OOC Thread

[Fatebringer]

Knowing your map and using pre-planned targets is a good thing though. You think I'd luanch one of my nukes at Deia with anything other than a Pre-Planned target? Heeeell no! Now when your burst radius is 20 hexes. Minor arty drift is easy to work around as long as you know how the round could drift.

[Cannonshop]

Knowing your map and using pre-planned targets is a good thing though. You think I'd luanch one of my nukes at Deia with anything other than a Pre-Planned target? Heeeell no! Now when your burst radius is 20 hexes. Minor arty drift is easy to work around as long as you know how the round could drift.

Nukes scale to a different range than standard fire-support roles.  The Arty issue has more to do with Tactical use than deploying a weapon that, on a game table, is about equivalent to dumping a cup of diesel on the mapsheet, then lighting everything on fire.

[Deathrider6]

Knowing your map and using pre-planned targets is a good thing though. You think I'd luanch one of my nukes at Deia with anything other than a Pre-Planned target? Heeeell no! Now when your burst radius is 20 hexes. Minor arty drift is easy to work around as long as you know how the round could drift.

Nukes scale to a different range than standard fire-support roles.  The Arty issue has more to do with Tactical use than deploying a weapon that, on a game table, is about equivalent to dumping a cup of diesel on the mapsheet, then lighting everything on fire.

heheh,,he said fire...


  Artillery in penny packets is just about useless if you have less than 4 tubes you're wasting units in my opinion.

[Fatebringer]

Stardate Friday 1/13/3091

Yes, it's friday the 13th. The outlook is very bleak as Crewman Holt has been missing for 2 days. The campaign on Deia has stalled without him and the Hellions are restless. I fear this day is full of bad omens as the carrion birds swarm the skies of Sudeten and sharks prowl the waters outside Capella.

Looking outside, the snow is falling. No doubt a precursor to the radioactive fallout that was predicted for this epic battle. We knew the Hellions would not go quietly into that good night, but we had no idea their pint sized fury would manifest so physically. By the end of the month all will know the events that transpired of Deia, who were men... and who were the real vermin.

[Holt]

I'll be around tonight calm yourself.

Stardate Friday 1/13/3091

Yes, it's friday the 13th. The outlook is very bleak as Crewman Holt has been missing for 2 days. The campaign on Deia has stalled without him and the Hellions are restless. I fear this day is full of bad omens as the carrion birds swarm the skies of Sudeten and sharks prowl the waters outside Capella.

Looking outside, the snow is falling. No doubt a precursor to the radioactive fallout that was predicted for this epic battle. We knew the Hellions would not go quietly into that good night, but we had no idea their pint sized fury would manifest so physically. By the end of the month all will know the events that transpired of Deia, who were men... and who were the real vermin.

[Cannonshop]

Just in case anyone's still reading/following along/cares...

Yup. it took MONTHS, but the UIW's issued a formal declaration of unrestrained war against the MD/Blood/toasters. 

Yah.

Unrestrained.

The "exact text" (sort of, haven't finished writing the actual "Signed" version Deb's going to approve yet) includes "Forces and States aiding and abetting..."

What does this mean for the neighbours?

It means, the UIW's not going to be accepting challenges/trials for a bit, and anyone who just hauls off and punches is going to end up on the kill-list.

y'see, they intend to go out and kill some folks, and they don't want anyone in the way.

How is this different from what's going on with the Falcons and the Hellions? simple: the UIW has a reason-their territory was violated by someone who likes to shoot at civilians, and they don't cotton to that...not one bit.  It's actually "Proportional" response-the Toasters bombarded civvies, so they're going to go kill Toasters in a rather less-than-selective manner.

A manner limited only by pure hardware availability and the ability to FIND said Toasters.

I imagine there's probably room for some of the 'big boy' players to see this as an amusing development-on a par with the ninety-pound weakling taking on the school bully.

[Deathrider6]

Should me for some interesting reading as this particular plot line unfolds.

[Marlin]

Good luck and skill, Cannon, I bet there are some (if still alive) who might support your course, even if only in mind.

[Daemonknight]

WARNING: SHAMELESS PLUG   WARNING: SHAMELESS PLUG

So yeah, anyone who enjoys the RPing aspects of this game, you are more than welcome to come down and join the AToW game I've started. As anyone can see, we've just started discussing the available contracts for the group, so now isn't a bad time to jump in, as the first mission hasn't been decided yet.




On a separate note: would anyone here be interested in playing an AToW game set during the FGC62 timeline? I think it would be really cool to tell some of the more specific stories of different groups, like maybe get a group together, and choose conflicts(or simply important battles) and have like a 1-2 month sesssion that deals with the personalities of that conflict. Then we go on to another one, and keep going with that. Some battles get some love, but not usually more than a few hours(in-game time) worth of RP exposure. It would be cool, I think, to either follow the different major battles, or choose a special unit from some of the factions, and follow them around, switching off every other month to keep the stories fresh, and allow us to explore the whole game.

Alternatively, if Dave authorized it, we could play the other side: who would be interested in playing the Blakists, or even the Manei Domini in AToW during some of their major campaigns? Who wouldn't enjoy playing out, for like a 4-6 month period, the fall of the MD in the Hegemony? We all know the offical story: the Dragoons orchestrated a coup against the WoB, using the THAF, and ousted pretty much the entire WoB from TH space: 7th Kommando and WolfNet persued Apollyon, almost nabbing him twice, before he 'died' when Dragoons aerospace fighters shot down his escaping dropship. Who wouldn't enjoy playing his closest MD retainers during his flight through hostile space untill he reached whatever safe haven he was staying at, before the events of the FWL Civil War?

Just saying, I think some of the stuff thats happened would be well served by a few months of intensive RP treatments, to really bring some of the pivotal moments of the FGC game to life. Just food for thought guys, lemme know what you think, but start a thread in the AToW section- this was just here because most of you guys likely don't visit that section, since you arn't playing anything there.

[Cannonshop]

WARNING: SHAMELESS PLUG   WARNING: SHAMELESS PLUG

So yeah, anyone who enjoys the RPing aspects of this game, you are more than welcome to come down and join the AToW game I've started. As anyone can see, we've just started discussing the available contracts for the group, so now isn't a bad time to jump in, as the first mission hasn't been decided yet.




On a separate note: would anyone here be interested in playing an AToW game set during the FGC62 timeline? I think it would be really cool to tell some of the more specific stories of different groups, like maybe get a group together, and choose conflicts(or simply important battles) and have like a 1-2 month sesssion that deals with the personalities of that conflict. Then we go on to another one, and keep going with that. Some battles get some love, but not usually more than a few hours(in-game time) worth of RP exposure. It would be cool, I think, to either follow the different major battles, or choose a special unit from some of the factions, and follow them around, switching off every other month to keep the stories fresh, and allow us to explore the whole game.

Alternatively, if Dave authorized it, we could play the other side: who would be interested in playing the Blakists, or even the Manei Domini in AToW during some of their major campaigns? Who wouldn't enjoy playing out, for like a 4-6 month period, the fall of the MD in the Hegemony? We all know the offical story: the Dragoons orchestrated a coup against the WoB, using the THAF, and ousted pretty much the entire WoB from TH space: 7th Kommando and WolfNet persued Apollyon, almost nabbing him twice, before he 'died' when Dragoons aerospace fighters shot down his escaping dropship. Who wouldn't enjoy playing his closest MD retainers during his flight through hostile space untill he reached whatever safe haven he was staying at, before the events of the FWL Civil War?

Just saying, I think some of the stuff thats happened would be well served by a few months of intensive RP treatments, to really bring some of the pivotal moments of the FGC game to life. Just food for thought guys, lemme know what you think, but start a thread in the AToW section- this was just here because most of you guys likely don't visit that section, since you arn't playing anything there.

Okay, just running the idea down the field a little bit...

Which factions are INTERESTING enough to run an ATOW set in the 'FC91 universe?  Which interesting factions have Faction Players willing to surrender some of their faction  control to make it viable?
 
There were some great events that might've been really cool RP campaigns-the fall of the Lyran Commonwealth, the brief dominance of the Arc Royal fascists, and the retaking by Bobby Steiner for instance (on that side of the map), or the war with the Dark on the Feddie/Cappie/Magistracy side of the map  (all that stuff in late '62), The time-jump period which got glossed over had a FEW events that would've been interesting as well.

I'm going to be nice and NOT bring up some of the concerns I've got over how viable this idea IS-at least, at this point-based on the concept that maybe those issues either won't crop up, or will be dealt with.

[Daemonknight]

...

Which faction's ARE NOT interesting enough to play. Is the FGC campaign somehow less interesting than the stock campaign timeline? I would think that the player driven storyline has made the FGC world more complex and in some cases much deeper than the canon timeline. And why would anyone need to give up any faction control to make it viable? Nobody writes up a 100% complete treastise on every battle. And nothing says the 2 campaigns need to be connected in any meaningful way, aside from the FGC campaign being the backdrop. If we start a month behind the FGC timeline, and we make the time compression work right, we'd be able to have things happening at roughly the same pace through the games(the AToW game would miss out on certain events because of the timelag of transport and whatnot, but that happens...take one contract, miss out on another). And its a totally moot point if we decided to be playing older campaigns just to give them a stronger fluff treatment.

So, you've already brought up concerns for the game, making your parting comment somewhat irrelevant. You could have just asked questions, instead of pointing out areas of concern and phrasing your whole post as an attack on the concept you know. I'm just trying to breathe some life into the forums since they've been very dead of late. And if you have concerns, that's fine, but maybe instead of just shooting down ideas, maybe you could add some in to make the game experience better. But if you are going to be raising said concerns, I take it to mean that you want to be playing in it?

[Cannonshop]

...

Which faction's ARE NOT interesting enough to play. Is the FGC campaign somehow less interesting than the stock campaign timeline? I would think that the player driven storyline has made the FGC world more complex and in some cases much deeper than the canon timeline. And why would anyone need to give up any faction control to make it viable? Nobody writes up a 100% complete treastise on every battle. And nothing says the 2 campaigns need to be connected in any meaningful way, aside from the FGC campaign being the backdrop. If we start a month behind the FGC timeline, and we make the time compression work right, we'd be able to have things happening at roughly the same pace through the games(the AToW game would miss out on certain events because of the timelag of transport and whatnot, but that happens...take one contract, miss out on another). And its a totally moot point if we decided to be playing older campaigns just to give them a stronger fluff treatment.

So, you've already brought up concerns for the game, making your parting comment somewhat irrelevant. You could have just asked questions, instead of pointing out areas of concern and phrasing your whole post as an attack on the concept you know. I'm just trying to breathe some life into the forums since they've been very dead of late. And if you have concerns, that's fine, but maybe instead of just shooting down ideas, maybe you could add some in to make the game experience better. But if you are going to be raising said concerns, I take it to mean that you want to be playing in it?

I think either I blew my approach, or you blew the reception, DK.  I was asking the first question as a general-to-the-forums call of "Where do you want to start?".

The second was a reference to certain players' angry reactions when they felt that their intentions were being ignored vis-a-vis certain actions and events.  Having people quit because of events not being interpreted as they'd originally envisioned is something that's happened in the main-game, and if an ATOW campaign is to be done, it's best that it doesn't fall apart because someone got their feelings hurt by others not interpreting their intent the way they'd meant it.

I guess I should've just said, "Who's willing to give the GM some slack?" (besides me, anyway), again, a question more for the general forum denizens/players than a hostile question toward your idea.

[Daemonknight]

Likely a bit of both. Oh well, no harm, no foul.

As for the factions, there are really 2 options: we run a mercenary unit in the time period, so everyone has their own characters and can do whatever they like without resorting to reading previous RP. The other option is the revolving door-scenario: we pick a famous battle(or time period), run with it for 2-3 months, then move on to something else. You already named some good ones: the rise/fall of Arc Royal, the Dark incursions into the FS. Another few examples I feel would do really well with some more extensive RP treatment: the Falcons' sweep-and-clear of the Blakists from the UIW(SF/small units focus), the FWL attempt to subvert the Marian Hegemony(diplomacy/RP heavy), the fall of the Commonwealth(would likely need to be broken into multiple seperate campaigns, unless we chose a unit and stick to following them during the events and find where they end up), the formation of the Lyran Alliance(I know some people were very curious as to how I envisioned it going together, and I'd be happy to guide a game through my vision, and see what people did with the arc I built), the fall of Clan Star Adder(it would culminate with the crushing naval defeat at the hands of the Falcons and Lyrans over Vorzel), the Dragoons' routing of the Manei Domini within the Terran Hegemony.

With Dave's permission, we could even explore the following: Apollyon's escape from WolfNet and 7th Kommando on Terra, Arthur Steiner-Davion's annihilation of the Dark, the biological attacks in the homeworlds/Diana Pryde's defense of Strana Mechty, the FWL Civil War(especially with regards to the events on Regulus, and the eventual destruction of Gibson)... There are obviously more, but those are some of the major events that I think of. It would come down to me picking a few events as lots, and letting players vote on which event in a given group we play, and rotating groups.

As for the 2nd part; the merc campaign will make it a non-issue. As I'll have the leader be an NPC, I'll be the primary point of contact between the merc unit and the various liasions. So I'll either ask the faction leader(remember, NOBODY has any claim to any faction untill after they've gone through the FS first), or just make it up. Since the ATOW game has no bearing on the FGC game, people shouldn't be getting to bent out of shape. Also, since theres little to no politics involved, it should be a more minor issue in general.

If we do the historical campaigns, it'll be a simple matter for me to contact the players who were faction leaders of the two sides and ask for a quick synopsis of what they were trying to accomplish. But since it's all past tense, again, it shouldn't be a big deal.

[Cannonshop]

Likely a bit of both. Oh well, no harm, no foul.

As for the factions, there are really 2 options: we run a mercenary unit in the time period, so everyone has their own characters and can do whatever they like without resorting to reading previous RP. The other option is the revolving door-scenario: we pick a famous battle(or time period), run with it for 2-3 months, then move on to something else. You already named some good ones: the rise/fall of Arc Royal, the Dark incursions into the FS. Another few examples I feel would do really well with some more extensive RP treatment: the Falcons' sweep-and-clear of the Blakists from the UIW(SF/small units focus), the FWL attempt to subvert the Marian Hegemony(diplomacy/RP heavy), the fall of the Commonwealth(would likely need to be broken into multiple seperate campaigns, unless we chose a unit and stick to following them during the events and find where they end up), the formation of the Lyran Alliance(I know some people were very curious as to how I envisioned it going together, and I'd be happy to guide a game through my vision, and see what people did with the arc I built), the fall of Clan Star Adder(it would culminate with the crushing naval defeat at the hands of the Falcons and Lyrans over Vorzel), the Dragoons' routing of the Manei Domini within the Terran Hegemony.

With Dave's permission, we could even explore the following: Apollyon's escape from WolfNet and 7th Kommando on Terra, Arthur Steiner-Davion's annihilation of the Dark, the biological attacks in the homeworlds/Diana Pryde's defense of Strana Mechty, the FWL Civil War(especially with regards to the events on Regulus, and the eventual destruction of Gibson)... There are obviously more, but those are some of the major events that I think of. It would come down to me picking a few events as lots, and letting players vote on which event in a given group we play, and rotating groups.

As for the 2nd part; the merc campaign will make it a non-issue. As I'll have the leader be an NPC, I'll be the primary point of contact between the merc unit and the various liasions. So I'll either ask the faction leader(remember, NOBODY has any claim to any faction untill after they've gone through the FS first), or just make it up. Since the ATOW game has no bearing on the FGC game, people shouldn't be getting to bent out of shape. Also, since theres little to no politics involved, it should be a more minor issue in general.

If we do the historical campaigns, it'll be a simple matter for me to contact the players who were faction leaders of the two sides and ask for a quick synopsis of what they were trying to accomplish. But since it's all past tense, again, it shouldn't be a big deal.

There are a few more that were "roleplay" elements but didn't get a lot of 'airplay' you can add to your menu, DK:

The UIW's "Contract Period" working for the FWL between 3069 and 3085 or so- starting with their work on Solaris VII.  Among other mssions the Marines were pulling at that time, they were training FWL-sponsored local units and new-minted units on former Lyran worlds, conducting counterinsurgency and antiterrorism missions, and doing joint exercises with FWLN.  The pay from that included several warships, a decent amount of straight Resources and licenses for certain FWL designs (particluarly aerospace designs) along with assistance in getting production lines up and running (you can check with Chaos on this-I'm sure he still has a copy of most of the relevant word documents), the Union's troops assisting Robert and co. in taking down the CLP (Lyran Fascists), particularly campaigns on New Capetown and Arc Royal itself.

Also the minor operations and co-operations with the Falcons over those twenty years.  (IIRC, you had copies of the relevant treaties before Deatherider bowed out... Mine all went poof when the hard-drive died.)

Really, the 20 years between 3070 and 3090 are probably our best bet for a roleplaying campaign-most of the faction-heads currently present who were present before the time-jump only addressed that period loosely (if at all), and it covers some of the events you're most excited about-like the Dragoon counter-coupe in the Hegemony,  formation of the LA, etc.

As for the bit about how we're all going to be forced to play Feddies for a while...I don't look forward to that, honestly.  I view it as a task to be completed-that bit of the game one does because one must in order to get to the part one is here for, rather than any sort of "Opportunity" or anything else favourable, it's an imposition I'm willing to endure in order to get to the game I WANT to play, a "Grind session", nothing more.

[Daemonknight]

thats kinda the point Cannon. Dave wants everyone to go through it so we all know the rules well. Things are changing alot, the whole point of the FS thing is to make sure everyone is on the same page, and we don't have situations where someone didn't fully read or understand the rules, and we get foul ups. The point I was making, was that everyone has to do it, and nobody owns a faction untill they do- so prior to that happening, the AToW game is completely open in what it can/can't do as far as contracts and missions, though it's upto Dave if the AToW campaign even has a bearing on the FGC. We can play an AToW campaign using the FGC as backdrop, without it actually influencing any of the events.

But I don't want this to turn into a discussion of what missions can or can't be done. This was just me trying to drum up some interest. If you'd like to discuss what we can do with an FGC-themed AToW game, make a thread in the AToW section, please. And while I know you have a big passion for the UIW's various goings-on, we're likely not going to touch on alot of the mercenary missions they were doing, because little of that was important stuff in the larger sense, AND, I'd want to visit every faction if possible. Especially factions that didn't get alot of face time, like the FS, the DC, and the CC.