Situation Foxtrot (SAO/Foxhole) [COMPLETE]
- Thread starter 7734
- Start date
- Crossover
[X] plan let's get good at our job
-[X] Develop a new bunker base in a better location
--[X] In Morgen's Crossing, near Eversus
We have won enough to get a new normal, also we're required for this.
-[X] Frontline recruitment: Go to the front and snag some blueberries! (Recruits 1d10 Orange personnel)
This is a opportunity to get some people that are good at fighting.
-[X] Mobile Warfare Training: You know how to fight out of a truck bed. Now it's time to get good at that.
This is our job, artillery is in the future but being able to do our job now is probably worth it.
-[X] Develop a new bunker base in a better location
--[X] In Morgen's Crossing, near Eversus
We have won enough to get a new normal, also we're required for this.
-[X] Frontline recruitment: Go to the front and snag some blueberries! (Recruits 1d10 Orange personnel)
This is a opportunity to get some people that are good at fighting.
-[X] Mobile Warfare Training: You know how to fight out of a truck bed. Now it's time to get good at that.
This is our job, artillery is in the future but being able to do our job now is probably worth it.
[X] Plan Paperwork Demon Begone!
Time to focus on the eternal enemy.
Time to focus on the eternal enemy.
Hmm. Looking at the operational situation, the WB's next step should obviously be to build up a fortification line from Eversus to the landing site, while sieging down Quietus, and maybe taking the lone fort in Allsight. After that we could assault into the enemy fort line, but no-one enjoys offensive trench warfare so let's not do that if we can help it.
Instead, I think maybe our third step should be a naval landing north of Warmonger Bay, assuming our marines are up for it, with the goal of taking crossroads and fortifying the shit out of the whole thing. In a single strike, this threatens the entire supply line of the forts, forcing the enemy to make a choice:
If they leave the beachhead be? Great! Bunker-creep east and south-east to cut off the second road, starve out the forts entirely.
If they attack the beachhead? Also great! Let them charge into the grinder, if need be do a fighting retreat offshore and abandon the location entirely. Meanwhile, use the fact that they'll almost certainly have to draw forces from the fort line for this attack to force a breakthrough.
The big flaw of this plan is that it hinges on the naval route to supply and if necessary evacuate the beachhead. Which is why the second step, after taking Quietus and before we can even start any landing like that, will need to be naval superiority on the lake with the aid of Quietus' port facilities.
Which, honestly, very much tracks with the greater strategic situation, as far as I can see. The naval routes from our core territory to the frontline and beyond are simply far too much of an advantage - in terms of supply lines, and avenues for flanking attacks and raids into enemy territory - and simultaneously threat - the same, for the enemy - to not prioritize.
Thoughts? Anything obvious that I'm missing here, especially where game mechanics are concerned?
Instead, I think maybe our third step should be a naval landing north of Warmonger Bay, assuming our marines are up for it, with the goal of taking crossroads and fortifying the shit out of the whole thing. In a single strike, this threatens the entire supply line of the forts, forcing the enemy to make a choice:
If they leave the beachhead be? Great! Bunker-creep east and south-east to cut off the second road, starve out the forts entirely.
If they attack the beachhead? Also great! Let them charge into the grinder, if need be do a fighting retreat offshore and abandon the location entirely. Meanwhile, use the fact that they'll almost certainly have to draw forces from the fort line for this attack to force a breakthrough.
The big flaw of this plan is that it hinges on the naval route to supply and if necessary evacuate the beachhead. Which is why the second step, after taking Quietus and before we can even start any landing like that, will need to be naval superiority on the lake with the aid of Quietus' port facilities.
Which, honestly, very much tracks with the greater strategic situation, as far as I can see. The naval routes from our core territory to the frontline and beyond are simply far too much of an advantage - in terms of supply lines, and avenues for flanking attacks and raids into enemy territory - and simultaneously threat - the same, for the enemy - to not prioritize.
Thoughts? Anything obvious that I'm missing here, especially where game mechanics are concerned?
ConfusedCanuck
Where did it all go wrong?
- Location
- Neverland
[X] plan let's get good at our job
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
Correct. If you're orange ranked or on the frontline, you can do orange recruiting.
You're actually pretty close to the current draft plan of the War Department: the current plan is to break Fort Yankee, cut the road at Bastard's Block, and wait for Fort Victor to starve to death before moving in. Warmonger Bay and Lividius aren't huge concerns right now, and the naval operation for Quietus was a pretty ugly burn on the Naval Infantry mercenaries. Once Quietus falls, logistics throughout the hex are safe: that means the team can work nice and slowly to strangle out Allsight and use it to fulfil their political and social goals- one of which is aleviating the absolutely endemic crowding in other cities. None of the major Warden towns can, in my opinion, sustain more than 200 people- and right now in my estimation there are 3,500~ noncombatants sheltering there. Importing white-class and green-class players to higher standards of living in Quietus or Allsight will be a massive boon to the players in the rear.
Get more officers then.
Rockeye
Plausible Engineer
- Location
- Midwestern U.S.
A "training regiment" that scoops up skittish whites and slowly exposes them to threat under yellow/orange supervision would probably be very valuable to the playerbase as a whole, and also I really really do not want to do that, it sounds boring as hell. Babysitting duty.
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
Hello yes 11 Infantry has a training company for that. Y'all are gonna be so mad when you finally unlock what company officers get you.
- Location
- Minnesota
[X] Plan Paperwork Demon Begone!
Cmd. Frost
The last one standing.
- Location
- The Summer Stretch
[X] Plan Paperwork Demon Begone!
I am? Because it doesn't sound like I am.
Starving Bastard's Blocks seems challenging when it's so well-connected to surrounding roads. We can, should and will certainly cut off and starve Quietus and may even flank and gradually take Allsight, but to cut off Fort Victor/Bastard's Block we'd need to break through the Bastard's Block - Quietus Line at Velian's Storm and then hook around north, which seems challenging and risky, the resulting salient prone to getting cut off at the base. The entire point of the Warmonger landing is to avoid having to do exactly that, and instead threaten to starve the Bastard's Block - Lividus line as a whole.
Thoug if we're going to lose access to Marines entirely, that's pretty much that I guess.
Last edited:
- Location
- Earth, Sol
[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.
-[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.
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
The problem is that assumes you can do another naval landing, and that's a massively risky move to make. Until you get gunships, you don't have any organic ways to soften up the beachhead, so target locations need to be very soft. This is made worse by the fact you don't have any armor or artillery to mix into a naval invasion force: it's straight infantry hitting the beach and soft-skinned trucks, so it's infantry hitting the beaches with shovels, rifles, and mammons. You don't even have White Whales to provide on-site respawn: you need to package an engineering company into the landing regiments to dig in and build a bunker base in order to provide that.
Right now, naval invasions are the sort of thing that takes at least two or three turns of prep, and are ruinously expensive if they don't go off correctly. This isn't something that's going to change, either: every time it gets easier for naval forces to attack land, the land gets more options to swing back. Concrete and Gunships are peer techs, which directly means Howitzer Garrisons and gunships are peer techs. Add tanks or field guns to the force, and you have to add in the dangers of AT garrisons. The White Whale comes a long way after Storm Cannons and 150mm guns- theatre scale artillery.
Is punching through Fort Victor going to be bad? Oh hell yeah: the Relic Base can sustain AI defenses even after the bunker core goes down. However, the fact is the current plan doesn't need to hold Bastard's Block: it just needs to deny it to the enemy to start starving Allsight. It may not be apparent, but Fort Tango is really badly placed: they can't use it to create a secure line of communication and supply, and that means it's the last stop for Colonial supply up the back roads.
Remember: the goal here was never Allsight, that's a stretch goal. Quietus is where the meat and potatoes of the hex is, and it'll be revealed why once it's secured.
- Location
- England
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
No Jade Cove or Kalokai nukes, 2/10.
3.1
7734
Trust and verify.
- Location
- Philmont
[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.
-[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)
(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
[] 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)
(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"
-[] 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)
-[] 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)
(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
Situation Foxtrot The Books
Last edited:
ConfusedCanuck
Where did it all go wrong?
- Location
- Neverland
Hmm seems to me that our backline logistics are getting strained perhaps recruit some greens to relieve that.
Well there goes our chance to nab some orange rated personnel but oh well, I'm sure we'll get another chance in the near future. Anyways, a rather poor recruitment turn considering we only got five of the potential twenty folks to join us. They might be alright with combat but things have calmed down and our logistics are getting overwhelmed, we're going to need more personnel to keep up so let's go nab us some more green rated troops. It'll get us closer to another lieutenant which means more actions plus it will allow us more troops to handle billets. Though we probably should train them as well in the art of driving, that probably will make logistics be a bit smoother plus we'll have a pool of decent drivers. For the base, eh no artillery yet so that's a no go on artillery positions since we'd need them researched and then requisition them so best to just expand the base while improving the living standards.
As for the marines being mad at Asuna being better than them, well they can go munch on some crayons until they forget about their spat with her. Cause I doubt we'll be able to mediate with people who can't handle defeat with grace and we can use Asuna here in the meanwhile for temporary admin work assuming she doesn't want to stick around long-term plus we'll get rep boost with her.
[X] Plan Logistics Mender
-[X] Let Asuna hide out with your regiment for an indeterminate amount of time while the Naval Infantry calm down
-[X] Expand your bunker base with Defensive Patterns (Requires techniques, vote to begin development)
--[X] With heavy patterns
-[X] Go and recruit more personnel
--[X] Selective recruitment: Look for people who aren't clueless. The Logistics Union has a lot of folks. (Recruits 3d10 Green personnel)
-[X] Commit training!
--[X] 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.
-[X] Find a way to get your guys some quality of life upgrades so things suck less out here.
As for the marines being mad at Asuna being better than them, well they can go munch on some crayons until they forget about their spat with her. Cause I doubt we'll be able to mediate with people who can't handle defeat with grace and we can use Asuna here in the meanwhile for temporary admin work assuming she doesn't want to stick around long-term plus we'll get rep boost with her.
[X] Plan Logistics Mender
-[X] Let Asuna hide out with your regiment for an indeterminate amount of time while the Naval Infantry calm down
-[X] Expand your bunker base with Defensive Patterns (Requires techniques, vote to begin development)
--[X] With heavy patterns
-[X] Go and recruit more personnel
--[X] Selective recruitment: Look for people who aren't clueless. The Logistics Union has a lot of folks. (Recruits 3d10 Green personnel)
-[X] Commit training!
--[X] 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.
-[X] Find a way to get your guys some quality of life upgrades so things suck less out here.