Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)
- Thread starter LordSunhawk
- Start date
ShadowArxxy - Canon Omake - Strategic Analysis II
Omake: Strategic Update
Situation Room - Royal Palace
The "master display" board that dominated one of the walls of the Situation Room had been updated to show the current count and status of Combine assets in-system:
"That is one ugly DropShip." commented the Queen with false cheer as the senior staff filed in for the emergency briefing. "Please tell me it's not another kamikaze."
"It's definitely not another kamikaze, at least not in any sense other than being sent on what is clearly a one-way deployment. We were guessing Overlords and Excaliburs for their heavy-lift DropShip reserves, and that analysis is still valid overall; a Behemoth like that is only useful for bulk cargo, because it can't land. As in, it can't land even when it's in perfect condition. It's purely a JumpShip-to-orbit hauler, and incredibly fragile even by civilian standards. Our best guess is that it's hauling a very, very large amount of improvised orbit-denial weaponry targeted on our orbital stations and defense satellites. There's really no other plausible role for it.
"As for the rest of their force, the other new unit is a Condor class DropShip, which is a battalion infantry carrier. Even if the maximum possible number of BattleMechs reinforce that battalion, they are grossly underestimating our ground forces and we are confident we can handle this threat with minimal risk even if they get past the ASFs. The Army's primary concern will be identifying their drop zone as quickly as possible and intercepting them before they can cause collateral damage.
"The core of the battle is going to be the ASF strike. It's a fairly good sign that we haven't seen a second Union CV, because our analysts are pretty confident that the arrival of the troop transports means they will *not* be waiting another cycle before attacking. Without carriers of our own we simply don't have any fancy deployment options, and they know it; we expect a straight head-to-head engagement where their expectation is to swarm us under with vastly superior numbers, and our expectation is that they will be unpleasantly surprised at both our actual numbers and our superior individual performance."
Situation Room - Royal Palace
The "master display" board that dominated one of the walls of the Situation Room had been updated to show the current count and status of Combine assets in-system:
Code:
Griffin IV:
Mule #2 (Landed)
Aqueduct #1 (Landed)
Leopard (CV?) #1 (Landed)
Leopard (CV?) #2 (Landed)
Leopard (CV?) #3 (Landed)
Leopard (CV?) #4 (Landed)
Leopard (CV?) #5 (Landed)
ASFs: 58-78
BattleMechs: 0-20
System Space
Three-Collar Jumpship #1 (Nadir, Recharging)
Three-Collar Jumpship #2 (Nadir, Recharging)
Behemoth (Nadir -> Griffin IV)
Condor (Nadir -> Griffin IV)
Union-CV #1 (Nadir -> Griffin IV)
Leopard (CV?) #6 (Nadir -> Griffin IV)
Leopard (CV?) #7 (Nadir -> Griffin IV)
ASFs: 4-12
BattleMechs: 0-8"That is one ugly DropShip." commented the Queen with false cheer as the senior staff filed in for the emergency briefing. "Please tell me it's not another kamikaze."
"It's definitely not another kamikaze, at least not in any sense other than being sent on what is clearly a one-way deployment. We were guessing Overlords and Excaliburs for their heavy-lift DropShip reserves, and that analysis is still valid overall; a Behemoth like that is only useful for bulk cargo, because it can't land. As in, it can't land even when it's in perfect condition. It's purely a JumpShip-to-orbit hauler, and incredibly fragile even by civilian standards. Our best guess is that it's hauling a very, very large amount of improvised orbit-denial weaponry targeted on our orbital stations and defense satellites. There's really no other plausible role for it.
"As for the rest of their force, the other new unit is a Condor class DropShip, which is a battalion infantry carrier. Even if the maximum possible number of BattleMechs reinforce that battalion, they are grossly underestimating our ground forces and we are confident we can handle this threat with minimal risk even if they get past the ASFs. The Army's primary concern will be identifying their drop zone as quickly as possible and intercepting them before they can cause collateral damage.
"The core of the battle is going to be the ASF strike. It's a fairly good sign that we haven't seen a second Union CV, because our analysts are pretty confident that the arrival of the troop transports means they will *not* be waiting another cycle before attacking. Without carriers of our own we simply don't have any fancy deployment options, and they know it; we expect a straight head-to-head engagement where their expectation is to swarm us under with vastly superior numbers, and our expectation is that they will be unpleasantly surprised at both our actual numbers and our superior individual performance."
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Jarow
Well-known member
[X] Declare Martial Law (no Interior Actions will complete this turn, no GDP growth this turn, reduces damage from incoming attacks by half)
Sad to give up our growth, but this saved us last time and probably will this time too
[X] Agree - Gain 1 Company of Grifftiger Assault Infantry, with HP 200, Attack 125, Defense 125, Initiative +100
... Is there a reason not to accept free units?
Sad to give up our growth, but this saved us last time and probably will this time too
[X] Agree - Gain 1 Company of Grifftiger Assault Infantry, with HP 200, Attack 125, Defense 125, Initiative +100
... Is there a reason not to accept free units?
Another round of horrifically terrible singing protests.
Lightwhispers
Well-known member
[X] Declare Martial Law (no Interior Actions will complete this turn, no GDP growth this turn, reduces damage from incoming attacks by half)
[X] Agree - Gain 1 Company of Grifftiger Assault Infantry, with HP 200, Attack 125, Defense 125, Initiative +100
Tiggers!
[X] Agree - Gain 1 Company of Grifftiger Assault Infantry, with HP 200, Attack 125, Defense 125, Initiative +100
Tiggers!
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[X] Declare Martial Law (no Interior Actions will complete this turn, no GDP growth this turn, reduces damage from incoming attacks by half)
[X] Agree - Gain 1 Company of Grifftiger Assault Infantry, with HP 200, Attack 125, Defense 125, Initiative +100
[X] Agree - Gain 1 Company of Grifftiger Assault Infantry, with HP 200, Attack 125, Defense 125, Initiative +100
Ridli Scott
Well-known member
[X] Declare Martial Law (no Interior Actions will complete this turn, no GDP growth this turn, reduces damage from incoming attacks by half)
[X] Agree - Gain 1 Company of Grifftiger Assault Infantry, with HP 200, Attack 125, Defense 125, Initiative +100
This is the reason why I said that we need to make armed and armoured exoskeletons for tigers. If one of the fur balls is injured I will be very sad for voting that.
[X] Agree - Gain 1 Company of Grifftiger Assault Infantry, with HP 200, Attack 125, Defense 125, Initiative +100
This is the reason why I said that we need to make armed and armoured exoskeletons for tigers. If one of the fur balls is injured I will be very sad for voting that.
Considering that the Great Hunters that will be forming this unit are described as being almost as big as the Eldest himself (who is in the 200 ton range) I don't think we can build exoskeletons for these guys until we can start building Assault BattleMechs. These are the sort of beasties who could shoulder aside a Dragon or Marauder without even slowing down.
[X] Declare Martial Law (no Interior Actions will complete this turn, no GDP growth this turn, reduces damage from incoming attacks by half)
[X] Agree - Gain 1 Company of Grifftiger Assault Infantry, with HP 200, Attack 125, Defense 125, Initiative +100
ShadowArxxy - Canon Omake - Their Finest Hour
Omake: Finest Hour
In the quietly tense weeks between the arrival of the last round of DCMS DropShips and the final preparations for battle, Jackie Griffith made personal visits to every single unit of the Armed Forces. She sat with them. She ate with them. She talked with them.
She paid particularly close attention to the Aerospace Force, because everyone could see the numbers of Combine ASFs they were going to be facing. Even in the best possible case, most of those brave young men and women were not going to be coming home (her heart smothered the terror that someday in the near future, her own daughter would be among them), and they knew that, and they were going to go up there anyway.
And all Jackie Griffith could do was look each of them in the eyes and make damn sure they knew that she knew what she was asking of them, that she did not ask it lightly, and that she personally swore that they would never be forgotten.
In the quietly tense weeks between the arrival of the last round of DCMS DropShips and the final preparations for battle, Jackie Griffith made personal visits to every single unit of the Armed Forces. She sat with them. She ate with them. She talked with them.
She paid particularly close attention to the Aerospace Force, because everyone could see the numbers of Combine ASFs they were going to be facing. Even in the best possible case, most of those brave young men and women were not going to be coming home (her heart smothered the terror that someday in the near future, her own daughter would be among them), and they knew that, and they were going to go up there anyway.
And all Jackie Griffith could do was look each of them in the eyes and make damn sure they knew that she knew what she was asking of them, that she did not ask it lightly, and that she personally swore that they would never be forgotten.
Ridli Scott
Well-known member
Oh! I thought the big ones were van-sized. Well, as I said before they wellow bird isn't the dragon enemy but the tiger.
Lightwhispers
Well-known member
Sekhmet is around 20 tons. The Eldest is locomotive-sized.
Turn 25 - The Virgins Are All Trimming Their Wicks
Turn 25 - The Virgins Are All Trimming Their Wicks
The alert sounds and you are hustled to the submarine where you will be sheltering and monitoring the situation as best you can. Jeremy is still at sea in the fishing trawler, but the rest of the kids are split between this boat and the one that Willis is on.
You insist on Sarah being with you.
The report was triggered by the enemy Behemoth boosting away from Griffin IV on an elliptical path that slingshotted around Griffin V and sent the massive vessel rocketing towards the planet at a highly oblique angle. Then a jump signature appears at the Zenith point and a pair of large spheroid dropships start thrusting in.
They are tentatively identified as an Overlord and Excaliber class. They are boosting in hard from the Zenith towards Griffin’s Roost.
Then the Aqueduct, Leopards, and the Union-CV start boosting from Griffin IV. The Mule and Condor remain behind. Calculating the trajectories it appears that all 3 forces will arrive at roughly the same time, with the Behemoth arriving first.
Only that at the point where the gigantic dropship would need to start decelerating it instead seems to ‘wobble’ in its trajectory and telescopes pick up that it has released a massive ‘cloud’ of something, before the skeletal vessel changes its vector and starts boosting towards the Zenith point.
You discover what that ‘cloud’ was several hours later, as a veritable hailstorm of small tungsten cubes start stripping everything out of low orbit, including all of the laser defense satellites and the orbiting space station. Your intercepting ASFs are forced into evasive action and have to jettison their rocket pods in order to clear the cloud of projectiles, all of which burn up in the atmosphere. It’s a spectacular light show, but it has caused significant destruction of your orbital defenses.
Then the battle begins in earnest. The Eagles prove just how devastating they are by massacring a squadron of enemy Sabres during the initial merge before the smaller interceptors even have a chance to fire, then the Excaliber is pounced on and reduced to an expanding cloud of scrap metal by the Goshawks. Moment’s later the Overlord tries to flip over and start a suicide burn, but is blotted from the black before it can complete the manuever by the Rocs.
Unfortunately the Gyrfalcons are having a far harder time of it. Massively outnumbered by almost three times as many Sabres, the Gyrfalcon pilots are clearly superior, and the birds themselves are superb, but they are simply swamped by the raw numbers they are facing. The enemy dropships that were supporting the strike start to retreat back towards Griffin IV.
After long minutes of a truly chaotic furball, with fuel starting to run low and the wing of Gyrfalcons getting dangerously close to Combat Loss Grouping, the order is given to break away. The enemy Sabres then break away as well, although their breakaway vector takes them right past L4, where they engage in a vicious slashing strike against the orbital infrastructure at the LaGrange point, destroying the forges and space station there.
It appears that the Dragon is retreating to lick its wounds. You had won, but at a stiff cost in terms of destroyed orbital real estate.
You return to Griffsport, to receive reports that while you were gone there had been more rumblings from the volcano that have allowed the geologists to refine their predictions. They are now reasonably confident that they know exactly which vent will erupt and have a fairly decent idea of when it will most likely happen.
Reconstruction begins immediately. You have this exotic technology called ‘spare parts’ and ‘stockpiled supplies’ that allow you to begin repairs almost before the Dracs make it back to Griffin IV. Crew chiefs are loudly berating the pilots that they’d allowed to take their precious birds into combat for bringing them back in such poor shape.
Repairs would be expensive, but thankfully not nearly as expensive as the last time that they’d managed to actually land on Capricorn. But with the Dragon now seemingly getting emplaced on Griffin IV, you were pretty certain that raids would be coming in far more often.
Parliament shows up and goes into session, proposing that perhaps it might be appropriate to declare a public day of thanksgiving and celebration.
[] Support. +1 Approval Change, -.5% GDP
[] Oppose -1 Approval Change
The alert sounds and you are hustled to the submarine where you will be sheltering and monitoring the situation as best you can. Jeremy is still at sea in the fishing trawler, but the rest of the kids are split between this boat and the one that Willis is on.
You insist on Sarah being with you.
The report was triggered by the enemy Behemoth boosting away from Griffin IV on an elliptical path that slingshotted around Griffin V and sent the massive vessel rocketing towards the planet at a highly oblique angle. Then a jump signature appears at the Zenith point and a pair of large spheroid dropships start thrusting in.
They are tentatively identified as an Overlord and Excaliber class. They are boosting in hard from the Zenith towards Griffin’s Roost.
Then the Aqueduct, Leopards, and the Union-CV start boosting from Griffin IV. The Mule and Condor remain behind. Calculating the trajectories it appears that all 3 forces will arrive at roughly the same time, with the Behemoth arriving first.
Only that at the point where the gigantic dropship would need to start decelerating it instead seems to ‘wobble’ in its trajectory and telescopes pick up that it has released a massive ‘cloud’ of something, before the skeletal vessel changes its vector and starts boosting towards the Zenith point.
You discover what that ‘cloud’ was several hours later, as a veritable hailstorm of small tungsten cubes start stripping everything out of low orbit, including all of the laser defense satellites and the orbiting space station. Your intercepting ASFs are forced into evasive action and have to jettison their rocket pods in order to clear the cloud of projectiles, all of which burn up in the atmosphere. It’s a spectacular light show, but it has caused significant destruction of your orbital defenses.
Then the battle begins in earnest. The Eagles prove just how devastating they are by massacring a squadron of enemy Sabres during the initial merge before the smaller interceptors even have a chance to fire, then the Excaliber is pounced on and reduced to an expanding cloud of scrap metal by the Goshawks. Moment’s later the Overlord tries to flip over and start a suicide burn, but is blotted from the black before it can complete the manuever by the Rocs.
Unfortunately the Gyrfalcons are having a far harder time of it. Massively outnumbered by almost three times as many Sabres, the Gyrfalcon pilots are clearly superior, and the birds themselves are superb, but they are simply swamped by the raw numbers they are facing. The enemy dropships that were supporting the strike start to retreat back towards Griffin IV.
After long minutes of a truly chaotic furball, with fuel starting to run low and the wing of Gyrfalcons getting dangerously close to Combat Loss Grouping, the order is given to break away. The enemy Sabres then break away as well, although their breakaway vector takes them right past L4, where they engage in a vicious slashing strike against the orbital infrastructure at the LaGrange point, destroying the forges and space station there.
It appears that the Dragon is retreating to lick its wounds. You had won, but at a stiff cost in terms of destroyed orbital real estate.
You return to Griffsport, to receive reports that while you were gone there had been more rumblings from the volcano that have allowed the geologists to refine their predictions. They are now reasonably confident that they know exactly which vent will erupt and have a fairly decent idea of when it will most likely happen.
Reconstruction begins immediately. You have this exotic technology called ‘spare parts’ and ‘stockpiled supplies’ that allow you to begin repairs almost before the Dracs make it back to Griffin IV. Crew chiefs are loudly berating the pilots that they’d allowed to take their precious birds into combat for bringing them back in such poor shape.
Repairs would be expensive, but thankfully not nearly as expensive as the last time that they’d managed to actually land on Capricorn. But with the Dragon now seemingly getting emplaced on Griffin IV, you were pretty certain that raids would be coming in far more often.
Parliament shows up and goes into session, proposing that perhaps it might be appropriate to declare a public day of thanksgiving and celebration.
[] Support. +1 Approval Change, -.5% GDP
[] Oppose -1 Approval Change
God these shits just can't help themselves can they? Hopefully we get rid of these assholes soon
Jarow
Well-known member
Definitely room for debate here, but I'm going for
[X] Oppose -1 Approval Change
According to math, .5% GDP comes out to 107k income (at 10%), comparable to the culture actions, but with much longer effect. Given we're at 82 approval change and 100 approval, I personally feel it safe to preserve our income here.
[X] Oppose -1 Approval Change
According to math, .5% GDP comes out to 107k income (at 10%), comparable to the culture actions, but with much longer effect. Given we're at 82 approval change and 100 approval, I personally feel it safe to preserve our income here.
[X] Oppose -1 Approval Change
- [X] A public day of remembrance for our losses, both today and in days past.
- [X] A public day of remembrance for our losses, both today and in days past.
IceWing_mk1
Well-known member
Out of curiosity, does the Combine's assault tactics qualify as War Crimes? They literally just flung material which could survive re-entry across the entire planetary disk. Zero concern for civilian casualties. It's not a nuclear strike, but, legitimately, the equivalent megatonage could be on par with a nuclear strike. Plus, if there was civilian infrastructure up there, or even civilians, they gave no warning whatsoever.
kashim3
Texan, Mandalorian, Alabamian.
Their entire bag of tricks when they don't get their way is War Crimes. The Combine does not give one fig about the rules of war.
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[X] Oppose -1 Approval Change