Avastan Planning & OOC

[Tiglath]

Much obliged!

Taking a rule of thumb amount of cargo off for applique armour we'll say 12 seats is full to capacity.

[The Bindoner]

Yes, 12 is what I thought it was.

Jess is still in acquisition mode. Our Sapper has toys to play with now.

There may be some less than legal things among them though....

[The Bindoner]

Revised:

REME/LAD:

Mechanic - Mech 2, Engineer 1
Sparks - Electrics 2, Mech 1
Grav Tech - Gravitics 2, Remote Ops 1
Sapper - Demolitions 2, Combat Engineer 1, Remote Ops 0?

Assuming all have Rifle 0?

[The Bindoner]

Do we have an itemised list of desired drone purchases? There is a price list above, but no bid for how much of each type.

I still like the idea of mortar launched drones. They may not be any better than the hand-launched infantry model, but they arrive unexpectedly over the enemy position, like my terrierist appearing among tourists on one of his regular picnic benches. "Sudden Dog", as we call it. No-one expects Sudden Dog to jump onto their table and scope out the possibilities of strokes and/or snacks, and it takes a long moment to adjust to its presence. ( He never takes food without being offered it, he is a moral creature, but he does try to look cute enough to feed/pet. The analogy with drones falls down there.)

Something like this would be nice: https://militaryleak.com/2021/02/12/bri ... s-to-mali/

[BackworldTraveller]

40mm Drones are good.

I think we should have at least 1 "Out of the airlock" low orbit one and one for geostationary comms/obs if possible

Other than that there's high-altitude and low altitude. The former cover larger areas in good resolution. The other give excellent "Over the hill/over the wall/behind the trees & rocks" coverage. As many as you can get because they will tend to have a short service life.

Are we intending to build a ground surveillance net? If so we will need bugs and cables - no point hiding your bugs and then having them give their position away to EM sensors.

[Tiglath]

Note the restrictions on the 40mm drone (30-60 mins duration).

I'll rule that using an 80mm option would give three times that and deployment range as per the launch system.

The role you are looking for in a Striker (Assault) Mission is likely to be Tactical Recon

[BackworldTraveller]

Note the restrictions on the 40mm drone (30-60 mins duration).

I'll rule that using an 80mm option would give three times that and deployment range as per the launch system.

The role you are looking for in a Striker (Assault) Mission is likely to be Tactical Recon

Covert obs pre-assault are ideal.

[joertexas]

Do we have an official TO&E yet?

[Tiglath]

The Bindoner is working away like a Trojan.

He may have the "ingredients" firmed up if not a working document.

[The Bindoner]

We do need to sort out the drone thing. What does Freya want, within budget? I offered a 250k spend, I can probably do better ( since we are doing a lot of business with Mr Solomon).


Why don't you occupy yourselves assigning recruits to units while I sort out kit? Prerna chose hers, Jess took one. Anyone else? Does Freya want a trigger-puller or is she content with Techs and a B Echelon role? Does Frank want HQ protection rifles?

And no, there isn't really a revised TO&E, just a big list of things. If an office-wallah wants to convert that into a form that suits them I'll happily provide the information.

[joertexas]

We do need to sort out the drone thing. What does Freya want, within budget? I offered a 250k spend, I can probably do better ( since we are doing a lot of business with Mr Solomon).


Why don't you occupy yourselves assigning recruits to units while I sort out kit? Prerna chose hers, Jess took one. Anyone else? Does Freya want a trigger-puller or is she content with Techs and a B Echelon role? Does Frank want HQ protection rifles?

And no, there isn't really a revised TO&E, just a big list of things. If an office-wallah wants to convert that into a form that suits them I'll happily provide the information.

Prerna wants everyone to have at least one pocket drone. The device would interface with the owner's suit display.

[joertexas]

Here's the TO for the Inchin operation:

Merc Company Org Chart v3-7.pptx

(81.9 KiB) Downloaded 19 times

[Tiglath]

A Note re: Drones

You were thinking about a shopping list so FWIW here's a dog walk's worth of "ponderage" (which, in fairness, may be proven by circumstances to be right or wrong).

They are good and you should make best use of them.

They are like cautious bets made by a sensible gambler - they're "money you can afford to loose". Note: you had a lot shot down last time out by what was effectively (high end tech) "sniper fire" but they were cheap and you had more on hand to replace losses.

Mortar drones sound like an excellent addition which meshes very well with your current capabilities.

However, in more general terms, applying context is key to expectations of what drones can achieve for you.

You likely can not afford an orbital range sensor suite. Or, put another way, you can't afford to buy and then loose one. This is broadly because you do not (yet) have the budget of a nation state for your Intel arm. You are surely not yet in the business of strategic recon?

Tactical recon, as addressed above with personal drones, is surely your bag?

The catalogue entry for the remote stealth craft (it's not technically a drone) that does all the strategic stuff equates to most of a high tech MBT.

However, please note you do now have lots of organic sensors on your new and existing orbital craft, AFVs and other vehicles.

Remember sensor work is a bit like trying to see stuff in a dark room. It's much easier if you switch on your torch - but now everyone else can see you! Parking active scanning low orbit satellites about an "excitable" world is great way to get everyone to Defcon 1.5 and all of your kit shot down. Or perhaps only maybe so - some worlds are different. You could likely have got away with it on Inchin. Equally, to borrow from the above, your torch isn't out of place at a torch convention! Context both applies... and bites.

[BackworldTraveller]

We do need to sort out the drone thing. What does Freya want, within budget? I offered a 250k spend, I can probably do better ( since we are doing a lot of business with Mr Solomon).


Why don't you occupy yourselves assigning recruits to units while I sort out kit? Prerna chose hers, Jess took one. Anyone else? Does Freya want a trigger-puller or is she content with Techs and a B Echelon role? Does Frank want HQ protection rifles?

And no, there isn't really a revised TO&E, just a big list of things. If an office-wallah wants to convert that into a form that suits them I'll happily provide the information.

Prerna wants everyone to have at least one pocket drone. The device would interface with the owner's suit display.

Just remember that in an EW heavy environment, that pocket drone will give your position away due to control signals unless you fly by fibre-optic wire.

[shaidar]

Frank is interested in taking Tango and Victor as HQ guard. They could potentially double as guards for Freya's team too.

Although I would be interested in seeing detailed CVs of available.

Do we need any guards for the REME/LAD?

[The Bindoner]

Theoretically the LAD only move into harms way in extremis, and then the troops with the disabled vehicle/explosive device/thing needing demolition will provide cover.

I think I should have hired more trigger-pullers.

As the new hires have better marksmanship than the previous personnel perhaps it would be best to move Ink and Love out of Skip/Kit's unit to provide HQ guard and replace them with four new guys. One more new hire to Jakob gives us two 6-trooper squads, a 4-trooper Recon squad and a 5-person squad for Jess.

[shaidar]

Sounds reasonable to me.

[Tiglath]

As the new hires have better marksmanship than the previous personnel perhaps it would be best to move Ink and Love out of Skip/Kit's unit to provide HQ guard and replace them with four new guys.

Please feel free to make any personnel swaps as desired.

As per a conversation The Bindoner, gurusql and I had via PM the line mercs are all now at 2 (main skill), 1 (secondary) skill.

The new hires are already trained regulars with some previous service and your original crop have improved via on the job experience / seeing the elephant. I had not updated their skills (save for in my head) but their improved marksmanship was the "country mile" of advantage over the falxmen/armed insurgents.

The 2, 1 notation above should be viewed as the individual's MOS (what you hire them for) or a "shorthand form" of their abilities. They may well have more skills yet to come to light (feel free to generate them) and operate under Striker for general military tasks/tests at a DM of +2 as quality regulars.

[The Bindoner]

Leave Ink and Love with their unit then, Frank gets the two new guys.

[shaidar]

unless we think it's better to put the new guys in the squads for 'orientation' and bonding?

edit: we could then rotate a pair of experienced troopers for HQ guard duty, so that no-one gets the short straw all the time. (I don't necessarily mean a short rotation, but perhaps every few weeks or something).