World On Fire: Shadow Ops [a Fantasy WWII Quest]
- Thread starter Zoosmell
- Start date
- Mature Fantasy Alt. History
- Location
- Internet
[X] Plan: Getting Clever About This
Vote closed
A Step Away From Paradise Pt. XI
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
[><] Getting Clever About This
Over the next few hours, you hash out a plan with your team and the locals - Liu Bei, and the apparent leader of the martial artists team, who is predictably named Guan Yu. He certainly looks the part - if a grizzly bear was Chinese, it'd look like him.
"Guan Yu" and "Cao Cao", the latter in charge of what Shangri-La had in terms of an intelligence agency, did not like the idea you came up with... at first. Cao Cao in particular thought betting on the Japanese coming at you the same old way, the Japanese expecting the local forces to react the same old way, and the Japanese to themselves react to that in the same old way was a lot of "ifs" to bet on, and despite his moniker he wasn't the sort to bet on overly complicated plans that relied on a lot of ifs.
Still, eventually you manage to win him over. The plan itself is fairly simple:
First, booby trap the living hell out of the narrow valley and the rocky area immediately past it that marks the entrance to Shangri-La. The mountains and cliffs surrounding the area are pretty steep, so even the Italian Army would have a slow, difficult time going around the ravine entrance. And if Unit 108 tries, well, you have witches and planes, and Liu Bei says there's a fireworks supply in town - a good bit of magic and you can make some distracting, if weak, rockets. Either way, the valley entrance itself will be booby trapped, mined, and filled with setups for ambushes. You certainly hope they take the entrance, as you want to save the planes for when they have the most effect.
Once the IJA gets through that, they'll be met by the bulk of Shangri-La's native defenders, consisting of martial artists, a handful of real monks from the real (if small) monastery, and a handful of people old and fit enough to use rifles but for one reason or another not already recruited by Chiang's army or one of the other warlords. They will put up as gallant a fight as the IJA will expect of them, perhaps even more, before "breaking" for the second defensive line. Where you, all of Charlie Company, and all the planes will come down on them from the sides, guns and wands blazing. If you're lucky, you'll have at least most of the rockets left over, and you can throw them in the mix. They probably won't do all that much, but they do look colorful - and mages oh-so-love their colors.
Once they're broken and scattered, hopefully they'll retreat back down the ravine. Either way, there should be enough time after that to put down some proper defensive works - there's certainly enough trees and rock - and get some proper weaponry shipped in.
Two rolls and a vote, you're voting for what sort of weapons you hope/expect to find and rolling for how successful you are at finding/foraging for it. Maximum of four types of weapons/devices.
In order from highest to lowest roll requirements:
Over the next few hours, you hash out a plan with your team and the locals - Liu Bei, and the apparent leader of the martial artists team, who is predictably named Guan Yu. He certainly looks the part - if a grizzly bear was Chinese, it'd look like him.
"Guan Yu" and "Cao Cao", the latter in charge of what Shangri-La had in terms of an intelligence agency, did not like the idea you came up with... at first. Cao Cao in particular thought betting on the Japanese coming at you the same old way, the Japanese expecting the local forces to react the same old way, and the Japanese to themselves react to that in the same old way was a lot of "ifs" to bet on, and despite his moniker he wasn't the sort to bet on overly complicated plans that relied on a lot of ifs.
Still, eventually you manage to win him over. The plan itself is fairly simple:
First, booby trap the living hell out of the narrow valley and the rocky area immediately past it that marks the entrance to Shangri-La. The mountains and cliffs surrounding the area are pretty steep, so even the Italian Army would have a slow, difficult time going around the ravine entrance. And if Unit 108 tries, well, you have witches and planes, and Liu Bei says there's a fireworks supply in town - a good bit of magic and you can make some distracting, if weak, rockets. Either way, the valley entrance itself will be booby trapped, mined, and filled with setups for ambushes. You certainly hope they take the entrance, as you want to save the planes for when they have the most effect.
Once the IJA gets through that, they'll be met by the bulk of Shangri-La's native defenders, consisting of martial artists, a handful of real monks from the real (if small) monastery, and a handful of people old and fit enough to use rifles but for one reason or another not already recruited by Chiang's army or one of the other warlords. They will put up as gallant a fight as the IJA will expect of them, perhaps even more, before "breaking" for the second defensive line. Where you, all of Charlie Company, and all the planes will come down on them from the sides, guns and wands blazing. If you're lucky, you'll have at least most of the rockets left over, and you can throw them in the mix. They probably won't do all that much, but they do look colorful - and mages oh-so-love their colors.
Once they're broken and scattered, hopefully they'll retreat back down the ravine. Either way, there should be enough time after that to put down some proper defensive works - there's certainly enough trees and rock - and get some proper weaponry shipped in.
Two rolls and a vote, you're voting for what sort of weapons you hope/expect to find and rolling for how successful you are at finding/foraging for it. Maximum of four types of weapons/devices.
In order from highest to lowest roll requirements:
Military Rockets
Cannons
Modern MGs
Modern Grenades
Modern SMGs
Early MGs
Modern Rifles
Early SMGs
Pistols
Shotguns/Single-Shot Rifles
Grenadoes
Black Powder Rifles
Firecrackers
Muskets/Black Powder Shotguns
Black Powder Pistols
Swords
Knives
Polearms
Farming "Weapons"
Quarterstaffs/Clubs
Cannons
Modern MGs
Modern Grenades
Modern SMGs
Early MGs
Modern Rifles
Early SMGs
Pistols
Shotguns/Single-Shot Rifles
Grenadoes
Black Powder Rifles
Firecrackers
Muskets/Black Powder Shotguns
Black Powder Pistols
Swords
Knives
Polearms
Farming "Weapons"
Quarterstaffs/Clubs
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
Heh.
If nothing else, they should make the enemy dive for cover.
[X] Plan: Not Too Modern
-[X] Shotguns/Single-Shot Rifles
-[X] Early SMGs
-[X] Early MGs
-[X] Grenadoes
The idea is that with us facing a "modern" opponent, and they're all mages, so in order for our plan to work, we need to craft weapons that will actually work against them, so anything below grenadoes is less than desirable. At the same time, we don't want to craft too modern equipment, both because the chances of getting them is low and also to not tip the IJA to our plan. If the Shang-ri La people, this isolated community, suddenly wield lot of modern weapons is going to amke them more cautious and think of outside help.
Edit.
Ok, that's pretty good.
Last edited:
- Location
- Pittsburgh PA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan: Not Too Modern
I guess I'll roll as well
I guess I'll roll as well
- Location
- Titan
That's a lot of SMGs.
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
If I'm understanding the rolls correctly, we'd be finding everything on my list.
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
Mostly, anyway. You might only find one or two really old machine guns and a handful of first-gen SMGs, but you'll find plenty of shotguns and single-shot rifles.
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
That's still good. What about grenadoes?
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
Grenadoes are pretty much those black bombs you see in cartoons but smaller - you'll find enough gunpowder, spare pottery, and rope to make plenty of those.
Vote closed
A Step Away From Paradise Pt. XII
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
[><] A Respectable Quantity of Dakka
Planning finishes quickly, so now comes the gathering of supplies.
Foraging by any other name, Abigail called it, but you were quick to point out that the Allies did not forage, you gathered supplies. Very different. Foraging was almost like looting, gathering supplies was entirely done with the consent of the local populace. You actually do pretty well, all things considered - you get a handful of early, early submachine guns - the early Thompsons, plus a handful of MG18s and clones of MG18s. You get a lot more shotguns, and single-shot rifles - Trapdoor Springfields, Martini-Henris, and even a couple Marlins of all things; for shotguns you mostly get Winchesters and Remingtons, though Cao Cao produces a brand-new Ithaca 37.
Explosives is another issue. It's too much to hope for enough firecrackers to produce a stock of them, but there's at least enough that the planes can drop them from the air. Indra pulls you aside and teaches you how to make simple frag grenades out of pots and gunpowder. You quickly have some of the people otherwise unoccupied with setting up booby traps or defenses build a whole bunch of these "grenadoes" for you all to use. They won't exactly be as standardized as current frag grenades, but they'll do the job, and you can make a lot of them.
The last things you find you almost miss. It isn't much, but whatever happens, you have got the Maxim Gun, and the IJA have not.
No plan survives first contact with the enemy - gimme some rolls!
Planning finishes quickly, so now comes the gathering of supplies.
Foraging by any other name, Abigail called it, but you were quick to point out that the Allies did not forage, you gathered supplies. Very different. Foraging was almost like looting, gathering supplies was entirely done with the consent of the local populace. You actually do pretty well, all things considered - you get a handful of early, early submachine guns - the early Thompsons, plus a handful of MG18s and clones of MG18s. You get a lot more shotguns, and single-shot rifles - Trapdoor Springfields, Martini-Henris, and even a couple Marlins of all things; for shotguns you mostly get Winchesters and Remingtons, though Cao Cao produces a brand-new Ithaca 37.
Explosives is another issue. It's too much to hope for enough firecrackers to produce a stock of them, but there's at least enough that the planes can drop them from the air. Indra pulls you aside and teaches you how to make simple frag grenades out of pots and gunpowder. You quickly have some of the people otherwise unoccupied with setting up booby traps or defenses build a whole bunch of these "grenadoes" for you all to use. They won't exactly be as standardized as current frag grenades, but they'll do the job, and you can make a lot of them.
The last things you find you almost miss. It isn't much, but whatever happens, you have got the Maxim Gun, and the IJA have not.
No plan survives first contact with the enemy - gimme some rolls!
How much should I roll?
- Location
- Pittsburgh PA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
let's see, will this roll also double the previous roll?
no
no
- Location
- USA
🎲
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
Exactly.
That's good. We can do bombing runs.
This does not fill me with confidence.