"You are one scary girl Lotus, but you are not that scary... I was thinking of three, four people tops. Na-wa is good to go because he is having sharp senses, maybe Nilus is having one or two soldiers he can send along as well. I know there is air cover from magic birds, but I feel better with eyes on ground, Khorosh?"

   "Silvermasque, has anybody ever called you a politician?"

"It is no problem at all to spare soldiers. If you let some of my squad focus on laying the explosives, I was thinking you and Black Andy could help. We have an advantage with Cannon Fodder on our team... we can dig the fastest fox holes... you may not need a whole team on digging. In either case, half my squad are soldiers. I can send Ludo and Jomo if you want just two."

 'Masque chuckles softly, shakign his head, "I guess I am just wanting to avoid example set by some other officers, da? - I am being put in charge of bunch of hardass mercenaries, and best way to get them to take orders is to gentle them into it... get them used to idea." the large 'borg replies to Lotus, "Oh, and be sure to come down good and hard if someone is taking piss." he adds thoughtfully, just in case anyone was making the mistake of thinking him a walkover.

 "Ludo and Jomo it is for patrol duty while we get started." he agrees, "Lotus in charge, take Na-wa and Nilus' men with you. Engage at own discretion if enemy encountered, but don't go more than four, five miles past perimeter." - there's another of those momentary pauses, followed by a grin, "Oh, and make you sure live long enough to scream if you're ambushed."

 "Is good point, but will not just be digging... we will need overheads for concealment and cover - I am thinking when we thin back treeline some, we shall be keeping logs, using for roofing. Maybe for reinforcement of connecting trenches and tunnels, depends on how much time we are having to dig - longer we have, more we get done. And speaking of which, is no time like present, you want to work from outside in or inside out?"

"For the mine fields I would very much prefer to work from the outside in... but we have to wait for the civilians to evacuate first. So lets build whatever else first, then work on the mines and explosives."

   Lotus looks up at the Orcish crazy and borg, and then over at poor Na-Wa.
   "I assume that since you're all just standin' there like retards that you are ready to go.  Get on your bikes and let's get this shit over with."

   The mystic knight marches over to her own hovercycle and speeds off at a moderate velocity.

   When the trio have caught up with her, she'll lead them to the area Silvermasque indicated and slow down to a stop at the top of a hill.  She surveys the terrain as far out as the horizon - the optics system in her helmet zooming in on some trees in the distance.  With the rumble of the hovercycles under them, she uses her radio to communicate with the Orcs and psi-stalker.
   "We'll conduct a circle of the area once.  Stay about a hundred feet apart.  If we get jumped I want one person on the radio calling for reinforcements before joining the battle.  The radio jockey will be you, Ludo.  If Ludo is incapable for whatever reason, then it will be me, then Jomo.  I don't want everyone screaming for help on the radio when it only takes one.  Jomo, you're on point, I'll take left flank, Na-Wa is on the right, and Ludo you take rear.
   Jomo, take us in an arc from here to about five miles out and then back again.  Stay in radio contact and don't do anything stupid."

OOC - In the map below, the red "X" indicates our current position and where we'll start the patrol from.  The blue line shows the planned route and direction.  I'm only concerned with the portion of Madtown's countryside that our platoon is working in front of.  Let the other platoons patrol their own regions.


edit: patrol formation, accidentally named Ludo twice instead of Jomo once.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:08, Fri 31 Aug 2007.

"I can dig fairly well with my bare hands but if we could get a very large shovel it'll go a lot faster...."

Photios has to add another comment in hearing the talk of wood, "Since you are working with a Nation of Mages I'm going to take it upon myself to inform you of any magic that can be useful to your cause. In this case... if you need wood, simply with the power provided by the ley line, any mage with the knowledge can create 100 pounds of hard building wood every 30 seconds or so. Or twice that much for soft weak wood which is mostly for burning."

He seems as if he's going to stop, but then remembers something else, "As a side note, a spell called Ironwood can temper wood in order to withstand modern weapons, though it is far more costly in terms of energy expenditure. Something to keep in mind though for the construction of bunkers or perhaps even punji pits. Even better would be if we could take the vibro-knives from a full Dog Pack and tie them to stakes to line pits with."

 "For former magic, maybe we can use for reinforcement of tunnels." 'Masque states, nodding approvingly to Photios, "Will be useful, da - but is second one that will be most help. Will turn simple soft-cover firing positions into light bunkers. Spike pits may be happening later, but we start with places to fire from, then build escape and evasion routes, then emplace terrain obstacles and mines. Finding decent tools for larger members of team, particularly Cannon Fodder is also needing doing, but so far command is refusing to answer radio, so we will need to be working with what we are having."

"Finding a tool that large might be complicated... if we had some scrap metal and a forge, it would be possible to use a bit of magic to get usable metal and then we'd just need to forge it into a pick or shovel for Cannon's size. After that it would take a little bit of time but maybe we could enchant it? It works on standard weapons, the size might make it costly... but that would let it slice through the dirt, rock... and Coalition troopers."

Contrary to his appearance, Photios is indeed trained in the construction of fortifications, along with mechanical, electrical, and weapons engineering... High Magus aren't called the Master's of Creation Magic for no reason.

With a grin Mephisto joins in the conversation

"Well I am impressed Photios. I thought you were just another wizard who pretended to be bigger and badder than real life. But before we start talking about magic shovels, we should start talking about summoning creatures with earth elemental powers. Some gargoyles have these abilities as well as a few others... I will do some reading to make sure - then I will simply summon creatures to do our digging for us... without shovels..."

Na-Wa gets on his cybernetic horse and follows the Mean Skull Helmet woman (Lotus).

Once told to go in a particular direction Na-Wa pauses for a minute, deciding to mind talk to his talking sword Wohn-Ecke instead of asking the others for help.

>Wohn-Ecke which way is right? Na-Wa does not know and does not want to look dumb in front of other.<



Na-Wa upon hearing Wohn-Ecke mind speak back to him lifts one of his hands.

17:05, Today: Na - Wa rolled 1 using 1d2. 1=left hand, 2=right hand .
left hand is raised



Na-Wa does as told by Wohn-Ecke, and lowers one hand and raises the other.



>Who is Lotus? Na-Wa not good with names.<



>OH! OK, Na-Wa know her.<

Na-Wa then heads off to the right, and begins to move in the same direction as the others.

"I have some powers with Earth Spirits, nothing so useful as an Earth Elemental tho. What if I uproot a tree and sharpen it? I should be able to make human sized holes in the ground, that is a foxhole yes?"

Ludo grunts at Nilus, and jogs back to the truck, where his hovercycle is parked. He grabs a large rifle from the back of the truck, slings it over his shoulder and hops on his bike. He blasts off in Lotus' direction without waiting for Jomo.

Ludo The Strong moves to his designated position for patrol duty.

"In position."

Mephisto chuckles arrogantly, and looks up at Cannons' face. "Yes that would be an effective hole. You are on the right track. The creatures I summon will be able to dig just like you, unless I can find one suitable to dig like the old LT... Zephram. You wouldn't remember him he was killed a few days ago... but he could dig tunnels through the ground with magic. Very amazing stuff..."

"that would be quite useful considering."

Jomo tries to race Ludo to the bikes but The Cyborg was closer. Jomo pulls out a grenade and considers throwing it before thinking better of it and putting it away. "FUCK!" He yells out at nothing in particular and starts his bike. He has already blasted 20 feet before he fully mounts the bike.

The magnets in the back of his skull glisten in the setting sun light as he tries to catch up with the others and move into position.

Photios nearly slaps himself and then laughs, "I was so focused on my own spell repetoire I forgot a whole range of possibilities. I can summon lesser demons and beings as well for 5 days, I would be happy to assist in the work. Perhaps save effort by using a single larger Protection Circle and have everyone work in tandem. We should see about how many mages there are in the company, any who are less experienced could assist those of higher training by supplying energy drawn from the ley line. Oh... that reminds me, do we only have the anti-air juggernauts with us? Perhaps they can donate to an energy sphere for our constructions."

 There's a faint cybernetic chuckle at the antics of the two patrollers from Firefly, but no censure. They're doing the job, aren't they?

 "Alright." 'Masque agrees, perhaps a little disgruntled at the thought that the magic-boys are too good to be digging, but too good a soldier not to see that it's quite simply the best way. "We will be needing firing positions for several infantrymen, plus tunnels and trenches to retreat with - all of these are going to need to be reinforced. There is trick with low-power energy weapon to flash walls into something like glass, but would be best if we were having something more solid." - he taps the screen lightly, as Nilus works, "Nilus has good point, but let us start on middle line first, thinking about this it will mean more civilians are out of way when we start to dig in."

"Allright gentleman if someone could direct me to where they would like the foxholes, I'll get started"

CannonFodder uproots a well sized tree (lil bigger around then a human in body armor) then slashes the roots off so it comes to a point at the bottom. The perfect Foxholedigger

 The Big OOC Sum-up.

 Alright, here's where we accumulate all the various suggestions people have into one single post I keep editing - PM me with the OOC version of things your character contributes and I'll add 'em here so Moloch can keep easy track of 'em. ^_^


 Outer Defences.
 This looks to be about a kilometer of unspecified terrain based around three unmarked white boxes. We don't know what the slope or terrain is like OOCly, but ICly we'll probably need to defend it. I'm thinking four or five bunkers sized for three to five human(ish) fighters. Each bunker should have a simply log roof and a foot or so of dirt on top with firing slits on all sides. There should be two escape routes from each bunker, leading back to the next line of defence.

 In front of the bunkers we'll have tripholes (two to three foot cylindrical holes in the ground dug with a post-holer), some mines, cleared fields of fire and anything we can come up with that might plausably slow heavy armour. The biggest weakness of committing any sort of force to the forward defence is that if we don't throw everything out here it will get swarmed, but if it falls, getting back to the second line under SAMAS attack could be a stone-cold bitch.


 Town Outskirts.
 for the first time we have a clear idea of where we're digging in, and I think this is the 'main stand' line. We'll emplace four or five more bunkers here (they'll take next to no time to build with 'Fodder digging and the rest of us using vibro-blades and the like to reinforce them) with interlocking fields of fire - picking armour off the roof of 'em is a job for their neighbours. In front we put the lions share of our mines. We'll mark out where most of them are visibly because (i) we're right on top of a friendly town and (ii) the main job of a minefield isn't to kill people it's to make them bunch up pretty-like for your guns.
 If someone can think of a way to reliably command-detonate directional mines on a battlefield as torn up as this one's likely to be, we'll set up those too.

 Since the escape routes will be shorter here, we can probably dig trenches, flash-harden them and roof them over with logs and dirt to conceal maneuver from the skullheads. Again, this is only an option for the human-sized-ish fighters.


 The Park
 I see this as being our platoon command area - we'll set a few radio relays in the town hall, maybe a few thermal/signal decoys, then dig in elsewhere. Amongst other things it's gong to be where Cannon Fodder, Firefly's 'borg and I will be starting the battle. If I can persuade Black Andy to lend me his Grenade Launcher the two 'borgs will program a nice, tight grid network over the landscape. We'll send Photios back to Tolkeen via his portal with a roll of cash and bring in all the 'Frag grenades he can carry, and then the front line will be able to call down cyborg-accurate fire support with a 40' radius footprint more or less at will for as long as the ammo holds out.
 Firefly meanwhilst is our primary anti-air platform. The massive missile mount he can carry, plus any personal arms he might have will let him do pop-up attacks using the town for cover - if we can't knock it down with small arms, again we call in fire support from him.
 We'll also need to reinforce our left flank - block off streets, dig loopholes, emplace explosives. Fortunately inside the settlement it will be easier to conceal and prepare big-bada-booms that are likely to survive bombardment, and so we'll set Firefly to turning this stretch of town into a mini Stalingrad.

 Inside the town, fortification is a matter of lots of wood, stone, concrete and other SDC materials piled up with whatever we have that's MDC, on the basis that even a fragile defence is better than no defence at all.

 The Hotel Line
 Between the Hotel and the Boon mansion things are getting pretty desperate - when we fall back here we're going to be down maybe fifty percent if things have gone well, and we're going to have our backs to the river. To our front we have a good field of fire, but our left flank is going to be obscured by the rubble of the Boon mansion, so we'll likely need to dig in any 'borgs or major MD 'critters we have left there, who can toss the rubble aside to dig in - maybe using shaped-charge 'instant foxholes' prepared by Firefly. It'll be slightly forward of 5th Platoons assigned line, but I don't see a better way to command that flank without knife-fighting.
 We'll be dug in in and around the houses at the back of the park mostly, with absolutely no snipers in the clocktower, that's a mugs game. That does overlap 3rd Platoon's assigned positions, but by then I don't expect there to be many buildings standing.

 Renford Manor
 If we're dug in here, it's all over bar the shouting - escape and evasion is likely going to have to be underwater, so we'll want a stash of armour patches for anyone who's suffered an environmental breach in their EBA, rebreathers for those who don't use 'em and to make sure that anyone who isn't independantly mobile underwater is paired up with someone who is.



 Magical Augmentation.
 The above is mostly what 'Masque puts forwards as our baseline 'digging in'. So far we have the additions of:

 Photios has suggested Magical Illusions (great idea). We can still be seen through thermal optics, which means weapons fire (even railgun slugs leave friction-heat in the air), but normal EBA ought to be hard to spot if dug-in, and we can hide trip-pits, mines and all manner of things with this one.
 He's also put forwards the idea of MDC'ing our wooden supports - if we can find someone who can do this, grab him and put him to work. It *will* save lives.
 Then we have Mephisto summoning up whatever he can find - we may be able to use some of his critters as magic landmines, dug in here and there under the illusions in the second line (because in the first line, the Dog boys will spot 'em) and use them to cover our fighting retreat. But that depends on what he's calling up.
 Photios has also come through with a decent way to cover our retreat: Impenetrable Wall of Force scrolls will give us some protection from direct-fire weapons (though not the total defence he was hoping for, sadly the Skullheads are probably going to have missiles, SAM's and the like), as well as suggesting that we can hand out a few one-shot Annihilate scrolls, which have a fair chance of nobbling a single enemy armour unit inside 500', if we can hit it. Basically they're the magical version of LAW's and we're going to be glad to have them.
 He's added the note that it's not too hard to handle pulling in and out of some bunkers by Transport portal or teleport scroll - which means we can do some *really* nasty team-play tricks by bouncing in and out of 'overrun' bunkers if the enemy doesn't unmask them in the first rush, shooting them all up from behind for a round or so, then bouncing out.
 Armour Talismans would be nice, but we're probably not going to get the time to churn many out, and they'll go to unarmoured, then lightly armoured warriors first.
 He's suggested a spell for bringing down buildings - though I expect that the first fifty or sixty LRM's the Coalition fire will do that for us, and of course everyone's favourite 'Firequake' to break up infantry charges and the like. Another winner, if they give us a target.


 Fireteams

 We've got 14 effectives, 7 each in Firefly and 4th Platoon proper. I'd like to detach Firefly's borg for fire support, plus myself and 'Fodder. That leaves 11. I'm thinking three three-person teams plus a pair (probably the ones calling in fire support requests). Right now I have no especial preferences for who is working with whom, though this may change. The job of the fireteams is basically to stick together, retreat together, rescue the wounded and (as an afterthought it would be nice) shoot skullheads.

 The Opposition

 At an absolute minimum we can expect to be outnumbered two or three to one by soldiers who are, by this stage pretty experienced in the use of armour and weapons against magic. They'll use Skelebots, mercs and anything else they can find to draw out our 'big guns' for special attention and to surpress our fire.

 A combined arms attack by a force no larger than the one we destroyed protecting the convoy could put a terrifying amount of hurt onto us in the form of indirect -fire missile volleys, small infantry fireteams and a kilometer-wide skirmish line of railgun-armed skelebots, each of which takes a frightening amount of damage to put down when compared to a militiaman in Bushman armour.

 They have psychics and augmented men who can and probably will scout out our defences in the greatest detail possible, and many of their power-armour or robots are immune to direct magic unless their armour is breached (Annihilate good, Dominate not so good). They *will* have tactics do deal with most of our magic (though we are ridiculously high-powered for a Tolkeen line unit, fortunately. ^_^) because our side has used it over and again all the way to this point, so we need to spend as much time thinking about how they'll corncob us as we will them.

 Still, that said... I think we're going to put on one hell of a show. ^_^




 So... please, add what you can - we only get one shot to make this good guys.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:40, Mon 03 Sept 2007.

Photios goes over some time considerations with the group, "With the leyline's proximity, Annihilate, Impenetrable Wall of Force, and Teleport require about two hours per scroll to recover from. I would like to know how many mages we have available to draw power from the Ley Line for us, each would greatly increase the rate of creation. Talisman's will take perhaps an hour to construct from scratch, and can be imbued with any number of different spells, most likely defensive effects... but it could also be possible to create some with lasting combat abilities for militiamen, what equipment do they have?"

"The creatures our Shifters summon, as well as a spell I can perform which requires about two hours will call out demons, entities, or other creatures of that sort for about 5 days. After which we can send them off, or if we can convince them to stay keep them on as permanent conscripts. Something else we may look at is sending advance scouts to find any CS camps. If they stop for the night we can send in swarms of small animals to disrupt all the amenities they so love."


(Hey Moloch, how big is the Lake to the north? Large enough to have Sea-Monsters?)

"I'd dearly love something with an Armor of Ithan spell on it, I'm fairly solid but I'm such a big target....something for an emergency would be good, if you have the time"

"Ahh, a flash of insight. I can't believe I was overlooking Wards, I'm not talking about the highly specialized stuff that Sphinx was referring to. But wards can be placed as traps for any who touch them, simplest method for that would be to leave a few obvious handholds in some of the Tiger Pits we construct. When the CS soldiers fall in, they'll reach for the warded rock or root... and activate a sleep spell upon everyone in the pit."

"Another use might be setting out an item the Deadboys might find useful to snatch up before we do. Upon touching it, they'll be treated with a Agony spell... which if not resisted wracks the unlucky fool's entire body with pain, preventing them from doing anything but squirming in pain upon the ground. Or theres always the standard use as alarms, the beauty of wards being they last until triggered."

Meph looks to Silvermasque. "I am going to begin my work."

The shifter turns and makes his way towards the center of town.