This thread is in long-term strategic planning mode while I attend to some things. If it survives the few hours between now and when I return, excellent. If not, I'll just repost, no big deal.

Pre-emptive bump.

Bump

bump for the love of god bump!

>>13887047
Can that punch and fire long toms? Or do the five arm criticals mess that up? Anvils can be fucking nasty at 60t, 100t of mean is nearly unthinkable.

bump?

must be the other quest threads

what do we have for mechs?

A commando, a kamakazi urbie, and 2 others

>>13893541
ahhh thank you

>>13893636
yeah I think its a shadow hawk and a locust? as for the other ones besides our commando and the urbs with a AC 20 strapped on it

>>13893636

We have a Commando, Urbie, Storm Hawk, Javelin, and Wolverine. We also have a Bulldog tank, a Maxim hover transport, and Mobile Command Vehicle. The rest is an assortment of civilian vehicles we use to transport materials and personnel.

We also salvaged a bits of mechs from the last battle. That includes a nearly complete Circada and Vindicator.

I think we should try to hit a few more soft targets to force the Capellans to distribute their defenses, then hit the AFB nearby.

Also, if there's so many new recruits coming in, we may need to scout out a more secluded HQ.

>>13893654

Oh yeah Shadow Hawk, not Storm Hawk...

but that airbase is going to be a thorn in ourside for a while....we should try to get some lrm carriors

we may not need to hit more solft targets to open up thier defenses, we can try a feint and recon another high importance target, they will then beef up its security and then we hit the airbase which is no where related to our last whereabouts

I love Commandos so much, they are my favorite mech. You can only imagine my joy during my childhood playing Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries when you start the campaign with the COM-2D. I field a company of light and medium Lyran forces on the tabletop with a bunch of COM-5S commandos mixed in.

Anyways, please continue.

>>13893799
I would love to know what types of aircraft they have before we attack

>>13893871
total metagameing here but megamek sucks with aerospace rules so most likely a gooddamn shit ton of vtols, like vtols out the ass, and we need to hit em b4 they get off the ground or else they will be targeting our rear all day ere day....

>>13893871
The kind with bombs.

>>13893932
If that were to be the case, we need... something like Jagermech, with a big arsenal of long range autocannons and a high rate of fire. Since we don't have that, it would be best to trash them on the tarmac like you suggest.

>>13893932
it would be nice if we could send a spy to the airbase

>>13894011
hell do you how hard it is to get into a normal airport without clearance? shit we need to find someone who knows a disgruntled pilot who will walk around with a cam and get us delicious info

>>13894011
seconding this

>>13894011
That's true. We'll need to see if Free Capella has any assets in the base.

>>13894087
I wouldnt trust free capella too much, they almost cost us kara, telling us that the food depot was lightly guarded........with 2 mechs, tanks vtols and turrets, lightly my ass

>>13894070
also ask the pilot about any battlemechs at the airbase. I would hate for us to run in to a heavy mech

>>13894011
>>13894070
Where's Michael Weston when you need him?

>>13894183
I guess I was not the only one to watch burn notice all day

So one problem i keep seeing is our shaky recon and intel. definitely need to improve our information gathering methods.

Can we get a 3 man team on some ATV's to scout the airbase? Is that plausible? I don't know much about the specifics of battletech.

>>13894214
>>13894183
Heh.

>>13894256
Sure, but they might be spotted. The Capellan military already knows that we're in the region; it would stand to reason that they would keep the base on high alert, especially so soon after another one of our attacks.

This airbase is going to be the end of us...

>>13894376
indeed it will be and it will look like this

>>13894422
I hate planes there worse then zombies

>>13894527
planes gonna fuck yo shit up

>>13894584
god damn

were did everyone go?

>>13893233
>>Can that punch and fire long toms? Or do the five arm criticals mess that up? Anvils can be fucking nasty at 60t, 100t of mean is nearly unthinkable.

It can punch, but it also clearly lacks LA and Hand actuators - it's running at a penalty of 2 to hit already. It's easier just to land a 20-point kick with the fuckers.

>>13894804
Well, as a planning thread, we can only do so much with confirmation of what materials and assets we have available, or of any newly acquired intel.

Personally, my goals are the acquisition of an intel asset with the Air Force Base in preparation of an attack, the identification of an alternative location for our base, finding a fusion reactor we can use on the Mobile HQ, repairing the Vindicator, and the identification of other targets (preferably soft ones, or ones that contain things that could be useful to us).

Finally, we need to figure out a way to backstab Free Capella and get Larsha accepted into the Taurian Concordat.

What we need is an infantry team that can do covert recon with that hover transport. They can hide it somewhere and infiltrate the rest of the way on foot, special forces style, and observe the base from long range from some vantage point. Also have them check the air traffic at the base. If we can figure out the typical ingress and egress routes, we can camp and watch what comes in and out of the base, and try to identify types of craft.

The question is, how do we find people skilled enough and reliable enough to do this?

>>13895063
Dude, that hover transport is huge. It can carry 100 tons, and is armed with SRM launchers.

A better SpecOps vehicles would be one of the Packrats or one of the civilian trucks.

>>13895079
Oh, it's a Maxim right? Well shit, I thought it was something tamer and forgot that we had a behemoth.

>>13895105
Hovers are still the hardest to pick up on anything but MAGSCAN and BAPs. Hell, you could fit a technical or two into the cargo bay and use them for the scouting.

I hope op returnes soon

>>13895051
MECH STATUS:
COM-5S COMMANDO: 100% - Came back with barely a scratch on it.
WVR-6R WOLVERINE: 70% - LEFT, RIGHT, and CENTER TORSO armor damaged, in need of replacement.
JVN-10N FIRE JAVELIN: 60% - Right arm missing armor entirely and will need repairs. CAUTION: Heat sinks in LEFT LEG are inoperable.
UM-R60L URBANMECH: 90% - LEFT TORSO Machine Gun is missing. Provisional armor has been welded in its place.
SHD-2H SHADOW HAWK: 75% - Damage to RIGHT TORSO and LEFT LEG armor that needs to be repaired.
VND-1R VINDICATOR: 40% - Severe damage to RIGHT, LEFT, and CENTER TORSO, with accompanying internal structure damage. Significant repairs needed.
CDA-3C CICADA: 70% - In perfect condition, until you take into account that the HEAD is basically gone. The cockpit you ripped off the other one can be used for repairs on this one. Lana's teams are going to be in for long hours.

VEHICLE STATUS:
MAXIM HEAVY HOVER TRANSPORT: 95% - Negligible damage to TURRET armor.
BULLDOG MEDIUM TANK: 50% - Severe damage to FRONT armor, RIGHT SIDE armor almost missing. Internal damage where the armor melted through in places to the crew compartment. If the damage had occurred just a meter aft of where it did, it would have torched the fuel tank.
10x PACKRAT SCOUT VEHICLE: 100% - Good, though in what you suspect to be deliberately careworn condition.
3x CIVILIAN PERSONNEL TRANSPORT (light, can carry up to 12 people each): 100% (The fourth is currently on a mission.)
1x: BRIGHT RED RENTAL CIVILIAN SURFACE TRANSPORT (high top speed, can carry 4 people): 100%

>>13895600
yikes so much damage

>>13895600
Let's repair what we can, and mount a medium laser on the Urbanmech to replace the machine gun, so that Max can practice his shooting without using up ammo.

Military supply depots will likely be heavily defended now; they know we have mechs, and need spare parts. They'll try to trap us by putting out bait in the form of supply convoys and mysteriously lightly defended depots.

>>13895736
agreed

I'm actually wondering if we could raid a base for medical supplies sooner or later. According to the top post we don't have enough and Liang seriously needs them.

Also freeing medical supplies is GREAT PR.

Mei Lin is just as confused at the incorrect intel as you are. "The sources Free Capella uses are normally very reliable," she explains. "Ideally, we place someone in a local government position that has a legitimate reason to be in the areas we require information on." Mei Lin frowns as she looks at the damage dealt to the tank. "I received a communique while you were out. There's a Mule-class dropship at the airbase. It landed this afternoon."

>>13895949
That...does not sound good.
Ask Mei Lin if it could it potentially be Capellan military reinforcements? Mercenaries hired to root us out, perhaps?

This could be if they've made some kind of breakthrough concerning the Star League cache.

>>13895949
a dropship is not good news. Was there anything on the dropship?

bumping the thread

>>13895979
>>13895978
"The transport dropship is normally expected around this time to pick up the grain you just stole. From what we've been able to gather, your raids have been met with disbelief and contempt in the capital. Nothing has been moved except a flurry of messages sent via HPG--we've got nothing on those. If you're worried about reinforcements, they're not coming. They only spared a company to garrison this continent -- until now there hasn't been reason to consider any further increase in forces."

>>13896272
If we attack the airbase now we can jack that dropship.

>>13896272
"Huh. I would have thought that a band of rebels stealing some battlemechs would be treated a little more seriously. Their incompetence is mind-boggling. No wonder you Free Capella people want the management changed."

Imply that we're just insulted at how little of a threat that the capital takes us to be, in order to cover for being so worried. We don't want to indicate we might be hiding anything.

>>13896319
She seems reassured by your bravado. "We've got everything we've got working on determining their plans, Commander. I'll let you know as soon as anything happens. But if the dropship is here, then the Periphery JumpShip ("Harvest") must not be far behind. That means news and smuggling opportunities for those of us with connections."

>Sorry for the long delays. Extremely busy. Going to have to cut short the infodump I had planned. Until next time!

Is it a commercial dropship, or a warship?

But we don't have the staff or technical expertise to steal a dropship, do we?

Possible missions:

Airbase infiltration/recon: If we pulled up shipping manifests from that base we hit, we can potentially get people onto any incoming ground convoys by direct infiltration, or by getting any pre-existing people into the base to have a look around.

Communications: Are there any important communications bottlenecks for the Capellans? Like rebroadcasters that allow communication between continents? Hitting anything like that would be helpful. Not the HPG, but smaller stuff.
Heck, if we had the time we can write up a broadcast and put it on air with a list of various things about rising up and blah blah blah.

Generic airforce ambush: We've got the manpads, we simply ambush any light target that the military will take note of, get them to send the aerial strike, shoot them (since we know which direction they'll come in). Risky.

>>13898185
It's a Mule-class, so it's strictly a merchant ship (unless it's a rare Q-Ship from the Star League Defense Fleet).
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Mule

>>13898966
regardless its weaponry scares me

>>13898966
We've established:
It's armed.
Crew of 20. Do we have the technical expertise to steal it? I'm assuming it'll have some startup codes at the minimum.

I'm assuming as it just landed it'll be going through a powerup cycle and having maintenance done.

This is good in that if we strike it now, we can probably hit it without having to worry about its guns for the first part of the strike (do you want to risk that?)

Bad part: Probably won't be able to just jump in and steal it.

Really, what I want to do is go in, set some charges in the armoury of this airbase, and blow it up, and hope that that takes out the majority of the airbase. But that's probably a suicide mission. Hitting the fuel supply also works.

Other than that, we've got to go picking and choosing our own targets.

Now, what we DO know will draw out the Cappies is going after the Lostec; if we tip our hand that we're going after it, we'll draw a LOT of fire from them. If we want to be absolute bastards, we can let these guys know we're after some sort of cache (don't have to say what's in it, or bullshit something - cappie intelligence base or something?) then let them all get killed going up against the Cap's while we're there. This will result in both backlash against the capellans for all sorts of reprisals on the locals and RISE UP YE CITIZENS etc will occur, and job done, call in the Taurians and get the Star league stuff.

I don't really want to go down that route.

Really, just a few ambushing of patrols would be good, make them step up their forces for patrolling or make them retreat and hole up. This will either weaken their bases and allow us to hit their bases, or make the citizens a bit happier now they're not being oppressed so much.

We need to get our gear repaired, so we hit light military forces, ambush any small vehicle scouts and stuff like that, making sure we're away from our base of operations.

Bumping.

>>13899281
When you say we hit military forces, how do you suppose we do that with half our forces in refit?

Get the commando out there hitting individual vehicles? I think that's a bit risky.. the urbie's too slow for hit and runs, and that's the only other one that isn't damaged.

Though going on commando-strikes with just a command.. very name fitting for the quest.

We'll also need to identify stockpiles of spare parts and other military depots. We'll need actual intel assets on-site; we can't depend on Free Capella's intelligence assets to give us a good assessment of enemy defense strength.

Ideally we need ammunition, infantry-portable weapons and explosives, and battlemech spare parts. Also, while not necessary, I think we should look for a fusion reactor that can fit in our Mobile HQ.

>>13902918
>we should look for a fusion reactor that can fit in our Mobile HQ.
Ok, we find and knock off some big vehicle with our commando that can power our HQ then drag it back with the Maxim. No need to be too fancy, spot anything, whack it, steal it and we're home.

>>13904413
Well, anything that's big enough and power-hungry enough to require a fusion reactor is either going to be a military vehicle or a big industrial machine. It would be better to look around first to see what's available, and if what we need can be acquired without raising flags.

You know, if Free Capella is has contacts on the JumpShip, the JumpShip might not like people attacking their DropShip, which in turn means Free Capella not liking us attacking that DropShip.

Maybe we should concentrate on getting the parts needed to repair all of our mechs and then destroying the AFB?

The apparent disdain that the CCAF holds for us might be useful in that regard; they might not expect us to be bold enough or well-equipped enough to attack a real military base. We might want to help them maintain that illusion.

bump

>>13906477
True.
I'm seconding the need for more parts. We've got nothing for the Vindicator and we're burning through our stockpile of armor like it wasn't even there. What year is this, 3030? I was just reading one of the Battletech novels and it mentions that at the beginning of the Fourth Succession War the Capellans started to organize militias on all the planets they controlled. Something to look into, I guess.
Speaking of 3030, it's Romano Liao's turn to scare the shit out of everybody. The rebels might actually have a chance.

>>13906477
>>13909585
At some point we're going to have to decide our main operational and strategic objectives: we can either raise a big fuss and draw a whole load of fire in the short term and achieve our objective of "getting the Cappies to reinforce the planet" at the cost of having the rebellion crushed.

Or we can do this slower, and have the objective of full planetary uprising, which will be significantly harder but at the same time more survivable and with a MUCH bigger payoff - definitely drawing away the cappies attention from the other system and getting hold of the Star Cache.

Striking the airbase early will ramp up our noteriety earlier and the capellans will come looking for us more. Laying low for now getting parts is more of a long term plan.

Still, we'll need to hit the airbase eventually before we relocate. We've got too much material to easily move out without getting spotted.

>>13906477
Free Capella isn't directly affiliated with us, so it won't matter if we hit the dropship that much probably. Still, we can ask if the dropship is a valid target - it's taking food away from the planet, right? Knocking it out is a blow for the people.

Check that shipping manifest from the airbase, what was going to be unloaded from on that dropship, and what was it going to take up? If it's mech parts and armour, we could really go for it.

Another thing to note is how we're going to rally the people. Is Larsha struggling unduly? What notes can we play up? The destruction of an entire town is one thing we can outrage people about, but only if we've got enough to arm the populace so they're not afraid of the capellans. Multiple rebel cells? Would that cause the caps to just blast random cities?

We can play up the point that "the capellans only rule through fear, and you're all second class citizens to them, just their food supply who will be shot if you step out of line, or if they feel like it." Get some outrage going.

>>13909612
>you're all second class citizens to them
Well, this is true. If you don't pass your citizenship test, then you're just a Servant, not a Citizen.

I think we should plan for the long-term, get a planetary revolt going, and get Larsha to throw in with the Taurian Concordat. That's the way that most of the rebels seem to be leaning anyway, those that aren't a part of Free Capella.

>>13910625
All right. While Hong Mei Lin and her FC buddies gathers more woefully inadequate data about the dropship and airbase and any contacts, we go research for anything lightly defended targets that might hold mech parts and repairs.

This might be a bit hard, considering mech parts aren't exactly easy to come by and a grain silo gets armed with a demilance mech/vehicle setup.

Personally I'd just run through some training/pilot qualification for more mech pilots while we get the other mechs online, before tackling anything else. I'm worried that staying still too long will allow the Capellans to close in on us - have there been any signs of scouts or anything? That is something we'd like to keep an eye out for, and that's a target we can engage for twofold purposes - draw attention away from our main operating area, and some live-fire training.

>>13910662
A military supply depot would have the parts we need, but it's also likely to be well-guarded now that we've hit one already.

How's this: We forge a requisition order from a valid military base to a supply depot, for things like mech parts and armor as well as Bulldog repair supplies. We then report that a supply transport (Maxim) and escort (Shadow Hawk and Javelin) will be arriving to load up the supplies. If it's a well-defended depot and our ruse works, we just waltz out of there with all the goodies.
If it's lightly defended, as soon as they're inside the rest of the mechs will attack the depot from the outside while Helios and Rook wreak havoc inside the depot's defenses.

>>13895870
>steal medical supplies
Wanna pull a Simon Tam and steal several coffin-loads of medical supplies from the exclusive hospital in the capital?

>>13910750
Daring.. risky.. I like it!

The only problem here is the battle damage is too severe for the mechs - would the Capellans be using machinery at not top level? Or would our mechs not being fully repaired be another layer of our deceit?

Ask the FC if they can help with that. Do the capellans even know the base we struck is hit yet? How often do they have to report in? Hell, can we still go back and keep giving reports that everything is fine up until people come around to load up food (and then we jump and destroy the empty convoy that comes to collect)?

battlebump

>>13912885
Pole, provide some strategic advice as well as bumping, man. We've already got some vague battleplans ready, but come on, let's think outside the box here. Doing singular straightforward combat isn't the way rebels are supposed to be thinking, we need to be doing more subversive stuff like hijacking craft, bribing people, stuff like that.

Any thoughts?

>>13912885

Wow, that is a really boxy-chested Shadowhawk.

>>13912979
For bribes we need money. For money we need to either rob a bank o steal some stuff that we can make money of selling. With that in mind, I feel we should attempt to intercept a Capellan supply caravan, if there are such things, steal the supplies, and then sell them elsewhere. That would give us both supplies and things for us to use, if the caravan was carrying things we need, and/or stuff to sell for a profit if it's tings we don't need.

>>13913070
Again, we can attempt the "Rob the high-class hospital of medical supplies" plan, selling much-needed medicines to the people for a fraction of their normal cost.

Or we rob a bank using battlemechs, with the Bulldog Tank leading the way, as we say that we've always wanted to rob a bank for years, and now the times finally come.

>>13913001
I dont like to interfere in Battletech quests, I feel that my luck will run out and I will doom everyone with my plans or god forbid by die rolls.

>>13912979
METAL BAWKSES!

Anyway, there is way too little information reaching our ears. We are hurt in a pretty big way, our mechs and our personnel. My mind set is that of a hurr durr Paladin and my 2 cents is knocking over some sort of medical facility, If we dont have what it takes to provide for our own, Liang and Kara. We are hurting in the way of supplies. The airbase is more of a kick n the mouth than a thorn in our side. Thats why you always take out airbases in these war games first. I think theres also a saying about if your control the skies you control the war? Dont quote me on it. Im dissatisfied with our previous results, we hit a heavily garrisoned base, and for what? Food? Sure we are now in good standing PR wise with the rest of Larisha. But unless the community starts giving us a hand, we will be hanging by a noose very sortly.

>>13913201
WHY DON"T YOU KNOCK IT OFF with them negative waves!!!!

Knocking over a bank is pirates work, with what we got, would be cake as well. I cant help but feel it would turn out like Kelly's Heroes.

>>13913247
And how do you suggest we get the money needed to bribe guards and pay off informants?

You may be good on the battlefield riding in your mech, but you know NOTHING of guerrilla warfare and running a revolution as nothing but a diversion for our FedSun masters.

>>13913335
eh fedsuns, they're the golden-boys. Give me steiner any day of the week.

>>13913229
The main problem is that the only way to the airbase, which sits on a small island, is by way of a highway which is watch, guarded, mined, and presumably has turrets aimed at it. We can't take it in a straight up battle, not at this point, and we lack artillery or an airforce of our own to bomb it. No aquatic mechs either. So for now all we can do is leave it on the backburner, and talk to Free Capella about getting an inside man in to do sabotage or something.

>>13913394
correct me if im wrong but mechs with no damage are also sealed in a way that water wont damage internals, ballistic weapons are rendered moot underwater and lasers are reduced to half range and missles need to be replaced by torpedos, but I dont think we cant just traverse the ocean floor and then rise out of the sea in true zombie fasion to assault the island airbase

FUCK YES!

STEINER! NO ASS IS FINER! NO MAN DRINKS WINER! WE MADE PRISSY VICTOR CRYER!

>>13913515
Yes, however I highly doubt that the base doesn't have sonar sensors that would detect us, not to mention regular radar that would see us as we attempt to enter the water. Also, entering water deep enough so that our mechs are completely covered and aren't seen from the surface, completely submerged.... I don't know, seems that mechs would be very clumsy underwater, unless specifically designed for it, which means they might fall. Which means damage, which means breached compartments...... You can see where I'm going with this, surely? And if that's not enough, with snar and knowing where we are, they could have aircraft drop depth charges.....

It's definitely unorthodox, but on the other hand sometimes things aren't done not because no one thought of them, but because they really just are dangerous and not worth the risk.

>>13913545
Cap'n do you have any advice?

If the jumpship is incoming, there WILL be more food convoys bouncing around, quite possibly with light escorts. I'm assuming that there'll be more than one convoy headed inbound to that airbase to drop off food supplies.

We could do intercept missions out of our normal area so as to draw away attention from our base of operations and free up even more food for the rest of the continent.

How's that sound? Milk runs on food shipments.

Targets will most likely be moving from other resource gathering bases to the airbase...

OH WOW IF WE HIJACK A FOOD CONVOY WE CAN GET RIGHT INTO THE BASE UNDETECTED

HELL WE CAN PUT OUR MECHS IN THE FOOD CONTAINERS AND DRIVE THE FOOD CONTAINERS RIGHT UP INSIDE THE DROPSHIP.

If we somehow slow down any other shipments (Wash/blow out the roads? Set up big detours?) it'll give us time to repair our mechs and set up a suitable ambush.

Yes, it relies on a lot of factors, namely "are there any other shipments inbound" and "how heavily defended is the base" but if there are that would be a perfect opportunity for a sneak attack. Seize the dropship, use their guns and blast everything while our mechs rampage all over the airfield.

to be honest we have half a company's worth of battlemechs already
How many do you think they'd spend to hold onto a continent that doesn't even have the capital on it? Honestly I'm wondering where their conventional forces are, we haven't seen troops of any kind since the beginning

>>13914379
Tanks and fighters are conventional forces.

Is this still running? seems like nothing has really happened

>>13914379
This continent only has a single company of mechs, we've taken out what, 7/8?

We have more mechs on this continent than the cappies do.

>>13916099
This is really a planning thread. MechCommander will let us know when the action starts up again.

>>13913515
In addition to the other problems with this idea already pointed out, a lot of our mechs have battlefield repairs, not ones done in a fully-equipped mech bay. I would be afraid of small leaks that could end up flooding compartments or messing with electronics, even before we factor in the chance of tripping and causing more damage..

Awesome, this thread is still kicking. Going to jot down a list of bullet points to develop for my own reference:
-Airbase
o Use shipping manifests to sneak a food convoy onto the base.
o Amphibious assault.
o Hijack a convoy in general and use it.
o More intelligence!
-Supply raids
o Money.
o Medical supplies for injured crew.
o Mech parts from a lightly-defended source.
-Hearts and minds
o Lean on the planetary rebellion for support.
o Use Free Capella for more intelligence of questionable authenticity.
o Tom's scouting mission.
-Accounting
o Mech modification and repairs.
o Acquisition of transport for material and supplies.
o Covert base security.
o Counter-espionage.

>>13918625
Include this under plans to infiltrate and get more supplies: >>13910750

Hey, I know this is sorta a /v/ thing, but have any of you guys been following Mechwarrrior living legends? Its actually pretty playable now, from what I hear.

>>13918625
Planetary rebellion. Let's get the big wheel rolling.

Also, bumpan.

>>10x PACKRAT SCOUT VEHICLE
We have 10 fucking technicals? good LORD, why aren't we using these to screw with the invaders? Hit and run, man.

Couple that with the forged orders. Come in under "fire", with some damaged vees, say that the rebels are hitting a convoy up north... We might be able to swing this with big enough balls. Limp in with a couple damaged mechs, the cratered bulldog, and say we're part of a scheduled convoy.

Basically:
We find a convoy going a few miles away from a supp depot. Hit it lightly, but obviously - and not with the forces we're about to use. Use the radio chatter to send a message to the base we actually want to hit that several "wounded" vees are incoming with light mech escort. Then the commando and the locals try to knock out whatever regional comms are in place.

then we send in the clowns and have our mechs follow up. it'll take balls of steel, but I think we might be able to pull it off.

One question - we got uniforms?

>>13919869
Looted a squad's worth of uniforms when you took the supply depot.

Also adding:

-Sabotage
o Knock out regional communications.

To the list.

>>13919869
No uniforms, but Free Capella might be able to get some.
When we looted that supply depot, we mostly got tactical webbing and personal weapons, rather than clothing.

>>13919972
Further sabotage goals:
• undermine local military infrastructure - burning what we can't steal.
Risky, and it could turn against us: we don't want to wind up accidentally fucking over the locals.
• Hitting multiple convoy routes to force the military to beef up securtiy.
It'll force them to thin out their forces, but it will screw with our chances of catching anything unguarded, ever again - and it >will< end up with some of our gear getting fucked up.
• Make AC-20/SRM ammo IEDs.
Do we want to be labelled terrorists? We have to be damned careful about how we pull this off, but again, it'll divert resources, and hurt the military. Problem is, anybody who get captured working for us is pretty much dead.

As far as the uniforms go, we've got a squad? that's enough for the Bulldog, at least, plus maybe the Maxim if we're ballsy. Mechwarriors basically all wear the same shit wherever you go, so that's just a matter of fake patches and maybe some paint.

I'm a bit concerned about trying to take the airbase with shenanigans. We've been a bit too active in the region for that. I can't imagine that they haven't noticed the hit on the food storage by now.

Sneaking our forces in comfortably close before starting the actual assault, though, is something I can get behind. The best way to take the base would no doubt be by killing the birds on the ground.

Also, those mules aren't completely toothless either. Can't ignore the firepower it's presence adds to the base's defenses.

Looking at the Bulldog from another angle -
We've got a lot of hurt mechs.

It's got 8 relatively easy-to-access heatsinks, 1 Large Laser, two Hovertech Quads, a power amp, and a large laser, not to mention another MG and a pretty good targeting/comms system - with military codes likely still loaded in it.. It's also got several tons of armor, although that's going to be rally hard to salv without a maintenance bay and a lot of time we simply don't have.

There are a lot of things we can do with that hardware. Jack the TTS/Comms and mount it in another vee to use for Psyops, load the LLas in something that's missing enough weight (or the Maxim if we're crazy), put the HS in one of our shotup mechs. Most of this shit is Field-level refits.

Hmm. Lemme look up the Fire-Jav's stats, I might have an idear...

>>13920295
This is why we really need to capture it at least temporarily if we can.

The main defenses to an airbase of this type would be aerospace and turrets - mechs and vehicles wouldn't be able to operate easily with no room to maneuver so they'd rely on jets to hit any assaults head on.

If we hit the control tower with everything we can stop the planes launching, spray down any pilots and wreck them in the hangars or runways, using the hangars as defense from the turrets. We will have no enemy reinforcements (these ARE the reinforcements) or they'll be maneuvering through minefields.

Of course if there's more reinforcements or we get made at any time before we cap the mule, we all die.

Okay.
With the Cicada, we're already taxing the tech teams, but it'll be worth it.

The Javelin, unless I'm reading this record sheet wrong, doesn't actually need the arm to fight competently. It's barely packing any armor there anyway- anything heavier than an LLas hit will just rip it back off.
I say, replace anything missing on the torso and take the bitch back in, it's a fucking 30-tonner anyway. See if we can use the extra weight to squeeze in another sink. It won't go swimming any time soon, but it's also 24 points of close-range "Fuck You" that we can't afford to lose - at least, until it runs out of ammo...

It really looks like what we need isn't just medical supplies, but armor... and a lot of it.

Other mechs:
The Vindie is a fucking >loss<. Scrap it for the PPC and reactor, and any plating we can use on the others - the Caps use enough of them that its parts'll be useful eventually, so keep them somewhere.

SHD- one of our better mechs atm. Keep it in a fire-support position, rely on it for the LRMs and the AC-5, and for the love of God, don't get in close right now. Pull the SRM2 or at least its ammo (that shit's a death sentence) and replace it with a Medium or something, and tell the pilot to keep behind cover - that'll spare us having to replace the leg armor at the moment.

We should be able to use the Wolvie armor to repair the Shad, but that'll put us out another medium. Granted, a fairly terrible one, but a Medium nonetheless. Maybe we can pull some stuff off the Vindie, but it's gonna be an ugly fit.

So - summary from this mechajock:
Working:
Commando, Maxim, Urbie: Packrats and 3 vans/school busses.

Repairable: currently combat-functional, with light-ish damage
Shadowhawk, Javelin

Probably repairable, but it's a lot of godsdamn work. Not combat-functional or safe to take in.
Cicada (First priority), Wolverine.

Totalled, and we should probably scrap them:
Bulldog, Vindicator,

>>13919869
>>13920269
>>13920397
>>13895303
to clarify, all of these are me. Don't assume that this is some kind of consensus or anything form the other people in the thread ^^;;

>>13920295
If we knock off the airbase we can relocate without being spotted and blown up to hell.

Heck, if we hit tbe comm tower they might not even realise we've taken the airbase (hah, good luck with that!)

>>13920811
>>knock out the com tower
Hmm, we might have a winner here if we also go after the regional comms.

Problem is, only the Maxim, and the Commando (maybe the Cicada) have the ability to hit the island. And they probably have subs. The Commando is completely fucking useless underwater... and very vulnerable. 2-3 weapon hits and it won't be able to go back.

On the other hand, if we take out hte regional comms first, they'll be forced to rely more on air intel; spreading out the defenders, but making our lives harder

I meant a strike on the comm tower when we infiltrate the base.

>>13920758
A little accounting before I take off, I'll let Lana and Kara give you the rundown on the repair estimates:
After repairs from the supply depot raid, you still have a good fifty tons or so of armor plating left over. Slapping the new plates on the 'Hawk, the Javelin, and the Wolverine is going to be easy and take a few hours apiece, probably call it a full day's work with extreme overtime. Nobody took internal structure damage during the fight except the salvaged Mechs. There's still the issue of refitting the Javelin with new leg heat sinks which would require an overhaul of the entire leg's cooling system, which will take the better part of a day or two with what you have. The Bulldog could pull through with the damage it has, but any solution for the crew compartment would have to be kludged together (all you have is the experimental fuel cell and replacement armor). The Cicada's head is a separate problem entirely. It'll take a couple hours to clear off the wreckage of the old head and fix the damage from the sloppy removal of the new one, and then at least three days to sync the systems up. Less if they have the HQ to route calibrations through. The Vindicator's a total loss thanks to its missing fusion reactor shielding, but the parts, actuators and other components can be put to good use. Not to mention a replacement command chair for the Cicada, because its previous occupant ejected. Now if only they could get the smell out of the chair from the pilot that died in it.

>>13921143
>>13921143
Any word on inbound convoys? How long is the dropship there for? Per inf from Mei Lin.

Ie how long can we wait to refit?

>>13921143
Fuck yes, we're much better off than I thought. I was in full crisis mode there. Thank God for armor plating.

See if our civvie contacts can get us some Febreeze - and maybe steal a few more uniforms. We know any whores? I bet the Free Cappies do...

So.. Jav's arm is still a loss. Pump some Bakelite into the breach and she's almost as good as new. Not like she was gonna be punching anything any time soon.

Scrapping the Vindie gives us a PPC, and possibly some sinks. Long-range planning, I'd like to see that go on the Wolvie or the Shad, and the sinks to the Jav.

Couple things I'm worried about, though - we're really, really reliant on SRM ammo as things stand. The ton or so in the SHD would be much better if we repacked it into 6-shot bundles and saved it for the Jav and WVR. As an old techie myself, I wouldn't ask the girls to try to refit anything in its place right now (Christ knows we're working them hard enough as it is), but another ton of plates wouldn't be a bad idea if they've got the time. The AC-5 ammo is much less of a concern.

Getting a working reactor's the hardest part.

...to pull some Scotty-level bullshit, you think we could hook up one of the other Medium's reactors to the power couplings for the MHQ? It'd take a fuckload of cables and some crazy technical know-how, but having it around to do some planning and synch up that CDA would be nice.

I'd say lay low for at least two days, and try to get ourselves back up to something that looks like fighting trim.

rolled 9 = 9

*Iofiel keeps her shield up, sword at the ready*

"Come on bugs! We'll squash you right here!"

North East, Shield Southwest, Overwatch Wouthwest.

rolled 10 = 10

Whoops, totally the wrong thread for that.

>>13921357
>>13921347
Get out of here before your high rolls infect us all!

Before I sack out for the night.

1) what are our potential options for a new base? We've got 2-4 days before we're mobile enough to get to a new one. The Mule would be nice, but that's just asking for all of us to die, and we fucking cannot hide it.
I say we leave as soon as we can, and leave some IED booby traps in the cave entrance when we go.
2) Even if we fix the Bulldog, our crew is fuckbuggered. Where do we source tankers if we fix it?

3) Re: moving. If we raid and KO the local comms net, they'll be down to air and ground scouting, and have some lag on the intel. On the other hand, as the enemy commander that'd make me work the air assets and any chance I have of getting infiltrators in as hard as I can.
At least we have the SHD - it's a pretty good AA mech, considering. The WVR's got the AC-5, so it can throw in some support in a pinch, and the Bulldog's got the LL... but our lack of AAA worries me. Our hardest hitters are all light-class SRM hoses. If we plan to kick the hornet's nest, have some damn bugspray handy...

>>13921767
>If we plan to kick the hornet's nest, have some damn bugspray handy...
Kicking a hornets nest is stupid, because all the hornets come out and sting you to death.

Instead, you should infiltrate spiders masquerading as food-grubs into the next then have them sling corrosive webs all over the hornets while parasitic bugs take over the hornetcarrier that just arrived and we burn down their pheremone/dance-communications to the ground.

Then salvage the hornets' venom and stingers after we've torn off their wings.

I think I lost track of this analogy.

1: We can worry about that after we kill the airbase - while staying too long isn't a good option, we can't move while the threat of the base is ready to hit any of our convoys moving out.

2: There should be a fair number of green crews ready to trial for the bulldog, though we might want to leave it for now if the crew compartment is wholly busted.

Have the rains eased up yet? What's the terrain like? Hilly? Mountainous? We're in a coastal region, right? That means we don't have that much cover.

Doc: The Javelin is a variant with 7 Medium Lasers. It has no SRMs.

MechCommander: Visa-vis DAT EXPERIMENTAL REACTOR; could that be placed into the command HQ vehicle? Be great if we could have everything up and running at once instead of the current arrangement with the ICE.

Yep, if we take the plays out of the mechwarrior 4 handbook we hit the regional communication network and then the airbase.

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!

Thread archived, just for the heck of it:

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/13885808/

Not much happening, but still.

>>13922964
well if you havn't already, put your 2 cents in.
So far our armor is in supply albeit I'm kinda thinking were up-armoring our vee's with sandbags at this point, we need meds, and we need to kill a well defended airbase.

>>13923103
>put your 2 cents in
I suggested the ambush of a food convoy, stuffing mechs and as many people with guns inside and getting the food convoy into the dropship, taking control of the dropship and shooting up the airport starting with the control towers and communications arrays. Hell, if we can capture the command posts we might be able to take control of any automated turrets and use them to shoot down any aerospace fighters that manage to take off.

However, this relys on
1: getting SOME info on the base, the layout and so on
2: Other food convoys going to the base
3: Capturing a convoy without anyone noticing (do we have jamming equipment? Can our MFB jam?)
4: Getting into the base without being noticed and on schedule
5: Capturing the dropship before it goes online
6: Hoping like fuck there aren't that many enemy assets on base and that they can't mobilise a lance of assaults there or something.

That's a lot of maybes.

But if we pull it off, we can cap EVERYTHING in the base. Hell, we might be able to knock out the comm towers first and later signal the capellans and say "it was a signal failure". Use it as our base of operations without them even realizing it's ours.

>>13923572
lol, definite "she's one of ours moments"

I just had a thought:

Is this the airbase that launched the attack on the hometown of most of our rebels?

I hope we can get confirmation on that beforehand.

I'm sure our guys can think of some suitable... treatments of civvie killers (that aren't working at a military base).

>>13925258
It likely is, but it doesn't really matter. If we attack, and I hope we don't for the multitude of reasons given already for why such a thing would be suicide currently, we will not have the time to make a big show of killing them or torturing them. Besides, torture won't bring the dead people back and probably won't really make the people feel any better about their loss.

>>13925300
Ah, but if we hit the airbase, that's it. No reinforcements for the capellans. These guys ARE the fast reinforcements for this region, and short of a SECOND dropship it'll take hours to get a force in to counterattack.

We'll have quite a bit of time to salvage/whatever.

Besides, the reason for asking was to help persuade people to go for the suicide run.
Volunteers only,, of course.

>>13925655
Ah, but you forget the fact that it takes time for them to mobilize and get to where they are needed, and that if we're doing our job well, we'll be long gone by the time they get there. Seriously, attacking the airbase head on is stupid. Yeah, that's not the most polite way to put it but it's also true. It's a stupid, stupid plan of stupidity. A better tactic would be infiltration to find a way to turn off the mines and/or automated turrets, or the acquisition of a sizable force of hover vehicles that could assault the base from a position it's not as well defended against, preferably with some artillery support to draw the enemy out, or better yet, to wreck their takeoff/landing strips. Can't get your birds in the air with the tarmac all rugged with craters and potholes.. Though where we'd find a Thumper, much less something heavier I have no idea, so that's out.

tl;dr- People need to stop suggesting suicidal attack plans. Just because they have a high cost in bodies doesn't mean that it'll even work.

>>13925698
I thought the idea was to sneak mechs on base via the hypothetical food convoys.

Actually, if they were going to move the food through the previous base we hit, and there wasn't any transport vehicles there.. how were they going to get the food from the warehouses into the dropship?

We could see if any convoy would still be enroute...

>>13925891

This

>>13925891
See, I don't understand this. Mechs are big, from what I understand. How do people propose we hide our mechs inside a cargo truck? I just can't see them fitting. Not to mention this leaves out the Maxim and Packrats, meaning we lose the chance to bring more than a small amount of infantry. This also assumes that they don't scan the food trucks which, given all the guerrilla activity we and apparently other rebels that caused the food stockpile to get enforced, seems likely. Apologies for earlier rudeness but I just can't see this working, and even if it does work, we still don't know exactly what their defenses are other than mines and a "defense force". That could mean mechs, conventional forces, and all of it in unknown numbers. It's also possible that they'll have the food shipments come in under fighter escort, in case some upstart rebels try to sneak stolen mechs inside the base by hiding them in the cargo trucks.

I suppose at this point the real thing is that we lack the information to judge whether such an attempt is even possible, much less ascertain its chances of success.

>>13925698

Even zipping a few light hovers rigged with explosives, grounding them and ditching followed by BOOMs would likely be enough to at least temporarily disable the runways.

The dangerous thing is if any of those fighters have VSTOL or VTOL takeoff capacity, in which case runway-busting is moot.

>>13926041
Exactly, that was my other worry. Though honestly, with the Maxim as our only hover vehicle at the moment, and my own personal hesitance for suicide attacks (The crew of such a task would have no way of returning even if they didn't let the hover-bomb kill them, and the Cappis would certainly kill them), makes me think that this is, again, something we really can't afford, not yet at least. I really think our attentions would be put to better use in thinking of ways to try and rally more people to our cause, though subtly to as not to bring down heavy enough retribution to see the rebellion crushed, and in acquiring more military forces. Mechs are all well and good, but as we can see here a lack of other forces has us stymied.

We need more Intel, I think someone mentioned hookers early,to help get it. But one thing we should think about is who is on the janitor staff at these base's. May guess would be locales, cloud we maybe try using them to get the lay of the land?

>>13926169

forgot my pic

>>13925984
Do BAPs pick up mechs when powered down? If nothing else we can have our mechs pretend to be the convoy escort... riskier from a visual inspection POV though.

As for the cargo storage thing, this isn't grocery shopping, this is an entire continent of food for DROPSHIP loading. The cargo packs should be at least Maxim sized.

Filling them full of mechs and troops shouldn't be a problem.

Fighter support is possible but convoys are slow and fighters don't have infinite flight time, they would have to burn ridiculous amounts of fuel to circle so long.

As for mechs and other conventional forces, I've said earlier why it was less likely a lot of them on a base - if the base gets cut off, they can't escape and would be a dead loss for strategic engagements, coupled with a mined approach meaning short range fighters would be useless there - meaning it would be silly to pit ground forces there.

Mind you this is from someone not expecting a demilance on the warehouse, but this is probably our best chance to hit the airbase while not taking it up the ass from their fighters. If we can't get forces into the base we'll have to do an assault later, and we'll be facing the SAME troops while also being hit by turrets and aerospace. No matter what we still have to kill them.

>>13926233
>As for the cargo storage thing, this isn't grocery shopping, this is an entire continent of food for DROPSHIP loading. The cargo packs should be at least Maxim sized.

I know. I just keep picturing it as those big 18-wheelers that we use today (I could easily be wrong), and given the bulk of the mechs I just can't see them fitting. Another point where lack of knowing what they are is hindering. If only we had someone who would inform us of such things. *Hint hint MechCommander*

As for escort, I meant from the point where the trucks enter the pathway leading to the base, not the entire route. And I still think that covert ops and infiltration will get us better results than even sneaking our mechs in would.

>>13926642
Picture a huge 18-wheeler, a really really big one.

Then picture a mech going GRAGH and ripping out the top, then shooting at everything nearby.

Yeah. Fun times

Infiltration and sabotage: It's nice and all, but frankly speaking, it's a long term prospect, and time is something we probably don't have. How much vetting does one have to get to serve in a base, and how exactly does one manage to sneak weapons in or anything that can be used to a: disable mines, and b: stop pilots getting to their vehicles.

If we can't infiltrate mechs, people will be able to board their vehicles. If they do that, we have to face all of them that can do that.

If we CAN infiltrate mechs, we can hit the pilots before they get there, which is much more fun! And salvageable.

Ok, if we don't hit the airbase with the one chance, how often do the shipments go out? Quarterly? Monthly? We can probably wait a month, but longer than three months is right out.

How else can we neutralize the airfield? Taking out the aircraft while they're on sorties is an idea we've already played around with, and we'll probably be able to take them on if we succeed in ambushing them once or twice, but that won't work many times. Then again, if we manage to scare them off doing a lot of aerial patrols, they'll be much less likely to detect us by air.

Can't see a way to lure out any defenders, though, without getting chewed up by any fighters they keep in reserve to launch, and we still can't approach without getting spazzed on by any turret defenses and minefields.

On the whole, we need to EITHER kill the entire thing, OR disable the threat it poses by taking out bits of it at a time. If we kill it, a blind infiltration if we can is the best idea put forward, though spying and so on may reveal other solutions but cost us this possible opportunity.

...How many LRMs do we have? Can we do extreme range bombardment?

>>13927460
>Then picture a mech going GRAGH and ripping out the top, then shooting at everything nearby.

See, the only problem I see is getting it in there to begin with. It's not that it's not long enough, so much as the width. Not to mention, would a mech really be able to get out? I mean, consider a crocodile. It's jaws have immense strength, but sealed up and it can't build enough momentum to really get going.

As for the LRm.... I like this. That is a Good Idea. It doesn't take much to chew up the tarmac and Sudetenland the planes are grounded.

>>13927541
>Sudetenland

WTF spellcheck, that was supposed to be suddenly.

>>13927541
Transport vehicles are pretty easy to trash. And a PPC burst or large laser makes easy to use doors. Just make sure our vans don't park directly parallel to each other!

LRMs might work, but damage to concrete is not that difficult to repair, and once again VTOLS. Bleagh. It's a temporary and less-than-effective solution. I doubt we could sneak our mechs on base in concrete mixers, either.

Considering that even the tallest Mech is about 14 meters tall, and that (modern day) semi trailers can reach greater lengths than that, with average widths of 2.6 meters, it's not hard to imagine a standard cargo transport in the 3000s hauling a Mech at all. They're not THAT big.

Re: Weather
It's the middle of "winter" aka monsoon season in the southern hemisphere of Larsha. You can count on rain lasting weeks at a time, with the occasional calm period (which began when you moved to the coast and has lasted for several days). Even the rebels are lying low right now due to the weather. No hurricanes yet, but there has been flooding in the north and the seas are choppy. Coastal cities and installations have automated flood barriers to keep the water level from being much of a concern, and your cave is sufficiently above the beach to avoid any problems (save a tidal wave, maybe).

Re: Convoys
The dropship doesn't just pick up food in preparation for the Periphery trader visit, it picks up the rest of the continent's output as well. With the power of the Capellan planned economy, that means round-the-clock convoys of lumber and ore transports. Then everyone gets paid--it's the planetary equivalent to Christmas and New Year's.

Digging the planning going on in the thread. Though Tom's return might throw a wrench in your plans... Speaking of time passing, it might be important to keep track of what day it is, so I'll throw my dart at the calendar and say the Commander landed January 14th, 3030. Give him a week to rouse local support, another five days to hit the supply base and establish himself on the coast, another week in repairs, and a day spent recovering from the raid you just pulled, ... carry the one... that makes it Thursday, February 4th, 3030, which leaves a week and two months left until new orders.

I'm setting the time of the next thread to 7:00 pm GMT. I'll put some time into developing a map of the airbase and surrounding areas. It should be suitably (much) larger than the one for the food warehouses. Until then, Mechwarriors. Command out.

>>13928813
Ah, cool. 7:00 tonight then? And we're going with the stealth mech jack in the box surprise. Well, we'll see what happens. I only hope that we can find a way to disable the mines if we're successful. Otherwise we'll be on the island with mines blocking the way out!

So we are going to kool-aide man outta some transports........excellent!

bamf