Even something as simple as ambushing them in the forest and knocking down a couple of trees across the path?
But hey, let's roll us some Tactics for juicy hints. Go Go Gadget Commissar!
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Jump the convoy (preferably from ahead, or by setting up a blockade of some sort, so they can't just outrun us), kill them and steal their stuff, hope to find either a map to the General's camp or enough intact hardware and codes to sneak our way past patrols?
Nope, wreckage site is done for me as well.
I'm more aware of the fact that none of us have Deceive trained, and I assumed that bluffing our way past enemies would involve the Deceive skill to act like people who are supposed to know the codes, rather than spies with stolen codes.
"It's worth considering. Anyone with training or talent in deceiving hostile troops charged with the security of a high-ranking enemy commander, raise your hand." Yuriy pointedly puts both hands in his pockets.
"Fascinating..." Yuriy pores over the bodies, taking a box from one of his many pockets and going over the corpses with a pair of forceps. "I don't suppose anyone has seen something like these before?" He displays the contents of the box, an assortment of blood-stained shards of crystalline material. "Far too small to be knives, and they were driven too deep to be held by hand. Nothing in the Emperor's armories ever spat these out of its blessed barrel, but where they came from is a mystery to me."
Awareness TN43: Medicae TN90: Yuri gives the wreckage a dismissive once-over, but bends to examine the bodies with his diagnostor and medikit much more animatedly.
Speed of plot is fine. Let's keep going and find something to shoot.
@DM: I think we have some confusion on what 'full speed' means. Using the Chimera's top cruise of 70kph at max speed, what are you considering to be 'full speed' versus 'half speed' in Grasslands, Mountains, and/or Forest? As the discussion's gone, the Stealth modifiers in all 3 zones are irrelevant since it is impossible for Urias to pass a Stealth check while driving, so Grasslands offered the highest traverse speed at no effective downside. But if moving slow to avoid patrols and Valkyries means we're effectively slower than a Forest route where we'd have the trees blocking aerial surveillance, that would change our thinking.
On the other hand, that much good luck now means you're going to send us off a cliff into a ravine or something in the mountains.
I take it back. Daaaaaaaamn. That's enough to get us the entire distance in one day across grasslands - 70kph will in fact get us across most of enemy territory in a few hours...so [entire distance-Mountain minimum] kilometers traveled? Do we need to roll a separate Navigation check for the Mountainous leg?
aaaaaaand we're screwed.
Oktyabar is our Navigator at TN50, then. No one else can do it, or give assistance.
Hrm. That is an option, and makes Forest potentially viable again; with 2 Stealth assists, if they're permitted, that would race Urias's native check to TN10. In the forest, it'd be up to TN30. That might make the more cautious forest route worth considering. ...on the other hand, it'd reduce the Navigate check from Grasslands TN75 to TN45, even with assists, and slow us down. Okytabar assisting the Navigate Surface, and one other person also assisting Stealth, means almost guaranteed success crossing grasslands and a tiny but non-zero chance of not being seen. We should stick with Grasslands, really.
Isn't Urias the only one even trained in the skill? He's driving anyways. As for not being spotted - in the Chimera, he's got a negative Target Number for his Stealth roll. So if literally anyone is watching, we will be seen. Our chance is to outrun whoever is in position to intercept us, then lose them in the mountains during our final leg.
So we're just going balls-out and not even trying to be stealthy, Grasslands seems like the best terrain option for Day 1. Get us right up into the foothills/mountains and proceed from there.
That's at least 3 people in favor of the Chimera, so Chimera it is then. Any chance that unused Logistics test could get us some extra ammo for the heavy bolter? Else I suppose we can attempt to get us a single Firebomb Grenade. ...Bolt Shells are Rare. So nope, not for us. Logistics to get a single grenade, then.
Nopes. Does it at least have hull-mounted lasguns? Or are they also missing/damaged?
I'm squad leader INO, remember. It wasn't a job I wanted IC or OOC to begin with, so this sort of thing is fine as a group OOC decision. As for transport, if we need it for the return we can probably commandeer something from the enemy. Urias can get a new Sentinel.
As a token effort towards his position of squad leader, Yuriy goes to investigate what happened to the captives they took from the enemy patrol, and see if they had been interrogated yet. Any information gained, particularly regarding patrol routes or frequency, could be of benefit in consideration of how blind they were operating.
It is a warfront, so they won't automatically be looking for you. I will say though, it is your call. There are benefits to each and penalties to each. I'll tell you that the mission isn't an autofail or autosuceed either way based solely on the choice of Chimera or no Chimera. I was editing pretty heavily during that, with more in-depth thoughts. Of particular concern is the mountainous terrain and what that'll do for Chimera speed. Now I'm regretting the lack of that camo netting. Effective +30 Stealth is a much bigger bonus when your base check is so low.
That would bring us down to about 17kph overland speed, a little bit more than 4x walking speed. Still much faster, but it's not the in-and-out lightning rush of a true mechanized attack. I think an important factor, and one we simply can't determine, is the frequency/likelihood of encountering enemy patrols. If the rapid-response of a Chimera - 1-2 days in transit instead of 5 each way - outweighs the reduced odds of succesfully avoiding detection (Urias rolling against TN20 for a Sentinel or TN10 for a Chimera, after untrained penalty/forest bonus/size modifier. And let's not forget the mountains at the end, which will be basically impassible for the transport. If we have to, we can hijack enemy transport for our return journey and leave the Sentinel behind, but for the outgoing leg the Sentinel's tiny bonus to Stealth might make the difference, and aid us in possibly killing enemies who stumble upon us before they can run and report. Taking a prisoner might just prove to be impractical, with the logistics we have at hand.
And while it's unrelated, I am curious when our Ratling will be joining us. Can't have too many snipers.
THe camo-netting came in Shield of the Emperor, me thinks. Weirdly, it doesn't. Two different Regiments start with a vehicle that has attached camo-netting...but SotE doesn't actually have any rules for what camo netting does. EDIT - found it in Shield of Humanity though. -30 penalty on attempts to spot a stationary vehicle with the netting deployed. Meh. Also, I want a bright pink Chimera now. I made a mistake about size though - Chimera is Massive, so it'll be -30 instead of -20. But riding in it means our top speed is limited by the Sentinel at 45kph, rather than the foot speed of 4kph. Even using the forest for cover the entire way at half speed, that means we can reach the target in less than 10 hours - towards the end, we can just ditch the Chimera and hike through the mountains on foot. It'll also give us a convenient evac point to hasten our return to friendly territory, and make it easier to transport rescued friendlies or captives. Overall, I think advantage still stands to bring the Chimera, if we have someone who can drive it. ..which...we don't. Unless we're leaving the Sentinel behind, we only have one person trained in Operate (Surface). It's a Specialist Skill, so you can't even make an attempt without training. So, Sentinel for fire support close to the objective, or Chimera for fast transport to/from the objective? My preference between the two is the Sentinel - our food supply will last us the slow route, and it'll slightly increase our chances of remaining hidden. Unless there's a way to get both that I can't see.
Yuriy is looking down into one of the large boxes issued to them by the adepts, muttering a choice string of homeworld epithets under his breath at the contents. "A fine pair of missile launchers indeed, issued by the peerless and loyal servants of the Munitorium. Would you like one of these missile launchers, Commissar?", gesturing at the box containing two preserve-wrapped, pristine suits of full-body carapace armor.
The Operator has an untrained Stealth TN of 21 - in forested terrain, that'd be a 41. If the enemy has active aerial surveillance and we know two squads have failed at this already, taking the entire route by forest and hoping for the best might be good. I suppose it depends on rations. We have 6 weeks worth of rations each, how long will it take to reach our objective if we travel the full route in forest-mountain terrain? EDIT: Looks like we'll move at 40km/day in open terrain at the speed of the slowest person, or 20km/day in bad terrain. So about a 10-day journey one-way. Also, is there any chance our Requisition could be used to acquire some form of camo-netting, or just forest-color paints to better conceal a stationary Sentinel? It seems like a fairly obvious thing militaries would have, but is absent from the Wargear lists in the book. Trying to get a Chimera through the forest and mountains just seems like a terrible idea. But it'll vastly increase our speed, we'd cover most of the distance in a single day. And oddly, it's no less stealthy than a Sentinel would be, they're both listed as Enormous (-20).
Do we have to pick 1 type of terrain for the whole trip? Or could we, say, go along a route that lets us travel through grasslands up to the front, then into the forest from there to the General's coordinates?
Ladies and gentlemen, our reconnaissance specialists. We'll be here alllllll week.
Yeah, I was going to give one suit of armor to the Heavy. If the Commissar wants the second one, she'll get it. As for the Logistics...we can't get ourselves a replacement missile launcher at a -30 modifier for rarity and no Logistics. Does our Heavy Gunner or Ratling have Demolitions or Armorer trained, or another skill that'd let us rig the otherwise useless missiles into improvised bombs? EDIT: Unless the Heavy took Missile Launcher proficiency. Then we just have extra ammo, which is nice. My suggestion would be trying for a Fire Bomb Grenade. It's Plentiful, so we can at least potentially succeed (anything less than Plentiful is TN0), and incendaries are handy for causing distractions. Not sure about the Sentinel. The multilaser would be a great heavy gun, but it's not exactly stealthy. On the other hand, the other two squads were stealthy and they failed.
I guess I'll roll our Logistics test then, since it can't be influenced by character stats.
Ouch. 3 degrees of failure, it looks like....wait. 2 degrees, since it's an Ordinary (+10) test before modifiers, according to the book. So TN30, 2 DoF. 2 important items are missing - GM discretion what they are, but they'll be replaced by:
At least one of our items was something good. I'd call dibs on an armor suit, but 15kg is a lot, and Yuriy is kinda shrimpy. EDIT: Looks like I can swing it. 10kg of non-armor gear currently, with a weight allowance of 27kg. So unless Ms. Commissar pulls metaphorical rank on me, I'm getting at least one small perk out of this 'squad leader' nonsense. And keeping yo medic alive is always a good thing.
Yuriy nods. "A few, Colonel, regarding your last statements only. You mentioned two other squads sent previously on similar missions. Were there any survivors from these previous teams? If not, should we consider rescue of potential Imperial captives a secondary objective while pursuing this rebel general?"
Yuriy sets to work, putting away his lasgun and pulling out his preferred tools of the trade. After several minutes of irritably poking and prodding at the two captives, though, he settles for bandaging up the more egregiously oozing sores. "Not that I'm going to complain about giving heretics what they deserve, but here and now you'd be better finding some vegetables and putting these two between bread for a sandwich, they're cooked so well. Can't do much to patch them out till we get them back to the base hospital, or camp out for a day so I can set up a field station."
Do I need to roll to stabilize our prisoners? I'm not sure how much Critical damage they've taken, so I don't know what penalties are involved.
In this case, we'd also end up starting a forest fire. So probably not a good idea. It's almost to the point where I want one of us to get shot, just so I can roll the Medicae test I'm actually good at instead of being a sub-par gunman.
This is proving to be a fairly accurate reflection of two tabletop IG squads trying to kill each other. No one can hit anything and it takes forever.
Recover from Pin: "If you think it'll help..." Yuriy sighs, levels his carbine again, and hoses the cluster of surviving troopers with more indiscriminate lasfire.
Oooh, it does. Let's see...
NOPES.
Swearing, Yuriy buries himself in the dirt behind the biggest tree he can find. Without exposing himself more than he can avoid, he tries to draw a bead through the foliage on the enemy trooper.
Oh fine. Veterinarian turned Veteran as official squad leader it is, then.
The Commissar would be the best choice, but she's ineligible since she doesn't stand in the chain of command (she just shoots it). I nominate Urias.
Somehow, I don't think the Fel-25 Pessimist will be a very effective/inspiring squad leader.
With the enemies pinned, Yuriy takes a moment to settle his aim more carefully, then sprays another volley of lasgun fire at the healthiest-looking un-pinned enemy in tandem with his orderly.
"Hold still, why don't you. It'll just hurt longer this way."
Comrade Demeanor... Boistrous. Well, he's certainly got a better bedside manner than Yuriy does.
Yuriy sighs, dropping into a crouch and spraying las-fire in the general direction of the one member of the enemy squad still upright. "I hope you don't plan on asking me to fix that one up for interrogation afterwards. Ivan, with me. Help keep that last stragrat's head down, maybe we'll be blessed and not suffer any fatal casualties one day out of base." (Issuing a Ranged Volley order to my Comrade, and engaging in Suppressive Fire. )
Yuriy peers around at the surrounding trees suspiciously, aiming his lascarbine at nothing in particular. When nothing breaks cover in panic beneath his gunsights, he shrugs and lowers the weapon slightly. "Check that hunk of junk to see if it's malfunctioning again. I don't see anything."
Yuriy scowled at their surroundings, the other soldiers, the nearby terrain, and generally everything - typical behavior for the cantankerous old medic, so nothing of particular note. "I am out of suture thread, used the last I had fixing up Carrows after he split his head open on the bulkhead last week. Doubtful that whatever sorry excuses for medicae they have stationed on this planet have any to spare, but sometime He smiles at odd times."
Logical. In that case, here's my suggestions/preferences for maximum plug-and-play utility: -Imperial World: It's Cheap, Willpower is always good, plus another bonus...can never go wrong with Ballistic Skill. And everyone loves to hate mutants. -Choleric Commander: Being able to test out of an ambush is a great benefit. -Hunter-Killer or Line Infantry: Hunter-Killer has better stat adjustments and a very nice free Talent - Fear tests can be devastating, so an always-on resistance bonus is valuable. Line Infantry has a decent talent and a good all-round starter equipment kit. -Sharpshooters Doctrine: We're Imperial Guard, we don't belong in melee. Total of 10 points, leaving 2 for extra Kit Customization points. |