ZGMF Week 11 - Overview

Couple notes...

- Timing on Liger's repairs may be off by one day. Monday - repairs to Severely Damaged & Heavily Damaged. Tuesday, spends all day moving and doesn't repair. Wednesday, repairs to Damaged and Lightly Damaged. Thursday, repairs to OK.

- We want to get to New Amsterdam before the remnants of the 87th and 77th. Our advantage in ships outweights the disadvantage of repairing PCs.

- If we have to wait, though, let's take solace in the fact of their repairs and travel times. Assuming they left for West Arctic on Thursday, the fleets spent that day getting out of SA, Monday into West Arctic, and Wednesday into New Amsterdam. They won't start repairing until Thursday, and they are pretty heftily damaged.

- The current locations of the 87th remnants are unknown. If they are, indeed, heading for the West Arctic -- this gives us an opportunity. RP transfers Monday to someone in North America. Ship purchases and entrance into West Arctic on Tuesday. Interception and destruction of their hurt fleet with our fresh fleet on Wednesday. The remaining PCs enter as they're done repairing, and we take on New Amsterdam.

- Who originally owned the MS and Luggun in Bryce Hollerfelt's team? You may ask him to return them, for use in the new fleet, if they were originally tagged for the 9th.

- If worst comes to worst, and we do have to wait into Week 13 for the attack, I say we build the fleet up this week (devoting the full 7000+ RP to ships) and spend next week's donations on suits. That way we can amass the fleet by Thursday, get everybody repaired and ready, and push into the West Arctic on Monday with fresh ships. Each person involved with the fleet can then submit an email to purchase specific MS for the ships they've boarded. We enter into the region Monday, push past patrols, and attack New Amsterdam on Tuesday.

Notes - Wednesday, February 3, 2010
- Thought I'd throw a few more updated thoughts up before I hit the sack, in an effort to reignite discussion!

- Just to clarify, it was decided by Draco (after some input from #Zeon) that now would be a good time to make an investment in a Zanzibar. The idea was originally Braddigan's, and it was on condition of the upcoming purchase of said vessel that finally convinced him to donate his RP. Although it is more expensive than a Gaw and holds fewer support units, its ability to orbital drop should allow it to accompany or house Cloud if need be in the current operation, and will also allow easier access to the enemy's ocean territories in the future for convoy farming.

- With that in mind, the outline for our next few days (a rough one, mind you) looks like this:


- What we do after really depends on several factors. Namely, whether or not the base is completely destroyed, and what shape the surrounding enemy forces in are going to play a huge part on what we do after that. Regardless, I would recommend that we assume the minimum victory condition for his operation be that New Amsterdam is reduced below Fortress status in SOME way. Ideally this would happen in one fell swoop (Thursday), and during the weekend West Arctic would be downgraded to Contested Territory for us, allowing the purchase of Services. From there, our options are enhanced greatly.

- I am very happy with the results of giving Draco a large amount of responsibility in assembling our forces. Not only do I think he is doing a pretty good, solid job (he surprised me with interesting ideas to utilize the game rules to the fullest), but it would seem that he is back to enjoying the game much more in the past few days and in general is happier, which is cool. Additionally, I've been able to relax a little, and that was awesome. ^.^

- Not sure if I have anything else to mention...I'm hoping that once the West Arctic campaign is complete, all the Zeon personnel on the ground can meet up in Europe to hang out together. There are a lot of things worth doing in that region (smashing Belfast, stealing a Himalaya, retaking Malta), but I think something worth adding to that list would be starting some group RP threads. It'd be fun!


Edited this post to clean it up a little so it wouldn't be a wall of text all at once. I apologize profusely for casually mentioning concepts and ships and fleets without explicitly citing what they are and the like, but I'm lame and have inexplicably chosen to do these threads when I am on the verge of sleep lately. >_> I'm pretty sure you guys know what I am talking about though, which is the important thing!

i am tired.

- I will not dispute the fact that the idea to get a Zanzibar was originally yours. At the time (I would have to double-check the specific date when this conversation took place), I did not feel that a Zanzibar was worth the investment as we already had a number of powerful Gaws to serve as our air presence, and orbital drops on convoys would be too situational and risky to merit such a purchase. However, with the influx of funds brought in from our (fairly successful) South America campaign and a distinct lack of, well, Gaws has given us a valuable opportunity to purchase a ship that I believe can benefit everybody currently on the ground. I think you were there for part of the conversation when Brad suggested it, but beyond the fact that Draco (who I deputized in order to ease my workload and assist with managerial duties) thinks that's the best use of the funds for the attack on New Amsterdam is the potential use of the vessel. My ideal view of how it could be used is similar to the one you proposed, but slightly more expansive - not only can the Zanzibar perform Orbital Drops on compounds in a cavalry fashion, it can also Paradrop from Orbit to attack virtually anyone, anywhere, at any time we want on Earth (pending Patrols).

- It's true that I do not positively agree that SEA HQ is the best use of your time and effort at this point and time, but I think you are maybe looking for a conflict that simply doesn't exist when you assume I might try to paint it as "deviating." It makes sense to get your land people involved and destroy the 8th MS team, and the other solid arguments you presented when pushing for this were just as rational.

- To go along with my first point, I did not mean to suggest that we mean to steal your thunder with the naval convoys. I was merely hoping that within one or two weeks of our individual objectives being completed (West Arctic and East Asia) that we could group up and destroy Belfast and claim Europe as our own, as was agreed upon over the Christmas break (I think...) I agree that it would be important to secure East Asia, but in my opinion Europe should still be the primary goal.

- I have not been "in charge" as much the past few days or on top of my game as usual, but I honestly have no idea who Yuji transferred the RP to or who asked him to do so. I assume it was Draco, but I did not specifically ask him to do so unless I'm losing my mind. The only thing I can say is that we will try to find a way to get some RP to you to compensate you guys for the mix-up.

- I'm running out of things to say. >_> WHOOPS

- Last (but not least), you have my condolences for your loss. I realize that might sound artificial and fake, but I am not sure what else to say in these situations. =( If you need anything, I'm sure you know where to find me.

- For the record, I wanted a Zanzibar before anyone! My profile states it outright!

- I like the Sea HQ attack. It's continuing our trend of always pushing forward the offensive, post-Seattle. Turning East Asia into a true area of contention once again forces the Federation to play defensively.

- As an extension, I've always seen East Asia and Europe as the two long term goals for Zeon's Earth campaign. Europe still strikes me as more valuable an asset, when it comes to Odessa (White Base went through Central Asia before Odessa, let's not forget. White Base is really good at operating in enemy territory, and getting resupplied in enemy territory.), but PC control of East Asia would not only present one more buffer to that penultimate assault, but also would give us a stronghold for war factories and mines.

- STFU has progressed beyond a mere tactical unit, with its three dedicated PCs (plus floaters like me) and array of powerful ships. Dedicating it to the naval convoys feels like an under-utilization of resources. Way back when I initially proposed targeting the convoys, the appeal (to me) of my plan was that Aldo and one ship were the only resources devoted to this (important) tertiary operation. That seems like the best way to proceed, if we are still going after the convoys.

If STFU wants to go after naval convoys, non-amphibous/aquatic personnel assigned to the fleet are best utilized elsewhere. Aldo + Xavier + 3 Jukon IIs + Grabro + planes can handle the naval convoys. Let the remaining STFU form a more serious land fleet, or rejoin the TAF. The RP and personnel are better used against bigger and badder targets.

- Alternatively, STFU has plenty of ocean headquarters it could be targetting instead of naval convoys. Let's get a Gaw, start loading up the Jukon IIs with Goggs, and smash one of those fortresses. The Federation gets +100 side RP a week for owning any ocean, and +100 RP a week for owning all the oceans. This should be remedied.

- Matthew and Chris should hug it out!

South America may not be an accurate gauge for determining success of the naval convoy attacks. The main setback the TAF faced was the Medeas' speed, since they could escape to Jaburo before the main fleet could finish them off. Naval ships are much slower than a hungry Grabro =).

In my opinion, the two biggest threats to the 3 Jukon II fleet would be...

a) Air superiority on the Federation side. Our old nemesis. But if we field Lugguns/Dopps in all the aircraft and support slots in the fleet, we should have enough to hold off Federation fighters while the Jukon II's surface to fire torpedoes, and marine MW's snare the cargo ships out from under them.

b) Federation PC involvement. The Pacific attack that led to Excelsior's destruction is probably representative of our biggest problem. However, if we treat the naval convoy attacks as they should be (smaller operations with two or less PCs and a well-equipped fleet that pays for itself), we can field distractions elsewhere in the region, and draw PC fire away from Xavier and Aldo.

The ocean HQs are pretty tough. To be honest, it's been a long time since I bothered to check 'em out. A tactical shelling of the islands might work out in our favor, but really, they seem like bigger challenges than Belfast o_O. Might have to table that suggestion until we can get a hold of a Himalaya...