One vote for double-drop and one for single-drop and supplies at Maxarpa; I rolled off and the Lord General decided to favor the single-drop option for the 84th Magellan Rifles and start building up the dump at the Maxarpa landing site again.
Unlikely to finish writing this up before going out with friends tonight, but I'll get it done as soon as I can (work and sleep allowing) and we can get this back on the road. ^^
Double-drop supplies
|
Based on looking at the latest intel report, I see no compelling evidence that Maxarpa either can be saved, or should be.
I realize that I'm talking to Jene and O'Hern here, but I think a compelling case can be made:
1) The construction site at Maxarpa has been overrun.
The only value that Maxarpa uniquely had was that a secondary port was being built there. Now that enemy armor has overrun it, that means that it is A) no longer there and B) can not be re-taken since the forces around Maxarpa have no way to push against enemy armor.
2) The supply dump and landing site has been overrun.
The supplies have been destroyed, even with the landed reinforcements, and the reinforcements were taking fire. That means that any further landings would be a 'touch-and-go' situation as no firm point can be established.
Hence, we can only conclude that Maxarpa is over-run, and is not actively salvageable.
3) The SpacePort at Argent at least has solid lines.
We've received the enemy's shock, and he has been held. Since Argent is land-locked, the enemy does not have the mobility of naval transports, nor the support of naval guns.
4) Anti-armor units can _only_ be dropped at an active SpacePort.
Since the enemy's armor are actively engaging us, we need to coalesce around a drop of anti-armor units. Or, our own armor units. Hence, a drop of the Khazak armor would allow us to counter-attack effectively. Caught between the armor at the Port, and Jene coming in from the West, the forces around Argent can be put in a vice.
to sum:
1) Supply drop + 20th Khazak at Argent.
2) Forces currently around Maxarpa fall back to Argent.
3) Forces at Argent hold ground until tanks are down, then counterattack.
4)Jene: attack enemy's rear if possible, or circle north and merge with me if not.
4) Continue with orbital strikes against enemy units gathering at Argent.
5)Air cover to support withdrawal from Maxarpa.
Well, even if it cost us an escort, at least we've destroyed two regiments. In all honesty, I'm tempted to flatten Maxarpa, but that would result in too many civilian casualties. Maybe if we can pull their armor off when Kimes and I fall back we can smash them with an Orbital strike, but for now I'm thinking we need to let the Cobras take over instead of the Swords. Torpedos can be fired from further away than lance strikes after all, and thus not risk the ships taking GOW fire.
I agree that Maxarpa's lost, at least for now. Other than that though, we need to consolidate. I say we do a double supply drop. One just north of Ardent so that Jene's forces can resupply, and another for Arvitus' men. Kimes and I should head east for now. Their armor can't do squat in the mountains, and the sentinels have already shown their worth in mobility. If we head south those plains are going to be a slaughterfield to get over. We're going to take losses regardless, but I'd like to use terrain in our favor. If we must fight guerilla style, then that's what we'll do. Also, if they follow us to the mountains, we can get another regiment to drop in the plains south uncontested to reinforce us next turn.
I'd ask for air cover on our forces too, but we're off grid now, so I don't think we can do much asking at this point.
I've an idea about how to loose the armor, and my little communication's blackout thing is broken so we are back on the grid now.
The issue here, and likely the reason Kimes is gonna be super pissed, is that Maxarpa was supposed to be our fallback point while we waited for armor before we pushed into a hive city. With enemy armor showing up it's not just Maxarpa that is lost, it is likely Ardent and Torton as well.
Before I get my post ready I have a couple questions for Kitsune:
1) did we get the wounded out? hopefully we had time to 'requisition' several vehicles to load them out during our evacuation.
2) What happened to the sentinel force? There's a report of them passing through the naval battalion and then... nothing.
3) What's the road situation like here? do we have paved roads? dirt? Full on 8 lane highways?
1) Yes, the city-fighting withdrawal through Maxarpa bought enough time to beg/borrow/requisition enough local transport to get them out.
2) You don't have contact with them at the moment; the big blackout may be over but there seems to be a lot of communications chaos in the area, several units are still shut down and some commanders are resorting to runners. There are reports of them fighting side by side with some of the Magellan Rifles two hours ago, but no one seems to know where they are now.
3) A combination of packed dirt and paved in a fairly wide-spread network; it only starts getting complicated as the ground gets rugged and you go up into the hinterland. The locals appear to use a lot of water transport for their ores here in the east, where possible.
Thanks kitsune
And... how are we gonna get tanks down? To call the space port secured is a tenuous statement at best.
Without playing by the rules or knowing them is very frustrating. Everything seems arbitrary and an exercise in futility.
Either we take the risk of dropping them on the spaceport (I really don't like that option) or we drop them north of Ardent just like we did with the other regiments. They'll be slower coming into Ardent that way, but safer from fire I think. Maybe see if we can drop those supplies for Ardent in with them and solve two problems at once, if the pilots are willing to risk it.
I hope you'll forgive me for being a little slow, but why are we loosing maxarpa? Wasn't it our primary landing site? Or are we pulling so far away from that the genestealer cultists are reclaiming it?
|
|
@ Firmianus: The latest action by BlindKitsune says that we've been pushed off Maxarpa by enemy armor, and have lost the supply dump there. That the enemy was able to take two high-priority objectives means that they A) Have ground superiority in that theatre and B) Maxarpa has lost strategic value.
We simply dropped there, but it has no intrinsic or lasting value.
@Yourke. Are you suggesting to drop our armor and our supplies at Ardent?(a 1 unit and 1 suuply drop.) That works too. Probably more so, since it concentrates our strength, and Jene might be doing all she can to just reach us in safe order. Once her troops hook up, they can just draw off the Ardent supply drop.
Also, once our own armor is down, after assisting with the city, they can strike north and make contact with Kimes, who can then also come to Ardent and get supplies.
Alright, Yorke, that sounds like the best plan yet.
Without playing by the rules or knowing them is very frustrating. Everything seems arbitrary and an exercise in futility.
I'm sorry you feel that way Jene; I'm trying to make it work as 'realistically' as I can, with giving orders to your troops and having them try to execute it as well as they can - which feels more like a roleplay to me than a war game - but this is the first time I've tried to run something like this so if there's a way you think I could run it better I'd be very happy to hear it.
What could I be doing better?
I guess part of a game or the rules is understanding what "can't" happen... and somehow the enemy showing up in three different places in concert seemed weird.
You're doing a great job, just feel helpless.
Ah, that... is actually freak coincidence.
I do have a record of how fast everything can move, and after my pet traitor (who is out to kill the lot of you) decided where he was deploying and Team Imperial started landing he decided which units he was going to send over to attack you.
It just so happens that his reinforcement units arrived north and south of your growing beachhead within a day of each other (well, mostly) and since he didn't have any armor in the Maxarpa-Ardent area it's changed the dynamic a little.
Though those units did have to come from somewhere else, which is why Misra and Iskandariya are sprouting loyalist insurgents.
How powerful would an insurgent unit be and would we then effectively sprout "extra units" if we landed there?
Militia probably, not unlike the local Traitor militia that's been brewing in enemy-held settlements. So... extra manpower, extra firepower but a little shaky/brittle and likely to shatter if they're beaten up too much.
But yes, extra units.
Access to supplies? Help our logistics situation?
I should note this, but I also want air cover to continue on our falling back from Maxarpa. See if we can get our full air power to smash their armor, or at least tie up any air forces they might send our way. Enemy air is what would screw us over tremendously.
Also, I meant that we'd send our armor down to Ardent with a double loadout of their usual supplies, meaning that they could share the extras with Arvitus' and O'Hern's forces until such time as another supply drop came down. Jene would pick up the main supply drop north of Ardent and then make her way south to reinforce Arvitus, allowing us to hold the city with superior numbers and firepower.
First off, I just want to say that our focus should be on surviving the next couple days, we do not have a major city to be our HQ/fallback point since we lost Maxapra. If we can blunt the enemy assault and get enough troops down to, preferably, retake Maxapra and finish the space port we should be able to take the planet. Sorry but I don't see us security Ardent any time soon. My vote for the drop is for troops at either my location or Torton, and supplies.
Now, insurgents are not military units, they are unlikely to join us in marching on other cities or meet hostiles in open combat.
However, they can be extremely useful and very annoying for the enemy. My plan for once we have a stable, secure landing area is to send the WArhawks back into orbit, divide them into small units, like... platoon at the largest, and drop them along with shipments of weapons and munitions into major cities. Their goal would be to make contact with the insurgents, arm them, train them and conduct harassing operations against enemy forces.
The warhawks are ideal for this as they are used to operating behind enemy lines, without supply lines and with limited weapons. They are also veterans and can likely do the best job training a small milita. As they have taken heavy casualties already they won't be too effective in normal combat anyways, and their drop training will come in handy in getting them in contact with the insurgents.
That being said, until we have a secure area on the ground I do not feel comfortable shipping them back up to orbit. We're in a very bad spot right now, and I feel our main objective should be retaking Maxarpa before the duke milks too much PR out of it.
Can we take their armor? I mean take and use.
The only way I see us taking their armor is if they run them out of fuel... which is unlikely. it's hard to capture armor, simply trying to get the crew out of the thing without them killing us or us destroying it is... hard.
I don't see us being able to steal their armor, no.
Not much of an agreement at this point it's called the only way to survive. That's why O'Hern wanted a fallback place, so he will not be convinced to move of Ardent very easily without having 100% security of the area.
He is a take and posses type of general, just very ruthless as he does so.
Survival is our priority, and our only option at this point. That said however, I must remind everyone of this... If we give up initiative to the enemy and let him call the shots, we're screwed. We are surviving this round, but we MUST be ready to hit back the next! We can NOT stop our offence.
We might be able to steal their armor through a guerilla raid or some unconventional tactics, but that would be limited at best. Firmianius is heading out to recover whatever's left of a frigate but the remainder of the orbital bombardment ships that aren't taking out ground defenses can be used to attempt to take out armor.
What about aircraft that was downed from low altitude?
|
|
@ Marshal Yorke: So you have ordered, so it is done.
If you can drop my Armor, we'll do an encirclement.
As I understand it, we hold something akin to a pie-slice of the city, with my forces holding a line from the North through the SpacePort, and O'Hern holding the East, through a line that intersects with me.
Tomorrow's offensive will go this way. We need everyone pulling in the same direction, though:
1) Yorke and Kimes (TF1) will do everything they can to keep their enemy armor preoccupied. If their opposing forces break off and come down on Ardent, this is over.
2) My Cadian Shock will pull out of their defensive positions gradually, forming up in our rear area at the north of the city.
3) Jene will fill into the vacated positions as she comes in.
4) The 20th Khazak Armor will drop on the SpacePort, and will withdraw to the North to hook up with the Cadian Shock.(TF2)
5) Once dropped, the Cadians and Khazak will begin a counter-clockwise encirclement of the city, initially heading West and coming around. This will:
... i) Destroy the enemy's Command
....ii) Destroy the enemy's supplies, and
....iii) Cut off the supply routes of the enemy.
6) Once they complete the circle and hook up with O'Hern, the situation can be evaluated whether we want to continue a siege, or assault.
7) The next day the 5th Charybdis Dragoons will drop and will take over city operations from TF2.
8) TF2 will strike North, meeting the enemy that has been pursuing Yorke and Kimes.
How's that sound?
calling it now: dropping armor into a barely secured space port is going to end badly. (actually, I don't think we control the space port right now, thought you were pushed out of it)
Here are my predictions if we attempt this:
-As soon as we begin landing shuttles in the space port the enemy armor rushes the port, destroying most if not all vehicles on the ground and possibly several drop ships.
-with the armor qued up it is too difficult to switch to a different regiment and we get no reinforcements
-the flanking attack fails without armor support, another regiment is lost
-I have to hold off the enemy armor another day
-btw you probably can't cut off their supply lines, they are in a hive city, that is their supply line.
|
|
We've destroyed entire buildings to make sure their armor can't push us out of the port. Armor isn't very good in closed-quarters, which is why we're swinging around.
And armor takes a -lot- of gas. As in, it's measured in gallons per mile, instead of the other way around. Since most cities don't have oil rigs, it takes a consistent fuel supply to keep them going.
Odd note, the miraculous saving of the British army at Dunkirk was only possible because the surprising Blitzkrieg of France was stopped by over-extended fuel lines.
a hive city has a population measuring in the billions, and it straight up runs on promethium, trust me, they have decades worth of fuel stored up somewhere.
frankly, I'm impressed you haven't pissed off the city nobles yet. They are likely on the fence about the whole invasion and/or attack on the city. If they really didn't want you there you'd be swimming in private armies and tens of thousands, if not millions, of hired gangers from the under city.
Alternatively, if they thought you could win, and hold the city, they'd throw in on your side. Unfortunately because we couldn't hold Maxarpa they are unlikely to believe in our ability to hold the hive, assuming we manage to take it in the first place.
If I was planning to attack and attempt to capture a hive city it would go like this:
-use the temporary space made by dropping buildings to pull back from the city.
-retake Maxarpa and rebuild/finish the space port
-send messages to the noble heads in Ardent saying that we won't dispose of their houses if they assist us in taking Ardent
-punctuate this by taking a holding nearby cities of Torton and Wilton
-Lay seige to hive ardent while contacting any noble houses which still haven't agreed to help us and telling them 'the city WILL be ours sooner rather than later. If you do not help us we will either kill you all as traitors to the throne, or, worse, hand them over to the inquisition.'
this has several benefits over a straight up attack on the city:
1) it minimizes our losses in the case we need to launch a more typical attack against the other two hive cities, instead of wasting all of our men against this first one.
2) Even if we only get a few noble houses on our side it will even up against the other hostile nobles if both sides throw in.
3) It shows the other hives what we plan to do when we get there. Meaning we can repeat this process against other hives and hopefully more noble houses will join us.
There are a couple risks:
-For one we have to deal with more threats at once, this is mitigated by the fact that the enemy also has to deal with multiple threats.
-We have to keep the inquisition on a leash until after the invasion, notice we didn't make any promises? The inquisition is going to want to go over the noble houses here with a fine tooth power comb and if they do that while we're trying to convince the other noble houses to join us it could cause issues.
-Finally, laying siege to a hive city is difficult and, ultimately all but fruitless, as the city has decades of supplies stored up (probably). But the point is not to starve them out, but to drive home a point to the city leadership that we already control the city in all but name.
The difficult part is convincing them that we didn't just resort to this tactic because of our failed attack on the city. The only way I see to do this is to, very publicly, make a fuss about how you are being reprimanded for going off orders and attacking the hive when you weren't supposed to. The other general's units went in to try and make something of the attack and get your forces out alive. We then rotate you to another front and never speak of it again.
Just my ideas but... we've already lost, what, two regiments in this attack? I don't know that we can maintain those kinds of losses.
looking at the map we seem to be stretched too far out, though that's my personal opinion. I'm with kimes on this one. It feels as if the waning control on our spaceport makes armor a risky decision, though it seems to necessary given we are facing off against enemy armor. I'd probably queue a mechanized unit (dragoons) for drop too.
-cough-
*thumb twiddle*
*whistles*
*looks at cards*
"Hit me"
*looks at his cards before nodding to himself*
*eyes cards cautiously*
"i suppose this will suffice."
Is our gm okay?
I certainly hope so.
Should we dub the game inactive?
Wishing everyone the best and a great summer!
guess we should. It was fun while it lasted. I hope gm is fine.....
This should be moved to inactive.