Pilot Net megagame testing

[spare bay]

keeping us ground pounders safe

[dim spade]

@wind yacht I can't seem to add equipment to aircraft?

[wind yacht]

Aircraft pick different equipment each sortie

[dim spade]

Ah, okay

[icy linden]

my understanding is we start at the 'home' city

[dim spade]

Aight well, Viper Squad is locked in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3DqhUEXTN0

[spare bay]

not quite, we all start in space and need to rebase or airlift into the city on turn 1, unless you have Local Recruits, Drop Pods/Platforms, or are a Blacksky style air unit.

[dim spade]

Also if we wanna look at the foundry, we can just pick any player number right?

[spare bay]

yep

[icy linden]

aaah

sure

[sweet cobalt]

Name green, hypothetical turn in the planning spreadsheet, I'll submit to the form tomorrow barring so major discussion here

[slow copper]

If you don't have drop pods, Airlift is an [R] stance action BTW

[dim spade]

@heady moat wait VERRY

I didn't know you were a bomber wing!

LET'S GOOO

[wicked plover]

should I make a mini?

[wind yacht]

No, I've got tokens for everyone

Retrograde has a limited selection of aircraft so I had to get creative

[livid geyser]

Oh! We're supposed to make our names green got it

[floral patio]

That's what is supposed to indicate we're not changing our character anymore yah

[wicked plover]

@slow copper are you still planning on a Muskegon Blitz? I can't get onto the airstrip Turn 1, but I can relocate to AS3 or AT4 turn 1 and be prepared to support with covering fire

[wind yacht]

<@&1310264693650362378> 24 hours to the order submission deadline. NAVINT has completed their analysis of the orbital scans. Hostile infiltration units are suspected to be operating near Saginaw, but do not show up in the scans - be wary.

[dim spade]

Where am I based at first as an air squadron?

[wind yacht]

In space

You'll have to Rebase or use orbital boosters on the first round

[dim spade]

Can multiple units rebase in the same tile?

[wind yacht]

An airbase can hold 3 air units, a FOB can hold 6

[bright nimbus]

funnily enough we don't need a fob for our air cause of our 6 air units only 3 need a base

[icy linden]

Can I show up in the spaceport and move

[wind yacht]

If your order is to airlift to the spaceport (or an adjacent tile) then that's your movement for the turn

If you have Local Recuits, you can start in the spaceport tile and take any order from there

[icy linden]

Or no?

Ahh sure

[blazing basalt]

If you're not packing droppods, and you're a ground unit, you're chilling in space until next turn.

Air lift priority has gone to the support units so we can get more bases down and get more people down t2

[icy linden]

Ahhh

Sure

Lol chill in spaaaaceer

[slow copper]

I do want to. But I think ideally we would have 3 people able to combat drop into the airport (plus the two supports nearby). But right now people are concerned about the defense of Saginaw and we don't have the drop/lift capacity for more boots on the ground turn one and to drop somewhere else.

[wicked plover]

Gotcha, in that case, I may just deploy to Saginaw. I have some SERIOUS repositioning ability, so if there's a front that needs shoring up, I can just DROP on some fools

[dim spade]

I'm dropping into the city

Cuz like

I'm a plane

[wind yacht]

Please put your unit selections in the player list so I can make tokens for you

[wicked plover]

Oh, just to check @wind yacht does rebasing my dropships consume my single order of the round? Does/can anything else happen when I rebase my dropships or is it just an aura thing that I can bounce around?

[wind yacht]

Rebasing your dropships is a bonus order you can issue, in addition to anything else you are doing

[wicked plover]

Flavor-wise, is it okay to make my unit primarily omni-net controlled subalterns? I'm feeling like writing some little lore bits

[wind yacht]

sure why not

[wicked plover]

There will be a couple of human operators mixed in, especially to keep the hooks "tuned" but I'm thinking this is a rapid response force, so they sent a few operators on the fastest shuttle to link up with the Vistula and have them print the principle "bodies" of the company

[wind yacht]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XuQC_8pkVuQIVF6a8jf7-ghyvjfrkIDuXFByZQ_zFbw/edit?usp=sharing
put their unit info in here, please

[wicked plover]

Oh, I'm on row 26

Would a different player name be clearer for you?

Or am I on the wrong page?

There we go, up on both pages

[wicked plover]

Ok, just to make sure I understand everything correctly:

• We can move 3 units from space to ground each round.
• Local Recruit Units get to deploy at "round 0"
  Right?

Does capturing another airfield (Muskegon) increase the number of players we can drop in each turn?

[slow copper]

Yes, so does making bases or FOBs

Drop pods also let you avoid the bottleneck

[willow ferry]

wait so other than me and tron who was going to muskegon?

[wicked plover]

Gotcha, and an aggressive triple push onto Musk was determined to be too risky because of the encroaching enemy forces that might flip the city round 1ish and trip one of the immediate lose conditions?

[willow ferry]

so was there anyone else?

as if plans have changed this puts me and tron in a pickle

[trail fractal]

We can move 3 ground units from space.

[wicked plover]

... does me having my own set of dropships bypass that?

[willow ferry]

shouldnt as you dont have drop pods which is the one infantry need to bypass the drop restriction

[trail fractal]

(Or local recruits)

[wicked plover]

I asked more because I literally have a built-in "dropship" which appears to be the name of the "resource" that is the limiter on drops

[trail fractal]

My understanding of the current situation is as follows:
We have air units in the black "circle", we have local recruits in/going to the blue circle.
Provided there is at least 1 move 4 enemy among those three enemies, it could [s] along the red line and guaranteed kill one of our air units.

(Some) possible solutions:
1: don't move local recruits into the open, have the third local recruit hold a city tile along the red line.
2: have the local recruit heading into the open start somewhere along the red line, and have a light unit with drop pods cover the tile that unit leaves. [This assumed the ground unit going into the open isn't light, while the enemy move 4 unit should be]
3: move the air unit.

Either way we should also have a combat capable unit in all locations we are basing air units [excluding any air unit based in space/on a gravity catapult]. both to protect against enemy [R] Reposition orders, and for next turn.

[wicked plover]

Cool. I'm not a "front line" type unit, so I'll Hold round 1 and we'll re-evaluate on round 2-3, I think

[heady moat]

Hell yeah I am, I happily place the safety of my lads partially in your hands

[trail fractal]

@wanton ermine are you still dropping in AT02? And is any air/airmobile using Tron as their airbase?

[spare bay]

especially since NAVINT indicated there might be hidden infiltrators near Saginaw, we need to drop in around it to defend imo

if @livid geyser goes with Blacksky, she can also help soften up the approaching force

[wanton ermine]

I have not altered my orders

[heady moat]

We only have three dedicated air units that need air bases so I think we're all better off rebasing to the spaceport so we can already become active next turn

And operational range isn't really an issue from there for the mid-to-near future

[spare bay]

You'll be going in alone Tron

@sweet cobalt how do you feel about dropping with me and @worthy pelican directly on top of the attacking force at AM11?

[north juniper]

idk what to pick for the combat engineers, there is already 2 with Forge-2 Subaltern Maniple, not sure if i should also pick that one or try to be different

[spare bay]

Alternatively, we might drop directly to the north at AM10 or AL10, assuming they'll be using the road to try and cut them off. If we're trying to hedge our bets against a skirmish order evading us

[spare bay]

up to you, although personally I think some variety would be nice for testing purposes. You can always change your equipment by resting at the city or by someone with Mobile Printers

[north juniper]

hmmmm

im thinking of either Mobile Printers as only one other person has it or Blackspot target designator

[heady moat]

I think a Blackspot could be quite good (not biased)

[livid geyser]

I'm black sky yeah

[willow ferry]

so can we atleast get 1 more person to help us near muskagon (either air or drop) as its going to be a rough fight

[unique sequoia]

I have submitted my orders: spawn in AK08 and upgrade the spaceport to a FOB with the subaltern maniple

[spare bay]

Tron is a support unit fyi. You probably want a full company of 3 combat units to assault Muskegon at the very least.

[willow ferry]

ellyeah, hopefully me and tron can survive long enough to have forces move up and help us

yeah thats my request, me and tron cant really take the position on our own (well that depends how good determined is and how much we can take from the rocket arty)

[spare bay]

I don't think there's anything left. All the other Drop Pod units are going to defend Saginaw

[willow ferry]

yeah ik

[spare bay]

the issue is that we decided to let the support units airlift in first to upgrade our airlift capacity for all the other units. If we don't drop in around Saginaw, they'll be vulnerable

[north juniper]

Blackspot target designator (order)
[S/A] Choose an adjacent space. This turn, Bombard effects targeting that space do not suffer stacking penalties.
what does [S/A] mean ?
can i chose either ?

[spare bay]

yes

[north juniper]

neat

i locked in

now i have to issue the order right ?

[trail fractal]

Yes, if you are looking for simple suggestions, an [A] Hold Position in AL08 would be both safe and protect our air mechs.

[north juniper]

im a combat engineer, i can reinforce instead

[unique sequoia]

Originally a contractor specialized in making habitats for reptilian megafauna, they went bankrupt after their main sponsor, Jurassic Jhon, was accused of resurrecting ancient creatures for some sort of park.

They were bought by a small mercenary company who saw value in their quickness to deploy and reinforce structures of any kind. Despite being recent to the theaters of war, they've earned a reputation of always carrying around gigantic glass panes and UV lamps, because "you never know when you'll need it".```

[spare bay]

also valid

it depends on how paranoid you are about a first turn raid by hidden infiltrators

[north juniper]

this is my build

[spare bay]

since Reinforce is R stance

[trail fractal]

That is an [R] order, so if they can reach with an [A] move, Vinyls flight chassis die. But if they can't it works great.

[north juniper]

a hold position is A and im a medium so it wont be to much of a difference

[spare bay]

we already have another combat engineer holding there right? So it's probably safe enough to reinforce

[north juniper]

what do i do to spawn in ?

do i just do current position ?

[trail fractal]

?
Am I misunderstanding something?

[unique sequoia]

if the enemy has light units, they could rush the spaceport turn 1
my plan for now is to upgrade the spaceport (A), rom will drop in (B) to intercept enemies that try to attack the spaceport (as my stance is [R], I couldn't do nothing if there's a fight)
you could spawn in (B) and hold ground to help with this, Ammourazz may also do the same

[north juniper]

[S] Light
[S] Medium
[S] Heavy
[A] Light
[A] Medium
[A] Heavy
[R] Light
[R] Medium
[R] Heavy
i dont think R is movement related

exept fly

[trail fractal]

If you are in an [R] order we also need to get someone there that will stay and fight, or get someone to block the way. Since you will retreat before [A] does.

[spare bay]

R means if the enemy catches you in a battle, bad things happen and you'll be forced to retreat off that tile. If enemy units are occupying a tile that friendly air units are based out of, they're automatically destroyed

[north juniper]

hmmmmm

[trail fractal]

If you are in [R], someone else could come in with a [A*] drop pod to hold the fort.

[spare bay]

Oh I see, I thought Turi indicated earlier he was planning to Hold, but he's gonna Construct now, that's why I was confused. We have plenty of other Combat Engineers available tho, since they all took Local Recruits lol

[north juniper]

it good for defence

[trail fractal]

We have air units in both these places.

[unique sequoia]

yes, if noone else was available to hold AK09 I would need to hold, but seeing that there's some I think its best to upgrade it to a FOB early on

[spare bay]

Just using the drop pods to defend feels like a bit of a waste, idk. They're A* for a reason after all. I want to try to force a battle asap against that attacking force.

[trail fractal]

Both are most likely within reach of enemy troop(s) on turn 0.

[north juniper]

this round is going to be 0 ?

i put down 1, got to change that then

[trail fractal]

I don't know, just figure of speech.

[trail fractal]

If you (as a light unit) do drop on them, then they would have to [S] move if they wanted to get out of the way, so we would have less need of [A] defcence that way, just [R] would likely be enough.

[spare bay]

it'll be turn 1

the alternative is to set up on the road ahead of them. I feel like a big difficulty of this game will be trying to predict enemy movements, especially since they can just easily go around you. And you can't really set up a picket against a massed force because you'll just be annihilated if you're outnumbered.

[north juniper]

all enemies seem to have move 2

[trail fractal]

The alternative is to set up in the city, since it seems highly unlikely that all 4 have move 4

[trail fractal]

Scout and Vanguard have move 4

[north juniper]

yeah exept those 2

[spare bay]

but then we're stuck waiting even longer, idk

[north juniper]

even if i held positions they could attack me

if there are in that pile

[trail fractal]

I mean I do think dropping on them has value, but I don't like dropping right in front of them, that seems the worst of both worlds.

[north juniper]

if they are not, i could reinforce as the enemy troops could not reach me in time

[trail fractal]

True, and if you are on [A] you get to fight back with significant advantage against 1 of them.

[north juniper]

but they are earlier in the order score

they are light

they would attack me before i hold

[trail fractal]

That is the order of movement, if you hold you aren't moving.

[sweet cobalt]

Morning 🥱 I’m happy to change my orders (in the planning spreadsheet) to get the drop on them if I have company.

I’ll submit an order to the google form in 14 hours or so. I’ve got plans today in the interim 😁 so happy wargaming, planners!

[north juniper]

so when are attacks done

there is a planning spreadsheet ?

[sweet cobalt]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZWDtChFxA2UVOhbFlOkwpyY6kIpzxvZlX1RZA2SeaRg/edit?gid=0#gid=0

Think it’s pinned, but there you go

[trail fractal]

Good question. But you count as being in you chosen stance no matter when you are attacked.
All ground battles should be resolved after all movement.

[north juniper]

not pinned

[sweet cobalt]

Alternatively if we have enough Local Recruit folks defending Saginaw, we (the collective) could peel off one of our Drop Pod Armored Companies (me) to go support taking Muskegon’s airbase.

I’m fine dropping into a fight either way so long as I have friends coming with.

[willow ferry]

i just realised i confused what name to put into the orders :p

@wind yacht do i submit a new order with the "correct" name?

[spare bay]

leaving the defense to just the combat engineers? Some of them will need to Hold instead of Constructing or Reinforcing in that case.

Wizard wants to go north, so it could be the two of you with Tron for support while Eranziel and I defend Saginaw? Or one more of us could go with you if we trust the Combat Engineers to hold

probably me so I can base my dropships out of Tron's gravity catapult if we need to

[sweet cobalt]

Yeah, we should let the Combat Engineers with Local Recruit make the most of turn 1 (or 0 whichever) by actually Constructing/Reinforcing

[spare bay]

Hold also increases the fortification value, just not as much as reinforce

[north juniper]

i will try to reinforce AL08 i think

[spare bay]

The northernmost tile of Saginaw?

[north juniper]

is it not this one ?

the hex tiles confuse me

[trail fractal]

That is AL09

[north juniper]

damn

AL09 it is then

[trail fractal]

AL09 is notably not a place we have air units.

But reinforcing AL09 isn't a bad idea

[north juniper]

there are enemy troops down there

i think they will go though the road

[trail fractal]

The road does nothing if they don't reposition.

Until proven otherwise I fully expect the GM will have them do whatever we don't counter.

[spare bay]

I'm just going off the hope that Peri will somewhat telegraph enemy movements, or else anticipating them will be literally impossible. We'll just be guessing at that point.

following the road is a good bet

[spare bay]

The only way this game stays fair is if Peri decides the NPC orders before looking at player orders.

There's already a huge intel gap in that enemies have perfect knowledge of our positions. If they also have foreknowledge of our orders, we might as well surrender now lol

[north juniper]

its like having a mole

we are going to bombard that area, to bad now the npc's are going around it

[trail fractal]

bombard happens before anyone gets to move.

[spare bay]

I mean Bombard at least happens before movement thankfully

[north juniper]

yeah, either the gm need to be blind of our orders when choosing his or we need more predictability

it was just a bad example

[spare bay]

I'm more worried about trying to pin down enemy forces with A orders if they can just perfectly S away

[north juniper]

now imagine it didnt happen before movement

[trail fractal]

Okay, let me rephrase, I fully expect us to have bad luck and the GM to have picked something we don't counter, so we should make sure to have some counters to the greatest threats.

This doesn't mean the GM has to pick orders after looking at all of ours.

[wanton ermine]

Wait I thought @slow copper and co were dropping with me

[spare bay]

My point is that hopefully the enemy units will still be following some kind of internal logic to make them slightly more predictable, rather than arbitrarily taking certain paths, i.e. like following roads.

[spare bay]

I'm not sure what ASoM's current plan is. We kinda got spooked by all the enemies that spawned next to Saginaw.

[trail fractal]

Who are "and co" because a SAM on [R] isn't taking any land?

[dim spade]

You got one at least!

Cuz that's that where I'm going

[spare bay]

It was originally all the other people with Drop Pods, basically me, Eranziel, and Wizard (since rom didn't have drop pods back then)

[trail fractal]

Mind, uh telling me how, considering you need an airbase and there isn't one in AL09 as far as I know?

[spare bay]

(the Saginaw spaceport is AK08)

[trail fractal]

I like us having air units, but some ground units unfortunately need to actively protect them.

[north juniper]

to spawn in i just say what tile im right ?

[trail fractal]

You have local recruits, so specify which of the 4 blue tiles you start in, what your order is, any target of this order, (and if you move, where)

[trail fractal]

Right, you could target a different (adjacent) tile than the one you are in if you wanted to.

[north juniper]

if the enemies move into it im just helping them so i think its better if im in it

[trail fractal]

good point

[north juniper]

think im good to go, submitting it

[spare bay]

So that's 2/3 Combat Engineers in R stance. I think @hearty yew is planning on Holding? If @floral patio also Holds instead of doing an R order, we should probably be okay with Eranziel backing them up. Otherwise I'd probably want at least one more combat unit to land at Saginaw to defend.

[trail fractal]

That would leave AL09 well defended, the spaceport defense depending on amr, and no known defense for AL08 or AM08. Is that right?

Hm, I just realised that local recruits can start adjacent to the city, not just in the blue area.
". Any units with the Local Recruits perk may start in or adjacent to Saginaw, and take their round 1 orders from there."

[dim spade]

I'm built different
(I thought every blue hex counted as an airbase)

[spare bay]

What exactly is the condition for losing a city? All tiles occupied by enemy forces?

[heady moat]

Sadly the UN rules of conduct say we can't use the town square as a runway 😔

[blazing basalt]

We do have a support unit with gravity catapults that can count as an airbase, at least one of our air units should probably link up with them

[trail fractal]

Do you want to, it would let you repair if you get injured?

[blazing basalt]

It might've been a good idea but I already committed to landing in the city.

[spare bay]

Tron's the one with the Catapult, so if you want you can accompany the Muskegon attack force. Otherwise, I'll probably base my dropships there if I end up dropping with them.

[blazing basalt]

Look I submitted a team of cocky flyboys who like to be stylish and only barely care about tactics and I'm committing to my roleplay

(My order's already in.)

[bright nimbus]

I think at least for the first turn having our fixed wings land at the airbase is a better idea if only because we’re not sure of how much we’ll need to defend the city and even then we can reach most of the way from the city anyway

[dim spade]

My order is also already in

[floral patio]

You can change them

They've said that they'll just take the most recent orders

[bright nimbus]

Yeah tbh I think the grav catapults might not see too much use this game purely because of the relatively small map and our central airbase

We can reach most of the map from it with our base OR and with drop tanks I think almost the entire map if needed

[floral patio]

Last I checked me and Turi were both on hold position?

[blazing basalt]

(I'll only change my order if Tron's Adamant Sky is going unescorted and needs some planes in them, otherwise I'm committing.)

[spare bay]

@wanton ermine @willow ferry @sweet cobalt are we committing to Muskegon? We can put our orders in the coordination sheet first to make sure we're all on the same page. It's a big risk if only some of us drop in there after changing our minds.

Are we dropping on AT03 or directly on the city?

[willow ferry]

we could, i thought the original plan was the airport but sure we can drop on the city

[spare bay]

Tron already submitted an order right? Do we know the exact tile they're landing on?

[willow ferry]

above the airport

[spare bay]

AT02?

[willow ferry]

think so im checking the map

[spare bay]

Would it make sense for us combat troops to drop there or directly on the airport?

[willow ferry]

depends, we can cripple all visible air capacity that the enemy has immediately, either way muskegon is a city we need to get as its the furthest from any actual enemy forces so we can make secondary fallback bases here

[spare bay]

Does it matter if we lose Saginaw? I'm unsure if that's an instant loss condition.

[willow ferry]

but if we had three troops we could have two on the city and one on the airport

[spare bay]

in which case a backup base doesn't really matter

[willow ferry]

true

[spare bay]

We don't know what the enemy unit on the airport is though. It's a gamble since our unit might be repelled in a 1v1

[floral patio]

If we lose Saginaw we lose a bunch of people

It's true I don't know if it actually matters if we let them into the city...

@wind yacht what happens if the enemy gets into the city

Do we lose

Is it ok to lose parts of the city and then retake them?

[spare bay]

I feel like Airlift needs to be A stance by default, even if it's not an attack

otherwise, you can't even reinforce a city reliably, since attacking forces could easily just chase you out

Obviously, it wouldn't be an issue if we weren't being threatened with a turn 1 loss, but still. Even later in the game, I think it would feel pretty bad if you were caught in a similar situation.

[floral patio]

@wind yacht Can Airmobile infantry fly into an airbase with A stance?

Since their Fly stance is A?

[slow copper]

Keeping Saginaw is an explicit requirement in the briefing

Though I would imagine it's a 3-tile city because you don't have to keep all of it at once >.>

[floral patio]

It's defend it, not keep it

Which might mean if it gets lost we just can't win until we take it back?

Or it could mean we lose if any tile gets taken

[dim spade]

My goal is to head to Saginaw to help establish air superiority

[floral patio]

Or it could mean we lose if all 3 get taken

[slow copper]

Oh, I would normally read defend as "not lose" aka keep

[floral patio]

Me too!

But it's worth double checking.

[slow copper]

Yeah, fair

[floral patio]

And it's worth checking if that's ANY tile, or all 3

[heady moat]

(RP accent) Regardless we probably don't want opposing forces in a major population centre at all

[spare bay]

they can fly anywhere with A stance, I don't see why an airbase would be any different. It needs to still be in range and everything tho

[floral patio]

I mean at start of game

Like from space

My main thought there though is if we're sending a bunch of people off to the other city in drop pods

We can consolidate all of our local recruits in the city into one tile

If that doesn't make us lose

[spare bay]

Airlift is different from Fly, and afaik Airmobile have to use the regular Airlift

Drop Pod notwithstanding

[floral patio]

Yes, I believe that's true too.

But I'm checking.

The difference "in lore" between unembarking from space shuttles and combat shuttles might not be that different

And they're trained to do so into combat

So maybe they can disembark from space into combat

Which would make them a priority for landing in the airport

[spare bay]

Regardless, that'd have to be Pom landing at Saginaw. I need to accompany the Muskegon attack force to make sure we have a group of 3

[floral patio]

I think if you only have 3 Muskegon is a lost cause

You should be hitting with 6+

[spare bay]

?

3 is the max you can have on a tile

[floral patio]

Yes I mean in the area

Not on one tile

[spare bay]

that's not counting Tron btw

the only other drop unit is Eranziel's who's going to defend Saginaw afaik

[floral patio]

Gotcha

[slow copper]

Let's coordinate on that and then see how confident we are on the city defence. The plan is for support to drop next to the airport and combat troops to drop directly onto the airport. We can then move onto the city after that (the bombardment will be annoying though).

Backup plan will be to aid in the Saginaw defense and then reorbit once we are confident about that

[floral patio]

I see.. Ffzdf, Eranziel, rom, Tron, ShieldofMeat, Soap

[slow copper]

I would like a third drop unit to take the airport though

[floral patio]

I think we try to send all 6 to that to Muskegon

If we send anyone

Maybe Waar too with the Everest

[trail fractal]

That doesn't seem great, since the local recruits are the main way we can be sure that we defend the city tiles, rather than attack them.

[floral patio]

Yes but we potentially die

If we're by ourselves

[spare bay]

if you spread yourselves thin, then wherever the enemy force hits will get crushed since you'll be massively outnumbered

[floral patio]

If 3 recon with 4 hp walk up, any of us by ourselves usually die.

[spare bay]

you kinda have to group up to defend effectively

[slow copper]

Really though, I would encourage the people stuck in space to take drop pods and then switch them out after we do a bunch of early game maneuvers

[north juniper]

i have the Blackspot target designator so if you need something bombarded i can designate it so it can be stacked

[floral patio]

Not yet, this turn I'd just be Hold Position

[spare bay]

yeah a lot of our problem go away if everyone takes drop pods and defends Saginaw early

[north juniper]

im on AL09 reinforcing

so next turn

[floral patio]

It does only take one turn to swap out the drop pods

[dim spade]

Does Musk Goon have an airfield?

[floral patio]

Yes

[trail fractal]

Yes, I am more or less counting on fewer than 3 of those units being move 4.

[slow copper]

Near it, yeah

[floral patio]

That's why we're targetting it

[spare bay]

from context I believe it's the red tile to the left of the city

[dim spade]

Ah, so there's probably planes there

[floral patio]

It's their only airfield

[dim spade]

Aight yeah I'll help with Muskgoon

[slow copper]

That's why I want to say hello lol

[floral patio]

There's pretty defeinitely planes there

All of them

However many that is

[dim spade]

So like

[floral patio]

It's why I think if we send anyone we should send everyone who can

[dim spade]

I can't base anywhere else BUT the city turn 1

[heady moat]

Yep

It's a simple life for the Air Force

[slow copper]

They might have some hidden bases with planes. But yeah, it's probably the bulk of them

[floral patio]

Given they have 4 types of air units, yeah.

[trail fractal]

Can't you base on the gravity catapult (Tron)?

[floral patio]

3 of them that need airbases

Not until they're actually landed, waar

[dim spade]

Yeah

[bright nimbus]

Yeah with this small map and the position our airfield is in fixed wings have a very simple time this run

[spare bay]

yeah, the only person in this list who isn't going to Musk is Eranziel

[dim spade]

Okay so I'm not gonna change my order I just got the hex off by 1

[floral patio]

@worthy pelican I recommend you go to Musk tbh if the rest of the party is heading there

I'm worried about them getting wiped out

[spare bay]

ASoM is also a support unit

so it'd just be me, rom, and wizard as the 3 combat units

[slow copper]

Maybe I should swap out the AA gun for something to suppress the bombardment unit

[floral patio]

ASoM has the mobile printers though

And the Icarus

When we know there's gonna be air units nearby

I thinkt hat's super valuable

[trail fractal]

Good to know, I assume you are sure of this.

[slow copper]

Well, if things go as planned the AA gun will be dramatically less useful this game lmao

[spare bay]

HK nexus? I think that's the only way to get suppress on a support. That would definitely help tho

[floral patio]

Yeah peri confirmed it earlier

[floral patio]

Yes but considering you're attacking an airbase it might be IMMEDIATELY useful

XD

[slow copper]

No, because all the planes die if we take the airbase

[spare bay]

unless we destroy them all by taking the airfield first. Then it won't be doing anything

[floral patio]

Ah true.

[spare bay]

HK to shut down the rocket artillery would definitely be nice.

[slow copper]

@wanton ermine @willow ferry @spare bay @worthy pelican @sweet cobalt For people interested in the Muskegon airfield drop, when's the latest that people can submit orders (Mine is basically anytime before they are due)? If we are comfortable enough at that time to go for it, let's do it (I'll switch to the HK Nexus if so). If we aren't, I made a Backup Plan sheet to coordinate the alternative where we stick to Saginaw

In terms of where we want people, the support are going for AT02 and combat troops are going AT03. If we get six people, the fourth combat troop should probably drop onto AT02 to protect the supports

It's really funny that Ambushers works with Drop pods lol

[willow ferry]

i need to submit within the next 5 hours( the orders end at 7 for me)

[slow copper]

k, I'll poke everyone in four hours if no one says anything sooner

[spare bay]

yep, that and even the Airmobile fly order, it's why I took it.

And yeah I can submit basically whenever

Eranziel or Wizard should probably be the ones defending the supports since they have Determined. I'll definitely want to be on the attack to take advantage of Ambushers (ambushing from orbit lol)

oh wait no, determined only works while attacking

so I guess rom would be stuck on guard duty

[slow copper]

Basically everything but Active Camouflage, Aerial Camouflage and Local Recruits is an attack bonus. I guess Union is used to being on the offensive

[spare bay]

some seccomm tendencies shining through lmao

[wind yacht]

No, because they are using the Airlift order, not the Fly order. Airmobile infantry are equipped for bluesky operations only, when moving from the carrier they have to pack their dropships in proper uplift craft or fit them with entry packages.

[bright nimbus]

Best defence is a good offence

[wind yacht]

You don't lose instantly, but if coalition forces control all 3 Saginaw tiles and the spaceport, that's game

[wind yacht]

You can submit a new order and I'll use the one with the later timestamp

[wind yacht]

Airmobile infantry are air mobile - the dropships are designed for in-atmosphere flight. For you, the Drop Pod equipment represents entry packages installed on your dropships that let them fly from space to the ground (not the other way around).

[floral patio]

Ok, cool

@hearty yew I thinkw e just stack on top of each other

And Hold position

@north juniper You too probably?

Just put 3 of us on the southern point of the city and hold position

[trail fractal]

So we leave the spaceport with 1?

[north juniper]

im reinforcing AL09

[trail fractal]

That seems risky

[floral patio]

We have Turi and whoever else is going there

We could split up 2-2

[willow ferry]

ok so just a quick question the original order is that i drop onto muskagon airport right if its legible what i want to do i dont need to make a new order

[floral patio]

But if we put people on the spaceport

Fewer people can come in

To my understanding

[trail fractal]

They can come in adjacent to the spaceport

so no

[floral patio]

Since we still cap at 3 people?

Ah ok

[unique sequoia]

with people in AK09 and AL08 or 09, they won't be able to reach the spaceport

[floral patio]

Yah

And Turi upgrades it

So 6 people can come in the next turn

[unique sequoia]

yes

[floral patio]

And we just let them have the rest of the city if they want it

[trail fractal]

So who are in AK09?

[spare bay]

AK08, the spaceport? 09 would be the tile south of it

[floral patio]

Yeah we mean AK09

Ok, AL09 is curerntly where me and Shadow are

[wind yacht]

If you mean you want to [A*] airlift, yes that's clear enough

[floral patio]

I think Amr is in AM08 atm?

And then Turi is on AK08 upgrading

I think we had someone agree to drop onto AK09?

Eranziel I think?

[trail fractal]

Eranziel is heavy, so if they are alone, it won't do anything.

[spare bay]

Depends on if Eranziel comes with us to Muskegon

[floral patio]

We could put Amr there too instead of AM08?

[trail fractal]

Ffzdf could, but they seem pretty invested on Muskegon.

[floral patio]

Or with me on AL08

I think Muskegon is a loss, but we'll see

XD

I'm expecting them to land and find out there's like 10 enemy units around there

[blazing basalt]

Honestly it is kinda tempting to stop trying to base in the city and instead just support the attack on Muskegon with a blackwing airstrike

[floral patio]

And so they take the airport and immediately die

[blazing basalt]

Takes me out t2, but means that hopefully we'll have better intel and more places to base up t3

[spare bay]

Tron already committed and just leaving a support unit stranded is actually throwing it away. Might as well take a shot.

[floral patio]

I have a sunk cost theory to sell you sometime

teasing

[spare bay]

for all we know there could be an enemy unit on every tile on the whole map

[blazing basalt]

Genre suddenly shifts into zombie subaltern survival

[spare bay]

I'm just going off the fact that some mystery units are visible near the other cities, so if we assume Peri is revealing them consistently, then there shouldn't be any others directly nearby

[floral patio]

We have explicit information that there are hidden units about

[spare bay]

yes, but not where they are

it makes more sense that they would be located away from where known enemy units have been spotted

[trail fractal]

There are 20 enemies we can see already, plus any air forces in that airbase. There shouldn't be that many hidden units.

[floral patio]

I'd expect them to have 2-3 times our number personally

So roughly 1/2 to 1/3 of the enemies visible

[slow copper]

2-3 times would be a lot. I would expect more numbers though

[spare bay]

If we're outnumbered that heavily, I honestly have no idea how we could possibly win unless the NPCs maneuver extremely passively.

[trail fractal]

2-3 times our number, with tempo advantage, and better intel. It isn't impossible, but uh...

[floral patio]

Defense is pretty favored in this game

IMO

[blazing basalt]

I mean we have the advantage that their forces are split and we can try to defeat them in detail.

[wind yacht]

Only the coalition Scout units can remain hidden from orbital photography.

[spare bay]

I also just think eliminating the airbase asap could help swing the action econ disadvantage a bit for us

[floral patio]

But yeah I'm a very risk adverse strategy player

[blazing basalt]

Ok so that's valuable new intel. We've got 19 units visible on the map so far.

[spare bay]

the main thing I'm unclear on is if there will be enemy reinforcement spawns or what have you

[floral patio]

Ok yeah that info makes me more confident some

[spare bay]

That means once we all land we'll actually outnumber the visible units

[floral patio]

Also makes it less likely that group of 3 by the main city has movement. 4

[blazing basalt]

We know there's invisible scouts, plural, so we're facing at least 21 enemy units, possibly more. We outnumber them....until we account for them having no logi units

[slow copper]

Signal intelligence is telling me that based on enemy numbering systems (putting a giant number on the unit in sequential order), the incoming attack force is likely to have at least one breacher and one sentinel amongst their numbers. There is a potential of one or more Vanguard units (though that could be in a number of other places as well)

[floral patio]

What?

[slow copper]

Look at the names of the Sentinel

[trail fractal]

Not certain, that sentiel looks like it could be defending the airbase.

[slow copper]

Or Breacher. You'll notice a lack of Sentinel (1) and Breacher (1) >.>

[slow copper]

That would probably be Sentinel 5

[blazing basalt]

But a lot of their units seem tied up in defending the cities so it seems like if we can hold against this initial push, a lot of this battle will turn us into splitting up and sieging the cities.

[trail fractal]

Sentinel 5 is in topinabee, but the missing sentinel, yes.

[slow copper]

Oh, yeah, forgot about him. I suspect the air base unit is something else though. But I am metagaming the unit names pretty hard here lol

[trail fractal]

And I am assuming the airbase isn't unguarded, and if it has a guard, a sentinel makes a lot of sense.

[wind yacht]

The German Tank Problem is a valid intelligence tool

[slow copper]

Do planes hide from orbital photography?

[trail fractal]

German tank problem suggests no more than 2 vanguards and no more than 1 breacher in the initial group.

But it could be less.

[slow copper]

Because if not, and it is only a plane on that airbase, it is going to have a bad day

[spare bay]

I mean, they do have support units, but all they do is shoot.

[spare bay]

massive overkill of a triple drop on an undefended air base lol. I've just been assuming that we can't see where air units are based nor can we see how many air units are based at a given airfield.

[slow copper]

Yeah, same

[blazing basalt]

(There's another mass ww2 wargame I saw with a fun intelligence incident. A unit was trying to move up beside a river, and got hit with artillery. After two rounds of this happening, one of the commanders noticed that getting hit twice with artillery means that the unit didn't reposition, and quickly triangulated all the possible positions the artillery could be on the map, noticed that one spot had good cover, and immediately ordered that a blind-fire artillery barrage be dropped on that position.

Next turn the enemy team were told that their perfectly hidden artillery had been destroyed.)

[slow copper]

Amazing

[sweet cobalt]

Thank you for introducing me to a new idea, Peri

[slow copper]

Eh, they are about all as shooty as our support units?

[spare bay]

I just meant that not all the enemy units are direct combat units

[slow copper]

Oh yeah, fair

[spare bay]

even though they don't have any pure logistics units

I definitely feel like Scouts are the scariest enemy unit. Fast and Invisible without being much weaker than frontline units

[trail fractal]

The sentinel is a real good unit, but it is a known challenge, rather than an unknown one.

[spare bay]

yeah, especially since if we see the fortification value of a tile increase, we can guess that the mystery unit there is a Sentinel

[blazing basalt]

(There were another couple of fun incidents from that game, like the German commander rage quitting, and another player immediately declaring that they're being shot for treason and now I'm in charge.

Or the bike unit that got stuck behind enemy lines and proceeded to do a glorious sabotage campaign that destroyed the enemy intelligence because they just cut every telegram line they saw.

Or the unit of French cavalry that charges a heavily fortified hill filled with machine guns...and proceeded to roll perfectly, taking the position with only minor casualties and causing the entire French command to spend the rest of the game screaming about 'élan lads, élan!)

[weary stump]

So I have a question, I’ve missed a bit of the strategizing that’s been going on here, I know our current plan is to hold Saginaw, but do we know who’s dropping first for it yet?

I know there were plans to drop in the armored companies but I’m not sure anymore

[spare bay]

I'm pretty sure all the armored companies switched over to drop pods, so they won't be taking up space on the queue

all the engineers have Local Recruits, so it's the same story there

[weary stump]

I haven’t done that

I maybe should do that

[spare bay]

all the other armored companies, sorry

[weary stump]

I’ve already got a bombard, the howitzer is kinda just overkill

[bright nimbus]

You can switch it out in Saginaw once you’re ground side

[weary stump]

Oh has the window to swap gear passed?

[spare bay]

I don't know that anyone else has claimed spots to airlift in first

[slow copper]

No

[weary stump]

Oh ok

[spare bay]

we probably want our line infantry in first, but idk

[slow copper]

Saginaw has a printer, so if you do a rest action there, you can switch your equipment

[weary stump]

Oh I meant without further orders

[spare bay]

Derpghost and Suki put that they'll Rest on the coordination doc, so that leaves Thranatar and Admiral to land, and all our combat units will be accounted for. Last slot could be Ryomasa if you take Drop Pods.

[trail fractal]

With that it looks like we only have 6 ground units that need to use the airbase to get down. So upgrading the airbase won't make it go quicker.

[spare bay]

Oh I forgot about Pom. Maybe Pom could take the third slot

[weary stump]

What’s currently the least reinforced city tile?

[blazing basalt]

Either the northmost or the eastmost.

[weary stump]

Ok then

I’ll drop on the East to reinforce that front

Probably just wanna hold position right?

We don’t actually have much eyes on where to attack yet

[spare bay]

that would be sensible, increases the fortification value a bit

[trail fractal]

Dropping with the pods is a specific order.

so technically no.

[spare bay]

yeah, it'll be your first turn order to drop pod down

[weary stump]

Oh yah

[trail fractal]

With that, I wouldn't mind if we could get our recon to airlift down early, get some eyes out and about.

[spare bay]

still in A stance though meaning you'll be harder to dislodge

[weary stump]

I don’t have access to the map rn, can someone grab the city just so I can see what tile to put in my order?

[weary stump]

Thanks

[spare bay]

Should be AM08 if you're going for the eastern city tile

[worthy pelican]

I can also submit anytime up until the deadline.

[weary stump]

Also for my starting tile, I should just space for now right?

[spare bay]

yeah

[worthy pelican]

I'm awake and sort of caught up, lol. There was some skimming involved.

[weary stump]

Ok

The Steel Dawn is ready to drop!

[spare bay]

noice

[worthy pelican]

My thoughts are:

• priority 1 is making sure Saginaw and especially its spaceport are secure
• taking Muskegon's airbase would be great
• taking Muskegon itself is good for objectives, but less tactically vital than its airbase

If we're comfortable on the Saginaw front without me, I'm happy to drop by Muskegon. We would want at least 3 combat units + 1 support there to give us some confidence of victory, IMO.

Is the organizing spreadsheet fairly up to date?

[spare bay]

the current hope would be you, me, wizard, and rom going north with ASoM and Tron to support us. rom would stay behind to guard the supports while the three of us drop directly on the airport

[wanton ermine]

I kinda can’t submit any new orders at this point, my phone is largely non functional and I’m away from a computer until tomorrow morning after they are due

If that is the plan, I would also need to figure out a way to switch my order to AS-02 rather than AT-02

[slow copper]

Nope, I'm just a dummy and put the wrong hex in

[worthy pelican]

That sounds solid, I'm on board as long as Saginaw is OK. I'm really not clear on what the current planned orders are there, lol.

[spare bay]

hm? AT02 should be fine. Why did you want to land there originally anyways?

Maybe AS02 would be marginally better though, I guess it depends on how many turns it would take the defending unit to reach Muskegon afterward

[willow ferry]

ok so was it decided i was going into the city or airbase?

i forgot about that

[slow copper]

Airbase

[spare bay]

we're going for the airbase first

[worthy pelican]

I think AT02 is fine for the supports. There is a river in the way of counter-attacks.

[slow copper]

AT02 is fine. AS02 is a bit more defensible (and puts us out of Sentinel suppress range), but AT02 lets the combat unit attack Muskegon (particularly rom) if it drops with the support

I'll switch to the HK Nexus then

[trail fractal]

Can you not just do it? Clear your browser cache/cookies/whatever if that is an issue?

[worthy pelican]

I don't think he needs to, sounds like AT02 is the plan.

[spare bay]

there's a river and difficult terrain on the way, but I know rom has Pankrati

not sure if it'll be enough tho

[worthy pelican]

So at Saginaw, it sounds like we've got Turi, Tohu, Shadow (3 combat engineers), Magma (armored), and Amr (line) as units that can do actual combat this round, plus whoever else we airlift in R stance?

With Turi at least doing construct

[trail fractal]

Why construct? it shouldn't help us get people down quicker anymore (some have switched to drop pods).

[spare bay]

Wizard is coming with us to Muskegon

[worthy pelican]

That's a question for @unique sequoia, I'm just writing out what I understood of the conversation to see if it's accurate

[trail fractal]

I also think it is Ammourazz not wizard that is the line local recruit.

[worthy pelican]

I missed writing down Amr, thanks

Edited

Winged picked Scarecrows, nice. Good to see HORUS representation.

[unique sequoia]

making it into a FOB will give it more defenses and drop more people on turn 2

[trail fractal]

No, we should be able to drop all the people we have anyways.
Also, I don't see how a FOB has more defenses, I must be missing something.

[worthy pelican]

Yeah, it seems that enough people switched to drop pods that we don't need the extra airlift capacity

[willow ferry]

hi hello could you help me set up in the player organization sheet?

[worthy pelican]

Though it could help get troops back from Muskegon if that wraps up quickly

[willow ferry]

this goes for anyone else also :)

[worthy pelican]

Penciled myself in on the Muskegon drop

[willow ferry]

nice also what font did you use as for some reason my letters are thin

(might be going insane)

[worthy pelican]

I didn't change the font, I just used whatever the default was 🤷‍♂️

[willow ferry]

huh

welp thin it is then :/

[sweet cobalt]

So where am I going?

If I drop on Muskegon airfield (AT03), I should be able to move into the city the next turn with the 3 Move total I get with Pankrati (ford the river counts as two and then up into the city).

I'm good to submit my turn once someone gives me a hex to land on.

[slow copper]

Sure! What do you need help with?

[worthy pelican]

I think AT03 will be full with Ffzdf, Wizard, and I. So you'd drop in AT02 to screen the supports.

[willow ferry]

i think i figured it out, but you still might help me as for some reason the things i wrote in are thinner than the others and idk why

[slow copper]

I'll figure out the formatting once I take a nap

[willow ferry]

sure

[weary stump]

Also I have a question, the drop pods imply if we get back into space we can drop again

[willow ferry]

its fixed?

[weary stump]

But is there anyway to return to space?

[willow ferry]

the spaceport near saginaw

[weary stump]

Cool

[willow ferry]

(ithink)

[blazing basalt]

Aircraft can just rebase back into space, it's unclear if ground units can do the same.

[spare bay]

I believe you can use Airlift to do so? Unless that's only one way

[slow copper]

Airlift mentions you can do between airbases and orbit

[trail fractal]

So take the enemy airbase, and then...

[slow copper]

Yeah. Or build a fob etc

[weary stump]

It kinda just means anyone with airdrop can switch fronts once a front is won extremely quickly

[sweet cobalt]

Does dropping into AT02 actually screen the supports since hits are allocated to [R] stance units (Tron and soap) before [A] stance units (me)?

[wind yacht]

Hits are allocated as evenly as possible first

[trail fractal]

Basing in AL09 try to not get me killed round 1 XD @floral patio @north juniper

[spare bay]

I guess the alternative would be landing between them and the city and preparing to bombard next turn

or just assaulting it with me if the others can't get there in one turn

[sweet cobalt]

Thanks, Peri! Missed that sentence in the damage section. Order submitted!

Thought about that, but figure we shouldn't be the first to bombard cities with people in them.

[spare bay]

fair enough

alright, submitted my order. See you down there lads

[willow ferry]

[worthy pelican]

Submitted as well

Let it rain!

[weary stump]

See you on the front

[heady moat]

I wish all you ground-dwellers the best of luck

[north juniper]

will try

[trail fractal]

@hard lance @sacred valley @vocal scarab @icy linden @lyric harbor @wicked plover It looks like you 6 are the ones that need to use the spaceport (airbase) to airlift down to the planet. The spaceport can take 3 ground units per turn down to itself or adjacent tiles. If 3 of you get down this turn, the rest can get down the next.

[sacred valley]

I think I can wait a turn. Unless we want me bombarding next turn, but that would preclude movement and therefore inhibit our ability to land our 6th next turn.

[trail fractal]

You can land next to the airbase, so you shouldn't be blocking anyone.

[lyric harbor]

I already submitted orders to chill in orbit

[icy linden]

Only if everyone

with building stuff is done dropping down

[trail fractal]

They brought their own ride down (drop pod, local recruits, drop platforms), as far as I can tell.

[hard lance]

From an action economy standpoint, dropping is my whole turn, right? I can’t input other orders if I’m getting this right?

[trail fractal]

Yes

[hard lance]

Okay, yeah I think I put myself down as dropping directly onto the spaceport so I can provide artillery support next turn anywhere within four tiles because of my range buffs

[worthy pelican]

Wheee, lookit those tokens. Always fun seeing new stuff in action. 😄

Great idea putting the stances on the tokens, too. Are those statuses?

[slow copper]

In addition to hits being divided, it also means they have to think twice about walking into us

[wind yacht]

They are statuses yes

The tokens look great! Good work

[weary stump]

Oh yah did we have to make our own tokens?

Because I’m awful at retrograde stuff

[wind yacht]

No, the tokens are done. I assembled the images and @worthy pelican colored them in

[weary stump]

Oh cool

Are they posted anywhere?

[worthy pelican]

Not yet, but I could post them if Peri doesn't mind?

[wind yacht]

Go for it

[weary stump]

Nice

[spare bay]

yo let's goooo

are those the airmobile at the top?

[worthy pelican]

Yup

Airmobile, armored, combat eng, flight type chassis, heavy support, line, and recon

[vocal scarab]

I am also already submitted to stay in orbit - recons are fast, we'll catch up

[vocal scarab]

Also, hell yeah

[weary stump]

Kinda funny the recon unit is not being sent first but with our current objectives yah they’re not suited for it

[lyric harbor]

yeah once we're sure the LZ is secure, us recon can land and start scouting things out for y'all

[lyric harbor]

love these

[spare bay]

what mech is that in the line infantry?

[worthy pelican]

Yeah, I for one am pretty keen to get our recons out reconning, but first we need to punch some faces. 😉

[wind yacht]

Giglamesh

[worthy pelican]

HA Gilgamesh I believe

[spare bay]

ah

[worthy pelican]

🥷

[heady moat]

I'd also love to go do some scouting with that Surveil 2 but given the situation I suspect Whitefish is gonna be bombing the countryside for a good few rounds

[willow ferry]

god id love to commission someone for a custom squad for the Starhoppers

[bright nimbus]

HA continues to win the war of standard model vs GMS by virtue of having art

[wicked plover]

I'll be there third orbit-bound for round 1, I'm a little more fragile than a standard Line or Armored unit

[hearty yew]

Okay so I'm catching up: It seems like currently we have a two pronged assualt?
Half of us are drop podding agressively to Muskegon in the top right which allegedly only has 3 units, while the other half secure the city against the initial/ future waves and build up the airbase so that we can deploy/ redoploy everyone as needed?

Clarity question: Are hexes in between two numbers going to the number below or above

[slow copper]

They are offset so they only ever line up with one hex

[hearty yew]

are these 8 or 9

oh i see with the top offset so that would be 9?

[slow copper]

Yeah

[heady moat]

yep, you always draw a line directly right from the number is the easy cheat

[hearty yew]

👍🏾 thats what I wanted to verify

So we need to protect the building on ak08 and al09 for the city defense, and since everyone wtih droppods went in thats gonna come down to @floral patio and I on the local recruits until the rest can land normally? And Tohu is currently planning on holding AL 09

[floral patio]

Yeah

And shadow and our other engineer with construct

I'm just holding position in al09, shadow is on top of me

I'd consider being right below the spaceport and using support on us

Or reinforce yourself

Er hold position

That should give our other construction the most cover

[blazing basalt]

Yeah, it's a good defensive position. Could be a pain if they rush us, but if they do, we're in a prime position to cycle in reinforcements, counter-attack, and have the wounded heal up

[hearty yew]

yeah my two options right now are

either hold on you

or support fire from ak08 onto you

that way I both provide some cover onto the other engineer, help you out if they rush you, etc

thoughts on either option from the group?

[spare bay]

hold has a guaranteed effect while supporting fire won't do anything if they can't actually reach us

[floral patio]

The main risk is if you're on ak08

You might die

Holding on us has no point, since we already have two people holding

And that gives us maximum fortification from holding

What stance is support fire?

[hearty yew]

A or S

[floral patio]

Then if you're on us I think you support fire the space port

Or hold next to us

[hearty yew]

shadow is currently listed as reinforce, so unless thats changed holding would have an effect (we hold twice onto 2, shadow reinforces to 3)

[floral patio]

Or support fire next to us

Ah yeah

Ok if shadow is reinforcing being on me has more vendor

Benefit

Since shadow will be in R stance

And give not much to the fight

[hearty yew]

yeah

the one thing im concerned about is if they rush AK08, do we lose our spaceport?

[floral patio]

Yes

Probably

We can probably take it back though

[hearty yew]

yeah, it just delays hen the rest of our troops arrive

[floral patio]

Yeah

But we also can't lose every city tile or we lose too

Just immediately

[hearty yew]

fair

[trail fractal]

We do not want to lose AK08, that would kill 3 of our air units.

[hearty yew]

oh also true

[floral patio]

Yeah, but losing the city loses us the game straight up

Which loses us 25ish units

[hearty yew]

what would we need to lsoe to lose the city?

[floral patio]

Well currently I'm the only person on the city not in R stance

R stance means they'll retreat automatically if engaged

[hearty yew]

no I mean, what qualifies as losing the city

[floral patio]

Oh, we lose all 3 tiles

[trail fractal]

"You don't lose instantly, but if coalition forces control all 3 Saginaw tiles and the spaceport, that's game"

[hearty yew]

in that case I'd say the airfield is much higher priority, if we are assuming a potential rush

[floral patio]

Yeah

Agreed

Maybe Hold in the spaceport?

[trail fractal]

Supporting fire from spaceport?

[hearty yew]

its one of those two. Hold is more consistently reliable as it does something if no rush happens

[trail fractal]

The spaceport already has 2 fortification.

[hearty yew]

ahh

then yes

sf

[floral patio]

Yeah

[trail fractal]

I am also very invested in us holding AL09 since I am basing there.

[floral patio]

AL09 is the southern point of the city right?

[trail fractal]

Yeah

[floral patio]

Yeah that's where I am

[hearty yew]

yeah I will sf onto al09

from ak08

[floral patio]

Sounds good to me.

[hearty yew]

which should help cover multiple points, or if they dont rush us, oh well, c'est la vie

[floral patio]

It does have the problem with if they hit the spaceport our support company there still has to run.

But I think they still complete the Construction?

[trail fractal]

If they survive.

[floral patio]

Hopefully with 2 fortification they'll survive.

[trail fractal]

No, if the enemy survives.

[floral patio]

And someone else to soak some of the hits

Oh, yes.

But it's only 5 hp of attacks back

I think

No, wait, Amr is line

6

[hearty yew]

im line with local recruits in city

and 2 fortification

[worthy pelican]

Re: rushing, there is at most 2 vanguards in the approaching force, and 1 sentinel. The sentinel can't rush you, but the vanguards could.

[hearty yew]

that gives me a lot of defence dice

[floral patio]

Yeah, 6 dice back the first turn, and... 7 the second? IDK if spaceport counts as a city

Plus an unknown number of invisible scouts

[trail fractal]

• 1 or 2 dice from [R] units.

[hearty yew]

yeah i mean if there are enough invisible scouts to just rush us and we lose there's not

[trail fractal]

of ours

[hearty yew]

really a point in planning for that

like at that point we dont have a game to play

[floral patio]

I mean, we could be drop podding in

Instead of going after the other city

[hearty yew]

also fair

[floral patio]

So if we lose here it'll just be a lack of focus on the main objective

[hearty yew]

but that plan's been made so we're here now

[floral patio]

Yeah.

[hearty yew]

so no point in worrying about the invisible guys we cant control

[floral patio]

We're taking a really high risk high reward

[hearty yew]

if they're there we die if they're not we dont

[trail fractal]

And the other local recruit unit in the space port, are they on hold?

[floral patio]

If it works it'll work great

[worthy pelican]

And remember that there should be 3 more friendly units airlifting in to the spaceport/adjacent. So next turn you should have them soundly outnumbered unless there's a pile of scouts nearby.

[hearty yew]

they're on construct

[floral patio]

No they're on Construct

[trail fractal]

Why?

[hearty yew]

upgraade it to fob

[trail fractal]

We don't need a fob

[floral patio]

@unique sequoia wanted to upgrade it to FOB so we can get most of the people in on the next round

Also I think at the time we thought we were getting some drop support around us

[trail fractal]

But we can get everyone in anyways

[floral patio]

Can we? Only 3 per turn

[trail fractal]

And we have 6 ground units that didn't bring a ride, last time I counted

[floral patio]

We have... Ryo, Thrantar, Derp, Admiral, Suki, Pom? Yeah, so we do.

I think maybe fewer people had drop when we were talking about it?

Also I remember at least 4 people weren't dropped in

Er, locked in

As anything

[hearty yew]

yeah there were a lot less drop pods at time of decision

[floral patio]

And it looks like most of them locked in as air

[worthy pelican]

Yeah, a few more people switched to drop pods

[floral patio]

Or swapped to drop yeah

But yeah @unique sequoia Might be worth being in Hold stance

[trail fractal]

No good plan survives contact with the uh, allies?

[floral patio]

XD

Since all we have is Reinforce, Sap, and Contruct as our other-than-normal stances

[trail fractal]

Its a trap XD

[hearty yew]

the thing that might be useful once we hold the city is

building an airbase between saginaw and muskegon

[floral patio]

Yeah, so people can transfer between them.

[hearty yew]

if they survive muskegon, having an airbase to airlift out would be good

[trail fractal]

They have drop pods, I think they are doing the other air lift strat.

[spare bay]

Wait, so Hold and Reinforce take into account the natural terrain defense value? I thought the fortification value was independent of that?

[worthy pelican]

if they survive
😩 oh ye of little faith

[trail fractal]

The spaceport already has fortification 2 and terrain 1.

[hearty yew]

they would need to get back to space first. Idk if they can do that from muskegon?

[floral patio]

The enemy surviving, not us.

😄

[hearty yew]

listen I have faith! But if it fails that airbase doesnt help

also yes if the enemy survives and you need to bail

airbase would be good

[worthy pelican]

@wind yacht can drop pods units airlift back to space from a regular airbase, like the one near Muskegon?

[trail fractal]

"[R] Airlift: In the Move step, if adjacent to a friendly airfield or FOB... An Airlift may also occur between the carrier spacecraft and any base..."

[hearty yew]

oh neat

alright yeah i mean they can just leave and go anywhere alright so we just have to worry about the 10 of us + our planes

which means we're either all on defence duty while drop pod squad takes a base, leaves, repeats

or we eventually have to push out

[trail fractal]

I fully expect the enemy to come to us, but I could be wrong.

[hearty yew]

they absolutely will, its just a matter of if we'll keep all 10 ground + our air units on defence

or if we will have to split to push

[floral patio]

I expect us to do something like 5 on full defense on each of the first 2 cities

And then 10 pushing

To the 3rd city

[north juniper]

Hopefully i dont get rushed by some light infantry on AL09

That is my only fear

[floral patio]

I'm with you on AL09

So you're not alone, and we have Amr sending in supporting fire

I doubt we die

[north juniper]

Yeah, i read something about topping you

[north juniper]

Being on top

[floral patio]

o.o....

Sure.

[north juniper]

Lol

[blazing basalt]

I mean my assumption is they're going to be using the initial force to pin us down and then start sending reinforcements from the cities to try and wipe us out

[north juniper]

My hope is that on the first turn they can reach the city and thus give us time to prepare

Who can bombard the tile al10 in the next turn if they nove there

I have the designator, with that if more than 2 people are bombarding it could do devastating damage

[spare bay]

I assume you meant you hope they can't reach the city?

[worthy pelican]

Ryo and Thrantar both have bombard 2+ and could airlift down this turn, that would give a lot of bombard potential

[blazing basalt]

Planning for t2 seems a bit immature but we'll have a lot of air assets ready to assist when it rolls around

[worthy pelican]

For Shadow to designate for

[wind yacht]

Yes

[spare bay]

nice

[north juniper]

Yes, cant, forgot the T

[wind yacht]

<@&1310264693650362378> round one orders are due in 4 hours

[floral patio]

Thrantar asked me to submit his orders since he'll be at work until after turns are due

So I have done so

IDK if it shows who submits them

But so you see if it says I did for Thrantar, that is correct lmao

[wind yacht]

The form does not collect the identity of the responder

[floral patio]

Lmao

Ok I will try not to use that information for evil in the future.

[livid geyser]

as an air unit i'll need to rebase myself on turn 1 right? 👀

[wind yacht]

You're a blacksky wing, so you don't need to rebase

Your base is the carrier spaceship and your range is infinite

You can just start blasting

[livid geyser]

thanks peri

[worthy pelican]

https://tenor.com/view/started-blasting-gun-eyeglasses-so-anyway-i-started-blasting-gif-16955226

[livid geyser]

oh riight yes I remmeber now

right, I can strike anywhere, but I go on cooldown.

hrnghrgnh. I think... it may make sense to hold myself in reserve for round 1 until we see more of where I may be needed

hmmm

no I guess I can actually try and be spicy

I'm running the horus variant so I'm immune to ground interception

[worthy pelican]

Those hostiles south of Saginaw probably don't have any air support 😉

[livid geyser]

yeah

[bright nimbus]

simply bomb them

[livid geyser]

AM06

[wind yacht]

Are you sure you don't mean AM11?

[livid geyser]

oh!

.>

thanks

so we read sideways and not across the diagonal axis

yes that's what I meant

not sure how to look at the name of any given hex

[wind yacht]

Each hex is in line with only one row number

check in pins

[worthy pelican]

^

[livid geyser]

thanks peri, sorry for being a bit behind on keeping up with your incredibly cool project here

should I pick 'air strike' or specifically mention my variant "airstrike -1d6"

[wind yacht]

Mentioning the variant airstrike is helpful

[livid geyser]

I figured

i'll mark it down specifically for you

[wind yacht]

aww thanks

[livid geyser]

oh! there's a die modifier section, perfect

I'll pick airstrike and then -1d6 in the last bit

[wind yacht]

oh right, I did put that in

[livid geyser]

you thought ahead!

done! exciting

[wind yacht]

You are firing the first shots of the mission

[livid geyser]

https://tenor.com/view/bocchi-the-rock-anime-anime-girl-hitori-gotou-laughing-gif-27031913

yeahhh

hope I don't die!

lelouch would say a true king can only lead from the front

which is, objectively speaking, incredibly bad chess strategy

but he is very cool

[floral patio]

😄

Presumably there has already been violence

[wind yacht]

It's just @wicked plover to submit I think

[wicked plover]

done

[spare bay]

nice

[wind yacht]

I have bad news about the first shots of the mission

[dim spade]

Ha

Well if this is anything like 7th fleet

1. We won't be able to roll dice
2. We won't be able to read the rules
3. I'm going to fucking die

[livid geyser]

https://tenor.com/view/throw-fox-death-gif-22611433

[vocal scarab]

glorious leader setting our noble standard (low bar to beat)

[floral patio]

Lmao

[floral patio]

We already know we can't read the rules

😄

[bright nimbus]

Hey we can only do better now

[spare bay]

imagine that random mystery unit by Muskegon repelling our triple drop

[floral patio]

I believe in them

It's gonna be a Saving Privates Ryans over there

[wind yacht]

Y'all are making it rain over there

[floral patio]

Nice nice

Looks likely we at least take it then

😄

[wicked plover]

Yes....

[hearty yew]

based on the rolls it looks like we might, also looks like absolutely nothing is happening in the city based on the rolls lmao

[worthy pelican]

@wind yacht you can probably make your job a little easier by using the "count successes" syntax. /roll 5d6cs>4 will tell you how many of the 5d6 rolled greater than 4, instead of summing the rolls.

[wind yacht]

aaah that's the syntax

thanks

[spare bay]

Aw, it's just a poor Engi unit. I almost feel bad... almost

[spare bay]

Oh, I realized I forgot to note down the Ambushers bonus (if that even mattered)

Would that prevent an R unit from rolling any dice at all, or is 1d6 the minimum?

[wind yacht]

1d6 is the minimum, it would apply except for that

<@&1310264693650362378> round one rolls complete. Thanks for getting your orders in early, it saved me some time.

AIRSTRIKE IN AM11

The Horus Scarecrows of the Red Rooks squadron are first to hit atmo, diving for a strike on coalition forces approaching Saginaw. They score no substantial hits, but scatter cloudscout drones for intended follow-up strikes. They meet no resistance as they burn back for orbit.
0 hits

SPACEPORT SKIRMISH

Vanguard coalition units reached Saginaw spaceport just ahead of Union transports, skirmishing with Mehen's Jackals. The combat interrupted construction work; upgrades to a Forward Operating Base are not complete.
BLUFOR: 0 hits. Mehen's Jackals are commended for their bravery and recommended more time on the firing range.
OPFOR: 1 hit, assigned to defenses

HEAVY RAINFALL ON MUSKEGON AIRFIELD

Union forces performed a textbook orbital drop, taking the AT03 airfield with little resistance. A coalition combat engineering team constructing a bridge were pinned against the river and routed. No combat aircraft were found at the base, but NAVINT reports that a flight of bombers intending to rebase there was forced to divert.
Round one
BLUFOR: 5 hits. 3 to Defenses and 2 to Engineer (1)
OPFOR: 0 hits.
Round two
BLUFOR: 6 hits.
OPFOR: 0 hits.

THE SIEGE OF SAGINAW BEGINS

Coalition forces have moved to the edge of the city and are preparing for assault. Reinforcements are moving rapidly up the road from Kalamazoo. An airbase is under construction in
AN12, and NAVINT reports that two chassis wings (reporting name: Condor) have set up south of the city (exact location not known)

Union forces downlifted to Saginaw in an orderly fashion, with the exception of the 21st "Steel Dawn" Armored Company, whose drop pods did some damage to a local skate park.

[worthy pelican]

Mehen's Jackals are commended for their bravery and recommended more time on the firing range.
Lol, shots fired. 😛

Where did the Vanguard go that skirmished at the spaceport?

[wind yacht]

Retreated to an adjacent space

Did I forget to unhide it?

It's there, in AJ09

It could not retreat to where it came from because the Blackjacks had airlifted there in the meantime

[worthy pelican]

Ah, maybe a symptom of me alt-tabbing out

[bright nimbus]

I think it may be time to begin bombing people

[weary stump]

I’m docking someone’s pay for that skate park fiasco

[wind yacht]

ugh hold on, I forgot to move the Ypsilanti forces

[weary stump]

Someone’s ass is grass for that

[floral patio]

Forces around the city we see

[weary stump]

Huh

No known forces coming from the East?

[floral patio]

Forces around Muskegon we see

Nothing we can see, yeah

[worthy pelican]

And it looks like the Topinabee forces stayed put

[worthy pelican]

That new airbase is potentially concerning

[wind yacht]

It needs another Construct before it's useable

[bright nimbus]

Drop bombs on it?

[worthy pelican]

Oh, it's still partial, got it. I was about to say there must be a 2nd engineer there that we haven't spotted. 😛

But that shouldn't be the case if it's partial

[floral patio]

Nah, but it does have 3 dudes coming up the road to help it out

😄

We should be able to completely overwhelm the 3 dudes around us tho'

[weary stump]

Hmm, I wondering if I should play it safe and hold position or move towards the visible sentinel and breacher

I am the only unit on the eastern part of the city

So if enemies come down there I am the first line

But also idk if anyone is coming down

[floral patio]

My thoughts on what the land units do

IDK what the trucks are

[worthy pelican]

The trucks represent the base tile for the chassis wings

[livid geyser]

gonna have to lift back to orbit and repair

[floral patio]

Gotcha

[livid geyser]

I scattered drones to hopefully give people some info

godspeed

[floral patio]

Yeah you're out this turn, have fun with your turn off Ashley

😄

And then I figure the flying units just do what flying units do

[worthy pelican]

Presumably Peri will be placing the actual chassis Wing tokens on their target spaces, like he did with Winged

[livid geyser]

https://tenor.com/view/sleep-parrot-blanket-sleeping-bed-time-gif-5932024

[floral patio]

Designator lights up the Sentinel/breacher pair and they die, Blackjack moves in to pin the vanguard for Thundermaw to come in and mess 'em up

[wind yacht]

What do y'all think about a 24 hour turnaround time for orders to be due?

[floral patio]

Steel Dawn comes in to catch anything that's left alive

I'd say 48 and we see if we can ramp up

[wind yacht]

sure

[floral patio]

Entropy, Verry, and Voy probably just do generically useful flying things like Air Support?

[wind yacht]

<@&1310264693650362378> round 1 complete. Round 2 orders are due <t:1733193000:F>

[worthy pelican]

24 hours sounds nice because the game is new and everyone is excited, but my experience with PbP stuff makes me agree with Tohu. 😉

[floral patio]

To be clear this is an A for Airstrike on Wingman and an AS for Air Support from the Helicon Lance

Since only one Air Support goes through

I imagine we get another Air Support on the Vanguard, and then... The other two planes do something?

[spare bay]

ty for updated image

[floral patio]

Damn I don't get shit for posting like 10 images smh

[slow copper]

Oh, sad at not catching any aircraft at the airfield. I wonder where the Coalition bombers live 🤔

[floral patio]

I'm guessing they just don't have the same rules as insta-dying if their home gets taken

As we do

XD

[spare bay]

Well I guess for the Muskegon attack force, there's not much for us to do other than assault the city itself. Can all of us make it into the city on T2? There's a lot of terrain on the way.

[floral patio]

River means no, yeah?

I'd assume one turn of setup then hit the city turn2

[spare bay]

thx for the zoomed in images but I still needed the coordinates at the end of the day :P

[floral patio]

Fairrrr

Yeah I was trying to show like, what was actually happening places

So it's not a Map For Ants

[blazing basalt]

An airstrike is doable from Wingman, but I could also do interceptor work by flying a patrol around the city so the air units that we know they have will take some hits if they try to fly in on us.

[spare bay]

namely those condors

[floral patio]

I think I'd leave that up to Archon maybe

But multiple couldn't hurt

[spare bay]

Saginaw is looking like it's gonna be a real scrap

[wind yacht]

They do actually

[blazing basalt]

So long as someone's doing it.

[floral patio]

Oh, did that bomber die and it was just fluff then?

[wind yacht]

They are based elsewhere on the continent

[floral patio]

Ahhhh

Like, off-map?

[wind yacht]

yes

[floral patio]

Gotcha, so that was us catching them trying to rebase

[wind yacht]

yes

[spare bay]

they were going to rebase but it got cancelled, so I guess they're still in reserve, basically?

[floral patio]

Yeah

That seems like what happened

[bright nimbus]

I could do a patrol or I could help with air support or bombing while I leave it to Viper I think they are dedicated interceptors

[floral patio]

My main thought is just Viper is patrol-specialized and Archon is air-support specialized, while Whitefish can airstrike it also does it worse than you

So you're our best Airstrike option.

You and Whitefish doing Airstrikes and leaving Patrol and Air Support to the others

[blazing basalt]

Yeah, seems like a good plan then.

[floral patio]

Since Air Support conflicts with Supporting Fire and we're only hitting 2 dudes near us this turn probably

We want to maximize our Airstrike potential I think

And that means using the Blackspot on that group on the bottom and hitting them with our Bombard and Airstrike

XD

[blazing basalt]

Leveling the enemy with unopposed air strikes is only fun when we do it.

[floral patio]

If we double Air Strike and Bombard on them, we hit them with uh... 13 dice of bombard?

With the blackspot on

[blazing basalt]

Engraving each missile with their name, birthday, and social security number.

[sweet cobalt]

Could we get the turn resolution reports in a rolling Google doc for posterity? @wind yacht

Also, exciting to be underway! Thanks for starting this up!

[bright nimbus]

bombard does have dimishing returns the more we do it