign, or Abandon a bunker base.
-[] Write-in base by location. (You only have the one!)

PERSONNEL
(Choose One Two!)

[] Go and recruit more personnel
-[] Mass recruitment: whatever you can get, get more of it! (Recruits 4d10 White personnel)
-[] Selective recruitment: Look for people who aren't clueless. The Logistics Union has a lot of folks. (Recruits 3d10 Green personnel)
-[] Picky recruitment: Get people who are at least as skilled as you are! (Recruits 2d10 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)
(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. (You have reached the limits of Administration for your current size)
-[] Infantry Training: You've spent some time on the front, it sucks. Get better so it sucks less.
-[] Mobile Warfare Training: You know how to fight out of a truck bed. Now it's time to get good at that.
[] 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 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
-[] War Bureau
[] Find a way to get your guys some quality of life upgrades so things suck less out here.

SPREADSHEET
 
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A Short Primer on Buildings and Personnel Needs
So, at this point I believe I've made it rather clear that conditions for your average poilu right now are, as they say, atrocious. However, I find myself pressed to present more information about defenses, and some coverage of buildings in general.

Personnel Needs

Because Situation Foxtrot is rather more simulationary than SAO, players have a far larger set of needs. Every player requires four base things: food, water, sleep, and cleanliness. Food is provided from Kitchens, which consumes Bunker Supplies or Garrison Supplies. Water is provided from most any building, and is free- but cannot be collected in the field. Sleep is sleep, and can be taken anywhere but only issues the Rest buff if taken in a bed. Cleanliness is provided via facilities attached to a bunker base or building, and provides health buffs and quality of life features when used. Not fulfilling these needs causes deprivation issues. Aside from feeling miserable, units will degrade rapidly in a mechanical fashion. Lack of food causes Starvation, making units fail to regain stamina. Lack of water causes Dehydration, reducing view and focus as well as disabling System Assist. Lack of sleep causes Tiredness, causing players to loose control of their faculties and pass out. Lack of cleanliness results in Disease, which causes massive maluses to the other three base needs and may kill a player.

While no facility is tied to anything that's tied to a player, queueing up to use facilities becomes problematic quickly. There's very few ways to interupt the buff cycle that using a facility provides, and scheduling them is difficult. As a rule of thumb, any facility that is under hot-use is going to be operating at total buff provision of 100/shifts using. Therefor, a four-shift facility will only impart 25% of its buff potential onto its users.

Bunker Upgrades

Bunker Bases are the primary structure to provide for the needs of troops. They serve as defenses with assorted Garrison Upgrades, but more importantly also serve as a place to put Infrastructure Upgrades, which provide sustainment for Personnel Needs. Each Bunker section can hold one Infrastructure Upgrade, unless the Bunker section is connected to other Bunkers on all faces. Bunker upgrades are as follows, with increasing benifits from increasing bunkers to Tier 3 with a slash.

Bunks: Provides a bed to Sleep. Provides 2/3 bunks per bunker, and a private inventory chest. Increases odds a player may respawn at the bunker without consuming Soldier Supplies.
Lockers: Provides a private inventory and a location to pull from bunker inventory. Increases odds a player may respawn at the bunker without consuming Soldier Supplies.
Latrine: Provides Cleanliness buffs, and reduces smell. Increases odds a player may respawn at the bunker without consuming Soldier Supplies.
Wash Station: Provides large Cleanliness buffs, and can be upgraded into a Bath. Increases fire rate of AT/Howitzer garrisons.
Kitchen: Provides food preparation area, and decreases Bunker/Garrison supply consumption. Increases fire rate of AT/Howitzer garrisons.
Pantry: Provides food storage, and decreases Bunker/Garrison supply consumption by increasing Kitchen efficiency. Increases fire rate of AT/Howitzer garrisons.
Workstation: Provides a place to do paperwork and is well-stocked with pens, pencils, small maps, protractors and compasses, and slide rules. Decreases power cost to operate Storm Cannons.
Computation Module: A small, state-of-the-art logical machine to calculate complex formulas. Cannot be accessed through the bunker it is mounted in: players must use an upgraded Workstation, or a Radio Desk. Decreases power cost to operate Storm Cannons.
Radio Station: A short- or long- range wireless telegraphy and voice radio station. Can perform interhex radio telegraphy, and interhex radio voice protocols with an attached Intelligence Center. Used to operate Computation Modules. Increases search and detection ranges of Observation Bunkers.
Chalkboard: A simple board for planning operations or collimating data. Increases search and detection ranges of Observation Bunkers.
Strategic Map: A place to hang, modify, and use large maps and charts. When in same bunker network as Computation Modules, Workstations, and Chalkboards, may use System Assist to allow perfect information transfer via manual plot. Increases search and detection ranges of Observation Bunkers.

Other Buildings

While Bunkers are the primary providers of Personnel Needs fulfilment, there are numerous other buildings in the game with interactions tied to Personnel Needs. Below are some.

Town Hall: Provides 10 bunks, a Kitchen, Pantry, and Full Bath. Also comes with Telephone, Medium Range Radio, and Inter-Hex Telegraphy stations.
Safe House: Provides 5 bunks, a Kitchen, Wash Station, and Telephone.
Garrison House: Provides 5/10/15 bunks, a Kitchen, Wash Station, and Telephone/ and Full Bath, Pantry, Short Range Radio/ and 2x Workstation.
Emplacement House: Provides 4/8/12 bunks, a Latrine, Telephone/ and Kitchen, Workstation/ and Full Bath and Lockers.
Encampment/FOB/Outpost: Provides 10/20/30 bunks, a Wash Station, Short Range Radio, Latrine/ and Computation Module, Workbench, Medium Range Radio/ and Strategic Map, Long Range Radio, and additional Workstation.
Relic Base: Provides 5 bunks, a Kitchen, Full Bath, Long Range Radio, and Telegraph.

Why This Is Important

Right now, there are 9,000+ players in the game, crammed into a very small number of cities and towns. The average city has 8 Garrison and 4 Emplacement houses, one Town Hall, and one Safe House. At max tier, each town or city can hold at maximum 127 people without overcrowding. With each Relic holding 5 people, this means each hex can only hold 396 players on average before improvements are made. This means a rough estimate for Warden territory comfortable population at start of quest is 3,564 people. Currently, there are roughly three times that number of players. Nobody is happy. Nobody is comfortable. Most of all, nobody is safe. The first people who can bring housing security will be hailed as heroes, because they will have directly resulted in a quality of life improvement for the entire player base. Getting that housing security means conquering more territory, though.

Which is naturally all according to plan.
 
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